Well...Any updates on the new companion system? Even a hint of a rumor will get us excited about the new system.

-Elyasan-

In addition to what Leslac posted, Sithix previously has stated that he has gotten large portions of companions already approved (whatever that means). So I take it to mean that there are large portions he can code up without getting approval for it and could implement it.

Heh, just as a side note--I got my raccoon shortly after the meeting where Sithix introduced himself and spoke about companions. I never ever thought the raccoon would get have the opportunity to grow as much as she has. I seriously thought I would have a new companion way before this.

So when it does roll in, I will say bye to Shadow and welcome whatever we get. Sithix has asked for some discussion on what we actually want from our companions. We might wish to help him by posting. ::nudge nudge::

Zinaca and her fully-grown raccoon, Shadow

<<I want a hawk. It's just that simple. Erm, I hope it is.

Player Behind Lowry>>

You and the Hawkman have dibs on hawks. And Falkonis gets his falcon. I hope these both happen or I will be able to hear the screaming and yelling and gnashing of teeth at my place. : (

I seem to remember Sithix talked about the possibility of having groups of animals you could choose from (like a mage can choose fams) and that it might be based on animal lore. I seem to remember a progression, start with a raccoon, and similar animal, progess to larger and avian forms with greater skills. Since DR3 has no animal lore absorbed anywhere (correct me if I'm wrong on this), I don't know what companions and choices will be based on.

I really want a dragon...but I know it's not to be. : ( I would love it if, with great great skill, we could call a dolphin or pod to help us swim the oceans. Maybe a bunch of sharks chasing us? That would be quite an encouragement to swim quickly.

Folks, this is your chance to offer your hopes and wishes for the companions. This has been done often before, but we have a real chance to get companions, hopefully by the end of the year, so post!

Zinaca and her fully-grown raccoon, Shadow who can climb and swim better than I can : (

Oooh sounds great Sithix! Could we get our companions to at least drag us out of combat if we are stunned? Warmie fams can do this. Perhaps the ability to do this might rely on our charisma--the strength of our bond?

Zinaca and her fully-grown raccoon, Shadow

About cyclical companions...does that mean we won't be able to sustain say cheetah swiftness if we have a companion on cyclic mode? Currently cheetah swiftness is cyclical.

Zinaca and her fully-grown raccoon, Shadow

Is there still a plan to allow the thing to hide as it goes to find people? My current companion is a bloodthirsty little thing.

~Nefidyne



>
Kssarh gestures at you.
Two Ranger journeymen materialize out of the surrounding trees and begin to whisper to Kssarh as they escort him out of the area.

You seem miss-informed the companions are being worked on.

GM Sithix is the main GM working on it as far as I am aware and he's also working on a few fine tuning issues on DR 3.0 release.

Time lines, well things are progressing along, so try and be patient and hopefully we'll see it sometime down the line.

---
"I think anything that forces you to do something no sane adventurer would do just in order to train is ridiculous."
DR-SOCHARIS

---
Victory Over Lyras, on the 397th year and 156 days since the Victory of Lanival the Redeemer.

A bit curious, where exactly do companions stand right now? I'm 12, soon to be 13 and was planning on running down to Leth for the raccoon as soon as i hit 13. Is the method for getting the coon still the same as its always been or have things already changed. I saw Sithix's post on 1.31.13 that had a list of things that had been released, so that kinda had me wondering a bit.

Nothing has changed yet.

>that would make a CRAP load of rangers happy
^^^ This ^^^








Now then, please take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me; Genesis 27:3

My wolves have always worked fine.


~Nefidyne

>
Kssarh gestures at you.
Two Ranger journeymen materialize out of the surrounding trees and begin to whisper to Kssarh as they escort him out of the area.

Hi rangers, just sticking my head in here to see if companions are close to release. I can't believe after the time I have been gone, they haven't. On the other hand, I was hoping I didn't miss the release cuz I wanna see if Sithix makes me a PINK Uh PINK! I can't pink...flamengo. Earlier joke to Sithix---heyo.

Zinaca and her young raccoon, Shadow who thankfully is NOT pink

Hey I can hope!

Zinaca and her fully-grown raccoon, Shadow who is not pink

Almost wish we could like posts. Lol. Damn the internet.

Falker

Purnay is annoying.

Anyone rumors on what the new companions will be?



