The Companion System

[Darka]

Just wondering what everyones thoughts are on them.

 

I think when many heard that we would have companions, they dreamed of a Mass Effect like system aboard our ships. Earning their trust, being betrayed, making friends, lovers and going on adventures.

We have a ship, we have companions, and they have adventures while we wait there for the screen to wipe and return.

 

The role of companions in combat can be handy, Though i get the feeling many do not know how to use their companion tool bar to their full advantage,

 

There are other companions who i still wonder why they are on my ship, I have three ways to say Yes welcome aboard but no way to say no get off and get lost.

 

I know originally they had much different ideas in mind for them, with numbers, death, and skills. I tend to generally use one or two at the most, and others i ignore after the stat bonus is grinded out.

 

So with that said, what are your thoughts on Comapnions

Try and keep it spoiler free,

 

Where should they go from here?

 

Should All companions have quests you should be able to go on?

 

Are they interactable enough for you?

(is that even a word)

 

Pros/Cons in general

[SNCommand]

Would love some more interaction, it's a far cry from what we have in singleplayer MMOs, but currently it's also enough for me, I do feel that they're more than pets, I do feel they are allies and compatriots that I interact with and can influence, but again as well, after max infection they do become very quiet, and it would be great if their stories could get expanded

[Pscyon]

Didn't expect more than we got; so I'm kinda fine with them. I think -all- of them should have proper companion quests though... and I have a hard time imagining this wasn't intended, based on the conversations you can have with several of them. Seems to be cut content.

 

I loathe how every companion is shoehorned into a particular role and is an exact mirror of other classes' companion with the same "role". I understand that it is for balance reasons (urgh) but it prevents us using the companions we like and in some cases just doesn't make sense. One of the IA companions in particular comes to mind, which is a melee class with those horrible staves... used to be ranged damage dealer in beta apparently. I've seen people suggest "companion kits" to let us change/modify their roles and would love for something like that to be implemented.

 

Being able to kill them off or have them betray you (former at least was possible during development) would've been nice... some of them are simply that dislikeable. At least just telling them "no, I don't want you on my ship, get lost" would've been nice. Though I understand why that didn't end up being possible since people are unable to grasp the permanence of such things and would whine, flooding customer support with tickets about it.

 

It would also be nice having alternatives when it comes to who you have along based on choices you make in your class story.

 

I did say I'm fine with how they are though and I meant that. Knew what we were getting. The characters are well written, mostly interesting and they perform their crafting/combat roles decently. Improvements would be nice, but there are bigger fish to fry I think and the companions are okay in their current form.

[DarthDymond]

While overall I am happy with the companion system, I feel like it's something that has a lot of room to be improved with future updates - the only question is whether BW is going to decide that making those improvements is a worthwhile allocation of resources.

 

What I would love to see: With HK-51 and the ship droid, there are now 7 companions available to each player. I think it would be interesting to give each companion a max-level Daily Quest that takes place on a different planet and reflects that companion's goals/story. (Adronikos is being tracked by a Bounty Hunter, a community Doc helped in the past has been attacked by a Sith biological weapon, etc.)

 

It'd add some variety to the end-game Dailies and give you some more meaningful interaction with your companions.

[Lent_San]

More interaction with them is definitely on my wishlist.

 

Except taking them out to fight and them charging into battle, I don't really get they're part of my team since they refuse to talk to me, a few meagre chats aside. I'd like to know more about them and do companion quests with them.

 

Hopefully that will change some time soon.

[AlixMV]

More interaction with them is definitely on my wishlist.

 

Except taking them out to fight and them charging into battle, I don't really get they're part of my team since they refuse to talk to me, a few meagre chats aside. I'd like to know more about them and do companion quests with them.

 

Hopefully that will change some time soon.

 

Try giving them Companion gifts. They only talk to you when a certain combination is met of encoded Affection level and progression of your Class Quest. If the Affection is high or very high, though, you'll know the triggering factor for more conversations is class story (up until max Affection in Chapter 3).

 

----

 

Having come into SWTOR out of Bioware's more recent SP RPGs, I was pretty familiar with the idea of a Companion system, and it's about what I was expecting. I wish there was more flexibility to change Companion roles (say, make a DPS into a tank or vice versa) and the ability to actually have a Companion leave the party if you so chose to.

 

I like that they wrote in quite a few scenes and gated them behind story progression so you couldn't totally run through all of them on, say, the first planet you got them. At the same time, I discovered through personal experience it's better /not/ to run through them all at once.

