Guess that's a point we won't be agreeing on, lol. Romances make up a huge part of RPGs for me. And they are optional after all, so if one doesn't like them, they don't need to pursue them. Having the choice is nice though. Adds a lot for me in an RPG....in a crisis I tend to cling to people, and so do my characters, haha. I really hope PoE gets romance options in the future, or an expansion etc. I would happily pay for that. Having Dorn added as a romance option for me in BGEE and BG2EE was awesome, so awesome I bought the game on multiple platforms to show support xD
I respect your point of view but mine is completely the opposite. Shows the spectrum that a single game genre spans I guess.
I would prefer that effort and time spent on romances were instead spent on more story/plot/quests. I'm yet to encounter a single romance which didn't come across as awkward and immersion breaking.
Guess that's a point we won't be agreeing on, lol. Romances make up a huge part of RPGs for me. And they are optional after all, so if one doesn't like them, they don't need to pursue them. Having the choice is nice though. Adds a lot for me in an RPG....in a crisis I tend to cling to people, and so do my characters, haha. I really hope PoE gets romance options in the future, or an expansion etc. I would happily pay for that. Having Dorn added as a romance option for me in BGEE and BG2EE was awesome, so awesome I bought the game on multiple platforms to show support xD
I respect your point of view but mine is completely the opposite. Shows the spectrum that a single game genre spans I guess.
I would prefer that effort and time spent on romances were instead spent on more story/plot/quests. I'm yet to encounter a single romance which didn't come across as awkward and immersion breaking.
Fair enough, as you say a wide range of people play these games. Imo all the more reason to include this optional stuff. Some romances have totally enhanced a game for me. DAI most recently, Mass Effect before that, and DAO before that (DA2 romance wasn't all that great imo). Anywho different strokes for different folks I guess.
Guess that's a point we won't be agreeing on, lol. Romances make up a huge part of RPGs for me. And they are optional after all, so if one doesn't like them, they don't need to pursue them. Having the choice is nice though. Adds a lot for me in an RPG....in a crisis I tend to cling to people, and so do my characters, haha. I really hope PoE gets romance options in the future, or an expansion etc. I would happily pay for that. Having Dorn added as a romance option for me in BGEE and BG2EE was awesome, so awesome I bought the game on multiple platforms to show support xD
I respect your point of view but mine is completely the opposite. Shows the spectrum that a single game genre spans I guess.
I would prefer that effort and time spent on romances were instead spent on more story/plot/quests. I'm yet to encounter a single romance which didn't come across as awkward and immersion breaking.
Are you saying that jaheira hitting on you mere days after her husband died is awkward?
Guess that's a point we won't be agreeing on, lol. Romances make up a huge part of RPGs for me. And they are optional after all, so if one doesn't like them, they don't need to pursue them. Having the choice is nice though. Adds a lot for me in an RPG....in a crisis I tend to cling to people, and so do my characters, haha. I really hope PoE gets romance options in the future, or an expansion etc. I would happily pay for that. Having Dorn added as a romance option for me in BGEE and BG2EE was awesome, so awesome I bought the game on multiple platforms to show support xD
I respect your point of view but mine is completely the opposite. Shows the spectrum that a single game genre spans I guess.
I would prefer that effort and time spent on romances were instead spent on more story/plot/quests. I'm yet to encounter a single romance which didn't come across as awkward and immersion breaking.
Are you saying that jaheira hitting on you mere days after her husband died is awkward?
Hey, it's a busy group. They've got places to go, monsters to kill, bhaalspawn to cuddle. They don't have time for socially acceptable mourning periods.
Fair enough, as you say a wide range of people play these games. Imo all the more reason to include this optional stuff. Some romances have totally enhanced a game for me. DAI most recently, Mass Effect before that, and DAO before that (DA2 romance wasn't all that great imo). Anywho different strokes for different folks I guess.
It's be nice, however on a finite budget to add something into a game means taking it away from somewhere else. Therefore adding in romances which not everyone enjoys or wants means taking away from additional quests/plots/storyline which everyone enjoys and wants.
What I enjoy about romances in an RPG is the ability to interact on a deeper level with a character I like. In that sense, it doesn't necessarily have to be a romantic interaction; as long as the characters are deep and feel like members of my character's family, I'm happy.
I can see romances developing in a group who is in constant danger and surrounded by enemies... Or at least strong friendships that later may evolve into romance.
Yeah, I can def see romances forming between people under stress, it's pretty natural. Well I guess it's too late for PoE now, but hopefully in the future they will reconsider. For me it's pretty much a deal breaker going forward, no romance means no sale for me. It's just part of what I consider important in RPGs.
