Companions - When is it enough?

Syldras · July 18

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

so i dont think they will likely stop adding new companions

I think it is possible that they will. Can you imagine them both adding new companions and adding new quests to the older ones (the latter they already said they will)? After they removed one dungeon and one story dlc and the chapters also get smaller?

SilverBride wrote: »

I always heard that birds and reptiles are related. When I googled it though I found ambiguous answers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeopteryx

Elsonso wrote: »

As an aside, has anyone ever seen a "tea shop" anywhere on Nirn?

Nah, but I've seen a school teacher talking about teaching the village's children in Gold Road. If Tamriel has invisible children (and if it was mine to decide, it could remain that way

), maybe it also has an invisible tea shop somewhere? Or a normal shop that sells invisible tea.

Has anyone else noticed how many quests in Gold Road mentioned marriage and children, btw? Might that be testing the reactions of the playerbase to these topics?

As a roleplayer, I'm not against companion romance, btw. Preferably conveying more emotion than "Here's your food, bye". I can very well do without weird cutscenes, though.

Araneae6537 · July 18

@Elsonso and @Syldras yes, actually, there is a teahouse in Sentinel — Desert Star Tea House.

There should be more, but maybe drinking establishments in other regions tend to be less specialized?

DinoZavr · July 18

The more i read the topic the more baffled i am.

Dear players, who vote against adding the option to skip Companions unlock quest, may i please wonder:
do you genuinely enjoy and have fun unlocking one and the same Companion on your 9th character? 10th? 11th? etc?

Necrotech_Master · July 18

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

EdjeSwift wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

They did it for Tales of Tribute.

There's a difference between "Yeah I already know how to play this card game" and "Yeah, I totally saved your brother/found your family/helped you become a knight etc."

But I do already know that. The same way every single character I have knows what level they are and they would start at that level whenever any new character unlocks them.

The Companions don't know your other characters. Each player character exists in a separate copy of Tamriel — explaining why you are able to change the world at all multiple times across characters — so the only explanation for Companions sharing builds across characters is that they've always had it. Or, maybe that part is meant to be ambiguous, for the sake of making the system more manageable for players and the servers.

The point is, on each player character, the Companions need help. It would make no sense to essentially say "follow me and maybe I'll help you later if I feel like it". However, it does make sense to say "I already know how to play Tales of Tribute" or "I already know how to use siege weapons", because that knowledge is easily accessible in the world.

This is also why we can't skip the Scribing tutorial — "I already know how to Scribe" doesn't make sense because it was, up to that point, a long-lost art. But, for things like crafting certifications, it makes sense to be able to skip those with sufficient rank in the respective skill lines.

if you chose to skip the quest, it would just auto complete the quest, not "help them later"

thats the point of a skip

now if they just let us use the companions without even needing to interact for the skip option, that would just save me extra time, because i will unlikely repeat those quests anyway

the scribing intro (first quest) takes less than 5 minutes to do, theres hardly any combat or dialogs involved, but your not required to do all of the wings again to access scribing, its virtually equivalent to skipping the tribute tutorial in my opinion

Skipping the intro quest would skip over dialogue choices which may be referenced later on in the Companion's questline. It also doesn't make sense to completely skip the events of their introductory quest — there's no good explanation for how that would actually be possible by simply talking to the Companion.

there are no "choices" in the companion quests

it gives you the illusion of choice by having different dialogs but the end result is the same

doing mirris intro you could save or kill all her friends/family and it doesnt influence being able to unlock her or even her starting rapport value, for example (and not even all the companion intro quests HAVE dialog choices, for example isobels there are no choices except "which order you complete the challenges" which has no real bearing on anything)

the first time i played through her quest, i saved all of them, but it took the most time, because i was forced to run it again 9 more times for my other characters, the absolute fastest way to complete it is to kill all of them

end result = no difference, i can use mirri on every character and now just plain annoyed at that quest i had to run 10 times (i never even bothered to do this on my arcanist character because i was so sick of the quest)

literally none of the dialog choices in the intro are referenced in the rapport quests, as those are entirely separate series of quests

Vonnegut2506 · July 18

DinoZavr wrote: »

The more i read the topic the more baffled i am.

Dear players, who vote against adding the option to skip Companions unlock quest, may i please wonder:
do you genuinely enjoy and have fun unlocking one and the same Companion on your 9th character? 10th? 11th? etc?

