Q about alignment + Annah question *spoilerwarning*

[Seraya]

I have played the game once before and ended up as chaotic good, when I followed all the threads as I personally would do them. And now I was wondering what benefits there are to what playing style.
I know you can use some tears and the Celestial fire if lawful good, but are there some other matters of interest when you're good/neutral/evil that you can't or can do?
>spoiler space










Also. I've heard some people about an Annah romance. In my first game I did kiss her after I was nice to her and she got a little sick then and started burning, but for the rest I didn't notice very much of the romance. Is there more to get out of this? Also, I've been reading a walkthrough and at the end were descriptions of soundbits. I quote:
ANA204D - ?? - "I won't let ya down."
ANA205A - ?? - "I'm gonna stand by ye."
ANA206I - ?? - "Oh... see... I ... love you."
ANA207F - ?? - "...hafta stay, ya see ... I love ya."
ANA208E - ?? - "I don't care what ya say to this, I don't,
I don't want ye to say anythin'... but I
can't let ya die here."
ANA209E - ?? - "Oh please don't let me die here."
ANA210D - ?? - "It's alright... I trust ye."
ANA210E - ?? - "Do what ye hafta... I trust ye."
ANA211D - ?? - "I forgive ye..."
ANA211E - ?? - "It's alright... I forgive ye..."
ANA218D - ?? - "Don't you trust anyone here, ya got me?"

>>
So I was wondering, (and please don't spoil me too much, just a hint will do), are these soundbits actually used in the game?? And at more or less what time and could you give a little hint on how to achieve this?" *likes romancey things

[Baldursgate Fan]

I have not seen the dialog implemented in the game. Anyway, there is no actual romance on the scale of BG2 AFAIK, although Deionarra comes close.

[The Z]

SPOILERS

1. If you kiss Ravel in the maze and then talk to Annah you may kiss her (which is not only fun but it boosts some of her resistances). It may depend on CHA, INT, or WIS
2. When you first get her you can "flatter" Annah and she will begin to talk dirty to you . From there you can hold her and bite her (although she turns you away). Once again, I think this is dependant on CHA, INT, and/or WIS. I also forgot the dialogue for that specific "encounter".
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[VonDondu]

I don't remember ever hearing Annah come out and say, "I love you," but she makes an admission along the lines of, "I have feelings for you" (without any associated soundbit). She's not used to loving anyone, and she's afraid to commit to the Nameless One because he's doomed. Ironically, that also seems to be the reason why she's drawn to him. (How wonderful it must be to be in such a position.) That's the nature of the Nameless One's "torment", which is explained by various bits of dialogue throughout the game.

Every NPC in the party is caught up in the Nameless One's "torment" in different ways. Annah, more than anyone else except maybe for Dakkon (whose grief is obvious), is living in her own personal hell. Even Morte and Fall-From-Grace (who don't seem to be in pain on the surface) are bearing burdens you might become aware of at some point.

There's not a lot of romantic dialogue or kissing or anything like that, so don't be disappointed. Annah's love actually does have one profound consequence: she doesn't give a damn about what happens to most people, but if she falls in love with the Nameless One, she will do everything she can to protect him, even at great cost to herself. That means a LOT. There's a climactic scene near the end of the game that will really touch your heart if you're receptive to it. That's all I have to say; I won't spoil it for you.

[VonDondu]

I forgot to answer your question about alignment. Aside from the use of the items that you mentioned, I can think of one other benefit in being Lawful: Vhailor, who is as Lawful as can be, can upgrade the Nameless One's stats, and the more Lawful the Nameless One is, the greater the increase. There might be a few more things like that, but I don't think they're all that important. The primary benefit that comes with alignment is that you can personalize your character and play him the way you want to. That might not be a tangible benefit, but it is certainly an important one.

[fable]

Originally posted by VonDondu
Every NPC in the party is caught up in the Nameless One's "torment" in different ways. Annah, more than anyone else except maybe for Dakkon (whose grief is obvious), is living in her own personal hell. Even Morte and Fall-From-Grace (who don't seem to be in pain on the surface) are bearing burdens you might become aware of at some point.

This is a very good point. Unlike your hero in so many RPGs, the NO of PS:T is (ironically) an amnesiac with a past that's very much alive and shackled to him with lead chains. He constantly finds reminders of two of his most prominent past incarnations, one as a vicious, predatory control-freak, and the other as a half-crazed paranoid. In a way, they represent extreme polarities on a spectrum, whose single uniting character is self-aggrandisement. His murder of the architect and the living memory of his treatment of Deionarra are only two really nasty examples of the person he wasn't simply before, but the person he still could be. I really do wish Guido Henkel had been allowed to produce a followup, in which, no doubt, some answers would have been provided, and further questions proposed.

[Platter]

Seraya, those sounds are not used. You did experience the full extent of the Annah "romance."

