The Odessen terminal summon vs. "The real thing"

[bluehufsa]

I wonder if you guys and girls feel any difference between the companion summoned from Odessen and ..the "real thing" ? For me is just not working, i really feel like the summoned Zenith is just an empty husk, a simulation or something like that. Nothing changed and that's precisely the problem, i can't pretend that after five years everything is the way it used to be. OK, i'm probably rambling, but still, i want to see your opinions.

[SteveTheCynic]

There are two parts to this:

 

There is a *technical* difference. Let's look at Vette as an example. There are three different Vettes in the game:

* "old" Vette - the one in the class story. She's romanceable, appears on the class ship, and so on.

* "terminal" Vette - the one you summon from the terminal. She's a lot like old-Vette, enough so that I think we can ignore her presence.

* "new" Vette - the one you recruit in Chapter XIII. She looks very similar, although she wears different clothes, but she cannot be romanced (except by a SW who successfully romanced "old" Vette.) and she doesn't stand in the class ship.

 

All returned companions are a bit like this (exception: "terminal" T7 doesn't exist as such), and some even have heavier changes - Torian Cadera switches from a hitting stick to a shooting iron, for example.

 

There is also, possibly, a storytelling difference - are they the same people / droids? This isn't as clear-cut, but it's worth noting that they are, indeed, *all* a bit "empty husk", even the "old" versions. Well, except that the "old" versions, while we are playing the class story, have their own stories to tell, and most of that disappears when you click the button to launch The Hunt.

[Nightfrogger]

Ones pulled from the terminal can still gan influence from conversations while doing older quests and still give random planetary comentary. Also have their mouths move when they talk when you clck on them.

 

Returnd chaacters do none of these things.

[kodrac]

i really feel like the summoned Zenith is just an empty husk, a simulation or something like that. Nothing changed and that's precisely the problem, i can't pretend that after five years everything is the way it used to be. OK, i'm probably rambling, but still, i want to see your opinions.

 

Hey don't worry, the "real thing" is an empty husk too.

[TUXs]

Hey don't worry, the "real thing" is an empty husk too.

^^THIS^^

 

It's not like they have a personality either way...they're pets...nothing more.

[JamagsAwesome]

I wonder if you guys and girls feel any difference between the companion summoned from Odessen and ..the "real thing" ? For me is just not working, i really feel like the summoned Zenith is just an empty husk, a simulation or something like that. Nothing changed and that's precisely the problem, i can't pretend that after five years everything is the way it used to be. OK, i'm probably rambling, but still, i want to see your opinions.

 

I'm not entirely certain, but the terminal seems to restore your companions as you had them previously. They reappear on your ship, wear the equipment you left them with, and have the same dialogue when you click on them. They are not considered to have actually returned by the story's standards. There's no new content associated with them, it's basically just pretending you didn't lose them in the first place, but they're every bit as narratively "frozen" as they were once you were done with the class and companion storylines.

 

The characters who return the normal way (through the story) are essentially different NPCs with the same face and name (and not always the same name: see "Captain Dorne" and "Major Quinn") as the originals. Zenith in particular is not back yet, so he can't be accessed that way. The ones that have returned will not appear on your ship, may have different gameplay from what they used to, and will not have the equipment you left them with. And even they have no new conversations, so if you get the option to kill them or they are recruited via alert, they will have no further involvement in the story. They may as well have come from the terminal, except in this instance they won't even be on your ship.

 

Oh, and recruiting companions through the story overrides the terminal. I haven't actually tried summoning a companion from the terminal and then recruiting them the normal way (I'll try it with Rusk when I bring my Knight through KotFE), but it probably even removes them from your ship, since the "old" companion is fully replaced with the "new" one.

[SteveTheCynic]

Oh, and recruiting companions through the story overrides the terminal. I haven't actually tried summoning a companion from the terminal and then recruiting them the normal way (I'll try it with Rusk when I bring my Knight through KotFE), but it probably even removes them from your ship, since the "old" companion is fully replaced with the "new" one.

 

This is correct. If you recall them using the terminal, then recruit them using the post-KotFE story method, the terminal-called version vanishes.

 

And some of them have more substantive differences. Case in point: Torian. He went from using a hitting stick to using a shooting iron. And others *didn't* change, but should have, e.g. Vette, who should be allowed to use an HBG(1) after Chapter XIII.

 

(1) Honking Big Gun. Duh.

[Sportiva]

TBH, I prefer to retrieve companions from the terminal, b/c those companions appear on your ship. IMO, none of the companion return stories compensate for the fact your starship feels completely empty after KotFE. KotFE screwed up so many enjoyable things about the game.

[Foambreaker]

I wonder if you guys and girls feel any difference between the companion summoned from Odessen and ..the "real thing" ? For me is just not working, i really feel like the summoned Zenith is just an empty husk, a simulation or something like that. Nothing changed and that's precisely the problem, i can't pretend that after five years everything is the way it used to be. OK, i'm probably rambling, but still, i want to see your opinions.

 

It is all in the way you view it.

[RagnarAugustus]

This is correct. If you recall them using the terminal, then recruit them using the post-KotFE story method, the terminal-called version vanishes.

 

And some of them have more substantive differences. Case in point: Torian. He went from using a hitting stick to using a shooting iron. And others *didn't* change, but should have, e.g. Vette, who should be allowed to use an HBG(1) after Chapter XIII.

 

(1) Honking Big Gun. Duh.

 

Yeah I was a bit peeved that Aric now used a sniper instead of the assault cannon that he used to. I have no idea why we can't choose which weapon he uses.

[Lium]

Hey don't worry, the "real thing" is an empty husk too.

Pretty much this for every companion after ROTHC. You can even romance/flirt with Lana or Theron in front of your original LI and they don't say or do a damn thing.

[bluehufsa]

TBH, I prefer to retrieve companions from the terminal, b/c those companions appear on your ship. IMO, none of the companion return stories compensate for the fact your starship feels completely empty after KotFE. KotFE screwed up so many enjoyable things about the game.

 

The empty ship bothers me too, why can't they just be put back where they used to be? For example, BH has all companion back, except Mako. Why not put Torian near the door, where he use to be, Blizz in front of that computer, Gault in the med bay and Skadge in the big room between command and holoterminal? Or better let us re-arrange them on ship..

[SteveTheCynic]

Yeah I was a bit peeved that Aric now used a sniper instead of the assault cannon that he used to. I have no idea why we can't choose which weapon he uses.

What? He's a sniper. (Listen to his story.) He should use a sniper rifle. (Exception: One of the early extremely extreme long range sniping hits, by Carlos Hathaway, was made using an M-2 heavy machine gun, not an actual sniper rifle.)

 

And he uses a sniper rifle in the post 4.0 classic story as well.