Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Romance trigger and reactivity problems (formerly "Add a 'no horny' option PLEASE)

The romance system has to be bugged. People actively pursuing romances are getting nothing, and people actively avoiding them are getting everything.

If I had it my way the player would be able to indicate their sexuality in character creation, and have an option to make the romance match their sexuality, and the sex would be far more "fade-to-black". More romance and less sex, like the quoted text suggests.

There's a very transparent attempt in this game to inject the developers' politics in to it. They want to normalize the rampant pursuit of sex for pleasure and they want to normalize homosexuality by tempting you in to having gay sex with a wide array of different characters.

I'm 100% for you having the freedom to be who you are and associate with anyone you want, but I'm not okay with you trying to rope me in to it as well.

And then whenever you complain about it you get called a homophobe. Well, I'm not a homophobe just because I don't want to fellate a male mindflayer or have gay sex with Gale, Wyll, Astarion, and Halsin (to name a few).

I also don't like how they slutted up Shadowheart and Laezel's camp wear. I'm trying to kill some goblins here, not "get off."

Not sure if there is a political agenda or simply an ambient pressure.

Without being graphic, I do agree with you that it would have been good to toogle companions preference during character creation. After all we need to define genitalia, gender and body type. Adding straight, bi or gay or + shouldn't be difficult.

Yeah I don't think defining your character's genitalia belongs in a CRPG either. I come here for a gripping story and deep tactical combat, not to define digital characters' genitalia. It's not in your face and can be ignored but that's not the point. It's completely irrelevant for gameplay if Tav has a bush or not. If the characters would keep their undies on, players can imagine whatever they want under there. So I don't really understand the need for such a feature. Why is it there?

Okay, let's stick to the topic, which is the fact that, whether by design or because of bugs, some companions seem to be overly persistent about starting sexual or romantic relationships.

No more off topic chat about genitalia, please.

I have two big problems with our horny compagnions. Spoiler warning from here on.

First, why is everyone bisexual and has no preference at all. There should be at least some character specifics. Why the hell would Shadowheart for example ever hook up with you when being a selunite cleric for example, also trying to be so secretive as she is. Why is Gale so open about having a new partner while telling with full passion how dedicated his love for the godess Mystra by risking everything and also having problems with getting friends. Why would our Gythanki Queen of Rudeness and self entitled superior race ever want to make out with my halfling Paladin of Devotion from Early Acess who clearly stands for everything she sees as weak. Why would Wyll not try to distance himself from love as he is afraid of Mizora taking advantage.

This brings me to my second point. It is ridiculus with what answers you trigger romances here. The party for winning against the goblins. I really hoped that this was only a early acess thing where they wanted you to be able to try out the start of every romance but here we are again not knowing that this is in truth an orgy. Somehow Party=SexParty in Larian's dictonary otherwise I can't explain why everyone thinks I want to bang them when trying to be nice. Perfect example Wyll staying at the water being sad. Of course as a friend I would go there talk to him, try to cheer him up and join the festivity. "Hey the party wouldn't be the same without the blade of frontiers" should be an option without the thought of getting laid. Same with Halsin. After his advise to enjoy the party you can answer he should take his own advise, he refuses and says not this time. When you talk to him latter somehow your character has the dialogue option: "I hope i didn't come over too strong." Seriously, what? I really have questions for the writers in that regard. If stuff like this is regarded as flirting than I really have to make an apology to a lot of people. Gale also didn't take it when first refused and I had to spell it a second time that my character is not into him. Does the Tadpole turn everyone into simps, cause that's what it feels like.

Most characters feel very unnatural in that regard. As if they all become Astarion when it comes to sex. Cause that's the only character which i can believe would act like that being all about craving desires and live life to the fullest. Maybe also a little bit Karlach just because she really longs anything coming near body contact at all.

I would highly recommend at this point, to treat overly persistant romantic advances from NPCs as bugs, if you used a dialogue option that byyour measure should have cut things off... but didnt.

Yall should report it as a bug... I think its pretty clear some flags/triggers are bugged.

They're not pushing homosexuality onto you anymore than heterosexuality onto gay people. There is no agenda. Every other person, for some reason, is stuck in a "hot milf in a frathouse" simulator. Something went wonky in the romance pathing. Because of how complex they are, Larian should have foreseen this problem. It won't ruin the experience for me, but it's ever so mildly annoying. Has Larian made any sort of statement yet? Are they looking into it? If not, there's only the modders left to release some on/off switches for various companions

This interaction right here is what convinced me the dialogue flags are wonky. I can understand Gale thinking showing a fellow spellcaster a different way to use magic would be a line because dude is literally hot for Magic. But telling Halsin to go enjoy the party he suggested is on no plane, planet, or universe ‘coming on too strong’.

Thankfully telling Lae’zel to keep her pants on *merely* results in her telling you exactly what she wants to do to you but won’t. Because obviously telling someone you aren’t interested means you still want to hear about their fantasies, right? At least the flag seems to be set correctly there. I personally haven’t had any issues with Wyll, Astarion, or Karlach being creeps. Wyll has been friendly, Astarion just said at the party he’s horny but can’t find any good targets, and same for Karlach, just bitching good-naturedly about her specific issue. None of them have otherwise been out of line. Shadowheart and Gale have demonstrated some other possible dialogue flag issues outside of romantic interactions, however.

There. Just to reiterate the point...

