wclinton93Sep 23, 2023

Kinda lost all desire to play Dark Urge after a particular forced event-SPOILERS

https://lemmy.world/post/5610395

Kinda lost all desire to play Dark Urge after a particular forced event-SPOILERS - Lemmy.world

SPOILERS- So Alfira came and visited my camp during my DU playthrough and I chased her off, as I don’t really care for the character (RPing as a no-nonsense war cleric, get that hippie music outta my camp). Somehow, sending Alfira away from my camp instead brought her to my camp and led to her dying while I was asleep, with zero input from me as the player. The sequence straight up doesn’t even make sense with how much they railroaded her death into the DU storyline; I send her away hours ago, I wake up to her dead and her blood on me, and every one of my companions blames me despite me sending her away fucking hours ago. I didn’t even believe that I killed her until my internal dialogue options all confessed to her death. I feel these sorts of events that completely remove agency from the player have no place in an rpg. I mean, they give you a completely meaningless choice in that instance (happily let her stay, angrily let her stay, or force her to leave but actually she stays). If all of my choices lead to railroaded outcomes, just don’t give me dialogue options at that point. I have no desire to play DU if I’m just going to be forced into options that I didn’t choose. Not to mention, this death completely locks you out her questline and unique gear. Come on, Larian, if you are going to force a death on the player then don’t make that character a fucking quest giver. At the absolute least, there should be a DC for this shit happening. Shit, I kinda don’t even want to start a new game either because I don’t want to have to go through the 15 or so hours of early game that I just did.

Show threadDubbelJSep 23, 2023
The Dark Urge is an origin character just like the others, part of their backstory is going to be fixed just like Astarion or Gale or any of the others. If you want full customisation of how you want to play your character then play an evil custom character. I don’t see any issue with how Larian handled this, at it’s how they expose The Dark Urges backstory to you.
Show threadwclinton93Sep 23, 2023
I’m not talking about his backstory. I’m talking about his story within the game. Larian provides you with a choice of multiple speech options in this situation, including the option to send Alfira away. If you choose that option, the game essentially decides to ignore your choice and railroad this death into the story in a way that doesn’t make sense. Personally, I play an RPG to make choices within a story. If the game then discards those choices, why give them in the first place?
Show threadAdlach
Sounds like you don’t like the concept of the Dark Urge. The Dark Urge is literally about your character’s actions being out of their control. Just play a custom character.
Sep 24, 2023 at 1:51amWeb
Show threadRedAggroBestSep 24, 2023
Yea this seems like a complaint that the Dark Urge is an actually sometimes-difficult mechanic and not just some edgelord roleplay.
Show threadwclinton93Sep 24, 2023
I didn’t mention difficulty or being edgy anywhere in my post. I was talking about agency. Did you not read it? Shit, I wasn’t even rping an edgy character.
Show threadwclinton93Sep 24, 2023
Except thats apparently what happens in the rest of the DU story (according to another comment here). You have agency over those actions (like the dialogue choice that leads to Gale losing or keeping a hand) or at least have a DC to resist the urge. In this situation, the game gives you an option that, logically, should avoid this happening but decides to ignore that choice. That’s why it doesn’t seem like it fits.
Show threadAdlachSep 24, 2023

Your loss of agency is the entire plot point. You black out and, despite all your efforts, kill this woman. If you don’t like it, custom characters are there too.

I understand what you’re saying, but I simply disagree. If you can save scum your way out of any consequence of the Dark Urge, why play the Dark Urge?

Show threadwclinton93Sep 24, 2023

But just blacking out doesn’t explain why Alfira just ends up dead back at camp in the morning immediately after I send her away. My companions also all see me send her away and yet they all blame me for her death despite that fact. Yes I have blood on me but I also have a disemboweled corpse next to me so it would be weirder if I didn’t. Also, Alfira isn’t even physically in my camp. What, is my 8 dexterity war cleric supposed to have snuck into the grove, kidnapped her, snuck her into my camp, and killed her in a single night without anyone noticing?

I can’t even think in my own head (in character) that I didn’t do it. None of it makes sense with that “send her away” dialogue option. I’m fine with the forced story death, but this scene just makes no sense all around. Have her die after the party, when I may actually have a connection with the character, instead of it jsut being a character I told to fuck off twice.

Also, save scumming has nothing to do with this conversation, but if you can save scum out of any consequence in Baldur’s Gate then why play the game at all by your logic.