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ZOS_Kevin
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Hi everyone! Thanks for your patience regarding these answers. We had the opportunity to get some of your questions answered from our companions team, comprised of the following ZOS Devs:
[list]
[*] Tom Murphy, Zone Lead
[*] Philip Draven, Lead Systems Designer
[*] Janet Priblo, Senior Content Designer
[*] Juli Comstock, Writer-Designer
[*] Carrie Day, Systems Designer
[/list]
To get the most answers possible, some of your questions were combined if they covered similar ground. So below, you will see community questions noted with a “Q:” and dev answers noted with their initials. For example, Tom Murphy’s answers will be noted “TM:.” We also got the following questions and answers translated, so more community members can enjoy them too. You will see the translated version of the questions and answers below, linked.
We hope these answers help give some insight into the development process for systems like companions! Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer questions. We look forward to reading your feedback here. Without further ado, to the questions and answers!
German/DEUTSCH
French/FRANÇAIS
Spanish/ESPAÑOL
Simplified Chinese/中文
***
Q: Not a question... more a very big THANK YOU to ZOS for realizing that companions are a huge deal for many of us players, and we look forward to new companions and other (hopeful romance) options added for them later.
I also want to thank you for adding the Telvanni Efficiency set to Necrom, because this will be a big deal for many of us. (This is a good one to respond to just to show that positivity will be met with a positive response for us.)
PD: You are extremely welcome! We had an absolute blast making the companion system and all the different characters within it. We are really proud of it and excited to continue to grow both the roster of companions and the system itself in the future.
***
Q: I know early on when the Companion system was announced that one of the devs claimed they'd be fully new characters instead of old characters from sidequests. Are there any thoughts on diverting from this?Secondly, has a non-humanoid companion ever been thought of? Perhaps a non-humanoid Daedra, or a wild animal (dual wielding Warden bears anyone?) or even just a doggo! It'd be interesting to see ESO writers come up with interesting stories for taming an animal, or binding/"befriending" a Daedra!
PD: We are very interested in exploring and expanding the types of companions we introduce over time but there are a number of thematic and technical challenges associated with certain directions. Making companions of existing characters runs into situations where you can have an active companion on a quest involving another version of themselves. This gets even trickier as we often have characters reappearing in new content (and sometimes meeting a final end), all of which complicates companion use further. Having companions be newly introduced characters gives an opportunity for both us and the players to form a new relationship without preconceptions or past experiences coloring or limiting the dynamic.
Non-humanoid companions are an interesting avenue to explore, but in many cases would radically limit the amount of customization and combat options available, so it’s something that will take more investigation and potentially even expansion of the system to fully realize.
***
Q: What is the team's stance on vampire/werewolf companions? Are there any plans to introduce more than 2 companions per year?
PD: Vampire and werewolf companions are not off the table for future companions. There are no plans to increase the companion release rate at this time. (They take a lot of work from a large number of talented developers, and we want to make sure we’re taking the time to get them as good as they can possibly be.)
***
Q: Is it possible to get a Companion that isn't one of the playable races? Like an Atronach or Arox even?
TM: We don’t necessarily feel we have to hit every player race and class in our companion designs before we can do stuff off the beaten path, like a Maormer or Dremora. What we care about, first and foremost, is creating compelling characters that players want to adventure with. That said, we see a lot of requests for companions from player races that we haven’t represented yet – like Altmer, or Nord – and there’s a ton of compelling characters we can make with those backgrounds.
So to answer the original question, it is absolutely possible! I can’t promise anything, but it’s something we’re constantly discussing.
***
Q: I just want to give them a hat so they don't look the same as everyone else... any thoughts on changing your stance on this?
TM: We do have discussions about the level of flexibility we want to give users on a Companion’s appearance “from the neck-up” – like hats, or different hairstyles. One of the early design considerations with companions was the balance between "identity" and "customization" for each companion. We wanted to give players as much freedom to customize their traveling companion, while at the same time keeping the identity of the companion the same. We ended up with "no hats" on companions because it hit that sweet spot - where players can make them look any way they wish, but the character and identity of the companion doesn't change because you always see their face.
