Slow down on new Companions, bring back voice actors for new dialogue/quests?

ArchMikem · September 24

I'm sure it has now gotten tiring for people to hear their Companions recite the same lines whenever entering a Town or Delve or other actions. Instead of continuing to introduce new characters, why not instead use an Update to bring back the voice actors to provide new additional lines, or even create an additional sequel Quest that unlocks after you've completed the first, keeping our Companions as living, growing characters.

Syldras · September 24

ZOS has stated months (or even a few years?) ago that they plan that for the future. They just haven't said when.

AcadianPaladin · September 24

Agree with @ArchMikem completely. We have a fine assortment of companions. I'd really like to see companion focus go to expanding/improving the ones we have.

Ideas for improvement:
-Ability to bring your companion into your house, just like any other friend or even your summon already can.
-More dialogue as OP suggests.
-Companion dances when I play an instrument and plays an instrument when I dance.
-Buy your companion a drink when in a tavern and when you sit down in a tavern, they join you, sitting nearby.
-Add a small inventory to companions so they can carry a small amount of their own extra companion gear.
-Ability to earn a perk that eliminates negative rapport. Possibly getting max rapport would trigger this perk.
-Allow companions to wear player headgear (hats, circlets, helmets).

Ideas for fixing things that don't work well:
-Address ranged companions dodge-roll resetting bosses. Only ranged weapon not guilty of this is ice staff.
-Improve companion ability to avoid standing and dying in red via smarter AI or a degree of immunity if they are going to stand in stupid.

M1SHAAN · September 25

I'd be in favor of this. I wholeheartedly love Bastian but by the divines it would be nice if he had more than three things to say when entering a city. Also companion romance pls ZOS I want to make my ships 'canon'

I could see a potential counterargument that the expansion of the companion system by adding new companions is similar to the expansion of the antiquities system by adding new antiquities: the system stays the same but there are new 'things' to collect. From this lens, adding more to already-released companions doesn't make sense- folks don't seem to be demanding overhauls to the scrying/excavation system or new functions for oakensoul, after all. Well, the difference is that I'm not emotionally attached to oakensoul the way I am to my companions. Additional content for existing companions would be more meaningful to people than changes to other systems that were introduced in previous chapters. We're meant to see these characters as 'friends', and in a continuously-updating game like ESO it feels strange when our 'friends' never change.

For a more corporate argument, consider the significant number of players who have played, gotten attached to a companion, and then drifted away from the game for whatever reason. I'd argue that content about characters they already know and care about is more likely to get their attention and bring them back to the game than new characters (though they may well enjoy those too once they're back).

Despite all this I know coordinating bringing back VAs etc is a big ask. For a shorter term idea, as well as things folks have already mentioned above, how about making ultimates for some of the companion skill lines? To make things easy, just do the weapon lines - no need to get character specific. We're supposed to be able to spec our companions as any of the three roles, but having only one ultimate option per companion hinders that.

NDReptiles · September 25

What if your companions knew of each other's existence? Say you have Mirri and Bastion unlocked and Mirri says, "Hey, I ran into Bastion the other day..." and then cheese induced debacle story follows. Or maybe Sharp contemplates taking Ember fishing. I think it would help make them feel more real if I wasn't the only one who noticed them.

Syldras · September 25

NDReptiles wrote: »

What if your companions knew of each other's existence? Say you have Mirri and Bastion unlocked and Mirri says, "Hey, I ran into Bastion the other day..." and then cheese induced debacle story follows. Or maybe Sharp contemplates taking Ember fishing. I think it would help make them feel more real if I wasn't the only one who noticed them.

What would have to take into regard though which companions are unlocked for which character. I know more than one player who assigned every companion to a different alt.

And even if not, mine have never met each other. Not only because summoning more than one at the same time isn't possible, but also from the way I imagine their relationship. Not everyone meets up in groups when it comes to friends.

NDReptiles · September 25

That's why I said IF you have Mirri and Bastion unlocked.

I have all of them as houseguests and they are all in the same house. Mine know each other.

Most my irl friends do know each other even if they are not friends with each other.

It was just an idea. A fun one, I thought.

vsrs_au · September 25

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

Agree with @ArchMikem completely. We have a fine assortment of companions. I'd really like to see companion focus go to expanding/improving the ones we have.

Ideas for improvement:
-Ability to bring your companion into your house, just like any other friend or even you summon already can.
-More dialogue as OP suggests.
-Companion dances when I play an instrument and plays an instrument when I dance.
-Buy your companion a drink when in a tavern and when you sit down in a tavern, they join you, sitting nearby.
-Add a small inventory to companions so they can carry a small amount of their own extra companion gear.
-Ability to earn a perk that eliminates negative rapport. Possibly getting max rapport would trigger this perk.
-Allow companions to wear player headgear (hats, circlets, helmets).

