JPS Posted September 27, 2003 Share Posted September 27, 2003 Alright, I'm trying to get things sorted out here and I need a little help. If there are going to be different paths in the romance depending on how the player asts, how many paths tshould there be? The two obvious branches are pretty, well, obvious – Haer'Dalis eventually beginss to love the main character for who she is and HD becomes obsessed with the main character's heritage and potential for destruction, respectively. But somehow this doesn't seem quite enough. For one thing, the first path looks dangerously like the "good" alternative and the sencond path like the "evil" one, and I'd rather avoid that – there can certainly be evil characters who want to be loved for who they are, and good characters who want to use their divine heritage to gain power. So what I'd like to know is how various kinds of main characters would deal with their divine heritage, and how they would react to someone (yes, that would be Haer'Dalis ) who shows signs of a growing obsession with that heritage. It might be worth considering that in SoA (and we're currently only working on the SoA part, although it's certainly worth keeping ToB in mind) there's really nothing that suggests that the main character can in fact become a god (or a goddess, in this case). That doesn't mean that the thought could never have crossed the main character's mind, however, and for Haer'Dalis, who is presumably used to the outer planes, the thought of ascending to power would probably come quite naturally. JPS Link to comment
Barren Fischa Posted September 27, 2003 Share Posted September 27, 2003 I don't think we should plan a "good" and an "evil" path like for the Viconia romance, rather a "lawful" and "chaotic" path (like Anomen). What I mean is, in the "lawful" path we should include like a LG choice, a LE choice, a LN choice and a romance breaking choice, for each lovetalk. Same thing for the "chaotic" path. That's just my opinion Link to comment
Bibbi Posted September 28, 2003 Share Posted September 28, 2003 Yes, I see the romance as more lawful vs chaotic than good vs evil. I like your idea of the three alignment choices and a breaking choice, though will that mean there'll be 6 end results? we will want to keep this as simple as possible-at least the initial release for our own sakes, if nothing else. i see the romance taking several directions: haer becomes obsessed with PC, lack of real romance, PC can either encourage this (yes, worship me!) or not care (as long as i have someone to cuddle with, i don't care about motivation). we don't need seperate paths for these because it's the same result, despite differing PC views. we can incorporate various dialogue choices, but some of them will yield the same result even if their motives are different. in this path, haer doesn't change much, and the romance can either break, depending on how much attention the PC's given Haer, or it can continue as he serves as protector to "entropy incarnate" as he'll think of her. in this case, i could even see him breaking the romance because she is elevated to a higher position than a mere woman to woo, she becomes an elemental force (to Haer) that is above his reach. this is up for interpretation, of course... there could be another path where the PC actually pushes Haer to promote chaos, most likely the "evil" path, where she wants him to revel in destruction while forgetting the regrowth which occurs after. she'll try to twist him into a killing machine without reason, maybe even pushing him over the edge of sanity. i can especially see this if the PC doesn't necessarily like Haer but is screwing around with him because she can. kind of like an intentional CN Anomen romance, where she promotes the fall. in that case, Haer could turn CE (not enougn evil NPCs) and become almost a mindless lackey of the PC, giving all of his free will to her for her own uses. i'm not sure how receptive people would be to this one, but it's another option if we want to go down this road... another path would be the "good" path, which i would prefer to think of as the romantic path. the PC tries to convince haer to love her as a person and not a thing, consequentially ending his libertine ways and settling for one person (her). here, i think we'd focus on his past and reason out why he is the way he is and resolve some of the ghosts which haunt him. he's realize that the doomguard is only a placeholder in his life and he's not dealing with issues he should deal with. i'm not sure whether there should be an alignment shift here, i kind of always see him as chaotic, perhaps making him chaotic good...? he could stay CN but be a different person... then there's the option for the pc to merely have a fling with the tiefling, after which they both laugh and think back fondly to their closeness. i could see this as an alternative to saying "let's just be friends". i think at a certain point in the romance, perhaps after the lovetalk variable is 2, the pc will always have the option of saying "that was fun, but i have to go" and haer will agree and end the romance amiably (think raelis in the planar prison) this could happen on any romance track, it's just an alternative to the typical romance responses of "i'm getting in over my head" or "i don't think this'll work". it's more of a "i never intended this to last forever" to go along with these, i think it would be helpful to establish a chechpoint for each of these paths. i was thinking either having the Aerie triangle or a new npc added to provde some conflict: haer would start to try to romance someone else while in the initial stages of the PC romance. the pc would have to chose her viewpoint on the matter; she could say "fine with me as long as i can do the same" or "you must only romance me because i am above these other women you consort with" or "will being with that other woman really make you feel better?" depending on which path you want to take (corresponding to the three above choices). maybe after this event, haer will be put on one of the paths and you have to continue that path, ie you can't change your mind and decide you want him to change from a rationless killer to a warmhearted romantic... i think it's easiest if we limit his end results to three or so, and you can label them as good neutral and evil if you want. i'm sure some players will call them that and some won't, so there's no point in trying to really differentiate to avoid this... Link to comment
