Companions Q&A

Snamyap · August 2023

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

elinien wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Q: why are companions account wide unlocks (collection menu) but still required to be unlocked per character?
Why are the unlock quests getting significantly longer if we are required to unlock it per character? or can we get some way to bypass them if we have already unlocked them?

PD: This ties back into potential issues of bringing Mirri to unlock Mirri, but also, we know many players establish different relationship dynamics with their companions on a per character basis and the introductory quest is a key part of that, so at this time there are no plans to change that.
On the story side, there hasn't been any mandate or push to make these quests longer. The stories we want to tell are the determining factor. This is great feedback though and something we will make sure to take into account going forward.
***

My long standing request for this isn't to automatically unlock them, but make the quest like the Cyrodiil tutorial (or crafting certifications)... give us the option to bypass it and immediately unlock the companion. It would take a lot of the annoyance away from having to do the same quest up to 20 different times, and wouldn't necessarily hurt the role playing aspect.

yeah that answer was a bit disappointing

i completely understand they dont want the companions from running into each other on a quest, but there are already a few problems with that as it currently stands:

there is nothing stopping 20 players from having mirri out and being in the same area, how is that any different from taking mirri on the "intro quest" for mirri?

Don't know if they bothered to fix it yet, but a little while back I ran near the Doomvault Vulpinaz while having Mirri in tow. We ran into Mirri the quest giver still chastising the Brigandine. If they are so serious about not doing the quest with the same companion out then why do drop the ball on stuff like this...

Edit: Mirri quest giver is still there. So is Bastian, he actually still calls out for help when you get close. 🤦

Darkstorne · August 2023

This was a great Q&A. Thanks for taking the time to produce it

My biggest wish for future Companion features will always be taking a team of them into dungeons. FF14 has achieved it with huge success and popularity (running dungeons with 3 AI companions), and ESO seems to have most of the framework for something similar ready to go. Would solve all the requests for a "solo mode" difficulty if you can play with a full team of Companions, and gives us a reason to level and gear up multiple Companions rather than sticking with a single favourite.

Necrotech_Master · August 2023

Darkstorne wrote: »

This was a great Q&A. Thanks for taking the time to produce it

My biggest wish for future Companion features will always be taking a team of them into dungeons. FF14 has achieved it with huge success and popularity (running dungeons with 3 AI companions), and ESO seems to have most of the framework for something similar ready to go. Would solve all the requests for a "solo mode" difficulty if you can play with a full team of Companions, and gives us a reason to level and gear up multiple Companions rather than sticking with a single favourite.

it wouldnt solve all problems, theres a lot of mechanics the companions are too dumb or too weak to deal with on their own

they cant stand on plates in direfrost, they cant pull levers in ICP, they cant use alters in wayrest 2, they couldnt synergize you out of a web in crypt of heart 2 or out of stone in scalecaller (if you got petrified), etc

they may occasionally be able to help with something like fungal 2, or fang lair if they could focus target the correct enemy, but their dps still may not be high enough in some of those cases, if they could even target the right thing (i dont know if you could make them re-target while your cc'd)

Fata1moose · August 2023

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Q: Will older companions (Bastion and Mirri)) ever be updated to have more dialog and quests?

TM: I can’t go into too much detail regarding our future plans, but I can say that we have big ideas on how we can expand the Companion system in the future, and those ideas certainly involve revisiting Bastian and Mirri!
***

Hopefully this means romanceable companions with an additional quest/story arc. It’ll be quite a bit of work to do backlogged companions but once the team catches up with the older ones it’d be an easier task going forward especially without Q4 zone dlc. It almost feels like there’s part of their story missing already like it was intended to give those characters more progression.

Also I hope they change their stance on existing characters being companions. They would of course have to come up with a solution to picking up their quests in the overland. My suggestion would be having the quest pop up when you’re in a certain radius and despawn the vanilla version of the NPC. That way it’s as if you traveled to the quest location together. Skyrim sometimes has the option “I can meet you there or we can travel there together.” Obviously completely different in execution on an online game but presentation wise you could see how it works. I just want Naryu as a companion.

BlueberryPancakes333 · August 2023

ADarklore wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

why are companions account wide unlocks (collection menu) but still required to be unlocked per character?

why are the unlock quests getting significantly longer if we are required to unlock it per character?

