PTS Update 30 - Feedback Thread for Companions

Ilsabet

I used a max level template DPS character (no CP assigned 'cause I forgot) with the companions already unlocked. I did not use the skill maxer and just let their leveling and rapport progress normally. Later on I used the rapport boosters to see what would happen at different rapport levels.

Which areas or zones were you in with your companion?

Blackwood, Shadowfen, Gold Coast, Rivenspire

What types of gameplay were you doing with your companion?

Mostly running around in the overland, killing mobs and trying different things to see what they would comment on and what would affect their rapport. I did try a couple of world bosses (unsuccessfully), an Oblivion portal (successfully despite a bugged boss, and with a lot of other people there) a delve (successfully), and a dolmen (successfully but Mirri spent most of the time on the ground).

Specific activities included: killing mobs, harvesting nodes, fishing, killing critters, opening treasure chests, stealing, pickpocketing, and wanton murder.

Was it clear how to access the Companions interface?

It was clearly noticeable on the companions' dialogue screen, so yes.

Was the Companion ability system clear and intuitive to use?

Mostly, since it's quite similar to the standard skills interface. However, there were some issues:

Unlocked skill lines are obscured by the note explaining how to unlock them. It would be preferable to be able to see the tooltips for the skills so we know what's available to unlock.

If some slots on the skill bar are meant to be unavailable until they are unlocked, that needs to be made clear on the skill interface. Currently at level 1 it looks like you can slot skills in all five slots. However, putting a skill icon in the fourth slot triggered a bug where mousing over any skill slot gave me a "Slot is not unlocked" error message (even if there was already a skill slotted there). And anything I had slotted in the fourth slot disappeared once I exited the skills interface with no indication of why.

The deal with the "priority" of usage is mentioned on the interface, but I wouldn't say it's especially intuitive to know how that will translate to the companions' actual skill usage beyond firing them in a particular order. Do they just do a static rotation of all 3 or 5 skills in the prescribed order? Do individual skill cooldowns affect that rotation? Will they refrain from using a melee skill if they're not close enough, or will they run in to use it? Do conditions for use affect the rotation? (For example, will they use an emergency heal as soon as they're under the required health threshold, even if it's not "next" in the rotation?)

Did your companion use the slotted abilities as you expected them to?

Um... it was kind of hard to tell, honestly. I saw animations for some of the skills, but combat was mostly me doing what I do anyway and them sort of helping. Their contributions were most apparent with DPS specs, because I could see their skill animations (and things like the fire staff knockback), although their damage output was negligible compared to mine.

With tank and healer specs, I think the cooldowns hampered their ability to use the skills effectively. They might toss a heal and then not really do much of anything except light attack, even if we were still taking damage.

Beyond that, it was hard to judge their skill usage because they were too damn squishy to be at all effective in combat. DPS Mirri died three times at a dolmen, corresponding to the three times she drew aggro on a single mob and I didn't or couldn't take it right back. Tank Mirri wasted her taunts on adds at a world boss in Shadowfen, and then got one-shot as soon as she pulled aggro on the boss. Healer Bastian died on a world boss in Rivenspire while I was busy rolling around trying to keep myself alive and deal with adds. Neither of them helped me solo something that I couldn't have soloed without them. I kind of hoped that they'd get more robust at higher levels, even though that's unintuitive with the way the rest of the game works, but reading other comments in this thread tells me that max-level companions are just as bad. So that's gonna need work.

Did you feel the companion talked too much or too little in various circumstances?

Bastian was much more chatty than Mirri. His battle chatter was kind of excessive, and he would comment on almost every node I harvested and every person I shanked with the Blade of Woe. (I do give the writers credit for giving him so many different ways to express judgment of my sins. )

I would say Mirri's level of commentary was just about right and Bastian's was a little too much. But if their comments get repetitive, either of them could become annoying. I'm also concerned about them talking over quest and ambient NPCs.

I was unable to find the setting to adjust their chattiness level. It didn't appear to be in the Companions Menu, and if it's in game settings somewhere I didn't see it.

What did you think of the Companion combat abilities in general? Were there any that felt too powerful or not powerful enough?

Again it's hard to judge them, especially on an individual basis, but if anything they felt not powerful enough, especially in the case of tank and heal skills. Ask me again once the companions can stay alive long enough to really show me what they can do.

Were you able to configure your companion to perform the role you wished?

I mean... I set up their gear and skills easily enough. So configuration was fine. But that didn't seem to affect their ability to perform the role, especially in the case of tank and healer. See complaints above.

Were you able to effectively utilize keyboard/gamepad shortcuts to direct companion target behavior? (Hold Y and left click to attack vs Hold Y and right click to hold off)

I've never been familiar with those commands so I didn't use them. I can see them being useful if you want to send your companion in to initiate combat, but they seem like they'd be clumsy to use while also trying to fight. Maybe it's easier once you get used to it.

How did the companion progression feel in terms of time to level up, advance skills, unlock abilities, improve rapport, or acquire equipment? Was the progress clear in terms of how to access everything?

General character leveling seemed adequate at the beginning, considering that we were just going around killing trash mobs. I do wonder how much of the zone you'd have to play through with them to reach max level.

It seemed to take a while to unlock new skills, and I didn't even notice the skills themselves advancing. I appreciated the popup that a new skill had been unlocked at level 2, but I don't think any more skills were unlocked by level 4. So that will probably feel grindy trying to put together a decent role build at early levels.