I've unlocked all of them on 14 characters, and yes I enjoy it each time.

SilverBride · July 18

Vonnegut2506 wrote: »

DinoZavr wrote: »

The more i read the topic the more baffled i am.

Dear players, who vote against adding the option to skip Companions unlock quest, may i please wonder:
do you genuinely enjoy and have fun unlocking one and the same Companion on your 9th character? 10th? 11th? etc?

I've unlocked all of them on 14 characters, and yes I enjoy it each time.

I wish I enjoyed it but I don't. It just seems like a chore rather than my characters getting to know them. The only thing worse is the Scribing quest chain but thankfully we have the option to only do the first, or more if we choose. Why can't Companions be the same way?

BretonMage · July 18

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

end result = no difference, i can use mirri on every character and now just plain annoyed at that quest i had to run 10 times (i never even bothered to do this on my arcanist character because i was so sick of the quest)

literally none of the dialog choices in the intro are referenced in the rapport quests, as those are entirely separate series of quests

I can't remember Mirri's quest line, but I'm fairly sure Sharp's and Bastian's quests follow on directly from their intro quest. So skipping the intro quests in their case would launch the player straight into the middle of their quest line, would it not? How would it work?

Would it be simpler to just sell the entire unlocked and levelled companion in the crown store?

EdjeSwift · July 18

SilverBride wrote: »

I wish I enjoyed it but I don't. It just seems like a chore rather than my characters getting to know them. The only thing worse is the Scribing quest chain but thankfully we have the option to only do the first, or more if we choose. Why can't Companions be the same way?

It literally is?

You need to do the first quest to unlock scribing on a character, otherwise you can't do anything with the scripts and ink. You need to do the first quest to unlock companions on a character, the subsequent quests are all optional.

Necrotech_Master · July 18

BretonMage wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

end result = no difference, i can use mirri on every character and now just plain annoyed at that quest i had to run 10 times (i never even bothered to do this on my arcanist character because i was so sick of the quest)

literally none of the dialog choices in the intro are referenced in the rapport quests, as those are entirely separate series of quests

I can't remember Mirri's quest line, but I'm fairly sure Sharp's and Bastian's quests follow on directly from their intro quest. So skipping the intro quests in their case would launch the player straight into the middle of their quest line, would it not? How would it work?

Would it be simpler to just sell the entire unlocked and levelled companion in the crown store?

companion levels are already account wide, companion gear is already account wide, the companion is already in the collections menu (which is account wide), companion keepsakes are account wide

the only 2 things per character is the ability to actually use them, and rapport

most of the companions rapport quests kind of continue the story, but not enough that not doing the intro quest would not be a detriment

the entire point of this thread is that the intro quest is blocking access to the companion on alt characters, and looking to either remove that requirement (which does not prevent you running the quest again), or allow those of us who dont want to repeat the quest 20x can at least fast track it

option 1 of just letting us use the companion on all characters after the first completion likely wont happen, because the zos devs "dont want the character running into themselves" while ignoring the fact that we already wade through a sea of clone companions at group events (such as zone incursions)

option 2 would prevent the character "running into themselves" from a single player perspective, but also allow those of us who want to be able to use the companion on more than 1 character a reprieve from repeating the quest content

neither option would stop players who want to run the full quest if they so chose to

SilverBride · July 18

EdjeSwift wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

I wish I enjoyed it but I don't. It just seems like a chore rather than my characters getting to know them. The only thing worse is the Scribing quest chain but thankfully we have the option to only do the first, or more if we choose. Why can't Companions be the same way?

It literally is?

You need to do the first quest to unlock scribing on a character, otherwise you can't do anything with the scripts and ink. You need to do the first quest to unlock companions on a character, the subsequent quests are all optional.

Not the same. There are several parts to unlocking the Companions and we have to do them all. The quests that come after they are unlocked are not part of unlocking them.

EdjeSwift · July 18

SilverBride wrote: »

Not the same. There are several parts to unlocking the Companions and we have to do them all.

Scribing Quest: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:The_Second_Era_of_Scribing
10 Parts/Objectives to do.

Isobel's Unlock Quest: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Tournament_of_the_Heart
8 Parts/Obejctives to do.

