Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Interaction between main characters

Just as a preface I only really played around 15 minutes of the alpha as while I wanted to support the devs I prefer to wait for the final version for RPGs. While I have seen the conversation system a bit between the two characters it seems a bit... Lacking. One of my favorite things about the old style RPGs was the rich character interaction where the characters relations were determined by your actions as a players and they would frequently chat about things in neutral areas.

Maybe it's from the very limited view I have had of the game but does dialogue ever become more in-depth? Like if they become opposites will they have conversations where you see them being antagonistic with each other and we see their relationship sour, or on the flip side if they become lovers do we see the relationship slowly grow or is the dialogue in the game restricted to talking about decisions and convincing the other about things with their relationship determined solely by stat points and tone in game play decisions.

I really doubt it. Larian does not do in-depth characters, they give you blank slate characters to explore their sandbox worlds. They're not going to have the kind of relationship growth and development that you get from a linear game with a fixed story.

The relationship between the characters should have some effect (on the characters and other party members), but I don't know if or how it may change dialog later in the game, etc. Presumably any story or dialog changes would be relatively minor (given the amount of work vs the relative little benefit that would provide, since most people don't replay games many times). Henchmen or companions may leave your party if there is too much conflict (proposed as an example during the kickstarter IIRC), but the two main characters are presumably going to get to the end of the game together.

A game does not have to be linear for decent character development. Admittedly it is a tad more linear then what Larian seems to be planning but the old Baldurs Gate games had decent character interaction. Old style Fallout (1 & 2) also had decent character interaction as well and were fairly non-linear.

I feel this is somewhat of a non issue, play the game co op with more than one person, and for this example I will use friends you know irl, or have played with and spoken to often. I've already seen responses I did not expect from people I've known for quite some time and I know they are picking choices honestly as near as they would be able to in a manner similar to real world interaction if they were placed in these situations. This to me adds a great amount of depth to the game itself. I think that was the primary concern for the way the game has been laid out, at least linguistically. I mean come on, the co op part of it has been a big deal but people seem to throw it out the window and not add people they play with ( or might play with) into the equation.

I get where people are coming from in that they want their own individual character to start reflecting the choices you've made in their personalities, but it seems empty to me as that would remove thinking about your actions over the course of the game in any significant manner, you're expecting things to turn out in this or that fashion, and that right there would stomp on a lot of the freedom of development they are aiming for.

Just an idea in any case, feel free to hate on me if I was unclear or didn't address the issue in a manner you find more appealing, I'll try change my stats to suite your needs in the future ( just tell me what I should be acting like by the end ok?). A little sarcasm I guess, I just figure we're thrown into 2 characters who are already the people they have become over whatever life they had before we jumped in and took control, realistically we wouldn't see major changes to their behavior in the short amount of time we have with them would we?

In summation, I find a lot of their interaction to be pretty similar to what I've noticed in a fair few soldiers and mercs over the years, light in communication to each other but it does hold a certain depth that is hard for them to translate over to one another. At least that's often how I end off communicating with people these days.

This strikes me as a really interesting topic but I haven't played the alpha so find it difficult to comment. It seems like simply a case of two distinctly different styles of character interaction. It would be interesting to tease out those differences and pros/cons likes/dislikes about each of them or various games. What can each style learn from the other and so forth.