Great post Chris. To follow up on Stiler's comment, I too felt one of the most hopeful lines in your original post was that "companions should be optional". I feel a lot more agency as a player when I can tell this sociopathic arse to take a long walk off a short pier rather than have him follow me around being a total prick for the rest of the game. And when I replay a game with a different character I may take a different view of a particular companion. I can't stand traveling with the paladin when I'm playing a rogue and he keeps getting all offended at my actions. But maybe I like that paladin plenty when I'm playing a cleric instead.
So making each companion fit a very specific role can make it hard to do with out certain ones. I know that personally, rather than picking the character type I want to play in may RPGs I instead play a test game or scour the internet to learn about the companions in detail and then custom build a player character who can complement the companions I can tolerate / enjoy. There are many times I have specifically chosen to play a character type I wasn't really that into for purely mechanical reasons. I hate all the mages in this game so I must play a mage or else my party can't survive.
You're experienced professional developers, so I'm sure you just yawn at all our irrational fears. But count this as one vote for a final balancing pass on the companions to ask yourself: What would happen if the player chose to play [each possible class] and refused to travel with [each possible companion]. If the answer to any of those is "the player is screwed" then try to tweak things.
Project: Eternity and Characterization
in Chris Avellone's Blog
A blog by Chris Avellone in General
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Great post Chris. To follow up on Stiler's comment, I too felt one of the most hopeful lines in your original post was that "companions should be optional". I feel a lot more agency as a player when I can tell this sociopathic arse to take a long walk off a short pier rather than have him follow me around being a total prick for the rest of the game. And when I replay a game with a different character I may take a different view of a particular companion. I can't stand traveling with the paladin when I'm playing a rogue and he keeps getting all offended at my actions. But maybe I like that paladin plenty when I'm playing a cleric instead.
So making each companion fit a very specific role can make it hard to do with out certain ones. I know that personally, rather than picking the character type I want to play in may RPGs I instead play a test game or scour the internet to learn about the companions in detail and then custom build a player character who can complement the companions I can tolerate / enjoy. There are many times I have specifically chosen to play a character type I wasn't really that into for purely mechanical reasons. I hate all the mages in this game so I must play a mage or else my party can't survive.
You're experienced professional developers, so I'm sure you just yawn at all our irrational fears.
But count this as one vote for a final balancing pass on the companions to ask yourself: What would happen if the player chose to play [each possible class] and refused to travel with [each possible companion]. If the answer to any of those is "the player is screwed" then try to tweak things.
Thanks for listening.