How are the factions?

[Fiaryn]

Can anyone clarify how are the things with faction aligned companions? Do some of them leave you no matter what when you side with a faction that is not their own, or is there a way to avoid it? Perhaps they tolerate some enemy factions better than the rest (like, Maia would never side with the huana but would be ok with the pirates, or something like that)? 

 

I think I saw someone mention that Maia and Pallegina get kicked out by the queen in the huana storyline, but leaving them on the ship during the quest where it's suppoused to happen allowed them to stay with the player. 

 

Every ending except "**** this I'm out" and "side with the Huana" will make you lose a minimum of one companion.

 

I will probably go with Valian is future run.

 

I went with Principi because I love Serafen but even he is somewhat done with Principi after a few quests. The ending is decent for the deadfire.

 

Ruatai is the big bad of this one it seems. Everyone hates em and they use force to solve everything.

 

And Huanu is in the middle.

 

But the saddest part? You don't side with Valian, they send Pallegina to her death. Like WOW, OKAY. They also seems like the best choice for me and my "We don't need the gods anymore. It's up to us to look toward the future." approach anyway.

 

I think it's just the Principi ending where Pallegina gets sent to her death.

[Crucis]

If you want to go with the "choose no faction", does this mean that you can have no dealings with them, or does each faction have a final quest where if you accept it, you're all in with the faction?

 

I'm playing a good and benevolent Watcher, and at the moment, all of the factions that I see seem rather morally questionable, each in their own way, to put it kindly.  And I'm not entirely sure how to sail these waters in which the faction sharks swim.

[Tarlonniel]

As far as I can tell, none of the faction quests are required to complete the game. You only need to do the main quest line ("Hunt for Eothas"). But you'll need to get a lot of money to buy the hull plating and sails for the independent route.

 

There are all-in quests at the end of some of the faction quest lines, but it's fairly clear which quests those are.

Edited May 13, 2018 by Tarlonniel

[Yria]

 

Can anyone clarify how are the things with faction aligned companions? Do some of them leave you no matter what when you side with a faction that is not their own, or is there a way to avoid it? Perhaps they tolerate some enemy factions better than the rest (like, Maia would never side with the huana but would be ok with the pirates, or something like that)? 

 

I think I saw someone mention that Maia and Pallegina get kicked out by the queen in the huana storyline, but leaving them on the ship during the quest where it's suppoused to happen allowed them to stay with the player. 

 

Every ending except "**** this I'm out" and "side with the Huana" will make you lose a minimum of one companion.

 

I thoight siding with the Huana makes you lose Maia? I guess you can leave her on the ship when you talk to the queen so she doesn't get the boot for being a spy. But then she will just stop talking to you which is kinda meh.

 

But what about the rest? Who always leaves if you side with what faction? I'm especially curious about the Vailians. 

[Zeitzbach]

But the saddest part? You don't side with Valian, they send Pallegina to her death. Like WOW, OKAY. They also seems like the best choice for me and my "We don't need the gods anymore. It's up to us to look toward the future." approach anyway.

 

 

I think it's just the Principi ending where Pallegina gets sent to her death.

 

 

I'm so done with the Prinicipi then.

 

Maybe I will do the "Screw this I'm out" in the future runs after PotD gets tweaked. The neutral way seems like the most natural way. If anything, they're fortunate I'm not allowed to build a whole new keep with all my riches and regulate all of them.

 

 

 

 

Can anyone clarify how are the things with faction aligned companions? Do some of them leave you no matter what when you side with a faction that is not their own, or is there a way to avoid it? Perhaps they tolerate some enemy factions better than the rest (like, Maia would never side with the huana but would be ok with the pirates, or something like that)? 

 

I think I saw someone mention that Maia and Pallegina get kicked out by the queen in the huana storyline, but leaving them on the ship during the quest where it's suppoused to happen allowed them to stay with the player. 

 

Every ending except "**** this I'm out" and "side with the Huana" will make you lose a minimum of one companion.

 

I thoight siding with the Huana makes you lose Maia? I guess you can leave her on the ship when you talk to the queen so she doesn't get the boot for being a spy. But then she will just stop talking to you which is kinda meh.

 

But what about the rest? Who always leaves if you side with what faction? I'm especially curious about the Vailians. 

