I just found out why we can't kill companions

[GruntDoc]

Well done Walkiry, a fine quality rant! Skadge was quickly moved onto my

"People who you NEVER want to be stuck on a spaceship with" list.

 

1. Skadge

2. Dr. Zachary Smith (Eewwww!!!)

3. Jayne Cobb (The "Man-Ape" we all love to hate)

4. Wesley Crusher (Gee Whiz....My science experement broke the spaceship....again!!!)

5. C2-N2

Edited February 9, 2012 by GruntDoc

[Lord_Rezo]

Be glad you're not a Sith Juggernaut then.

 

 

No Sith with half an ounce of self respect would keep Quinn around after what he does in the story.

 

Was going to tell this...

 

i was a somekind chaotic Sith Lord but hey... someone betrays you and you just forgive him because uhm.... why on the damn hell did i forgave him?

 

[CommonKnowledge]

On my Trooper I felt the same way about one of my companions

 

 

Tanno

 

Right from the start it was obvious he was a knob head and I took every opportunity to insult him, as did most of my other companions. But I'm forced to cart him around for a few quests, which wrecks my playstyle anyway because I'm used to Elara healing me and now I have some caveman prodding things with a stick. Yet I figure it's just temporary and soon I'll be able to get rid of him.

 

At this point I've reluctantly finished some quests with Tanno when Garza shows up and asks if Tanno can join Havod squad. NO WAY! I tell her in the dialogue options, which everyone else likes so they must hate him as well. Tanno then says I'm not being very nice like a spoilt child who's just pissed in the lemonade and is now being told they won't get any more.

 

Garza then tells me - the leader of bloody Havoc squad who decides who gets in and who doesn't - that Tanno is joining anyway despite both me and Elara telling Tanno where to stick it.

 

Later on I'm forced to use that cretin again for the gauntlet and all I want to do is clap him in irons and park that bomb right between his plumbs.

 

[O-Deka-K]

What the devs did W-R-O-N-G is forcing players to follow a certain light/dark choice until they get their appropiate companion. For example, Sith Warriors are mostly forced to follow Light choices until they can get rid of Vette.

 

"Mostly forced" to follow certain choices? Pfft, just pick whatever conversation choices you want and BUY your friends like a REAL Sith.

[Ossos]

LOL they nerfed everyone, gave out pets and called it content.

 

I guess it beats creating a game where players might have to group with other people....like an MMO or something.

[xSighKo]

Amidst the discussions about companion characters, one thing that has come up more than once is why we no longer can kill our companions (one thing that had been mentioned before during development, but didn't make it to the released game.

 

The official explanation was something along the lines that they didn't want people to gimp themselves by lacking a companion they may need, or complaining after the fact, no matter how many warnings the "killing the companion option" came with. I was never too convinced by the explanation, as there are ways around the purely gameplay-related issues (like, for example, the "role kits" that were tested for companions to change their role at one point, among others).

 

At the end of the day I never gave it much thought, the companions were there and if you didn't like the big lizard or the annoying droid you could just leave them in the ship and have them run errands. I didn't think any of them were that bad really.

 

Then, yesterday, I found the reason why we can't kill our companions. My bounty hunter got Skadge.

 

I have voiced my displeasure before about the way the Republic has been written, and I thought the Republic-side Voss Quests took the cake for hair-tearing bad writing, but sweet merciful Force, Skadge!

 

[Rant and Spolier Mode On]

 

 

 

I had no idea this guy was going to be a companion when I first met him, because I've pretty much ignored spoilers and stuck to the game itself. The fact that I can't remember anyone running around with one of these should serve as an early warning.

 

Our first meeting during the early part of the Belsavis Class Quest turns out to be a sign of things to come, where I find out he's after the same bounty I am on the godforsaken planet.

 

If you don't know, by now I have completed the Great Hunt, where I've been hunting targets and every other hunter that came after my target on a regular basis. The fact that this guy is one mother****ing rude boaster whose first act is to threaten me and it all fizzles out without my hard-as-nails, trigger-happy champion of the great hunt Bounty Hunter ripping his ugly face off his skull confuses the hell out of me, but after previous experiences I can figure out he's going to at least be a recurring character for the quest line.

