Would you like the ability to have 3 companions at once?

Gingaroth · July 22

Yes

PrincessOfThieves wrote: »

Calastir wrote: »

PrincessOfThieves wrote: »

Calastir wrote: »

PrincessOfThieves wrote: »

No. There is enough visual clutter already.
It could work for normal dungeons I guess, but those can be done with just 1 companion. And in my opinion, not everything should cater to the minority of players who absolutely refuse to communicate with others. 90%+ of the game is already extremely solo-friendly.

'Minority' you say? The majority of this poll is in favor...

Forum demographic is kinda detached from the actual ingame population, though. Here we mostly have people with very strong opinions, including radically antisocial folks.
In the actual game most people group up when they need help and stuff.

Well in that case you've got nothing to worry about, since you're so convinced that hardly anyone will use this proposed option anyway.

That is not what I said.
People use all the summons all the time, even without practical reasons. Look at all the flappy pets, christmas tree mounts and other stuff. Not to mention dozens of Embers and Bastians in every major city. That is what I personally find annoying, there is simply too much visual clutter which make the game look less immersive.
Secondly, the game is already extremely easy and solo-friendly and I am against removing any incentives to group up. I am saying this as someone who joined the game thinking I will be a solo-only player, mind you. And now, 9 years later, I play this game exclusively because of the social aspect. I am not saying that you should be forced to group for everything like in the first mmos, but having some incentive to play with others can lead to awesome experiences that would not be possible in any other type of game.

I get your point about visual clutter.

I don't like many of the more flashy mounts and teleports either, and I wish they'd give us an option to hide their special effects. Massive gatherings of identical companions can be bad for emersion. This was especially true when there were just 2 companions, and there were like 20 Bastians and 30 Mirri’s at every harrowstorm.

Other people's companions are not visible within cities though, and turning ‘limit folower’s in town’ on (under Settings; Gameplay; General) will hide some -not all- summoned pets from view.

Your second argument I don’t get. What’s your problem with other people soloing stuff?
Are you worried that if people use companions more, there will be too few players left to reliably pug?
Or do you assume that because it turned out you like grouped content, this must also be true for all others? We all just don’t realize it yet, and need to be shown the way?

I’ve tried random dungeons, I’ve tried trials, I’ve tried grouped world boss/world event runs. Generally speaking, I didn’t find it awesome at all.

I’m struggling to keep pace while in groups. I have no time to enjoy the surroundings, to listen to the npc’s, or to learn about the plot of the quest. Usually I don’t even have the chance to type ‘chest’ or something similar in the group chat before I’m pulled into the next encounter in progress.

Furthermore, you seem to equate being social, and ‘playing with others’, with doing grouped content. They’re not necessarily the same thing. Someone choosing to play solo at a particular moment doesn't make them 'radically antisocial ' or 'absolutely refuse to communicate with others'.

Last Zenetar’s festival was an example of encouraging players to group. Doing bosses or world events while grouped was the quickest way to earn boxes. So at the request of a guildmate, I teamed up and instead of honoring the god of crafts and trades with, well, crafting and trading, I spend my time racing from vent to vent, spamming scattershot into the gathered masses just hoping I’d hit an opponent I could not even see for the crowd. Most of the time, I didn’t even spot my guildmate either. We hardly spoke a word to each other, except for ‘thanks for group’ a few hours later. Didn’t seem a very social event to me.

When I’m soloing I can keep my own, slow, pace, and meanwhile I’ve got time to keep an eye on guild- and zone chat. I can take breaks to answer questions, craft gear for training or research, mail materials to starting crafters, show new guildies the way around the guild house, play taxi, help strangers out with world bosses, and so on.
I can’t do that in most grouped content, and certainly not during random dungeons or trials.

JemadarofCaerSalis · July 23

Yes

Gingaroth wrote: »

PrincessOfThieves wrote: »

Calastir wrote: »

PrincessOfThieves wrote: »

Calastir wrote: »

PrincessOfThieves wrote: »

No. There is enough visual clutter already.
It could work for normal dungeons I guess, but those can be done with just 1 companion. And in my opinion, not everything should cater to the minority of players who absolutely refuse to communicate with others. 90%+ of the game is already extremely solo-friendly.