 

 

I sided with Principi. Tekehu asked me about what I'm doing and I'm able to convince him to stay, prolly because I have him around the whole half of act 2 (because of how his companion story works) and keep telling him to not give a crap about the Huanu and just be free.

 

Maia is the only one I can't talk to at all on the boat after siding with the principi. She always saying "I WANNA LEAVE YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING BLEH LET'S GO MY BIRD CLUCK CLUCK".

[Aramintai]

I thoight siding with the Huana makes you lose Maia? I guess you can leave her on the ship when you talk to the queen so she doesn't get the boot for being a spy. But then she will just stop talking to you which is kinda meh.

It doesn't always work. If they hate whom you chose too much they'll still leave and send you a farewell message.

[Yria]

Maia is the only one I can't talk to at all on the boat after siding with the principi. She always saying "I WANNA LEAVE YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING BLEH LET'S GO MY BIRD CLUCK CLUCK".

 

Same as when you side with the Huana then. And it probably isn't any better when you side with the trade company. I guess this is what I will always get from her since I don't see myself ever siding with RDC. 

 

 

I thoight siding with the Huana makes you lose Maia? I guess you can leave her on the ship when you talk to the queen so she doesn't get the boot for being a spy. But then she will just stop talking to you which is kinda meh.

It doesn't always work. If they hate whom you chose too much they'll still leave and send you a farewell message.

 

Tbh I'd rather they leave outright than just stand there telling me they don't want to talk anyway. 

Edited May 13, 2018 by Yria

[Zeitzbach]

I think we have to bring Maia along to get her to stay by convincing her that Royal Deadfire ain't doing a great job having her kill civilians and all and it will only cause more harm through dialogues. What happens if you flop her companion quest anyway? It does lead to good people dying so maybe not succeeding it is how you get her to stop being an assassin.

Edited May 13, 2018 by Zeitzbach

[Yria]

I think we have to bring Maia along to get her to stay by convincing her that Royal Deadfire ain't doing a great job having her kill civilians and all and it will only cause more harm through dialogues. 

 

This might be true for some of the factions, but it won't work on the Huana route because it's not Maia who wants to leave, it's the queen who tells you to kick Maia out (along with Pallegina, but Pallegina you can just leave on the ship, and she will talk to you just fine iirc). 

[stratigo]

 

One of things I liked about PoE I is that there were a couple of factions that, while they had warts, could be seen 'good', especially if one prodded them in the right direction.  Hell, even the bastard faction had one fairly decent option.

If all the factions are more warts than not (to put it mildly), that really doesn't appeal to me personally.  After all, I want to deal with Real Life, I'll stick my head outside the door.  Basically I want a faction that I can actually want to see succeed, not where I swallow my bile and look the other way.

I'm with you there. So far, I've done the independent ending and VTC; the Vailian faction quests were great up until the last one, which requires you to kill a bunch of people (though the fight at the palace may be avoidable?). And they're slavers, which... ugh. I'll try Rauatai and the Huana next, but I'm worried they aren't going to be much better. At least the independent option is always available!

 

 

Killing the leaders of foreign states in a big melee is really frickin weird to me.

 

That really isn't something people do very often. That so many questlines end up with you getting in a big knockdown fight with the queen of the huana... just feels wierd

[Yria]

Is it possible to just reverse pickpocket them with a bomb or poison to avoid the fight? Or will that trigger a fight anyway? 

[Crucis]

I will say that it's rather interesting in its own way that at least 3 of your companions are tied to factions; Serafen to the Principi, Maia to the Deadfire, and Pallegina to the Valians.  And at least a silver lining is that there's no secret about it.  I suppose if one really didn't want to get so involved in the factional intrigue and risk losing a valued companion, one could always refuse to use any of these three for long and transition to using non-aligned companions or sidekicks.  But even then, it seems that the companions/sidekicks also have other dispositional issues that could cause you to lose them.

 

What's a poor "Good and Benevolent" Watcher to do? 

[Sotof]

After slaving for the factions to improve all of them I was quite annoyed that they decided to try and force me to choose just one of them... So I peaced out and went at it alone. The Deadfire ended up in complete chaos, so probably the worst option I would say. Then I tried the Huana path afterwards, though I have to say that is some underhanded and evil **** they did there. At least the Valians have the balls to stand by what they are doing, and their way of doing things is decidedly the least evil even if it is based on profit.

