The system is way out of whack, and discovered I spent untold thousands on companion gift missions needlessly, and a broken game experience.

 

Details:

 

I spent tons on missions over many weeks for Companion Gifts to get Bowdar, Risha and Cordo up to 10,000 affection.

 

After a certain time, in the 3,000-5,000 Affection range, it seemed that they had no more dialogues to be triggered. I kept leveling them to 10,000 as I read something about it improving crafting. I got each to 10,000, and no more dialogues/quests appeared on the way.

 

Well, it turns out that they did have more dialogue/quest events, but they were delayed by some trigger related to either level or class quest achievement, because at a certain point after hitting level 43 and finishing Hoth, I suddenly was presented with one dialogue after another on these companions.

 

These quests came in a steady stream on my ship, I'm guessing 20 or more, all stored up waiting for this trigger to make them accessible. I did the entire level 43 to 44 just on these Companion dialogues there were so many of them, and took some time to work through all of them.

 

Not only was this a broken gameplay experience, but I watched as I was awarded thousands of Affection that were wasted, as I was already 10,000 max when they were finally triggered and awarded. So I wasted all those companion gift missions, at 1,000-2,200+ credits per mission by not getting the benefit of the dialogue/quest affection along the way from these stored dialogues.

 

This was a real bust. These quests should have triggered by Affection points, and nothing else. To have them avalanche on me at the end after I was already 10,000 affection on each of them was a real tragedy.

Edited March 12, 2012 by BlueDestiny

Some of them relate to character storyline events, so they cannot be given whenever. Plus they want them spread out a bit, for story reasons.

 

You spent the gifts because you felt it worthwhile to have max affection. You got that and benefited.

Their triggers are based upon Class Quest and Quest Achievements that way you can relate to their story in a small manner somehow.It's not broken you paid to have them rushed and u got what u paid for.

I didn't think it was rocket science to realise that companion story progression was tied to class story as well as affection....

If by "rushing" you mean, "did I acquire Companion Gifts to logically level up my companion's points?" Sure, working as intended. However, the trigger of all the dialogues long after they were earned to come bursting out like a 3-day constipated cat with an enema, that was broken gameplay.

 

Not to mention the credits lost on affection points that should have been applied organically from the dialogues instead of wasted Companion Gift missions.

 

If there had been some indication that a level was attained (dialogue triggered) yet unaccessible pending some other trigger, I might have been clued in to not spend on more missions, but such information was not provided.

Some of them relate to character storyline events, so they cannot be given whenever. Plus they want them spread out a bit, for story reasons.

 

You spent the gifts because you felt it worthwhile to have max affection. You got that and benefited.

 

This, but also -- I was talking to a writer at the Summit who said they tried to pace these conversations by gating them to things like level, affection and story progress, but it was difficult because people played the game in different ways.

 

I posted that elsewhere, but I'm putting it here again.

 

The fact of the matter is, if you'd gotten all of your conversations early on with all of your gifts, you'd have had an equally long period where they were just lifelike fixtures on your ship afterward.

 

Sometimes raising your affection too fast leads to dialogue that doesn't make sense, like one companion I can think of who talks about your participation in the war effort even if all you've done is fight street thugs.

 

Another poster on these boards said they were offered a companion quest that was much higher level than themselves.

 

I don't think the writers really expected us to power through the content with gifts. With the writing done, it was up to the other designers to try to pace it out. Maybe they could have worked more closely together on that; I don't know. Maybe the current system they have is the best it gets. I am certainly at a loss for a solution.

 

The writer seemed a little surprised when I explained that I bought loads of gifts right after getting a companion, because lower affection is cheaper to gain. Conversation affection is free, so why not buff it up with cheap gifts first? Maybe he wasn't surprised exactly, more like he hadn't looked at it in that way. He said it was good feedback.

Edited March 13, 2012 by Felioats

Part of the issue is your primary companion (the first one you get) gives out actual missions that can involve killing monsters. Those HAVE to be level gated. I suspect they made the other companions level gated in the event that they expand upon their stories and give them actual missions, etc.

Your companions will send you letters and send you on quests that reference companions you haven't gotten yet, and events that haven't happened yet, if they weren't gated.

Bad enough that Mako gives a lvl 40 kill quest at level 30.

 

Companion quests are tied to char story acts.

Mako gave me a level 30 quest at 18.

Qyzen did not give me his level 30 quest until I was 41.

Yeah, they tried to spread it out by gating stuff to the different acts.

 

Problem is that with my favored companion, assuming that I get them early enough and that they like my choices, I can easily get enough affection to unlock missions many levels higher than my character, and that starting in act II and continuing in act III, all, or at least most, of my conversations happen at the very beginning.

 

There are times that I might use this companion for a mission and then that one, but for the most part, I find a companion that works well with me and I stick with them.

 

I would have rather every conversation been level-gated only. Especially with companions not leaving you once they show up.