***
Q: why are companions account wide unlocks (collection menu) but still required to be unlocked per character?
Why are the unlock quests getting significantly longer if we are required to unlock it per character? or can we get some way to bypass them if we have already unlocked them?
PD: This ties back into potential issues of bringing Mirri to unlock Mirri, but also, we know many players establish different relationship dynamics with their companions on a per character basis and the introductory quest is a key part of that, so at this time there are no plans to change that.
On the story side, there hasn't been any mandate or push to make these quests longer. The stories we want to tell are the determining factor. This is great feedback though and something we will make sure to take into account going forward.
***
Q: Will we ever be able to let companions and houseguests do animations inside our home? I would love to have them just eat and sleep or spending some quality time like fishing/cooking/ just chilling.
TM: That sounds awesome! I’ll be sure to bring that idea to the team!
***
Q: How does the team decide which class skills to copy for companion skills? Previous companions such as Bastian and Isobel provided unique buffs and debuffs that stacked with Major and Minor effects (such as Bastian's Searing Weapons providing a unique 15% damage buff to Light and Heavy attacks rather than providing Empower); however, Sharp-as-Night and Azandar provide named buffs and debuffs such as Minor Vulnerability. Why was this change made and will the older companions be updated?
Bastian and Mirri have thematic Ultimates (for example, Bastian is implied to have anger issues and his Ultimate is called Unleashed Rage). However, later companions do not. Were Bastian and Mirri's Ultimates intended to be thematic and if so, why have the other companions' Ultimates not been?
TM: Typically, we like to work with the combat designer who worked most heavily on the given class and who really knows the ins and outs of it. They take a look at the class abilities and put forward a list of what they think is a compelling kit for the companion, modified to suit the specifics of companion combat. We talk through the choices and make tweaks and substitutions until everyone is satisfied. We also monitor companions after launch to make sure our assumptions about certain abilities were in line with how players actually use them. We do have a list of items we want to address regarding our previously released companions to keep them relevant.
For your second question – All the companions have unique Ultimates and we try to make sure they feel like a natural fit for their respective companion. That said, I think that’s clearer in some cases more than others – Bastian having a temper has a natural synergy with what a Dragonknight ultimate might be. I can say it’s something we’re discussing with our newest companions, so we do try to keep theming in mind.
***
Q: Why can't we have more control over their actions? Specifically things like roll dodge with certain weapons.
PD: One of the goals with companions was to avoid having the player need to micromanage them in combat and for most of the decisions to be made in the equipment and ability loadout beforehand. That being said, we’re always evaluating ways for them to perform more consistently and competently without oversight.
***
Q: Will old companions ever get their letters given as furnishings? Does the storyline influence the way the companion looks or vice-versa? If so, why isn't Bastian a Breton?
Who is currently the most used companion? Which is your favorite?
TM: Great Idea! We will absolutely investigate the achievement furnishing idea. I think it depends a lot on the companion in question. We had a strong idea of Bastian and Mirri as characters before we started outlining their companion quests. The process for Isobel, Ember, Sharp and Azandar were all a bit idiosyncratic – in some cases we knew more details about them as companions before we really knew what their characters and stories were like. As an example, the first thing we knew about Azandar was that he’d be an Arcanist. Everything followed from there.
***
Q: My main question is, will we ever possibly see fully customizable Companions? Basically just a blank slate character we can make look however we want, give them any hair style, tattoos, etc that we own in our collections? Including polymorphs and personalities?
PD & TM: There are no plans to build companions without robust unique identities at this time, but that is an interesting idea to explore. That said, one of our favorite things about our Companions is how they have a history, a personality, and opinions that provide different lenses to see Tamriel through.
***
Q: Would the team consider adding a "stand here" command to companions that makes them stand on the spot for 60 seconds?
TM: We do talk about ways to improve the player experience. There are trade-offs to systems like these that we don’t find to be net positives, so we’ll continue to investigate.
***
Q: Are there any plans to disable companion trophy bonuses?
TM: Not at this time, but we’ll certainly discuss it!
