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Let companions be account wide after the first.

  • Araneae6537
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    I used to think I’d be in favor of this, but then ZOS would probably make everything about companions account-wide which I do NOT want. My characters are different individuals and having different relationships with the companions is one of the few ways the game still recognizes this.

    I would prefer there to be more choices and interaction options with companions, including in the intro quests to make it more interesting and meaningful to do more than once. I was quite disappointed that in Mirri’s quest, neither she nor the Argonian recognize your race, even though it would make sense in the dialogue to include your character or not in talking about Dunmer.

    I used to consider myself neutral on AWA, without realizing all that was attached to achievements rather than discovery, choices, or quest completion by individual characters. Some has been fixed or patched over, but still I feel AWA took away more than it gave, so I do not wish for more things to be made accountwide.
  • DinoZavr
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    Araneae, account-wide achievements is quite a different topic.

    Companions levels, skills, and gear are account-wide
    Unlocking quest adds zero value to players, as it is exactly the same for any character.
    We just pay with our time for unlocking Companions on different Characters. why.

    Account-wide Achievements looks like a catastrophe for me, as i kills a serious chunk of RP (sorry, Zenimax)
    I understand AWA helped to reduce the size of databases (not 20x achievement + timestamp, but 1x achevement, timestamp, character name), but this is still cruel as it destroys a lot of personality of each of the characters.
    PC EU
  • Araneae6537
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    DinoZavr wrote: »
    Araneae, account-wide achievements is quite a different topic.

    Companions levels, skills, and gear are account-wide
    Unlocking quest adds zero value to players, as it is exactly the same for any character.
    We just pay with our time for unlocking Companions on different Characters. why.

    Account-wide Achievements looks like a catastrophe for me, as i kills a serious chunk of RP (sorry, Zenimax)
    I understand AWA helped to reduce the size of databases (not 20x achievement + timestamp, but 1x achevement, timestamp, character name), but this is still cruel as it destroys a lot of personality of each of the characters.

    My concern is that ZOS would make ALL the companion quests and rapport accountwide which I very much do not want. I would rather the unlock quests have more options and set the initial tone or state of each character’s relationship with the companion (and also making the quest more interesting to replay on different characters), but I’d rather keep what we have than lose individual rapport (which I think is the main thing the unlock quest is tied too, besides making the companion available for that character).
  • DinoZavr
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    Araneae6537, i participate in this interesting discussion in slight hopes to convince @ZOS to make unlock account-wide.
    Account-wide rapport is what i am against, as i regret Bastian's favor filling my inventory with trash potions i dont want.
    PC EU
  • emilyhyoyeon
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    I would be okay with this as long as you'd still be able to do the unlock quest on other characters.
    IGN @ emilypumpkin; Zirasia Firemaker, imperial fire mage & sunbather
    Deebaba Soul-Weaver, argonian ghostminder & soul gem collector
    Tullanisse Starborne, altmer battlemage & ayleid researcher

    BLACK HAIR FOR ALTMER PLEASE (hair color cosmetic pack)
  • AzuraFan
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    I'd like companions to be unlocked account wide for sure. When I start an alt, I usually like to play through the story in order, which means traversing the zones in order. But that doesn't work if I want a companion because then I have to go to Blackwood or High Isle first, just to pick them up. That makes no sense from a story perspective.
  • Tandor
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    AzuraFan wrote: »
    I'd like companions to be unlocked account wide for sure. When I start an alt, I usually like to play through the story in order, which means traversing the zones in order. But that doesn't work if I want a companion because then I have to go to Blackwood or High Isle first, just to pick them up. That makes no sense from a story perspective.

    You don't have to follow any part of the story just to pick up a companion, you simply visit the zone which is always there whether or not you visit it, as is the only quest you need to take. Then again, you don't actually need to pick up a companion at that stage if you prefer not to.

