Companions - When is it enough?

StarOfElyon

SilverBride wrote: »

I have found the Companions useful and feel the newer ones have gotten much more likable than the previous. But when is it enough?

I would be happy if we stop getting new Companions after the next set are released. But if we are going to continue to keep getting more Compaions with every new chapter, PLEASE at the very least give us the option to skip unlocking once we have done it once.

Honestly I just want to have some NPCs as companions. Not many followers do I like as much as Nahlia and Scruut.

Erickson9610

StarOfElyon wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

I have found the Companions useful and feel the newer ones have gotten much more likable than the previous. But when is it enough?

I would be happy if we stop getting new Companions after the next set are released. But if we are going to continue to keep getting more Compaions with every new chapter, PLEASE at the very least give us the option to skip unlocking once we have done it once.

Honestly I just want to have some NPCs as companions. Not many followers do I like as much as Nahlia and Scruut.

I'd personally rather have new characters who are up to the same level of writing as those fan favorite characters. It'd be too complicated to take an existing character and make a Companion out of them, especially if they're non-humanoid or if they don't have a well-defined Class. And, of course, it'd be impossible to write a "final end" for a character if they're a Companion, and you wouldn't want to have your Companion meeting an NPC version of themselves.

Amottica

Zenimax will, and should, continue to add companions if players continue to show interest in them. Anyone who has had enough companions can cease obtaining new ones.

Any player continuing to obtain them is sending a clear message to Zenimax that they should keep adding new companions.

Deserrick

They should be usable without doing the quest to unlock them. For sake of narrative consistency, talking to them should give you their introductory quest if you haven't done it yet, as opposed to it giving you their rapport quest (which chronologically follows from their introductory quest).

BretonMage

Erickson9610 wrote: »

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.

Tbh I would also be supportive of any other way of unlocking companions that keeps the quest flow intact. I think they could just, for example, unlock the companion with the option to do the intro quest - instead of just skipping it. It has been mentioned that ZOS didn't want our existing Mirri to meet an unaccompanied Mirri, but surely it can't be hard to programme that possibility out? (Sorry if it's been touched on in this thread, I may have missed one or two posts).

Edit: As Deserrick has also posted above.

SilverBride

BretonMage wrote: »

Tbh I would also be supportive of any other way of unlocking companions that keeps the quest flow intact. I think they could just, for example, unlock the companion with the option to do the intro quest - instead of just skipping it. It has been mentioned that ZOS didn't want our existing Mirri to meet an unaccompanied Mirri, but surely it can't be hard to programme that possibility out?

We could do the initial meeting the Companion and accept the quest. But one of the options could be something like "I would love to hear your story." to play through the quest chain, or "I have heard your story and would love to adventure with you now." to skip it.

Erickson9610

SilverBride wrote: »

BretonMage wrote: »

Tbh I would also be supportive of any other way of unlocking companions that keeps the quest flow intact. I think they could just, for example, unlock the companion with the option to do the intro quest - instead of just skipping it. It has been mentioned that ZOS didn't want our existing Mirri to meet an unaccompanied Mirri, but surely it can't be hard to programme that possibility out?

We could do the initial meeting the Companion and accept the quest. But one of the options could be something like "I would love to hear your story." to play through the quest chain, or "I have heard your story and would love to adventure with you now." to skip it.

It makes no sense to say "I have heard your story" to someone whose brother still needs to be rescued and expect them to understand what you mean by that and be okay with following you through all the realms of Oblivion.


I do like the idea of delaying the introductory quest until the player opts to begin the quest chain, because the narrative order of events wouldn't be broken as no quest would be skipped. However, it's in those introductory quests where the Companion is originally given a motivation to join you in your adventures.

Some introductory quests have a sense of urgency to them, so it's difficult to imagine why these Companions would be fine with setting their problems to the wayside in order to give their lives for a stranger who has done nothing for them.

Kallykat

I think the Companion system is one of the better and more popular side systems that has been introduced in the last few years, and I don't see a reason why ZOS should stop adding a couple new companions each year for the foreseeable future. I know a lot of people are still waiting for their favorite race or a particular race/class/gender combo. I also hope they eventually add companions of non-playable races like Maormer or Dremora.

