August Livestream Wrap-up

[Max_Killjoy]

I didn't put words in your mouth. You said "in exchange for being able to slap them in some ugly random green gear at level 10 and leave them in it for 55 levels". That is admitting you have more appearance options, whether you realize it or not. Apparently not because you are now insisting "and no, it really doesn't expand the options" again.

 

It would seem you are too dense to figure this out on your own, so I'll spell it out for you plain as day. You could not use greens or blues or any non-moddable pieces of gear on a companion permanently because they would outlevel it. This limited your choice of armor. Some of the armor that isn't moddable has no moddable equivalent. So not only do you have more choices in the technical sense, in that there are literally more pieces you can wear, but in a practical sense too, in that there are more appearances that you can create with the addition of non-moddable pieces that you can't recreate with moddable pieces only.

 

I've never had an issue creating the appearance I want with moddable gear, with one exception -- the lingering Republic / Imperial appearance split on some items that have been around since early in the game's history, particularly crafted items.

[Max_Killjoy]

That's not the only reason it's being made.

 

It's the only reason that would even come close to "demanding" the change.

[ikinai]

When the change is being made to offer more (debatable) freedom of appearance, "lol paperdolls" is not exactly a great argument for those in favor of the change... it opens one up to comments about "playing dressup"...

 

Not that I care for such comments, they're pretty childish and usually come from the trolls that lurk these forums. Just pointing out the contradiction...

 

But you never had a choice in the first place, even if you think you did. You didn't. There was the proper way to gear or mod your companion and the not so proper way. All you are talking about is shifting a few numbers one way or another, and they really didn't affect much. Hardly anyone would put alacrity on a tanking companion, right? So that is not a choice for that companion. And so on and so forth. So no, there really wasn't much choice. Your choice is, do I want a tank, dps or healing companion to accompany me? That's the choice, everything else is ancillary.

[The-Kaitou-Kid]

It's the only reason that would even come close to "demanding" the change.

 

Not really. As has been mentioned already, being able to switch between those specs freely without having to have gear for each spec and being able to use a companion you haven't geared up yet are both big motivators and are actually the ones they mentioned when they announced this change. It doesn't demand the change, nor does appearance, but it makes a pretty good case for it as a QOL improvement for players, one that actually adds more choice for a lot of players.

Edited August 27, 2015 by The-Kaitou-Kid

[MillionsKNives]

I've never had an issue creating the appearance I want with moddable gear, with one exception -- the lingering Republic / Imperial appearance split on some items that have been around since early in the game's history, particularly crafted items.

 

Relevance?

 

It's the only reason that would even come close to "demanding" the change.

 

Other reasons have already been stated. You've just ignored them. Being forced to use a certain companion, or similarly being unable to use a certain companion, during leveling already causes issues. Also, in general it makes it hard for people to switch the companion they're using because they likely have to go and regear them. Then there's the issue caused by the new system of being able to change the companion's role. This would mean companions would need two or three sets each to make the most out of each role.

[Lyonhearttwo]

How will presence work? the same way as now? In order to make your pet as powerful as possible now, you have to level one of each base class, and do all the story/chats with all the class companions right? ( and get the presence datacrons? ) Will the instant level 60s have this unlocked automatically or will they have to go back and do all the original stories? Edited August 27, 2015 by Lyonhearttwo

[Max_Killjoy]

But you never had a choice in the first place, even if you think you did. You didn't. There was the proper way to gear or mod your companion and the not so proper way. All you are talking about is shifting a few numbers one way or another, and they really didn't affect much. Hardly anyone would put alacrity on a tanking companion, right? So that is not a choice for that companion. And so on and so forth. So no, there really wasn't much choice. Your choice is, do I want a tank, dps or healing companion to accompany me? That's the choice, everything else is ancillary.

 

That's what you and others keep claiming. As I noted at the start of this (which seemed to trigger a couple of people to go into distortion/attack mode), that's only true if you're fixated on the last 1% of "output", or whatever.

 

Personally, I avoid Surge like the plague -- I'd rather have anything else first (short of putting Shield and Absorption on a PC or comp with no shields, of course). I'd rather hit more reliably and with more reliable effect and more often and so on... than try to swing for the fences on every 4th hit or whatever.

 

Somehow, this doesn't seem to slow me down or impact the enjoyability of the game one bit.

 

Because of this loss of companion spec flexibility, and maybe some other changes, that choice will be gone come 4.0, and that's just one example.

[RAVM]

Do we gain more Presence with the new companions by getting to certain dialogs with them?

[Max_Killjoy]

Other reasons have already been stated. You've just ignored them. Being forced to use a certain companion, or similarly being unable to use a certain companion, during leveling already causes issues. Also, in general it makes it hard for people to switch the companion they're using because they likely have to go and regear them. Then there's the issue caused by the new system of being able to change the companion's role. This would mean companions would need two or three sets each to make the most out of each role.

