Companions : The unadvertised details

Nerouyn

https://alcasthq.com/eso-companions-system-guide/

Perks and Keepsakes
Each companion has a unique associated non-combat perk which benefits you while active.

• Mirri’s Expertise: Treasure Chests found through Treasure Maps and in the Overland have a 30% chance to provide additional loot from hidden compartments. The treasure from these hidden compartments may contain additional gold, sellables or recipes.
• Bastian’s Insight: Potions looted from chests and monsters have a 30% chance to be improved by Bastian’s Insight.

By completing meta-achievements associated with each companion, you can unlock a keepsake collectible for each companion which provides the benefits of the non-combat perk even while the companion isn’t active.
These collectibles are located under the Upgrades section of the Collections menu.

Never mentioned in any of the interviews or videos. Each individual companion isn't just one more people-pet to choose from.

Each individual companion is an extra passive ability. Even if the extra loot and "upgraded" potions aren't uber, they'd be vendorable, meaning each extra companion is at minimum a passive boost to gold generation.

i.e. they want all players to feel obliged to buy them all.

Think about Zenimax and the crown store and all the diabolical things they've done in the past in an attempt to force people into content they don't enjoy, eg. pvp and this game's dreadful group content. The "midyear" mayhem pvp event now run twice a year. And most other holiday events now include pvp and / or trial participation. Giving away a free home with Elsweyr, but in pieces and with one of them locked in a DLC dungeon.

This new seals system.

https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/59925

These are just some of the activities you might be asked to do to complete your Endeavors. Often, they’ll be things you’re already doing in your regular ESO adventures.

i.e. the intention will be to drive players into content they don't enjoy.

It's a good bet that future companions won't just be locked away in the crown store. They'll likely also require participation in unpopular content. Expect at least some of their beginning quests to be in dungeon DLC, trials, battlegrounds, IC etc.

ESO has turned Cyrodiil into a nasty, horrible place for me which I never want to see again, so Blackwood was already not incredibly appealing to me. But these companion passives are too awful.

Given how much money and time I've sunk into this game I'm not going to uninstall immediately, but this is effectively my getting off point. It looks like ZO are painfully slowly trying to correct the dreadfully designed wardens. If they achieve that before I keel over I might come back to finally get a little bit of joy out of the game. Minus companions of course. But not likely I'll spend any money or much time on it in the meantime.

[Minor title edit.]

Daraklus

I will be honest, I find it weird to see someone complain about "Being forced to play unpopular content", while many people constantly talk about how the game "Encourages people to play different content".

Well at least yours seems more reasonable, the people who talk about "Encouraging to play X" often give very few points as to why that'd be a good thing.

Nerouyn

Daraklus wrote: »

I will be honest, I find it weird to see someone complain about "Being forced to play unpopular content", while many people constantly talk about how the game "Encourages people to play different content".

It's unpopular because it's bad.

The smart thing to do would be to make it better.

The "cheap" and nasty and cheesy option is to try to force players into it as ZO have done.

I use inverted commas with "cheap" because it's a classic false economy. It might have cost them more to fix the content but games are entertainment and players are much more likely to play and spend money on games they enjoy.

The lesson ZO seem incapable of learning is : fun = money.

ArchMikem

This is a very long winded "I'm Leaving" thread, which is going to be closed.

Behind that, I'm just not getting the point being made here. ZOS isn't forcing anyone to do anything. I'm personally not even going to use a Companion, unless I get the itch to go through their little attached stories. And those Seals of Endeavor things? Stop looking at them as something to grind and get as many as possible. There's going to be multiple ways to earn them, if some ways require participating in content you don't enjoy, then just don't do them. Besides they're supposed to be currency used to buy Crown Store items, if you could earn enough to buy Radiant Apex Mounts by just doing something that's easy and enjoyable then that takes the value away. You're supposed to EARN these things, and that can mean accomplishing an unenjoyable task.