'Minority' you say? The majority of this poll is in favor...

Forum demographic is kinda detached from the actual ingame population, though. Here we mostly have people with very strong opinions, including radically antisocial folks.
In the actual game most people group up when they need help and stuff.

Well in that case you've got nothing to worry about, since you're so convinced that hardly anyone will use this proposed option anyway.

That is not what I said.
People use all the summons all the time, even without practical reasons. Look at all the flappy pets, christmas tree mounts and other stuff. Not to mention dozens of Embers and Bastians in every major city. That is what I personally find annoying, there is simply too much visual clutter which make the game look less immersive.
Secondly, the game is already extremely easy and solo-friendly and I am against removing any incentives to group up. I am saying this as someone who joined the game thinking I will be a solo-only player, mind you. And now, 9 years later, I play this game exclusively because of the social aspect. I am not saying that you should be forced to group for everything like in the first mmos, but having some incentive to play with others can lead to awesome experiences that would not be possible in any other type of game.

I get your point about visual clutter.

I don't like many of the more flashy mounts and teleports either, and I wish they'd give us an option to hide their special effects. Massive gatherings of identical companions can be bad for emersion. This was especially true when there were just 2 companions, and there were like 20 Bastians and 30 Mirri’s at every harrowstorm.

Other people's companions are not visible within cities though, and turning ‘limit folower’s in town’ on (under Settings; Gameplay; General) will hide some -not all- summoned pets from view.

Your second argument I don’t get. What’s your problem with other people soloing stuff?
Are you worried that if people use companions more, there will be too few players left to reliably pug?
Or do you assume that because it turned out you like grouped content, this must also be true for all others? We all just don’t realize it yet, and need to be shown the way?

I’ve tried random dungeons, I’ve tried trials, I’ve tried grouped world boss/world event runs. Generally speaking, I didn’t find it awesome at all.

I’m struggling to keep pace while in groups. I have no time to enjoy the surroundings, to listen to the npc’s, or to learn about the plot of the quest. Usually I don’t even have the chance to type ‘chest’ or something similar in the group chat before I’m pulled into the next encounter in progress.

Furthermore, you seem to equate being social, and ‘playing with others’, with doing grouped content. They’re not necessarily the same thing. Someone choosing to play solo at a particular moment doesn't make them 'radically antisocial ' or 'absolutely refuse to communicate with others'.

Last Zenetar’s festival was an example of encouraging players to group. Doing bosses or world events while grouped was the quickest way to earn boxes. So at the request of a guildmate, I teamed up and instead of honoring the god of crafts and trades with, well, crafting and trading, I spend my time racing from vent to vent, spamming scattershot into the gathered masses just hoping I’d hit an opponent I could not even see for the crowd. Most of the time, I didn’t even spot my guildmate either. We hardly spoke a word to each other, except for ‘thanks for group’ a few hours later. Didn’t seem a very social event to me.

When I’m soloing I can keep my own, slow, pace, and meanwhile I’ve got time to keep an eye on guild- and zone chat. I can take breaks to answer questions, craft gear for training or research, mail materials to starting crafters, show new guildies the way around the guild house, play taxi, help strangers out with world bosses, and so on.
I can’t do that in most grouped content, and certainly not during random dungeons or trials.

Bolded the parts I am replying to.

1. I have seen this attitude in regards to soo many things. 'How do you know you won't like it if you haven't tried it?' and to me, it can be really infantilizing to have people constantly try to say I don't know my own tastes/mind.

I don't mind grouping with others, but preferred game mode is solo. There are many reasons for this. I don't know if I can adequately fill the role I signed up for (seeing all the threads about 'fake' whatever, and people becoming toxic if you can't meet their standards doesn't help), don't know if I will have the time (I have heard various times for dungeons from like 30 minutes to 2 hours I believe, depending on the dungeon), prefer to team up with people I at least have interacted with before, and just like to take my time going through dungeons, at least the first time. It tends to be too much of a hassle for me to deal with it, so I prefer to not team up.