***
Q: Will older companions (Bastion and Mirri)) ever be updated to have more dialog and quests?
TM: I can’t go into too much detail regarding our future plans, but I can say that we have big ideas on how we can expand the Companion system in the future, and those ideas certainly involve revisiting Bastian and Mirri!
***
Q: How/why did Bastian get all those tattoos? And what is the meaning behind them? They surprised me when I first saw them. It feels like such divergence of his character. He's such a goody two-shoes type. I'm itching to know this backstory. Pretty please *_*
JP: He got his first tattoo after a particularly raucous night while on business in Stormhold. Instead of being dismayed after his headache dissipated, he found that he loved it, and it was a reminder of a really fun night. The tattoos became an occasional outlet for processing his own frustration or unhappiness or as reminders of fun times and interesting places. The tattoos make him happy.
***
Q: How do you decide on rapports for the companions like Bastian hating cheese? (Cheese! All hail uncle Sheo!)
JP: If we can come up with something that seems like an interesting or fun quirk to a character we are developing, and that feels like it fits in with who they are, we love to add these small bits of character flavor. We need to make sure it can work with the companion system, to allow the companion to make relevant comments or reactions.
***
Q: How did the writing process go for the two new companions and how did you settle on the perfect choice for Brandon Keener as Sharp-as-Night's voice actor? <3
JC: Brandon Keener really is perfect, isn’t he? 😊
Writing companion quests isn’t so different from writing any other quest. Where it differs is in systemic dialogue: combat barks, rapport triggers, off-quest conversations, etc. I loved writing these for Sharp, which is good because we have to write a LOT of them.
I took over Sharp from another writer right as character concepts and quest designs finished and writing first drafts began. I really owe it to content designer Janet Priblo, loremaster Michael Zenke, systems designer Carrie Day, and zone lead/companions product owner Tom Murphy for helping me find Sharp’s voice once I joined the Companions team. I was also fortunate enough to get some thoughtful guidance and edits on Sharp’s story from former loremaster Leamon Tuttle, which I’m incredibly thankful for.
Sharp’s story and development were heavily influenced by the zone we introduced him in. I’m positive there’s room to introduce another Argonian companion someday who doesn’t have slavery as a centerpiece of their past. That said, I’m very proud of the story we ended up telling with Sharp. To me, the questline is about little flames of hope enduring in the darkest of times and finding out who you are by choosing who you want to be.
As for casting: I’m the one who put forward Brandon Keener’s name for consideration. Our amazing audio team secured some great auditions for Sharp, but I’m lucky we picked Brandon because ultimately his voice was the one I had stuck in my head while writing.
Brandon came to the first day of recording with a deep understanding of the character and a voice more informed by traditional Argonian dryness than I had prepared myself to ask for. There’s very little Sharp gets to keep from his tribe in terms of identity; him retaining much of that deliberate Saxhleel vocal style was a development that was all Brandon, and I’m eternally grateful for that choice in his performance. He was a delight to work with, and I’d love to write for him again someday.
***
Q: What tribe is Sharp originally from? I also would like to know his Jel name. Did he even have one in the first place?
JC: Sharp's tribe and Jel name were details I had planned but ultimately had to cut from the questline to strengthen the story we wanted to tell. I imagine discovering these things would carry some life-altering gravitas for the character, and Sharp needs a reason after his questline to stick around as a summonable companion. He gets to choose his place in the world, and right now, he's content exploring it with you in his tribe of two.
***
Q: Will I ever be able to fish together with Sharp with both of us doing the fishing animation?