Azandar's Unlock Quest: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:The_Fateweaver_Key
9 parts/Objectives to do

Ember's Unlock Quest: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Tower_Full_of_Trouble
8 Parts/Objectives to do

They're literally 1 quest to do any of them all with multiple parts to do. Sure Scribing is much faster but it's still one quest with multiple objectives, that cannot be denied. Your issue is the time spent doing it.

spartaxoxo · July 18

DinoZavr wrote: »

The more i read the topic the more baffled i am.

Dear players, who vote against adding the option to skip Companions unlock quest, may i please wonder:
do you genuinely enjoy and have fun unlocking one and the same Companion on your 9th character? 10th? 11th? etc?

They probably do. Some people would prefer each individual character have their own story, and don't want literally any quests to be account wide.

Me? I'd prefer a skip for alts on the intro quest (but rapport should remain separate).

spartaxoxo · July 18

Elsonso wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

To ask for the quests to be shorter or abbreviated for those who feel compelled to unlock them on ALL characters immediately or whatever other reason, might as well ask the same for ALL quests, maybe I feel compelled to rush through Necrom on every character to unlock the books in quest areas or just because I must have ALL THE THINGS. That reasoning could be taken ad absurdism until anything any of us enjoys is removed from the game.

They did it for Tales of Tribute.

If the made us do it every time for ToT, even fewer people would be playing it…

Erickson9610 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

EdjeSwift wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

They did it for Tales of Tribute.

There's a difference between "Yeah I already know how to play this card game" and "Yeah, I totally saved your brother/found your family/helped you become a knight etc."

But I do already know that. The same way every single character I have knows what level they are and they would start at that level whenever any new character unlocks them.

The Companions don't know your other characters. Each player character exists in a separate copy of Tamriel — explaining why you are able to change the world at all multiple times across characters — so the only explanation for Companions sharing builds across characters is that they've always had it. Or, maybe that part is meant to be ambiguous, for the sake of making the system more manageable for players and the servers.

The point is, on each player character, the Companions need help. It would make no sense to essentially say "follow me and maybe I'll help you later if I feel like it". However, it does make sense to say "I already know how to play Tales of Tribute" or "I already know how to use siege weapons", because that knowledge is easily accessible in the world.

This is also why we can't skip the Scribing tutorial — "I already know how to Scribe" doesn't make sense because it was, up to that point, a long-lost art. But, for things like crafting certifications, it makes sense to be able to skip those with sufficient rank in the respective skill lines.

Well… it is the same companion across the account. If Joe Bob levels them, outfits them, and sets their skill, and that is what Sally Bob gets to use, then the separate copy thing is out the window and lost at sea.

The companion has helped another adventurer but hasn't saved their brother yet.

Personally I'd be okay with the skip regardless though. I think the companion being knowledgeable and geared without you is more sensible from a lore standpoint than already saving their brother, but this one thing I'd be okay with lore taking a backseat to gameplay.

Araneae6537 wrote: »

I mean, so long as it was truly optional, I don’t care if ZOS gives the option to skip any or all quests, but I argue against it because I fear, like how accountwide achievements were implemented, that it would not be.

Every tutorial skip has been optional and quest completion is not generally account wide. I see no reason to believe they'd go against the principles they decided when they established AwA.

Necrotech_Master · July 18

EdjeSwift wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Not the same. There are several parts to unlocking the Companions and we have to do them all.

Scribing Quest: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:The_Second_Era_of_Scribing
10 Parts/Objectives to do.

Isobel's Unlock Quest: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Tournament_of_the_Heart
8 Parts/Obejctives to do.

Azandar's Unlock Quest: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:The_Fateweaver_Key
9 parts/Objectives to do

Ember's Unlock Quest: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Tower_Full_of_Trouble
8 Parts/Objectives to do

They're literally 1 quest to do any of them all with multiple parts to do. Sure Scribing is much faster but it's still one quest with multiple objectives, that cannot be denied. Your issue is the time spent doing it.

the scribing intro doesnt make you run all over kingdom come, go into delves/public dungeons or anything like that

it takes <5 minutes to do the second era of scribing quest, especially if you ignore the small handful of mobs that are in that one tunnel section, this is including the travel time to get to the initial quest giver

i could only get mirris intro down to about 5-10 min by ignoring enemies and killing all her friends/family, but this is also not including the 5-10 minutes needed to get TO the quest location, because not all alts have the wayshrine outside of the POI, while the scribing intro is in the main town, which everyone has a free wayshrine to

you get on a fresh toon, with no wayshrines, and no mount training and tell me how long it takes to do mirris quest when your only wayshrine is the one in leyawiin and you have to run all the way up to doomvault vulpinaz where the POI quest is + actually doing said quest once your there