Edited May 13, 2018 by Sotof

[Hazmy]

I definitely choose the Vailian, everybody else is a slimy ****roach really. I can't stand any of them. The Vailians are FAAR from being good, but at least they are not pretentious **** trying to sell you that they are doing good here.

I will probably make a playthrough for Huana then Pirates after, but I just get sick from the Deadfire Company.

[Veevoir]

Vallian Trading Company - "we're ****, but at least we are honest about it!".

[BrokenMask]

If you want to keep all companions in party while doing missions opposed to them, avoid bringing them along on the mission against their faction and don't talk to them on the ship until you have reached the finale :D Thats what I did with Maia since first time around I chose Vailians.(because this is pre bugfix patches playthrough, I was playing with one of preset options and chose ending I wasn't planning to use for my imported character, though I did do all faction questline for achievements and berath's boon points so I know the gist).

 

I do find it interesting how Serefen seems to be only charcter who doesn't leave the party as result of not choosing their faction as he is fed up with Principi anyway by end game(at least on my playthrough) and because Principi is only faction that doesn't care to intervene with other three? I do wonder what happens in ending where you choose to ignore all factions though

[BrokenMask]

Anyhoo's Maia's ending I got (where she complains about underhanded unethical tactics used in Deadfire) implies that leader of Rauatai isn't as bad as officials in deadfire since they listen to her complaints and declares that while victory is important it is also important to do it right. That said, yeah, wow, Rauatai does lot of bad guy **** in the game even if its not as obvious since they clearly don't think themselves as evil or in the wrong

[Veevoir]

If you want to keep all companions in party while doing missions opposed to them, avoid bringing them along on the mission against their faction and don't talk to them on the ship until you have reached the finale :D Thats what I did with Maia since first time around I chose Vailians.(because this is pre bugfix patches playthrough, I was playing with one of preset options and chose ending I wasn't planning to use for my imported character, though I did do all faction questline for achievements and berath's boon points so I know the gist).

 

I do find it interesting how Serefen seems to be only charcter who doesn't leave the party as result of not choosing their faction as he is fed up with Principi anyway by end game(at least on my playthrough) and because Principi is only faction that doesn't care to intervene with other three? I do wonder what happens in ending where you choose to ignore all factions though

Doesn't Serafen get a "turning point" at a different spot? When Furriante asks you to help the slavers he gives the player the talk on how slavery is a breakpoint for him. I guess having him in the party while strucking a deal with slavers might trigger his leave.

[E.RedMark]

I keep hearing about the option to 'Do it alone' . But I tried that (while the pirate forced my hand to side with them ) and my ship got nuked every single time . 

 

How are you supposed to do it alone ? with the boat called Junk ? 

[Aramintai]

I keep hearing about the option to 'Do it alone' . But I tried that (while the pirate forced my hand to side with them ) and my ship got nuked every single time . 

 

How are you supposed to do it alone ? with the boat called Junk ? 

You need to buy the most expensive sails and hull upgrades for the ship.

[Zeitzbach]

 

I keep hearing about the option to 'Do it alone' . But I tried that (while the pirate forced my hand to side with them ) and my ship got nuked every single time . 

 

How are you supposed to do it alone ? with the boat called Junk ? 

You need to buy the most expensive sails and hull upgrades for the ship.

 

 

It's also funny because upgraded Junk is way better than the ghost ship in every way. More cannon, more speed, more slot.

 

"But the wind manipulation"

 

Darn legendary pirate ship almost got sunk from battling 2 deadfire ships and taking AGES to get into boarding distance.

[Voss]

I definitely choose the Vailian, everybody else is a slimy ****roach really. I can't stand any of them. The Vailians are FAAR from being good, but at least they are not pretentious **** trying to sell you that they are doing good here.

 

I will probably make a playthrough for Huana then Pirates after, but I just get sick from the Deadfire Company.

 

Eh.  DTC seems to be the only rationale actors in the area. A few discrete 'tidying up' of details (and a few people) seems a lot better than wholesale murder/slavery, destruction of souls, and/or wide-scale repression and literally feeding the bulk of the population garbage (and just murdering the ones that fall ill).

