How does the game pick the companion in That Choice on your first playthrough? *spoilers*

[psionyx]

So I got to that moment in the main story where you have to make that choice about where to defend. I've since had to restart my first playthrough for other reasons, but I'm curious how the game chooses which companion? Obviously it's someone from the location you don't go to, but who is picked? Is it the person you've had the least rapport with? The most? Is it random? If I maxed out everyone by doing all their personal quests, who is picked?

[psionyx]

Originally posted by Raven:

As far as I can tell,

whoever you have the highest affinity with will always be the one who’s repair fails on the eye. They will stay behind on the eye and you have no influence over this.

whoever you have the second most affinity with will always be the one sent with you to go get the artefact from Petrov. Consequently, they will always be with you at the lodge when you receive the message that they eye has been attacked.

right but my confusion is, assuming you have everyone at the same affinity, how does it choose the #2? Like I get it that the game would choose my lover for The Eye, but if everyone else is 100 Affinity (just using an arbitrary number there), then what? That's my chin scratcher.

Originally posted by eMYNOCK:

same as taking barret to one of the temples

When is that mandatory? I don't recall having to take Barrett anywhere prior to the mission where you get attacked. In fact I never grouped with him at all on my very first run, until AFTER that mission. You don't have to give details if you want to avoid spoilers, but is it something mandatory AFTER that point? Because I can say for certain it's not mandatory before that point. The only 2 times I recall the game forcing someone on me, was Sam and Sarah.

[msy]

Originally posted by ktulu.of.rlyeh:

OK, so the way this works is that as you go through the game with the companions your affinity with them will build. I think there is a constant slow progression simply for travelling with them, but most affinity points will be accrued via actions that result in the "X liked/loved that" notification.

When you start the mission to upgrade The Eye, the game will check affinity levels. The person with the highest affinity will screw up their repair and stay behind to fix their mistake, while Vlad will send whoever has second highest affinity with you to retrieve the artifact from Petrov on The Scow. This decides the potential victims of High Price To Pay.

Then in High Price To Pay, after Noel's communication with Vlad, you have a choice to make: high-tail it to The Eye or stand guard at The Lodge. The former sees you rescue whoever is on The Eye, but the one you left guarding The Lodge dies, and vice versa for the latter.

Of course, since it is affinity levels that decide who ends up where, this can be manipulated if you want to make sure a specific person either lives or is sacrificed in favour of others.

As you spend time with your companions they'll pull you aside to discuss personal matters as they open up to you (Andreja's smuggling history and being Va'ruun, Sam's argument's with his ex over Cora etc.). I'm not sure if these conversations halt affinity building (they may, so holding off on them for someone you want to live could help) but the personal companion quest they eventually lead to does.

As such, if you have only completed one companion's personal quest, their affinity will be highest and they will be left at The Eye. If you have completed multiple personal quests and one commitment quest to marry a companion, your betrothed will be the one left at The Eye.

Thus, you can actually manage who gets picked for either role by managing how far through each personal questline you get. Want to make sure both Sarah and Sam survive? (they have kids to look after, after all) Run through Barrett's and Andreja's personal quests, and leave Sarah's and Sam's until after High Price To Pay.

Okay, thanks that explains a lot. So if you have a high affinity with someone that person will be at the Eye and if I want that NPC to live then I go to the Eye.

[dtt.scanner]

You definitely don't want to lose Barrett. He is the best ship companion of the lot. If it is a choice between Sarah and Barrett, save Barrett. Never let Coe die (often the second choice) because it will make a Starborn enemy of his daughter in NG+ variants.

[rufus_mcgayhee]

Im still waiting on the Serana mod. Shell be my main companion.

[psionyx]

Originally posted by dtt.scanner:

You definitely don't want to lose Barrett. He is the best ship companion of the lot. If it is a choice between Sarah and Barrett, save Barrett. Never let Coe die (often the second choice) because it will make a Starborn enemy of his daughter in NG+ variants.

nah imma let Barrett die. I'm not really worried about his ship stats.

[psionyx]

Originally posted by ktulu.of.rlyeh:

OK, so the way this works is that as you go through the game with the companions your affinity with them will build. I think there is a constant slow progression simply for travelling with them, but most affinity points will be accrued via actions that result in the "X liked/loved that" notification.