EdjeSwift · July 18

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

you get on a fresh toon, with no wayshrines, and no mount training and tell me how long it takes to do mirris quest when your only wayshrine is the one in leyawiin and you have to run all the way up to doomvault vulpinaz where the POI quest is + actually doing said quest once your there

I wouldn't run, I'd have someone or use an alt account to port me to to the nearest Wayshrine. And since it's me and it's one of my toons it has a fresh set of level 2 armour, probably Adept Rider and some DPS set ready to go from my main character/account and with the way combat scaling works it'll probably clear the whole thing faster than my CP characters. So it might actually be faster for me to do it on that fresh character than my current ones.

Necrotech_Master · July 18

EdjeSwift wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

you get on a fresh toon, with no wayshrines, and no mount training and tell me how long it takes to do mirris quest when your only wayshrine is the one in leyawiin and you have to run all the way up to doomvault vulpinaz where the POI quest is + actually doing said quest once your there

I wouldn't run, I'd have someone or use an alt account to port me to to the nearest Wayshrine. And since it's me and it's one of my toons it has a fresh set of level 2 armour, probably Adept Rider and some DPS set ready to go from my main character/account and with the way combat scaling works it'll probably clear the whole thing faster than my CP characters. So it might actually be faster for me to do it on that fresh character than my current ones.

works if you have an alt account to use to port up there, i was doing that some when i had to rerun those quests

after isobel/ember though it just wasnt worth doing

i only have azander and sharp on 3 characters, and my newest, the arcanist, only has 3 of the 6 companions unlocked (ember (dps), isobel (tank), bastian (healer)) and thats all i ever plan on doing unless they improve the ability to use companions on alts

SilverBride · July 18

EdjeSwift wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Not the same. There are several parts to unlocking the Companions and we have to do them all.

Scribing Quest: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:The_Second_Era_of_Scribing
10 Parts/Objectives to do.

Isobel's Unlock Quest: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Tournament_of_the_Heart
8 Parts/Obejctives to do.

Azandar's Unlock Quest: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:The_Fateweaver_Key
9 parts/Objectives to do

Ember's Unlock Quest: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Tower_Full_of_Trouble
8 Parts/Objectives to do

They're literally 1 quest to do any of them all with multiple parts to do. Sure Scribing is much faster but it's still one quest with multiple objectives, that cannot be denied. Your issue is the time spent doing it.

The Companion quests have multiple parts that ALL have to be completed to start using the Companion. The Scribing quest chain only requires the FIRST part of their quest chain for the player to be able to start Scribing.

My issue isn't only the time it takes but also the horrible experiences, especially in the Gorne public dungeon. Running into dead ends and backtracking numerous times isn't my idea of a good time.

Scribing and Tales of Tribute are both new systems that were added to the game that both offer skipping some of the unlocking quests for subsequent characters once one character has completed them. Companions are also a new system that was added to the game and should have the same option.

EdjeSwift · July 18

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

works if you have an alt account to use to port up there, i was doing that some when i had to rerun those quests

after isobel/ember though it just wasnt worth doing

i only have azander and sharp on 3 characters, and my newest, the arcanist, only has 3 of the 6 companions unlocked (ember (dps), isobel (tank), bastian (healer)) and thats all i ever plan on doing unless they improve the ability to use companions on alts

See, it's all a matter of perspective. I loved unlock Garrus/Azandar on my alt characters. Why? Because it gave me a reason to do the Necrom Public Dungeons I'd probably have ignored on my alts. Loading up USPF my characters all have Gorne and The Underweave done (save Underweave on my "I only play this character with a certain buddy" character) while nearly every other Chapter Public Dungeon goes untouched outside of my main. Sure by time I hit unlocking Az the 9th time I was sick of how loquacious he got, but after that period I got to loving the old man again.

Bastian on the other hand, despite having a very fast unlock, stays locked on my 20th character out of protest to how vanilla and bland I find him.

EdjeSwift · July 18

SilverBride wrote: »

The Companion quests have multiple parts that ALL have to be completed to start using the Companion. The Scribing quest chain only requires the FIRST part of their quest chain for the player to be able to start Scribing.

