When I first learned about the companion characters in Stars Wars the Old Reblic, I was against the idea of these NPC characters contributing to the gameplay in such a way that they would replace real players. Companion characters crafting for you and contributing a great deal to the story, however, have been two ideas I’ve always been behind yet never fully appreciated until recently.
As Bioware releases more information about the companion characters, I’m quickly changing my tune.
I recently finished playing ME1&2 and I’m working through DA:O. The companion characters are, as Bioware says, a powerful story-telling-tool. I’m excited to customize my companion character. I hope that I can work on/with my companion enough to show him/her off to my friends in a “hey, look what my companion can do” sort of way.
I’m on this kick lately to shed the chains of oppressive content-completion mechanics. I wrote just the other day about multiple guilds, or no guilds at all, being something I seriously want to experience.  A few months ago I would have fumed at the idea of a companion character replacing someone in a group… but now I think I like the idea. My recent experiences with raiding might be to blame. We struggled to fill those last few slots and would frequently have to cancel the whole night. It goes back to that “my guild isn’t doing anything” crap when it should be “I’m not doing anything.”
Being realistic, I don’t expect companion characters to fill slots in raids; however, I am open to the idea.  And again, this might have to do with the fact that I am not looking at SWTOR as a MMORPG; I’m telling myself it’s a multiplayer Bioware rpg. In short, companion characters look cool and I’m fine with however Bioware wants to implement them. Bring them on. Bring on something new(ish) to the table.  My mind is open.
[…] of companion characters is one of those things that I’ve really looked forward to in SWTOR. Unlike some, it’s never been a concern that they would take the place of real players. You can only have […]
SWtOR will do very well because we are all going into it with the same mindset. We aren’t expecting an MMO, we won’t get an MMO. Everyone that goes into it expecting a single player RPG with some multiplayer elements will be sated because Bioware can do single player RPGs. Companion characters are just one of the many tools that Bioware have always used in their games. It really is a good way to make games from Bioware’s point of view. . .”I don’t care what an MMO is, I know what kind of games we do well, lets stick to that and bend the definition to that.”
I think of it as: Massive Multiplayer Co-op RPG (MMCORPG) or Massive Co-Op RPG (MCORPG)
I don’t believe there will be as much customization as you hope. They mentioned that there are customization kits, so there might only be a limited amount of customization options. As for skills, from what it looked like it was a toggling system, so I don’t know if it will be as responsive as they mentioned. Hopefully they will implement even more customization as we go though.
Probably right. At this point, at least I’m happy that I have come to terms with the idea and that I am willing to embrace it. It’s all on them now.
At this point in time, Companions will not be in either operations(raids) or instanced pvp. If you have a full group for a 4 man dungeon then there won’t be companions but you can try and bring them with you, it will however make the experience more difficult.
I think the companions will add a great dimension to at least the leveling up experience which has always severely lacked in many MMOs. I thoroughly enjoyed having them in Mass Effect 2 and wished there were more ways to customize them there. Minsc and his pet were my favorite of any of their games. They just add an atmosphere to the solo environment that otherwise is lacking.
Also from listening to their lead pvp/end-game pve designer it seems that we haven’t even seen half of the 4-man dungeons they will have yet and that there will be heroic version of the early 4-man dungeons. Companions won’t have much bearing on end game play except for the daily type quests that they will implement on some of the planets (namely Ilum).
Companion characters or not, it all still reeks of themepark.
I’m excited for them. It really hasn’t been explored in MMOs that I can think of. I guess you can think of it as everyone being a pet class, but it still goes back to their design of trying to make it a story-based MMO. I mean, I know people that really get into having their own virtual pets in other MMOs, even when they can’t talk or contribute! Having all your companions with unique stories, unique takes on every situation you get into, and even romance options, people who have enjoyed pet classes in the past should probably be very, very excited, at least for the leveling experience. Might be awkward if someone is so attached they want to bring them to a group while everyone else just wants to final member though…
I was also kind of surprised when I learned that every class has it’s own unique companions. It was something that sort of caught me off guard. I’m fairly certain that this game will have me leveling every single class, or at least one of each of the archetypes. I can even get over my distaste for the sith by going light-sided! From what they show so far, it looks like the sith classes have some of the more interesting companions.
I read this and immediately thought of:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/09/gaming-everything-is-amazing-and-no-one-is-happy.ars
I mean…40 companions? 5 for each class? I really don’t care about the genre anymore…and haters go on and hate…but this game is really starting to look fun.
Sorry to disappoint you, but they are weak even for low level instances and cannot really replace real players. I did not play any raid at that time, but I can’t imagine using them. The level of the instances is quite high (but it may change at release) and you really need all CC available to get rid of the (lot of) trash mobs.
Think of instances as they were implemented in Vanilla WoW and you won’t be far off mark.
For the solo game play, it ‘s just: I’m a DPS, select a tank, be a tank select a…DPS/Healer. At low level, you may want to use that rule. At higher level, if you are a ranged DPS you may want simply want another ranged DPS to get rid of enemy faster. And you’ll send him (or her) on crafting mission, simply to avoid having it around in hubs.
If you find the game insanely too simple, just play alone, it will roughly double the difficulty as enemies are always in packs (3 to 5). My character was able to mez 3 enemies at a time.
For the interaction in the ship, think Mass Effect: talking (nicely) will open new quests lines. What is quite unclear is sometimes how to speak “nicely”.
My suggestion is to play it with a friend. It will open almost everything the game has to offer.
Ocelot: So I can abandon plans of duoing with my girlfriend and using companions to take on instances? Damn, oh well. Won’t be too hard to find two more I suppose.
The linked video looks pretty good actually – combat is still too static but things seem to have move on from the last crop of clips I saw.
And now we have the release date: 22nd of December.
Ocelot explained it nicely. You cant do instances with the companions. Its great to have them to be able to fill that last spot you don’t want to wait for but I have found most of the 2+ instances are actually 3+ and 4 instances and heroics are 3+. Only thing required is that the healer be a player and not a companion. Tank companions are more then enough to take on the boss’s as long as you have a healer player.
I’ve been in the closed beta since August. The game is a blast, and companions are a lot of fun. And no, a companion healer is not going to be able to keep the group up in a tough instance. But, they’re serviceable when soloing. Which is what you want, you don’t want them replacing players.