    Also, if you're going to take the singular progression of that character so faithfully as to not to want to visit a zone out of sequence to that character's story, where would an account-wide companion come from and how would you explain it to yourself? Basing that character's knowledge of Blackwood or High Isle on your other characters' experiences there would surely be no different to basing that character's availability of a companion on those other characters' experiences.
    Edited by Tandor on March 7, 2023 9:02PM
  • AzuraFan
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    Tandor wrote: »
    You don't have to follow any part of the story just to pick up a companion, you simply visit the zone which is always there whether or not you visit it, as is the only quest you need to take. Then again, you don't actually need to pick up a companion at that stage if you prefer not to.

    Also, if you're going to take the singular progression of that character so faithfully as to not to want to visit a zone out of sequence to that character's story, where would an account-wide companion come from and how would you explain it to yourself? Basing that character's knowledge of Blackwood or High Isle on your other characters' experiences there would surely be no different to basing that character's availability of a companion on those other characters' experiences.

    One of my other characters would introduce them to my alt. I see all my characters as a family. They all know each other.

    "Hey, this is Mirri. I met her when I was in Blackwood," says my main. Makes more sense than, "Hey, when I was in Blackwood, I met Mirri and now I adventure with her. If you want to do the same, you'll have to go to Blackwood and help her out exactly the same way I helped her out. And I do mean exactly."

    (And yes, I don't want to visit zones out of sequence when I'm working through the story, even if it's just doing one quest there.)

  • kargen27
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    AzuraFan wrote: »
    Tandor wrote: »
    You don't have to follow any part of the story just to pick up a companion, you simply visit the zone which is always there whether or not you visit it, as is the only quest you need to take. Then again, you don't actually need to pick up a companion at that stage if you prefer not to.

    Also, if you're going to take the singular progression of that character so faithfully as to not to want to visit a zone out of sequence to that character's story, where would an account-wide companion come from and how would you explain it to yourself? Basing that character's knowledge of Blackwood or High Isle on your other characters' experiences there would surely be no different to basing that character's availability of a companion on those other characters' experiences.

    One of my other characters would introduce them to my alt. I see all my characters as a family. They all know each other.

    "Hey, this is Mirri. I met her when I was in Blackwood," says my main. Makes more sense than, "Hey, when I was in Blackwood, I met Mirri and now I adventure with her. If you want to do the same, you'll have to go to Blackwood and help her out exactly the same way I helped her out. And I do mean exactly."

    (And yes, I don't want to visit zones out of sequence when I'm working through the story, even if it's just doing one quest there.)

    You are trying to apply logic where there is none. There is only one vestige yet all our characters are that vestige. There is only one Mirri yet all our characters can have her as a companion. Your scenario plays out like hey this is Mirri I can clone her for you if you want. Doesn't and shouldn't work like that. There is only one vestige and one Mirri as far as your character is concerned.
    That is why account wide things make no sense.
    and then the parrot said, "must be the water mines green too."
  • Carcamongus
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    Having to repeat quests for each alt is annoying (and I only have two toons I play with...). However, companions bond to the character, not the player, so it makes sense that unlocking them or raising their rapport not be account-wide. A workaround would be to introduce a way shorter quest for the alts to unlock them. This can be explained as whatever was bothering the companion has been taken care of and now they're looking to team up for some adventures.
    Imperial DK and Necro tank. PC/NA
    "Nothing is so bad that it can't get any worse." (Brazilian saying)
  • TaSheen
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    That's one thing I really like about this game: "There is no one true way" to quote my favorite author of all time (sorry, yeah, she's even better than Tolkien).

    And by that I mean that people who want to have a family where maybe not every alt is the Vestige, only the main is, works just as well as those who are comfortable with only one character doing everything in the game. We're all different, we all find fun in varying types of gameplay, in varying scenarios for our character(s).

