Questions about (Local) COOP, and NPC Companions

[Slayer Seraph]

Me and my brother started playing DOS2 recently, on local splitscreen coop. We both have 1 party memeber each. And each recruited 2 different origin characters.
We also play origin characters Loshe and Fane.

Currently Red Prince tied to me Loshe. And Sybil to his Fane.
Now since we don't always have time to play together, I thought I'd pop into the game when alone and he's away and do slower, more micro managing stuff like buying, selling, tweaking characters and stealing etc.
1. Can I log into the save file, without signing into his controller and profile. So it won't be split screen, and all companions will follow me (full control of the 4 member party) - without breaking the game and companion relationship with the original recruiter, their individual story arc progression and so on?

In other words, I log in a single player, control all 4 members including his Fane character. Walk around town, steal, buy, sell, talk etc. Then a day later he logs-in and we play split screen again. Would that mess up companion and individual quests / story arc / relationship etc ?

2. We are currently using only 1 mod - that's Bartering Tweaks (and the Achieve unlocker). I enabled every feature except shared NPC attitude. Not sure if it's recommended or not- since we noticed that an NPC that disliked my brother (was at minus attitude toward him) and positive toward me - instead of bringing the attitude UP on my brother's profile - it brought the attitude DOWN to all my party members.
The mod description must be wrong then - because it says it will bring the entire party's attitude UP - but instead it brings everyone DOWN...?! Does that make sense? (seems to share the lowest attitude value)

3. There's this squirrel on a skeletal cat following me, and a black cat following my brother. We are deep into Fort Joy and there's nothing new about them
What's the deal with them?
Especially that Black Cat. I have pet pal and all he says is "what's going on?!". And he's been following my brother for many hours now.
Not that we object, we love cats, but I wonder if there's a story here and a way to unlock it?

Also regarding the black cat - when we reach the fort gate (the inner gate) 1 guard starts shooting crossbow bolts at the black cat until he kills it! We can't kill the guard because it's in the middle of the town. What's the deal behind this? Or is it a bug? Anyone else encountered it?

4. Regarding companions again: We didn't know how it works, and accidentally recruited the wrong NPCs for each player. I wonder if we can change the "original recruiter" now that it was settled, and "restart" the relationship / story arc / quest on the other main player - or is that a bad idea?
Can we dismiss one character and have the other recruit her/him, then it will have a new bond?
We already progressed in the Red Prince, Ifan and Sybil's quests (in Fort Joy).

5. Is it safe to swap party members, if there's an ongoing companion story / relationship going on? For example we want to do Ifan's part, then Beast... and then back to Ifan.

6. Is it true that you have to pick the final companions for the rest of the game by the end of Fort Joy? Can you not switch and use them later afterwards?

[Chaoslink]

Yes. The game doesn't remember who played what, just how the characters interact. His character is a "player" character and cannot be talked to or dismissed. I personally play the game just like you, only without the other person. I play solo, but make a second character by joining my own game. This allows me to control both characters as well as have relationships between those characters develop independently.

Everything will stay as you want it, you're safe to do as you like without him present.

[Slayer Seraph]

Edited my original post for more questions.

[Slayer Seraph]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Yes. The game doesn't remember who played what, just how the characters interact. His character is a "player" character and cannot be talked to or dismissed. I personally play the game just like you, only without the other person. I play solo, but make a second character by joining my own game. This allows me to control both characters as well as have relationships between those characters develop independently.

Everything will stay as you want it, you're safe to do as you like without him present.

Edited my original post.

I just tried to enter a game without logging in the other player/controller (using only 1 controller), but there's a problem!
I noticed Red Prince follows me. Sybil doesn't, I can chain her however. But Fane (my brother's player character) won't follow me no matter what. I can't click X on him and can't have him chained. Can't access Party Management either.
So, what... is he stuck behind?
I can control him manually, but that's inconvenient and I can't have the whole 4 player group move together...

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Ransom Seraph:

Edited my original post for more questions.

I was aware that was in progress XD

2. No idea, its a mod. You'd have to post on the mod page about it and see what the author might say.

3. Just keep going (and avoid the main gate into the fort!). You'll have the squirrel following you all game long. The cat however, get him out of the fort and you'll learn more. Assuming your brother has the ability to speak to him as well, since that's who he follows.

4. If you dismiss then recruit the character with whichever main character you want them to build relations with, it should transfer the "ownership" of that companion too. I don't think the initial recruiter matters, but I could be mistaken.

5. Yes. And no. You will have full access to swapping them in act one. As soon as act one ends, you'll find yourself on a ship and you'll have to figure out how to get the ship moving. ONCE YOU DO, you'll be given a prompt telling you that you cannot return once you proceed. This is the final transition point between acts one and two. Have your party set by then. Once you proceed past that point, you will lose whatever companions aren't actively in your party. Clear the others of their gear and inventories as they will be lost once you proceed.

Should you lose your companions after act two (yes, they can leave you) you can hire mercenaries from the ship. They're pretty much blank characters so you probably want to avoid that, but they're there if you need them.

[Chaoslink]

You should be able to chain him to the others. If not, try reloading again.

[Slayer Seraph]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Originally posted by Ransom Seraph:

Edited my original post for more questions.

I was aware that was in progress XD

2. No idea, its a mod. You'd have to post on the mod page about it and see what the author might say.

3. Just keep going (and avoid the main gate into the fort!). You'll have the squirrel following you all game long. The cat however, get him out of the fort and you'll learn more. Assuming your brother has the ability to speak to him as well, since that's who he follows.

4. If you dismiss then recruit the character with whichever main character you want them to build relations with, it should transfer the "ownership" of that companion too. I don't think the initial recruiter matters, but I could be mistaken.

5. Yes. And no. You will have full access to swapping them in act one. As soon as act one ends, you'll find yourself on a ship and you'll have to figure out how to get the ship moving. ONCE YOU DO, you'll be given a prompt telling you that you cannot return once you proceed. This is the final transition point between acts one and two. Have your party set by then. Once you proceed past that point, you will lose whatever companions aren't actively in your party. Clear the others of their gear and inventories as they will be lost once you proceed.

Should you lose your companions after act two (yes, they can leave you) you can hire mercenaries from the ship. They're pretty much blank characters so you probably want to avoid that, but they're there if you need them.

3. Damn, my brother doesn't have Pet Pal. We figured it's best to not waste more Social Skills points on it and that only 1 player will have it. Is that a problem for its story? The cat chose to follow my brother, just like the squirrel picked me. We didn't have a say in this. Would you recommend we get Pet Pal on my bro's character as well? (Social Points are rare are they not?)
We are still very much newbies to the game, so we don't know how skills/talents/points are received here and how to invest properly.

So there's a story behind the guard attacking the black cat inexplicably (don't spoil it to me)? This isn't a bug in the game's script?

4. When I tried to talk to Sybil she would be rude and say she won't talk to anyone but the one who recruited her originally. We haven't tried to dismiss her and have me recruit her.
She already killed the 1st dreamer on the beach. And Red Prince already talked to him too.
I don't know if her story / conversation history / quest with the character will be transferred.
For example - if she dislikes/likes my brother due to certain dialogue choices. - will that attitude transfer as well?
Oh - speaking of their BOND - where can you see the bond affinity stat ?

Btw - how do you find them after your remove them from the party?



We are kinda torn deciding which companions we will keep for the rest of the game. I really like Ifan - has an air of mystery to him, but the Elf is also unique and can eat ....body parts (yuck...) which is something none of us can. I like the Red Prince too. Wish you could have a group of 6.

[Slayer Seraph]

We also thought about lending party members and basically swapping between them, but the game says it will suspend their story arcs. So we are afraid we will MISS OUT conversations, quest developments and other bond/relationship moments with the original owner.

[Slayer Seraph]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

You should be able to chain him to the others. If not, try reloading again.

Tested this again - same thing. Red Prince and Sybil can be highlighted in white and have "talk" above their heads. But Fane can't be selected or targeted. No white highlight. No Talk either -so I can't talk to him at all when playing solo?
There's no obvious means to chain him either, he just stands there.

[Chaoslink]

3. Not necessarily. You might still get the translated dialogue anyway. Otherwise, its just learning more about the cat. The guard shooting him is normal, but that's just a superstition about black cats and bad luck. Nothing else to that.

4. No, anything the other player did does not transfer. Only the player character that recruited the companion can dismiss them as well. No idea where to see the bond stat as it used to be displayed and isn't now.

