Next Expansion for the Companions

[Codedrago]

(I don't know if this would go in general since it revolves more around story)

After the Shadow of Revan expansion, one of the things that disappointed me was that it reminded me that ever since hitting level 50, there has been barley any interaction with our Companions. I miss the talks some of the companions would have during specific cut scenes, their interactions with each other and you the player.

 

So I thought that maybe a good thing to do would that in the next expansion, the story shouldn't really focus that much on beating the new Villain (Or the back drop of the story is littered with weakening his forces or something.) I think that we should have a expansion focused on the crew we built, where it's more of a story that shows how much our companions love or hate us. (Think the Citadel DLC from ME 3, except not as parody level ridiculous)

Have them take part in conversations with each other, teaming up separately to help you kick some tail, remind us that we have a ********n romantic partner on the ship that we agreed to marry. (I want to see Vette and the Wrath's wedding god damn it!).

 

Am I just spouting out Bantha Poo?

[Damask_Rose]

Some of us would quite like that, but I suspect not enough of us for it to happen.

[Golin]

I love the idea of that, but unfortunately a large part of the mmo format is about new baddies. Perhaps a mini-expansion, like galactic star, could do this though.

 

Like give us a 5-10 $ crew dlc. That would be awesome, and would certainly renew my faith in SWTOR for the foreseeable future.

[Kyrrant]

I wouldn't mind some more companion content... but I would like to note there's a few issues to it.

 

For one, we're talking about 33 voice actors needing to be called back to do extra voice work (all classes except for Agent has 1 "non-Basic" companion). Many of those actors are on the busy side (Troy Baker, Tara Strong, Steve Blum, Laura Bailey are the obvious names on the list...), and it could become rather difficult to schedule it. A few hours of work slotted in whenever for a few throwaway lines here and there? That's rather different from the sort of work a full companion story addition would take.

 

Also, there's an elephant in the room regarding Tanno Vik. Like him or hate him, I know he's not the most memorable character, but the issue is that his voice actor, David Anthony Pizzuto, passed away in 2012 (hence why Tanno Vik did not have any lines in Trooper cutscenes in the SoR intro cutscene).

 

Recasting the part's the obvious route to take, and isn't without precedent, but I can imagine it gives Bioware even more hesitation, especially if you're going to continue the companion stories.

 

Long story short? It'd be awesome if it happened, but there are some serious obstacles to making it work

[Excise]

This would be great, and the Citadel DLC is exactly the kind of thing I was thinking about.

 

But as others have mentioned, there's a lot of challenges and it's unlikely to ever happen.

[Xeraz]

I am also a fan of bringing back companions. I'm growing tired of my pet.

[adfasfdafd]

What we need is a new companion. Either an all-class one like HK, or one new companion for each class, which would be even better.

[DAWUSS]

I'd like to have more interactions with current companions. Some of it could even be minor or repeatable.

 

As for additional companions, I'd like to see us get a Force-Sensitive one (one for Republic, one for Imperial).

 

Speaking of companions, can we get a companion respec kit? I'd like to turn a melee character into a ranged one.

[Timorelle]

I'd like to have more interactions with current companions. Some of it could even be minor or repeatable.

 

This, definitely. Specifically, for me, what I would like to see more than anything is the ability to kiss my spouse occasionally. I like how the kisses are animated, and it sucks that you basically get to see a couple of kiss scenes, marry the person, and then you never, ever get to see them kiss your character again.

 

I just think it'd be neat if they'd make a handful of generic "Hey sweetie, it's been a while! *smooch*!" or "Welcome home; did you bring me anything? *kiss*" type scenes (they could be on a random cycle) that would engage if you chose to interact with your spouse companion while on your ship (seems like the most logical place, so you can specifically engage them there if you want to see that moment, but you're not getting sucked into a cutscene every time you accidentally click on them out in the world).

 

I sincerely doubt they'll ever actually do this, but hey, a girl can dream.

[JamieKirby]

This is why they should have stuck with a normal RPG, having an mmo with speech and story is not a good combo, especially since majority of players just want to get to the end of all the content to do endgame stuff.

 

I would love more story content for companions and classes, but sadly, bioware gave up on the class stories, they went with the cheaper and much lazier option....planetary stories, which means complete it once and you have seen it all, hell thats the swtor game pretty much, 1 sith character and 1 republic character and you have seen 99% of the game....the last 1% is for class stories and companion stories.

 

Hell, You need to roll more characters then that on wow to see all the content, since there are more race specific quests in wow, then there are class quests in swtor and that is only cause of voiced characters, which is why i believe voiced characters and epic stories should only be on single player RPGs...aka Kotor....the Revan Expansion proved that they truely don't care about the voiced characters with the quests just being like WoW, click to pick up, do and hand in and no real interaction, which is likely a glimpse of things to come.

Edited March 29, 2015 by JamieKirby

[MishraArtificer]

Also, there's an elephant in the room regarding Tanno Vik. Like him or hate him, I know he's not the most memorable character, but the issue is that his voice actor, David Anthony Pizzuto, passed away in 2012 (hence why Tanno Vik did not have any lines in Trooper cutscenes in the SoR intro cutscene).

Frankly, I'm surprised they didn't start off the Trooper SoR intro cutscene with some sort of accident in the cargo hold behind where Tanno Vik hangs out. That way, they could give him a vocabulator "to repair the damage to his vocal chords", and cover the change in VA with the same modulation that helmets normally have. (I know that would seem like a cheap cop-out, but it would make things a lot easier, while still leaving Tanno Vik with the ability to speak.)

