Monster Master, similar to Loaded Artifacts or Loaded Weapons

I'm thinking of making a third "class" that's something like a monster master.

I'm trying to think of the best way to set it up, and I'm looking for ideas.

First up, I think thr requirements for this skill would be:

Monster Tongue
Retaliation
Countershove
high damage bonus and damage reduction.

Also, this skill would start the player out with a special healing assault rifle... something a little more beefy than your average healing assault rifle, so they can boost their pets.

Then perhaps a scrollable list (like the artifact list) where you could choose which monster to summon.

Of course, like the other two classes, this one would be exclusive of those as well, hence no loaded artifacts or loaded weapons and monster master.

Can ya'all think of any skills that I could grant to both the controller and the monster to give them a meaningful boost?

Sounds a great idea.

One of the main complaints about pets is how stupid they are. If you could have a way for the controller to issue orders to the pet, that could be very useful. For example, "defend me" (attack anything that attacks me), or "kill" (search and destroy anything), or the ability to target a particular enemy, or even "run away"! Could have a "teleport back to me" command.

How about an ability to tame attacking monsters?

If the controller has say a vampire+3 weapon, does that mean the monsters also attack with the vampire+3 ability. If not, then could it?

I like the idea of the beefy healing assault rifle. Would be very useful.

Maybe give a Monster Master access to the monsters that normal people can't use, namely the Titans and the Queens. I'd place some kind of limit, of course, but that seems to be real incentive to choose this over the other two.

Also, you may want to give your monsters the ability to not only heal themselves, but you as well. Have it work just like a regular Vampirism stat, but have it set up so that you get the health as well. It might make up for the lack of stronger weapons.

I would also be for commandable monsters, but I imagine that would be extremely hard to program, so I wouldn't bet on it anytime soon.

make like a purchase system where certan monsters cost x amount of points the level of the skill determines the amount of points also have a limit so one person dosent have 10 Cicadas runing around

Also, you may want to give your monsters the ability to not only heal themselves, but you as well. Have it work just like a regular Vampirism stat, but have it set up so that you get the health as well. It might make up for the lack of stronger weapons.

Would it be possible to choose the mode that the pets are working in (e.g. Vampire or Energy), so you can use the pets to boost the stats you want? Or have 2 separate abilities - one for monster vampire the other for monster energy leech. Could do on a level basis for what vampire/energy leech would normally give?

And will artifacts like triple damage also work for pets. Again, could do on a level basis for an ability - lvl 1 50%, lvl 2 100%, lvl 3 150%?

How many pets will you be able to have? Can there be an ability to increase the number? (although too many will slow the game too much)

I have one contradiction, many people like loaded weapons and those that want this monster master ability wouldn't be able to get it if it would replace loaded weapons. Maybe you could make it more available to those of us that like loaded weapons and also like this idea of monster master.

Maybe create a Monster Master class, with all the most powerful abilities and such, but no Loaded Weapons or Artifacts, but also a middle ground were you can have all three, but only one or a couple levels in each of the specialized skills?

I personally like the idea of having different paths to walk and having to choose between them early on.

No sense in having all three be available even on a limited level. By having multiple paths this feels more like a real RPG with classes and jobs to take on.

I might allow the master to summon up to 2 pets, since their other skills with be lacking.

This is all theoretical at this point, so dont get too excited

I'm sure that you wont be able to get it and loaded weapons at the same time though.

1. Grant exp earned from monster only to the monster master and not the other classes (other classes being loaded artifacts = Weapons Master, loaded weapons = Magic Master).

2. Eliminate summon monster charm for other players (basically remove it from the map). Grant the charm only to the Monster Master. For example:

Monster Master 1: granted the Monster Summon Charm (not counted to 3 artifact limit and is undroppable).
Monster Master 2: granted double Monster Damage Charm (unbreakable, like triple damage), Monster Magic Charm (grants monster a magical property: Freezing, Poison, Vorpal (on selective monsters), Bonus Damage %, Null Entropy, etc.).
Monster Master 3: charms are unbreakable.
Monster Master 4: pets granted same bonuses as you when you use your artifacts.

(order subject to admin discretion)

3. Skill requirements for Monster Master (3 skills just like the other 2 classes):
Monster Tongue, Monster Swarm (new skill that allows additional monsters summoned: max 2, 3 or 4 monsters, admin decision. There are 2 ways you can do this. (1) You can even make it 1 monster = monster level is monster tongue level, 2nd monster = monster level is half of monster tongue level, 3rd monster = monster level is half of 2nd monster level. i.e. 3 monsters = 8th level monster, 4th level monster, and 2nd level monster in play, OR by (2) have as many levels you want and show the monster level progression of each monster that is extra, for example, level 1 is your monster tongue level plus half of that for the 2nd monster, and then say level 8 is 2 monster tongue level monsters and 2 monsters half that monster tongue level, up to admin to decide), Awareness.

