Companions comparison with native - so you don't get confused

[faigulla]

If you're like me, you want to know which companions do not conflict with each other. This is a quote from Saxondragon that I dug up on this sub-forum. I don't know if they are all still the same on 2.0, if they are, it would be a worthy addition to the wiki.

The companions:

Native Name PoP Nam   Clash        Clash        Friend
Borsha           Engrid     Raveneye   Janus        Leslie 
Marnid           Leslie     Kassir       Sir Rayne     Engrid
Ymiria           Ansen    Donavan   Sardan       Sir Rayne
Rolf             Riva      Maxine       Raveneye     Kassir
Beheshtur        Kassir     Leslie       Horus          Riva
Firenz             Rollo      Horus       Sara            Gydia
Deshavi         Raveneye  Engrid     Riva          Janus
Matheld         Sardan   Gydia       Ansen         Sara
Alayn           Sir Rayne Sara      Leslie         Ansen
Bundik           Maxine     Riva      Donavan       Horus
Katrin             Horus     Rollo        Kassir         Maxine
Jeremus         Gydia       Sardan   Cathan         Rollo
Nizar            Sara      Sir Rayne Rollo          Sardan
Lazalit           Donavan  Ansen         Maxine       Cathan
Artimenner      Cathan     Janus       Gydia           Donavan
Klethi           Janus     Cathan       Engrid         Raveneye

When I started out to revise the companions to match the world of Pendor, I was surprised on how difficult it was.  It became immediately apparent why so many other mods leave the companions at native values.  As have been mentioned, there were several companions that I only slightly modified from native.

On the same note I was also surprised at the elegance of this design.  The response/orientations are based on personality traits that are often in conflict with the orientations of other characters. 

EDIT: Here is also a link to the original suggested companions party, so you don't have to constantly check "clash with" or "likes". Just see the corresponding companion in native in the following thread and check their name on Prophesy of Pendor to make your team:

NPC Interaction guide (v 1.00 +)

 

[kekn06ab]

It would be nice if someone would post the new companions and their skills as well

 

[faigulla]

Yes, edit my post as necessary.

 

[kaeldragor]

For the record, about half the names are different, not to mention skills, stories and equipment.  I'm currently testing to see if the dislikes/likes are the same.

 

[Misguided]

I'm currently testing to see if the dislikes/likes are the same.

They aren't.  While I was testing a build I tried to find out who everyone's likes and dislikes are, as I was not involved in that part of the project.  But with 20 heros, I didn't get through them all.

Finally I decided that a dev doing that would only take the satisfaction from one of our players.  (you, apparently... )

Good luck!

-Misguided

 

[pimparel]

It would be nice, if NPC culture would be added.

 

[noosers]

Forget that spreadsheet as fast as possible - its outdated. Someone of the development team has got a list. Aparf from that, you lazy buggers GO AND FIND IT OUT YOURSELF!

What I am telling you, however is:
Sir Roland
Sir Timothy
Sir Rayne
Sigismund Sinclair
Diev Dievsson
Ansen
Leslie
Horus
Julia

work well with each other and cover almost anything. Thats the mix I usually use and think of Knightish Line. There´s the Scoundrel version too - the remaining scum companions

 

[Pode]

My usual approach in vanilla has been to jack up persuasion, get them all, and persuade them to stay.  Since persuasion has other benefits in PoP 2, wouldn't this plan be even more viable than normal?

 

[kaeldragor]

Unfortunately, with 10 leadership and 10 persuasion, some will still steadily decline.  Even if you convince them to stay, some people prefer a happy unit.

That being said, here's the cheat sheet (skills not included.)  I can confirm that noosers' suggested team is without conflict.

There are also three other simple configurations of 9 team members that present themselves.

