I believe the companions will have something of a story arc to them so that wouldn't really work with using "alts". Further, some people don't like to create multiple characters so they wouldn't have any "alts". Finally, it doesn't make sense if your "friend" uses your char while you are offline, but what happens as soon as you log in? He loses his companion? Also what if you have a multitude of friends. Who gets to use your char? No, it's just not gonna work.

I would settle for Alts as house guests or residents.

Nairinhe wrote: »

Syldras wrote: »

kind_hero wrote: »

Companions is a nice idea for casual players, but from what I have seen so far, we only get a couple of NPCs which are predefined.

Two so far. But if they really want to make a romance system out of it, there's probably a dozen or more to come later. It's impossible that everyone just marries Naryu or Razum-Dar, after all

My biggest gripe with companions/romance options is that the characters we already know and like the most are often unavailable

Only a matter of time before popular characters appear as companions in the crown store.

Syldras wrote: »

kind_hero wrote: »

Companions is a nice idea for casual players, but from what I have seen so far, we only get a couple of NPCs which are predefined.

Two so far. But if they really want to make a romance system out of it, there's probably a dozen or more to come later. It's impossible that everyone just marries Naryu or Razum-Dar, after all

kind_hero wrote: »

How about having alts as companions in the future? Or allowing a friend to have one of our chars as a companion when we are offline?

They once said that even placing your alts als guests in your home wouldn't be possible do to technical reasons. So wandering around with them as companions seems even unlikelier.

I remember this awesome mod for Skyrim which allowed you to have your alts as companions. It was great. Yeah, I know, this is not Skyrim, it is a MMO which makes things much more complicated. TBH, the whole argument of technical reasons doesn't discourage me from proposing such an idea, because most technical issues can be resolved with skill and ingenuity. There was a time when you could not have a photo camera in a phone because of technical reasons, now you can have 5 and shoot in 8k. Same for technical reasons the map of the game has to be this small, yet with time games offered larger and larger worlds, it is all down to how much the devs care about implementing a feature or not.

The companion does not seem useful to me, so then at least it should be interesting or fun to have. In Skyrim, Lydia could carry stuff or do certain actions for me, but the inventory was where the companion helped the most. So maybe if the companion could carry some stuff for you, even 10 slots, it would be something to use. Otherwise the solo content is so easy that you barely need gear to do stuff.

I like this idea.

Guild Wars 1 does this. You buy a template from the store, log into the character you want to copy and speak to an NPC and a copy of them is placed into the template, with the same appearence and name as that character. Then they can be set as a companion (or hero, as they call them) for any character except that one (so you can't have your own clone following you).

You have to set their skills and give them weapons and armour like any other companion, and of course they don't have their own storylines or dialogue during missions. But it's a way to let players customise their companions, instead of the developers having to constantly add loads of new ones to try to meet all the requests.

kind_hero wrote: »

The only thing that worries me about companions is if they will follow players in towns, like banks or around crafting areas. Not only they will block npcs or stations, but it will be annoying to see multiple copies of the same npc follower.

In some quests, there are also (temporary) followers. If you see another player doing the same quest, you do not see the NPC. You will see a generic description as a name, like soldier or mercenary or some such.

And I am pretty confident that it will be like this. After all the system is already in place and is proven to work well.

But maybe they will rethink their position on pets in public spaces with the new system for companions. After all it has been complained about for years and at the moment ZOS seems to be making a serious effort to resolve long standing issues and imbalances. Which I find awesome.

It would be cool if we could at least customize their appearance. If Bastian is going to look like how he looked in the teaser, I could make a way cooler and more interesting looking Imperial dude especially if I could use all of my unlocked hairstyles, markings, etc to do so.

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

kind_hero wrote: »

The only thing that worries me about companions is if they will follow players in towns, like banks or around crafting areas. Not only they will block npcs or stations, but it will be annoying to see multiple copies of the same npc follower.

In some quests, there are also (temporary) followers. If you see another player doing the same quest, you do not see the NPC. You will see a generic description as a name, like soldier or mercenary or some such.

And I am pretty confident that it will be like this. After all the system is already in place and is proven to work well.

But maybe they will rethink their position on pets in public spaces with the new system for companions. After all it has been complained about for years and at the moment ZOS seems to be making a serious effort to resolve long standing issues and imbalances. Which I find awesome.

Yes, you can see this in some delves, like Wormroot Depths where you are followed by Abnur Tharn in the main quest so you see other players with an guild mage follower who makes sense as he is dressed like an mage.

However as we can gear up followers I think they will look different. at least in gear.

Another problem with the alts as companions would be that they would simply be "speechless" like a pet. And with the new companions, as far as I can see it, its also about experiencing new content while interacting with them. Beside that, my chars cannot meet each other, they experience similar things in a parallel world...

Yes, that would be without meaning, as would be the idea of the alts as house guests. It would feel like visiting Madame Tussauds...

I thought I had read that other players only see the companions as "neutral NPC" anyway, the equipment then only remains interesting for you.

Syldras wrote: »

You couldn't even excuse it with them being busy (cooking, sweeping the floor,..

That would also be beneath their dignity. Oh, wait, but I didn't say that now...

Syldras wrote: »

Your main doesn't cook?

No, of course not, he only eats the meat fresh and uncooked

Soon there will be no more worries anyway, since there should come an Argonian with the name "Cooks-many-Soups" or something like that.

kind_hero wrote: »

Companions is a nice idea for casual players, but from what I have seen so far, we only get a couple of NPCs which are predefined.

How about having alts as companions in the future? Or allowing a friend to have one of our chars as a companion when we are offline?

that would be perfect, i hope the developers do this.