Friendship dialogues?

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As you can see in the latest DA news post, in BioWare forums they're having a discussion on that. So far, BioWare have made romance NPCs with non-romance variants for same-gender PCs and a stop point for opposite gender PCs who won't romance. As a result, characters like Anomen or Carth seem gay to many male players and to many female players, there's something strange about the female romance options.

Characters who aren't romantic options for any gender are either special (Imoen or Sarevok who are siblings) or marginally relevant (Minsc who's very special), so there's nothing like friendship dialogue per se, just banters.

At least that's what people think. For me, for instance, Bastila romance was a great example of something more than just romance in a romance. Jaheira romance also didn't seem shallow and fixated on getting to know one another better in "this sense".

However, I might have a more willing and flexible imagination that it's normally the case and invent things in my head, linking them seemlessly with the material that is psychically there. The general impression, it seems, is not in favour of such dialogue scripting as it's been so far.

A fact is, as well, that we haven't really had friendship-oriented dialogue. Perhaps it would be nice to see some. Another interesting possibility that opens here is switching to and from romance. Instead of cliche scenarios where you save the damsel and she falls in love with you (nothing wrong with those, actually - and they aren't so unrealistic as people would think, either), from time to time we could get something pretty much non-standard going on between a man and a woman. Something less definite, less clear. More abstract, open, if somewhat chaotic. Preferably not totally scripted, but open-ended - at least with several options according to choices made in dialogues throughout the game. It would be nice to be able to create different ties with the same NPCs each time you play, although I realise scripting that would have to take loads of time.

As for friendships totally devoid of romantic overtones, that would also be a welcome addition. I'm in doubt as to whether it's at all possible between a man and a woman, but some friendly interaction with people of your gender would be nice to have. Don't you think?

 

Isn't the normal banter (eg: Jan Jansen VS male PC) considered friendship dialogues. How more friendlier can it get without getting well......gay. Do you mean more intimate questions really character related and feeling oriented?

What I would like to see is a dialogue system (like baldur's gate with humerous and meaningful banter) with the ability to let the player start a conversation. With a topic which could be relevant to the quest or situation (keywords eg: fallout, larry) or feelings towards each other. That would mean different dialogues for different situations (keywords: funny, anger, hate etc.)