I had an interesting idea based on the Insect Glaive from monster hunter 4. See, while you're using that particular weapon, a giant bug (called a kinsect) rides around on your left arm, to be deployed to suck essence buffs from a monster before delivering them to you.

This got me thinking about minion type creatures in CoT, and how they'd be summoned. Obviously some minions you wouldn't be able to properly do this with (such as, say, an autonomous nine foot tall robot), but I feel this warrants at least a little discussion.

Now, from where I'm standing at the moment, I can see three different ways to summon pets to you. The first and most obvious is the way that CoH did it - you summon a minion through the use of an ability, there's a summoning animation alongside the minion's "Arrival" animation, and then it follows you around doing your bidding.

The second way I can see is a "permanent" pet. In a lot of games, you have things like rangers or hunters who have a pet built into their class. They can command it as they like, but it's always there - it doesn't really need to be summoned. This version of the idea supports concepts that aren't summon-y, such as if you have a pet wolf acting as your minion. given how things are with a game like this, though, I could see it not being used at all.

And then we have the kinsect concept here, which is part of what inspired me to make this thread. See, the idea here is that you have a minion as a rider on your basic costume. Perhaps when it's not in use, your robot rides around on your back like a backpack. you can command your shadow to leave you and attack your enemy. That halo of fire can be changed into a demon at your command. Or maybe you have a few giant bugs riding around on you that you can send to attack your enemies. The idea here is something of a dynamic costume piece that doubles as a minion summon effect. I don't know about you guys, but I'd get a lot of use out of this.

What do you think?

(yes, I know minions aren't slated for launch, but the earlier you get out ideas, the more likely they are to be implemented, when the framework for them isn't set in stone.)