Not sure exactly what your point is. If your trying to argue that resources were stretched thin because of the number.. I am not buying it. You might have noticed that many of the actors voices are used by multiple npcs. So it wouldn't have been to painful to get extra dialog.

Now think of these 12 npcs. It is unlikely they share a voice actor, because it'd be *really* noticeable. So 12 unique lines of dialog for events.. Possible interactions between followers... That's a fairly intensive workload.

Heck, I am racking my brain, and I can't think of a single western pc game that has 12 voiced character companions that have depth. And if someone suggests DA 3, there is a special spot in the Apocalypse for you.

Lastly, don't get me wrong, I hope they do make the characters right, I just am not betting on them having a companion with the depth of Vilja or Willow (Modded companions for skyrim,fallout nv)

I was never against the idea of modders getting paid for their work, either by accepting donations or actually selling it. With the whole Steam kerfuffle, my issue was that modders were only going to get paid 25% for the work they did, with Valve and Bethesda pocketing the rest, and the idea that Bethesda should profit (more than it already does) off the work the people who made the unofficial patches did to fix the broken games they sold people (and then only fixed it for one platform, with Bethesda leaving the others shafted), didn't sit right with me.

I'm not disputing the value of mods. I've seen many, many, many mods that put the base games to shame, and it's why I'm looking at getting a gaming PC once I have the funds. But I don't think we as customers, or Bethesda as a developer for that matter, should shrug and go "Bad design? Oh, well. Mods will fix it." We should expect a polished, functioning product, with modders adding content to suit their tastes and showcase their talents in game design, not fixing problems.

Been on the Beth forums for years following pre-release all the way to the Oblivion days. Its just a character of of the community. Doesn't matter how little information we have, someone will draw conclusions from it and be outraged.

12 seems to be a pretty reasonable number to me. Especially for an initial release. Maybe they'll add some more in DLC or an expansion. Don't forget that a lot of people create them as mods too so I dare say that there'll be more soon enough.

I would rather have 12 solid, unique companions rather than 24+ shallow, generic followers.

I personally don't feel that way. I'm just pointing out that the shoddy business practices of shoving out under tested games, then grudgingly puting out a couple of patches then running off going oh the players will clean Up the mess, and then trying to blame it on Microsoft.

As for companions? My biggest complaint about them is the cratasticaly bad AI they are plagued with. All too often I found myself having to move sometimes quite drastically to keep from hitting friendlys, that is when I did not just say screw it and let them get killed off so they were no longer in the way. Never mind the times I was taking damage from them for whatever reason.

Same here; I can't even remember any of the companions from Skyrim other than they all died.

This is pretty much it. You're gonna find complainers on any game forum, especially for a game whose release is just over the horizon.

I've been here a while also, I just wanted reasoning more than anything, but it seems the members in question have vanished... as the only responses on here have been positive, for once!

I would rather have 12 Serana's (or Freya, Mjoll etc) than 40+ generic companions.

No complaints from here.

Twelve Mjoll's you want? Masochist you are.

OP who is complaining? I haven't seen any threads about the lack of companions.

As many others have said though I prefer having 12 more developed companions than 40+ generic ones. And who knows maybe we can still hire a merc in the game that would be no different than a generic companion. Plus we may have temp companions for side quests and what not.

I'm certainly not complaining about the number of full companions.

People are actually upset about this? Good grief. It just shouldn't surprise me.

I think some people are afraid it might be too many to offer depth to the companions. I don't see that problem myself though.

I think many people will agree that they went a bit overboard with the amount of companions in Skyrim, with a lack of depth as a result. I did a quick count and there are apparently 71 companions in Skyrim. Only a few had any sort of depth to them. The ones that come to mind are Teldryn Sero, Serana and Cicero. Most of the others were bland and without much personality to them, especially the housecarls.

I think 12 is a great amount though. It's enough to offer variety between playthroughs or stages within the same playthrough, but not so many that they all start to look alike. In my opinion Obsidian did a great job with the companions in New Vegas. I love all eight of them, and the DLC companions were generally awesome as well (Dean, Christine, Dog/God, Joshua, Follows-Chalk).

I'm a bit worried about Preston Garvey though. His name more than anything to be honest, lol. What a terrible name. Preston Garvey.

NPC: "Hello there, stranger! Welcome to Smileytown! Friendliest town in the Commonwealth! I'm Sheriff Happy! "

PC: "Why thank you for the warm welcome, Sheriff Happy! What a lovely town this is! My name's Big Bob. "

NPC: "Pleasure to meet you, Big Bob! I hope you like cuddles because we have plenty to spare! And what might your friend's name be? "

PC: "I'd rather not say, Sheriff Happy... "

NPC: "Nonsense, we're all friends here! I'm sure your friend will fit right in! Assuming he likes cuddles, of course! "

PC: "If you say so, Sheriff Happy...His name is PRESTON GARVEY. "

***YOU ARE NOW VILIFIED BY THE FRIENDLY PEOPLE OF SMILEYTOWN***