Rudra

My 2 inf' on GM2? Being a moderator is a tedious and thankless task. As was said by others earlier, you will never make everyone happy. For instance, on some threads I thought you (and the other GMs) were entirely too slow to intervene. On other threads I thought you (and the other GMs) were too fast. (And yes, there are even times when I agreed with when intervention happened.) Moderating isn't a science, it's a series of judgement calls. And everyone has their own biases about when and how to do anything. So just be as fair as possible. And so far, it seems to me like you are.

Haven't played my demon summoner in a while, but I don't remember the ice sword being a part of the henchmen model. Rather I remember it as an attack he uses just like PCs do with their ice swords. Attacks, it remains if doesn't use other attacks until drops from combat just like with PCs. Again though, it's been a while, so apologies if I am misremembering. The missile launchers though? Yeah, those are added to the henchman just like the ninjas get their masks. (Though I should point out, when you look at an upgraded ninja through one of the Hidden Jounin? Their mask disappears. Not sure why, but was interesting to me to find out.) So it looks to me like that some upgrades have visual elements that add to the pets and others don't.

Except when that is done, people still demand you explain yourself or tell you they won't bother reading the linked thread(s).

People are already being told/asked to leave threads just for saying they disagree. This will lead to a yesman echo chamber where any dissent is simply not allowed. Edit: Hells, there are OPs that include statements that dissension is not welcome. So by those OPs, anyone posting any disagreement would be subject to being banned for participating on the forums.

I take it this part is in reference to me. Not my intent, but message received. My apologies.

This happens with white as a skin tone too. Make a white character? And you get a caucasian character covered in some flour instead.

You're going to have to enlighten me on this reference. (Edit: Never mind. Looked it up.) That works.

Also needs a mist form added. Control bats. Control rats. Transform into swarm of bats. Transform into a bat. Transform into a wolf. The wolf transformation can be done in game by replacing him with a Howler Wolf or using Shadow Hunter's ability. The using bats and rats, and the swarm and single bat transformations don't exist in game.

I'm going to guess you missed the sarcasm of my post. (Or perhaps you picked up on it and that is why I am now on ignore with you.) However, let me clarify why passive/automatic pet upgrades is a bad idea. If MM pet upgrades become automatic/passive, then there is no incentive to keep MM pets alive. All you have to do is cram as much recharge and universal recharge as you can to minimize the summon recharges and cram the rest with endurance reduction and character recovery boosts. Now you can maintain a semi-constant stream of upgraded pets with no effort. If you aren't summoning, you are attacking, and if you aren't attacking, it is because you are summoning. No need to worry about buffing the pets with say shields. No need to worry about healing the pets. They can take at least a couple hits from most enemies in the game, so you don't even need to maintain a constant stream of summons. And since you can do that in Bodyguard Mode, it further throws AT balance out the window. But hey, you're ignoring me. So I'm just wasting my time.

Given the abilities the Count has which are not properly reflected in what the game has available, maybe instead just run with the traditional werewolves and vampires feud? The TF can run on the premise that werewolves and vampires are pouring in from dimensions where they took over only to find that instead of more prey, their thought vanquished enemies are also appearing. The heroes have to run a spate of missions to contain the threat the invaders pose to the population while also searching for what enabled these invaders to get here in the first place and stop it. Can still have an AV vampire at the end, but since it would not have to be Dracula per se, it would be easier to fit in using existing vamps in the game. The final mission could be to hunt down and stop this AV plus the (empowered) werewolf AV on the same map where they are each "hunting" (they aren't actually searching the map) each other and must be stopped lest their unbridled power and wrath makes Boomtown look like paradise. ... ... Which I may just make an AE arc some time instead....

And the response I was about to give would have gotten me banned, so instead I will say that when you use Walk? Of course things take time. The pets need to heal between fights for the lack of support. How much and how long varies, but after every fight there is a pause waiting for pets to recover. You have to make sure you are only facing one group at a time, otherwise the pets need the support to survive, so checking to make sure you only have one group to fight takes time. The whole thing takes time and lots of it. I never said Walking through missions as a MM was fast or expedient. I said it could be done while keeping the MM perfectly safe. And that takes time even if you aren't restricting yourself using Walk. All of this should have been obvious from the very first comment about MM characters being safe even while using Walk. So if your whole point was "no kidding, genius. It takes time to use Walk and get through a mission"? Then you completely missed my point. (Edit: And for clarification? That point was that out of all the ATs, the MM is the only one outside of maybe Controllers or Dominators that can use Walk and be in an Only Affects Self state while soloing a mission and be safe. [Edit again: And still be clearing enemies.]) I didn't answer because it is a non-issue if the people in control of game development have decided it won't be done. If you want my answer to that though? That would be fine. Great even. My MMs would be so much more powerful if it was implemented. Never again would I have to upgrade my pets. If I'm fighting EBs or AVs, or even some bosses that seem to only have high damage AoEs? I can drown them in a sea of pets so much faster. (Which is probably why it won't be done.)

