Sidekick Imprinter Device

Discussion in 'Gotham City (General Gameplay)' started by JKR, Jul 24, 2021.

  1. JKR Well-Known Player

    Ok, so I'd like to see fully customizable sidekicks but I'm sure its a huge technical problem.

    What if a Sidekick imprinter device could be made that captures the image of anything that stands within it similar to how our armories work.
    The image created within the Sidekick Imprinter Device is then transferred to your sidekick.

    This can create an avenue for full customization in several ways.
    1. Character A can create their own designs.
    2. Character B could use Character A's Sidekick Imprinter Device thus allowing access to different body types and genders.
    3. Player A could ask Player B to use their character's image through the use of the Imprinter Device thus allowing access to different body types and genders..

    Application example:
    So, Batman and Robin would be achieveable by yourself through the use of multiple character slots or through the help of a friend as long as their image is imprinted within the device.

    To be clear, I am not asking for great functionalty leaps from the sidekicks, rather I'm simply looking for more motivation to actually use them and help to create more variety within the game.
    • Like x 2
  2. Qwantum Abyss Loyal Player

    Seems overly complex…..
    • Like x 2
  3. Illumin411 Loyal Player

    That's not how 3D texture mapping works. The cost of implementing software capable of anything like that would more than double your subscription cost.
  4. JKR Well-Known Player

    That really dosen't matter to me because I'm trying to put out several solutions to the same situation. The thing is, after years of paying for subcriptions, I'd like to see the $1000 plus game I've been paying for. lol
  5. Illumin411 Loyal Player

    Meanwhile the game we currently play has cost millions and millions to maintain and regularly update. While your support is appreciated, it's only a hydrogen molecule inside a drop in the bucket of what the game in it's current iteration has cost.
    • Like x 2
  6. Faerie_Knight Well-Known Player

    As someone who's being learning 3d modeling, I really don't think this idea is as simple as assumed. In fact, it might be horribly complicated, and possibly impossible with the game's engine. And that's just from a design standpoint.

    What about characters who are suppose to be a sidekick themself? Miss Meow is suppose to be Batman's latest ward after her parents were killed and she was turned into a cat-girl in Braniac's initial attack. She was 7 or 8 at the time, and she's Batman's ward rather then Bruce Wayne's ward. She doesn't actually know Wayne is Batman.
    • Like x 1
  7. JKR Well-Known Player

    Let me put it another way. If they won't or can't fix the sidekicks, they should probably just get rid of them. I would have to bet that the sidekicks are the least used generator item and that is most likely due to their lack of appeal. Hopefully others would like to see that change as well for the betterment of the game. If not, "say la vee" lol
  8. JKR Well-Known Player


    What? Ok, focus. You say its not so simple, I acknowledged that in the OP. Hopefully, they can do it anyway.
  9. Faerie_Knight Well-Known Player

    I use sidekicks on occasion, but more often then not forget I have that trinket equipped. :)

    Of course, when I do think to summon one it isn't very helpful usually. My drone turret does more to help usually. Just changing the sidekick's appearance wouldn't fix that issue.
    • Like x 1
  10. JKR Well-Known Player


    Way off topic but whatever, cool.
  11. JKR Well-Known Player


    Agreed. Functionality boost would be great but, at this point with so little traction for sidekicks and their potential, I'd settle for cosmetic.
  12. Faerie_Knight Well-Known Player

    I don't think you quite understand... near as I can figure, the armories likely make an exact copy of your character model, which is used to replace whatever model you currently have set up via cosmetics. And make no mistake, various costume pieces probably do require your character model to be changed.

    Having an armory type thing where you copy your current appearance and apply it to your summoned henchmen... That is likely to not work well, especially if my guess is correct about costumes (and armories) being changes to the actual model rather then just textures. Especially so if your character's body type is different then the henchman you ware trying to set up a costume for.
    • Like x 1
  13. JKR Well-Known Player


    Trust me, I get you. I've heard early on that problems were created that make the whole thing a mess as well. The point is I am trying several avenues to see change in the game. This is one of them.