It's all one quest, no matter how much you want to fight it, it's all one quest. And like all quests they have steps you have to complete, that's an irrefutable fact. And just like scribing the quest chain is optional afterwards, I have 20 Azandars waiting for me to go to their Sanctum in Auridon but I didn't bother beyond my main for rapport/houseguesting reasons.

SilverBride wrote: »

My issue isn't only the time it takes but also the horrible experiences, especially in the Gorne public dungeon. Running into dead ends and backtracking numerous times isn't my idea of a good time.

Navigating Gorne is easy once you've been through there; maybe a few times if you need. But especially if you're just there for the unlock, it's literally turn left and go along the path. The first time, sure explore, get lost, learn the layout, but subsequently you should have previous experience to lean on.

Optimal path for unlock:

SilverBride · July 18

EdjeSwift wrote: »

It's all one quest, no matter how much you want to fight it, it's all one quest. And like all quests they have steps you have to complete, that's an irrefutable fact. And just like scribing the quest chain is optional afterwards, I have 20 Azandars waiting for me to go to their Sanctum in Auridon but I didn't bother beyond my main for rapport/houseguesting reasons.

As I previously stated "Scribing and Tales of Tribute are both new systems that were added to the game that both offer skipping some of the unlocking quests for subsequent characters once one character has completed them. Companions are also a new system that was added to the game and should have the same option."

This is a fact and I stand by it. Whether it's one quest with separate parts or several separate quests, the end result is still the same. So let's just agree to disagree.

Necrotech_Master · July 18

EdjeSwift wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

works if you have an alt account to use to port up there, i was doing that some when i had to rerun those quests

after isobel/ember though it just wasnt worth doing

i only have azander and sharp on 3 characters, and my newest, the arcanist, only has 3 of the 6 companions unlocked (ember (dps), isobel (tank), bastian (healer)) and thats all i ever plan on doing unless they improve the ability to use companions on alts

See, it's all a matter of perspective. I loved unlock Sharp/Azandar on my alt characters. Why? Because it gave me a reason to do the Necrom Public Dungeons I'd probably have ignored on my alts. Loading up USPF my characters all have Gorne and The Underweave done (save Underweave on my "I only play this character with a certain buddy" character) while nearly every other Chapter Public Dungeon goes untouched outside of my main. Sure by time I hit unlocking Az the 9th time I was sick of how loquacious he got, but after that period I got to loving the old man again.

Bastian on the other hand, despite having a very fast unlock, stays locked on my 20th character out of protest to how vanilla and bland I find him.

most of my alts only dip into the public dungeons for the skill pts (group boss + skyshard), and maybe to farm public dungeon collectibles, as its faster doing it on my dps than say my tank main lol

the story intros for each companion just ended up getting more and more annoying as i had to do them, to me its like "i already sat through this i know all the dialog by heart at this point, i dont want to listen to it again"

i barely see the companions as more than customizable pets now, repeating the quests didnt help because hearing the same lines over and over just makes them seem robotic and soulless, and seeing clones of them everywhere because we cant give them hats or helmets doesnt help with that perspective

EdjeSwift · July 18

SilverBride wrote: »

EdjeSwift wrote: »

It's all one quest, no matter how much you want to fight it, it's all one quest. And like all quests they have steps you have to complete, that's an irrefutable fact. And just like scribing the quest chain is optional afterwards, I have 20 Azandars waiting for me to go to their Sanctum in Auridon but I didn't bother beyond my main for rapport/houseguesting reasons.

As I previously stated "Scribing and Tales of Tribute are both new systems that were added to the game that both offer skipping some of the unlocking quests for subsequent characters once one character has completed them. Companions are also a new system that was added to the game and should have the same option."

This is a fact and I stand by it. So let's just agree to disagree.

That would be a false fact. Scribing does not allow you to skip the unlocking quest. It still requires the unlock quest to be done. So I can't agree to disagree when something is factually inaccurate. What it DOES do it curtail the need to complete the entire 5 Quest Long quest line to unlock Scribing by only requiring you to complete the "Second Era of Scribing" to unlock the system. Which is, once again, ONE quest. Which much like companions is ONE quest to unlock.