That is the one and only way to make sure that the conversations are spread out, and to keep companions active throughout the life of your character.

 

They could seperate romantic conversations so that affection played a part but also so that there would be more interaction between the companions themselves... A cut-scene where the two could talk to each other about the situation, as well as scenes with you moving from one to the other and back and so on.

 

 

Finally, for companion missions (and I would like to see every companion have a short mission chain) I would like to see them affection-based, but it would require that they also scale with level.

 

While I did not enjoy walking into a companion mission and getting annihilated by +12s or +14s or whatever they were before I noticed, it wouldn't be particularly interesting to be a +12 or 14 and going into that mission because I did not get the companion affection high enough at the right time.

I would get it done, certainly, and advance the story and all, but it wouldn't be interesting or provide anything directly useful in terms of loot.

Edited March 14, 2012 by Mithros

Well, all good examples. The moral of the story is that its not working effectively.

 

Trying to tie together levels, affection, gifts, and class quests (any others?) with different ways and paces players level is biting off too much. We also wouldn't like it if we got quest loot for 10 levels higher or lower than we're currently playing, or that there seemed no rhyme or reason, or continuity to progression of our class story.

 

We could go on at length for what could be done about it, but the only thing that's consistent is level and XP. So tie companion story development to just that, so it's consistent and reliable. Also, another quick bandaid would be to give some indication that a dialogue has been triggered, but not yet accessible, so at least we know we've hit some wall and to stop wasting affection points, such as gifts and missions to get gifts. As it is, we're clueless and throwing credits out the window.

Edited March 14, 2012 by BlueDestiny

As it is, we're clueless and throwing credits out the window.

 

But you aren't.

 

Not entirely.

 

Affection still improves crew skill performance. Nothing changes there, and I would argue that that is the biggest benefit of affection, anyway.

 

It's obvious to anyone that looks at it that you will gain affection naturally over time. Pretty sure that there is a pop-up on affection that says the same thing. So why would anyone think that they needed to grind out companion affection right now unless they were just looking to maximize crew skill efficiency.

 

You have to know at level 10 that there are going to be a lot of chances to get their affection up.

If you start dropping money on gifts immediately, you can't blame the game.

Edited March 14, 2012 by Mithros

Well, all good examples. The moral of the story is that its not working effectively.

 

Trying to tie together levels, affection, gifts, and class quests (any others?) with different ways and paces players level is biting off too much. We also wouldn't like it if we got quest loot for 10 levels higher or lower than we're currently playing, or that there seemed no rhyme or reason, or continuity to progression of our class story.

 

We could go on at length for what could be done about it, but the only thing that's consistent is level and XP. So tie companion story development to just that, so it's consistent and reliable. Also, another quick bandaid would be to give some indication that a dialogue has been triggered, but not yet accessible, so at least we know we've hit some wall and to stop wasting affection points, such as gifts and missions to get gifts. As it is, we're clueless and throwing credits out the window.

 

The system works fine. You didn't read the tutorial popup, that's all.

It doesn't work fine as clearly demonstrated in the OP. Even Team Bioware knows that. So for those who like to dismiss things that aren't on their radar, haven't been fully considered, or aren't a priority for them today ... put your thinking cap on and consider the issues.

 

Or alternatively, simply walk away from the urge to chime in on something you haven't considered and don't want to take the time to consider. Leave the discussion to the stakeholders who do take the time.

Edited March 17, 2012 by BlueDestiny

If by "rushing" you mean, "did I acquire Companion Gifts to logically level up my companion's points?" Sure, working as intended. However, the trigger of all the dialogues long after they were earned to come bursting out like a 3-day constipated cat with an enema, that was broken gameplay.

 

Not to mention the credits lost on affection points that should have been applied organically from the dialogues instead of wasted Companion Gift missions.

 

If there had been some indication that a level was attained (dialogue triggered) yet unaccessible pending some other trigger, I might have been clued in to not spend on more missions, but such information was not provided.

 

Sure this is old but I love how a person can call something broken when it is working as intended. They just didn't know about it. Hell I didn't until I found this thread and the idea you can't just rush threw a companion story is rather cool.

Patience is a Virtue.

 

You wasted your money trying to make something happen that is set to occure naturally over time, and you are calling IT broken.

 

 

EDIT: Bah old post .. didnt look at the creation date before responding.

Edited October 24, 2012 by Dademoor

I understand the level gated bit but I also understand where the OP is coming from, last night I got on board my ship after Nar Shadaa and my companion had a conversation/quest icon, i was like "oh hey cool" so i did it and then she immediately had another and another, all in all i had to talk to her about 5 or 6 time in a row to get her to stop giving me quests and dialog.

This was a hard lesson to learn the first time. After you learn it though, it's time to game the system.

 

Now whenever I get a new companion on a character, I cheap gift my way up to 6k Affection and let the rest take care of itself over time through conversations, etc. It actually works out to be cheaper if you know what you're doing ahead of time.