Where to find lancemates in GH2?

[MadLucied]

Hey guys, I'm really sorry to ask this question as I know it's a stupid one, but where do you find lancemates in GH2? I have already read that there is a random mercenary and a random paramedic, but is that all? Is there a Vikki like lancemate running around, and do all the cities have lancemates?

Once again, sorry to ask this, but I havent found a specific topic that covers this, and I didn't see this in the wiki either. If I overlooked it in a topic, sorry!

[Snakebit STI]

Start with Charm 15 of higher (I think...) and select Camaraderie as a talent. Then you can recruit any friend as a lancemate (they may not accept). High conversation leads to more friends. Also, some plots will give you a lancemate. Other than that, I couldn't tell you.

[edit] silly me, you don't have to start a new game to take the talent.

[MadLucied]

Oh okay thanks! That actually did bring up the option for the "join" option, thanks a bunch!

[Edit]
Okay then, now my second question. I have talked with a bunch of people and the join command only came up with the person you first talk with at the very beginning of the game. I was thinking I could talk to anyone so long as they like me and at the very least get the join command. Yet despite how much they seem to like me, I dont get it that option. That IS because they aren't able to because they may be a police officer or Knight, or is there more to it?

I am thinking it is because of there job, but I havent gotten that option with anyone despite how much they like me and my charm is 15 and conversation a 7 or 8.

[Francisco Munoz]

They need to be your friend (status after the name... "friend") not just people who like you.
You start with one friend in the cavalier club but you could get more from people you rescue, old friends found from the core plot, etc...

[MadLucied]

Oh okay sweet! Thanks a bunch!

[Joseph Hewitt]

Mercenaries are fairly easy to find. Take out your phone and call "Mercenary", and if there's one in the city go to their location and talk with them. They won't always offer to join your lance- you must not currently have a lancemate, and your renown must be high enough.

There are a couple of special lancemates- a thief, a mechanic, and a completely random character. If you hear a rumor that X wants to go on an adventure or that X is planning to become a cavalier, go talk with them. The same rules apply as for the merc.

Finally, pro duelists will frequently become your ally/friend after a match, so try the mecha arenas. In the past I've had Tama, Caher, and others as my lancemates. The duelists tend to be pretty powerful, with lots of skills and a few talents.

[Joseph Hewitt]

I just remembered another one- there's a guaranteed lancemate in Gaos Spinner if you take the Galena Hodges quest. If you're looking for a lancemate early in the game this is definitely the place to go.

There's also a samurai who may appear as part of a dungeon reward, but this one is relatively rare.

[bellman]

Quoting: Joseph Hewitt

They won't always offer to join your lance- you must not currently have a lancemate, and your renown must be high enough.

Does that just apply to mercanaries? Or is there a way to get more lancemates, through camaradarie (not sure on spelling or something? ) And pardon me for asking, but were robotic lancemates where scrapped?

[xpace]

Quoting: Joseph Hewitt

They won't always offer to join your lance- you must not currently have a lancemate, and your renown must be high enough.

Quoting: bellman

Does that just apply to mercanaries? Or is there a way to get more lancemates, through camaradarie (not sure on spelling or something? )

Umm...
So, GH2 does have more than one potential lancemate available (aside from mercenaries)? However, you're saying it's designed so that the player has to choose only one? But... why? I thought the stereotype of a lance had up to 4 members?
Pardon my saying so, but I think that when I start playing GH2 in earnest I might try to modify my version to allow more - even though my Pascal is rusty.

[EarthquakeDamage]

Given the primary source material (anime), a lance should probably be a five man band.  Or maybe four.  No less than three, certainly.  As is, you can have at most four (self, any friend/ally, story companion, friend/ally with Entourage).

It'd be nice if the limit were higher, but the game is poorly balanced for large lances.  Enemy lances would need to be larger to compensate since enemy skill and, more importantly, toughness has an upper limit (unless you mod in enemy-only SF3+ mecha or something).

[xpace]

Quoting: EarthquakeDamage

Enemy lances would need to be larger to compensate since enemy skill and, more importantly, toughness has an upper limit (unless you mod in enemy-only SF3+ mecha or something)

There is that possibility, I suppose...
XD
But then, can we justify SF3+ enemy-only mecha which do not leave behind any scrap for the player to scavenge? Or, maybe they do and it's just that the player doesn't have any SF3 torso to mount the stuff on. :LOL:

In any case, I'm all for larger enemy forces if it means we can have more than a couple lancemates! (Or, better yet, could this be something the player can configure in an option screen on starting a new game?)

