Adding player-owned NPC's.

[Nabbut.7480]

• Mercenary companions: equippable with gear combat assistants for enhancing solo play.
• Gathering/hunting sla... erm, "friends", yes, "friends", deployable in an area where they will roam.

[squeegee.4320]

Is this slavery?

[kharmin.7683]

No. 

Please use the forums search for "heroes" as this has been discussed.

[Galmac.4680]

Then perhaps my npc can do fishing for me, because I don't like that?

[Danikat.8537]

The second one just sounds like making botting official and therefore highly unlikely to ever happen.

The first one could be interesting. GW1 had a system like that (2 actually - henchmen who couldn't be customised and heroes who could, and could be more precisely controlled) but that's because the entire game was built around groups, there were very few areas balanced for playing solo. I think it would be more difficult to make it work in GW2, they'd need a lot of balancing and potentially some sort of dynamic scaling so they're stronger when you're alone and weaker when other players are around (like how events scale up if more people join in) but maybe it could work.

[Super Hayes.6890]

I miss having companion characters to gear up but this game isn't really designed for it. Also, it would be aweful for fps in meta events.

[Danikat.8537]

24 minutes ago, Super Hayes.6890 said:

I miss having companion characters to gear up but this game isn't really designed for it. Also, it would be aweful for fps in meta events.

I could imagine it working kind of like mini pets, if there's too many players on the map then companions are automatically dismissed. Although that would be pretty annoying if you're doing something solo and just happen to be in a busy map.

That's the other reason it worked in GW1, all explorable maps were instanced and the maximum party size included henchmen and heroes so Anet knew how many characters would be in each one. I suppose in theory you could have a party entirely made up of ranger/necromancers with pets and minions and then add some summoned creatures, but even so I doubt you could overwhelm the server and if you slowed down your own computer that would be your problem.

Considering Anet apparently said the reason they didn't want the jade bot out all the time is they were concerned about the effect on performance if there was another thing following players around (and their recent work-around is a jade bot mini, so it 'replaces' the mini pet instead of adding another thing) I doubt they'd want to do companions.

[Garrison Storm.3046]

Sounds similar to the personal story instances, where you often have a bunch of NPCs fighting/rezzing, etc. 

Ultimately Anet seems focused on encouraging group play, while this suggestion as you've indicated encourages solo play.  As someone who tends to avoid group play anyway, maybe I am not opposed, but just don't see it happening as conceptually it doesn't fit the game-style profile... it is an mmo, and not Skyrim.

In the meantime, there is that Sunspear Paragon... not really sure how effective/useful it is; to be honest, I never remember to use it.  

[Smurfiness.3714]

This is Companions from SWTOR. You can romance some of them, and send others off to do harvesting.

[IAmNotMatthew.1058]

6 hours ago, SpiderZ.9146 said:

• Mercenary companions: equippable with gear combat assistants for enhancing solo play.
• Gathering/hunting sla... erm, "friends", yes, "friends", deployable in an area where they will roam.

Is it still solo if you are not alone?

Besides, look for the many threads asking for Henchies/Heroes from GW1, there was one earlier this month if I recall correctly.

[Sobx.1758]

6 hours ago, SpiderZ.9146 said:

• Mercenary companions: equippable with gear combat assistants for enhancing solo play.
• Gathering/hunting sla... erm, "friends", yes, "friends", deployable in an area where they will roam.

The moment they'll try to substitute players with npcs, it will be a rather clear sign for me they understand there's not enough players to keep the mmorpg alive. That's a firm "no" to those "legal bots" from me. There's plenty of content to play through solo anyways.

Edited October 26, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[Bladestrom.6425]

Eso added companions.  You maxed it out, then it just became another dps source that contributes to power creep.  Also more visual clutter everywhere, more server resource needed etc etc.

[Gryphon.2875]

Try GW1. Buy heroes. Enjoy.

[DarcShriek.5829]

4 hours ago, Smurfiness.3714 said:

This is Companions from SWTOR. You can romance some of them, and send others off to do harvesting.

SWTOR doesn't have much of a player base these days.  They need companions.

[Omega.6801]

No.

[alphafert.6730]

As far as sending them out for hunting & gathering we already kind of have that with the daily shipments you can get in the gem store. 

[DeanBB.4268]

Following the servants attire, this seems like the next logical step. 🤷‍♂️

[Khisanth.2948]

11 hours ago, squeegee.4320 said:

Is this slavery?

Only if for some reason you decided to give them sentience.

or do you consider everyone who own a Roomba, Alexa, smartphone(since they have some sort of assistant feature), etc. to be a slave owner?

[Ashen.2907]

5 hours ago, vesica tempestas.1563 said:

Eso added companions.  You maxed it out, then it just became another dps source that contributes to power creep.  Also more visual clutter everywhere, more server resource needed etc etc.

This.

We have enough visual noise in any large fight as it is.

[Tsakhi.8124]

I just want to hug NPCs. 😞Especially Laranthir. ❤️

[Arianth Moonlight.6453]

seconding but only if you have to pay them, say, 10g daily.

[Doggie.3184]

How about "Player owned Players" via bomb collars?

 

 

 

[Ultramex.1506]

i believe the game have already enhanced solo play long ago, since you don't really need a npc follow you around to tackle contents like GW1 or SWTOR

[Vavume.8065]

I rather we do not have companions.

Edited October 27, 2022 by Vavume.8065

[Danikat.8537]

7 hours ago, Doggie.3184 said:

How about "Player owned Players" via bomb collars?

I know this is a joke but, minus the bomb collars, that used to happen in Ultima Online. People would stand around the bank (where everyone went to trade) and instead of selling things they already had they'd sell their time and skills. Someone would pay them for a pre-agreed amount of time and then they'd do whatever that player wanted until the time ran out.

It could be carrying them through a dungeon or something, or going out and gathering specific materials, or refining materials they'd already gathered, or whatever the 'employer' wanted and the 'employee' could do.

Some of that already happens in GW2, like people paying for raid clears, and in theory there's no reason they couldn't pay for another players time to do other things as well. Although I suspect the reason I haven't seen it since I quit UO is it's more practical to advertise for specific things than general purpose availability.