One of the features of PoE is the ability to ask your companions their opinions about each other and any quest in the game and get a line or two of their opinion depending on the quest status. This is entirely for flavor and is to help give them personality. Here are some samples from two of the possible companions (there are no real spoilers). This isn't enabled in the downloadable campaign yet, it probably will be in my next update.
Each companion has a couple thousand words of convo depending on how "wordy" they are. While the majority of the conversations are written, getting them matched up with the conditionals required is time consuming even working from a skeleton convo that has most conditionals already in it. You have to actually right-click talk to them for this. So if you prefer silent companions you don't have to engage in conversation. Companions will sometimes interrupt regular conversations you have, and you can let them speak for you at times. They also have barkstring one liners for flavor as you explore.
I like this idea, something that I'm planning with my module as well. I sometimes find it annoying when a companion suddenly starts a conversation when I'm dungeon crawling, but having the player initiate it is a good approach. Its a good non intrusive way of giving the companion a bit of life.
ReplyDeleteGreat writing as well. Those snippets are really good!
If you go this way, I highly recommend making a generic conversation skeleton and filling in the conditionals for it, then cutting and pasting that skeleton to your companions. It saves a ton of time filling out the conditionals, and you only need to add companion specific conditionals like if they make a specific comments if the player is elvish.
ReplyDeleteThese type of conversations are a nice touch and add a bit of life to companions. Having the skeleton format is the key. I have a similiar setup in my campaign. The companions will comment of the other companions, the current area they're in and a about themselves which is dependant on influence as well as events in the game they were present at.
ReplyDeleteIn virtually all my areas I have at least one companion barkstring that fires off a trigger, so they can comment on the area or make some comment in a spot where I know there are going to be in battle when they enter. Of course if the companion for that trigger isn't in the party the player won't see anything.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm trying to do is give players a choice of something near the silent SoZ player generated companions, and the "active" OC/MotB companions. Of course you can't be all things to all people, but I feel I've given players a decent choice.