As has already been stated in this thread, the devs have already said no to this idea because taking the time to upgrade pets is part of the expected game play loop for the AT.

So from 'it's not possible' to 'of course that happens when you walk'? Okay. And no, the results were not the same. First fight was a boss fight, and the pets handled that just fine. Second fight was a regular fight and one of my pets was left near dead at the end. Results like that are typical, but that does not make walking through missions impossible unless the mobs are all grey as was previously cited. And in the video, I even upgraded my T3 while he was still untargetable. Something else that was claimed could not be done on this thread. So the net presentation of your post is "lah lah lah I can't hear you".

Here, have a demorecording. I kept it short because waiting for henchmen to heal up for the next fight makes for a very long video. neko.cohdemo

MMs never leave their HP anywhere unless it is from taking damage. Pets aren't more HP. They are extra damage mitigation, but only while in Bodyguard Mode with the pets in Supremacy range. You aren't losing any HP when you set pets to Aggressive or Passive, just changing what you are having those pets do. All MM secondaries can prevent having to re-summon and re-upgrade. Some are easier to do that with than others. What you are calling a flaw in the AT is intentional game design to keep MMs balanced in relation to other ATs. The only "flaw" MMs have is when you get into the Advanced Modes of play or specific TFs/SFs or missions where you face EBs or AVs with multiple high damage AoEs or run up against groups on higher difficulty settings where you get inundated with lots of high damage AoEs and protecting the pets becomes less a task or even a challenge, and more of how quickly can you spam those summon clicks. In which case forget about the upgrades and just focus on drowning the target(s) in a sea of followers. Welcome to playing MMs. That micromanaging is part of the AT design. So is on the fly healing, buffing, and even upgrading. Feel free to join me any time. Bring a Stalker, stay Hidden, don't attack or even sneeze in the enemies' direction, and stay out of enemy attack radius. Enjoy the show as I slowly walk through the mission. Then learn how to better leverage those secondaries. Or continue not using those secondaries. There are MM secondaries I simply won't use. Like Poison which one of my friends swears is the best MM secondary and uses prolifically on her MMs. They already do. They just don't have game play loops you prefer, If you summon your pets and then turn on Walk and don't click any other powers? Guess what you don't get access to? Dark Servant. Because even if you summon the servant before starting to Walk? It times out after four minutes and goes away, so you would then have to drop Walk and click the power to summon a new Dark Servant. And the whole point of taking a lazy day and just Walking through missions is to not have to do anything other than move and click glowies. Yes, if the map is unfavorable and I wind up being attacked by multiple spawns at once. I drop Walk and use my powers to support my pets. And if it is bad enough, that also means summoning the Dark Servant. Otherwise? No, you don't need the Dark Servant any more than you need any other power.

There is an inherent flaw in this. If you attempt to strip out emotion and be polite, people think you're being rude because of the lack of emotion. (Claim is lack of social skill.) And if you leave the emotion in, people think you're being rude because of the emotion. (Edit: And if you try to be nice, people think you're being rude anyway. Typically with claims of condescension, talking down, or being insincere.) (Please bear in mind that "you" in this case is not "you" specifically, but just in general.) I agree that people should be polite, but sometimes people just insist on reading posts as being rude.

Tangent, so apologies in advance. I've been in parties where that wiped us out. It was hilarious some of the time, frustrating as hell others. Like in a Cyberpunk game where heavy weapons came out and only two of our team survived. One of which was unconscious and had to be carried by the other. No Trauma Team memberships, so the conscious one threw the unconscious one across the back of his bike, got on, rode to the hospital to try to save them both, failed a consciousness check for blood loss, and smeared both of them across the street. Tangent complete. Apologies for having made it, but it immediately sprang to mind when I saw this post.

