gabrilend

Hi, I think there's been a misunderstanding. You don't need an extra power to tame your pets, all you need to do is deal enough damage to them that they're "low hp" and then start targetting someone else. Could be implemented like this: upon reaching 30% hp (or whatever feels right) they get a buff that does nothing but renew itself every time it's master deals damage to it. However it expires in 3-5 seconds, and if it does the pet then becomes friendly and non-confused. This is just as much a problem with Mastermind, and in fact they have training powers which increase the amount of time spent "not contributing to the fight" - however, Masterminds are still useful, even if they don't have 100% uptime. Ah, alas, the critical strike. Well if the idea is that bad then it shouldn't be implemented. Not all ideas are good, and it's up to the discussion to decide whether or not they hold merit. If people like them, they could be prototyped by the devs, who then test it out and decide "yeah this sucks" or "wow this is actually kinda fun", at which point they'd ask the community "hey do you want us to add this thing? We tried it and it's actually pretty fun" and then the community says "NO DON'T CHANGE OUR GAME" and ah, well, save it for the sequel I guess.

Music by this person I met on Mastodon named Avaelin starts at 4:43 - check out her other stuff if you dig it EDIT: updated link to skip the intro.

Mechanically it'd act as a Mastermind style class that increases damage taken by allies. Sorta like a "reverse leadership" buff. That's not a reason at all - confusion deducts EXP in proportion to the amount of damage dealt by the confused unit. Therefore nothing is lost when you confuse an enemy, and in fact confusing an enemy will take one out of the fight for a moment which is valuable CC! However with this idea you wouldn't necessarily be confusing foes, but instead your own minions. Who then might attack your allies until you "tame" them. To balance this correctly, you need to find a mechanical way to differentiate them from Mastermind pets. Perhaps they are much stronger, but regenerate END slower, causing you to need to re-summon them during longer fights? Thus resetting the confuse status. Or perhaps something else that I haven't thought of because I'm not exactly the best at balancing a game for all different playstyles (that I don't play) -> though I'm pretty decent at balancing for *my* playstyle, I always must keep in mind that *my* playstyle is remarkably... strange, I find, when compared to the others of this game. hehe I disagree, that sounds like a nice idea but it's far from the best possible one. Heck I haven't even thought of the best one! It's out there, lying undisturbed, in the idea-space that none have yet plumbed and charted. Or perhaps not, perhaps it was dreamed up by a 12 year old playing this game with her eldest brother in 2009, and consequently forgotten moments or days later. What a tragedy, what a shame, that such beauty would go unmade! Alas...

Currently, allied players health is red and endurance is blue. And when you're engaged in a tough fight, sometimes it's important to be able to pay attention to people's relative health and position. To make it easier for buffs and heals to be applied, or perhaps to know where to reinforce or crowd control. If the health bars that display above enemy targets were a different color, it'd be easier at a glance to know where to position your forces (masterminds) or where your AoE slow is gonna go. Not only would it give the semblance of a "front-line" (split into multiple battling spots) but in addition you'd know when your team is losing hope. I think it'd be a neat alternative to the current "floating health bar above character model" system would be one where the healthbars did not stack one-on-top of another, but instead were displaced ever-so-slightly when overlapping with another. As long as they moved very slowly, essentially prioritizing the location on the screen where they were spawned. Then, draw a small, 1-pixel line from the closest point on the edge that points directly to the feet of the unit in question. Thus sorta giving you a picture of the whole field, cast upon the semi-transparent background of the backside of the health-bar. see picture for example of non-overlapping nameplates.

I think this would make indoor missions feel less claustrophobic.

They just arrived, they don't know who to fight. But if there's no enemies remaining, they realize whose team they're supposed to be on and lose their confused status. In addition, if you take them to low hp and then target someone else, they'll join your team. Call it... the "rebel" - give it summons of common enemy types who might have reason to be swayed to work with a hero/villain. Then we can roleplay as champions of a part of a particular faction, gang, category of monster, whatever. A faction that might decide to rebel from their masters and join (heroes or villains)? Could add a new tutorial type that's only available for that class, one for each powerset. Then it could give a very simple and generic story about how the super-hero/villain came to be.

