Poll: How many new companions would you like?

yeah ok, cheers for the reply

Just my opinion, but if you dont want the companions, dont pick them up. Seems like you would be safe adding as many as you can, for those of us that want them, and those that dont can ignore them in the game.

Me having lots of companions doesnt hurt others (since, again, they can choose not to pick them up), while us not getting companions because others dont want a lot keep me from playing the way i like.

My 2c

CEO said:

Just my opinion, but if you dont want the companions, dont pick them up. Seems like you would be safe adding as many as you can, for those of us that want them, and those that dont can ignore them in the game.

Me having lots of companions doesnt hurt others (since, again, they can choose not to pick them up), while us not getting companions because others dont want a lot keep me from playing the way i like.

My 2c

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It may cause more difficulties than this, however. With many additional companions, their randomization around taverns will be impacted, making it more difficult to track down Native companions and losing them to either the deep recesses of a tavern or have them not appear at all...without monnikje going to each and every tavern scene and add more spawn points, making everyone download new tavern scenes.

So, at least theoretically, it could be complicated and a bit of a headache.

Hmmm.... I never had too much trouble with the companions mod i used before.

But that said, maybe it could just be an enable/disable option like the "have all companions available at at starting tavern" option at the beginning of the mod.

Lots of companions is definintely one of my fav things in this game.

The poll has been created to suit as many people as much as possible.

For those that feel unhappy with the amount of companions being added, it is always possible to add some more.
On the other hand removing companions would break savegames (afaik).

I would like to see a few...maybe..

What about..
Kradus, Dranton and Xerina...?

Maybe faction champions, .. they only follow you if you are sworn to a specific faction, so..
Maybe Dranton is the Swadian tournaments champion..? and leaves if you if you leave Swadians?

I voted 1-5 extra npcs but not convinced until i see the characters .. maybe a viewing X-factor type show?... BBUUZZZZZZ..Next!! xX 8D

If you decide to add a lot of them, it's not like everyone HAS TO USE THEM ALL. They could just get a few or stick to the originals. Both the ppl who want a lot of companions and those who only want a few would be (or should be) content.

MasterCaruyn said:

If you decide to add a lot of them, it's not like everyone HAS TO USE THEM ALL. They could just get a few or stick to the originals. Both the ppl who want a lot of companions and those who only want a few would be (or should be) content.

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My point exactly. Adding lords helps those of us that want them and doesnt hurt those that dont, since they can just choose not to pick them up.

The only argument against this i've seen is that it would be inconvenient to find the origional companions .... but heck, it hard for me to find them half the time anyway! =)

I made this poll so I could see people's preferences, and made everyone able to reply so I could hear why people liked one option or the other, and to see good suggestions. I didn't make this topic so there could be lobbied for a certain choice, and I certainly don't want a follow-up discussion why one choice is better than the other.

At this moment there are two favorite choices: adding just a few (1-5), and adding quite a lot (40-70). That's a huge difference. Let me try to sum up some arguments I've seen and that I can think off:

• Crowded taverns: some taverns might be as crowded as the starting one when you select 'let all npc's start in the first tavern'. This could of course enhance the feeling of a busy place, but it could also hinder with other npc's like book merchants, drunken people, bards and of course hirelings.
• Uniqueness: With less npc's than taverns, discovering one is a privelege and gives those companions you did find a special place among your ranks. With many companions available, the uniqueness of them wares off. On the other hand, it can be very frustrating to look all over the country for a few more npc's.
• Relations: Currently, the companions like one person and dislike two. When I add just a few more, the circles of who (dis)likes who can be adjusted with some minor effort, preserving basically the relations as they are in native, with some minor adjustments. When I add 60 new companions, these relations will be drastically changed to suit the new situation. If I discover a way to add more likings/dislikings to a companion, I surely will do that with such a large group (by the way, these relations can be disabled in the mod menu).
• Vassals: Who needs to convince other lords to join your kingdom when you can just hire 70 companions, turn them all into vassals, letting them recruit armies and follow you to blitzkrieg all over Calradia? This can be a bit gamebreaking. On the other hand, it can definately help you in your early and struggling days of an independant kingdom.
• Immortal army: Adding a lot of new companions will allow players to create an immortal army that can level as good as the player. The fact that this is possible can be gamebreaking, and can spoil the fun. On the other hand, you don't have to recruit them if you don't want to, and can still play with a few if you prefer.

