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Hey OP, this is issue has indeed come up previously. I myself brought it up right after that Update. And I agree with you in how I see things too.

But the question that remains is whether we are going to have any companions available to join us after Act 1? That's where there is confusion at present. If all your companions are from Act 1, and then any of them you don't have in your party get killed, leaving you party-locked for the rest of the game, that would be terrible game design. OTOH, if it is just these current five that are being referred to in that quote, and you save three of them and the other two die, and then once you get into Act 2 you meet a bunch more companions that can join your party, that would be fine with me.

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Ok, if they do this, now more than ever I want to see a larger party size, for obvious reasons

+1 on OP post btw. All the companions from the entire story crammed into the first act leaves little to look forward too in terms of character stories. This may just be a side effect of making every companion in the game a potential main character. A few "purist companions" that are only available as party additions would be great (like the Zariel touched Tiefling you meet and eithehr help or kill).

Last edited by pill0ws; 14/10/20 04:29 PM.
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You can ask Shadowheart what she will do once the tadpole is removed and her answer is that she will go her own way and that she has people in Baldur's Gate.

Everyone in Act1 has things to do in Baldur's Gate. Even Auntie Ethel exchanges letters with people in the city. Baldur's Gate is clearly act 2 of the game.

My guess is that the "commit" post Act 1 is in regards to approval. Once the tadpole is dealt with, companions don't necessarily have reasons to stick with you unless they are your friend now (approval at medium+).

Also, I don't think the EA has all of act 1. Larian act concept is narrative based.

DOS1 act 1 is helping Cyseal against Braccus Rex, act 2 is investigating the forest and act 3 was getting to the final boss.
DOS2 act 1 is escape Fort Joy island, act 2 is awakening your powers (Reaper's Cost + Nameless Isle), act 3 is getting to the final boss.
BG3 act 1 is "remove the tadpole"...which can't be completed in the EA.


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I recall bringing this up on Reddit and it is definitely odd. They are basically half way there to having the same party system Dragon Age Origins had, complete with camp where you can chat up all recruitable members. I sincerely hope they either expand party size, allow us to keep all recruitable companions, or both (both? both is good), but who knows what Larian has planned (or can accomplish) for this besides Larian.

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I feel like the way they handled companions in DOS2 was Larian's most stupid mistake, and based on what I read here I really fear they are on the way to making it again.

in a nutshell - it's like Larian forcefully tried to fix something that isn't broken.

this massage contains major spoilers for Divinity Original Sin 2

ever since throne of bhaal companions have their camp (ebon hawk, Normandy, etc) and you can go back, talk to them and take them to quests. It is a perfectly fine system that allows you flexibility with your party composition. But Larian for some stupid unknown reason decided that they kill all the companions that you didn't choose at the end of act 1 in DOS2. this could have been the end of it, but even narratively it failed miserably, since at the end of act 3 they return to fight you as skeletons. I can't stress how stupid this decision seems to me. why not keep them until the ending of act 3, and have the same conversation you have with the other companions (about whether they are gonna let you ascend)? It would have been perfect, since if you ignored them and left them on the ship for two acts they would fight you and if you cared for them they would side with you. The only reason I heard for this decision was "consequences", and I'm not convinced, since it is a super lame and cheep way to create artificial consequences, that require no effort from Larion.
BTW, if you play with mods and bring the whole party with you the game works exactly as I described.

The same is true for Bg3 - why create more than 5 companions if you plan to kill most of them off? it is just shooting yourself in the foot...

Last edited by Abits; 14/10/20 08:16 PM.

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"74.85% of you stood with the Tieflings, and 25.15% of you sided with Minthara. Good outweighs evil, it seems."
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Originally Posted by odesseiron81
...
My concern is that it will get very stale dealing with the same party for another 60-80 hours, versus being able to keep things fresh with adding and removing party members at will.


I agree with this sentiment. I am one of those people that rarely commits to a party, I like to mix things up every once in a while.

