Well, let's hope you prefer "Observant" over "I know."

Originally Posted by Taril
d to the point. Little to no waffling for the sake of waffling. Nothing that is there simply because people like to talk about things. Nothing "Extra" that helps push characterization. Just everyone saying the bare minimum for what specific purposes they require.

I'd feared you'd say that because that's not at all what I meant, I hoped including characterisation and mood into my example list would get that across, but apparently not. I like a good waffle, I just want it to be a nourishing waffle and not puff pastry. If you have a few lines of dialogue, you have a chance to do something with them other then fill up space.

And granted, I might have extrapolated too close to the sun when I read "companions react" and immediately imagined every companion wanting to talk to me about my recent romance scene like the familiar vultures at a holiday dinner. That is just such a nightmarish and artificial situation because while some friends might like to chat about your new relationship, others are more private. Of course you could riff off the awkward family dinner situation and turn it into a scene. That could be fun, a camp scene during dinner in which you and your love-interest get grilled a little (or more depending on the characters) about your relationship, that would be doubly cool because it would allow you to act as a couple during the game proper (some of the epilogues do a great job at this) which I feel is fairly rare since most romance focuses on getting the couple together. But that's of course a different level of effort.

Other than that, I love these surprises too, I just didn't think of them in the context of the clip because it seemed to be a "Everyone comments on us killing Raphael even though they were in camp" situation which doesn't incite excitement - even though it's interesting. I tend to love those moments best that react to things that just help to make the world feel more organic, like remembering that Shadowheart likes night orchids and then being able to gift her one or small things like Gale explaining his condition by comparing it to vampirism for Avatar-Astarion. Or things that anticipate choices that you might not immediately think of as trackable, for example I was thrilled when I send Avatar-Gale on an adventuring ending for his romance's sake, that the letter he got from Elminster recognised this as an unusual decision for him to make. I think the "oh that actually works?" thrill is great with me.

And I think the banter is pretty great. The romance banter even creates little stories for some of them. For Gale it's that he stresses out over the romance and puts his foot in it or gets a bit cringe during act 1 & 2. Astarion & Shadowheart react to this by teasing him, Minthara is Minthara, Wyll is the normal friend who hopes this will all be over soon, Lae'zel gives the exchange student opinion like always, and with Karlach it takes a completely different spin because after Gale searches her advice in act 1, she opens up to him about some of her troubles in act 2. That's pretty good display of group dynamic in my opinion and in a way tells a side-story about your love-interest. Similarly it's cool that if you romance Astarion, Karlach continuously tries to suss out his intentions, continuing the reservations she voices during the tiefling party.

But I am waffling too. I hope that gets across that I do like dialogue, but I am a bit of a picky eater about it. It should be a little more thoughtful than someone recognising a decision, that can be the starting point of course but some sprinkles on top to make it a bit more extra don't go amiss. Just "more dialogue/reactions" makes think of "content" in the more negative sense of the word.

Of course all of this completely went a way from the original topic. ^^;