IndiraLightfoot

 

I played Final Fantasy 7. In that game wole quests where conected to main-story. I mean no "give me a ring and you get 25 gold". Is that what are you are talking about ? All quests related to main one. ?

Helping Nalia in BG2 retake her family's keep and restoring it. Building it up and fighting off some vile bastard's army was really satisfying.

Storming Solitude and kicking the Imperial scum out of Skyrim felt rather satisfying insofar as I knew my character's political opinion changed the power-landscape.

Leading the slave rebellion in the Pitt, the FO3 DLC was really fun. Any opportunity to be Spartacus I is fantastic.

 

Sometimes the best quests are those we make for ourselves. Like surviving and flourishing in Dwarf Fortress or liberating all of the slaves in Morrowind.

I suppose this is an interesting idea, but I think it would be more difficult to implement, especially conversational skills.

 

What's more, I don't think that just having a character with certain skills stand near my character would automatically make her more competent in those areas. For example, my sister is very charismatic whereas I'm very socially awkward in real life. Just having my sister stand next to me when I try to talk to someone doesn't magically make me socially gifted just because she's there. I get just as flustered and tongue-tied when she's there as not, so she often has to step in and use her own silver tongue to ask questions and make requests that I can't. That's how I envision it for companions with their conversation skills. My character can try, but ultimately the companions know what they're doing. It's the same with languages and technical skills.

 

No no no, o_o... I apologize if my description was confusing, but all I meant was that mechanically they would supplement your skill with a modifier (+5, +10, etc.) instead of just having a hard-coded roll that was always going to be better than yours. In other words, if I'm trying to bluff my way into a VIP room at a tavern, and I fall short (45 out of 50 or something), THEN I want my companion to come in and say something like "We REALLY don't have time for this. I'm going to have to have a talk with Savinn (the establishment owner)..." And now, the mathematical equivalent is like 55, or 60, so your collective bluff attempt passes their, er... believability check?

 

The benefits are two-fold:

1) Your main character's dialogue-related skills/stats will never be redundant, even when a companion's are higher.

 

2) A companion can actually boost your skill higher than his/her own individual roll could ever go. In other words, if your skill is 50, and your companion provides +15 if you need it (based on their level of expertise, etc.), then you end up with the capability of surpassing skill checks up to 65. Whereas, if you level up some, and you boost your skill to 75, now they can get you to 90. They become useful even when your skill is higher.

Granted, I'm not saying there should never be any times in which your companion completely handles something in place of yourself. I just don't think the game should be limited to that scenario in terms of how your companion can help out. That's why my thought began with "maybe they should...".

 

I just think that, at the very least, there should be some form of both. I mean, if your strength is 16, and a companion's is 19, and we're able to bash doors in P:E, then you'd think any wide-enough door should allow both of you to charge it/kick it at the same time for a boosted roll. Same with dialogue checks, really. Two skilled liars/diplomats are better than one, I would think. *shrug*

 

Hmm... How to handle the difference. Maybe if your skill is less than half of theirs, they simply take over for you (IF they are loyal enough or desire to do so for whatever reasons/factors)? And above that, they add a modifier? Maybe the maximum is... I dunno, +20 if their skill is twice yours, and the minimum is 5 (down to their skill being half yours)?

 

I dunno. That's still a bit messy. *shrug*. It was just a thought, really. Worth investigating, I figured. It might not be feasible.

Edited February 19, 201313 yr by Lephys

I don't even know where to start with this poll...