based on larian's responses concerning evil/neutral companions already in game and the discussion about 12 or 8 npc companions in total im getting more concerned about what impact this may have for other aspects of the game, mainly the 4v6 party debate and the incorporation of blank merc companions. I could see larian keeping the party size at 4 (not a fan of btw) bc there is a limited roster to work with (which may be even more limited post act 1 companion/map locks - also not a fan of) and just rely on modders to up it to a party of 6. like others have posted, one npc per class i would have assumed being the bg standard, and then taking into alignment, you have a minimum of 24 possible good v evil npcs but it seems that larian prefers their origin character approach and supplemental mercenaries to round out a party of 4. While i dont dislike the merc approach (pretty sure we havent seen this in game yet) i would likely have preferred if larian chose one or the other - all origin characters that are full fleshed out but limited in number or all merc companions that have some limited dialogue but are larger in number and more variety in class, race, alignment, etc. irregardless, for both options i still think 6 party slots is more in the spirit of bg but we'll have to wait to see the direction/implementation larian chooses
Don't forget about neutrals! That's 36. :P In seriousness, yes, 12 would be just barely enough to have some decent choice.
On the topic of mercs: I think they won't be what you think they would. From what I understand, they'll be completely customizable and without personality. Just custom characters without relation to the plot.
I think the best would be to add a dozen (or Hells, why not two) of non-origin companions that range from BG1 to BG2 companions in terms of depth. That way you'd have all the choice: want intricate, massive storylines - go with origins; fussy about companions - there'll be lots of characters with personalities to choose from; want control over stats or custom roleplaying - go with custom party or mercenaries.
Originally Posted by Tuco
Originally Posted by Uncle Lester
I think until AI voice acting becomes standard it's going to be the same story of "one devs grows big, develops game with big budget and mass market appeal in mind, old fans grumble, an indie dev develops an old-style game with lots of unvoiced dialogue, the game is acclaimed for its writing, the indie dev grows big...". Rinse and repeat.
There's a new factor on top of the years-old "Make it appealing vs make it deep" that is fairly new of our times and sometimes encourages even mid-sized devs to go with full voice acting: streamers.
Streamers and youtubers these days can be a HUGE part of the popularity of a release and the thing is: they absolutely hate to read dialogues aloud when playing for their audience. I never tried to stream anything myself, but to be honest, I can't really blame them. I would hate doing it, too.
Huh, that's true. But I'm not sure how much real impact streamers have on the developers' decision-making in this regard. I don't think it's a huge factor, but I really can't say that with any certainty.
