Opinions and suggestions on how to improve companion relationships and crew interactions

[Wormerine]

 

Incidentally, what were you experiences with the in game “relationships”? I was in a relationship with a large yellow female who will remain unnamed. However, after becoming an item, absolutely nothing changed. No snu-snu scene. No extra lovers dialogue. Nothing. I’ve never been in such a boring relationship in my life. Bug or feature?

 

I'm currently "romancing" Maia and from what I've gathered so far, I need to acquire some shark meat for Ishizu as apparently Ishizu and I getting along is a requirement for the relationship to progress. I have so far not run across any of it (maybe I should ask Tekehu…) , but we'll see how it goes. Beyond that, can't say I've noticed much on my side either, but in case you've missed this requirement, thought I should mention it.

 

My experiences with romances has been lame. Didn’t commit to any in my playthrough but I did explore different paths and reload. I usually remember initial dialogue (companion getting horny), then some middle point and the “finale” comes near the end. Certainly my dislike for those comes from bugged dispositions and most of the companions initiating romance minutes after getting recruited. Aside from being weird it also throws pacing out of the windows as acts1&2 of romance come early within the game, while I had to wait tenths of hours for it to move forward. I also didn’t feel there was any growth between my character and romancable person.

 

If one is looking for shark meat and gets frustrated:

 

 

It can be bought at Sayuka

 

 

Edited June 6, 2018 by Wormerine

[Guest 4ward]

@Slotharingia

in BG2 - a game that doesn‘t have complicated approval systems of later games - there‘s a char who betrays the player to the villain so he leaves the party (which IMO is really the only narrative reason for someone leaving that works for me), then there‘s a char who if you screw up the romance you can get it going again by doing a miniquest dialogue. And you can get rid of your chars whenever you want to.

[Yria]

I was surprised that there was no option to kick someone out. In the first game we could give Durance the boot at any time and refuse to keep Aloth around after a certain plot point. I think it would be reasonable to at least give us an opportunity to kick Maia out after her quest, same as it was with Aloth after Act 2.

 

Another thing that could use some tuning is companion +1 and +2 (as well as -1, -2) conversations triggering the moment you hit the required relationship mark. I think it would be more convinient if those were player-initiated, not companion-initiated, because the way it is now it leads to some awkward situations like people confessing their love and eternal devotion to you while standing knee-deep in enemy corpses. I once hit +1 with Maia in a scripted interaction on some random map, and the moment we loaded into the location right next to a bunch of ogres she decided it was a great time to flirt with me. The ogres patiently waited.

Instead, perhaps those things could trigger after resting, or give us a separate line to pick, like "You look like you want to talk", which would lead to the companion expressing their thoughts about your relationship.

Edited June 6, 2018 by Yria

[Slotharingia]

I was surprised that there was no option to kick someone out. In the first game we could give Durance the boot at any time and refuse to keep Aloth around after a certain plot point. I think it would be reasonable to at least give us an opportunity to kick Maia out after her quest, same as it was with Aloth after Act 2.

 

Another thing that could use some tuning is companion +1 and +2 (as well as -1, -2) conversations triggering the moment you hit the required relationship mark. I think it would be more convinient if those were player-initiated, not companion-initiated, because the way it is now it leads to some awkward situations like people confessing their love and eternal devotion to you while standing knee-deep in enemy corpses. I once hit +1 with Maia in a scripted interaction on some random map, and the moment we loaded into the location right next to a bunch of ogres she decided it was a great time to flirt with me. The ogres patiently waited.

Instead, perhaps those things could trigger after resting, or give us a separate line to pick, like "You look like you want to talk", which would lead to the companion expressing their thoughts about your relationship.

 

I was desperate to kick Maia out my first pt, and am really struggling this time (trying to go for RDC ending). She's one of those rare characters I get a total bee in my bonnet about and cannot abide. xD

 

@Slotharingia

in BG2 - a game that doesn‘t have complicated approval systems of later games - there‘s a char who betrays the player to the villain so he leaves the party (which IMO is really the only narrative reason for someone leaving that works for me), then there‘s a char who if you screw up the romance you can get it going again by doing a miniquest dialogue. And you can get rid of your chars whenever you want to.

 

Damn. BG1 & 2 have been sitting on my puter for a while waiting for me to get over the feeling of dread the buggy interface and the fact I had to both google how to complete and died in the tutorial gives me. xD

[Verde]

Is there any actual benefit or negative to the relationship numbers?

[Slotharingia]

Is there any actual benefit or negative to the relationship numbers?

 

Positve: they will romance you (where applicable) and react pleasantly in convos. Negative, they react as such in convos onClick. Other than that, idt so. Which is probably good since they like/dislike you/each other mostly for daft crap.

[Tigranes]

I've had great mileage out of turning off all of the various displays from the start, ignoring the little 'reaction' pieces in dialogue, and just roleplaying the PC and seeing how it turns out. I don't know how it would ever work well to show the player all these numbers and invite them to treat dialogue like a bunch of +/- puzzles.

[algroth]

 

Is there any actual benefit or negative to the relationship numbers?

 

Positve: they will romance you (where applicable) and react pleasantly in convos. Negative, they react as such in convos onClick. Other than that, idt so. Which is probably good since they like/dislike you/each other mostly for daft crap.

I would say it's no small matter either - the system as it is right now basically defines your relationship with the companions and (allegedly) how the companions interact with one another. In a game that places so much emphasis on storytelling and worldbuilding and so on, our relationship with our party is pretty crucial regardless of whether there's any practical consequence for it, for the sheer effect and emotional response we get out of it all.

[Slotharingia]

 

 

Is there any actual benefit or negative to the relationship numbers?

 

Positve: they will romance you (where applicable) and react pleasantly in convos. Negative, they react as such in convos onClick. Other than that, idt so. Which is probably good since they like/dislike you/each other mostly for daft crap.

I would say it's no small matter either - the system as it is right now basically defines your relationship with the companions and (allegedly) how the companions interact with one another. In a game that places so much emphasis on storytelling and worldbuilding and so on, our relationship with our party is pretty crucial regardless of whether there's any practical consequence for it, for the sheer effect and emotional response we get out of it all.

 

 

Yeah if you care about it, it controls your gameplay (I think that's what you meant). If you don't care about it, or on a technical level, I don't think it does anything though.

[Palas]

Maybe not more for deadfire, but for PoE3: some more feedback from the companions about quests would be nice. Like in Shadowrun: Hongkong, in the base you could ask the companions about about their opinion about the last run. At least for the mainquests this would be great for deadfire, and maybe comments about the way you solve the quest.

 

Or that companions change their mind on factions. You can ask Aloth about his opinion about each faction. It woulb be nice, if his answers differs as we learn about the dark secrets of each faction.