pet pathing, controling issues (POST release info)

Archived Post

OK, I know there are other pet pathing posts out there on the forum, and ones that i have submitted during the beta and all, but this is a semi-new topic as they are based on newer changes since the Early Entry Release.

I have only tested and can comment on the Munition Drones and Field Drones (2 of the Gagetering pets) as I haven't gotten time to make the other pet class's for testing as of yet.

NEW ADDITIONS NOTICED::

• Pet warping has been removed, making it so that going out of range of the pets will cause pets to despawn, instead of WARP to your character
  (likes -- this was a good idea, as it removed the problem with pets warping to you, then falling to there deaths when you are flying)
  (dislikes -- this, or something similar is causing a NEW BUG for the field drones, that is causing them to get stuck to areas of the land, and either despawning randomly, or causing them to not heal you at all as they stay at the location they get stuck at.)

That being said, here is some ideas i can think of, being a small-time coder myself. Please understand, I'm not telling anyone how to do there job, just trying to give feedback and ideas to help out.

In the following these are just ideas, and looking for feedback. I don't feel these additions would be that hard to implement and wouldn't allow any one person any major benifit over anyone else.

Quick List::

• Separate PetUI pet pet type/group
• Toggle pet WARP command
• Pet count per Pet type/group
• Healing Selection for Field Drones
• (check healing priority for Field Drones)
• Add checks and balances for droid speed/pathing/abilitys

Detailed List::

• A Pet UI for each pet type. (example: PETUI-1 = munition drones ... PETUI-2 = Field Drones, etc)
  This would allow for de-summoning specific pets that may be causing problems, or got stuck and have to respawn, etc.
• Setup some kind of way, weather it be TAP or CHARGE or even a new action on the pet hotbar, that we can drop into hotkey, for us to WARP the pets to our character. It was a auto-feature that was for pets previously and removed, don't see that as being an issue.. that would also allow a quick fix to pets pathing issues, as we can "manually" warp them to us, and be up and fighting again.
• Pet count per Pet type. This one kind of falls into the first topic of a separate PETUI for each pet type, but it could be separate as well if the option for separate petuis wasn't doable. Basically, something that will show us pet controllers how many of each pet that we have up, as it can get hectic at higher lvls, with a full group, to see who has what pets up currently.
• Healing Selection for "Field Drones". What i'm talking about is some kind of way to specify a healing priority (example: ALL = everyone, PARTY = party members, SELF = current player, and any pets they control, etc) . Whatever selection you choose, will put that "group" into high priority for healing, so even if someone else is dieing around that "group" it will FIRST try to heal them, then it will try to heal others if there is noone else within the specified group.
• If the previous idea of healing selection isn't doable, then at least look into the Field Drones priority list. I have died multiple times due to my Field Drones healing others, some not even in my party, and I'm standing there in BLOCK mode, and pets keep on healing others while i die.
• Add checks and balances for drone speed/pathing/abilitys. What I'm referring to, or thinking here is to give pets, specifically the Field Drones, as they are flying units, they should be able to fly, and keep up with your player. Even if you are flying, or running, or whatever. I can see where this could be overpowered if field drones are flying all over at SONIC type speeds, so, make it so that if the Field Drones are going to the OWNED player (the one that owns the drones) and is outside a defined range (example : greater then 50m) then allow pet to move at highest travel speed. Once the field drone gets within the defined range, then they auto drop down to standard movement speed. Exemption to this would be IF the player that owns the drones is flying, without attacking or being attacked without the last few seconds, then the drones would auto move at highest speed to keep up with player. You could even link the FLIGHT timer, that auto drops you to a slower speed when being attacked, or attacking onto the drones, to exempt the 2nd part of this idea. Also, having ability for munition drones to fly and keep up with your player would be nice, but having to re-summon them isn't that big of an issue really.

EDIT::
After thinking this over, I wanted to add another idea. If all else fails, and the pathing, and all for the Munitions Drones can't be fixed, then why not make them as Stationary turrets only? I mean, yea, I'm talking about taking out the Munition Drones, and adding turrets. But honestly, anyone that uses the turrets constantly will tell ya that we mostly use them into turret form. So what would be the difference is changing them to one of the following...

OPTION1
CHARGE = call out 2 munition drones
TAP = warp a single munitions drones to you, and causes him to form into a turret
TAP2 = If both drones are in turret mode, then warp turret to you
((if you go out of range of turret control range, they auto turn to drones and find you))

OPTION2
CHARGE = calls out 1 turret drone (max of 2 times for a total of 2 turrets)
TAP = IF both turrets are already out, WARP one that was summoned first to you
((if you go out of range of turret control range, you get a warning on screen, after 5secs, despawn))