Originally posted by fable
I really do wish Guido Henkel had been allowed to produce a followup, in which, no doubt, some answers would have been provided, and further questions proposed.

Well, he did leave the company before Torment was even complete. Publicly he made it seem as though he quit and it was his decision. I think you said you've talked with him though, right? Your posts about it in the past seem to indicate he told you otherwise.

IIRC, you've claimed before that Chris somehow got credit when Guido should have gotten it (or something to the effect of Guido not getting his due credit - sorry if I'm not remembering that correctly). In what way?
It was Chris Avellone who wrote most of the story for the game. Chris was always the Lead Designer of Torment. He wrote the general story for the game (and did the dialogs for a lot of the major story characters).

Is there some conspiracy? Everyone I've ever talked to about it (including the other designers) credits Chris for most of the story of Torment.

[fable]

IIRC, you've claimed before that Chris somehow got credit when Guido should have gotten it (or something to the effect of Guido not getting his due credit - sorry if I'm not remembering that correctly).

Apology accepted, but please do not state an assumption like that without first checking it. I never wrote that, and I certainly never would. Chris deserves a great deal of credit; so does Guido. Recognizing what the latter did in no way implies dissing the former.

I've only mentioned Guido Henkel twice here on the boards. You're probably referring to a post where I stated words to the effect that Guido got dumped before the project was finished, and thus didn't get his rightful share of praise, as a result. His comments in private conversation with me were to the effect that corporate decisions forced him out.

When I first discussed PS:T with him, long before its release, he was very enthusiastic about the concepts underlying the mechanics of the game. He didn't formulate the story, but he knew even then what kind of game he wanted, the type of anti-hero you'd be, the interaction you'd get from other party members, and even the fights that could break out within your party.

Some details we spoke about never apparently made it to the finished cut; here are some quotes I took down from Guido, and published in a magazine preview at the time:

“You have limited control over the people in your party at any time, and they are a very mixed bag. For example, we have two female NPCs who love the main character, and will physically fight to the death when they aren’t shouting our sniping at one another. You’ll have to click on one and order her to move away.”

“You also won’t know what class anybody has, or what skills they’ve got. Strength, magic capability, hit points—these, you can see. But a character may possess a spell you do not know about until a certain point in the game where they’ll use it. Or an NPC may scream at you for picking his pocket, and you’ll realize suddenly that one of your party members has that skill.”

“The way people deal with you depends on how they perceive you. If you are a very kind guy, they’ll approach to ask you favors. If you play really nasty, you’ll get more tasks asking you to kill someone; and some people will avoid you, or attempt to soothe you. There are three paths to ultimate success in our game. We’re trying to go to some length to present dialog choices that reflect real differences in attitude, not the black and white of Baldur’s Gate.”

There was a lot more that did come off, but those quotes provide tantalizing hints of Henkel's original vision for PS:T.

[Platter]

I remember other interviews with him in previews of the game (or maybe it was other parts of your interview, heh). I'd say at least half of the stuff he talked about in nearly every one didn't make it into the final game. Of course it's understandable that things would change as development continued. It's just kind of weird looking back and seeing just how different a game he had in mind back then. Though you are probably right about the core of the game still being much the same.

Originally posted by fable
I've only mentioned Guido Henkel twice here on the boards. You're probably referring to a post where I stated words to the effect that Guido got dumped before the project was finished, and thus didn't get his rightful share of praise, as a result.

This is what I was thinking of;

Originally posted by fable
The game is unusually well-focused on the issue of the NO's amnesia and remarkable existence, and we probably have Guido Henkel, the game's first producer, to thank for it. (He and BIS came to a parting of the ways shortly before it was released. Pity. Others took the lion's share of the credit, as a result.)

It's that last sentence which made me think you meant what I was talking about in my last post, as though he would have gotten the most credit as The Main Guy had he not left. Given the way it is worded I don't think you can fault me for interpreting it that way. Especially since Chris Avellone is generally the one who does in fact receive "the lion's share of the credit."

The other part that lead me to believe that you do think of Guido as The Main Guy of the team (though this one is minor and definitely an assumption on my part) is your apparent assumption that a feature of the game which you like (the focus of the story) is due to his influence. Though perhaps you have some insider information on this - you didn't say why you thought it.

Apparently all you meant was that he didn't receive as much credit as he deserved, regardless of how much that was, and I believe you.

I still insist that my assumption was not far-fetched given your wording.

You should also know that I did try to check it first but couldn't find the post of yours that I was thinking of when I wrote that (because it turns out it was in the Baldur's Gate section of the forum), but I still wanted to discuss the issue with you. That's why I was very careful to add the "IIRC" and the pre-emptive apology.

Let me reiterate; I believe you and I was wrong in my assumption. I am just trying to show you why I thought what I did and why I don't think it was unreasonable for me to think it.

To tell you the truth I have no idea what a Producer does on a game development team.