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A Flexible Companion Customization System


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Again, I have thought long and hard here.... and I apologize in advance to anyone mortally wounded/offended by the concepts! But, I keep running into three issues with MMO style companions: cloning, hard to get in time customizations, and a complete lack of handsome male non-human companions (female romance interests even including 1-night stands consist of 8 (pretty much) humans and the only ugly Cathar in the Galaxy)

 

1. Legacy unlock through CM a station on the Fleet that allows a player to completely customize any human(-ish) companion for about 10% of the price of the Player character (I am thinking 100,000 credits/or CC it translates into) into all species, Body types and cosmetic choices available to the player character.

 

2. Place all BioWARE character customization vendor with all non-CM customizations available on the Fleet at a premium cost (say 18,000 credits/equivalent CCs) . If possible, Core/Starting Worlds as well. :)

 

3. Provide a couple more sets of customizations for Aric that have a different face, not just a recolor. If that's possible for Ashara too... great!

 

4. Offer a CM pack with Alien customizations for all human (and cyborg) companions or make them available separately with the same pricing as premium companion customizations available through CM now.

 

5. A Nautolan for Guss Tuno as a premium companion customizations available through CM.

 

6. CM species change for Ashara to a human --> to open her to customization afterwards (I love her as Torguta but with so few customization options available to her & at least one person I know wanting her to be a human, well, I figured I'd add it!)

 

7. A variation for Vector with shiny empty eyes (like a Naut) instead of dull.

 

8. In the Nightlife event rewards, swap Tharan and Doc's customization or in compensation for not exactly attractive Doc Customization provide an attractive one, with a more... erm conventional hairstyle. If it can be Mirialian, that would be AWESOME!

 

9. Soundsets! Have alternative soundsets or special circumstances soundsets (i.e. married/in romance) available for purchase through customization terminal. Am I the only one who doesn't find it funny any longer that Iresso snaps at his beloved digital spouse?

 

10. Adding option for the customized companion new look to be unlocked for all the MainChars of that class.

Edited by DomiSotto
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I personally don't think you should be able to to change a companions race, however I would like to be able to personalise them more so that we don't have 1,000 Kira clones on the fleet, almost like a create a customisation similar to the appearance changer booth on the fleet and capital planet, where you would choose your preference of appearance and when you accept it would create a bound customisation item for you companions that you can equip your companion.
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I agree that changing a companion's race is a rather drastic step, so if it costly a person won't make it lightly, only if she/he really-really-really wants to. The other player's companion does not impact the game in the slightest. While changing Vette into a Chiss makes little sense, well, for someone it could be a funny-crazy diversion (sort of like absolutely whacky names people give their chars sometimes or dress them in strange attire), and changing Iresso into a Mirialian changes absolutely nothing at all, apart from adding a touch of zest to the play-through. :)

 

The key to me is not an argument between the players and/or Bio what each companion should or should not be, but to avoid it, allowing an individual player to make his or her own choice of what makes sense to him or her.

Edited by DomiSotto
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At a cantina event I had a similar request to a dev, and the response was basically that I had a cool idea, but he did not seem convinced that they should work on it instead of X (fill in the blank). Threads like this will help show that it is in demand.

 

What MY request was, was two different kinds of companion customization that are not mutually exclusive.

 

#1.

In the companion customization slot, allow us to purchase an "orange/moddable" customization item that can be equipped there. Opening up the item would have slots that we can add "mods" to. The internal slots of the item would be things like hair, body type, etc... If technically necessary, the orange item might have hard coded species and gender. You probably don't want to change the gender due to voice over work, but it would be nice to change the species. Allow us to buy "Companion body type #" for XX cartel coins and that plug that item into the slot of the orange item to slightly or majorly customize our companion.

 

#2.

Similar to Beta, let us change the role of our companions (why can't I make Kira heal?). Initially, the dev thought I meant change what weapon they used, which he was really against. Once he realized I meant role, he seemed to not be strongly against it as much as he was the weapon changing, but if I recall correctly he seemed to think there are much better things they can work on than allowing the roles to be changed.

 

Side note, I would love if I could change the weapons the companions use though. I think the Smuggler is a good example. I want Bowdaar to use a rifle, Gus to use a lightsaber and really heal me with jedi powers like a jedi sage, and for Akaavi to actually have some guns equipped that itch, because I hate hearing her say her guns itch when she doesn't have any.

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I like some of these ideas. I don't see companion customization on the level of character customization happening. It'd be cool, but impractical. However, Some customizations that change species could be cool. Now I admit that I hated the idea of companion customizations at first, but the clone issue made me realize that it's necessary. And why is it so bad to have the option of changing a companion's species if we're already changing their race?

