Introducing the Alliance System
Be it the cheeky Astromech Droid, the stalwart Wookiee partner-in-crime, the ambitious upstart apprentice that is yours alone to mold, or any of the other 40-odd characters found in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ to-date; we all know and love our Companions (especially the chronically under-appreciated ship droids!). Companion characters have always been a big part of our personal stories, and with the upcoming release of the new Digital Expansion, Knights of the Fallen Empire, comes an even deeper focus on characters and storytelling. For this reason it only makes sense that we would seek to include our beloved friends (especially the ship droids!!) in that experience.
Knights of the Fallen Empire has given us an excellent opportunity to take stock of the role of Companions within Star Wars: The Old Republic (from both a gameplay and storytelling standpoint), and to enhance their behavior and mechanics, which have remained largely unchanged since the original launch of the game. I'd therefore like to take some time to share with you some details about the changes and new features related to Companions that will be coming with the launch of Game Update 4.0, as well as some of our thoughts behind these changes.
The Goal of Our Companion System Improvements
Before we dive into the details, allow me to go just a bit into the "why", to provide some context for the reasoning that was guiding many of the choices we made.
Removing Companion Usage Barriers
Here's a familiar scenario: Over the course of your adventures, you meet a new Companion character. They seem like an interesting, fun, or cool character, and you might like to run around the galaxy with them for a bit... but it turns out that their abilities just aren't a good match for your combat style... so you never use them. Ever.
One of our biggest design goals is to try and eliminate as much as possible the artificial barriers that prevent you from playing with the Companions you want, when you want, and how you want.<br />
<!--more-->Rewards for Spending Time with Your Companions, Rather than Flattering Them
Another familiar scenario: You're presented with a story choice in a conversation. You know in your mind how your character wants to answer... but the Companion you've got with you will hate that answer, and you don't want to lose Affection with them, so you instead pick the answer that the Companion wants to hear.
As much as possible, we want you to be able to participate in the story and make the decisions that you feel are true to your character.
Expandability and Versatility
Simply put, we need to make sure the Companion system has both the versatility, and expandability necessary to keep up with your desires to have bolder, more meaningful choice options, as well as to fully utilize the incredible storytelling potential of Knights of the Fallen Empire’s episodic narrative.
Companion System Changes:
With the release of Game Update 4.0, all Companion characters will now be able to switch between all three primary combat roles. When summoned, a Companion's portrait will display an icon signifying their current combat role. The combat role can be changed at any time (provided you are not currently in combat) by right clicking on their portrait, and selecting a new role.
When a Companion's combat role is changed, their ability bar will fully swap out for their updated role's abilities.
This change is huge in terms of addressing our first goal of removing Companion usage barriers. Are you a Jedi Consular who dreams of nothing but galactic adventures with Qyzen Fess, only to be foiled by the fact that you want a healer Companion? Your longing has come to an end!
Beyond lowering barriers, though, this change is also extremely important for the storytelling purposes of our third goal. Now that any Companion can fill any role, we will no longer have situations where we can't allow "serious consequences" to befall certain Companions, just because it might leave a player with no other Companion that can fill a given role.
Companion Gear Now Purely Aesthetic, Companion Combat Stats Scale With Level
This was one of the tougher decisions we had to make, and while we anticipate it being one of the more controversial, we're still confident that this is the right call to make based on comments from players.
The simple reality is that, more often than not, the need to gear Companions has wound up being more of a cumbersome hindrance -- not to mention a significant barrier to Companion use -- than a source of meaningful or satisfying Companionship and progression. The recent 12xp experience promotion and the Epic Story Boost have only brought this issue into sharper relief.
Therefore, with the release of Game Update 4.0 in October, Companions will no longer gain combat stats from their gear; Companion gear will become purely aesthetic. This change also means that players can now freely use non-modable gear pieces to dress Companions, without having to worry about subpar stats! This separates style and function giving you the maximum in options for how you dress your Companions.
As far as Companion combat performance goes, all Companions will now have baseline combat stats that automatically scale with your character level. This means that no matter which Companion you summon, no matter how long it has been since you last summoned them, they will always be able to at least perform at an adequate baseline level.
Note: Even though Companions don't gain stats from gear, there are still ways to develop their power: This is now accomplished by building Influence, which we will get to shortly.
We're going to be removing gear slots from Companions that do not impact that Companion's appearance, as those slots no longer serve any function. (Any gear equipped in slots that have been removed will be mailed back to players via in-game mail). Here are two examples of what this looks like in the Companion character sheet:
First, on the left, we have the lovable ship droid Companion 2V-R8. As a droid, none of 2V-R8's gear aside from his weapon ever changed his appearance, thus he only retains his weapon slot and his Customization slot (which all Companions will retain).
