Here is an Idea on how the simplest way to implement this kind of thing.
First of all as a start you should be able to purchase small animals in a store (such as those that can rest on your arm) & they should show up like Weapon/Spell/Armor in your inventory (more closely related to a spell).
Then, when you equip it (like a sword / bow) the animal will rest on you arm: Birds (Such as Hawks) can perch on the wrist, & Reptiles (Such as Snakes) Can wrap around the arm like a bracelet (you may want to make the arm extent when animal is \"Perched\" on it.) you don\'t really have to have animations of the animals when they are \"perched\" (but it would be nice).
As for using the animals, they will be basically be sword except for the fact that they look like animals. They also do damage like a Weapon / Spell.
Animal: Spear-Beaked Hawk
Attacks: Similar to a Bow & Arrow / Spear
Graphical Effect: Hawk detaches from the arm & is launched @ an opponent like a Guided Spear, then returns to the arm like a boomerang bouncing off a wall...
Food: Feeds on large rodents (like rabbits) & small lizards ...
Other stuff to implement later:
1. Healing Animals (like repairing a weapon @ a blacksmith) you can \"repair\" your animal @ a Animal Healer or something. You can also use self heal stuff on it like you would fix/sharpen one of your weapons. Every time you use that specific animal, the animal\'s Skill Level increases (Just like a normal skill / spell). It also puts some ware & tare on your Animal, so feeding it should help it to heal (this is for when weapon dulling / breakdowns of weapons is implemented)
2. Ability to capture wild animals & train them to be weapons
3. The amount of damage depends on firstly what skill level you have with that type of animal, secondly depends on the Animal\'s Strength / Spell-casting Skill (All Animals are different) also depends on how fatigued / hurt the animal is (Usage of mana involved in this) otherwise just treat it like normal weapon / spell damage (until you can implement).
4. More detailed Graphical Effects:
Later on when this system gets developed more, you can figure out a way to implement more natural-looking animations & things like animals fly/walk on the ground next to you... then start making them bigger (such as wolfs & large frogs etc.)
5. When animals gain skill / are fed they \"grow\", I herd that Cal3D will give us the ability to resize things using it so we can have shrink/big pots & stuff, I would like an animal that I am training to start to see it \"grow\" to a bigger size when I am training/feeding it up to a point.
I posted this so I can give the dev team a realistic way of starting to implement Animal Training, do you think that was accomplished?
