Been playing the game for a couple of weeks and am generally enjoying it. However there is one flaw which constantly keeps coming back to nag at me - I cannot treat it as a real RPG because the companions straitjacket me. Having tried several classes pretty much all of them have serious flaws in the storyline imposed by Bioware forcing us to retain companions when from a story perspective it makes no sense, or saddling us with companions that force us down one path. Pleae do not respond by saying we can get any affection we wnt with gift, from a story mechanic that is a cop out.

Some examples

I am sure there are more, frankly I don't see why the IA would take any of his companions. Why a more light sided BH let's Skadge continue to breath.

The story telling is a strong point of this game but the companion allocation and inability to remove them is immerssion destroying. If anything stops me playing this game it will be my inability to creaste a character I want to play and that I can believe in.

Personally I feel we need the option back to remove companions. Compensate with buyable utility droid or something that can craft, heal, dps etc based on how you equip it but does not do any of them brilliantly.

This game is horribly linear. The questing, the story, the gear progression options, the pvp options...all linear, horribly linear, the companions and their stories are linear as well.

That is my biggest gripe after playing a couple of alts into their 30's after leveling up my main. The "freedom" and "Choice" is all an illusion.

I agree that being forced to take companions is rather annoying, i am dreading getting my bounty hunter past belsavis as i will be forced to take the revolting skadge with me. If i had the choice it would just be me and mako all the way, maybe keep the ship droid and the rumoured companion for update 1.3 (HK-51)

If people want to get rid of malavi quinn but bioware doesn't want anything permanent, carbon freezing is always an option. Apart from Skadge, just let me put him in the escape pod, drop in a couple of thousand tracer missiles and then launch him at the nearest sun.

I love my companions best feature ever in an MMO regarding the lvl experience. Its just great fun to see how they behave and do fp´s with them or quest´s.

Definately a feature that should be extended.

It's the nature of the game form (MMO: people want even opportunities and they want to always be able to go back and fix mistakes) that we can't actually destroy companions. That said, I'd love to see an "inactive mode" for some of these people, where if you hate them enough you can send them away to pretend to pursue their own careers, then come bail them out later if you really have to:

• Quinn: Doing menial desk work back on Balmorra, or else pointlessly shoveling snow on Hoth. Forever.
  
• Corso: Volunteering with the Tatooine militia or something.
  
• Kaliyo: working the tables...or the rich stupid guys at the tables...on Nar Shaddaa. Bored enough that she'll come back if you ask.
  
• Ashara: Some lousy-Jedi halfway house, where she's nervous and misfit enough to be willing to rejoin you if you call.
  
• SCORPIO: Five separate databanks in the Citadel, all isolated from each other and the network, with all I/O except perhaps one data query terminal disabled.
  
• Lord Scourge: Ha, who am I kidding, good luck sending that man anywhere he doesn't want to go.
  

Class-specific instances at each location would let you walk in and talk to 'em if you want to bring them back on board.

The game does force companions in your face, and at times rub 'em in overly aggressively, and I agree that that's a weakness.

its been said 1000 times and will be said 1000 times in the future.

in beta when players could kill their companions people did and then they realised this aint no mass effect i can reload a save no now i have no healer plz bioware give him back to me.

i beleive bioware will add new companions in the future that dont have to be requited but if u want quinn or mako dead then you do and the new ones with their own personality and equil skill will replace them.

It's the nature of the game form (MMO: people want even opportunities and they want to always be able to go back and fix mistakes) that we can't actually destroy companions. That said, I'd love to see an "inactive mode" for some of these people, where if you hate them enough you can send them away to pretend to pursue their own careers, then come bail them out later if you really have to:

 

• Quinn: Doing menial desk work back on Balmorra, or else pointlessly shoveling snow on Hoth. Forever.
  
• Corso: Volunteering with the Tatooine militia or something.
  
• Kaliyo: working the tables...or the rich stupid guys at the tables...on Nar Shaddaa. Bored enough that she'll come back if you ask.
  
• Ashara: Some lousy-Jedi halfway house, where she's nervous and misfit enough to be willing to rejoin you if you call.
  
• SCORPIO: Five separate databanks in the Citadel, all isolated from each other and the network, with all I/O except perhaps one data query terminal disabled.
  
• Lord Scourge: Ha, who am I kidding, good luck sending that man anywhere he doesn't want to go.
  

 

Class-specific instances at each location would let you walk in and talk to 'em if you want to bring them back on board.

 

The game does force companions in your face, and at times rub 'em in overly aggressively, and I agree that that's a weakness.

Bad idea, and here's why: when you hit 50 you can send 5 companions out at a time on skill/crafting missions. Use the one you prefer for questing and what not, just send the others out as errand runners. You'd seriously be gimping yourself if you made any of them inactive and/or unusable. Granted if crewskills aren't your thing, then that doesn't matter.