I will keep collecting companions as long as they keep adding them because I enjoy learning about their stories and personalities. Based on what we've seen from them so far, I don't think ZOS will make it optional to skip their quests. When they introduced the system, they were clear about companions being their own characters with their own stories and not just a combat buff. I personally enjoy taking different characters through the quests (and making different choices where applicable), so I would hate it if they removed the ability to replay companion quests on alts altogether.

As much as I enjoy the current companion customization options, I also think it's beneficial to be able to differentiate quickly between companions and players in combat or even just roaming around. Plus, I think ZOS sees the face/hair/tattoos of each character as tied to their personalities and stories. They are not meant to be player alts, but NPCs. (Though, now that I think about it, it might be kind of fun to have one of my alts as a follower sometimes. Not that I think that would ever happen...)

What I think might be possible and generally acceptable is to make the introduction quests (but not the later quests) for new companions shorter with less running around. That would make it at least slightly less grindy for those who want to unlock each companion on multiple alts but don't care about roleplaying the story again and again while keeping the integrity of ZOS's vision for the system.

SilverBride

Erickson9610 wrote: »

It makes no sense to say "I have heard your story" to someone whose brother still needs to be rescued and expect them to understand what you mean by that and be okay with following you through all the realms of Oblivion.

It makes as much sense as saying we have done the Tales of Tribute tutorial and don't want to do it again on a character that hasn't.

Also, the brother doesn't still need to be rescued in every case. One of our characters had to have already saved the brother before subsequent players have the option to say they already heard the story.

Necrotech_Master

Erickson9610 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

BretonMage wrote: »

Tbh I would also be supportive of any other way of unlocking companions that keeps the quest flow intact. I think they could just, for example, unlock the companion with the option to do the intro quest - instead of just skipping it. It has been mentioned that ZOS didn't want our existing Mirri to meet an unaccompanied Mirri, but surely it can't be hard to programme that possibility out?

We could do the initial meeting the Companion and accept the quest. But one of the options could be something like "I would love to hear your story." to play through the quest chain, or "I have heard your story and would love to adventure with you now." to skip it.

It makes no sense to say "I have heard your story" to someone whose brother still needs to be rescued and expect them to understand what you mean by that and be okay with following you through all the realms of Oblivion.


I do like the idea of delaying the introductory quest until the player opts to begin the quest chain, because the narrative order of events wouldn't be broken as no quest would be skipped. However, it's in those introductory quests where the Companion is originally given a motivation to join you in your adventures.

Some introductory quests have a sense of urgency to them, so it's difficult to imagine why these Companions would be fine with setting their problems to the wayside in order to give their lives for a stranger who has done nothing for them.

after playing the intro quests almost a dozen times, there is absolutely no urgency

the example of mirris where the "urgency" to save her friends and family is bypassed by wanting to just complete the quest as fast as possible, there is no more urgency, its literally busy work

this is exactly the reasoning i was saying that the companions feel soulless and robotic, after repeating the quest even 3 times, there is no sense of urgency its "ugh i just want this garbage to end"

i get completely if you are playing each of your characters as individuals who need to "meet" the companion, but for me, im a player who all of the characters are basically alternate versions of my main and redoing the quest is just repeating content, which gets boring and repetitive especially when your doing it multiple times in succession

Erickson9610

SilverBride wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

It makes no sense to say "I have heard your story" to someone whose brother still needs to be rescued and expect them to understand what you mean by that and be okay with following you through all the realms of Oblivion.

It makes as much sense as saying we have done the Tales of Tribute tutorial and don't want to do it again on a character that hasn't.

Also, the brother doesn't still need to be rescued in every case. One of our characters had to have already saved the brother before subsequent players have the option to say they already heard the story.

The brother isn't rescued on any characters who haven't helped Mirri. If other players could've rescued Mirri's brother before us, then Mirri would've never thought to join any of our characters in the first place. You can't justify Mirri going on an adventure with a stranger because you think someone else saved her brother — she'd want to go on an adventure with them instead, out of gratitude.


