I wasn't excited about the companions and am still super lukewarm on them. But of course I am trying them out because it's part of the game.

I expected all the clones, to go along with our bankers, merchants, pets, etc. so this doesn't bother me that much.

What I find MORE immersion breaking is having to dismiss them to use the banker or merchant. For example, I pre-make the food and alchemy writ stuff, and keep it in my bank. This WAS super convenient. But now it adds the step of dismissing and adding my adventurer friend. Every day, in the middle of a task I try to make as efficient as possible. And then, to re-summon, you're waving in mid-air like he/she is probably far away, but the companion was just gone for only two seconds. HOW FAR COULD THEY GO?

I do think what is making the problem worse than anything else in ESO is that they were designed to be out ALL THE TIME. If you want XP or rep gains or companion gear drops... they need to be there. There would be a lot less of them out if you could level them as if they were like an ability on our action bars... once unlocked, they level and you get gear drops regardless. People doing it for a full immersive companion could leave them out all the time... but those of use just wanting to use them for duo-ing dungeons or whatever would put them away when they weren't needed. But right now the companions feel like they level really slowly so I feel like I have to be super diligent about keeping them out. Even when I don't need them there.

SilverBride wrote: »

It would help if we could turn off the companion's names, rather than seeing "Joe Schmo's Companion" over their heads. Or is there already a way to do this?

Sadly, not specific to the Companions.

Alurria wrote: »

Stibbo wait here! This is officially the stibbo thread now. Sorry, I gave up on immersion personally long before companions.

I started that quest. Abandoned it 3 levels in. Will never do this annoying quest.

I am recovering my good nature instead of having murderous thoughts about Stibbo.

Everything in life has the potential for improvement but I think so far ZOS has done a grand job with companions. C'mon we can outfit them with the exception of helms, we can give them a unique mount or the same as we have. Or we can simply not use them.

As to seeing all the companions about, I fail to see why that is any more offensive than seeing all the bears looking the same (with 2 styles) or the clannfears etc. There are also a number of quests where you have a temporary companion/follower and you will see those when doing those games.

To be honest, if seeing other players... anything.... ruins the game, then an MMO is quite simply the wrong game to be playing. There are plenty of offline games... why not play one of those?

This game is never going to be able to please everyone, ever. It is about pleasing the majority.

Yep - I once set the music to be off in the settings file. It's amazing what you can hear that is in the game with no music playing.

In contrast to popular belief, immersion doesn't mean "things I dislike".

IMO the immersion comes from the storywriting, believable (fantasy) setting and world design. But besides that it also still has to be, you know, a functional videogame.

Now don't get me wrong, I hope they're adding the ability to use hairstyles/cosmetics on them too, or at least allow them to wear helmets! Or perhaps a few set 'appearances' for variety, like they have in that Star Wars game.

But in an MMO, no matter how well made, you'll invariably gonna see people with terrible names, terrible outfits and terrible colour choices. Personally I find Bastian clones much less visually offensive than most skins. If anything would break 'immersion' for me (tbh mine is unbreakable), chances are it's gonna be a an dromathra skinned orc dude in a lime green dress with sky blue lipstick, jester personality and a warden bear on his head, and not a handful of similar Bastian's.

Cloudtrader wrote: »

Luckylancer wrote: »

OP is right. Devs should had made faces of other people's bastians and miris randomised. 10 template for them, generation based on one of each player's hidden ID number or their account name chracter count.

Devs put low effort about this topic.

This. Faces and hairstyles of other peoples Companions should be a client-side random draw.

[snip] Can you imagine the uproar we'd have id instead of getting same pretty package for everyone we'd get randomly drawn one with no power over it? Player A gets a super cute bosmer girl but player B gets a short fat bald orc with blind eyes and 37 scars (plot twist: player A actually loves short fat orcs and hates bosmer)?

Companion customisation would be nice and will probably come eventually in onw form or another, but giving players randomly looking companions with no option to change them is a million times worse than the current system.

[Edited to remove Rude Comments]

Blacknight841 wrote: »

What we really need is the ability for each player to summon their banker, merchant, smuggler, companion, pet, mount and non combat pet all at the same time....that would make the "immersion"much better (neck deep in homogenous npc).

I would say that a lot of people would find this idea horrific, especially when all NPCs and pets would be visible - one player and a whole bunch of different companions and a whole zoo... And not to talk about what it would look like at the crafting tables.

How dare you think all dark elf companions look the same.

How dare you think all imperial companions look the same.

How come you assume that they all go by Mirri or Bastion?!?

Be woke bro, many of them wear different outfits now, some of them have face paint or cosmetic touches. Ignore the glaring fact that they can all have that fear inducing quest marker over their head.

In seriousness.... try to disassociate the companion names from those outside of your group, it helps immensely with immersion. They are just some other vestige of Molag's (which may or may not have 1v1 him for their soul back) companion. Their hair style is just in flavor atm. Once they overcome their claustrophobia and are able to done head gear, they'll just be another faceless toon running around and dying on your arse. (cannon fodder for soloing bosses, a brief respite to heal from a minor mistake, a cursing annoyance as you loot pots, ofc you hate me now for picking a bug when i was going for that backpack it just flew in front of)

Hell is other people. - Someone, Somewhen.