Spoiler

Name, Dislike 1, Dislike 2, Like, Cost
Adonja, Timothy, Sigismund, Sardan, 1200
Leslie, Kassim, Janus, Diev, FREE
Ansen, Sardan, Donovan, Rayne, FREE
Riva, Raveneye, Julia, Kassim, 1500
Kassim, Leslie, Kaverra, Riva, 800
Simon, Diev, Horus, Gydia, FREE
Raveneye, Riva, Roland, Janus, 600
Sardan, Ansen, Diev, Adonja, 1500
Sir Rayne, Kaverra, Sara, Ansen, 5000
Julia, Donovan, Riva, Horus, 800
Horus, Sara, Simon, Julia, 700
Gydia the Red, Sigismund, Timothy, Simon, FREE
Sara the Fox, Horus, Rayne, Sigismund, 1500
Donovan, Julia, Ansen, Timothy, 3000
Diev Wodenssen, Simon, Sardan, Leslie, 4000
Janus Blackheart, Roland, Leslie, Raveneye, 1000
Sir Roland, Janus, Raveneye, Kaverra, 8000
Kaverra, Rayne, Kassim, Roland, 2000
Sigismund Sinclair, Gydia, Adonja, Sara, 4000
Sir Timothy, Adonja, Gydia, Donovan, 8000

Maybe I'll add another spoiler for skills and stats and such.
A great addition to this mod would be the companion overview, if integration is possible.[/]

noosers' suggestion will cost 30,500 denarii

If you collect the cheapest team of 9, it will run you 6,100 denarii for recruitment alone.
Regardless of your "dream team", I suggest hiring Simon, Ansen, Leslie and Gydia first, as they are free.  Then just kick them out once they are a problem, if they aren't someone you want to keep long term.

 

[ArakDemonBlade]

Ah this is one of those bits in M&B that has always bugged me and I usually end up disabling through tweaks. Interaction between companions is well and fine and tends to add to atmosphere (Baldur's Gate anyone)? I just don't feel it was executed well in M&B. I mean if morale is 100, you're well paid, and renown is in the thousands, NPCs shouldn't be leaving because such and such insulted their hair or whatever.

 

[noosers]

If you read the insults (and I highly suggest so) you will realise WHY it is impossible for your companion to even breathe the same air as some others.

And you can trust me on the companion suggestion - I ran it throughout all my betatesting simply because I got fed up with all that noise and quarrels.

I don´t think TWEAKS will work well with PoP 2-0 - it´s entirely new code. Messing with it can result in WEIRD and FUNNY behaviour. So any tweaks you perform are at your own risk. Just don´t turn up and complain about bugs you introduced yourself.

 

[Somnolent]

A high persuasion skill can help/delay things from falling apart, but it is what it is.  Nice work kaeldragor thanks for the post

 

[saxondragon]

If you're like me, you want to know which companions do not conflict with each other. This is a quote from Saxondragon that I dug up on this sub-forum. I don't know if they are all still the same on 2.0, if they are, it would be a worthy addition to the wiki.

The companions:

Native Name PoP Nam   Clash        Clash        Friend
Borsha           Engrid     Raveneye   Janus        Leslie 
Marnid           Leslie     Kassir       Sir Rayne     Engrid
Ymiria           Ansen    Donavan   Sardan       Sir Rayne
Rolf             Riva      Maxine       Raveneye     Kassir
Beheshtur        Kassir     Leslie       Horus          Riva
Firenz             Rollo      Horus       Sara            Gydia
Deshavi         Raveneye  Engrid     Riva          Janus
Matheld         Sardan   Gydia       Ansen         Sara
Alayn           Sir Rayne Sara      Leslie         Ansen
Bundik           Maxine     Riva      Donavan       Horus
Katrin             Horus     Rollo        Kassir         Maxine
Jeremus         Gydia       Sardan   Cathan         Rollo
Nizar            Sara      Sir Rayne Rollo          Sardan
Lazalit           Donavan  Ansen         Maxine       Cathan
Artimenner      Cathan     Janus       Gydia           Donavan
Klethi           Janus     Cathan       Engrid         Raveneye

When I started out to revise the companions to match the world of Pendor, I was surprised on how difficult it was.  It became immediately apparent why so many other mods leave the companions at native values.  As have been mentioned, there were several companions that I only slightly modified from native.