Rapport progression seemed miniscule, whether I was doing something good or bad. (I slaughtered the entire Shornhelm inn and Bastian's regard for me barely moved.) I understand that you don't want to have your entire relationship destroyed after doing one thing wrong, but my current impression is that building rapport is a very long game and not something you can actively work on. Assuming there is give and take with both positive and negative actions being done over the course of normal gameplay, I have doubts about even getting rapport high enough to unlock whatever bestie quests there are.

In terms of rapport balance, there seem to be a lot more ways to lower rapport than raise it - especially in cases where each instance of an action lowers rapport (like stealing with Bastian) versus positive actions only sporadically raising rapport (like reading bookshelves).

I never found a piece of companion equipment, although the only bosses we successfully killed were a delve boss in Rivenspire and an Oblivion portal. This doesn't give me a great feeling about farming companion gear, especially if you can't upgrade or transmute it to suit your desired build.

Was the companion cosmetic customization experience clear and function as expected?

Assigning mounts and costumes using the companions' collectibles interface was very easy.

Regarding costumes, it needs to be made clear that dyeing a costume via the companion tab of the outfit station will change the colors for the character's version as well. I knew from the preview stream that companions would share the dyes that the player has set up for each costume, and even that is not made clear anywhere in-game. But it is also very much not clear that saving dyes for the companion will overwrite whatever the player has previously chosen for the character. (If the character is wearing the same costume as the companion, the character's costume will immediately reflect the new colors upon exiting the outfit station interface.)

As much as I appreciate being able to dye the companions' costumes directly, y'all need to do some preemptive damage control before people get mad that their saved color combos have been overwritten with no warning. Or, more ideally, make it so costumes can be dyed independently for the character and the companion.

Setting up an outfit for the companion was fairly straightforward since it worked the usual way, although it wasn't immediately clear that I needed to have the companion out before clicking on the companion icon in the outfit station interface. (I can just imagine all the companion clones crowding around the outfit station with their players. It was hilarious watching another player's Bastian swapping through costumes, though. )

There was some wonkiness with having both a costume and an outfit active, where it couldn't seem to decide which should take precedence.

I appreciate that companions have their own outfit slots independent of the character's slot(s), but I think that each character should have their own slot for each companion so that customization can be character-specific, especially since modifying a companion's outfit costs gold or tokens.

Did you understand how to influence your companion through the rapport system?

There's a definite learning process, figuring out what specific actions they like or dislike - and beyond that, what will actually cause their rapport to increase or decrease. Some of that is hinted at by their "info" dialogue, but ultimately you just have to try things and see if you get the notification of a rapport change. So it becomes a lot of trial and error.

For example, they both said they like books, but I interacted with a lot of bookshelves before I finally triggered a rapport increase and verified that this is a valid rapport-increasing action. Mirri said she likes wine but I still don't know what I'm supposed to do with that. (Making and then consuming a wine drink item didn't do anything.) Mirri said she hates snakes, but she had no reaction to killing giant snakes in Shadowfen.

Their spontaneous reaction dialogue doesn't necessarily help, either. Both of them frequently scolded me for killing critters, but it didn't seem to affect their rapport.

Beyond identifying actions that will trigger rapport changes, there's some variance in how often the action will trigger the change. Bastian's rapport will decrease for every single item I steal, but Mirri's will not decrease for every butterfly or torchbug I harvest. I assume there's a cooldown on rapport changes for some activities, but it's kind of hard to tell how it works, and thus it's kind of hard to predict how my actions will affect their rapport.

Was it clear when rapport was being adjusted and why?

The notification in the loot drop tracker made it clear when rapport was being adjusted. I had to infer what action caused the adjustment, which was usually reasonably easy based on what I was doing at the time and the companions' comments.

Do you have any other general feedback?

Getting too far ahead of my companion while on mounts made their party list bar disappear. Also, if I dismounted while I was far ahead of them, they had to take a long time to run after me instead of appearing next to me like pets do. In some cases I was already done killing mobs by the time they showed up.

Since all the gear icons look the same for each gear slot, it's hard to tell exactly what you have equipped. For example, if I'm switching a companion from a DPS spec using medium armor to a tank spec using heavy armor, I pretty much have to mouse over each icon to make sure I've got the proper gear equipped. Some kind of weight indicator on the icons would be helpful.

The companion dialogue audio when I ask about relationship status or personal info is very quiet, for both of them.

Funny delay in a rapport trigger: I took a boat from Daggerfall to the Gold Coast with Mirri. Her rapport did not update after we arrived, and shortly thereafter I unsummoned her and spent some time with Bastian. Then when I brought Mirri back later (in Rivenspire), she immediately commented on being queasy and her rapport decreased. So maybe work on the cause and effect timing there.

Bastian was super judgy when I used the Blade of Woe to shank someone, but when I just straight up attacked people he helped me kill them. Little bit of a disconnect there. Although it was super funny when a guard chased after me when I light attacked him, and then there's Bastian knocking the guard on his bum while I ran away.

When I used the rapport booster to get Bastian to the highest rapport level, he said something to the effect that "I have a recommendation for you." I assumed that meant I had unlocked one of his personal quests, but there was nothing new in his companion dialogue and no quest initiated. (Maybe it was blocked because I hadn't done an earlier personal quest or something. If so, presumably this wouldn't be an issue with normal rapport progression.)

