So, the question is simple:
Should companions be in Skyrim?

Personally, I don't see why not, so long as the control is simple (like in New Vegas). I wouldn't mind to have travel buddies, and it wouldn't be as if they were mandatory.

For a real-time melee-centric game? Three words: Hope Rides Alone.

Cass was a pretty darn cool companion in FONV, and Ruin Tail was even cooler in Oblivion. One humanoid is good, always fun to travel with a companion. Combat wise, they are pretty worthless and I dont care what they do as long as they dont die on me or blow my cover.

I'd like to see companions but I dont mind if we dont cause someone will mod them in

I would love to raise legions of the undead to lead into battle.

Yes Companions can add so much more to an RPG.
Nowadays I feel kind of lonely without them :tongue:

I never use followers so I don't care.

Summoning (via conjuration) is a bit different than companions.. I do agree we should be able to summon as many undead/creatures as we are powerful, as long as we have the manamagicka to support them, we should be able to do it.

:shrug:

For whatever reason, I've always found the best companions to be the ones created by the community (Julan, for Morrowind; Vilja in Oblivion...there are many others but those two are my absolute favorites)--not just in terms of AI and combat improvements over vanilla followers but in regards to quests and personality. When I do decide to go adventuring with a companion, I don't want a meat shield, I want someone my character could consider an actual partner-in-crime.

Bethesda can put followers in Skyrim like they did in Oblivion, but chances are good they won't have the time to devote to making those followers real characters like Julan or Constance. (Nothing wrong with that, either. They should be focusing on other things, like writing excellent quests. ) So I'll wait for the inevitable revolutionary companion mod no matter what.

I know! I never used to use them before, now its kinda of lonely and quiet when they arnt around complaining to you or commenting on the weather. The only "essential" npcs should be companions cause lets face it, they arnt too smart.

@ Tyraa Rane if they include companions it'll make it that much easier for modders to do their thing

From personal experience with companion mods in Oblivion and the companions of Fallout 3 and New Vegas, I'd definitely want to have companions available in Vanilla Skyrim. The difference between the three aforementioned systems, however, is the number of companions. I felt that the companion mod system for Oblivion was lacking in dynamic while having far too many command options, and even though you were led to believe that you could have as many companions as you want, it was really limited to five. Even then, why would you want five people running around and stealing the difficulty of battle?

Then again, with Fallout 3 and New Vegas, I was never a fan of having the non-humanoid companions. I'd much rather have 2-3 of the human Fallout companions supporting me at once. Their level of dialogue and intrigue was great, and to have their various skills around me at one time was something that I always wanted.

So if Skyrim chooses to offer any sort of companion capabilities, I would hope for a maximum of 3 companions available to you at all times, with great character development, dialogue options and diverse combat skills.

As long as they stay the [censored] out of my way when I'm trying to kill [censored]. :brokencomputer:

That, of course, being the problem. Ian and Marcus, anybody?

"M'aiq prefers to adventure alone. Others just get in the way. And they talk, talk, talk."

M'aiq got this one right.

Seriously speaking, companions can be a good thing, or an annoyance.

If Bethesda keeps them subtle, I will use them.
But if they are like the companions in Dragon Age Origins, with their pathetic little problems, arguing with each other every [censored] time you're on the move,
trying to be funny, i'd rather not.

If you're referring to Ian from Fallout 1...his problem wasn't that he was in your way. You just happened to be in the way of his bullets.

I think you should be able to have temporary quest companions. That's it.

I'd like to have at least 2 humanoids and maybe one non humanoid. Or I can choose if I want one humanoid and one non humanoid or both humanoids or both non humanoids, etc. Conjurations would count as separate entities, even if you could summon them and keep them indefinitely at higher levels of conjuration. Fingers crossed for that. =D

I hated companions before Fallout New Vegas. But it was handled so well I can't imagine not having it now. I just hope they give us many varied companions to choose from, both good, neutral and evil.

Yeah two humanoid followers would be cool. It would be cool if the game would throw extra enemies in dungeons if you have followers to balance it out.

M'aiq tends to be right. We should listen to him more.

Yes, and one humanoid on non-humanoid, just like New Vegas. I'd love a fellow Nord to bash some skulls with along with my faithful Pahmar or Senche.

This isn't Borderlands. If you're going to ramp up the difficulty because you have a companion, then why not just ditch the companion, not have to deal with their crap, and have the game be just as easy?

I think you should have as many companions as you can buy, but your companions should have relationships with other companions that affect whether they'll join you or not. For example, a Nord Warrior companion might not join you if you're playing as an Dunmer, or if you have a Dunmer companion.

Number of companions should be dependent on Personality.

low - none
near low - 1
Avg - 2
near high - 3
highest - 4

Also agree with the above thread but if your personality is high enough they will join.

Ha, yes. Companions should be essential.

If I can have a giant dire wolf as a companion, I will be extremely pleased.

I don't really care. They can be implemented all right, but I tend not to use them if I can help it. Partially because of the type of characters I play (uncharismatic lone wolves ), partially because I don't trust Bethesda to actually do a good job with them.

If companions are in, then concerning limits, I'm with Mumatil, the number you can have should depend on your stats, like Personality. Anything that makes any attribute of your character more worthwhile is worth doing as far as I'm concerned.