120 réponses à ce sujet

[Rayndorn]

I'd like Vivienne shopping on my Inquisitor's behalf while she's not in my party (Yeah, like my personal Goddess of sass won't be with me 24/7). I'll run into her on the street, and she'll show me the glorious Orlesian silks she took the liberty of picking out for my character.   

*Swoon*

[Vegeta 77]

The others are playing poker

[Setiweb]

I wouldn't mind taking all the companions with me.  I had always wished the ALL was an option.

[Cat Lance]

I'd like Vivienne shopping on my Inquisitor's behalf while she's not in my party (Yeah, like my personal Goddess of sass won't be with me 24/7). I'll run into her on the street, and she'll show me the glorious Orlesian silks she took the liberty of picking out for my character.   
*Swoon*

I actually think this would kinda rock. From what I've heard of her character i could picture her doing this even on rival. "I refuse to be associated with someone dressed so poorly!"

[Maiden Crowe]

I've got an idea that I don't think anyone's going to like, and that I know has no chance to be implemented, but I'll share it anyways. At some point, I think it would be a good idea to have a DA game with no companions at all, or at least, no companions except on a temporary basis. This would do a number of things: It would solve the OP's "What are your unused companions doing?" issue, and it would also open up the possibility of more sophisticated mechanics for sneaking and similar abilities, something which is incredibly difficult to do in the context of a party-based game. It could add to replay value by adding more variability depending on which class you choose; for example, in the Quest for Glory games, puzzles and quests had to be solved differently depending on which class you were; this isn't going to happen in a party-based game, since even if you don't have a certain class ability, there's a good chance one of your party members does. And lastly, there's no reason you can't form interesting relationships and dynamics with NPC's (heck, even romances if you want) simply because they aren't following you everywhere you go.

 

Good luck selling that one to the BSN however I quite like this design and it works well in games like the Witcher, hell this probably would have been a far better option for DA2 given the nature of the story, however probably not the best idea for Inquisition, it all depends on the type of game you are creating and the story you are telling.

[Maiden Crowe]

I'd like Vivienne shopping on my Inquisitor's behalf while she's not in my party (Yeah, like my personal Goddess of sass won't be with me 24/7). I'll run into her on the street, and she'll show me the glorious Orlesian silks she took the liberty of picking out for my character.   

*Swoon*

 

Way to challenge gender stereotypes BSN, I take it Cass is back at HQ baking cookies for the boys?

 

Not sure about you guys but I am pretty sure my Inquisitor wouldn't have hired Viv to do her clothes shopping.

[Rayndorn]

Way to challenge gender stereotypes BSN, I take it Cass is back at HQ baking cookies for the boys?

 

Not sure about you guys but I am pretty sure my Inquisitor wouldn't have hired Viv to do her clothes shopping.

I only said it because Vivienne is, by far, the most well-designed companion I've seen in terms of clothing/fashion IMO. Her style makes her stand out as a companion, and I love the maleficent horns - I would die happy if I could dress my Inquisitor up like her!

I'm sorry if my joke came across in bad taste. 

[Lebanese Dude]

I only said it because Vivienne is, by far, the most well-designed companion I've seen in terms of clothing/fashion IMO. Her style makes her stand out as a companion, and I love the maleficent horns - I would die happy if I could dress my Inquisitor up like her!
I'm sorry if my joke came across in bad taste. 

It wasn't. Vivienne is relentless in her pursuit of fashion. It was a fair assumption.

[Eralrik]

http://social.biowar.../index/17499135

 

I origionally started a similiar convo on the origional Bioware Forums, posted the link from that old post.

[Cat Lance]

I only said it because Vivienne is, by far, the most well-designed companion I've seen in terms of clothing/fashion IMO. Her style makes her stand out as a companion, and I love the maleficent horns - I would die happy if I could dress my Inquisitor up like her!
I'm sorry if my joke came across in bad taste. 

I (obviously) didn't think it came across in bad taste. She's very about looking good from what the devs have said about her. I actually meant it when I said that I could see her doing this.

I cannot, however, picture Cassandra baking cookies. Merrill, I could, though i imagine them not tasting very good.

