Is anyone else excited at the idea of the open possibility of making friends in Skyrim? People who will let you stay at their house, maybe eat their food, help you out in a fight, etc.?

Who are you planning on making friends with? Will you picky and select your friends carefully? Will you seek out certain races and shun others? Maybe a distant Blacksmith, or an upbeat pawnbroker? Are you going to try to become friends with EVERYONE? And then what kind of friend will you be? Will you just use your friends, like all they are is just a simple gameplay element?!

Personally, I'm planning on only having two or three friends that I keep close. Who those two or three are depends on their personality and how relateable they are. Then, depending on how much kinship they inspire in me, I'll bring them gifts and return the favor of letting me crash in their bed. If I can make them become companions, I probably won't, unless one of them strikes me as especially striking, but I plan to leave them at home while I go out and fight dragons.

I'm sure I'll make plenty of friends, most of my main characters were Nords .

Of course they can't be my friend if they are those smelly Orcs.

Definitly sounds interesting. Though, finding a bed in Oblivion was never a problem for me. With everything from guilds to homes to the beggar bedrolls, I could usually find a place to crash in the towns. I'm looking forward to making some drinken buds.

The thought of making close friends in the game intrigues me. Companions are never something I've liked in Bethesda games, though. They always slow me down because I always have to save them from enemies and they can just fall far behind, at times, or get lost. My character will try to be friendly towards everyone, but I'm sure a few, specific NPCs will strike me as particularly good people and becoming close friends with them will be in my role-playing interest. Becoming a close friend with my favorite blacksmith/frequently seen shopowner would be nice. When I'm a regular customer, I expect them to know, and becoming friends with them seems sort of like that.

depends on how they all differ in personality and voice.
i would make friends with some mercenarys and veterans so we can share tales of our adventures with a pint and a puff by the fire if you feel me. XD
i hope to god they have some great personalities in the game.

I just hope that the AI is up to the task. Friend is different from 'good acquaintance'. I remember in Fallout, how disappointing it could be when Ian or another would turn on you in some cases, even after months of adventuring and hard won fights. It'd be nice if the 'friends' operated on a three strikes kind of system that does not [usually] allow them to go from best pal to attempted murderer, for picking up a knocked over plate in their house, or committing some minor infraction. I'd like it if their virtual 'esteem' would just lower until they hate you enough to attack or call for help. (Perhaps with a spoken warning before the "last straw".)

Also I would hope that ~unlike Fallout, where NPC's would indifferently help slaughter their town, that the AI in Skyrim does not depict the same sort of happenings.

Just out of curiosity, is this all theoretical, or has something along these lines been confirmed in some sense? I try not to follow a lot of skyrim news to keep more fresh, but the implications of this intrigue me enough to ask.

I will have to keep tings professional as much as I can since I will be in Dark Brotherhood (and Necromancer's Guild if it is in) and wouldn't like if it ends up that I have to kill a friend.
One should never mix business and friendship... especially if you are an assassin. :ermm:
Plus, I think that I'll make lots of friends withing the Brotherhood so I think I'll be fine. ^_^

Some degree of friendship is being implemented. There's been mention of NPCs that are friendly to you that will let you sleep in their house, won't mind if you take things from them, and do other similar things, I can't remember what else was mentioned.

In Oblivion and Morrowind you could "Make Friends" by increase people disposition, but it really didn't change anything. Unless a character was scripted to do something special when they became your friend they treated you the same way as before. Now there will actually be a point to making friends.

Meh, who needs friends.


:shifty:

Ah. Interesting. I wonder how far they're going to take this, and if players will have proper incentive to form and maintain these relationships. I think there's too much possibility to really speculate effectively, I like the idea though I don't want to like it too much, in case it winds up being an arbitrary bauble.

Honestly, just the idea that they'll let you sleep in their house and allow you to use their stuff is enough for me. I was good enough at roleplaying in Oblivion that I could convince myself that certain NPCs were my friends. But I definitely would like to see it expanded a little further than that. It would be nice, for example, to discuss your current progress in the main quest with a friend-NPC that isn't directly involved in it.

Indeed, even though it was delivered through text-boxes, Morrowind was pretty good with it. People's attitudes actually changed much more dramatically. You could have totally difference experiences with virtually every person (and more fleshed out with main characters) Based on something as simple as a scale of 0 to 100.


Dialog alone isn't enough anymore though, behavior helps, and it looks like that's the direction it's going. There's a lot of non-related AI issues that need to be fixed (Or may have? I don't know the current status) to make "Friends" effective. Particularly if you want to roleplay as the socialite pilferer, forming a web of social connections, safehouses, informants, ect, to reinforce your trade. There's too much Unkown about Skyrim to really go on a proper tangent.

