Companions - When is it enough?

SilverBride · July 14

I have found the Companions useful and feel the newer ones have gotten much more likable than the previous. But when is it enough?

I would be happy if we stop getting new Companions after the next set are released. But if we are going to continue to keep getting more Companions with every new chapter, PLEASE at the very least give us the option to skip unlocking once we have done it once.

BlueRaven · July 14

SilverBride wrote: »

I have found the Companions useful and feel the newer ones have gotten much more likable than the previous. But when is it enough?

I would be happy if we stop getting new Companions after the next set are released. But if we are going to continue to keep getting more Compaions with every new chapter, PLEASE at the very least give us the option to skip unlocking once we have done it once.

No.

The four races I have been waiting on since this began have not come out yet.

I would also love it if the continued to add them reversing the genders of the previously released races.

SilverBride · July 14

BlueRaven wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

I have found the Companions useful and feel the newer ones have gotten much more likable than the previous. But when is it enough?

I would be happy if we stop getting new Companions after the next set are released. But if we are going to continue to keep getting more Compaions with every new chapter, PLEASE at the very least give us the option to skip unlocking once we have done it once.

No.

The four races I have been waiting on since this began have not come out yet.

I would also love it if the continued to add them reversing the genders of the previously released races.

That is fine if you want to keep getting Companions, but how do you feel about an option to unlock them after doing it once?

BlueRaven · July 14

SilverBride wrote: »

BlueRaven wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

I have found the Companions useful and feel the newer ones have gotten much more likable than the previous. But when is it enough?

I would be happy if we stop getting new Companions after the next set are released. But if we are going to continue to keep getting more Compaions with every new chapter, PLEASE at the very least give us the option to skip unlocking once we have done it once.

No.

The four races I have been waiting on since this began have not come out yet.

I would also love it if the continued to add them reversing the genders of the previously released races.

That is fine if you want to keep getting Companions, but how do you feel about an option to unlock them after doing it once?

Maybe not once, maybe after a few times…?

Or maybe they unlock to all characters after you level them to level 15 or when you unlock them as a houseguest.

SilverBride · July 14

It's the unlocking that I have learned to hate... more every time I have to do it.

joergino · July 14

SilverBride wrote: »

how do you feel about an option to unlock them after doing it once?

That is how it should have been from the very thought of even considering to implement companions.

And PLEASE no more companions after covering all possible classes and maybe werewolf or vampire (if they can be considered "classes"). We can only have one companion travel along with or characters anyway and it takes almost exactly half a year to level up a companion and all its skill lines, by which time the next one will need to be leveled up only never to be summoned again because there is yet another companion waiting to be leveled, to be repeated ad infinitum? Please, no!

OsUfi · July 14

I enjoy them. I like their little stories. I wouldn't want to see them automatically unlocked, but I do feel for people with alts. I use one character for everything. The intro quests should be as short as Mirris, which I reckon you could sprint through in 5 minutes. Then maybe have longer quests for the rest of their story.

joergino wrote: »

We can only have one companion travel along with or characters anyway and it takes almost exactly half a year to level up a companion and all its skill lines, by which time the next one will need to be leveled up only never to be summoned again because there is yet another companion waiting to be leveled, to be repeated ad infinitum? Please, no!

Why do you need to level them? I have all 6 at max level and rapport, barely notice any of their perks.

Also you can level one in 2 hours and 30 minutes, on a double XP weekend using an non-optimized farming route in a public dungeon with XP gear and an XP scroll. Gorne for Sharp and Azandar, Crimson Coin for Ember and Isobel, and Zenithars Abbey for Mirri and Bastian. Pretty sure if you were to run something optimized in Black Rose and Skyreach it could be done in 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Syldras · July 14

The more, the merrier

No, but I think, having at least one companion of every race would make sense, maybe even two (one male, one female). For me, it's not that important anymore (my main has found his BFF anyway - of course it's Azandar, who would have guessed...), but it's a wish I see quite often. Although, I actually think most of the companion stories are quite nice, so I wouldn't mind more of that. I'm just not sure how realistic it is that ZOS would do that, considering the content reductions.

I'd be fine with having to unlock companions only once, as long as the quest can still be done optionally, because I like to play the part of the story how a character meets and gets to know a companion, and would like to play that again on an alt instead of just pulling the companion out of nowhere. For me personally, the main purpose of companions is roleplay. Not every of my characters knows every companion (and isn't supposed to either), but maybe 1 or 2, and sometimes even none at all.

BretonMage · July 14

I love the companion content in ESO, and always look forward to more. More companion stories, personalities and quests would be great.

