Companion Dalies

[Argonloris]

It was hinted in the livestream that you were trying to find ways to make the companions more relevant an not just a jumble of people that can come to your aid every now and then. I was thinking that this might be at least a temporary solution to the issue.

If you have a random few companions that pop into the base (be it Odessen or wherever we go after this season) and offer a daily mission tied to what they are about. i.e.: Bowdarr asks you to stop a slaving organization, Lokin wants genetic samples from some creature. Gault has a new get rich scheme, etc. The companions that pop up would be random and you would need to have them with you to accomplish the objectives.

Instead of exp. you award some companion influence and a small amount of credits.

Characters that are romanced could ask for something different than they normally would. Maybe just taking them to a location for a picnic on Alderaan or the cafe on Manaan (date night).

 

It's not a permanent solution but it may give some depth to the characters while making them feel a bit more alive and part of the story.

Edited July 4, 2016 by Argonloris

[Muljo_Stpho]

Randomized dailies? That would be something different for the game, whatever the context. Somehow though, I kind of suspect that they'd still need to give it some sort of structure to implement it. Like perhaps they might not be able to have some hidden mechanism that will re-roll every day (whether you completed your random mission the previous day or not) which companion is offering a mission that day, so perhaps the idea could instead be to package it all up in the form of one daily with a ton of choices. Like you go up to Theron in the Alliance base and he says "hey, these people wanted to have a word with you" so you pick one (if one is a romance it would be marked as [flirt] of course) and that's your companion daily for the day. It's not random, but it'd be something.

[Argonloris]

Randomized dailies? That would be something different for the game, whatever the context. Somehow though, I kind of suspect that they'd still need to give it some sort of structure to implement it. Like perhaps they might not be able to have some hidden mechanism that will re-roll every day (whether you completed your random mission the previous day or not) which companion is offering a mission that day, so perhaps the idea could instead be to package it all up in the form of one daily with a ton of choices. Like you go up to Theron in the Alliance base and he says "hey, these people wanted to have a word with you" so you pick one (if one is a romance it would be marked as [flirt] of course) and that's your companion daily for the day. It's not random, but it'd be something.

 

It's true there may be some limitations to the system. I've never worked with the hero engine so I'm not knowledgeable about all its shortcomings. And while your suggestion to have one character direct you to all the missions in some form would bypass some of the possible issues, it guts much of the reason behind the suggestion. Having the characters themselves appear on the base gives a sense of movement and immersion that is needed for something like this. If you find Gault at the Sabacc table one day, and the next day you see Andronokis or Risha ( when you get them) and the day after that it's empty then the game feels more alive. The goal is to make it seem like the companions are more than just a summonable combat pet but more like allies that have lives and agendas. Seeing them involved in the world is a key part of that.

 

Oddly the best way to think about it is if you considered the your companions and yourself as almost a self contained guild. People would be bored really quickly if they were in a guild and the same 20 other people were always on but they never came to ask for your help or held a conversation. This is a degree of social interaction with a player, it just happens to be that this particular is artfully programmed to do things.

[Muljo_Stpho]

It's true there may be some limitations to the system. I've never worked with the hero engine so I'm not knowledgeable about all its shortcomings.

 

Well I'm guessing at what may or may not be possible just as much as you are. I just figure it's good to think about some of the different alternatives in case there is some weird limitation in the system that would need to be worked around.

 

Another idea to consider would be that there could be a schedule of availability for different options. So this wouldn't be random either, but... Well, actually., I suppose the implementation would basically be to treat certain sets of dailies like an "event". So in the same way that the system schedules the start of Bounty Week and when that scheduled moment arrives the mission terminal in the bazaar and all of the shady characters / henchman beacons / whatever else on the planets all just appear (then likewise at the scheduled end time all of those things just disappear) they could have little hidden "events" scheduled in the system where each one has a specific few companions who have a special mission pickup enabled (possibly also moved to a different location from where you would normally find them hanging out) and then the next day that "event" is scheduled to end and a different "event" is scheduled to begin. Create a few different missions for each companion and shuffle all of these missions up between dozens of different "event" groupings, then they could have something like 2-3 weeks worth of missions in the cycle. It's not random and the dataminers would publicize the schedule ripped from the game files (just like conquest schedules) but for an average user playing casually and not bothering to check such schedules it would be a surprise to see who would want to chat each day.