IMO, companions are one of this game's greatest strengths. There are some that I literally have single digit affection with, I actually had skadge at -553 or something for the longest time (the broken heart icon made me laugh) until I realized that as the last companion received you get an insane amount of + affection (102 per answer) just by activating him during heroic daily quests conversations. Zero gifts bought and I maxed him out in 6 days from a negative affection no less. I don't use companions I don/t like/need, but I would never remove any one of them based on their crewskill utility alone.

Bad idea

I would like permission to indulge in what is in some ways a bad idea from time to time, especially if the game makes it reversible. In an RPG I value the feeling of some modicum of control over my ship and my story more than I value an optimal crafting configuration. If it's a choice between "Quinn standing there snickering at me" and "Me losing +10 efficiency to crewskills I don't have," I'll take the latter any day.

Variety of players, variety of priorities and needs, give us a variety of options. Allowing the ship's droid to gain affection for crafting bonuses was a step in the right direction; now just let us exact our petty vengeances upon the suddenly-superfluous companions we hate. There are people who would gladly sacrifice some mechanical functionality to get some RPG-flavored control.

I would like permission to indulge in what is in some ways a bad idea from time to time, especially if the game makes it reversible. In an RPG I value the feeling of some modicum of control over my ship and my story more than I value an optimal crafting configuration. If it's a choice between "Quinn standing there snickering at me" and "Me losing +10 efficiency to crewskills I don't have," I'll take the latter any day.

 

Variety of players, variety of priorities and needs, give us a variety of options. Allowing the ship's droid to gain affection for crafting bonuses was a step in the right direction; now just let us exact our petty vengeances upon the suddenly-superfluous companions we hate. There are people who would gladly sacrifice some mechanical functionality to get some RPG-flavored control.

Unfortunately those that are willing to sacrifice this appear to be the minority. You have no idea the amount of rage and tears that BW was pummeled with when companions were killable and people realized they weren't coming back.

I only see this working if every class could select from a large pool of companions, which could make the writing, story and voice acting a nightmare for BW.

I don't want to argue to the point of jerkness, but I should reiterate that I'm pushing for reversible options. Something to give some distance, allow players to feel less strangled by the people they hate, while still making those people available further down the line for plot/crafting/QQ prevention purposes.

I would like permission to indulge in what is in some ways a bad idea from time to time, especially if the game makes it reversible.

I'd love to see an "inactive mode" for some of these people, where if you hate them enough you can send them away to pretend to pursue their own careers, then come bail them out later if you really have to:

...

 

Class-specific instances at each location would let you walk in and talk to 'em if you want to bring them back on board.

I could be wrong but from my vague recollection of the guild summit, the Devs did hint/suggest that they might bring back some way of "punishing" or atleast temporarily incapacitating the companions. It was specifically in reference to Quinn since he was the one most often mentioned.

Then again I could be wrong...

I'd like to see more companions then there would be a pull to draw from and getting rid of one won't seriously gimp the player on crew skills but that appears to be "future content". Because really, my Trooper doesn't really want Tanno on her team and my SI HATES Ashara (my SI is female and gift giving sucks but to use the conversation options would make her too not herself).

@ephemera:

Reversible options would be nice, I'd love the option to put that sleazebag Quinn back on Balmorra or dump him on Hoth since he whined so much about it, not saying that I would but once again the option would be nice.

I love my companions best feature ever in an MMO regarding the lvl experience. Its just great fun to see how they behave and do fp´s with them or quest´s.

 

Definately a feature that should be extended.

I feel exactly the same way.

However if some do want to replace them with silent droids, I don't see the harm in that I guess.

I feel exactly the same way.

 

However if some do want to replace them with silent droids, I don't see the harm in that I guess.

I love some of my companions. The trouble is bioware give us too many, we can't get rid of any and the order we get them is not logical.

My BH ges Mako as his first companion, storywise this is sensible, however we clearly do not get along.

but after that we should part company as we have nothing in common.

Likewise my DS SW would keep Vette around early on because she is useful, However i don't want to be Darth Malgus, I want to play Darth ME and

then a short trip to the slave market with her should be an option - or simply an execution - because frankly I cannot understand how or why DS Sith would not find her continued presence annoying, and people who annoy me die. DS inquisitor and Ashara is much the same.

I know many smugglers who want to show Corso the airlock, more kindly inclined BH who want to slaughter Skadge. In fact I would guess most classes/alignments have at least one companion whose precence cannot be justified --

is a particularly strong example.

I don't care about level 50 content - i play the game for the storys and the current companion situation badly damages what should be the games strongest point. If I could play all the storys the way I want I would staysubscribed for long enough to play all eight at least once. At best i will now stay for 2-3. The situation is at its worst for more DS aligned Empire players or smugglers who don't want to play the lovable cowboy - I would love to play a Dark Smuggler, the true potential crimeboss, out only for the credits - but with Corso and Bowdaar along for the ride ? forget that being a believeable situation - no, I have to play a Han Solo clone.

The real problem is that this is a self inflicted wound by Bioware - they had it right first time.