Creating My Whole Party at the Very Beginning

[Rabain]

I think the safest assumption is to expect it to be like BG1 and BG2, there are companions, you pick them up, they interact with each other and you.  This is the primary party setup expected.

 

The Adventurers Hall is a nice nod to IWD style party setup as well as those people who used multiplayer saves in BG games to create their own party.  All Obsidian has done is take the knowledge of that and put it into PE as intended design.  They talk about restricting access to the Hall and cost of npcs within the Hall because their primary expectation is that you take the premade NPCs they have slaved over to create.  The last thing they want is you complaining at the end of the game there wasn't enough interaction after you take 4 Hall npcs on your first run.

 

By the time you play through the game a few times and use up most of the companions maybe you want to start trying specific setups, cue the Hall and/or any mod npcs that might have come along by then.

[Monte Carlo]

The re-playability point is excellent.

 

Don't worry, if there's mod support in P:E there will be several emo BS romance NPCs up on the web in no time.

[ericw]

 

 

Sorry, OP. But I think you're mental.

 

You get different group dynamics forming depending on who comes in first. If you don't get them out of a single 'carton' at the start then it gives you more variation to play with.

 

So, if someone likes to play differently than you do, you think they are mental...interesting...

 

 

If a man takes a good ribeye steak and boils it, he's not exercising freedom of choice. He's an idiot.

 

 

Actually, I disagree.  If a man or woman wants to boil their steak, that's up to them and does NOT make them an idiot.  Perhaps, they really like boiled meat.

 

From your statements, I gather that you are quite egocentric.  If someone doesn't agree with your point of view, you attack them by calling them mental or idiots.

 

I, on the other hand, think that people should have the option to do WHATEVER they want, as long as they are not hurting anyone else.

[teknoman2]

IIRC, Xan is found at the end of a main quest. Granted, he can be easy to miss, but he is there. Also, Xan would have worked better as a Fighter/Mage(as would Khalid).

Xan, along with Monty, are at the SE corner of the starting map of the game... from the start

[Tamerlane]

That's Xzar, dude.

[teknoman2]

That's Xzar, dude.

ah right... the names are similar and i confused the 2 since both are mages. Xzar is the psycho necromancer, Xan is the emo elf enchanter you find in naskel mines

[Kide]

I personally like the main character with companion style most like in baldurs gate series. But I also liked icewind dale a lot, they simply were different. I would like to see both style of games made at least. Though as I mentioned in another thread, I would really love it if in the case of creating more than just the one main character, there would be possible voices (personalities) you could also choose for your party members. As that alone makes wizardry 8 way more replayable for me than icewind dale games. In icewind dale games even if I like them, all of the party members just are there to do their job so you can get forward in the actual story. On the other hand in wizardry 8 when those different voices you could choose for your party members commented on some events during the travels made the party feel way more alive.

 

Of course they were still in the same party and they did not have part chat between them self's, but still by commenting on things while travelling they made it feel way more alive, plus of course you wanted to also test not only different class set ups but voice set ups as well... And they do comment on each other sometimes too. It was really quite funny when my mage fumbled with his spell, and the spell backfired, my bishop then commented on it: "Even monkeys sometimes fall from the trees, try again". As said... I really  wish to see something like that in some future game, because I loved that.

[Karkarov]

For the sake of clarity .....

Xan is at the end of the Nashkel mines Dungeon standing in a side room nearby where you fight the boss of the place.  You find his Moonblade in the same room with the dude you fight.  If someone missed him in their playthrough well...  they weren't very thorough to say the least :/

[Remmirath]

I do enjoy creating my whole party from the beginning, but I have no problem with creating them at different times throughout the game. One typically ends up with a full party of NPCs not all that late into the game, so I expect that we'll also be able to have a full party of PCs not all that late into the game. It will likely make things more challenging in the early parts of the game, and I am usually all for that. I do hope the fee isn't too large, or my parties shall likely all become thoroughly broke from hiring so many new people, but on the other hand that could also add an interesting challenge -- and an incentive to be even more careful in planning things.

