Attacking friendlies? [Spoilers up to khemeria]

[caranha]

So I'm in the beast forest, I've cornered the beast, convince it to come with me, and that mage comes and starting attacking it.

 

"ok" I think "time to get rid of that silly mage!" - but then I realize that I cannot attack him, because he counts as "friendly", even though he disobeyed my direct order... how comes?

 

So, is there any way (maybe fulfilling some pre-quest condition) to play this event differently? I'm a bit miffed, because it is the second time the game forces a mission to fail in spite of me managing to talk it off (the first time was with the ogre in the Kva)... I mean, if we are supposed to just kill the beast, why offer the option to talk it down in the first place?

[A less presumptuous name.]

There is no way to save the beast. Perhaps you should wonder why the mage is so eager to see it dead...

[Kreador]

Because through talking to them you learn things.

[Earth]

you'll meet that mage later so don't be sad that you couldn't hit him.

[Tcheedchee]

It's not about hitting Moritz, it's about saving the shadow beast.

I share caranha's disappointment concerning this forced story-line. There are more occasions when that happens. And it doesn't help at all, that one will meet Moritz'Kri again, because if you are more interested in "diplomacy" you just can't really find a nice way to play Avadon. One of the victims of the forced story-line is the shadow-beast. Another is Carsta Arl and with him all of Dhorl Stead, or at least any chance of good relations to the other folks of Khemeria.

And as I'm talking about options for diplomacy here, I don't want to argue about Carsta Arl deserving to die, because of the total a… hole that he is. Agreed, but it's about diplomatics. And so it could/should be possible to also leave some dinkheads in their places, or at least to replace them with other dinkheads, which are available at the moment (like Hunter Salom for instance, harr, harr) just as it is in the real world, and still collect some XP for diplomatic solutions.

Later on you also can't get out of the forced story-line, when you encounter Harua Honored Forge in his own illegal camp. There seem to be so many chances, where you uncover deceit and still keep involved persons alive, for instance to bring them to justice later on. But no: You are always forced to kill the NPCs involved if you want to be able to continue playing. Because the other solution would be to let this part of the story flap loose, in order to avoid killing the NPCs involved. But that's also very dissatisfying, because you know very well, that there is this loose end, that just hasn't been played, and it keeps you from collecting enough XP to be able to continue the game. I do understand that it's very challeging to write an enthralling story, but looking at the promises made in the beginning of the game, I'm a bit disappointed. I'm playing the game for the second time now, trying hard to make one of the promissed different outcomes to occur, but it just won't happen…

I'm very interested to see how Avadon's narrative construction will develop with the next sequels, which can be expected to be presented by and by.

[Kreador]

You don't have to kill Harua. You can let him go. You don't even have to do that quest at all. The choice does have consequences, though, for the endgame.

 

For others, yes, it is a forced-fight condition and that's annoying.

[Randomizer]

You will find out at the end why you are getting into these forced situations. You are meant to be upset with the way things work and you are meant to fail in choosing a diplomatic solution for some problems.

[Jerakeen]

Quote:

...it keeps you from collecting enough XP to be able to continue the game.

You would have to skip a lot of side quests to avoid hitting the level cap before the end of the game.

I do agree that most of the so-called choices you are offered are false and actually make no difference. I'm hoping that Jeff will invest more time on alternate plot possibilities in the sequel.