Want to Love Beast Mastery...

...but I just can't. I find the 'generic beastlord' concept of the set a little more limiting than even most of the other MM sets. The multiple types of beasts, the special wolf-affinity, and the top teir pet being essentially a fantasy creature puts me off it in spite of me otherwise loving the idea of a beast MM.

BM would have been a great set to roll out with some kind of pet customization. Let us fight with our pack of wolves or pride of lions or flocks of birds or swarms of insects. Sure, let the folks who want a menagerie have it but I like themes.

Incidentally, I'm not someone who is suggesting that pet customization essentially means a costume creator for pets - I think the ninjas should look like ninjas, zombies like zombies, etc. Just a choice of color and models would be awesome.

As someone who doesn't follow the forums as closely as I should, is Mastermind pet customization/model swapping something that is even still on the table? I can recall the day when the Devs made coy little remarks about it that led one to believe it was something that could happen. With the easiest teams to find these days being some kind of Trial or iTrial, is there a desire to dress-up the old sets at all or just to make thematically-narrow new ones?

You bring up a valid point: I, too, would pay for model swaps and/or pet customization. When trying to guess what those model themes might be, I've always thought that the origins are a great place to start. Give us some zombies that look more like a product of a mad scientist than a necromancer. Give us some steampunk robots that could work with either a steam theme or a magically inclined character.With the ability to change and tweak damage types being all the rage on the new sets, maybe let the damage mix alter a little with the models. Steampunk robots might do different damage than pew-pew tech robots. In the case of swapping out some kind of King of the Jungle Lion for the Dire Wolf, a frost breath no longer makes much sense. Give Simba his own special attack.

There have been some sizable discussions related to having different options for mastermind pets most notably, but not limited to, female versions for things like Thugs and Mercenaries. I don't know if the devs have ever commented on this, but the chances of true customization for pets is very slim, epsecially given how resource-intensive pets are.

To me (and I'm not a CoH game developer) it seems there''s an awful lot of pets out there already that could be utilized as "alt forms" for the various mastermind sets with very little modification (a black tinted gremlin or scaled-up haunt to replace the "Dark Lassie" Umbral Beast, for example).

Beast Mastery pets should be even easier for some selections, since there are multiple avatars for wolves (different sizes and colors) and hunting cats (tigers, panthers, lions, ligers).

Personally, I want to see an "Urban Wilderness" set for beastmasters - insects, bats, rats, etc.

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 ...

Natural: Zookeeper
Magic: Animal mystic
Mutant: Animal mutate (and/or controls them along the same lines as Namor/Aquaman)
Science: Genetically-engineered animals
Tech: Robot animals

Covers all the origins for character concepts. You're welcome.

For starters, I am Joe_Dynamo. I just asked Zwill if I could get a forum name change to a character I actually play as opposed to one deleted and moved to my main account years ago.

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Originally Posted by Starflier There have been some sizable discussions related to having different options for mastermind pets most notably, but not limited to, female versions for things like Thugs and Mercenaries. I don't know if the devs have ever commented on this, but the chances of true customization for pets is very slim, epsecially given how resource-intensive pets are.

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Originally Posted by Jet_Boy To me (and I'm not a CoH game developer) it seems there''s an awful lot of pets out there already that could be utilized as "alt forms" for the various mastermind sets with very little modification (a black tinted gremlin or scaled-up haunt to replace the "Dark Lassie" Umbral Beast, for example). Beast Mastery pets should be even easier for some selections, since there are multiple avatars for wolves (different sizes and colors) and hunting cats (tigers, panthers, lions, ligers).

What Jet said and this is my thinking 100%. Play with what we have in the game already and then put the real work into filling in the gaps. I firmly believe there would be dollars in it for the game.

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Originally Posted by plainguy I will agree but I just find it odd that they make all these 4 legged vanity pets for sale and that new stealth panther power. I feel Cinderella in the sense that I'm told it can't be done for ME, but I see you do these things for someone else. Now granted 1 pet is not 6, but its like giving me a taste it can be done but not ever doing it. Further I like what Joe_Dynamo said about mad scientist pet and steampunk robots. Steam punk popped into my head for Traps set.

With Freedom, I feel like powersets are flying at us at a pretty good clip and while the vanity pets and alternate forms are cute and all, I'd much rather see some of those efforts directed at the MM pets. I feel like the AT lost a little of its shine when the Lore pets emerged and while they still get the most control, I'd also like to see them get the most choice. They are the main pet class, after all.

While I think anything that can be conceived and would work with this game engine *could* happen now with Freedom, it has to be worth the time and resources. That said, MM's seem to be a popular AT and could use a little love.

One of my fevered dreams for the AT that probably will never happen is opening up the various attacks regardless of the pet choice. You'd have to choose at character creation and stick within the theme (i.e. you choose archery, you are stuck with archery) but you could reset on respec. Why would I want this, you ask? Because pulse rifle just goes better with my mad scientist's animated dead is why. Leave me alone!

