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[Firky]

Raonar wrote...

Kind of a sad departure after the Archdemon, but at least he got a good epilogue.

I could totally see this NPC and the dialogues in origins and not have it scream "MOD!" in my head.

That's an awesome compliment, thanks.

This is one of his departures. Oh, the many and confusing conditions that will ensure Andrei is never made into a mod. (I confess I do like this ending. I am an old school fan of Haer'Dalis/Aerie from Baldur's Gate 2 and the fact that a love triangle had dramatic consequences.)

[Raonar]

Ah yes, Haer'Dalis challenging the PC to a duel over the Avariel without wings. Now THAT is a bard.

[TanithAeyrs]

Well done Firky. Your pacing was excellent and I liked your ending.



Ah, yes Haer'Dalis - hmm, might have to do another BG2 run through before DA2 comes out. Besides, I miss Minsc and Boo. I'm sure 10 years from now we will all reminisce about the DA:O crew.

[Firky]

Thanks!

I thought I was the only one still playing that damn game. (Don't forget your tutu.)

Also, this looks like trouble. (I haven't used it.)

Haer'Dalis was such a good character. Arrogant, aloof, passionate. And that whole "Sparrow, Raven" thing was brilliant. (I did a performing arts degree 10 years ago and may have dated a Haer'Dalis. Or a few of them. The man to which I am now happily shackled is more of a Minsc. Happy Minsc anyway, not angry Minsc.)

Modifié par Firky, 26 août 2010 - 10:21 .

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

Interesting, interesting...



I like how Zevran seemed to know something was amiss from the start; it's in character with him suspecting Morrigan's up to something, for instance, but never elaborating on his suspicions.



Wynne was also good in that she councils people to treat Andrei as a normal person, but doesn't seem to quite take her own advice.



Sten was charicterically blunt.



I'm not sure why Oghren warmed to Andrei so quickly, but it was pretty cool to see the dwarf looking out for him.



The interaction with Leliana was intriguing. Her thinking she's being 'nice' by giving him attention. Did she actually feel anything for him before she found out he wasn't Tranquil, or were here words/actions only because she believed she'd never have to deal with a serious response?



I would have been interested to see another Andrei/Alistair exchange, considering he was an ex Templar. A mage who was supposed to have been made Tranquil might have poked his sensibilities more than a free apostate.



And nice to see he gets a happy sort of ending. What would happen if the PC didn't let him go though? Or managed to turn him over to the Circle of Magi?

[TanithAeyrs]

Firky wrote...


Thanks!

I thought I was the only one still playing that damn game. (Don't forget your tutu.)

Also, this looks like trouble. (I haven't used it.)

Haer'Dalis was such a good character. Arrogant, aloof, passionate. And that whole "Sparrow, Raven" thing was brilliant. (I did a performing arts degree 10 years ago and may have dated a Haer'Dalis. Or a few of them. The man to which I am now happily shackled is more of a Minsc. Happy Minsc anyway, not angry Minsc.)

It's not the first Haer'Dalis romance mod out there but I haven't tried any of them yet.  I think he was originally intended as a romance option but that got cut.  May have to try one of his romance mods, no slight on Gaider but Anomen was truly annoying.  And, yes must have my tutu.  On the subject of husbands, mine is more of a hardened Alistair so no Haer'Dalis for me either.

Oh, and back on topic.  I agree with Shadow; Zevran having things figured out early on was right on for his character.

[Firky]

Ha ha. I liked Anomen. To me he seemed real. (I was probably going through a very vain stage at the time.) Also, although he was the only romance option for the female player, there was nothing (initially) about him that was obviously appealing. That's commitment to a character! (And he turned out pretty great eventually, if I recall correctly.)

Alistair, however, I don't understand so well. Which is one of the reasons I cut most of the dialogue I had written from this thread,  SoL. (Because it was crap.) Why is he always second guessing himself? Why did he just go "Ok then" when I broke off the romance? (Just to see what he would say - his romance actually added significant volume to his character, in my opinion.) Probably he said "Ok then" because people would have freaked out if he had freaked out and left. In BG II, if two companions ended up fighting and one left (Keldorn and Viconia?), you'd then have to go and add level 6 dodgy companion to your level 14 party.

Anyway, I had Alistair basically treating Andrei like a sort of servant. And also feeling comfortable to communicate with him in that role. (Like asking him to help when he gets into a silly situation.) When I was playing DAO I think I put 2 and 2 together and got 5 and assumed Alistair's mother was an elf and a servant. I've just tried searching that and I think I may have totally screwed that one up. Whoops.

This Andrei thing is actually the result of my brain being full of things David Gaider has said on "writing for games". I was reading a whole pile of stuff he had written about "agency" and getting the player to "buy in". The fact that I love Anomen and so many people think he is annoying confounds the issue. Also that so many people love Alistair and I'm shrugging my shoulders. One way or the other, after reading all of that stuff, I figured that if I could get someone (anyone) to "buy into" a Tranquil's story then I might have learned something. Of course, making him a Tranquil impostor is probably cheating.

