biostem

What's funny is that when the game went F2P, anyone could basically create a 2nd account and have a female character just do that... *shrugs* If they had created some generic MM templates when they were first creating MMs, they could have allowed you to just set various different costumes for your henchman. My own thinking is that they were pressed for time, so went with the "hard coded" appearances that we ended up with...

Except that there's no bubble that you have to remain in - the caster uses the power, and anyone in the initial AoE gets tagged with the power and gains fly, as long as the toggle is maintained, regardless of whether you remain in the AoE in which the power was initially cast.

DCUO has a shield throw power, though you only throw a generic disc-like object, (last I checked). The thing is, since shield defense is a completed set already, it'd have to go somewhere else...

So I've been doing some reading up on the Malta Operatives, Knives of Artemis, and Vahzilok, and thought it'd be cool if we had a tech/science-y control primary for controllers and dominators. I'm drawing from several different sources here, but please give me any feedback you may have. Thanks! 1. Immobilizing dart - single target immobilize, similar to the one from the blaster ninjitsu secondary. Minor toxic DoT, also imparts a speed, recharge, and regen debuff, with a small chance to put the target to sleep. 2. Taser dart - single target hold. Does moderate energy damage and drains some endurance. 3. Toxic dart barrage - cone immobilize, dealing toxic DoT, debuffs speed, recharge and regen. 4. Hallucinogen dart - single target confuse 5. Flashbang dart - ranged aoe disorient, also debuffs defense and tohit. Minor smashing damage. 6. Corrosive dart barrage - targeted AoE that creates a field/puddle on the ground. Enemies passing over it are slowed, take moderate toxic DoT, and have their damage resistance debuffed. 7. Sapping gauntlet - basically, this would be similar to life drain from dark blast, only it drains a target of a small amount health and energy, and restores it to you. The enemy would be held while this is in effect. 8. Paralytic dart barrage - cone hold, deals moderate toxic damage, debuffs movement, recharge, and regen. 9. Summon gun drone - as per the devices power.

And now that I think about it, that's probably why they went with the shield charge power instead...

Also, depending upon how much you're willing to share with people you team up with, it may be a good idea to include something regarding how it may be difficult for you to communicate with your teammates...

This would require a lot of work, but what if 'group fly' was simply changed to an ally-targeted toggle, which was applied in an AoE - said allies then retain flight until you deactivate the toggle or they cancel the power from under their status bar? Maybe give it a range of 100' or something if it'd be too good otherwise, (so there's no need for them to stay in the bubble)...

Well, test it first, just to make sure it works to your liking. Once you've done that, you can do /bindsave to save your current binds, then /bindload to load it up on any subsequent characters. Just be aware that this is machine-specific, (unless you manually transfer over the keybinds.txt file).

One nice thing is that the immobilize in /plants is mag 4. I couldn't say much beyond that, though...

Understood & so-noted. Maybe if your pets are at full health, unsummoing them could just instantly recharge the associated summon power, and maybe they could add a meta-upgrade power, which only becomes available if you have both of the upgrade powers already, and both are recharged, which applies both upgrades at once...

Well, can't you just make use of whatever subroutine gets invoked when you zone? I mean, I know I'm drastically oversimplifying things here, but a function like that already exists. I mean, I guess an alternative would be a special form of "passive" that you command your pets with, which basically phases them out and makes them invisible while you travel...

What if you did this: /bind numpad1 "lfg I am a $level $archetype looking for a team. Please send me a tell if you're interested in teaming." Then, once they reply, you could use: /bind numpad2 "r Thank you for the reply. I'd very much like to team up!" In theory, once they message you, the r in the second command should reply just to that person. The only other way I could think of this working would be to use an external program to allow you to rebind the paste command to one of the keys you are able to use and paste in a generic "I'd like to team up" message, after you've clicked the person's name in chat and selected to send them a private message...

I see. What about a way to "collapse" your pets onto yourself, then release them once you're at your destination? Like, a mass unsummon power, then a mass re-summon power, (perhaps require your pets be at full health in order to do this), like how your pets are basically killed then resummoned with all their upgrades intact, when you zone...

Wouldn't a way to command your pets to follow much more closely serve this purpose better? I almost wish we could "leash" the MM pets to us, so they literally get dragged along with us, instead of the kind of loose attachment they currently have...

Not to derail things too much, but is there an alternate animation for aid self, where you don't pull out the little device? It'd be nice to not have to resort to using the tricorder, if it doesn't fit your theme. :-)

Actually, what I'd rather see is a way to "collapse" your pets onto yourself, without having to unsummon them. I don't think it's reasonable to give pets more damage (take assault), or more tohit (take tactics), or stealth, (just take grant invisibility). There was another thread going which talked about making the pets even level with you, and just adjusting their stats accordingly, which I think is a good idea...

Hmmm... This may be tough. You can do /t $target "Hello I'd like to team up!", but that would require actually targeting the other player in-game. If the person messages you first, you could do /r "Hello I'd like to join your team.", since the /r sends a private message reply to the last person who messaged you. Are you able to manually type in the other player's name? If so, then you could create a bind that omits the name and you just type that part in yourself...

It'd be nice if repair provided some sort of additional benefit, like extra +dmg or such to the henchman it's used on. But, yeah - it's very skipable, especially if your secondary has a heal...

The only issue is that what you throw wouldn't necessarily use the geometry of the actual weapon/shield you're wielding, since power animations are essentially separate entities. It'd have to be a generic disc and mace-like object that was thrown...

I think a better idea would be to allow you to switch out your most recently selected power, provided you haven't used any "level-ups" since then. So, for instance, you leveled up, run to train, and decide you want to try out arcane bolt from sorcery. You pick it and go on your merry way. You use it a bit and decide it's not for you, so you run back to the trainer and can undo that selection and pick something else. Whether there would be a cost to this is up for debate, but this would definitely allow people to try out a power for a bit before they fully commit to it...

Pretty much all of them, except black hole...

Or just put both in both powers...

I've been playing around with an archery/nature corr, and it's good but not great, so I'm always looking for other's input. As for nature on a MM, I made use of a "targetcustomnext alive demonlings" to select one of my weaker pets then fire off the heal, since it is cone-based. Helps a little. Cheers!

The thing is, can you tie a conditional command into a bind, like "if dice = 6 then say 'try again later'" or something?

What primary did you pair with it, if I may ask, (sorry for the derail)?