Text Commands and Misc. Changes to Adventuring Fellows

[Raka]

Does anyone ever get tired of their Adventuring Fellow using unnecessary MP?

How about when you need them to remove a status ailment and 50% of the time they cast something else, such as Paralyze, Dia II, etc.?

Tired of having to wait for a battle to end to check your Adventuring Fellows current MP stock?

My proposal:
Would it be too troubling to add an optional system to alter your Adventuring Fellows fighting style to better cooperate with the player?

I would like to have the option to perhaps be able to use a Text Command to make Skillchaining with your Adventuring Fellow much easier.
Example:
/npcws "Hexa Strike" <wait3>
/ws "Tachi: Kasha" <t>

Or simply the better alterations of MP conservation.
Example:
<npcmpp>

/npcws "Spirit Taker"
or
/npcws "Moonlight"

Perhaps give Adventuring Fellows access to Refresh and add Text Commands such as the following as an optional addition. Adventuring Fellows can cast these on their own free will or can simply use the Text Command for better efficiency.
Example:
/npcma "Refresh"
(Uses Refresh on themself.)

/npcma "Refresh" <me>
(uses Refresh on Player.)

/npcma "Cure V"
(Uses Cure V on themself.)

/npcma "Cure V" <me>
(Uses Cure V on Player.)

Would be more efficient to be able to command your Fellow via Text Commands to Disengage the current target and order them to rest for MP or simply just to Disengage should you be fighting a Notorious Monster that uses God aweful TP attacks and you do not wish for them to give it unnecessary TP gain.
Example:
/npc "disengage"
(Orders your Fellow disengage the current battle target.)

/npc "engage"
(Orders your Fellow engage the current battle target.)
Alt.: Your Adventuring Fellow can Auto-Assist as normally meant to upon a simple option of:
/npcassist on
(Turns Auto-Assist on.)
or
/npcassist off
(Turns Auto-Assist off.)

/npc "heal"
(Orders your Fellow to kneel and recover their HP/MP.)

I would like to see Adventuring Fellows have access to the Questable Weapon Skills aswell, but this may already be on the way with the upcoming version update(s). If not, then it's right here for them to see and decide on.

With these suggestions, it would be interesting to be able to have your Adventuring Fellow join up with you when doing Campaign Battle as soon as you are under the effects of Allied Tags, and once the battle ends they will Warp.

Enter any additional ideas or suggestions that you may have/would like to see added to better the performance and efficiency of Adventuring Fellows here.

[Nikia]

This is pure win, I have been wanting this for a long long time now. Was always too lazy to ever take the time and voice my thoughts. You however have done a wonderful job at it. I really hope this gets considered.

[Mirage]

Sounds like you want a pup automaton

[Nikia]

I wouldnt say a PUP automaton more like you would get with a RL player.

[Raka]

Sounds like you want a pup automaton

Sounds that way maybe, but it's really just some thoughts that could be used to adjust the usefulness of Adventuring Fellows. I personally dislike the AI system used on Fellows, they cast an Enfeeble over removing a status ailment majority of the time and they aren't very MP sufficient for this reason. Perhaps a command to disable the use of Enfeebling magic so that they can focus solely on Healing magic would suffice to render the use on Text Commands useless to the most part.

I still wouldn't mind being able to tell my Fellow to disengage and recover their MP if I'm fighting a Notorious Monster and want less TP feeding.

So I guess you could say it's somewhat similar to Automatons, but still not a bad adjustment to want for your Fellow.

[thefinalrune]

I've always felt that the AI for the fellows was way to limited in scope and application. I'd love to actually be able to suggest job types instead of pure tactics. What I wouldn't give for a sneak attack using THF fellow to duo with sometimes.

[Mirage]

I would be satisfied with making the NPC AI a *bit* smarter, and being able to issue tactics on the fly during battle. It wouldn't have to be specific battle commands like "use this WS, cast that spell", but maybe things like this:

Pull back: Makes NPC not pursue you and the mob if you move, unless you get outside of casting range. Otherwise, AI continues doing the same as usual.

Defensive stance: Make the NPC focus on keeping you and her/himself alive, based on the abilities available to them at the time. Attacker or fierce would use defender, and provoke more often when you got low on HP for example. A healing NPCwould stop trying to debuff the mob and focus on healing, while keeping their distance and resting for MP if needed.

Offensive stance: would make the NPC use all their abilities they've got to inflict more damage on the mob. Be this magical debuffs, Berserk, warcry or whatever is at their disposal.

Along with that, it might be nice to be able to tell them which weaponskills you like the best, which in turn would make them more likely to use that particular WS, and maybe as well being able to tell them which WS you like the least, which they'd then stop using. This should probably be a per-weapon setting.

Perhaps you should be able to ask the NPC to report their TP whenever they reached 80% or so, giving you mroe time to prepare a WS for yourself to close a SC with. I forgot if this is possible to do already, I don't think it is.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Perhaps we could more simply talk to the NPC at one of the points and disable certian options.

[Limecat]

I like the general fire and forget setup they've got now. I'd prefer something like the chat/effect filter for limiting NPC actions. Don't cast (de)buffs X and Y, you may cast Haste on me but not on yourself, never WS until my TP is over 100, that kind of thing.

[Kavik]

Your npc will tell you "I'm going to ws" (depending on your 'personality' of the npc these words very) @ about 80-90% of their tp, if you have under 100%. Now as soon as you hit 100% they will perform a random ws IF they have tp. If you are sitting at 300 tp the npc will skip the part about he/she having tp and will hold their ws until you ws. Your ws 'triggers' their ws. Your npc will however, immediatly use their tp if they hit 300%. As for the debuffs and the mp's and such, the AI is VERY irritating. My npc says "uh oh running out of magic!" (mp less then 25%~) then he casts dia 2 which is 40 mp instead of 46 mp for cure 3 and he makes the mob unsleepable to boot. All for making an option like the "no aoe ws" option that makes it so your npc doesn't cast debuffs.

[Mirage]

Do they tell you their TP, wait for you to get 100, then WS first, allowing for you to close a SC when you set them as attacker or fierce attacker? I alwasys kept mine as healer, so I guess I don't really know.

Still though, the NPC always (mostly?) using the strongest WS they have when set to attacker can be both good and bad. While steel cyclone is likely to put out better numbers than sturmwind or iron tempest or any of the -breaks, it's probably not gonna be better than raging rush, or if they instead mostly used a WS you can create light/darkness with (without you changing to a piss-weak WS), that would probably be a much better option.

Again, not asking to be able to set which WS my NPC should always use, but it would be cool if I could set priorities so that I perhaps got the WS i wanted in 75% of the cases.

[thefinalrune]

The Fierce Attacker Fellow will announce when they have full TP and either weaponskill immediately if you're under 50% or over 100%, or they wait for you to reach 100% if you're at 51-99% before using their WS. Also, all fellows only WS directly following a successful melee strike. Even with full TP if they're whiffing away they won't use a weaponskill.

[Nebo]

I would be happy if you could select a few more specific tactics from them at the rendezvous point.

Like which weaponskill to use (their idea is to skillchain with you right?). Or priorty over enhancement and cures versus enfeebling magic.

I saw it suggessted once that we be able to give them FF12 style templates to follow. That would be ideal I think but very unlikely.