Would you like a "Hireling" based expansion?

[Bacab]

Disclosure: My main character is named "Hireling" and I named him that because when Hirelings became a thing in like 2007? They seemed so useless. They stand in traps and run off and cause dungeon alert. They break your stealth as the pull monsters onto you randomly.
Oh...and with a name like "Hireling" people have proper expectations of me...which is properly low.

That all being said...

I have been flying through some TRs lately and I have been using Hirelings to help through Korthos all the way to the Marketplace (level 1 to level 4s).

Sometimes its a barbarian, sometimes its a cleric Hireling.

Later on, I will use a Hireling to show up after combat and top me off.

A buddy that I quest with knows all the Dimension Door Hirelings....they are so helpful.

Recently I started playing an ALT as an Artificer. And I had an idea:

What if we could have a Hireling that we customized and that we could gear? Maybe just give them Armor and a Weapon.

My idea is use the Artificer Dog as a template. And let us pick a class to make our Hireling, and they can level up when we do (like Artificer Dogs).

All Hirelings now have the same buttons 1-6 on a Hot Bar which is listed here: (Scroll to Hireling Hotbar)
https://ddowiki.com/page/Hireling

Maybe with our "custom Hireling" we can pick the last 4 action buttons.

I would LOVE to have a Hireling that casts Deathward, and Heal and Freedom of Movement and Raise Dead...for my party members...not me...I never die...

Or an Artificer that uses a Repeater, can do some modest traps and cast Deadly Weapons and Armor of Speed?

I would pay 50$ dollars for this. (Thats a lie...I'd pay 100$)

Anyway, curious what anyone else thinks.

[Eantarus]

No.

[Stradivarius]

yes.

[Anuulified]

Maybe.

[Oxarhamar]

Disclosure: My main character is named "Hireling" and I named him that because when Hirelings became a thing in like 2007? They seemed so useless. They stand in traps and run off and cause dungeon alert. They break your stealth as the pull monsters onto you randomly.
Oh...and with a name like "Hireling" people have proper expectations of me...which is properly low.

That all being said...

I have been flying through some TRs lately and I have been using Hirelings to help through Korthos all the way to the Marketplace (level 1 to level 4s).

Sometimes its a barbarian, sometimes its a cleric Hireling.

Later on, I will use a Hireling to show up after combat and top me off.

A buddy that I quest with knows all the Dimension Door Hirelings....they are so helpful.

Recently I started playing an ALT as an Artificer. And I had an idea:

What if we could have a Hireling that we customized and that we could gear? Maybe just give them Armor and a Weapon.

My idea is use the Artificer Dog as a template. And let us pick a class to make our Hireling, and they can level up when we do (like Artificer Dogs).

All Hirelings now have the same buttons 1-6 on a Hot Bar which is listed here: (Scroll to Hireling Hotbar)
https://ddowiki.com/page/Hireling

Maybe with our "custom Hireling" we can pick the last 4 action buttons.

I would LOVE to have a Hireling that casts Deathward, and Heal and Freedom of Movement and Raise Dead...for my party members...not me...I never die...

Or an Artificer that uses a Repeater, can do some modest traps and cast Deadly Weapons and Armor of Speed?

I would pay 50$ dollars for this. (Thats a lie...I'd pay 100$)

Anyway, curious what anyone else thinks.

Considering how broken Arti dog & gear & hire in general

No

[Jeromio]

If they wouldn't take up any spots in the party, sure.

[ShifterThePirate]

No, I rather have SSG invest in DDO other problems in stead of investing more time in hirelings...
Besides that an Expansion should be more appealing to a broader audience.

[axiom21]

During one of those Sev Q&A's last year I recall him saying he was open to a gold-seal that would be customizable / level with you. Could be cool, but ultimately not really needed until everything is fixed.

How pathing for hirelings, pets, and summons are even worse than regular mobs is completely beyond me. Pathing, combat behavior, command customization, gearing, et al needs to be seriously overhauled or at least buffed to make it make any sense.

As an expansion? No. It's a core part of the game whether SSG wants to admit it or not: fix that stuff as part of normal operations FFS.

[Bjond]

I would love it if hirelings worked as well in DDO as they did in SWTOR. If SSG did 25% of what SWTOR does, it could be a big money maker for them (for those that don't know, hires have their own story, full cosmetics, level both with and orthogonally to players, and are actually more effective than about 60% of the playerbase at "playing" their class).

Sad commentary on hireling effectiveness: my new DUNGEONCRAWLer buff-bard is actually MUCH better as a healer than any hireling and all it does is sing one song buff and stand at the zoneline.

I would far FAR prefer to use a hire instead of a buff-bard.

[Gordo]

I'd like a lag free based expansion. Perhaps an expansion where we get nothing except a removal of lag.

[DaviMOC]

Sure if with it we could have a revamp on summoning, pets and normal hireling . Only after something like that I could dream about a cool hireling like that, without it it's just a slap in the face .

[NightHiker]

During one of those Sev Q&A's last year I recall him saying he was open to a gold-seal that would be customizable / level with you. Could be cool, but ultimately not really needed until everything is fixed.

Yep. I remember watching it and getting somewhat excited about it. He has not mentioned that idea again since then, though. I wonder if it's still on the wishlist or if it has been given up upon altogether.

I don't use Twitch, so I can't do that, but it would be great if someone asked about it on the next Q&A.

Cheers,
NH

[droid327]

Customizable, co-leveling, permanent hires are high on my wish list. Or hiring your actual alts as npcs. I'd love to progress my own perfect complementary companion

That kind of system would be well suited for an expansion, but it would absolutely have to come with an AI overhaul or else they'll still be useless.