Robotics Pet Customization

MM Pet customization in general has been asked for since CoV beta. I'm sure that it is on the developer's to do list but where it sits on that list is anyone's guess.


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It's 106 miles to Grandville, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing faceless helmets

... Hit it ...

the problem I see with this is that customized pets like that would need to be able to use the same animations as the default ones, otherwise you get situations like the IDF lieutenant tier shock trooper who shoots rockets from the air in front of his shoulders then there's pets keeping up with the upgrade changes. Thus we have one of the reasons this is probably so late coming, because in the end,because the Devs would need to make sets of entirely new models for these minions. I mean, sure we could get a Malta Titan for our assault bot, the problem is that we'd have no upgrade indications, they're much bigger than the assault bot (Now summon that in a blue cave on an eight man team), and lack a flamethrower. Now also remember just how long demon summoning took, could you imagine how long it would take to create similar models? Specifically the Ember Demons.

Edit: Though for my own choices for robotics alone...

-Malta micro-Titans
-Council/column Mini-Zeniths
-PPD Drones
-Praetorian Micro-War Works

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.

Actually it's not a guess.

We do know where Mastermind Customization sits on the list: After Going Rogue Launches it would be looked at.

It was made very plain and clear to all players by multiple red-names, including a demonstration at one of the conventions, as to why Mastermind Pets are not customizable. Mastermind pets are exposed to players under a costume-overlay system, similar to how the Stone Armor set's Granite Armor is exposed, how the Kheldian Shape Forms are exposed, and to how Halloween Costumes are exposed.

Allowing customization of costume overlays requires several more changes not only to the user-interface, but also to the processing engine, and to the database storage engine. The exact difficulty of exposing costume overlays as customizable options is so extensive the developers at one point considered a completely new stone armor design to replace the existing Granite Armor Overlay.

Now that Going Rogue is out, development resources might be available to implement the required changes to the game's internal engines. Which brings us to other things that we know about MM pet customization.

At this point, the intended plans seem to be to allow humanoid pets limited access to themed costume parts. E.G. Thugs will have a variety of vests and pants, but will lack options like Camouflage. Mercs will have costume options with military jackets, camo-pants, bandoliers, and other assorted uniform / military gear. Ninja's will have mostly robes, and so on and so forth.

As far as I am aware the subject of robotic pets has not been addressed by any Paragon Studios employee in an official manner, non-official manner, or off-the-record manner. My guess is that rather than trying to simply filter existing costume parts into each MasterMind theme, the developers will simply introduce new robotic models as pet options.

Fair enough but honestly once work started on Going Rogue pretty much everything was remanded to an "After Going Rogue" time frame. There are other things that have been on the table that could be lower hanging fruit which could possibly trump MM pet changes based on required resources, current time lines and feasibility.

Pool power customization is a good example, it would be a change that benefits everyone rather than just a single archetype and I believe that the developers have already said that it's something they want to get done. I'm sure there any number of other things that the developers want to implement or change that take precedence over customizing pool powers or MM pets but they haven't to my knowledge provided us with a prioritized list.


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