Sppoiler taggging the response to Stevelin, as it's getting off-topic.

Originally Posted by stevelin7
the issue is that the loyalty matter. [...] the cruel fact, the relationship doesn't mean loyalty. [...] despite the high relationship, even romance, the companions can betray or backstab you easily, because their ambition, desire(treasure), or succumb to other powerful beings(or gods).

That's not related to what you said, which was that you advocated players being able to use the tadpole, or some other magical device, too force 'romance' paths that they couldn't access naturally... which yes, is coercive rape, and you're advocating for the developers to create mechanics and paths for players to do this in their game. Sorry, if that's your thing (and it's fine if it is, in a fictional context) it's definitely that's the domain of mods.

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isn't this a coercively rape other companions?
no, because they don't detect it or the npcs succumb to the tadpole's power.
and yes, if they discover your "detect thoughts" or "willpower check" failure.

Ahh, so now we're adding "It's not rape if they don't find out you did it" to your personal stance. My, you really are a lovely person, aren't you? I sincerely hope you don't carry that perspective into your real life.

The checks we have in game are a violation of privacy and autonomy regardless of whether they detect it or not, and regardless of whether they are mentally coerced into going along with it and so to act like it's okay - it's still you taking away their free will and mentally coercing them to do as you say.

If we applied this to 'romance' paths, then it's still rape even if your coercion forces them to act like they're happy with the situation, and if they never find out you did this; you still took away their choice and violated their person. If that's your thing (again, it's fine if it is, in a fictional context, but don't act like what you're describing is not rape, because it is), it's the domain of mods, and not something that the devs should advocate for or put in place in their game.

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Outside of that, it might benefit others to know that various shades of bisexuality are a hell of a lot more common than some seem to think in the real world... but also, outside of that, it's actually "The Norm" in the forgotten realms - FR may differ from many fantasy settings in this regard, but individuals being open to intimate relationships with people of any sex is the majority case there - and the realms is where this game is set. For all we know all of our companions are actively coded to be naturally bisexual anyway, and we'll later hear about earlier male-male flings that Wyll has had in his adventuring fame and glory life, and so on; we actually don't know yet... lots of people are just making the blind assumption that the characters are heterosexual be default, when we have literally nothing presented in game to assert this.

Last edited by Niara; 14/07/22 01:57 AM.