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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.

Last edited by Crimsomrider; 23/06/22 06:53 PM.
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yes, please. +1

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In general, I agree, but there are times where I might not want my main character speaking. Instead, maybe I want a companion with a higher charisma to take the lead, for instance.

I think conversations should default to whoever is at the top of the chain system, whether that be the main character or a companion. That way you can set which character you want engaging in scripted conversations.

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Originally Posted by JandK
In general, I agree, but there are times where I might not want my main character speaking. Instead, maybe I want a companion with a higher charisma to take the lead, for instance.

I think conversations should default to whoever is at the top of the chain system, whether that be the main character or a companion. That way you can set which character you want engaging in scripted conversations.
+1

And/or they should allow you to freely switch who is talking during dialogue.

Last edited by mrfuji3; 23/06/22 06:52 PM.
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Personally I would love to have both options, as mentioned at the end of my post. I think the main character should be prioritized and there should be an option for another character to take over a conversation.

For the sake of feedback though, I tried to keep it primarily centered around the main character, but I would love both options most definitely.

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+1, i had the same exprerience


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+1 to OP ...
But ...

Originally Posted by mrfuji3
And/or they should allow you to freely switch who is talking during dialogue.
This would be much more appreaciated. :3

I know its not exactly "in character" but i must admit i enjoy tormenting Shadowheart by forcing her to use Tadpole ... and then being roasted by whole pary (my character included) for endangering us all and being weak. laugh laugh laugh


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+1, I generally like doing all the conversations and dialogue skill checks with my main character, so it would be lovely to see that implemented.

and +1 to being able to switch to companion in conversation. It allows people to have something equivalent to highest skill in party automatically checks without ruining my preferred way of playing.

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+ 1 million!!!

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+1

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I almost agree with this. However, instead of saying the "main" character, I would like to say party member 1. Honestly though, the best option would be for us to be able to automatically switch the character taking place in the conversation. Just let us select the character we want to be talking via the buttons to change character, and just give us the option to take over the conversation. There are times, for example some of the Wyll stuff, that having a side character as the primary conversant might be desired. Other times, though, I want my high charisma main character to be speaking. I have made characters, though, that are low charisma and not interested in talking. In those cases, I'd be better off with Gale speaking. I think the main takeaway point is that the player should be able to choose which member of their party is speaking for the party in any given situation, instead of having the game for some dumpy NPC to make that decision for us.

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I do really agree. The way conversations are handled are just...meh. A while back i made a similar thread. Ill just add the link here:

Look whos talking: Conversations

My opinion is still that conversations should include all the party members that are part of an encounter. Like now one is talking and the rest stands around drooling or somesuch...

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+1 to op's suggestion.


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Originally Posted by JandK
In general, I agree, but there are times where I might not want my main character speaking. Instead, maybe I want a companion with a higher charisma to take the lead, for instance.

I think conversations should default to whoever is at the top of the chain system, whether that be the main character or a companion. That way you can set which character you want engaging in scripted conversations.

+1

That would be the best. Right at the beginning with a custom party I noticed that the fourth created char is usually used in the cutscene when leaving the nautiloid, instead of the character I created first (as main char). On some starts it is the first char. I still don't understand the system behind it, but it's super annoying, because this counts also for all future encounters e. g. Raphael. My first created char should be the main char and not the last one...

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Imo there are 2 ways to do this properly.

1.
The player controls who ist speaking and what is said. That would give the player full control over the outcome of each conversation. In this scenario i would go the way i always talk about:

Handle the whole party as speaker. This way you get the feeling that everyone is listening and everyone is participating.
An example conversation could look like this (i used part of the convo with the 3 ogres as base)

Ogre: Be you friend or food? The mark is Her measure: Show us the brand of the Absolute.

1.You're quite eloquent for an Ogre
2.I bear no such brand.
3.[DECEPTION] I'll do you one better - I'm one of the Absolutes chosen disciples.
4.[LAE'ZEL] How dare you raise your voice to me, lowly creature. Attack.
5.Attack

A little lame but this way you can also take Actions that you normall would not do, if it is off behavior from your main. Choosing such an option could also grant some approval. I think there are some conversations where we have something similar. The gith part i think.