Once dismissed, they return to where you recruited them until you've escaped the fort. Once you have escaped the fort (some music plays and you get those exclamation marks above everyone's heads), then they'll go to the camp you find out in the swamps with the other friendlies. This will happen even if you have not discovered that camp yet.

There are mods to allow you to take them all. However, the game isn't balanced for this and it'll be absurdly easy. They companions you lose still have a part in the story too, so you won't see that if you use the mod.
Don't expect to see everything in one playthrough. You can't. There are too many options and paths to take. You'd be lucky to see most of it in three full and diverse runs.

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Ransom Seraph:

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

You should be able to chain him to the others. If not, try reloading again.

Tested this again - same thing. Red Prince and Sybil can be highlighted in white and have "talk" above their heads. But Fane can't be selected or targeted. No white highlight. No Talk either -so I can't talk to him at all when playing solo?
There's no obvious means to chain him either, he just stands there.

Just click and drag the portraits. I dunno how a controller does it as the game is incredibly tedious on a controller. You cannot talk to him though. Same as when you're playing together. Note how both your characters have the crown on their portraits even if he's not in the game. This prevents you from dismissing that character and losing them in any sort of way (companions killed outside your party cannot be resurrected, this was probably an anti-grief mechanic for multiplayer sessions).

[Slayer Seraph]

Originally posted by Chaoslink:

Originally posted by Ransom Seraph:

Tested this again - same thing. Red Prince and Sybil can be highlighted in white and have "talk" above their heads. But Fane can't be selected or targeted. No white highlight. No Talk either -so I can't talk to him at all when playing solo?
There's no obvious means to chain him either, he just stands there.

Just click and drag the portraits. I dunno how a controller does it as the game is incredibly tedious on a controller. You cannot talk to him though. Same as when you're playing together. Note how both your characters have the crown on their portraits even if he's not in the game. This prevents you from dismissing that character and losing them in any sort of way (companions killed outside your party cannot be resurrected, this was probably an anti-grief mechanic for multiplayer sessions).

You are right - playing with controllers is a lot more tedious and clunky than it should ever be. The UI and controls are quite horrible. Even after hours of trying to get used to it, it's still really bad and we make mistakes all the times or get stuck in hotbars or actions we didn't want to do.

My biggest gripe with it, is that you CAN'T use the mouse for other actions while playing with a controller! This is the first game in the world, ever - that doesn't allow you to control with both gamepads and mouse and keyboard! I mean WHY? Why not let me use the mouse for basic actions and stuff - like chaining, inventory management, using menus and so on ?

By the way - I figured out how to do it with a controller, and it's terribly clunky:
You need to click on the L3 (stick) and then aim the sparkling dot at the character you want - and press X - CHAIN.
This is the ONLY way to select a main "crowned" character. (noticed the crown btw).
It's also how you aim at specific stuff and zoom - for moving, targeting and so on. It's really uncomfortable and tedious, but we don't have an alternative...

They should have really patched the overall controls and make them smoother, while also letting us use M&K and controllers simultaneously.

[Raze_Larian]

Hold the left trigger, use the left stick to select characters and Y to join/split.

[Slayer Seraph]

Originally posted by Raze_Larian:

Hold the left trigger, use the left stick to select characters and Y to join/split.

Thank you, I'll give it shot next time I play.
You are doing the developers?
It would be very helpful if you give us options to use both 2 controllers AND Mouse (and keyboard) SIMULTANEOUSLY. So we can do some basic actions, menu navigation, inventory sorting, settings, see floating tooltip text (very important) and so on!
It's the only game ever that doesn't allow using both controller and m&k.

There are many missing texts that are only revealed by using mouse - like floating over innate skills in character creation.

It's just more natural, more intuitive and less tedious and clunky this way.
Especially putting items in bags, moving stuff, etc.

Also, there's no easy way to zoom in while in shared screen (no split) in local coop - on contract. Or is there?

[Chaoslink]

I think the only reason KB/M is restricted when using controllers is because the UI is entirely different depending on which you use. There's probably some sort of coded limitation somewhere in there. Maybe there's a workaround, maybe not, but my guess is that it'd be a lot more work to change than it might sound.

[Raze_Larian]

No, AFAIK there is no way to zoom the camera in split screen co-op when the screen is joined.