I didn't know you could upgrade them like that! Neat! The reason you slot things at all is because it allows you to customize your character. Basically giving you semi-permanent choices about how you'd like your character to play and how it should feel. It seems like there already exists the tools to accomplish my desired goals. Thank you for commenting everyone!

I see... Well, in that case, I'd like to alter the suggestion to be: "add training origin enhancements to the SG vendor from level 21-50" and also "add a training origin enhancement vendor to the world - Pocket D? In Hospitals? It doesn't matter where, as long as it's accessible"

hmmmm, I suppose those work. However they require you to have a supergroup or use Architect Entertainment, which... is not ideal for all playstyles. Each of those options provides the same content (training origin enhancements), however it does not allow for the same playstyle (akin to ironman mode from 2007scape). So unfortunately those solutions, while providing access to the requested material, do not provide a solution which allows for the suggested playstyle to be a viable option. Thank you for responding, though. It's good to know they still exist somewhere in the game, even if their presence does not have the same effect it once did.

Some of us just like to play the game on hard mode. 2007scape (the modern version of Runescape) has an "ironman" mode where you can't trade with other players. I think it'd be neat if that style of play was catered to a bit in City of Heroes/Villains. Currently, the player is expected to use the auction house. If they don't, they won't be able to save up enough infamy to buy all their enhancements, as the only ones available at the store are single or dual origin. Very expensive for a noob with no dollars! This problem could be solved if the old, iconic, training origin enhancements were added back in. The ones with a gray border, that aren't locked to a particular character origin. They were very cheap and you could fully equip a character just from the infamy you gained while levelling up. Unfortunately that's not quite true with the current vendors, who only offer very expensive (and powerful) single and dual origin enhancements. In addition, utilizing the training origin enhancements increases the difficulty of the game. Using inventions and origin enhancements introduces power-creep, causing the player to deal massive amounts of damage and be able to defeat foes that they should have no business taking on - back on live, if you were poor and levelling for the first time, it was generally a bad idea to set your mission difficulty to higher than the baseline, or rather if you did, you knew what you were getting into. And yet fighting hordes of red and purple foes is generally considered normal now. Some of us like to play on hard mode. Giving us the tools to "up the difficulty" without necessarily increasing the reward is the essence of what "ironman mode" from 2007scape exemplifies - adding a vendor that sells training origin enhancements could be a step toward accommodating that type of gameplay in CoX. SOURCE: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Enhancements#Training_Enhancements

as long as they aren't those models specifically. don't want to get confused when facing that type of enemy.

That's not true, Rudra. The content has been overwritten and replaced with Longbow spawns. In addition, the "home base" has been changed to be in the center of the zone. This makes the island feel smaller. Also, the fantasy has been altered. The original fantasy was better designed.

If you want additional discussion on this topic, check out this post I made two years ago: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/39551-i-miss-the-old-mercy-island/

According to this snippet from the Paragon Wiki, defensive goto and defensive stay also work: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Mastermind_Strategy#Bodyguard

My understanding is that the Bodyguard functionality is dependent upon the stance of the minions, not the orders. So two pets in defensive mode would both act as bodyguards, even if one was set to "follow" and the other to "stay" However, I understand your concern - especially with mobility at play, as @Rudra explained. I now believe that the best approach going forward would be to offer the option for Masterminds to define the default functionality of their pets when summoned as they will, rather than changing the default behavior for all Masterminds. However, I am not privy to the technical requirements for accomplishing that task, so I have no way of knowing whether or not it'd be better to utilize one approach over the other. If it's a question of either "follow" or "stay", I can make arguments in favor of "stay", however I have no reason to believe that would be necessary. Much better, I believe, to hope for the more flexible and empowering approach, wouldn't you say?