Ideas for fixing things that don't work well:
-Address ranged companions dodge-roll resetting bosses. Only ranged weapon not guilty of this is ice staff.
-Improve companion ability to avoid standing and dying in red via smarter AI or a degree of immunity if they are going to stand in stupid.

I've been playing ES 5 for the last few months, which ( oddly enough

) has a lot of these features already provided either in-game or via mods. The game is so much better with these features.

Syldras · September 25

NDReptiles wrote: »

I have all of them as houseguests and they are all in the same house. Mine know each other.

I just wanted to say that mine have never met even as houseguests, but if I think more about it, I actually have two in the same dungeon in the basement of Ebonheart castle. In seperate cages, though. And I'm not sure whether they feel like having smalltalk there... (I actually don't even have any dislike for them, I just needed some "prop" for the cages).

NDReptiles wrote: »

Most my irl friends do know each other even if they are not friends with each other.

Mine do not know each other at all. Exactly one has seen my then partner because he would have considered it impolite to invite just me alone (although none of us would have minded). It probably depends on what one plans to do. For what I prefer, bigger groups of people would be impractical, most wouldn't get their fair share of attention and would probably feel left out somehow.

NDReptiles wrote: »

It was just an idea. A fun one, I thought.

Some find it fun, others not, that's how it always is

For me, it would be immersion-breaking somehow. What I support would be actually being able to summon more than one companion at the same time while in dungeons (up to 3 to fill the whole group) and then have them talk with each other while they are summoned.

ArchMikem · September 25

NDReptiles wrote: »

I have all of them as houseguests and they are all in the same house. Mine know each other.

It was just an idea. A fun one, I thought.

I recently toured someone's House that had every Companion standing around a Table ala Knights of the Round, and it really gave them the look like they all did know each other, and all of them were part of their own Companions with that Vestige.

katanagirl1 · September 26

NDReptiles wrote: »

That's why I said IF you have Mirri and Bastion unlocked.

I have all of them as houseguests and they are all in the same house. Mine know each other.

Most my irl friends do know each other even if they are not friends with each other.

It was just an idea. A fun one, I thought.

My main character provides research gear for all my toons. I guess she is the team manager, so it would make sense that all of them have met each other while crafting.

ADarklore · September 26

I'd be all for the, "We've decided not to add any new companions this year and are, instead, going back to add further dialogue and new stories to existing companions."

Jim_Pipp · September 26

Not sure why this is is an "Either / Or" discussion.

If ZOS wants to sell companions directly, each addition should be accompanied with an update for the companion system as a whole.

New dialogue for old companions is on a long list of oft-repeated requests. If ZOS develops the companion system people will be more likely to buy more companions, if buying companions develops the system I would be happy to pay.

spartaxoxo · September 26

I like companions and we don't need to stop making new ones to add some dialogue to old ones.

M1SHAAN · September 26

spartaxoxo wrote: »

I like companions and we don't need to stop making new ones to add some dialogue to old ones.

I agree, ideally I'd like to have both. However, iirc when asked about new quests for old companions ZOS has said that they only have finite time/resources to put towards companions and thus adding to old companions would necessarily take away from new companions. So, if it's either/or, I'd prefer they pause the new companions temporarily to give the existing ones some love. I'm not sure how the playerbase overall feels though.

spartaxoxo · September 26

M1SHAAN wrote: »

However, iirc when asked about new quests for old companions ZOS has said that they only have finite time/resources to put towards companions and thus adding to old companions would necessarily take away from new companions. .

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!

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7937639#Comment_7937639

I don't recall them ever saying any such thing. I remember this, which does not exclude the possibility of both at all. Do you remember where they might have said that?

M1SHAAN · September 26

I found it again, it's in this Ask Us Anything post on Reddit.

u/Northener1907 wrote:

Is there any chance to give more quests old companions? It feels kinda sad to not get any content for them after they released because i believe they are really good characters.

u/ZOS_RichLambert wrote:

We agree! It's a difficult line to walk though -- we don't have unlimited time or resources and any time the team spends on doing this, takes away from anything new.

spartaxoxo · September 26

M1SHAAN wrote: »

I found it again, it's in this Ask Us Anything post on Reddit.

u/Northener1907 wrote:

Is there any chance to give more quests old companions? It feels kinda sad to not get any content for them after they released because i believe they are really good characters.

u/ZOS_RichLambert wrote:

We agree! It's a difficult line to walk though -- we don't have unlimited time or resources and any time the team spends on doing this, takes away from anything new.

Thanks! I wish that information had been included in the similar question here. Going to dig through this whole thread!