When you start the mission to upgrade The Eye, the game will check affinity levels. The person with the highest affinity will screw up their repair and stay behind to fix their mistake, while Vlad will send whoever has second highest affinity with you to retrieve the artifact from Petrov on The Scow. This decides the potential victims of High Price To Pay.

Then in High Price To Pay, after Noel's communication with Vlad, you have a choice to make: high-tail it to The Eye or stand guard at The Lodge. The former sees you rescue whoever is on The Eye, but the one you left guarding The Lodge dies, and vice versa for the latter.

Of course, since it is affinity levels that decide who ends up where, this can be manipulated if you want to make sure a specific person either lives or is sacrificed in favour of others.

As you spend time with your companions they'll pull you aside to discuss personal matters as they open up to you (Andreja's smuggling history and being Va'ruun, Sam's argument's with his ex over Cora etc.). I'm not sure if these conversations halt affinity building (they may, so holding off on them for someone you want to live could help) but the personal companion quest they eventually lead to does.

As such, if you have only completed one companion's personal quest, their affinity will be highest and they will be left at The Eye. If you have completed multiple personal quests and one commitment quest to marry a companion, your betrothed will be the one left at The Eye.

Thus, you can actually manage who gets picked for either role by managing how far through each personal questline you get. Want to make sure both Sarah and Sam survive? (they have kids to look after, after all) Run through Barrett's and Andreja's personal quests, and leave Sarah's and Sam's until after High Price To Pay.

so, just to clarify how i should juggle this. Since i've already completed both Sarah and Andreja's personal quests, with Sarah as a Friend, and Andreja as lover, but I want Barrett to be the one who drops. I should, upon finishing his personal quest (currently in progress), go and run with Sarah for a while and do things she doesn't like, to hopefully push her affinity down to 3rd place. Thus pushing Barrett into the 2nd slot, and thus putting him on the chopping block. That sound right?

[Vlad 254]

Originally posted by psionyx:

Originally posted by ktulu.of.rlyeh:

OK, so the way this works is that as you go through the game with the companions your affinity with them will build. I think there is a constant slow progression simply for travelling with them, but most affinity points will be accrued via actions that result in the "X liked/loved that" notification.

When you start the mission to upgrade The Eye, the game will check affinity levels. The person with the highest affinity will screw up their repair and stay behind to fix their mistake, while Vlad will send whoever has second highest affinity with you to retrieve the artifact from Petrov on The Scow. This decides the potential victims of High Price To Pay.

Then in High Price To Pay, after Noel's communication with Vlad, you have a choice to make: high-tail it to The Eye or stand guard at The Lodge. The former sees you rescue whoever is on The Eye, but the one you left guarding The Lodge dies, and vice versa for the latter.

Of course, since it is affinity levels that decide who ends up where, this can be manipulated if you want to make sure a specific person either lives or is sacrificed in favour of others.

As you spend time with your companions they'll pull you aside to discuss personal matters as they open up to you (Andreja's smuggling history and being Va'ruun, Sam's argument's with his ex over Cora etc.). I'm not sure if these conversations halt affinity building (they may, so holding off on them for someone you want to live could help) but the personal companion quest they eventually lead to does.

As such, if you have only completed one companion's personal quest, their affinity will be highest and they will be left at The Eye. If you have completed multiple personal quests and one commitment quest to marry a companion, your betrothed will be the one left at The Eye.

Thus, you can actually manage who gets picked for either role by managing how far through each personal questline you get. Want to make sure both Sarah and Sam survive? (they have kids to look after, after all) Run through Barrett's and Andreja's personal quests, and leave Sarah's and Sam's until after High Price To Pay.

so, just to clarify how i should juggle this. Since i've already completed both Sarah and Andreja's personal quests, with Sarah as a Friend, and Andreja as lover, but I want Barrett to be the one who drops. I should, upon finishing his personal quest (currently in progress), go and run with Sarah for a while and do things she doesn't like, to hopefully push her affinity down to 3rd place. Thus pushing Barrett into the 2nd slot, and thus putting him on the chopping block. That sound right?

Originally posted by Vlad 254:

Highest Affinity with you will be at the Eye, 2nd highest affinity will be at the Lodge with you. Both locations are going to be attacked (the eye first) so which one you defend is the big choice.