AngryNord wrote: »

Gidorick wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

I mean, that's a whole lot of thought put in to a terrible idea. But it's still a terrible idea.

Substantive NPC assistance doesn't belong in MMOs, period.

lol. Like I said. I knew it wouldn't be popular. I would agree that NPC assistance doesn't belong... if there weren't areas that require players to group.

Can you offer some reasons WHY they don't belong in MMO's?

Look up the meaning of MMO. There's your answer.

Gidorick wrote: »

Within ESO, there already exists the mechanic for an NPC to follow and fight alongside the player. There also exist quests where the player is able to choose the type of companion that follows them. Using these already established systems, ZOS should allow players to hire Mercenaries and have NPC characters tag along with them on their missions. Expanding the functionality to include different types of Mercenaries could offer a robust mechanic for groups and single players alike.

Who Will You Hire?

Player’s, starting at level 10, should be given the option to hire Companion Mercs to accompany them on their adventures. This accompaniment should extend to all areas of play. They should also fill group slots, fulfilling the grouping requirement for dungeons.

The better the Companion Merc a player would like to hire, the more expensive they will be. The Merc would ideally be leveled to the player, which would make the most sense within the mechanics of the game. Level 10 Mercs could start 50 gold per hour and increase per level to a level 50 Merc that costs around 1,000 gold per hour.

Being designed by ZOS, Companion Mercs could have interesting personalities and conversation trees to give them to continue their employment or to dismiss them. ZOS could also create a random Companion generator that created the Companion Merc on the fly as the player requested them. Both have benefits and I don’t think either is one necessarily better than the other.

Basic Interaction:

The player shouldn’t have the ability to outfit the Companion Merc. They also shouldn’t be able to access the Merc’s inventory. If the Merc is the type that gathers items for the player, the player should have the option to take the gathered items, but it should be a one way transaction. There shouldn’t be any circumstance in which the player needs to give the Companion Mercenary any items.

When a player speaks with a Companion Merc they should be given the option to dismiss the Companion, chat with the Companion, and take the items they’ve collected (if applicable).

Casually conversing with a Merc could allow the player to learn more about the character and could even possibly open a quest line that would be specific to that Mercenary.

When a Companion’s time is up, that Merc stops where they are and should not move any further, should not take part in any combat, and should ignored by enemies. Perhaps they cycle through some passive emote such as /juggleflame, /read, or /eatbread. The player will have to speak with the Merc to re-hire them for another hour or so. When hiring Companion Mercs from the Merchants or extending the hiring period in the field, players should have the option of hiring them in 1 hour increments for up to 5 hours at a time. If a player leaves an expired Merc behind, the Merc disappears and the player must visit the appropriate Merchant to hire another.

Archetype Companions:

Initially these hirable Companions Mercs would include the three archetypes.

• TANK: NPC that run toward the fray and will pull the aggression of the mobs
• HEALER: NPC that will cast protection and restoration spells on the player
• DPS: NPC that will deal quick, consistent damage on the target

These Archetype Companions could be hirable from the two main Guilds that exist within ESO, the Fighters Guild and the Mages Guild. Once the player selects the specific Merc type they wish to hire they could be given a random Merc from a small pool of ZOS designed faction appropriate Archetype Companions. In this way a Redguard would never end up with an Argonian Companion.

This would be a great place to either start or stop the concept. Let’s go a bit further into some expanded ideas…

Narrative Companions:

Certain NPCs that aren’t killed off in the story could be available as Narrative Companions. It would have been awesome to have Lyris Titanborn continue to run around with me for a time as I went on quests throughout Tamriel. These Narrative Companions could function much in the same way as the Archetype Companions, with their usefulness being specific to combat.

The pricing structure could be the same as Archetype Companions or it could vary by the Character. Perhaps some Narrative Characters will join you for free but only for a limited amount of time. Perhaps some are only available an hour at a time and ask for a larger amount of gold for each subsequent hour. The Hiring circumstances could be as varied as their personalities.

Skilled Companions:

In addition to the Archetype Companions and Narrative Companions, ZOS could offer a myriad of other types of Skilled Companions:

Skilled Companions could cost less and be with the player for longer durations than the Archetype and Narrative Companions. They could still help out in combat, but they shouldn’t be nearly as effective as a similarly leveled Archetype Companion.

Types of Skilled Companions:

• HERBALIST: Will gather reagents if within a radius depending on their level
• TILLER: Will gather clothier raw materials within a radius depending on their level
• PROSPECTOR: Will gather ore within a radius depending on their level
• DIVINER: Will gather runes within a radius depending on their level
• CULINARIAN: Will gather provisions within a radius depending on their level
• LOGGER: Will gather wood within a radius depending on their level
• SCHOLAR: NPCs that gathers books within a radius depending on their level
• SQUIRE: Will gather items from dead mobs
• BARD: Will play a selection of songs while you adventure
• LOCKSMITH: A master lockpick that will open chests for you

These Skilled Companions should be leveled to the character for combat purposes and their respective skill in their profession should be comparable to their overall level. All Skilled Companions that gather items would have an additional option when they are spoken to which would allow the player to accept the items the Skilled Companion has gathered.

To gather the material, the Skilled Companion need not actually go through the animation to gather the material. Having this requirement would pretty much defeat the purpose of these Companions. As the player runs around the world the Skilled Companion’s inventory would simply fill up with the items as they are passed. Material taken by a Skilled Companion should have ½ the yield of normal material farming. Additionally, using a Skilled Companion shouldn’t cause the item to become unavailable for other players, unlike player farming.