2.
You only control your main character. The main character is the only one talking. Always. I would like this too since in an RPG you usually RP just one char.
In this, it would be awesome to have some interjections from the others group NPCs. Especially if you say or do something that earns their approval or disapproval. Maybe some conversations can even go out of control
when this happens.
Like if Lae'zel insults someone and you have a fight on your hands you actually wanted to avoid or something like that. (maybe not that extreme)
So you have some outcomes depending on how your group is composed. It feels strange to have those strong characters in a group following you and just accept your leadership without any objections. Apart from the approval rating...

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Great suggestion.
+1


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Originally Posted by UnknownEvil
1.You're quite eloquent for an Ogre
2.I bear no such brand.
3.[DECEPTION] I'll do you one better - I'm one of the Absolutes chosen disciples.
4.[LAE'ZEL] How dare you raise your voice to me, lowly creature. Attack.
5.Attack

This is an amazing suggestion and, something that already exist in the RPG world.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir is a party-based game without a real main character so, in order to give each member of the party the same importance in a dialogue, they let you choose which companion is going to pick each sentence. You just select their portrait and click the response you want to give.
If some character has one or more unique answers/sentences, because of a background trait, feat or whatever, a "speech balloon" is going to appear on their portrait, as for characters 1 and 4 on the following image:

[Linked Image from i.ibb.co]

So yes, camera animations aside, should be pretty easy to implement something like this. Even because Larian wants (controversially) so badly for BG3 to be a party-based game and, to be honest, I will feel "cut-out" if my friend has to do all the dialogues because he is a melee while I'm a ranged character.

Last edited by Sharet; 24/06/22 03:16 PM.
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Originally Posted by UnknownEvil
1.You're quite eloquent for an Ogre
2.I bear no such brand.
3.[DECEPTION] I'll do you one better - I'm one of the Absolutes chosen disciples.
4.[LAE'ZEL] How dare you raise your voice to me, lowly creature. Attack.
5.Attack
Excellent idea! I assume choosing the Lae’zel option would use her charisma (assuming it was an intimidation check). Using the stats of the first PC in the chain for common responses (such as the deception check in option 3) intuitively seems like the cleanest solution.

There are some fringe scenarios to take into account. If Lae’zel is hiding, does her response still show up? (I vote no). Does she need to be in the group with the PC engaged in dialogue, or should she just be within earshot? (I vote that both should work).


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Originally Posted by Flooter
Originally Posted by UnknownEvil
1.You're quite eloquent for an Ogre
2.I bear no such brand.
3.[DECEPTION] I'll do you one better - I'm one of the Absolutes chosen disciples.
4.[LAE'ZEL] How dare you raise your voice to me, lowly creature. Attack.
5.Attack
Excellent idea! I assume choosing the Lae’zel option would use her charisma (assuming it was an intimidation check). Using the stats of the first PC in the chain for common responses (such as the deception check in option 3) intuitively seems like the cleanest solution.

There are some fringe scenarios to take into account. If Lae’zel is hiding, does her response still show up? (I vote no). Does she need to be in the group with the PC engaged in dialogue, or should she just be within earshot? (I vote that both should work).

Yea, surely there are some special cases to take into account, hiding means someonw does not want to be seen, so usually should not show up as an option. Gamewise i would not be so hard because that would involve even more programming effort. I would just say, in group, alive and not half the map away.

another really good option for this is the entry into the zhent hideout in waukeens rest.

if any character thats not a rogue accidentally triggers the conversation, you will not get the option for the rogue passphrase.

So an option like:

[ASTARION][ROGUE]: "passphrase"

would be neat.

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That's true sometimes and other times it's not. First that came to mind is when you've subdued...Thrasher? the gob that Wyll wants to interrogate, it makes the most sense that Wyll takes the lead there (especially if you've agreed, beforehand), and is a little odd that he'll not try to if you're defaulted to. You're also given a "I think my companion wants to have words" dialogue option too, which isn't ideal to me.

Last edited by Sozz; 25/06/22 06:04 PM.
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