The "Unofficial" P.E. Relationship/Romance thread

[Rahelron]

Here's the biggest issue with an out of party romance;

 

If you do an out of party romance, but still want it to have a deep and engaging story you have to do -a lot- more writing than if you have a character in your party. The reason being is the amount of dialogue required to facilitate interacting with a character in a way that you explain what you've been doing, where you went, learn what they were doing, where they went (Unless they are a stick figure, which again, ruins it). Basically, you can't have your love interest be inanimate while you are gone.

 

While there will be more dialogue written for in party romances, you don't have to explain that you fought a mighty dragon and uncovered vast amounts of wealth and legendary artifacts before your friend double crossed you and you had to kill him. Because they were there the whole time, don't have to do that whole 'catching up' dialogue for every quest option that you can return home during. Of course, the in party companion might not -always- be there, but it can be assumed they will be there a lot.

 

That being said, I personally wouldn't mind if a super flushed out romance with someone who isn't in party happened. But almost all the anti-romance people have at one time or another already complained that a romance eats up, 'valuable resources'.

 

You are making things uglier than they are.

Writing and text implementation are some of the least time consuming tasks that you have to perform to develop a game. As long as you don't have to do full voice overs and cutscenes adding a romance plot (which doesn't even require specific dungeons or locations like a normal quest) is a piece of cake.

 

Feargus said that it takes Avellone to write a single companion 2-3 months, and since there are 8 companions, and Ziest will probably half of them, it takes them 8-12 months to write them, not to mention the rest of the dialogue which isn't for companions, lore, the story, descriptions etc. and how that exactly wouldn't take lot of time?

 

I think that Josh Sawyer will help too.

 

And even if we don't take him into account let me say that romance subplots usually don't eat up entire characters. Look at Morrigan in DAO: she had a full blown and interesting storyline that spanned for the whole game. Romancing her was just a plus. Other examples can be Merrill (DA2), Tali (Mass Effect), Jaheira (BG) and so on.

 

Ok sometimes there are character that don't have much depth other than what is included in their romance storylines. I'm thinking about Aerie from BG2 and Isabela from DA2, but those are just exceptions.

[Kymriana]

The problem with that, CrazyPea, is that it doesn't feel part of the overall story at all. It is, utterly, something tacked onto the side for the sake of 'those who want romance'... Sure, they can add an entire new character, just a step away from a party NPC, with a LOT of in-depth background, gambit of emotions to cycle through, dialogue and responses to all the various situations you have been in if/when you return.... which may or may not even be possible depending on the way the story goes at all, which we don't know about....

 

...but that would take a TON more work, effort, and resources than the 8 party NPCs we already have. If people are already freaked out about some mysterious time-limit(which they don't actually.. you know... have, kinda the point of the kickstarter in part...) when thinking of adding believable dimensions to the 8 we know are there... I can't think that they would be terribly happy with any time spent making a meaningful out-of-party pseudo-npc just for the sake, purely, of the 'romance crowd'. It hits all of their points of worry, honestly.

[LadyCrimson]

Wow, this thread got ugly fast. Sometimes I'm grateful for the thread length limits -- hopefully a few more posts should be enough to get it locked.

 

I have to sleep sometime. Post limit. And the wheel goes round and round...