 

F-ing great.

 

Sure enough, this moron shows up, forces his way into every dialog option thanks to the overbearing writer, who I can only assume went through at least three IBM Class-M keyboards putting the "story"line together given the ham-fistedness on display, and on top of that makes a F-ing royal mess every single bloody time and still has the gall to get on my face about it when he fails to do his part on the supposedly "team-up" plans we come up with.

 

Actually, that bit is possibly well played, since I'd have to be a complete and utter moron to split the hunt with this denizen of the shallow end of the gene pool. Unfortunately, the only other choice on display was to leave the quest to rot (since I can't abandon it) and never ever progress past the point.

 

Hindsight is 20/20, and in hindsight that's actually an attractive option. If you haven't gotten that far yet with your Bounty Hunter, give it some serious thought.

 

Anyway, after a series of increasingly idiotic chest-beating Neanderthalian exchanges that I'm sure forced the guy writing them down to handle his pen with a chainmail glove so as to avoid cutting himself with his, only in his mind, razor sharp wit, and break another Class M keyboard while at it (hot-diggity damn I'm good, look at them manly lines!), the oversized slug belches out that he's coming with me, because dammit all I'm not getting to his target without him.

 

My options are:

 

1) Cool! Please come!

2) I still don't trust you, but you can come.

3) You better make yourself useful.

 

Champion of the Great Hunt, remember? Going after my own target. A very expensive contract to get my hands on an annoying Republic dog that I need to take down to get to someone who, at this point, has really pissed me off.

 

And somehow, I'm supposed to be happy as pie that some... thing I want to deface with a mallet is about to join me while claiming it's his target?

 

Like hell!

 

And that's when it dawns on me.

 

It can't be.

 

Surely, it must be a temporary thing.

 

He can't be a... companion, can he?

 

I choose at random one of the "yeah, sure, come along while I completely break character after establishing it for 40+ levels based on the quests created by the very same writers", and Mako proceeds to inform me that it's a stupid idea.

 

...

 

By Yoda, it's Voss all over again. Making even my companion see it and inform me of it while not giving me the option of shooting Bowser in the face was a nice touch too. Twist the knife a bit, will ya?

 

So, with Jabba's ugly trans-species son in tow, I get to the last quest area to finally find my target. A few lines of more braindead dialog later I have captured the guy (after having Bela Lugosi faceplant during the fight too), and frog-in-a-can tells me that he wants to leave the planet in my ship.

 

My options are:

 

1) Something I didn't see.

2) Something I didn't see.

3) HELL NO!!

 

I pressed 3 so fast I don't think the game had time to render the other two options before I did.

 

And what does the homeless snail say in response?

 

"Listen, I'm leaving in your ship, with or without you, got that?"

 

...

 

ARE YOU *********** KIDDING ME?!

 

This... This... This complete and utter writer's failure has been nothing but a character-breaking prop that missed the obvious "tough guys making witty over-the-top banter" target by twelve Parsecs, then you have the audacity of making him threaten my Bounty Hunter, and the options you give me to choose an answer from are:

 

1) Okay, I'm convinced.

2) Oooh, I really like your tough guy routine, please come.

3) OMG please don't hurt meh! D:

 

I literally stared at the screen for more than a minute in complete and utter disbelief.

 

This synapse-impaired oxygen waster should be DEAD. Like this:

 

1) Try saying that again. [Punch his face in until his tongue comes out of his ***]

2) I said no. [shoot him until all there's left is a pestilent greasy stain on the floor, wearing heavy armor]

3) Hey ugly, catch! [Throw live thermal detonator at him]

 

You have driven me almost at gunpoint down the Bounty Hunter path so that he's the Champion of the Great Hunt, is on a first name basis with mandalore, and is altogether someone who doesn't take **** from anybody, and I'm supposed to take a guy who's been getting on my **** all day, who's pushed himself on my hunt, and who now goes and threatens me to do something I have no business and no reason to do. And I'm supposed to take it and like it!

 

Thank you sir, may I have another?