[Nashiktal]

*SPOILERS FOR CITADEL DLC MASS EFFECT 3*

 

Well to be fair Bioware has done this exactly once before. Mass Effect 3, Citadel DLC. During most of the Citadel DLC missions a large chunk of your team was doing something in the background. Early on in the missions they try to support you over the radio with their various expertise, which later leads to you being rescued by a few of your team when under heavy attack.

 

Even later still there is a very epic sequence where the ENTIRE team shows up for a mission and works together to infiltrate a facility. It had its clunky moments, mostly animation-wise, but the entire team came together to take on the mission and IT WAS EPIC.

 

*END SPOILERS*

 

Now I wish Bioware could do this all the time, but given the more open world nature of the game as opposed to Mass Effect's "instances" I don't think it would work quite the same way. Still, if during big story moments the team could show up outside the party I would be extremely happy.

[Shadow Fox]

I (obviously) didn't think it came across in bad taste. She's very about looking good from what the devs have said about her. I actually meant it when I said that I could see her doing this.

I cannot, however, picture Cassandra baking cookies. Merrill, I could, though i imagine them not tasting very good.

Now I picture my Garrett Hawke being Merrill's secretly reluctant taste tester and eating her cooking out of love then lying to her about how good it is and having to go see Anders every day for food poisoning.

[Just My Moniker]

I wouldn't mind taking all the companions with me.  I had always wished the ALL was an option.

Warden: Alright me and 3 of you are storming those ancient ruins!

Alistair: Why dont we all go? That seems like it would be alot more effective.

Warden: DONT QUESTION MY LOGIC ALISTAIR!

[EkhidnaDrakaina]

...Quest for Glory...

So...

You and I...

Can we get married?

[Cat Lance]

*SPOILERS FOR CITADEL DLC MASS EFFECT 3*
 
Well to be fair Bioware has done this exactly once before. Mass Effect 3, Citadel DLC. During most of the Citadel DLC missions a large chunk of your team was doing something in the background. Early on in the missions they try to support you over the radio with their various expertise, which later leads to you being rescued by a few of your team when under heavy attack.
 
Even later still there is a very epic sequence where the ENTIRE team shows up for a mission and works together to infiltrate a facility. It had its clunky moments, mostly animation-wise, but the entire team came together to take on the mission and IT WAS EPIC.
 
*END SPOILERS*
 
Now I wish Bioware could do this all the time, but given the more open world nature of the game as opposed to Mass Effect's "instances" I don't think it would work quite the same way. Still, if during big story moments the team could show up outside the party I would be extremely happy.

  I'd love to see more moments like this or when you get captured in DA:O. I like the replay value of choosing from your companions and sympathise with the constraints around taking everyone all of the time, I like the idea of certain times when everyone or at least some might jump in!

Now I picture my Garrett Hawke being Merrill's secretly reluctant taste tester and eating her cooking out of love then lying to her about how good it is and having to go see Anders every day for food poisoning.

Mwahaha

[Adaar the Unbound]

[Adaar the Unbound]

Well, would you want them to do something when your character is gone, even though you don't get to see that?

Because I think DA2 did it perfectly. Companions weren't just standing around in a camp but had their own homes and lives, and via dialogue and party banter we actually got the impression that they did something when they weren't with the Champion.

I kind of agree with this. But maybe they will have jobs your agents do, and have separate jobs your companions do. When the companions aren't with you or doing those jobs then they will be doing the things they do in their free time. I think that would be good because they are still having lives outside of the inquisition AND it wont seem like the people you don't have in your party are useless to the inquisition.

EDIT: In DA:2, it was okay for everyone just do their own thing when they aren't in your party because it was like a group of friends. They are all willing to help you with your thing, but when they aren't helping you they will be doing their own thing. Im not saying your party members won't be friends in DA:I, but its also an army and faction so I feel that your companions will have to do things that help the inquisition when they arent with you or they will be useless to the inquisition. However, I think they should have their own lives too.

[Eralrik]

One of the things that always got me was we have a camp full of companions and we take 3 with us the others just kind of wait back at camp hoping to be picked for the next mission.