 

The other alternative, of course, is to change out Tanno Vik for a new melee tank companion at some point, while giving Tanno some reason to leave Havoc Squad...doable, but both awkward and extremely jarring. Besides, who would replace him as the melee tank companion? Is there another melee character the Trooper meets at some point in the campaign that could feasibly take his place? (It's been three years since I got my Vanguard to level 50, I honestly don't remember if we ever find another SpecFor operator with a blade...)

 

Eric of House Musco, if you want to pass this one on to the story devs, I wouldn't be miffed.

[DAWUSS]

This, definitely. Specifically, for me, what I would like to see more than anything is the ability to kiss my spouse occasionally. I like how the kisses are animated, and it sucks that you basically get to see a couple of kiss scenes, marry the person, and then you never, ever get to see them kiss your character again.

 

I just think it'd be neat if they'd make a handful of generic "Hey sweetie, it's been a while! *smooch*!" or "Welcome home; did you bring me anything? *kiss*" type scenes (they could be on a random cycle) that would engage if you chose to interact with your spouse companion while on your ship (seems like the most logical place, so you can specifically engage them there if you want to see that moment, but you're not getting sucked into a cutscene every time you accidentally click on them out in the world).

 

I sincerely doubt they'll ever actually do this, but hey, a girl can dream.

 

I'd like this as well. Sometimes I have to remind myself that my character is married. I could probably have that character simply [Flirt] with everyone, and there probably would be no reaction whatsoever.

[GryphonSatyr]

I'd like this as well. Sometimes I have to remind myself that my character is married. I could probably have that character simply [Flirt] with everyone, and there probably would be no reaction whatsoever.

 

Nope, I flirted with and went all the way with Theron in the latest expansion... no reaction from my "spouse."

 

 

In any case, I'd like them to use the "radical" flirtation ideas from SoR and let my male Sorc flirt and form a romance with Andronykos.... cause, really, he's practically written for it already.

Edited March 31, 2015 by GryphonSatyr

[XantosCledwin]

What we need is a new companion. Either an all-class one like HK, or one new companion for each class, which would be even better.

 

I really like the idea of having one new unique companion for each class. Possibly one that you obtain on one of the new planets in one of the upcoming expansions. This way we don't run into the snags of the companion having to provide voice acting in prior cutscenes; and the companion won't necessarily be something that can be unlocked earlier than it would normally be able to participate in discussions (ala Treek, and HK). I really like that idea, especially if the developers chose to make 8 different new companions, one for each class.

[Krimlord]

I really like the idea of having one new unique companion for each class. Possibly one that you obtain on one of the new planets in one of the upcoming expansions. This way we don't run into the snags of the companion having to provide voice acting in prior cutscenes; and the companion won't necessarily be something that can be unlocked earlier than it would normally be able to participate in discussions (ala Treek, and HK). I really like that idea, especially if the developers chose to make 8 different new companions, one for each class.

 

Agreed.

 

There has not only been no new companions but very little new companion interaction scenarios... nor companion jealousy over flirting with others. Such things make it less immersive and dulled out as if all the focus is now is a miniature planet arc and guild stuff, every so often. The luster of the story expansiveness and meaningful interactions it once had was a large part of why I ever even started the game.

[Quething]

the Revan Expansion proved that they truely don't care about the voiced characters with the quests just being like WoW, click to pick up, do and hand in and no real interaction, which is likely a glimpse of things to come.

 

Actually it suggested just the opposite. Ever since Black Hole, all the dalies have been handed out via those stupid text terminals, offering no immersion or story content whatsoever. But on Yavin and Rishi, the dalies are handed out by actual NPCs who speak actual lines to you. That's a step forward. Probably it's the best thing they could have done, actually - spacebarring through a conversation for the millionth time when you're just trying to grind comms and earn some credits is annoying as all getout, but the voiced lines make the first time through feel more authentic.

 

I mean, sure, you can't grind rep via those quests anymore, but a) you couldn't grind rep off the text terminals either, and b) I would much rather have companions involve themselves in the actual story before I worry about dalies. Looking at you, Scourge. It's absolutely appalling that he has not one word to say and no one has one word to say to him in the whole of Shadow of Revan. You know, Revan, that guy he betrayed to the Emperor, and who suffered for hundreds of years as a direct result of that betrayal.

[Drudenfusz]

I am okay with those easy pick-up quests, but I think BioWare should do that only for dailies, and not like they did for basically every quest in the SoR expansion, made it feel completely pointless to play together with someone else. But on topic: yes, a little more interaction with companions would be welcome, I mean I play since release and it feels like the marriage my main character has exists only on paper, no wonder my character commited adultry when she doesn't got any attention or love from her husband in long time.

[GryphonSatyr]

Looking at you, Scourge. It's absolutely appalling that he has not one word to say and no one has one word to say to him in the whole of Shadow of Revan. You know, Revan, that guy he betrayed to the Emperor, and who suffered for hundreds of years as a direct result of that betrayal.

 

Wow, that's a major disappointment. I'm leveling up a Knight, now, and was looking forward to playing SoR with Scourge as my companion, cause I'm primarily a Sith player, plus I wanted to see how that played out.

 

Such a pity