Kiralyn2000

Nerouyn wrote: »

These are just some of the activities you might be asked to do to complete your Endeavors. Often, they’ll be things you’re already doing in your regular ESO adventures.

i.e. the intention will be to drive players into content they don't enjoy.

Every MMO I've ever played, has tried to use incentives to get players to try more of the different activities they've produced. There's nothing "diabolical" about it.



I've easily skipped the PvP events and still had the tickets needed to get whatever mount was sold that event season.

Fennwitty

The only thing new there is that their 'special passive' can be unlocked as a memento. Which is great actually since then you won't have to use them ever again.

I also don't see anything highly predatory about this specific mechanic.

If you never bought Greymoore -- you didn't get any mythics at all. That is far more impactful than this chapter which locks out small passives.

Far more suspect is intentionally putting out broken mythics to sell them to PvPers. Then nerfing them after sufficient time passes.

bmnoble

Its a marketing thing plain and simple like the inventory pets, to give you another reason to buy them, in the case of the pets I would not have bothered with them at all if not for those extra inventory slots.

Just shows they know the companions are not going to be that great to use, so they are giving players achievements to work towards with each companion to get a passive instead.

It will backfire though if the achievements are made hard to get not by a lack of player skill but by companions constantly dieing or some such.

Could they at least come up with a better passive for Bastian, potions found in overland/monsters are vendor trash to me.

I prefer to use the thousands of crown tri pots I got from daily rewards or potions I make myself for the task at hand.

Mirri's one looks interesting though, just another reason to pick her over Bastian.


Would not surprise me though if they make these companion passives slottable so you can only have one active companions passive and one passive active of the one you don't currently have summoned for when they inevitably add more companions to prevent you having a large number of extra passives active at once.

Susurrus

Sounds like a good business strategy. Gets players to buy things from their store and encourages play of existing content. The passives sound worth investing in.

If you're planning on quitting, let me know - I'd be happy yo take anything you no longer need off your hands!

tsaescishoeshiner

You can see endeavors as pressuring players to do content they dislike, or as rewarding players for doing content that they do like. Example: some people hate heists, and some people like them, but feel the rewards suck. That's why there's multiple options for how to earn your endeavor limit each week and day. Not only do you not need to do them all, you can't.

I personally like the idea of the Companion passives, because it's a nice reward for finishing their objectives, and incentivizes keeping them out and active. If they didn't have this, people would also complain that there's not enough of a point to having them out. Or they would complain about a lack of meaningful progression.

There's no obligation to have companions out at all—I guarantee a lot of players with these passives unlocked will simply just not have them out and not care. The same way players (like me!) don't do crafting writs every day, despite the game heavily "obligating" and "incentivizing" players to do these because they're so effortlessly profitable. I just don't care and don't like them.

If you come back to the game, I'd suggest focusing on what content you enjoy doing and want to do rather than feel like someone is trying to control what to do. It's easy to get bogged down by the rewards and progression systems in MMOs.

Edit: Also, these kinds of incentives and game design decisions aren't always secret tactics used to trick and mislead customers. They don't need to be outed like a conspiracy theory. They're pretty straightforward and transparent.

markulrich1966

today I checked for upcoming single player games, as I am disappointed with ESO atm, especially regarding the bugfix policy on xbox and the heavy nerfs coming with blackwood.
Not as a replacement, but like for some weeks break in between to settle my frustration.

Must be a little patient, as Horizon - forbidden west will be released end of year.

That said, I also realized again, that ESOs pricing policy is not that bad.

A chapter like blackwood costs around 40 Euro, this is approx. half the price of a "Horizon" game.
I play Horizon for 6 weeks - game over.
I play ESO the whole year.
So the price/value ration is much better for ESO, and I have no problem to pay such an amount once a year (I just expect less nerfs and quicker bugfixing).

If you really see something diabolic if a game offers something new for the money you pay for it, you should maybe not play at all.

heaven13

I'm not going to lie; the Mirri one bothers me immensely especially considering that treasure chest loot has been nerfed ever since CP 2.0 went live, even with Treasure Hunter slotted. Yet another way ZoS takes something away just to sell it back.

