Future expantions and companion interactions

[Straycat08]

So i saw a post in reddit about the quality of the romances, and most of the people considers then as shallow and disappointing, specialy for a strench goal, do you think Obsidian could expand relationships in the expansions?

what else do you people want to see implemented in the expantions (companion related)

 

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/projecteternity/comments/8pkzk9/so_how_are_romances_in_poe2/

[E.RedMark]

well..

 

I believe the companions dialogues are bugged , so before I can give an opinion..I wait until they fix them (some peoples reported that they fire too fast , and some dialogues are completely missing ) , only then...I can say something . 

[Larkson]

I do think companion interaction and romance needs to be fixed and expanded upon a little bit. 

 

For one, I'd include the option to start a romance/flirt even if you previously turned down certain companions. Especially in the case of Xoti and Takehu who want to start a romance practically as soon as they join and before you get to know them. 

 

Secondly, that once in a romance there would be 1-2 conversations that you could have as a couple. This is more of a pet peeve of mine, but I hate it when just getting into a relationship (or in some cases, a sex scene) is treated as some sort of end goal with nothing else coming after it--when in reality that is merely the beginning of what it means to be with someone.

 

Probably why I still think BGII's romances are some of the best out there when it comes to games. Like with Aerie, for example, to actually have a romantic relationship with her you can't have sex with her immediately. Or even with Viconia who while is initially more receptive to flirting takes several conversations before anything romantic actually develops and dealing with the ramifications of that.

[marimo]

I'd be surprised if they added more romance content in the expansions but I do think the relationships were kinda light on content. Aloth's especially felt like it could've used at least one more conversation in between initiating and the final endgame convo. 

[ShakotanSolari]

 

Secondly, that once in a romance there would be 1-2 conversations that you could have as a couple. This is more of a pet peeve of mine, but I hate it when just getting into a relationship (or in some cases, a sex scene) is treated as some sort of end goal with nothing else coming after it--when in reality that is merely the beginning of what it means to be with someone.

 

I couldn't agree more with this, and I think the principle should expand to not just romances but all companions. As your relationship builds with them and their approval/disapproval grows it should open up a lot more options for conversation topics. I hate that after spending a few minutes talking to someone immediately after we met they never really have anything else to say to me for the next however-many-months we spend on this boat together.

[Crucis]

Honestly, I don't give a damn about the romances.  First off, I wish there were no romances period.  In my first play through, I said no to every single advance made towards my character.  I will say that the only potential romance I wouldn't have minded seeing advance was one between Eder and Xoti, but whatever.  I wish there'd be no more romance material, other than fixing whatever bugs may exist relating to romance dialogs.

 

As for non-romance companion interactions, while I like them to a degree, I don't really care for them to be particularly deep.  I care more about interesting and amusing banter to pass the time while traveling.  Maybe the occasional squabble between companions, I suppose.  But nothing too deep.  I'm not playing the game to play group counselor.  I'm playing it for the adventure.  So, I'd rather see more effort on more adventure and less companion relationship stuff.

[Wormerine]

They certainly can expand on it. “Will they?” Is a better question. As they will probably need to get voice actors for an expansion it could be a chance to record some additional lines.

 

The first and easiest way to expand characters is to give them a bit more things to talk about - ask Eder how he ended up with me on the ship, ask Xoti about the lantern etc- like in PoE1 and Tyranny.

 

I am with @Larkson that current system needs fixing before we see if and how much it needs further iteration. But as a speculation: the relationship system would make more sense to me, if each individual “reputation” was tracked separately and had response when reaching certain level - right now I feel as if interactions are too few, to justify having system, build around them. That might be much writing though, depending how many “reputations” are companions likely to trigger between each other.

[Slotharingia]

I love the concept of romances in games but I'm not too keen on their execution in most cases, including the ones I've done in Deadfire. Tekehu's involves listening to him ramble about his past conquests, one sex scene and that's it - he leaves after the endgame. Aloth's I like, but I dislike having to play a character that bores me to even have the possibility (actually struggling to finish the playthrough). Neither of them have much content and they seem half arsed. The only game romance I've ever really liked was Zevran in DAO.

