At first, I was kind of against the whole "quantity over quality" thing they went with for skyrim's companions, but then I thought about It might be a good thing.

Because there are now more companions, it's logical to assume there will be more variety, and generic-ness to the companions too. I assume you will be able to get companions who are "obviously" archers, warriors, mages, priests (healers), rouges, etc. I'd like to have a team with: my ranger Dovahkiin, a mage, a healer, and a tank (warrior) ( a pretty standard team)


I just hope they don't limit the companions at two. 3 or 4 would be a much better amount IMO. Too many would be ridiculous though...

as for scripts, I'd like the second option... The really complicated option doesn't really fit the scope of TES IMO.

I think utilizing companions skills would be great too... but i admit I would like to hear an opposing point of view on it, I haven't really fleshed out all the details in my mind.

I just added this idea about companion's personalities to the poll:

I don't think companions of any permanence or complexity are called for in an ES game.

Well i think they shouldn't be as terrible as the companions in Oblivion... that's all. I think they should improve everything (but i don't expect them to)

I really love playing alone i downloaded Vilja as companion because the dialogues are impressive and funny but when i was about to fight i always said "wait here" , and well on my castle i have like 70 companions but they are for decoration :spotted owl:

When i am with a companion i am always scared thet he/she will get hurt or like i like to sneak almost all the time they a lot of times draw attention, well not Vilja she would say " shhh you are making more noise than an Ogre" or something :blush: sorry i got Vilja in here i got nostalgic

EDIT: i changed my mind, if the companion is even half good as Vilja that would be impressive , she even repairs her stuff, she knows the NPCs (not all of them) she knows the regions and some directions , cleans the castle and even makes food is impressive if it is like her i approve! :goodjob: . She is something i would love everyone on every platform could have :hugs:

What's Vilja?

A mod-created companion for players to use.

Lets also not turn this into an MMORPG (holy trinity). One or two companions is fine, but anymore would merely get in the way (especially if BGS doesn't make huge improvements in how they operate).

yeah after i posted i expected as much... I just wasn't being savvy because i don't play too many mods on my morrowind (and my PC can't handle Oblivion...)

I hope you are getting an upgrade for Skyrim... unless you are planning to play on console? Hopefully though, BGS will make some huge and necessary improvements to companions in Skyrim. The last thing we need are worthless meat bags that serve absolutely no purpose.

As many as they can have fight in a battle without major framerate issues.

Yeah i'm gonna be getting skyrim on console at first... then get it on PC in a couple years (when i need to get a new computer). It won't be bad though, because i'll be getting a badass computer to run all the cool mods that will be made by then.

but yeah i agree. I hope that just because the companions aren't deep character-wise, they won't be better mechanic-wise either.

Voted for 1 companion, yes but a little more complicated, and yes we should be able to use their skills.
1 companion because 2 might be too many
Yes but a little more complicated because the more usefull a companion is the better
Yes we should be able to use their skills. For instance, in FO3, Dogmeat could get stuff out of containers including locked ones. If I am playing a Warrior-type and I bring a companion skilled in lock pick along, I could tell him/her to go loot nearby locked containers and they would get in where I would probably fail.

I depends a lot upon how the game is designed, I think, having too many companions would not be good for a number of reasons, first, there's difficulty to consider, having an entire army following you would just make the game too easy. Secondly, we must consider how well the engine would actually handle larger amounts of characters involved in a fight at one time, and how well the AI responds in that situation, if you make the forces fighting too large on either sides, battles could turn into a huge, chaotic mess, so I'd say keep the number small, one or two sounds good, three... maybe, four would perhaps be too much, though, I think, especially if most enemies don't spawn in groups of any significant size.

And yes, I want to be able to give tactical commands to my companions, I'd go with either simple or medium complexity in that regard, I don't really want to spend half an hour just customizing my companions tactics, especially since I don't think party based gameplay is the main focus of Skyrim.

For the final thing, yes, I'd like to be able to use companions', if I travel with someone who is good at picking locks, there's absolutely no reason why that person shouldn't be able to help me pick a lock, if companions are in the game, choosing ones with skills you lack so that they can help you where your own skills aren't enough is a perfectly legitimate strategy. I'm not sure how this should be handled, exactly, except that companions' skills should of course determine if they can help you or not. Someone with no skill in picking locks shouldn't be able to pick a chest with a hard lock for you,

I have to agree here. I agre with the OP as well in that they were awful in Oblivion (and Morrowind), but I don't want dudes to follow me around in the game as a team. Sometimes escort quests with one or two NPCs are inevitable, but other than that, I am a lone wolf :ninja:

I would not mind having only 1 companion if I can also have a large number of summoned creatures. I think if you have 100 conjuration you should be able to summon at least 5-10 low level creatures (scamps, skeletons, zombies, etc). There's a pretty good mod that allows this (i forget what it's called) but I think beth could do it better.

2 companions max. like fallout 3. talkie toaster and the CM partners mods are what they should be modelled after although more streamlined interface like the wheel from fallout NV.

At first i was thinking you would just talk to the companion (when near a locked box/door i guess), leading to a dialogue tree of some of his or her preferred skills, and a companions preferred skills are somewhat predetermined (except maybe for spells).

I also thought, maybe when you click on a locked box/door and you have a companion who has adequate skill in lock picking, you should be able to choose to have your companion open it instead.

I'd love to see one quest where you need to go throw a ring into a volcano, and you get 8 companions for that quest, but then it turns out the quest is incredibly uneventful and you literally walk to the volcano and throw it in, nothing else happens.

However, I think having a lot of companions should be spread only to eventful quests. Otherwise, I say 2 companions, you can tell them what to do in some detail, but they have minds of their own as well, and you can utilize their skills in other ways (picking locks).

I'd love to be a warrior type with a battlemage and a pure mage.

That'd feel like a real missed opportunity

LOL, simply an easter egg quest. Even funnier if the volcano was in the land where orcs were roaming, but it turns out they're friendly.

This is all reminding me. What ever happened to that Lord of the Rings game that was supposed to be open world like TES? Was it cancelled and never picked back up?

I think it's time for someone to make the most epic TES mod of all time: A Tolkien Mod encompassing all of Tolkien's work (in the world of Middle-Earth)


(actually i don't now how epic that would be compared to other mods made... as stated before I'm a console player)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tzCuSssDps

There are a ton of epics out there, but a total conversion from Tamriel to Tolkein's middle earth would be unreal. They tried with Oblivion but I don't know what happened to the project.

With Tamriel looking so good this time around, and with Orcs looking so awesome, I highly doubt such a project won't be picked up early.

There is one in progress (since many years ago ) http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=29214 but i believe is a titanic work , some screenies are quite impressive :bowdown:

It looks amazing, and apparently you can download the map and walk around in the world but it's empty?

Very impressive though, they say it's 7 times the size of Cyrodiil.

Yes i downloaded it there is Minas Tirith , The Shire and a bunch of landmass nothing more (if i remember well) yup all empty , still pretty impressive :bowdown: