A Free Companion

NebulousAsp · October 2

My idea for this is pretty self explanatory. There could be a companion, or several, that could be free for all players to get. Now, these companions don't have to be a fully fleshed-out character with missions, a unique item, or anything like that. They could be just a guild initiate or an alliance trainee that was tasked with following you, or you took them under your wing to teach them the inns and outs of adventuring or something like that.

To the Devs, this may seem like a really bad idea: Why would we just give everyone a companion for free? To answer that, if you were to give people a cool new toy, and they like the new toy, they may see that there are cooler, more powerful toys and be incentivized to get said cooler toys.

Ideas for the companions go as follows: They can be of a random race, but may not have a class like Dragonknight, Templar or similar. There "class" could be like "Knight" or "Mage". There skills could consist of the weapon skills and maybe a few skills that are unique to some NPCs. If guild followers were a thing, they could have or gain access to their respective guild lines. You could get them as a hired companion/sells-word or, for guilds, after you achieve a certain rank or complete the quest line, you could gain an option to have an initiate of the guild follow you around and aid in your adventures. For my aforementioned Alliance Trainee, once you achieve a rank that could/would have lead over troops, you could have a trainee or soldier follow you around. If you achieved the status of Emperor, you could gain the services of one of their bodyguards. Reading through that, it may seem that I'm suggesting the people work in Cyrodiil, but that was not my intention.

I think that it would be nice to have something else gotten from maxing out fighters or mages guild. Take Fighter's Guild for example to max out the Fighter's Guild you need the Associate of the Fighter's Guild, Fighter's Guild Skill Master and Fighter's Guild Veteran achievements which only gives you two red dyes, a title, and the associated skill line. You could argue that you would get access to a whole new set, but who doesn't have a guild with a Master Crafting bench?

It would be nice to have a follower from the Fighter's Guild, Mages Guild, Undaunted, Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood (like in Skyrim), or just a general Sell-sword.

NebulousAsp · October 2

Going back to the skills, I wouldn't think that the companion would need all too much. I'd probably suggest them to just have a single subclass. Like how Ember has her Lightning Caller, Mischievous Caster, and Playful Schemer skill trees, the free people added by my suggestion might only have one tree like Mage, Knight, Spell-Sword or something similar.

sshogrin · October 2

we do have free companions, you just have to have the chapters they were released in to get them. There is a quest for each that you have to do.

NebulousAsp · October 2

Yes, but those companions, Mirri, Bastian, Ember, Isobel, Sharp and Azandar, are not quite free when you have to purchase an entire chapter just to gain access to them?

whitecrow · October 2

NebulousAsp wrote: »

Yes, but those companions, Mirri, Bastian, Ember, Isobel, Sharp and Azandar, are not quite free when you have to purchase an entire chapter just to gain access to them?

We don't buy the chapter just to get the companions.

Syldras · October 2

whitecrow wrote: »

We don't buy the chapter just to get the companions.

I agree with OP that it's still not free. A "lite version" in the base game, through mages or fighters guild - why not? I don't think I'd be using them (because I have my others companions available and leveled and they would also provide no new quests), but I think some people might find them convenient.

Necrotech_Master · October 2

the new companions coming out next update are free if you have eso+

yes you pay for eso+ too, but most likely for other reasons (craft bag, more house furnishing slots, more bank slots, etc)

there are some quests which do have NPC helpers akin to what your talking about but they are significantly worse than the companions

NebulousAsp · October 2

How much are the new companions if you don't have ESO+?
The quests in Which you have someone follow you around like The Rift's Trollhetta mission and Khenarthi Roost's Cats Eye Quay mission are nice quests and the followers are nice, but I thought it would be nice to have a permanent follower without having ESO+ or a major DLC.

Erickson9610 · October 2

I always thought that the Infinite Archive would be the most appropriate place to put a base game Companion who's accessible for players who don't own any DLCs. That's content that's designed to be run with a partner, so it'd be very convenient for solo players to be given a partner for free there.