While I agree with most of your post, I disagree with this part. That would actually be gatekeeping. Let new people post. We can always refer them to the previous threads about their posts.

Or vent some of the blast exhaust up to counter the recoil?

You mean like the Blaster's Device's and the Malta Ops Engineer's auto turrets also do?

When you look at the alignment from the grand walkway from the docks, Recluse's statue is slightly to the right of the grand walkway and the tower is slightly to the right of the statue. The shift right is consistent between all three. (Edit: By which I mean the amount they are shifted from each other looks to be the same.) Edit again: So if the statue is to be moved to line up with the tower, the grand walkway also needs to be shifted to maintain the design flow. Which will also require the docks to be shifted. Edit yet again: And as best I can recall, per the Live devs when the misalignment was brought up to them, it was quite intentional.

Frequently. My main is a Ninja/Dark MM. And every pet gets the upgrade if you apply the upgrade to any other pet as long as that pet is in range. Every time I have to summon replacements, I don't spend any time trying to target the replacement henchmen, I simply target any pet in view, including combat NPCs, and apply the upgrades to them, and all my pets get the upgrade if they lack it. Every time. Edit: My dark servant is usually right by my side during most fights, so I apply my pet upgrades through him most of the time. Otherwise, I just click an already out pet in the pet window and apply the upgrades to my replacement pets through him. Edit again: And yes, you can't target a newly summoned pet until after the summon is complete. However, you can still upgrade that pet through other pets. As long as the name is green, that is, the pet's name is there, even if the animation for the summon is not yet done, you can upgrade that pet through any other pet. Edit yet again: Hells, you can upgrade your pets through your enemies. If the enemy you have targeted has a pet as its target, the pet upgrade applies to the enemy's target and through that target, to your other pets. I just did that by accident in the game just now. Yet another edit: That's the thing about MM pets. They have to exist to be upgraded, but they don't have to be active. As long as the summon has progressed enough for the pet to finish spawning, even if the pet cannot yet be targeted by you, the pet can be upgraded. Try to upgrade before the pet actually exists? And it won't work. You don't have to wait to be able to target them to upgrade them though. Not since the upgrades became AoEs. You can't target them until they go active as pets at the end of the summon animation, but they are available to be upgraded before then.

And yet yesterday, I spent a good portion of the day on my Ninja/Dark MM doing the Organ Grinders Flashback doing exactly that at +0/x3. I entered the missions, turned on Walk, and walked through the missions. Only on 1 mission did I have to turn off Walk and support my pets because I got jumped by 3 groups of Rikti on a sewer map. If your team stays together in the crates/containers part of the mission? You most definitely can keep your pets alive. If they scatter? Then let them. Do what you can or just go prepare for Marauder's arrival.

Yes and no. Assuming firing at a human target, unless the arrow misses the target or it just grazes the target, the arrow imbeds itself in the target as the body absorbs the kinetic force. I have only ever been warned to make sure I hit my target when firing a bow or crossbow, that if I miss I will hit something else near or past the target. With guns, I have been warned repeatedly to check what is past the target because even if I hit the intended target, depending on the target and weapon I am firing, the round can over-penetrate and hit something past the intended target. This has nothing to do with anything. Yes, our AoEs magically only hurt our enemies in this game, but that has nothing to do with the spray the OP read as asking about to me or the over-penetration the author said it was actually about. If the devs want to add this to the game, they would need to add it to every multi-shot gun attack in the game for fairness. And I don't think this is what the author is after, for a chance for the attack to not hit the intended target but instead hit something else. And if that is not the intent of this comment, but rather to have all misses from multi-shot guns check for hits against unintended targets in the area, that would layers of complexity to an already infamously questionable code. Per the OP, as best I understand it, the question is why the hits don't hit more targets. As clarified by the author, as over-penetration.

Maybe instead of Summon Elementals calling Gremlins, the power could be Summon Raiju? Use the wolf model but reskin it with a glowing blue-yellow spectrum effect and add a lightning aura to make the ubiquitous lightning wolf of Japanese fame. It would retain Shock as an initial power, but replace Electric Brawl with either Shocking Swipe or Electric Bite. Shocking Swipe would be the Claw Rake of the lionesses except as energy damage whereas Electric Bite would be the Vicious Bite of the wolves except as energy damage. They only get one of these though. And the Overcharge power could grant them either the other melee attack or a weak Short Circuit.