SilverBride · July 18

EdjeSwift wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

EdjeSwift wrote: »

It's all one quest, no matter how much you want to fight it, it's all one quest. And like all quests they have steps you have to complete, that's an irrefutable fact. And just like scribing the quest chain is optional afterwards, I have 20 Azandars waiting for me to go to their Sanctum in Auridon but I didn't bother beyond my main for rapport/houseguesting reasons.

As I previously stated "Scribing and Tales of Tribute are both new systems that were added to the game that both offer skipping some of the unlocking quests for subsequent characters once one character has completed them. Companions are also a new system that was added to the game and should have the same option."

This is a fact and I stand by it. So let's just agree to disagree.

That would be a false fact. Scribing does not allow you to skip the unlocking quest. It still requires the unlock quest to be done. So I can't agree to disagree when something is factually inaccurate. What it DOES do it curtail the need to complete the entire 5 Quest Long quest line to unlock Scribing by only requiring you to complete the "Second Era of Scribing" to unlock the system. Which is, once again, ONE quest. Which much like companions is ONE quest to unlock.

I edited the above quoted post to add "Whether it's one quest with separate parts or several separate quests, the end result is still the same".

My opinion on this is not going to change, so let's just leave it at that.

Erickson9610 · July 18

SilverBride wrote: »

EdjeSwift wrote: »

It's all one quest, no matter how much you want to fight it, it's all one quest. And like all quests they have steps you have to complete, that's an irrefutable fact. And just like scribing the quest chain is optional afterwards, I have 20 Azandars waiting for me to go to their Sanctum in Auridon but I didn't bother beyond my main for rapport/houseguesting reasons.

As I previously stated "Scribing and Tales of Tribute are both new systems that were added to the game that both offer skipping some of the unlocking quests for subsequent characters once one character has completed them. Companions are also a new system that was added to the game and should have the same option."

This is a fact and I stand by it. So let's just agree to disagree.

You can't skip the Scribing intro quest. Likewise, you can't skip the Companion intro quests.

The way I see it, Companions and Scribing are very similar:

There's an intro quest which must be done before you can utilize the feature at a base level per character.
There are additional quests which unlock functionality, but which only need to be done once per account. For Scribing, that's the ability to use other Scripts and find Luminous Ink from more sources. For Companions, that's the ability to place them in your home as a Houseguest, and additionally unlock their Keepsake.

Companions shouldn't have a skip option for the same reason Scribing doesn't — there's no way to justify never doing the events of those quests, because the subsequent quests would make no sense when done out of order.

BretonMage · July 18

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

most of the companions rapport quests kind of continue the story, but not enough that not doing the intro quest would not be a detriment

I would've thought that breaking the narrative flow is a detriment, and I can't really see ZOS doing that. Which was why I thought a fully levelled (rapport), all quests completed version might make more sense.

But that should be optional, since I would consider redoing quests the primary benefit of having another character.

Necrotech_Master · July 18

BretonMage wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

most of the companions rapport quests kind of continue the story, but not enough that not doing the intro quest would not be a detriment

I would've thought that breaking the narrative flow is a detriment, and I can't really see ZOS doing that. Which was why I thought a fully levelled (rapport), all quests completed version might make more sense.

But that should be optional, since I would consider redoing quests the primary benefit of having another character.

i dont see anything wrong with it if you want to do the quests more than once

but for me repeating the quests is not fun, and each time i run it especially if im just trying to "get it done" just makes me enjoy it less and less to the point i actively hate doing it

which is where im at for companion intro quests, and longer quests just make me hate repeating them even more

i dont mind the quests being longer or more in depth, but if they expect us to repeat it up to 20x, they really should give players the option to skip it if they want, especially for something that is in my eyes, already an account wide unlock to begin with

Erickson9610 · July 18

BretonMage wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

most of the companions rapport quests kind of continue the story, but not enough that not doing the intro quest would not be a detriment

I would've thought that breaking the narrative flow is a detriment, and I can't really see ZOS doing that. Which was why I thought a fully levelled (rapport), all quests completed version might make more sense.

But that should be optional, since I would consider redoing quests the primary benefit of having another character.

That's an intriguing idea. The only way a Companion unlock skip would make sense would be if their other quests were skipped, too — which would likely mean they'd be unlocked with maximum positive rapport. Such an unlock would make the most sense as a Crown Store purchase (as paying your way to maximum positive rapport would skip many days of grinding, fitting for a Crown Store purchase). That's the only way I'd support a Companion unlock skip.