As for the 'realism' aspect: in my mind, it is fine if companions decide to hang out in camp every once in a while (to "rest" or whatever), while my PC heads out with a smaller group to do stuff. The companions back in camp still know what is going on and are up to date with the happenings ingame, it's not like they are ever out of the loop. They are just as much a part of it as the currently active companions in my group, and react to ingame events accordingly when you speak to them back at camp.

I am all for player choice when it comes to companions, as in: give the player the option to boot / kill / otherwise dismiss companions that are unwelcome, either before or after they have been recruited. That alone makes for good replay value, because according to how you roleplay, you will always end up with a different set of companions anyway. If certain ingame events force the death / betrayal / [insert other reason for leaving] of single companions throughout the game, or even prevent their recruitment (due to your race/alignment etc), then so be it. I am actually all for it, because that should also be allowed to be part of a roleplay story, especially if it is tied in to decisions you make as a player.
But making half the companions inaccessible all at once at a certain point in the game just because it was decreed we shouldn't realistically be allowed access to them, seems a bit weak, and for me, personally, diminishes the experience (also because, if I want to know their stories, I will be forced to take them in a future playthrough). Like in DOS2, it would leave a bit of a sour taste and have me wondering why I even bothered with the now-gone companions in the first place.

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Yeah, it's a head-scratcher of a decision.

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I hope they go for a solution where you can potentially lose some companions based on your choices but others might stay available for your entire quest due to other choices, so you at least have the opportunity to switch things up a bit, and maybe kill a party member or two if they get too uppity laugh

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Originally Posted by Khorvale
I hope they go for a solution where you can potentially lose some companions based on your choices but others might stay available for your entire quest due to other choices, so you at least have the opportunity to switch things up a bit, and maybe kill a party member or two if they get too uppity laugh


That's an interesting point. If your party is locked in after Act 1, does that mean that however you treat your companions, they'll never leave the group because there are no longer any replacements?

Seems weird, but maybe DOS 2 worked that way too, I can't remember. There wasn't as much intra-party friction in that game.

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Originally Posted by Mentor
Hey yall, my first fourm post. I would just like to say that based on some of the story I do believe we will find more friends as we venture forth!

*****SPOILER AHEAD SPOILER AHEAD SPOILER AHEAD*****

Two instances I can think of
1. You save the Devil Girl she says you can find her later on somewhere...I don't recall exactly where she said you can find her.
2. If you manage to save the couple of archer dudes that are getting wrecked by the wolf apocalypse then they give you a secret message on a place you can go to meet them later.

Based on those two scenarios alone if everyone dies. Then I'm almost positive we will have access to more friends in the future should our current ones die.

If It is the "archer dudes" that I think your talking about, with all the fire and hyenas, there camp is already in ACT I
My Hint is thats its around the burning town

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Originally Posted by Frumpkis
Originally Posted by Khorvale
I hope they go for a solution where you can potentially lose some companions based on your choices but others might stay available for your entire quest due to other choices, so you at least have the opportunity to switch things up a bit, and maybe kill a party member or two if they get too uppity laugh


That's an interesting point. If your party is locked in after Act 1, does that mean that however you treat your companions, they'll never leave the group because there are no longer any replacements?

Seems weird, but maybe DOS 2 worked that way too, I can't remember. There wasn't as much intra-party friction in that game.


I don't think your companions could actually leave in D:OS2, they'd just fuck you over in the endgame if they didn't like you.
But D:OS2 also had the option to hire mercenary (custom) characters, at least for multiplayer, so I guess that's one way might allow us to fill any holes in the party

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Originally Posted by Khorvale
I don't think your companions could actually leave in D:OS2, they'd just fuck you over in the endgame if they didn't like you.

Oh! That's even worse! I've never played D:OS2 so this is news to me.

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Originally Posted by kanisatha
Originally Posted by Khorvale
I don't think your companions could actually leave in D:OS2, they'd just fuck you over in the endgame if they didn't like you.

Oh! That's even worse! I've never played D:OS2 so this is news to me.


Not sure though, I played it multiplayer mostly.

