grregg wrote...
CoS Sarah Jinstar wrote...
(...)
I'm still waiting for either Maria or yourself to explain to me how forcing single outfits for companions is somehow this major unique thing over story/dialog/quests etc involving companions thats worth giving up traditional features in a Bioware RPG.
Most people enjoy being rewarded for winning a tough boss fight, or like to feel like their character is getting stronger as they progess in the game, hense new items, armor, weapons etc. This whole debate has less to do with complexity and more to do with choice in equipment. If its not something you particularly enjoy perhaps western RPG's aren't your cup of tea, I hear most JRPG's don't tend to have alot of gear rewards.
Also thats a pretty humerous reach you're taking there with regards to bodily functions, its a video game.
Say no more, an explanation coming right up...
As mentioned before, the trade-off between customizability and uniqueness is caused by limited resources. If I want every companion to have a unique body model and unique animations (body language) and, on top of that, to be able to wear any armor/equipment (aka customizability), then I have to make sure that said armor/equipment works for all the unique models and animations. At the very least that means extra testing. Very likely, it means a significant amount of extra work tweaking and re-doing things to make sure that everything gels. Abriael_CG was dismissive about the amount of work there, but from what I know, it is not negligible.
So given the limited resources, you tend to get either customizable characters with somewhat generic look, or unique characters with limited customization. Fact of life, nothing's free.
As for the loot gameplay, that was just an example to illustrate that disliking a feature is possible for reasons other than being overwhelmed by its complexity.
Detailed discussion of loot is perhaps better left for off-topic, but just to clarify, I do not object to being rewarded with some extraordinary item after a difficult battle. It is pulling underwear off some darkspawn mook that I find... misplaced.
And about bodily functions, I remember RPGs that implemented food mechanics. What goes in has to eventually come out.
And again, you've yet to tell me how forcing a very limited range of customization makes the game better. If anything forcing a limited system like you two are suggesting does more to make companions more generic than not in the first place. Take Morrigan for example, if the're was less customization, you wouldn't have the choice to make her an Arcane Warrior and take her from mage robe to full plate, since well hey! having this one outfit is SOOO important to the character! And to be honest, I didn't see much if at all, in ME2 when it came to either companion specific dialog or animations having anything to do with what clothing they were wearing. Unless you're refering to the absolutely awful design decision of not having a helmet toggle and watching your Shepard try to drink through a helmet, or missing out on facial expressions in dialog due to having said helmet super glued on 24/7.
None of the companions in DA are generic, they all have great VO's, banter amongst themselves, input into the world and going ons etc. And they didn't need some special outfit to do it. Course thats not even mentioning that DA:O is a better written game to begin with than ME2 is but I s'pose that part is more opinion than anything.
Choices do not automatically equal complexity, and I doubt you're going to convince many people that its too complex to decide between putting a companion in one type of armor vs another, or that taking away options and choices and customization is a good thing to begin with.
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