    Wether or not it works or could be made to work is ultimately not up to me. Simply offering a concept.
  14. Apollonia Dedicated Player

    I think this is still the best solution for Sidekicks. It seems the most feasible. There may be technical limitations I can't forsee though:

  15. Faerie_Knight Well-Known Player

    Wanting new things and improvements, yeah I can get that. I can even agree with it. But the more I learn about coding, 3d modeling, and making games... the more I realize that us end users never realize just how hard something really is to achieve. Take the ability to customize your character for example. As the end user, all you have to do is select one of the preset options and adjust a slider or two. Maybe even 3 sliders. If the devs were feeling ambitious, you may even have sliders for individual facial features. When we change our costume in-game, it's easy. Just select the option on a drop down menu, and it's immediately shown to us. Then once we save things, that's it.

    But as I've been learning, it's not that easy on the developer's end. Every single face preset and body type? That's probably a different 3d model. If it's not a different 3d model for each preset, then it's a custom designed Transform. And to be honest, I'm not sure which option is less work. The height slider (and any other sliders)? Those are Transforms with added code to allow the player to manipulate it. And that is... not easy. Maybe a more experienced coder would consider it a trivial task, but there are so many ways you can potentially do it. Oh, and you have to make sure the rigging wont get broken by those Transform operations.

    After that you have to create every costume piece. Some are just a texture, sure. But not all of them. In fact, most aren't just a texture. And they have to work on every character model type regardless of how the player tweaked it using those sliders you gave them access to. Oh, and you need to make sure they wont clip into each other, if possible. So that's at least 3 different versions of any given costume piece (male, female, huge). Possibly more. Oh, and you have to make sure they wont get borked by any combat animations...

    My point is that while wanting new shinies and improvements is good, it's wise to temper your expectations because anything new will be done in the easiest and most cost effective way possible. Making an entire new system is just to change the appearance of npc sidekicks? Great idea, but how much work will it take? And is it likely to break something else? So many of the systems in a game are interconnected, even if they don't seem like they would be. I remember a time when City of Heroes/Villains released a hotfix patch to fix the severe lag and game crash issues a content update caused. That hotfix accidentally broke a dozen other things, including removing the exit door for an important building in the end-game zone. So they had to do a hotfix to fix the problems the previous hotfix introduced.

    In short, your idea is likely so overly complicated that it either wouldn't work, or would be too much work to implement. It's more likely we'd get additional alternate sidekick types at some point rather then fully customizable sidekicks.
    • Like x 2
  16. JKR Well-Known Player

    If your scenario is true, then at least we get something. No offense, I skimmed down to "My point" although I appreciate your attempt to share knowledge (and its funny how you ended with "in short") but they point is sidekicks have been neglected since inception so after a decade fix em or get rid of em. I'm personally tired of seeing that option availble but, due to its current state, is quite unuseable in my opinion.
  17. Faerie_Knight Well-Known Player

    Well, considering the biggest issue with the current sidekicks and henchmen is that I think they don't scale with your CR... The system was added fairly early in the game's life. As such, the sidekicks and henchmen are balanced for CR 30-79 content, I think. Maybe they are balanced for the next tier up. Beyond that, they get outclassed by enemies in my experience. Hell, even in tier 3 stuff they started getting outclassed when I thought to use it.
  18. JKR Well-Known Player

    Again, I agree functionality improvements would be great especially to help differeniate sidekicks from the henchmen more clearly but, supposedly, everything is so impossible to do technically, so then cool. My point, do something.

    Side note: My answer: Your Answer:
    Would we miss sidekicks if there gone: no ???
    Would we like them if they were at least
    as attractive as henchmen: yes ???
    Should we really depend on Sidekicks
    or henchmen: no ???
  19. Faerie_Knight Well-Known Player

    The current implementation? No, probably not. Currently I believe sidekicks are done as a static summoning power. A given sidekick or henchman ability will always summon the exact same thing, and always at the same effectiveness level because it's just calling up a set npc from the database.

    Then again, none of the trinket powers are particularly impactful. I have (and even sometimes use) a batarang trinket. It's equipped because it's thematic due to Miss Meow being Batman's protege. But it doesn't scale with my stats and it's kind of clunky to use if in a utility belt slot. Meanwhile not having a utility belt means you can equip fewer trinkets in general. Which can potentially be bad, since as you go up in CR you'll really want those passive stat boosts from additional trinkets. And/or maybe some additional healing via extra stacks of sodar colas.
  20. Illumin411 Loyal Player

    I agree. How much money you've paid for your membership over the years is definitely irrelevant to the topic especially considering how they in no way entitle you to extremely costly minor improvements.
    • Like x 1