Multiplayer conversations

[Gilgamesh]

let me preface this by saying I'm loving the game. The mechanics are fun and feel very dnd. Pushing people off ships and cliffs is extremely satisfying. Ended up skipping a halfling off a railing into a ruin wall and down the stairs. So good.

That being said. Multiplayer conversations are absolutely awful. I know I made a similar post yesterday but I didn't realize HOW bad it was until my first 4 man game.

We build a balanced party to succeed on a range of checks with different backgrounds. And are immediatly punished for it by the conversation system. If someone doesn't build a charisma main character you're going to get bad results in conversations. Even if your charisma built warlock buddy is RIGHT there, you with your -1 modifier walked through the door first.

There's no way to pass the conversation off to an ally. Which ends up with a 4 player game becoming "follow the charisma character so you don't trigger conversations by accident and never get to engage in the story telling part of the game yourself". Anyone not charisma built is relegated to watching cutscenes instead of participating. Its EXTREMELY boring.

This one part totally ruins the dnd experience for me, and I can see it being a major point that ruins the reputation of an otherwise great game.

[Makoto Naegi]

Not just multiplayer, but in single player also. It really should take your highest skill/stat among your party and roll with that. Otherwise you might as well make your character a walking mouthpiece and build the others for combat exclusively. There should be some exceptions though, like when you encounter the Illithid and he targets a specific character with some mental checks. In that case it should be just the character being targeted.

[Aphy]

This is extremely true, i hated this same thing about the divinity original sin 2 dialog. I hope you gave feedback to them about this so they can know about this. The conversations should be accessible by ALL party members the conversations are super messy.

[Ka-mai19]

Originally posted by Makoto Naegi:

Not just multiplayer, but in single player also. It really should take your highest skill/stat among your party and roll with that. Otherwise you might as well make your character a walking mouthpiece and build the others for combat exclusively. There should be some exceptions though, like when you encounter the Illithid and he targets a specific character with some mental checks. In that case it should be just the character being targeted.

I kind of agree and disagree with this, particularly when it comes to conversations. If your lead character isn't very charismatic it makes sense that you'd have a designated smooth-talker to handle dialogue.

Very similar to tabletop D&D where you let certain players take the lead on conversations if they've got the stats for it.

Otherwise you'd have to get used to other characters consistently interrupting you in conversations or just automatically switching to the character with the highest stat within that category.

Realistically speaking it also doesn't make much sense. If a group of underage friends and I try to convince a bouncer to let us into a bar I won't magically get the charisma of my most charismatic friend if I try to persuade the bouncer. I'd just let my most charismatic friend take charge.

I do agree, though, since as a gameplay mechanic it can get very tedious to get successful persuasion rolls if your character isn't built for it.

[Gilgamesh]

Originally posted by caev37:

Originally posted by Makoto Naegi:

Not just multiplayer, but in single player also. It really should take your highest skill/stat among your party and roll with that. Otherwise you might as well make your character a walking mouthpiece and build the others for combat exclusively. There should be some exceptions though, like when you encounter the Illithid and he targets a specific character with some mental checks. In that case it should be just the character being targeted.

I kind of agree and disagree with this, particularly when it comes to conversations. If your lead character isn't very charismatic it makes sense that you'd have a designated smooth-talker to handle dialogue.

Very similar to tabletop D&D where you let certain players take the lead on conversations if they've got the stats for it.

Otherwise you'd have to get used to other characters consistently interrupting you in conversations or just automatically switching to the character with the highest stat within that category.

Realistically speaking it also doesn't make much sense. If a group of underage friends and I try to convince a bouncer to let us into a bar I won't magically get the charisma of my most charismatic friend if I try to persuade the bouncer. I'd just let my most charismatic friend take charge.

I do agree, though, since as a gameplay mechanic it can get very tedious to get successful persuasion rolls if your character isn't built for it.

Yeah really it should just let you pass the conversation off to a party member that's listening(MP) or that's nearby(SP). It'd be more natural to pass it off and have your charismatic character talk.

[ZombiePanda]

I want to add another MP cutscene complaint to this pile. Your friend can trigger an event, or a conversation while you're in Narnia. Happened to us.. I started to sprint across the map to try and get to him in time, and when I got there I had missed everything but the last 3 words. I feel like I'm missing massive amounts of plot this way. Getting into conversations that are halfway done. I'm finding myself asking "What did he/she say?" all the time.

[The Regulator]

Solasta handles this fairly well but it is quite different from BG3 converstations. All characters nearby should be IN the conversation. It makes it very frustrating to play in multiplayer.