JC: We love this idea and this was the original intent when designing Sharp’s non-combat perk. Unfortunately, there are some tech limitations that prevented us from accomplishing it. Fun fact: we knew from pretty early on that Sharp would have positive rapport triggers from fishing. When the Systems team provided a sample of possible non-combat perks, I was drawn to the one we ended up calling Sharp’s Patience. Thematically, I loved the idea that after all his years alone, Sharp finally had a friend to fish with, and players had a buddy to help us chase that Master Angler title. Sharp’s release also coincided with the QOL update for multi-fish fileting, a facet that according to zone lead Tom “tipped the scales” in our choosing this perk. 😉
[list]
[*] Tom Murphy, Zone Lead
[*] Philip Draven, Lead Systems Designer
[*] Janet Priblo, Senior Content Designer
[*] Juli Comstock, Writer-Designer
[*] Carrie Day, Systems Designer
[/list]
To get the most answers possible, some of your questions were combined if they covered similar ground. So below, you will see community questions noted with a “Q:” and dev answers noted with their initials. For example, Tom Murphy’s answers will be noted “TM:.” We also got the following questions and answers translated, so more community members can enjoy them too. You will see the translated version of the questions and answers below, linked.
We hope these answers help give some insight into the development process for systems like companions! Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer questions. We look forward to reading your feedback here. Without further ado, to the questions and answers!
German/DEUTSCH
French/FRANÇAIS
Spanish/ESPAÑOL
Simplified Chinese/中文
***
Q: Not a question... more a very big THANK YOU to ZOS for realizing that companions are a huge deal for many of us players, and we look forward to new companions and other (hopeful romance) options added for them later.
I also want to thank you for adding the Telvanni Efficiency set to Necrom, because this will be a big deal for many of us. (This is a good one to respond to just to show that positivity will be met with a positive response for us.)
PD: You are extremely welcome! We had an absolute blast making the companion system and all the different characters within it. We are really proud of it and excited to continue to grow both the roster of companions and the system itself in the future.
***
Q: I know early on when the Companion system was announced that one of the devs claimed they'd be fully new characters instead of old characters from sidequests. Are there any thoughts on diverting from this?Secondly, has a non-humanoid companion ever been thought of? Perhaps a non-humanoid Daedra, or a wild animal (dual wielding Warden bears anyone?) or even just a doggo! It'd be interesting to see ESO writers come up with interesting stories for taming an animal, or binding/"befriending" a Daedra!
PD: We are very interested in exploring and expanding the types of companions we introduce over time but there are a number of thematic and technical challenges associated with certain directions. Making companions of existing characters runs into situations where you can have an active companion on a quest involving another version of themselves. This gets even trickier as we often have characters reappearing in new content (and sometimes meeting a final end), all of which complicates companion use further. Having companions be newly introduced characters gives an opportunity for both us and the players to form a new relationship without preconceptions or past experiences coloring or limiting the dynamic.
Non-humanoid companions are an interesting avenue to explore, but in many cases would radically limit the amount of customization and combat options available, so it’s something that will take more investigation and potentially even expansion of the system to fully realize.
***
Q: What is the team's stance on vampire/werewolf companions? Are there any plans to introduce more than 2 companions per year?
PD: Vampire and werewolf companions are not off the table for future companions. There are no plans to increase the companion release rate at this time. (They take a lot of work from a large number of talented developers, and we want to make sure we’re taking the time to get them as good as they can possibly be.)
***
Q: Is it possible to get a Companion that isn't one of the playable races? Like an Atronach or Arox even?
TM: We don’t necessarily feel we have to hit every player race and class in our companion designs before we can do stuff off the beaten path, like a Maormer or Dremora. What we care about, first and foremost, is creating compelling characters that players want to adventure with. That said, we see a lot of requests for companions from player races that we haven’t represented yet – like Altmer, or Nord – and there’s a ton of compelling characters we can make with those backgrounds.
So to answer the original question, it is absolutely possible! I can’t promise anything, but it’s something we’re constantly discussing.
***
Q: I just want to give them a hat so they don't look the same as everyone else... any thoughts on changing your stance on this?
TM: We do have discussions about the level of flexibility we want to give users on a Companion’s appearance “from the neck-up” – like hats, or different hairstyles. One of the early design considerations with companions was the balance between "identity" and "customization" for each companion. We wanted to give players as much freedom to customize their traveling companion, while at the same time keeping the identity of the companion the same. We ended up with "no hats" on companions because it hit that sweet spot - where players can make them look any way they wish, but the character and identity of the companion doesn't change because you always see their face.
***
Q: why are companions account wide unlocks (collection menu) but still required to be unlocked per character?