Also, it does make sense to say that our characters already know how to play Tales of Tribute. That card game is immensely popular — and played all over Tamriel — so the chances that our character could've learned from another tutor is highly likely. It's highly unlikely that every single NPC ToT player in the world personally went to High Isle just to learn how to play the game. While we never see our character learn how to play it, it's a skill that could've been learned from anywhere, depending on our character's background.

An analogy to real life is like telling a croupier that you already know how to play poker, that you learned how to play it from somewhere else. There are many casinos all over the world willing to teach newcomers the rules of the game, so we don't need to go to the creator of the card game just to learn how to play it.

SilverBride

This is a fantasy game. Not everything fits into the realities of the real world. The scenario I presented is reasonable in the context of the game and would make obtaining the Companions way more enjoyable for a lot of players.

Necrotech_Master

Erickson9610 wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

It makes no sense to say "I have heard your story" to someone whose brother still needs to be rescued and expect them to understand what you mean by that and be okay with following you through all the realms of Oblivion.

It makes as much sense as saying we have done the Tales of Tribute tutorial and don't want to do it again on a character that hasn't.

Also, the brother doesn't still need to be rescued in every case. One of our characters had to have already saved the brother before subsequent players have the option to say they already heard the story.

The brother isn't rescued on any characters who haven't helped Mirri. If other players could've rescued Mirri's brother before us, then Mirri would've never thought to join any of our characters in the first place. You can't justify Mirri going on an adventure with a stranger because you think someone else saved her brother — she'd want to go on an adventure with them instead, out of gratitude.


Also, it does make sense to say that our characters already know how to play Tales of Tribute. That card game is immensely popular — and played all over Tamriel — so the chances that our character could've learned from another tutor is highly likely. It's highly unlikely that every single NPC ToT player in the world personally went to High Isle just to learn how to play the game. While we never see our character learn how to play it, it's a skill that could've been learned from anywhere, depending on our character's background.

An analogy to real life is like telling a croupier that you already know how to play poker, that you learned how to play it from somewhere else. There are many casinos all over the world willing to teach newcomers the rules of the game, so we don't need to go to the creator of the card game just to learn how to play it.

using mirri as an example, all of my characters except my main explicitly killed off everyone in that quest and shes still willing to adventure with you

there are no repercussions whatsoever, the quest is literally just busy work so you can use the companion

EdjeSwift

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

using mirri as an example, all of my characters except my main explicitly killed off everyone in that quest and shes still willing to adventure with you

there are no repercussions whatsoever, the quest is literally just busy work so you can use the companion

It gives her a reason to adventure with you, and depending on how you do the quest it changes her motivation. You probably sped past her motivations, but it's still there and follows logic.

Necrotech_Master

EdjeSwift wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

using mirri as an example, all of my characters except my main explicitly killed off everyone in that quest and shes still willing to adventure with you

there are no repercussions whatsoever, the quest is literally just busy work so you can use the companion

It gives her a reason to adventure with you, and depending on how you do the quest it changes her motivation. You probably sped past her motivations, but it's still there and follows logic.

it still doesnt change any of her other dialog, her starting rapport, her rapport quests

after the 3rd time running the quest, i frankly did not care about the dialog (as i had seen all variations, saving all of them, killing all of them, and a mix) and just wanted to get it done, because using her as a companion required the quest complete

the other companions are even more basic, there was no sense of choice like that, which honestly made doing the quest required to unlock them feel even more like busy work because there were no alternate dialogs

spartaxoxo

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

there are no repercussions whatsoever, the quest is literally just busy work so you can use the companion

She's willing to work with you because she thinks you did the best that you could. The "bad ending" option is presented as "I know you did your best" type situation, rather than trying for that outcome. The player might not be putting the effort to get the quest done faster, but she puts the blame on herself.

