Mastermind Pet Customization re: Illusion Control decoys

[Thrythlind]

Relatively recently, the Illusion Control power of Decoys was altered to allow the decoys to appear as the character's costume.

 

And I was wondering how difficult to have the summons for some Mastermind sets to be tied to specific costume slots for the Mastermind.

 

I know this would mean that Masterminds that go for that would essentially have 3 fewer costume slots, But it does feel like something I'd be willing to do. (Heck, I'd be willing to sacrifice six slots out of 10 to give each minion a unique look) Maybe as an option in Power Customization for the power.

[Thrythlind]

As a note "how hard would it be" is not sarcastic. I'm seriously uncertain.

 

Also, the one set this wouldn't be a decent (assuming technically possible) solution for is Beasts mastermind since you couldn't do most animals with the humanoid limits would prevent the creation of most animals.... though you could do were-critters, TMNT style mutants, or anime-style kemonomimi.

Edited July 3, 2021 by Thrythlind
wording change

[Thrythlind]

Thinking about this, the easiest to do this for would be Thugs, Mercenaries, Necromancy, and Ninjas because they use the humanoid skeleton already so animations wouldn't need to be changed.

 

Though I'd also like to see this sort of thing for every MM set.

[GraspingVileTerror]

It's a popular suggestion.

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/18930-custom-pet-costumes/

 

I've been very vocal about it for a long, long time.  There are some technical hurdles in the way, but competing servers out there have demonstrated that it's possible, if a bit kludgey to pull off.  There has also been heated debates about the social impact of offers that level of customization, but whether that debate has been resolved internally with the Devs or not (or even if any of them ever debated it to begin with) is unknown to the best of my research.

My personal solution to that particular issue is to offer greater options to players so they may choose whether or not they want to ignore other players' custom Henchpet appearances.  I know it's theoretically possible, but it's unclear if it would be too complicated to code.

[Thrythlind]

I've also been vocal about it since I came to Homecoming, I believe. And to be honest this is much more customization than I'd be satisfied with two or three alternate set pieces including male/female options.

[GraspingVileTerror]

Ah!  Yes.  I see your replies in at least one of those other threads.

 

But . . . yeah.   This remains one of those topics which, as far as I can tell, there has been no official Dev word on yet.

 

Not to be a bother, @Naomi, but from your perspective in the art department, was there anything either official or personal you would like to add?

[Thrythlind]

Yeah, this option I thought of is basically putting a lot of the design work on the individual players and I'm uncertain of the tech levels involved. I imagine it would create some really damn ugly things.  I'd actually prefer, as I said 2 to 3 alternate sets...

Like female options of the base Mercs, Ninjas, Thugs, and Necromancy. 

More humanistic demons. Alternate monstrous demons. Alternate Robots.

Less rotting undead and more spectral or maybe grey unrotting bodies.
Male and Female Jock/Athlete variations for the Thugs.  Or maybe common folk for a "roused the neighborhood" type vibe.

 

Alternate animal sets.

 

Maybe spy themed variants for ninja.

But full pre-built sets is art intensive.

[Naomi]

I'm not really up on power specific tech or design, but my guess is in either case, whether it was easy or not, it wouldn't be a top contender for pet customization. Primarily because part of the theme of a decoy, is that it looks just like the caster. The other reason OP pointed out, is that Masterminds would feel compelled to "reserve" their character's costume slots in favor of customizing their decoys to be unique if the tech pulled from slots rather than the currently active costume.

 

Pet Customization for Masterminds is (and has been) so widely supported I would be surprised if it never happened.

 

 

[Thrythlind]

Understandable.... but I'd still like to see female possibilities for the humanoid sets.