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)

Back on topic, I'm not convinced that all of what we're seeing are bugs. I think Larian has programmed a variety of intimate encounters with the different companions that you're allowed to either engage with fully, or back out once you realize what is happening. The problem people that are in Act 2 and further are seeing, is that you don't really get any say in starting these events. I'd love to hang out with Halsin and talk the shit, but I'm not interested in sex. I'd like having a drink with Gale and talk about the weave, but not at a sex picnic.

I think people that don't quite realize what is going on will soon see it once they get late into act 2 and 3.

Yeah its not just bugs, there are definitly clear problems with how these romances are laid out, but there is also bugs exacerbating the problem.

Very much so. I just started Act 2 and have decided I will just never speak to Halsin again, because he thinks “You’re welcome” = “I want sex.” And it seems Larian thinks this too, because following “you’re welcome” tree gives me the options of “I wanna fuck” and “I wanna fuck (except I’m being coy about it)” with no other choices. It’s really off-putting to get trapped in character conversations where the options turn out to be 1. Sex please 2. Sex please but not so obvious and 3. You are the most revolting thing I have ever set eyes on and I should have killed you when I had the chance.

There are definitely bugs though.

Halsin does not deserve to have been reduced to being a sex pest by the developers, were they just to wrapped up in the halsin fans who wanted to romance him to not realize some people just wanted to be friends with him?

I told the dude to "go enjoy a party" and the game literally assumed I was hitting on him...

Does Larian think people dont talk to other people for reasons other than romance?

Once you exhaust all the option, companion will no longer "horny" for you.

In other words, if you sex them up they'll be sated?
I don't think that's a good solution.

No.

It means when you exhaust all option to refuse their advances. They'll stop.

I said "No" once to La'ezel. She knows No means No. Other companions, including Halsin, too.

Sounds like hate speech to me, too.

Agree with this... I much preferred How Dragon Age: Origins handled this, with a disposition meter, that didn't max out until mid game.

I just got to the camp party. Good grief, you get a dialog option every 5 seconds trying to get you to do it. I would have expected this 50+ hours in, not 15.

Don't understand why people complaining about sexual content which is limited compared to Witcher series where we had plenty of it. In the Witcher games you could hire prostitutes while in bg3 there isn't such options. This game just adopted mass effect romance system with some improvements on the choices you have

Again, I really don;t see the issue.

I was invited by Gale for something, and I *expected* it to be a romance scene, it sure felt romantic at first. But it wasn't a romance thingn- although I suppose it could have been. Other than that, I've only been invited by two characters after the Goblin massacre. I said yes to the second one, and no one ever asked again. There was an option for me to ask Halsin out, but didn't do that. HAlsin stayed behind in Act 2, so, can;t say too much about that.

Astarion does his seductive bite thing, I suppose, but I killed him for it immediately.

Still. I suppose the thing here is that you have to pick *someone* to stop the others from asking.

There is a universe sized difference between what we are talking about here, than it just being "sexual content"

Wearent complaining about sexual content, we are complaining about how predatory characters act toward the player character in a seuxal way, and romance being triggered by any form of being nice to people. Literally the game is pushing people into romance paths against there will, and not giving the player a choice to be friends with someone.

You get flagged as being in a romance with halsin for telling him to enjoy the party in a friendly way.

Most people are not complaining about sexual content, they are complaining about hte lack of ability for players to be in control of when they access that content.


Well, to understand what the issue is... try reading what people wrote here.

In the Witcher you seek out the whores, in this game they seek you out.

In this case Larian should've introduce an attractiveness mechanic. The more attractive characters you have made, the more everyone will desire and hit on it. As a suggestion the attractiveness could be determined by charisma modifier

There is a universe sized difference between what we are talking about here, than it just being "sexual content"

Wearent complaining about sexual content, we are complaining about how predatory characters act toward the player character in a seuxal way, and romance being triggered by any form of being nice to people. Literally the game is pushing people into romance paths against there will, and not giving the player a choice to be friends with someone.

You get flagged as being in a romance with halsin for telling him to enjoy the party in a friendly way.

Most people are not complaining about sexual content, they are complaining about hte lack of ability for players to be in control of when they access that content.

[quote=rodeolifant]
It's portrayed quite realistic because IRL nobody is in control when someone start flirting with you regardless if you put or didn't put any sexual meaning in your words before

YES. Regarding having FRIENDSHIP scenes! (like in BG2 and including all the amazing added Friendship mods that deepens things even further) This was going to be my next point...where are all the friendships?
So it does seem that every single romantic dialogues are designed to lead to a sexual scene.

The thing with sex is, when its not a big deal and done well...its should be seamless, like a tease, you show then you don't, cuts need to be on point. Sometimes not showing sexual intercourse can be more powerful story telling.
BG3 romantic encounters feel more like a porn flick. It goes on WAY too long in super detail for everything). The longer it goes on the silly-er it feels (especially for a mature married adult?).
I guess that is the standard with have for video games? Not just a BG3 fault.

Yes. Game directors have different focus. Larian is a systems focused developer and the engineer thinking shows - which position are they doing it in. Seeing Minthara awkwardly 69ing in a game engine turns the whole thing into a joke. But there are some good moments too so let's cut them some slack.

