The Gold Road Chapter – which includes the Scribing system – and Update 42 is now available to test on the PTS! You can read the latest patch notes here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/656454/

Allow us an AI-controlled spouse companion similar to Skyrim, and AI-controlled children companions

Quantact
Quantact
✭✭✭
I am guessing this would take considerable time to code, but that it would delight near-everybody.

I would like to propose that players be able to pay a considerable sum in the Crown Store to start a quest ending in an AI spouse, same as in TES V: Skyrim except with some differences. Customizable kid companions should also be available (see lengthy explanation below.) A medium to large home should be required for this.

Just before I say anything else, these must never be allowed in Cyrodiil. The entire PvP scene would be a smoking ruin within a week, if our computers don't melt down from stress first. It will also probably be necessary to keep the spouse and kids out of gigantic PvE events like trials and super-dungeons such as Spindleclutch.

The player should be allowed to choose the race of the spouse, but not their abilities and class. Abilities and class should be decided by having a good (the more, the better) number of candidates for each race so Spouse A isn't cookie-cutter equivalent to Spouse B. Having a lot of choices for each race will also allow the player to pick the gender and appearance of the spouse. The marriage should follow a very lengthy quest, depending on the spouse's race or perhaps even race combined with gender; this is because while in Skyrim you just wear an Amulet of Mara and lovely Lydia falls madly in love with you because she finds the amulet pretty, I am guessing Bethesda will want other requirements in, say, High Rock or Summerset. There should be several possible quests for each race, to make things as non-cookie-cutter as possible. Once you complete the requirement, you get hitched in the Temple of Mara and the spouse runs around with you through Tamriel and helps you substantially in PvE in situations, (a lot of the temporary NPC companions do next to nothing, the spouse must give a substantial amount of aid.) In TES V: Skyrim, you get a small sum of gold and food from the spouse, but there's also an option to keep the spouse at home so you can adventure with others. I suggest making a bit more gold for the player if the spouse is at home simply because the spouse is not as busy helping you and game-wise isn't helping with game situations.

I am not totally sure the spouse/kid would be well-compatible to large groups; maybe have the companion poof while you're in a party and re-appear when you are alone. Or, maybe have the spouse while in a reasonably-sized group. Not sure about that one.

Regarding kids, make the player buy a Shrine to Akatosh in the Crown Store for his or her home and make them buy a child's bedroom. Adopt orphans like in TES V: Skyrim, of different genders and races. The kid, based on the race and random chance, will badger you for various things that interest them. Then, you bring the kid things that he or she wants and that interest them, either by finding them in dungeons or by buying them from vendors in town. The process should be somewhat like feeding a mount, with a finite total number of boosts being possible to various attributes and those attributes influencing what the kid becomes. For optimal customization allow rare or Crown-store-bought items (like 1 possible per child,) that bequeath special traits similarly to Mundus Stones. After "feeding" the kid stuff like wooden swords, books, or lessons in appreciating fine loot, (with customization such as the books being for a Templar/Sorcerer/Warden or the wooden weapons being wooden swords or axes, or 1h/2h, shields, dual wield and such) the player prays at the special shrine of Akatosh and the kid is time warped to the age of about 16 where those lessons have progressed to adulthood and instead of having the spouse running around with you, it's your customized kid. It should be more likely that a Nord or Redguard kid is interested in swords or axes, but there are Nord healers and such, and it should be possible to raise such a kid. So, if you want your kid to be a Nord Templar magicka healer, that's possible, though interest in that would be more likely in a Breton.

Person should be limited to one companion at a time; so, if he/she wants to travel with the spouse, the kid should stay at home or vice versa. If it's a spouse and 2 kids, only one should be able to come with you, etc.

Finally, allow the player to customize appearance by being able to ask his or her spouse to wear gear and Crown costumes and customizable items that the player can wear him or herself. So, if you want the spouse's Medium Armor to be in the Imperial style (or be in the Imperial style but the hat is in the Nord style, or all in Nord style etc etc etc,) let the player do that. If the player wants the spouse to wear the Crown Store Blacksmith's outfit or Lion Guard Elite costume, allow that too. It will probably be necessary to create an option to toggle hat on/off like the player can do. Aside from making the players happy, this'll make ZOS happy, because guy players who never before had a use for, say, the Wedding Dress just found one. Also allow the player to ask for other appearance-related stuff, like for the spouse to sport a particular earring, flower in the hair, hairstyle, etc. The exceptions to this customization should be very few and related to the player's personal fame and progression, such as the Emperor's Regalia costume.