Why are the unlock quests getting significantly longer if we are required to unlock it per character? or can we get some way to bypass them if we have already unlocked them?
PD: This ties back into potential issues of bringing Mirri to unlock Mirri, but also, we know many players establish different relationship dynamics with their companions on a per character basis and the introductory quest is a key part of that, so at this time there are no plans to change that.
On the story side, there hasn't been any mandate or push to make these quests longer. The stories we want to tell are the determining factor. This is great feedback though and something we will make sure to take into account going forward.
***
Q: Will we ever be able to let companions and houseguests do animations inside our home? I would love to have them just eat and sleep or spending some quality time like fishing/cooking/ just chilling.
TM: That sounds awesome! I’ll be sure to bring that idea to the team!
***
Q: How does the team decide which class skills to copy for companion skills? Previous companions such as Bastian and Isobel provided unique buffs and debuffs that stacked with Major and Minor effects (such as Bastian's Searing Weapons providing a unique 15% damage buff to Light and Heavy attacks rather than providing Empower); however, Sharp-as-Night and Azandar provide named buffs and debuffs such as Minor Vulnerability. Why was this change made and will the older companions be updated?
Bastian and Mirri have thematic Ultimates (for example, Bastian is implied to have anger issues and his Ultimate is called Unleashed Rage). However, later companions do not. Were Bastian and Mirri's Ultimates intended to be thematic and if so, why have the other companions' Ultimates not been?
TM: Typically, we like to work with the combat designer who worked most heavily on the given class and who really knows the ins and outs of it. They take a look at the class abilities and put forward a list of what they think is a compelling kit for the companion, modified to suit the specifics of companion combat. We talk through the choices and make tweaks and substitutions until everyone is satisfied. We also monitor companions after launch to make sure our assumptions about certain abilities were in line with how players actually use them. We do have a list of items we want to address regarding our previously released companions to keep them relevant.
For your second question – All the companions have unique Ultimates and we try to make sure they feel like a natural fit for their respective companion. That said, I think that’s clearer in some cases more than others – Bastian having a temper has a natural synergy with what a Dragonknight ultimate might be. I can say it’s something we’re discussing with our newest companions, so we do try to keep theming in mind.
***
Q: Why can't we have more control over their actions? Specifically things like roll dodge with certain weapons.
PD: One of the goals with companions was to avoid having the player need to micromanage them in combat and for most of the decisions to be made in the equipment and ability loadout beforehand. That being said, we’re always evaluating ways for them to perform more consistently and competently without oversight.
***
Q: Will old companions ever get their letters given as furnishings? Does the storyline influence the way the companion looks or vice-versa? If so, why isn't Bastian a Breton?
Who is currently the most used companion? Which is your favorite?
TM: Great Idea! We will absolutely investigate the achievement furnishing idea. I think it depends a lot on the companion in question. We had a strong idea of Bastian and Mirri as characters before we started outlining their companion quests. The process for Isobel, Ember, Sharp and Azandar were all a bit idiosyncratic – in some cases we knew more details about them as companions before we really knew what their characters and stories were like. As an example, the first thing we knew about Azandar was that he’d be an Arcanist. Everything followed from there.
***
Q: My main question is, will we ever possibly see fully customizable Companions? Basically just a blank slate character we can make look however we want, give them any hair style, tattoos, etc that we own in our collections? Including polymorphs and personalities?
PD & TM: There are no plans to build companions without robust unique identities at this time, but that is an interesting idea to explore. That said, one of our favorite things about our Companions is how they have a history, a personality, and opinions that provide different lenses to see Tamriel through.
***
Q: Would the team consider adding a "stand here" command to companions that makes them stand on the spot for 60 seconds?
TM: We do talk about ways to improve the player experience. There are trade-offs to systems like these that we don’t find to be net positives, so we’ll continue to investigate.
***
Q: Are there any plans to disable companion trophy bonuses?
TM: Not at this time, but we’ll certainly discuss it!
***
Q: Will older companions (Bastion and Mirri)) ever be updated to have more dialog and quests?
