Etheryn and other companions' relationship values

[Ireyon]

How precisely does the game evaluate the progress of relationships ? Because I gave Etheryn a hug after her sister got turned into a demon, got some training from Sanders and then Etheryn was suddenly kissing me and confessing she loved me. And the text stated it was apparently mutual?

Did I trip a relationship flag with that hug and just never noticed? Because the lewdest thing I ever did with her was said hug and, uh, watching awkwardly when Cait helped her with her little problem.

I remember some other playthroughs with Cait telling me she can't (or doesn't want to) be exclusive before you sleep with her the first time, some other time Brint had some conversation where you discuss wether you're interested in him or it's just a friends-with-benefits situation. It just seemed a little weird that I apparently stumbled into a romance without noticing.

Or maybe that bear plush Ryn bought at the caravan was secretly an elven engagement ring.

Unrelated to that: Are there any plans to give companions other abilities after they got their ultimate at level 4? So maybe Cait can get Greater Heal instead of normal heal?

 

[Alypia]

How precisely does the game evaluate the progress of relationships ? Because I gave Etheryn a hug after her sister got turned into a demon, got some training from Sanders and then Etheryn was suddenly kissing me and confessing she loved me. And the text stated it was apparently mutual?

Did I trip a relationship flag with that hug and just never noticed? Because the lewdest thing I ever did with her was said hug and, uh, watching awkwardly when Cait helped her with her little problem.

I remember some other playthroughs with Cait telling me she can't (or doesn't want to) be exclusive before you sleep with her the first time, some other time Brint had some conversation where you discuss wether you're interested in him or it's just a friends-with-benefits situation. It just seemed a little weird that I apparently stumbled into a romance without noticing.

Or maybe that bear plush Ryn bought at the caravan was secretly an elven engagement ring.

Ryn's Confidence basically goes up whenever the Champ does nice stuff for her, reinforces her feeling of self-worth, and so on. So the bear thing helps a lot. Giving her hugs helps a lot. Reconciling her grandmothers helps a lot. Telling her that the bad things that have happened to her aren't her fault helps a lot. None of those things requires sex.

Almost regardless of what Champ does, Etheryn falls pretty hard for them, but because of how overtly friendly Champ can be to her, high-Confidence Ryn is the one who is extremely eager to show it. She cares about Champ very, very deeply and will be affectionate toward them without a prompt.

However, in the Ryn content that I write, I try to avoid expressing any feelings on the part of Champ about Ryn unless Champ makes an affirmative choice. So, for example, I usually feel pretty safe putting affectionate Champ content into, say, a scene where Champ goes on a date with Ryn, or tops her in bed, or chooses to dance with her. I didn't write Ryn's surprise high-Confidence hug, and the author may not have been working on the same assumptions about how Champ feels.

Perhaps the surprise high-Con hug should be gated behind not just high Confidence, but also at least one Ryn sex, to better account for the feelings that the writing has Champ express. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Ireyon]

Perhaps the surprise high-Con hug should be gated behind not just high Confidence, but also at least one Ryn sex, to better account for the feelings that the writing has Champ express. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That might be a good idea. Honestly the scene felt a little surreal to me. Ryn is nice and all but I showed zero interest in her up to that point. I looked up the way her confidence score works on the wiki and apparently keeping her confidence low to avoid the scene requires being a dick to her even in situations that have zero romantic or sexual context. I don't really want to be limited to being either Alissa 2.0 or the Romeo to her Juliet.

 

[Savin]

How precisely does the game evaluate the progress of relationships ?

Every NPC progresses differently, if at all. Etheryn by far has the most relationship stats and flags wandering around in the code. On the other hand, Companion!Kiyoko is pretty set in stone -- it's Kinu that has a bajillion flags. Arona has exactly one relationship variable that's set before she even becomes a companion.

 

[WolframL]

.I don't really want to be limited to being either Alissa 2.0 or the Romeo to her Juliet.

Ryn has a very broad range between those two (50 points worth) where she's not a broken mess but not being so openly affectionate, if you don't want that.

 

[Animalistic]

I think the problem here is how it is worded. I think all the confusion would be elivate if they just renamed the confidence stat into something else. Since high confidence is basically a classic romance route, low is s/m route and middle is... I am not sure what to name it? "Can not be asked to make concrete choice" route? So players love start would be more appropriate. Since well, that is what it is. Confidence is only secondary there from players perspective. Since you can not really get her to fully express herself without you being there for her. So what we are basically doing is pushing her how she is going to shower us with her affection. Will she love us with fear or with passion?

I enjoy keeping her where she started. More fun for me.

 

[Ireyon]

Ryn has a very broad range between those two (50 points worth) where she's not a broken mess but not being so openly affectionate, if you don't want that.

I realize that comparing this game to a normal game is unfair but this gives me flashbacks to Neverwinter Nights. I played a druid and noticed that many of the plot and side quests gave you good points (if you resolved them like a perfectly ordinary person would, neither being a paragon of benevolence nor a mustache twirling bastard), while druids have to remain neutral or lose the ability to level up.

This resulted in me having to go on unprovoked murder sprees just to get my alignment back to neutral again. I remember hating this system so much that I just installed a mod to lock me to lawful neutral.

Problem is that certain events (like the plush toy) increase those points by a lot (twenty or twenty five I think?) which results in a romantic relationship even though watching her buy a toy really isn't a relationship moment. Since the game is still in development I imagine there will be more occasions coming up that can result in a boost to her confidence (since her sister is still alive and all), which means that you'd have to go out of your way to be a dick to her to keep her in the middle.

There's also the additional complication that you need a wiki or a datamine to find out which interaction results in which changes since it's not immediately obvious in many cases.

Thinking back I believe that hugging might have been the problem after all. If I remember correctly hugging her was the only way to restore some of her resolve without having sex with her (since she won't go to Cait after the first time without me involved) and I wanted to level grind her for a while before her permanent resolve penalty became a problem.

Food for thought for future playthroughs I guess.