Maybe said Crown Store purchase could also level the Companion up to Level 20 and max their levels in their Armor/Weapon/Guild skill lines as well? The ultimate all-in-one skip for trying to maximize a Companion's potential.

EdjeSwift · July 18

Erickson9610 wrote: »

That's an intriguing idea. The only way a Companion unlock skip would make sense would be if their other quests were skipped, too — which would likely mean they'd be unlocked with maximum positive rapport. Such an unlock would make the most sense as a Crown Store purchase (as paying your way to maximum positive rapport would skip many days of grinding, fitting for a Crown Store purchase). That's the only way I'd support a Companion unlock skip.

Maybe said Crown Store purchase could also level the Companion up to Level 20 and max their levels in their Armor/Weapon/Guild skill lines as well? The ultimate all-in-one skip for trying to maximize a Companion's potential.

I can see how they could implement this.

Once you unlock this particular achievement (per companion)

you can unlock the ability to buy the ability to unlock them from the crown store a la Skyshard completion and the Skyshard upgrades in the shop.

I don't know about the level up part, but I can definitely see them going the route of complete the big achievement and you can buy it in the shop.

Edit: Also, in before one of the new companions in Q4's keepsake gives you something tied to Luminous Ink.

Erickson9610 · July 18

EdjeSwift wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

That's an intriguing idea. The only way a Companion unlock skip would make sense would be if their other quests were skipped, too — which would likely mean they'd be unlocked with maximum positive rapport. Such an unlock would make the most sense as a Crown Store purchase (as paying your way to maximum positive rapport would skip many days of grinding, fitting for a Crown Store purchase). That's the only way I'd support a Companion unlock skip.

Maybe said Crown Store purchase could also level the Companion up to Level 20 and max their levels in their Armor/Weapon/Guild skill lines as well? The ultimate all-in-one skip for trying to maximize a Companion's potential.

I can see how they could implement this.

Once you unlock this particular achievement (per companion)

you can unlock the ability to buy the ability to unlock them from the crown store a la Skyshard completion and the Skyshard upgrades in the shop.

I don't know about the level up part, but I can definitely see them going the route of complete the big achievement and you can buy it in the shop.

Edit: Also, in before one of the new companions in Q4's keepsake gives you something tied to Luminous Ink.

I certainly hope we don't get a Keepsake that's so closely bound to a Chapter feature! Most of the Keepsakes up to this point have been additional containers (such as from pickpocketing, looting chests, looting bosses, etcetera) so it'd make sense if we get a new container type that contains Luminous Ink — but we should have the ability to find Luminous Ink first before getting it from a Companion's Keepsake.

If ZOS does go down the route of making Keepsakes that are related to DLC content, then I hope we also get a Keepsake which increases the drop chance of Antiquity leads. That'd be handy for sure!

Necrotech_Master · July 18

EdjeSwift wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

That's an intriguing idea. The only way a Companion unlock skip would make sense would be if their other quests were skipped, too — which would likely mean they'd be unlocked with maximum positive rapport. Such an unlock would make the most sense as a Crown Store purchase (as paying your way to maximum positive rapport would skip many days of grinding, fitting for a Crown Store purchase). That's the only way I'd support a Companion unlock skip.

Maybe said Crown Store purchase could also level the Companion up to Level 20 and max their levels in their Armor/Weapon/Guild skill lines as well? The ultimate all-in-one skip for trying to maximize a Companion's potential.

I can see how they could implement this.

Once you unlock this particular achievement (per companion)

you can unlock the ability to buy the ability to unlock them from the crown store a la Skyshard completion and the Skyshard upgrades in the shop.

I don't know about the level up part, but I can definitely see them going the route of complete the big achievement and you can buy it in the shop.

Edit: Also, in before one of the new companions in Q4's keepsake gives you something tied to Luminous Ink.

i think it would be acceptable that if you have the achievement you could skip it, but im not in favor of putting it in the crown store

if it was a crown store unlock to skip, i would still continue to not using the companions as it is now

any kind of unlock from the crown store would be absurdly overpriced in relation to the amount of work (which i feel is the case for all of the skill line unlocks, skyshards, any type of "consumable" thing)

if im buying skyshard unlocks from the crown store, the only way it would happen for me is if its account wide 1 time purchase (as an example)