 

And, yeah, I agree: I would've loved to have been given sidequests to do for all the Companion missions, not just the one.

Edited January 19, 2013 by AlixMV

[CosmicKat]

I know I'm in the minority here.

 

I hate companions for the simple reason that they are designed to replace human players. Replacing human players with virtual ones is a terrible idea for an MMO.

 

They are community killers in the sense that they limit, nearly eliminate even, the need for us players to interact with other players. They are the reason this game is almost universally viewed as a solo game.

[SNCommand]

I know I'm in the minority here.

 

I hate companions for the simple reason that they are designed to replace human players. Replacing human players with virtual ones is a terrible idea for an MMO.

 

They are community killers in the sense that they limit, nearly eliminate even, the need for us players to interact with other players. They are the reason this game is almost universally viewed as a solo game.

 

To be fair, MMOs without them would have people soloing the content instead

[Kahotep]

My take on the companion system is that I think it was a great idea, but not as well executed as it might have been.

 

Firstly I would have done companions a little differently. I think it was a bit of a mistake to link them to the class story. Each class has 5 companions, but you have no choices about what companions you get. Every class has at least one companion that I really don't like and I wish I could have chosen which companions I wanted. Also I would say that there are too many of them. 5 per class times 8 classes, makes 40 companions. Most of them are pretty two dimensional, just have a few conversations and no actual quests.

 

I think it would have been better to have had around half the number of companions in the game, but give you the choice of which ones you have. This could have been done by gaining the companions through the planetary stories rather than the class stories. Most planets could have had a potential recruit and you could allow players to pick their dream team of the 5 they want ie once they have the first 5 companions, if they want to recruit another, the player has to choose a companion to drop.

 

By spending the same development time on half the companions, each could have had twice the dialogue and story, making them much more rounded and interesting characters.

 

 

 

However, BW didn't do it like that, so where do we go from here?

 

Well, I wouldn't waste dev time expanding the existing companions. If you spend time on one of the 40 companions you are effectively spending time on something that many players may never experience. We all know that there are certain companions that you hardly ever see people using.

 

It is much better to introduce new characters, but (unlike HK) make them interesting characters that give out high level quest lines when you gain rep with them. This would be genuine added content. I would also make these new companions faction specific, so add them in pairs, one Rep and one mirrored Imp companion.

 

The problem with HK was that the quest line forced players to do a bit of everything (many players don't like a particular style of play, be that pvp or group pve) and once you get hime, he's actually quite boring. Personally I prefer MMO rewards to come from one type of content. I don't mind that there are rewards for things I don't want to do - I just ignore that content. I do mind that all the good stuff forces me to do things I don't want to do. I play for fun after all. So, add a companions you get through a solo quest chain, add a companion you get through ops, add one you can gain through pvp. Basically, add a new companion every six months, say, and don't turn the game into a chore by forcing players to do things they hate.

 

Now personally, I think this game needs some worth while level 50 solo content and new companions could be something along those lines. A companions that requires a quest line to recruit, then gives a long quest line, ultimately rewarding the player with a decent piece of gear or similar would be a welcome addition for a lot of players I'm sure.

[CosmicKat]

To be fair, MMOs without them would have people soloing the content instead

 

Well yes, as the game is designed, they likely could still solo much of it without ever grouping.

 

I just think it's ridiculous to spend zillions designing a Massively Multiplayer Online game that is easier than the company's solo games, and putting in such a minor (and completely optional) amount of group content for the PvE portion of the game.

 

It's like spending zillions to design the greatest bus in the world and making it a single seater. It just doesn't make any sense.

[SNCommand]

Well yes, as the game is designed, they likely could still solo much of it without ever grouping.

 

I just think it's ridiculous to spend zillions designing a Massively Multiplayer Online game that is easier than the company's solo games, and putting in such a minor (and completely optional) amount of group content for the PvE portion of the game.

 

It's like spending zillions to design the greatest bus in the world and making it a single seater. It just doesn't make any sense.

 

It's been fairly business as usual though since that other MMO, I guess some people figured out they would get more money if even those unable to group could play

[Kahotep]

Well yes, as the game is designed, they likely could still solo much of it without ever grouping.

 

I just think it's ridiculous to spend zillions designing a Massively Multiplayer Online game that is easier than the company's solo games, and putting in such a minor (and completely optional) amount of group content for the PvE portion of the game.