Pro tip to Larian: the moment right before the kiss is more powerful than the kiss itself.

And action over words. Having to ask Shadowheart "Can I kiss you?" when the bond has already been established is as clumsy as it gets. The option should be Lean in for a kiss.

Put me on the list of people who finds this just too much. Gale's first scene isn't just him being pushy it's also telling me I'm into the romance of the situation and as a lesbian I am really NOT into guys telling me I'm into them. Halsin comes into this pretty strong based on virtually no interaction. And as for act 3
It's also really disrespecting the history of Baldurs Gate. BG2 really launched this romance in games thing and no game has even close to matched it down to a simple matter of depth. Even if the writing was videogame quality it was the culmination of a lot of getting to know the character. As an example Jaheira's romance was triggered after forty conversations geting to know her and multiple times of pushing the conversations in a romantic direction. Halsins was triggered on the second conversation and he propositions you on the fifth, none of which were romantic in any form.

Getting the option to head these off at the pass should be the absolute bare minimum.

Mini spoilers for romance cinematics (act 1) below:

I like romances in games (and I like them being prominent, branching, and important - it's a nice thing to enjoy inbetween complex combats and dungeon explorations!) and I like that we get to pick any companion we like to romance regardless of gender, I am, after all, an Anomen survivor I am also not overly bothered by anything so far, cinematics, genitalia, whatever, broski, bring it on.

But I have a few thoughts, regardless

1. I agree someone canonnically hating Githyanki, should either not be interested in a Gith character at all, or require the Gith player to actively hard pursue her to change her mind.

2. What I miss is being able to tell NPCs right away when a romantic bit starts, "Hey, I appreciate it, but I'm with X already, but let's be friends" and them saying at most "Ah, shit, guess I'm late, lol. Great choice though, X is great, I'm happy for them/How the hell did that happen? What in the world do you find appealing about X? (Depending on the NPC vs NPC relationship, it could be a little bit of a fun gossiping ).

I miss the option to simply play an openly non-cheating character (that's not to say alternative shouldn't be an option) and having it not break anyone's heart. Moreso - not break the scene causing it to end abruptly.

Which goes into...

3. I also agree with friendship paths needing some enhancement. I think we could have awesome friendly encounters based on already existing romantic scenes, too, just give a little different responses to the player.

Say, Gale and his Weave teachings. We get to pick "kiss", "hold hands", "kick in the gut", "cut off the head". How about an option "winning with him at a game of cards", or "pulling a magical trick on lae'zel", or "getting deadass drunk together in a tavern"?

Or say Astarion, after the goblin party, could have an option to drink wine till you're both lying under a table as a friendly alternative. That could even lead to the talk about his back - maybe he spilled red wine all over his shirt and is washing it in the spring the morning?

4. The game is long, and it feels like some NPCs go too fast - for me it was Karlach, I was in a "tentative romance" (on purpose) with Karlach, Gale and Astarion. And while Astarion's dialogues and choices made complete sense given his personality, Gale's too - he's just being slightly romantic so far, Karlach went all the way to "I love you, you're my everything" so fast it was the one thing that made me iffy so far. I wanted to spend 1 night with her after fixing her heart, but with the intention of "Hey, you missed human touch so much, let's have a nice time together to celebrate the fix" and she went full-on giga love on me I felt bad, because by that time I already knew she wouldn't be my final pick and I had to let her down.

Although, I can kinda-sorta justify it by just saying she's like that. She falls in and out of love extremely fast and she's always 100% in. But there were no dialogue options to make it feel that way *really* :p

5. Could be a bug in my game, but this scenario happened: I got that talk with Karlach and I decided to give her the night. Then I talked to Astarion, who was all surprisingly responsible and kind about it, and I put him on the spot and said to try and have something more between us and that I'll let Karlach know. Astarion said, okay, so we'll try the proper relationship thing. I let Karlach know and justified things for RP reasons as in point #4.

Then I had the dance scene with Wyll trigger and I clicked "wait what Wyll will do" to see if he would put the move on and thinking I could still say "no, I'm with Astarion, sorry", but instead my character reciprocated the kiss. And in the morning I had the same conversation with Astarion as after Karlach, which would make 0 sense in this sequence of events. I reloaded and picked to turn head away and carried on, but this would be quite immersion breaking and seems like a bug.

So that's my 2 cents. Cheers.

EDIT: Ah, one more thing, however it goes, I am glad the romances don't end at the sex scene. I absolutely hated that old-timey way of writing them, where it felt like everything was just leading to the climax (he). Sex is a part of a relationship and it can be a fun point to lead to with lots of tension, but it can also serve as a starting point of a relationship, something that happens randomly, or as a plot device, or a lot of other options. But it's not an end of a relationship, nor the ultimate goal of one :o

Please for the love of God give us some options to neither fuck nor kill our companions. Is this an RPG or a harem simulator? Can I please just be friends with my companions?

To be clear I have nothing against romance options, or sex in games. That's all well and good, but my conversations seem to boil down to a binary of "Yes let's fuck" or "No I hate you die you dog." Romance should be secondary to friendship. Friendship has to be an option. At least give us a collegiate option if we can't be friends. Lover and enemy as the dichotomy is just terrible.