Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General romance in game - a doubt???

hello first post here.

so im not sure anymore about if we can have romance between our main characters (if we play single player) or not???

till now i thought that romance was a sure thing with the affinity system, like they said:

"Disagreeing in cooperative dialogs doesn't just influence choice and consequence, it also shapes how well the two protagonists are compatible with one another. Every decision adds to a social stat: what do your heroes' traits tell about their affinity? Will they end up as friends and even lovers, or do they have to learn to live together out of sheer necessity?"

and also here: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/03/05/larian-on-near-closure-divinitys-future-gender-parity/

but i was seeing just now the latest stream of the game released yesterday and someone asked Vincke if the player could have romance he said NO.

so is the romance between the characters a possibility like they first said or not???

this is kind of confusing based on the latest video stream question.

anyway thanks for the attention and if someone could clear this up thanks again.

This was posted quite a while ago, so it is probably outdated now.


Well, from what I remember, devs earlier said that there are two separate systems going on with protagonists. One of them is the affinity aka. traits, which represents whether protagonists are of the same mind on moral choices they encounter in the game. And the second one is affection, which is the "under the hood system" that gathers some parameters from personal banter between protagonists (for example, where one of them praises\scolds the other for being quite a thief, or for good battle skills etc.). And that this second one supposedly will influence some end game outcomes.
But, who knows what's actually going on with these systems now. For example, I remember them saying that affinity will give some sort of bonuses to protagonists, like, those of the same mind will get combat bonuses when they are near each other. But I think it was replaced by leadership talent.
Many things changed over the course of the year, like, now we can make protagonists of the same sex and their backstories are completely different from what they were a year ago.
So, I don't want to be a downer here, but romantic relationships between protagonists may as well have been ditched, if they even were in development at all.

It is still listed under the game features http://www.divinityoriginalsin.com/featuresoverview.php

That shouldn't be outdated?

yup it is still there at the game features. also there is this article from 5 of march of 2014 (just a few months ago):

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/03/05/larian-on-near-closure-divinitys-future-gender-parity/

you can read at the end of it (the two last questions) about romance, and again they answered it as if romance was in the game.

so if someone with more knowledge of the game could clear this up that would be nice, after all we have some conflicting info now after that last video stream.

thanks!

One of the reasons I dropped following Pillars was because they chose not to have romances, even though BG2 a game they say they are emulating, did. Not that BG2 romances where not popular (just check the faqs and forums) but it was because the devs just didn't like them.

Hope it's still in this game.

same thing happened to me with pillars.

there is no problem with a game not having romance but their stance on the subject, how they presented themselves about it over the forums was very arrogant for my taste.

anyway back to this game, would be nice to have a word from the developers about it, especially because we have now two conflicting infos about this topic. and as the guy above posted this "feature" is still present on the site about the game's features.

so an official word about it would be nice.

again thanks for the answers!

As I've written before, it quite possibly might be outdated, because that whole page was posted quite some time ago.

it could be.

but its still weird that the article i posted from 5 of march of 2014 (just a few months ago) talks about romance as if its in the game, but the latest video stream says its not!???

heres the article:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/03/05/larian-on-near-closure-divinitys-future-gender-parity/

still hoping for someone from the dev. team the clear this up.

For reference, the question asked during the livestream was:

"Can the player have a romance?"

And the answer given was:

"Not really, it's not a Bioware type of game."

and thats why this is weird.

till now as we can see in the links posted above romance was pretty much in the game (with the affinity system, friends, lovers and all). even an article from this march had romance as if its part of the game.

but after the stream is not in the game anymore??? or is it still there but they are saying to us to not expect it to be a Bioware take on romance???

what is what exactly??? devs, if possible, please clear this up. thanks.

Arcanum, Baldurs Gate 2, Planescape Torment...
All legendary isometric RPG had romances.

Create another great isometric RPG with two main characters opposite gender, saing things as:

" Will they end up as friends and even lovers, or do they have to learn to live together out of sheer necessity? "

And after all that, not include romances...



It takes REAL balls to do something like that



Do you remember how many people wanted return money when finished playing Mass Effect 3?
Authors promised several different endings and all we got was:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd....900647089951891_280966690554139787_n.jpg


Unfulfilled promises are in the publishing industry a dangerous thing...

Generally I'm anti dating sims like Mass Effect and the upcoming Dragon Age Inquisition so romance isn't a huge thing for me however in the case of Original Sin it would be very awkward if there was no romance option between the player characters....the very cover of the game implies it and the very words "Original Sin" have heavy cultural implications in a lot of cultures. In the case of Original Sin I'd say some kind of romance theme is appropriate and necessary to the topic of the game.

Now to be absolutely clear: romance does not have to mean sex or nudity and all that.



I do agree such a change can end up being quite explosive here. Mass Effect 3 was hyped as the culmination of consequences to choices and since it was the end of the trilogy it was promised to have heavily branching choices....that's what people bought the game for, it wasn't some side or minor feature but THE reason to buy the game....so finding out that we've been lied to and manipulated and lied to was a huge deal....not only were there no branching choices but all previous choices were meaningless and of no consequence and the ending was completely nonsensical.

In the case of Original Sin romance is extremely heavily implied and was explicitly promised and I'd say a key topic to be addressed in any and all settings that intend to start talking about "Original Sin" no matter how you want to alter the meaning of these words for a fantasy setting.

Well told Darth_Trethon!

I wanted say exactly something like that, but my english was not good enough.
(I'm a great reader, but crappy writer)

Well, maybe it means that there won't be any Bioware types of romances, but maybe there will be some light romance? Like in Planescape: Torment, but even simpler, judging from what we've seen in beta's personal banter between protagonists. I'm not holding my breath though.


Romances are not a very strong side of Obsidian (or they just don't want to waste so much time on fanservice like Bioware), I only somewhat liked them in their NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer, so no need to bash them for not wanting to put them PoE. Besides, from what I've seen of this game, it resembles BG1 more than BG2, and BG1 had no romances.

Sorry but not putting fanservice in a game is like not putting icing on a cake. Why the hell would you not do it? Giving the fans what they want is supposed to be what it's all about. It surely doesn't have to be a BioWare level of relationship building and all that, but just something would be nice.

I also recall on this forum the question coming up about same-sex relationships and that came back as a yes.

so no official answer about this contradiction???

i see that ill have to wait for the game to be released then ask around the net before deciding what to do.

any statement on the subject before the game release would be nice, like a short explanation about it.

thanks.

You can safely buy the game and if it will not have content which was promised, you can legally ask for money back.

If you buy tin with orange soda and inside is lemon soda, it may be similar but not the same. This is called misleading consumers.

The wise manufacturers never promise what they cannot fulfill.

well i dont think we need to go that far...

but as i said before an answer from the devs could easily clear this up.

for now ill wait for an official answer or ill just wait till after the game is released and see what people have to say about this topic.

Something tells me that you will not get an official response...

But I agree that this behavior is from the deves really nasty.

Maybe you should ask this question on twitter @larianstudios, @LarAtLarian. I've seen them answering questions quicker there than here.