Anyway, that's just an example of "Friendhip" benefits in stealth gameplay/roleplaying, but it makes the most sense, since the social skills of speechcraft/merchantile were always stealth skills to begin with.

I like having friends and companions in single player games. I find it lonely to quest alone.
And after a quest If my character decides to relax and drink some beer in a tavern it would
be great to have the option to drink with someone, and not just be a loner in a table.

I'm excited to hear what options there are going to be, and how much improved the AI is going to be.
The combat AI especially was too stupid in Oblivion, and any melee companion you had who wasn't
essential (invulnerable) always just ran to their deaths when they spotted an enemy. Hopefully they can
do better teamwork, otherwise you can only order them to stay put far away while you do the killing.

It's going to be interesting to see how easy it's going to be for an Argonian to make friends.
I'll try to be in good terms with all the friendly types, and friends with those I feel I can trust.
Of course as I'm playing a good character I don't want to feel like using anyone, so any
relationship is going to work both ways. I don't try to be friends with everyone as I don't
want to be backstabbed by any suspicious characters. I think it's going to be healthy to
be reserved and vigilant.


Anyway, even if all else fails at least there are always going to be mods for us PC players...
Hopefully console players can have friends too.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b148/ActionDragon/Oblivion/Hides-His-Fear/22.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b148/ActionDragon/Oblivion/Hides-His-Fear/31.jpg

Im the sort of person that has a few close friends and many half-friends, so I'll be like that in Skyrim.

Im the sort of person that has a few close friends and many half-friends, so I'll be like that in Skyrim.

Depend on character. If I play a noble(-ish) character that was betrayed in the past I will try too have as many powerfull friends as possible. If I play a traveling warrior/mercenary I will chose friends that can help me fight and keep me company. If I play a paladin(-ish) character I will be friendly to everyone, but only have one or real friends.

Interesting concept, I wonder just how involved it will be in game. I will most likely end up being friendly to the people in the town I frequent the most. I usually wander the world until I find the town I like the best and then I start to set roots there. It's the place I store the stuff I want to keep and sell everything else. In Morrowind it was Balmora, in Oblivion it was Anvil. In Skyrim who knows where that will be? With the crafting system the town I settle down in won't just be the town with the best shops or houses, it's going to be the place closest to the natural resources I use the most. I'm pretty sure my first character will be a smith at least.

I suppose since they let you eat their food and sleep in their beds and etc I'd just use these things when I needed them. Maybe sleep there instead of buying a house for a while because there's other things I want to spend my septims on. If these friends had some unique dialoge with me about the main quest or side quests that'd be nice too. Perhaps they could give some additional insight into the civil war. How it started, why etc. I suppose if I had been good friends with a family for quite a few game hours (say 100+) I could visit one day and find the family's son/daughter has grown up and is now available as a follower? Either customizable ie: I choose mage, ranged, or fighter and that's what they are. Maybe they'd be a reflection of how I've specced my character since they grew up listening to stories of the dragon born and wants to be just like me or w/e? (No adoring fans please, just a follower who's good in a fight if I equip them well.)

I dunno, ideas like this have potential. We'll see how it works and how involved it is soon enough...

How about also making enemies? bliviongate:

But it doesn't say how you become friends with them? In that case, for all we know, becoming someone's "friend" could still just be a matter of bribing that person enough like in past games, you just get new benefits. If it's like that, then I'm just going to become "friends" with whoever would benefit me most. In past games, I never felt like I was really friends with with most NPCs who had a high disposition towards me, in a large part because this could happen after nothing more than a brief persuasion session, therefore, I had no reason to care about these so called "friendships", beyond what was useful to me, so I'd just throw money at whatever NPC I need to like me and be done with it.

If you can actually have real friendships with NPCs, with proper progression based on your actions, on the other hand, then it will have to depend on my character, in some cases, I might still try to make friends with characters it would be beneficial to be on good terms with, but most of the time, it would likely come down to a question of who I like more. After all, why would I want to be friends with someone I don't like?

It will be different for all my characters, of course.

For example, a Dunmer Sorceress might pick one, maybe two other Dunmer who she deems strong enough.

Whereas Helena Aurelie would befriend anyone who she got on with.

I like the idea of having in game friends, and I hope these friendships will be built in time, by doing quests together, by being able to give them gifts (a la Witcher) and by dialogue choices (a la Bioware), not instantly by some magic or persuasion wheel. I don't expect very much though, from what Todd said they don't seem to be quite into deep companion portraying, but still... some improvement from past games would do well.

I'm planning on making many friends. Then, once they let me stay in their house for the night, i'll wait for them to sleep to rob their house. hehehe... :devil:

I'm dissappointed. I hoped for something more violent.