I just unlocked a companion on an Alt. All it that was needed is a Delve Quest. Then you get the companion as leveled by your main with the gear they already have. 10 maybe 15 minutes.

The only time suck is grinding for gear if you want to change your role. You don't need to spend time on Affinity as the rewards are account wide.

Well, that's how it used to be, but now with Necrom, the Companion quests are MUCH longer, Sharp you have to get through a Public Dungeon and even worse, with Azandar you not only have a Public Dungeon to get through, but also a Delve as well. Let alone running all over the map for fetch quests.

it's still not terrible, tbh I did both of them in a couple hours solo.. I don't see the big deal.

elinien · August 2023

BlueberryPancakes333 wrote: »

it's still not terrible, tbh I did both of them in a couple hours solo.. I don't see the big deal.

When we complain about the companion quests, it isn't because it's bad or undesirable to do them once.

I think I've gotten Sharp on 3 characters thus far... only 16 more times doing the exact same quest to go...

Necrotech_Master · August 2023

BlueberryPancakes333 wrote: »

ADarklore wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

why are companions account wide unlocks (collection menu) but still required to be unlocked per character?

why are the unlock quests getting significantly longer if we are required to unlock it per character?

I just unlocked a companion on an Alt. All it that was needed is a Delve Quest. Then you get the companion as leveled by your main with the gear they already have. 10 maybe 15 minutes.

The only time suck is grinding for gear if you want to change your role. You don't need to spend time on Affinity as the rewards are account wide.

Well, that's how it used to be, but now with Necrom, the Companion quests are MUCH longer, Sharp you have to get through a Public Dungeon and even worse, with Azandar you not only have a Public Dungeon to get through, but also a Delve as well. Let alone running all over the map for fetch quests.

it's still not terrible, tbh I did both of them in a couple hours solo.. I don't see the big deal.

as others mentioned, the problem comes when you need to repeat these quests up to a maximum of 20 times (once per character)

speeding as fast as i could sharps quest was about 15-20 min, azanders quest was worse, probably closer to 30 min if you dont have relevant wayshrines as that increases travel distance

now multiply that by 19 characters (im assuming the first run for the story will take longer so this is only the repeats)

assuming the best case of sharps taking 15 min, if you have to do that 19 times, that is almost 5 hours of time spent doing nothing except sharps quest, log out change toons, repeat

that is not fun, its boring and repetitive

and yes i know i dont speak for everyone who may actually run it to play through the story again, but for me personally, repeating quests is not really fun to do unless your given many significant choices to have many different outcomes

DP99 · August 2023

DragonRacer wrote: »

This was an absolute delight to read. Thank you ever so much for pulling it together, @ZOS_Kevin !

Very cool to get the story about Bastian's tattoos and love hearing he and Mirri will eventually get more content. They are so lacking compared to newer companions and I felt Bastian's storyline, in particular, could really have fun places to go past its current "ending".

Chalk me up as another person saddened that Sharp can't animate fishing beside the player. I'm actually going to bother with chasing Master Angler now simply because of him, but it felt a little sad/awkward to be fishing and he's just standing there watching. Where's your fishing pole, buddy?

Love the suggestion of more things for the companions to do inside houses. I'm especially interested because I adore some of the companions/houseguests so much that some of them, I have built dedicated rooms or entire houses for. Arox has a nice little pad at Hammerdeath Bungalow, Caska's living the pampered Khajiiti life in a room adjoining my Tales of Tribute Gaming Hall (packed with all sorts of special guests from Brahgas to Rigurt to even Mai'q!) at Linchal Grand Manor, and most recently I completed a house for Sharp at The Ample Domicile, complete with a fishing setup outside, a stocked fountain, smoked fish drying and cooking, a ToT table, a loaded alchemy station and storage area, a live fish tank inside, and some furnishings and food in the manner of Murkmire. It would be cool if he could actually interact with the dinner table and grub kebabs, sit at the ToT table pondering cards, watch the fish swimming in his aquarium, and fish in the small pond area outside. Or even just sit on the bench by the water watching and contemplating, perhaps hoping to see a few birds visit the Druidic gourd bird feeder hanging from one of his palms, even if he's given up on trying to accurately sketch them.

