How to give Heroes the " Mastermind "

We can still make this work!

Blaster Clone: Makes clones of himself and hurls them at people.
Scrapper Clone: Makes clones of himself and beats people over the head with them.
Controller Clone: Buries people under a pile of clones.
Tanker Clone: Wraps himself in a protective layer of clones.

You know. There's this ultra-tiny low-cost non-expansion "thing" that the developers have been spending the past 2 years working on called GOING ROGUE.

Maybe you haven't heard of it. One of the small and unimportant features in this Going Rogue thing is the ability to make the 10-base archtypes independently of Hero or Villain alignments. Another small and unimportant feature is the ability to take an existing Hero or an existing Villain and swap them to the opposite alignment. Accomplishing these features has seen the additions of 4 new alignments. Two of these alignments, Resistance and Loyalist are exclusive to the new low-level zones created for Praetoria. The other two alignments are Rogue and Vigilante and comprise the middle grounds; such as a smuggler whose on the road to redemption; or a vengeful enforcer of the law that believes they are above and beyond the law.

If you don't mind me breaking the role-play answer here, what you want when you say you want a heroic mastermind, or a hero archtype with the mastermind ability, is this: You want to render several years of work to improve the game invalid.

I'm sorry. It's that simple. You want the devs to just forget everything they just built, and give the same thing to you... for no cost.

Not. Going. To. Happen.


... What Mimic Hero idea that has been kicking around for oh so long?

Now, as far as your second idea here goes... that's not going to happen for design reasons as well. The basic problem is, you don't have a grasp on how a mastermind works. So here's how a mastermind works.

The first level pets all have either 1 or 2 minor attacks. While the attack type might change, such as in Demon Summoning or Thugs, they pretty much all correspond to weak melee or weak ranged attacks.

The second level pets are mostly all additional attack damages. Robotics is an inverse, where the second level pets contain shields and heal functions if upgraded.

The last level pets range from tank types to control types.

One of the basic problem with your AT split is that each set here is adjusted in and of-itself. The off powers and each summonable pet is adjusted in and of itself for the set. Case in point: Demonlings have base resistances to Lethal, Smashing, Fire, Cold, and Toxic. Soldiers, however, only have base resistances to Lethal and Smashing.

What you propose is a system that would be impossible to balance. Allowing players to choose what AT their mastermind pet would be, even a limited choice, would damage the developers abilities to correctly balance the rest of the set. Case in point: Demon Summoning. It's whip attacks are of a far shorter range than other Mastermind primaries, requiring Whip users to be in closer range to the combat. This would be a potentially great combo if you have pets that like to be in melee range... but what happens if the pets you choose were ranged attackers?

So, from a design perspective, what you want, isn't going to happen.



Admittedly, there is a second way to interpret what you posted. It could be that you are trying to create a completely new Archtype that is like a Mastermind, but gets a pet at every level. A sort of Gemini Replication archtype.

One of the big problems with a new Gemini Replication archtype is that Mastermind's already exist. There would be a significant question of just how much value a new archtype could bring when aspects of that archtype could be implemented in an existing archtype.

The developers already have a system setup to deliver increasing amounts of pets at predictable and balanced increments. The developers already have a system setup to control numerous pet critters in a combat situation. The developers already have a system that is resistance to lag issues and allows some sort of player survivability. Those system implementations is already found in the Mastermind power-set.

A new "Gemini Replication" archtype would mean not only having to replicate those systems, but also extend those systems to handle increased numbers of pets. Given that full-level masterminds, as is, already cause problems with blocking doorways, their own micro-lag issues, and everything else associated them, an archtype with increased pets would simply make those issues worse.

Now, it would be possible for the developers to input a Gemini Replication power-set into the Mastermind Archtype. Which is where we get to the final problem that I'm going to address in this post.


What you want, but don't directly ask for, is Mastermind Pet Customization.
Well, Mastermind Pet Customization probably will happen within the next year. We know for a stated fact that exposing Pet Customization requires both processing engine and User Interface engine work, tech work that will not be available until after Going Rogue launches. One of the key issues is that you won't be able to just make your pets look like anything.

For example, if you took Mercenaries, you'll likely have a range of costume options suitable for soldiers exposed in the UI system. You will not, however, have the options to make your Mercs look like Clowns, ballerina's, or Trolls. If you took Ninjas, you'll like have a wide range of oriental robes and outfits available for your Ninja's, but you won't be able to make them look like a soldier.

The only class that the developers might extend player costumes to is the Controller Illusionist class. This is because the Illusionist's decoy's are supposed to be copies of the player.

Now, it might be possible to sell the developers on the idea of an Illusionist type power-set re-implemented atop Mastermind's. E.G.

• Phantom Army: no longer invulnerable, can be defeated.
• Spectral Terror: gone
• Spectral Wisp: replaces Spectral Terror: low fear components
• Phantasm: well. Not really much to change here.

Now, I'm not saying this is the only way to get what you want into the game, or that this is the best way to sell the developers on Illusionist for Masterminds, or that the developers should even DO Illusionist for Mastermind to begin with (I, for one, don't think they should).

Now, 28months ago was a long time, and to be honest, the implementation of what you wanted was just as bad back then as is now.

The idea of implementing any kind of Mastermind on a Hero-side...

well, I've never been a real big fan of duplicating archtypes across instances of the game. I still believe, if you want to play a Mastermind... play a Mastermind. I've been hammering on the developers need to make each archtype different from each other as Going Rogue launches. There really should be something to make you say I want to play that archtype.

For a long time then I was against what Going Rogue allows... but what sold me is that Going Rogue goes beyond a simple side-switching mechanic, and tries to flesh the game out with the morality overlay system. Castle, and the other power balancers, have also started working on the inherents. We've seen the fruits of this on the Defenders Vigilance. So I look forward to see what changes other archtypes will get.

Going Rogue gives you the ability to play a Heroic Mastermind. I might not be the happiest clam in the ocean about this, but at this point, undermining reasons for players to go out and BUY Going Rogue is just a bad idea on the part of the developers.

You are deemed worthy!

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.