 

Although actually as I bring up Bounty Week as an example I remember what should have occurred to me sooner, that there is randomization in that system. There are 8 possible henchman to hunt down and after you get information out of the shady characters and talk to the randomized contact the system randomizes (from a subset of 5 of those henchmen based on which planet you're hunting on) which henchman you actually get sent after (no correlation between the contact and the henchman, they're randomized separately). So another implementation idea for the companion dailies could have it that you talk to Theron and it randomizes (no choice, it just happens) which room he sends you to and who he says is waiting there to talk to you.

 

(By the way, when I suggested giving a list to choose from I was assuming that there would be that redirection there as well anyway. Make a choice and then have to go meet that person somewhere to see what they want.)

Edited July 3, 2016 by Muljo_Stpho

[Clone_Enforcer]

I could go with this. I actually wish to see these companions interact with one another in cutscenes while doing these daily missions.

[Ceinwyn]

So much potential within this suggestion.

[Muljo_Stpho]

Bringing some thoughts together from my other posts to suggest a format for this:

* Game system has hidden "event" toggles to trigger Theron into Special Mission Offer Mode A / B / C / D / etc. (cycles on a set schedule).

* Each mode has a set list of specific conversations that Theron can redirect you into, at random. For example, Offer A might include Lana Chat A, Bowdaar Chat D, Lokin Chat B, Xalek Chat F, and so on out to however many characters (or unique conversations, since they could have something like Lana Chat A and Lana Chat B both be possibilities for the same day's random chat) they want in the drawing for each day's random list.

* The "event" toggles for each mode could also have all of the affected companions moved to their locations where these conversations will happen, so you see them all in new positions each day regardless of which one the daily actually redirects you into talking to.

 

There's a rigid structure to it that can be worked into the game through known game mechanisms, and at the same time it would also appear very very random to people since they could take a few different KotFE characters through that same daily and end up in a few different conversations and it could take a long time to start seeing repeat conversations and to start seeing the patterns in who moves where at the same time that someone else moves to a specific place.

 

Although to be fair, the dataminers will publicize this data just like they do for conquest schedules, so there won't really be any surprises for those who choose to look for that information.

Edited July 3, 2016 by Muljo_Stpho

[Argonloris]

Bringing some thoughts together from my other posts to suggest a format for this:

* Game system has hidden "event" toggles to trigger Theron into Special Mission Offer Mode A / B / C / D / etc. (cycles on a set schedule).

* Each mode has a set list of specific conversations that Theron can redirect you into, at random. For example, Offer A might include Lana Chat A, Bowdaar Chat D, Lokin Chat B, Xalek Chat F, and so on out to however many characters (or unique conversations, since they could have something like Lana Chat A and Lana Chat B both be possibilities for the same day's random chat) they want in the drawing for each day's random list.

* The "event" toggles for each mode could also have all of the affected companions moved to their locations where these conversations will happen, so you see them all in new positions each day regardless of which one the daily actually redirects you into talking to.

 

There's a rigid structure to it that can be worked into the game through known game mechanisms, and at the same time it would also appear very very random to people since they could take a few different KotFE characters through that same daily and end up in a few different conversations and it could take a long time to start seeing repeat conversations and to start seeing the patterns in who moves where at the same time that someone else moves to a specific place.

 

Although to be fair, the dataminers will publicize this data just like they do for conquest schedules, so there won't really be any surprises for those who choose to look for that information.

 

The only part that seems off though is having Theron act as a go between. There are two reasons for this

1. If the characters are going to be in the instance are area anyway then it seems like an extra step for no reason. Assuming that the reasoning behind this is because we don't want players walking into an area and seeing a comp they killed during the playthrough we can solve that by putting the quests either in an instanced area or just modifying the "visible" flag in the system to not show that companion if they were killed or not recruited yet.

2. On a more basic note it would be really odd for him to say something like "These operatives want to talk with you" and then have him on that list. for some reason it just messes with the flow to me.

[Soul_of_Flames]

Better than companion gifting.

 

/signed

[Capella]

This is awesome! I love the idea and would have a ton of fun.

[Muljo_Stpho]

The only part that seems off though is having Theron act as a go between. There are two reasons for this

1. If the characters are going to be in the instance are area anyway then it seems like an extra step for no reason. Assuming that the reasoning behind this is because we don't want players walking into an area and seeing a comp they killed during the playthrough we can solve that by putting the quests either in an instanced area or just modifying the "visible" flag in the system to not show that companion if they were killed or not recruited yet.

2. On a more basic note it would be really odd for him to say something like "These operatives want to talk with you" and then have him on that list. for some reason it just messes with the flow to me.