 

Now I have a prop from Jurassic Park leaning against the wall by the bridge of my ship, to make sure I see its gosh darn ugly face every time I get to the galaxy map to go somewhere else, and who already made me want to punch my monitor in hopes of somewhat reaching him through the internet as soon as it opened its huge mouth on arriving to the ship for the first time.

 

And look, he's got a little quest icon on his head now.

 

...

 

"It's a bad idea."

 

That's what the little voice in my head is telling me. I believe it commonly goes under the name "Common Sense". It's a bad idea and it's going to make me want to punch someone. I shouldn't click him. Just ignore him. Ignore him. He's not there. Ignore him...

 

*Click*

 

Bowser: Hey, what's to do for fun in this ship?

Me: Mostly, pushing annoying people into the airlock.

Bowser: Haha! When do we play a round then?

Me: If you keep this up, very soon.

Bowser: Try it, wimp!

 

*Conversation Ends without a chance to actually push the ******e into an airlock*

 

...

 

"I told you it was a bad idea."

 

I want this... this... thing OUT OF MY FREAKING SHIP!

 

I don't care if it's going to "gimp" me.

 

I don't care if I don't have enough companions to run all possible missions/crafting/etc.

 

I don't care if my computer will chew my right leg if I do.

 

I don't care.

 

Don't care.

 

I don't want to see that protoplasmic waste of space in my ship, or on my list of companions, or anywhere else near me EVER AGAIN.

 

But I'm stuck with it. Because we can't kill companions. And now, I know why we can't.

 

Congratulations to whoever wrote this guy, you managed to top the Republic-side Voss writer. And I never thought it possible. /golfclap

 

 

 

 

[Rant and Spolier Mode Off]

 

 

Was lol'ing for a good amount of time there buddy, nice rant.

[Thunder-God]

It would be really really nice to be able to smoke or at least get rid of our varied companions. I understand the worry, but this was one of those few examples of an opportunity for actual lasting choices with consequences in the game. Seems kind of crappy that they folded on it.

 

Yeah...the whole game is filled with choices that seem vastly different...yet the end result is the same. This presents choices as if it were like Mass Effect, but it does not have serious consequences like it does in Mass Effect.

 

The companions are no different. By the end of the game everyone has to have a full set of companions...even if the character of the companion and the storyline that goes with it in no way jives with how you are playing your character. Because of that you aren't given the option to not have the companion join you, or like the OP found out....even if you are...they'll come anyway.

 

I have one companion I hate so far...and that's on my Smuggler, that goody two shoes country boy Corso Riggs. He hates every dark/light decision I make (almost all dark). I would've much rather left him on Ord Mantel....but nooo...we are nothing without our companions.

 

I didn't like Skadge a lot when I first met him, but he's grown on me. Still not my favorite companion but he's up there.

Edited February 9, 2012 by Thunder-God

[JnEricsonx]

You can't compare Skadge to Grunt and Wrex! I'd kick Skadge out a airlock with a thermal detonator in his mouth like a apple if I could get Wrex or Grunt on my Bounty Hunter's ship!

[Lithial]

I know, right? I wanted to kill Skadge the first time I ran into him and he was beating on that woman, scared little Blizz, and was sorely disappointed that the opportunity wasn't there. That was Tues and here it is Thurs and I don't want to continue my BH's story as it looks like I'll have no choice but to take this piece of space trash into my crew?!? NO, nononononono!!!

 

We're given the choice of killing or accepting Gault at the point where you realized he could become your companion, but not for Skadge? At least giving Gault, Tyresius Loka, a new life could benefit all and add to the crew. Gault does have his good qualities, though he's also got a bit of a liking for underhanded dealings, but you can live with his greed and work your way around his bad qualities, but overall, he's not a horrible sort. You end up with a decent group for your crew with Gault being the most unsavory.

 

Given my story and the sort of 'person' my charachter has become (mostly light side as it seemed the most fun to work around and still at 44 she's just shy of Light III....hard being a light side BH for the Empire lol), I simply can't reconsile accepting this companion.