Of course, some min-maxer out there is probably already crunched the numbers on why this would be a bad idea but maybe some balancing between the powers could be done to make them a little more interchangeable. And with the thrust of the market place these days seemingly to be getting characters to Level 50 as soon as possible, I'm not even sure how much balance is a concern as opposed to a combo just being broken. Broken is something best avoided.

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Originally Posted by DarkGob Natural: Zookeeper Magic: Animal mystic Mutant: Animal mutate (and/or controls them along the same lines as Namor/Aquaman) Science: Genetically-engineered animals Tech: Robot animals Covers all the origins for character concepts. You're welcome.

Yeah, there is definitely a lot of what I'm talking about with this but you're more focused on the concepts than the actual pets. I'm talking about giving them the pets that could make that happen and also allow for some mixing and matching if someone were so inclined. As the set stands now, a Zookeeper kind of concept probably works best until you throw the Dire Wolf in the mix. I'd break it down like this:

Natural: Animals of the real world
Magic: Fantasy Animals a.k.a. a frost breathing dire wolf
Mutant: Gnarly misshapen animals
Science: Extinct animals; possibly natural animals grown to impossible sizes; hybrid animals
Tech: Mechanical animals (You hit the nail on the head!)

Now, the origins are just the jumping off point for the types of pets - I'm not suggesting for a second that you could not be a human mutant or human mystic that controlled animals off the natural list. My whole thing is choice and I would pay to have it.

To me..and to quite a few friends I have mentioned it to..the entire look of the set just ruins it. Ok..it IS beasts, but still..they just don't fit into the CoX Universe at ALL to me. Doesn't help that we have nothing at all like it in game (aside from the lil ravages and SH's pets) so it looks even move odd.
I also really dislike the Dire Wolf..it almost made me delete my dark dom, and I love the set.

Dire Wolf needed to be something else. Something that isn't just Bigger Wolf. That's really my only complaint about the pet's appearances.

And damn Umbral Beast should not be a dire wolf with an aura. So creative. Not.

Or an elephant.

Beast Mastery/Nature Affinity/Soul Mastery

Yeah ... that sounds about right. Nice and ... thematic ...

It's the end. But the moment has been prepared for ...

I'd get Beast Mastery in a heartbeat if you could do something like go all wolves. I'll pass on the current menagerie form though.

good luck D.B.B.

I can see it working to get new MM models from the store, just the same way you can get new weapon skins for other sets. It just has to match the pets skeleton and everything will be ok.

The only difference is that weapons are swapped in the costumes options, and the pets would either have to be in there, or have entirely different models for each pet where you'd get the bright/dark options(which has never been done before).

They did add a lot of Lore pets during some issue though, imagine if they released MM models instead that we paid for? However, the Lore pets are just reused models from the game, so it's not the same.

Choosing pet colors would be a great option still, the only option I can imagine being the easiest that isn't 'do nothing'.

One thing about adding bears - they'd need to create a new skeleton with new animations. It was probably already stretching things to use the same skeleton for the canines and the felines, but bears don't move or even stand anything like a dog or cat. (For one thing, bears are plantigrade, not digitigrade).

I'd love to see it, mind you, but turning the Dire Wolf into a Bear is not just a matter of swapping out a skin.

When the set was accidentally slipped into beta, many people tried to get the dire wolf changed into something else, the common request being a bear. The dev response was that a Bear, and indeed anything not a canine/feline, would require an entire new skeleton and they only just figured out this one. So deal with the prehistoric wolf.

As to concept, you don't have to acknowledge that its an extinct wolf, you could just say it is a particularly large white wolf. Scientifically, magically, technologically enhanced, or simply a mutant.

Something I learned about CoX a little after I started playing in Issue 2: if a powerset doesn't match my character concept exactly, change my character concept enough that it can fit with the powerset.

It's a lot easier to change character concept than a powerset.

I very much like the idea of addtional skins (and even skeletons) being available for MMs through the Paragon Market. That will allow players to pay for the additional development behind the additions, and I hope that the devs adopt this model.

However, my global namesake, Wyldhunt, was rerolled as a Beast/Dark mastermind, and the Beast concept fits the Wild Hunt concept closely enough. Yeah, in the myth, they're men/dogs, however the Huntsman is also a god (of various possible origins) rather than a supervillain. Change the myth to a Trow who brings back spirits of previously slain rivals into magically-enhanced carnivore animals, and presto! Wolves, lions, and a "dire wolf" work just fine.

By the way, Beast/Dark is a good combo. Tankerminding doesn't work so well (which is great for variety of playstyle!), instead, I focus on boss or crowd control while directing my beasts to take out certain targets, allowing them general mayhem when it's cleanup time.