I'm really hoping this window gets an overhaul soon, because right now, it's a total mess. There are just way too many categories, and simply finding the companion you want is way more annoying than it has any reason to be.

 

 

1. The Alliance Alerts should be moved to a separate tab, and please let us silence ones we have no intention of completing. Like, I don't care about Qyzen Fess, so I'm not going to bother with his recruitment mission on all of my alts. But having a single active alert means that the icon will be flashing forever. Also, having to scroll past alerts that I don't care about whenever I open the window is lame. Just move them to a new tab within the window, and let us track or untrack them like we do with missions.
    
   
2. Next we have all of the companions we can summon. I'll use my Smuggler as an example. On this character, I bypassed kotfe/kotet and jumped straight to Ossus. So first, I have, under "Main Characters", a giant list of Influence 1 companions that I don't care about and never intend to use. Then I've got a tab of Other Followers, another tab of Companions, a third tab for Companions: Smuggler, and a FOURTH tab for Recruited Companions. Best part is that my class companions are scattered across these tabs. Guss Tuno and Bowdarr are in Other Followers, Risha and Corso are in "Companions: Smuggler", and Akaavi Spar is in "Recruited Companions". Just.... why? These tabs could easily be condensed into one or two.
    
   
3. Please give us some sort options. So the companions we have available are currently scattered across five or six categories, and within each category, they are sorted alphabetically. Please, let us sort the *entire* list companions both alphabetically and by Influence. This would dramatically reduce the difficutly of finding a specfic companion.
    
   
4. Finally, we've got the list of contacts. Some were never available as companions, others were temporary companions, while still others are companiosn that have left and not returned. Alliance Specialists in particular should be moved with the Alliance Alerts to a new tab. The old companions that can't be summoned normally, but are available from the Odessen terminal could get their own tab, or just be moved to the same tab as the Alliance Alerts. Basically, any character that isn't available to be summoned should be moved so they aren't making the list longer and more difficult to scroll through.
   

 

 

tl;dr: Move everything but the actual companions we can summon out of the first tab of the Companions and Contacts window, give us some sort options to help find companions, and let us stop tracking Alerts we don't intend to finish so the icon finally stops blinking.

Edited September 18, 2019 by Delta_V

tl;dr: Move everything but the actual companions we can summon out of the first tab of the Companions and Contacts window, give us some sort options to help find companions, and let us stop tracking Alerts we don't intend to finish so the icon finally stops blinking.

 

Yes please.

Well said, took the words right outta my mouth. The whole thing is beyond silly now.

Sort companions by influence and a toggle to select favorites.

Option to remove unwanted companions.

Get rid of that stupid blinking alert icon.

Completely agree with everything, especially the option to silence the eternally blinking icon for the alerts I'll never complete, but even if they just added a search field at the top of the list so we could just type the name of the comp we want it would be a huge improvement over the current situation.

Sort companions by influence and a toggle to select favorites.

Option to remove unwanted companions.

 

This would be an especially useful feature tied to the Crew Skills companion tab for those of us that do "recruit" everybody but don't want to bother increasing the influence on anyone but the eight favorite companions.

This would be an especially useful feature tied to the Crew Skills companion tab for those of us that do "recruit" everybody but don't want to bother increasing the influence on anyone but the eight favorite companions.

 

Part of if not wholly reason for why some players are not too enthusiastic about so many companions, having no desire to recruit some of them (and hence wanting to remove the alliance recruitment mission and alert), not wanting to increase the other companion influence, feeling that it is a mess with so many of them and hence wanting some way to sort or arrange them (out of sight I suppose), not wanting to buy extra companion from cartel market etc etc is because there is no much use for so many companions at the moment because all of them are functioning the same way. There is no different in having one companion vs having 30 companions other than just cosmetic reason.

 

This companion system is quite unique to SWTOR (other mmo has companion but only tied to specific class based) and it is a rich harvesting ground which BW can mine and exploit to develop more usage and play for so many companions (add more if needed). When the companion system is well developed for variety of play, players will be rushing to acquire as many companions as they do for gear set bonus (which supposedly will be implemented in 6.0). Having one gear set is not enough because different gear set give different bonus, so the principle goes the same that having one companion is not enough because different companion plays different role and bring to the table different useful benefits and rewards (this will truly bring to consequences the player's choice and action to kill their companions or not to recruit them.). I am looking forward to BW to further develop the companion system and increasing its play value. Implementing sorting and hiding of recruitment alert etc etc will only solve the surface issues, but developing the companion system more comprehensive will increase its usefulness and solve the issues at its root. Player will not find so many companion a burden but a desire to have and keep.

nailed it, all of that

This sounds like a great fix to my many issues with the current alliance alert/companion window system in place now.

+1 from me for everything. You would think it would be obvious to put the unlocked companions on top, ordered according to rank, and the alerts at the bottom of the list, in an auto-collapsible tab, but I guess someone thought it would be fun to scroll through 20 green alerts before being able to summon a single companion, lol.

I pretty much concur. Previous vanilla class companions recruited during KOTFEET are, from a program perspective, completely different companions. They should just be with the rest of the alliance alerts. Companions that are part of chapters ... since you might be interested in tracking their influence rank for replays on VM and MM, whether dead or alive ... should be in a category of “Chapter Specific” companions.

 

Why can’t the list of companions be collapse by default, the way your achievements or schematics are collapsed by default? And options to sort alphabetically; by influence rank; and by order of acquisition within each subcategory?

 

Anything would be an improvement.

I like the crew skills window's practicality. It's already set up by influence, Just let us call companions from there.

I'd be happy if they just made the C&C window like the Strongholds list - that is, the most recent used goes to the top. That way, the companions you actually use would be at the top. No need to be alphabetical, or ranked by influence.

I'd be happy if they just made the C&C window like the Strongholds list - that is, the most recent used goes to the top. That way, the companions you actually use would be at the top. No need to be alphabetical, or ranked by influence.

 

No reason not to have every option.

Rank by influence,

Rank by most frequently used

Ordered alphabetically,

Placed into folders

Ordered by customizable and non-customizable.

 

It's only a list of stats after all. Something a computer can sort any way it likes. Unfortunately the brilliant computer is controlled by under-staffed, under resourced meatbags.

Edited September 19, 2019 by Storm-Cutter