Impressions: Persuade and Intimidate
 

This will be spoiler free. I will describe a situation I found myself in yesterday, but I won't refer to the names of people or places.

Firstly, here's how it works: A single skill governs the use of both persuade and intimidate. That might sound simplified at first glace, but it's not a simple system. Skill points in this game are very valuable. As a Mage I get one per three levels! So if I've put 3 into coercion, I want value for it. It's not so simple though, because the success of your persuade attempts depends on your cunning. Similarly, intimidate depends on strength, or in some cases being a Mage. I have 11 str, but whenever I've used an intimidate line that references my affinity for the arcane arts, it's been a resounding success! Good times. I only have 16 cunning, and for reference, I have 34 Magic. So 16 is modest, although I have invested some points in it.

To demonstrate how it works, a situation. I saved before ths dialogue, because it was important to me both to get it right, and to see the different ways it could play out.

First attempt, I initiate dialogue, and the person I'm talking suggests I give a donation, I insult her, because I'm not a fan of the organisation she represents. She protests that my money could help the needy, but I do not relent. I will help them myself, have helped them, in fact. I ask her for what I want, I use some persuade lines, but they fail. I figure it was my lack of cunning. I reload.

I insult her again, but this time I threaten to kill her if she does not give me what I want. One party member is amused by this, and I get a moderate increase in approval, but another party member, who I care more about, is very, very upset. I reluctantly reload, I am reluctant, becuase I had gotten what I want, and I'm not sure how else I can solve this quest.

On the third attempt, it occurs to me that maybe I should give a donation at the start of the dialouge. Perhaps then she will be more inclined to give me what I want. This time, I try to persuade her, and it works! Aha! The game appears to take into account more factors than just your skill and relevant attribute, success at persuade also seems to depend on how you've treated the character in the past.

At that point I got an achievement for 5 difficult persuasion successes. How wonderful. The consequences of not being able to complete this quest would be… significant.

This game is not perfect, but it is a hardcore RPG. Lots of C&C, interesting world, branching quest structure, all that good stuff. I'm going back to playing it now :D

Aye

Those moments are fun
And i know exactly what place you talk about

but i just ignored it and wandered on hoping to get better weapons
im having a really hard time now though because i think im 2 far out of my area ^^

Ah excellent, I love usuing these skills in games, the force persuasion was always my favourite ability in the KOTOR games. :biggrin:

So far in DAO I've threatend a begger for information and persuaded the dwarf crime boss, that I really wasn't ripping him off. ;)

Can't wait to get home and play it some more!

Daniel.

Absolutely agree - all of the nuances going on are fantastic to watch and makes me shake my head when folks say it 'isn't a hardcore rpg' …

I think it's hard for a lot of people to accept that Bioware are capable of producing a hardcore RPG. That is understandable, KoToR, JE, and ME were mostly RPG-lite games - fun games, but not hardcore RPGs. DA:O is a hardcore RPG. Maybe some people aren't looking deep enough or giving the game a proper chance to shine - it is definitely the kind of game where what you get out of it depends greatly on what you put in to it.

The Codex, the details of the persuade/intimidate system, the interactions of different abilities, to massive scope for tactics, the choices and consequences, detailed and interesting characters, incredible world design - this is real craftsmanship, this may be the most well realised original game world I have ever seen. Ahh, but I'm gushing. I did have some minor criticisms before, but I can't seem to remeber them anymore. This is easily my favorite RPG since the Troika days, and in truth, it's a better game than anything Troika produced. Actually, I can't think of a game I could confidently say is better and more fun than DA:O.

So far I agree 100%. Things I've done all over the place have been consistently coming back later on (although in many cases it's just an extra line of conversation, but still)