Others might have different reasons for not wanting to group up with people, especially random people they have never interacted with and likely will never interact with again.

Giving those types of people options, especially options where the optimal solution is to team up (because as said, companions can't do mechanics, and are inferior to actual players in every way) would potentially get *more* people to be willing to group up, once they can do that content on their own, and then realize that it is just better with a group. Sure, some people wouldn't group up, but most of those people would never have grouped up in the first place. I really doubt there would be many people, who are already willing to group up, who would now just refuse to group up ever, if they got the ability to use companions instead of needing to group.

2. I thought for a minute you might have been the person I teamed up with during Zenithar's. We started out doing Harrowstorms, but then went out and annihilated WBs to help me clear some I had been missing. We did talk some, but not much, but it was fun. I don't mind that kind of encouragement, where there are ways to do the content (get boxes) without needing to group, but grouping is obviously better to obtain the boxes.

I have seen a lot of people (not just about ESO, but basically about any online game) who equate being online = multiplayer and multiplayer = must be forced to interact with other players. It doesn't matter the type of game, they think that if you sign up to a game that is online and has some multiplayer aspects (even if that aspect is the ability to put your items up for sale and have someone else buy them, with no point of contact between the two other than clicking a button), then you signed up to be social. They don't seem to understand that not everyone wants to be social, or wants to be social at all times. (or if they do understand them not wanting to be social, they feel they should be forced to be social).

I personally don't understand that attitude. I would rather group with people who want to be grouped, rather than people who are only grouping because they want to do the content, and have no other way to do it.

FlopsyPrince · July 23

Yes

Gingaroth wrote: »

PrincessOfThieves wrote: »

Calastir wrote: »

PrincessOfThieves wrote: »

Calastir wrote: »

PrincessOfThieves wrote: »

No. There is enough visual clutter already.
It could work for normal dungeons I guess, but those can be done with just 1 companion. And in my opinion, not everything should cater to the minority of players who absolutely refuse to communicate with others. 90%+ of the game is already extremely solo-friendly.

'Minority' you say? The majority of this poll is in favor...

Forum demographic is kinda detached from the actual ingame population, though. Here we mostly have people with very strong opinions, including radically antisocial folks.
In the actual game most people group up when they need help and stuff.

Well in that case you've got nothing to worry about, since you're so convinced that hardly anyone will use this proposed option anyway.

That is not what I said.
People use all the summons all the time, even without practical reasons. Look at all the flappy pets, christmas tree mounts and other stuff. Not to mention dozens of Embers and Bastians in every major city. That is what I personally find annoying, there is simply too much visual clutter which make the game look less immersive.
Secondly, the game is already extremely easy and solo-friendly and I am against removing any incentives to group up. I am saying this as someone who joined the game thinking I will be a solo-only player, mind you. And now, 9 years later, I play this game exclusively because of the social aspect. I am not saying that you should be forced to group for everything like in the first mmos, but having some incentive to play with others can lead to awesome experiences that would not be possible in any other type of game.

I get your point about visual clutter.

I don't like many of the more flashy mounts and teleports either, and I wish they'd give us an option to hide their special effects. Massive gatherings of identical companions can be bad for emersion. This was especially true when there were just 2 companions, and there were like 20 Bastians and 30 Mirri’s at every harrowstorm.

Other people's companions are not visible within cities though, and turning ‘limit folower’s in town’ on (under Settings; Gameplay; General) will hide some -not all- summoned pets from view.

Your second argument I don’t get. What’s your problem with other people soloing stuff?
Are you worried that if people use companions more, there will be too few players left to reliably pug?
Or do you assume that because it turned out you like grouped content, this must also be true for all others? We all just don’t realize it yet, and need to be shown the way?

I’ve tried random dungeons, I’ve tried trials, I’ve tried grouped world boss/world event runs. Generally speaking, I didn’t find it awesome at all.