I was curious if our companions could take up side missions to better help our cause or they may have personal side missions to fit in with their story, something tailored to each members skills.

Just to get that feeling everyone is pitching in and not standing back kicking stone's at camp.

Like Varric side mission is to acquire goods and supply's for the fort using old contacts for example or Cassandra teaching recruits and taking them out on a training mission to help shape them into soldiers. Could even have a companion doing a side mission that under minds part of the work were doing because they don't agree with our methods.

I liked the idea of SWTOR companion missions but not so much for the crafting supply's liked their story elements of it more would like to see something like this in DA:I.

 

If I choose a team of 3 npc's to go with me I stick with them through the mission I'm on it annoyed me a little bit in Mass Effect that when I left the ship with my team I take a taxi that the people with me got in suddenly I arrive with the choice to choose new team members, it's like um ok did the taxi suddenly swing by the Normandy so I could pickup a new team. <IMO>

So the companions I have will stay with me and the ones at the Keep are sitting on the butts doing nothing this would drive me nuts not doing anything but waiting for the PC to come home.
It's kind of like your married you have 3 kids and you go to work you don't know what the family is doing while your away but when you get home their sitting on the couch and you divvy out tasks for them to complete. Otherwise you have to be the hero of the house and do it all yourself.

I would like to see my companions doing side tasks tailored to their skill sets, For instance Cassandra could be training the recruits combat skills, Varric could be talking with his contacts or the merchants guild to bring in supply's. If we had a Qunnari on the team and we needed to shore up defense's at a failing battle he could summon other Qunnari to bolster, I know we'll have a mage or 2 on the team if one is a Healer could be helping provide healing to wounded soldiers as well as civilians.
We could also tailor a team to head off an ambush to a merchant caravan while the PC is saving a town after all the PC can't be everywhere, if we don't save the caravan we loose supply's and possibly our keep, while loosing the town could possibly loose us recruits and valuable support. If we sent a Companion to the town who has leadership and tactical ability's they could bolster a town militia while we save the caravan and after we head to the town to kick the bad guys out.

There are a lot of possibility's that could happen and make this game feel so very much alive.

[Oasis_JS]

hmm.. pretty much  what I read on the topic is can  we send them out on mission and I think I read some one post.. have them at least moving around at the base working on objetives or at least being interactiing with people in the base.    I have to say  they are both cool ideas^^ I think it would be fun to see them moving around the base and  interacting with things.  ^^

[Dead Reckoning]

I agree that I would not want to micro-manage my companions throughout the entire game.  But I do think sprinkling in a few off-screen quests for them would add some flavor and immersion to the game.  I think any attempt to give the companions something else to do, or at least the appearance that they have something else to do should not require a completely new system to implement, but piggy-back on top of what might already in the works. The following is just me thinking out loud:

Companions as Agents
We already know that we will have agents that we can aquire, and these agents can be sent off to complete specific tasks.  But the pool of agents will be limited and you will have to choose where you want to use them the most.  Maybe a task could require fewer agents if you sent a companion along as their leader. Or, perhaps some of these agent tasks might return bonus rewards with a specific companion present. That companion would be unavailable for the duration of the task (assuming these actually take real time to complete).   Perhaps choosing the wrong companion to lead a specific task results in fewer bonuses or more agent losses or worse, the companion is injured and requires a longer period of time before they are available to travel with you.   This type of mechanic would not need to be open for every agent task to keep the micromangement down.   So if there would just be some kind of notification that a companion leadership task is available.  It's up to you to choose the companion to use or not use any of them.  The task will still be completed with only the agents - but you lose out on any bonus reward that you might have received.  But you also don't risk sending the wrong companion and getting them injured.

