Pets inability to travel between maps
By
Abra_Kadaver_EU,
Posted on: 2006-03-01 01:56 in Masterminds
I share your pain, and it seems to me to make no sense at all. I can live with pets inability to travel between zones, no biggie IMO, as they're usually covered by security drones - it's their inability to use mission doors that seems totally unfair to me. AFAIK no other AT is automatically rendered almost totally helpless simply by using a mission door. You can be in REALLY deep doo-doo if an enemy happens to be standing just inside (or outside) when you arrive... alone and minion-less. 
...and don't even get me started on teams who suddenly decide to 'all out and reset the mission' just as you finish summoning and buffing all your pets. 
Although, now I think about it... lately I HAVE noticed a semi-regular 'bug' where my other AT's have had all their toggles mysteriously dropped when they exit a mission... not always, and only ever on exiting a mission (door or exit button) but still, often enough for it to have been a problem on more than a few occasions. Particularly nasty for my stalker - you certainly do NOT want to exit a mission in a rough (masses of purple mobs) part of town brazenly un-hidden.
Hmmm... just a bug? ...or maybe WAI in an attempt to nerf everyone equally? 
Yes I've noticed that sometimes my all my toggles drop when exiting a mission, really strange.
Oh and has anyone else noticed that if they play as a MM in a large team, say 4+ people, then when their bots attack a few npcs will come straight for you even though you haven't directly attacked them ? This seems to happen to me on a regular occasion, and unsurprisingly 4 orange minions and a red lieut. really dont take long to squash a mm Is this just me ? am I somehow causing aggro to the npcs by buffing my own pets or do they just think I'm ugly ? 
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Pets. They can be teleported, fly, use lifts and respawn next to you when you hit a certain distance. So why on earth can they not use doors to enter a mission ? Same when entering a different zone, this is possibly the most annoying 'feature' about pets and is giving me serious doubts about whether or not I want to continue using my Mastermind.
Why ? Why ? Why ? Why ? ARGH
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It's a limitation of the game engine - related to server usage and location of entities I believe (a zone is one server, an instanced mission is another - and there is no provision for copying spawned pets from one server to another).
Apparently it wouldn't be fixable without an inordinate amount of code rewrite. Which is programming time better spent elsewhere.
I find no problems with resummoning and buffing, as it acts as a limiting factor for my unstoppable killing power otherwise 
What I find annoying is when you enter a mission, summon all your minions without having moved away from the door, go to click on one to upgrade it, and then the game decides you actually clicked on the door and sends you back out the mission. Cue returning back into the mission sans pets AND having to wait for the summon powers to recharge!
I usually click on my pets in the pet window rather than in the world when buffing them. makes it easier to keep track of whos been done.
I really should do something about this signature.
It's both a technical difficulty, and a balancing factor, and IMO it's fine as it is.
IMO not being able to do a mission because the npcs stalking the entrance can kill you quicker than you can summon adequate pets to defend yourself, is not balancing.
My MM has SS and the PBAOE stealth from the dark set (I forget the name) so doesnt matter to me if npcs about
**Acceptable "support" responses**
Its your fault
Its your computers fault
Its your ISPs fault
Yeah, I would never build a MM without a stealth power or PFF.
I really should do something about this signature.
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IMO not being able to do a mission because the npcs stalking the entrance can kill you quicker than you can summon adequate pets to defend yourself, is not balancing.
[/ QUOTE ]Actually, that's exactly what it is. MM's are very powerful but the power comes with the price of having to prepare for the fights beforehand.
Maybe the op would like to have pets out all the time, but much weaker? 
I really should do something about this signature.
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Maybe the op would like to have pets out all the time, but much weaker?
[/ QUOTE ]Over my dead body!
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IMO not being able to do a mission because the npcs stalking the entrance can kill you quicker than you can summon adequate pets to defend yourself, is not balancing.
[/ QUOTE ]Actually, that's exactly what it is. MM's are very powerful but the power comes with the price of having to prepare for the fights beforehand.
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Well yes but how can you prepare for a fight when it hits you in the face the second you step in the door. MM's have no self buffs, we can't survive an onslaught for long enough to get pets raised and actually interested in doing anything.
To make it even worse, the second we die, so do our pets so we can't even enter the mission, raise pets and let them do something useful while we watch from the ground.
The only way I have found around this problem is to get a team together and send them in first or simply get another mission and come back to the one that's causing the problem at a later date.
I liken this to the problems low level kheldians have with void stalkers. It's a rather large hammer to crack a balancing nut 
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MM's have no self buffs
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Let's there's Dispersion Bubble, PFF and a couple of others in forcefields. Dark Miasma has at least one. There is Flash Arrow, SuperSpeed, the Concealment pool the Presence pool, and the Fighting pool.
