Mastermind Pets

[DougmachineDC]

I love playing Masterminds... you can customize almost every power in this game, except for the MM’s pets. Every pet looks the same for every player... there’s no way to change their appearance. If at least it were possible to adjust their colors, that would already be a big step in the right direction. And if there were also an option to tweak their looks a little... it wouldn’t have to be much, but just a few things... that would be really awesome.

[StrykerTyger]

I would like this as well. Maybe each MM set could have 3 different pet designs per tier, and each could be colored like other power sets? Really like this idea!

[CoeruleumBlue]

Yes, at least let us change the costumes on any of them that have a human body shape even if it's from a limited number of costume pieces like the first costume on VEATs so everyone can tell which pets you're using, and for beasts give us a few different animal models that already exist in-game and let us change the colors and maybe add some auras to their eyes and mouths or something if we'd like. I think that would be really easy to do. 

[lemming]

7 hours ago, CoeruleumBlue said:

I think that would be really easy to do. 

No, it isn't based on what the devs had said.   (I know one of the other CoX servers out there has it, but I don't know the specifics)

[Rudra]

45 minutes ago, lemming said:

No, it isn't based on what the devs had said.   (I know one of the other CoX servers out there has it, but I don't know the specifics)

I don't remember which server it is, but one of them made it possible to customize MM pets by using a character costume slot. So if you wanted to customize all six MM pets, you had to use six of your character's costume slots. Which would mean that players who have characters with multiple costume designs depending on what they are doing or their current mood would either have to give up costume slots, limiting their options for character design, or continue to not have customized pets. The HC devs said they were looking into their own method that was not from the other servers. However, as has been stated by other devs, it isn't an easy thing because of how MM pets are designed.

 

(Now, me? I'm greedy. Firstly, I am not willing to give up character costume slots for pet appearances because most of my characters have multiple different appearances based on what I am doing in the game. Like a winter look for the winter event, an incarnate look for incarnate content, a starter look for low level content including through Ouroboros, and more. And second, I want my MM pets to have appearances for each of my MM's different costumes. So my winter look MM would have winter look pets. My incarnate look MM would have incarnate look pets. And so on.)

 

Edited November 13 by Rudra
Edited to correct "and" to "an".

[Jacke]

1 hour ago, Rudra said:

I am not willing to give up character costume slots for pet appearances because most of my characters have multiple different appearances based on what I am doing in the game.

 

No idea on how difficult this would be in-game.  But since Illusion Controllers and Dominators can have their Phantom Army look like they do, that should be able to be done for Masterminds.....  (Now distracted by thinking about my very low Level Thugs Mastermind with clones of his rather cool costume....  😺)

 

 

[Lunar Ronin]

1 hour ago, Rudra said:

I don't remember which server it is, but one of them made it possible to customize MM pets by using a character costume slot. So if you wanted to customize all six MM pets, you had to use six of your character's costume slots. Which would mean that players who have characters with multiple costume designs depending on what they are doing or their current mood would either have to give up costume slots, limiting their options for character design, or continue to not have customized pets. The HC devs said they were looking into their own method that was not from the other servers. However, as has been stated by other devs, it isn't an easy thing because of how MM pets are designed.

 

(Now, me? I'm greedy. Firstly, I am not willing to give up character costume slots for pet appearances because most of my characters have multiple different appearances based on what I am doing in the game. Like a winter look for the winter event, an incarnate look for incarnate content, a starter look for low level content including through Ouroboros, and more. And second, I want my MM pets to have appearances for each of my MM's different costumes. So my winter look MM would have winter look pets. My incarnate look MM would have incarnate look pets. And so on.)

 

 

FWIW, that hasn't been the case for years.  That other server gave each henchman his/its own costume slot.  No more using the Mastermind's own costume slots.

[Rudra]

19 minutes ago, Lunar Ronin said:

 

FWIW, that hasn't been the case for years.  That other server gave each henchman his/its own costume slot.  No more using the Mastermind's own costume slots.