I’m struggling to keep pace while in groups. I have no time to enjoy the surroundings, to listen to the npc’s, or to learn about the plot of the quest. Usually I don’t even have the chance to type ‘chest’ or something similar in the group chat before I’m pulled into the next encounter in progress.

Furthermore, you seem to equate being social, and ‘playing with others’, with doing grouped content. They’re not necessarily the same thing. Someone choosing to play solo at a particular moment doesn't make them 'radically antisocial ' or 'absolutely refuse to communicate with others'.

Last Zenetar’s festival was an example of encouraging players to group. Doing bosses or world events while grouped was the quickest way to earn boxes. So at the request of a guildmate, I teamed up and instead of honoring the god of crafts and trades with, well, crafting and trading, I spend my time racing from vent to vent, spamming scattershot into the gathered masses just hoping I’d hit an opponent I could not even see for the crowd. Most of the time, I didn’t even spot my guildmate either. We hardly spoke a word to each other, except for ‘thanks for group’ a few hours later. Didn’t seem a very social event to me.

When I’m soloing I can keep my own, slow, pace, and meanwhile I’ve got time to keep an eye on guild- and zone chat. I can take breaks to answer questions, craft gear for training or research, mail materials to starting crafters, show new guildies the way around the guild house, play taxi, help strangers out with world bosses, and so on.
I can’t do that in most grouped content, and certainly not during random dungeons or trials.

The last Zenithar event was stupid. I only got a few boxes because I didn't try to find a guild group to join for that.

Syldras · July 23

Other (Explain)

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

The last Zenithar event was stupid. I only got a few boxes because I didn't try to find a guild group to join for that.

I'm personally more bothered by the fact that killing world bosses has nothing to do with what the Zenithar festival stands for lorewise.

vsrs_au · July 23

Syldras wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

The last Zenithar event was stupid. I only got a few boxes because I didn't try to find a guild group to join for that.

I'm personally more bothered by the fact that killing world bosses has nothing to do with what the Zenithar festival stands for lorewise.

The ESO festival events are pretty loose in their lore intepretation. I present Exhibit W: the witch's festival decorations, which resemble Halloween decorations, from a planet a long, long way away in another universe to Nirn.

FlopsyPrince · July 23

Yes

Syldras wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

The last Zenithar event was stupid. I only got a few boxes because I didn't try to find a guild group to join for that.

I'm personally more bothered by the fact that killing world bosses has nothing to do with what the Zenithar festival stands for lorewise.

I agree that should be an issue, but they wanted to "force" an activity as best they could and I am growing more and more bothered by so many games "forcing" such things.

Yeah, some will respond saying it is not forced, but give me a break. Making it the best way to earn boxes for the event when the normal things (crafting and sales) earned very few - and a SINGLE BOX for a full set of daily crafting writs) was abhorrent.

Syldras · July 23

Other (Explain)

vsrs_au wrote: »

The ESO festival events are pretty loose in their lore intepretation. I present Exhibit W: the witch's festival decorations, which resemble Halloween decorations, from a planet a long, long way away in another universe to Nirn.

I mean, one can argue how silly it is, but at least they tried to make up lore about some weird pumpkin daedra for that:
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Hollowjack

They also have a good explanation for what Zenithar and the Zenithar festival stand for - they could just stick to that when it comes to event rewards.

katanagirl1 · July 23

Yes

Syldras wrote: »

vsrs_au wrote: »

The ESO festival events are pretty loose in their lore intepretation. I present Exhibit W: the witch's festival decorations, which resemble Halloween decorations, from a planet a long, long way away in another universe to Nirn.

I mean, one can argue how silly it is, but at least they tried to make up lore about some weird pumpkin daedra for that:
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Hollowjack

They also have a good explanation for what Zenithar and the Zenithar festival stand for - they could just stick to that when it comes to event rewards.

