We are once again asking about Mastermind pet customization

[UltraAlt]

On 4/11/2024 at 8:22 AM, Chris24601 said:

Even if each minion uses a different costume slot (instead of say, 1 slot per tier), that still leaves four open slots for the PC; which is as many as you had on Live prior to the Halloween Event.

 

The extra 5 slots we get free now were only available on Live during the last year of operation and had to be bought for 800 Paragon Points each.

 

On 4/11/2024 at 8:22 AM, Chris24601 said:

If there is a work around for customizing pets without using your costume slots, great!

 

So maybe that is the solution.

Add 5 more costume slots that are for pet customization only. Just so they are balanced with the other two groups.

I'm assuming you would only really need 3 - one per tier - but I don't know how "Gang War" might fit into the mix.

 

Gah, now I'm thinking about "Call Hawk" having a dragon customization. Yeah, a small dragon, but still a dragon ... yeah, with clawing attacks and not breathing fire or whatnot.

[kelika2]

1 hour ago, Videra said:

The game has evolved far beyond SOs

You are correct, however when development and testing is done, it is done with SOs.

 

Yes, IOs are a thing, I know that, you know that, everyone knows that.

[ThatGuyCDude]

5 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

 

 

So maybe that is the solution.

Add 5 more costume slots that are for pet customization only. Just so they are balanced with the other two groups.

I'm assuming you would only really need 3 - one per tier - but I don't know how "Gang War" might fit into the mix.

 

Gah, now I'm thinking about "Call Hawk" having a dragon customization. Yeah, a small dragon, but still a dragon ... yeah, with clawing attacks and not breathing fire or whatnot.

Gang war summons a bunch of entities from what I gather is a custom enemy group.  It calls about 10 of them, but I don't think there's ten unique models for them (there's definitely more than two, though).
Three tier 1 henchmen slots, Two tier 2 henchmen slots, One tier 3 henchmen slot, and One control-set pet slot (though that could share a slot with tier 3 since there's no overlap, unless a future archetype pairs them up)... so there'd need to be six (maybe seven) 'hidden' costume slots at the end of the list that could be edited through a separate interface (to avoid confusion and bloat at the Tailor and in the costume menu).  Ten (or Eleven) if you throw in Patron Power pets.

Doesn't help with Beast Mastery, though (unless the human skeleton can animate Beast Mastery attacks, of which I'm uncertain), or with mix-and-matching vanilla and custom assets.

It makes sense that this has been such a back-burner feature, it's quite a pickle of complicated interactions.
[I still like my 'henchmen' enemy group idea, though.]

[UltraAlt]

37 minutes ago, ThatGuyCDude said:

so there'd need to be six (maybe seven) 'hidden' costume slots at the end of the list that could be edited through a separate interface (to avoid confusion and bloat at the Tailor and in the costume menu).  Ten (or Eleven) if you throw in Patron Power pets.

 

Yeah, that's probably getting to be too many.

 

38 minutes ago, ThatGuyCDude said:

Doesn't help with Beast Mastery, though (unless the human skeleton can animate Beast Mastery attacks, of which I'm uncertain), or with mix-and-matching vanilla and custom assets.

 

Or if there are other already existing animal forms to mix/sub in.

There are already a good number of them to choose from: Coyote, Panther, Liger, German Shepherd, Black Wolf, Shadow Hound, Spirit Panther, and Winter Wolf 

 

[biostem]

I wonder what it is that prevents that "other server" from simply pointing to a saved costume file instead of requiring an existing slot be used...

[kelika2]

On 7/29/2024 at 8:59 PM, biostem said:

I wonder what it is that prevents that "other server" from simply pointing to a saved costume file instead of requiring an existing slot be used...

probably a goto 10 line or something

but seriously who needs 10 costumes for ONE character?

 

Im talking about a character that is played regularly and cycles them all without ever once thinking "ok this might be a job at this point"

 

even 4 well used costume slots is a stretch in my mind

[biostem]

Just now, kelika2 said:

but seriously who needs 10 costumes for ONE character?

Well, nobody "needs" 10 costume slots, but being that customizing your appearance is such a big part of the game, I can understand why someone wouldn't want to have to give up costume slots for their minions.  Personally, if it's the *only way* to achieve henchman customization, then that's fine by me, but I can see why others may be against such an implementation...

[Rudra]

1 hour ago, kelika2 said:

probably a goto 10 line or something

but seriously who needs 10 costumes for ONE character?

 

Im talking about a character that is played regularly and cycles them all without ever once thinking "ok this might be a job at this point"

 

even 4 well used costume slots is a stretch in my mind

*I* use all 10 costume slots and I told you that even before you started ignoring me. So your argument failed even before you asked it today.

 

Edit: What could someone possibly use 10 costume slots for?

1- Hero appearance (for when hero alignments)

2- Villain appearance (for when villain alignments)

3- Formal attire

4- True Form (As appropriate)

5- Incarnate appearance

6- Winter Event/Snow missions/maps

7- Street Attire/Normal ID (As appropriate)

8- Starting character appearance

9- Hybrid Form (As Appropriate)

10- Halloween Event

11- Spring Event

12- Faction/SG appearance

13- Alternate Form(s) (for characters that have more than just a human disguise, true form, and hybrid form) (I have 1 character that has 4 such appearances)

           (This also includes rage transformations. Which some of my characters possess, not to be confused with rage transformations such as the Hulk uses.)

