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)

I could make a comment about how it seems over half of the couples in the game are homosexuals(which, btw, is actually true by end of act3), would you prefer that so we can pretend you might be onto something?

Okay, no talk of pirating the game and, as I've already said, let's move on talk of sexuality in this thread as I'm sure everyone would like a break from the stress of people being intentionally or unintentionally offensive. And my instinct is to treat any talk of "wokeness" as unnecessarily political and confrontational.

If I have to say this again I'm going to be tempted to lock this thread as it keeps giving me headaches. Many of the points made in it are valid, but they have now been stated and are available for reference. If you don't want the thread locked then stick to the topic, and leave sexuality, wokeness (and pirating) out of it. It's perfectly possible to discuss the subject without any of that.

Current best advice for curbing the bugs/design defects with the ‘romance’ system is to do long rests early and often and speak with the origins characters during those rests, methodically turning down any unwanted sexual advances (during this process detach yourself from any desire for immersion and just treat this exercise as a mechanical romance toggle that is necessary to avoid the bugs/defects in the system), and always avoid selecting the “I want to know you better”-type dialog options for any characters that you don’t wish to bed. If you do this, you *might* be able to play the rest of the game in an immersive fashion. IDK. /shrug

But I *want* to get to know my companions better. Interacting with companions is like half the purpose of party-based rpgs. :\

It is strange that the little bit of meaningful companion dialog only comes after starting a relationship. It should be the opposite as people generally want to know the person they are screwing

The entirely unofficial story that is beginning to leak out and/or be pieced together by third parties is that Larian was under increasing pressure to get to full release and they began cutting swaths of planned and largely developed content, then some corporate marketing types decided that the PC version MUST be released before Starfield. As a result, there was likely inadequate QC of the impact of all the cuts… apparently someone decided they needed to increase the accumulation rate of approval rating as a result of shortening the game, and either no one said or decision makers didn’t listen when it was brought up that this could be problematic because they had tied the romance system into the approval rating system without an adequate separate set of triggers…. The resulting bugs are showing up all over the game (not just in the romance system), especially in Act 3, as more players progress through the content… much of this is specultation by folks across the internet, but it does make some sense. However, I suspect Larian is a tough spot if they appear to change the romance system now, given how political the same has already become across various fan boards, with people sniping at each other over it…

You have a source for this? Not calling you a liar, just wondering where you’re getting this information.

I somehow ended up cozying up to Gale in a starry meadow while he professed his love for me. I mean I like the dude but I'm pretty sure I didn't lead him on like at all. soo yeah here's my vote for the no horny option. I really don't need a boyfriend or girlfriend in my video game, I've got that covered irl.

This suggestion has already been made over in https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=884112. Though as I've said there, I think we've had enough of discussion about sexuality in this context. This is a topic that puts a lot of people on edge, myself included, as it touches uncomfortably on real life issues and prejudices that have no place on these forums. There are valid points to make, but they have been made, and we don't need to go over the same difficult ground again and again and again.

Locking this thread to prevent duplicate discussion with the linked one.

Quite honestly my post isn't in any way similar to this one, mine suggested a fix to an issue that is concerning people of all orientations without any mention of a single sexual disposition. I never mentioned any dialog or character I just made a suggestion to let the person playing the game decide what they want to experience in game play. The one thing I think you're missing here is that being sexualy harassed in a game (by anyone or any disposition) is EXTREMELY negative towards game play regardless of orientation. My original comment is in no way negative and should absolutely NOT trigger any negative feelings in anyone. If you could point out where in my thread (that you locked) is in any way insulting or would cause someone to feel uncomfortable I'd appreciate you quoting it for me in a reply. This kind of over sensitivity is a major part of the issue at hand, it can't even be discussed in a completely neutral manner without triggering someone.. it's a sad time we live in.....