[Aridea]

I'd be surprised if they added more romance content in the expansions but I do think the relationships were kinda light on content. Aloth's especially felt like it could've used at least one more conversation in between initiating and the final endgame convo. 

 

Technically Tyranny had *some* content in the expansion which went into the main game, so its possible. But I think not probable.

Edited June 9, 2018 by Aridea

[dukeisaac]

I too really think they should expand the whole companion relationship system. For all it's hype by Obsidian, it was waaayyyy too light. In any case, they have an opportunity with the expansions as they already have to record lines with all the companions, so I don't see why not. Whether they will do it is another issue ($$$)...

[Crucis]

I too really think they should expand the whole companion relationship system. For all it's hype by Obsidian, it was waaayyyy too light. In any case, they have an opportunity with the expansions as they already have to record lines with all the companions, so I don't see why not. Whether they will do it is another issue ($$$)...

 

Just a waste of time, IMO.  More adventure, less companion relationship chatter, please.

[dukeisaac]

 

I too really think they should expand the whole companion relationship system. For all it's hype by Obsidian, it was waaayyyy too light. In any case, they have an opportunity with the expansions as they already have to record lines with all the companions, so I don't see why not. Whether they will do it is another issue ($$$)...

 

Just a waste of time, IMO.  More adventure, less companion relationship chatter, please.

 

Well, I obviously with you. That being said, I also want more adventure, so why not both ? IMO, the story is a large part of what makes these games interesting, wouldn't you say ?

[aksrasjel]

For me (very) personally, I would rather see Obsidian clear the relationship system out of bugs first, so Xoti doesn't cheer and laugh when performing last rites for her friends. Then, I would rather have them add new interesting companions/expand sidekicks rather than give the old companions more content. Technically, some new content is a given with DLCs anyway, but I wouldn't want Obsidian to focus *just* on companions. I imagine it's a problem with me being slightly entitled than anything else, but the companions in Deadfire (aside from Serafen, Ydwin and Rekke - and those last two are sidekicks, for goodness sake) never did anything for me, so I'd rather see something new. I think in order to make character like Maia actually interesting you'd have to rewrite her from scratch. Not to mention adding more stuff to existing companions can mess up this relationship system even more and turn companions into inconsistent mess, if you're not careful with the added content. It also makes spreading their content evenly almost impossible without serious changes to the system - see below.

But, if Obsidian ever tries to add new companions/expand sidekick content, here's my thoughts - trying to spread the companion content throughout the game makes companions feel more involved. Which is difficult to do, when conversations kick in based on a approval gain. It's extremaly easy to "binge-talk" a companion in first 2-4 hours of the game, and leave them with no content for the rest of it.

Again, Baldur's Gate 2 had it (mostly) right, both in terms of content spread and romance approach. Companion "romance talks" were kicking off in hourly intervals - and there were a lot of them. Aerie was the one with the least amount of them I think - about 25 coversations (mostly due to cut content). Viconia had whooping 45 - it actually took forever to finish her romance storyline (here I am at very last leg in the Temple of Rillifane, and she STILL keeps on going about her feelings). But all those were actually huge and involved romantic story arcs. Not to mention BG 2 actually gave reason for love interests to fall in love in CHARNAME - with Viconia first being drawn to the player, beacuse CHARNAME was the only person on the surface to even show her kindness, then trying to push him away out of fear of betrayal/rejection, then coming to grips with her feelings and "trying" to be a supportive girlfriend and lastly freaking out and *very* reluctantly ending the relationship when servants of Lolth show up to kill her and CHARNAME both, ending the story on a bittersweet note. Sure, it was linear and all, and simplistic in mechanical terms, but it worked - at least for me. Compare that to let's say, Xoti romance with her 4-6 conversations.

But again, those are just my post-facto observations, with the approval system being what it is. I really hope Obsidian has some plans on how to deal with our issues and suggestions in patches or DLC.

Edited June 9, 2018 by aksrasjel

[Crucis]

 

 

I too really think they should expand the whole companion relationship system. For all it's hype by Obsidian, it was waaayyyy too light. In any case, they have an opportunity with the expansions as they already have to record lines with all the companions, so I don't see why not. Whether they will do it is another issue ($$$)...

