Currently companions are a lot like player characters. They have:
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similar substats which increase with level (and sometimes equipment)
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HP/Stamina bar
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the ability to carry equipment (1-2 slots for armor and/or weapon, depending on the companion type)
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they use up a character slot
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they get incapacitated when their HP reaches 0
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they have their own kind of “potions” (i.e. the companion food) to recover HP and Stamina
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they have a special training NPC to improve their stats permanently through silver consumption
However, with the recent updates, they became a lot weaker due to the monsters sharp rise in HP/evasion/accuracy/attack from level 250 onwards.
And while Players can improve their own stats easily with statpoints earned by leveling,equipment boni, gems and cards, companions are still limited to have only the basic effects of equipment (i.e. their attack,defence and magic defence value, only affected by upgrades, not by transcendence[as transcendent equips can’t be equipped by companions]) and the very expensive companion trainer improvements( where 1 point can cost hundredthousands to millions, depending on the improvement already invested into).
That’s why I suggest a renewal of the existing mechanics to make the companion training more interactive, fun and rewarding.
First of all, the Companion Trainer NPC needs a rework. Instead of improving substats for silver, the player now has to take a test to improve the stats of his companion.
Secondly, the stats improved through this system should be the same as a normal Player Characters stats: STR,INT,CON,DEX and SPR. Every time a companion levels up, it gains a fixed amount of statpoints, which can be “invested” by taking a test via the Companion Trainer NPC.
The test should be a practical quest for the player or the companion to solve, and it should be related to the stat the player wants to increase.
E.g. :
if you want to improve the companions STR, you’ll get warped into an instanced dungeon similar to the current “The Ultimate Monster Tamer”-event, where your player can only move& use items while your companion has to kill the boss monster within a certain time limit.
If you want to improve the companions INT, you’ll get warped to another instance where you have to solve that memory-based cube gimmick within a certain number of tries.
If you want to improve the companions DEX, you’ll get warped to another instance where you have to beat the ball-shooting gimmick within a certain time limit/shot limit.
If you want to improve the companions CON, you’ll get warped into an instanced dungeon similar to the current “The Ultimate Monster Tamer”-event, where your player can only move& use items while your companion has to survive for a certain time while monster waves spawn and beat it.
If you want to improve the companions SPR, you’ll get warped to another instance where you have to defend a torch for a certain amount of time.
The stats STR/INT/CON/DEX/SPR need a slight adjustment in what they do on companions, due to some of the effects (e.g. increasing magic attack[INT], SP recovery[SPR]) are useless for the companions. My suggestion is the following:
After successfully finishing the test, the stat will be increased or you’ll be allowed by put points into it;
this system could work both ways:
- The “stat points” earned by the companion are directly generated at the Companion Trainer NPC (similar to how attribute points are generated at the Master NPCs) and are used up when successfully clearing a training test session.
or
- You take the test to unlock a new stat “rank” (e.g. 10 points are a stat rank, so every 10 points invested you have to take a new test to unlock a new rank to be able to invest more points) and can put the points into the stat afterwards at the Companion Trainer NPC.
To keep the silver sinking effect of the NPC intact, it would be easy to adjust that taking the test costs a certain amount of silver, regardless of your success/ failure.
The pros of this system are the following:
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makes the companion system more interactive
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makes the companion system futureproof as the stats provide an easier base to balance around
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makes the companion more individualistic, as every Class may have another purpose to carry around a companion (tank, riding vehicle, damage dealer)
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makes the companion worth a character slot as you can actively improve its performance with the base stats
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makes the companion training more interactive and realistic (just paying silver for improvements is boring and enforces extreme silver farming after a certain threshold for nearly no improvement)
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makes more use of the gimmicks already ingame to solve a real purpose, improving their popularity in the process
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compensates the companion for the inability to use certain equipment (e.g. head accessories, cards) and the inability to have transcended equipment