Slotharingia

What do you mean? You could get approval or disapproval (usually minor) in personal convos, which makes perfect sense, but you also got it or lost it for things you actually did, all the time, sometimes to the extent of companions attacking you or leaving. I think you can get to the DAO endgame with only dog & Loghain simply by pissing them all off. Morrigan would disapprove of you helping people (except Jowan) and even of saving the elves in the alienage at the end, Oghren and Alistair would have mammoth fits about Connor (with Alistair even telling you to do one thing and then hating you for it), Leliana and Wynne would approve of all the goody two shoes stuff and go mental during the sacred ashes quest if you did certain things, Alistair pretty much disapproves of every person who joins the group, and so on. Only Zevran remains neutral for the most part as far as I remember, but even he reacts to stuff that he feels strongly about. In DAO you can even harvest people's disapproval just by kissing your LI in front of them, and some of them will join in brothel activities given the right circumstances. Ofc you could still do things like make Leliana pickpocket all the religious types and so on, but at least in that game there are consequences for compulsive theft xD Gifts I agree make it banal, but so does the fact players just end up picking the options that please them or change out the party to whoever approves or at least doesn't disapprove of what's about to be done, but you can also simply choose not to make use of those options, and I think if you piss them off enough with their no go choices, they still leave/attack irrespective of their gullibility to bribes.

Companions max at +2/-2. Aloth doesn't like the men, but likes the women (not for those reasons, but basically xD ).

I'm curious. Did you say you didn't need Aloth, or did you not bother letting the animancers out of the cage?

Nemnok is smaller than him w/o his cheat necklace. That aside, I prefer the imps in their normal size, so no.

I don't think the approval system should be invisible as it would be extremely frustrating in its current incarnation. Aloth would hate probably 90% of players and no one would know why. If it's going to be invisible, it should make sense and pertain to things the Watcher does and says that actually matter/are directly relevant to the person/entail a certain level of rationality. As it is now, the Watcher can be super benevolent but still hated, or an **** and still loved, which makes companions feel stupid to me (as do a lot of their traits/reactions which frequently feel more like bigotry/closed-mindedness than personalities). However, visible or not, all approval systems of this type encourage metagmaing. Of the approval systems I've seen in games, I like ones that use rivalry/friendship the best, such as in DA2, where Hawke's companions were loyal if it was high enough in either direction, but not if it was lackluster in the middle. This makes sense because people can be friends and loyal to one another without having sycophantic relationships where one person is always pandering to the other, which positive-weighted systems can often feel like and where the PC will just go behind companion's back to do stuff they dislike and lie to them. Nevertheless, even that system usually results in players engaging in metagaming to push the relationship in the direction they want, be it by using the Wiki or reloading. Another point is that if companions are going to react constantly, effort should be made to make their personalities make sense. In the current state, they come across as superficial and hypocritical, some more than others, with Aloth in particular suffering the most, but it doesn't only apply to him. Pro or anti joking, for instance could make more sense if it was restricted to talking directly to people, where Eder could laugh at being the butt of a joke, but Aloth would hate it, while still enjoying other types of humour. They could have pet peeves with jokes unrelated to them, but if they are going to consider every second joke of zero importance "irresponsible", they should also react negatively to organised irresponsibility that actually is important (state of the Gullet/slavery etc), and positively to attempts to solve such things. At the end of the day, I reckon a lot of time and effort was spent on creating this system, but it was ultimately too complicated for the scope of the game/budget/time available so it's ended up where it might have been better had it not existed at all, or been more basic.

IMP REBELLION DLC COMING WHEN?

Actually strength is especially relevant for archers as it would allow them to wield bows with a heavier draw weight. Also rapiers are typically amidst the heavier single-handed swords, if I recall correctly. But granted, gunners are a bit more debatable. I don't think it makes sense to argue weapons should require more or less strength in a game where everyone can wield everything, unless you think there should be restrictions implemented on their use, which would mean we've gone from replacing x with y attribute to completely changing the game. Also imo there are immersion breaking aspects far more obvious than the name of some attribute or other, everyone potentially wielding anything being one (though I prefer the flexibility it adds over "immersion" in this case personally), other examples would be companions making ridiculous/nonsense judgements and comments, the same "events" on the ocean happening over and over again or at a completely bizarre point, being able to piss off factions / steal willy nilly with no conseuquences, random idiots walking into battles, getting killed by friendly fire and aggroing all and sundry who didn't give a toss before (and apparently only get mad at the player's side), time only mattering in one house in Queen's Berth and the Vailian Trading Company yadda yadda. Having said that, none of those things are enough to make me rant about the devs being "selfish" like the OP, as it's still a good game, way better than most and they clearly made an effort to improve on the last one.

