The Party: Deciding Upon Story or Survival

[Emitt Okondria]

Deadfire is my first game of this type and I have been enjoying it in its entirety. I have been absolutely loving it, but there has been one thing that gets under my skin when I play. This is the fact that the companions in your party determines who interacts with the world in their dialogue and what companions grow to love or hate each other. When making my party, I am always second guessing myself or worrying in the back of my head: what story am I going to miss if I don't put this person in my party? I love all of the companions and sims style relationships that each of them are intertwines with. I want to know all their stories, their goals, their flaws, how the world effects them. I want to see them fight with each other, support one another, and grow together over the course of the game. It doesn't make me feel good to have to decide between what stories I'm going to discover just so my party doesn't get the snot kicked out of them and I can actually complete the game. One thing that I would love to see in the future is a mode or mod or some other adaptation that allows all of the companions to interact with the world and react to the dialogue between each other, the npcs, and the Watcher, but still be able to keep the game balance and difficult by deciding upon your party. For example, you can have a party of Serefen, Xoti, Maia, and Takehu, but that doesn't mean that when you are talking to a self entitled character that Eder wont wound his pride with a quippy dialogue, and Xoti and Pellegina won't grow their rivalry just because the paladin isn't in the party. I want to be able to experience the whole story, while still keeping to the soul of the game and having the five man party, as the devs intended. Do you have any thoughts? Do you support this idea? How do you suggest this changes in the future? How do we reach out to the devs to see if they would comply with this?