It's a real shame that the romance system seems bugged or that they did not include friendship in the game by design. Larian has truly pulled off the remarkable with this game but the more I progress the more apparent this issue becomes. Astarion and Halsin are both responding as though I've romantic intent towards them even though I've only shown them, what most people would consider, polite interest. Really considering playing with no male companions for a second playthrough because fraternal love seems to have been entirely neglected even though it is an absolute staple of the fantasy/epic narrative genre all the way back to Gilgamesh. Give me a Samwise; give me an Alistair; give me a Lancelot (the OG, not the one who seduces my wife); give me a Gimli; give me Enkidu; give me Dr Watson; give me Gotrex Gunnison; give me Sturm Brightblade; give me Tomas from the Magician books...

This should be a PM, not a public forum post. Click on the username of the person you are trying to message and send it as private. Otherwise, this is not a good look.

Order of priorities :

FRIENDSHIPS (none), ROMANCES (some), SEX (plenty), WEIRD-SEX (plenty)
Sex sells, so the right choice was made?

But that now people got to their "doses", I think we are getting more down to earth reviews on game mechanics and all the missing stuff like FRIENDSHIPS. The cornerstone of ALL Baldur's Gate games.

That would explain why people who are using the Approval Tweaks mod are saying they get MORE dialog options after enabling the mod than with their previous playthroughs without it - the OTT approval amounts are causing companions to go from neutral to thirsty so rapidly that it's skipping in between conversation options.

I've installed that mod anyway because I have no interest in being harassed by companions. It's a shame I have to Missing Stair manage companions whom I just want a deep friendship with like in previous BG games.

In previous bg games the Deep relationships existed only for SOME companions and were gender locked. You're thinking of amazing mods like Ascension or Minsc male friendship.

Some companions are scripted better than others. Shadowheart and Karlach adore me and have never once pursued relationship. On the other hand Laezel jumped at me. Which is also good I bet.

I had that scene with him just as friends, because I’d already told him that I wasn’t interested in a relationship.

What someone said about scenes being queued up and ignoring that you’ve already rejected them makes sense. I think I maybe had to reject Wyll twice in quick succession, but after that it was all good.

As for rejecting itself, it tends to be quite blunt. If you keep hitting the “nice” or “friendly” options when there’s an “I’m not interested” or a “this has gone far enough” staring at you, read between the lines that the friendly option is going to register some level of interest. Characters won’t even disapprove of been rejected. A couple of the characters act massively hurt immediately afterwards, but then it’s fine. They’ll all just treat you as friends if you have high approval with them.

It’s not exactly perfect, but it’s not a huge problem if you just say no.

I've always selected these options and haven't been hit on inappropriately by any of my companions (well, except for Lae'zel in the early game but that was in character and funny). Astarion and Wyll (eventually) did make moves but then my character had intentionally flirted with them a little. Noone else has, despite being friendly and curious about them, and Lae'zel and Astarion (who my character let down after a one-night stand) haven't repeated their advances.

Clearly it can and does happen, but I'd say that unless avoiding getting hit on inappropriately by your companions is such a high priority for you that you're willing to shut off friendships (and it's totally people's choice if it is), then it might be worth the risk of just going with the options you want at the time. You might be lucky like me, or you might come across some janky behaviour. but if folk are willing to give that a go and report as bugs issues where characters don't take no for an answer or even require a "no" when it should have been clear from our interactions with them that we weren't interested, there's hopefully more chance of this being fixed.

If you lock in a romance early in Act 2-ish, the other five origin companions leave romance alone completely.

I am curious… did you enter long rests frequently in the early part of your playthrough and routinely talk to origins characters? This seems to be a viable strategy for avoiding much of the jankiness.

Yeah, Gale somehow decided to confess his love for my husband's character, and then Karlach broke up with him at the end of Act 2 because he was getting too close to Shadowheart, despite not initating a romance with Shadowheart.

Meanwhile, my paladin is just trying to share a bottle of wine with her friend and getting puppy dog eyes for not wanting to kiss her. And Gale seems to think we're an item as well despite me cutting off the magic lesson.

There's definitely something not right going on.

It would certainly be more productive than flooding the Steam Community forums with aimless whining about how the characters are too horny as if that's by design and not an obvious problem with dialogue flags, that's for sure.

(...I may be a tiny li'l bit salty about what a cesspit the Steam Community boards are...)