The Expectation of Companionship

[Shattergod]

In order for Dungeons and Dragons Online to truly be considered a professional game a lasso must be thrown 'round our summonable and charmed pets. The haphazard nature with which we find our summons is detrimental to the game as a whole as it projects the game as "shabby" and poorly coded.

Unfortunately, summoned and charmed pets can be an extremely potent force for a character and it is necessary to limit potential abuse. To this end I propose that a player may have "either/or", they cannot have a summoned pet, and a charmed pet at the same time.

When a pet is summoned/charmed a toolbar would appear on the players interface. The toolbar would contain the following buttons:

Attack
Directs the pet to attack your targeted creature using its attack default.

Attack Toggle: Melee
Commands the Pet to default attack using melee.

Attack Toggle: Range
Commands the pet to default attack using range

Stance Toggle: Aggressive
Commands the pet to attack the next nearest available enemy using its attack default. If no enemy is within X feet it follows passively.

Stance Toggle: Defensive
Commands the pet to attack the nearest foe attacking its master. If no enemy is attacking its master it follows passively.

Stance Toggle: Passive
Commands the pet to do nothing except follow passively.

Special Ability 1:
Special Ability 2:
Special Ability 3:
Each pet is summoned/charmed and retains a maximum of three special abilities that have a timer and are activated by the Master, not the pet.

Example: A charmed Elite Kobold Shaman would have Curse, Obscuring Mist, and Lightning Bolt. The Kobold Shaman would always attack using its default attack, until the player activated the special ability, after which the charmed or summoned creature would resume using its default attack. The special ability is now on a timer until its cooldown finishes and it may be used again.


Lesser Summon
This command immediately summons the creature to the side of the Master (useful when a creature is blocked due to pathing issues, or terrain). Like the Special Abilities Lesser Summon has a timer countdown, and may only be used once every thirty seconds.

[Tanka]

DDO could take a hint from CoV's Masterminds. They had some good pet control commands there, even allowing aliases and such to be set up for quick commands.

[negative]

While I'd love to see better control over pets (but maybe not charms), I see no reason to restrict a caster to only having a pet OR a charm considering:

1.) Mass charm and suggestion spells exist

2.) Charmed monsters are already more powerfull than summons.

[Dawnblade]

DDO could take a hint from CoV's Masterminds. They had some good pet control commands there, even allowing aliases and such to be set up for quick commands.

Many games could learn a lot from CoH/CoV (CoX for those who are familiar with the game terms). It's a very well designed game overall. The two main things that prevent me from keep playing longer than a few months at a time is the little variety of content (even new content feels repetitive) and the fact that is not a fantasy rpg

[Tanka]

Many games could learn a lot from CoH/CoV (CoX for those who are familiar with the game terms). It's a very well designed game overall. The two main things that prevent me from keep playing longer than a few months at a time is the little variety of content (even new content feels repetitive) and the fact that is not a fantasy rpg

For me, it's too much grind. That and there's no Barbarian-type for the Hero side, which is where a lot of my friends played. I love love love Brutes, but there are hardly ever any players on CoV.

[JetEskimo]

Many games could learn a lot from CoH/CoV

Not to take this thread any further off topic, but the exemplar/sidekick functionality in CoX is something *every* MMO should emulate in my opinion.

That being said, "pet" controls would be nice too. :P

[In_Like_Flynn]

Summoned does not mean controlled. I like that they behave aggressively. I would too.

[Dawnblade]

Summoned does not mean controlled. I like that they behave aggressively. I would too.

It's generally assumed (by me at least ) that the summoning spell involved some sort of binding ritual as well. That's why for more powerful summons the mage usually has to fight for the control of the super creature they are trying to summon. Or maybe I'm thinking of warlocks in WoW

I would go against the core personality of mages to summon something they can't control. After all what they do is control and shape reality, minds, elements, etc.

Not trying to argue your point, just adding a different point of view.

[Tanka]

They'll need to improve pet control. Not just for summons, but for Animal Companions, whenever they finally introduce Druids.