I'm assuming based on this response that you know more than me about the back-end architecture of the game. If so, then the option you suggest (if feasible) would absolutely fulfill the requirements of the suggestion I posed, and in fact would be better than mine because it grants more flexibility to the players and has more clarity than the option I suggested with the power vendor. I'm not sure why you believe I'm insistent on that. I believe I've expressed my flexibility clearly, and I've stated more than once that your suggestion would meet my desired functionality as well. It feels like you're feeling strongly about someone who speaks like me, but isn't me, because I'm absolutely not pitting myself against you. I think we're both on the same side and we can work together to bring more options to the players of this wonderful game, if we make our arguments clearly and state our desired outcomes plainly. You're right, now that you've explained a bit more that definitely qualifies as a use-case. Thanks for providing the details about following your team and keeping your buffs on them, those were the important parts that were missing from your earlier explanation. I believe that either of our proposed solutions would work to fulfill this requirement: yours, being that a menu option or UI element would allow us to set the default state of MM pets when summoned, and mine, being that multiple powers could be available on a vendor and a user could pick which to utilize. The end result is that the player can define the functionality of their pets as described initially, when I suggested that MM pets have a way to stay where they're summoned. We're on the same side. That also qualifies as a use-case. The auto-follow functionality allows for the Supremacy buff to be used as a defensive power when the offensive capabilities of your pets are insufficient to address the foes that are attacking you. I see your point. I use teleportation, so this use-case did not occur to me because of how "staccatic" [staccato] my movement powers are. Someone who just started the game wouldn't know about the functionality of other archetypes and their pets, and one of the selling points of the game is that it's *not* like other games, so... I respectfully disagree with this opinion. I don't insist that. I know how to control my pets. Please read this thread, it was very helpful to me: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/22373-concerning-this-forum/ I did not see a use-case for the current behavior as compared to the desired behavior, which is why I originally suggested a change. I believed I was optimizing and improving. However, you've suggested two situations where the current behavior is more optimal, which makes me believe that a more flexible approach would be the better route forward, to allow for both of our use-cases to be addressed.

It seems that you feel quite strongly about this issue. I'd like to understand why, so I can come up with ideas for how to solve my issue without disrespecting your needs. Can you please tell me what use-cases you have for the current behavior? By that I mean specific situations where defaulting to "follow" is more useful than "stay". that's not a use-case, that's a description of the functionality. But like I said before, your needs are valid and right now it feels like one of your needs is that the way you interface with the game remains stable. I can understand that, I respect it, and honestly this is one of the best places for a person with needs such as yours. I have an idea that might satisfy both of us, if you'd care to listen. Assuming that it's possible to change the default state of the summoned Mastermind pets, perhaps it would be possible to add 6 different summon powers - one each with a combination of default orders and stances. 3 for stances, aggressive defensive and passive, 2 for the different possible orders -> follow, and stay. This gives a total of 6 possibilities which could be given to a vendor (like the temporary powers!) or something and the user could decide if they wanted to utilize the new functionality. These are the 6 enumerated: aggressive follow aggressive stay defensive follow defensive stay passive follow passive stay It doesn't make sense to use the other orders. "goto" is the same as "stay" when first summoned, and "attack my target" would turn them into just another cooldown to press. Not ideal. How do you feel about this addition to the game? Nothing would change, so your behavior can remain unaltered, but new possibilities for playstyles will be opened up for other players who desire a bit more flexibility. I definitely did imagine the possibility that a new player might play the game, and in fact I show this game to everyone who will listen. I believe that the proposed functionality would be beneficial to them because it would allow them to play Mastermind more like a strategy game, which is the background that most of the players I bring have. "It's an MMO, but you play it like a tactics game" is the pitch I use, because everyone who's into superheroes are either into the commercial ones or they don't play video games, I find. Either that, or they've already played CoH. I also sometimes pitch it as "a game where you can beat up superheroes and nazis" and that goes over surprisingly well with some people My proposed functionality would make the Mastermind class feel more distinct from the others because it would reduce the friction between assigning units to roles. I believe that the suggestion I've posed in this post here to be an excellent middleground between the issues raised and the desired functionality. Unfortunately, I don't have a numberpad on my reduced-size keyboard. Alas! But fear not, for I've definitely made extensive use of the bind and macro system, and I appreciate it's flexibility. I do believe there are improvements that could be made specifically for Masterminds, such as the ability to direct our pets in the same way that /powexec_location works where you can define an angle and a distance and execute your powers in customized ways. But I don't know enough about the back-end architecture of the project to be able to say whether or not that type of thing would be implementable.

It seems to me that there are two groups of people in this thread. One that like the change, and one that don't. I always believe that true justice is when everyone gets what they want. Would it be a bother to make the patrol badges do both functions? For example, let's say that a patrol badge used to get you 1000 exp, and now it gets you 10,000 patrol exp. Would it not satisfy everyone if it was changed such that it provided 1000exp and 9000 patrol exp?