 

Just a waste of time, IMO.  More adventure, less companion relationship chatter, please.

 

Well, I obviously with you. That being said, I also want more adventure, so why not both ? IMO, the story is a large part of what makes these games interesting, wouldn't you say ?

 

 

A.  You obviously what?  I think you left out a verb in that first sentence. 

 

B.  To me, those silly romances are NOT party of the story, nor are they any part of what makes the games interesting for me.  Not in the least.  The banter is fine.  Bring on the banter.  Romances, not so much (as in, not at all).

[Yria]

BG2 romances took too much time to unfold for me. Hours upon hours of waiting for the next conversation to trigger isn't necessarily a good thing. I ended up entering time speed cheat over and over again when I tried to romance Viconia, simply because the game was drawing to its end, and I still wasn't even half way through her conversations. But that is more of a technical matter.

 

What I'd like to see more of, is companions talking to us not only about themselves (which they do a lot), but also about the Watcher. Let me express my character dammit. I can count maybe four or five instances when somebody asked me where I stand with the whole Eothas thing, what I think and how I feel about so many people looking up to me and asking for my opinion on the gods, and other stuff like that. And in most, if not all cases it was either Eder or Aloth. 

I don't think anyone ever asked me how I felt about Caed Nua being destroyed and my soul stolen either, and that's something I would definitely ask my friend about in such circumstances. We had more of conversations of this sort in the first game, I remember Eder, Sagani, and Kana checking up on me from time to time, and it was nice to see that they cared. Here, even the characters you supposedly have a romantic relationship with only talk about themselves. 

[aksrasjel]

What I'd like to see more of, is companions talking to us not only about themselves (which they do a lot), but also about the Watcher. Let me express my character dammit. I can count maybe four or five instances when somebody asked me where I stand with the whole Eothas thing, what I think and how I feel about so many people looking up to me and asking for my opinion on the gods, and other stuff like that. And in most, if not all cases it was either Eder or Aloth. 

I don't think anyone ever asked me how I felt about Caed Nua being destroyed and my soul stolen either, and that's something I would definitely ask my friend about in such circumstances. We had more of conversations of this sort in the first game, I remember Eder, Sagani, and Kana checking up on me from time to time, and it was nice to see that they cared. Here, even the characters you supposedly have a romantic relationship with only talk about themselves.

Hell, that's actually a good point, that's been bugging me for a while. It would actually be nice for the companions to acknowledge that the Watcher is a human (or kith, anyway) being, with the Wacher being able to express their feelings and motivations to them more clearly. While playing the game I always felt that I am being talked at, rather than having an actual conversation with someone - if that makes any sense. Both PoE 1 and even more so Deadfire treat the Watcher like a vessel for the player to experience a setting through, rather than an established character rooted in the world. No matter how you roleplay them, he/she does feel like a boring blank slate that literally fell from the sky, with no connection to the world - despite having a defined background, that rarely, if ever comes into play. I would actually like to see the Watcher - or some later protagonist in a sequel slightly more predefined - similarly to the Exile in KotOR 2. But that's a different topic altogether.

[dukeisaac]

 

 

 

I too really think they should expand the whole companion relationship system. For all it's hype by Obsidian, it was waaayyyy too light. In any case, they have an opportunity with the expansions as they already have to record lines with all the companions, so I don't see why not. Whether they will do it is another issue ($$$)...

 

Just a waste of time, IMO.  More adventure, less companion relationship chatter, please.

 

Well, I obviously with you. That being said, I also want more adventure, so why not both ? IMO, the story is a large part of what makes these games interesting, wouldn't you say ?

 

 

A.  You obviously what?  I think you left out a verb in that first sentence. 

 

B.  To me, those silly romances are NOT party of the story, nor are they any part of what makes the games interesting for me.  Not in the least.  The banter is fine.  Bring on the banter.  Romances, not so much (as in, not at all).

 

1: Lol, forgot to write "don't agree"

2 : to be clear, I'm not asking for more romances, I'm asking for more effort to be put into companion narratives (quest, dialogue, interactions between companions, etc.). Relationships don't (necessarily) mean romance.