Faction allegiance quests, no warning or indication of permanent allegiance?

[EtherGun]

Please, next time, be a great dungeon master, and tell the players if a given quest will permanently "bond" them to a certain faction, so they can have a choice of joining or not. Finally, joining or not. Or at the very least, drop some clues that it will be a permanent thing. "Oh, can you help me boi? You answered yes? You're now permanently one of us boi! Nevermind you haven't completed the task, you answered 'yes', you're one of us now, permanently, you don't have a choice now boi."

 

I would have punched you in the face if you were a dungeon master in an RPG session.

A great dungeon master tells the intricacies of the game, and tries not to be vague as much as possible. THERE'S BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MYSTERY AND BEING VAGUE. For one, the former requires some thought and planning, the latter, only requires laziness. Are you lazy Obsidian?

 

Don't do this on Tyranny, please.

[jsaving]

Um... I'm pretty sure you are automatically enrolled in the despot's faction in Tyranny whether you want to be or not.  Though like Pillars, you will presumably be free over the course of the game to disregard the faction's tenets...

[EtherGun]

My point is, I should have a choice whether to kill a character in game, OR keep that character in my dungeon, torture him day and night, feed him his testicles and ****, chop off his arms and legs, then finally reveal I have his loved ones as well, then torture his loved ones, rape them, mutilate them, slowly, day and night, in front of his eyes, then feed him his father's, mother's, wife's, daughter's and son's flesh, and if he refuses, torture him some more and starve him, until I break him and eats his children's and family's flesh. I won't kill the character, I will keep him alive as long as I can, for years even, and keep on torturing him while I nonchalantly tell him of my new conquests and victories in life from now and then.

 

I should have a choice of action, not some random bs given to me by a vague yes or no question.

Edited April 5, 2016 by EtherGun

[Crucis]

Ether, when it comes to the faction quests, you're free to do the quests that open up the factions' stores to you.  But if you take a faction quest from their boss, IIRC, that is the action that will tie you the faction.  But I can see how this is all more than a little tricky to decipher if you don't have experience with the game.  I think it may have bit me in the butt once or twice at some point.

[jsaving]

I know several people who took Defiance Bay one area at a time, completing each quest in a particular part of the city before beginning to explore a different one.  They've complained more than once that they found themselves barred from joining the Knights or the Doemenels before they even knew those factions existed, and think PoE should have had a pop-up window warning the player that completing the second Dozens quest locks you out of other faction content.  I can sympathize with that, though I'd prefer a less immersion-breaking solution.  One idea would be to have each faction demand a binding commitment from the player instead of vaguely saying the other factions may not like you much if you do this quest for us (which a reasonable player might assume he can evade through role-playing).  Or alternatively, perhaps each faction could have required you to at least speak to the other factions before allowing you to accept the quest that cements your allegiance, which would ensure that players have at least some idea that this choice will have consequences down the road.   

[Crucis]

I know several people who took Defiance Bay one area at a time, completing each quest in a particular part of the city before beginning to explore a different one.  They've complained more than once that they found themselves barred from joining the Knights or the Doemenels before they even knew those factions existed, and think PoE should have had a pop-up window warning the player that completing the second Dozens quest locks you out of other faction content.  I can sympathize with that, though I'd prefer a less immersion-breaking solution.  One idea would be to have each faction demand a binding commitment from the player instead of vaguely saying the other factions may not like you much if you do this quest for us (which a reasonable player might assume he can evade through role-playing).  Or alternatively, perhaps each faction could have required you to at least speak to the other factions before allowing you to accept the quest that cements your allegiance, which would ensure that players have at least some idea that this choice will have consequences down the road.   

 

Honestly, a popup window seems far too meta-gamey to me as well.  I like your thought that a better way would be to have the dialogs with each faction's leader include language that should make it clear that you are aligning yourself with that faction, without being immersion breaking or too meta-gamey about it.  I think that there are definitely ways for well written dialogs to do this.

 

With the Doemenels, it might involve taking some sort of blood oath.  With the Knights, it might have their CO telling you that if you accept this mission, other groups are sure to learn about it and refuse to work with you.  And the Dozen's CO might say that if you accept this mission, you're now "one of us", and that the other groups won't like that, yada-yada-yada.

[Caribou]

 

I know several people who took Defiance Bay one area at a time, completing each quest in a particular part of the city before beginning to explore a different one.  They've complained more than once that they found themselves barred from joining the Knights or the Doemenels before they even knew those factions existed, and think PoE should have had a pop-up window warning the player that completing the second Dozens quest locks you out of other faction content.  I can sympathize with that, though I'd prefer a less immersion-breaking solution.  One idea would be to have each faction demand a binding commitment from the player instead of vaguely saying the other factions may not like you much if you do this quest for us (which a reasonable player might assume he can evade through role-playing).  Or alternatively, perhaps each faction could have required you to at least speak to the other factions before allowing you to accept the quest that cements your allegiance, which would ensure that players have at least some idea that this choice will have consequences down the road.   

 

Honestly, a popup window seems far too meta-gamey to me as well.  I like your thought that a better way would be to have the dialogs with each faction's leader include language that should make it clear that you are aligning yourself with that faction, without being immersion breaking or too meta-gamey about it.  I think that there are definitely ways for well written dialogs to do this.

 

With the Doemenels, it might involve taking some sort of blood oath.  With the Knights, it might have their CO telling you that if you accept this mission, other groups are sure to learn about it and refuse to work with you.  And the Dozen's CO might say that if you accept this mission, you're now "one of us", and that the other groups won't like that, yada-yada-yada.

 

 

Or even something as simple as the faction quest chains ensuring you meet/know about the other factions.