Enhancing New Phantom Army Customization

[Goblin Queen]

The new customization options for Phantom Army are *amazing* and have gotten me to play my original concept for my toon at launch - Goblin Queen, as an Illusion controller (granted, I'm doing Darkness as a secondary, so that's new). The tights guys always bugged me on my concepts for immersion.

 

I'd love it, if one day, we can progress this feature further and assign ONE Costume Slot at the power customization level for Phantom Army. Currently, I can do a lot of steps to make a little goblin posse for my Goblin Queen but I have to make a male goblin critter costume - change to that costume first, then use the Phantom Army ability, then change back to one of my Goblin Queen costumes. The end result is great but it'd be ideal if this could by streamlined by assigning a Costume Slots instead.

 

Of course this functionality would be great with certain other pets - like Thugs for example for Masterminds but I'd be super happy with this anywhere we could get it. 🙂

 

 

Edited January 24, 2020 by Goblin Queen

[boggo2300]

maybe the easiest way is to have it pick a set costume slot like 6 or something, so you don't need to swap slots and you get the right customisation on the PA?

[VileTerror]

That method was also brandished around back when Henchpet Customization was first discussed in this forum; and I like it!  And as I understand it, there's already work that has been done for this on OuroDev and on other servers.  I haven't seen an update in a while, but the progress I saw back before December looked like they were just around the corner over there.

 

 

Also?   You remind me of the babe.

[Goblin Queen]

11 hours ago, boggo2300 said:

maybe the easiest way is to have it pick a set costume slot like 6 or something, so you don't need to swap slots and you get the right customisation on the PA?

 

10 hours ago, VileTerror said:

That method was also brandished around back when Henchpet Customization was first discussed in this forum; and I like it!  And as I understand it, there's already work that has been done for this on OuroDev and on other servers.  I haven't seen an update in a while, but the progress I saw back before December looked like they were just around the corner over there.

 

 

Also?   You remind me of the babe.

 

Yeah - either just a pre-determined slot that's hard coded into the Customization selection or if we're thinking pie in the sky then, I think selecting a Costume Slot 1-10 in the Customization menu for Phantom Army be best. If you point to a Costume Slot that has no data stored (you haven't earned it yet) then it defaults to your primary slot as it probably does now. Something like that would be ideal.

 

Also, I'd do the Magic Dance every time I played my Goblin Queen if I had proper goblin minions. 😉

 

Here's a better image.

Edited January 12, 2020 by Goblin Queen

[Zepp]

I think slot 1 would be the simplest solution.

That being said, maybe try:
/macro Gob "cc 10$$powexec_name phantom army$$cce 1 CCEvilLaugh$$e drumdance"

 

Goblin costume in slot 10, personal costume in slot 1, double check the power name before use, added a couple of flourishes.

 

Edited January 13, 2020 by Zepp

[VileTerror]

Remember that for the purposes of commands, the slots are 0 to 9, and that there is a 15 second lock-out time period between changes.

[Goblin Queen]

1 dedicated costume slot would be simplest for sure. I'd imagine it'd look like this for the Power Customization:

 

• Original
• Bright
• Dark
• Mirror
• Mirror Custom
• Phantom Mirror
• Phantom Mirror Custom

The Custom options would point to Costume Slot # (whichever deemed by the Devs)

I'd gladly "lose" a costume slot in this situation that was only dedicated to my Decoys and not something my character would wear around (in this specific example).

[Zepp]

1 hour ago, VileTerror said:

Remember that for the purposes of commands, the slots are 0 to 9, and that there is a 15 second lock-out time period between changes.

I forgot about the 15s lockout... I need to up my macro game...

[boggo2300]

6 hours ago, Zepp said:

I forgot about the 15s lockout... I need to up my macro game...

BAD ZEPP!  15s on the naughty step for you!

[boggo2300]

7 hours ago, Goblin Queen said:

1 dedicated costume slot would be simplest for sure. I'd imagine it'd look like this for the Power Customization:

 

• Original
• Bright
• Dark
• Mirror
• Mirror Custom
• Phantom Mirror
• Phantom Mirror Custom

The Custom options would point to Costume Slot # (whichever deemed by the Devs)

I'd gladly "lose" a costume slot in this situation that was only dedicated to my Decoys and not something my character would wear around (in this specific example).

I hope thats easily done, it would bring the PA upgrade from a 10 to a 13.5 outta 10

[Bossk_Hogg]

REALLY hoping this leads to us being able to set costumes for mercs and thugs. I want thematically costumed goons! 

[Goblin Queen]

5 hours ago, Bossk_Hogg said:

REALLY hoping this leads to us being able to set costumes for mercs and thugs. I want thematically costumed goons! 

