Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Focused Feedback: Minthara's Intimacy [Heavy Spoilers][potentially NSFW screenshots and language]

I disagree with the whole dom angle. What they already have is strong. Minthara has turned into a fan favorite, and now they've gotten a look that works really well. Play with the romance scene too much and all they do is risk messing up what's already working.

Well I think the issue is that, it's a lot stronger for some than it is for others. The general point of the thread is that her presentation during the sex scene is pretty refracted via the lens of whatever the player is bringing to the table on that score. Also a tacit acknowledgement that when it comes to this sort of stuff, player wants tends to eclipse what the character might have wanted (or what the writers intended there.) In other threads the playersexual angle was mentioned as being pretty prominent. Just like in DA or SWTOR (and any driving game really) where the player often elects to play as the thing they're attracted to or whoever they want to watch running in front of them or in cutscenes for hours on end, but then nevertheless wants retain their own (the player's) orientation for the romantic interactions. I think based on the response they should probably leave the current presentation in tact, but with some sort of upfront qualifier. Like a convo choice, so the machine can be clued into to who they're are dealing with. They have a bit going with the Daisy stuff at character creation, but it's not really enough to inform what gets thrown at us in a sophisticated enough way to handle all comers.

I think the player should be able to choose a more or less freaky path, in the same way other things branch. And so you don't get rid of what some people like, you just branch it, and offer a few more branches to accommodate the various audiences. That doesn't have to happen for every single one, like every romance or the origin romances where they are supposed to be a bit more fleshed out in terms of their arcs, but it might help for this one where the scene shown is more an expression of how the Player is reacting in the moment.

So say for a top option you get basically the current, which veers unexpectedly into tender softcore when the set up was more dom, and that works for some. But others might want to avoid the softcore, to keep it even more 'romantic' for their sensibilities. Cut to Hays Version, where we don't need to see the head bobs of whatever lol, for the more family friendly safe work work type scenario. Then you get some more the veer into the other direction. Some clearly designed to present Minthara in a way that is more of a mirror with feedback, and less likely to veer cringe, since the game will know more about what cringes the player or what appeals.

I'm really, really with. you. What they have is strong. Min a fav for good reasons. What they have works well. But the specific logistics of the scene are some uncanny valley shit, and there's a lot of room for improvement that would make an evil path compelling in a way it currently isn't.

So, while working on a separate project, I decided to pause at the branch point and nip across to Minthara's scene and just check, to see if anything had been improved, and report on it if so.

What I found was...

Well...



On the bright side, the double arm embrace has been fixed – it only happens once now, and doesn't defy physics. On the other hand, the overall intro scene is largely unintelligible because all we can see is some hair and the arm obscuring everything. It keeps things interesting by switching the camera angle to show us the back of Minni'e shoulder for the last bit. It's a whole lot of can't see jack now.

Moving on, and into the actual erotic scene...



The issues previously mentioned are still present here, at least to begin with – major clipping, impossible positioning, lack of continuity between shots... and just really poor camera work full of badly timed, unnecessary close-ups.

Then we softly twiddle the air to the side of Minnie's head for four camera transitions... It looks like we're supposed to be going after her ear I guess... so... apparently we're running with the tropey cliché that elf ears are a major erogenous zone.... Cool....

Moving on... this is where the new updates get really interesting...



We've apparently fixed having Minthara give our invisible, non-existent penis a blowjob, by making it an invisible, non-existent blowjob! We've also fixed the good-girl shot by removing the good girl from it entirely.... so everything just sort of floats. Oh, but somewhere there Minthara reaches up a hand from inside the altar. This is a precursor to the most incomprehensible tangle of models that I think is supposed to be where she flips you onto the altar, but, erm... yeah...



No-one knows what's going on here. We get some background, an occasional flash of someone's hair, some more background, and then suddenly Minnie planting her face in our tits... but... on the ground... where's the altar gone? Oh. There is is. On top of us. Then more background – That's not the moon there, that's a glowy light ball of unknown origin.

We fade out to the post-coital scene, but it's...



Clearly Larian have broken something pretty badly this time around – I tried running the scene a few different times, in different ways, with different amounts of pausing and rushing through dialogue or not, but it always runs completely broken like this now. Oh well... maybe next patch.

None of the actual choreography or visual direction seems to have been deliberately changed, as far as I can tell, but at this point it's hard to be certain.

Larian, please, for the love of everything, tone down the bloom and consider softening the light in this scene. This lighting is AWFUL.

It's still WIP though, right? I initially thought that the lack of an "Under Construction" screen might have been an oversight. It's there for high level feedback, but probably not for choreography.

It occured to me several times during EA, and again over the weekend when I was working on my All the Heads thread (just noticing how much new clipping is present for many of the most popular races/hairstyles) that Larian may be intentionally presenting us with "broken" material as a way of not-too-subtly forcing us to ignore some content in favor of other content.

Like instead of trying to make it as seemless an experience as possible from one patch to the next, they'll call attention to the glitch, whatever it might be. I guess so it becomes notable in the next patch or whenever it gets fixed. I kept thinking - I wonder if they butchered this or that hairdo as a way to force EA players to select a different one, or a different Race?

So perhaps that is their method, which is a bit oddball. Usually you'd expect them to wall off what's broken and try to hide it until it's actually working properly.

You know like 'Oh damn, houseguests are coming over in 10 minutes! Quick close the door to that messy kids room!' Like where they do a panic vaccum and light some scented candles, so as not to call attention to the hot mess.

But instead Larian is more like, 'Hi! We're so glad you stopped by for Thanksgiving! We're remodeling the kitchen and the dinning room and also the bathrooms (sort of), so we've laid out dinner in the garage and feel free to use the backyard. Can I take your coat and drop it on the floor for you?'

From what we've seen thus far EA, it's like they want us to experience the mess and the chaos lol. Like 'Great party right? Also, please come back next year!'

Heheh

Maybe this Minthara Halfling scene is sort of like that. Like the new iteration of bad hair and clown fashion for Mint Condition?

I guess right now showing us something totally broken is like shorthand for what will be worked on in the next patch. Instead of just telling us, they want us to really feel the glitches for ourselves. To live inside the glitch for 3 months. Curious strategy

I don't think there's that level of mind gaming going on. What I mean is, I don't think they're putting much thought into the presentation right now. The type of feedback they're looking for is probably mechanically broken aspects of the game...I can't think of anything else really.

Just happened to me ...
Triggerwarning, this is certainly nsfw

Well I haven't seen that one in the karma sutra, that's for sure...

Gah!

(+10 Dexterity)

+1

Its position of world fliped upside down and breaked backbone.
Page 2517 i believe, if you have acces to full version. :P