Zenithar is probably like the Anniversary event where players who weren’t crafters felt left out, so they tried to add more things for others to do. I just think it’s laughable that stealing is included. That’s generally not considered “hard work”.

onyxorb · July 23

Yes

Gingaroth wrote: »

And who says I want to summon them to use in dungeons anyway?
I just want to look at me and all of my buddies riding in a row on matching mounts every once in a while.

I never knew I needed my own posse in this game until you mentioned it!

Mount up! We Ride!

Syldras · July 23

Other (Explain)

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Zenithar is probably like the Anniversary event where players who weren’t crafters felt left out, so they tried to add more things for others to do. I just think it’s laughable that stealing is included. That’s generally not considered “hard work”.

I think stealing makes more sense because you could consider it stealing a package that the commoner npc has received the normal way. But in arenas, world events or the Archive? Where would it even come from? With some beast WB you could probably at least make up that they've eaten a traveller.

FlopsyPrince · July 24

Yes

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

vsrs_au wrote: »

The ESO festival events are pretty loose in their lore intepretation. I present Exhibit W: the witch's festival decorations, which resemble Halloween decorations, from a planet a long, long way away in another universe to Nirn.

I mean, one can argue how silly it is, but at least they tried to make up lore about some weird pumpkin daedra for that:
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Hollowjack

They also have a good explanation for what Zenithar and the Zenithar festival stand for - they could just stick to that when it comes to event rewards.

Zenithar is probably like the Anniversary event where players who weren’t crafters felt left out, so they tried to add more things for others to do. I just think it’s laughable that stealing is included. That’s generally not considered “hard work”.

Including those was not as bad as making those the way to get the most chests and drastically limiting them on the normal crafting things.

Drammanoth · July 24

Yes

Up to 3 - yes.

After a quest chain.

ProudMary · July 24

No

IMO just having so many companions running around already causes too many performance issues. Performance will just be worse with even more.

LaintalAy · July 24

Other (Explain)

There's a small segment of players that currently operate with a companion and both combat and non-combat pets.
I'm not sure how I feel about them expanding their entourage to 5.

katanagirl1 · July 24

Yes

Yt

ProudMary wrote: »

IMO just having so many companions running around already causes too many performance issues. Performance will just be worse with even more.

Perhaps this could be allowed only in instanced areas like group dungeons and not overland.

Not to mention it would be total overkill in overland.

Hamfast · July 24

Other (Explain)

I picked "Other" only because I think it needs limitations so that everyone would not be running around with 2 Combat pet, 3 Companions and a Non-combat pet...

In a Dungeon or Trial (Instanced locations) if a player wanted to fill a role with a companion, why not... it may even be fun to try to run a trial with 3 players and 9 companions but that would be as far as I would want to see this idea go... and in each case, the companion would need to be assigned to the role...

I am not sure if I would want a player and 3 companions to do a "Random Normal" but I if I was allowed I may also find it fun to try...

I also wonder how the Companion level would equate... level 20 to Level 160? CP what?

Calastir · July 24

Yes

LaintalAy wrote: »

There's a small segment of players that currently operate with a companion and both combat and non-combat pets.
I'm not sure how I feel about them expanding their entourage to 5.

As they're both customer and user surely what matters most is how they feel. Other players are not npc's for our amusement.

Syldras · July 24

Other (Explain)

Calastir wrote: »

As they're both customer and user surely what matters most is how they feel. Other players are not npc's for our amusement.

I don't think it's only a matter of taste. I'm personally not against being able to play with several companions at once, but if there are performance issues or issues with companion hordes blocking the sight - that also has an effect for other players and should be taken into consideration (that's why I think that limiting the use of a companion group to group dungeons might be reasonable - actually no one could disagree with that, as that doesn't affect other people and no other player will ever see it).

FlopsyPrince · July 25

Yes

Syldras wrote: »

Calastir wrote: »

As they're both customer and user surely what matters most is how they feel. Other players are not npc's for our amusement.

I don't think it's only a matter of taste. I'm personally not against being able to play with several companions at once, but if there are performance issues or issues with companion hordes blocking the sight - that also has an effect for other players and should be taken into consideration (that's why I think that limiting the use of a companion group to group dungeons might be reasonable - actually no one could disagree with that, as that doesn't affect other people and no other player will ever see it).