Yeah, I hate doing the fishing, because to me it's boring in real life, and it's boring in games too, this one is no exception. However, with the bonus Sharp gives you it makes it a bit worthwhile now.. Yet, all he does is stand there, or kneel down and pick at the ground. It's kind of sad that he doesn't actively engage in his favorite activity with you, but at least he does make positive comments about it while you're doing it like you really are fishing together, even though you really aren't.

Gray_howling_parrot · August 2023

Did y’all ever release a blog post detailing official answers to these questions? Wasn’t able to find anything.

Gray_howling_parrot · August 2023

@ZOS_Kevin your blog post:

https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/64573

The blog post answered only 2 meaningful questions about possible vampire/werewolf companions in the future and the revisitation of old companions. There’s several questions that are asked 3-4 times in here that weren’t answered and I’d say the post was pretty sparse in my opinion.

Do y’all have plans to make a more expansive blog post answering more than 3-4 questions or was that about it for a while? Thanks!

Maitsukas · August 2023

Jaustink wrote: »

@ZOS_Kevin your blog post:

https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/64573

The blog post answered only 2 meaningful questions about possible vampire/werewolf companions in the future and the revisitation of old companions. There’s several questions that are asked 3-4 times in here that weren’t answered and I’d say the post was pretty sparse in my opinion.

Do y’all have plans to make a more expansive blog post answering more than 3-4 questions or was that about it for a while? Thanks!

There are more questions answered a bit earlier in this thread, here's a link to them:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7937639/#Comment_7937639

Braffin · August 2023

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

BlueberryPancakes333 wrote: »

ADarklore wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

why are companions account wide unlocks (collection menu) but still required to be unlocked per character?

why are the unlock quests getting significantly longer if we are required to unlock it per character?

I just unlocked a companion on an Alt. All it that was needed is a Delve Quest. Then you get the companion as leveled by your main with the gear they already have. 10 maybe 15 minutes.

The only time suck is grinding for gear if you want to change your role. You don't need to spend time on Affinity as the rewards are account wide.

Well, that's how it used to be, but now with Necrom, the Companion quests are MUCH longer, Sharp you have to get through a Public Dungeon and even worse, with Azandar you not only have a Public Dungeon to get through, but also a Delve as well. Let alone running all over the map for fetch quests.

it's still not terrible, tbh I did both of them in a couple hours solo.. I don't see the big deal.

as others mentioned, the problem comes when you need to repeat these quests up to a maximum of 20 times (once per character)

speeding as fast as i could sharps quest was about 15-20 min, azanders quest was worse, probably closer to 30 min if you dont have relevant wayshrines as that increases travel distance

now multiply that by 19 characters (im assuming the first run for the story will take longer so this is only the repeats)

assuming the best case of sharps taking 15 min, if you have to do that 19 times, that is almost 5 hours of time spent doing nothing except sharps quest, log out change toons, repeat

that is not fun, its boring and repetitive

and yes i know i dont speak for everyone who may actually run it to play through the story again, but for me personally, repeating quests is not really fun to do unless your given many significant choices to have many different outcomes

Sorry, but I can't understand this.

Sure, a lot of people do some quests on multiple toons over the time. I assume they enjoy to do so.

But why should anyone complete content, which they doesn't find enjoyable 20 times? Is there any advantage in doing so?

Personally I think the length of content should be built around the experience using a single character. If we decide to repeat the whole process on another toon, that's our completely optional way to play. (I'm not arguing against account-wide unlocks for companions tho. I think they would be a nice addition.)

Gray_howling_parrot · August 2023

First of all, I wanted to thank you for this incredible reply! Awesome insight into everything and exactly what I was looking for. I just have one question pertaining to one of y’all’s answers:

Q: I just want to give them a hat so they don't look the same as everyone else... any thoughts on changing your stance on this?

TM: We do have discussions about the level of flexibility we want to give users on a Companion’s appearance “from the neck-up” – like hats, or different hairstyles. One of the early design considerations with companions was the balance between "identity" and "customization" for each companion. We wanted to give players as much freedom to customize their traveling companion, while at the same time keeping the identity of the companion the same. We ended up with "no hats" on companions because it hit that sweet spot - where players can make them look any way they wish, but the character and identity of the companion doesn't change because you always see their face.
***

I’m having a hard time understanding this. Identity largely comes from such a huge variety of things - experiences, personality, class in this game, etc. Adding hats/helmets and things to hide their face is NEEDED in ESO. Similar to your reasoning for not wanting to use other in game characters like Eveli or Razum Dar as companions - you go to wayrest or mournhold with Bastian out and see 6 more of them. It’s the same thing and very very immersion breaking. I’ve even had one guy have the exact same costume on Bastian lol. This is definitely a huge oversight in my opinion considering how thought out everything else is in your answers to other questions. I’ve never seen a single player wanting to not have the choice to place a helmet on their companion. So it’s hard to believe that this is still not being addressed.