Really? I'm pretty sure I hit +2 with him like ... 20 minutes out of Port Maje. Pretty much by accident. Then your character was the type he (currently exclusively) likes, but idk how you did it that fast. I've played a character that reloaded every time he disapproved and stayed at 0 the entire game, and even the one that has managed to get to +2 had more or less finished Neketaka by the time it happened.

So what would you use instead? I'm not a game designer. Many people here (i'm repeating myself) can't seem to afford to look at the problem from a Roleplay perspective, like if RPGs were all about bashing and looting, like a Diablo would. Like i said, the attributes in Pillars are well designed (probably, though i don't really care about this) from a mechanical point of view (character building, templates, numbers, stats,...), but they are inept when it comes to telling anything about the character they are built upon. What i need, from a Roleplay perspective, is a way to play a caster that is not a brawler. Having my flimsy caster displaying a high score of Might on its character sheet is an unbelievable bother to me, because, the sheet of my character tells me it has not only great spiritual power, but huge physical strenght, too. Which is a complete **** in the face of the background i wrote for the character. I think the idea of rebalancing the attributes while using Resolve as a representation of spiritual power and making Might into physical Strenght, like it was in the beta, would be an acceptable way to go. This would allow me to have my character sheet be respectful of the work i did while writing the background and history of my character. It would have low physical strenght, but high spiritual power, like it was meant to be. In the state of things, i can't look at my character sheet without thinking each time that my character is ****ed up. That it is not at all what it is meant to be. It's more than just a bother for me. I can't Roleplay it, because it feels utterly disatisfying. The only way for me to play with the Might attribute would be to create a character background that adapts itself to the attributes of Pillars (meaning forbidding the creation of all sorts of character backgrounds), while, in any pen and paper, attributes are meant to allow the player to Roleplay its character the way it was intended (in short, it's the other way around). Sawyer, imo, made the exact opposite with attributes that he was meant to do, when it comes to a RPG. He created a system of numbers to take care of combat mechanics and numbers in character building, while disregarding everything tied to actual RPG character creation. Just think about this. This is the way i create a character for a RPG. First, i will write a background. Who the character his, his beliefs, his goals, his values, his fears, the things he hates, the way he thinks, hope, and despair. Then, i will tie it to some background origins. Country, social status, family, personal problems, cultures, talents, weaknesses. The kind of personality he has: courageous, coward, strong willed, overprotected, and so on... I would probably, too, work on langage habits, special traits, how the character origins could render it inept to understand things in a very different country. And i will try to think about its potential. Where it is it can evolve, where it is that lies its potential. And how a regular nobody could become more than the some of its parts when confronted to very special circumstances he was never prepared to face. And Pillars 1, with the madness lurking, was full of potential. And that is why i wanted since the start to have an Eothasian Priestess. I managed to create a character i really wanted to play, full of contradictions, flaws, and room to grow, because the story became so much personal to her. It should have been incredible fun... Only AFTER creating all that, will i create the character and distribute the attributes. I will distribute them accordingly to the background i wrote exclusively, with great care. If the attributes prevent me from actually creating my character the way it was written, then there is a problem. A HUGE one. One i just can't forgive. I can do with crappy mechanics and character attributes, as long as they allow me to translate who my character is on his character sheet. In short, most of the things most people here consider most important for the game regarding attributes, are things i could not care less about. Although i try to consider your point of view too, and find some reasonable way to do things. I would then appreciate if the people who tend to troll (not you) would be willing to do the same from where they come from. Regards. Would it not work to just see might as only spiritual power in a caster and vice versa in a fighter type? Like idk, if they do something requiring physical strength, just think of them having used a spell to do it or to enhance their stats so they could do it? I do see the point that a seperate stat would make more sense, but I doubt they will change it. While the stats don't bother me, the approval system really annoys me and ruins my characters for me, so I get it.

