jack1974 wrote:
Troyen wrote:
Yeah, I just think it's still too big to have a meaningful conversation when you have groups larger than six. We want to interact with the characters in our party, but we end up liking some of them more than others.
But are you talking about the camp talk, or the general plot scenes? If the game had like 15 party members, but just 3-4 "leaders" who would always speak during the main plot, and the other 12 would talk only in the camp talk scenes would be good?
Perhaps some variables could be added to see which one you talk with more, and it could unlock some mini-scenes in the main plot (I'm not talking about Loren 2, just general brainstorming).
Kind of both. I'm not far enough into PSCD to post a fair review, but I like how the friendship dialogues involve more than one character. It helps build the world, show that your allies have lives and interests outside of dedicating their time to your mission, and works a lot better than the one-on-one camp discussions.
On the other hand, having everyone in every single plot discussion is too much. Too far the opposite direction, where it feels more like I'm in a lunchroom than a mission briefing because everyone needs to slip in a joke or a tangent to show their presence.
At the same time, I don't like only talking to the leaders. If I really like a character and they barely participate in the plot at all because they aren't one of the leader characters (Galina, Chambara), that would be unfortunate. Especially if I ended up not liking one of the other leaders (Jariel, Rei, that robot guy).
Ideally, I could pick my party and only talk to those people, but if that option is off the table...
What about balance? Most sequences include no more than five characters (exceptions for the really important ones, also 5 is an arbitrary number), but which five characters can vary depending on what you're doing plotwise. Maybe Draco doesn't have that much to say about the dwarven city, but he might have some comments when in the elven lands or stuff dealing with fire. Maybe Apolo speaks up when discussing history, human settlements, or when he wants to get on Myrth's nerves, but likewise doesn't have much to contribute during the dwarven area.
I kind of feel like the writers are obligated to include all the characters all the time plotwise, when perhaps spacing out appearances would help. The non-leader characters each get roughly even showtime in X scenes, but not all necessarily at the same times, and sometimes in different combinations to keep it interesting.
Depending on number of item slots I think I'll like this actually. No need to run a constant A-team because it's too bothersome to keep everyone else relevant. Sure I'll probably have a default setup but when I think that something else will work better, that will not be counteracted by that something else being five levels behind with half starter gear.
I don't know, I actually did keep everyone relevant and tried to rotate compositions not based on what was optimal but what would fit the story. And even then it got kind of tedious. It's cool for the first few characters - your main characters and primary combat players - but when it comes time to figure out if you want to upgrade the fourth mage versus the fifth thief...it doesn't really matter all that much anymore.
It sounds like equipment is simpler in Loren 2, but you still have a lot of attributes to assign, and the auto-picker honestly hasn't been very good thus far.