Mastermind Pet customization

[drawdan]

So google has tutorial videos that describe a method to use to customize a Masterminds minions (thug, Soldier, etc). It describes the following steps. 

 

1.Create a secondary costume set at the Tailor with the desired look and make note of the costume slot number (the first slot to the left from the original outfit is slot1).

2. Right click on the minion and scroll down to rename.

3. type the desired minion name, immediately followed by ''' then PC (uppercase) then slot number. So if my first minion was named Bob and I wanted him to look like the costume set in slot 1, I would rename him            Bob'''PC1  

4. Dismiss the minion than recall him- if the command works, he is supposed to return with the new name and look like whatever you have in costume slot 1.

 

I have a mercenary MM (soldiers is the minion power) and I tried this method on Homecoming/Everlasting. It did not work. I assume this is old code or something. Has someone found another way to customize the Mastermind Minions?  My theme for this character is a version of the duplication power and it only works if I can make my minion soldiers look like the original (like Multiple Man). I will have to abandon the concept if minion costume customization is not possible on Homecoming. 

[Rudra]

That is for a different server. Thunderspy or some such I think. HC doesn't yet have pet customizations.

[drawdan]

WE NEED IT DEVS!!! PRETTY PLEASE!

[Rudra]

Nope. Not that way. I use all my costume slots on my characters. Not giving up slots for my pets. And the devs have already said they are not using that other server's method of pet customization, that they will find their own method.

[Cybersbe]

I've had some thoughts on this myself. 

 

I'm no expert on coding, but I've been wondering if it would be possible to implement it in Power Customization. 

 

I imagine being able to choose a few different (preset) appearances for your henchmen, and being able to change the color of their outfits. (Or in the case of demons and robots, just their color period.)

[Rudra]

That would probably be the simplest approach. And is basically what CO does. Though I keep hoping they will assign a costume slot to the MM pets so you can actually customize them.

 

Edit: And by assign a costume slot to the pets, I mean a costume slot each pet would have, and not one of the player's costume slots.

Edited July 18, 2022 by Rudra

[TalynDerre]

Decent MM pet customization is definitely my personal questing beast, but I've been told on a number of occasions that there are significant coding issues that make even color-coding your minions difficult, and that fully customizable minions may not ever be workable.  This makes me sad.

 

Honestly, I'd love even minor tweaking options - I'd really, really like to put some gas masks on the Mercs/Poison MM's minions.

[eldriyth]

On 7/17/2022 at 2:07 PM, Rudra said:

Nope. Not that way. I use all my costume slots on my characters. Not giving up slots for my pets. And the devs have already said they are not using that other server's method of pet customization, that they will find their own method.

Okay, what? Do you have it on your calendar or something? "Oh this day i'm going blue costume. And tomorrow is purple. No, maybe orange? No maybe I won't play that character and make a new one!" 🤪 Pet customization would be way cooler and worth a few slots. Just saying.

Edited July 20, 2022 by eldriyth

[Rudra]

Nope. When it is snowing or I'm in the winter chalet? I use my winter look. When doing a diplomatic mission or playing with friends doing a formal event? I use my formal attire look. When running around doing incarnate content? I use an incarnate look. When doing starter or other lowbie content? I use the original look. Otherwise, depending on my mood or what look I feel like using, I use one of the other looks. Satisfied?

 

As for pet customization? The devs have already said they will not use Thunderspy's method, that they will develop their own version.

[biostem]

We'd have to kind of filter things down a bit, first:  Those MM pets that use the regular human model should be the easiest to customize.  Those that do not could kind of be "skipped", at least initially.  So, zombies, mercs, ninja, & thugs can get this.  Robots have a bit more going on, as do demons and beasts, so those would probably have to be addressed separately.  That being said, the next issue is how the upgrade powers interact w/ those new models.  I suppose you could either create 3 different costumes for each tier of henchman, but then you'd have to consider sets like mercs or thugs, where the 3rd tier 1 is different.  And after saying all that, the simplest would probably be to say "F it!" and just have the custom costume override all that...

[Dynamo-Joe]

If I recall correctly, the minions that are summoned look like characters and do have collision meshes. But they are not in fact, proper entities. It's hard to describe. But the way I remember being told about it is that each pet is a bundle of powers rather than an actual summon like a Lore Pet. And the "Bundle" is tied to a specific look (or two looks for upgradable minions). 
So - unlike a Player character or even a Lore pet. It's extremely difficult on the programming end to disentangle the actual "character model" from the "bundle of powers" without breaking the whole thing badly and causing massive glitches. 

Or - in other words - Masterminds were an example of a "kludge" or work-around bit of code that did the job adequately enough to be stable for release back when City of Villains went live. But it's one of those "look at it wrong and it breaks" type of code. 