    I haven't found the whole companion thing interesting or appealing, but I don't see any reason to think it should go away, or be either account wide or the way it is now - I don't use them, so I don't have an opinion. And as I said somewhere, if they'd give us Elam Drals.... yeah....
    ______________________________________________________

    "But even in books, the heroes make mistakes, and there isn't always a happy ending." Mercedes Lackey, Into the West

    PC NA, PC EU (non steam)- four accounts, many alts....
  • peacenote
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    I have been thinking about this, and I wonder if the best solution would be to allow all characters to use the companions after the first unlock.... but reputation increase isn't set up until they are unlocked through the quest.

    I can't tell you how annoying it is when I jump on an alt for an event and I realize I can't pull out my companion.

    But... it would be a shame to not be able to go through the companion quests with all characters. It is what I hate about AwA. I want to be able to start a new character and do EVERYTHING again. All achievements. All quests.

    So I wonder if that would be a nice compromise. Let all the characters use them after the first unlock, but let the reputation (which most full pro-all-account-wide-folks won't care about) be unlocked after quest completion per character.

    It's what would work best for me, I think, and it occurred to me that others might like it as well.
    My #1 wish for ESO Today: Decouple achievements from character progress and tracking.
    • Advocate for this HERE.
    • Want the history of this issue? It's HERE.
  • flizomica
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    Needing to complete the quest on multiple characters (I have 11 currently) is just tedious and annoying enough that I simply.. don't do it. It would be handy to have a tank, a healer, and a DPS companion available on every character if I get a leaver in a random normal, but I'm really beyond the point in my life where I'm going to try to do an utterly pointlessly grindy and boring video game thing to minorly enhance my overall experience. I don't mind doing grindy stuff if it's also rewarding or entertaining, but the companion quest thing specifically feels like a roadblock that was deliberately introduced to the overall experience. I'm over it!
  • Somber97866
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    I never understood the reasoning behind making ppl play quest multiple times for no reason. If they would just at least shorten it to a fraction of the time on the second third tenth times id be somewhat ok with it but tbh it needs to be one time and done
  • shadyjane62
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    kargen27 wrote: »
    You should have to if you want the companion. MMOs survive in part on players repeating content. Making everything account wide wouldn't be healthy for the game.

    I agree that the AWA was not healthy for the game.
  • SilverBride
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    If one character unlocks a Companion and levels its rapport enough for the houseguest wouldn't all characters be able to place the houseguest in their house? Even though they never unlocked the Companion themselves?

    This is just another reason it makes sense to have them unlocked account wide.
    Edited by SilverBride on March 8, 2023 7:27PM
    PCNA
  • Necrotech_Master
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    If one character unlocks a Companion and levels its rapport enough for the houseguest wouldn't all characters be able to place the houseguest in their house? Even though they never unlocked the Companion themselves?

    This is just another reason it makes sense to have them unlocked account wide.

    yes because the companion houseguest is just a regular collectible furnishing

    the only thing that is not acct wide for companions is rapport (which is fine) and being able to actually use them

    for the OP i 100% agree, i was annoyed learning i had to do that with blackwood companions, so i was more vocal about it on the high isle PTS, apparently they dont care and was more annoyed (especially with how long isobels quest is)

    i had made a post soon after necroms announcement about the companion annoyance and i hope they dont do the same thing, but it was never commented on and got pushed off the first page lol

    as an example with mirris quest, i ran it "correctly" on my main and saved all of the people, but that takes longer so because i was forced to run this quest 9 more times i went through it as fast as humanly possible, and killed all the people your supposed to rescue every time because it was much faster

    i had to run all my toons through isobels insanely long quest, and there were many areas where you can do things faster but it then bugged out the quest isobel you had to talk to, so i had to rezone or relog to continue the quest

    if they want us to have to redo these quests on every character, they need to make future companion quests MUCH shorter, or you know not require us to do the quest in the first place on every character, i dont mind having a story for them, but dont force me to run it on all 10 of my characters, the story doesnt freaking change
    plays PC/NA
    handle @Necrotech_Master
    active player since april 2014

    i have my main house (grand topal hideaway) listed in the housing tours, it has multiple target dummies, scribing altar, and grandmaster stations (in progress being filled out), as well as almost every antiquity furnishing on display to preview them