I felt a little weird about the companions' dialogue at the highest rapport level. I'm happy that they think I'm so great, and I know that we've been working hard to attain those relationship goals, but it actually makes me feel kind of bad that I'm like their best friend but they're probably not going to be that important to me in the long run. "I'm sorry, Bastian, I know you can't live without me, but I need to go level Mirri now." *overly dramatic tragic breakup music swells*

Oh, and I might as well say that I like their personalities and portrayals and I appreciate all the work that went into writing and recording all of that dialogue for them. They seem like they'd be fun to hang out with, even if me and Bastian might have a few creative differences when it comes to questionably legal enterprises.

Yeesh, I hope that was all helpful and that somebody will actually read it.

Ilsabet

Epona222 wrote: »

OK I get that they cannot follow you in housing.

BUT you should still be able to use outfitting stations in your house to outfit and costume either or both of the companions that the character you are currently logged in on has access to. It feels like the outfitting stations we have in homes now only have partial functionality.

Oh no... I was thinking that using outfit stations in houses would be the saving grace keeping you from having to deal with the clone mob I mentioned in my feedback... but I didn't put it together that you have to summon them to customize them but you can't summon them in houses.

This situation could be... improved.

Milli_Rabbit

Do you have any other general feedback?

I have not had a chance to jump on the PTS due to irl work and clinical hours. From what others have said, I am disappointed in Companions. I would rather you do one of two things:

1) Keep their current dps/heals/tanking but make them more like a pet and they do not count as members of a group and they can be rezzed with a short 1 or 2 second channel like pets

OR

2) Increase their dps to at least 20k, increase their heals, and give them an AOE taunt for mobs BUT they continue to count as members of a group.

As they are currently designed, I don't particularly care to use them EVER in dungeons and definitely will not waste time rezzing them in overland when I can complete the fights faster than rezzing them. Please do one of these things!

Kingdomkeepers69_ESO

I would like to suggest for companion feedback is the decision for the helmet decision.

We should have it as a discussion prompt on the companion to show or hide helmet, For those who are pro hood for dark brotherhood-y things can keep the atmosphere up.

guul

I killed 50 innocent people with Bastion. But he still like me. He even helps me to murder them by chaining guards. Maybe deep down he does not care about other people. What a hypocrite.

Edit: now he started yelling something like "for glory!" or "taste our steel!" after citizens died. lol.

Epona222

I want to hear (well in my case mostly read, but ykwim) what Bastian has to say about situations we encounter around Tamriel, so don't want to turn his dialogue down a notch.

This however is just straightforward nagging, perhaps we could have a checkbox to simply disable companion comments while idling (with a condition such as over x amount of time standing in once place) but keep the rest?

Cireous

• Love the rapport system! I'm really enjoying the adventures in trying to figure out exactly how to trigger their likes and dislikes.
• However, the bar barely moves at all throughout hours of play, while purposely doing many things I know are triggering rapport. I would prefer my Companion to move through the rapport system much faster than this. I want to notice a difference in their personalities between rapport levels during a single gameplay session.
• I need to walk in and out of my houses with a fully functional companion. I spend most all my time in my homes, this is where I want to interact with them. I'm sorry, but having them as a houseguest feels really bad.
• Personally, I like their power level as is. I would not want them any stronger. An increase in survivability when tanking could make for a nice improvement, though.
• Feels like they are not talking enough for the talkative option. I wouldn't want them repeating the same things constantly, but, Mirri especially, seems ultra reserved no matter what.
• They can only wear one outfit? Really? You know we'd begrudgingly pay your extreme crown prices for infinity more outfits, right? More, please

robpr

Bastian fails as a tank in anything harder than White Gold Tower. Tried Black Drake Villa on Normal and he repeatly got oneshotted by Captain boss' Knucle Duster, dying in Encratis flame circle was expected. They should have some innate ground dot damage reduction and more health with or without Vigorous. I dont ask for them to be as good as player tanks, just getting away with 10%hp remaining after heavy attack will be enough.
Also in case of Bastian you need to be careful what abilities you slot on him if you want him to dps. Equipping any kind of staff makes him stand 1km behind you and not use Lava Whip, Talons, Pulsar or his Ult, only spamming Meteor and/or Destro Touch when able.
Healing seem surprisingly effective if you slot Quickened gear and Molten Weapons is a small but nice buff.

Didnt try Mirri yet.

Agalloch

Companions are the worst addition to the game. They are hilarious. They complicate our game.

I bet everyone will stop using them after a month. You will see....

Thannazzar

General
Which areas or zones were you in with your companion?
- Overland and FG1

What types of gameplay were you doing with your companion?
- PVE Questing and Dungeons

Interaction
Was it clear how to access the Companions interface?
- Yes

Was the Companion ability system clear and intuitive to use?
- Yes although they did not appear to follow the priority system when switching targets.

Did your companion use the slotted abilities as you expected them to?
- Yes unless switching targets when my expectation was they would use the highest prioritized ability not on cooldown, they instead restarted the prioritisation.

Did you feel the companion talked too much or too little in various circumstances?
- Just enough
-
Combat
What did you think of the Companion combat abilities in general? Were there any that felt too powerful or not powerful enough?
- Both hit like a wet noodle and cant sustain any decent mobs.
- I solo ran FG1 with and without companion, took longer with companion as had to keep reviving them and their mechanics (particularly Bastian's chain) regularly screwed over my AOEs, Heavy Attacks etc. They were more of a liability than a benefit.

