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)

Annoyed Player: there are far more heterosexual couples than homosexual in this game.
And we non-male, non-straight players had nothing for years of gaming. Now we get finally recognised along side you straight males and you get mad, really classy

Just a note: this is not true. Not at all.

You'll notice it even in books and notes that you can pick up, like Quelanna's book about the card readings from her significant other.

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My theory is that several different writers had a hand in the whole, and working independently, each of those several writers made an attempt at including representation. All of those attempts added to a world that had very little in the way of heterosexual representation.

I could do a breakdown of homosexual versus heterosexual couples in the game, but I suspect it wouldn't be well received.

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Interestingly, I got the impression that all deep gnomes are homosexual. It seemed like that was the culture of deep gnomes, and I figured maybe they must have made exceptions for breeding, but otherwise engaged in same sex relations. I'm not sure if that was Larian's intention, but it certainly seemed like a strange and interesting world-building touch.

This topic is about romance triggers and playersexuality. Anyone who continues using this thread to complain about LGBT representation, all while spitting at moderator warnings, will be on the receiving end of consequences.

Having said that, rather than call someone bigoted or a homophobe in an argument, I would rather users just use the report function and let the mods judge for themselves and intervene indirectly.

If there is ever a thread about representation, it will be heavily moderated and probably for forum veterans only, if I have any say about it.

I mean, as a heterosexual male, I couldn't be more happy for you. Truly, games like BG3 are really good in terms of representation. And I am happy that more players can feel more like themselves in the game.

That being said, my only complaint about romances is how forced they all seem. It looks like ALL the party members are bisexual and statistically that's just not likely. I can see why the developers did it, as they wanted players to be able to romance whoever they wanted. But this took away from character believability. Everyone just offers themselves to Tav, even if he/she/they are already involved with someone else. I wish we could pick our sexuality at character creation thus eliminating unwanted passes from all the characters. That way everyone would be happy.

As a lesbian, I would be fine with this compromise but ONLY if they included relationship type (polyamorous/monogamous) as optional as well. All they would have to do is just add tags for them I imagine.

Your only argument agaisnt a filter is "People I dislike will get what they want", which is werid on an inclusive forum.

I believe you misunderstand the issue that is being brought up.
It isn't about the people, it's about the content itself. Optional filter would absolutely solve all the problems for all parties - you will still have non-straight non-male content to enjoy intact, while people who do not like it will have an option to never encounter it.
It woud work in reverse as well - you would be able to turn off the straight male oriented content if you so desire.
I see no issue with it whatsoever, unless specifically making people look despite them not wanting to while playing the game is the aim, and I don't imagine it is.

The easiest way to change that, would be to put a line in, that shows, you are interested, like they did with Shadowheart and Astarion. If you don't use the lines, you get the friendship path and if you use the line, you get the option to start a romance, problem solved. In a way I think it's the case with Lae'zel too. I think you have to use the ' You seem to look differently at me lately ' line in order to let her make her move.
Halsin is a whole different problem on himself, as the many threads about him show. So I would say, at the moment, he is a menace for everyone.
I would personally prefer the lines, because I play romances normally for content, not because I find xyz hot. So yes, I do play male romances sometimes, if I see, that it would work with a certain character ( like Astarion with resisting Dark Urge), so I want to have the options open. And it works well with some of the characters, so I don't think, it would be too hard to implement with the others.
For example Gales Weave scene: if you cut it short, it means, no romance, he won't come at you.
Wyll: don't know, what triggers his tbh, but maybe a line about he is like a brother to us.
Karlachs first romance scene is actually not a romance scene, just her being lonely. And it can end in a nice friendship talk and she will see you as a friend for the rest of the game.
Apart from Halsin, who is just ... problematic, I'd say the two problems are Wyll and Gale and that might indeed be a problem with the flagging.

I don't know, if you mean me, since you didn't bother to make that clear, but I don't dislike anyone, nor do I have a problem with filters, I even explained in the post above, how that could work in game ( and does already work for some characters like Shadowheart, Astarion and Lae'zel, which make me think that the other characters just have their flaggings wrong), I called someone jokingly out on a not so nice comment.

Excuse me then, misunderstood you.

Why I now mostly play indie pixel art games and pre'95 retro stuff.
Non of that gender sex debate shoved down everyone's throat (yet lol). Because who cares, when you look like 4 shades of pixelated squared colors...you then just focus on the gameplay and have fun.

Did I see you mention somewhere you are playing a Halfling?

I played a halfling in my first playthrough - halfling lore bard. I have a gnome rogue, I want to play after my DUrge run (teh Durge is a drow though) and a dwarf clerlic.

As far as I know Astarion won't hit on shorties, so if you were thinking he didn't hit on your char because he was respecting their boundaries it might be he just isn't into them.

He does actually, he only makes one comment about gnomes one time. But a friend romanced him with a shorty. Astarion is an asshole, but no racist.
But if you don't ever pick the flirty options with him, then he leaves you alone, like a sane person should.

How to avoid Wyll proposing you to dance if he's in your party and you do good choices?
I don't want to encounter that cutscene at all.

I just wish Poly had more options than just Halsin. Why can't I Poly Shadowheart with, say, Karlach?

You can't.

Unlike female companions and Astarion, there are no earlier flirtatious dialogues with Wyll or Gale. They just decide to take the gambit to make full-on advances.

Yes, it's that ludicrous.

As a whole the romance systems is most games is broken. Most games feel like they are catering to teenagers looking for a quick softcore scene and rush everything headlong to a sexual encounter. Real "friendship" relationship story lines in many games is either very lacking or quite frankly not there. Basically your left with sex or nothing.

A couple of changes I would like to see made for this industry wide.

1) Friendship storylines should be the primary focus and where EVERY relationship line starts. Work down the friendship quest line to a branch where you can go romantic or just stay friends. Or even allow a nothing option, where an acquaintance is all you want for a relationship.

2) Remove ALL gender/sexuality restrictions on romanceable characters. If the character can have a romantic plot line then it can happen with ANY choices made by the PC in relation to character creation. This is an RPG after all let us play our characters the way we like. The ONLY limitation to a romantic plot line should be on our characters actions, not the creation process.

3) Quick Sex Options: If you need to, as game developers, cater to teenage urges, the with most RPGs there is a simple solution, go the route of a brothel. One of the issues with RPGs is that the player ends up with tons of extra cash, give him an easy outlet. Go to the local brothel, pay a big chunk of gold, get a quick sexual cutscene line in games now and move on. Heck the use of the brothel could even be a plot mechanic as, if your a frequent customer perhaps you gather some sources of information for some side quests.

These of course are just my opinions. However I feel like they address a lot of complaints on all sides of the discussion.

I heavily disagree with 2.
Playersexuality makes all companions worse by leaving a big part of their personality ambigious and prevents storylines from delving deeper into anything related to romance or their oreferences, even just as throwaway lines.