I am not sure I can figure out how many things I am not thinking of right now that should have been thought and how much more can be gotten out of something like this, but it would 1. make ESO much more customizable, 2. earn ZOS tons of money and 3. make things MUCH more fun for us. Housing would immediately become more fun and necessary due to it no longer being cosmetic, and, let's face it, most of us don't have a Ring of Mara spouse with another player.

Hope you guys like the idea. Also hope I am not making an idiot out of myself.
Edited by Quantact on March 30, 2019 9:45PM
  • Gilvoth
    Gilvoth
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    love your ideas, sounds good,
    as for me, i would love to have daedric guards and companions and a wife.
    and allowed choose them as followers or guards for the house just like we have in all the elderscolls titles as modds.

    Edited by Gilvoth on March 30, 2019 7:09PM
  • Quantact
    Quantact
    ✭✭✭
    Gilvoth wrote: »
    love your ideas, sounds good,
    as for me, i would love to have daedric guards and companions and a wife.
    and allowed choose them as followers or guards for the house just like we have in all the elderscolls titles as modds.

    Thank you!

    I am going to guess having multiple companions would be too much, but if the player wants to marry a Daedra and isn't worried about being killed in his/her sleep, stranger things have happened. Stibbons has a whole cadre of Daedra Seducers drooling over him near the end of the game, (poor Lady Laurent!) so correct me if I am wrong but it's lore-possible already.

    Vampire-wise, I don't remember his name at this point, but the leader of one of the cities in TES IV: Oblivion was a non-evil vampire, who kept himself and his identity secret and despised ordinary vampires as bloodthirsty savages. In TES V: Skyrim, there is Serana, and while you didn't have the option to marry her, she was to many people the closest NPC to be a "true girlfriend" in that game.

    Werewolf-wise, Aela the Huntress is a marriage candidate in TES V: Skyrim, and a popular one at that.

    So, correct me if I am wrong, but seems to me that in Tamriel, anything is possible. xD
    Edited by Quantact on March 30, 2019 8:41PM
  • StormChaser3000
    StormChaser3000
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    That would be awesome but it's a lot of coding.

    In the case of Skyrim they had only a couple houses, where all furniture was at the designated places and spouses had a certain programmed daily route.
    In the case if ESO there are a lot of houses and furniture is placed by players. This means that those spouses will have to have some kind of AI in order to not get stuck or walk through the furniture, outside decorations, and in general "adapt" to random environments created by players.

    Of course they could make them stationery, like a merchant or banker, but that wouldn't be very fun.
    So let's hope they will decided to work on smart AI in the future.
  • Quantact
    Quantact
    ✭✭✭
    That would be awesome but it's a lot of coding.

    In the case of Skyrim they had only a couple houses, where all furniture was at the designated places and spouses had a certain programmed daily route.
    In the case if ESO there are a lot of houses and furniture is placed by players. This means that those spouses will have to have some kind of AI in order to not get stuck or walk through the furniture, outside decorations, and in general "adapt" to random environments created by players.

    Of course they could make them stationery, like a merchant or banker, but that wouldn't be very fun.
    So let's hope they will decided to work on smart AI in the future.

    Yeah, I agree, it would be a ton of coding to do; it might be so much coding as to require a DLC. But if the players are happy and ZOS gets tons of money in a situation where the players are happy to spend it, everybody wins. I hope that's enough for ZOS from a business standpoint. From the point of it being feasible, Skyrim was a revolutionary game, but it was released in 2011, so I am guessing the amount of computer oomph ZOS has to potentially work with is a lot higher.
    Edited by Quantact on March 30, 2019 10:51PM
  • DBZVelena
    DBZVelena
    ✭✭✭✭✭
    no i don't need to see everybody followed around by their whole npc family. NOT a good idea for eso.
    such things belong in skyrim and possibly ES6.
    What are Natch Potes? Can you eat those?
    I believe in Genie-Gina.
  • Quantact
    Quantact
    ✭✭✭
    DBZVelena wrote: »
    no i don't need to see everybody followed around by their whole npc family. NOT a good idea for eso.
    such things belong in skyrim and possibly ES6.

    Well, I only suggested just one follower at a time, but everybody's got a right to their views.
    Edited by Quantact on March 30, 2019 10:55PM
Sign In or Register to comment.