I do really love Gomez and Morticia!! I would rather have that type of obsessive & passionate kisses than what we currently have for the AA path. Otherwise, I do not want to have forced headcanon in a role playiing game, where the characters' stories continue on in my own headcanon. I want to go back to a role playing game that I am playing solo on my computer and decide the story from there since Larian stated they gave the characters to us. They also do not own them. The game is world wide release and there are many different canons. I want a game and expect a game to be the role playing adult (NOT TEENAGER) fantasy where that is possible. No forcing of any particular headcanon on anyone (Or dating advice or whatever your EMPLOYEE was pushing for in her speech). This game was a loosely based D&D role playing fantasy game that is supposed to be fun and entertaining, not something that brings irl Earth problems into my game to trigger, retrigger, or traumatize people who have already lived through irl DV/SA such as the person behind the keyboard. Evil endings do not make someone's personality change for a few moments just to shock a person and then go back to normal. It simply does not fit here, not as the story is presented in the game.
To bring it back to our feedback and request on patch 6 destroyed player agency with Astarion.
Larian, please:
Originally Posted by LiryFire
Originally Posted by Marielle
To summarize what has been said in the topic under discussion, in my opinion, these are:
1. Completely change Tav's facial expressions. No victim facial expressions. No fear, resentment, or pain. This is mandatory, the game currently contains trigger scenes of violence that traumatize people.
2. Make it possible to choose between romantic kisses (as the patch 5 kiss was) for those who want "gentle" and harder ones ("let it hurt"). A very good option was suggested by Ametris earlier in the " Astarion Romance Improvement" thread - you could not tie the kissing scenes to a single choice during the night after Ascension, but make two lines "Kiss me gently" and "Kiss me roughly". Some will be able to choose their favorite option, some will be able to use all of them, then when they want.
3. Give Tav the ability to touch Astarion, change Tav's animation and body language, not just facial expressions. As we found out, even for D/s this isn't necessary, it's just an option that doesn't suit most AA players. It doesn't suit me personally at all. Tav touched Astarion all the time before, why would Astarion not want it now? It looks like we are once again being "prevented" from loving Astarion by covering this idea with just one, and not the most common, D/s option.
+ 1 let me kiss Lord Astarion happily, for Christ's sake
The added animations for the Patch 6 kisses were a miss for many reasons. I will not repeat why, I think you can read just fine why many have issues with them. Give us choices for those animations: Gentle, Rough, or both. Let's make some people happy and they will go back to playing the game. It is Larian's responsibility to fix what they inserted and not do so without thinking of all sides of the situation. It is not something you should force in and would have to change a LOT of dialogue and animations and voice acting to just add this and make it logical. Instead, just go with a more logical choice, and fix it for people to go back to being happy & entertained. I would also like to add the request from another thread that is also forced that even though we have gone through the confession scene, have been waiting patiently for Astarion to decide what he would like out of the romance as far as sex, please change the line about wanting his body. This is not a positive choice and it really doesn't belong here since we have been complying with his wishes. For those who did the confession scene differently, you might have to keep it, yet you railroaded ALL of us instead of thinking of adding more and better options. Make a more positive choice addition, make it make logical sense, and then we will see that you in fact do listen to those of us who play the path of the AA romance without having to change the entire game just to fit in the changes that make no logical sense as of this moment in time.
This will at least begin to heal those whom you have hurt in the process and hopefully then allow future players to be satisfied as we once were prior to patch 6, though we had to headcanon a LOT through parts of the story that did not line up, since you ran out of time & are wanting to move on to your other projects.
Please Larian, we were happy before the changes that came well after the release that did not fit in the story and were hopefully made due to an error or lack of true understanding of the content you thought you were putting in and failed at.
Please look at the other threads for ideas on the dialogue options after ascension that need to add positive choices for role play and also see how Astarion can pull you to the dark side discussion for more understanding.
In the end, it is a fantasy romance with a fictional vampire elf (he does not exist irl on Earth). We still love our Astarion. And though you (Larian) have not responded, we are still believing in you.
