Pardon my Ranting; I need to vent
FredN
Member Posts: 705
....OK, I have hit the point where Jaheira and I have been summoned to Harper HQ; this is the start of the Harper Questline. This comes at a terrible time; we have 7-8 other quests pending, and now ... I am supposed to deal with being ambushed by hostile Harpers every time we try to go somewhere?? Pardon my French, but this is a steaming pile of bovine excrement.
.....Among other things, once the Harper quest line starts, you cannot remove Jeheira from the party, ever, no matter how much you want to recruit someone else for a specific mission. (OK, I do know how to work around this, but it's a blatant cheat). The clear intent of the game designers is that from that point on, Jaheria MUST be included in every mission, from then until the final confrontation with Irenicus. Are you serious?? What psycho decided this nonsense?
.....Mind you, the Harper quest line gives you a lot of experience, and I do want to complete it, but I'd like to decide the timing myself. I shouldn't be forced to undertake it against my will at a time not of my choosing. Well OK, I could understand the rationale here if I were actually romancing her; you don't kick your lover to the curb without consequences. But i'm not doing any such thing.
....As I said, I know how to work around this with a cheat, but I shouldn't have to resort to any such thing.
.....Among other things, once the Harper quest line starts, you cannot remove Jeheira from the party, ever, no matter how much you want to recruit someone else for a specific mission. (OK, I do know how to work around this, but it's a blatant cheat). The clear intent of the game designers is that from that point on, Jaheria MUST be included in every mission, from then until the final confrontation with Irenicus. Are you serious?? What psycho decided this nonsense?
.....Mind you, the Harper quest line gives you a lot of experience, and I do want to complete it, but I'd like to decide the timing myself. I shouldn't be forced to undertake it against my will at a time not of my choosing. Well OK, I could understand the rationale here if I were actually romancing her; you don't kick your lover to the curb without consequences. But i'm not doing any such thing.
....As I said, I know how to work around this with a cheat, but I shouldn't have to resort to any such thing.
0
Comments
But yeah, I think it is designed with the expectation of a mostly stable team.
If you can delay everything then what is the point of certain quests. Maybe it is good if you part ways with npcs if they want to do something else more important to themselves.
I only wish that the main quest also had a bit of a timer to it.
But on the other hand, the harper hold quest from Jaheira is quite long. There are strongholds with less dialogue.
Keldorn, Jan, Nalia and Anomen do have small personal quests, but they are barely worth mentioning, XP or loot-wise. If people temporarily picked up Jan back then, it was primarily to steal his armor, not for the opportunity of killing two githyanki (and perhaps an illithid too). Now with EE, where the armor is Jan-exclusive, recruiting him is almost pointless if you don't want him in your party permanently.
Jaheira is the exception here, both having such a developed (and rewarding) quest line, and then also forcing you to take her along until ToB lest she leaves for good.
Frankly, I do believe there is an oversight involved. At the end of her quest, you have re-established her into the ranks of the Harpers. So there shouldn't be any reason for her to be unable to leave. I think the writers forgot about resetting her back to default kick-out behavior.
....Among other things, this makes SoA much more challenging, and also enjoyable. The plotline is far more flexible, and offers a huge diversity of decisions as to what goals to prioritize. ToB is FAR more linear in it's plotline. Once I start playing that section of the saga, there are fewer NPC side quests to pursue, and I often do indeed settle on one specific party composition for the entire campaign. The main choices being good/neutral vs evil.
....Also note that one of the most epic side quests that ToB does have to offer involves Dorn's assault on Heave ... err, Elysium. Which is why I often end up doing an all Evil run in ToB. Dorn, Sarevok, Viconia, Edwin and Hexxat, along with yours truly, make an awesomely powerful crew.
.....But I could go the good route in ToB as well. Jaheira, Mazzy, Neera, Keldorn and Jan are pretty competent companions. Depends on my mood when I start the campaign. So far I have done 2 all evil runs and 1 good/neutral run.
....Again, I know how to cheat around the Jaheira problem in SoA, which means I can give those close-minded developers the middle finger. Screw you, bozos!
....Lastly, let me say that I have no intention of avoiding any combat with the Harpers. They want to mess with me, they can suffer the consequences. Die, you morons!
I think the hardest run, by far, is the shortest. Follow the main plot only, avoid all the distractions. You will hit each required combat at a proportionally lower level and with less stuff. As I pointedly just did in my "mediocre" run, at one point I did an extra run through the city doing side quests to *increase* my power.
Seriously, we do all the extra stuff because its fun to be more powerful, more capable, more dangerous. I think I would never do a minimalist run, I think it would be frustrating to be so weak and fragile to the end of the game. (Although I mostly ignore all the EE characters). Don't kid us that its harder that way!
And besides, I thinks its mostly fun to have the breathless rush of too much to do in the early game. Don't get me wrong, I do wish there were some built in breathers where there was less pressure for a period. I think lulls are actually a meaningful part of character development. But what do I know, BG2 is a classic for a reason. My thoughts would likely diminish the game.
And don't take any of this too seriously. We're just gamers yakking here.
Oh, I wouldn't keep Neera as my primary mage forever. But again, the Wild Mage quest gives a crapton of experience, as well as some items, so I never miss out on that run.