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)

In the immortal words of Imoen…

“I’VE DONE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS!”

Ok so Gale hasn't harassed me again (well to be fair I haven't tried to discuss with him)

But then... When I went to respec due to a wrong spell pick... Wither (yes, the skeleton who cared philosophically about the value of one's life) asked me of my "Bossom buddy"

Wtf? I get the (failed) humorous attempt but if the servant of death NPC care about romance then we are all doomed

Larian...
Never do romance again, or replace who did this first.
It's time to stop!

WTF did I just read?

I did think it was a bit much when Withers commented on my PC being all alone! Though I kind of like the idea he might be a secret romantic, that would need to be fleshed out and made realistic in the rest of the game for his comment not to feel just odd.

Btw, mild Wyll romance spoilers below:

Definitely just saying "have a great night" wouldn't be coming on too strong, but in my case I think I'd tried using a charisma check on Halsin, so it wasn't just that. And if a friend had said they didn't want to go to a party and, rather than taking them at their word, I'd tried to twist their arm, then absolutely I'd perhaps feel afterwards that I'd come over too strong (not in a flirty way, but in an overly pushy way and not respecting their choice).

But I think the different possible meanings of "coming on/over strong" are moot, in any case, as I went back and reloaded to try the dialogue option and it does look as though the game probably means it in the context of having been flirty ... maybe? Even if so, I personally don't see this as hugely problematic, given that if that's not the way it was intended then I can just not select the dialogue option (it seems to vanish later once Halsin's quest moves on) but ideally it wouldn't be ambiguous or raise the concern that the game thought I'd already done something I didn't intend to do and that I ought to apologise for, rather than it just giving me an opportunity to confirm how I did or didn't mean what I'd said. I've put a screenshot of how the conversation panned out below for anyone interested, and in case anyone does think it's severe enough to warrant a bug report:

Ultimately, it appears these and other issues concerning sex and sexuality are going to be addressed by mods. There is already one mod on Nexus that demonstrates/shows promising proof of concept that it can be done. Cheers to all!

is it possible to add an option to the game to have even MORE horny content?

They're called "mods," and at this point the emergence of NSFW mods is inevitable after surpassing a certain critical mass in player count. May God have mercy on us all.

The same thing happened to me and I did think it was just a bug. I fact, I was so certain that I hadn't said anything flirty to Halsin that it never even occurred to be that it might not be a bug. In hindsight though, it might just be that Larian's English is not very good and they don't understand the subtleties of the language. I also think the narrative is a little coloured by them being based in Belgium (in, for example, the attitude towards children).

For the record, this is really the only inappropriate interaction so far. I have had most of the companions hit on me by this point but they have all shut-up after I turned them down. So I think it is probably fine as it is.

Hey, I think that's a bug too!

I had it, and I barely said anything to him. I only picked a few chats and he kept telling me to go Mingle. So, I did. I spoke to one tiefling then went to bed.

I was surprised by that line the next morning because I was like...Uh...nothing happen here.

So yes. I believe it is a bug, and even if it isn't...it should be reported for them to take a look. It could be a bad phrasing...or something lost in translation.

I feel this whole issue / controversy could have been entirely avoided if the game launched with both the Sexual / Mature Content and LGBT tags on Steam.

The issue is those tags are user defined, so players actually have to bother to select and 'vote' them in.

Its all the same as people who complain that games are too violent.

The sexual content and LGBT stuff isn’t fundamental to the core game and gameplay to warrant tags. The idea that this game throws homosexuality or pornography at the player is absurd. It does so no more than any BioWare game from ME1 or DAO onward. There’s no shots of penetration, just the occasional shot of a human sex organ, which is optional. The only difference is that people who didn’t want it are getting it in their playthrough on account of restricted friendship options and vague language in romance dialogue.

I don't think that the fact that the game contained sex and LGBT relationships should have been a surprise to anyone who had done the most basic research on what they were buying. And I don't get the feeling that, for most folk, that's the problem in any case. It's the way that some (many?) players are experiencing the sexual/romantic content, perhaps as a result of bugs, perhaps as a result of sometimes poor dialogue design, or more likely some combination of the two.

And as Larian certainly aren't going to take either sex or LGBT content out of the game, and I don't want them to, I think the most useful thing we can do is focus on specific examples of where companions are acting in weird or wrong ways, ideally with specific dialogue and explaining what led to the issue, as that will potentially help Larian focus on the particular conversations or actions that people feel don't make sense (or make sense only in a very sinister way) so they can either bugfix, if bugs are the problem, or potentially make some tweaks to address areas that they agree are problematic.

That's what I hope they do, anyway, given I have no interest in a "no horny" nuclear option as suggested by the OP, but would certainly find some of the behaviours outlined by posters here off if I came across them in my own playthroughs.

EDIT: Apologies, I see I was replying at the same time as Zerubbabel. I didn't mean to pile on!

100% agree. I have been hit on by almost all companions (except Lae'zel, who also happens to be dead now btw), and it's just creepy and 100% unwanted. Even Bone Man mentions it like 50% of the time I talk to him - "Thou art alone"! NO! My character is happily engaged thank you very much! She's not interested! Now I know how it feels to be a woman in a bar at 2 o'clock in the night. But, damn, that was not something I needed to learn from a crpg....

I agree. Larian has given no indication that they care about people who have bugged party members. That switch won't solve the situation of companions that can't be broken up with and were never romanced in the first place. It prevents more broken games, though.

If you ask me, it will be solved silently in weeks or months because the alternative is bad PR. There's more cost in admitting to a main system being bugged than reward in fixing it.

I dont really know what are you doing people ...
My Dwarf had no problem at all, and we just reached City of Baldur's Gate ...

One kiss with Shadowheart (on second date) ...
Dance with Wyll ...
And watching night sky with Gale ...

Just tell them you are not interested in this way right when you feel like it could get into something biger ... it works!
Trust me, i tryed.

This game simultaneously needs more horny and less.

More/better sex scenes.

Less chance to accidentally click on an option to flirt with npc. (tag the option with [flirt] or something)

I think that's where for some of us it already feels immersion braking (or a bit creepy sometimes). Gale for example. I also play a Wizard, so Gale is not in my party. But I liked his story, so I checked in from time to time with him. When he asked about showing some magic to me, of course I said yes. Now, that scene already looks clearly romantic, without prior giving any warning. There sexuality might come in a bit. At least as a hetero guy I'm just not used to being hit upon all the time, neither by women nor by men. So maybe for women the "let me show you something" is already a clear indicator, for me it came pretty much out of the blue. I just thought it's cool to do some magic together with another Wizard.

You can then decline anything further, but you will again be invited by Gale to watch the night sky (again being clearly romantic - no surprise that time though after the first encounter). And of course afterwards you can say no again. And it's like this with all the characters, often without having a good option to be just good pal. Like being nice and a good friend without it going down the sexual road as the standard option. There are not many good friendship scenes as far as I know. The only one which comes to mind for me was with Karlach. There is an actual conversation in Act 3 where it's made clear her and you are best friends and still look forward to do something together after this is all over. I think many of us would like more of that.

And not everyone basically hitting on you all the time. I don't think it's only bugs, because all of them act in this way - as soon as you are nice in some way - they'll take this as "let's get involved romantically". And it's on you to decline these advances. I think none of us would mind some horny characters. For example Karlach makes total sense. But why someone like Gale - who is depicted as in love with a goddess would hit on the next best person on the first opportunity, it makes these characters somewhat unbelievable.

Feels more like Friendships were scrapped.
We needed friendship dialogues.