Hey there, TORWarriors!
The first edition of What Ifs… focused on how companions could play more of an active role in the Star Wars: The Old Republic experience if they were re-purposed as daily quest-givers. This week I’ll be sticking to the same general subject matter of how to make our favorite helpers more fun to hang around with, by asking the question:
What if Companions went off on their own side-missions?
At some point during one of my feeble, torturously slow attempts to max out affection levels, I noticed that there were several instances in which companions would excuse themselves in the middle of a conversation, then promptly “take off” on some epic missions of their own.
“Sorry Captain… but I’m ridin’ solo on this one.”
Well, supposedly epic anyway, because we as the players never get to actually see them unfold before our eyes. Instead, we’re merely told about them, after the fact, via an exposition-laden, anecdotal recounting of events, courtesy of the companions in question: the premise is set, the stakes are laid out and the actors in play are enumerated only to then have that ubiquitous “fade-to-black” device rear its ugly head to convey the passage of time, and leave players’ imaginations burdened with the task of filing in the blanks, of creating some semblance of narrative cohesion out of the few fuzzy details that are presented to us.
But, what if we didn’t have to fill in those blanks? What if we could step into our companions’ shoes, if only for the briefest of moments, and finally make use of those (still mysteriously non-functional) escape pods all our ships are equipped with by going out on a quick side-mission as Spar, Val, or Kaliyo? Imagine if we were able to make conversation choices for them!
Call me crazy, but I, for one, would cherish the prospect. Probably because the leveling process in SWTOR, the way it is currently set up, offers very little variety beyond the space-missions.
Yeah, I know what you’re thinking; would this extra bit of spice, this trivial deviation, really provide us players with enough joy so as to warrant development on BioWare’s part? Well, it depends on how far the proposition is taken. If we’re talking about stretching the idea to its absolute limit by making it an integral feature of every single companion, then I would have to say that no, it would not, in fact, be worth it. If, however, the developers were to take a more economical approach, and do this with only a single companion per class…then it’s a different story, so to speak.
What do you guys think? Would you like to be given agency over one of your companions for a special side-mission? Let me know in the comments.
TORWars Podcast #151: Aren't You the Pretty Kitty?
That would have been some great content to start with but hard to implement now… Still I like where your head is at!
The escape pods are so you can leave another players starship. Say you decided to go on a flight to Tatooine with a group and halfway there you remember, “Crap, I was supposed to get those death sticks from that wookie on Hoth.” Well you just walk over and hit the escape pod and presto, you’re now flung aimlessly into space in a capsule that has no weapons or any real way to maneuver yourself towards Hoth. Considering the ever expanding size of the universe this should me make you feel like an idiot because you just abandoned a perfectly good spaceship for the cold void of space without any food or survivable amounts of air. Just as you are realizing your monumental mistake, the loading screen pops up for the imperial/republic fleet and all is well, except you are now late to your “drop off” on Hoth.
You always go on missions *with* your primary companion anyway. It’s all the subsequent companions that fade to black. Being able to go with your subsequent companions on their missions would add a lot to the game, though.
I think playing as a companion is a great idea. It gives you a break from the class you’ve been leveling, without having to level numerous alts. You’ve been playing through your Warrior story, but you get to take a break and play a smuggler-type Vette while still earning xp.
Or, you don’t have to if that’s not your thing.
And once you’re familiar with the style, it’ll make entry into those alts that much easier. It will also make you familiar with your companion’s various abilities, enabling you to fine tune what you really want them to do when they’re assisting you.
I don’t know. Personally, whenever I get to a point in the companion storyline where it does the “fade to black” thing, all I’m thinking is “thank jeebus I didn’t have to deal with that.” I think there are better ways to do character development without sending players to the far reaches of the Outer Rim, traversing the full length of the Jundland Wastes, and dying when you accidently try to go through an Imp camp just to kill a few mobs and listen to 2 minutes of companion dialog.
I think this would have been excellent as something incorporated at launch, or with new expansion characters going forward, but we’ve missed the bus for all the current companions. Just like I’m not likely to go back to Black Sun territory on Coruscant just to see what’s new down there either.
That’s pretty unfortunate though, because I think companions are the least used feature in the game. Who really uses anyone but their healing companion anyway? It would have been better for BW to just give us a healer from the start and then make future companions purchasable as mini-expansions, with their own quests, etc.
One way to fix this current situation would be to implement an affection threshold that unlocks a side quest with that companion, and after that the quest could be a new daily. Imagine getting 6 new dailies right from your ship with a variety of world settings. That would maximize the content already created.
I’m sure the current way companions go off on side missions solo is the best that could be done with the time and money available, but they suffer from a rookie writer’s flaw: show, don’t tell. The current system is about as relevant as the Ebon Hawk turret battles at the space dock in KOTOR I