    feel free to stop by and use the facilities
  • Jaimeh
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    I don't mind repeating the quests if they are fast, like Bastian's intro quest, but others like Isobel's, for example, take a really long time and the reason why I unlocked them only on once so far. I mean it's nice when the intro quest is well-written and interesting, and it makes for a better development for the companion later on, but if it's super long it's such a tedious grind to repeat it on alts.
  • Somber97866
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    Another " Make em play more" it seems
  • MreeBiPolar
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    I would prefer there to be more choices and interaction options with companions, including in the intro quests to make it more interesting and meaningful to do more than once. I was quite disappointed that in Mirri’s quest, neither she nor the Argonian recognize your race, even though it would make sense in the dialogue to include your character or not in talking about Dunmer.

    Funny you mention wishing for choices and doing the intro quest more than once being meaningful almost in the same sentence as Mirri. She's the only one who actuall DOES have that in her intro quest.

  • Araneae6537
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    I would prefer there to be more choices and interaction options with companions, including in the intro quests to make it more interesting and meaningful to do more than once. I was quite disappointed that in Mirri’s quest, neither she nor the Argonian recognize your race, even though it would make sense in the dialogue to include your character or not in talking about Dunmer.

    Funny you mention wishing for choices and doing the intro quest more than once being meaningful almost in the same sentence as Mirri. She's the only one who actuall DOES have that in her intro quest.

    I meant in dialogue, but I didn’t know until reading posts here that you could choose to not save everyone, not that that is the type of option I was looking for for most of my characters, but that is something.

    I guess I really want differences, even subtle differences, in dialogue based on the player character’s race and choices where appropriate. Such as with Mirri and the Argonian you rescue. And with Bastian, I thought the line, “You put the fear of the gods into our captive cultist,” might only occur if you choose the intimidate option, but the dialogue is the same regardless (a small thing, of course, but doing the quest multiple times, I was looking for such). There is also the option to free the vampire or not, although it seems he gets free regardless, it is nice to have options in how to play one’s character!
  • Wolf_Eye
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    If rapport is account wide, then that means we will never be able to see their growth quests ever again after only doing it once.

    If companion unlock is account wide, then that means we will never be able to see their intro quesrs ever again after only doing it once.

    I do not like this. Especially since Mirri's intro quest has alternative endings. I like the option to be able to repeat stories if I want to.

    I understand that some people only see companions in terms of their utility and don't care about the RP aspects of it, but I know a great many people in the RP community feel like AWA already took a lot of the RP aspects from the game. This is one of the remaining things left.

    Please....for the love of everything...please make it optional. Please make it so that there's some sort of way to replay quests.
  • Necrotech_Master
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    Wolf_Eye wrote: »
    If rapport is account wide, then that means we will never be able to see their growth quests ever again after only doing it once.

    If companion unlock is account wide, then that means we will never be able to see their intro quesrs ever again after only doing it once.

    I do not like this. Especially since Mirri's intro quest has alternative endings. I like the option to be able to repeat stories if I want to.

    I understand that some people only see companions in terms of their utility and don't care about the RP aspects of it, but I know a great many people in the RP community feel like AWA already took a lot of the RP aspects from the game. This is one of the remaining things left.

    Please....for the love of everything...please make it optional. Please make it so that there's some sort of way to replay quests.

    just because the companion is unlocked and useable does not mean you wont be able to do their quest, the quest is a normal POI location in the zone, it should not matter if you can summon the companion or not

    the companion technically IS unlocked account wide (added to your collection menu) after completing the quest the first time, they just added the inane requirement of completing the quest on every character to actually summon them (after the first time you clear their quest, other toons can automatically accept the quest from the collection menu, but still an extra ridiculous step that shouldnt be needed)
    plays PC/NA
    handle @Necrotech_Master
    active player since april 2014

    i have my main house (grand topal hideaway) listed in the housing tours, it has multiple target dummies, scribing altar, and grandmaster stations (in progress being filled out), as well as almost every antiquity furnishing on display to preview them

    feel free to stop by and use the facilities
  • Wolf_Eye
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    Wolf_Eye wrote: »
    If rapport is account wide, then that means we will never be able to see their growth quests ever again after only doing it once.

