Companions should have Skill Styles, too!

SilverBride · September 22

Our Companions should have Skill Styles just like we do. They could learn them from quests and/or achievements, and it would greatly enhance our Companion customization. Please consider this!

Erickson9610 · September 22

I agree. Maybe we could apply the Skill Styles we own to our Companions?

For instance, we could apply Skill Styles for Molten Weapons to Companions who have an equivalent skill, such as Bastian's "Searing Weapons" or Tanlorin's "Volcanic Arms". Then any future Companion can use any unlocked Skill Styles that would apply to the player version of their skills.

SilverBride · September 22

Erickson9610 wrote: »

I agree. Maybe we could apply the Skill Styles we own to our Companions?

For instance, we could apply Skill Styles for Molten Weapons to Companions who have an equivalent skill, such as Bastian's "Searing Weapons" or Tanlorin's "Volcanic Arms". Then any future Companion can use any unlocked Skill Styles that would apply to the player version of their skills.

That would be a great way to do it!

LunaFlora · September 22

that would be awesome

Orbital78 · September 22

I think you should be able to use body markings, hair styles and everything on them. ZoS didn't seem to like the idea of customizing them much. Ember's hair is so bad.

ZombieCrow0 · September 22

Things companions should have in my opinion - helmets, swimming, mounted swimming, subclassing for companions ( since we have it for our characters, why shouldn't we be able to match their lines to ours ?). Trading - let them hold our items like in the solo tes games. Let them use skins,body markings, hair styles ( everything that we can use ).

SilverBride · September 22

I understand why no helmets or changing their hairstyles or body markings, but why not everything else? We can already dress them how we want so skill styles should be accessible, too.

LPapirius · September 22

Players don't need skill styles. Companions, which we don't need at all, certainly don't need skill styles too.

How about ZOS focus on things that matter instead? Performance, combat and game play should be the first priority. With bug fixes and QoL improvements next most important.

SilverBride · September 22

Players don't need radiant apex mounts or skins or costumes or houses or anything other than plain gear and weapons and skills, either. But being able to customize our characters and companions adds an important level of fun and individuality to this game, and it would be pretty dull without them.

Radiate77 · September 22

SilverBride wrote: »

I understand why no helmets or changing their hairstyles or body markings, but why not everything else? We can already dress them how we want so skill styles should be accessible, too.

I don’t. We’ve seen time and again that with good writing and voice acting, even with a helmet, you can grow to appreciate a character’s personality.

Look at Destiny, in the expansion before the last one, our AI helper robot dies and you can find SEVERAL reaction videos of people crying to it…

A heroic champion of Stendarr doesn’t need visible scars on their face as much as our blue DK needs their colored hair, for me to understand who they are or what they stand for, their voice dialogue establishes that entirely. It would be great if their actions did too, but they have no inclinations whatsoever.

All that said, I agree that your OP is a good idea, but I would put it behind Companion Helmets in the need department, what kind of a Knight doesn’t wear a helmet into battle anyway?

SilverBride · September 22

Radiate77 wrote: »

All that said, I agree that your OP is a good idea, but I would put it behind Companion Helmets in the need department, what kind of a Knight doesn’t wear a helmet into battle anyway?

I don't. I have never covered my face or head and I never will. Nor will my Companions.

Erickson9610 · September 22

LPapirius wrote: »

Players don't need skill styles. Companions, which we don't need at all, certainly don't need skill styles too.

How about ZOS focus on things that matter instead? Performance, combat and game play should be the first priority. With bug fixes and QoL improvements next most important.

Why doesn't ESO need things like Skill Styles and Companions? If ESO is an MMORPG, shouldn't it have characters and customization to enhance the roleplaying experience?

ESO is not just a PvE game, and it's not just a PvP game. It's much more than just the combat system alone.

JemadarofCaerSalis · September 22

LPapirius wrote: »

Players don't need skill styles. Companions, which we don't need at all, certainly don't need skill styles too.

How about ZOS focus on things that matter instead? Performance, combat and game play should be the first priority. With bug fixes and QoL improvements next most important.

If ZOS is set up anything at all like pretty much every other game developer I have ever heard of, they have different departments for different things.

People working on cosmetic stuff, which would generally be the skill styles, and people who work on quest related stuff, which could cover companions (as the base mechanic is already in place, just needs basically someone to write a story for a new companion and create the visuals for the companion) and the people who handle the gameplay and performance are NOT the same department.

So, it isn't one or the other. We can get both!

That said, I agree with the thread, though I don't really understand why we can't change 'cosmetic' things about the companions (such as hair style/colors, adding adornments/makeup etc...) which all could easily be made into the companions' 'choice' by adding a line about 'I always wanted to try a different style' or something. Many people DO experiment with different hairstyles and makeup. With things like tattoos not being permanent (could just be a 'magical tattoo', so that it can be changed using magic, as the user can change them at will) they could also be used to experiment.

Unholy_Holywarrior · September 23

i would rather give companions one of the hundreds of my unused hair styles/hats/adornments that i would never actually use than skill styles...

SilverBride · September 23

Skill styles won't cover up who they are like changing their hair or putting helms on them. But that is another discussion.

Unholy_Holywarrior · September 23

SilverBride wrote: »

Skill styles won't cover up who they are like changing their hair or putting helms on them. But that is another discussion.

changing a hat or hair does not change 'who they are'... whatever that means lol
for example: i did 8 years in the military, 3 of which were in a war, the requirements of the job was i had to have a certain haircut and wear many hats i didnt like... but i did not stop still being me at the end of the day...

id rather the army kept the patrol cap and not switch to the beret, but it was not my decision.
id rather the army kept the PASGT helmet than go to the MICH helmet, but it was not my decision.
id rather the army kept the 1911a1 pistol rather than the POS beretta M9 pistol, but again, it was not my decision...

a companion is similar to a mercenary, or an employee, wear the hat or find a new job...
simple as...

SilverBride · September 23

Unholy_Holywarrior wrote: »

...changing a hat or hair does not change 'who they are'... whatever that means...

"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."

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

But that is a different topic.

Necrotech_Master · 12:47AM

SilverBride wrote: »

I understand why no helmets or changing their hairstyles or body markings, but why not everything else? We can already dress them how we want so skill styles should be accessible, too.

we cant dress them how we want if we cant do simple stuff like even put helmets on them, that is a basic part of "dressing up" for your character

it makes more sense to not allow using say polymorphs on a companion, as that is completely changing their appearance (or in technical terms, their character model and voice)

other things like skins, body/face markings, adornments, or hairstyles i dont have a lot of preference on, but i could at least see how those would possibly alter character identity

SilverBride · 2:45AM

But what about skill styles? This would add another layer of customization to our Companions and I'd love to see it.