I don't quite understand why people would call for a stop to content they don't like; instead, why not just avoid it? Maybe an option to refuse companion quests?

But sure, I'd support an option to unlock companion quests if other players want it.

EdjeSwift · July 14

I may be missing something here, but if you find unlocking companions on alts or there are too many already then maybe don't unlock/use them?

We're at the point now where we'll have 8 companions in the Fall/Winter and already have 6. If you take the Holy Trinity of RPGs of Damage, Tank, Healer you still have 3(soon 5) with different builds/roles you can use. Unlocking them further is a choice.

JemadarofCaerSalis · July 14

BlueRaven wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

I have found the Companions useful and feel the newer ones have gotten much more likable than the previous. But when is it enough?

I would be happy if we stop getting new Companions after the next set are released. But if we are going to continue to keep getting more Compaions with every new chapter, PLEASE at the very least give us the option to skip unlocking once we have done it once.

No.

The four races I have been waiting on since this began have not come out yet.

I would also love it if the continued to add them reversing the genders of the previously released races.

I also would love it if they kept adding them, reversing the genders, and also with different personalities.

Tandor · July 14

I'd love more companions, especially one that was truly unlawful evil in nature.

I don't understand why some players feel it necessary to unlock multiple companions on all their characters and level their rapport fully.

oldbobdude · July 14

A companion that player chooses class, race, gender.

SilverBride · July 14

Tandor wrote: »

I'd love more companions, especially one that was truly unlawful evil in nature.

I don't understand why some players feel it necessary to unlock multiple companions on all their characters and level their rapport fully.

I unlock all the Companions on all of my Characters because I want the option to use them if I like them better than the previous ones, or find them more useful. I do level them to 20, but thankfully that is account wide. I do not level rapport on more than one character, but do just enough to unlock the houseguest.

If leveling them can be account wide then why not unlocking them too? The quests to unlock them have gotten longer and longer and the last ones even included public dungeons. It is beyond tedious to do this on multiple characters.

spartaxoxo · July 14

I don't why the rest of us should stop getting companions just because some people don't want anymore. I don't have an issue with unlocking them alts constantly because I don't unlock them on all my alts. All of my alts have at least 1 companion unlocked, and only my main has them all.

I just don't do content that I'm not interested in.

Edit
I'd be okay with them letting people skip the intro quests on alts, similar to the tutorial.

Ragnork · July 14

I would like an option - to do the full introductory quest or that the companion is treated like a friend, lets say you have unlocked the companion as a house guest, you could introduce your new alt to the companion in your house.
For those who do not want to use that option - no issue go do the introductory quest.
For those who do want the option you walk up to your house guest and say "hi, I think you know **alt that unlocked house guest** I am a friend of theirs, maybe we can get to know one another better through having an adventure together?"

If you role play that your alts are independent of one another then you are catered for.
If you role play that your alts are an extended family then you are catered for.

Just a thought.

Erickson9610 · July 14

While it is annoying not having access to all of my Companions on alt characters, I generally don't need all of them unlocked — I hardly run dungeons on my alts (and if I did, there's a group queue to replace missing group members) and world bosses are usually flooded with other players, anyway. Anything I need to solo, I prefer to complete with my main character with a Companion.

Yes, I want to keep seeing new Companions. I want multiple Companions of the same Class, multiple of the same Race, and even multiple of the same Race+Gender. Why shouldn't we keep getting new Companions who have similar Race/Class/Gender to other Companions, but have different stories and personalities? For instance, maybe in the future we get another male Redguard, who happens to be a Dragonknight or a Templar, and whose story and personality sets him apart from Azandar?

Companions are a fun time investment for me. I like theorycrafting builds for them, and getting them to Level 20 and max positive rapport to unlock their Keepsake and to experience their questline are very engaging reasons to use the new Companions every year. I'm excited for this year's 2 new Companions, and hope we get 2 Companions next year as well.

Jaimeh · July 14

I'm sure there are a lot of players who are waiting for specific races or race/class combos so it would be weird if they stopped coming out with them before we have at least all the races and classes. As for the unlock, it has been a highly requested feature for a long time now, and if ZOS won't implement it, then at least something they could do to help with the grind would be to make the initial quests much shorter. Bastian's quest for example is very alt-friendly as it can be done really fast.

fizzylu · July 14

There has to yet to be a companion I really like so I want them to release more and it's a solid feature to begin with so I don't see why they should stop. Even just the passives or whatever they're called that you get from companions make them a worthwhile addition to keep adding. I am surprised there's not a skip for alts already though so hopefully Zenimax can get that together.

oldbobdude wrote: »

A companion that player chooses class, race, gender.