Erickson9610

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

EdjeSwift wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

using mirri as an example, all of my characters except my main explicitly killed off everyone in that quest and shes still willing to adventure with you

there are no repercussions whatsoever, the quest is literally just busy work so you can use the companion

It gives her a reason to adventure with you, and depending on how you do the quest it changes her motivation. You probably sped past her motivations, but it's still there and follows logic.

it still doesnt change any of her other dialog, her starting rapport, her rapport quests

after the 3rd time running the quest, i frankly did not care about the dialog (as i had seen all variations, saving all of them, killing all of them, and a mix) and just wanted to get it done, because using her as a companion required the quest complete

the other companions are even more basic, there was no sense of choice like that, which honestly made doing the quest required to unlock them feel even more like busy work because there were no alternate dialogs

It does change Mirri's future dialogue:

If the intro quest is skipped, then what would Mirri say during the celebration quest at the end of the Blackwood questline? Whether we save her brother is integral to other quests, so it's imperative that the player must have completed her introductory quest on that character if she's to be talked to in other quests.

Necrotech_Master

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

there are no repercussions whatsoever, the quest is literally just busy work so you can use the companion

She's willing to work with you because she thinks you did the best that you could. The "bad ending" option is presented as "I know you did your best" type situation, rather than trying for that outcome. The player might not be putting the effort to get the quest done faster, but the canonical explanation isn't lack of willingness to help.

my point is that im sick of running this quest and we need an option to be able to skip it so we can still use the companion

at this point the quest to me has been degraded down to a completely pointless series of "go here, interact with this" just to use the companion

theres 0 attachment to the companion from an RP perspective at this point for me because of being forced to repeat the quests

i could care less if the quest ended with the companion hating me as much as possible if the end result was what we currently have: access to the companion and neutral starting rapport

using mirri as an example theres no incentive to actually try to save all of the people because theres no bonus starting rapport for doing so, so the choices are completely meaningless, the end result is still the same, i get access to the companion

spartaxoxo

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

there are no repercussions whatsoever, the quest is literally just busy work so you can use the companion

She's willing to work with you because she thinks you did the best that you could. The "bad ending" option is presented as "I know you did your best" type situation, rather than trying for that outcome. The player might not be putting the effort to get the quest done faster, but the canonical explanation isn't lack of willingness to help.

my point is that im sick of running this quest and we need an option to be able to skip it so we can still use the companion

at this point the quest to me has been degraded down to a completely pointless series of "go here, interact with this" just to use the companion

theres 0 attachment to the companion from an RP perspective at this point for me because of being forced to repeat the quests

i could care less if the quest ended with the companion hating me as much as possible if the end result was what we currently have: access to the companion and neutral starting rapport

From a gameplay standpoint, there is not a difference. From a lore standpoint, there's a pretty major difference. I agree with a skip option. Personally, I think that when you attempt to summon a companion on alt that hasn't unlocked it yet (which requires having completed the quest on one character) it should say "You have already completed the introductory quest for this companion. Would you like to skip this quest?" If the person says yes, it should give a second confirmation. "Are you sure you want to skip? If you choose this option, your companion will address you as if you have completed the quest." If they say yes again, then the introduction quest is skipped. That gives anyone who cares about the lore implications the ability to do the quest as much as they want. There'd be no issue with the lore implications because the player was warned. And double confirmation prevents accidental skipping.

Nice and simple. I fully admit it doesn't make sense from a lore perspective. But, I think a skip intro quest is a reasonable gameplay exception to everything needing to fit lore wise.

Necrotech_Master

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

there are no repercussions whatsoever, the quest is literally just busy work so you can use the companion

She's willing to work with you because she thinks you did the best that you could. The "bad ending" option is presented as "I know you did your best" type situation, rather than trying for that outcome. The player might not be putting the effort to get the quest done faster, but the canonical explanation isn't lack of willingness to help.

my point is that im sick of running this quest and we need an option to be able to skip it so we can still use the companion

at this point the quest to me has been degraded down to a completely pointless series of "go here, interact with this" just to use the companion

theres 0 attachment to the companion from an RP perspective at this point for me because of being forced to repeat the quests

i could care less if the quest ended with the companion hating me as much as possible if the end result was what we currently have: access to the companion and neutral starting rapport

