Making Your Companion Mad is Expensive

So, those late companions, man… it feels like someone punched me in the wallet every time I make one of them displeased. In the beginning, your companions give you +15 for good, and even if you’re a total asshole, it’s usually somewhere around -30. Ok whatever. With the later companions, however, they gain a lot more affection per conversation choice and also lose more if you piss them off.

Now, if I’m giving my newly-minted companion some gifts and he suddenly wants to chat, hey cool, more affection. Well, maybe not. If I suck up, then I get more affection. If I say something my companion hates, it could be -100 or more! Now, -100 can be a lot of cash when you consider companion gifts. I lost 500 affection with Scourge in the course of 1 conversation and it was expensive to bribe him back to being my friend. It’s pretty demoralizing to end a companion-requested conversation with less affection than you started.

So what do you do? Stay true to yourself? Or give lip service to your companion to avoid paying out the nose?

It’s even trickier with romance options. For example, the husband has a female consular and has no intention of getting cozy with Iresso. So she’s tactfully letting him down easy because shutting him off completely results in the -100 Of Cash (not to be confused with the -1 Of Shame). Then he gets to a point in the conversation and his choices are:

(1) [Flirt] Let’s make out.

(2) [Flirt] Let’s BSOCK.

(3) Fuck off and die.

Ok, I’m paraphrasing. And exaggerating for comic effect. But he’s like… argh this is going to cost me! Thankfully (and surprisingly), option #3 did not cost any affection, but still… how much is it going to cost my character not to sleep with this guy? Ugh. Not a conversation I want to be having in my head.

Well, you say, just don’t care about affection. Which is totally fine for you non-crafters out there. But I need for them to crit on all the things or it makes it (you guessed it) expensive for me. So it’s money either way. Money to buy their love, or money lost for lack of potential crafting bonuses.

So, dear readers, does companion affection affect how you play? If so, is it driven (even a little) by cost?

Comments

Making Your Companion Mad is Expensive — 11 Comments

Myth on June 11, 2012 at 11:48 am said:

On the story/companion questlines, playing against the personality of my character is a bit fun-draining for me, so I take the hit. The worst: -3k affection with Skadge on the BH questline for being honorable.

I liked that being honorable was “costly” (ditto for being super-villainy on the inquisitor). But the penalty for shutting down romantic advances felt… icky.

I’ll say anything on a daily, though.

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- Njessi on June 11, 2012 at 11:50 am said:
  
  Seriously, if I made them mad on the dailies, I’d be so broke. I’ve memorized the responses that give me the -2 of shame (which I don’t really understand WHY) and avoid them. I don’t care about gains because they’re all at 10k but I’ll be damned if I LOSE affection on a daily.
  
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Shintar on June 11, 2012 at 6:51 pm said:

Lol, that is exactly the problem I had with Iresso too. 😛

I generally try to not piss my companions off if I can avoid it, but that’s more an extension of my perpetual urge to get along with absolutely everyone (including pixellated computer characters). I won’t go completely against my character’s personality just for the sake of affection points though.

Cost on the other hand doesn’t really factor into it as I never buy gifts from a vendor or the GTN, and I don’t keep track of how much I invested into the ones I end up getting from missions. I just hand them over as I get them, and max out affection whenever I happen to get there.

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- Njessi on June 12, 2012 at 9:47 am said:
  
  Seriously, I just could NOT piss off Corso. Something about the sad farm boy. I have vowed that if I ever level a gunslinger, she will run with a different companion to the extent possible and sleep with all the mens. Stupid goody Corso.
  
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lifedeathsoul on June 11, 2012 at 9:16 pm said:

Lol I would kill to have just -100 affection. I’ve been playing a light side bounty hunter, and the last class quest can give my houk companion -1k affection per convo choice >.< a bit insane considering that most light side choices do not agree with him.

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- Njessi on June 12, 2012 at 9:48 am said:
  
  I didn’t understand how one of my friends had -500 affection with Scourge. Then I got Scourge myself and the losses are HUGE. I had to keep him back on the ship because everything displeased him to the tune of -250 or so.
  
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Neil on June 11, 2012 at 9:30 pm said:

You could just hit ESC once you see a negative reaction from your companion, and start all over again. Or just don’t have companions out when picking up/turning in quests.

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- Njessi on June 12, 2012 at 9:31 am said:
  
  I tried the “don’t have companion out” thing and it totally backfired on me when the conversation ended and the NPC shot my face off. You never know when you’ll enter a surprise battle.
  
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xhii on June 12, 2012 at 2:42 am said:

I’m so cheap I always end up mashing ESC if I get even just -1 (because I take it to mean I missed the option that would have given me +love).

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- Njessi on June 12, 2012 at 9:32 am said:
  
  I very rarely hit escape, mostly because I’m in a hurry and don’t want to redo the conversation, even WITH spacebars. Also if you’re questing with a friend and you keep hitting escape, your friend might murder you.
  
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Anexxia on June 14, 2012 at 8:21 pm said:

My Sith characters are evil so they lie to get their way with the companions. But I am running into issues w/my Republic characters. I am going to be in the SWTOR poorhouse methinks…

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Hawtpants of the Old Republic

Join the hawt side. It is your destiny.

Comments

Making Your Companion Mad is Expensive — 11 Comments

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