Place companions back in your ship post-KOTET

[opingebr]

Kinda bugs me that post-KOTET and having recovered all the former companions, the personal ship is still empty... Wouldn't it be nice (and more realistic) if they re-took their places onboard your ship post-KOTET?

[SteveTheCynic]

Kinda bugs me that post-KOTET and having recovered all the former companions, the personal ship is still empty... Wouldn't it be nice (and more realistic) if they re-took their places onboard your ship post-KOTET?

You're not the first to request that. In fact, people requested it almost as soon as KotFE was released, given that T7 and SCORPIO both "return" before you get your ship back.

[Andrellma]

At least the main story companions, please. Assuming you kept them.

 

I killed the hell out of Skadge on my BH. So please don't put him back on my ship.

[TalleraLane]

At least the main story companions, please. Assuming you kept them.

 

I killed the hell out of Skadge on my BH. So please don't put him back on my ship.

 

That's the issue is it not, every player picked different choices so this would be to much effort for BW to do. Best and probably far easier would be change the ship so it can be decorated. Players than then add who they want. Then of cause it be, I only can put 5-6 of my companions in etc etc.. I know that would be my issue.

 

I agree it be nice to have a much larger ship we could decorate ourselves which is not a guild ship, but somehow cannot see this happening anytime soon, or ever.

[IoNonSoEVero]

I agree that given every player has different characters they like and have opted to keep or lose, putting the class story companions back on the ship could be problematic. I surely don't want characters like Quinn, Doc or Skadge back on my PC's ships. I didn't want them there the first time, LOL.

 

I think Tallera's suggestion about making the personal ships able to be decorated, like a stronghold, would be the ideal solution to this. At the least they could add maybe 5-10 small hooks around the ship so players could add companions or pets of choice.

[Andrellma]

I agree that given every player has different characters they like and have opted to keep or lose, putting the class story companions back on the ship could be problematic. I surely don't want characters like Quinn, Doc or Skadge back on my PC's ships. I didn't want them there the first time, LOL.

 

I think Tallera's suggestion about making the personal ships able to be decorated, like a stronghold, would be the ideal solution to this. At the least they could add maybe 5-10 small hooks around the ship so players could add companions or pets of choice.

 

Part of the issue with that lies with how the ships are coded, or at least that's the argument that's been thrown around a lot. Supposedly the ships are tied to so many different things that modifying them in a meaningful way would essentially break the game.

[VelvetSanity]

At a minimum I’d like to see the romanced/LI NPC and ship droid on the ship...it’s just soooo empty...

[Carnunsas]

I don't see why we can't have a simple interface to select any companion onto the ship with limited designated spots for them. It's not as if the comps pre-kotfe ever moved outside of cutscenes anyway. With this it becomes irrelevant who you killed or rejected as you can only pick from those that are there. they all already have idle animations and dialogue if you click them.

[MikeCobalt]

+1 Great Idea. As others have said this is one of the more requested features. The counter to this has been the Cutscenes have specific placements (Typically where the class comps already are). I *Guess...I can understand that and apparently their coding is not typical aswell. I have no idea on this but *Unless Bioware intends to have More Ship Companion Cutscenes that part seems nowdays (actually ever since EA turned their back) to be irrelevant; 99.8% of the class ships "Are Not" cutscene area's.

 

About the *Difficult part, well it wasn't difficult until Zakuul and instead of thinking ahead (someday these comps will be back) it was side stepped then made even more of a "That Issue" with the insta travel; with that they went from empty and lonely to lonely *AnD cumbersome further downgrading this.

I would also like my companions back on the ship, class comps Atleast (Never Bonded with any of the Zakuul extra's).

Edited August 28, 2019 by MikeCobalt

[SteveTheCynic]

About the *Difficult part, well it wasn't difficult until Zakuul

That's a somewhat ridiculous assertion. It wasn't even a problem before 4.0 came out, because it was entering KotFE that removed them in the first place, and KotFE launched with 4.0.