That being said, I like ZOS's new approach for how they position Companions. Companions no longer need to be located in the latest Chapter zone, as we see Zerith-var in Reaper's March and Tanlorin in Auridon. If we were to get a Nord Companion, I'd expect them to either be found in some Chapter zone in Central Skyrim, or in some base game zone in Eastern Skyrim, like Eastmarch or The Rift. I doubt we'll get to see Companions who are located in old DLC zones, such as Western Skyrim, but only time will tell.

Jaimeh · October 2

I would love earnable companions, so that those without a sub can still get them. They could be a special reward after finishing a questline, and since the Vestige is already a member of all the different guilds (undaunted, fighters, etc.), it could just be a guild apprentice that wants to learn more by following the Vestige (and in this way, their story doesn't have to be super complicated if zos doesn't want to spend a lot of effort on them--though of course that would be a pity).

LaintalAy · October 2

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

the new companions coming out next update are free if you have eso+

yes you pay for eso+ too, but most likely for other reasons (craft bag, more house furnishing slots, more bank slots, etc)

there are some quests which do have NPC helpers akin to what your talking about but they are significantly worse than the companions

After next month, If you buy 1 month of ESO+ you will have access to 6 companion-as-rewards quests.
Yes, you will need to unlock each of them on every character that you want each of them to accompany.

Unlocked Companions remain with their respective characters after your sub expires or is cancelled.
In theory, you can soon buy 6 companions for around USD 10.00. Hardly exorbitant.

What I'd prefer is a customisable companion. But that won't ever happen.

KaironBlackbard · October 3

LaintalAy wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

the new companions coming out next update are free if you have eso+

yes you pay for eso+ too, but most likely for other reasons (craft bag, more house furnishing slots, more bank slots, etc)

there are some quests which do have NPC helpers akin to what your talking about but they are significantly worse than the companions

After next month, If you buy 1 month of ESO+ you will have access to 6 companion-as-rewards quests.
Yes, you will need to unlock each of them on every character that you want each of them to accompany.

Unlocked Companions remain with their respective characters after your sub expires or is cancelled.
In theory, you can soon buy 6 companions for around USD 10.00. Hardly exorbitant.

What I'd prefer is a customisable companion. But that won't ever happen.

Customizable would be fun

NebulousAsp · October 3

LaintalAy wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

the new companions coming out next update are free if you have eso+

yes you pay for eso+ too, but most likely for other reasons (craft bag, more house furnishing slots, more bank slots, etc)

there are some quests which do have NPC helpers akin to what your talking about but they are significantly worse than the companions

After next month, If you buy 1 month of ESO+ you will have access to 6 companion-as-rewards quests.
Yes, you will need to unlock each of them on every character that you want each of them to accompany.

Unlocked Companions remain with their respective characters after your sub expires or is cancelled.
In theory, you can soon buy 6 companions for around USD 10.00. Hardly exorbitant.

What I'd prefer is a customisable companion. But that won't ever happen.

I would also love to have a customizable companion.
One of my reasons for offering these companion ideas was because the rewards for 100%-ing a guild seems a little lackluster to me.

Necrotech_Master · October 3

LaintalAy wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

the new companions coming out next update are free if you have eso+

yes you pay for eso+ too, but most likely for other reasons (craft bag, more house furnishing slots, more bank slots, etc)

there are some quests which do have NPC helpers akin to what your talking about but they are significantly worse than the companions

After next month, If you buy 1 month of ESO+ you will have access to 6 companion-as-rewards quests.
Yes, you will need to unlock each of them on every character that you want each of them to accompany.

Unlocked Companions remain with their respective characters after your sub expires or is cancelled.
In theory, you can soon buy 6 companions for around USD 10.00. Hardly exorbitant.