 

As noted, there were other ways they could have added the (absolutely great) feature of allowing companions 2 or 3 roles each instead of the 1 that each has (with a few exceptions) right now. Different stances, for example. Some of the companions already have what look like a DPS or Tank stance, or a Healer or DPS stance, that can be chosen. That could easily have been modified to make them fuilly viable in, say, 2 roles each. Most of the companions really don't make any sense at all in 1 of the 3 standard roles. (Mako tank, Skadge heals, etc)

[RAVM]

How will presence work? the same way as now? In order to make your pet as powerful as possible now, you have to level one of each base class, and do all the story/chats with all the class companions right? ( and get the presence datacrons? ) Will the instant level 60s have this unlocked automatically or will they have to go back and do all the original stories?

 

The extra Presence you get from chatting with the original companions is Legacy wide. The instant level 60 is a character in your Legacy, so it would get all that bonus. The datacrons are specific per character at the moment (may change to Legacy wide in the future), so it wouldn't get those.

[Lyonhearttwo]

Lol.. i just realized i said "pet" .. i meant compaion

[The-Kaitou-Kid]

As noted, there were other ways they could have added the (absolutely great) feature of allowing companions 2 or 3 roles each instead of the 1 that each has (with a few exceptions) right now. Different stances, for example. Some of the companions already have what look like a DPS or Tank stance, or a Healer or DPS stance, that can be chosen. That could easily have been modified to make them fuilly viable in, say, 2 roles each. Most of the companions really don't make any sense at all in 1 of the 3 standard roles. (Mako tank, Skadge heals, etc)

 

That doesn't deal with the fact that you'd have to have gear for each of those specs that you want to use, especially when switching from a Tank to a Healer/DPS. So if you want to actually be able to switch them like that freely, you have to have not just one set of gear, but two. Or three, since it'll be all three. Making this change removes that requirement which means you switch between those specs freely without having to have 2-3 sets of gear per companion.

 

It also completely avoids the issue of companions that haven't been geared, are forced upon you by the story, etc, that wouldn't otherwise have gear and would thus be gimped immensely when you bring them out. Or, to put it more simply, say you like most of your companions and would like to alternate between them (can say that myself for the Jedi Knight, for sure). If you want to do that, you'd either need to get all of them gear (which could get expensive depending on how many you like, even using basic comms that'd be really expensive) or just deal with them having no stats and being useless. This removes that requirement as well, meaning you can freely switch between those companions while only worrying about their appearance (if applicable) and not the stats of their gear.

Edited August 27, 2015 by The-Kaitou-Kid

[Reno_Tarshil]

That's what you and others keep claiming. As I noted at the start of this (which seemed to trigger a couple of people to go into distortion/attack mode), that's only true if you're fixated on the last 1% of "output", or whatever.

 

Personally, I avoid Surge like the plague -- I'd rather have anything else first (short of putting Shield and Absorption on a PC or comp with no shields, of course). I'd rather hit more reliably and with more reliable effect and more often and so on... than try to swing for the fences on every 4th hit or whatever.

 

Somehow, this doesn't seem to slow me down or impact the enjoyability of the game one bit.

 

Because of this loss of companion spec flexibility, and maybe some other changes, that choice will be gone come 4.0, and that's just one example.

 

It's going to be even more flexible with the new changes as any companion you want to bring can fill any role you want them too. That's not a loss of flexibility, that's a gain.

[Iestyndenisgadd]

How does the kotfe story work with the Swtor story do they coinsied with each other, or once you start kotfeyou won't be able to go back to the old story and places like the cartel bazaar and how are you strongholds affected and are all compainions involved in the kotfe and do we get Nico as a companion for the Swtor story or just kofte and will the compainion you get during the kotfe story permanent or not and can you place them in you strongholds and if certain compainions are not involved in The kotfe story do you still get to hear what happens to them

[Noyjitat]

I still want to know what they are doing in regards to augmenting companions. Because that's a hell of alot of stats lost if we can no longer add augments to them. Edited August 27, 2015 by Noyjitat

[SuperGrunt]

I have heard from some people some doom and gloom statements that made it seem that once you start down the new content old content will be locked off. If this true, or will the new content just use default decisions for any decisions that we have not yet made in old content.

[MillionsKNives]

How does the kotfe story work with the Swtor story do they coinsied with each other, or once you start kotfeyou won't be able to go back to the old story and places like the cartel bazaar and how are you strongholds affected and are all compainions involved in the kotfe and do we get Nico as a companion for the Swtor story or just kofte and will the compainion you get during the kotfe story permanent or not and can you place them in you strongholds and if certain compainions are not involved in The kotfe story do you still get to hear what happens to them

 

Sentences. Periods. Paragraphs. They help.