Were you able to configure your companion to perform the role you wished?
- Yes although they were not particularly useful in any role.

Were you able to effectively utilize keyboard/gamepad shortcuts to direct companion target behavior? (Hold Y and left click to attack vs Hold Y and right click to hold off)
- Yes
-
Customization/Progression
How did the companion progression feel in terms of time to level up, advance skills, unlock abilities, improve rapport, or acquire equipment? Was the progress clear in terms of how to access everything?
- Progression was fine

Was the companion cosmetic customization experience clear and function as expected?
- As advertised, extremely disappointed not to be able to show helm or use skins/polymorphs/personalities on companions

Rapport
Did you understand how to influence your companion through the rapport system?
- Yes
Was it clear when rapport was being adjusted and why?
- Yes however a UI message stating you have hit your rapport cap for the day would be useful.

Do you have any other general feedback?
- Companions are a fantastic Idea, but need to be useful and impactive to be worth the effort. At the moment their combat prowess and sustainability does not merit them being utilized as intended. To be honest I wont use Bastian at all (do not like his aesthetics), And Il only summon Mirri when I am about to go on a treasure map run. Without a greater level of customization I dont really care about either of the companions, purely subjective based on appearance.
- If companions are to be implemented, they need to be aesthetically pleasing and be able to survive without constant revives (even if their damage is sub par or negligible), or have meaningful abilities or passive bonuses that make them mechanically preferable to have summoned, at teh moment thats not the case.
- If there are other Crown Store based companions waiting in the wings, Id heartily recommend offering them at launch as the two offered in the expansion are not appealing.

Drygon

Which areas or zones were you in with your companion?

Stonefalls and Auridon.

What types of gameplay were you doing with your companion?

Anchors, world Bosses and general encounters.

Interactions

Was it clear how to access the Companions interface?

Yes

Was the Companion ability system clear and intuitive to use?

Yes

Did your companion use the slotted abilities as you expected them to?

Yes, really bad.

Did you feel the companion talked too much or too little in various circumstances?

Meh, the slider was ok.

Combat

What did you think of the Companion combat abilities in general? Were there any that felt too powerful or not powerful enough?

They were more of an handicap, very weak and not worth using a companion the way they are now.

Were you able to configure your companion to perform the role you wished?

Yes but again, they were useless and more of an hindrance.

Were you able to effectively utilize keyboard/gamepad shortcuts to direct companion target behavior? (Hold Y and left click to attack vs Hold Y and right click to hold off)

Yes

Customization/Progression

How did the companion progression feel in terms of time to level up, advance skills, unlock abilities, improve rapport, or acquire equipment? Was the progress clear in terms of how to access everything?

Used the items to make them max level.

Was the companion cosmetic customization experience clear and function as expected?

Yes but It was disappointing that there were no helmets or polymorphs.

Rapport

Did you understand how to influence your companion through the rapport system?

Yes.

Was it clear when rapport was being adjusted and why?

Didn't test that.

Do you have any other general feedback?

IDK how many ppl worked on this AI and for how long but without being too negative they give me the impression of a system quickly slapped together in order to have something to deliver. It looks like a pet AI with some more sparkle on it to feel new.

The above is a feeling I got after I tested them in different encounters, I surely hope it is not the case of s system quickly put together and that there are good surprises for us in store in this PTS cycle.

That being said, a short example:

The companions' dodge reaction when equipped with a ranged weapon should be adjusted.

As of now, they dodge when the enemy gets in melee range and then they do nothing if an aoe is cast on them, also, when equipped with a melee weapon they don't even dodge or interrupt.

Tested them both on the netch world boss from Brahma's Cove in Stonefalls and they both died from the aoe right under the boss. They should interrupt it if they are near the boss, or at least roll-dodge out of it. (In Auridon they were an extra that did almost nothing as a DD)

Also, take a look at the companion system from Dragon age. Something like the Behavior system there could improve the Ai.

Last thing: The Ai is sad, I won't expand anymore as it is plain to see if you go on pts. Like the rolldodge reaction, interrupt, positioning, they cast heals when at full health and when they need them they are on CD........ I bet other players will mention more.

ajkb78

One additional thought to my last post. I haven't tried setting up a companion as damage dealer yet but it has occurred to me that the inability to summon companions in our homes prevents us experimenting in any methodical way to optimise what damage they can do by changing their gear traits, skill loadouts etc. It would be nice to be able to summon them in our home and initiate them attacking a target dummy, either with the companion command or just by doing 1 light attack ourselves to initiate combat. That way we could see what dps they achieve, modify their gear and skill setup, try again and so on. Or if there's some technical reason they can't carry out their full set of behaviours inside player housing then maybe add some open world companion-only target dummies that we can use, maybe in an instanced building to prevent queues of players.

TelvanniWizard

Not being able to use all our collections to customize the companions is really uncool imho. They are going to be a bunch of boring clones.

anadandy

I played for a bit more, and since I'm not using any of the quick skill level items I'm finding the low gear drop rate annoying. The main reason for that is Bastian can't start/learn a skill line until he has that weapon/armor type. I finally got a two handed sword from a Boss drop in Forgotten Crypts but... Bastian himself says he's a "sword and board man" - which is great, except I can't give him a sword or board to level.

So here he is, level 7 and all he knows other than his class skills are destro and medium armor and the few ticks he has in 2H now. I'm not saying the gear has to drop like candy, but throw us a white quality sword or heavy helm from a mob once in a while just so the Companion can unlock those skills lines.