 

It's difficult(1) because, according to all reports that I've seen, the code that's attached to the class ships is a grotesquely tangled mess of stuff that was written before the game was released (duh) by people who were in a hurry(2) and who are no longer at BioWare(3).

 

(1) Programming has been my day job for thirty years(4), so I know about the sort of thing that can be hidden by "It's difficult" in the context of programming, even if I don't know anything about SWTOR's code.

 

(2) This is true of most code written for video games. The video game industry is notorious for aggressively short deadlines and the consequent high bug count.

 

(3) This is a big problem. When a programmer leaves his(5) team, he takes a vast amount of knowledge of the product with him, and it is extremely rare for *all* of it to be recorded in writing that gets left behind.

 

(4) I have a large number of colleagues who are younger than my professional career.

 

(5) Although the first programmer I ever met was a woman (er, my mother, thanks), we are mostly men. The nearest-to-equal ratio I've ever seen in a programming environment was about two men per woman (and I didn't take the job because the company was glacially slow getting back to me and I found an offer somewhere else), and I've elsewhere seen ratios as high as 75:1, assuming there were any women at all. In the programming group where I work today, there is one female programmer among about 25 male programmers. I think "he" is a reasonable word to use, although I really meant the *other* "he" anyway.(6)

 

(6) English has two pronouns spelled "he": "person of male sex" and "person of unspecified sex".(7) The second is somewhat falling into disuse these days.

 

(7) In Middle English, the two pronouns spelled "he" were "person of male sex" (today spelled "he") and "group of people" (today spelled "they").

[MikeCobalt]

That's a somewhat ridiculous assertion. It wasn't even a problem before 4.0 came out, because it was entering KotFE that removed them in the first place, and KotFE launched with 4.0.

 

Yes I know that's what I meant. The Companions were there *Until Zakuul/ KotFE released then they were Nolonger there. There was no problem until there was and ever since its been said it was too much of a problem (a problem they created and never fixed, same as the Companions themselves (Pod People)).

 

It's difficult(1) because, according to all reports that I've seen, the code that's attached to the class ships is a grotesquely tangled mess of stuff that was written before the game was released (duh) by people who were in a hurry(2) and who are no longer at BioWare(3).

 

Right, that's what I was saying I know they've said it was Difficult

This is a bit of an odd situation though and also New with 4.0 it seems, the *New replacement companions Don't "As of yet" show on the ships but I have taken one Comp back thru the Locator at Odessen (Akaavi) and she does stand in the same place as before like nothings changed. Based on this (Even if it is just one) It seems the missing ship comps isnt a Ship issue at all, it's just another shortcoming of the Post Zakuul Companions (different entity altogether).

Edited August 28, 2019 by MikeCobalt

[SteveTheCynic]

Yes I know that's what I meant. The Companions were there *Until Zakuul/ KotFE released then they were Nolonger there. There was no problem until there was and ever since its been said it was too much of a problem (a problem they created and never fixed, same as the Companions themselves (Pod People)).

No, they are there *now* if you haven't started KotFE on that character. And changing what the ships do was difficult before 4.0 as well (ref: requests for decorating hooks in the ships, which people were asking for long before 4.0).

Right, that's what I was saying I know they've said it was Difficult

This is a bit of an odd situation though and also New with 4.0 it seems, the *New replacement companions Don't "As of yet" show on the ships but I have taken one Comp back thru the Locator at Odessen (Akaavi) and she does stand in the same place as before like nothings changed. Based on this (Even if it is just one) It seems the missing ship comps isnt a Ship issue at all, it's just another shortcoming of the Post Zakuul Companions (different entity altogether).

The key point, I think, is that the story-returned or alert-returned companions aren't the same companions. Vette who ran around snarking at Darth Blobular ceases to exist(1) when you start KotFE Chapter I on that character, although she can be re-summoned, as you noted, using the terminal. Once you begin Chapter XIII, however, she's gone for good, replaced by "new" Vette who inherited "old" Vette's Influence rank. In a couple of cases, notably Jaesa, it's more visible, since the companion decoration hologram (when you have Jaesa with you) tracks the appearance of the "old" version of the companion rather than the new version, and therefore appears unarmed and dressed only in skivvies.

