15 réponses à ce sujet

[Icy Magebane]

Friendship and Rivalry have been replaced by the old Approval/Disapproval system.  That said, I don't think they will force us deeper into Disapproval during conversations unless we're obviously trying to annoy the party member in question... as I understand it, everyone except one companion will leave this time if they disagree with the Inquisitor too much.

[Gtdef]

This happens because the game assumes that once you take the rivalry path, you want to continue on it. The same reason it changes the dialogue of gifts. If you are a rival and you give a gift, you will earn rivalry points.

 

The idea behind it is sound, but I think the whole system is flawed. I think that approval meters on each companion is a flawed system (same applies for DAO and earlier games). Imo the inquisitor should have a reputation meter and the companions should respond appropriately after going past a certain threshold, while you have the option to change their perceptions or make them more understanding to your decisions. But I can see the difficulties in implementation with this one  

[aTigerslunch]

You do know those books are Blood mage skill book stuff?  Merrill uses blood magic, so yeah, it would be best to leave her behind when destroying those books. Honestly, this last play through I hardly had any mage support, got tired of Anders and surprisingly since I only grouped with him into the deep roads or his quests, I haven't seen much remarks about him at the Hawke mansion with those manifestos.  He is almost 100 percent befriended, so it wasn't like I completely ignored him.

 

And surprisingly did awesome without a mage.... those critters die so freaking fast with 3 rogues and a warrior it isn't funny, poor Varric dies of the 4 often though. My DPS Is whole lot higher without a mage ... funny how that worked. (mutters, no prep casts required is probably why)  *shrugs*   And mages are considered a threat.....  I tore thru bosses easier without a mage...  go figure.  First time I play through without a mage, less required to group with that mage, kinda surprised I did better.

 

So, leave Merrill home when destroying books, or dealing with rogue mages with choices if don't side with mages.

[dekarserverbot]

the first rule in dragon age 2 is:

What Hawke likes. says or thinks is nor important.

 

I doubt that people at bioware would be so stupid to repeat that formula again (and if they do, they will no longer receive any support from me). Also even if I played Hawke as a 2 handed warrior i see no point on treating fellow apostates as villans because:

a) both of my parents were apostates

my only surviving sister is apostate too (and she got dead because it would be stupid to bring 2 healers in the same boat)

c)  I missed ALL dialogues with Leroy Jerkings... sorry Carver (and no codex told me anything from him).

In fact serving the chantry and being an useless version of ned flanders made absolutely no point, Dragon age 2 is one of the most poorly written games i've ever played, its plot is even worse than most MMORPG.

 

I expect inquisition fixes that trouble

[Araceil]

See this is why I kinda preferred the DA:O system as flawed as it was. If you say something but a companion completely misinterprets it (or if the paraphrase says one thing but Hawke says another)  and you end up getting disapproval/rivalry points because of it then you can just hand them some random gifts and act like it never happened.    

[Little Princess Peach]

See this is why I kinda preferred the DA:O system as flawed as it was. If you say something but a companion completely misinterprets it (or if the paraphrase says one thing but Hawke says another)  and you end up getting disapproval/rivalry points because of it then you can just hand them some random gifts and act like it never happened.    

it went something like this Origins

Warden: your an Idiot Alistair I am going to kill Kornflakes(Connor)

Alistair dissaproves and gives you  a gigantic lecture about morality and being a grey warden and how he will ditch you

 

Warden gives Alistair a locket and hes ready to sleep with her ?

[Araceil]

it went something like this Origins
Warden: your an Idiot Alistair I am going to kill Kornflakes(Connor)
Alistair dissaproves and gives you a gigantic lecture about morality and being a grey warden and how he will ditch you

Warden gives Alistair a locket and hes ready to sleep with her ?

Hey I never said it was perfect, nor do you have to use it in that manner. All I was saying was that it is handy for the times when the tone of a line is not made clear and you accidentally offend someone because of it. Especially considering there is no method of going back and clarifying what you meant in conversation.

[Sylvius the Mad]

You can interpret it as the character filtering the same words or actions through a different lens based on their first impressions of you. I think it's actually a pretty organic concept.

I love this explanation. People are impenetrable; there is no reason why we should expect to be able to control their opinions of us.

[Icy Magebane]

I love this explanation. People are impenetrable; there is no reason why we should expect to be able to control their opinions of us.

It's not out of the ordinary for people to change their minds about others over time... how easily this occurs depends on how positive or negative their initial interactions were.  The approval system is a good representation of real life relationships because it represents those fluctuations.  There are stubborn people in the world who won't change their mind no matter what, but this is the exception, not the rule. 

 

An "approval modifier" based on the the first impression might be something to consider in the future, as this would represent the effects of the initial contact stretching well into the future rather than instantly becoming an impenetrable barrier that prevents the party member from changing their mind... perhaps the severity of this modifier (positive or negative) would lessen over time or after reaching a certain level of approval or disapproval...  Tbh though, such a system might be more realistic, but it sounds like it might be complex than necessary... I could go either way on that.

 

Anyway, I preferred approval over friendship/rivalry because the system's usefulness hinges on our ability to predictably influence characters.  Perhaps the friendship and rivalry railroading yielded predictable results, but outside of bringing specific party members along to witness quest decisions, we had few options for influencing them once we passed a specific threshold.  Dialogues in DA2 were often difficult to navigate and usually required us to select a specific sequence of options in order to maximize friendship or rivalry gains.  Even gifts would lock you further into the path you were already on... As far as I can remember, the effect of a gift depended entirely on how far you were into friendship or rivalry, regardless of what Hawke said when it was presented.  None of these frustrations were present in DA:O's system... DA2's system was interesting but it had a few flaws, and I'm glad it won't be returning.

[Icefalcon]

At least there are no gifts this time to change your approval rating. Honestly I was shocked what some people will do for a cupcake      

[In Exile]

You certainly can, but that limits its value as a gameplay tool.

But it's not unreasonable, which I think has to take precedent over gameplay contrivance. The real problem with the Merrill quest line is that you accrue obscene amounts of rivalry each time.