Originally Posted by Tuv
Originally Posted by Nicottia
But I agree with the overall notion to make custom characters a little bit less generic. I don't mind being a blank slate, but not to this extent. I like the mind probing idea, but do we really need to be mind probed? We start off with a goddamn tadpole in our head, right in the beginning of character creation an ominous voice (the tadpole ofc) already asks us: who are you?

What would be nice is, after pressing the venture forth button, we'd get some sort of short movie/slideshow actually stating who we are, what we did etc (something similar to the 'genesis' DLC that Mass Effect series had). Tie our backgrounds somehow into that, our race, our class, make some choices unavailable to other races/classes/backgrounds. If you choose to play as an origin, you'd also have this small slideshow, but you would obviously unable to pick anything, you'd just be shown what Astarion or Gale did before getting snatched away. That way, people who wanna skip it, can just ram spacebar like they do now and people who actually care about a little bit of story of our customs - can actually have small character defining choices if they wish to.


Oh yeah, I totally forgot that the entire character creation already kind of is a mind probing laugh

I wonder what style Larian will go with when doing the origin exposition in character creation, DOS2 was pretty neat with the little introduction every character had. It doesn't translate well into custom characters so I hope they choose more of a collage style, a slide show like you suggested

Originally Posted by Tuv
Originally Posted by Sozz
There doesn't need to be an different prologue for every class background and race, there can simply be a one-size fits all scenario that through dialogue acknowledges these things and lets you understand better who your character is, and establishes some character traits that come into play later in the game
In a different tutorial/start scenario though? or dialog with the tadpole in the character creation screen? You could have the narrator comment on choices made in the character creation part as well.
Personally the option with the tavern is still my favorite, the mind probing just suits the current narrative better, which is compelling in its own way,

I think the biggest hurdle to adding anything before the start of the game is how they've intercut the opening cutscene -> character creation -> the attack cutscene -> player control. They've put a lot of time and money behind them so anything like what we're talking about would have to work around them, such as making the character creation segment more extensive, involving a slightly more in depth look at your background, city of origin, and personality, possibly through more extensive interaction with "who we dream of". Even having a sequence with you in the pod talking to the other prisoners "between the bars" doesn't quite work considering you could be any origin character. The easiest way and least compelling is doing everything retroactively, which leads into the next point.
Originally Posted by Tuv
Originally Posted by Sozz

I especially like your Mind-Flayer mind probe scenario, it sounds like a great way to establish some things for your character with out the possibility you're just bullshitting to get on someone's good side. a RPG pet peeve of mine


Hadn't considered that one could lie when giving those answers heh. Lae'Zel would also be a good point to ask some questions about the player character's past.

This point to me has been a real Achilles' Heel of RPG characterization for a while now, the way people develop their characters is through their actions and interactions with other people, The way you act might seem pretty straightforward but the motivations behind them aren't, consider our Grove-Goblin conflict, you don't need to be good to help out the Tieflings, your motivations can be totally selfish or altruistic, but the only way for the game to know that is through explicitly having your character talk about it, either with your companions or with themselves. This causes a problem, because your companions can like or dislike you, a whole system of min-max approval/disapproval gains take over from the role playing. Are you saying that because you believe it or because you want them to like you, are lying to them because you're a deceptive person or because the game rewards you for doing so. It's a game design that rewards the PC who is one of those high-functioning sociopaths, they don't have a externalized personality because all their interactions with other people go through these machinations. That's why I liked the mind probe scenario because it gets around the retroactive character building that is in play right now, which is subject this paradigm.

To give a few examples of this I found in the EA:

If double crossing Zevlor, he asks you why!?! you respond by saying, all hail the Absolute....what? does that mean I'm a true believer now? Am I just saying that to be shitty? I couldn't tell you.

Astarion comes upon us at night, revealing his need for blood, because I think he's a dreamy bad-boy I can 'fix', I let him 'neck' with me, the next morning the camp knows his true nature, and inquires into my disposition, I make clear, privately, that if anyone catches him sucking someone's blood, he's to be killed, I then ask Astarion if he'd be interested in a repeat of last night....what's going on here, am I trying to murder him the hard way? Am I just saying what I think everyone wants to hear? ...Am I jealous? Bite me sempai!

Like I said, pet peeve

Originally Posted by Tuv
Originally Posted by Sozz

I haven't played Solasta but I think I follow, what I'm referring too is more that the custom character has a personality already set, from when they do a comedy fall when they first see a dragon on the nautiloid to the way they physically react during dialogue and cutscenes. There are also a few character archetypes (dare I say alignments!) that most of your dialogue choices cleave to, that are fine, but put together with the rest of the presentation make the custom MC less of a blank slate, i.e. my interest in a prologue.


I don't remember but doesn't the character roll a wisdom check for the cowering? like later with the gith gang? I get it though, would be nice to see the character's traits define how the tutorial plays out more

I could be wrong but I think that wis check is to identify the black shadow as being a dragon, it's very unclear

dumb, pseudo-intellectual and polite homophobe