We are getting a little out od hand. laugh
I have my serious doubts that Larian can spend so much time with every single character. laugh
Just add some permutations and possibility to capture enemies instead of killing them would be fine. smile
That and allowing our characters to admit existence of secret passage. laugh
Hmm, If you think about it. If people complain about not having enough options, about the siege (least of choice is present there) being too simple, all of this can be solved just with a literally few changes, which would work for both sides and would definitely reuse code, making it easier for devs to implement.
Like the situation with passage, where you can take 2 sides, but the arrival cutscene would be same no matter who you choose, simliar to how the beginning of gate attack is handled. Then, you get to decide with who to stick with.
Morale having impact during the siege would work for both ways as well, depending on who you want to support, saving time for coding while improving the gameplay and at same making sense still. Also it would relieve the players of having to fight 20000 enemies who take so much of a turn turn time currently. (so overall let's say that you need to kill 2/3 of attackers instead of all of them)
You could still choose to fight it the old way, focus the leader during the gate fight or target weaker enemies with AoE attacks so that their total numbers drop down.
Killing Zevlor/Kagha before the siege should have an effect too, besides just them not being there. The tieflings/druids wouldn't fight so well and organise themselves properly without someone guiding them.
Capturing prisoners works for no matter who you choose. Although understandably, this should be restricted to be only for more complex NPCS who have a big impact on storyline, like Kagha, Zevlor, Minthara, Halsin (with Minthara/Halsin having the biggest amount of content simply due to having big potential for storyline in next acts) Expecting to have possibility of complex interactions with literally anyone is not real. And another benefit of this system would be the possibility of what a lot of players did ask for, that is not killing Halsin when siding with Minthara and vice versa, enabling the possiblity of taking mixed choices.
Deciding what to do with tieflings also should impact the appropriate side. Kagha being dead or convinced to give up with her plan or just having no power anymore should make the defenders fight a little better, due to them seeing the hope. Or just having to deal with mostly/only druids if you want to attack and you will manage to save them in one of ways mentioned before.
I don't think that few extra cutscenes depicting for example the situations during the grove defense would harm the game in any way, or be that hard or time consuming to do, quite the opposite rather.
Like I said before, a few lines with a choice of lines (what to do, what to say to the prisoner if they are conscious, if they aren't knocked out). It would prevent forcing the player to jump down the wall if they want to not kill, but rather capture the drow leader.
Imagine, that for example you choose to focus the cleric warlord, bringing her to 1 hp (100% chance, even if she is at 5 hp and you hit for 20 damage, she still goes down to 1 hp), with animation of her being downed in a simliar way to players happens. There is not cutscene needed for it even. Then if you target her again, she dies. Obviously no npc should targer her anymore and she should not recieve any damage, unless it comes from player controller character. Whatever you do, you still see the negative effects of being de facto leaderless on attackers. (and you hear defenders cheering) If you win the grove battle because you wipe enough of the invaders out, a cutscene plays, if Minthara did survive, with Zevlor saying to you, the usual "thank you", with then asking what to do with now unable to fight or even move cleric of Absolute.
I believe that you did mention same idea, that you then choose to give her to tieflings, druids, execute, or take her as your prisoner.
If you choose the capture option, a cutscene plays with your character approaching the Minthara with his companions, with her looking at you with anger. You get the option to "mention" what kind of treatment she is likely get from you, with appropriate reaction being shown, like disgust or fear. Next, if you come back to the camp, you see her in prisoner cage with all the options mentioned before. She would take the Volo's role of stiting in the prisoner cage during the party.
The attack from the secret passage ending in capture should also get somewheat simliar cutscene. With even bigger effect on attackers, because not only they have no leader now but also their mega smart and secret plan has failed. With PC being able to have a persuasion or intimidation roll to make the "cooperation" easier. (obviously, in style of "you walk to walls or we just carry you there" and "work with us and you won't be punished").
Attackers fleeing and Minthara still being alive should still give you possibility to capture or kill her still, with defenders still catching up with her.
Resurrecting NPC's besides providing obvious additional roleplay options would help if for example they somehow die because of not our fault. When I wanted to save Halsin in the goblin camp, during the fight goblins got critical hits several times in a row on him, while he and my companions missed quite a lot despite having decent chances to hit (thanks to flanking, high attack etc.)
Halsin did not die, but having about 1/3 th of health does indicate that he can die. If you check steam forums especially, the issue isn't that rare even.
While the problem is not super common, it's still exists and it's not unreal for it to happen, since after all dice rolls define the fights. If you happen to get really unlucky, not only will you miss lots of attacks while the opposite happens for the enemies, who get lucky hits with lots of damage. This would prevent any kind of glitches causing the death of important characters having any impact as well.
Oh, I would forget how famous Wyll is being for jumping down during the first attack and dying there. Game not always handles what happens with him later properly, if you still do bring him back to life. Like, he decides to just sit in the same spot, where he died and refuses to talk.
The whole conflict is presented as a kind of a main quest, so there is no reason for it to be presented in such simple way. You could escape from Fort Joy in Divinity 2 in 29139293 ways. Think of the siege of the grove in a simliar way, a big part of a main quest, with lots of ways to overcome the problem, not just "kill all enemies who attack" or "kill every defender".