Mojmir

Less lydia more einhar from path of exiles

Drygon

Mojmir wrote: »

Less lydia more einhar from path of exiles

At this point I'd rather we get Lydia lol

She at least stayed alive most of the time, and was sworn to carry our burdens.

remosito

Drygon wrote: »

Mojmir wrote: »

Less lydia more einhar from path of exiles

At this point I'd rather we get Lydia lol

She at least stayed alive most of the time, and was sworn to carry our burdens.

+100 bag slots makes a good fallback to turn what looks like quite the disaster into the chapter seller it was meant to be..

Sandman929

So, just to clarify, the companion and I build rapport...we're friends. We travel everywhere together and fight (apparently not very well)...but they aren't welcome in my home?

Tyrobag

#1 Issue: Why are helmets forced to be hidden? I feel like ZoS even realized that this was weird and annoying, seeing as they went out of their way to point it out. If I want them to wear a helmet/hood why should they not? You're telling me I have to send poor Bastian to the front line as a tank, then tell him "No you cant wear a helmet"? If I get myself and Miri in trouble with the law and have to go incognito I get to cover my face with a hood, but she can't conceal her identity? It would be even better to be able to give them auto toggle conditions (take off helmet when in a city, only wear in combat, only wear when sneaking, etc.), but please at least let us give them head gear.

#2 Issue: Damage feels very low. I feel like they should have been made worth at least half an average player. Right now they seem hardly better than Bumnog trying to beat enemies to death with his hands... Not to mention that certain abilities have very long cooldowns, considering their use (here's looking at chains and taunt skills, which need to be cast repeatedly to actually be useful).

#3 Issue: Gear, I'm impressed. ZoS managed to make it feel so weak and not rewarding, yet at the same time made it essential to slog through another insane grind. Please let us craft and upgrade companion gear. You're telling me that a master smith who knows everything there is to know about the craft can't craft anything that Miri and Bastian are willing to use? I understand not using player equipment, just let us craft the companion stuff. Grind =/= a good game.

It also feels weird that they can't enter my house with me (which means we can't feasibly get a reliable dps test on them). It would be much better if you just made it so entering a house with them active (or summoning them in the house) disables the houseguest version so they can follow you around.

axan22

It wasn't clear there how many ability slots were unlocked when you first acquire the companion, yes it would pop up saying slot not in use if tried to use more than 2, but would still let you slot the ability so wasn't sure which was the bug.

Also could not find how to place them in house as house guests.

LuxanQualta

General

Which areas or zones were you in with your companion?

Blackwood, W Skyrim, and Eastmarch

What types of gameplay were you doing with your companion?

Questing and combat

Interaction

Was it clear how to access the Companions interface?

Yes

Was the Companion ability system clear and intuitive to use?

No. There are no tooltips to tell you when a slot unlocks and putting stuff in slots gave error messages the slots were not unlocked.

Did your companion use the slotted abilities as you expected them to?

Not predictable

Did you feel the companion talked too much or too little in various circumstances?

Maybe too much

Combat

What did you think of the Companion combat abilities in general? Were there any that felt too powerful or not powerful enough?

They all felt weak and not very useful. I have been playing since beta and my characters are all fairly strong, so these companions just felt like they were only valuable for RP purposes and fashion scrolls.

Were you able to configure your companion to perform the role you wished?

Yes

Were you able to effectively utilize keyboard/gamepad shortcuts to direct companion target behavior? (Hold Y and left click to attack vs Hold Y and right click to hold off)

No. I have to use a Controller with Xpadder with custom programming due to only three working fingers per hand. I am out of button assignments and have not managed to figure out how to make this work yet. I probably will not be able to use the feature. It doesn't need to be changed to suit me mind you. I am fine with just letting them muddle through.

Customization/Progression

How did the companion progression feel in terms of time to level up, advance skills, unlock abilities, improve rapport, or acquire equipment? Was the progress clear in terms of how to access everything?

Was the companion cosmetic customization experience clear and function as expected?

No. I had to do trial and error to figure it out and it is clunky having to equip a costume via the companion interface and then go to an outfit station to do the dye. It also really bad that we can't bring up the companion outfit in an outfit station in our house and have to go to some public dye station where halfwits are shooting off all their stuff to cause flashing and color changes that make it twice as difficult to see what you are doing. This should be easy and fun. It is not.

Rapport

Did you understand how to influence your companion through the rapport system?

I am learning from trial and error. It is hard to learn because of the cooldowns so it seems like random influences and makes it very difficult. A published list from ZOS would be help. In time some Wiki or forum post will do this work, but I am kind of expecting it from ZOS because I paid for the content and should not have to rely on a third party.

Was it clear when rapport was being adjusted and why?

Yes it was clear when it was being adjusted, but not why.

Do you have any other general feedback?

This was obviously designed for people with only a few characters. I have 36 characters on two accounts. There is no way I want to do the quest to get the companion for each companion 36 times. This should be accountwide. Once we have got through the story we know the deal. We do not need to repeat it over and over and over and over and over. Think about it - there are real people playing - not player character avatars. We do not need to hear the dialog again. It adds nothing to the game. It is annoying and not fun to have to waste time. This should be about fun, making it easy for the customer, and not fulfilling some notion that player characters have to learn something - they are not real and don't learn - that is just wrong headed.