 

Theron IS our main contact for all things Alliance related. But I did almost add a line suggesting that the "event" format could have Oggurobb or Hylo or Sana or Aygo as the day's primary contact instead on some days. So throughout a week we'd cycle between different leaders within the Alliance letting us know who was looking to talk to us.

 

Anyway, the point of the intermediary contact instead of just talking to someone directly is that it's a mechanism (which we know that the system is built to be able to handle) to deliver the randomness that the topic creator asked for. Without that intermediary step, I suspect that all of the day's companions would all show as wanting to talk to you all at once, and completing a conversation with any one of them will just disable all the rest of them. You'd see all of those separate mission markers for everyone covered in that day's "event" but you'd only be allowed to speak with one of them and then that's your companion mission for the day. (And that will just annoy people because they'll have seen all those different mission markers and they'll ask why they're restricted to only being able to talk to one of them.)

 

The idea about being able to see people in different locations in the base even without the random roll landing on them as the day's conversation was meant to help with that idea of having a more active / "alive" base of operations. The constant differences from day to day would make it feel like these characters are actively doing things instead of just standing in their assigned corners all the time.

 

About there being a "list", you wouldn't see a list. It would be randomized the same way that bounty week henchmen are randomized. You don't see a list when you go to the bounty contact that says "these 5 henchmen are on this planet, which one do you want to hear about?" The system just decides by some hidden roll which one of those 5 it will give you.

 

But yeah, there could be some conditions that would have to be taken into account for certain things in all of this. Like if one of the possibilities for the day is a Koth conversation and you made the choices that encouraged him to leave, of course the system would have to exclude him from the random roll and exclude him from showing up somewhere in the base. And I agree that it would come across as kind of annoying if the result of the hidden roll when you start talking to Theron would come up with Theron himself being the day's subject and so an unnecessary "talk to me again in a second" scene ends and he's still right there in front of you wanting to talk again. Plus, what if your character is in a romance with him?

 

Actually... It occurs to me that perhaps romance lines should be excluded from the randomness. So if your character is in a romance with Lana, for example, each "event" that does not include her in the roll for a standard conversation will allow you to go talk to her directly for a romance conversation. And you can do both that conversation and the randomized conversation with someone else. But if Lana is a possibility for a standard conversation that day, she's part of the roll and won't offer any romance conversation for that day. In this line of thinking, where Theron is concerned this would definitely have to rely on the other 4 Alliance contacts also being used as intermediaries. Theron's romance conversations could happen on days where he is not the day's intermediary.

Edited July 4, 2016 by Muljo_Stpho

[HaltHammerzeit]

I like this idea, but think that maybe the Heroic Mission system could be rejigged to accommodate it.

 

At endgame, instead of the terminal giving you the Heroic Missions, the companions you've recruited could do it in the Alliance War Room. Completing the Heroics that that companion gives you would still give the rewards that you get now, but it would also give you some Influence with them. That would also let you pick and chose which Heroics you want to do and target them towards the companions you like or want to raise Influence with.

 

I'm not sure how easy it would be to program but there may be an opportunity to have a single Heroic be available from multiple companions but only be able to be completed once a week (like the current weekly Heroics). That way Heroics that reflect multiple companions beliefs/likes can be used to improve Influence for all of them.

[Argonloris]

@ Muljo_Stpho I think I see the issue. It was a miscommunication on my part. My thought process was that only two or three companions would have quests each day and you could do them all. You could even accept them all at once but the game wouldn't count completion of objectives unless you had the right companion with you. Quest titles would start with the companion name and then the name (i.e. Risha: Dinner and a Blaster Fight)

That's why I think we were thinking differently. I agree it would be a pain if you could only choose one of many.

 

I like this idea, but think that maybe the Heroic Mission system could be rejigged to accommodate it.

 

At endgame, instead of the terminal giving you the Heroic Missions, the companions you've recruited could do it in the Alliance War Room. Completing the Heroics that that companion gives you would still give the rewards that you get now, but it would also give you some Influence with them. That would also let you pick and chose which Heroics you want to do and target them towards the companions you like or want to raise Influence with.

 

I'm not sure how easy it would be to program but there may be an opportunity to have a single Heroic be available from multiple companions but only be able to be completed once a week (like the current weekly Heroics). That way Heroics that reflect multiple companions beliefs/likes can be used to improve Influence for all of them.