TM: I can’t go into too much detail regarding our future plans, but I can say that we have big ideas on how we can expand the Companion system in the future, and those ideas certainly involve revisiting Bastian and Mirri!
***
Q: How/why did Bastian get all those tattoos? And what is the meaning behind them? They surprised me when I first saw them. It feels like such divergence of his character. He's such a goody two-shoes type. I'm itching to know this backstory. Pretty please *_*
JP: He got his first tattoo after a particularly raucous night while on business in Stormhold. Instead of being dismayed after his headache dissipated, he found that he loved it, and it was a reminder of a really fun night. The tattoos became an occasional outlet for processing his own frustration or unhappiness or as reminders of fun times and interesting places. The tattoos make him happy.
***
Q: How do you decide on rapports for the companions like Bastian hating cheese? (Cheese! All hail uncle Sheo!)
JP: If we can come up with something that seems like an interesting or fun quirk to a character we are developing, and that feels like it fits in with who they are, we love to add these small bits of character flavor. We need to make sure it can work with the companion system, to allow the companion to make relevant comments or reactions.
***
Q: How did the writing process go for the two new companions and how did you settle on the perfect choice for Brandon Keener as Sharp-as-Night's voice actor? <3
JC: Brandon Keener really is perfect, isn’t he? 😊
Writing companion quests isn’t so different from writing any other quest. Where it differs is in systemic dialogue: combat barks, rapport triggers, off-quest conversations, etc. I loved writing these for Sharp, which is good because we have to write a LOT of them.
I took over Sharp from another writer right as character concepts and quest designs finished and writing first drafts began. I really owe it to content designer Janet Priblo, loremaster Michael Zenke, systems designer Carrie Day, and zone lead/companions product owner Tom Murphy for helping me find Sharp’s voice once I joined the Companions team. I was also fortunate enough to get some thoughtful guidance and edits on Sharp’s story from former loremaster Leamon Tuttle, which I’m incredibly thankful for.
Sharp’s story and development were heavily influenced by the zone we introduced him in. I’m positive there’s room to introduce another Argonian companion someday who doesn’t have slavery as a centerpiece of their past. That said, I’m very proud of the story we ended up telling with Sharp. To me, the questline is about little flames of hope enduring in the darkest of times and finding out who you are by choosing who you want to be.
As for casting: I’m the one who put forward Brandon Keener’s name for consideration. Our amazing audio team secured some great auditions for Sharp, but I’m lucky we picked Brandon because ultimately his voice was the one I had stuck in my head while writing.
Brandon came to the first day of recording with a deep understanding of the character and a voice more informed by traditional Argonian dryness than I had prepared myself to ask for. There’s very little Sharp gets to keep from his tribe in terms of identity; him retaining much of that deliberate Saxhleel vocal style was a development that was all Brandon, and I’m eternally grateful for that choice in his performance. He was a delight to work with, and I’d love to write for him again someday.
***
Q: What tribe is Sharp originally from? I also would like to know his Jel name. Did he even have one in the first place?
JC: Sharp's tribe and Jel name were details I had planned but ultimately had to cut from the questline to strengthen the story we wanted to tell. I imagine discovering these things would carry some life-altering gravitas for the character, and Sharp needs a reason after his questline to stick around as a summonable companion. He gets to choose his place in the world, and right now, he's content exploring it with you in his tribe of two.
***
Q: Will I ever be able to fish together with Sharp with both of us doing the fishing animation?
JC: We love this idea and this was the original intent when designing Sharp’s non-combat perk. Unfortunately, there are some tech limitations that prevented us from accomplishing it. Fun fact: we knew from pretty early on that Sharp would have positive rapport triggers from fishing. When the Systems team provided a sample of possible non-combat perks, I was drawn to the one we ended up calling Sharp’s Patience. Thematically, I loved the idea that after all his years alone, Sharp finally had a friend to fish with, and players had a buddy to help us chase that Master Angler title. Sharp’s release also coincided with the QOL update for multi-fish fileting, a facet that according to zone lead Tom “tipped the scales” in our choosing this perk. 😉