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Post by Nightscrawl on Sept 30, 2018 22:11:19 GMT
On a recent DAO run where I played out my new canon, I decided to forego gifts. The only exception I made to this were those that came up naturally in conversation. For example, Leliana mentions her fondness for nugs if she's with you when you meet the nug wrangler NPC in Orzammar; I gave her Schmooples because I already knew about it. In an opposite example, I never got high enough with Alistair for him to mention his mother's amulet, so I just left it where it lay in Eamon's desk.
The friendship meter slowly progressed with a few of them, but not all. I didn't get high enough with Oghren, Sten, Morrigan, or Alistiar for them to give me their personal quest (Zevran not recruited). I ended up being pretty close with Leliana, Wynne, and Shale; my girls .
In the end, the friendships felt more natural and real and I enjoyed them quite a bit. It meant much more to see Leliana speak of my Warden fondly in DAI after that experience.
I did the same in DAA as well. I also did this in DA2, although there are fewer gifts and you can't engage in "gift spam" as you can in DAO; I didn't bother collecting or giving gifts to those companions I wasn't close with, as if the thought didn't occur to my character that whoever might like whichever item.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2018 12:08:18 GMT
Except for the first playthrough, I've always played that way too. As you said, it makes the friendships more natural. However, in my last playthrough, I tried to get the friendship meter high enough with everyone.I usually don't recruit Zevran tho; I don't trust him.
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Post by ArcadiaGrey on Oct 1, 2018 17:01:16 GMT
Except for the first playthrough, I've always played that way too. As you said, it makes the friendships more natural. However, in my last playthrough, I tried to get the friendship meter high enough with everyone.I usually don't recruit Zevran tho; I don't trust him. I felt the same way about Zev in my first 2 runs. Then after hearing how great his romance was, I tried to put my doubts to one side and made a plucky dwarf with a thing for elves. She flirted like a champ, loved assassinating people, and they got on like a house on fire. It was a lot of fun, and I found out that Zev is actually amazing.
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Post by boxofscreaming on Oct 2, 2018 4:37:39 GMT
This I what I mainly prefer too. It does feel a bit weird just suddenly giving Morrigan jewellery if I don't get on with her and I'm not trying to romance her.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2018 19:57:28 GMT
Except for the first playthrough, I've always played that way too. As you said, it makes the friendships more natural. However, in my last playthrough, I tried to get the friendship meter high enough with everyone.I usually don't recruit Zevran tho; I don't trust him. I felt the same way about Zev in my first 2 runs. Then after hearing how great his romance was, I tried to put my doubts to one side and made a plucky dwarf with a thing for elves. She flirted like a champ, loved assassinating people, and they got on like a house on fire. It was a lot of fun, and I found out that Zev is actually amazing. Yeah, his romance is awsome indeed; I tried it once, but he is not my cup of tea. I just don't like his personality.
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Post by ArcadiaGrey on Oct 2, 2018 20:22:04 GMT
I felt the same way about Zev in my first 2 runs. Then after hearing how great his romance was, I tried to put my doubts to one side and made a plucky dwarf with a thing for elves. She flirted like a champ, loved assassinating people, and they got on like a house on fire. It was a lot of fun, and I found out that Zev is actually amazing. Yeah, his romance is awsome indeed; I tried it once, but he is not my cup of tea. I just don't like his personality. Oh okay, I got the impression you always slit his throat.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2018 21:59:12 GMT
Yeah, his romance is awsome indeed; I tried it once, but he is not my cup of tea. I just don't like his personality. Oh okay, I got the impression you always slit his throat. Nope. I just let him go and forget about him.
