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Custom companion


DeltaBos

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Okay, so I just thought of a really weird idea that I thought the devs might be able to play with. I had the idea that, for a small cartel coin fortune, we could get a little token that would allow us to design a companion.

 

The way I sort of imagined this playing out, after consuming the token, you get something 'similar' to a character creation screen. You can design a character normally, with the possible exception that we could choose from species that we don't have yet (Mon Calamari, Wequay, etc.). We customize appearance, force/tech, wepaons, etc., and then a default armor. This armor, in my head, could be from a some acceptable cartel market items (I imagine if Revan's armor was allowed there'd be 1000 Revan companions running around), and would be bound to the companion (I don't mean like with Lana/Theron where we have no way of changing their armor, just the normal green rated armor that would not be usable by the character.) Finally we get to write a quick backstory to the companion like the normal codex-alliance recruit information.

 

This was sort of a spur of the moment idea I came up with and I don't even know if this is possible with the mechanics or engine or w/e process has to be drawn up, but I feel like if this could be implemented, it would be an absolute gold mine. This would add a whole new level of customization to the game and would be a great opportunity for players to show off individualized companions.

 

feedback and critique's encouraged.

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I agree with the OP, something innovative needs to happen with companion customization. Even if it were no more than an appearance station type feature that ate CCs and spit out a package that we could drop into the comp customization slot. Exceptions would - of course - be Khem Val/Ak’ghal Usar, Qyzen Fess, the droids (T7-01, the ship droids and the HKs), Skadge, Guss Tuno, and Bowdaar; pretty much, only the humanoid race companions. Probably also excluded would be the Star Fortress recruits (e.g., “Deadeye” Leyta) and the CM comps (e.g., Akk Dog, Nexu, etc.).
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I agree with the OP, something innovative needs to happen with companion customization. Even if it were no more than an appearance station type feature that ate CCs and spit out a package that we could drop into the comp customization slot. Exceptions would - of course - be Khem Val/Ak’ghal Usar, Qyzen Fess, the droids (T7-01, the ship droids and the HKs), Skadge, Guss Tuno, and Bowdaar; pretty much, only the humanoid race companions. Probably also excluded would be the Star Fortress recruits (e.g., “Deadeye” Leyta) and the CM comps (e.g., Akk Dog, Nexu, etc.).

 

That's not quite what I meant. What I mean by this is a companion from scratch. It's not just a new skin for an existing companion, it's the option to have a new companion all together based on your own ideas.

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Probably won;t happen. They seem to be moving away from giving us customization options, especially with companions.

 

Sorry.

 

:( Is there anyone here paying up for jumping into new suggestions to demoralize the Original Poster? Its sad that everyone that comes up with some nice and interesting suggestions only get people jumping to say stuff like "No wont happen" and such.

I understand it if they weres suggestions that due to the way the game is built they can't happen or that game devs have officialy stated that they are unable to implement.

 

As for the suggestion I bet it can actually be made. Yet I fear there might be some issues with your idea of being allowed to create non humanoid species along with chosing their clothes and stuff. That due to the reason post KOTFE comps aren't customizable. They all are built as a solid model, clothes can't be removed since they are part of the 3D mesh. If we get to make our companion with the normal character creation system we'll be totally be able to dress him/her since it will be tied to the same clothing mechanics of a playable character. And it will also save the devs the need to spend more time working on a new enhanced character creation system that also involves clothing selection, not to mention more hours on solving clipping and many other issues with other non humanoid species.

So the idea I can imagine your suggestion working is that they make 3 Tokens one for custom Melee Companion, other for Ranged Companion and the last one for Force Attuned Companions (I'll explain this 3 later). That calls a character creation window that let us pick from the current avalible and unlocked species for the companion creation using all the features already avalible in the creator system. The companion should work with the following:

  • For Clothing we should get the companion wearing some standar rarity casual robes (Like the ones you start Lv1 characters with); Which you can then change for your personal choice of clothes and dress him/her up the way you want.
     
  • Acording to the Token you picked will be the skills your companion will have and the weapon it will be able to equip.
    Melee companions will be equipable with Vibroblades and Staffs. And skills will be copied from the ones we already have for non force user melee companions.
    Ranged companions will be equipable with blaster pistols, rifles and cannons. And skills will be copied form the corresponding type of companion as well.
    Force users obviously will be equippable with lightsaber and doublebladed saber. And will copy skills from Force user companions (Since there are 2 set of force skills avalible, one for dark other for light they might consider spliting force companion into 2 tokens to be able to choose its alignment along with the proper skill set)
     
  • These companions should be listed on the same category of other Cartel Market companions, which means they should'nt be used for crewskills.
     