 

To make Mastermind pets truly customizable, you'd basically have to rebuild the entire AT from the ground up to work in a completely different fashion.  

[Cybersbe]

Feel like spitballing another idea I've had.

 

I've considered the idea that maybe a new vendor could be added to Tailors, exclusively for Masterminds, that allows henchmen customization. It would give players with a set of costume slots, similar to the ones normally used by player characters, but exclusively used by Mastermind henchmen. Players can then use the usual Tailor to go into power customization, and under the customization options for the henchmen, there would be options called "Henchmen Slot 1", "Henchmen Slot 2", and so on. 

 

Probably still wouldn't allow you to customize the non-humanoid henchmen, but perhaps someday we'll get new powersets that can fill their niches. (I've thought of a "Space Rangers" set to fill the sci-fi niche of Robotics, and a "Wizards" set that fills the magic niche of Demons.)

[Six-Six]

On 7/30/2022 at 8:56 PM, Dynamo-Joe said:

To make Mastermind pets truly customizable, you'd basically have to rebuild the entire AT from the ground up to work in a completely different fashion.  

This has saddened my otherwise gleeful day. =(
But, thanks for what came before it. It was very enlightening. Besides, there is still hope. There's always hope. 😃

 

[jkwak]

On 7/17/2022 at 9:28 PM, Rudra said:

That is for a different server. Thunderspy or some such I think. HC doesn't yet have pet customizations.

nope thunderspy has implemented it as part of the UI

[Rudra]

55 minutes ago, jkwak said:

nope thunderspy has implemented it as part of the UI

Uhm... what are you saying nope to? The post you are quoting says it is Thunderspy or some other server that has the pet customizations.

[Rudra]

On 7/30/2022 at 6:56 AM, Dynamo-Joe said:

If I recall correctly, the minions that are summoned look like characters and do have collision meshes. But they are not in fact, proper entities. It's hard to describe. But the way I remember being told about it is that each pet is a bundle of powers rather than an actual summon like a Lore Pet. And the "Bundle" is tied to a specific look (or two looks for upgradable minions). 
So - unlike a Player character or even a Lore pet. It's extremely difficult on the programming end to disentangle the actual "character model" from the "bundle of powers" without breaking the whole thing badly and causing massive glitches. 

Or - in other words - Masterminds were an example of a "kludge" or work-around bit of code that did the job adequately enough to be stable for release back when City of Villains went live. But it's one of those "look at it wrong and it breaks" type of code. 

 

To make Mastermind pets truly customizable, you'd basically have to rebuild the entire AT from the ground up to work in a completely different fashion.  

I've been wondering.... (Yeah, I know. Everyone run for the hills.) If Lore pets work differently than MM pets, how hard would it be to convert the MM pets to a Lore pet style approach? And if converted, would they still spawn the appropriate number of pets based on character level and would that make pet customizations more feasible?

[biostem]

1 hour ago, Rudra said:

I've been wondering.... (Yeah, I know. Everyone run for the hills.) If Lore pets work differently than MM pets, how hard would it be to convert the MM pets to a Lore pet style approach? And if converted, would they still spawn the appropriate number of pets based on character level and would that make pet customizations more feasible?

The lore pets don't gain abilities via specialized upgrade powers.  Each iteration/tier/branch of the Lores, IIRC, is a separate power in its own right.

[Rudra]

True, but when MMs were made, Lore pets weren't even a possibility. When Lore pets came out, the devs had learned a new way to summon pets. So I guess there are more questions to be asked: Can pets made as Lore pets be upgraded? Can the way Controller/Dominator pets, Mastermind pets, and Lore pets work lay the foundation for an up-gradable pet that could work for MMs without having to rebuild the AT? Can any of these approaches make customizable pets a possibility?

[biostem]

24 minutes ago, Rudra said:

True, but when MMs were made, Lore pets weren't even a possibility. When Lore pets came out, the devs had learned a new way to summon pets. So I guess there are more questions to be asked: Can pets made as Lore pets be upgraded? Can the way Controller/Dominator pets, Mastermind pets, and Lore pets work lay the foundation for an up-gradable pet that could work for MMs without having to rebuild the AT? Can any of these approaches make customizable pets a possibility?

Agreed on the 'raises more questions" part.  Controllers have had pets longer than MMs.  Is the differences the ability to control them, upgrade them, or both?  They could have coded MMs off as taking the upgrade grants you an auto power, which replaces the base pet with the T1 or T2 upgraded ones.  Is the issue the ability to control them?  I wonder how much of the issue stems from a time constraint issue, and "just getting it done" was more important that "getting it done well and in an easily modifiable/expandable way".