From a gameplay standpoint, there is not a difference. From a lore standpoint, there's a pretty major difference. I agree with a skip option. Personally, I think that when you attempt to summon a companion on alt that hasn't unlocked it yet (which requires having completed the quest on one character) it should say "You have already completed the introductory quest for this companion. Would you like to skip this quest?" If the person says yes, it should give a second confirmation. "Are you sure you want to skip? If you choose this option, your companion will address you as if you have completed the quest." If they say yes again, then the introduction quest is skipped. That prevents anyone who cares about the lore implications the ability to do the quest as much as they want. There'd be no issue with the lore implications because the player was warned. And double confirmation prevents accidental skipping.

Nice and simple. I fully admit it doesn't make sense from a lore perspective. But, I think a skip intro quest is a reasonable gameplay exception to everything needing to fit lore wise.

thats literally all thats being asked for in this thread, but theres a ton of people who seem to be against that for whatever reason

i would absolutely love if they added that as an option, it might give me more use of sharp and azander because right now i basically dont use them at all because of not wanting to rerun the quests yet again

Erickson9610

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

for whatever reason

There are numerous reasons which have been outlined here already. For whatever reason, people still want to be able to skip the Companion introductory quests, despite it being infeasible from a lore and a gameplay mechanics standpoint.

It makes no sense in-lore, the events of the introductory quest sometimes have implications on future quests, and then there's the question about how rapport would be handled without enabling quests to be completed out of order if the introductory quest was just delayed, rather than skipped.

spartaxoxo

Erickson9610 wrote: »

it's imperative that the player must have completed her introductory quest on that character if she's to be talked to in other quests.

FYI, you may want to edit a spoiler tag into that.

Necrotech_Master

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

for whatever reason

There are numerous reasons which have been outlined here already. For whatever reason, people still want to be able to skip the Companion introductory quests, despite it being infeasible from a lore and a gameplay mechanics standpoint.

It makes no sense in-lore, the events of the introductory quest sometimes have implications on future quests, and then there's the question about how rapport would be handled without enabling quests to be completed out of order if the introductory quest was just delayed, rather than skipped.

its not imperative, at all

not to mention ive literally never repeated any of the rapport quests, though it is getting very annoying on some characters who have gotten the rapport high enough to start seeing those again

the companions are not people, i just want to be able to use them for their purpose (adventuring in tamriel), not for RP

if i want the option to skip the intro, that is entirely on me, its not blocking anything from you or anyone else to be able to do that, theres nothing stopping you from playing the quest normally

im sick of repeating these quests for the soulless husks of the companions that at this point i see nothing more than a combat pet that talks way too much

Erickson9610

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

it's imperative that the player must have completed her introductory quest on that character if she's to be talked to in other quests.

FYI, you may want to edit a spoiler tag into that.

Thank you for the heads up. I've put a spoiler tag on the attached image in that post.

Erickson9610

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

for whatever reason

There are numerous reasons which have been outlined here already. For whatever reason, people still want to be able to skip the Companion introductory quests, despite it being infeasible from a lore and a gameplay mechanics standpoint.

It makes no sense in-lore, the events of the introductory quest sometimes have implications on future quests, and then there's the question about how rapport would be handled without enabling quests to be completed out of order if the introductory quest was just delayed, rather than skipped.

its not imperative, at all

not to mention ive literally never repeated any of the rapport quests, though it is getting very annoying on some characters who have gotten the rapport high enough to start seeing those again

the companions are not people, i just want to be able to use them for their purpose (adventuring in tamriel), not for RP

if i want the option to skip the intro, that is entirely on me, its not blocking anything from you or anyone else to be able to do that, theres nothing stopping you from playing the quest normally

im sick of repeating these quests for the soulless husks of the companions that at this point i see nothing more than a combat pet that talks way too much

I understand that it's frustrating, but the Companion quests are like any other quests in the overworld — and we don't have the option to skip completing those quests. Companion quests only have the advantage of granting you access to a follower outside of the quest chain; other quests in the overworld which grant a follower only do so for the duration of the quest.