Thanks for feedback. Sorry for diatribe. I could talk about games all day (and somtimes do). PS. Zevran does seem quite cluey to me. And Andrei did threaten him. (I am hoping that didn't come across as homophobic because that is the last thing I would want to come across as. Simply, the fact that Andrei "liked" Leliana was supposed to make him more tolerant to her attentions, as "cracking onto the Tranquil" isn't something he is cool with.)

OK, I'll shut up now.

Modifié par Firky, 27 août 2010 - 03:35 .

[TanithAeyrs]

S'okay. Anomen was fine after he got over himself. It just took a lot of dedication (as you stated) to get him past his personal quest and have him look outside himself. I romanced him several times and in later parts of the game he was fun - I just gritted my teeth until I got him there.



Alistair comes across as very young to me. I don't think even Alistair knows what he really wants. I have romanced him on two separate playthroughs but he really irritated me the last time I played and didn't romance him. I made him king and he was quite rude about insisting that my PC stay to help him. I think he was written to be a little immature (a bit like Anomen) and he would probably improve with age. He is still fun to romance, I just prefer Zev.



I had planned to romance Zev with my first character (a Dalish rogue) and, like you, she was sort of turned off by him initially. Aithne ended up romancing Alistair and getting dumped by him. By that point I had gotten to know Zevran better but I didn't want to romance him at that point (this was actually the impetus for my FF - I had to create an ending for Aithne's story). Overall, I think Zev has a deeper backstory and more reason to behave the way he does than any of the other characters, but that may just be my bias. Anyway, I have a hard time romancing Alistair now, knowing Zev is there.



On the exercise of writing Andrei, I think you were highly sucessful. Even through the dialog snippets he comes across as very real and as a character that I would like to get to know. I will agree Gaider has dropped a lot of great information about writing (games and books) on the forums and in interviews. His comments often cause me to rethink my approach to writing certain types of characters (although I am more interested in writing books than games).



Agree with you on talking games all day, it's lots of fun and I don't have anyone in RL to talk about it with. Hubby plays a little but he is more interested in hunting, fishing and training our bird dogs. My old college friends rarely play RPG's anymore and my staff is more interested in "Twilight."

[Firky]

My Minsc man is a non gamer, thank goodness, or I may never stop talking about them.



"On the exercise of writing Andrei, I think you were highly sucessful. Even through the dialog snippets he comes across as very real and as a character that I would like to get to know." That's a good compliment, thanks.



I find it impossible to gauge how I am doing. *shrugs

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

I never got into Anomen. I did romance him (with both a good and evil char), but don't remember feeling anything for him then either. Maybe it was his portrait, voice, and ongoing comparison of me to his dead sister. XD I don't know, it's been a while, and I remember being *much* more interested in that Ranger/Stalker guy. Valygar! Ah, mysterious silent-type with deep voice... *sigh*

[FiliusMartis]

There's one thing that would make this better... add some banter with Shale. Considering she has the ability to sense whether or not one is a mage, likely using her crystals, she would have some very interesting things to say I think.

[Firky]

That's good feedback. Cheers. How would her crystals do that? Can she sense magic?



I left Shale out because I was already in a complete mess wading through the toolset and I hadn't even thought about DLC related issues, if they would even be a problem.



Also. I'd totally forgotten Valygar. He was great!

[FiliusMartis]

She says the crystals enable her to manipulate the flow of mana around her. However, if the warden wakes her up and is not a mage she remarks "and not even a mage this time" to which the warden can reply "how do you know I'm not a mage?" Shale then asks the warden if he/she thinks her crystals are for decoration, clearly implying that the crystals are enabling/helping her determine that the warden is not a mage.

She probably says something similar to a mage, but I haven't had that conversation yet.

It's good work you've got here, though.

Modifié par FiliusMartis, 27 août 2010 - 11:17 .

[Raonar]

She says: " And of COURSE it would be another mage. Typical." Se yes, she would notice it, probably.

And about Valygar, I think he was originally supposed to romance Suna Seni, another minion of Irenicus that ended up left as just another brigand you kill in those random encounters in Athkatla (She has Arbane's sword +2).

Modifié par Raonar, 27 août 2010 - 11:39 .

[Firky]

Holy crap, Raonar. That's some hardcore Suna Seni information. I recall the name and Arbane's Sword but that is it.



And you guys are seriously paying attention to Shale. The first time I was a warrior and playing as vanilla as possible; without Shale. The second I was a mage and got Shale and did not get the significance of "And of COURSE it would be another mage. Typical." but why would I, I suppose, if I hadn't had non-Mage dialogue. After that, I kind of skip dialogue. (Naughty, but I'm more of a combat junkie to be honest.)



You guys are brilliant! I Thanks for clarification and compliment Filius. I might have a think and post some Shale dialogue here for Andrei over the next few days.

[Raonar]

That Suna Seni thing is what I remember from a quest pack that was supposed to restore cut content from the game. I used to mod my BT Trilogy quite heavily up until early last year.



That info on Suna Seni and Valygar just stuck. (I''m not obsessed, I just remember things really well about stuff I like, and BG2 is my favorite game of all time so...)



Or maybe I am obsessed... Ah well.



But on topic, you should play with Shale in the party. She's hilarious but eventually warms up to you and gets a handle on who she was. Hearing her speak stutter-ish to Andrei would be fun.