New Negotiation Mechanic Suggestion - RPG Elements


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Make it so we can talk to neutral NPC’s the first time and conduct a negotiation battle to make them friendly. It can be named, “Friendly Conversation”

Balancing wise, it can be like how provoking people works in this game, which is that the NPC gets 20 additional resolve and you enter into a negotiation battle. You are given Red intimidation cards as bonuses. 

In "Friendly Conversation", the enemy NPC is given additional resolve (maybe +10 or or something) to dissuade too many people from abusing it. Bonus RPG element --> Some NPCs are given the "wary" trait and instead of +10 resolve, it'll be +15 resolve when entering into a "Friendly Conversation". Also, instead of the red bonus cards you get from “provoking” an NPC, it can be bonus green cards. This will make it so going Green is more balanced instead of everyone going the Red (hostile) path all the time. It gives more flavor and rewards people for going the good negotiation path more!

New ideas for grafts:
Name: Friendly Face (uncommon)
Effect: When partaking in a "Friendly Conversation" with a new person for the first time, reduce the resolve penalty by 33%"
Upgraded Effect: When partaking in a "Friendly Conversation" with a new person for the first time, reduce the resolve penalty by 66%"

Balancing:
1) When you fail "Friendly Conversation", the NPC goes into "Dislike" mode. 
This will make it so there is a risk/reward associated with this mechanic so it won't be too strongly abused. 

2) What if people just spend all day abusing this new mechanic and talking to different NPCs? 
Good! People will spend more time playing the game. Min maxers will min-max no matter the game. This will allow people to gain the "Liked" status without having to pay 60 gold and suffer the "drunk" penalties every time for somebody to "Like" them (which is abused anyways by players drinking with NPCs right before they sleep anyways).

3) Players still abusing the mechanic? 
Tweak the resolve penalties from NPC. So maybe instead of +10 resolve it'll be +20 resolve (similar to Provoking people) to make it harder to abuse. 

4) Maybe make it only doable only 1x or 2x a day. 
Bonus - New graft that allows additional "Friendly Conversations" a day. 

5) People might abuse it for leveling up their cards?
Answer: See bullet points 2, 3, & 4.

Pros:
1) More interactive and quality NPC interactions.

2) Game play will be extended due to new mechanic that is rewarding and balanced at the same time

3) Negotiation is slightly better to invest into for getting NPC to like you...instead of buying your friends with money all the time. 

4) More RPG-like, with ability to TALK to people to become their friends (but not loved). 
Bonus - Maybe a unique or boss graft to talk to people that are "Liked" and make them "Loved" if negotiation is a success. Do-able one time a day. Upgrades into do-able twice a day. 

5) Negotiation is more heavily emphasized and a strong alternative to combat all the time. This rewards the double gameplay some more.

6) Lastly, this is an optional boon. People can always choose not to conduct "Friendly Conversations" all the time. The reward isn't TOO big and it doesn't hurt people for not doing it. It just allows for an alternative for getting people to like you.

Any thoughts? Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

Thanks,

- ENK

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I like the general idea, but not the execution. A normal run already takes too long, for the gameplay that is available (i.e. gets kinda grindy), and this goes in the wrong direction. We also already negotiate more than we battle, unless you go out of your way to not negotiate. More excuses to go Diplomacy instead of Hostility is a good thing, but this brings too many problems with it. It’s also not really balanced, the ability to make *anyone* like you is bananas, you would do it as much as possible.

I would be ok if it worked like Haggle Badge, and it was locked behind a semi-rare Social Boon.

Maybe this comes from a place of trying to make a single run a more epic experience, but it seems like Klei is aiming for the “short and sweet” level instead.

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I like the idea, but I agree with pacovf that it might be too much if you can do it ad nauseum with anyone you see. I love the negotiate mechanic, but it already feels like negotiation is heavily favored and is almost always the right solution if available, because the risks are far lower than combat (So far from what I've seen you usually don't lose anything except your resolve and maybe a person dislikes you, instead of you know... dying). The rewards also "seems" to be higher (you make friends instead of ennemies).

I've only went so far as prestige 2 with Sal though (around 20h of game so far), so that might be not as true in higher prestige levels.

6 hours ago, Enkae7317 said:

4) Maybe make it only doable only 1x or 2x a day. 

Bonus - New graft that allows additional "Friendly Conversations" a day.

If such an idea was implemented, that would definetely be the way to go. I think being able to only do it once a day would be a must, with either a social boon or uncommon graft allowing you to do it twice max. After all it does feel like the fact that you can only do so much in a day is an intentional game design.

I think the lack of interactions (both lore wise and to a lesser extent gameplay wise, since they definetely already have a "passive" gameplay mechanic by joining you in encounters) with the background NPCs is a shame in general. It's something that I am sure will be improved one day or another, looking at the compendium for people, and the locked lore tab for each of them (I am pretty sure the lore for them isn't implemented yet, right ?).

In conclusion, I really like the idea of having more interactions possible with background Npcs. I also support the fact there should be Negotiation encounters that are "friendly" focused rather than plain "intimidation", in order to balance the two. So far I've never seen an encounter modifier that helps green instead of red (again, correct me if I'm wrong).

Best regards,
Waterplouf
  

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first of all, i like pitching new mechanics. this is definitely a cool idea.

i think it could be a few things we're it to be implemented into the game.

a) it's a mutator. this would mean that vanilla runs could not abuse this mechanic to gain a legion of people who think you're pretty alright.

b) it's a rare boon. i'd say if we we're to shift around the boons and banes of characters, whoever has this boon might also have the whispered rumors bane, or maybe the elitist bane.

c) there's restrictions. the standard personality of the people is said to be rude and standoffish, so they might be skeptical or flat-out unperceptive to a kind bit of chat. maybe something like needing to buy them a drink, or giving them something else before they're willing to be sociable.

d) the negotiation is much, much harder. using the idea that people would be a bit cagey, it would almost be a reverse negotiation. they start with impatience, and you need to break their bounties to get rid of their impatience. it would definitely be harder to play than a normal negotiation, but that could make it less grindy. 

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