Golem vs. Elemental

What is the difference?

Golem vs. Elemental

I hope that one of them doesn't go away until it is killed or unsummoned. Ritual magic? (Seriously this seems like a great way to introduce ritual magic)

 

Dallas was kind enough to answer this question on the main website, see below:

This is disappointing to me, I was really hoping that Elementals would be summoned by players using ritual magic and the summoned creature would stay as a combat pet, forever. Or at least until it was killed or dispelled by the caster. I was hoping that Golems would also be summoned by players, but they would work for a temporary basis (much like they do now in R13) and would eventually die off even if they were not killed.

I find the current summoning system to be pointless and have little to no value because of the poor AI (for the summoned creatures and the mobs they should be attacking) and the very short length of time that the summoned creatures stay in the world. When you leave a scene the summoned creatures are destroyed too, adding to their lack of value.

I know we're in pre-alpha, so I don't expect ANY system to work right now. But I do expect the design and the direction from the developers to indicate the direction we're headed, and so far we haven't heard anything about summoning that would suggest we're headed in a good direction, imo.

 

I can't think of any fantasy game where summoned elementals are permanent tbh.

Golems sure because usually that involves a ton of effort and cost to create, but again in most games its a monster that players have to fight instead of something they would make themselves. Usually the cost/effort s not worth the result for PCs.

That said, it really just seems that SotA is leaning away from having any kind of permanent "pet" combat monsters altogether.

 

Mob AI isn't bad right now actually. Hopefully combat pet AI increases considerably. I'm hoping they stick around longer when summoned and that you can talk with them to tell them tactics you'd like them to use.

 

They definitely should stick around a little longer (it's a bit annoying to have to summon things too often, and also they cost reagents), and a tactics bar is one of those things that all summoned combat pets need to have, to make them worthwhile.

 

I thought the whole idea was they were going to stick around longer if you used reagents?

 

Is there some official thread discussing summoned pets?

Right now all combat pets require reagents just to summon.

 

Nope. You can cast any spell you want without reagents. It's been like this from the beginning. I just logged on and summoned a skeleton without any reagents whatsoever.

 

Yeah, which speaks to the lack of vision of other games. There's no reason we shouldn't or couldn't summon pets (or thralls) to our service that would last forever and be powerful. None.

 

Really?

I refer you to exhibit A, at the 3:00 mark.

 

I really like the idea of questing, toiling and experimenting to create permanent combat pets.

 

Really? oO I've been all studious about them, haha...