Mastermind pets need some love
By
AzureSkyCiel,
Posted on: 2010-09-02 05:44 in Suggestions and Ideas
Okay, here's my theory:
The lack of female thugs/mercs/ninjas -- when there are obviously female cops etc. in the npc sets -- is just so baffling an oversight that people tried to come up with an explanation for it. And someone came up with, "What if someone went all Frank Miller with it?" and that was just so interestingly weird that it stuck.
Whereas the real explanation is probably more like, "The henchman sets got slapped together quicklike and whoever did it was a little bit old-fashioned."
Anyway, bottom line -- gimme female soldiers. In combat fatigues just like the male soldiers. Gimme female thugs in t-shirts and jeans and leather vests. Gimme female ninjas in ninja gear. And if I call myself The Pope of Pimp and name all my henchmen Candi, go ahead and ban me. 
On the funny note about the fear of female minions resulting in pimping: it's actually a bit of a moot point for some redside ATs, I've known some players to RP their widow Epic pets as their personal call girls, someone who played a succubus MM. (This was before demon summoning, she was not necromancy or robots, and you should know what succubi do by now.)
Also, I do agree on more diverse options for MM pets. Personally though, I'd like the look of the ninja to be updated a little in light of samurai costume pieces from vet rewards and the martial arts booster, genin to get back a visual change with their first upgrade, and maybe either a change to the Oni's description or give him gale, O2 boost, Tornado, or hurricane just because he's SUPPOSED to be a warrior of "Fire and Wind" I see a lot of fire but no wind.
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.
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Well, and the other thing that seems so random about it as an explanation is that as a thematic element, it's already IN THE GAME. Jezebel Jones. It's clearly not as taboo as the urban legendeers would have us believe.
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Originally Posted by Driver 8
All gendered pets are male. I love a girl in uniform. But seriously, is there even a reason for this?
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Been mentioned many times over the years. You'll get the same canned, hypocritical, sexist BS that we always get. Female MM's ordering male minions around seems to be okay by them, though.
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And yet it was okay in beta for me to have a female mastermind named "Satyr Nau" with Minion names "Wil" and "Mustu" among others whose backstory was:|
Originally Posted by OmnipotentMerlin
People have asked. It has been asked ingame to the devs many many many times. I have seen a few times where they said NO. The point is there is legal issues with having pets female. You can name them whatever you want at a whim, make them do whatever you want them to do. The fact that you have control over a female that isn't supposed to be you is a issue.
It is safe to say Devs know better then to open that can of worms and have stated many times NO. If they ever do it they will do it. Quit beating the zombified horse. |
"Well, someone got mad at me over something to do with someone they liked and they sent this ninja to kill me over it. But after that first night, he decided to serve me instead. So they sent someone else and he liked me better than killing me too...and so did the next person and the next...and then there were all these sisters and wives and stuff and finally this old guy who was supposed to be the master came to 'free his clan' which I guess meant giving them over to me."
so, what you're basically saying is
It's okay when its Female on Male or male on male for that matter.
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The pets dying when dismissed is new, and seems to affect everything but robots and demons. At one point, Thugs and Mercs would run "off the page" and fade out, zombies would collapse and vanish in a spray of bones and darkness, and the Ninjas would hurl down smoke bombs and "ninja vanish." Now, they mostly just keel over dead. Including a short ragdoll and a persistent corpse, and the "Aaughh!" defeated sound effect. Robots do still fly away with their rocket boots, and the demons get dragged back into the abyss, but all the other pets just drop dead.|
Originally Posted by Driver 8
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Poor guys! I just wanted you to go wait for me in the coffee shop! I didn't mean to make you feel so rejected that you became suicidal!The random appearance changes when zoning/summoning is an attempt to add a little variety. Since we can't currently choose their appearance, they added that little bit of code so that Masterminds wouldn't be standing in a sea of obvious clones. However, there is again a relatively recent glitch. If you zone with your pets, the ones with specific types can end up with the wrong names. IE, your Arsonist and generic thugs might swap names. This is only really an issue for the sets where the pets are actually different - bots, zombies, and ninjas aren't visibly affected, because all the pets within a tier are identical. The only workaround I know of is to be sure to dismiss the pets before you zone.