[KingOfFriedChicken]

Originally posted by Makoto Naegi:

Not just multiplayer, but in single player also. It really should take your highest skill/stat among your party and roll with that. Otherwise you might as well make your character a walking mouthpiece and build the others for combat exclusively. There should be some exceptions though, like when you encounter the Illithid and he targets a specific character with some mental checks. In that case it should be just the character being targeted.

You know an option to have this on or off might work, instead of having a pass it off system and stat share system for nearby players would work well. If you get to far from the party your on your own with your 9 charisma but if silver tongue is nearby i see no reason not to allow this.

[Ronin Gamer]

Can't really agree with this on a base game level personally. The way the stats are supposed to work and what they are meant to do, if your main character has ♥♥♥♥ Charisma then you shouldn't have an easy time doing those checks unless you have a different member of your party that does have good charisma do the talking instead.
With that said, Larian in Original Sin 2 added that effect into the game where it would take whoever had the best stat score in certain situations and use that, think it was for buying and selling. If it's not the first time you're playing the game, then sure have at it! Personally my first main playthrough I'm going to stick to what the stats mean and if I feel the need to swap which character is talking I will.

[Gilgamesh]

Originally posted by Ronin Gamer:

Can't really agree with this on a base game level personally. The way the stats are supposed to work and what they are meant to do, if your main character has ♥♥♥♥ Charisma then you shouldn't have an easy time doing those checks unless you have a different member of your party that does have good charisma do the talking instead.
With that said, Larian in Original Sin 2 added that effect into the game where it would take whoever had the best stat score in certain situations and use that, think it was for buying and selling. If it's not the first time you're playing the game, then sure have at it! Personally my first main playthrough I'm going to stick to what the stats mean and if I feel the need to swap which character is talking I will.

That's the problem, you can't swap the characters. A lot of cutscenes trigger whoever is closest, and they aren't repeatable rolls. Meaning it's all RNG for who makes the roll, unless you've already played the game.

[callsigndark]

thats what adds fun to the game. Not succeeding on every char roll, so you have to approach the quests differently.

[Gilgamesh]

Originally posted by callsigndark:

thats what adds fun to the game. Not succeeding on every char roll, so you have to approach the quests differently.

You won't succeed on every roll anyways, even with characters who are built for it. You just won't fail every roll. DnD is a party game, where each character adds their talents to whatever task the team is doing.

BG3 does not do this.

[Ronin Gamer]

Originally posted by Gilgamesh:

Originally posted by Ronin Gamer:

Can't really agree with this on a base game level personally. The way the stats are supposed to work and what they are meant to do, if your main character has ♥♥♥♥ Charisma then you shouldn't have an easy time doing those checks unless you have a different member of your party that does have good charisma do the talking instead.
With that said, Larian in Original Sin 2 added that effect into the game where it would take whoever had the best stat score in certain situations and use that, think it was for buying and selling. If it's not the first time you're playing the game, then sure have at it! Personally my first main playthrough I'm going to stick to what the stats mean and if I feel the need to swap which character is talking I will.

That's the problem, you can't swap the characters. A lot of cutscenes trigger whoever is closest, and they aren't repeatable rolls. Meaning it's all RNG for who makes the roll, unless you've already played the game.

Then you reload. This isn't an unfixable situation. Reload and walk in with the character you want, or just use the character that got hit with it. I'm not personally going to cry about that fact, but have fun doing so if you wish.

[Gilgamesh]

Originally posted by Ronin Gamer:

Originally posted by Gilgamesh:

That's the problem, you can't swap the characters. A lot of cutscenes trigger whoever is closest, and they aren't repeatable rolls. Meaning it's all RNG for who makes the roll, unless you've already played the game.

Then you reload. This isn't an unfixable situation. Reload and walk in with the character you want, or just use the character that got hit with it. I'm not personally going to cry about that fact, but have fun doing so if you wish.

yeah. Lets force people to save scum IF they saved anyhere close to the scenario, instead of just adding a feature that swaps the character in conversation...

Literally a no loss scenario for them to add this.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Avoiding save scumming wherever possible will always make the game better. In a crpg you won't be able to eliminate all save scumming, but the less of it there is, the better.

[Squiggles]

Yeah I hate that you can't have other characters join the conversations so much. I'd be fine with having some locked to whoever gets addressed first where it makes sense. Like if talking to a lord for the first time and they only want to speak with "you".

Otherwise though, the idea that everyone just stares blankly as, for example. The history of dwarves are being talked about. With a human who knows nothing leading the conversation. Yet the dwarf standing 5 feet away says nothing and somehow it leads to a combat or locked quest.

Its so dumb and honestly killed my mood to even play the game after it happened a few times. Really needs to be a feature.