TheOnlyRealTav
> See? I told you that was only start.
Maybe, but it just shows us that certain storylines need more work than the rest. No matter what, we won't end up with having the problem of having to rework/touch everything. After all, there is a limited amount of important characters and even less of them who do lack something in particular. And yes, it's the "bad guys", who are affected more by this (Kagha, Goblin camp leaders).
What I disagree here with, is that touching a few aspects of the game will instantly force us to basically change everything. I don't think that it's how it works.
Conflict about the grove is for now, one of bigger questlines there, could be said to be a main quest, so we got a reason why it should be touched. No matter what side do you pick, the siege is just a "murderhobo" moment, with not much of interactivity. If you decide to support the bad guys, the siege has clearly annoying parts, like the fight inside the camp, taking forever to complete without presenting any kind of challenge. Could be solved by removing the sequence and instead moving the characters to the walls.
I don't think that there is anyone who would disagree that there isn't much that can be done to even affect the invasion itself, besides the actual fight moment (which is too simple as well).
We can't turn the sides inside each of the camp against each other, we can't try to weaken them before (no, killing druids/tieflings before the siege doesn't count), we can't influence on how the attack will proceed, even with the existance of the secret tunnel; the exception being preparing the barrels with oil.
Besides, when it comes to causes of the famous 25%/75% evil vs good storyline:
- Most of the Absolute followers being comically evil. Only Minthara has any kind of redeemable character traits among them. (but this is shown only when siding with her). Evil characters do not have to be presented as being hostile and rude to everyone and everything.
- While druids are a mixed bag of characters, the tieflings are clearly presented as "stereotypical innocents in trouble", so "neutral" roleplaying gamers are more likely to help them than the opposite side
- Good side is more complex atm, when it comes to quests and interactions. It's also waaay let's buggy.
- Siege sequence is much more annoying and straightforward when you side with the Absolute. It's not great for the Tieflings side either and I wouldn't be suprised if players would try to skip it for the later replays just by killing the goblin leaders
- There are certain moments, during which it feels as if like game developers tries to convince us to side with Tieflings anyways; like when
you are given a broken lute, what does Volo tell us during the camp party, the epilogue sequence with narrator speaking about the screams, as if our character is chaotic evil no matter what, the initial grove fight forcing us to fight goblins
- Halsin having to die, if we do not help his friends
Showing both sides as more morally grey might be a solution to make more players side with the goblins. The Absolute should still be more evil than the other side though.
Oh, I would forget this as well. Goblin camp IIRC turns hostile after the battle, despite none of the attackers surviving. If some of them would flee, it would make sense why the camp is not "friendly" to us anymore.
