Playing co-op. How do you do it?
fpc1
Member Posts: 21
* WARNING: This topic contains spoilers of the game *
I finished the entire BG Saga last year and I had a lot of fun doing so. Now with the release of BG:EE, I was thinking about playing the game with my cousin, who finished BG a long time ago, but I see some issues with this idea.
The BG Saga is heavily focused on story and decision making. If the main character dies, the game is over and we need to reload. Therefore, the first decision to make is to decide who is going to be the Bhaalspawn. Sure, if it's me, then I can mold his personality with the help of my cousin and talk about our group choices, but in the end, someone has to make the final call, and has to control the character in combat.
Second, handling dialogues. We all know that BG has so much dialogues that it kinda feels like we are reading an e-book. That is one of the reasons why I enjoyed the game so much, but when we are playing co-op, how should one or more people read them? One of the issues is that english isn't our native language, and while we can read it just fine, it would be really strange if one of us read every sentence out loud. Lately I played RPGs with tons of decision making (Like Dragon Age 1 or KOTOR 1) and the majority of the time I just read the dialogues without vocalizing, then spoke to myself what dialogue option I would choose, translating that option in the process. When I'm not bored, I feel that this is a really fun thing to do, specially because the protagonist usually isn't voiced in these games, but the main problem here is how we would handle the conversations of the non-joinable NPCs.
Third, choosing NPCs. In RPGs with multiple joinable characters, I eventually rotate them depending of how I'm feeling, usually keeping one of them with me. In BG1, I would like to keep Imoen from the beginning to the end. So my idea here is that one person would "pick" a NPC that he wants to join to group, like Imoen, and ban a npc that they don't want to see in the group, like Minsc (Sorry Minsc lovers. I wouldn't want to bring him again), then change to another person until all 4 slots are filled. We can also adopt the idea of rotating NPCs, like bringing Xzar and Montaron to the Friendly Inn, then dispatching them afterwards.
Fourth, the combat. I was thinking about using the auto-pause feature at least every time that we find a trap, and when we find enemies. This last option is something quite new for me. I didn't use it in BG, but I used it in KOTOR 1 and I have been using it in KOTOR 2. In these games, it works fine, but I'm not sure how it would work in a co-op session of BG.
Five, a challenge. I finished the game using D&D rules, and I'm pretty sure that my cousin did the same. Considering that I finished the game recently (just 1 year ago), this gives me the urge to do something different. Maybe increase the difficulty or something like the Vow of Poverty Challenge (http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/181/index/7340258/1), but definitly not something like No-Reload.
So, before buying a copy of the game and regretting later, I came here to ask if you have managed to do a successful co-op session and how you handled these 5 topics. I also would like to know if you actually finished the game, because I have seen many co-op playthroughs where people stopped playing after 5-15 videos, which reinforces to me the idea that BG is meant to be played as a singleplayer game.
If you have managed to get this far, thanks for the patience.
I finished the entire BG Saga last year and I had a lot of fun doing so. Now with the release of BG:EE, I was thinking about playing the game with my cousin, who finished BG a long time ago, but I see some issues with this idea.
The BG Saga is heavily focused on story and decision making. If the main character dies, the game is over and we need to reload. Therefore, the first decision to make is to decide who is going to be the Bhaalspawn. Sure, if it's me, then I can mold his personality with the help of my cousin and talk about our group choices, but in the end, someone has to make the final call, and has to control the character in combat.
Second, handling dialogues. We all know that BG has so much dialogues that it kinda feels like we are reading an e-book. That is one of the reasons why I enjoyed the game so much, but when we are playing co-op, how should one or more people read them? One of the issues is that english isn't our native language, and while we can read it just fine, it would be really strange if one of us read every sentence out loud. Lately I played RPGs with tons of decision making (Like Dragon Age 1 or KOTOR 1) and the majority of the time I just read the dialogues without vocalizing, then spoke to myself what dialogue option I would choose, translating that option in the process. When I'm not bored, I feel that this is a really fun thing to do, specially because the protagonist usually isn't voiced in these games, but the main problem here is how we would handle the conversations of the non-joinable NPCs.
Third, choosing NPCs. In RPGs with multiple joinable characters, I eventually rotate them depending of how I'm feeling, usually keeping one of them with me. In BG1, I would like to keep Imoen from the beginning to the end. So my idea here is that one person would "pick" a NPC that he wants to join to group, like Imoen, and ban a npc that they don't want to see in the group, like Minsc (Sorry Minsc lovers. I wouldn't want to bring him again), then change to another person until all 4 slots are filled. We can also adopt the idea of rotating NPCs, like bringing Xzar and Montaron to the Friendly Inn, then dispatching them afterwards.
Fourth, the combat. I was thinking about using the auto-pause feature at least every time that we find a trap, and when we find enemies. This last option is something quite new for me. I didn't use it in BG, but I used it in KOTOR 1 and I have been using it in KOTOR 2. In these games, it works fine, but I'm not sure how it would work in a co-op session of BG.
Five, a challenge. I finished the game using D&D rules, and I'm pretty sure that my cousin did the same. Considering that I finished the game recently (just 1 year ago), this gives me the urge to do something different. Maybe increase the difficulty or something like the Vow of Poverty Challenge (http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/181/index/7340258/1), but definitly not something like No-Reload.
So, before buying a copy of the game and regretting later, I came here to ask if you have managed to do a successful co-op session and how you handled these 5 topics. I also would like to know if you actually finished the game, because I have seen many co-op playthroughs where people stopped playing after 5-15 videos, which reinforces to me the idea that BG is meant to be played as a singleplayer game.
If you have managed to get this far, thanks for the patience.
0
Comments
Who is the Bhaalspawn: Whoever wants to be. With the first friend, we were playing a good party, and each made one character. I made a Cavalier, and he made a Mage/Thief. It simply made more sense for my Cavalier to be the party leader, and it was easier to roll him with high charisma, than it would have been to roll a Mage/Thief with high charisma. Also we had both played through the game completely on our own, so we both knew what we were doing.
With the second friend, we were playing an evil party. I was playing an Assassin, and he was playing a Sorcerer. He hadn't played the game as much as I had, so we decided that I'd be the party leader, and "take charge" so to speak.
Handling dialogue: Playing the Good party, we generally picked the good options, though we share a similar sense of humor, so we picked funny options where applicable. For playing the Evil party, we had a great time just picking the nastiest dialogue options we were presented with.
I mean, these two people I played with are some of my oldest friends. We tend to be similar, so it was only rarely when we were presented with dialogue options, where one person wanted to pick one, and the other wanted to pick another.
Picking NPCs: Each player made one character, and then each player picked two NPCs. That's it. Whoever you wanted to take, we'd make it work. My two friends and I picked NPCs applicable to our party. For example, in the Good playthrough, I picked Ajantis and Coran. My friend picked Minsc and Dynaheir. Neither of us picked Shar-teel or Viconia, because that would not have worked out in a Good party, due to them being Evil characters.
I mean, you could pick Evil characters if you want, but... that kind of self-sabotage seems strange, to me.
Combat: We didn't like auto-pause. Instead, we just both paused the game when we wanted a pause. Every now and then we'd have a situation where I'd pause the game, and my friend would immediately unpause it, because he was trying to pause it too. When that happened, one of us would just pause it again. No real problem.
Challenge: Meh. I found playing with a friend made the game far more enjoyable, and didn't need any artificial challenges to spice it up.
I'm not sure if you were really asking for any advice or anything, since you seem to know what you want to do, more or less... so I hope my experience helps somehow.