I made a video about how I play Mastermind characters, if you want to watch. I didn't rehearse or anything but it's still sort of a performance - like improv, if you will. I got into the groove about halfway through I think, but I'll leave that up to you to judge. Warning, it's kinda scary

could make the summon spell apply a buff on the summoner that expires precisely a certain amount of seconds after cast. When the effect takes action it would send the specified command to the pet in question. (the duration would be equal to the length of the animation that plays when they spawn in) Can you explain what kinds of functionality you'd be missing should this be implemented as originally suggested? I mean, when you summon units you want them on follow, yes? Well, if you summon them nearby as long as you don't fly off or something the effect should be similar. What's the use-case for preserving the current style? Hmmmm, I wonder if they could make an invisible "dummy" unit that would absorb the buff and apply it to the summoned unit after a short duration. That way you could upgrade as soon as possible after summoning your units and it'd still go through.

Well, when you summon a pet, you use a power. That power would work as the argument supplied to the /petcom_pow command. So... yes, you can apply commands to the pets you just summoned - just use the same type of pet as the summoning spell you just used. For example, as a Ninja mastermind I might use "Call Genin" to summon ninja pets. Then, when I use the petcom_pow command I'd say something like /petcom_pow genin stay I love macros, but I've tried to accomplish the behavior I suggested and it doesn't seem to be possible. Primarily for the reason you provide: "Now if you hit your Stay macro before all your pets are listed in the pet window? Then yes, the ones that weren't spawned yet will ignore it because they didn't exist at the time you gave the command." <----- this fact prevents the suggestion I made from working using a macro. Sad but true... (please correct me if I'm wrong I'd love to be wrong) these changes: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/28070-patch-notes-for-april-20th-2021-issue-27-page-2/ This is one of the single biggest changes to the class I've ever seen. It completely revamped Mastermind gameplay. The fact that they said they were investigating further improvements means they're open to suggestions. And I'd love it if my idea was considered ❤️

YES - someone gets it it's like... "Hey, we broke you out, and now we're throwing you in the trash. Figure it out. If you're worthy, you'll find us, and we can do great things together. Terrible things... but great." Currently, it's more like... "Greetings adventurer, I see you've completed the tutorial. Please proceed down this street to where the massive pile of spandex-clad do-gooders are loitering around doing nothing of value. Once you've finished with them, you'll find more things to do outside the starting town. Good luck! Don't forget to be evil!"

Unfortunately I'm pretty sure the macro system is insufficient for these purposes. When you use such a macro, all your existing pets will receive the "stay" command, while the newly summoned ones will ignore it. And if you swap the order such that you summon your pets and then tell them to stay, it won't apply to the new pets either because the "stay" command will be issued while they're "in transit" or rather "in the process of being summoned" end result is that macros don't seem to work. At least I can't figure out how to make it work : ( I believe I've pushed the macro system as far as I can, unfortunately. The functionality I suggested seems to be impossible to implement with the API we're given. I wonder, then, how you feel about the recent Mastermind rework? Where they changed the functionality of the summon spells, among other things? I would personally much prefer the option you suggest, to change the default behavior ourselves. Most customization in the most customizable game ever! I'd love that. But, I figured this option would be easier, and easier means more likely to be implemented. But your idea absolutely would fulfill my requirements as well : )

Yes, that's often what needs to happen. However there's a couple extra key-presses that feel... unnecessary. Why are they summonable at range, if not to direct them toward putting out a certain fire? And yes, you can summon them at your location and then use go-to, but that adds extra friction that feels unwieldy. They should be smart enough to know that they're needed *where* I call them, not just when. That makes sense to me.

In addition, currently a Mastermind pet on the "Follow" stance will move into melee range and attack enemies if summoned in combat. However, if you're trying to replace fallen warriors, you'd often prefer if they stick around after summoning them so that you could upgrade them. Currently they scatter as soon as summoned, which is not the behavior that would allow for upgrades, as they'll often leave the AoE of the upgrade spell. Though this might be more to do with the "aggressive/defensive/passive" stance, I'm not sure. I don't believe it's necessarily a good idea to spawn them in with "passive" as their default stance, so you'd have to do some testing to identify what feels right.