You can keep track of your relationship status with the crew

I don't see how ME's system felt more real, since companion reactivity was pretty much nonexistent unless that companion was about to get killed as a result of their disagreement with a decision, which happens like…..3 times potentially in the entire series.

I do understand what people are saying about the approval system in DAI, however, I think it worked like they intended, because you got the impressions from your conversations with them rather than looking at stats. I was very surpried, when it turned out that Vivienne and Sara still liked me, but the system seemed to make the relationships occur more naturally.

One thing I can't help wonder about if the system in MEA is going to work like in SWTOR. It basically just says as a sidenote "You have begun a relationship with Lana", and then it tracks things like "Lana appreciated your trust in this situation", which is a way to keep track of your choices and how they affected the ones around you.

I also wonder if it will only accur ones a relationship is established or if it will be a gradually thing. For example "Liam thinks you are hilarious and would like to spend some more time together", "Kallo seems nervous around you since flirting with him, but is still very pleased when you come by for a chat," or "Vetra continues to give you cold stares - you might want to keep your distance,"

Thank god, someway to track my relationship. I don't like gusessing, and since I'm playing on console, I want be able to check the values. This is some good piece of info.

Hence why I quoted "Real". 

Both systems are flawed. Its always going to feel artificial in a way.

But atleast this way I can keep track of things, instead of wasting my time having to redo the entire playthrough because I screwed up with a companion.

It sounds like they're planning a section of the Codex called "The Journey So Far" that will include this relationship meter/bar.  I don't think it will be something you'll see unless you go looking for it.  For myself, who often breaks from playing a game midway for a period of time, it will be a great place to find reminders of what I've been doing from a roleplay perspective in that game. 

For the MET, I resorted to keeping notes regarding what dialogue choices I had made in order to help me keep my PC in character over an intermittent playthrough that would sometimes take me several months to complete.  To be able to call up a Codex that will tell me what I've done so far and how my PC is relating to certain others in the game will be a tremendous help to me.  I suspect it will feel "more organic" than the continual making of notes that I (and others, I suspect) do currently. 

Whether or not it becomes a source that encourages the artificially manipulation of the course of the game is really up to the individual player... It is a single-player game after all.  Players who don't want to use it for anything, I'm sure, will be able to just not look at it... just like some players don't read the codex at all now.

i heard that MEA allows you to gift items to companions, that's cool. not sure exactly what details of that feature in the game. then again you're gonna end up a creeping stalker lol

I dont really like the visible relationship bars. I know they're there to make the system easier to understand but it kinda turns relationships into a minigame rather than something natural.

How is enabling people to figure out where they left off in a game they may have not played for awhile a dumb idea?... particularly when it seems clear that they are burying the meter inside a Codex that the player can optionally open to make use of it.  Just because you have no self-control doesn't mean that I shouldn't be allowed to have some in-game conveniences.

I mean, you didnt have to jump to insulting me immediately. Usually that takes some time.

As for what you said, Its not so much that I lack self control but rather it takes away incentive to show how people feel about you by their dialogue. It should be easy to tell if someone likes you or not. Are they cold and distant? They probably dont like you. Are they happy to talk on and on, are they friendly? They probably like you. To me thats a better system then using a meter. If they manage to have both systems in game, then I wont really care that much. 

Well, you could simply .... not do that. Just play your character and see what happens.


I suspect that wanting a meter and disliking having a meter probably correlates strongly with different fundamental approaches to RP.

Come to think of it, don't you have to be playing a serious douchebag to screw up a DAI companion relationship? Part of the problem here is the companion quests, which are almost as bad as DA:O gifts.