How to talk to companions?

[Shades]

This is probably something obscenely obvious, but I just can't figure it out.

 

I'm at the start, I've seen a tooltip that said when a companion wants to talk, they'll have a conversation bubble above their portrait. That seems nice and simple.

 

So in the ruins I noticed one such bubble pop up for Heodan. Hooray! I click it. He says "This trip could've gone better." and that's it, the bubble persists. I try right clicking the bubble, nothing. Since I need him selected to see the bubble, I now try selecting my main character and clicking on Heodan, it swtches over to him. The same happens when right clicking or clicking on their portraits- well, right clicking on the portraits brings up the inventory.

 

For the life of me I just cannot figure out HOW to start whatever that conversation is. None of the icons appear to have anything relating to dialogue, the manual says nothing about companions and how to talk to them, and neither does the Strategy Guide.

 

Somebody please put me out of my misery and just tell me what I'm supposed to do

[sparklecat]

You know where their spells/abilities are, the bar that shows up if you select an individual character?  Select the one you want to talk to, and there's a conversation bubble icon on that bar, to the right.

[Miquel93]

No, the conversation bubble above the portrait is to iniciate conversation with the companion, like in Planescape. 

 

What the tooltip refered to was, when they have new stuff to tell you, INSIDE their portrait you will see the bubble pop up. What you're seeing right now is just the way to talk to companions.

[Shades]

You mean the selection of icons that appear above the character portrait when I have him selected right? That's what I've been clicking on, the conversation bubble icon there. And he just says "This trip could've gone better." and the bubble stays there... Unless of course he's meant to just say that?

 

Hmm, seems Calisca also has one... Ah, I'm guessing those single lines are all they have to say. I was expecting them to just bark what they say when I get to an area and that the dialogue bubble would be for actual conversations rather than single lines. Well, now I know at least XD

[sparklecat]

Oh, I see.  Yes, it is for actual conversations; Calisca and Heodan just don't have any for you at present.  Later on, companions will.

Edited March 29, 2015 by sparklecat