I don't think there would be many female romance options in PoE even if they were intending to put them in. I get the feeling pallegina would put duty before a relationship, Sagani is married and grieving mother is well... grieving mother.
I could see the male characters being rather good romance options though. Eder seems like a romantic, kana rua has a good sense of humour and would be the sort to have a fling, Aloth would be interesting what with him being essentially schizophrenic and Durance would probably be into all kinds of kinky stuff (that's if you like being called a whore)
Dunno about Hiravias as I haven't really used him.
The advantage of platonic relationships is they don't have to be exclusive, nor are they affected by gender and race. Romancing one character in the BG series can cut off content based around another character. Choice of gender and race also cuts of some content completely. This makes romances an inefficient use of development time.
The lack of romances is one of the reasons why I enjoy companions in Pillars of Eternity. You don't need a romance to have deep characters, e.g. Durance is far from being flat, similarly the NPCs from Planescape: Torment. Romances in games are silly and schematic. The only way for me to be able to finally finish BG2 was to have only non-romanceable NPCs, so I wouldn't facepalm all the time.
The advantage of platonic relationships is they don't have to be exclusive, nor are they affected by gender and race. Romancing one character in the BG series can cut off content based around another character. Choice of gender and race also cuts of some content completely. This makes romances an inefficient use of development time.
They add replayability in this way too....for me it adds incentives to play again using different gender/race romance combos.
The advantage of platonic relationships is they don't have to be exclusive, nor are they affected by gender and race. Romancing one character in the BG series can cut off content based around another character. Choice of gender and race also cuts of some content completely. This makes romances an inefficient use of development time.
They add replayability in this way too....
True, but I would rather replayability stem from story choices that lead to different areas to see and monsters to whack on, rather than just alternative conversations based on relationships.
The lack of romances is one of the reasons why I enjoy companions in Pillars of Eternity. You don't need a romance to have deep characters, e.g. Durance is far from being flat, similarly the NPCs from Planescape: Torment. Romances in games are silly and schematic. The only way for me to be able to finally finish BG2 was to have only non-romanceable NPCs, so I wouldn't facepalm all the time.
I guess the problem is, this is all subjective. In my opinion PoE characters are not all that engaging, while BG2 characters and romances have had me hooked for years. I often find if there is not a romance attached to a character in some rpgs, then there character arc is pretty shallow.
Ok, after more than one whole page about romances (or the lack of it) I think this thread is going slightly off topic, this is a general thread regarding Pillars of Eternity, if you want to discuss about the chances of romances addition in PoE feel free to create a new thread in this area, also there's no point to start a "give and take" here about personal tastes regarding romances in RPGs, this is simply not the right thread.
I'll split each other comment about romances in another thread if this will continue.
The lack of romances is one of the reasons why I enjoy companions in Pillars of Eternity. You don't need a romance to have deep characters, e.g. Durance is far from being flat, similarly the NPCs from Planescape: Torment. Romances in games are silly and schematic. The only way for me to be able to finally finish BG2 was to have only non-romanceable NPCs, so I wouldn't facepalm all the time.
I guess the problem is, this is all subjective. In my opinion PoE characters are not all that engaging, while BG2 characters and romances have had me hooked for years. I often find if there is not a romance attached to a character in some rpgs, then there character arc is pretty shallow.
That says more about the quality of the writing, if the writer can't come up with anything interesting for a character without resorting to Mills&Boon.
I like some of the PoE characters and not others, the same goes for BG2, but I would rather have more chats with Minsc than the possibility of romancing wet Aerie and Anomen.
Well, I started PoE over again. Seemed like a good time with the 1.05 patch. I'm rolling with a rogue this time, and having a lot of fun with him. The rogue is a bit micro-manage heavy, but not in a bad way. Getting him into a good position in relation to the opponents and other NPC's leads to some serious damage output. It may be that I've finally gotten a bit of a handle on combat, but it does seem like the last patch made things a little bit (but not much) easier, at least on Normal difficulty. I didn't have to reload 10 times to beat a pack of wild boars this time!
I've been poking around a bit more frequently on the PoE forum, and it seems like for the most part it's become a little more civilized over there. Theres still a bunch of snarkiness but it's not nearly as aggressive as a few weeks ago, so that's good to see.
The escape ability is something I haven't really used. Does the rogue do it automatically when you try to run away? I've been managing to keep him from getting into too much trouble by drawing aggo with Eder and my hired barbarian and running my rogue up behind enemies to force a flank status. Most enemies go down quickly with the mace/hatchet combo my rogue has equipped.
