Good to see you again, Niara! Again, thank you for your dedication and hard work - and my apologizes for engaging in the debate despite reading your wishes of avoiding it.
I definitely agree on all parts regarding the importance of eye contact and physical contact in the form of locking hands or keeping hands on each others bodies to read the body language clearer. It is one of the best ways to show comfort or discomfort and one of the first thing most receivers do when they are in discomfort is putting a hand up in a "stop!"-motion or pushing at the giver, and most givers in a healthy relationship would catch on right away - the signal wouldn't even take a second. It's a important details to include if Larian wants to go this route.
Dez mentioned the physical models we have right now, and the whys of it... and I do want to answer that, though it's disheartening.
Yes: right now, the halfling models that we have have hugely distended hips that are actually the same width and depth as human-sized characters... it's one of the features that leads them too looking like humans with dwarfism, as opposed to natural healthy creatures of their own... and yes... that detail would make a lot of this choreography 'easier' and require fewer adjustments...
But isn't that just upsetting, really? It's the lazy option.... but more than that... if I have to choose between:
A) “Distorted, unrealistic halfling models that have been deformed so that they can fit into existing intimate scenes designed for medium-sized creatures without having to make many changes”
or
B) “Realistic and believable halfling models, who, by their nature, need to consider the positions they use and adapt how they engage with larger-sized partners, so that their intimate scenes actually look fitted to them and acknowledge them as legitimate people worth considering.”
… I want option B. And I really don't feel like that's an unfair or undeserved thing to ask for. I'm tired of the characters I generally prefer to play being cut out of these things, or forgotten about, or not accounted for – tired of them not being options ,being arbitrarily disallowed, or being ignored in the choreography so they clip and don't align in ridiculous ways. I want to have the same full experience that folks playing, or romancing, humans are allowed to have. I don't think that's unfair.
So yeah... you're not wrong, and that may be one other reasons they look like they do right now... but I'm not going to give up on wanting the models fixed, and made to look good. I'm going to keep pushing for that.
Like I mentioned in a earlier comment - the 3e version (... I am getting this right, right? :|) gives me the GW2 mini-vibes. Although your design is slightly altered to suit a smaller humanoid creature, I believe the end-result would be the same; no matter how you look at an adult mini in GW2, it is *very* obvious that it is an adult. With or without clothes (... There are summer models with minimal clothing for reasons <.<). Obviously, this debate would all be summed up to whenever people would believe halflings ARE more like a short human (aka, the dwarfism part), or an actual individual humanoid creature that just happens to be small (which would more accurately be portrayed by 3e halflings, hobbits or some type of fairies). Although my taste might not match your personal preference for a fantasy universe, I very much respect the knowledge and opinion of the halfling-community and believe that in this particular case I might be in the wrong for making the conclusion of halfling = very short humans while dwarves = very short wide humans. I do very much see the logic in the argument that these two (dwarves and haflings) would simply be too similar.
Anyways, back to the subject. The different combinations between mature body types, body hair, facial hair, hair cuts, faces and clothing makes it easy to distinguish the characters as adults, despite them being shorter than regular medium-sized humanoids. In GW2, even the mini version of the most baby-faced guy in the game would be impossible to mistake for a child - in fact, this is ESPECIALLY true for the less clothed/shirtless version.
There are many boosting elements to add - more mature (not speaking necessarily of sexual stuff now) animations, body language, facial expressions and an adult voice actor on top of all that, and you get a fully SFW (or NSFW in nude scenes..) adult small humanoid.
For skeptics, if imagination is not enough, then simply google "dwarfism" - many of these can be comparable to the current BG3 halflings and I sincerely doubt anyone would mistake an adult individual with dwarfism for a child if you're close enough to actually see them. -
Or - if you prefer to keep things fantasy with a DnD 3e touch - look no further than the Hobbits (LotR) with small adjustments and normal feet. Or better yet! Give the Halfling Feedback thread a visit (that was also started by Niara)
HERE.
I do hope you get your wish, Niara, and that Larian pulls off this in a clean manner that can satisfy everyone. Personally, I believe that Larian has all the tools they need to make this work out. I mean - short people/small humanoid romance/sexuality have started to appear every now and then as an acceptable thing in recent fantasy series/movies as the common people realize we're still dealing with 100% adult characters, so I bet things will be fine! :] Keep fighting the good fight!
