LalMirchi wrote: »

Another vote for Abnur Tharn and also the talking skull from the Psijic quests. Sassy, sarcastic and acerbic, what's not to like?

Add to those two: Elam Drals.

The chances of meeeting Thaddeus Cosma are quite great. A time traveler whom we met in Apocrypha. That is one of the most memorable character and not least because of the outlook!

Minnesinger wrote: »

The chances of meeeting Thaddeus Cosma are quite great. A time traveler whom we met in Apocrypha. That is one of the most memorable character and not least because of the outlook!

You can also meet him in the public dungeon in Blackreach, under Western Skyrim! It was really nice to see him again in Apocrypha. I suspect he'll return another time in the future.

Syldras wrote: »

Why? They are supposed to lead their own life when not summoned by the player character. Why would there not be new developments and new things they could need or want a close friend to help them with? We have returning characters in the game all the time.

I for one have been wondering what happened to Mirri's family after the end of the questline. All it takes to elaborate on that would be a new dialogue popping up from Mirri about having received a letter from her mother, for example.

Agreed! After all, in multiple companion quest lines, the player character and their companion have managed to annoy some powerful people. Even though you end up defeating a few of them, why wouldn't the surviving members of those groups want revenge?

That, or a whole new misadventure might occur. Characters like Quistley Silvelle aren't exactly paragons of good judgement, and Mirri's mother and the rest of her family seem inclined to get themselves into trouble. I wouldn't doubt that Mirri would come to the player to ask for assistance again, and Bastian, with great reluctance, might have to deal with matters regarding Quistley.

I've also always wanted to see Bastian get elaborated on. There is a lot they could work with concerning his father's past and how it's effected the way people see Bastian. I think it would be interesting to see some kind of quest line where Bastian is framed for a treasonous act he did not commit, and the player character has to assist him in proving his innocence- all while fielding the accusations of people who find it easy to use Bastian as a scapegoat because of who his father was.

Syldras wrote: »

To add to that: Didn't ZOS already confirm that they want to add to old companions? When they said they also have romance in mind?

Or do I only remember my own interpretation that they meant quests and not only new voice lines or so?

Here's what the Companions Q&A (dated August 14, 2023) says:

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Q: Will older companions (Bastion and Mirri)) ever be updated to have more dialog and quests?

TM: I can’t go into too much detail regarding our future plans, but I can say that we have big ideas on how we can expand the Companion system in the future, and those ideas certainly involve revisiting Bastian and Mirri!

***

Then later, here's what the Gold Road AUA (dated May 29, 2024) adds to that:


So with the Companions Q&A in 2023, there were future plans to "expand the Companions system". This doesn't necessarily have to mean specifically dialogue and quests, as the user asked in the question. Maybe in 2024 we already saw some examples of how the Companions system as a whole was expanded — Zerith-var and Tanlorin have a lot more dialogue for when the player does specific actions, such as harvest a particular kind of resource node. The Keepsakes also received a significant improvement in utility compared to previous Companions.

We also saw a lot of developments to the combat aspect of Companions with those two — Zerith-var proves that not all Khajiit Companions share the same Racial Passives, and his Necromancer skills utilize the Corpse system, while Tanlorin proves that Classes can be repeated (using the same skill line names, where the skills within can either be identical, a different "morph", or a different skill from the Player version of that Class) and proves that other skill lines (in this case, Soul Magic) can be given to Companions and use Passive Abilities to create Active Abilities, and Class skill lines can be swapped out for other skill lines (such as Companion Dragonknight's "Ardent Warrior" being swapped for "Empathic Fighter").


And with the Gold Road AUA in 2024, we see that ZOS is still interested in old Companions, but time and resources are a significant factor. This could be why older Companion abilities haven't been balanced since their creation. ZOS does say that 2024's Companions were moved to Update 44 so they could get the level of polish they needed — and just looking at all the ways I've mentioned above about how the Companions system was improved with Zerith-var and Tanlorin, I'd say it was well worth it.


So, an update for older Companions probably isn't off the table. I want to stress that I'd hate if we skipped a year of new Companions just to get a miniscule update for our existing Companions — a lot of people were disappointed that they didn't get the Companion they were looking for this year (especially since we don't have a Bosmer, Orc, or Nord Companion yet), and I'm personally still looking forward to whenever ZOS tackles the Werewolf skill line for a Companion. It's a fine line to walk, trying to appease both the players who want updates to existing Companions and the players who want more Companions, if time and resources restrict one or the other.

It'd be cool to get a whole quarter dedicated to just a revamp of the Companions system (mainly regarding combat) with 2 new Companions and updates to existing Companions. I wouldn't use the romance feature if they ever added one, but that would be a great opportunity to add some new dialogue and quests to every Companion. Though, there wouldn't be much that update for players who don't use Companions at all, unless something else was also worked on.

Minnesinger wrote: »

The chances of meeeting Thaddeus Cosma are quite great. A time traveler whom we met in Apocrypha. That is one of the most memorable character and not least because of the outlook!

My feeling is that Cosma was a teaser for some future content. Whether we actually see this content is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. It might take them years from the time they decide to do it before we actually see it, anyway.

Skordo the Knife, Elam Drals, Rynkyus and Abnut Tharn are my favorites, and I would love to see them again.