The capture pods were enough to merit their own crafting station, and the collars are rarities. So why do the pets have such little practical use? Even the strongest ones are fragile in any meaningful encounter, and when they die, you have to either return to the health station that you likely leave on your ship or at a base, or you bring one along. But even then the damage they deal out can easily be dealt by an ally or yourself, due to how slow they react. Even using the tethers to have the animals as guard animals of sorts for settlements doesn't work, since they don't scare off wild animals, nor do they have much room to attack them. It seems that the only use for the captured pets is to complete the collection, and maybe make a zoo. And that's fun and all, but what if they could also be used more practically? If i may, i would like to suggest some potential fixes to this little pet peeve, weather it comes in a far flung update or a mod. View attachment 197554 This tame Scandroid, unlike its more haywired cousins, is about as fragile as a fortune cookie, even against its own kind Firstly, the weakness of these critters could be circumvented by simply buffing their stats/ stat scaling. Something to make them similar to party allies. More careful AI. They might be animals but most of them have brains! A lot of animal deaths come from their sedimentary nature in combat. That being, a lack of desire or an inability to avoid close range attacks. Passive health regeneration. If they are resting in their capture pod, even if its really slow, they could regenerate their health, this would also make newly captured pets quicker to use, as well as... Healing items. Giving your pet a bandage or even a piece of meat could heal them, so they can keep going on a planet for longer without getting knocked out. This might seem like a minor, and even meaningless addition, but naming pets would be great! A name tag or a pet modifier to add customization to your pets could make it feel less like you are throwing animals at your enemies and more like you are fighting alongside companions. And while we are on the subject of customization... Further pet customization. Perhaps a station where you could give them hats or something? It could be the same place where you rename them. I imagine ideas to re-work the pet system have already been proposed before, and with development being focused towards the quest system,i doubt any ideas for major changes on this mechanic would go through in any meaningful length of time, but maybe there is potential for a modern mod overhaul? or maybe even a far flung future update?
