Problem: The companions follow my character too closely while running around in SW: ToR. After a battle is over, I run over to a corpse to loot/harvest from it and my companion is always right in the way to greet my mouse click. This is very frustrating. (There are a number of other instances that this happens, but I'm sure you get the drift.)

 

Solution: 1. Implement an 'easy' system in the preferences section in-game in order to allow the player to dictate companion 'follow distance'.

 

-or-

 

Solution: 2. Enable a feature so the player can dictate which side the companion travels on.

 

-or-

 

Solution 3. Enable a way to render the companion unclickable while in the field, or just a 'click through' feature.

(Credit for this suggestion: Ianfirth)

 

During the discussions of how to better our companions, Irusan brought up an excellent point on the problematic mission rewards windows. Below is the problem and possible solution.

 

Problem: When the companion comes back from a mission, the results window will appear while closing whatever other window happens to be open at the time.

 

Solution: Do away with the immediate results window and queue the pending instead. This allows the player to accept the mission reward (or see that his companion is incompetent and failed his/her diplomatic mission) at their convenience.

 

I'm sure these 'fixes' will take time, and that there is a better part of the community currently enraged about some PvP issue on Ilum that apparently needs fixing or "they'll all unsub", but I am a patient person.

 

Until then, I will change 3rd person distance to help myself out and graciously accept the mission windows. (Failures or not)

 

Thank you for your time.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Holiday
Added another companion issue.

ugh, i can't even count how many times khem val has got in the way of me trying loot a corpse, talk to an npc, activate a device, or anything on the game field.

 

i swear, the companions in swtor all just want to be able to loot or talk to the npc's just as much as i do. really annoying.

Yeah, I definitely have had instances where I felt my companions were invading my characters personal space a bit too much. A minor annoyance, but worth fixing.

If I had a buck for every time I've accidentally clicked on my companion instead of the loot/gather I would literally not have to work.

 

They need to figure out some way to give us a bit of room. Especially Bowdarr, he's freaking huge.

The game needs an option to make the companion unclickable at all times, since, there is never any reason to click them in the playfield. Ever.

Have to agree with ya.

/signed

Good constructive criticism and I agree. Khem Val and the bigger companions seem to be especially bad.

 

Another suggestion is to allow an option to click through the companions as if they're not there. Kind of like you can click through a chat window or what-not to select something.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Virgle

Yeah, it seems to be an issue in several games including SWTOR, as the same happened with pets in WoW. It appears that when combat ends, the companion automatically rushes to your exact position before starting to walk around.

 

I'd like to see this rectified as well, or better yet simply give us an option to make our companions unclickable while in the open world, since many classes/build have no need to target them outside of cantinas/our ships.

I agree with this post, and also when companions return from gathering/missions, just put the stuff in our inventory rather than closing out whatever we are doing to make us accept 2 gemstones or whatnot. If your map is up, BAM closed, if you are on page 13 of 27 pages of stuff you want to look at on the GTN, BAM closed, if you are at a vendor looking for something or just window shopping BAM closed, if you are in options adjusting whatever BAM closed. What is really bad is when its a failed mission....

I agree this is annoying...even in conversations with NPC's they seem to have some overlap even beyond their graphical avatar.

 

I have gotten so used to it I just slide my camera to overhead view now in most situations when looting or wanting to talk to an NPC.

One of the few major annoyances with game-play: Companion is always running and covering up where I am trying to click.

 

We definitely need to be able to either:

 

A) specify following distance and/or position.

 

B) Make our companions click-through-able.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Zebular

I'd like to click THROUGH my companion... I like that he follows close as I sneak past mobs.

It would seem that a lot of people dislike this little problem as well. Just as I assumed. So, what's the next step?

 

I am a bit of a forum noob, so please bare with me. Is there a protocol one needs to go through in order to make legitimate suggestions to Bioware? Or do we just keep /bumping this thread in the hopes that a Biodev looks at it?

 

Thanks for the backup guys!

 

Oh, and excellent point made by Irusan! That really frustrates me as well. How when the companion comes back from its mission and it closes whatever window you have open in order to show you the result of the mission. I agree, just add it to my inventory or keep it in pending! I'll add that to the plea.

This was a problem when I first started playing. The looting distance in the game is very large, so you don't need to be right on top of whatever your looting. They still get in the way but it doesn't happen as often.

/signed

 

would love to see something done about this, it's very annoying.

Solution 4:

 

Don't get so close to Mobs/NPC's when you're trying to loot/talk to them. Or walk away first if you are too close.

 

The loot radius in specific is VERY generous. I'd guesstimate ~20m.

 

I've very rarely had problems clicking on my companion when looting or talking... and I'm a melee tank with a melee DPS companion.

Gotten in to a habit of panning the camera to the side before I loot or click anything. Edited January 19, 2012 by Paralassa
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Solution 4:

 

Don't get so close to Mobs/NPC's when you're trying to loot/talk to them. Or walk away first if you are too close.

 

The loot radius in specific is VERY generous. I'd guesstimate ~20m.

 

I've very rarely had problems clicking on my companion when looting or talking... and I'm a melee tank with a melee DPS companion.

 

Oh I agree! The loot radius IS very generous. I have indeed adapted to my companion being in the way by standing several feet away from the loot point or NPC. However, this doesn't solve the problem for me. My companion still gets in the way. Often enough that the frustration of it compelled me to write this thread.

 

Something I have noticed though, there has been one companion pointed out more than others so far, and that's Khem Val. I wonder if he's the common denominator here. I was using him this morning when I was driven to create this thread.... interesting.

/signed