 

The idea behind this wasn't to tie this system into heroics but rather have the companions do something that was important to them. Similar to how their recruitment in cases like Lokin, Qyzen, and Talos are related to a personal matter. The influence reward is nice but it's the smaller piece of the overall puzzle. The goal is to make the characters feel more alive and a part of the story.

Edited July 5, 2016 by Argonloris

[Muljo_Stpho]

I like this idea, but think that maybe the Heroic Mission system could be rejigged to accommodate it.

 

At endgame, instead of the terminal giving you the Heroic Missions, the companions you've recruited could do it in the Alliance War Room. Completing the Heroics that that companion gives you would still give the rewards that you get now, but it would also give you some Influence with them. That would also let you pick and chose which Heroics you want to do and target them towards the companions you like or want to raise Influence with.

 

I'm not sure how easy it would be to program but there may be an opportunity to have a single Heroic be available from multiple companions but only be able to be completed once a week (like the current weekly Heroics). That way Heroics that reflect multiple companions beliefs/likes can be used to improve Influence for all of them.

 

They'd probably be in the system as alternate copies of the same mission. So from the heroic terminal you'd have the standard [Heroic 2+] Recruitment on Nar Shaddaa where your mission is to kill/wreck everything in a Jedi training facility. Or from the right people in your alliance you could pick up [Xalek Heroic] Recruitment or [Ak'Ghal Usar Heroic] Recruitment or [Veeroa Denz Heroic] Recruitment or whoever else might offer a version of that one. And then it would have to be a lot like however they set up bounty week missions to lock out access to each other after you pick up / complete a mission. Once you pick up [Xalek Heroic] Recruitment you will not be able to pick up Recruitment from any of those other sources, and after you've completed any one version of it you cannot pick up any other version of it in that same week. All versions would lead you to the same location with the same objectives to complete, but the companion versions would have influence for that specific companion as an extra reward.

 

It would be a matter of somebody going through and copy-pasting and making the appropriate tweaks to ALL of the heroic mission data to add tons of alternate versions for everything and making sure that they're all tagged to apply the correct lockouts against the other versions of the same mission. And then they'd have to decide on just how exactly that's all getting delivered to you from the companions. Does each companion ask what you'd like to do and offer a massively long list of options? Or does each companion say that they have something they'd like you to do and just grant a mission at random without giving you any choices (more like how the 6 star fortress companions can give you a random heroic for their planet when you're at the part where they want locked crates)? Or is there another option?

 

Edit: Random thing to point out to the devs in the heroics: Ever since 4.0's changes that heroic on Imperial Balmorra with the two droids (Comrades in Arms) no longer has the bonus mission if you're doing the dark side version of the mission. It only enables the bonus to be completed for characters who pick the light side version of the mission. You should probably fix that so that both sides can do the bonus again.

Edited July 5, 2016 by Muljo_Stpho

[HaltHammerzeit]

The idea behind this wasn't to tie this system into heroics but rather have the companions do something that was important to them. Similar to how their recruitment in cases like Lokin, Qyzen, and Talos are related to a personal matter. The influence reward is nice but it's the smaller piece of the overall puzzle. The goal is to make the characters feel more alive and a part of the story.

 

Yeah, I like that idea as well, I was just thinking in terms of something that could be fair easily accomplished without too much effort from the Devs.

 

I also like the idea of opening up some of the recruitment missions that required you to raise companion influence before you could get them, like Lokin, Qyzen, Bowdaar, Blizz, 4X, Pierce, etc. Maybe toned down. I really don't like the idea of playing another 20 PVP matches just to raise 4X's influence by another 10 levels.

[Argonloris]

Yeah, I like that idea as well, I was just thinking in terms of something that could be fair easily accomplished without too much effort from the Devs.

 

I also like the idea of opening up some of the recruitment missions that required you to raise companion influence before you could get them, like Lokin, Qyzen, Bowdaar, Blizz, 4X, Pierce, etc. Maybe toned down. I really don't like the idea of playing another 20 PVP matches just to raise 4X's influence by another 10 levels.

 

To be fair, you still get influence for MX or the imperial counter (can't remember his name) even after the turn in. And yes you are right. This suggestion is a bit more work for the Dev team to do if it goes the route I originally suggested but I think it would be an interesting change of pace. Especially for the ones with the LI since they could send characters to interesting parts of the map that most don't ever really take the time to visit..

 

A few could even use that one section of Hoth with all the lava and high level monsters that has no quests or missions attached to it. I've never seen anyone else bother to go there.