Doc_Scorpion

I'd love it too, but like Rudra I'm not sure it's easily done.

She had a... let's just say, outsize presence on the forums.

Seconded!

There's a lot of people, mods included, who would love to see discussion stomped in Beta feedback threads... But, without disagreeing that discussion sometimes gets way the 'ell out of hand, I'd like to push back a bit on that. (And that's without considering Patch Note Reactors, a pox be on them and their generations for all times.) Testing is neither a solo pursuit nor a one-and-done proposition. I've simply seen too many cases where discussions between testers have yielded valuable fruit. Where a dodgy suggestion was refined and polished. Where someone identified a hole in someone else's tests or test methodology. Where someone's test or test methodology inspires someone else to try a different test or test methodology. Where repeated play had clarified or changed an individual's stance. Silencing discussion does not improve the testing process. It hampers it. And on top of that, there's the times where the Feedback thread was used to arrange for group testing when it was needed. In particular, this was useful in debugging Defibrillate and for arranging "typical PI PUGs" when testing the Nu Council. Now I'd be the first to agree that testers and feedback threads should be held to a higher standard. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

The game only keeps tracks of how many slots a particular power has assigned and what's in them. It does not track when (at what level) those slots were assigned to a given power.

I have no clue who Lil Jon even is, so, no.

I can't find any option to decrease my effective level on the Open Beta pop menu.

You can't delay what was never actually scheduled... (A target is not a schedule.) Page releases have always been a "we get there when we get there" kinda thing.

I was just pondering on this the other day, a respec process that worked like creating an alternate build - but playable. Sometimes I just want to go back and rebuild a character the same way I built them, one level at a time, playing them and working out what the toon needs next and what problems need to be solved or holes need to be filled. (Largely because theorycrafting in Mids gives you the numbers, but not the feel. Not how a character actually plays.)

CPO is Navy, not Chair Force. (The picture is Chair Force, High Beam is not.)

"Having animations" and "having animations that match the pet's powers" are two very different things. I've already given one specific example of that upthread - none of the potential swaps you propose have the shoulder mounted missile launchers that Assault Bots get. You'll have to remap the powers that rely on those missile launchers onto powers that animations/models exists for. Or you'll have to create new animations and possibly even new models. Or, to put it more simply.... No. Most of the work isn't already done by simply swapping models because you're not swapping apples for apples. It's not impossible by any means, but it's not nearly as simple as you think.

Speaking as someone who has moderated what seems like damm near every form of communication on 'net over the last thirty years... Outside of the most obvious of Deadly Words, intent is [censored] hard to discern. Short of the impossible task of moderating everything that could possibly be construed as insulting, it's always going to be a judgement call.

There's a world of difference between a blob that more or less just floats there, and a henchpet with moving parts and a variety of animations. I only play 'bots, so I just grabbed what looked to be something likely from the HC Wiki. But either way, whether it's part of the model or part of an attack animation, my key point remains true - the Fir Bolg don't have it. You might be able to remap their existing attack animations onto the existing attacks in the demon summoning set... but bouncing the two against each other, my first impression is that it looks like a very poor fit. Which is really my main point, there's more to doing this than simply swapping out which model the game loads when you summon your hench pets. And I should make clear, that I am not saying that it's undesirable or impossible! Only that there's more details and subtle (and not so subtle) pinch points than might be obvious at first glance.

Ah, yeah, you're correct and my statement about the only way isn't. (And I've amended my post appropriately.)

It certainly didn't so back in the OG days and to a large extent it's not doing so now. What does lead to bland sameness is your desire that "every set has a specific place to shine". "We're doing Synapse? Better grab my fire blaster" "There's a team in FF? I'm screwed because I don't have an appropriate level Earth troller." Etc... etc... Rock, paper, scissors is not really fun in the long run. People keep coming back to this game in a large part because it isn't rock, paper, scissors. They can (with few exceptions) play whatever toon they want, wherever they want, whenever they want. Balance empowers players and brings life and diversity to the game. That's because good balance is like your car running normally - it's invisible. It's not causing problems, and you can't see problems that aren't there. Unbalance on the other hand... Like Titan Weapons before the changes or the current state of Regen, is immediately obvious to anyone paying even a modicum of attention to what's going on around them.

It's the only reliable easiest and clearest way for anyone, the MM or their teammates, to know. But "alternate forms as visual cues" aren't nearly the problem that "lacking the appropriate model and animations" is. For example, the Clocks don't have the shoulder mounted missile pods the Assault Bots get (and use!) from Upgrade Robot. Fir Bolg don't have the ice sword that the Demon Prince uses. Etc... etc... It's not just a simple reskin. (And it will look like crap if you do simply reskin it.)

Your MM henchpets all have multiple forms (base, base + upgrade 1, base + upgrade 1 + upgrade 2, base + upgrade 2). I can't think of any NPC's except the Council Warwolves (which only has 1) that has alternate forms. As alternate forms provide both a visual marker of the upgrade level and provide additional animations for additional abilities... it's not at all clear that it will be just a simple reskin.

While you can on the Live servers, you cannot do so on Closed Beta/Brainstorm.

The official overview of the Mastermind as quoted on the HC Wiki's Mastermind page disagrees with you. (The team support slot redside is taken up by Corruptors.) That's because math is one of the key tools for objectively analyzing the effects of a change. Subjective, hyperbolic, and emotional arguments are no substitute. And with that, I'm going to take GooglyMoogly's advice and depart this thread.

Doesn't matter whether or not it impacts my playstyle. What matters is how it impacts the game in general and the AT in specific. And it impacts the AT negatively because it considerably reduces the opportunity cost of replacing lost pets, which in turn reduces the incentive to use your secondaries as designed to keep the pets alive. A virtual waterfall of upgraded pets trivially available also increases the amount of firepower an MM can bring to bear in a given battle without a balancing disadvantage. (Both of these are no doubt part of why the Devs have said, in the post Peregrine Falcon linked, that this isn't going to happen.)

Some people keep saying that, not everyone, not even close. Those people are full of stuff suitable for enriching garden soil. While it's desirable to keep them alive, the measure of success of an MM is not the number of dead (or surviving) pets or their upgrade levels. It's whether or not the mob(s) are down and the MM themselves are still standing at the end of the fight. Pets are disposable and replaceable.

There are multiple ways to mitigate damage and death/destruction among your pets. You can buff them, or you can heal them. Or you can debuff the mobs. Or you can take a more offensive stance and assist them in destroying the mobs before your pets can become casualties. There are no secondaries that don't have valid playstyles. Your personal preferences among those playstyles or inability to master them is not a reason to change the fundamental gameplay loop of the archetype.

I wonder how many of us bubblehead there are hereabouts?

Ah! The 132nd anniversary of the invention of mobile coffee cup holders!

Atlas Park was revamped in Issue 21 by the OG dev team. Not by the Homecoming team. I seriously doubt that the buildings exists for King's Row and other zones that don't use the same cityscape as Atlas Park. And I hope you're not suggesting that instead the entire City be rendered bland and forgettable by replacing the look and feel of each zone with Atlas Park.