83 replies to this topic

[Kulyok]

Yep, Character Respecialisation looks very interesting, but I think I'll wait a little.

Seeing how people warm up to Wynne, I think I'll give her a chance on the next playthrough. And the dwarven guy. I don't want to break my Alistair-Morrigan-Zevran trio for now, though - they work great together. Morrigan has great banters for Alistair - honestly, I've been tempted to tell them to get a room at least two times, and that's with him romancing my pro! Zevran is a terrible flirt, too. Me like!

[Kulyok]

What kinda surprised me was prostitutes. Brothel of the Pearl - you can get a guy there for thirty silver. So, I did try it for my PC(no cutscene, though), and Alistair's approval went one point down!

Just one point? I mean, my protagonist had an affair with the guy, she was romancing him, accepted a rose from him, he kissed her and made love to her. And after she cheated with a prostitute(possibly infecting herself with something) basically in his sight, his approval would drop only one point? Hey, I'd expect thirty at the very least!

[Crazee]

I can't believe what I'm hearing about the giftsystem however. It's throws me completely out of the immersion when I bitch Alistair all the time, and all it takes to fix that is a couple of material boons. Being friends with everyone is not nearly as exciting as having amounts of conflict and amounts of love.

There are always going to be better ways to do things, but at this stage, I'm just happy they have a system that allows you to redeem yourself at all. I see what you mean - the companion's relationships with the PC have been one of the most boasted aspects of the game, and yet it takes more than a necklace and a ring to maintain a friendship - but at least I'm not being punished for roleplaying, which I always felt I have been before in previous games. Conflict is endlessly entertaining, but not if it reaches the point where I'm left without most of my companions!

[WeeRLegion]

Sure, something's require to do the job, but I think they should have at least polished the system a bit more (refer to the lamb's bone example). xP


Mmm, conflict though... Yummy. Now I'm just hoping Leliana won't show up just to stab me in the back for

Spoiler

tampering with Andraste's ashes and refusing to tell her about it... Teehee...

Edited by WeeRLegion, 13 November 2009 - 04:43 AM.

[berelinde]

She won't complain if she didn't see it.

[Michael]

Leliana for certain - her accent is just to delicious to not have bantering! Sten, too, is impossible to not have in the party. It's that third place that's always hard to fill. Normally I'd go with Morrigan, but having another mage in the party just seems meh. So I usually take Alastair or Oghren.

[Grunker]

Leliana for certain - her accent is just to delicious to not have bantering! Sten, too, is impossible to not have in the party. It's that third place that's always hard to fill. Normally I'd go with Morrigan, but having another mage in the party just seems meh. So I usually take Alastair or Oghren.

Shale was alright actually. And in terms of pulling aggro, he is the best by a mile.

[Kaeloree]

Tried Character Respec for my human mage PC and it worked perfectly.

I like the idea of gifts, but it frustrates me that it's a bit of a "fix-all". I'd like to give my NPCs gifts and have them react to me appropriately based on what their approval already is.

[WeeRLegion]

She won't complain if she didn't see it.

Actually, she kept pestering me about it and eventually went to find out.
Since then I've had one chat with an invisible Leliana, but haven't seen any other signs of her.

[Crazee]

Sure, something's require to do the job, but I think they should have at least polished the system a bit more (refer to the lamb's bone example). xP

Fair enough. Still, small steps. Maybe in the sequel they'll have a less ham-fisted system?

Tried Character Respec for my human mage PC and it worked perfectly.

Hmm. Right, I'm convinced. I'm going to try it out, too. I'll be sure to report back and say how well it works.

[Kulyok]

I found something interesting:

There are certain places in the game - if you keep visiting them from other areas every ten or fifteen minutes(or sometimes even five), you get a new random NPC-NPC banter each time. For example:
- Orthan Thaig, first main corridor.
- Dwarves's city(Orzammar's Common?), on the bridge to Proving.
- Mage Circle(Mage Tower), Apprentices's quarters, the corridor right behind the door that templars close before you(and open again when the tower is clear).


And, folks, you wouldn't believe how much the golem NPC rocks! Shale is great. He's... he's... well, I never expected he'd be this cool and funny.

[Archmage Silver]

I agree, Shale is pretty interesting. It's obvious that a lot of work went into creating Shale... I don't know, I might almost like him better than HK-47.

[Eleima]

Ooohh, that good, eh? Guess I'll have to give him a try...

[Archmage Silver]

Heh, at least I think so... you should like him if you liked HK.

[cmorgan]

I like this "banter trigger area" in action. Rather than timers, areas that work as talking points. I want to open up the toolset and see how conditions are set up, but this works to both designer and player advantage. Folks who want lots can go back for some fun, it encourages splitting up quest pickups between areas (which works against my methodical "clear each area and move on" playstyle), and it is not intrusive at odd points. Doggone - Coran's bg1npc Dragon Skeleton trigger works this way, and many cutscenes in NWN2.

This game continues to blend the better ideas from over a decade of design and quest idea development. It has some shortcomings, but so does everything else in the entire world. Darned good stuff.

[berelinde]

The only thing I don't like about the banter trigger areas approach is that we're never going to be able to mod companions into the game. At lest not without having a ridiculously large mod, if they didn't shut us down for it outright.

[Solar's Harper]

That would kind of defeat the point of them releasing a toolset I think, plus, be hypocrisy in concern to Bioware's past record with fanmade content. As long as no one decides to go all commercial, or abusive, with mod content, I doubt there'd be much of a concern on what is done with their pet... provided it doesn't get the companies into large scandals either, that mud-slinging pit ain't ever fun.

[Grayana]

I'll definitely take the Mabari War Dog. Who's momma's little puppy?! I'll propably be Very Lame and name it Dogmeat. ^^;

Other than that I don't really know. Zevran looks interesting. We'll see!

[Eleima]

You should really give the War Dog a try, he's such a cutie! And really life-like! My cat has this thing when he jumps up on my desk when he wants attention, and he'll just sit there. My PC was talking to her War Dog, and that made the cat jump and sniff at the screen!

[Kulyok]

I found out that I completed all Zevran-Morrigan-Alistair trio banters. I liked their bickering a lot. Alistair-Dog banters were great, too. Whatever I've seen of Shale was great - Shale is my next permanent NPC, that's for sure!

So, yes, Shale is my favourite. Morrigan and Alistair are close seconds.

I'm hoping to experience Leliana, too.

Dog is good, but I'm not sure he's generating many banters - I mean, a human NPC generally talks more, right?

From what I've seen of Sten, he makes me smile, but I fear there's not enough of him to go around - strong and silent is good, but not that silent. Though I may be unfair, because towards the end of the game everyone becomes silent, more or less.

Wynne and Oghren I'm indifferent about. Probably should try them on one of the next runs.