 

It's like spending zillions to design the greatest bus in the world and making it a single seater. It just doesn't make any sense.

 

I've soloed to max level in several MMOs, so nothing unique there. In fact there are many players who prefer to play solo. I know that is hard to understand for some people, because some people play MMOs over solo player games precisely because they like to group up with other players.

 

I don't really enjoy group content that much and I never, ever join pugs. The reason I don't play solo player games though is because I'm really here for the rp. I like solo questing and roleplaying with other players. Some people would argue that I am doing MMOs wrong, but I'm just playing my game the way I want to play it.

 

What companions do brilliantly is allow me to fine tune my character to my play style.

[AsheraII]

Should All companions have quests you should be able to go on?

I'd like this sooo much! I think that is what they originally intended as well, but for some reason decided to scrap, except for the first of our companions. Some companions, like Forex and Vector have conversations that definitely seemed to point in that direction. So I figure they had already started implementing them when the decision was made that only the first companions would have "activity" missions, while the others would only get "cutscene/fadeout missions". For some of the latter companions, it's hardly noticable. Those were probably rewritten before getting implemented, while in the case of Forex and Vector and 2 or 3 others, many cutscenes were already made, so those were altered a little but not really rewritten.

[ziphii]

I definitely wish there was more interaction, more quests, and an option to kick someone out. The companions are really a fulfilling part of this game, but there's more I would like to see.

[SentinelDranoel]

Just want to summon one more so I can have my own trinity thing going on.

Want to see every companion's mission instead of the first one.

As a BW player, the option to for a companion to die in the story adds so much too it. I understand why you did not allow it, look at what everyone else complains about. I am pretty sure CS would get calls from players asking to get their companion back.

 

So now I am stuck with Quinn....dangit.

Edited January 19, 2013 by SentinelDranoel

[Darka]

I definitely wish there was more interaction, more quests, and an option to kick someone out. The companions are really a fulfilling part of this game, but there's more I would like to see.

 

Maybe they ran out of time implementing a bigger role for companions. Maybe down the line we will see more

[Edzew]

i have been playing mostly my bounty hunter and though the story quests for him have been good they are very few and far between, but ive mostly liked my Mako story quests the most but alas those are even more few and far between B^( as for all my others i could not really care less if they were gone. i don't mind my ship droid but he really is useless other than having an extra body to make stuff when im grinding out my crafting... also i was very surprised to find out ill be getting a... short.... companion soon and that almost made me keep my subscription going another month so i could get it... but alas as cool as it would be its just not worth the sub fees for me.

 

i really think we have way to many and no way of getting rid of the ones we don't want tagging along. their quests are way to spread out too, they rely dropped the ball on this one, there should be 3 times more of their quests to do and to add more to their story which in turn adds to ours. It was a good idea but it wasn't implemented well at all

[CosmicKat]

I've soloed to max level in several MMOs, so nothing unique there. In fact there are many players who prefer to play solo. I know that is hard to understand for some people, because some people play MMOs over solo player games precisely because they like to group up with other players.

 

I don't really enjoy group content that much and I never, ever join pugs. The reason I don't play solo player games though is because I'm really here for the rp. I like solo questing and roleplaying with other players. Some people would argue that I am doing MMOs wrong, but I'm just playing my game the way I want to play it.

 

What companions do brilliantly is allow me to fine tune my character to my play style.

 

There's nothing wrong with solo content, or people wanting to exclusively solo. They did a great job with that content.

 

It's the near complete absence of group content that is the killer of this game, IMO. It's why it has very little staying power and can't retain customers. When players get bored of solo content they seek out the group content and the absence of it in TOR means they just quit. They through all their eggs in two baskets, solo PvE and endgame PvP. Any veteran MMO player can tell you that PvP is very popular with a small percentage of players and completely a non-starter for the majority.

[Revanchis]

Well yes, as the game is designed, they likely could still solo much of it without ever grouping.

 

I just think it's ridiculous to spend zillions designing a Massively Multiplayer Online game that is easier than the company's solo games, and putting in such a minor (and completely optional) amount of group content for the PvE portion of the game.

 

It's like spending zillions to design the greatest bus in the world and making it a single seater. It just doesn't make any sense.

 

This game isn't easier than most of Bioware's singleplayer games. You're forgetting that those games have difficulty options.