That's why it doesn't make sense to skip what would otherwise be a mundane overworld quest. Why not let players skip to the end of any story quest if they're tired of completing them on all their characters for skill points? Companions require an unlock, much like Scribing and Antiquities require an unlock.

JemadarofCaerSalis

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

for whatever reason

There are numerous reasons which have been outlined here already. For whatever reason, people still want to be able to skip the Companion introductory quests, despite it being infeasible from a lore and a gameplay mechanics standpoint.

It makes no sense in-lore, the events of the introductory quest sometimes have implications on future quests, and then there's the question about how rapport would be handled without enabling quests to be completed out of order if the introductory quest was just delayed, rather than skipped.

its not imperative, at all

not to mention ive literally never repeated any of the rapport quests, though it is getting very annoying on some characters who have gotten the rapport high enough to start seeing those again

the companions are not people, i just want to be able to use them for their purpose (adventuring in tamriel), not for RP

if i want the option to skip the intro, that is entirely on me, its not blocking anything from you or anyone else to be able to do that, theres nothing stopping you from playing the quest normally

This is the way I feel.

Yes, a person should need to complete the quests *once*. No Skips there.

But after that? they should be able to skip that introductory quest.

Otherwise, why do we have all the other 'skip' options available? Why can we just speed past dialogue? From a lore standpoint, why do we have dozens (if not more) potentially lore breaking mounts? Why are there dozens of Mirris, Bastions, Azandars, Embers etc.. running around following other people?

Sometimes lore needs to take a backseat to gameplay and enjoyablity.

As said, companions are not people. Mirri isn't going to be affected one way or the other if player#29434513 decides to skip the quest on their 21 alts. She isn't going to be affected if Player#452323 decides to do the introductory quests on all *their* 20 alts. Whatever implications the introductory quests have can either just have a default setting (like how some sequals handle multiple endings on the previous game, they just pick one particular path and that is now 'canon'), which could be either good or bad (Basically it could be that you can get all the 'negative' outcomes, such as not saving anyone, or you get all the good outcomes, such as saving everyone) or it could be randomized, so you saved some, but not others.

Because, as far as I can tell, the choices are all cosmetic. They don't affect anything but some pretty optional dialogue choices. You won't miss out on quests. It is just that dialogue can change depending on your choices.

Necrotech_Master

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

for whatever reason

There are numerous reasons which have been outlined here already. For whatever reason, people still want to be able to skip the Companion introductory quests, despite it being infeasible from a lore and a gameplay mechanics standpoint.

It makes no sense in-lore, the events of the introductory quest sometimes have implications on future quests, and then there's the question about how rapport would be handled without enabling quests to be completed out of order if the introductory quest was just delayed, rather than skipped.

its not imperative, at all

not to mention ive literally never repeated any of the rapport quests, though it is getting very annoying on some characters who have gotten the rapport high enough to start seeing those again

the companions are not people, i just want to be able to use them for their purpose (adventuring in tamriel), not for RP

if i want the option to skip the intro, that is entirely on me, its not blocking anything from you or anyone else to be able to do that, theres nothing stopping you from playing the quest normally

im sick of repeating these quests for the soulless husks of the companions that at this point i see nothing more than a combat pet that talks way too much

I understand that it's frustrating, but the Companion quests are like any other quests in the overworld — and we don't have the option to skip completing those quests. Companion quests only have the advantage of granting you access to a follower outside of the quest chain; other quests in the overworld which grant a follower only do so for the duration of the quest.

That's why it doesn't make sense to skip what would otherwise be a mundane overworld quest. Why not let players skip to the end of any story quest if they're tired of completing them on all their characters for skill points? Companions require an unlock, much like Scribing and Antiquities require an unlock.

