They need to find a way to have important conversation tags like pet pal or the red prince still be available when another character is talking.
I must say, that I like your ideas a lot.
First, I agree that only the main character's origin story should work in SP. Every other orign story related content for other group members should be blocked in SP and become invisible. Competitive questing was only envisioned for coop-MP anyway.
For all the rest of the normal dialogues it would indeed make sense if Larian implemented some kind of "group dialogue" for SP which means that when you talk to an NPC every possible dialogue line that applies to one of the party members of your current (chained) group is visible and choosable no matter which character is currently active.
I think that it would be pretty easy to implement such a system for SP. The game only had to notice that only one player is playing right now (you could even manage that by a manual button in the menu like "play the game in SP mode") If that's the case the game doesn't differentiate between members of the current chained party anymore in dialogues and instead offers one dialogue option for the whole group. So if your current chained group for example consisted of Ifan, the Red Prince and Lohse a possible dialogue window with an NPC would look like that:
NPC text, text, text...
1) Generic reaction/answer one
2) Generic reaction/answer two
3) [Ifan]...
4) [Soldier]...
5) [Red Prince]...
6) [Scholar]...
7) [Lohse]...
8) [Mystic]...If you unchained Lohse and your group only consisted of Ifan and the Red Prince options 7) and 8) wouldn't be visible anymore. For a one-man party only consiting of Ifan only option 1) to 4) would be visible and choosable if you start a conversation using Ifan.
That way it wouldn't matter anymore which character of your group initiated a dialogue because it always involves the whole chained group. This solution would offer a viable solution for all current issues with dialogues in SP imo:
- you don't have to start multiple dialogues with the same NPC anymore to have access to origin/race specific dialogue options
- dialogue feels dynamic and includes the whole party, giving you the feeling that it's more like a discussion with the whole group where everybody can get involved
- if only one party member has access to pet pal you don't necessarily need this character for starting dialogues with animals
- scripted dialogues that start automatically will never again happen with the "wrong" character who just happened to stand closest to the respective NPC
- situations that split up your party (death, prison, etc.) wouldn't be negatively influenced by this solutionThe more I think about this solution the more I'm convinced that it's really a winner. Larian, please take notice, this is good stuff.
They need to implement a way for co-op characters to have discussions with NPC's because I haven't run into any of those situations yet with my co-op play through and it's really disconnecting. I miss arguing about whether or not to toss the clam into the ocean or eat it.
That will happen. The whole party interaction and relationship system just isn't implemented in the early access version yet. You can see that when you start a dialogue with another party member. In the final game companions will behave according to their character traits in decisive situations, controlled be the AI.