Thanks for the heads up, but I probably won't remember. I think I was told that before, and I forgot it. On the plus side, if that could be done here, by specific player chosen costume slot for the MM's appearance so the pets could have appearances appropriate for the theme, that would be spectacular.

 

31 minutes ago, Jacke said:

 

No idea on how difficult this would be in-game.  But since Illusion Controllers and Dominators can have their Phantom Army look like they do, that should be able to be done for Masterminds.....  (Now distracted by thinking about my very low Level Thugs Mastermind with clones of his rather cool costume....  😺)

 

 

I'm much less interested in clones of my character than pets with appropriate costumes for what my MM was doing. I'm fine if players get the ability to have their pets function like Phantom Army for visuals, but it isn't what I am hoping for. (And players can make their pets look like them by saving and loading their costumes without needing the added complication of the game trying to figure out if it is supposed to pull the current character costume in use or pull from the linked character costume but not use the character costume. ... and that probably makes no sense, but I currently don't know how else to phrase it.)

[lemming]

9 hours ago, Lunar Ronin said:

FWIW, that hasn't been the case for years.  That other server gave each henchman his/its own costume slot.  No more using the Mastermind's own costume slots.

That sounds much less janky.

Anyway, I don't think it's an easy thing to implement, but nice to know it's feasible.

[Scarlet Shocker]

I'd be happy with just two costume types per pet and an option to recolour them

[ElectricKnight]

It would, indeed, be glorious to have MM pet options of nearly any extent. 😁
As difficult of a task as it may be for the human and humanoid pets, I can only imagine the wolves, lions, and demons, and probably the robots, could be even more trouble - depending on how they approach it.

 

I'd *love* to see options (male lions, panthers, different coloured wolves for some of the Beast MMs, since those models exist in the game).

Keeping the dream alive!

[StrykerTyger]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way! Is there -any- chance this will happen? It seems like, due to the original coding for MM pets, it will be difficult to code, but why? Is there a chance MM pets could get recoded or redesigned? What is the barrier to customization, and would it be easier to update it and change the code, or to just rewrite it all from the ground up?

[srmalloy]

5 hours ago, StrykerTyger said:

What is the barrier to customization, and would it be easier to update it and change the code, or to just rewrite it all from the ground up?

Well, to start with, the fact that you have completely different rigging -- Thugs/Mercs/Ninja/Undead all follow the basic humanoid rigging for costuming, but Demons, Beasts, and Robots all have unique rigging that doesn't line up with the existing costume piece location points, so just giving all MM henchmen their own costume slot tied to the existing costume creator completely shafts Demon Summoning, Beast Summoning, and Robotics, because it wouldn't work with them. So you'd need to have four separate customization interfaces, with separate sets of customization options -- Necromancy pets should still be visibly undead, regardless of their customization, for example. And you would potentially need three versions of the customizations for each henchman type so that the upgrade status of a henchman is visible. Then all of the art for the customization would have to be completed, and tested against all of the animations to ensure that they remain consistent -- the fully-upgraded Assault Bot has a missile launcher that extends up from its back to fire; if you customize it to no longer have this rocket pack, what new animation is required to replace it, and will it be different for different customization choices? 

 

[ThatGuyCDude]

Much like the Kheldian attacks have standard animations that are superceded by special models, I suspect that henchman special animations have a generic variant that the standard body models can use.  To that end, setting up customizable minions would be best handled by building on the foundation of the AE Custom Group editor: it already has functionality to randomly select actors from a list, including both custom and prefabricated entities.