DreadDaedroth

Companions should be able to wear visible hats and helms.

LuxanQualta

One other issue is the drop rate on companion gear - I understood that it was supposed to drop from all sorts of sources, so I spent over an hour stealing everything in every container in Leyawiin and Gideon. I also popped over 120 treasure chests. No gear. Seriously? If the idea is a six hour grind for a single piece, then it is not worth the effort. Again, this needs to add fun to the game and not more tedious grinding. We have way too much grinding for character gear already and do not need to have more demands on time to grind for this stuff, especially when companions barely are useful in the first place.

I do like them for RP purposes and fashion scrolls; e.g. using all the various outfits that my characters haven't used, but if they can't survive a dolman fight and can't get gear they are kind of useless.

And if the only value is RP/fashion scrolls and you can't bring them into your house, then that isn't much value added either.

I was and am really excited about the idea of companions, but so far I am feeling that it has fallen far short of what it should be for the player experience. I understand this is PTS and things will change, so I hopoe things do improve before it goes live.

tomofhyrule

I’m just playing around a bit now, I’d like to probably comment again when I’ve had more time to look into this and tried it on a few different characters.

For my first tests, I tested with my main (DK tank, 900 CP) in a bit of content after just having recruited Bastian:

General

Which areas or zones were you in with your companion?

Walked around Blackwood and Stonefalls, and then went to nFGI.

What types of gameplay were you doing with your companion?

Walking through overland and harvesting, normal dungeon, basegame dolmen.

Interaction

Was it clear how to access the Companions interface?

Yes

Was the Companion ability system clear and intuitive to use?

The main issue here was that I didn’t know he only had a few slots unlocked at the start. I started by slotting him some skills until I got a message in the corner of my screen saying ‘slot not unlocked yet.’ There was no in-game indication of how many slots were unlocked or not.

Did your companion use the slotted abilities as you expected them to?

Not really, but it seems to be a product of the skills chosen for him than anything else. I kept him equipped with a destro staff so he stayed at range. Unfortunately his DPS class skills are melee except for the last one which I didn’t unlock yet, so he spent the whole time hanging back and light attacking unless I kited bosses to him and trapped him in a corner so he couldn’t run away.

I did pick up a maul from Kra’gh and tried that, but then he charged in before I could taunt things off of him and specifically looked for the AoEs to stand in. I did like him ranged better, but his skills are mismatched – see below.

Did you feel the companion talked too much or too little in various circumstances?

I like talkative companions so I set him to ‘frequent,’ but it wasn’t overbearing. Granted I didn’t do much, but it seemed fine.

Combat

What did you think of the Companion combat abilities in general? Were there any that felt too powerful or not powerful enough?

It seems like Bastian, despite starting with a destro staff and medium armor, was envisioned to tank for people. Many of his skills are melee and pretty well all of them are single target. Even his ultimate requires him to be in melee range.
It would be better if he had more AoE skills and/or ranged skills so he could help damage when the player is on a tank build. Some things that could help here:

• Give the companions access to the weapon ultimates as well. As a tank who wants him to stay away and do damage, I won’t ever get to use his ultimate that’s centered on him unless I have him in melee range. However having him be able to pull out the destro staff ultimate would really help.
• Give us the ability to tell companions how to position themselves. I know a lot of games will have it in the companion menu as a "go ranged"/"stay close" option before combat, but again that makes it tough to get them to avoid AoEs if you set them to melee range. When I played, he didn't get hit by a single one of Kra'gh's AoE attacks... but then again all he did was sit back and light attack the whole time. I'd love a command that can be used in combat so he could rush in, cast a melee skill or ult, and then get back out of danger.
• Make sure that companions have AoE skills as well. Basti’s ‘DPS’ line skills are all single target and two of the three are melee. It seems his only AoE he can pull out is Wall of Elements (for my destro staff version). I’d like him to have something like the Eruption skill – granted that’s a ground target, but if he could aim it at the stack I just made, that’d be great.
• Give the companions NPC skills. He was a much more effective fighter when he was a follower in Deepscorn than when he was a companion because follower Basti has that NPC fire staff attack where they slam it down and make a path of flame go forward to the enemy. Evidently he forgot how to do that when he followed me, so all he could do was light attacks.

Were you able to configure your companion to perform the role you wished?

To be honest, no, not really.

I specifically went for content that I knew I could solo even with a tank build, using selfish sets like Leeching Plate to help me out. I honestly didn’t notice Basti helping me at all.

Again, it feels like companions were designed to act as support roles for players, and not to be a damage dealer for players who main supports (despite the support characters more being the ones who will need the extra help with DPS)
I’ll test more with some of my dungeon sets later, but I don’t know how much he’ll really help be (since NPCs can’t do critical damage, is my warhorn even going to help him in a dungeon? Or can I increase his weapon/spell damage with my Yol set? EDIT: looks like that's a no)

Another thing it would be really nice to have companions do is to just activate objects. There are times, like the pads in Direfrost or the levers in ICP, that you just need another person to do something. It would be nice if the Y/click command could also tell a companion to stand in a certain place or activate something like a lever or pinion.

Were you able to effectively utilize keyboard/gamepad shortcuts to direct companion target behavior? (Hold Y and left click to attack vs Hold Y and right click to hold off)

Yes, but it was messy getting him to target things in the thick of battle. But then again, everything’s clustered around me anyway, so whatever.

