CHANGE LOG 1.1 - added OP version - x5 HP, x10 base damage (regular hits, not abilities). 1.2 - added optional Better Hunter's Sense (Marius' skill) for convenience - it will have x3 radius and x2 duration to check your surroundings less often. 1.3 - added rebalanced version for PotD fans. It doesn't touch companions base damage, but rebalance them a bit to prevent Giatta outperforming and Marius underperforming. Giatta's heal and barrier nerfed a bit, by ~20%, and scalable passive heal up by 50% - it is completely broken later in the game with higher damages; Marius got a slight buff to bleeding and shadow step, ~20% and x2/12s hunter's sense; Kai and Yatzli unchanged. 1.3.1 - buffs base damage very slightly and made stats (almost identical in vanilla) more fitting companion's role (beefier Kai, more damaging Marius, more resistant to magical damage Giatta and Yatzli).
I don't want to sound greedy, but I'd greatly appreciate a version that's between the reasonable and OP versions you have now. I didn't really notice a difference with the reasonable increases, but I don't want my companions to be too OP, just useful. A version with 5x damage and around 2/3x health with the usual cooldown changes would be fantastic if you ever feel so inclined.
would you guy recommend using OP significantly stronger companions to play on hard difficulty? or just use the regular one on normal difficulty, which do you think is a more enjoyable experience?
On Normal difficulty, I don't find that the Reasonable version impacts their survivability very much at all. Any fight that would have killed them without the mod will still kill them, it just takes longer, and they may as well not attack at all for how little damage they seem to do. They do fire off specials more than once a fight though, so there's that.
I've tried both, and I'd say it depends on your playstyle and how you view companions.
If you see companions as sophisticated accessories and want to kill everything yourself (Skyrim-ish) and have them only augment and compliment what you're doing, then regular on normal. Then if you want, boost or add stats and/or abilities to your own build.
If you see yourself and them as part of a team working together and like orchestrating the fight (more of a DAO type tactical approach) then OP on a harder level and leave your stats alone. I find this approach is more realistic. To me, there is little more immersion breaking than having a powerful wizard/fighter/archer etc who can't even kill the lowest level enemy on their own!
I wouldn't improve them and your own stats as, to me, that makes the game too easy. Hope that helps!
I tested this with Caites's carry weight mod, so I could see the difference immediately. It doesn't matter if the mod is unpacked directly into the ~mods folder or in a subfolder under ~mods, they both work.
This is how Vortex organizes the mod. This was my cause of confusion, since I was still in the tutorial zone I couldn't 'see' the changes to the companions so I wanted to be sure it was unpacked correctly.
It doesn't matter if the mod is unpacked directly into the ~mods folder or in a subfolder under ~mods, they both work.
@WilfulWayfarer - Thanks for that tip!! I don't use vortex but I just tested this with all of my manually installed mods and it seems to be working perfectly. I end up testing a LOT of mods so this will come in SO handy to keep my ~mods folder streamlined and tidy! Cheers!
Any chance for a version that adds HP changes from OP variant (or something like x3) but the damage is from regular? On Path of the damned they die a lot on the regular variant but playing with OP isn't great because they hit like a truck (player should remain main source of damage output).
Just want to say, I use almost all of your mods for this game (except better attributes) and this honestly feels like the way the game was intended to be. The meat of the game is fantastic - the story, world building, combat feel are all really good. But the vanilla progression is far too conservative and unrewarding, and your mods make the game much more enjoyable.
Still compatible and relevant. After the most recent patch, companions are still simply aggro bags that output negligible damage and die after 40 seconds of combat.
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Cody, <3
CHANGE LOG
1.1 - added OP version - x5 HP, x10 base damage (regular hits, not abilities).
1.2 - added optional Better Hunter's Sense (Marius' skill) for convenience - it will have x3 radius and x2 duration to check your surroundings less often.
1.3 - added rebalanced version for PotD fans. It doesn't touch companions base damage, but rebalance them a bit to prevent Giatta outperforming and Marius underperforming. Giatta's heal and barrier nerfed a bit, by ~20%, and scalable passive heal up by 50% - it is completely broken later in the game with higher damages; Marius got a slight buff to bleeding and shadow step, ~20% and x2/12s hunter's sense; Kai and Yatzli unchanged.
1.3.1 - buffs base damage very slightly and made stats (almost identical in vanilla) more fitting companion's role (beefier Kai, more damaging Marius, more resistant to magical damage Giatta and Yatzli).
I don't want to sound greedy, but I'd greatly appreciate a version that's between the reasonable and OP versions you have now. I didn't really notice a difference with the reasonable increases, but I don't want my companions to be too OP, just useful. A version with 5x damage and around 2/3x health with the usual cooldown changes would be fantastic if you ever feel so inclined.
Thanks again for all the work you're putting in!
If you see companions as sophisticated accessories and want to kill everything yourself (Skyrim-ish) and have them only augment and compliment what you're doing, then regular on normal. Then if you want, boost or add stats and/or abilities to your own build.
If you see yourself and them as part of a team working together and like orchestrating the fight (more of a DAO type tactical approach) then OP on a harder level and leave your stats alone. I find this approach is more realistic. To me, there is little more immersion breaking than having a powerful wizard/fighter/archer etc who can't even kill the lowest level enemy on their own!
I wouldn't improve them and your own stats as, to me, that makes the game too easy. Hope that helps!
...Avowed\Alabama\Content\Paks\~mods\(Files)
or for Vortex unpacks the mod.
...Avowed\Alabama\Content\Paks\~mods\ZZZZ-Better Companions-10-1-0-1739548461\(Files)
I just want to double-check since things are still new.
I tested this with Caites's carry weight mod, so I could see the difference immediately. It doesn't matter if the mod is unpacked directly into the ~mods folder or in a subfolder under ~mods, they both work.
This is how Vortex organizes the mod. This was my cause of confusion, since I was still in the tutorial zone I couldn't 'see' the changes to the companions so I wanted to be sure it was unpacked correctly.
@WilfulWayfarer - Thanks for that tip!! I don't use vortex but I just tested this with all of my manually installed mods and it seems to be working perfectly. I end up testing a LOT of mods so this will come in SO handy to keep my ~mods folder streamlined and tidy!
Cheers!
Just a suggestion, thanks for your work!
From the patch notes:
https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/134364-patch-124-notes/