DGs NPC friendship thread

As a romance essentially is some extra dialogues and a few side quests, why is it any different to write a deepening friendship in the same way? In fact the first few dialogues of the romances in BG2 could equally apply to a friendship and a romance (with a less flirty tone).
Actually, that's what this whole thing grew out of. Dialogue that is intended to build into a romance just doesn't work very well as friendship dialogue, even though in the past that's what we've done (marked a point in the romance dialogue beyond which a non-romantic PC could not go). The tone is just different (as you yourself note) as is the purpose.

I know when I wrote Carth for KotOR, as a for example, I had a female target in mind. Some male players have noted that his dialogue with them seems... odd. Mainly because, I suppose, it's written as if Carth deep down has an attraction for the person he's talking to. (Excuse me while I take a moment to smirk. Okay, done.)

So having different dialogue where the intention is to build a comraderie rather than an attraction would be noticeable, I think. Look at characters like Deekin or Minsc or Keldorn... characters that (comic relief or no) were built to be your comrades and not romantic partners and therefore were very successful in that regard.

Part of the spirit of adventuring, after all, is the building of close bonds between comrades... true friends fighting back to back against unsurmountable odds, placing their lives in each others' hands... and that's just a much a part of the theme as romance, right? And one we haven't really explored very purposefully, probably, and I think that's what's being discussed is ways to facilitate that. Whether or not I can use it for Dragon Age we'll see, but it's certainly intriguing.