gabrilend

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.

Yes, that is true! They have a self-heal now, which is interesting. The suggested buff is mostly concerned with their longevity, and the specific use-case I encountered was that they were consistently running out of endurance. There aren't very many ways to give them more endurance, but this suggestion would open up that functionality should the player decide it is important to them.

I believe it would give the player more options, and while yes as you say that would imply that there's more rope to hang yourself with, I also believe that it might open up additional playstyles that would rely on having pets that are permanently active at maximum efficiency.

Currently, if a Mastermind summons a pet, it spawns in where they targeted and then immediately runs directly at the Mastermind. I believe this defeats the purpose of having a targeting reticle, if they're going to ignore their placement and wander straight to their master. Potentially bringing enemies with them! A big part of the fantasy of a Mastermind is the ability to direct specific pets toward specific goals. I believe that if their default behavior was changed to "stay" instead of "follow", not only would it encourage new Masterminds to learn how to use the commands ("why aren't my pets following me") but also it would allow you to summon a pet at a specific location so they could defeat a specific foe. I also believe that a buff to the range of the summon powers would help as well, as it would allow you to stay safe, far away from combat, while still engaging your foes. This would increase the distance that Masterminds could play from, moving their playstyle to a more strategic level. However, with greater distance brings greater vulnerability, as your minions will have a greater distance to travel should you need assistance... Originally, Masterminds were oriented around having more "permanent" pets that you were rewarded for keeping alive. Currently on Homecoming, the opposite is true - your pets are designed to be a resource to expend to accomplish an objective. I like the second design better. I believe the second design could be more easily realized with these two suggested buffs: Change the default stance for Mastermind pets from "Follow" to "Stay" and Increase the range of the summon spells for Mastermind pets because it would allow the Mastermind to operate at a greater distance and with more control over the actions of their pets.

It would be nice if the Mastermind pets could be "tweaked" and "improved" a bit beyond just attack, damage, and the effects of their special abilities. Of note is that there's no real defensive upgrades you can do! However, I have an idea. If you add the inherent fitness powers to them and nerf their base stats such that they wind up with no net positive or negative, we'd be able to use end modification and healing boosting buffs to power them up a bit. The use-case is that it would reduce downtime for Masterminds, as you could tune your spec to keep your pets operational for longer durations, at the cost of damage, accuracy, or whatever other enhancements you currently use instead of the end modification / healing ones suggested. Currently, I find myself re-summoning my ninjas almost every fight, which is... a little annoying. However, with the recent changes to the cooldown time of the summon pet spells, it's not as big of a headache as it used to be.

this is all I want ❤️❤️❤️

Hi, since you're improving the new player experience, can I humbly request that the old Mercy Island be added back into the game somehow? It has a much, much better learning experience for new players. I know most people tend to disappear into missions or farms or whatever, but the kind of people I hang out with spend most of the time in the world. The design of the overworld map is absolutely lovely and top tier, and yet Mercy Island sticks out as a poor example of the failed updates to the design that NCSoft applied in their waning years as masters of this game. I'd much, much rather prefer to show people the old Mercy Island. It has a much better flow and dynamic, and I can explain why if asked. In addition, the incursion of Longbow into the area felt like City of Heroes intruding upon the space of City of Villains. I like City of Villains much more, and Mercy Island feels occupied in my mind by a foreign power. I hate that they're there, it breaks the illusion of the Rogue Isles being sovereign states outside of the reach of the "civilized" world. Please hear my plea! I'll make it again once every year or two. But please, it's all I want from this game anymore. ... well I'd also like if my ninja's didn't crouch all the time after being upgraded. It's gotta hurt their knees! Plus, I'm just standing around hanging out, why are they ready for combat? ... anyway thank you for all the work you have done, please reply if you want to converse.

I liked it better that way. : )

If it was open source, then we could hold our own leashes.

How many years before we're reading a forum post announcing that: "it is with great sorrow that we announce Homecoming is shutting down, because NCSoft is a company who has control over their assets (that we've relinquished control of and never made open source) and so therefore we are sadly going to have to take City of Heroes offline once again" maybe I'm just traumatized but... Somehow this announcement fills me with dread. What, exactly, do we gain from this? We had our server. We had the game. Now... they have the game, and once again they are leasing it to us. It feels like suddenly, a collar has been placed around our necks, and we are once again at the behest of those who had hurt us.

My main is ninja / dark miasma, and I can say it works very well. The ninjas are glass cannons, yes, but dark miasma has a TON of -to-hit debuffs. Yes, they die in ~2-3 hits, but they hardly ever get hit anyway. I usually have to re-summon one every ~3-5 fights but that's not bad. I highly recommend it, also shadow ninjas are just cool.

I think that'd be pretty neat

Yeah I'd be fine with any of those options, they all sound like they accomplish what I'm yearning for. Dear devs, hear my plea - implement one of these and you will have my eternal gratitude ❤️

That's why Shakespeare invented "they" my guy EDIT: Also I have a female avatar ? ? ? Yeah okay but what if I don't like that storyline? What if I thought it was perfectly fine the way it was before, at the launch of CoV? What if I think the newly updated patch is poorly designed and completely ignores what made Mercy Island a great zone to begin with? I don't like having the same story every time, that's why I don't do the contact missions. But now it feels like I'm just a pawn in Arachnos's game instead of a free agent who is *incentivized* to work with Arachnos, but ultimately am insignificant enough to be able to go my own way. Now it feels like I'm thrust onto the frontlines of a war, when before it was an uneasy stalemate. Idk I just miss the old Mercy Island because I believe it was well designed. The new one tries to set up this "Arachnos vs Longbow" fight that feels a little too much like "Horde vs Alliance" for my tastes. TAKE ME BACK TO THE PAST PLS