JPS Posted September 28, 2003 Author Share Posted September 28, 2003 Well, in that case I'd be more comfortable to work with a "romantic" path, an "obsessive" path and a "casual" path, and make room for both good and evil PCs within those branches. But any more detailed discussions should probably be kept to the workroom forum (although I must admit that it's hard to tell the difference, since it's the same three people posting in both forums... Generally, though, I guess that suggestions can be posted here and decisions get made there) JPS Link to comment
Bibbi Posted September 28, 2003 Share Posted September 28, 2003 yeah, i like your terms for it, i guess that's how i'd see them. and i guess we could have good/evil options for each, if you're willing to write that many choices for all the lovetalks Link to comment
Eyreequel Posted September 29, 2003 Share Posted September 29, 2003 i think its absolutly okay to just have three paths to go, it is more than enough that finally someone decided to make this mod i just wanted to voice my approval since there aren't many persons posting here, unfortunatly Link to comment
JPS Posted September 29, 2003 Author Share Posted September 29, 2003 Yay, we got a post from someone who isn't directly involved in making the mod! This shall forever be remembered as our first moment of public recognition Er... well, yeah... now I'll just have to add something serious as well, otherwise I'll just feel like I'm spamming.... let's see... ...you're right, of course. It's better to keep it simple and actually have a chance of finishing the mod than to try to include options for everyone and keep working on it forever. I'm just trying to make sure that I'm not letting my own preferences get in the way of anybody else's enjoyment of the mod. (yeah, that sounded good... and professional. Nobody will ever notice that I just made it up ) JPS Link to comment
Eyreequel Posted September 29, 2003 Share Posted September 29, 2003 Yay, we got a post from someone who isn't directly involved in making the mod! This shall forever be remembered as our first moment of public recognition Er... well, yeah... now I'll just have to add something serious as well, otherwise I'll just feel like I'm spamming.... let's see... ...you're right, of course. It's better to keep it simple and actually have a chance of finishing the mod than to try to include options for everyone and keep working on it forever. I'm just trying to make sure that I'm not letting my own preferences get in the way of anybody else's enjoyment of the mod. (yeah, that sounded good... and professional. Nobody will ever notice that I just made it up ) JPS oh yeah *nervous giggle* ahem ... maybe someone should make something like an advertisment for the mod or so ? *hum* i guess that noone really noticed that there is a new try at the haer romance ? *hopes she is right* Link to comment
JPS Posted September 29, 2003 Author Share Posted September 29, 2003 Yes, you're right. It's a bit early to actually start advertising, but a few posts in other forums to let people know we exist is a good idea. If nobody else does it I'll probably get around to it byt the end of the week, but in any case I think there should be a few threads that are more interesting to visitors first. Titles like "What is the Haer'Dalis romance project?" and "Official Bioware info" come to mind. You know, the kinds of topics that would already be here if I was thinking rationally JPS Link to comment
Eyreequel Posted September 29, 2003 Share Posted September 29, 2003 Yes, you're right. It's a bit early to actually start advertising, but a few posts in other forums to let people know we exist is a good idea. If nobody else does it I'll probably get around to it byt the end of the week, but in any case I think there should be a few threads that are more interesting to visitors first. Titles like "What is the Haer'Dalis romance project?" and "Official Bioware info" come to mind. You know, the kinds of topics that would already be here if I was thinking rationally JPS hum ... okay if you need anyone to make a poster or so here i am : Link to comment
Barren Fischa Posted September 29, 2003 Share Posted September 29, 2003 Actually, I already made an advertisement post at the Interplay boards (where I'm most active), and Icelus posted a link to this page on the UB forum... Link to comment
CamDawg Posted September 30, 2003 Share Posted September 30, 2003 Just to let visitors know, these three (Barren, Bibbi, and JPS) are very active in the workshop hammering out details and brainstorming. Work is progressing, even if the public forum looks a bit forlorn. Link to comment
MysticTempest Posted October 26, 2003 Share Posted October 26, 2003 What about if the PC decides to do whatever they must despite their heritage? How would HD react to someone trying to ignore the existence of the heritage that he is becoming so obsessive about? Link to comment
JPS Posted October 26, 2003 Author Share Posted October 26, 2003 Well, he won't become really obsessed with it unless you encourage him, so it shouldn't be a problem unless you first encourage him and then suddenly change your mind. And in that case you're probably just doing it to see what happens, and then you deserve everything that happens to you. JPS Link to comment
MysticTempest Posted October 26, 2003 Share Posted October 26, 2003 Teehee, very good point! In that case, I can't see why "a" and "b" shouldn't be enough then. The more complicated the romance is the longer it will take to be finished! (Impatience should be my middle name.) Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.