    If companion unlock is account wide, then that means we will never be able to see their intro quesrs ever again after only doing it once.

    I do not like this. Especially since Mirri's intro quest has alternative endings. I like the option to be able to repeat stories if I want to.

    I understand that some people only see companions in terms of their utility and don't care about the RP aspects of it, but I know a great many people in the RP community feel like AWA already took a lot of the RP aspects from the game. This is one of the remaining things left.

    Please....for the love of everything...please make it optional. Please make it so that there's some sort of way to replay quests.

    just because the companion is unlocked and useable does not mean you wont be able to do their quest, the quest is a normal POI location in the zone, it should not matter if you can summon the companion or not

    the companion technically IS unlocked account wide (added to your collection menu) after completing the quest the first time, they just added the inane requirement of completing the quest on every character to actually summon them (after the first time you clear their quest, other toons can automatically accept the quest from the collection menu, but still an extra ridiculous step that shouldnt be needed)

    I'm just worried about how ZOS would implement this, that they might not implement it in this manner.
  • Somber97866
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    I can understand if the companion has multiple endings and such and obviously they would choose to have these companions able to play multiple times per toon but the rest they can make account wide.
  • disintegr8
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    I think the start quest for Ember and Bastion are short enough not to bother me, Mirri's was borderline, but Isobel's is just a tedious run around. I do have Mirri and Bastion on all 18 characters but a few still don't have Isobel and Ember.

    I also don't understand why skills and character levels are account wide when rapport is not but considering you don't really need to level up rapport, it's not a big deal (I'm only doing it once for each companion for the achievements).

    It's currently no different than having to start Scrying and Psijic on all characters, although Scrying is extremely quick to start, both are extremely tedious to level up, making them less appealing to do on all characters.

    While there's a lot of tedious repetition in running multiple characters, it's a choice you make, and I'd hate to see absolutely everything become account wide.
    Australian on PS4 NA server.
    Everyone's entitled to an opinion.
  • Carcamongus
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    disintegr8 wrote: »
    I think the start quest for Ember and Bastion are short enough not to bother me, Mirri's was borderline, but Isobel's is just a tedious run around. I do have Mirri and Bastion on all 18 characters but a few still don't have Isobel and Ember.

    I also don't understand why skills and character levels are account wide when rapport is not but considering you don't really need to level up rapport, it's not a big deal (I'm only doing it once for each companion for the achievements).

    It's currently no different than having to start Scrying and Psijic on all characters, although Scrying is extremely quick to start, both are extremely tedious to level up, making them less appealing to do on all characters.

    While there's a lot of tedious repetition in running multiple characters, it's a choice you make, and I'd hate to see absolutely everything become account wide.

    Rapport shows how much the companion likes the character, not the player. It doesn't make sense for Mirri to be borderline in love, calling your toon part of her family and all that, if your character just unlocked her.
    Imperial DK and Necro tank. PC/NA
    "Nothing is so bad that it can't get any worse." (Brazilian saying)
  • Hapexamendios
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    I've never had a problem with doing the quest to unlock them on my characters. It doesn't make any any sense to me that they should be automatically unlocked for all my characters if a character hasn't met them and done the intro quest.
  • Stefirex
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    I agree that doing the same quests over and over again for each character (and I have multiple accounts and *many* characters), is excessively tedious and annoying. And this gets worse and worse as new companions are introduced.

    Have mercy on us, ZOS, and make the unlock quests account-wide.

    Excuse me? THAT's the whole reason I HAVE multiple accounts with multiple characters! I'm here for the quests!
  • N00BxV1
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    Any request for more account-wide unlocks gets an upvote from me. Please have this :cookie:

    Edit for typo.
    Edited by N00BxV1 on April 25, 2023 2:14AM
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