Or you could take a couple of attacks from your primary, summon your biggest pet then blast away.
I really should do something about this signature.
Force field : Enter mission, if you get attacked by 2 npcs use detention field on one and force bolt on the other one, then quick summon some pets to take care of them. Or.. just enter with pff ? :P
Dark : you get stealth.
Trick arrow : flash arrow, mass hold arrow ?
Traps : caltrops and the mobs will scatter while you summon the pets
Poison : debuff them quick so they can't kill you while you summon pets ?
Also if you don't have /ff or /dark i think you'll need the concealment pool anyway.
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MM's have no self buffs
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Let's there's Dispersion Bubble, PFF and a couple of others in forcefields. Dark Miasma has at least one. There is Flash Arrow, SuperSpeed, the Concealment pool the Presence pool, and the Fighting pool.
Or you could take a couple of attacks from your primary, summon your biggest pet then blast away.
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PFF stops you from using any powers that dont affect yourself, ie summoning/upgrading/buffing pets. +1/+2 lieutenants laugh at dispersion bubble. Leadership pool powers have stupidly long animation times so you tend to be dead by the time you've put one on. Plus any toggles you have running are sapping endurance that you need to summon all your pets at high levels.
Even your biggest pet is no tank.
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PFF stops you from using any powers that dont affect yourself, ie summoning/upgrading/buffing pets. +1/+2 lieutenants laugh at dispersion bubble. Leadership pool powers have stupidly long animation times so you tend to be dead by the time you've put one on. Plus any toggles you have running are sapping endurance that you need to summon all your pets at high levels.
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PFF will make you unable to summon pets, but you won't die when you enter a mission ( you can just run around in pff until you find a safe spot ).
I always enter a mission with all my defenses up. The stamina drain will almost always be less than stamina recovery if you have your powers slotted right. When it's all clear you can summon your pets, dropping toggles if nesasary.
I really should do something about this signature.
I adore Shadow Fall (the PBAE stealth) in /Dark - not only does it stealth me when I enter the mission, but I can summon pets inside the stealth area as well. The other day I zoned into a 3 mob spawn waiting for me right by the door, but they didn't aggro til I had all my pets up and buffed - yummy Sometimes an ambush runs right past us too 
In fact it's only a pain when I need to lead a kidnap victim out of a mission - they can't see/follow you if you're stealthed.
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In fact it's only a pain when I need to lead a kidnap victim out of a mission - they can't see/follow you if you're stealthed.
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Its sometimes amusing when your team hasn't noticed this power and stands around the target wondering why they won't talk to them and shouting that its bugged. Annoying having to turn off my defense while dealing with those pesky ambushes that will target me and not my bots.
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What I find annoying is when you enter a mission, summon all your minions without having moved away from the door, go to click on one to upgrade it, and then the game decides you actually clicked on the door and sends you back out the mission. Cue returning back into the mission sans pets AND having to wait for the summon powers to recharge!
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Moray, I never click on my pets to select them, I either use the pet window (like other poster said) or I extend Master Zaphs excellent binds to include pet selection and buffing... from memory, the command pet_select_name <petname> selects each pet... this way, you can build a really powerful set of binds that help you to select and upgrade your pet, as well as heal them in battle if you need to... I have used the number keys 1-3 for my minions, 4-5 for henches and 6 for top guy! works very well, with SHIFT + #number for first upgrade and CTRL + #number for second one...
As well as being a great way of extending pet control, you will never exit a mission accidentally again!
Normaly, Just clicking dosn't exactly cause HUGE issues. Im not that used to that game yet. Level 23 Robo/DM. But i find that most of the time, my robots arn't needed at the moment outside of missions, but it takes time to set it up. But its all part of the fun of having others to do your bidding.
It doesnt bother me too much, would bother me even less if pet buffing powers were cone powers or aoe's or something.
My MA IDs:
Fiend Space: 211464
resummoning pets is perfectly fine IMO, doesnt bother me at all, but would be great if the final buff would have a faster way to buff. and the worst thing that can happen to any mm, summoning pets buffing them ALL then accidently clicking the door because of camera angle....
But other than that, i dont have any problems with it at all
Pets. They can be teleported, fly, use lifts and respawn next to you when you hit a certain distance. So why on earth can they not use doors to enter a mission ? Same when entering a different zone, this is possibly the most annoying 'feature' about pets and is giving me serious doubts about whether or not I want to continue using my Mastermind.
Why ? Why ? Why ? Why ? ARGH