Giving 30+ optional chars Main character Status

What I mean by that is in my game the only character that will be in the party from start to finish is the player (i.e. you) Everyone else is optional BUT! What I'm thinking would be cool would be to have every single optional person have different dialog according to the the storyline at the time and thus giving them the change from optional to main character. Basically say you have Arshes, Sarah, Ziva and Bart in your party. In cutscene001 Arshes (the player) is confronted by a shopkeeper and bein accused of being a thief. Now Sarah and Ziva both say "Arshes would never do that!" and Bart says "My man Arshes would NEVER steal anything". Now say you had a different party but still had Sarah, then Sarah would still say "Arshes would never do that!" and the other characters would say their cutscene specific phrase. Is this a good idea or should I disregard this? I think it will add a more fleshed out feeling especially if I give them phrases relating to their personality and the situation.

I always liked games that had optional characters that you would have to play though the game multiple times to get everyone at least once like ChronoCross for example. It adds a lot of replay value. I like the idea, but I think it's a lot of work how you have it planned.

Yeah, it does seem like a lot of work. It's definitely a good idea though.

One thing I would suggest though; this is RM, and it's not easy to get people to play a game once, let alone more than once. If you want to make replay value a feature of this game, then I think you would have to do even more than what you are suggesting. Basically, it's a great idea, but you need to do a lot of other stuff as well.

Baldur's Gate is a fantastic example of what you are suggesting. It has exactly the same thing, where characters will say different things during cutscenes depending on who they were. But it also goes a lot further than just different dialogues for different characters to give it replay value, with lots and lots of optional quests and stuff.

Well also in my game I have 2 opposing factions which have quests and different endings. Basically after the first part of the story it forks...or tridents (harhar) Holy Order, Neotechite and your own path. I want to do depending on which path it changes the world (Neotechite pushes the magic/lore based world into a more technological era while going Holy Order makes the world even MORE magic/lore based) But...that would create alot of work lol Comments?

I still think it's a good idea, and I still think it's a ton of work lol. It's really up to how much dedication you have and how motivated you are to do it. I think what you're suggesting with the 3 different paths is less complicated that I first expected. I first thought you were suggesting a singular story line (no branches) and having a dynamic choice of characters through out the game. Like for example if you choose an incorrect verbal response in some sort of cut scene then you wouldn't get a particular character to use the rest of the game but in turn this choice opens a new slot for another potential character further in the story. This would create an extremely dynamic aspect of the game and thus create a SHIT TON of work for you to do. However, you're suggestion of having 3 branches for a particular story can easily reduce the work but it wouldn't be as extremely dynamic. In each branch you could determine what characters the player will get. It's not going to be random, they'll just eventually get those characters. However, each branch is different as to which characters you get. So the branches are dynamically different but if a player were to replay the game down the same branch again, it would be the same game. Still a lot of work, but less than what I had originally anticipated. I still think it's a good idea too.