 

The baddest BH in the galaxy and she's going to cave to this guy, let him threaten her and her crew and get away with it? I don't think so. I seriously don't want to finish the story now. With no choice at all I know I won't complete Juxtaposition and just leave it all hanging. I simply refuse to accept Skadge as it just means I've lost any choice in my story, so it's no longer mine. Perhaps months down the road I may come back and go through the motions of the story, but as of right now, I just became totally disenchanted.

 

I figure if I can't finish leveling this character to just play it without doing the story as is, well, I have other characters to level and other stories to follow. This just goes totally again the grain. Losing my favorite character is harsh, but I do have a choice.

 

Skadge might be ok for a very dark BH who already treats the crew badly and just feeds gifts for affection, but if you want to 'develop' a character that actually has character, he's totally unacceptable. What is being taught here? No matter how strong you are, you cave in to the big bully and allow yourself and those you care about to be terrorized, hurt and threatened? Sorry, no one is going to ram this guy down my throat.

 

Ok, now that I've vented....it's just a game *sigh*. I can always run through the story and then just park him and never use him except for crew missions. Feed him gifts and forget him. It's the character self-esteem crushing of having him forced upon you the rankles. I would have killed him given the opportunity.

[Walkiry]

Just because your companion does not jive with your playstyle they should be killed?

 

Okay, if the devs ever make a gungan companion I will be on your bandwagon, but right now, killing because you don't agree with your companion is wrong on so many levels.

 

I'd kill Bowser's ugly sibling because

he's pulled a gun on my bounty hunter, claimed to go after my mark whether I like it or not, bullied my crew members, and threatened me in more than one occasion, including a very direct threat threat he'd take my ship without me if I gave him any trouble.

 

 

In the very same storyline that the same writers have concocted for us, I've killed people for any of those offences, nevermind a combination of all of them.

 

Similarly, the Sith Warrior

would kill Quinn because of the massive backstabbing dick move he pulls. That's how the empire runs. Having the option to forgive him is nice and all, but any self-respecting Sith would kill an underling that not only fails him, but does so in such a way.

 

 

It goes not just against the story, it goes against the very essence of Sith behaviour in the Star Wars Universe.

 

Sure, my Jedi Knight may not kill the annoying Sith companion (well, she would, but that's another story, she has issues), but would very firmly invite him to leave the ship and never come back.

 

Jokes about shoving companions into the airlock are there because being forced to take a companion that one detests or just doesn't jive with the character one is playing breaks the whole story-immersion so badly that it's simply not possible to take it seriously anymore. It's like killing everyone for a laugh when you've grown tired of a game and just don't care anymore.

Edited February 9, 2012 by Walkiry

[CptBrit]

Be glad you're not a Sith Juggernaut then.

 

 

No Sith with half an ounce of self respect would keep Quinn around after what he does in the story.

 

 

Are you talking about him basically lying to you so you hurry to kill the Jedi? I didn't mind it, plus its nice to have a companion that isn't a little ***** about me killing people.

 

[Voffi]

Are you talking about him basically lying to you so you hurry to kill the Jedi? I didn't mind it, plus its nice to have a companion that isn't a little ***** about me killing people.

 

 

No he's probably talking about Quinn crossing you under Baras command and try to get you killed. And then we can't kill him for it

 

 

Edited February 10, 2012 by Voffi

[Sylriana]

Reminds me of Kaliyo and the way she's forced upon you when you first get her as a companion...

 

It gets even worse when later in the game she starts

blackmailing you into helping her, yet you still aren't allowed to put the dumb ***** down

 

 

 

Have to disagree on nearly every level regarding the OP's rant about the republic storyline though, the whole point he's making there seems a bit silly.

[BlazingShadow]

I like all the BHs companions because they're the least phony of all the possible ingame companions

 

Mako: Yo dawg, i herd u liked money... lets kill Tarro Blood and I'll bang you!

Torian: Yo, dawg... I'm a mandalorian and I like honorable fights. Yes, I'll even kill my father to restore honor.

Gault: Yo, dawg... I herd you didnt like phonies, but I am a phony, thats why I was a bounty, but guess what? My phoniness makes you MONEYYYY

BLizz: Yo, dawg... I'm cuter than a ****zupomeranianpoodle!