 

If you pushed me to propose a reason why, I would lean towards it being because of the ability to recruit returner companions on other classes - there is no "old" Vette for anyone except a Sith Warrior, for example - so they had to do *something* for it, and this is the solution they chose. (Vette doesn't have a natural place on any ship except a Warrior's Fury, so they simplify it to the max by saying that returned Vette doesn't have a place on any ship.)

 

Note that this doesn't explain why "new" Andronikos doesn't appear in the Inquisitor's shio if you do his alert, except that I'd put *some* money down on the side of "Originally all the returned companions(2) were intended to be available on all classes" thing.

 

Note that much of the above is blatantly speculative, but the speculation is informed by my experience as a programmer.

 

(1) Kinda sorta, see the notes on the hologram companion decorations. Perhaps she just sends her identical twin.

(2) Except Tanno Vik, for reasons already explored at length elsewhere.

[darkdoctor]

I like this idea too - signed

[heroldjedi]

that's the issue is it not, every player picked different choices so this would be to much effort for bw to do. Best and probably far easier would be change the ship so it can be decorated. Players than then add who they want. Then of cause it be, i only can put 5-6 of my companions in etc etc.. I know that would be my issue.

 

I agree it be nice to have a much larger ship we could decorate ourselves which is not a guild ship, but somehow cannot see this happening anytime soon, or ever.

 

want this

[J_Fairfox]

SImple option if the coding is the main issue. Create a story were our main ship ends up blown up, or you give it to someone. Then give us another ship or a choice in ships, that will become our main ship which doubles as a stronghold.

 

If people havn't done things like Makeb that require the terminal just have a message. Given up this ship will auto-complete X story.

[KoranGarmonk]

I agree that given every player has different characters they like and have opted to keep or lose, putting the class story companions back on the ship could be problematic. I surely don't want characters like Quinn, Doc or Skadge back on my PC's ships. I didn't want them there the first time, LOL.

 

I think Tallera's suggestion about making the personal ships able to be decorated, like a stronghold, would be the ideal solution to this. At the least they could add maybe 5-10 small hooks around the ship so players could add companions or pets of choice.

 

Agree, I hate 2 of 6 class ships, don't like 3 (like Defender that don't have a crew room) and the one that I like don't have a lot of space inside!

I really need a new ship and I don't like some of my crew members, should be great to custom everything!

[DuchessKristania]

I like the suggestion of having the choice of who will be on my ship. There are some I'd bring on from my class stories and those I'd bring from other classes. I also wish they'd just make all the companions available via the terminal for everyone in general. It was suggested forever ago, and a dev actually responded to the suggestion but nothing else has ever been said.

[JCBRRJ]

That is very sad, because I'd love to decorate a ship just like a stronghold, that way we could choose the NPCs. Hell, maybe even choose another model of ship, and if it is too much mess to work on the old ship, why not offer a proper capital ship for the player, not as big as a guild stronghold but fitting for the commander of an multi-world alliance, with all the new and old npcs, a personal chamber for Lana with a strip pole...and, and...hey Bioware, it will be effort but you will make money, you know our wallets are itching for a proper capital ship.

[AceMasterSoul]

At least the main story companions, please. Assuming you kept them.

 

I killed the hell out of Skadge on my BH. So please don't put him back on my ship.

 

ha ha ha! my thoughts exactly ha ha ha!

[AceMasterSoul]

That's the issue is it not, every player picked different choices so this would be to much effort for BW to do. Best and probably far easier would be change the ship so it can be decorated. Players than then add who they want. Then of cause it be, I only can put 5-6 of my companions in etc etc.. I know that would be my issue.

 

I agree it be nice to have a much larger ship we could decorate ourselves which is not a guild ship, but somehow cannot see this happening anytime soon, or ever.

 

that's a decent idea. though that's what the stronghold is for.