[Joseph Hewitt]

You get one freely-choosable lancemate, or two with the Entourage talent. In the core story you will likely get one additional lancemate, and soon you should be able to get a second. So, by the end of the game you should have anything from 2 to 4 lancemates.

I reduced the number of lancemates when the Leadership skill was removed. Lancemates in GH2 are different from lancemates in GH1. On the minus side, GH2 lancemates can't learn new skills (other than the basic combat skills, which nearly everyone starts with). On the plus side lancemates in GH2 are more plentiful, they frequently start out more powerful (epsecially if you get an arena champion on your team- Caher and Vanda can pretty much mop up the final battle by themselves*), and their skills advance quickly to keep them at a comparable level to the PC.

I can sympathize with wanting more choosable lancemates. However, given the way the game is currently balanced, I don't think it's a good idea. The PC should remain the focus of the RPG campaign, the Arena campaign is there for building a lance.

*Which is actually kind of neat to watch. Go forth my minions! Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

[EarthquakeDamage]

Quoting: Joseph Hewitt

The PC should remain the focus of the RPG campaign, the Arena campaign is there for building a lance.

Speaking of Arena lances, they can be cumbersome to control.  It'd be nice if we could let the AI control any given character (sort of like RPG mode).

[CCC]

The fact that lancemates in GH2 are more plentiful means nothing (unless you've memorised the list of potential lancemates, and the requirements) since once you have one (or two, with Entourage) no more will ever offer to join you.

It would be nice if, perhaps given slightly higher entry requirements than to have the lancemate merely join, a potential lancemate who would join you if you had the space for him would occasionally say so. ("I wish I could join you, but you have enough lancemates already that I'd be lost in the crowd") Then I would at least know the option was there, and the higher number of lancemates would be a more usable advantage.

[xpace]

Quoting: CCC

It would be nice if, perhaps given slightly higher entry requirements than to have the lancemate merely join, a potential lancemate who would join you if you had the space for him would occasionally say so.

I wholeheartedly agree. However, what would the prospect say? "I'd be lost in the crowd" sounds more like sarcasm in GH2! I think about the only thing they could say is "Two's company, but three's a crowd" (PC + Lancemate = 2... or 3 if they have Entourage).

Quoting: Joseph Hewitt

I reduced the number of lancemates when the Leadership skill was removed.

I do appreciate the desire to make GH2 different from GH1. We're looking for a different, yet similarly pleasing gaming experience - else it would just be GH1 with better graphics. But I honestly didn't care for the idea of reducing the number skills and talents.

Quoting: Joseph Hewitt

Lancemates in GH2 are different from lancemates in GH1. On the minus side, GH2 lancemates can't learn new skills (other than the basic combat skills, which nearly everyone starts with).

No offense, but that rather cripples their usefulness. And considering that in GH2 we can only have one (or two) of them, the crippleness is multiplied.

Quoting: Joseph Hewitt

On the plus side lancemates in GH2 are more plentiful, they frequently start out more powerful.

Being more plentiful seems rather pointless since you can only have one in the game. Even if we can dismiss and recruit them on a whim, it hardly seems compensation.

Quoting: Joseph Hewitt

...and their skills advance quickly to keep them at a comparable level to the PC.

If they gain in their skills too quickly and if they are all that powerful ("...Caher and Vanda can pretty much mop up the final battle by themselves"), then they can easily become so powerful as to belittle the PC. And that seems contradictory to making the PC the main focus. On the other hand, if they did not gain skills quickly, then they would not be able to keep up with the PC - that is, if swapping one's lancemate becomes as common as changing one's socks.

Quoting: Joseph Hewitt

I can sympathize with wanting more choosable lancemates. However, given the way the game is currently balanced, I don't think it's a good idea.

Does this mean you have not ruled out the possibility of re-balancing GH2 sometime in the future? Perhaps after getting closer to a v1 release it could be reconsidered?

Also, I don't recall much be said about the idea of romancing an NPC into a love interest. Somehow, I had the notion of said love interest eventually becoming recruit-able as a lancemate. (Which would fit a lot of anime/manga and mecha stories.) Though, I'm not sure how well that would work as a non-pilot's stats would stink big time. (Unless they could learn new skills and learned uber-fast.)