what name does my Arsonist have today?

I've noticed something rather annoying with my thug mastermind. I have given customized names to my three thugs, one of which is the arsonist. When I'm summoning all three from scratch, the third name goes to the arsonist, which is the way I wanted it. But when I need to re-summon a few dead thugs in the middle of a battle (and you can pretty much rely on the arsonist being the first to die) the names get all mixed up and I have no way of reliably identifying which of my three thugs is an arsonist by looking at my minion control box.

This isn't an issue with my robot mastermind, because the three battle drones are so indistinguishable it doesn't matter which is which. But as anyone knows who's played a thug mastermind, it's vitally important to be able to be absolutely sure at any given time which minion is your arsonist.

Anyone else notice this? Is there a work-around? At this point I'd even un-name my thugs if it could restore my ability to quickly identify my arsonist in the minion control box, but there is no obvious way to un-name them.

It is, I believe, a known issue. It's not actually related to resummoning your pets (if you zone into a mission, summon your pets, some die, and you resummon, the names should still match), but to pets zoning with you (when the pets zone, sometimes randomly their names get shuffled around and the thug who was Moe is Larry in the new zone.) This mix-up can get stuck, and the only real solution is to dismiss all and resummon fresh.

Gee, I read the title of this post and had a few choice names already picked out for your Arsonist. Psycho Man, Face Planted, Dirt Taster, ect.

Now that I've read your post, I'm not sure I ever noticed this problem on any of the Thug MMs I've made. I have seen minions re-spawn in different orders on re-summons on all my MMs. I must of always had them key bound just like Dormio says. Do it by name instead of by pet number order.

I noticed this problem on Demons while doing open beta. I named my demonlings after my neices and nephew, fire = R, cold = K, hellfire = X, and whenever the fire would die the new one would become K and the cold would be R.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nights_Dawn Hazy is right

I'm not sure why, but I've never had a problem with my Arsonist (Flames McGee) being renamed 4th street boyz or 5th street boyz when he's dead at the same time as another tier. Now, his position in the window might change, but he's never gotten renamed.

For me the obvious name for the arsonist is Kenny.

Alright. I went ahead and tested this on my Thugz MM, and there is one frustrating problem: Both your non-arsonist punks have the exact same name after you clear petnames: "Punk". Here's the workaround I came up with.

Create a new macro. Just type "/macro Rename_all Rename"and you'll get a new macro with that name on it. (Just saying this for anyone who doesn't know how to create macros)

Right click on the macro's button on your power bar, and choose "Edit", then paste this code into it:

clear_petnames$$petrename Bob

Then make a second macro the same way, and paste this code into it.

petrename_name Punk Joe$$petrename_name Arsonist Jebediah

You just select one of your ordinary punks, then hit the first macro button. Then hit the second macro button. I tried making it all into one macro, but that didn't work reliably. It kept failing to name one pet, or the other. You can substitute any pet name for Bob, Joe, and Jebediah, of course.

You would think that would be true, but sometimes the Arsonist's actual name changes to something else.

Here's an improved version of the fix macro:

/macro Rename "clear_petnames$$petsay_all <em alakazamreact>$$petrename_name Arsonist Kenny$$petrename Kyle$$petrename_name Punk Cartman"

Select one of your punks (not the arsonist) before activating it, of course. If you've got all six of your pets out, then you need to add the tier 1 & 2 names afterward by using:

petselect 0$$petrename Timmy$$petselect 1$$petrename Cook$$petselect 2$$petrename Stan

So all together it is:


/macro Rename "clear_petnames$$petsay_all <em alakazamreact>$$petrename_name Arsonist Kenny$$petrename Kyle$$petrename_name Punk Cartman$$petselect 0$$petrename Timmy$$petselect 1$$petrename Cook$$petselect 2$$petrename Stan"

You'll usually have to fire it twice, selecting a common punk both times, but there you have it. Instant renaming of all 6 pets to get their names right. I've been trying to find something shorter and simpler, but to no avail. Or at least it takes 2 macros instead of 1 if you want to do it simpler.

For Demon Summoning, it should be a lot easier, because you don't have to deal with the two Punks both being named "Punk". Each demon has it's own name after you clear the names.

I have never had a problem with names actually changing. I have had minor annoyances of them being rearranged in the pet window though. And villain side, I play masterminds almost exclusively.

Actually, playtesting my demon mastermind proved it also. Using all the first 5 pets, I set up pet target binds using the generic demon names (since they are unique among each other). And I found that the order they appeared in the window would change if I had to do a partial resummon sometimes. The only reason that's an annoyance is because of my bind setup.

I normally use the same six keys for pet selection. So when they change position it can mess me up. I'll have it set up for example to target Flames McGee when I press PageUp. But when he's the 1st tier one in the window instead of the 3rd one, I might hit the wrong key to heal him. I'll be so use to the normal window order, I'll hit Delete to try healing him (which is used to target 4th Street Boyz). My binds still work to target the correct pet. I just get messed up because their order in the window is different then I'm use to.

I know for a fact that Thugs sometimes change names. I have my Thugs named after various sins that they went to Hel for, and the "Fool" is the Arsonist. Normally. Sometimes the Arsonist becomes "Wimp" or "Coward". I usually notice it when I see Wimp or Coward getting hammered and wonder "WTH?", then selecting them will reveal that they have mysteriously become the Arsonist.

The same thing happens to my Medic when I play my Merc MM.

> There is a slash command called /clear_petnames

Nice! I'll try that. And frankly, I'd be perfectly happy to leave them named "punk, punk, and arsonist", rather than try to set up any fancy macros to fiddle with them.

My Thugs MM "Boss Vegas" named his Arsonist "Suicide King"

And yeah, the game switches up the names from time to time.

Been playing my demon summoner who I never renamed the pets. And I think I got a couple screencaps to disprove the idea of pets changing names, while supporting what I described is happening. These are clickable thumbnails to prevent the window from being expanded.

Here is one of my normal pet window UI.

Note that when I target the pet named Fiery Demonling it actually targets the fiery demonling, not the cold demonling.

And again, after the pets have apparently been renamed:

Note that once again, when I target the pet named 'fiery demonling' it actually targets the fiery demonling, and not the cold demonling.

I left the names alone so that no one could claim I was just renaming the pets myself. These are the default names. No name changing happening, just position in the pet window changing.

EDIT: Note that if someone can post a screenshot of it actually renaming pets that would be another thing. So far this is the only thing I've ever seen.

I would like to lend my observations to support the statement that custom pet names are being assigned to different types of pets at different times. This is particularly annoying for Demon Summoning - the Ember Demon and the Hellfire Gargoyle are most definitely not interchangeable.