Dialog for Familiars

Malicron

I know you can talk to your familiar in BG2 and get a few tips and thoughts on what you are/should be doing, but you have to initiate the dialog with them. What's more, most of us keep our familiars in out inventories, meaning they more or less don't exist. Now, it says in the flavor text when you put a familiar in your bag that they pop their head out once in awhile. What I ask is that, even if they are in your bag, the could have a few interjections from time-to-time, like the NPC companions. This would preferably be new dialog, but if that's forbidden under the contract (I don't know if the familiars count as "characters" per say) at least let them say their already existing dialog when appropriate. This is a creature you are supposed to share a deep, mental bond with after all; it seems odd it would be so withdrawn.

ajwz

The best way to implement this would be as popups, like Liracor the talking sword.

Malicron

ajwz said:

The best way to implement this would be as popups, like Liracor the talking sword.

That works too. Just ANYTHING, really, to reinforce that they exist.

Majoca

twould be nice to have deep and meaningful conversations with my true neutral rabbit for moral guidance.

Awong124

For some reason I always imagine my cat familiar speaking with Patrick Stewart's voice.

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AaronDemoncia

Id like it as, above stated, Interjections , but not if its the same bland lines for each pet. Half-orcing the job doesnt really appeal to me and i feel it would cheapen the look of the game regardless of the 'immersion' it might bring. especially since such text would get boring if its constantly flashing over the screen. a chaotic lazy cat familiar wouldnt talk like a bunny or psuedo dragon.
small things have big effects ^^

Draith012

Naaah, I want my cat to talk like Christopher Walkins.

Nifft

This would be cool.

Nice way to add some replay value, and encourage people to try different alignments.

LiamEsler

My personal opinion on this, which can be extrapolated to a few other requests around:

Too much work, too little reward.

Adding interjections and dialog to familiars may not seem like a lot of work, but there's a lot more to this than people realise. It means establishing personalities for each familiar, or at minimum establishing a base tone. It means writing lines for each familiar, or at minimum writing a pool of lines for all familiars to draw upon. These lines then have to be vetted by several authorities including WotC, then coded, then tested by internal QA, then beta-tested, and then released and supported in future patches.

This is a lot of work for a feature that few players will actually use, and fewer players will appreciate.

GandalfPortraitGuy

Kaeloree said:

My personal opinion on this, which can be extrapolated to a few other requests around:

Too much work, too little reward.

Adding interjections and dialog to familiars may not seem like a lot of work, but there's a lot more to this than people realise. It means establishing personalities for each familiar, or at minimum establishing a base tone. It means writing lines for each familiar, or at minimum writing a pool of lines for all familiars to draw upon. These lines then have to be vetted by several authorities including WotC, then coded, then tested by internal QA, then beta-tested, and then released and supported in future patches.

This is a lot of work for a feature that few players will actually use, and fewer players will appreciate.

Perhaps if there were Quests regarding Mage familiars. . . It could somehow MAKE everything worthwhile.

Nifft

Kaeloree said:

My personal opinion on this, which can be extrapolated to a few other requests around:

Too much work, too little reward.

Since you maintain a mod which features exactly this kind of interjection, I figure you're probably the authority on this stuff.

How hard would it be to add familiar interjections to the BG1NPC mod?

Tyranus

Liracor style pop ups would be awesome for familiars.

"Hey! If you're going to stack Bandit Scalps in here like a maccabre tanners, get me the hell out of here!"

Blacksky

[quote]That works too. Just ANYTHING, really, to reinforce that they exist. [/quote]

Ditto. I've always found it really annoying that the familiar spell creates a creature that has about three lines of speech and once which changes based on your main quest. It's really not much for a companion.