This is something that could be used VERY rarely to keep the costs of any added content down, and to increase the value of said content. For instance, only one agent mission in an entire area might require or allow the presence of a companion leader. Or maybe each companion can only lead one mission in the entire game. The rarity of the missions would make them something more special and if resources allow for it, there could be some special event or dialogue associated with it. If not, just getting notified of Bonus rewards by choosing the right leader would be enough for me. (For example: You're decision to send Varic to lead an expedition to re-open a Lyrium mine has lead to the discovery of a cache of ancient dwarven weapons that would otherwise not be available)

Companions at the Base(s)

From what I understand, we will probably have multiple bases. I'm not quite sure how one is chosen over another as the "Main Base" or if there is a main base. Either way, I agree that it is really cool to see your companions mingle around. ME 3 did do this well. But DA2 also had a lot of companion character interactions that showed that these characters also had a bond with each other and were not all just following you around because they owed you a favor. We already know that we can capture castles and then refit them for specific tasks. And It is also possible for the enemy to take them back. (The footage we have seen shows that they will try on at least one occasion). We don't know if this is simply a scripted event, or if the world will be dynamic enough that any territory left unattended for too long will become susceptible to attack. In either case, does leaving a companion or two behind to defend a base increase it's odds of fending off attack if you decide to save the village instead? If you could appoint a companion as a Base leader in your absence? What kind of benefits or risks might that entail? One event in DAO that still leaves me scratching my head is the decision of which companion to put in charge of the defense of the main gate. There doesn't seem to be any wrong answer with that one. I would have thought Leliana or Wynn would have not been as successful a choice as Sten or Oghren.

Companion Story Arcs
I really thought this was done well in DA2.  I liked how each character would come to Hawke with a mission that affected them personally in each chapter of the game. They gave you more insight into each character and let you build your relationship with them and also added more weight to the idea that these people all had something more going on in their lives than following you around. DAO had similar quests. I can only assume at this point that something similar is already included in DAI. I also must admit that I did like having certain missions in ME 3 in which a specific companion was required to complete it. Dragon Age has never done that, and I'm not saying that it should. DAO was very good at giving "strong suggestions" within the context of the story when it was needed (IE, Taking Wynn into the party at the Mage tower, or making sure you have 2 wardens to attack the Arch Demon). But these were just suggestions, and the consequences for ignoring these suggestions can be just a fulfilling from a narrative point of view.

Companions of the Suicide Mission

In the context of the gameplay we have seen so far, you might argue in favor of more suicide mission style events. You send one team to save the village, another attacks the front door of the castle, while a third team sneaks in through the caves. But if you did that, then you would have a "No Lose Scenario" and it wouldn't matter what choices you made. Having all of your companions together in one place in one fight works best when it happens during a BIG event. In both Dragon Age games, The final battles involved all of your companions. I loved assaulting Ferelden as a free-for-all in which all of my companions were not party members, they just attacked where it was needed. And to see the companions that I had not picked as my final team in DA2 come out to fight individually really made that battle special. I loved the suicide mission in me2. But if every mission played out that way, it would lose its luster.

Companions as a Rear Guard

While having all of your companions with you at all times might make sense in literary form, in gameplay, it gets complicated very fast by adding extreme complexity to cutscene conditions, AI, pathing... etc. But if all you wanted was just some establishing scene that shows your companions were with you but occupied with guard duties, I think the minimum you would basically need is a "canned" animation for each major area the companions enter in which the entire team enters as a group, and then the Inquisitor picks his team, and the rest take up defensive positions. I think once people see something like this a couple of times, they will "get the idea" and just start skipping them every time you enter an area. To prevent that, these would have to be a little more unique requiring more time and resources from the animators, programmers, scene editors, etc. However, if Bioware has already budgeted establishing shot animations for each of these areas, perhaps it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to see something like this.

In the end, any or all of these things might add more realistic behavior for your companions and immersion (or not). Without knowing what you might have to sacrifice, I couldn't suggest that any of my own ideas would bring any more value to the game than what Bioware already has planned. I think the attention to detail in Inquisition is far greater than anything we have seen in the previous games. With all the gameplay improvements we have been shown so far, I can't believe we would not see something similar when it comes to the interactions with our companions. That interaction is what makes Bioware games stand apart from anything else I have ever played. So I wouldn't expect that to be high on the list for cost-cutting measures.

[Dead Reckoning]

Ugh!

Sorry, my cut and paste did not preserve the paragraphs.  Why can't we edit our own posts to fix things like this?