After the rejection I already did for Gale, mentioned in my previous post, I just found myself invited to meet him.
He lured me in some sort of picnic spot, where my character sit on his side (with some of the most effeminate body language I've seen in a while, in a way that was unintentionally funny for a barbarian half-orc, incidentally) and when it comes to the point I was left basically with the options of making out with him (sorry, not my cup of tea even as a videogame fantasy, REALLY) or telling him the equivalent of "Fuck off, Gale, I'm outta here"... To which he responded with extreme disappointment (and Approval loss,of course... -5, I checked) and the scene ended abruptly.

Seriously, how is that a tasteful, NON-invasive way to put the player on the spot?
Now, while I consider my straightness a non-negotiable, incidentally I'm open-minded enough to find this more tacky than openly offensive, so I won't run in some corner of the internet to have a hissy fit about woke culture ruining everything or some shit...
But when you get more, uh, conservative players being made uncomfortable by this type of scenario, can you honestly blame them for voicing malcontent?
Because after a certain point it doesn't really matter how much you agree with their worldview. They have the same right to not have their identity being made a mockery by the game they are playing.

This all really sounds like a bug. If you've not already submitted your savegame to Larian then I reckon it's worthwhile.

Honestly reading this thread it seems like there are bugs here, and the bulk of them seem to be around Gale, Halsin, and Astarion.

But Gale especially...

Seems like the most buggy to least buggy is Gale, Halsin, Astarion, Shadowheart, and Lae'zel.

I agree, that this sounds very invasive ( it's actually similar to my Daisy experience). But like Queen, I 'm sure, this is a bug. I would report this too. I had nothing like that so far in my game and a friend desperately tries to romance Gale, but it doesn't work. So it looks like the romances are pretty broken atm.
I guess, the more people report this, the quicker it will be fixed.

I believe the term is: Player-sexual. It's the new normal because it basically covers all the bases so any player can romance whomever they want. While I understand the complaint I don't think that it's pushing an agenda as much as it's playing to the audience that do want romance options and it really only persists if you want it too because you have the option to turn them all down, at least that's how it worked in EA and it'll likely go back to that after a few Patches. So having to see all these options for romancing NPCs is kinda like seeing those signs at public pools telling people not to poop in them; sure it's weird to have to read the sign that's been put there for the 1% of the population that's old enough to read, but doesn't already understand that pooping in a pool is a bad idea, but you don't have to deal with it much again if you don't want too (when they fix the not remembering you turned them down part).

No more comments about ‘genitalia’? With all respect, isn’t that really a core part of the problem being discussed here? From what I am reading, the designers spent much time making penis and vagina options for certain niche players to slap on body types of their choosing, and not so much on providing modern game breadth of options for body and head types.

Really, given the foregoing, it is actually any wonder the game promotes predatory sexual content over the vast wealth of actual medieval fantasy adventure game content that makes up the bulk of the work and art included in this game?

Since this is a suggestions topic, I humbly suggest that the developers consider providing more truly inclusive options for disabling various types of immersion-breaking sexual and sexual orientation ‘content’ that, apparently, overlays and, in my view (to which I am entitled), diminishes the core game design. I have no problem with alphabet soup players and sexual predators (separate, but not fully overlapping, sub-sets of the player base, mind you) enjoying this type of content, but why force it on those who prefer not to be subjected to the same in a D&D game?

Be truly inclusive. Provide appropriate choices for all. And, no, being forced to turn down unwanted and unwarranted homosexual advances (for example)—or for that matter, any unwarranted sexual advances—while playing an adventure game is NOT being inclusive, just the opposite.

As I said in another post, despite being a fan of both Larian and past Baldur’s Gate titles, I am unlikely to purchase and/or spend time playing this game in its current state. I spoke with a married gay couple who are dear friends of mine concerning the sexual and sexual orientation content of this game—and their reaction was ‘wtf?!?… how stupid!’

I know this thread is getting a lot of attention, but there's actually gameplay breaking bugs around. Amnesia and hallucinations of companions and your relationship status aside, this game could have used a year more development.

I'm not saying it's bad. It's just that, had it gotten that, it might have been one of *the* revolutionary games setting milestones along the next century. Some companion quests (and ending variety) feel woefully incomplete. There's no consequences for using a new mechanic Larian introduced, inserting ever more tadpoles into your head. So of course, nevermind implementing a last resort off-switch for certain romances. You should wait, but be aware this is far from the only problem. Your romances could have been fine, yet your savefiles corrupted beyond salvation as soon as you set foot near moonrise towers. Not everyone is being chased down by companions left and right, let alone the same ones.

I'm not sure what convinced Larian the game is ready. It's not. We're in the middle of a moderately disastrous post release week. Sure, it's playable. But who will not encounter bugs that definitely had no business being present?

Thank you for the information. This is why I usually wait a bit to purchase major new games.

not even a little bit

It's certainly a strange design decision to make every companion want to fuck you no matter your race or gender...err body type/genital choice/pronoun choice.

Genitalia exists, that's it. The Real Issue is how cringeworthy the relationship system is shoehorned for Companions. I don't know why but i'm almost certain that Wizards of the Denuvo had to do something with how that Stuff was Shoved into the Game. You could've added so much more Char Depth and Development without relying on Cringe Harem Tropes. I'm not even bothered by the LGBT stuff even if it's Cringe too but some of the writing, ugh.