Add the Ability to Change Pets and Equipment Loadouts to the HUD
The Inconvenience
I think it's great that STS allows us to save equipment loadouts. I've always been a bit of an equipment junkie in every MMORPG I've played; the capability usually requires an external add-on. It's implemented very well in AL. I'm a huge fan of always having the appropriate gear / pet for whatever role I need to fulfill and pride myself in being flexible. As such, I frequently change my pets and equipment. It would be incredibly if I had the ability to do this from the HUD. As it stands, I need to do the following:
Change Pets: Click on Character Profile > Stable > Scroll to correct pet > Click on pet > Summon > Close (6 Clicks)
Change Equipment: Click on Character Profile > Inventory > Loadout > Loadout # > Close (5 Clicks)
(There are designated keyboard shortcuts in Chrome that make this a little less painful)
While I'm making the above switches, I forfeit access to all of my abilities, the movement of my character, and my situational awareness. I appreciate that the screen blinks red when I'm in a menu and being attacked, but it would be much more helpful if I could quickly make these changes without disrupting gameplay. In most other MMORPGs I've played (PC based), I've been able to do this with keyboard commands. I understand that implementing programmable keyboard commands would put phone and tablet AL players at a disadvantage.
A Recommended Solution
So, I recommend that we have the option to add two buttons to the HUD in the same way we have the ability to "Show Emotes on HUD." They would be "Show Equipment Loadouts on HUD" and "Show Favorite Pets on HUD." They would operate in much the same way as the emotes: Click on button, options appear, click the one you want.
Change Pets: Click on Pets Button on HUD > Select 1 of 4 Pets (2 clicks without leaving all the action)
Change Equipment: Click on the Loadouts on HUD > Select 1 of 4 Loadouts (2 clicks without leaving all the action)
The only additional change that would need to be made is the ability to favorite pets. Maybe 4 to be the same as the number of loadouts and emotes? In addition, I think it would make a lot of sense to have your favorite pets at the top of your stable as they're the ones you use most frequently. I love collecting all the pets (and going for the achievements), but some are clearly more useful than others. As it stands, the more pets I acquire, the less effective I am at quickly switching between them. I don't think anyone enjoys scrolling through their pets while they're under attack.
Potential Problems
If people making the switches too quickly becomes a concern, I would recommend disallowing equipment changes during combat (except for maybe weapons), and that pet cool downs carry over from the previous pet to prevent people from rotating pets to free up their cooldown (this might already be implemented).
I feel like the change would greatly improve my gameplay flow and make sure that I never miss out on all the fun action! Let me know if anyone else likes this idea!
This is also my first post. I signed up specifically to post this. Thanks for making such a great game!
-Malk