[Synx]

 

 

I do find it interesting how Serefen seems to be only charcter who doesn't leave the party as result of not choosing their faction as he is fed up with Principi anyway by end game(at least on my playthrough) and because Principi is only faction that doesn't care to intervene with other three? I do wonder what happens in ending where you choose to ignore all factions though

 

I just finished a playthrough where I went in alone at the end. Killed Furrante at the end of the Principe missions and Aeldys on the island itself after I pretty much stole the ghost-ship from her (she followed me apparently) and while I didn't had Serefen with me for the majority of the gameplay, he seemed alright in the small ending text about him. He become the new leader (or one of its leaders it wasn't very clear) of the Principe.

 

None of your followers leave I think. I only had Mia as a faction follower this run, but she was fine with supporting no-one, as she seemed slightly annoyed with the lack of cooperation from the mayor powers.

 

As for the topic; Does the factions always stay so extremely generic? I pretty much told them Eothas was going to destroy the wheel and maybe even end the world, and they still sticked with their stupid reasoning. The world is going to end, but no I got to think about the trade. Or lets raid the lost old city. Or nobody is welcome except us, it's our lost city, etc.

 

Maybe It was because of my decisions I made, but I highly doubt that. I agreed with Eothas reasons to destroy the wheel, to pretty much force everyone to work together to overcome the catastrophe. I tried to steer everything in that line, sparing as much people as I can, helping everyone, trying to create alliances, but didn't seem to do much for the main factions. They all sticked to their generic reasoning. The only one that I thought might wanted to cooperate with another faction was Canta Nirro from the Vailian trading company, and he got banned right before the end, and taking over by Alvari, (Which I couldn't stop because of some choices I made) whos first quest was to blow up the Royal company....

 

Was a mayor downer for me in the game.

Edited May 14, 2018 by Synx

[Crucis]

From reading the posts in this thread and thinking that it just doesn't sound like there's an easy choice, a choice that's an obvious one for the player who really wants to play the good and benevolent Watcher. 

 

However, consider this.  I don't know exactly what time period the developers envision Eora to be in parallel Earth's history, but I'm thinking somewhere around the 1500's to perhaps up through the 1700's.  Now ask yourselves just how good and benevolent any major power was in that time frame on Earth.  Oh, there's no doubt that many of them might have had some good points, but they also had their bad points as well.

 

In fact, I'm thinking that the Deadfire area is feeling a good deal like the Caribbean region in that time frame during the age of pirates.  The pirates are obviously bad guys despite how much they may get romanticized.  But the other powers hardly had perfectly clean hands, and each had their own motivations that most likely weren't in the interest of the natives.

 

And even if you choose to not side with any faction, you can often just end up as the enemy of them all rather than a true neutral.  Basically, if you're not with me, you're against me.    Arguably, the only true way to say to heck with every faction would really be to just leave the Deadfire entirely.  However, you can't do this because of the giant gorilla in the room, the Eothas colossus.  And choosing to remain neutral while trying to deal with the Eothas problem apparently leaves dodging cannonballs from every faction.  And that leaves me considering this.  Is the greater good better served by staying neutral and taking a harder road trying to solve the Eothas problem, or picking a faction to make it easier to work on the larger problem posed by Eothas?  Interesting dilemma.

[stratigo]

 

I definitely choose the Vailian, everybody else is a slimy ****roach really. I can't stand any of them. The Vailians are FAAR from being good, but at least they are not pretentious **** trying to sell you that they are doing good here.

 

I will probably make a playthrough for Huana then Pirates after, but I just get sick from the Deadfire Company.

 

Eh.  DTC seems to be the only rationale actors in the area. A few discrete 'tidying up' of details (and a few people) seems a lot better than wholesale murder/slavery, destruction of souls, and/or wide-scale repression and literally feeding the bulk of the population garbage (and just murdering the ones that fall ill).

 

 

Only if you think the colonization of India was a good thing (and if you do, you need to do some research into the state of india under British rule).

 

They're out and out there to conquer the deadfire, are purposefully racist and dismissive towards the inhabitants, and self assured of their own superiority. We have real world history that shows us where that goes, and it is extraordinarily unpleasant.

 

The Valians operate like a merchant republic. They aren't particularly interested in colonial rule. They want trade concessions, and they'll be ruthless about it, but they aren't in it to take over a place, and, ultimately, it leaves their control more fragile and less.... awful to the natives.

 

The natives are just... eh. They're ****, but they're **** in a way that is probably less dicking themselves than other people would **** them, because they're all **** in the end.

 

And the pirates are pirates. Like, yeah, they're bad people. Duh.