Kayevcee said:
The Dragon Age: Origins one sounds like it sucks, influence systems should be linked to story as their primary motivator instead of stat bonuses and they shouldn't go up and down easily. Like although there are significant gameplay rewards for high influence in KotoR 2, the real advantage and reason for it is building up bonds with companions and finding out their backstories in a more natural way. Even turning characters into Jedi, whats so cool about that isn't just you can have a bunch of jedi in your party, but the idea that you've earned there trust enough that they'll let you open up all this stuff to them. It's by far the best way to deliver backstory.
And it makes sense that it's hard to influence Hk-47 positively if you're a lightside character. He despises do-gooders and loves killing, it makes his character more meaningful that he reacts to you in a way thats appropriate to his character. It makes your evil actions feel even better when HK is behind you giving you some love for doing it.
But this is where the proviso comes in that they need to add in the Alpha Protocol thing where negative influence is equally beneficial. KotoR 2's system rocks at making you feel like you've earned backstory and creating a more meaningful relationship, but where it fails is that if you don't max out influence then you're locking yourself out of content which isn't fun.
The way Alpha Protocol works is that how people treat you is
different depending on your influence level. Not better for better influence, just different. They don't have companions in the same way, but for example there's one guy who if you earn enough respect for him, he might betray his employer in a critical moment. On the other hand, if you piss him off, then in your first battle with him, you can provoke him into fighting to the death and skip an entire boss fight later on.
It's fine if you have to be bad to romance HK, because thats how HK works. But what you need is to get stuff for annoying him too. Maybe if you annoy him he starts giving your lectures on his life history to try and intimidate/shame you, or it drives him to become a better fighter etc.
For the other specifics in KotoR 2. It's impossible to get Visas before Brianna so I'm not sure what you mean there. But as a male I can confirm that I maxed out influence with her in her first conversation just this week. And equally trying to raise influence with Brianna is not affected by Visas' presence but you need to be level 18 to unlock the last fight with her. There's a chance for neg rep when Visas boards, but it's easy to avoid if you realise that the Handmaiden is jealous and there's more than enough rep in the game to make up for it. In general the influence system in KotoR 2 doesn't even work like that, there are triggers that are needed to unlock each characters highest backstories, but that's on top of the influence system which is a straight +1 -1 and there are no triggers which can prevent backstory from being unlocked (well ending the game I guess)
The Mass Effect franchise doesn't have an influence system (well technically it does in ME3 but it's still so piss poor to be pretty unrecognisable). Backstory is unlocked on a timer which is pretty much the most robotic and unfeeling way to do it. It's one of the things I hate most about those games. It never feels like you romanced someone, it feels like you went down below deck and said 'yes' 4 times in a row. Congratulations relationship unlocked!
The loyalty system in ME2 is completely isolated from that system (which is stupid). I don't have a huge issue with it though, I think forcing you to choose between crew loyalty (and you can have both with high enough paragon) is an interesting choice. ME2's end mission, like ME3's story arcs is at its most boring if you're fully prepared and get auto wins. Having a crew unloyal isn't a death sentence it just forces some hard choices and clever strategies at the end of the game. Stupidness of the relationship aside I really approved of it