well ive tried the suggestion of just letting us use the companion on every character, but zos is insistent that they dont want the companions "running into each other", if completion of the quest is the only satisfactory answer, then let us fast track the quest completion, or skip it entirely (auto-complete) it

this is purely a QoL thing, as it wouldnt stop anyone from still running the quest normally, but repeating the quest 5, 10, or even 20 times if you wanted access to it on each character is just asinine, its awful

so between the forced repeating of these quests, and being unable to give the companions hats or headgear of any kind, any RP purpose to me has been so diminished i dont even see them as a personality, just a combat pet

i dont outright detest the companions because i enjoy using them, but the anti-QoL that is repeating the quests limits usability of them for me because i dont want to have to sit through the dialogs and the running around

doing the quests once is satisfying and gives them meaning, doing the quests 11 times in my case removes all satisfaction or meaning from completing the quest, which is why i think we should be able to use the companions on all characters or give us an option to fast track or skip/auto complete the quest

SilverBride

Erickson9610 wrote: »

...the Companion quests are like any other quests in the overworld...

But they aren't. The Companions aren't something we go and do a quest for then that's the last we hear of them, like most quests in overland are. The Companions is a new system added to the game to help players as they quest etc., and gives us house guests as we gain rapport with them. We gear them up and set up builds on them.

With all the account wide changes to the game this is one that really should be added to the list. If we the player unlock a Companion once we should have the option to skip it on other characters because we the player already did it.

spartaxoxo

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

for whatever reason

There are numerous reasons which have been outlined here already. For whatever reason, people still want to be able to skip the Companion introductory quests, despite it being infeasible from a lore and a gameplay mechanics standpoint.

It makes no sense in-lore, the events of the introductory quest sometimes have implications on future quests, and then there's the question about how rapport would be handled without enabling quests to be completed out of order if the introductory quest was just delayed, rather than skipped.

its not imperative, at all

not to mention ive literally never repeated any of the rapport quests, though it is getting very annoying on some characters who have gotten the rapport high enough to start seeing those again

the companions are not people, i just want to be able to use them for their purpose (adventuring in tamriel), not for RP

if i want the option to skip the intro, that is entirely on me, its not blocking anything from you or anyone else to be able to do that, theres nothing stopping you from playing the quest normally

im sick of repeating these quests for the soulless husks of the companions that at this point i see nothing more than a combat pet that talks way too much

I understand that it's frustrating, but the Companion quests are like any other quests in the overworld — and we don't have the option to skip completing those quests. Companion quests only have the advantage of granting you access to a follower outside of the quest chain; other quests in the overworld which grant a follower only do so for the duration of the quest.

That's why it doesn't make sense to skip what would otherwise be a mundane overworld quest. Why not let players skip to the end of any story quest if they're tired of completing them on all their characters for skill points? Companions require an unlock, much like Scribing and Antiquities require an unlock.

We have the options of skipping other tutorial quests, and the game just plays out as if our character did them.

edit: For ones that require a choice, they can just make the default option the "good ending." Since that's the one people tend to prefer in video games. If they wanted something else, shouldn't have skipped it.

edit 2

Erickson9610 wrote: »

then there's the question about how rapport would be handled without enabling quests to be completed out of order if the introductory quest was just delayed, rather than skipped.

If they haven't already (the wiki says they have) they can just require each one be played in order. The skip can also grant you whatever rapport you would have received when you played it. Just as skipping the tutorial doesn't cause you to miss out on your trash gear rewards in base game

Erickson9610

SilverBride wrote: »

Erickson9610 wrote: »

...the Companion quests are like any other quests in the overworld...

But they aren't. The Companions aren't something we go and do a quest for then that's the last we hear of them, like most quests in overland are. The Companions is a new system added to the game to help players as they quest etc., and gives us house guests as we gain rapport with them. We gear them up and set up builds on them.

With all the account wide changes to the game this is one that really should be added to the list. If we the player unlock a Companion once we should have the option to skip it on other characters because we the player already did it.

The Companions system is both a regular overworld quest chain (because it's acquired and completed in the same manner) and a combat system.

The combat system could be decoupled from the quest chain for future Companions and that wouldn't cause problems. For this, imagine a "blank slate" character with no story, like a Factotum or something, whose sole purpose is to fight for you in combat. Maybe it uses the Class and Racial skills of your choosing.

Such a "Companion" could easily be added to the Crown Store and be unlocked by default on all characters solely because it lacks a quest chain. Nothing of value is lost because there was nothing of value to begin with.