Should there be player-generatable companions?

[TrashMan]

No, sorry. What worked well in IWD series and NWN2: SoZ, where it was more of a dungeon crawl with story around a band of mercs, it will not work well for a story, where it is you (main char) affected by some big story element, and on your adventures you meet other people with interesting personalities, their own stories and agendas. Would you really think that giving you your own party work that well in Planescape for example? Or Baldur's Gate? I've played BG with my custom party (cause MP allowed for that), but I was missing out some great stories in the process...

 

But peopel who play with their own parties create stories of their own.

 

 

Really this isn't a one or the other issue. One DOES NOT exclue the other. So I really don't see why would anyone be against it.

No one forces you to create your own party. Just play normally, with the NPC's the developers provided.

[Starglider]

Characters integrated into the setting are certainly better for first playthrough. If you can control their skill / ability development such that they can have different builds late in the game, then there is no real need to be able to make a whole party yourself. However if the character designer is there anyway for the protagonist, then it doesn't hurt to have that as another option. If the designers are concerned about players missing out on key story elements, this could be an unlockable for second playthrough / new-game-plus mode.

[Vin]

There's nothing bland about a player-created party unless the player makes it so.

That being said, I'm really excited for the NPCs in this game. But on, say, a second or a third playthrough, I'd like to be able to craft my own party dynamics (and I'm not talking about combat statistics here), and create my own story. The characters the player makes don't have to be a mindless bunch of here's-a-wizard-cleric-fighter-and-a-gnome. Just as much love can go into their creation as can be put into the creation of an actual NPC by the developers.

They just won't be tied directly to the story and the player has to make crap up as they go along.

The option should be there, though, or at least it'd just be nice to have. There's a strange sort of attachment that comes with making your own characters. And while it's possible to become attached to NPCs already created -- especially NPCs that have been created well -- it's not really the same sort of love.

[Saber-Scorpion]

As Shevek says, this poll is a sham. You present a false choice between allowing players to create multiple adventurers or having BG2/DA:O style recruitable NPCs (see: false dilemma, false choice, either-or fallacy). You did create a "both" option after a request for such, but your bias in both the structure of the poll itself and your wording has already affected the results of the poll and rendered it practically worthless.

 

A better poll would be: "In addition to being able to choose from the planned recruitable NPCs, should players be allowed to custom design as many members of the party as desired?"

 

Either: "Yes, we should have that option."

 

Or: "I don't care."

 

Or: "No, any development time and resources used to support that feature, no matter how minimal, would be better spent on something else."

 

I vote that we should have the *option* - Shevek and others have already done a good job of explaining why here and in the other threads about this topic.

Yes, this. It's a shame the poll is poorly worded. That's the reason I created my own topic like this (though I should have included a "don't care" option, come to think of it). Yet this thread remains more active, so I suppose I will re-post my opinion here as well:

 

I would like to see optional full party creation, like in Baldur's Gate.

 

Yes, like in Baldur's Gate. It was not technically a supported feature, but it was easy enough to accomplish: just start a multiplayer game by yourself, and you can create your entire party from scratch, Icewind Dale style. Then you can play through the game with them instead of NPC companions, which provided some nice variety after you've played the game a dozen times with the story companions. I love how the Infinity Engine allowed for options like this.

 

I understand that the focus of this game is going to be NPC companions with their own personalities and stories, probably tied into the plot in many cases. And that's great. I prefer games like that. I'm almost ashamed of all the times I played through Baldur's Gate II with different companions just to see what they would say in the party banter. And I spent hours delving into the conversations with all of the companions in Planescape Torment, and loved every bit of it.

 

But after playing a game like Baldur's Gate II half a dozen times with story companions, it's fun to mix things up a bit by creating your own "perfect party" with your own characters. It's even more fun if the game has a super-challenging mode like Icewind Dale's "Heart of Fury," forcing you to really build the best possible party in order to beat the dungeons and encounters.

 

Obsidian and Troika (RIP) have made a lot of games with full party customization, like Temple of Elemental Evil and NWN2: Storm of Zehir (both of which I enjoyed, though I had to mod them to allow me to make all 6 characters instead of just 5), so I hope they will include this option in true Infinity Engine style.

Edited September 23, 2012 by Saber-Scorpion

[Knott]

The most important part of the companions is their stories and personalities.

So I would like to be able to customize the companions' abilities so that favourites can be brought along because you made them fit to your party composition and your preffered party tactics.

[greenmonster]

I would not mind a hybrid approach. In addition to fleshed out NPC's you meet I think it could be cool to have a say in at least one companion. Maybe use a series of question to describe your best friend/sibling/rival/etc that select their gender, class, personality, etc.

[Bill Gates' Son]

NO.

imagine in PS:T, you were also given an option to create 1 companion. would it have had the depth and the story correlation of the other dev created companions? (morte, dak'kon, annah etc.) it wouldn't, it would only stick like a sore thumb.

 

None of the companions were forced on your in PS:T, so you could solo without any companions, and the story was still decent due to the interaction with other NPCs in game. Besides Dak'kon and Morte, none of the other companions were all that important to the main plot anyway (Ignus and Vhailor were semi important, but you could talked to them and gain memories WIHTOUT them joining your party).

Edited September 24, 2012 by Bill Gates' Son

[Shevek]

I tried to make an unbiased poll but it got closed in favor of keeping this thread one. In that one, it was about 12 for, 11 against and 2 people that didnt care. I wish they would have merged though and stuck both questions up there. Oh well.

 

Its a shame we are stuck with this poll since its wording is just plain bad.

 

I think many people when given the option between JUST frefab companions or prefab companions PLUS custom ones would be quite a bit more open to the idea. Here is a link to the thread that got close if you wanna see what an unbiased poll on this topic looks like.

 

LINK

[Monte Carlo]

The most important part of the companions is their stories and personalities.

 

To you, maybe.

[wanderon]

I voted I don't care but for the most part I prefer all my companions be part of the world - I just have no objections to having the option to create my own as well...

 

After reading a few other posts let me go a bit further with my explaination...when I say I have no objections to having the option to create my own I should clarify that if that existed I would probably take adavantage of it at some point - probably after playing numerous run throughs with only the provided companions -

 

I did this eventually in BG - altho I always used a mix of both - never more than 3 PCs + 3 NPCs and a few times with 2 PCs + 4 NPCs...

 

I guess the "I don't care" part is that it won't bother me if I cannot create any companions myself.

Edited October 11, 2012 by wanderon

[jivex5k]

We are getting this feature I believe. It's called the Adventurers Hall.

[BSoda]

We are getting this feature I believe. It's called the Adventurers Hall.

Apparently we are. This thread got necromanced from 2 and a half weeks ago.

[Jarmo]

The 5th missing option.

 

Both: I want all my companions to have interesting personalities and stories knit into the world.

After I've played the game through with all possible companions, I'd like to see about making my own party.

 

 

... and I didn't notice this was an undead thread.

Edited October 11, 2012 by Jarmo

[Dorateen]

One more for the good guys.

 

Thank you, Obsidian.

 

Harumph!

[Tsuga C]

I believe they've already stated that we'll be able to generate companion NPCs via some sort of adventurers hall. I'm in favor of this option for those who desire it, but I'm looking forward to seeing what Obsidian comes up with for us to choose from. If they try to hand us another Qara, I might be utilizing that generate-your-own option, myself.

[Olauron Mor-Galad]

It was fun to hate Qara!