[Damask_Rose]

I love the companion system, but like others have said, I wish all of them had real quests instead of the fade out ones. I very much hope that the expansion after this will include ch. 4 and flesh out our existing companions more, rather than adding new ones.

[StillOne]

I was hoping for more interaction with the various Companions. I use very few Companions on my various toons. I usually stick with one or two of them too, neglecting to use the others. If there were more options, like Companion Missions requiring us to loot various kills, collect various materials, craft or RE etc., I'm certain I'd use all the various Companions more. Sadly, Companions are just not a huge part of The Old Republic at this stage of the game. Could be we'll see some form of a continuation of the various Companion Storylines available for sale on the Cartel Market in the future. Edited January 19, 2013 by StillOne

[Darka]

Does anyone use all their Companions for Combat?

[Turshek]

We should be able to choose the role of our companions, to be able to play with the companion we want. There's some companions I never use because of my spec and their role, so either I have to swap my combat companion with my conversation companion at each convo (but it becomes quite annoying) or I just end playing with my "best" combat companion even though I would prefer another one.

 

For me having a companion with some class/spec makes the game too easy and remove any challenge in the game and thus makes that class/spec quite boring to play in PvE. In particular, glass cannons.

 

I think more customizations for their look would be good. Some companions have something like 4 options and 2 being in the security key vendor.

 

The necessity to be in a cantina or ship to have conversations with them make the progression of relationships quite strange. As I don't go to ship/cantina each time a companion wants to start a convo, it's only when I finish a planet that I talk with them and so I get a burst of convos, one after the other. We should be able to start converstations with companions wherever we are.

 

I remember before launch when they talked about light/side choice, how they wanted that each path would be interesting and rewarding enough so we could choose how we wanted. It seems they completely forgot about that with the affection system. As I'm crafting a lot, I need to have max affection for the advantages it gives, there's no reason at all to lose affection.

 

I would like also more interactions with companions, even when I can't progress further because I don't have enough affection for the next step. Companions should interact more during class/world quests. Quite often, even if you lose a big amount of affection because of a choice, there's not even a line from your current companion to express that he disagree with you.

Edited January 19, 2013 by Turshek

[KariTalRathe]

Does anyone use all their Companions for Combat?

 

My smuggler has, including the ship droid before she got her dedicated healer companion. One of the issues (especially for a first character, which my smuggler was) is maintaining equipment for several companions. It just isn't viable. By the time you have the credits to gear up more than one, your companions are all but retired. To that end, I wish there had been more and better mission rewards for our companions than the (mostly) green junk provided.

 

Now I've said that, I'm wondering if the issue is with 'green' items generally or even just my perception of them.

 

The other issue is lack of time. Levelling is so fast, you're at the multi-player stage proper before you know it and sadly the opportunity to get to know some companions as well as others has gone. But it's a MMO, so I don't lament this fact, it is just how it is.

[AsheraII]

My smuggler has, including the ship droid before she got her dedicated healer companion. One of the issues (especially for a first character, which my smuggler was) is maintaining equipment for several companions. It just isn't viable. By the time you have the credits to gear up more than one, your companions are all but retired. To that end, I wish there had been more and better mission rewards for our companions than the (mostly) green junk provided.

 

Now I've said that, I'm wondering if the issue is with 'green' items generally or even just my perception of them.

 

The other issue is lack of time. Levelling is so fast, you're at the multi-player stage proper before you know it and sadly the opportunity to get to know some companions as well as others has gone. But it's a MMO, so I don't lament this fact, it is just how it is.

While the quality of the green junk we get as mission rewards is generally acceptable for the place where you get it during your progress, it's a pain that we can only pick 1 item out of several. So while one companion gets a few upgrades, the other companions are severely lacking by the time you move to the next planet. I don't think it would hurt the companion system one bit, if those missions that reward companion gear simply rewarded ALL the pieces instead of only 1 piece for 1 specific companion. Currently, we are simply encouraged to bring the same companion every time, where I think a better system would be if we could simply pick the companion we WANT to bring along for the occasion.

 

Another option could be, to allow us to buy the full set found for each companion on a planet through commendations. That way, we could pick the rewards for Companion A while doing missions on a planet, and then later buy the rewards for companion B through commendations as an all-in pack. 24 comms sounds about right for that I think, same price as a prototype box, but then with the outfit for 1 of your companions instead. Having 2 geared companions is more encouraging to occasionally switch than having only 1 geared companion and a bunch of scrubs.

Edited January 19, 2013 by AsheraII