Dismiss Pseudo Pets

[kwsapphire]

Can /petcomall dismiss please also affect pseudo pets like Lightning Storm?

 

I assume it would work that way if it could, and it doesn't because it can't ... but I wanted to ask.

 

Thank you either way. 🙂

[Zeraphia]

This is a complex topic but genuinely merits discussion more than this thread is being given. There would of course be ramifications and I'm uncertain how hard this would be to implement, but for things like iTrials, turning off psuedopets like LS would be helpful for not messing up badges.

[TheZag]

It makes sense that a character with the power to summon a lightning cloud would have the power to stop summoning it as well.  But not for a power like oil slick that got lit on fire,  just gotta let that one burn out.

[Luminara]

54 minutes ago, Zeraphia said:

I'm uncertain how hard this would be to implement

A broad implementation would affect all pseudo-pets, and pseudo-pets are the functionality behind far more powers than people realize.  The game is packed with pseudo-pets.  Powers.  Graphical effects.  Ambush lures.  Sound sources.  They are, quite literally, everywhere.  So the implementation would have to be done on a case by case basis to prevent, for example, a Grav/TA typing /petcomall dismiss and suddenly cancelling not just Singularity, but also Oil Slick, Glue, EMP, Disruption, PGA and any pool/*PP powers which he/she has taken, like Enflame, as well as special pseudo-pets, such as Overpowering Presence's Energy Font pseudo-pet, and some of the graphics and audio effects, and various others which happened to be out at the moment.  Theoretically, it might also dismiss mission-assigned Hero/Villain pets, NPC hostages and escorts and other things critical to mission completion.

 

So before this could even be started, a precise list of pseudo-pets to be included and excluded would have to be compiled.  An inclusionary list will be significantly smaller than an exclusionary list, but the exclusionary list would also be necessary because if the functionality could be limited to the inclusionary list, the likelihood of bugs and unexpectedly dismissable pseudo-pets popping up would be extremely high.  A worst case scenario would be something in a mission being despawned and either granting the player a ridiculously easy victory or crashing the client, or causing something just plain weird to happen, like a different pseudo-pet or a contact spawning in its place.

 

Even if it were as simple as assigning a single flag to each pseudo-pet which everyone agreed should be affected, it's still going to be a lot of powers affected.  Some of the pseudo-pet powers have multiple versions in existence (one for defenders, one for controllers/corruptors, one for *PPs, one for critters, etc.).  There would certainly be a sizeable number missed in the first few passes, as well as the potential for exploitable bugs (imagine being able to neuter Cabal bosses simply by typing /petcomall dismiss and shutting off their Lightning Storms, or the Caltrops dropped by Knives of Artemis, because that pet wasn't on the exclusion list, or the critter was using one of the player versions and for some reason, it responded to the command).

 

I'd expect the "easy" implementation to take at least a few weeks, and the "hard" implementation to take several months, potentially more than a year.

[kwsapphire]

15 hours ago, Luminara said:

The game is packed with pseudo-pets.  Powers.  Graphical effects.  Ambush lures.  Sound sources.  They are, quite literally, everywhere.  So the implementation would have to be done on a case by case basis to prevent, for example, a Grav/TA typing /petcomall dismiss and suddenly cancelling not just Singularity, but also Oil Slick, Glue, EMP, Disruption, PGA and any pool/*PP powers which he/she has taken, like Enflame, as well as special pseudo-pets, such as Overpowering Presence's Energy Font pseudo-pet, and some of the graphics and audio effects, and various others which happened to be out at the moment.  Theoretically, it might also dismiss mission-assigned Hero/Villain pets, NPC hostages and escorts and other things critical to mission completion.

 

 

Petcomall dismiss should only work for pseudo pets summoned by that specific player. Are you saying that the graphical effects, ambush lures, and sound effects are summoned by the player? If so, I can see how that would prevent this from ever being viable.

 

I WOULD, however, expect a Grav/TA typing Petcomall dismiss to dismiss their Glue/Disruption/PGA/etc. pets. That's what I'm talking about. A Storm Summoning or Trick Arrow player who gets yoinked out of the TPN buildings is suddenly a very real threat to the civilians. I'd love to be able to dismiss literally everything. That's exactly what I'm asking for. 🙂

[Luminara]

3 minutes ago, kwsapphire said:

Petcomall dismiss should only work for pseudo pets summoned by that specific player. Are you saying that the graphical effects, ambush lures, and sound effects are summoned by the player? If so, I can see how that would prevent this from ever being viable.

 

Some environmental graphical and audio effects are applied to players by granting them a power which is, in essence, a pseudo-pet.  This is a work-around which exists because the ability to apply global effects without an "owner" wasn't coded into the engine.  Everything has to have a source, and in many cases, the source is a pseudo-pet assigned to the player.

 

There are interdependencies buried in the way things function.  This is what people mean when they talk about "spaghetti code".  Changing one thing can inadvertently lead to something else changing.  Making one thing subject to player control could, potentially, make other things function in a similar manner.  So although it should be theoretically possible to flag all "owned" pseudo-pets as being player-controlled for the purpose of despawning, it's possible that that flag would unintentionally transfer to other "unowned" pseudo-pets, or pseudo-pets created for "mission owner".

 

I'm sure one of the HC team would love to find out how this would work, or if it would work at all, if only for geeky interest, so make a note to yourself to ping one of them after the holidays.

[kwsapphire]

18 minutes ago, Luminara said:

 

Some environmental graphical and audio effects are applied to players by granting them a power which is, in essence, a pseudo-pet.  This is a work-around which exists because the ability to apply global effects without an "owner" wasn't coded into the engine.  Everything has to have a source, and in many cases, the source is a pseudo-pet assigned to the player.

 

 

Well poop. That likely puts the kibosh on my request then. Though given the implementation of "negative knockback" there's a glimmer of hope that a huge labor of love could make it happen. 😄 Thank you for sharing your insight! ^_^

[kwsapphire]

I guess another possible solution would be "don't teleport immobile pseudo pets with the player" so all the non-NPC pseudo pets would stay in the building. That probably breaks a million other things tho. 😄