Setting aside teambuilding headaches with companion timers, Lorwolf's companion system is really great, but it's slightly lacking!

Starting off, there are only a few diverse loot tables for companions:

Pebbles, candles and trinkets set.

Stamina + select food set.

Crafting materials set

Food set.

Experience set.

So far so good, I can see that I can do the following things with my companions slots:

-Earn pebbles (and extra goodies)

-Earn stamina (and extra goodies)

-Level up my wolves

-Get a little food

-Get some crafting materials

So if I want a lot of oil and do not want to grind for oil in the campaign, I can buy 50 moorbears and put them on an entire den of wolves. Forgo the pebbles I would get from 50 monstropod-equipped wolves and instead pay 5000 pebbles to hopefully receive oil that I can then use in cooking.

This is my choice.

But the issue is there are just so many if not too many pebble+trinket companions and the food/materials-only companions are not diverse enough when they could be.

Moorbear drops are great, paartially. But do they make sense for the Nytha? Not so much. What if the bovius gave us some milk? What if the aurox gave us some crops? Cotton and flax anyone?

Another thing to consider is that the rarer drops from moorbear are too rare for what they are. Oil, eggs? Eggs and bacon are so easy to get, why it's so hard to get from moorbears? Do i ever recall getting anything but snails from them?

All crafting resources being metals and rarely used antlers seems ehhhh in comparison. A few companions dropping those in different rarity classes would be great. And what about leather, string, and cotton? What about dyes?

If I had to pay a tax of 5000 pebbles for a chance of milk thanks to the 50 bovius I amassed, I would see it as an absolute win. And not every player would want a den full of 50 bovius. Different priorities of course!

I believe the possibilities of companion diversity have to be stressed more. While not every companion may be great in combat, they can at least make great friends that will occasionally give me fun stuff I need.

And having the choice of what to specialise my companion pairing into, seems like good added depth to the system.

Given how many companions drop candles, this really is a good idea.

I don't know any player that doesn't have enough candles, but I know plenty that could use more milk.

Given how many companions drop candles, this really is a good idea.

I don't know any player that doesn't have enough candles, but I know plenty that could use more milk.

This suggestion may have acquired a grudge from candle collectors (being cheeky).

I would easily forgo whatever pebbles I'd get from a den worth of wolves if I could get more items that i can't get enough from marvin.

I actually only partially support this. At the moment there are too many things dependant on wolf/companion combinations. The gauntlet, the campaign, hunting and the rewards that come from bonding with them. All of these give rewards of varying worth. I would however like to be able to pair wolves with companions based on their aesthetics. Aesthetics is something that plays a major role on petsites like lorwolf, where we have colours, genes, apparel and even custom apparel to change the appearance of our wolves to something that we like. But purely aesthetically combining wolves with companions can be detrimental towards the rewards you get from playing with them or using them in the gaintlet, campaign or hunting. That is annoying enough as it is, and adding even more diverse rewards might make this even worse.

If anything, I'd like to first streamline the value of what they drop when played with (and completely disentangle the pairing component from the fighting parts. Heck I wouldn't mind if a companion needs to be at least lv10 before it no longer needs to be equipped to a wolf in order to be used in battle or hunting, but something), so that you are less punished by wanting to do the one thing that is the absolute core of a petsite ; aesthetic building. Once the values are more equal, I wouldn't mind one bit if there was some diversity in the material drops, so that not everything drops candles (and so that hte drops also make a bit more sense.)