Make a "Mastermind Manager" NPC in the tailors who opens a similar menu to the AE one pictured here: players are free to populate their three minion categories with any combination of prefabricated or custom costumes (provided they do not exceed their allotted minion costume storage on their account, a value similar to the AE content size limiter).  When a minion is spawned in the corresponding category, they pick a model from their list to use (with a checkbox to toggle between numbered or random, so that Minion 1 can always use your "Jimmy the Squealer" costume if you want).  Players could assign different 'henchman' groups to their various costume slots through tabs in this menu, though if a costume change would occur then henchmen spawned would retain their model until resummoned.

A lot of work, yes, but a better approach than costume slots as it allows a mix of custom and pre-fabricated models to be utilized by the same henchman category.

[CoeruleumBlue]

On 11/26/2025 at 12:09 AM, ThatGuyCDude said:

Much like the Kheldian attacks have standard animations that are superceded by special models, I suspect that henchman special animations have a generic variant that the standard body models can use.  To that end, setting up customizable minions would be best handled by building on the foundation of the AE Custom Group editor: it already has functionality to randomly select actors from a list, including both custom and prefabricated entities.

Make a "Mastermind Manager" NPC in the tailors who opens a similar menu to the AE one pictured here: players are free to populate their three minion categories with any combination of prefabricated or custom costumes (provided they do not exceed their allotted minion costume storage on their account, a value similar to the AE content size limiter).  When a minion is spawned in the corresponding category, they pick a model from their list to use (with a checkbox to toggle between numbered or random, so that Minion 1 can always use your "Jimmy the Squealer" costume if you want).  Players could assign different 'henchman' groups to their various costume slots through tabs in this menu, though if a costume change would occur then henchmen spawned would retain their model until resummoned.

A lot of work, yes, but a better approach than costume slots as it allows a mix of custom and pre-fabricated models to be utilized by the same henchman category.

 

I think one of the problems with this is people would just make their pets look totally wacko so no one can identify what they are. That's why I think costume slots are a much better idea personally, because they can do what they did with the VEATs and limit what you can pick.

 

I would also like pet customization options for controllers while we're at it, even though they need them less than Masterminds since they don't have two entire sets that are just "generic white guys." At least the Umbra Beast is probably based on historical depictions of ball lightning as being some kind of hellhound that got turned into all the more specific hellhounds or Hounds of Tindalos or whatever, as much as I'd like to be able to make it into other things just like I'd like to be able to make my Beast Mastery Masterminds all birds, all dinosaurs, all sea creatures, all cats, all dogs, all farm animals, all primates, all rodents, or whatever and I'm sure they already have models in the game that the animations could be applied to without breaking anything.

 

The main ones that need to be changeable are probably just the Thugs and Mercenaries that are just "generic white guys" but they need to make them changeable while still making it obvious what they are, and while they do that they should probably add options for all the other primaries with multiple pets for Masterminds and Controllers. I think primaries with multiple pets is the distinguishing factor, I don't think we need alternate pets for every set that has a pet in it, what's the alternate for the Singularity in Gravity Control or the Barrier Reef in Marine Affinity going to be?

 

If they just felt like making alternate Dark Servants that looked like the Spectres from Undead Masterminds or one with horns and one with a big brimmed hat or something that'd probably be cool, but they don't need full customization for that either any more than they do for Beast Mastery. Just some different animal models, color options, and maybe some auras in case you want all your animals to look like they are being controlled by a magic spell, nanobots, or telepathy powers. 

[Timuzu]

Well you can see they are chipping away at something, as many times as this topic arises I remember someone saying that masterminds and thier pets are like tied together in a coding sense, so it can be a delicate matter like building a huge house of cards and changing something can topple the whole thing and make a mess I guessing that happens if you dont know what your doing, but over the years they been taking thier time with masterminds so I you can see they are looking at it the best they can, and making progress as they go. Im rooting for them, I been on a long break so I didn't expect to come back to another page being release this year, that was like and early christmas gift. But I fully support this as a mastermind lover, my first 50 back on live was a Bot/Bubble I was 16 years old, no game I have played since that uses any type of pet system has given me the same satisfaction.