Jump to content

Temporary vs Permanent Companions


NeoBlakkrstal

Recommended Posts

There is a difference between Temporary Companions, companions you have just for a mission, or a chapter, and permanent companions, original class companions spring to mind. Making it so that you cannot modify your original class companions until after completing the planet you receive them on is ridiculous. I want to be able to customize my new companion right away, like it always was until a few updates ago. It isn't like they are going anywhere, you can't kill or reject them in the original class stories. Please fix this, it is highly annoying.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is a difference between Temporary Companions, companions you have just for a mission, or a chapter, and permanent companions, original class companions spring to mind. Making it so that you cannot modify your original class companions until after completing the planet you receive them on is ridiculous. I want to be able to customize my new companion right away, like it always was until a few updates ago. It isn't like they are going anywhere, you can't kill or reject them in the original class stories. Please fix this, it is highly annoying.

Bold luminous Large Print Edition directives removed.

 

JackieKo explained the reason for it. Basically, if you can customise their gear, you can cause that gear (including possibly rare items that are hard or expensive or impossible to replace) to disappear by reseting a mission. Yes, they could have resolved that issue (e.g. a mail containing the gear you customised them with), but they clearly judged that the risk of weird weirdness(1) if they did that was greater than the risk of weird weirdness if they did what they ended up doing.

 

(1) e.g. the companion's own gear coming back in the mails, some of which can (erroneously) be sold for credits. It's guaranteed that someone would have been banned for repeatedly acquiring that temporary companion, resetting the mission, and selling the acquired gear.

 

e.g. ===> that item (e.g. Esseles series weapons that dropped from The Esseles before 4.0) isn't recovered.

 

e.g. the player character's starter armour (possibly not recovered because it is "junk" as far as vendors are concerned)

 

Yes, it's all bugs and can all be fixed / prevented, but inevitably *something* on that list (which includes other possibilities, for sure) would slip through the cracks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
Bold luminous Large Print Edition directives removed.

 

JackieKo explained the reason for it. Basically, if you can customise their gear, you can cause that gear (including possibly rare items that are hard or expensive or impossible to replace) to disappear by reseting a mission. Yes, they could have resolved that issue (e.g. a mail containing the gear you customised them with), but they clearly judged that the risk of weird weirdness(1) if they did that was greater than the risk of weird weirdness if they did what they ended up doing.

 

(1) e.g. the companion's own gear coming back in the mails, some of which can (erroneously) be sold for credits. It's guaranteed that someone would have been banned for repeatedly acquiring that temporary companion, resetting the mission, and selling the acquired gear.

 

e.g. ===> that item (e.g. Esseles series weapons that dropped from The Esseles before 4.0) isn't recovered.

 

e.g. the player character's starter armour (possibly not recovered because it is "junk" as far as vendors are concerned)

 

Yes, it's all bugs and can all be fixed / prevented, but inevitably *something* on that list (which includes other possibilities, for sure) would slip through the cracks.

 

Then what of the risk of not getting their gear back post KotFE? Does that also factor in? I don't see it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Then what of the risk of not getting their gear back post KotFE? Does that also factor in? I don't see it.

Explain. Which companion are you thinking of? Which gear? If you're thinking of special gear you gave to your class companion before KotFE, you get that gear back when the companion is about to return. It just pops into your inventory as you begin the relevant chapter or alert.

 

However, getting the gear back if you reset the "guest companion" mission is likely to be a bit fraught, or they would have done it. Developing software has been my job for more than thirty years, and I've seen changes go wrong in large systems in a variety of ways, frequently of the type where you change *this* over *here*, and *that* apparently unrelated thing over *there* breaks

 

And in any event, by "risk", I meant the risk for the studio of breaking old stuff that currently just works.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Explain. Which companion are you thinking of?

 

Any of the original companions. What I am talking about is why can't a companion that is "permanent", at least until the beginning of KotFE, be customized right from the start? They used to be. And it didn't seem to be a problem then. The issue started when they made it so that you were unable to customize the temporary companions in the DLC, which I completely understand, but somehow that "fix" extended to the so-called "vanilla" companions as well. I am not suggesting being able to customize all companions, I just want to see a return to being able to customize the "class" companions from the beginning, like it used to be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any of the original companions. What I am talking about is why can't a companion that is "permanent", at least until the beginning of KotFE, be customized right from the start?

Jackie explained it, although perhaps not quite clearly enough.

 

We can divide those companions into two groups based on when they become permanent:

* Some, e.g. Kaliyo, become permanent *immediately*.

* Some, e.g. Talos Drellik, travel with you as temporary companions for a while, and *then* become permanent.

 

The first group aren't worth discussing in this context - they are never temporary, so we can always give them gear to wear and/or use.

 

The second group have a potential trap. If we give them some gear while they are temporary, especially right as they first join us, and then reset the mission, the companion disappears and permanently takes the gear with it. There's a variety of different ways they could fix that:

* What they did.

* The gear you give them returns directly into your inventory, or by mail if your inventory is full.

* The gear you give them returns by mail.

* They become permanent immediately.

 

Clearly they looked at what they would have had to do for the other changes, and decided that it was the least risky (for the stability of the code, weird side effects, etc.) if they barred customisation of temporary companions no matter what.

They used to be. And it didn't seem to be a problem then. The issue started when they made it so that you were unable to customize the temporary companions in the DLC, which I completely understand, but somehow that "fix" extended to the so-called "vanilla" companions as well.

"Somehow" here implies an accident. Jackie was clear that it was a conscious decision, and for the reason I outlined above.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...