{"id":"cmsgau9fh0000l404ebczxq2m","targets":[{"kind":"domain","value":"late.sh","host":"late.sh"},{"kind":"github","value":"github.com/mpiorowski/late-sh","owner":"mpiorowski","repo":"late-sh"}],"type":"feedback","title":"Lateania: Animal Taming has a ~35-hour dead zone where every reward is worse than a 1,200g shop pet","description":"Animal Taming is a 1..100 trade whose entire reward is a better companion, but for the first 49 levels every beast it can give you is worse than or equal to the Emberdrake you can simply buy from a capital Stable for 1,200 gold.\n\nCompanion power comes from `base_attack`, scaled by pet level (`Pet::attack` = `base + base*(level-1)/4`, and `PET_MAX_LEVEL` is 10, so a fully-fed pet is base x3.25). The five pet auto-skills in `taming::PET_SKILLS` also scale off that same attack value, so base_attack drives the whole contribution.\n\nComparing `pets::PET_SPECIES` against `taming::TAMEABLE`, at pet level 10:\n\n  Emberdrake (buyable, 1,200g, tame_level -)  base 20 -> 65 attack\n  Shadow Panther        (Taming 20)  base 17 -> 55 attack   WORSE than the shop pet\n  Jungle Constrictor    (Taming 30)  base 18 -> 58 attack   WORSE\n  Greenmantle Dire-Bear (Taming 40)  base 22 -> 71 attack   +9%\n  Green Wyrm/World-Oak  (Taming 50)  base 38 -> 123 attack  +89%\n\nSo the curve is flat-to-negative for 49 levels and then steps hard at exactly 50.\n\nThe cost of crossing that dead zone is the problem. `skills::xp_for_skill_level` puts Taming 50 at 712,030 xp, and the only source of taming xp is a successful tame worth `tame_xp = 30 + tame_level^2 / 2`. Climbing by always taming the best beast you qualify for takes roughly 1,136 successful tames. With `tame_chance` at 40% at the required level and a 30s `TAME_COOLDOWN` on each failure, that is on the order of 35 hours of play to reach the first beast that beats a purchase any level-10 character can make.\n\nFor scale, the same 35 hours spent on the Obsidian Throne extension wing (~20 xp/sec) is over 2.5 million character xp, and a single Sundered Reaches tier-21 drop table upgrades all eight equipment slots at once. Taming is dominated on every axis until the very last step.\n\nSuggested fix: either lift the early/mid `TAMEABLE` base_attack values so the ladder overtakes the Emberdrake somewhere around Taming 15-25, or lower the Stable pets so a 1,200g purchase is not the correct answer for the first ~35 hours of a trade. A test asserting that the best tameable at each 10-level band beats the best buyable would pin whichever choice is intended.","severity":"medium","verified":false,"submitterDid":null,"submitterWallet":null,"resolved":false,"resolveMessage":null,"rewardAmount":null,"createdAt":"2026-08-05T16:26:22.364Z","steps":["Compare base_attack in pets::PET_SPECIES (Emberdrake, 20) against taming::TAMEABLE entries with tame_level 1..49.","Note Pet::attack scales every species identically (base x3.25 at PET_MAX_LEVEL 10), so base_attack ranks them directly.","Read skills::xp_for_skill_level(50) = 712,030 and taming::tame_xp = 30 + tame_level^2/2 to price the climb.","In game, train Animal Taming to 20 or 40 and compare the resulting companion to a bought Emberdrake."],"expected":"Investing in the Animal Taming trade produces a companion better than one you can buy outright, reasonably early in the trade's 1..100 range.","actual":"Every tameable below Taming 50 is worse than or equal to the 1,200g Emberdrake; the first genuine upgrade sits behind ~712,000 skill xp and roughly 1,136 successful tames.","metadata":null,"resolvedAt":null,"resolvedBy":null,"rewardTxHash":null}