What I'd prefer is a customisable companion. But that won't ever happen.

technically 6 companions from the chapter quests + 2 from the crown store

its definitely ridiculous that we still have to do the intro quests on every character for them though, with a total of 8 companions, that is 80 repetitive intro quests to do for 10 characters if you want access to them

CatoUnchained · October 3

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

LaintalAy wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

the new companions coming out next update are free if you have eso+

yes you pay for eso+ too, but most likely for other reasons (craft bag, more house furnishing slots, more bank slots, etc)

there are some quests which do have NPC helpers akin to what your talking about but they are significantly worse than the companions

After next month, If you buy 1 month of ESO+ you will have access to 6 companion-as-rewards quests.
Yes, you will need to unlock each of them on every character that you want each of them to accompany.

Unlocked Companions remain with their respective characters after your sub expires or is cancelled.
In theory, you can soon buy 6 companions for around USD 10.00. Hardly exorbitant.

What I'd prefer is a customisable companion. But that won't ever happen.

technically 6 companions from the chapter quests + 2 from the crown store

its definitely ridiculous that we still have to do the intro quests on every character for them though, with a total of 8 companions, that is 80 repetitive intro quests to do for 10 characters if you want access to them

I can't believe ZOS is selling the companions in the crown store and we're still expected to do a quest to get access to them. Oh well. I don't need any more companions. I never use the six I've maxed out already. Overland is too easy as it is. And can't use companions in PvP.

Necrotech_Master · October 3

CatoUnchained wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

LaintalAy wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

the new companions coming out next update are free if you have eso+

yes you pay for eso+ too, but most likely for other reasons (craft bag, more house furnishing slots, more bank slots, etc)

there are some quests which do have NPC helpers akin to what your talking about but they are significantly worse than the companions

After next month, If you buy 1 month of ESO+ you will have access to 6 companion-as-rewards quests.
Yes, you will need to unlock each of them on every character that you want each of them to accompany.

Unlocked Companions remain with their respective characters after your sub expires or is cancelled.
In theory, you can soon buy 6 companions for around USD 10.00. Hardly exorbitant.

What I'd prefer is a customisable companion. But that won't ever happen.

technically 6 companions from the chapter quests + 2 from the crown store

its definitely ridiculous that we still have to do the intro quests on every character for them though, with a total of 8 companions, that is 80 repetitive intro quests to do for 10 characters if you want access to them

I can't believe ZOS is selling the companions in the crown store and we're still expected to do a quest to get access to them. Oh well. I don't need any more companions. I never use the six I've maxed out already. Overland is too easy as it is. And can't use companions in PvP.

i usually use tank companions with my dps, or dps companions with my tanks, and they are helpful for being able to solo dungeons

oddly enough the place where companions are most useful is in the infinite archive

KaironBlackbard · October 3

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

CatoUnchained wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

LaintalAy wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

the new companions coming out next update are free if you have eso+

yes you pay for eso+ too, but most likely for other reasons (craft bag, more house furnishing slots, more bank slots, etc)

there are some quests which do have NPC helpers akin to what your talking about but they are significantly worse than the companions

After next month, If you buy 1 month of ESO+ you will have access to 6 companion-as-rewards quests.
Yes, you will need to unlock each of them on every character that you want each of them to accompany.

Unlocked Companions remain with their respective characters after your sub expires or is cancelled.
In theory, you can soon buy 6 companions for around USD 10.00. Hardly exorbitant.

What I'd prefer is a customisable companion. But that won't ever happen.

technically 6 companions from the chapter quests + 2 from the crown store

its definitely ridiculous that we still have to do the intro quests on every character for them though, with a total of 8 companions, that is 80 repetitive intro quests to do for 10 characters if you want access to them

I can't believe ZOS is selling the companions in the crown store and we're still expected to do a quest to get access to them. Oh well. I don't need any more companions. I never use the six I've maxed out already. Overland is too easy as it is. And can't use companions in PvP.

i usually use tank companions with my dps, or dps companions with my tanks, and they are helpful for being able to solo dungeons

oddly enough the place where companions are most useful is in the infinite archive