As before, if he had ground AoEs and we could use the Y/click command to tell him where to target them, that’d be really great. Also being able to Y/click to tell him to activate a lever or stand on a pad would make it possible to take him though content like Direfrost or ICP.

Customization/Progression

How did the companion progression feel in terms of time to level up, advance skills, unlock abilities, improve rapport, or acquire equipment? Was the progress clear in terms of how to access everything?

Again, I didn’t play with it much, but it made sense. There were only a few issues I had:

• The unusable slots when he is low level are not displayed differently than others. I had no clue we could only assign a few skills and not all 5 until I got an error for it. I also have no clue what level they do unlock.
• I don’t know what skills he has possible on other weapons since they just come up with a lock screen saying “Bastian can’t use this without an X equipped.” It would be nice for the skills to still be visible and allow us to still see tooltips to decide whether we want to work towards equipping them with a given weapon. As it is now, if I want to know what skills are available, I need to look it up on an external site. Same with armor – I have no clue what benefits I’ll get from other armor weights.

Was the companion cosmetic customization experience clear and function as expected?

For the most part (except the weapon, see below), but it’s still a strange design choice that companions are blocked from using headgear. I’d rather it be just made available, and we could hide it if we wanted.

When outfitting a companion, the weapon is not visible. His clothing worked fine, but I was not able to see the weapon equipped so I could style and dye it appropriately.

My main gripe with the cosmetics is just the styles that were chosen for Bastian. I love that hairstyle and I have been waiting since I started playing for that hairstyle to release. He’s also wearing Ancestral Breton armor by default. Neither of these things have released, so Basti is almost taunting me with these cosmetics that I can’t get. At least his armor can be hidden, but the fact that hats/helmets can’t be used means he’s constantly showing off this hairstyle that people have been begging for for over 5 years at this point.

Forgive the hyperbole, but that seems almost cruel in a way to taunt your players with cosmetics that have gone for so long without being available. PLEASE, for the love of all things holy, just release that hairstyle – it even made it as far as PTS before and worked, so the fact that it’s still not available is mind boggling… and now it feels like your designers just want to torture your character customization/fashion focused players by having this unavailable hairstyle walking around behind them constantly.

Rapport

Did you understand how to influence your companion through the rapport system?

Yes, just do things.

Was it clear when rapport was being adjusted and why?

Not really. Granted I didn’t play much, but I didn’t notice any changes. He did make positive comments when I harvested, but I saw no indicators or changes.

Do you have any other general feedback?

I do have fun with it, but it feels like these companions are more for fun and RP than actually helping to clear content. Maybe I need to play with it more, but speccing a companion as a DPS seems to be a bit ineffective – my Leeching Plate armor felt like it did more than Basti did.

I'd like to have group indicators on them. Once he died in a mess of enemies and I couldn't see where he was to pick him back up. Didn't even know he died until I was wondering why I couldn't see his healthbar around.

I love his character though. I want to give him a hug, especially after his recruitment quest.

I may gripe a bit about his look – he looks fairly grizzled with heavy frown lines and a rough complexion which doesn’t match his youthful optimistic voice. It felt a little disconnected when I first met him. If he had a slightly younger/softer face, it might fit better.

I’m also very salty that I can’t get his hairstyle though. Can I get the number for his barber? Or at least can ZOS finally release it?!

umagon

I don’t like the limited choice for companions. I would much rather have a fragment of the void has a companion. Something that looked similar to the dark heart crossed with the unstable morpholith. Had void skills that required you find void shards to add more skills to its library. And required you to feed it soul gems and spread change across nirn to maintain a “good” rapport with it and padomay.

DarkHero1989

Which areas or zones were you in with your companion?
-Blackwood, Mournhold, Stonefalls, Glenumbra

What types of gameplay were you doing with your companion?
-mage type build

Interaction
Was it clear how to access the Companions interface?
-Yes

Was the Companion ability system clear and intuitive to use?
-Simple, but kinda confusing at first. I had to keep looking at the patch notes to figure out where to get gear, etc. maybe more tooltips esp for gear?

Did your companion use the slotted abilities as you expected them to?
by what i saw they seemed to use all abilities but seemed to favor one ability more than others, destructive reach my character kept using and very rarely the others, but thats what i saw.

Did you feel the companion talked too much or too little in various circumstances?
-talked enough

Combat
What did you think of the Companion combat abilities in general? Were there any that felt too powerful or not powerful enough?
-Not powerful enough, but again my companion isnt fully leveled.

Were you able to configure your companion to perform the role you wished?
-Maybe if i got the gear i want, to early to tell. will take awhile to setup the character the way i want. esp with companion gear droppping so rarely from bosses

Were you able to effectively utilize keyboard/gamepad shortcuts to direct companion target behavior? (Hold Y and left click to attack vs Hold Y and right click to hold off)
-such commands arent shopwn in the first place you have top search for such actions and the tooltips arent even on for companions, maybe add tooltips?

Customization/Progression
How did the companion progression feel in terms of time to level up, advance skills, unlock abilities, improve rapport, or acquire equipment? Was the progress clear in terms of how to access everything?
-Why does the companion get much lesser exp than us???? i would've hoped for a companion to level the same or close as me, it shouldnt be as mucgh work or more than psijic order, or any other guild activities, itsa close to the same amount of work that leveling mages guild with more work to do, without the potionmaking, and other stuff you have to get for companion.

