Not enough variety in companions

[Jjampong]

Is anyone else experiencing that often there are too few, or even none at all, companions with trade skill or smithing skill? (Even if the latter is really easy to train yourself)
Besides a shortage of certain types of companions I also notice that most companions tend to be completely lopsided when looking at their perks. Almost all points either go to the top half of the tree or the bottom half. So it's hard to find a good companion to train from scratch as well.
Is there some sort of internal clock that actually refreshes some companions? If so how does it work, because I haven't noticed it working yet.

 

[Apocal]

Is anyone else experiencing that often there are too few, or even none at all, companions with trade skill or smithing skill? (Even if the latter is really easy to train yourself)

Yeah, trade companions are some of the rarer ones. It is basically only Swift and Spicevendor. Meanwhile, we get like five flavors of bad surgeon, three different engineers (all of whom are useful, so there's that), three bad scouts, and some other redundant types.

Also: Aserai get all the best companions for some reason.

Is there some sort of internal clock that actually refreshes some companions? If so how does it work, because I haven't noticed it working yet.

Every few weeks, a new companion is generated. Unfortunately, they don't do any kind of checking so you can get duplicate healers when you have no traders or four Smiths and not a single Prince.

 

[Jjampong]

Yeah, trade companions are some of the rarer ones. It is basically only Swift and Spicevendor. Meanwhile, we get like five flavors of bad surgeon, three different engineers (all of whom are useful, so there's that), three bad scouts, and some other redundant types.

I know, it's a real shame. Also a lot of different combat companions who don't really seem to differ much in terms of perk points or skill levels. I think it'd be great if there were also wanderers that had a low level so you could attempt to customize them as best as possible. That would also partially fix the other imbalances. Still, I'd really like to see more quick and easy trade companions Or some kind of randomizer that, at the start of the game, takes into account the roles each wanderer might be able to fulfill and spawn in the right wanderers accordingly.

Every few weeks, a new companion is generated. Unfortunately, they don't do any kind of checking so you can get duplicate healers when you have no traders or four Smiths and not a single Prince.

I haven't noticed that happening a single time yet. Maybe I just don't pay enough attention.

 

[ceprast]

I really think the perks need to be set by player because so many of them are useless for AI.

 

[black_bulldog]

I really think the perks need to be set by player because so many of them are useless for AI.

Or they make no sense for instance I've had a companion who had 90 in athletics and 0 in riding but had the perks to make him a better horse archer. Things like that just piss me off. TW either need to make some kind of parameters for companions or hand make them because right now getting a good one is a crap shoot.

 

[Jjampong]

Or they make no sense for instance I've had a companion who had 90 in athletics and 0 in riding but had the perks to make him a better horse archer. Things like that just piss me off. TW either need to make some kind of parameters for companions or hand make them because right now getting a good one is a crap shoot.

I know what you mean, these days pretty much the only companions I still take on board is a scout an engineer and the rest are all the most generic ones I can find in the hopes I'll be able to mold them into something workable.

 

[black_bulldog]

I know what you mean, these days pretty much the only companions I still take on board is a scout an engineer and the rest are all the most generic ones I can find in the hopes I'll be able to mold them into something workable.

I do find the Bitterdraught and Willowbark can make either a good governor or a good caravan leader because they're both low enough and typically have a good distribution of skills.

 

[TheWigglyTapeworm]

Exactly what I was thinking.
I posted something similar on suggestion a few days ago.

https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?threads/companions-stats-suggestion.434063/

 

[ceprast]

Also from what I understand they dont have as many attributes and such as the PC which really sucks for the enabled death option. Basically your companions are stupid slow to level up so that if one of them dies its a ridiculous loss of time investment. They need to be able to level up fairly quickly so that losing them is not that great a setback in order for the death function to work properly.

 

[Apocal]

Also from what I understand they dont have as many attributes and such as the PC which really sucks for the enabled death option. Basically your companions are stupid slow to level up so that if one of them dies its a ridiculous loss of time investment. They need to be able to level up fairly quickly so that losing them is not that great a setback in order for the death function to work properly.

Yeah, they should be given some sort of a modifier for their XP gains per activity because goddamned the AI likes to be a picky eater about the swings it takes. I have a twenty year game where all the mercenary clan nobles started with zero combat skills and some of them still haven't reached the threshold in any combat skill to be considered a combatant.

Meanwhile, you get Lord Needs a Tutor as a quest and they hand you some big **** warrior from Hell itself who is only eighteen and say, "Train this guy up, lmao."

 

[a_ver_est]

For me it is fine that some companions types are less common than others, in fact it makes sense that those which will provide big benefits are "rare gems" like spicevendor type and you should take special care of him/her.

BTW I agree that it will be nice to have a dummy type with lvl 0 which you can personalize as you want, also agree that the leveling model is somewhat slow and time wasting right now... a good example are you sister and brother which takes lot of time to turn them in something useful. A nice idea IMHO will be that the first four levels give you 1 attribute and 2 focus points to speed up the process and after this point keep the current model.

 

[Delinard]

I wish companions would just have unspent skill points, its hard to level them up when everyone is such high level, meaning they have high wages and have random skillpoints in trowing or rougery

 

[Ferisko]

Right now companions are placeholders I think, but it will be cool to at least choose their perks.
On the other hand, with the new tactics perks added (even though captain perks don't work atm), companions leading a formation should earn tactics xp like the player.

 

[black_bulldog]

Right now companions are placeholders I think, but it will be cool to at least choose their perks.
On the other hand, with the new tactics perks added (even though captain perks don't work atm), companions leading a formation should earn tactics xp like the player.

I hope you're right because right now they add nothing to the gameplay besides a few modifiers for an army.

 

[Earth Dragon]

They definitely need to readdress it, but there is nothing stopping you from training someone up yourself. There are plenty that start with decent Social and training pips in trade.

It’d be nice if the Empire in particular had a merchant spawn, as they are the “center of the world” and would have plenty with experience there

 

[Earth Dragon]

I wish companions would just have unspent skill points, its hard to level them up when everyone is such high level, meaning they have high wages and have random skillpoints in trowing or rougery

I’m never a fan when you choose everything for other names characters and steal their personality. I hope it’s more random in the future if what they may be good at to start.

They can still be governors, party and caravan leads, so they add a lot of value to your clan other then just “customizable fighters

 

[thefirst1nvad3r]

I agree with you. Companions should have low level like in Warband, so you can put focus point and perk where do you want and need.
At this time, companions are not so good, because they have many perks and skills randomized, so they lack on many sides of war.