Okay, I wasn't going to post a response to this thread but my urge is too great.
Nobody, not Larian, not WotC, not gods, ghosts, or ghouls, are forcing you to romance or fuck anyone. The only character that has consistently come onto me through all playthroughs is Astarion which I think is only because I keep is affinity high. Unless you actively flirt with them and pursue them, Shadowheart, Gale, Wyll, even Lae'zel, do not come onto you. You have to actively pursue these options and go after them. There's no real 'forced romance' unless one character asking you for a booty call is too much for you.
This is simply not true. I have not attempted for a romantic relationship or selected any romantic/flirty options for ANY character during my first play through, yet - like most people here experienced - every single person in the camp wanted my character's booty during the celebration.
People keep repeating 'no one is forcing you'. This is a technicality, yes, sure, you can just say no.
To all of them. At the same time. All of them are trying to bang you early through the game during the same scene. You can say no, that doesn't make it any less weird.
You can say no, but you are still exposed to their weird advances and flirting with each other. To clarify, I don't mind romances in the game, I very much enjoy them, specially if they're well developed as a slow burn. I tested every romance scene in my playthrough because I was curious to see how it would unfold. And it feels weird and unnatural.
Hell, I was just trying to be friendly with Shadowheart, trying to make some girl friendship bond, I ended up triggering the romance scene even though I had no intentions of romancing a female. I rolled with it.
P.S: Still weird.
I simply do not mind as long as they keep it between themselves. Laz can have Wyll, Ast can have a random thiefling and Shadowheart can have Gale for all I care. But it DOES feel really weird that you get them ALL over you at the very same time even though your character have not showed even a hint of interest in any of them. It doesn't matter that you obviously can turn them down (I mean, what would Larians option be? :x ).
I could get if like 1 or 2 of the characters were really straight forward and maybe sexually motivated fairly early - sure. I could even accept if one or two had the personality of being persistent about it.
But yeah, it really wouldn't hurt to have one or two characters being more drawn back regarding the sexual stuff either.
Do note though - I do not think the solution to the problem is to make romance triggered EXCLUSIVE for the player - like the player having to flirt tirelessly in order to establish any romantic interest. I do like the idea of (some of) our companions being able to develop romantic feelings without us having to actively pursue it. Although I obviously do not classify their current behavior as feelings - WE BARELY KNOW EACH OTHER!
... To summarize - having a few companions being more into physical attraction is fine. Some people are like that. Having some companions a bit more laid back is also fine, cause some people are like that. Maybe some companions require your character to take the first step - while some other companions can develop feelings for your character overtime without having your character flirting with them. Just... Get rid of this "all of them wanna bang you at the same time"-thing - UNLESS it actually IS tied to the pod and those nasty hentai-folks (like for real, if they are the ones causing it then they're just gonna have to deal with being referred to as "hentai", it's not even about the tentacles).
To all of them. At the same time. All of them are trying to bang you early through the game during the same scene. You can say no, that doesn't make it any less weird.
I wonder if for this there couldn't be some early trigger that would possibly set a friends only status. Maybe in a camp conversation that had something to do with relationships in general and you could say something about having more important things to worry about. After that then there would be no advances by anyone and if you changed your mind later you would have to do a lot of work to get someone interested.
Having an external option to "friend-zone" characters to simply not have them ever engage in romantic conversations with your character would absolutely be great, imo. Ideally, I'd like to see a small "turn off romance options"-box on each individual companion so that you can turn off romance entirely on whoever does not interest you (or rather, whoever you don't want being interested in your character*), whenever that is one, two or all companions.
But, I highly doubt they would implement it cause, yknow. "You can't turn people's feelings and desires off irl, you just gotta say no"... -.-
