The cool thing about Gann is that he loves banter. While you can get influence with him by fawning over him, if you diss him in a clever way (maybe theres a charisma check?) he just laughs and gets the same or maybe more influence.
That's one reason my character fell in love with Gann He knows when his ego is too big and if you call him out on it with a witty insult he takes it gracefully with an equally witty comment.
The cool thing about Gann is that he loves banter. While you can get influence with him by fawning over him, if you diss him in a clever way (maybe theres a charisma check?) he just laughs and gets the same or maybe more influence.
I did like that about him. (Syrea had excellent charisma, being a Favored Soul, so it may well have been a charisma check.)
But Syrea, alas, was no wit, so I had a hard time avoiding those comebacks that Gann likes so much!
I had a hard time getting attached to any of the companions, except Okku because he is such a straightforward "I will come with you so I can decide whether or not to eat you" kind of bear. It might be the way I played my character, who was focused on getting back to Crossroads Keep and so never got invested in anything in that accursed land.
Man, that reminds me. I could never get Kaji to follow, I don't know what the deal was. We would be running all over the map and he'd just be hovering in the library or wherever. I don't know if it was a bug or I had a setting wrong in the character behavior sheet.
well besides the fact it's running on an engine that is not that great and me not really liking the way nwn 1 or 2 play.
i feel motb was trying way to hard to be planescape torment again but is missing what made the game so great. kotor 2 did a better job at being a planscape sucessor imo
my major issue is it should have stared a new character you just feel tacked on in a story that is not yours. the story is about the spirit eater curse not you.
To be honest influence systems are one of those things which always sounds nice in theory but never works right fully in practice for me, from KOTOR2 where I first experienced it, to NWN2 and it's campaigns into Dragon Age. All end up to often devolving into gaming the system even when you don't mean to or outright encouraging it. On Dragon Age 2 friendship/rivalry system might have been a way forward (and probably one of the few things I liked about the game).
And in MotB, an otherwise excellent campaign it caused the same familiar issues, on the whole I prefer games without them, based more of quests, story and character specific story events and outcomes, the RP is more genuine and less a matter of gaming a system.
my major issue is it should have stared a new character you just feel tacked on in a story that is not yours. the story is about the spirit eater curse not you.
I think you've hit the nail on the head. Those were my feelings exactly.
The influence system is great in Kotor 2 because it's not a measure of how much your companions like you, its literally how much influence you have over them. Over time you can basically rewrite their personalities to be more in tune with your own because of the way you are constantly unconsciously creating Force Bonds. Throughout the game people point this out to you as extremely messed up, did you know that Atton is literally copying your stance now dude? Or companions comment how they don't know why they just joined the fight in when you murdered some dude for no reason so you could loot his apartment.
You still get it mainly from doing or saying things that they approve of, they have to like you a bit for them to start to fall under your sway after all. If someone hates you then its harder to get them to do things obviously. You can force it in some cases like the killing a guy incident gives influence because of the sudden exertion of your will upon them.
The influence system is great in Kotor 2 because it's not a measure of how much your companions like you, its literally how much influence you have over them. Over time you can basically rewrite their personalities to be more in tune with your own because of the way you are constantly unconsciously creating Force Bonds. Throughout the game people point this out to you as extremely messed up, did you know that Atton is literally copying your stance now dude? Or companions comment how they don't know why they just joined the fight in when you murdered some dude for no reason so you could loot his apartment.
I understand the story idea I have played both KOTOR games both vanilla and with mods so many times only BG games exceeds them in playthroughs (though it has gotten to the point I'm slightly sick of everyone saying echoes every seconed sentence in that game ).
But your influence effects them negative or positive with the Force sensitive characters, and they copy the Exile, however you have to keep the influence direction consistent (particularly also if you want to unlock dialogue, bonus training, being able to turn them into Jedi etc) and to often that does involve gaming the system rather than consistent RP. In fact the way it plays out often tends to encourage it, not least with Keira to get all the dialogue from her involves taking contradictory positions and responses to either build or lose influence consistently (that also is a problem with not being given adequate options to argue her various, often to me inconsistent with previous critiques and teachings she gives, critiques even when I could think of replies the convo replies aren't great and she wins each debate naturally or you can tell her her shut up, that's it).
This is true at times with various NPCs and in the end you still end up gaming the system often enough, the mechanism even seems to encourage it. I'm afraid I stand by my belief, nice in theory but not in practice, I think the games RP are better without them.
Comments
He knows when his ego is too big and if you call him out on it with a witty insult he takes it gracefully with an equally witty comment.
But Syrea, alas, was no wit, so I had a hard time avoiding those comebacks that Gann likes so much!
Please stop dying
Man, that reminds me. I could never get Kaji to follow, I don't know what the deal was. We would be running all over the map and he'd just be hovering in the library or wherever. I don't know if it was a bug or I had a setting wrong in the character behavior sheet.
i feel motb was trying way to hard to be planescape torment again but is missing what made the game so great. kotor 2 did a better job at being a planscape sucessor imo
my major issue is it should have stared a new character you just feel tacked on in a story that is not yours. the story is about the spirit eater curse not you.
And in MotB, an otherwise excellent campaign it caused the same familiar issues, on the whole I prefer games without them, based more of quests, story and character specific story events and outcomes, the RP is more genuine and less a matter of gaming a system.
But your influence effects them negative or positive with the Force sensitive characters, and they copy the Exile, however you have to keep the influence direction consistent (particularly also if you want to unlock dialogue, bonus training, being able to turn them into Jedi etc) and to often that does involve gaming the system rather than consistent RP. In fact the way it plays out often tends to encourage it, not least with Keira to get all the dialogue from her involves taking contradictory positions and responses to either build or lose influence consistently (that also is a problem with not being given adequate options to argue her various, often to me inconsistent with previous critiques and teachings she gives, critiques even when I could think of replies the convo replies aren't great and she wins each debate naturally or you can tell her her shut up, that's it).
This is true at times with various NPCs and in the end you still end up gaming the system often enough, the mechanism even seems to encourage it. I'm afraid I stand by my belief, nice in theory but not in practice, I think the games RP are better without them.