Hiring these Skilled Companions could be accomplished through various means throughout Tamriel. From the Companion being an NPC around the city to finding them in the bar to hiring them through Merchants. Unlike the Archetype Companions, there shouldn’t be a specific go-to location to pick them up and should be an exception rather than a rule.

Alternate Companions:

The Alternate characters that a player has created and leveled could also be able to be brought over into a player’s story to assist them in their questing.

I’d imagine this could be accomplished by having a Mercenary Merchant in each city. When approached, the Mercenary Merchant would give the player a list of their Alternate Characters and the player could import that character into their story. If a player has no Alternates, the Mercenary Merchant will have no one available.

The prices of the Alternates should be a bit more expensive than hiring a generic Archetype, but not by much. The Alternate’s should have the equipment and skills that they have at the time of rental and not be leveled to the player. Just as all other Companion types, the player should not have access to the Alternate’s inventory. Additionally, the Alternates should gain no XP or use any items from their actual inventory while questing. For all intents and purposes the hiring would pretty much be “cosmetic”.

Additional Notes:

As stated before, these hirable NPC Companion Mercenaries should occupy group slots and if multiple are hired (up to 3) a player would be able to run 4 player dungeons by themselves. Using these NPC Companion Mercs, a pair of players could group up and the leader could hire a Companion Merc or two to flesh out their group. When in a group, only the leader should be able to speak with,hire,dismiss and accept items from the Companion Mercs.

Companions should NEVER be allowed in Cyrodiil. If there needs to be lore reasons for this it could be as simple as the Mercs don’t take sides in the faction war… or something to that effect.

Companions SHOULD be allowed in 12 person trials but it should be blatantly obvious that a group has NPC Companion Mercs in it. Even to the point of coloring their life-bar a different color in their group. There should also be an option to disallow NPC Companion Mercs when setting up the groups. The option to have the NPC Companions would give a group of three players the option to try to run a trial with 9 NPC Companion Mercs (at the rate of 9K or more an hour). Their survivability might be low, but I think the option should be there for these players to give it a go if they so desire. Running through with a group of NPCs could be used as a way to have trial runs. Although it’s unlikely a group with a bunch of AI controlled NPCS would ever do well enough to be posted on the leaderboards, groups that have NPC Companions should be ineligible for leaderboard ranking. No matter how well they do.

And again, it should be crystal clear when an NPC Companion Merc is in a group and organizers need the option to automatically ignore groups with NPC Companions.

The main reason I am suggesting this is because finding a group, especially when lower than level 50, in ESO is an absolute chore. Players are on different quest lines, leveled dungeons makes it frustrating to try to find players ‘around your level’ who need to run through this dungeon or fight that area Boss.

Players that choose to use NPC Companion Mercenaries will be at a disadvantage when compared to those that group with other players or are playing solo. They will be spending a considerable amount of gold to hire these NPC and will level more slowly than if they go at it alone.

In the end, hiring NPC Companions will accomplish 2 things in ESO

• 1: It will provide some relief from the broken LFG system and empower players to PLAY the game instead of spending their time trying to find other players that just happen to be at the exact same point of progression and story.
• 2: It would be another gold-sink mechanic for ESO, something all MMO’s need.

Although I know this idea isn’t popular with many of those on this forum. I really think it is a tool that is needed in ESO. I have just outright skipped content because I can’t find anyone in the vicinity that needs to run a dungeon or would like to take down an anchor. I figure I’ll come back to it when I hit VR ranks but I sure would have liked the option to throw down 500 gold and hire an NPC Companion Merc to heal me for an hour.

Crown Shop:

The game could give us a small selection of metcenaries we can hire but ALSO offer the ability to buy "contracts" in the crown shop to have the capability to hire specific NPC Mercs in game. Have the contacts be a one time use item that will ALLOW us to hire that specific NPC using the mechanics as described.

Example: 750C for the ability to hire an Draugr warrior. When we go to the NPC hiring board, the Draugr would be a hirable option from then onward.

Thoughts?

Those anti-social people that don't want to play in groups, singleplayer content in AN EM EM OH, bla bla

Heromofo wrote: »

liammozzb16_ESO wrote: »

nerevarine1138 wrote: »

I mean, that's a whole lot of thought put in to a terrible idea. But it's still a terrible idea.

Substantive NPC assistance doesn't belong in MMOs, period.

*cough* SW:TOR *cough*

It was its best feature.

This plus its apart of the Elder Scrolls universe.

Gidorick wrote: »

It would be a different system @BigM. SWOTOR's followers are more long-term. This idea would be more of a per-quest hiring.

leshpar wrote: »

No No No No No No. Just no.

I used to play Neverwinter, and they have a companion feature in that game. In fact the game is designed around the fact you have that companion with you. They have a ton you can choose from. Horrible AI and lack of control makes them absolutely horrible though. They run off and aggro things on their own and they die to random cliffs and other things with no possibility to prevent it by the player.

On the roleplaying side having a companion cheapens the experience quite a bit. YOU are the hero. You should not have to share that glory with anyone ever. Now you're a team with a nameless nobody. Now you have to share credit with... it. No thank you.

Theosis wrote: »

one word...

Craglorn

If it wasn't for things like this Id say I'm not really on either side of this idea.

It is however very well thought out. With all the things put into this Id say put it in the game and people can choose whether or not they want a follower.

Davadin wrote: »

PS: If server and performance not an issue, I would *LOVE* to see population increase in ESO, even if half are just NPCs.......