Skadge: Yo, dawg... I'm a hard azz... deal with it.

 

Idk. I didnt like Skadge at first, but his need to beat the living crap out of everything is so down to earth lol

[Walkiry]

Well, I made it to 50 and am halfway through Ilum, but I can't bring myself to finish the planet.... Ilum bores me :-/

 

So, in the interest of continuing this series I've re-rolled. I was going to put it up as a poll, but obviously precious few people really care, so I did a random thingy based on the available choices.

 

Female Inquisitor. Oh this should be fun...

[SithEnvoy]

I played Sith Assasin and Jedi Sage and i disliked most of my companions.

 

Leveling with them is way too easy, but it has been tuned so that leveling without using them is extremely hard due to the amount of elite mobs in the quests (unless you can group with buddies).

 

On my Inquisitor, Khem Val was ok. His affection was quite easy to increase as a stereotypical sith. I absolutely hated Andronikos. I felt his addition to my party was quite forced and for a love interest its an absolutely terrible character. Ashara's part was ok, but her corruption to the dark side felt way too easy... (here, have a sith holocron).

 

On the sage, I seriously disliked Qyzen Fess (or as i like to call him: low polygon count lizard). Wish they had given him some better textures; couldnt stand to stare him for long. On top of that, if you play a good-hearted Jedi... sparing ppl and avoiding unnecesary killing, he is quite hard to raise in affection.

 

With both classes its a pitty you get your apprentice (Xalek, Nadia) so late in the game. I envy Jedi Knights that get Kira so early in the game.

 

WOULD Have been great if you could design your companion... give them race, name, design looks, etc. They really missed a chance to add variety to the players and give us some choices.

Edited February 12, 2012 by SithEnvoy

[Jazhara]

My suspension of disbelief was thoroughly tested with Bowser.

 

Still, I did like the BH story. It's cheesy, the characters are often cheesy (surthern cookie mom, hello!), but I kinda like cheese.

 

A big difference may be that I'm playing mostly LS? I can imagine a DS BH having a lot more trouble dealing with the story.

[Ironhand_x]

**** like this, where there was originally a good option, and now its a terrible option, makes me think that the thing ruining new MMO's is the *********** beta testers.

[ckoneful]

ever play mass effect?

 

its star wars equivelant to grunt and wrex.

 

WHAT.

 

Grunt and Wrex were AWESOME.

[OriginSucks]

OP, your rant made me laugh...a lot.

 

 

But I agree, we should be able to kill our companions if we wish.

[RamblerKnits]

Well done Walkiry, a fine quality rant! Skadge was quickly moved onto my

"People who you NEVER want to be stuck on a spaceship with" list.

 

1. Skadge

2. Dr. Zachary Smith (Eewwww!!!)

3. Jayne Cobb (The "Man-Ape" we all love to hate)

4. Wesley Crusher (Gee Whiz....My science experement broke the spaceship....again!!!)

5. C2-N2

 

 

I disagree. C2-N2 should be number one on that list. On an alt when I finally got the ship I had to go through his intro speech (complete with cut scenes) eleven times. Yes I counted. Until that cleared I could not use the holoterminal. That talk icon would just not go away.

[Dominoris]

ever play mass effect?

 

its star wars equivelant to grunt and wrex.

 

Except ...

You do not have to open Grunt's tank.

You can refuse to take Wrex.

You can kill Wrex. You can also have Ashely kill Wrex.

You can easily kill Grunt during the suicide mission as well.

[Walkiry]

I disagree. C2-N2 should be number one on that list. On an alt when I finally got the ship I had to go through his intro speech (complete with cut scenes) eleven times. Yes I counted. Until that cleared I could not use the holoterminal. That talk icon would just not go away.

 

O.O

 

Worst. Bug. Ever.

[Bigbozo]

As an altaholic I have found that every class (haven't played opp/smug as I just can't get into the machanics of them) has at least one companion I want to flush out the airlock.

[Tuscad]

As an altaholic I have found that every class (haven't played opp/smug as I just can't get into the machanics of them) has at least one companion I want to flush out the airlock.

 

I liked all of the companions for the Sith inquisitor.