Change companions back to that they used to be

[Kyrra_T]

I think bioware tried to nerf companions once already, but what the general population found was that the AI is pretty shoddy and by nerfing them they were completely inadequate for content such as heroic star fortresses so ended up reversing a lot of the original nerf.

 

In addition to that there are the veteran and master level options for KOTFE and KOTET. Doing either of those modes in those chapters with a level 10 or under influence companion (the original influence cap) would be ... nightmareish. I won't say it wouldn't be doable because someone, somewhere, probably has managed it. I know I couldn't do it.

Edited March 15, 2018 by Kyrra_T

[ThomasStarWars]

nerf your own. take responsibility for yourself. you can easily disable powers, not level them to 50. It isnt hard to customize your own experience.

 

when you are leveling it is hard not to have them level. they gain influence even if they dont approve of your choices.

[Aeneas_Falco]

The current system where you can set your companion to any role is much better, and should have been how it worked at launch.

 

Having said that it is a shame that companions lost much in the way of their original animations. The changes sucked some of the life out of them. It would be great if Bioware could give companions their original abilities back for whatever role they originally filled, some of which had unique vocalizations as well. Set a DPS companion to DPS for example, and he or she has the abilities that were present at launch.

 

One of the reasons why I still Treek is that Treek still has unique abilities.

Edited March 15, 2018 by Aeneas_Falco

[casirabit]

No thank you. I like being able to use whatever companion I want and not being stuck with a companion I hate. You can make you companion to do what you want but asking them to do that for everyone is a bit selfish. If you want a particular companion to heal, then do it.

 

If you don't want them OP then don't raise up their influence. Simple. You don't even need to use them if you are afraid of them getting too high in influence.

Edited March 15, 2018 by casirabit

[Kyrra_T]

when you are leveling it is hard not to have them level. they gain influence even if they dont approve of your choices.

 

Looking at them versus original content and then against the Kotfe/Kotet content is also a factor. The original content was never adjusted for a more powerful companion. The latter content was. The planetary heroics are the source for alliance crates. When they added that to heroics they had to move the difficulty to the lowest common denominator so that 'anyone' no matter their skill could obtain the alliance crates for the Odessen Alliance Specialitst, Aygo, Hylo, Sana Rae and Oggurobb. The companions being more powerful served that end. Additionally the difficulty level of both Star Fortresses and higher difficulty runs of Kotfe and Kotet factor into that.

 

And from simple conversations you won't get your companions to 50 influence. That takes feeding them companion gifts. So while in the vanilla they might get up to 10 unless you are feeding gifts they won't reach the levels that make them overpowering.

Edited March 15, 2018 by Kyrra_T

[ivanhedgehog]

I think bioware tried to nerf companions once already, but what the general population found was that the AI is pretty shoddy and by nerfing them they were completely inadequate for content such as heroic star fortresses so ended up reversing a lot of the original nerf.

 

people have the ability to make their companion more or less effective to suit themselves. they just choose to call for nerfs instead of taking responsibility for their own game experience. They are either refusing to take any effort or they want to change other peoples game experience rather than their own. neither are a good reason to change the way the game works.

[ThomasStarWars]

people have the ability to make their companion more or less effective to suit themselves. they just choose to call for nerfs instead of taking responsibility for their own game experience. They are either refusing to take any effort or they want to change other peoples game experience rather than their own. neither are a good reason to change the way the game works.

 

 

all i want is for them to add an option for us to disable companion rank ups, so if we want, they can stay at rank 1 no matter what.

[Tahana]

all i want is for them to add an option for us to disable companion rank ups, so if we want, they can stay at rank 1 no matter what.

 

I've not tried this, but have you tried dismissing them before you go into a cut scene? I know in some instances you have to have them there because the game forced you to.. But you can also pick whatever option gives no rep etc. Not against a comp staying rank 1 if that is your cup of tea.. Just don't want that forced on others.

[ThomasStarWars]

I've not tried this, but have you tried dismissing them before you go into a cut scene? I know in some instances you have to have them there because the game forced you to.. But you can also pick whatever option gives no rep etc. Not against a comp staying rank 1 if that is your cup of tea.. Just don't want that forced on others.

 

We can't forget the ship companion conversations. And often times holoterminal mission briefings give the companions added affection. I think adding a small cap toggle for us to disable them getting any affection would be a simple, and cost effective addition... it would not affect anyone else who doesn't want their companions capped either.

[PetFish]

Rather than go all the way back what I would like to see is companions only have roles that "suit" them.

 

 

For example:

 

Khem Val could be Tank or DPS, but not Heals

Mako could be Heals or DPS, but not a Tank

Etc.

[Sarova]

Another NO from me - altering companions so they can play any role and removing stats so they can wear any outfit is one of the best things the devs did. Changing it back would be a terrible idea. If you don't like the current companion system, look up what they were originally and use whichever companion was tank/healer/dmg as that role. If you want to make things harder as others have said don't bother giving them influence (or do stuff without a companion - I see quite a few people doing that around Star Forge. Not so much on Darth Malgus).

[ThomasStarWars]

Another NO from me - altering companions so they can play any role and removing stats so they can wear any outfit is one of the best things the devs did. Changing it back would be a terrible idea. If you don't like the current companion system, look up what they were originally and use whichever companion was tank/healer/dmg as that role. If you want to make things harder as others have said don't bother giving them influence (or do stuff without a companion - I see quite a few people doing that around Star Forge. Not so much on Darth Malgus).