-Annieka

<<And then we can do this same thread 6 months from now.... and then a year... and then 18 months... N+6...

Lol. QFT

Falker

Par for the course, I have my sights set on 2020 for a single companion that is relatively buggy and doesn't work right.


Arctuniol

I agree with you Nef. I do think new companions will be much better than old ones--or I hope so. When (if) we ever get companions, I want the wait to have been worth it. Something like 12 years and counting!

Zinaca and her full-grown raccoon, Shadow

>>After 10 years, you think all of us would get a clue. <...> You accept it and move on. But being strung along for over a decade is beyond annoying.

Past GMs (Early to mid 2000s in particular) had a terrible problem with over promising. I could point to dozens of examples of systems that were announced, in detail, that now that I'm behind the scenes I can tell you simply were never more than a pipe dream. I like to think that's something we've dramatically improved on and are much better about not discussing things that we aren't fairly sure are going to happen and clearly communicating when we're taking ideas or discussing potential ideas and when we're talking "Yes, this is a thing, it's going to happen" and explaining why things change in the course of development.

>>I don't think there has ever been any serious committed intention to work on companions and I don't believe there ever will be.

Just in my, relatively, short time on staff I know of more than one GM who was committed to them - but real life happens and we lose people to it. I don't think there's ever been someone who's left staff without leaving projects undone.

>>I finally got an answer to why I will never be able to buy a boat. It's not the consumption of game resources line that is given by everyone. There aren't enough people playing to worry about that any more. It was finally explained to me that the person who wrote the code for boating is no longer there and no one now is capable of coding boats. I was told point blank that the original coder of boats was a genius and there is no one now who can figure out what he did and duplicate it. As soon as I was told that -- it was all good. I quit thinking about owning a boat and moved on.

Oddly enough, whoever 'finally gave you that explanation' was completely wrong, and the rest of what you're saying is correct.

Here's why boats have been in development limbo forever:

1) The system is a HUGE resource hog. Your exchange rate is roughly "10 boats = Crossing". This is the major reason boats are only very rarely released now.

2) Jeremael wrote a lot of huge sprawling systems, which are great, but they're nearly impossible to work on because there is no documentation to speak of and he modeled things to extreme degrees of realism (See also: Homes, substances and horses which are all, more or less, in the same situation). It's not good or bad design, there's pros and cons to such levels of detail and complexity, but it's how he did things. The result is that the learning curve for picking up his systems is extreme. Imagine trying to understand how every component in your car works without internet access, a manual, or anyone who's ever worked on it available to answer your questions. Can it be done? Yes. But the learning curve is so steep that no one has ever been able to dedicate enough time to do more than a few emergency fixes/tweaks here and there - and I speak as someone who's done just that. Why didn't I speed up the Night Sky when I spend up all the ferries? Because I literally cannot without rewriting huge chunks of the system that would cascade into every boat in the game. Under the existing system I could have made it about 20% faster and I wasn't at all confident that that wouldn't result in the ship occasionally getting lost in DR's version of the Bermuda triangle as it overshot the dock due to the increased speed. (This is, perhaps, what was explained to you?)

>>I suspect the same is true about companions for rangers.

I haven't crawled through the companion code myself, but to my understanding it's somewhat similar - minus the resource issue. Like boats, the fact that there's almost no documentation so just figuring out how the system mechanically works and where all the parts are is a huge undertaking (This is, depressingly, a very common problem with systems that weren't done under modern design). The second is that it's an extremely old system - meaning it was designed under the old engine (Remember the DR2 engine overhaul back in 2001 or so? That made a HUGE difference in how we can build things behind the scenes) which, again, makes it harder to figure out since there's almost no one on staff who coded under that engine (Solomon might be the only one) and makes the system far more sprawling and piecemeal than it would be if it was done under the current engine.

The only real solution is a common 'pet' core (Since it's also needed to make any real improvements to familiars, or risen and so forth). Ricinus has talked about that a little bit, since it's sort of his baby, but I don't want to speak for him on the topic.

-Raesh

"Ever notice that B.A.'s flavor text swells in direct proportion to how much one of our characters is getting screwed?" - Brian Van Hoose

Thanks so much for taking the time to explain. You basically verified everything I have been told. I honestly appreciate your response.
So now I'm off to go be happy and play the game! Thanks for all you do!

Player Behind Lorwryn