  • These companions should be mute, this so the devs don't need to hire actors just for a small game feature. But if they are able they could also recycle some dialogs from their huge voice banks so they can at least say a couple lines or make pain, laugh and other simple noises.
     
  • Names picked for your companions should follow the same naming rules and terms applied to character names, same character limit with a chance to include a space. Use of numbers may be considered, "Darth" and other titles should be allowed since companions can't wear titles but with the obvious exception of using copyrighted names or names used by iconic characters on the game so no Darth Vaders, Darth Revans, Luke Skywalkers, Valkorion, Darth Marr, nor any other that fits in this statement.
    Names also should'nt conflict with other player's companion that is already named the same. That is already clear since everyone can have Lana Beniko with the name Lana Beniko without throuble I just felt the need to make it clear just in case.
    Companions should be renameable with another CM token that allows this. (The addition of this Token may also work with other CM Companions so you can totally give a name to your Akk Dog now.)
     
  • To avoid any possible isues with this feature and the Crew system the number of custom companions you can have per character should be limited to 3.
     
  • These custom companions should be deleteable in case you want to free a space from your custom comp limit. This with a double warning one of them including the "Type DELETE window" we get when deleting our characters.
    A token to redesign them or the chance to use the Appearance Kiosk with them should be also considered so we don't really need to dump them if we just want to change their appearance.

 

And with all this I see a custom companion totally possible. In the end it sure depends on the Devs if they want to listen to the idea of including them.

But I still see it better to reply providing alternatives on how the suggestion can in fact be implemented instead of just giving demoralizing "No it wont happen" comments that aren't even contributing the thread.

 

Anyways. I hope my analysis of how to implement custom companions helps. Don't lose hope people, devs definitely read this forum, keep supporting the suggestions you love and want to see implemented. Until we don't get an official answer from the devs saying that X or Y suggestion can't be implemented it doesn't mean they can't do it; But they won't do it either if they don't see the community asking for it. So don't give up.

And remember that everyone who posts here just wants to add their grain of sand to make the game better. No need to be mean with them. :)

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:( Is there anyone here paying up for jumping into new suggestions to demoralize the Original Poster? Its sad that everyone that comes up with some nice and interesting suggestions only get people jumping to say stuff like "No wont happen" and such.

 

*sigh* Please review what I wrote. At no time did I do anything to "demoralize" the original poster. Most support forums would have in fact had a moderator close the thread as a duplicate and point the poster to the search function at the upper right. Some support forums (ie EvE) would have tacked on a 1 day ban in fact.

 

All I did was point out that it had been asked before and I gave my reason why that it would probably not happen in the future. The only thing I didn't do was link to some of the previous threads on the topic.

 

Sorry if that for some strange reason offended you.

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I like the idea of designing my own companion. I would play a reasonable CC price for a companion that I could name and give a custom appearance, especially if I could change the appearance whenever I wanted.

 

Even more, though, I'd like the ability to put non-holographic versions of my companions in my stronghold and aboard my starship. That would make them more useful to me.

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  • 5 weeks later...

As for the suggestion I bet it can actually be made. Yet I fear there might be some issues with your idea of being allowed to create non humanoid species along with chosing their clothes and stuff. That due to the reason post KOTFE comps aren't customizable. They all are built as a solid model, clothes can't be removed since they are part of the 3D mesh. If we get to make our companion with the normal character creation system we'll be totally be able to dress him/her since it will be tied to the same clothing mechanics of a playable character. And it will also save the devs the need to spend more time working on a new enhanced character creation system that also involves clothing selection, not to mention more hours on solving clipping and many other issues with other non humanoid species.

So the idea I can imagine your suggestion working is that they make 3 Tokens one for custom Melee Companion, other for Ranged Companion and the last one for Force Attuned Companions (I'll explain this 3 later). That calls a character creation window that let us pick from the current avalible and unlocked species for the companion creation using all the features already avalible in the creator system. The companion should work with the following:

  • For Clothing we should get the companion wearing some standar rarity casual robes (Like the ones you start Lv1 characters with); Which you can then change for your personal choice of clothes and dress him/her up the way you want.
     