4. I think countershove and retaliation should still be open to everyone since those skills don't pertain much to monsters itself, unlike Awareness (applies directly to monsters). (Countershove and retaliation skills apply to gametypes other than Invasion, i.e. Deathmatch, CTF, etc.)

I would suggest placing some kind of flow chart or something to show people that there are indeed 3 different classes and each of those classes have access to certain skills. For example, create 3 catagories which are Magic Master, Weapons Master, and Monster Master. Then show their primary skills available only to them. Next catagory, call it General Skills and show all those skills and that they are attainable by any class.

I can dwell more on this but this is just off the top of my head.

Feel free to throw out whatever I suggest, since honestly I have NO idea what is feasible in terms of programing for your rpg mod... or well any mod. That being said:

Since they LIKELY won't get to be adrenaline or health "junkies" (no leech or vampirism). Might I suggest a special skill that will mitigate damage between them and their monsters. Like if the player got hit for 100, 50 of it would go to their monster, or something to that effect. Or if that makes things too easy, can make them have shared health... now that could get messy.

Another big thing (at least in my mind) would be the problem where certain monsters can't hurt other monsters... like warlords on warlords, lotta flying (couple cheap giggles too) and nothing get accomplished. Only idea I've come up with to solve this so far (and I'm hardly a programmer) is the pets would need to be something that can damage everything, for example (yes we all hate them) nalis. This idea though does open a whole load of other possiblities. Like, summoning a nali with a weapon of your choice, upgrading the weapon, blah blah blah etc etc

Anyway, figured you can never have too many suggestions so.... Hopefully I at least gave ya something to think about

Keep up the good work, it's appreciated.

I am all for new stuff and I think this is a kewl idea, but I must ask the question on why creating this class. No offense is intended at all by this post but wasn't the use of a "regular summoning charm" removed from the game for several reasons.

One being that people hated having so many player controlled creations around for the sense of "cluttering" the map. Secondly, and probably more importantly, didn't having several extra player controlled monsters put alot of extra stress on the server. It would seem that having players with the natural ability of a summoning charm cause alot of stress on the server, hence creating game stability/lags issues with the server.

Based upon comments posted earlier, I think I would suggest the following:

Loaded Monsters skill.
Requires Awareness, Monster Tongue, Monster Vampire
Cannot have at the same time as Loaded Weapons or Loaded Artifacts
level 1: Get 2 monsters of the type set by Monster Tongue.
level 2: Monsters have regeneration (doesn't affect the player)
level 3: Monsters have a random +ve magic (e.g. +3 vampire)
level 4: Monsters also get player boosts (double/triple damage, invulnerability, booster, speed combo)
(levels not necessarily in that order!)

Monster Vampire skill.
Cannot have with Vampirism or Energy Leech.
For each level, the player only gets a % of the damage caused by the monster back as health.
The Monster Vampire is required because every class needs a method of getting health. For Weapons Masters this is Regeneration and Vampire. For Magic Master, this is Booster.

Monster Tongue should not be available at the same time as Regeneration and Adrenal Drip. However, I would leave the Monster Summoning charm in, as it is a vital part of a Magic Master. With a limit of 2 pets for a Monster Master, and Monster Tongue not generally available, the number of pets on a map shouldn't increase too much.

Could extend Awareness to level 3 to see what random +ve magic monsters are using?

I am not sure that we need a healing assault rifle if the monsters can have regeneration. If the player has one anyway, then great.

Just a suggestion.

The one reason I don't think monster regeneration type abilities (regen, vamp) are needed is that once your monster dies, it is automatically replaced anyways. I'm glad I have that because my monster tongue pet sometimes gets stuck or is half dead without legs, so I just blow it up and then viola!, I get a new one running on up to me.

The biggest advantage I would say about being a Monster Master would be the ability to gain EXP from your pet doing damage. You may even want to make it double what it is now.

I have to agree with Cha-Chi on this one.
If the Master's pets didn't show on radar and the Master had more control of them (i.e. they can't just get stuck somewhere stupid), then I'd lean more toward it.
But the way things are now... the reasons above and the fact the pet gets in my way more than help.... is why I'm trying to get rid of monster tongue. The pets aren't aggressive enough. They stand around more than not.

Maybe go another route... more of a Monk type class

Shield Gun only

Of course we'd all expect them to have some other kewl stuff... like mega quickfoot, power jump, airmaster, autoload electromagnet, etc. More of a 'fun' class, versus a power class.