And I would love a fully customizable companion kind of like retainers in FFXIV. Even if there wasn't story/quests for them.

Jim_Pipp · July 14

Part of what made Skyrim interesting and replayable was useful followers, and Eso has done an ok job of bringing the spirit of them to an MMO by making them cool but unnecessary.

The OP was being hyperbolic saying "enough," they unlock every companion on every character because each brings a new set of options... The point is that the "unlock" quests have become punishingly long if repeated on multiple characters.

Some people don't want companions at all, most of us want more companions, more options, but with shorter unlock quests. Brief intro unlocks will work better in an MMO, and are closer to how follower recruitment worked in Skyrim.

Edited for typo

SilverBride · July 14

spartaxoxo wrote: »

I don't why the rest of us should stop getting companions just because some people don't want anymore.

I wasn't suggesting they stop creating them. Just saying I wouldn't mind if they did because of what a long tedious chore it is to unlock them.

EdjeSwift · July 14

SilverBride wrote: »

I wasn't suggesting they stop creating them. Just saying I wouldn't mind if they did because of what a long tedious chore it is to unlock them.

Your exact words emphasis mine:

SilverBride wrote: »

I have found the Companions useful and feel the newer ones have gotten much more likable than the previous. But when is it enough?

I would be happy if we stop getting new Companions after the next set are released. But if we are going to continue to keep getting more Compaions with every new chapter, PLEASE at the very least give us the option to skip unlocking once we have done it once.

You said "I would be happy if we stop getting new Companions"; How is that to be taken other than to stop releasing/making new companions?

SilverBride · July 14

EdjeSwift wrote: »

You said "I would be happy if we stop getting new Companoins" How is that to be taken other than to stop releasing/making new companions?

Because they are two different statements. I personally would be happy if they decided that we have enough now and stopped making them. But I didn't suggest that is what they should do.

I even went on to say "PLEASE at the very least give us the option to skip unlocking once we have done it once."

JustLovely · July 14

We have too many companions now. ESO is an MMO and there are plenty of other people in game and guilds we can get together with to complete content. I question the logic of having a companion system in an MMO all together.

Sarannah · July 14

No, I love companions! The more the better. Just wish we could do dungeons/trials with solo + companions.

Leveling, building skillsets, and gearing companions is fun.

PS: I unlock all companions on all my characters right away once they are released(only do rapport once). And use different ones on different characters.

kaushad · July 14

If we stopped getting new companions, I would like the existing ones to get new content.
I have 9 player characters and I regularly play about 3-5 of them. For now, I have 4 companions, so I use each one regularly. If I get 10 companions, some of them are going to get left standing around the notable free houses after I've finished leveling them up to 20.

Erickson9610 · July 14

JustLovely wrote: »

We have too many companions now. ESO is an MMO and there are plenty of other people in game and guilds we can get together with to complete content. I question the logic of having a companion system in an MMO all together.

ESO is both an MMORPG and a TES game (most of which until now have been singleplayer games). Followers were present in TES V: Skyrim, so naturally as a game which caters to both the singleplayer TES audience and the MMORPG audience, ESO would create their own version of that system via Companions.

ESO has integrated this feature into the MMORPG aspect well — you can't fit Companions into 4-man or 12-man PvE content if there isn't enough room for them, meaning the value of other players isn't diminished. And, Companions can't be used in PvP, further reinforcing the idea that players take priority over our followers.

Syldras · July 14

JustLovely wrote: »

We have too many companions now. ESO is an MMO and there are plenty of other people in game and guilds we can get together with to complete content.

Companions are content.

Orbital78 · July 14

What I wanna know is when will gold/legendary quality gear drop, and can we have account wide rapport, or turn it off. At least let us alter gear and skills on a alt that has the quest and we don't want to repeat the quest line.

I still feel they are lacking in ability to avoid AOE with some mobs too. They are much more viable in the Archive overall though. Legendary quality gear probably won't make that big of a difference but it can't hurt.

vsrs_au · July 15

I'd prefer for new companions to keep coming, it gives us more variety to choose from, so we can pick companions suitable for our characters. Just because ZOS keep adding companions doesn't mean we NEED to use them.

spartaxoxo · July 15

SilverBride wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

I don't why the rest of us should stop getting companions just because some people don't want anymore.

I wasn't suggesting they stop creating them. Just saying I wouldn't mind if they did because of what a long tedious chore it is to unlock them.

Ah. Okay. I see. I really want them to keep creating them, but the unlock quests would be so much better if we could skip them on alts for sure.