14- Just a change of pace appearance for when bored with previous looks (I have multiple such characters that cycle between appearances depending on how bored I am with the appearances I've been using recently)

15- Other appearances/looks a player may wish to use for RP, not to be confused with street attire. (This can include semi-formal attire, night out on the town attire, and more.)

 

How many costume slots would a character need? As many as the player has concepts and desired appearances for whatever may come up in the game. If someone just wants to make a character with just 1 appearance? More power to them. Some players need more costume slots because just running around in ye olde standard hero/villain costume for everything doesn't fit the character.

 

Edited July 31 by Rudra

[Triumphant]

And honestly (Really.  This is no hyperbole. I mean it.), some of us love making costumes and outfits so much that we could fill several dozens of costume slots if that many were available.  The costume creator (and also the ability to create customized bases) is the main draw of the game for some of us.  I know that is hard for some players to fathom, but it's true.

 

 

[kelika2]

12 hours ago, Triumphant said:

And honestly (Really.  This is no hyperbole. I mean it.), some of us love making costumes and outfits so much that we could fill several dozens of costume slots if that many were available.  The costume creator (and also the ability to create customized bases) is the main draw of the game for some of us.  I know that is hard for some players to fathom, but it's true.

yes but using them regularly is another thing when you can achieve the same dopamine chase from saving a costume

with that said you still have 4 costume slots to play with after your pets use the other 6

and you can take that even further by making another character of the exact same build using another 4 costume slots with your 1000 character slots

 

thats 4000 costumes you can do the same with and even more since accounts are free to make

[Rudra]

58 minutes ago, kelika2 said:

yes but using them regularly is another thing when you can achieve the same dopamine chase from saving a costume

with that said you still have 4 costume slots to play with after your pets use the other 6

and you can take that even further by making another character of the exact same build using another 4 costume slots with your 1000 character slots

 

thats 4000 costumes you can do the same with and even more since accounts are free to make

But you can't:

Use the same character name across all those characters made for the sole purpose of costume slots.

Change your costume except by either visiting the tailor or logging off and changing characters.

Continue progressing that character on the current content if you have to alt to change costumes. (Made worse if it is the mission prompting the costume change, like with

     Vanguard.)

 

If the just use save files and change at the tailor route is followed, then it will also require you:

Maintain a large amount of inf' on that character for the sake of using a preset costume, rather than use that inf' for other characters or to acquire other things.

Hope whatever team you are on is willing to wait for you to run over to a tailor and purchase your pre-saved costume without dumping you, getting another player, and pressing

     on.

Sort through your list of saved costumes to find the correct one for that character for whatever you are doing rather than just using the costume window or a macro to change.

 

If the multiple character slot route is followed, then it will also require you to:

Spend time waiting to log off and then back on just to change your costume, rather than just using the costume window or a macro and pressing on.

Hope whatever team you are on is willing to wait for you to change characters for the sake of changing costumes, rather than just dump you, grab another player, and press on.

Purchase all your character's build enhancements repeatedly for every character slot used for the sake of costume changing.

Re-acquire all the same badges you gathered because they are part of the character concept.

Level up that one character to the same point it is supposed to be (Full incarnate, level 50, perma-level 38, whatever) just to have those costumes that you would normally have

     with 10 costume slots.

 

Edited August 1 by Rudra
Edited to correct text alignment.

[Dilvish68]

On 7/27/2024 at 7:20 PM, arcane said:

You’re free to keep doing so

Very constructive !

 

translation of this topic : bla blah, blah, blah !

[Techhead]

If full customization is a no-go, I wonder if recolorable presets are an option. Each power can pick between a few models, eg. Mercenaries's Soldier power might have Standard, Camoflage, and Arachnos models and the two color widget affects the color of their uniform. Robots can have a Clockwork set, Ninjas can have recolorable clothing, etc.

 

It's not the full free-form but would at least allow more cohesion and color-coordination with your mastermind's own costume

[biostem]

34 minutes ago, Techhead said:

If full customization is a no-go, I wonder if recolorable presets are an option. Each power can pick between a few models, eg. Mercenaries's Soldier power might have Standard, Camoflage, and Arachnos models and the two color widget affects the color of their uniform. Robots can have a Clockwork set, Ninjas can have recolorable clothing, etc.

 

It's not the full free-form but would at least allow more cohesion and color-coordination with your mastermind's own costume

I'm no programmer, but from what little I do understand, the appearance is "baked-in" to each power and relevant upgrade - so you'd need some way of replacing the call to the relevant character model...

[srmalloy]

29 minutes ago, biostem said:

from what little I do understand, the appearance is "baked-in" to each power and relevant upgrade

With most of the MM henchmen, the upgrade powers do a model replacement along with granting the upgraded abilities, so yes; there's no place in the henchman definition structure for the fields that would be needed to make them colorable -- much less the UI functionality in the costume editor to define the colors.