 

I think that the customizations should still be logical though. I haven't gotten past the first chapter for any class besides the Sith Inquisitor, but I'll mention a few ideas about the companions I've encountered. Since I haven't finished many companion story lines, I'm lacking some info that could invalidate some of my observations.

 

SPOILERS AHEAD

 

Any companion with a relative that shows up in the game shouldn't have cross-species customizations. Corso's cousin being human when he's a cathar would be weird. Ashara's ancestor is clearly a togruta, so making her human would be odd - not impossible, but a bit hard to believe. And changing the appearance of these NPCs to change based on an equipped customization isn't going to happen.

Companions like Aric Jorgan specifically mention their species in dialogue, so species-altering options for them are out. Yes, they could probably alter that dialogue, but the difficulty of doing so (and figuring out how to do it) make it unlikely to happen. Bioware won't bother.

Obviously companions like Khem Val and T7-N1 that don't show equipped armor can't be changed into humans. If nothing else, that would alter their height, potentially causing issues with dialogue and combat animations. All we can do is hope for customizations that make them look very different, but still leave their species the same.

I think any companions that don't speak basic fall under this category as well. I mean, can you imagine how ridiculous it would be to see a human Bowdaar speaking Shyriiwook?

 

Now there are still plenty of companions that could have species-changing customizations. To my knowledge, Kira's never explicitly referred to as human. Assuming that's true, she could plausibly be a twi'lek, zabrak, mirialan. cathar, or miraluka. Any other playable species I think would be a bit more unusual in the Jedi Order, and wouldn't make quite as much sense story-wise.

Andronicus Revel could totally be any of the species Kira could be (although miraluka might be a bit odd) and I can see him as a chiss or rattataki as well. Considering his lack of background information, he could even be a non-playable species like togruta or nautolan.

Someone like Malavai Quinn, who has clear ties to the empire, would most likely be an Imperial-aligned species. Maybe chiss or zabrak, but I think he'd make a great sith pureblood. A sniveling, non-force sensitive pureblood trying to justify his existence seems fitting.

 

There could definitely be some exceptions. I know that Kaliyo specifically came from Rattatak, but she could be a hybrid similar to Aurra Sing. I'd imagine that Bioware would be able to use some cc options from other species for companion customizations. If that's true, they could give Kaliyo some hair (like a Mohawk, nothing to girly) or maybe give a few non-human companions human eye colors, hairstyles, or cybernetic enhancements.

 

This post got a bit longer than I anticipated, so sorry about that. But the lack of companion customization does suck. As much as I'd love to have fewer human companions, I also love for the non-human ones to get more variety. Honestly, Ashara needs options that don't just make her a clone of other NPCs. I also wouldn't mind some customizations that do or don't include "iconic" features. I wouldn't mind a few new customizations for Quinn that include his mole, but I'd also really love a look for Doc that doesn't include a mustache. I'm sorry but I can't stand beardless mustaches on my men.

 

And for non-playable species, let's at least make them a bit different than the NPCs. For example, if a female companion was going to be given a nautolan customization, I'd like it to be someone with body type 2. I've only seen female nautolans with body type 1. Same goes for togruta (of both genders) all being body type 2.

 

Long story short, please give use more variety!

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This request will address:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=745083

 

Thank you for comments, folks.

 

For me opening the customization to the player is the ideal solution, because it is the player who decides if the 1 min of dialogue where the species play a role is important to him/her. For example, it is easy for me to justify that Rona is related to Riggs by marriage (his uncle married a Human with a kid of her own) for the sake of having a handsome Twi'lek couple that makes the whole of Riggs' romance make sense, with his strong emphasis on settling down, having a family (i.e. having children that are not relatively genetically rare half-Twi'leks).

 

Cheers, and I am saddened by the comment that io doesn't think the feature important.

 

Darn, my poor, poor Knight.

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With some caveats (such as the availability of the particular face in SWTOR vs KOTOR) can be used to (at least partially) satisfy this request (in other words Zenith is in the realm of possibility, Bao-Dur can be relatively closely matched, but not Satele, since she has the only recognizably Oriental female face in the game):

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=745069

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Again, a weekly repeat of the humble request to please consider in one way or another adding more options for companion customizations.

 

My latest addition is specifically for Nightlife event rewards. (Firs post edited to include)

 

In the Nightlife event rewards, swap Tharan and Doc's customization or in compensation for not exactly attractive Doc Customization provide an attractive one, with a more... erm conventional hairstyle. If it can be Mirialian, that would be AWESOME!

Edited by DomiSotto
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I like the idea that you can change your companions from human to alien and the other way around.

Never liked the aliens anyway (except Blizz :D )

 

Also they could create a ''companion-bank'' where you can ''store'' some of them. If they add any more. otherwise your whole ship/stronghold is going to be full on companions.

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