Eric Musco, community manager for SWTOR at BioWare, took it to the forums to bring a bit more light on the still on-going issues with the NPC companions that have been plaguing the game since Update 5.10. The conservative statement that some of them will have to wait until 6.0, turned out to be “too conservative” after all. Let’s find out when will our Ranged companions start behaving the way they should and what BioWare plans to do to fix these issues in the coming months. Update 5.10.4 has been confirmed too!
Recently community manager Eric Musco announced on the forums that the bug with the Ranged companions not attacking when they should, is more severe and complex than it seems and we may have to wait for the release of Onslaught (also known as the 6.0 Expansion) to get it fixed:
“[…]that is actually a pretty big issue to fix. The team is working on it but it will mostly come in 6.0.”
Just yesterday a new statement came up from Musco, providing good news (more like hopes!). He admitted that his previous time-frame announcement was way too pessimistic or “conservative” as he described it in his post. The dev team is currently aiming to put and end to the ranged companion’s laziness and make them start participating in the fights regularly with the 5.10.4 update coming this Summer:
“The common belief is that this is a bug which was introduced in 5.10. That is understandable since it certainly became more noticeable with that update. However, this issue has actually been around since launch. After the reports we received from 5.10 we began doing a deep dive into what was going on. That is where we discovered a pretty substantial issue with how Companions were built which is causing this to happen. Due to this being an underlying issue with all Companions it requires a larger systemic change then just a standard bug fix which is the reason why the fix is taking so long.
An update from yesterday, I was being conservative in saying that it will be fixed for 6.0. Upon double checking with the team they believe that it may actually make it in before then in 5.10.4 in the summer. This is of course still dependent on testing and verification, but you may see it before 6.0 after all.”
I have to be honest with you, I didn’t think this was an ongoing issue since launch (December 2011, by the way). I have had some problems with ranged companions (both healers and DPS) over the years, but always thought those are some temp problems, glitches or minor bugs. Respect to Musco and the dev team for having the guts to stand up and admit that they have been unable to fix this bug since the very launch of the game. That’s over seven years!
How do you feel about this? Have you encountered any of these issues with your companions? Do you share my anger for an important gameplay system not being fixed for over half an year since it was partially broken? Given the fact that companions play far less of an important role today, I am actually not that disappointed. The bugs are annoying, but the fact that the content is easy enough, makes them have less of an impact somehow.
A quick word on what we know so far about the game’s next updates leading up to Onslaught. The expansion is coming in September. Before that we have the already confirmed release date for 5.10.3 “The Dantooine Incursoin” – May 28. After that there will be a 5.10.4. Based on BioWare’s standard release cycles, we should probably expect this one to be somewhere in late June or perhaps early July, leaving plenty of space for players to enjoy it before the expansion.
Summer is a slow time for all MMO games. SWTOR is not an exclusion. This Summer I expect we will see the return of the Nar Shaddaa’s Nightlife. The Pirate Incursion on Dantooine will also join the other regular monthly events in the rotation.
It seems to me that 5.10.4 is going to be BioWare’s final update before Onslaught. If that is true, then in my eyes they are underdelivering on the prequel story leading up to 6.0. I personally expected more. In the sense of at least 1-2 Flashpoints with story elements. Something similar to the Theron Story ark.
Something else that players (me included) often speculate is the usefulness of certain companions in certain roles and how well they perform in one instance compared to another. Back in the 2.0+ days I remember convincing myself that Treek is the best healer for soloing Flashpoints. I specifically remember the Depths of Manaan Flashpoint giving me so much trouble. Only Treek was able to keep my sentinel alive through the second boss’s “circles of death”. Of course, in the linked video you will see me using Malavai Quinn, which kind of disproves my own theory.
For 6.0 Onslaught BioWare promises to make a full sweep and a deeper look into companions roles and balancing:
“One of the other issues that we hear about is that some Companions are ineffective in specific roles or imbalanced compared to other Companions. For 6.0 the team is making a full pass across all Companions to make a variety of updates. Most notably to address this very imbalance, update abilities, and more.”
It is harder for me to tell today if a companion is good or bad. Most of the game’s content is so ridiculously easy to solo or tuned in a way that technically prevents you from soloing it without spending half a day in the instance (Flashpoints and Uprisings being the best candidates for solo attempts).
The final statement of Musco’s forum post that I have been dissecting in this article, leaves me at a crossroad. There is no doubt that companions in SWTOR are arguably the most important system in the whole game. They are in everything, starting from story and ending with farming your gear and credits. BioWare admits that they also think the same about the companions:
“Companions are a critical part of SWTOR and so we take issues with them very seriously. We know that sometimes changes don’t come as quick as you would like but know that we are working to get these types of issues resolved as fast as we can! We thank you for all of the reports around these issues as they were very helpful in isolating the root causes to work towards addressing them. And of course, thank you for your patience as we work to get them resolved.”
Then how is it possible that so many companion-related issues appeared in 5.10 and some of them still persist today. It’s been about half an year since that update. I can tell without using their telemetry tools that a ton of new characters have been created, many many stories have been played and replayed, a hell of a lot of times a companion has caused a player’s defeat and respawn.
With the “Onslaught” expansion coming closer and closer, we have started noticing BioWare buckling down and focusing on the next major update to the game. As the studio already announced, the 6.0 expansion will be free to subscribers, as the previous two ones have been. The additional five levels (new cap will be 75), new worlds to explore, improved and upgraded gearing system and so on, we now throw some companion talk into the mix!
Some of the classic companions are still missing. Kira and Scourge were announced as returning in a special mission more than an year ago. Charles Boyd (creative director) and Eric Musco (community manager) confirmed it in my live interview. Since then, though, not much has happened. Zenith is still missing too with no information how will he return. The devs only stated that they are planning to bring him back, just haven’t decided yet when and how.
I believe it is time to start thinking 6.0. Kira and Scourge’s mission, whatever it was, seems to have now been included as part of Onslaught. We have no confirmation of that yet, but the expansion comes in September and Update 5.10.3.
What do you think? Will wee see Kira and Scourge before 6.0? Could they appear as soon as 5.10.3 on Dantooine even? Am I asking for too much with that? How about them coming with an alliance mission in 5.10.4. Charles Boyd did tell me that they are set to return with an alliance mission after all.