So kinda like some other game..well..DAO was like that . When you target companion to do a task like Leliana open this chest..and her approval isn't high..they go 'Sigh..let me see' . Kinda cool when you think about it Yeah. In DAO they all start out grumpy by default lol. OTOH Zevran calls you "amore" with high friendship even if you aren't dating him and haven't been ninjamanced. Even that fairly simple system was buggy as hell.

That sounds ominous. I am dreading this if they haven't fixed Aloth by then.

Try fibbing to the huana guy to get cash out of him. I believe that's an option.

On a side note, they act differently when they have - rep. They'll say grumpy stuff when you click on them and lecture you. Haven't played enough with negative approval to know more than that though. They also argue with one another, but I don't think there are any proper conseuqences.

I think part of it is because they can exist in different states in POE1 depending upon your choices, and they decided not to take that into consideration at all, so everyone starts with a clean slate freindshipwise. Aloth in particular is extremely hard to get approval with as you have pick very specific responses for him to amass approval. There's not much he likes, a lot he dislikes and his dispositions are conflicting. That might also be due to him bieng possibly pro or contra Leaden Key, but ultimately imo the wholöe approval system isn't particularly good, and downright bad in Aloth's case. Unless of course they wanted him to be like that, in which case, good job.

You probably did not butter Tekehu up in his pick-up conversation or weren't flippant enough on Port Maje. I hit -1 right after getting Tekehu and -2 after inn+brothel. I tried it with my Bleak Walker but failed. Aloth must secretly admire him xD I ditched the character though as I didn't feel I'd done the Bleak Walker thing right, he was more like some kind of Loki character.

So what would you use instead?

I've tried to get a negative reaction out of Aloth for using the brothel and failed. He even likes the one who reads poetry, but suprisingly won't give approval for it, he just comments gleefully. Yes, finding Tekehu's debauchery amusing really pisses the elf off. Maybe he's just jealous. He's already at -1 with both Serafen and Tekehu. You are doing well to only be at -1. Aloth is usually at -2 with Tekehu for me round about instantly.

Perhaps it is described as physical OR spiritual strength, but it is implemented as physical AND spiritual strength. You mean like in scripted convos? I'm totally not an expert in this field lol, I just have no difficult seeing Might as meaning mental power. In DAO they had magic, but if you were an arcane warrior it just translated it into physical strength. In Pillars any mage can be something like an arcane warrior afaik, so it seems to me that having 2 different stats would both restrict player freedom and present lots of characters with an extra stat they can more or less ditch to pump another.

Why doesn't someone make a poll?

Ur 2 traditional bruh? Tradition sux, only duty iz gud. Also, let me guess, you had a laugh with Tekehu in the inn? xD

You know what? You might be onto something and he actually is miserable, hard to please wet blanket, both in text and mechanically. In text always sour and dour party pooper, mechanically only has two peculiar things he likes and a vast array of easily triggered things he does not like. Compare Tekehu, who in text is the chillest dude ever, never gets angry, likes everything, big heart, easy to please. Mechanically - has 6 things he likes that are very easily accumulated and only 2 rather reasonable and not often triggered dislikes. It is indeed possible they intended him to be like that. The actual interactions with him (aside from his ambient comments) are decent though.

Sounds cool. A pity players have to fix his personality though really. xD

What's the problem with Might? It's not "strength" and the game even describes it as physical OR spiritual strength.

Why not continue playing this way? I think it's great that you know what you want and you found an easy way to make it happen. 'Achievements', after all, are ultimately meaningless fodder created solely for kids' bragging rights and to entice customers to spend more money and time. On story mode as it exists you could probably turn on the AI options, faster speed combat and leave for a cup of tea. One thing that might happen later is a mod for making the speed-up button even faster, that could help. BUT the achievements in Deadfire give you those handy blessings xD

So that would make him still represent the futility of rebellion, as it implies power corrupts, with the self mutlilation and sacrifice of other symbolising that?