What are your impressions on the companion system in GW2?

What do you want from it?
And why?

Personaly I'm really looking foward to the companion system.
After playing fable 2 and hanging around with the dog, I was amazed to see how far AI has come for games. Although it probably wont happen, it really blew my mind the other day when I thought of our companions in GW2 running around in the same way as that dog did. Really coming to life and anticipating which way you're going to go, making their own routes through the terrain and so on.
I'm kinda hoping that they dont make them the same old 'I'll follow right behind you where ever you go and not move around on my own at all' kinda thing that the AI in guildwars does.

I think its all about how realistic they make the companions seem and how connected to them we end up feeling.
Its good that each player only gets one each for this reason. Very good.
I reckon guildwars 1 had way too many characters and heros, and you could never really connect with them, they just seemed like tools for the party.
But if we have one friend, one guy/gal that we go through the whole game with, with interesting things to say and is a real personal help, we can establish that connection and enjoy ourselves in more ways than guildwars 1 has offered us.

What does everyone else think of the idea of companions?
Does anyone not like it?

I'll have to wait an see how it works first. I heard you will have the option to leave or take the companions with you, and if you don't take them then you will get a buff of some kind. If it is a decent buff then I will probably not take the companion. My main reason is control. No matter how good the AI you will not always have total control like you do with your own character.

impressions?
none

We know nothing about it, so I have no impressions of it.

I need some solid proof of a game before I start formulating an opinion on a feature of it.

Not entirely true. We know its similar to CoH's buddy system, which is meant for meshing high and low lvl players together.

What Op refers to about AI dogs, I haven't a clue. You wouldn't happen to mean pets, like the ones we already have?

Haven't seen much about the companion aspect of GW2. It might be just an interesting play option, to make the game more entertaining, or it might also act as a balance mechanism, so that players can more easily complete quests which might be difficult for a single character (or character class) acting alone.

I think I would rather see a concept ART or anything. It's still vaporware, sorry to burst your bubble, but I love to do that.

All I can say is that from what I've heard about it, the part of Togo's BMP Mission is awfully similar.

Sorry to burst yours but you haven't burst mine, or that of many people. Regina and the NCsoft boss said they saw it, it's good enough for me.

Two people (one of which is incompetent, the other the head of a failing company, and both of them want everybody to keep buying GW1) said that a game that will supposedly benefit players if they do things in GW1 actually exists and you should buy GW1 so you get all the nice things in GW2. WE SHOULD BELIEVE AND TRUST THEM OK GUYS.

I was simply taking an example of good AI from another game and using it to describe the possibilities that companion AI could be like.

That shouldnt have been hard to understand...


Dont be so retarded about the vaporware thing. Why would they pretty much abandon guildwars, loosing many sales on something that was succesfull, and then pretend its because they are making another game?
What possible reason could there be for that?

(If you were joking, my bad)

I would say "in b4 vaporware" but I'd be lying, as there are too many vaporware comments.

Instead, I shall say "it is illogical for Anet to make GW2 vaporware" as that is more correct.

Anet wouldn't simply abandon GW when it's been going well until after EN.

Isn't that the sidekick system?

Guess they will upgrade it alot, unless they want to keep it sort of minimalist.

you mean the one "hero" that we get to bring along?

well storage wise, it will be sucky if we have to bring a summoning stone for every type of companion. otherwise not thinking anything.

For a second there, I thought that we got confirmation of GW2's existence.

Actually, um. Could someone just clarify things in case I missed something over the last few months... is this all just a running gag of sorts, or are there actually people here who really believe GW2 doesn't exist?

It doesn't. When was the last time you've seen ANYTHING about GW2?

They don't pretend anything. They are actually worse then DNF, they at least had SOME screenshots from the game.

The reason people believe this, is based on a lack thereof of factual evidence. People who believe in GW2 at this point, are doing so purely based on faith, much like those who believe strongly in religion.

Fact is, there are NO screenshots, NO confirmed classes, NO concept art (dont confuse EOTN concept art with GW2 concept art), and NO confirmation of significant points such as what classes will return, what they plan to do w/ the level cap, etc... To make things worse, 2008 was supposed to be the year alot of GW2 info was revealed. There was nothing new if you took any notice. Anet has not stated a specific reason for this and, as i like to say, has danced around the question like Sarah Palin.

Back on topic:

Im sure it has been said since the thread has become a "will gw2 exist or not" thing, but we will not know how the companion thing works for a long time, and there is no way of knowing. However, I speculate that it will be fine if done correctly. It is of course experimental, and the probability of screwup is high.