[Abel]

One typically ends up with a full party of NPCs not all that late into the game, so I expect that we'll also be able to have a full party of PCs not all that late into the game.

 

I've read somewhere that all companions were to be found in the first half of the game (unlike Alora or Skye in BG 1). If there is a PE II, it would be great to go on adventuring with the same party.

[Silent Winter]

 I do hope the fee isn't too large, or my parties shall likely all become thoroughly broke from hiring so many new people,

One way to balance this is to make it no more expensive to hire someone than it would be to buy decent equipment for a companion (and then have them come with decent equipment, whereas the joinable NPCs only come with basic / less than complete equipment)

[teknoman2]

For the sake of clarity .....

 

Xan is at the end of the Nashkel mines Dungeon standing in a side room nearby where you fight the boss of the place.  You find his Moonblade in the same room with the dude you fight.  If someone missed him in their playthrough well...  they weren't very thorough to say the least :/

i had him in my party... if nothing else, for the funny doom and gloom attitude

[CommentTater]

I'm I the only person who's excited to see how many ridiculous Mary Sue companions are modded into the game? I had a ton of fun murdering those characters in BG, and more recently, Fallout and Skyrim.

[ericw]

If Obsidian is able to create an NPC of EVERY Class, I think I might be tempted to play with 5 of their NPCs.

Edited December 24, 2013 by ericw

[ericw]

I think if I were to create all my own characters, I would go with:

 

Cipher

Chanter

Druid

Rogue

Priest

Wizard

 

This party might have trouble though if there are many magic-immune enemies in the game.

 

[MasterPrudent]

@ericw You're thinking of this in DnD terms. Seeing as PE's damage reduction/immunity is organised around deflection/fortitude/reflexes/psych and different spellcasters have abilities that target different defenses I don't think that party would have too much trouble.

[Katzengott]

Adventurers Hall is really good news to me. I love the BG style of companions, I love how they interact, but what I hate about it is that you sometimes have to choose a ratbarstard henchman your character/party does't like because of his abilities. Sure, there is this whole community of purpose feel to it which can be entertaining, but tbh in a huge fantasy city you'd most probably find a similar dude that fits you better. Of course the game doesn't provide that depth, so it's just fine being able to hire a merc.

 

Or, in this case, create your own guy with his own background. It's a great idea to mix it up, so you won't have 6 deaf-mute morons slaughtering through the game but some cool scripted interaction but a party that makes sense to you. It would be cooler to have less optional party members in the game, but those who're there should be deep.

 

Another big point is, I don't like releoading because one of my party members died and I'm not able to ress him at that point. I want to give them the chance of a super-heroic death. If my party fought a super tough fight and everything went well except the lichmaster casting finger of death right before we could end him, well, that's what happens. So I will be happy to replace my fallen by someone being able to have the same function in my party.

 

This btw would be really fantastic: The chance of a final dialogue with the fallen partymember, at any point during the game, given the fact that you can't revive in that situation. So you don't just feel like "whoops, ****, forgot that healing potion macro again *reload*" or "wow, what an honorable death, he saved us all *sniff* *rightclick* "now I need to redistribute his ****, *click, click*" but being able to say goodbye to that character.    

[Silverfox]

 

 

 

Sorry, OP. But I think you're mental.

 

You get different group dynamics forming depending on who comes in first. If you don't get them out of a single 'carton' at the start then it gives you more variation to play with.

 

So, if someone likes to play differently than you do, you think they are mental...interesting...

 

 

If a man takes a good ribeye steak and boils it, he's not exercising freedom of choice. He's an idiot.

 

 

Actually, I disagree.  If a man or woman wants to boil their steak, that's up to them and does NOT make them an idiot.  Perhaps, they really like boiled meat.

 

From your statements, I gather that you are quite egocentric.  If someone doesn't agree with your point of view, you attack them by calling them mental or idiots.