I find that companions (healer ember specifically) are useless in certain dungeons (fungal grotto II) because of a stinkin execute that never targets companions and always targets the player, kills them, resets the encounter because companions drop the combat when the player dies.
Similarly in Archive.
I have her setup as healer because she used to keep getting onetapped as a dps, set her as healer in medium for the escape ability and she never dies, and hardly goes below 90%.
However, her damage is nil and she's useless against freeing me from the execute.
If she could continue combat and revive me, that would be useful.
But as is now, they don't revive, and combat ends if you die, which resets the encounter, ...
It treats them as a player for the purpose of people count, why doesn't it treat them as a player for the purpose of being targeted by executes or continuing combat, and why can't they revive us? That's what's really needed.

As for boss fights in the archive, she has a habit of rolling to the edge and then getting hit by a knockback and falling to her death. She's not very good about reangling to get more central to avoid falling off the edge. I wish I could order her to move to get her away from the edge.

That's Xbox NA. I've got her about level 14-16 I think.

karthrag_inak · October 3

Khajiit is against any idea that effectively induces "mandatory volunteer-ism" on the developers of the game. These guys are already working very hard for much less money than their knowledge, expertise and capabilities could earn them elsewhere in industry.

Necrotech_Master · October 3

KaironBlackbard wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

CatoUnchained wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

LaintalAy wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

the new companions coming out next update are free if you have eso+

yes you pay for eso+ too, but most likely for other reasons (craft bag, more house furnishing slots, more bank slots, etc)

there are some quests which do have NPC helpers akin to what your talking about but they are significantly worse than the companions

After next month, If you buy 1 month of ESO+ you will have access to 6 companion-as-rewards quests.
Yes, you will need to unlock each of them on every character that you want each of them to accompany.

Unlocked Companions remain with their respective characters after your sub expires or is cancelled.
In theory, you can soon buy 6 companions for around USD 10.00. Hardly exorbitant.

What I'd prefer is a customisable companion. But that won't ever happen.

technically 6 companions from the chapter quests + 2 from the crown store

its definitely ridiculous that we still have to do the intro quests on every character for them though, with a total of 8 companions, that is 80 repetitive intro quests to do for 10 characters if you want access to them

I can't believe ZOS is selling the companions in the crown store and we're still expected to do a quest to get access to them. Oh well. I don't need any more companions. I never use the six I've maxed out already. Overland is too easy as it is. And can't use companions in PvP.

i usually use tank companions with my dps, or dps companions with my tanks, and they are helpful for being able to solo dungeons

oddly enough the place where companions are most useful is in the infinite archive

I find that companions (healer ember specifically) are useless in certain dungeons (fungal grotto II) because of a stinkin execute that never targets companions and always targets the player, kills them, resets the encounter because companions drop the combat when the player dies.
Similarly in Archive.
I have her setup as healer because she used to keep getting onetapped as a dps, set her as healer in medium for the escape ability and she never dies, and hardly goes below 90%.
However, her damage is nil and she's useless against freeing me from the execute.
If she could continue combat and revive me, that would be useful.
But as is now, they don't revive, and combat ends if you die, which resets the encounter, ...
It treats them as a player for the purpose of people count, why doesn't it treat them as a player for the purpose of being targeted by executes or continuing combat, and why can't they revive us? That's what's really needed.

As for boss fights in the archive, she has a habit of rolling to the edge and then getting hit by a knockback and falling to her death. She's not very good about reangling to get more central to avoid falling off the edge. I wish I could order her to move to get her away from the edge.

That's Xbox NA. I've got her about level 14-16 I think.

they fixed the companions in the archive so they are darn near immortal, theres very few things in there that can actually kill them

using tank companions i use them to hold marauders and the companion can easily hold a marauder up through arc 4, and even the tho'at fights become trivial because the companions dont get the ramping dmg from the ice patches or eye beams

it makes the archive go a ton faster when i can play as a dps and not have to worry about most bosses or marauders, just have to deal with trash then because the companions cant tank groups easily, and the trash starts to hurt after arc 3 on a dps