Would You Be Willing to Delay the Lore Slot to Change the Pets?

I just realized something that would make Praetorian Lore pets perfectly acceptable to me: If one of the options was summoning Battle Maiden's Dancing Swords from the Apex TF.

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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.

I just wanted to throw in a post here (I have already expressing my opinions on this subject) thanking everyone for posting and particularly Arcanaville, whose opinion I genuinely do respect and am glad to see that they share what I'm percieving as the majority on this topic.

I've felt a little torn over how the Incarnate system was going because my initial impressions were 'wow, this is amazing!' (and I think that really stems from the epic introduction in the initial arc from Ramiel) and that this was the beginning of an individual awakening of power (as has been pretty much stated in the arc and by others here).

To have that sense diluted down to one of an external sense of power (and one that you only have a limited scope to do, especially in terms of choice) I think is disempowering to players, especially ones on this game that has spent the better part of its existence embracing the freedom of customisation that is the hallmark of this game.

I don't doubt that within the dev team headed by Positron that having a strong endgame is a worthwhile endeavor and was given resources accordingly; I think what seems to have come as an afterthought were alternative and parallel means of going down this road, which, from some statements I've read regarding implementing such really have come off as afterthoughts, and that's surprising. It's almost as if full participation in the endgame was assumed rather than optional.

I want to embrace the road of the Incarnate, but not at the cost of individuality and more importantly the sense of individual choice and flexibility that this game has impressed upon me since joining in 2006.

I truly sincerely hope that the Devs do take the time to stop and read this thread (amongst others that have similar themes to this) and look to that design ethic and perogative that has shone through from the 'people's champion for art' in Noble Savage. His level of communication and responsiveness, let alone delivery upon that responsiveness has gained him a deserved reputation in the game community.

A similar level of communication in these areas would go a long way I feel to assuaging concerns and imbuing us yet again with a sense of empowerment.



S.

No, I would not be willing to delay it to change the pets. I care a lot more about what the pets can do for me than I do what they look like or what their backstory is.

I am torn on this issue. There is a part of me that says, "Give us what you've got, and worry about fixing it and adding fluff later."

And then I look at stuff like the AE, and am reminded that if it isn't right the first time, it probably won't be for a very long time.

I think the idea of using existing mobs from the game as player pets is pretty dumb.

Making it work out from a flavor standpoint is a pretty tough ask. Even if you had access to every enemy group in the game, it's never going to entirely make sense to see people walking around with an IDF guy or warwork or CoT mage or whatever in tow, especially if they have particular powers that make them appeal to certain ATs or powersets.

I'd like it much better if they were nonhuman objects of some kind; dancing swords, little gun turrent/targeting drone things, nictus-style fuzzies, whatever.

No, I would not be willing to delay the Lore slot. Yes, it would be good to have even more customization options, and I personally hope that pet style designs (for MMs, Controllers, Kheldian forms, Granite Form, etc.) eventually do have customization options.

So I can understand why people want more options. I argue for more animations, costumes, and powersets all the time. However, we have some customization options already for the Lore slot and it ties in well enough with the storyline that is going.

If you don't want a pet, well, I may not want a big huge AOE power on all my characters. Sure, it will probably help my performance, but I'm sure the animation or look of some of them won't work for each character. There are going to be some powers you don't like as much as some others. And while I'm in favor of branching out some of this incarnate stuff from Praetoria, I understand it's part of the storyline we have going, and that not everyone would be in favor of any storyline they come up with.

Keep it reasonable but ask for more, I say.

*added*

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of Lore giving us "objects" for pets, over mobs, which usually have backstories with them. Glowing orbs of power, etc., seem more like power outgrowing from the well to me. But that might just be my feeling.

I'd be very very surprised to see customised Incarnate pets. They don't have the means as it stands, and if they do work out how to do it then it would be inexcusable not to apply it to Masterminds first.

However if they want to do this at the same time as they introduce MM pet customisation then sure, go for it