summoned mounts

[Eltsac]

Summoned mounts are temporary and are dismissed when not needed anymore.
They should disappear when dismissed so they do not fill forests around cities :p

El

[Raona]

Currently, I believe every summoned creature disappears after a time set by the level of the caster. So they do go away, but it may be a long time after they are dismissed. Is your suggestion that these creatures should be unsummoned at the moment they are dismissed?

[Eltsac]

Yes

El

[Raona]

Very good! Moving to suggestions...what do other people think of this? Should summoned minions (like elementals) be unsummoned when their caster dismisses them, rather than when their summon timer runs out?

[Selveem]

Here's the deal, to be fair:

The spell is "mount" spell in D&D and only supposed to last 2 hours per caster level. Regardless as to whether it us under control of the caster at that time or abandoned; afterwards I assume it is replaced where it was taken from.

The spell leaves those that utilize it often under scrutiny/ire of other players (such as me, scolding a certain someone who put me in my place with this point ) because once dismissed it just wanders around the MUD forever on its own within whatever area it was dismissed in. It could get really spammy if more wizards were using this spell. No one would ever buy a horse again if they could just mount one that lasts indefinitely for free every couple of rooms.

[Enig]

I agree it'd be ideal for them to disappear immediately when released, and I'd like to add that it'd also be nice to see something similiar done for floating discs.

(For what it's worth, I'm not at all convinced the 'timed' summon thing has ever worked; I don't think I've ever seen anything summoned actually disappear (by way of having the spell's duration run out), though in many instances the mobs/carts die before they get the chance and I'm only familiar with a handful of the spells that use the mechanic.)

[Selveem]

Well said Meanig.

[Isolrem]

I've had the mount disappear when in my control after a reasonably long time.

Once dismissed it appears to last forever.

[Raona]

I just (re-)tested this with a summoned earth elemental, and it disappeared when the summon timer ran out, as expected. I don't believe that functionality is broken. High level casters do have their summoned creatures last a *long* time, however.

The question at hand is whether a summoned creature should be unsummoned (made to disappear) the instant their summoner dismisses them, as opposed to when the summon timer runs out. This makes sense to me. Is there any reason it should not be made the case? Someone wanting to summon a creature to leave behind as a guard can just have it sit, and summoned creatures should not be "handed off" to other PCs; I can see no downside to this suggestion, but is there anyone who can? It offers the advantage of not having summoned creatures left lurking about ready to attack the next PC that wanders into wherever they have meandered.

Floating discs don't have unsummon timers, for good reason. But it might be quite handy if they were to disappear when dismissed. Good (additional) suggestion!

[Aveline]

faithful hound- Gesine had one of these that lasted for well over 9 RL months before she finally dismissed it. It lasted another IRL month after that before I got an IMM to take care of it for me. Now I haven't used that spell in sometime so it might not be the case anymore. But I've also been hit and miss with this... I think it may depend on each casting. Sometimes I would cast it and it would last only a few minutes, others I would cast it and it would last for a few days, other times it would leave as soon as I dismissed it and then sometimes not. I don't know what was going on with that one, but I agree that it would be nice if it disappeared once dismissed regardless.

[Nysan]

I remember a bug report I made regarding an earth elemental that lasted several weeks, while the ones before and after it only lasted days/hours. It was marked up as random oddity, like Gesine's hound. (Floating discs are another head scratcher entirely.)

Now, if all works right and summoned critters poof upon dismiss or timer runs out, sounds fine by me. I often find myself wanting/needing to dismiss the pet before the timer is up. It would be a small comfort to know the elemental disappeared and is not wandering around the wilderness until the timer ended.

[Raona]

Currently, Monster Summon doesn't seem to set a timer, the others do, though some are long.

Need to do more research; they all seem to use different code, and should likely all be consolidated to use one.

Put in an enhancement request (#975) to have summoned creatures unsummoned when they are dismissed. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Necalli]

Just a small suggestion for summoned creatures and the dismiss command.

Summoned creatures, be it 'summon mount', 'faithful hound', 'phantom steed', or 'monster summon', should return to their place/plane of origin should the summoner dismiss them from their service before the spell reaches it's duration.

Right now, if you 'dismiss' a mount summoned via 'summon mount' or a hound summoned via 'faithful hound', the creature simply doesn't return home and after a while, you have guard dogs and pack mounts just wandering around everywhere. I'm not certain if this is true for 'summon monster' or 'phantom steed', but I'm assuming that it is, seeing as how dismissing summoned creatures seems to bypass the expiration of the spell since the spell can no longer target them once they are out of the caster's group.

On a side note, are there still plans to break 'monster summon' into it's respective levels and grant them more conventional creatures? 'Cause being able to summon an Ekolid or a Bebilith would be the bee's knees, just saying.

[Nysan]

Don't forget 'conjure elemental' and 'conjure greater elemental'. Haven't had to dismiss one in a while, but I assume it functions within the same rules as the other summon spells.

[Keltorn]

I think a big part of this is because you're not so much "dismissing" the creature from the Material Plane as you are "dismissing" the creature as a coded minion. They're similar terms, but kind of different. I'd like to see extraplanar dismissable myself. They need to go home when their service is finished.

On a side note, are there still plans to break 'monster summon' into it's respective levels and grant them more conventional creatures? 'Cause being able to summon an Ekolid or a Bebilith would be the bee's knees, just saying.

I hope so!

[Raona]

Merging this with existing topic; enhancement request is already in the system (but Mask is a new Daddy, so has little time for the non-emergency at present!).

[Necalli]

I should probably start using the search more often... eh?

Anyways, good deal.

[Raona]

I should probably start using the search more often... eh?

Anyways, good deal.

No worries, it's often hard to know what to search for. I'll often get halfway through testing or even entering a bug before I remember for sure that I've done it before...just didn't try the right search terms in looking for it!

[Aveline]

I don't know if anything ever came of any of this but I have been using summon mount lately and it lasts forever... And the mount persists even after being dismissed. My caster is level 50 so that is probably why it lasts so long.

Two suggestions:

Main one: Can it please be changed so that the creature disappears when dismissed?

Second: Would it not make more sense for the duration to be based on skill level of the spell rather than level of the caster? I know Gesine is awesome but to me it does not really make sense for her first attempt of the spell to last RL weeks (I actually have not had one go away yet so I am not sure how long it would really last. She is inept at the spell). I know the books and all you people go by say it is based on caster level, I just think it would make more sense here to go off of spell skill level.

[Casamir]

Maybe we could make them and other summons remove everything and then drop everything when they depart as well (if they are not already doing it.) It would be nice accident prevention. Does anyone recall if they are even supposed to be able to suck anything back into the aether with them in official sources?