This is a brainstorming session on rewriting the Companion system. I've been trying to think of a way to make more versatile, useful companions without making the system overly robust or overpowered versus other guilds. Note: I did a lot of writing, deleting, and starting from scratch.
Ranger Bonus
People often talk about the Ranger Bonus being easily tanked. The assumption is that this is determined by a flag in a room that makes the bonus: negative, neutral, or positive.
One of the ways to address this and make companions more useful is to have companions affect that flag. Lower tiered companions would only make the room neutral, but higher tiered companions would make the room positive.
My Logic: Although one animal does not make a zoo, the proximity of the creature keeps the Ranger connected to nature and their animal instincts. The more feral the animal, the larger the connection. Plus, it would give Rangers a reason to always have a companion.
Companion Trainers
In order to utilize the companions, you need to find a Trainer based on the companion type. Trainers serve three functions. First is to teach a player how to capture and care for the companion. Second is to provide in-character lore on where to locate potential companions. Third purpose is to train the player on how to train their companion on abilities.
Companion Types & Tiers
Companions would come in four tiers and three types. Companion type determines care, maintenance, and abilities. Companion Types are: Mammal, Avian, Exotic.
Creature names could also be generic, geographically specific, or based on a current NPC creature. Such as an orb spider, an Endrus eagle, or a hulking barghest.
Tier would determine the number of abilities and bonus.
Tier I: 0 Ability, 1 Trick, Neutral Ranger Bonus
Tier II: 1 Ability, 2 Tricks, Small Positive Ranger Bonus
Tier III: 2 Abilities, 2 Tricks, Medium Positive Ranger Bonus
Tier IV: 3 Abilties, 3 Tricks, Large Positive Ranger Bonus
Abilities and tricks would not be set in stone, but instead taught to the companion by the Ranger, who learned it from the Trainer. Some companions would be restricted to what they could learn, but otherwise you could mix and match to promote uniqueness of each companion.
Example: An Orb Spider would not be able to learn the same tricks and abilities as an Endrus Eagle.
All abilities which provided a skill bonus would have a duration and cooldown period. The younger the companion, the shorter the duration and longer the cooldown.
Companions would come in four life stages: baby, adolescent, adult, and mature. Companions ages would be seen in the look versus the overall description.
Trick & Ability Examples
Trick Standard: Hide, Unhide, Sleep
Trick Trainable: Fetch (Get, Drop) Seek (Find Person), Perform
Ability Trainable: Scout = Provides temporary bonus to perception, scouting, helps with finding dangers while mining and lumberjacking
Track = Temporarily boosts the creature spawn rate in a room, not to exceed the maximum
Taunt = Taunts all creatures engaging the Ranger and causes them to disengage
Scrounge = Provides temporary bonus to thievery, locksmithing
Companion Combat
My opinion on companions and combat abilities is that I think it would be too extensive to code. Plus I don't necessarily want my companion to attack. I want to hog all that experience for myself. However, for higher tiered companions, it would be nice if they had limited combat utility.
Such as a barghest, which when signaled, would temporarily taunt all creatures in the room. Or pacify all creatures in a room.
One of the problems that I see with combat though is companions getting wounded. How do you heal them? Is that an ability that you can train your companion? Do you take it the trainer aka veterinarian? It would ideal if Empaths could heal them, but that would require some cross-guild coding.
You could make it so that the taunt does not actually cause critters to engage, but instead, just make them disengage the Ranger specifically.
Conclusion
These are just thoughts on the framework. The general idea is at a minimum to give companion a more useful purpose by affecting the Ranger Bonus. I thought the idea of being able to mix and match abilities and tricks would allow for more unique companions.
I haven't spent a lot of time of thinking on the details of companion types or abilities or tricks because I wanted to hear other people's suggestions. There needs to be a common theme though to help with creating the care and maintenance for them. For example - spiders, toads, and birds could eat insects, but a mature eagle would probably eat meat just like a wolf.
-- Crowfeet --
