COMPANIONS - Issues that must be solved!

dPilgrim · May 2021

1. Inventory - they should have their own inventory shared between them.
2. Aggression - they climb the aggro ladder way too fast and loose their usefullness as dead corpses.
3. Pathing - they often "hide"/get stucked behind objects doing nothing
4. Movement - players should be able to order to stand still on a spot for many reasons. Range companions should be placeable to be fully usable. They could be used for plate triggers .. the two reasons I come to think of right now.
5. Crowding - there is already too much pets around in certain areas like proximity of targetable objects and in hubs like towns. Thet should be automatically be dismissed under those circumstances.
6. Talkativness - they should automatically shut up when other NPC's are talking.

Discuss.
More issues?

BalticBlues · May 2021

Good list. The Inventory pain indeed deserves the 1st place.

However, on 2nd place probably comes Equipment. The old ESO days are LONG GONE where we had to run dungeons/arenas for MONTHS to get one particular gear trait. Players told these days good riddance. Companion gear needs crafting tables where traits can be learned to make craftable companion gear later.

Aggression is an interesting topic. Aggression should go to the combat opening player - this usually is the human player. Aggression should only go to the companion if they are the first to attack a target, for example a spawning mob, or if they use a taunt skill.

Pathing and Movement also are important. There is a command to make a companion ATTACK a specific target. On keyboard and mouse you can do this by holding the “Y” key and left- or right-clicking, or on controller by pressing the L3+R3 buttons along with the left or right bumper. We should be able to use the same command to POSITION our companion where we want him/her to stand if there is no enemy at the target position.

Roll-Dodge
Currently wounded companions simply roll-dodge away from red areas. It would be smarter if they would roll-dodge right behind the player's back. This way players could better protect companions from incoming attacks. This also could prevent companions to roll-dodge out of the combat area and reset the boss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5EDA7ZN4PQ

jwellsub17_ESO2 · May 2021

dPilgrim wrote: »

1. Inventory - they should have their own inventory shared between them.
...
3. Pathing - they often "hide"/get stucked behind objects doing nothing
4. Movement - players should be able to order to stand still on a spot for many reasons. Range companions should be placeable to be fully usable. They could be used for plate triggers .. the two reasons I come to think of right now.
...
6. Talkativness - they should automatically shut up when other NPC's are talking.

Agree

2. Aggression - they climb the aggro ladder way too fast and loose their usefullness as dead corpses.

I have seen a lot of people say this, but from my testing this is not really the case. I have been running mostly with a lightning staff and I don't seem to have any issues peeling mobs off my companions. In fact, duing some of the testing, I let my companion pull and solo the mob for about 70% of the mobs health and can still peel it off without any real difficulty.

5. Crowding - there is already too much pets around in certain areas like proximity of targetable objects and in hubs like towns. Thet should be automatically be dismissed under those circumstances.

They will need to have a way to perform the guild quest turn-in (required to level guild skill lines) and outfitting (required for multiple achievements), but yeah I am having nightmares of Alinor crafting area / banking area this time next month.

EDIT: Fixed typo

jwellsub17_ESO2 · May 2021

BalticBlues wrote: »

Pathing and Movement also are important. There is a command to make a companion ATTACK a specific target. On keyboard and mouse you can do this by holding the “Y” key and left- or right-clicking, or on controller by pressing the L3+R3 buttons along with the left or right bumper. We should be able to use the same command to POSITION our companion where we want him/her to stand if there is no enemy at the target position.

I have said a couple times that to me this is the single biggest issue with companions at present. I can't really see a great way to manage positioning with the current control mechanics, but ZOS really needs to come up with a better solution to that what they have given us.

Most ESO mobs use directional damage allocations and we can take advantage of that with our companions, but it takes a lot of attention to do so. We really need a better positioning system than what we have for this reason alone.

tomofhyrule · May 2021

BalticBlues wrote: »

Roll-Dodge
Currently wounded companions simply roll-dodge away from red areas. It would be smarter if they would roll-dodge right behind the player's back. This way players could better protect companions from incoming attacks. This also could prevent companions to roll-dodge out of the combat area and reset the boss.

I would much rather the Companions don't roll dodge behind the player. I know they are not supposed to know the first thing about running in group content, but I'd prefer they avoid positioning themselves behind the tank at any opportunity. It's hard enough to keep them alive.

Sure, if the Companion is tanking that'd work, but not every player needs a companion to tank for them.

It would be nice if we could set a role with some basic AI for them instead. Yeah, we can give them some skills from each of the roles, but it would be nice if there was a preset AI for each basic role that we could make sure they had - a tank AI would favor blocking and holding still if possible on the opposite side of an enemy, a healer AI would stay back behind the player, and a DD would stay at the proper range for their weapon and avoid red (bonus mode, they'd come in to cast melee skills and then get back out)

cyberjanet · May 2021

BalticBlues wrote: »

However, on 2nd place probably comes Equipment. The old ESO days are LONG GONE where we had to run dungeons/arenas for MONTHS to get one particular gear trait. Players told these days good riddance. Companion gear needs crafting tables where traits can be learned to make craftable companion gear later.

First Place.

If the pre-purchase came with a full set of companion armour, I could still consider it.

jwellsub17_ESO2 · May 2021

cyberjanet wrote: »

If the pre-purchase came with a full set of companion armour, I could still consider it.

Not to be funny, but you do realize that you can buy a full set of companion armor with weapons included for around 3,000 gold right? There are armor and weapon venders who sell it and in fact the companions come with a complete set.

No, the real complaint that people have is about the way the actual sets drop. There are 1300+ discrete pieces that can drop from any elite+ mob in the game. When you get a piece of gear, and it really isn't all that rare, you have a 1 in 1300+ chance of getting the one you want / need. There is no obvious way to farm or select the piece you want.

There will be people within the first week with fully purple kitted companions in the traits that they want, but they will be spending millions of gold to do it.

crazepdx · May 2021

jwellsub17_ESO2 wrote: »

cyberjanet wrote: »

If the pre-purchase came with a full set of companion armour, I could still consider it.

Not to be funny, but you do realize that you can buy a full set of companion armor with weapons included for around 3,000 gold right? There are armor and weapon venders who sell it and in fact the companions come with a complete set.

No, the real complaint that people have is about the way the actual sets drop. There are 1300+ discrete pieces that can drop from any elite+ mob in the game. When you get a piece of gear, and it really isn't all that rare, you have a 1 in 1300+ chance of getting the one you want / need. There is no obvious way to farm or select the piece you want.

There will be people within the first week with fully purple kitted companions in the traits that they want, but they will be spending millions of gold to do it.

The white gear you buy from city vendors doesn't have traits.

Assuming a 20% drop rate, 3 classes of gear, 3 quality levels, 10 traits, 11 gear slots= 1 in 5000, well 4950 to be exact. You are correct it's going to cost millions to equip them. Guild vendors and resellers/ flippers are going to have a field day. Because of the low drop rate they will be able to set the price for companion gear. It's going to be horrible.

Leogon · May 2021

dPilgrim wrote: »

5. Crowding - there is already too much pets around in certain areas like proximity of targetable objects and in hubs like towns. Thet should be automatically be dismissed under those circumstances.

I see bankers and merchants everywhere so it won't really be any different since you can't have one of them out at the same time as your companion. Also, if companions are going to be automatically dismissed half the time(in towns and in our houses), we might as well not use them at all. I can't believe I'm going to say this but "muh immersion" and I'm not even a RPer so imagine how those players feel about this. Make them visible only to the player or his/her group, that'll make everyone happy.