 

You lose access to the pre-KotFE story. You don't lose access to the pre-KotFE areas. You can still do dailies and flashpoints and all that stuff, you just can't do the story anymore. Whether that means planetary story as well and other related stuff isn't confirmed but it will at least mean the class story and SoR.

 

I have heard from some people some doom and gloom statements that made it seem that once you start down the new content old content will be locked off. If this true, or will the new content just use default decisions for any decisions that we have not yet made in old content.

 

The old story will be locked off. If you haven't completed it they will likely just give you the same default story they use for the instant-60s.

[thomasshan]

BUMP

 

*******BIG NON SPOILER QUESTION*********

 

Without Spoiling Is the choices we make just important to affect companions or are you going to give us what we want which is we don't want to have to fight against the Emperor and instead can you give us the choice to join him for real!

**not just upset a companion or few people because we want to play our character roles real and be evil not just agressive or sturborn!**

We are tired or being the good guys despite the companion consequences, Id kill em all if I had to to join the Emperor!

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=829482

 

Bump

 

Please respond to above post Dev just to prove you read this stuff!!!! and you are aware of the question/want

Don't have to awnser per say with spoiler or non spoiler!

[OathboundCoH]

So will there be a weird situation when, for example, I take my summoned "drone" 2V-R8 to Chapter 5 and bump into real story-2V and they stand and look at each other?

 

2nd question, will the hypothetical summoned "drone" 2V be standing on the ship even though I know story-wise he's actually in a competly different place in the galaxy and I'm not suppoused to reuinite with him until 4 Chapters later?

 

I'm kinda getting the feeling that most/all the KotFE conversations will be the type where a specific companion is required (Like needing to use Yuun and Tanno Vik at specific parts of the final Trooper Chapter 2 mission, even if you don't like them), meaning you aren't really going to run into a situation where you've got your non-canon companion chatting up their own canon version.

[xAZUREx]

I swear to god if Kira cheats on me with Doc I will turn into the Emperor.

 

After the 5 year time skip will companions appearences have changed, for example, some characters may have grown their hair or others recieved scars in the abscence, much like Lana has changed in appearence, if not do you think they could make a 5 year time skip appearence item, which is a slightly altered version of their original appearence.

 

Things that they could change:

Hair Length

Hair Colour

Hair Style (wig)

Contacts

Scars (from battles?)

etc.

[LyraineAlei]

I swear to god if Kira cheats on me with Doc I will turn into the Emperor.

 

After the 5 year time skip will companions appearences have changed, for example, some characters may have grown their hair or others recieved scars in the abscence, much like Lana has changed in appearence, if not do you think they could make a 5 year time skip appearence item, which is a slightly altered version of their original appearence.

 

Things that they could change:

Hair Length

Hair Colour

Hair Style (wig)

Contacts

Scars (from battles?)

etc.

 

Skipping the Kira cheating on you bit, but those could interfere with companion customization kits people may or may not use. They would be cool, and if all customization kits are altered to show age changes as well with KotFE, even better, but that is a long of design work... Stuff...

[Icestar]

Can the companions still equip colour crystals?

 

If the characters wear no stats I hope this will still be possible.

Edited August 28, 2015 by Icestar

[_SHAME_]

Now that gear for companions is for aesthetics only, is it possible that we can get the old green starter gear back for them somehow? I know I have a few companions that came with gear that really fit their character, but because it was green it has since been vendored. Some of these it's especially hard to find appropriate gear for. For example, Lord Scourge. It's really not possible to recreate his original look because any gear that looks like that is restricted to the Imp side.

This is a great question/suggestion. I will pass it on to the team.

 

Great suggestion, I'd love to build onto this idea and ask if we could possibly have a vendor that sells companion armor set boxes. Basically, all the unique Companion Armor (Padded, Folded, etc) that you get throughout levelling and side quests. Consider how great some of these armors look, it’s a shame to have them rendered irrelevant after a few levels, and even more so now the gear is purely cosmetic. Would happily pay Basic Com’s or Credits for these.

 

Basically, the Vendor would sell the following items, which are a box (Similar to HK/Treek gear box, weapon included):

• Mako’s Armor Set
  
• Mako’s Basic Armor Set
  
• Mako’s Padded Armor Set
  
• Mako’s Folded Armor Set
  
• Quinn’s Armor Set
  
• Quinn’s Basic Armor Set
  
• Quinn’s Padded Armor Set
  
• Quinn’s Folded Armor Set
  

Etc.

Edited August 28, 2015 by _SHAME_

[Jerqa]

Will our companions, and/or, our characters have an appearance slot for weapons in 4.0?

[AFTOHSIX]

Hey Eric,

 

Will the re-acquisition of our ship play a role in any of the story? For the smuggler especially the ship is almost like another crew member.