  • Acording to the Token you picked will be the skills your companion will have and the weapon it will be able to equip.
    Melee companions will be equipable with Vibroblades and Staffs. And skills will be copied from the ones we already have for non force user melee companions.
    Ranged companions will be equipable with blaster pistols, rifles and cannons. And skills will be copied form the corresponding type of companion as well.
    Force users obviously will be equippable with lightsaber and doublebladed saber. And will copy skills from Force user companions (Since there are 2 set of force skills avalible, one for dark other for light they might consider spliting force companion into 2 tokens to be able to choose its alignment along with the proper skill set)
     
  • These companions should be listed on the same category of other Cartel Market companions, which means they should'nt be used for crewskills.
     
  • These companions should be mute, this so the devs don't need to hire actors just for a small game feature. But if they are able they could also recycle some dialogs from their huge voice banks so they can at least say a couple lines or make pain, laugh and other simple noises.
     
  • Names picked for your companions should follow the same naming rules and terms applied to character names, same character limit with a chance to include a space. Use of numbers may be considered, "Darth" and other titles should be allowed since companions can't wear titles but with the obvious exception of using copyrighted names or names used by iconic characters on the game so no Darth Vaders, Darth Revans, Luke Skywalkers, Valkorion, Darth Marr, nor any other that fits in this statement.
    Names also should'nt conflict with other player's companion that is already named the same. That is already clear since everyone can have Lana Beniko with the name Lana Beniko without throuble I just felt the need to make it clear just in case.
    Companions should be renameable with another CM token that allows this. (The addition of this Token may also work with other CM Companions so you can totally give a name to your Akk Dog now.)
     
  • To avoid any possible isues with this feature and the Crew system the number of custom companions you can have per character should be limited to 3.
     
  • These custom companions should be deleteable in case you want to free a space from your custom comp limit. This with a double warning one of them including the "Type DELETE window" we get when deleting our characters.
    A token to redesign them or the chance to use the Appearance Kiosk with them should be also considered so we don't really need to dump them if we just want to change their appearance.

 

And with all this I see a custom companion totally possible. In the end it sure depends on the Devs if they want to listen to the idea of including them.

 

I really like the feedback you provided, and I hope this is something that could be doable. I noticed someone else said they'd be willing to pay a reasonable amount of CCs for this, so I hope this is an idea that the devs catch on to. I could see the naming thing being a bit of an issue, but then again the naming rules should be similar to the ones we've had since launch. I'm sure there would be more than a few people who will through the reaver armor set on a comp and try to loophole a Darth Marr, but if they're willing to pay the CCs for it, have at it I say. Ultimately, I just hope the devs notice this idea, and maybe experiment with it a little to see if it's something that would work. If it's doable I think this could be a pretty huge cash cow to add to the farm. Thanks for the feedback.

Edited by DeltaBos
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  • 9 months later...
I don't usually bump threads but it's been a while since I had brought up this idea and just wanted to see if any new people had any interest in this idea. With the communication improvements between the devs and the community, maybe they'd be able to say if this is even possible or not.
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I don't usually bump threads but it's been a while since I had brought up this idea and just wanted to see if any new people had any interest in this idea. With the communication improvements between the devs and the community, maybe they'd be able to say if this is even possible or not.

Of course it's possible. You're talking about a modification to software. That's not the interesting question, though.

 

Is it *feasible*? That is, can it be done at a reasonable expense and in a reasonable time? What will the bug count be like? I can think of a number of things that are awkward to define for a custom companion, mainly the question of "dual-look" armour.

 

Some sets look different on male and female wearers, but that's not too hard to deal with. More interesting, though, is the question of Republic versus Empire appearance. Some sets look different on Imperial versus Republic characters, and they already don't work correctly on some companions. (Lana wears the Republic version in-game, and the Empire version in cinematics.)

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Of course it's possible. You're talking about a modification to software. That's not the interesting question, though.

 

Is it *feasible*? That is, can it be done at a reasonable expense and in a reasonable time? What will the bug count be like? I can think of a number of things that are awkward to define for a custom companion, mainly the question of "dual-look" armour.

 

Some sets look different on male and female wearers, but that's not too hard to deal with. More interesting, though, is the question of Republic versus Empire appearance. Some sets look different on Imperial versus Republic characters, and they already don't work correctly on some companions. (Lana wears the Republic version in-game, and the Empire version in cinematics.)

 

 

With that generic companion, I think it would be interesting if you could equip any weapon on him her, even lightsabers like in Kotor.

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With that generic companion, I think it would be interesting if you could equip any weapon on him her, even lightsabers like in Kotor.

 

Well my idea would be to set it up right at the start that the companion is either a force or tech companion, and then decide what time of primary weapon they'd use.

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  • 5 months later...
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