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 problems described wouldn’t go away by discarding playersexuality, unless it is specifically the romances’ gender combinations you do not like.

Imagine if a companion had a set sexuality, and you wanted to let them down, but they kept pestering you over it. The problem would still exist w/o playersexuality, and it sounds like that is the complaint from people in Act 3.

Even the


Without any kind of encouragement. Can you please, just stop. This is not a funny side note either, it's the main quest.

I don't know what kind of atmosphere they have stirred up at Larian offices but this is getting completely over the top. In another context, watching a D&D parody, I would find this funny. But I'm going through a story where people are getting gruesomely murdered and this little scene out of the blue was distracting as hell. How the hell am I supposed to take anything in this game seriously, even when it's serious and well written? Something ridiculous will happen in 30 seconds again.

Larian, learn to frame your narrative, please. Stick with a chosen genre. Focus.

I blame Tumblr Girls who write fanfiction. This is the best way I can describe the audience this is for.


At the end of the day, I assume this is all here to stay unfortunately. Hopefully they will figure out pacing better for Divinity 3.

I'd make Astarion and Karlach the only non-straight options (as in, they can still be pursued by straight characters of the opposite sex). Not every companion should be romanceable with any character you play.

Don't think the player's sexuality matters at all. In fact, I don't think I've ever played a game which catered to the romantic interests of a player base like this. A male character couldn't romance Alistair in Dragon Age 1. Same goes for a female character and Morrigan. Characters oughta reject you on the mere basis of your genitals, regardless of what the player wants.

RPGhorrorstories are supposed to be cautionary tales, not a guideline.

Larian approaches romance like they approach gameplay. Every opportunity is given like an immersive sim, and if you find a way, it’s valid.

Oh, I see. In order for you to not have to take *any* risk, only bisexuals may be allowed entry. Of course. Why am I not surprised about this absolute cop out

I repeat ...

There are real, legitimate points, about poor implementation of romances and companions being to pushy about romance, being borderline rapey and probably bugged... And people keep swooping in with non-sequiters that vaguely sound like something related to the problem

If you come onto this thread to complain about women, trans inclusive content, or whatever... stop before you write. Your opinion is not going to be received well, and truth be told... you are making it less likely for this kind of content to be fixed for the rest of us who actually have real opinions instead of an obsessive compulsive need to prove to the world the validity of their politics.

Yeah and some of those horrible *horrible* “sex-negative” conservatives, such as myself, are also trying to help address this and don’t need you talking about how unwelcome we are to do it.

I changed my comment as you were writing yours, because I genuinely felt I was being to harsh.

You arent helping, there are real problems with the romance system. Characters being LGBT... are not the problem.

Please feel free to find anything I have said anywhere on this forum or anywhere else about LGBT anything.

However, my “welcome” here has been made clear, and I’ll stop trying to help.

I said, more or less "People need to stop saying LGBT people are the problem"

And you respodned to that, indicating that what I said was about you. IF what I say doesnt apply to your opinion, or something you said... dont act like its an attack on you, or directed toward you.

IF you didnt say anything like that... good, but dont act like you did... thats just weird.

ALL of them being playersexual kinda is IMO, again pointing out the ol' Shadowheart if you're a gith or cleric of selune as a good example.

Please more Sex , is Great feeling is real , RP feeling is Now real , Great idea, More Reality. Thanks .

I gave feedback along those lines during very early EA. I find the portrayal of Astarion genuinely offensive.

If you go into the gay bar in my hometown, youre not Brad Pitt and you randomly start calling people "Darling" - youre going to get slapped sooner rather than later.

He is an awful gay man stereotype who borderline sexually harasses you and that is really not cool. Most gays arent this ridiculous flamboyant stereotype. They do exist, in the same way that heteros have histrionic people as well. But its really not the average gay person. Its like people who arent gay wrote him and just looked up the flamboyant gay man stereotype online. Like writing a mexican and making him lazy, tired with a sombrero or writing a stupid american. its just kinda insulting to me.

On the topic of omnisexuality - i do like the larian approach of romance being written with everyone in mind (like in DOS2). I also think the critique of characters being a bit too pushy is valid and making the overall immersion worse as a result is valid as well.

Many of the comments here are really disturbing. People are expressing that the way romances are being handled is causing anxiety, discomfort, distress, etc. And people come along saying stuff like, "I don't see what the problem is" (cool, the game caters to you then all fine. You don't have anything to offer this conversation and you're being dismissive and essentially trying to tell people to shut up and deal with it) or "I want even more sex and promiscuity than there is already" (people are expressing discomfort and anxiety over being sexually harassed in what should be a fun game and you're saying you want more?!).



Sorry Red Queen, but it even seems like you're downplaying people's concerns and as a moderator, it's not a good look.

This is not just being "overly insistent", this is sexual harassment, plain and simple. Saying these characters are "overly insistent" wildly downplays and minimises what is actually going on. I've already had to deal with being sexually abused, coerced into sex (aka raped) and sexually harassed in real life. As have many, many other women. We shouldn't have to deal with this disgusting behaviour in a game we just want to enjoy.

I agree that some of this is indeed caused by bugs. But it also looks like a lot of this is caused by the simple fact that there is little in the way of pursuing FRIENDSHIP or even just neutral mercenary type relationships ("I don't like you and have no interest in being friends but I like the way you work and want to work alongside you - I've got your back if you've got mine").

This whole thing is genuinely causing me anxiety.

I actually like NPC's initiative on flirting, its one of the things that makes them look realistic. I don't mind if they are even abusive with dominatrix intentions. I don't understand the people who think that the player should always be the initiator of romance

Strangely enough, I get database errors, whenever I try to quote someone here.
I'm glad, characters are player sexual, because that way I can romance Shadowheart with my female halfling bard. And in the next playthrough Karlach with another female character.

I'm concerned though, that it seems companions are overly touchy feely if you use the wrong answer in conversations. I have not experienced that in my playthrough, the most was, that I was asked, if I were interested and I said no and that was it. But I was pretty careful with my answers after reading here, even downright rude to Gale once, because I feared all the other answers might lead into a 'romance'. When I read, that people feel uncomfortable then it is too much. I had the same feeling with the Daisy in EA and called it rapey too. This should be taken serious and maybe addressed in the next hotfix. Make a romance clear and player initiated like it is with Shadowheart.