An Idea I Had...

[Eschaton]

So, I was playing Dragon Age II, and I was doing the quest where the Hawke brothers decided to break into their old family home and find their grandfather's will.  In a fit of *roleplaying,* I decided to bring only the Hawke brothers on the quest.  The only other two party members I had were an officer of the city guard and a Dwarven scoundrel who was busy planning an expedition and running his spy network.

This got me thinking of a feature.

Let's say any party member has a life outside of adventuring with the Player Character.  Let's say they would only have any personal stake in certain quests, while they might be busy for others.

I imagine there would be a "loyalty" score for each party member that grows with interaction and completion of quests.

If a party member has no stake in a quest, and the player wants to bring that party member, they would have to pass a "loyalty" check, of which they only get one for that quest. threshold.

On this feature...thoughts?

 

[Arin]

What if you can't necessarily get all of the party members required to do said quest and fail horribly because you're underleveled/too difficult? What if you spent all of your time spending your money on items instead of buffing the characters with armaments and accessories? Do you eventually get to see that said person again in the future, or when the quest is done do they just leave without ever saying a word? And if you do get to see that person again, how does it blend into the plot and why should I take time out of my busy schedule of being the only hero in the land who is willing to stand up to the multitude of dragons about to take out your city (spouting exposition again) to see someone I wouldn't potentially care about?

 

[Neverward]

That's a really interesting feature that I like. Party members weighing in like real people is pretty unique. I think the best example I can think of is sort like Mass Effect, where some people really want to go on some quests ,and some quests are necessary to gain your companions loyalty.

 

[Omnimental]

Would this check be a random number check, or a "You must have this much loyalty to pass" check?  Because the former would just have me reloading the game until I could get who I wanted to join me.  I'd say go with the latter but hide the actual loyalty variable from the player.

Besides that quibble, I actually think that this would be a really neat feature.  It would help the player become more invested in the other actors and give them an actual feeling of reward for playing with the characters they like.

 

[Eschaton]

What if you can't necessarily get all of the party members required to do said quest and fail horribly because you're underleveled/too difficult? What if you spent all of your time spending your money on items instead of buffing the characters with armaments and accessories? Do you eventually get to see that said person again in the future, or when the quest is done do they just leave without ever saying a word? And if you do get to see that person again, how does it blend into the plot and why should I take time out of my busy schedule of being the only hero in the land who is willing to stand up to the multitude of dragons about to take out your city (spouting exposition again) to see someone I wouldn't potentially care about?

Eh?

Would this check be a random number check, or a "You must have this much loyalty to pass" check?  Because the former would just have me reloading the game until I could get who I wanted to join me.  I'd say go with the latter but hide the actual loyalty variable from the player.

Besides that quibble, I actually think that this would be a really neat feature.  It would help the player become more invested in the other actors and give them an actual feeling of reward for playing with the characters they like.

Random checks seem to be a thing that is dying in video games, and for good reason.  That reason being that the player would indeed reload.  Maybe "check" is misleading.  I should say "threshold."  And who knows, maybe meeting higher thresholds than you need could give situational buffs?

 

[Omnimental]

One suggestion I'd give with this method is to make sure that actors not in your party still gain experience, even if it's not 100% of the party experience.  You wouldn't want the player to feel trapped by their choices because every outside their core party is too low of level to not get slaughtered in whatever mission the player is on.

And situational buffs for actors with a high loyalty threshold sounds like an awesome idea.  As long as there's none of that "Give [Actor X] thirty paintings to boost his loyalty score."  The ability to outright buy all of your party member's loyalties annoys the heck out of me whenever I see it.  It makes it feel cheap and fake.

 

[Eschaton]

As long as there's none of that "Give [Actor X] thirty paintings to boost his loyalty score."  The ability to outright buy all of your party member's loyalties annoys the heck out of me whenever I see it.  It makes it feel cheap and fake.

I couldn't possibly agree with you more.

 

[Another Ned]

Don't have much more to add to the others' replies.
I'd also like to see such a feature. Non-mechanic character development as part of the gameplay sounds good.
I once kind of dreamed a game like that. The grumpy loner tank guy only saved the main character and took the damage in her stead because she helped him out before.

But I hope that there's some "Okay, I'll accompany you before you have to go there by yourself..." kind of person available if the player managed that everyone hated him preferred to deal with their own lives/things/lackofword instead of helping him out.

 

[ChaoticLapras]

What if you can't necessarily get all of the party members required to do said quest and fail horribly because you're underleveled/too difficult? What if you spent all of your time spending your money on items instead of buffing the characters with armaments and accessories? Do you eventually get to see that said person again in the future, or when the quest is done do they just leave without ever saying a word? And if you do get to see that person again, how does it blend into the plot and why should I take time out of my busy schedule of being the only hero in the land who is willing to stand up to the multitude of dragons about to take out your city (spouting exposition again) to see someone I wouldn't potentially care about?

This... However, sometimes side-quests can be good, but keep it out of the way of the main quest, so if you are about to go and defeat the endgame dude you're not going to go and kill a spider in someone's loft... But, earlier in the game that might be plausible...

One suggestion I'd give with this method is to make sure that actors not in your party still gain experience, even if it's not 100% of the party experience.  You wouldn't want the player to feel trapped by their choices because every outside their core party is too low of level to not get slaughtered in whatever mission the player is on.

And situational buffs for actors with a high loyalty threshold sounds like an awesome idea.  As long as there's none of that "Give [Actor X] thirty paintings to boost his loyalty score."  The ability to outright buy all of your party member's loyalties annoys the heck out of me whenever I see it.  It makes it feel cheap and fake.

Yeah, you don't want level 30 people and level 20 people...

Hmm, yeah.

 

[hiromu656]

Sounds like a cool idea to me, but how do you plan on gaining Loyalty, can you talk to them outside of "quests" or is that the only way? The word "loyalty" kinda conveys the idea that whoever you've invested the most time gearing up/fighting with and basically "like" as a character, will probably meet that threshold for most quests anyway, so falling into a hole where you're stuck with lower level party members works itself out (depending on how the Loyalty System rewards loyalty).

But again I don't know how you earn Loyalty, so if you do ever end up with weaker party members, maybe have a system like Neverwinter Nights where you can "hire" people to fight with you (of course, this may not work in your game's setting, so i don't know).

EDIT: Just reread your post >.> okay, "grows with interaction and completion of quests" I think, my comments' still a bit decent, maybe?