The deranged AI of some of the pets is a long-standing flaw in their scripting, and fixing it might not be possible. However, I'd love it if they removed melee attacks entirely from the Arsonist and Medic (replace Brawl with *any* equally weak ranged attack, please.) But that would only help if they fixed the "I must PUNCH you!" glitch, which is most visible with Protector bots. If all their ranged attacks are on cooldown, Protectors will close to melee range. Except, they have no melee attacks, at all.
There are no female pets because some players are idiots. I don't have a link to the post, but supposedly a Dev has stated that female pets will never happen, because "someone would make a pimp character." The fact that people do exactly the same thing with the male pets (thugs enslaved by a female dominatrix pops up a lot) seems to be irrelevant. I'd guess you can blame the ESRB for this one. As is, we're probably lucky to have a lot of female character costumes - I know of at least one game where the ESRB forced the developer to *remove* costume options in an expansion, or face being upgraded to a Mature rating. And most of the "censored" costumes were far less revealing that a lot of the ones we get.
Eh. I believe the reason against customization has something to do with the way summoned minions are handled, something about it being alot of work for a little reward, pretty much. As for why they didn't include female pets, they probably wanted a consistent look and didn't think about it.
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society likes us to think that. In some states you can't even legally prosecute a lady for #$%@ a guy. Cause men can't be @#$#. And I extremely against that idea. The problem is there isn't equality in the Sexs in the USA. It slants one way or another on each dang issue. And it irks me.|
Originally Posted by Lycanus
so, what you're basically saying is
It's okay when its Female on Male or male on male for that matter. |
And yes I know there is a dark very dark subtext to some things in the game. If you pay attention this game is very MA before you include player characters. But I need to learn to keep my mouth shut it looks like.
Back on topic:
I commented on customization in another thread. That being said, I wouldn't mind seeing a few static alternate models from which to choose. That way MMs could have female thugs, or in the case of Bots and Ncero, some alternate robot or undead models.
I don't see more advanced customization happening in the future due to the problems with henchmen customization and henchmen upgrades, but a few alternate models would be a nice compromise.
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Ever wonder why Ninja MMs are so quick to get out of lifts?|
Originally Posted by AzureSkyCiel
he's SUPPOSED to be a warrior of "Fire and Wind" I see a lot of fire but no wind.
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OT: I would love to see my thugs not dieing when dismissed and be able to choose a set appearance for each pet (Also allowing my Demons to keep the name I gave them
)My suggestion for a ranged brawl (http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...=MM+pets+Brawl. ) could help with the suicidal nature of some pets.
I still don't fully understand why we can't have the option to have either male or female minions. They can have already costumes for them so we can't have barely dressed females, since pimping is an issue. If it's still an issue, noone can have a full set of female Thugs,Ninjas, zombies, etc. It's not right if we want this in the game and we pay monthly to play and they not provide what we want. Am I the only one who feel this way? We can have some chick telling some dudes what to do in some domanatrix style but can't have a dude telling chicks what to do? Talk about one way street there buddy! They really need to start listening and give us what we want and start being fair and make this happen. At least put it in a closed beta to see how it works. I'm just saying and thank you for letting me rant 
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You're right to ask, because no devs have EVER stated this. It's a forum myth, prepetuated by people that keep repeating it without ever being able to find a link, or post or any proof at all.|
Originally Posted by Cipher
I've only ever seen this standpoint attributed to the devs, never backed up with a post or anything. It seems to be the commonly accepted view, but no one has ever provided evidence to support the contention.
We have GMs in the game who regulate content. If you make an offensive character, the GMs randomize name/description/costume/etc. Why would MMs with their pets be any different? Why would THIS ONE ISSUE be a sticking point for the devs as a bar to creating new content when they already have a system in place to remedy it? And moreover, where have the developers ever said it? |
Again, no dev has EVER stated anything like this. If you disagree with me, go ahead and post your proof.
You can't? That's because it simply isn't true.
I would prefer their AI programmers focused on the core pet behaviors so they stop running off into melee unless they are primarily melee pets. I'd also like to see Bodyguard mode get fixed and it's a pain in the butt to use right.
I'd be happy if they updated the ninija set so the Oni didn't look like a total gimp
That's really what I'm suggesting. The "pimp issue" (for want of a better phrase) is simply one of those CoX urban legends. Everyone can recite it but no one can just CITE it.
The legal arguments (such as they are) underpinning it are nonsensical at best. People say "it's a legal issue," and I say "under what theory?" No one has ever been able to offer one in response (it is this tort, it is negligence, it falls afoul of this criminal statute, etc).
"I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You're wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides." Lord Vetinari, Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett.