One thing I really dislike are proximity based dialogues during and after combat, which end up auto-locking the closest party member into a conversation, instead of the main character who is alive, conscious and in close vicinity.
It is quite immersion breaking and punishing because:
- The main character is the one involved in all situations and making all the decisions, not the companions.
- You do not gain any approval when using companions in conversations
- The companion's AI personality often clashes with the choices of your main character and the flow of the story
- You have to play stupidly by bringing your ranged main character into melee range to be chosen for the dialogue
The scenario which made me dislike this so much was with Auntie Ethel. Warning! Spoilers below!In Auntie Ethel's lair, there are 3 automatically triggered conversations during the battle.
- The four possessed masked NPCs prior to Auntie Ethel's lair, will be summoned during the fight and will initiate an automatic conversation after the battle if the player snuck by them prior to the fight, Auntie Ethel got killed and they survived the fight.
- Auntie Ethel initiates a conversation in the middle of the fight to bargain for her life if she gets a turn with her HP between 1 and 15.
- Mayrina initiates a conversation as soon as the battle ends.
So all these proximity based conversations in a single fight and during all of this my main character, who is a Wood Elf Ranger, cannot get chosen because there are always other party members closer to NPCs. Auntie Ethel speaks to Shadowheart, the masked woman speaks to Wyll and Mayrina speaks to Lae'zel... a snivelling woman crying about her husband to a Githyanki warrior that would rather split her from navel to neck.
So what do I do ? I reload. And keep reloading because Lae'zel as a companion engaging in a conversation with Mayrina is just not believable to me, especially due to Lae'zel's comments during the entire quest. The hardest part about the fight weren't the enemies, but carefully maneuvering my characters around the silly dialogue proximity system in order to get my main character to speak and make decisions.
It really shouldn't require so much tedious tactical work for the main character to be the main character. So please... make the automatic dialogue system prioritize the main character. The only time a companion should be chosen is if the main character is downed or dead, but otherwise let me be the main character of the story. Or at least an option to take over a conversation.
