Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General No Gen, Pre Gen, Origen

Many folk are not okay with that, and wish to voice that they are not; that they do not wish for that to be the case. That is the feedback they are offering. I would personally appreciate it if you'd refrain from attacking anyone who says as much, please.

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On the topic of defining and fleshing out our characters, and others discussing whether and how we do or could get a chance to really do that, here's this for though:

We undergo a great many interesting events throughout the early game, but wee never get to comment on them. We can decide for ourselves how we feel about various things, but we never get a chance to tell The Game this. In some of these cases, we get engaged in conversation with our companions, where they characterise themselves and their opinions on the matter - where they get to show us how they feel about these events and develop their characters... but we never get to do this in return - it's all always about them.

It could be otherwise.

Some of you may have read my suggestion in a couple of places about how an intro and game tutorial could run in a way that blended with the current opening sequence, to give us a chance to learn basic mechanics and define elements of our character at the same time. - Well, that doesn't need to stop outside of the intro. Sequences that let us define elements of our character that the game can remember should continue, more regularly in the early game and increasingly sparse save for major events as the game progresses.

One very good example is the Tadpole Dream. After one of the dreams, the game, though Shadowheart, tells us that we gave in to our 'lover' and were intimate with them. We don't get to decide on this score, it's just the statement of fact - Nothing we say in the dream itself changes this, apparently, and if we deny it, Shadow tells us that they all saw and were all aware, and that they all know what happened.

So, this... and, to Larian, in case you're reading... Just a note... This is a Fucking Massive Violation of our character. Because here's the thing: If I am playing a character that would not willingly choose to share intimacy with pretty dream stranger who is incredibly creepy in their advances, and then I do so anyway, it doesn't matter that it's 'just a dream' and it doesn't matter if they 'made me feel willing at the time' with whatever dream influence was used... that entity is not just a figment; they are a real, actual entity, with real actual intelligence behind whatever they're showing us, and that entity just raped me. But we don't get to react or respond in any way that tells the game how we feel about this. We're just blank, while Shadow condescends to us about our 'choices'.

We Could use this conversation to convey to the game how we think our character feels about this intrusion and violation; are they deeply hurt and upset by it; do they feel violated, raped even; was the worst part of it the theft of their free will and the forced compulsion of their mind to act in ways they wouldn't? Are they just annoyed and upset by it, and think the daisy is a nasty piece of work whom they have no intention of interacting with further, but aren't particularly scarred by the unpleasant inexperience? Are they perhaps fine with it, because in the end, it was just a dream, or so it seems, no matter how unwilling their participation in it was. Are they perhaps more upset by Shadow's accusations and assumptions about how they feel about the encounter, rather than the event itself?

Those are just some negative experience options that we could inform the game of, which may alter how we can respond to the daisy in future dreams if we have any. That might be one branch, out of several: a dialogue tree with the interviewing companion where we can first indicate whether the experience was negative/non-consenting, neutral/just a bit of fun, or positive/wilful/enjoyable, and from that as they ask us further to elaborate, we can describe more closely how we feel about the event.

Showing the game, and the game world, who we are as characters is such an important part of the game experience because it helps create that feeling of a living being, existing in a living world, and connects us to it through a character that we genuinely feel like we are communicating the definitions of, and being seen. Even if some, or even a lot, of those decisions don't have notable impacts on the game - as long as enough of them do, what matters is getting the chance to tell people, and being acknowledged for it.

Even before that - we never get much chance to talk to other companions about how we, as characters, feel about this whole tadpole event - more chance to communicate to the game, by way of our companions, how we as a character feel about that and think about that, would go a long way.