Also, I know it's a totally superficial feature of the game, but I really like the pets. I'm running around with the Black Hound. I've nicknamed him Chewy.
Also, I know it's a totally superficial feature of the game, but I really like the pets. I'm running around with the Black Hound. I've nicknamed him Chewy.
I'd have nicknamed him "J.E."
because hey, why not? plus, obligatory BG III artwork:
*clicks topic* *looks at page number* *recoils back in horror*
As a very enthusiastic early PoE backer, I haven't played through the entire game just yet. Right now I'm standing at the entrance of the second city, peeking in from time to time and trying to collect the energy necessary to take it all in for the first time, again.
So far I like the game. I can think of a couple of perceived flaws that keep bothering me to no end, but I realize even my favorite games aren't perfect. Overall, I think I've already placed the game up on my imaginary pedestal to a very special place among legends like the BG saga, PS:T, and Morrowind.
That being said, did anyone else find the combat lacking? I thought it's a bit too balanced, to the point where it starts to feel stale and samey. I'm of the general opinion that unbalanced gameplay is fun, like when your useless low-level mage in BG1 levels up, learns Fireball, and becomes the arbiter of death on the battlefield. I think that's the sort of thing that makes combat and leveling exciting. Compare that with Pillars, where your mage has 40 spells, half of which do pretty much the same thing, and there is no reason to ever use the other half.
While the classes seemed mechanically diverse at first, as I kept playing them I kept feeling like ultimately they all did the same thing. Not to mention using abilities and spells is hassle, and just using auto-attacks seems to get me through most battles just fine. So I'm constantly feeling like I'm not utilizing my party to their full extent, and that bothers me.
Still, the fact that PoE is currently one of my favorite games even though I haven't even reached the end yet shows that Obsidian did a lot of things right, so I don't mean to harp on them and downplay this great achievement. I just thought I'd offer up my own criticism for discussion.
Comments
I would prefer that effort and time spent on romances were instead spent on more story/plot/quests. I'm yet to encounter a single romance which didn't come across as awkward and immersion breaking.
I could see the male characters being rather good romance options though. Eder seems like a romantic, kana rua has a good sense of humour and would be the sort to have a fling, Aloth would be interesting what with him being essentially schizophrenic and Durance would probably be into all kinds of kinky stuff (that's if you like being called a whore)
Dunno about Hiravias as I haven't really used him.
I'll split each other comment about romances in another thread if this will continue.
Please, carry on and talk about PoE again.
Thanks
I like some of the PoE characters and not others, the same goes for BG2, but I would rather have more chats with Minsc than the possibility of romancing wet Aerie and Anomen.
I've been poking around a bit more frequently on the PoE forum, and it seems like for the most part it's become a little more civilized over there. Theres still a bunch of snarkiness but it's not nearly as aggressive as a few weeks ago, so that's good to see.
because hey, why not? plus, obligatory BG III artwork:
*looks at page number*
*recoils back in horror*
As a very enthusiastic early PoE backer, I haven't played through the entire game just yet. Right now I'm standing at the entrance of the second city, peeking in from time to time and trying to collect the energy necessary to take it all in for the first time, again.
So far I like the game. I can think of a couple of perceived flaws that keep bothering me to no end, but I realize even my favorite games aren't perfect. Overall, I think I've already placed the game up on my imaginary pedestal to a very special place among legends like the BG saga, PS:T, and Morrowind.
That being said, did anyone else find the combat lacking? I thought it's a bit too balanced, to the point where it starts to feel stale and samey. I'm of the general opinion that unbalanced gameplay is fun, like when your useless low-level mage in BG1 levels up, learns Fireball, and becomes the arbiter of death on the battlefield. I think that's the sort of thing that makes combat and leveling exciting. Compare that with Pillars, where your mage has 40 spells, half of which do pretty much the same thing, and there is no reason to ever use the other half.
While the classes seemed mechanically diverse at first, as I kept playing them I kept feeling like ultimately they all did the same thing. Not to mention using abilities and spells is hassle, and just using auto-attacks seems to get me through most battles just fine. So I'm constantly feeling like I'm not utilizing my party to their full extent, and that bothers me.
Still, the fact that PoE is currently one of my favorite games even though I haven't even reached the end yet shows that Obsidian did a lot of things right, so I don't mean to harp on them and downplay this great achievement. I just thought I'd offer up my own criticism for discussion.