----9----- wrote...
PsychoBlonde wrote...
I always want to have a third option, but I'm happiest if it involves some crazy amount of work or doing some ridiculous stuff to pull off. (You must have godlike persuade/intimidate, you must do EVERY SINGLE SIDE QUEST in the area first IN A CERTAIN WAY), stuff like that.
What I'd like to see is more like this.
1. Side with Group/Person A. The situation is out of your control and group/person B attacks you. A bloody battle ensues.
2. Side with Group/Person B. The situation is out of your control and group/person B attacks you. A bloody battle ensues.
3. Side with neither, but try to get them to work out their differences without fulfilling the requirements for the "third way" solution. The FANATICAL ones on both sides try to get at each other, a bloody battle ensues, the fanatics are killed off, the non-fanatics are unhappy and, at best, an armed truce without real resolution results.
4. Side with neither, but try to get them to work out their differences AFTER fulfilling the requirements for the "third way" solution (by, say, empowering various non-fanatics on both sides to have more authority than the foaming-at-the-mouth crazies). The fanatics still want to go at it, but the non-fanatics manage to talk/force them down and reach a degree of common ground that is not perfect but looks as though it may head in a positive direction.
5. The Apathy option--a bloody battle ensues killing most everyone on both sides, you pick up the pieces.
6. Side with both and play them off each other--bloody battle ensues, you are left in control.
These would have been good options for the Behlen/Harrowmount conflict or similar power stuggles. It would offer a lot of variety. Those who like a fast conflict type of play-through can take the simpler routes and chose sides. It would also work to reinforce good/evil alignment playthrough. The completionist type gets to delve into all the posibilites. Plus, a larger variety of ways this could come to aid you or back stab you later in the game.
It would have worked for any of the 3 "main plot" line quests. Here are some sample layouts (note that these may not be perfectly true to the game as I didn't finish this quest as the dwarf noble so I didn't see if there were other options from that):
Bhelen vs. Harrowmont options:
1. Vanilla Bhelen. Plays out as normal Bhelen choice.
2. Vanilla Harrowmont. Plays out as normal Harrowmont choice.
3. You put forward your own claimant (my favorite would be that chick whose family records you go dig up and find she's actually a noble). Bhelen and Harrowmont refuse to accept this and there's a bloody melee where both are killed.
4. You put forward your own claimant after having gotten a Paragon's support AND the support of the rogues in Dust Town. The leader of the Dust Town rogues (I forget her name and I'm too lazy to look it up right now) threatens to expose Bhelen and Harrowmont's background double-dealing if they don't go along with it. Reluctantly, they do. Later on Harrowmont dies in honored old age and your claimant marries Bhelen, giving him the power he wants while mitigating his excesses. This arrangement turns out to suit everyone quite well.
5. You tell the Assembly that the paragon (Caradin or Branka) really doesn't give a hoot over who sits on the throne. Bhelen and Harrowmont attack each other. (The game could have it be random who survives.) The survivor boots you out of the city with all of the other person's supporters, saying "those are the troops you wanted you worthless twit. Now get the eff out."
6. You talk with the rogues in dust town instead of just slaughtering them all, and they agree to help you consolidate power by undermining both claimants' support. At the end, no one gets the throne, the assembly is dissolved, and the rogues take over the city with you as their (largely absentee) boss.
Werewolves vs. Dalish options:
1. Vanilla Werewolves. The elves are slaughtered.
2. Vanilla Elves. The werewolves are slaughtered.
3. You try to make Zarithian talk to the wolves, but he finally gets pissed and attacks (basically, the third way option from the game.)
4. You try to make Zarithian talk to the wolves after having completed all the various elven side-quests along the way so the elves trust you, so several of them have come along to see what the heck is actually going on in the forest. With his own people as witnesses and supporting you, Zarithian capitulates.
5. You tell them to solve their own problems without your interference. Almost all the elves are turned into werewolves before Zarithian finally enters the forest to try and kill the Lady himself. He is killed, the lady dies, and the backlash of their violent, catastrophic death turns the werewolves mad, causing them to flee deep into the forest. The few remaining elves join your army because they cannot defend themselves alone.
6. Much like 3, but you discover a way to take magical control over the curse Zarithian created and thus, the werewolves, so you let Zarithian and the Lady kill each other, then use your magical control over the werewolves to terrorize the elves and make them join your army.
Mages vs. Templars options:
1. You kill off the templars and the mages are (temporarily) free. (Can't recall if this is actually an option or not.)
2. Vanilla templars. The mages are killed.
3. You leave the mages alive but agree with Cullen that they may be dangerous. Greagoir orders the tower annulled just to be safe. Irving and the survivors fight back. In the end only a few templars and mages survive, and most of the mages flee the tower and become apostates.
4. You leave the mages alive and have convinced Cullen that you've cleaned out the mages tainted with blood magic. Greagoir agrees that the evil mages were a small faction and the survivors have earned some autonomy--the right to police themselves. The Templars will now restrict themselves to guarding the gates/bridge and leave internal matters to Irving.
5. You tell them you don't care. The Right of Annullment arrives, but the blood mages have completely taken over the tower and there are not enough Templars to deal with them, so you wind up fighting a massive wave of abominations, demons, and blood mages. The few templars that survive join your army after the tower is completely wiped out.
6. You spare some of the blood mages (those not totally possessed by demons) and help them convert the remaining mages (perhaps killing off Wynne and Irving, definitely killing off UIdred and the abominations.) You assist them in mind-controlling the remaining templars and hiding the fact that the inmates are now running the asylum. In gratitude, you get some very nasty blood-mage allies for the final battle.
Definitely some interesting potential outcomes there.
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