 

I, on the other hand, think that people should have the option to do WHATEVER they want, as long as they are not hurting anyone else.

 

Check out the Sous Vide method of cooking.

 

1. Put your steak in a vacuum sealed bag.

2. Put said bag in a water bath (the water is at the temperature you want the interal temp of the steak to end up at) for a certain period of time.

3. Take steak out of bag and quickly sear it on both sides to brown it.

4. Enjoy a perfectly cooked steak.

 

OT: Each person will be playing the game for their own enjoyment. Its up to the Devs to enable as many playstyles as they can.

[Bryy]

I think the AH is a good idea. Creating a party at the beginning just leads to frustration down the line.

[Silverbarr]

 

 

 

Sorry, OP. But I think you're mental.

 

You get different group dynamics forming depending on who comes in first. If you don't get them out of a single 'carton' at the start then it gives you more variation to play with.

 

So, if someone likes to play differently than you do, you think they are mental...interesting...

 

 

If a man takes a good ribeye steak and boils it, he's not exercising freedom of choice. He's an idiot.

 

 

Actually, I disagree.  If a man or woman wants to boil their steak, that's up to them and does NOT make them an idiot.  Perhaps, they really like boiled meat.

 

From your statements, I gather that you are quite egocentric.  If someone doesn't agree with your point of view, you attack them by calling them mental or idiots.

 

I, on the other hand, think that people should have the option to do WHATEVER they want, as long as they are not hurting anyone else.

 

 

I actually found that you jumped onto his comment first, just because he used a phrase which everyone else understood had no real weight behind it.

 

And then decide to attack him at a personal level by stating "I gather you are quite egocentric", and continue into falling onto your own sword by stating that if he doesn't agree with someone point of view that he attacks them - hilariously what you have done to him.

 

I didn't see him hurt anyone else, so perhaps you should get off that high horse?

[Walsingham]

You are both wrong. You do not boil steak. And if a man enjoys boiled steak then he's a freak.

 

And an idiot.

 

And no sensible restaurant will pander to his idiotic freakish desires.

 

Likewise no sensible dev will pander to whatever it was I was arguing against.

[Yonjuro]

You are both wrong. You do not boil steak. And if a man enjoys boiled steak then he's a freak.

 

And an idiot.

 

And no sensible restaurant will pander to his idiotic freakish desires.

 

Likewise no sensible dev will pander to whatever it was I was arguing against.

 

 

Well played sir.        

[EDarkness]

Maybe I don't understand things all that well, but what's the difference between player created characters and Dev created characters?  Is it like other games where created characters get 0 story?  If that's the case, then I'd probably just roll with the characters provided by the Devs.  Missing out on story because of that is not something I want to do.  However, my understanding of how it works may be wrong, too.

[Gfted1]

Maybe I don't understand things all that well, but what's the difference between player created characters and Dev created characters?  Is it like other games where created characters get 0 story?  If that's the case, then I'd probably just roll with the characters provided by the Devs.  Missing out on story because of that is not something I want to do.  However, my understanding of how it works may be wrong, too.

That is correct. Characters created in the Adventurers Hall by the player will lack banter and individual quests.

[Silverbarr]

 

Maybe I don't understand things all that well, but what's the difference between player created characters and Dev created characters?  Is it like other games where created characters get 0 story?  If that's the case, then I'd probably just roll with the characters provided by the Devs.  Missing out on story because of that is not something I want to do.  However, my understanding of how it works may be wrong, too.

That is correct. Characters created in the Adventurers Hall by the player will lack banter and individual quests.

 

 

By this alone, if I chose to bring an adventurer from the Hall with me it just couldn't encompass my whole party and I would only allow myself to even think of having 2 max. within my party. 

 

I must admit, the Hall is a damn brilliant idea for those that wish to bring another character of their own into the world - hopefully the modding tools will allow ease of ability to integrate banters with these custom characters.