Necrotech_Master · August 2023

Braffin wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

BlueberryPancakes333 wrote: »

ADarklore wrote: »

Nestor wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

why are companions account wide unlocks (collection menu) but still required to be unlocked per character?

why are the unlock quests getting significantly longer if we are required to unlock it per character?

I just unlocked a companion on an Alt. All it that was needed is a Delve Quest. Then you get the companion as leveled by your main with the gear they already have. 10 maybe 15 minutes.

The only time suck is grinding for gear if you want to change your role. You don't need to spend time on Affinity as the rewards are account wide.

Well, that's how it used to be, but now with Necrom, the Companion quests are MUCH longer, Sharp you have to get through a Public Dungeon and even worse, with Azandar you not only have a Public Dungeon to get through, but also a Delve as well. Let alone running all over the map for fetch quests.

it's still not terrible, tbh I did both of them in a couple hours solo.. I don't see the big deal.

as others mentioned, the problem comes when you need to repeat these quests up to a maximum of 20 times (once per character)

speeding as fast as i could sharps quest was about 15-20 min, azanders quest was worse, probably closer to 30 min if you dont have relevant wayshrines as that increases travel distance

now multiply that by 19 characters (im assuming the first run for the story will take longer so this is only the repeats)

assuming the best case of sharps taking 15 min, if you have to do that 19 times, that is almost 5 hours of time spent doing nothing except sharps quest, log out change toons, repeat

that is not fun, its boring and repetitive

and yes i know i dont speak for everyone who may actually run it to play through the story again, but for me personally, repeating quests is not really fun to do unless your given many significant choices to have many different outcomes

Sorry, but I can't understand this.

Sure, a lot of people do some quests on multiple toons over the time. I assume they enjoy to do so.

But why should anyone complete content, which they doesn't find enjoyable 20 times? Is there any advantage in doing so?

Personally I think the length of content should be built around the experience using a single character. If we decide to repeat the whole process on another toon, that's our completely optional way to play. (I'm not arguing against account-wide unlocks for companions tho. I think they would be a nice addition.)

thats the point i was bringing up, right now you are required to repeat these quests to be able to use that 1 companion on each character

20 is the max possible character slots, so if you didnt delete any characters, and you wanted to be able to use even 1 companion on each character, that is repeating the same quest 20 times

as ive mentioned in other posts, the companions are account wide unlocks, they are greyed out in the collection menu until you complete the quest at least once

but for unknown reasons (and no good answer from the devs outside of "we dont want the companion running into themselves on the quest), you have to still accept and do the quest on each toon to be able to summon something you already unlocked

i would really like to experiment more with sharp and azander, problem is their quests are awful to have to repeat, and i cant use them on any other character except the ones i did the quests on, so while it would be fun using them, they are going to gather dust because i cant use them when i want to on whichever character im logged in (i have only done their quests with 3 of my 11 toons, and im not going to bother with any more)

going forward thats the same approach ill use to any other companion:

do the quest and enjoy the story on my main for initial unlock
speed the quest as fast as possible on a dps character i can use to powerlevel the companion
work rapport with my main and continue enjoying the companions personal quests
powerlevel them to 20 with my dps
unlock keepsake and basically never touch them again so i dont have to bother gearing up something i cant use on any toon other than those 2

HushAzrael · August 2023

For the love of all things holy, just make companions unlock account wide. Please. It’s such a pain to do these quests over and over. Also, would LOVE to see the companions level faster. I am not a speed leveler, I don’t want or care to pop a bunch of buffs and run sky reach or whatever just to max out the companions. Therefore, I have NEVER gotten a companion fully leveled. I will probably manage to get Azander leveled to max in a few weeks, maybe. If there isn’t another one released to distract me. Rather than using XP grinders as a model for the ceiling of leveling companions, the typical casual player should be the ceiling.

Tbh, now that I think about it, there are a LOT of things done to the game in the name of fencing in the top end which only serves to hurt or punish the average player.