Furthermore, the amount of work it takes to add a lot of companions is not an issue. If most people want a lot of them, then I'll get to work . But I can do only one or two companions a day (writing dialogue isn't done in a few minutes), so adding a lot will take some time. If you don't care about their dialogues and only want them to be immortal meat for your army - and you'd rather have them yesterday than tomorrow - you can always add them yourself: I prefer to have companions with some character in my mod pack instead of just some immortals that are just there to level and beat armies.

It's up to you, the voter, which arguments are more important. There's no good and wrong: only honest opinions.

Funny that poll results indicate a preference for either just a few new ones or a whole sh*tload...

Either way would work for me, though I would like to see Floris's trusty sidekick Sindala included in a later version.

As of now I am in support of as many companions as possible.
I also have a few ideas, but I'm not sure if any of my ideas are possible because I have no knowledge of coding.

Maybe some of the companions could be prevented from acting as a vassal?

Could some of the companions start as companions in other lords armies or something similar? 

Can any companions be placed in a different area such as a village or the streets of a town?

Also I really like what Hieronymous suggested.  Faction champions or maybe some companions that only will want to stick with your army if you are with or in support of a certain faction.

Well I just tried playing the Lots of New Companions mod. I was not impressed much. Sure the mod adds a ton of new companions, but it takes away from the feel of the game. What I mean is that sooo many companions just make the game completely unfair and battles take no skill to win because your companions are so amazing. I changed my vote to only a few because you could make their dialogue much more unique than 70 companions. What you could possibly do is make 2 versions: the one with only a few new companions and the one with the tons of companions. The one with less new guys would take less time to come out, appealing to those who want less companions, and the one with more would take more time, and should appeal to those who want more (it would just take a little longer).

Could you split that section of the mod into lots and few companion packs like you did where the music is seperate?

On the gamebreaking-due-to-invincible-companions bit. I typically played with the Lots of Companions mod (and diplomacy) before Floris and didnt really find it any easier with lots of companions. Maybe it would be at high levels, but typically my companions are low level, with worse gear than your average I4/C5/A4 NPC as it was very hard to scavenge/buy a ton of gear. It surely didnt keep me from getting my butt kicked every now and then and (horribly) having to find all my companions again!

The high level companions were always so expensive that i rarely bought them.

To me there is a kind of balance in native, allowing you to have no more than 9 or 10 companions at a time, and that's probably not a random choice by the developpers. It sounds like having tons of companions would be game-breaking to me, and taverns would definitely be a problem as with the addition of new NPCs such as mystic merchants and so on, they're already on the verge of being over-crowded. But I'd support the addition of new NPCs to add variety to companion builds, such as more specialists, level 1 characters, more women... But in that case it would be good to set the likes / dislikes in a way that doesn't allow you to bring more companions in your party than in native.

I was actually just coming here to see if it would be feasible to add in that mod, when I saw this.

I like the idea of "Lord" level companions and having a number of them, as well as capable male and female companions. Would it be feasible to make some sort of companion cap? Implement something so you could not ride around with an army of 100 companions in the best gear, but instead had to choose your party carefully? IMO having a plethora of available options but a limit on what you could choose would be the perfect balance (although like you said, it would require a ton of work).

Just had a look at your updated original post and you suggested that we could add our own characters...

Actually that's something that I already wanted to try and I had begun reading the tutorials the other day... but I need the python source files to do this I think (right?).

Is there a way to recruit the Lords (Or even some Ladies! !) as NPCs? And have a few Faction Champions (Xerina, Dranton..etc) you can use to send to tournaments/have with you in your party? This could solve the 'many NPCs versus few NPCs' issue, 'cos if you took all the Lords as companions they wouldn't raise their own armies. Maybe the more important lords can't be recruited though...? fiefless vassals only....?...

C'mon you (1-5) 'ers!

i would like to see alot more variety of companions in the game,
but still a limit to the amount of them you can have in your party based on the leadership skill or something like that
and as for the crowded tavern idea, just make them apear less and in different places.
that would be cool!

And who says that they will fight for you? Let them fight for themselves or another lord

or you could just make new lords overall, and add new families...