Rotating Pet Names?

Is there a known issue with Demon Summoning MMs where the names of the demonlings rotate if you give them custom names? I've just started playing my first MM, and when I got my second demonling I renamed them both. Then after EVERY zone the names would swap places. So every other time I zoned they were "correct". If I dismiss them all and summon them again the names are correct again. I've just hit 18 and with 3 demonlings the problem seems more complex. I haven't figured out the new pattern yet, but the names do rotate in some manner, usually two are swapped but one is correct, but I'm not sure it's always that way (I just made lvl 18).

I searched here and I only found one reference from a year ago about rotating names. Is this a known issue? I'm assuming others see it as well, but I'd like to confirm that.

Also, is there any way to "reset" the names? Respec? If the default names were consistent through zoning, I'd give up the custom ones so I could make macros/binds that do what I want.

Thanks,

Killdash Nine

It's a known issue if you mean that players know about it. The devs haven't commented on much of anything for a while now, so it's not clear if they really "know" or if it's just in a giant list of low priority bugs somewhere.

In my experience, this happens when you let the pets follow you from zone to zone. It doesn't seem to happen as long as the pets have only existed in the current zone. So the only workaround I've found is to dismiss the pets before I leave a zone, and summon new ones when I get where I'm going. (This also avoids another fairly annoying bug where the pets will appear at the zone door and then refuse to obey *any* commands, even a Dismiss order. They just stand in the door until the owner dies or changes zones again.)

Thanks for the response. I figured as much. I'll just dismiss/resummon as you suggest if I want to work around it.

Thanks.

Killdash Nine

I think the issue is that, technically speaking, pets don't actually zone with you. Rather, they get resummoned (and enhanced) whenever you zone, at no cost from you.

This is why Thugs pets can suddenly look much different. And why names get scrambled, as the order that the pets get resummoned does not seem to be the same as the order you get them in. This is most noticeable on the demonlings, because each one is unique.

Of course, I seem to recall seeing the names get scrambled when I summon them myself, so there may be something more to it.

I've run into this problem on my Demon Summoner, too. This is more than just a cosmetic annoyance to Demon Summoners (as well as Mercs and Thugs to a lesser degree), as I learned the other day.

The other day I joined a Winter Lord team and was Malefactored to where I got the Hellfire Gargoyle, and I quickly whipped up a simple keybind to have the gargoyle attack my target. But since I'd used petcom_name in the bind, when I tried to use it to sic the Gargoyle on Lord Winter, it sent my Ember Demon after him instead since their names were swapped. Is there a command that I can use to specify that I want the Gargoyle to attack by a way other than name?

Yeah, encountered this a while back. I've got a macro to make my Arsonist not rush off and get killed as often. It's tied to his name, 'Matchwork', and so it doesn't work well when one of my non-Arsonist thugs becomes 'Matchwork'.

The numpad key thread in the sticky is very helpful in explaining how binds work and such.. Plus everything listed out so you can cut and paste the commands as well.

Thought I'd come back here to post the "solution" that I figured out to work around my problem.

There are a couple of pet commands that let you fix the pet names. The two that I use are:
/clear_petnames
/petrename_name

I created a couple of binds that first resets the pet names and then a second that sets them back up the way I want. I tried to combine the clear and rename in a single bind, but the order and timing of the commands didn't seem to work well. Maybe it can be done, but I didn't feel like spending a lot of time fixing it since the alternative was so easy.

I put my binds in a file and used /bind_load_file to load them just for easier editing. Here is what my file looks like:

What I've done in the meantime until the Devs decide to let us know if they are even aware of this bug was just use the default names for the pets since those don't seem to change when you re-summon them. It sucks I cannot name my pets the way I want to match my toons name/theme but it seems to be the only surefire way to avoid custom marcos and binds from becoming useless for specific pets (like the Arsonist for example.)

The patch notes for today say that this may not be a problem anymore.

Masterminds

Pets should no longer switch names after zoning.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=250913

Yes, but what about "when resummoning"? Part of my problem is that the names of my pets aren't consistent from one summon to the next.

This issue isn't just a demon pet thing. Any mastermind with variable pets in a given tier has this issue. You'll notice it with your tier 2 demons as well. I first ran into it on my thugs mm, where I tried to name my arsonist "Matches". The name doesn't "stick" to him - as far as the game is concerned, the only discreet name that's really his is "Arsonist".