See thread here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/7202275

Aertew

Wait. Your complaining that companions have unique abiltities? What? Also who gold grinds from Treaure chests??????????? Like I dont get your point. Also are you saying you want companions to be bland and boring? Then people would complain about that

Pauwer

Can i take 'em to cyro and are they leveled up there too? If not, no need to buy. Maybe would have been fun in 2016 when i was questing the map

Magdalina

So...newest addition to the game will come with unique non-combat passives? Sounds cool. And they'll incentivize people to do different content more? Sounds even cooler. What were you complaining about again?

Cireous

As if they have to force me to get all the companions

Orion_89

Nerouyn wrote: »

Think about Zenimax and the crown store and all the diabolical things they've done in the past in an attempt to force people into content they don't enjoy, eg. pvp and this game's dreadful group content...

Man, you're exaggerating.

FrancisCrawford

Those unique passives are the equivalent of a trickle of in-game wealth. Daily crafting writs and/or Level 3 hirelings surely provide a lot more. Even if you resent how they're doing it, it's not something to get very excited about.

Gylzyn

As someone else has said, Mirri's Treasure Chest benefit seems to replace the nerf to Treasure Chests that appear to have happened since CP2.0 was introduced even with Treasure Hunter slotted. This appears to provide improvements whereas things are just being moved around to remain in the same spot just so ZOS can claim to be selling us something new and improved.

preevious

A chapter that adds something? How dare they !

More seriously, now .. I fail to see the problem.
The chapter add a system that won't make you more powerful. That alone is a sign the game's not pay to win.

What would you have prefered? Nothing?
Your are just dissatisfied with the game, that's ok.
Just take a break, then, but don't raise nonsensical "issues".

Athan1

"Companions are useless! Not buying the chapter!!!!"

"Companions offer an additional passive???? Diabolical ZOS is trying to force us to buy the chapter!!!"

*facepalm*

Alurria

can't win for losing

Ratzkifal

Daraklus wrote: »

I will be honest, I find it weird to see someone complain about "Being forced to play unpopular content", while many people constantly talk about how the game "Encourages people to play different content".

Well at least yours seems more reasonable, the people who talk about "Encouraging to play X" often give very few points as to why that'd be a good thing.

To be honest the reason that might be a good thing is quite obvious. What if you actually end up enjoying that content when you previously thought you wouldn't and never challenged that assumption?
I recently played some BGs with a new player friend who was a staunch believer that he would hate PvP in this game like he hated it in every other game before. Turns out being a PvP healer is a lot of fun to him and he would have never found out if he hadn't given it a try. He only gave it a try because a daily random battleground gives so much delicious XP that he decided to give it a shot.
People do not like to break their habits, so sometimes it takes a nudge from somewhere to find new things to enjoy. These activities that "encourage to play X" are that nudge.

Of course there are some activities that are just objectively unfun like waiting for enemies in nDSA to spawn when it takes them longer to leave their portal than they end up being alive. But from a pure PvPers perspective undaunted grind, PvE events and having all the good PvP sets be locked away in dungeons is just as bad to them as midyear mayham is for pure PvErs. So most of the time it's all very subjective and there just can't be anything everyone will agree on being fun.

JMadFour

Wow, what a drama queen thread.

"diabolical"....seriously?

ZOS Devs must be pure unadulterated baby-kicking evil, yeah?

Grandchamp1989

Didn't they go this route starting with Graymoor? The whole Antiquity system gives you lead you'll likely never aquire if you didn't buy ESO+ or those specifik chapter's/DLCs.

Wouldn't be surprised if Companions is another way to get people to buy the whole package.
Buy X companion for crowns and finish their loyalty mission in Y DLC zone. Who knows?

As a whole I'm not a fan of all the loot boxes and selling pieces of a chapter/DLC.

I know the mobile industry does it a lot...

We shall see what happens, but for me personly I tend to be a bit on the skeptical side.

xilfxlegion

maybe im old but since when is it " diabolical " for a company to try to make money ?

ZOS_Lunar

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