 

the devs can also add a disable rank up option for those of us who want to keep our companions at bay at rank 1....

[IoNonSoEVero]

I've not tried this, but have you tried dismissing them before you go into a cut scene? I know in some instances you have to have them there because the game forced you to.. But you can also pick whatever option gives no rep etc. Not against a comp staying rank 1 if that is your cup of tea.. Just don't want that forced on others.

 

If you have a CM or reward companion, you don't get influence from them in cut scenes. So you can summon them every time you need to have a chat with someone. I took Darth Hexid around with my agent for a while because I didn't like the first companion for her. She was in all the cut scenes with me but gave no influence points.

 

That won't circumvent the ship mission holo conversations where a lot of the companions can get influence points, but it will work to cut influence in other scenes.

 

Or else, just use that CM/reward companion all the time. There's no way to get them out of Level 1 unless you actively give them gifts - so don't.

Edited March 15, 2018 by IoNonSoEVero

[Kyrra_T]

Rather than go all the way back what I would like to see is companions only have roles that "suit" them.

 

 

For example:

 

Khem Val could be Tank or DPS, but not Heals

Mako could be Heals or DPS, but not a Tank

Etc.

 

You don't have to change anything to do that. Simply only choose those roles that 'you' think are suitable for the companion. I don't get why there is a need for change for anyone but yourself and you can handle that by choosing only the roles that you desire.

 

Something you can handle by yourself doesn't need to be done to others who are perfectly happy with the companions as is.

[ZeroTypeR]

Don't feed them gifts. Done.

 

That's not entirely correct. Feeding them gifts does increase stats, but it's also the presence stat that makes companions overpowered.

 

With a presence of, let's say, 1,000: Companion bonus damage and healing increases by 1,000.

 

Then, add the influence levels on top of that and you get one, way too strong companion.

Edited March 15, 2018 by ZeroTypeR

[ZeroTypeR]

....no

I like the current setup.

 

I also like companion roles as they are, with the exception that, optional, unique roles should be added back in.

[ThomasStarWars]

That's not entirely correct. Feeding them gifts does increase stats, but it's also the presence stat that makes companions overpowered.

 

With a presence of, let's say, 1,000: Companion bonus damage and healing increases by 1,000.

 

Then, add the influence levels on top of that and you get one, way too strong companion.

 

I wish we could disable the presence buffs from the companion legacy and the legacy datacrons which had presence on it. If I had known it would affect the game so much I'd never have gone for those.

[ZeroTypeR]

I wish we could disable the presence buffs from the companion legacy and the legacy datacrons which had presence on it. If I had known it would affect the game so much I'd never have gone for those.

 

You and me both. It wasn't an issue before 4.0, because the buff was minimal.

[IanArgent]

What a difference 2 years makes

 

Also, adding a toggle is not simple - it doubles your test cases,, to make sure everything works properly in both toggle positions. For an option that most people will never use, and a chunk of them will complain if they accidentally toggle it? Not. Going. To. Happen.

 

I miss the unique animations as well, but the unique powers behind them would undo the end goal, which was to make any companion as desireable to have out as any other (at the same influence rank). That a handful of companions still have unique powers (generally to their detriment) or outperform others is a problem, but a pretty minor one.

 

Mechanically, there should be no difference in performance in each role - easiest way to handle this is to make them mechanically identical.

[JediQuaker]

I'm sure its probably too late but please bioware give us back our tanks healers and dps.

I'm another vote for "no". I like to run with a healer companion and I much prefer to have a choice rather than be forced to use a particular "healer" companion. For example, for my Sentinel, I'd rather use Kira as a healer than be forced to use Doc.

Edited March 16, 2018 by JediQuaker

[Xbladez]

I like the way they change the companion now. I don't want to be force to use Talos follow around as a healer instead I chose Ashra to be my force user healer for my Sith, or Kira Carson as a healer instead of the Doc, or Vette as my range healer rather than that a*ss kisser Mal Quinn. If you don't like the change you can always set your companion as their original set and don't feed them gift to rank up if they are too OP for you...easy problem solve for your own self and no need to get face flaming by everyone....

[xordevoreaux]

Rather than go all the way back what I would like to see is companions only have roles that "suit" them.

 

 

For example:

 

Khem Val could be Tank or DPS, but not Heals

Mako could be Heals or DPS, but not a Tank

Etc.

 

Absolutely 100% disagree. I like the current system far better. Returning to that crap is wrong. No thank you.

[xordevoreaux]

I also like companion roles as they are, with the exception that, optional, unique roles should be added back in.

 

I'm against any modification of the system the way it is now. I don't want to sit there wand ponder ok, which of these toons with their unique roles are now so OP that they are now the only compelling choice to use... not thanks.

Unique roles have always translated into the comp with the uniqueness being OP in one regard or another.

 

No thanks.

Edited March 16, 2018 by xordevoreaux

[ThomasStarWars]

I'm against any modification of the system the way it is now. I don't want to sit there wand ponder ok, which of these toons with their unique roles are now so OP that they are now the only compelling choice to use... not thanks.

Unique roles have always translated into the comp with the uniqueness being OP in one regard or another.

 

No thanks.

 

But they should add a toggle option for those of us who don't want our companions to be ranked up.

[xordevoreaux]

But they should add a toggle option for those of us who don't want our companions to be ranked up.

 

I have seen your suggestion on the suggestion forum.

Your point in the campaign you're making here has been duly noted.