Companion Issues/Solutions

I had an incredibly long, incredibly detailed suggestion that I submitted through the game and intended to post on the forums. That being said, my 7760 character post FAR exceeded the 1000 maximum, so I will shorten my thoughts severely.

Using a companion feels like a punishment, to some degree.
1. They take up a party slot, therefore use in a party is limited.
2. Companions must be dismissed to play some quest sequences.
3. Cannot use Duty Finder with companion out (Forcing a choice)
4. In light of the three aforementioned points, the XP required to l level your companion is absurd.
5. Cannot respec companion.

Solution(s):
1. Consider the companion a pet, therefore not taking up a party slot.
2. Companions already go into "wait mode" while in a city. Why can triggering events not put them in the same mode?
3. 1+2 would fix this.
4. 1+2+3 would address this partially, maybe FATE xp as well?
5. Easy fix, add an item/trainer.
Thoughts?

I hope you saved your suggestion, as you can lengthen your post by editing after posting (1000 character limit disappears when you edit), and you could always post your suggestion over multiple posts.

Was going to suggest editing your post, but the noticed that someone else had already posted that.

On topic, it looks like an interesting idea, and I personally agree with all of that. As far as making leveling up your companion faster, perhaps in the future they could also add "Chocobo Dungeons" or something, that you can run with up to 4 people and their chocobos or something?

Ah, thank you for the info. Going to edit it now, so you can see the full suggestion.
EDIT: Annnnndd it appears that I copied something else in the meantime. Unfortunate.

All of this was requested many times already. We yet have to hear an answer from SE. What they did so far was making it possible that you can fight with your choccobo AND ride it too. Also the Agenda has a nice extra option to level your birdie now. That's an improvement but still not enough. I agree to all your points and it shouldn't be too complex and time demanding to add them to the Game. Waiting times for DF runs can be quite long. Or waiting for a rare FATE while you wait for a DF run lol. Don't lock our birdie away while we patiently wait for the next group.

There's a chance queueing with the chocobo will be in 2.28 though for sure it should be 2.3. They mentioned it while discussing the riding/fighting thing. I'm really not sure what their thoughts are on respecs though. As low on the priority list as it might be, it's also a relatively simple thing to take care of. The party thing is a little more difficult to take care of. Yes being a pet would work nicely as it would basically get all the benefits of a party member without taking up a slot. However, you would lose the ability for any other pt member to buff/cure the bird with AoEs etc. since a pet only appears on YOUR party list. It could also pose issues for ACN/SMN/SCH with a pet already out. They'd have to adjust pet macros or at the very least force you into putting the pet's name into them. It would also pose problems for balancing any future open world content. Try balancing when you could have a Full Party with 8 birds. Triggered content could disable birds but anything involving free roaming monsters or even FATEs would be a nightmare to balance AND to participate in. 50 people at a FATE is annoying. 50 people and 50 birds...

2.3 is introducing the chocobo stables which is entirely focused on companions so I would imagine we'll see a number of changes to the system alongside it. Considering we'll be getting a means by which to increase the skill point cap on our chocos I expect the respec option will also be in there somewhere. They've shown a desire to solve the other issues you mention so keep your fingers crossed. :)

the only issue with making it a pet would mean a party of 8 can become "16" (just like a party of 8 summoners/scholars but chocobos actually get exp) and smn/sch cannot use their egis/fairys along side a companion due to the pet feature. If they could, then 24 man team destroying fates or super chocobo farming in s. shroud lol

the solution is to just code it that they still take up a party slot but are ignored when q'd up for df.