That is why a "compromise" would be to allow the full set in Dungeons, but not other places.

SkaiFaith · July 25

Yes

Ember: "fishing is ruining my fun!"

Sharp: "skill issue..."

lardvader · July 25

Other (Explain)

If they were useful maybe but I don't really use them at all. They are in the way, make a fuzz when I break the law and not very good at combat sadly.

Kallykat · July 25

Yes

I would love to be able to take a full team of companions into instanced content and take my time with the story. I'd need to be able to give them commands though, like stand on this spot until this other thing happens.

I don't know that I would want a whole flock of them following me around in overland, although it would help with world bosses make the world feel more populated at a glance. I'm sure it would annoy others and possibly cause lag. Maybe ZOS could make companions only visible to others during combat.

Artim_X · July 25

Yes

Yes, but only for group content like dungeons. We don't need companions swarming a zone.

Also ZOS, please give companions the ability to interrupt group mechanics. 🙏

Necrotech_Master · July 26

Yes

Artim_X wrote: »

Yes, but only for group content like dungeons. We don't need companions swarming a zone.

Also ZOS, please give companions the ability to interrupt group mechanics. 🙏

companions can on some bosses, though it depends on their AI being proper

melee companions can interrupt bosses with interruptible lockdown mechanics, but others like wayrest 2 that require interaction with something, or a few others (fang lair, fungal 2, etc) that require needing the companion targeting to kill something they might not work great for because they are too single target, and i dont know if they can be commanded or deal enough dmg to free you in time

a tank companion *can* take the hit for you in cradle of shadows, but they will always die due to the lockdown mechanic so you have to keep rezzing them

on another note i still find it hilarious how people think having a player + 3 companions would be "too many pets" lol, i came from a game with an actual pet summon class which had a minimum of 6 pets (up to about 8-15 depending on build), these were crazy when you had a group of 8 players all using these builds lol

Vonnegut2506 · July 26

Yes

Artim_X wrote: »

Yes, but only for group content like dungeons. We don't need companions swarming a zone.

Also ZOS, please give companions the ability to interrupt group mechanics. 🙏

Companions do a better job interrupting than most dps I run random dungeons with.

FelisCatus · July 27

Yes

For dailies companions are fairly decent company, however sometimes too weak and when you get harder and harder WBs or dailies with each new DLC/Zone - multiple companion would help at times when player population is low.

ercknn · July 27

Yes

When this game begins to sunset due to dwindling player base numbers I think having 3 companions to do dungeons with should be a mandatory upgrade.

All in all it’s a fun idea though

Stafford197 · July 29

Other (Explain)

Should be allowed in instanced group content! That would be fun for a lot of players who just want to play solo and make full Companion group comps.

Not anywhere else though (like Overland).

fedouva · July 29

Other (Explain)

you can always visit any dungeon alone, there are people who pass them solo so it's not a problem)

Khold90 · July 30

Other (Explain)

Another vote for "only in instanced content".

I really enjoyed garrison squadron missions in FFXIV (like trusts but only for select dungeons up to level 60), especially since it was a great way to level them up. Plus the missions didn't reward player gear, it rewarded stuff for the squadron members with an uncommon drop of what is basically the equivalent of purple upgrade materials.

ESO equivalent could be instead of premium undaunted exploration supplies, if set to companions only it could be something like 75/25 chance for a purple/blue companion piece of gear + 250 rapport for members used. Then after that daily clear is over it becomes 50/50 purple/blue and 50 rapport. As well as the big chunk of exp because levelling them is still woeful.

Maybe even add in a low chance for an extra purple bound companion piece when the player is in full 160 purple+ gear. That way the player is still incentivised to gear up in order to drastically cut down on time, guiding them into regular group content or to interact with others for crafted gear/getting gold for marketplace purchases.

While I love the idea, absolutely not in open world areas. The lack of helmets and "headless chicken cluster" would be more unbearable than it is currently.