freespirit wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

freespirit wrote: »

LunaFlora wrote: »

Anifaas wrote: »

Kind of disappointing that the companions don't launch with the expansion. What's the hold up?

whatever the reason is, update 44 is likely a completely base game update so the new companions would be available to everyone which would be awesome.

Update 44 is stated to be PVP related I believe,

I suspect the new companion's starter quests will however be located within the bounds of Gold Road, it would be awesome if they were base game though!

Edit:- Ofc they could also be a "new" type of companion available in PVP and their quests could be in Cyrodiil...... the reaction to that would be hilarious!! 🤣

Haha Companions would have to be summonable in Cyrodiil then, which certainly won’t happen for a number of reasons!

It was tongue in cheek and yes imagine the poor servers with all those companions running amok in Cyro!!

However thinking on my other point of suspecting their quests would be located within Gold Road....... now that could easily be used as a late in year method of generating more Chapter sales, couldn't it??

The only obstacle I can imagine with that approach (adding Companion quests to Chapter zones post-release) would be that the Companions themselves probably couldn't show up at the "end-of-chapter party". I don't know if there's a more precise term for it, but the final quest in every Chapter's storyline (including those which are split into two parts, like the story of Northern Elsweyr and Southern Elsweyr) involves some sort of celebration, in which you can catch up with that zone's quest NPCs who you have helped, to see how their situation has improved since you've helped them.

In the case of Companions, you can actually talk to the Companions you've helped at these celebrations; for instance, in High Isle, you can find an NPC version of Isobel Veloise and Ember if you don't have them as your active Companion, and you can talk to them to catch up with them. Likewise, Sharp-as-Night can be found at the party in the Telvanni Peninsula, while Azandar al-Cybiades can be found at the party in Apocrypha.

So, if the plan is to introduce more quests to a zone after the zone's release, how would the traditional celebration work? Would the two 2024 Companions be inserted into the Gold Road celebration quest (presuming one exists, as I've been keeping away from spoilers until the Chapter launches) after the Chapter has been released? Would those Companions instead be added to some base game zone like the Infinite Archive or somewhere else, and just not have a celebration to go to?

It's a mystery either way, but maybe this would suggest that quests just wouldn't be added to DLC zones in post, as it'd require a reserved spot in the celebration room for the new quest NPCs (the Companions in question), not to mention a place in the zone itself to serve as the starting point for their questlines.

Nerouyn wrote: »

LunaFlora wrote: »

whatever the reason is, update 44 is likely a completely base game update so the new companions would be available to everyone which would be awesome.

Not necessarily.

Updates can and have included both base game and chapter / DLC exclusive stuff.

The only reason I can imagine for them doing what you suggest is if they plan to change their business model, i.e. make companions free for everyone.

As I mentioned recently in another topic, I still see many players without companions which means a lot of people who don't own Blackwood and / or aren't subscribed. There probably aren't many potential players left who would buy it and haven't already so it might make sense to make it free, like the Imperial City DLC.

Or maybe just make these next two companions free with the hope it encourages sales of the other chapters with companions.

i know.

but look at last year and what we know about this year.
update 39 and 40 were completely base game.
update 43 is similar to 39 but also focuses on housing.
44 has a pvp feature and 2 new companions but as it has not been referred to as DLC i am likely right.


also you don't need Blackwood to get the current companions. you only need Blackwood for Mirri and Bastian.
you can get the current companions by simply having access to their respective chapters.
i am not suggesting they make Blackwood or the other chapters free.

edited to add:

if update 44 is completely base game then the 2 new companions will be free. not all companions, just these new 2.

Erickson9610 wrote: »

TybaltKaine wrote: »

A Necro companion would be fun, but I imagine it would also be a headache inducing nightmare to have a companion using skills in a town that gets the player a bounty.

Bounty meter appears because a companion used a Necro skill to aggressively target and eliminate a chicken you fired a shot at in passing is going to be a meme all over the various boards/discords.

It wouldn't make sense that the player gets a bounty for something the Companion does.

I got a bounty from Bastian killing a civilian.
I cast blastbones in view of some townsfolk, they turned hostile and attacked. Bastian, not me, fought and killed one. My bounty went up.

For as long as we get an orc companion and they don't make them a vampire, I'll be more than happy.

update 44 hasn't been referred to as dlc though so as far as we know q4 doesn't have an expansion

The whole thing has me worried.

The four races (bosmer, nord, high elf, and orc) I was waiting on since they introduced companions, and now they are changing things up. I can’t help but think they are going to place them behind some top end grind, or do another thing that may make them nearly impossible to get.

They are such a casual friendly addition to the game and I can’t help but feel they are going to do something I will regret.

I hope one of the companions keepsake buffs makes monster treasure have a higher drop rate. The things that are unique to the type of species and sell for 250 gold

Lady_Titania wrote: »

LunaFlora wrote: »

update 44 hasn't been referred to as dlc though so as far as we know q4 doesn't have an expansion

To be clear, Gold road is the new expansion.

As they stated prior they are changing the way they are releasing content so it wont be the predictable Q1 dungeons, Q2 expansion, Q3 dungeons & Q4 DLC. For all we know, it could be 1 zone divided into 2 areas similar to Elswyer, but we cant get into the second half of the zone until we complete the first half.

Q4 will be a PvP system and the new companions. It won't be a zone. They said they wanted to not do questing for a bit in Q4 in favor of new systems.

Q1 and Q2 will be same as always. Q3 will be QOL changes. Q4 will be new systems.

Nerouyn wrote: »

LunaFlora wrote: »

also you don't need Blackwood to get the current companions. you only need Blackwood for Mirri and Bastian.

Sorry I didn't realise and assumed it worked the same as antiquities, psijic etc. I only recently bought all everything post Greymoor in the GR bundle.

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

I just desperately hope that the unlocking doesn't get longer, as with the last 2.

Doing them all at once as I have been and for 20+ characters, yes, they really do get longer.

The only advantage I can see to the lengthier more recent ones is the ability for less advanced accounts to solo the public dungeons - especially the group events - more easily.

Both Az and Sharp can be detoured in that direction before completing their quests and even with my great gear and high CP I don't think I've managed to solo the Necrom public dungeon group event yet. The Apocrypha one is easier. Though I've not tried again since both gearing and levelling up my companions. I started my companion'ing with Az and Sharp.

You are correct that the Telvanni Public Dungeon is almost impossible, at least for me. I didn't keep Sharp around to try it, but I did manage it on a single character with another there to help.

The one in Apocrypha is much simpler, especially if the character can do any burst damage.

Much more of a pain though since I it has harder to find others running these. Fortunately they are not required for the companion, but I could see them pushing that next time. This is really annoying.

Could we get a Pet Sorc companion? A Warden one with a bear?

How about a straight up brawler Senche-raht like Caska?

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

Could we get a Pet Sorc companion? A Warden one with a bear?

I doubt we will get Companions who have pets/summons of their own — steps were taken to actively avoid including pets in the Companion Class toolkits, such as the Companion Sorcerer skill lines just using the heal component of Winged Twilight (in an ability called Quick Fix) without the need to have the pet. It's also possible to design a Companion Necromancer without any summon or corpse requirement (see my 2nd post in this thread) so I doubt we will get a Companion Necromancer with summons.

I do believe that when ZOS repeats Companion Classes, their skill lines will remain the same as the original Companion with that Class, save for the Racial passives if the Companion's Race is different than the original. The Companions Q&A also explicitly states that Companion Ultimates are unique to the Companion, so after all 7 Classes have been covered, only the Ultimate will be unique to each Companion; not the rest of the Class skills.