Why No Conversations with NPCs?

[Menthur]

Hi there all,

 

I'm enjoying Pillars of Eternity so far. I just started out and recently arrived in Gilded Vale. However, I noticed that you cannot have a conversation with named NPCs like you used to in BG, BG2, and maybe even find new party members that way.

 

Once I approach them I only can read something about their past lives or something like that.

 

Is that gonna change later in the game?

 

Thanks.

[Rosveen]

People with golden nameplates are NPCs created by backers. Don't bother talking to them, they have only their soul stories to share and I got bored of it before I left Gilded Vale. There's a ton of them everywhere too.

 

You can talk to other people though, just not everyone. Some have only ambient comments.

[Nakia]

First I wish people would remember that BG SoA was the second game of the series and PoE is the first and the devs had a lot tod building the game from scratch.  Comparing it to BG 2 in my not so humble opinion just is not fair.  In the documentary "Road to Eternity" the devs also say it was made with a small team.  An experience team yes but a small one which I gather does have its advantages as well as disadvantages.

 

Talking to villagers, commoners, nobles can give you some ambient remarks and let you know what people in general are thinking but those are just random remarks.

 

Later in the game the companions will talk to each other to some extent and you will have conversations with them to move the story forward.  There are to buttons you can click to talk to the companions one is located above the companion when you click on their portrait and the other will appear on the portrait top left when they want to talk to you.

 

As said the names with gold plates are backer stories. It was a stretch goal.

[Menthur]

Oh, alright, I see. Didn't know about the backer NPCs. Thanks guys!

 

I just left Gilded Vale and found already 2 new Companions on the way.

 

Game's starting to get really interesting now ....

[abaris]

Hi there all,

 

I'm enjoying Pillars of Eternity so far. I just started out and recently arrived in Gilded Vale. However, I noticed that you cannot have a conversation with named NPCs like you used to in BG, BG2, and maybe even find new party members that way.

 

Once I approach them I only can read something about their past lives or something like that.

 

Is that gonna change later in the game?

 

Thanks.

 

As has been said, look for the color of the nameplates. If they're golden, there's only some mindreading to be done, since they are backer NPCs with unique stories. I read a few, but although I have nothing against reading, I got tired of that excercise pretty soon, since it doesn't really add to the game.

[luzarius]

Hopefully POE 2 has some kind of basic toolset that lets us mod the game. I hope Obsidian adopts a strategy to incorporate modding into POE 2 from the ground up.