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[Malice Song]

Most of these are minor changes, so I didn't see the need to make half a dozen new threads.

• Faster Disappearing of Companion Corpses
  I think most people who make use of the new companion system had one go poof on them at one point or another. As far as I can tell there is an issue with the player leaving (and thus deleting) the map while the companion is unable to do so. Ideally that is what should be adressed, but in the meantime it doesn't really help, if a companion dies and his/her body is lying around for several minutes, while we have no clue when it's safe to leave the map. I'm not sure when it's actually safe, so since in doubt my advice to anyone who asks is "if possible, wait for the body to disappear". Maybe that's an unnecessary safety measure and leaving earlier would be possible, but right now there's no way for the player to tell, if and when that is. I can understand wanting the corpse to stay a while, so a hostile player can loot it, but I think the frustration for the victor of not being able to loot a companion is nowhere near the frustration of permanently losing your companion, especially for people new to the system, who might run through this process several times. I'd suggest drastically cutting down the time it takes for the bodies to disappear (maybe even down to the few seconds it would take for a combat timer to run down), which I'd imagine would be a very easy fix untill the real problem at hand can be adressed. If loot for the winner is an issue, dropping their inventory on disappearing would imo be a better solution than the guessing game we have now.
• Visible Weapon Preferences on Companions Before Taking Them
  Pretty straightforward. The dialog check for this is already in the game, I think being able to select it when the companion is still free would be a big improvement. In most cases you're looking for a specific weapon proficiency and sometimes there is no way to tell without taking the companion, which leads to dismissing them straight away in more than half those cases. Since they just disappear on disbanding and can be hard to find to begin with, all we're doing here is taking away companions from eachother for no reason whatsoever. I know you can often tell by checking their inventory, but this doesn't work for EW, BG and sometimes Melee. And while we're on the topic of inventories ...
• Companion Inventories That Actually Make Sense
  If a companion proclaims he/she loves to use shotguns, pistols, etc, maybe he/she shouldn't run around with a Ripper or an Avenger.
• More Sensible Inventory Management for Mercs
  I get the idea that Mercs are not supposed to be like Companions and carry your stuff for you. However, me having to buy their broken weapons from them, if I don't want them to become immobilized by scrap metal at some point, takes the idea a bit too far. At the very least a check for 0% condition items and subsequent deletion or better yet them treating 0% items as 0 cap value items would be welcome.
• Switching Weapons on Command
  Right now any follower will use one weapon and one weapon only, untill he runs out of ammo. Unless using a really specialized build (maybe even then, I have no way of knowing), different situations call for different weapons. I don't really need them using a Sniper Rifle on ants, but if we run into Yakuza, the Mauser won't cut it. Being able to assign a primary and a secondary weapon and swapping them on the fly with an alt-click command would be a welcome improvement. I realize this is a big one and probably would not be implemented in the near future, if ever, but I felt the need to point it out.

[Who Killed Bambi]

Companion Inventories That Actually Make Sense
If a companion proclaims he/she loves to use shotguns, pistols, etc, maybe he/she shouldn't run around with a Ripper or an Avenger.

- this is just thiefes stealing off inventory or planting weapon on them
few times i spotted trawellers just in moment they enter town without any weapon

my suggestion to companion mercs :
i agree with merc inventory management - chenge it
and add replacement of helmets to bar companions

[Trokanis]

The inventory is actually Random I had a fresh spawn 'Small guns' Bar Traveler spawn with a brand new Avenger the typical npc ammo of one pack AP ammo, while the gun was fully loaded with JHP.  As far as being unarmed when you saw them Bambi, companions holster when in towns unless commanded otherwise.  I agree with all these suggestions.  I don't use mercs, but I have been playing Heavily with the companions. 

A note there are some cases where a player CANNOT wait in a zone for their companion to despawn (ie. The player dies somewhere near the same time the companion dies, it's 60 seconds and player 'poof' no choice, thus meaning Bye bye companion)  Just lost a nice helper that way.

Also a check on their AI, it seems (maybe just a random thing) but I could not tell my companion to Flee out of a cave, perhaps because there wasn't a red exit, only a green one, in either case if she had fled as commanded she would have lived, "and I would have too...."

I strongly agree with the inventory management upgrades, to companions also.  It is very bothersome to not be able to upgrade my companions leather hat to something more useful.

I believe a decent addition to the suggestion if Malice doesn't mind would be a tweak to the Companion Loyalty system.  At best for beginners a single companion costs anywhere from 500-1000 caps a day.  That is a ton of upkeep for a low level person, especially right now with merchants being bugged and caps being more rare than most 'rare' weapons.  (btw I'm not saying caps don't exist, they're just not falling off venders like previous seasons)  My humble thoughts are Companions should maybe drop loyalty 2/3's maybe 1/2 slower than the others because they typically 'want' to join you rather than mercs who are in it for the money, or slaves who are forced.  It is also difficult and tedious because the items for Companion loyalty are either difficult to make, or store bought only, where as slave loyalty items (which give 5 to 10 times more loyalty than companion items) can be farmed from encounters and also bought, though currently not made.

All that being said, they are very well done for what they are and thanks to the Dev's for doing it, I just agree they could use a little fine tuning.

[Malice Song]

The inventory is actually Random I had a fresh spawn 'Small guns' Bar Traveler spawn with a brand new Avenger the typical npc ammo of one pack AP ammo, while the gun was fully loaded with JHP.

That's not quite so random, though, in that it happens ervery single time. Hence inventory not making a ton of sense.

[DeputyDope]

good suggestions, Malice!

i would add to that list:
- fix helmets. right now i can't tell them to wear any other helmet.
- (i haven't tested this yet, but fix followers vanishing while you exit and they are still in combat timeout and you tell them to flee on grid)
- have a way to find out their SPECIAL too? if that wouldn't be too much overkill. (or be able to ask them what perks they have, how many AP they have, etc.)
- have a way to EXACTLY know their loyalty, and know how much  loyalty booze or any other items gives them. right now i have no idea how much booze i should give them.
- fix useless companions such as BG with 5 AP, etc.
- make them only follow characters that are bigger than a specific level (say 6). this will prevent level 1 characters grinding companions, a thing that pisses me off BADLY.

- this is just thiefes stealing off inventory or planting weapon on them

and why would a thief plant a 100/100 avenger minigun in  a traveller's inventory, smartass?

[Trokanis]

I was told by Malice there are some places to get slightly cheaper stuff to help with companion loyalty, but even at half price it seems a bit much at least at lower levels.

Yeah Dupe I agree with ya, if you read my add on to her post the helmet thing was there.  I don't agree with the limit to low level players having Companions, mostly cause even for their upkeep they can be a great help to lowbies.  I do however agree that the people that just make lowbies to take them all is stupid, but this is FOnline, if there's a way to abuse it, no matter how small, people will.  I just don't think yet another thing should be changed that punishes low level players, just because of the bad eggs.