I think if this happens then it's definitely a step in that direction. I'd be thrilled with this but if it lead to further customization - win, win, win.

[biostem]

On 1/12/2020 at 12:16 AM, Goblin Queen said:

I'd love it, if one day, we can progress this feature further and assign ONE Costume Slot at the power customization level for Phantom Army. Currently, I can do a lot of steps to make a little goblin posse for my Goblin Queen but I have to make a male goblin critter costume - change to that costume first, then use the Phantom Army ability, then change back to one of my Goblin Queen costumes. The end result is great but it'd be ideal if this could by streamlined by assigning a Costume Slots instead.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but how do you change to a male costume on a female character?  Could you pull off a Ranma 1/2 character using that method?

[Goblin Queen]

12 minutes ago, biostem said:

Maybe I'm missing something here, but how do you change to a male costume on a female character?  Could you pull off a Ranma 1/2 character using that method?

Some of the Icon NPCs can do body type changes (male, female, large). The one in Pocket D is the one I go to for that stuff. It's pretty handy for stuff like this or say, changing from a normal sized guy into a large werewolf or some such. 🙂

[biostem]

2 minutes ago, Goblin Queen said:

Some of the Icon NPCs can do body type changes (male, female, large). The one in Pocket D is the one I go to for that stuff. It's pretty handy for stuff like this or say, changing from a normal sized guy into a large werewolf or some such.

Ooh!  I did not know that.  Thanks!

[Replacement]

I would only be in favor of this if it were an option to assign a costume slot.  I like the idea of the duplicates in power customization saying, for example, "Mirror Slot 1" and "Phantom Mirror Slot 1" in addition to the ones currently there on Beta.

 

And yeah, i have a feeling/hope this will lead to a similar rollout to other pets and minions.  

[Goblin Queen]

8 hours ago, Replacement said:

I would only be in favor of this if it were an option to assign a costume slot.  I like the idea of the duplicates in power customization saying, for example, "Mirror Slot 1" and "Phantom Mirror Slot 1" in addition to the ones currently there on Beta.

 

And yeah, i have a feeling/hope this will lead to a similar rollout to other pets and minions.  

 

Yep! That's what I had suggested a couple posts up. 

 

On 1/13/2020 at 7:51 AM, Goblin Queen said:

1 dedicated costume slot would be simplest for sure. I'd imagine it'd look like this for the Power Customization:

 

• Original
• Bright
• Dark
• Mirror
• Mirror Custom
• Phantom Mirror
• Phantom Mirror Custom

The Custom options would point to Costume Slot # (whichever deemed by the Devs)

I'd gladly "lose" a costume slot in this situation that was only dedicated to my Decoys and not something my character would wear around (in this specific example).

 

So the original, bright, dark and what you see on Beta now would still be intact + a Custom/Slot for Mirror and Phantom Mirror. 🙂

 

If this gets squared away then I totally agree, has great future implications for other pets.

[Replacement]

Sorry, that was supposed to be me saying I liked your proposal @Goblin Queen, and just briefly clarifying on it to make sure it was what I thought it was saying. Like Delivered to show I mean business. 🙂

 

The big thing is, I wouldn't want to see functionality removed from the current build. I tend to like costumes for my characters' assorted eras (like early career, post-rikti capture, undercover redside, etc) and I would hate to lose the ability to match my clones to them all.

 

--

 

Also, I wish we could change out our 15 second costume lock for "3 changes per minute" or something. So we could spike a wee bit of stress with 2 rapid changes, but have to "cool off" longer.

Edited January 15, 2020 by Replacement

[Goblin Queen]

Agreed on all counts @Replacement! I do wish we'd have a quicker cooldown for changing costumes in general but it would greatly help something like this as well (if we didn't get the Custom slot option).

[Ry]

So excited for this coming out, and what it could mean for Masterminds. Heres hoping! 🙂

[Goblin Queen]

Now that PA Customization is out, something I've noticed is that if you do the "creative", i.e. janky, way of making different costume minions by switching to a new costume while the PA is out - they will change to your currently active costume if you zone.

 

Not a huge deal but just a heads up. If we got something like what's proposed in this thread, I would imagine the above wouldn't be an issue (hopefully!).

[biostem]

I so wish we could get this option ported over to all humanoid summons.  Since MM ones are more complex, perhaps start with the phatasm, then dark servant.  Jack frost and the earth pet are basically ice and stone armors without the person, IIRC, so maybe they could be included as well.  I'm not sure if the same could be done for the fire imps, nightmares or gremlins, though...