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LadyofNemesis
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Post by LadyofNemesis on Oct 10, 2018 19:53:59 GMT
Hm...no gifts...I'll have to try that for my new playthrough
I always tend to give all the gifts I can find to the characters because...they are there? might be interesting to see which characters my Warden can get close with if I don't bother picking up every bauble I come across
also I need to rotate my parties more...in any of the games...I found out in my last DA 2 playthrough that my party got a lot more varied because I didn't bring Varric along everywhere I told myself...which characters can afford hanging around with me 24/7 that don't have a day job? (that pretty much narrowed it down to a few, but it was a lot of fun )
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Post by Nightscrawl on Oct 10, 2018 22:50:25 GMT
which characters can afford hanging around with me 24/7 that don't have a day job? This is my primary RP reason for not using Avaline. It just seems silly to me that she's available when she's supposed to be doing assigned guard duties (Act 1), and then as captain (Acts 2, 3). I use similar logic in not walking around with Merrill or Anders, especially in the Gallows. I even left Bethany at home on a couple of occasions. Of course, my Invisible Unequipped Weapons mod helps with the mage thing -- "Huh? I'm not a mage! No staff or anything! " I always tend to give all the gifts I can find to the characters because...they are there? Unless it's something the person has specifically mentioned, my reasoning is that I'm not likely to give a random shiny to someone I'm not that close with. For example, I didn't give Merrill the halaa statue, Anders the Tevinter amulet, or Isabela the ship in a bottle in DA2. I ran across these things and my character just thought, "That's nice/interesting," and left it, having not thought of whichever person on seeing it, as he wasn't close with whoever. On seeing the Tethras signet ring on a random merchant, he went, "Wtf, isn't that Varric's family's crest??" and bought it. In DA2, once Bethany was gone, I spent most of Act 2 and 3 without a full party for RP reasons; I only brought along Varric and Fenris.
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Post by LadyofNemesis on Oct 11, 2018 14:13:41 GMT
which characters can afford hanging around with me 24/7 that don't have a day job? This is my primary RP reason for not using Avaline. It just seems silly to me that she's available when she's supposed to be doing assigned guard duties (Act 1), and then as captain (Acts 2, 3). I use similar logic in not walking around with Merrill or Anders, especially in the Gallows. I even left Bethany at home on a couple of occasions. Of course, my Invisible Unequipped Weapons mod helps with the mage thing -- "Huh? I'm not a mage! No staff or anything! " I always tend to give all the gifts I can find to the characters because...they are there? Unless it's something the person has specifically mentioned, my reasoning is that I'm not likely to give a random shiny to someone I'm not that close with. For example, I didn't give Merrill the halaa statue, Anders the Tevinter amulet, or Isabela the ship in a bottle in DA2. I ran across these things and my character just thought, "That's nice/interesting," and left it, having not thought of whichever person on seeing it, as he wasn't close with whoever. On seeing the Tethras signet ring on a random merchant, he went, "Wtf, isn't that Varric's family's crest??" and bought it. In DA2, once Bethany was gone, I spent most of Act 2 and 3 without a full party for RP reasons; I only brought along Varric and Fenris. yeah see...this is one part I find a bit strange with Fenris, if you for example bring him along during Aveline's Act 1 quest and he's the one making the comment about the 'seal of the Viscount and city accounts'...how would he know if he can't read? At the time Hawke would have yet to give him the Book of Shartan for him to make the comment about not being able to read because Danarius never taught him to do so and he doesn't meet Sebastian until Act 2 when he makes the comment about 'Danarius had no desire to teach his slaves anything that made them think they're worthy beings.'
which would include reading...
in my own games I also tend to not use Aveline as much, out of all the companions she has a respectable job in that same vein, Anders would also be mostly at his clinic to be fair the only companions (imo) that can afford to be with Hawke 24/7 are Bethany/Carver, Isabela, Merrill and Fenris
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Post by ergates on Nov 12, 2018 10:18:01 GMT
I only give gifts that are somehow meaningful to the character - such as the Joining Amulet for Alistair, Morrigan's mirror etc. Always played that way, as (as others have said) it feels more natural that way. The net result is that I end up with this huge, ginormous stack of unused gifts in my chest at the end of the game - so what do I do with them all? Simple - I cart them all into Awakening, and then game the system by giving them all the Oghren in order to complete the 'Family Man' quest. It's notoriously difficult to get a high enough friendship with him to complete the quest if you don't do this. "Yeah, it'll do, sure" "Yeah, it'll do, sure" "Yeah, it'll do, sure" "Yeah, it'll do, sure" "Yeah, it'll do, sure" "Yeah, it'll do, sure" "Yeah, it'll do, sure" "Yeah, it'll do, sure" "Yeah, it'll do, sure" "Yeah, it'll do, sure" "Yeah, it'll do, sure" "Yeah, it'll do, sure" "Yeah, it'll do, sure" ... so much for the game feeling more natural
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