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Originally Posted by kanisatha
Originally Posted by Khorvale
I don't think your companions could actually leave in D:OS2, they'd just fuck you over in the endgame if they didn't like you.

Oh! That's even worse! I've never played D:OS2 so this is news to me.


The DOS2 endgame was about who got to ascend to Godhood, and it was made clear by the mid-game that only one in the party could do it. So there was a sort of background mechanic at work, where companions could secretly be working against you.

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Idk I did not hate it in DOS2 (was a bit surprised tho).
The other BG games had so many that you could find all over the world that I went for the ones I wanted and left the rest to their faith. I never changed the party ones I had the companions I wanted.

Only games I ever changed party was dragon age and that was mostly for story reasons.

However, I did not like the 'hiring' of companions in DOS2. Those were really boring.

I would like the option of changing companions tho or finding some new ones after act 1. Hopefully ones you don't have to 'hire' like in DOS2.

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Originally Posted by BlueFlames
Idk I did not hate it in DOS2 (was a bit surprised tho).
The other BG games had so many that you could find all over the world that I went for the ones I wanted and left the rest to their faith. I never changed the party ones I had the companions I wanted.

Only games I ever changed party was dragon age and that was mostly for story reasons.

However, I did not like the 'hiring' of companions in DOS2. Those were really boring.

I would like the option of changing companions tho or finding some new ones after act 1. Hopefully ones you don't have to 'hire' like in DOS2.

I get that but shock value is never a good enough reason to do anything, deffinatly not repeatedly (which also makes it less shocking and thus just plain pointless).


Larian's Biggest Oversight, what to do about it, and My personal review of BG3 EA
"74.85% of you stood with the Tieflings, and 25.15% of you sided with Minthara. Good outweighs evil, it seems."
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4 char slots and chars who are unavailable after act 1 forces multiple play throughs to experience all char quests, the key word here is forces. Look at PF:K i could do all char quests and storylines in 1 play through even though they couldnt be part of the party at the same time due to size limitations. Also yes this was brought up before in a very long thread.

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It could just be like others said, after act 1, we do start running into more characters in later Acts. And those aren't Origin characters. Maybe there's only enough cure to go around for 4 individuals at the end of Act 1 to go around and that's the reason you lock your party (which I still think there's more to go, why would they abruptly end it at Moonrise Tower?) I think that's the true end, then after you get out of there and maybe? cure yourself, the bigger picture of the story will come in to play.

But anyway, what IF after the end of Act 1, we're locked into these companions, and I down the line don't like the route their story is going. Not as a player, but as my character. What if I don't agree with their ideas and want to dismiss them? Am I stuck with a 3 person party and a boring mercenary at that point? If so, yuck.

I realize this is ALL speculation and we could meet other folks after Act 1 and hopefully will. I realize they can't say certain things due to plot spoilers and whatnot. So why even make the mention of locking your party in the first place? All it does is lead to threads like this.

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Originally Posted by kanisatha
Originally Posted by Khorvale
I don't think your companions could actually leave in D:OS2, they'd just fuck you over in the endgame if they didn't like you.

Oh! That's even worse! I've never played D:OS2 so this is news to me.


Honestly it's not the only game where something like that happens. NWN2 or DA2 had the same thing if they did not like you. It mostly happens if you do not invest in their personal quest or generally make choices they don't like.

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Another problem of committing to a set party in this game that doesn't come up in Divinity because of the way classes work is that you don't get to experience anywhere close to a wide variety of the available classes. Even ignoring the issue that a 4 person party severely limits viable party composition for a lot of players, at most you'll be able to experience 4 different playstyles and class quirks in one playthrough, which is a bummer because of the variety that the various classes offer. Plus from the point of view of someone who doesn't know D&D it's even worse because you won't get to see the full breadth of how classes play as they rise in level. Assuming act 1 ends with the characters at level 6-7, then you're just missing out on the opportunity to see how the majority of classes play at higher levels, making it harder for you to experiment and try riskier builds down the line.

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