On the same note I was also surprised at the elegance of this design.  The response/orientations are based on personality traits that are often in conflict with the orientations of other characters. 

EDIT: Here is also a link to the original suggested companions party, so you don't have to constantly check "clash with" or "likes". Just see the corresponding companion in native in the following thread and check their name on Prophesy of Pendor to make your team:

NPC Interaction guide (v 1.00 +)

This table is no longer valid in Pop 2.0.. as we added 4 more companions, dropped others and changed the likes, dislikes, skills, and orientations of the whole lot.

 

[Daviclond]

Any chance of getting a chart updated for 2.0? Or better yet, a way to disable the companion interaction completely?

I get that the bickering is there so you can't just take on every companion, but the whining you get because of it was something that always annoyed me about M&B and got disabled soon as I learned how - to quote another poster "I'm hauling around over a hundred fighting men along with their retainers and baggage, if you guys don't like each other than go somewhere else in the ****ing camp." 

 

[Oghier]

Or better yet, a way to disable the companion interaction completely?

Seconded.  This is M&B's most annoying feature.  Exactly which army is it that permits you to desert if someone else said something mean to you?

 

[littlemikey]

http://popmod.wetpaint.com/page/Companion+Information
Was made during the beta. I think noosers wrote it, but I can't recall for sure (Sorry noosers >_<

Don't know if it's still current or not, and I still need to make a nice table to put all the information in.

 

[Misguided]

That's just the problem.  Your companions are just that.  Companions.  They are not your slaves, nor even your soldiers.  If they are not happy, they will leave.  I don't see any problem with this.

Hell, even your soldiers will desert you if morale gets too low.  How much more the ones who are just along for the ride?

Disabling interaction = just another easy-mode gambit.  This is Prophesy of Pendor.  We're not hear to make things easy.... 

Plus, we worked rather hard on the insults and love-fests.  Would be a shame to take them out.

-Misguided

 

[12oz Jesus]

I'm employing the "we hang deserters" tweak to allow refusal of quitting.  I will let y'all know if I have any problems.

I prefer to just pick 9 that seem like a good team regardless of the love/hate triangles.

 

[littlemikey]

I don't know about you guys, but when one of my companions starts whining that Sara won't go out with him, I just tell him to eat a spoonful of cement and harden right up.

 

[Daviclond]

That's just the problem.  Your companions are just that.  Companions.  They are not your slaves, nor even your soldiers.  If they are not happy, they will leave.  I don't see any problem with this.

Hell, even your soldiers will desert you if morale gets too low.  How much more the ones who are just along for the ride?

Disabling interaction = just another easy-mode gambit.  This is Prophesy of Pendor.  We're not hear to make things easy.... 

Plus, we worked rather hard on the insults and love-fests.  Would be a shame to take them out.

-Misguided

The feature is tiresome and stupid and compromising the fun of the game for the sake of consistency with your subjective interpretation of what the role of a mercenary companion in a fictional setting entails is silly.

Having it switched off doesn't make much of a difference anyway; few people would take on every, or even most, of the companions due to the limit on the number of unique units you can have in your party. If that was still a problem with people feeling it was on "easy-mode" then they can simply choose not to disable it v0v

I guess I understand why it was put in, in that it limits the number of companions you can have to non-overpowered levels and provides an excuse to add a dimension to each hero's personality yadda yadda. But personally I care more about enjoying the game than getting "immersed" or whatever.

-Username

e: I think I came off a bit too intense I mean, I get where you're coming from but given that most people read off an optomised companion build that has no personality clashes with a bunch of friendships and never encounter the feature or any of its dialogue anyway why not provide an option to disable it entirely and allow people to pick heroes based off who they like instead of tiptoeing around one-dimensional "i am a holier-than-thou knight ergo i dislike generic criminal-background character" disagreements.