Was the companion cosmetic customization experience clear and function as expected?
-I was HEAVILY dissapointed in this sytem. I understand you guys want to show their pretty faces, but since you see them only as "Characters Companion" why cant they equip a helmet or hat?????? if they are your companion and no one can see who the companion is? why does it matter to show their head? i would like more customizable options.

Rapport
Did you understand how to influence your companion through the rapport system?
Decent enough....

Was it clear when rapport was being adjusted and why?

somewhat...

Do you have any other general feedback?

During my journey with my companion via mounted up. If i go too fast and dont wait for my companion he will unsummon himself, you guys said that wouldnt matter. I literally have to stop everynow and then so he can catch up, and when i stop he is too far not close enough esp when i get into combat. One time companion died and i tried to resuurect during battle the companion unsummoned himself

Moloch1514

Feedback: Not a main selling point for a $$$ costing expansion. This is 2 chapters in a row that are releasing with marginal new systems. Companions are actually a complication for anyone other than non-combat RPers looking for more immersion.

grizzledcroc

I def wanna be able to use my motifs to customize em as well as helmets. I hope its just not added cause no reason to have no helms.

Lampmode04

Which areas or zones were you in with your companion?

BLACKWOOD

What types of gameplay were you doing with your companion?

KILLING OVERLAND MONSTERS

Interaction
Was it clear how to access the Companions interface?

YES

Was the Companion ability system clear and intuitive to use?

SORT OF? DOES IT MATTER WHICH SLOT YOU SLOT A SKILL IN? IS THE SLOT 1 SKILL USED MORE OFTEN THAN THE SLOT 3 SKILL? HOW DO YOU COMMAND HIM ON GAMEPAD? WHAT IS THE “Y CLICK” FOR GAMEPAD?

Did your companion use the slotted abilities as you expected them to?

THEY DIDN'T GET CLOSE ENOUGH TO USE THEIR MELEE ABILITIES BECAUSE THEY HAD A DESTRO STAFF EQUIPPED?

Did you feel the companion talked too much or too little in various circumstances?

NA

Combat
What did you think of the Companion combat abilities in general? Were there any that felt too powerful or not powerful enough?

UNDER POWERED, CAN DAMAGE BE SCALED OFF THE PLAYERS MAX STAT VS OFF THEIR MAX DAMAGE?

Were you able to configure your companion to perform the role you wished?

HE STAYED AT RANGE TOO OFTEN AND A LOT OF TIME HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING JUST STOOD THERE AND WATCHED ME FIGHT. I COULDN'T GET HIS ULTI TO FIRE EITHER.

WE ALSO TOOK A COMPANION IN THE NEW TRIAL AND WE THINK THE COMPANION WAS ABLE TO STEAL TAUNT FROM THE TANK. THE PLAYER TANK SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO HAVE TAUNT TANKEN FROM THEM BY SOMEONE’S COMPANION WHO ACCIDENTALLY LEFT A TAUNT SKILL ON THE COMPANION’S BAR.

COULD NOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO FIRE COMPANION ULTIMATE (L&R3 ON GAMEPAD) DIDN'T SEEM TO WORK AND I WASN'T SURE HOW TO TELL THE COMPANION TO ATTACK AND HOLD OFF ON GAMEPAD.

Were you able to effectively utilize keyboard/gamepad shortcuts to direct companion target behavior? (Hold Y and left click to attack vs Hold Y and right click to hold off)

WHAT IS THE GAMEPAD SHORTCUT FOR THIS?

Customization/Progression
Was the progress clear in terms of how to access everything?

PROGRESSION WAS NOT CLEAR

Was the companion cosmetic customization experience clear and function as expected?

IT WAS COOL YOU COULD EQUIP MOUNTS AND COSTUMES. WE TOOK TWO COMPANIONS INTO THE NEW TRIAL, IF COMPANIONS COMPLETE A TRIAL CAN THEY GET SKINNED TOO?

Rapport
Did you understand how to influence your companion through the rapport system?

NO

Was it clear when rapport was being adjusted and why?

NO

Do you have any other general feedback?

AS A HEALER OR TANK MAIN I WOULD HOPE TO HAVE A DPS COMPANION THAT’S DAMAGE ISN'T SCALED OF MY DAMAGE, COULD THEIR DAMAGE BE SCALED OFF YOUR TOONS MAX STAT INSTEAD? ON MY HEALER MY COMPANION SEEMED WEAK, AND I WAS EXCITED TO TRY AND TACKLE SOME WB’S WITH A HEALER AND COMPANION BUT RIGHT NOW IT ISN'T VIABLE. I AM NOT SURE I WOULD SPEND TIME TO LEVEL UP AND BUILD RAPPORT IF THEY AREN’T CAPABLE REALLY CONTRIBUTING. THEY SEEM TO STAND AROUND A LOT AND GET LINE OF SIGHTED OUT OF COMBAT. IF THE ENEMY MOVES A BIT TO CHASE ME IT COULD TAKE MY COMPANION OUT OF THE FIGHT.

Leogon

ZOS: Companions will be able to aid the player everywhere except for pvp and solo arenas.

Reality: They're pretty much useless everywhere except for questing but who needs help questing? I need them for vet dlc dungeons and vet 4-player arenas but they're terrible even on normal.

I just hope you guys will keep working on them until they become viable everywhere except for pvp and solo arenas as advertised.

That being said, I love the roleplaying side of companions with the rapport, etc.