Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Poll.Which option of facial expression do you want to leave in kisses with Ascended Astarion

Friends, so many topics about Astarion's kisses were closed because the topics of the proposals were broken into discussions and arguments, which is completely useless and meaningless. Each of us sees and plays history in our own way. I ask you not to discuss or argue in this topic, but simply take the poll, quite simple and informative enough to convey all our positions, what would you choose. Larian already needs to move on to new projects, most likely they will not change anything global in BG3. Therefore, the poll is simple, only 3 options, without unnecessary words. Just vote, no need to explain and prove your position. Thank you for understanding.
Sorry it happened, but you need to choose one of the options to see the voting results
Please select the which of the following options comes *closest* to your view, or that you’d pick if they were the only available choices.

Which option of facial expression do you want to leave in kisses with Ascended Astarion single choice
	Leave in the game both options of the character's facial expression, from patch 6 and patch 7.
	Leave in the game only the facial expressions of the character from patch 6.
	Leave in the game only the facial expressions of the character from patch 7.
Votes accepted starting: Yesterday at 07:18 AM You must vote before you can view the results of this poll.

Is it possible to add an option for neutral faces? I don't really like either of the patches' expressions (there'd be nuance here to explain why but for the sake of this post I'll zip it) but I don't know if polls can be edited.

EDIT: I've seen people add their own more nuanced opinion in the replies, so assuming it's OK (if it's not, I will remove it) here would be my ideal solution- Take the patch 7 kisses, make Tav's face when having their throat grabbed neutral (like the OG face shown at the Patch 7 preview where they're raising an eyebrow and it can be read as playful, curious or confused) and, during the lip bite kiss, remove the smile (that is to say, make the face neutral or neutral-er) when they're pushed away after trying to kiss AA again. Everything else I think is fine. I always thought this would've been the best compromise so as to not have to add a toggle.

I didn't find an option to change the poll.
But in any case, to add neutral faces - you need to make a new animation after all. Here we work with the set that is/was in the game.
I think asking to improve the faces to neutral, this is a separate topic, and it should be opened as a separate topic then.

If we're talking about polls again.
Most of the feedback has already been sent to Larian's email before, well.
Though it's like sending a poll to reddit or tik tok - what kind of reaction can we expect? About a character that the whole community loves to hate more than actually playing this path of evil as the only one they prefer for themselves. It's like making content for the “I love killing him” type of guy.
The statistics show this eloquently here

Though the audience there is far from the entire community.
I'd like to show the stats of the mod first 24 hours.


I hope Larian doesn't go the way of fear and anger, in things that were originally written in the script as consent and enjoyment, in an interaction like kissing, that's for romance.



The character felt good about it, people felt it and chose it, everything was resolved, no hint of anything wrong after consent, just a setting for ‘gentle and rough’ - mixing in a romance with something unpleasant is an exceptionally inappropriate idea. Neutral faces will be the same mix of this, opitsanally character: dissociation, dead inside in romantic content.

But I've never minded various deep discussions, conversation, conflicts as dialogue. But not something when it comes to intimate interactions that have already been set up as pleasure and have been so all the way through 14 February 2024, 6 patch "love flies in the air".

Not trying to add to discussion, but adding the toggle for picking a face is also extra scripting work, as the option to pick doesn't exist in the game. The neutral faces would most likely have to change the preset animation rig they use (think of what modders are doing, this is more or less the equivalent of what Larian would have to do) to a couple of faces which is still work, of course, but so is the toggle. Thanks for letting me know you can't edit it, though.

I don’t know how much discussion is allowed here so excuse me if it’s not, but it seems so disingenuous to post the poll here. Post the same on Reddit where a lot more people are. Most of them will be for both expressions not one or the other. I don’t understand why this is even a discussion if we could just have both. Let go of your narrative and consider others.

Edited to remove reference to a post now deleted by user, but leaving the guidance below initially given in response to some of their points as it remains relevant

It is absolutely fine for someone to run a poll to get a sense of the opinions of the people on this forum. It’s clearly not going to be representative of fans as a whole, but that is okay.

It’s also fine for people who have not played the route to vote. We’ve all seen a lot of discussion here, and if people have formed a view of the relative merits of the positions based on that, or if they simply don’t want Larian to spend any more time on this and just to leave things in their current state, they are free to express that. Again, it will be clear to everyone that the poll isn’t limited to only people who will personally experience the content.

@illiaillas-san, it would probably have been better for you not to require a vote before viewing the results or else given “other” or “don’t care” options, but I don’t know of a way to change a poll once it is active. I would suggest changing the text to say something along the lines of “Please select the which of the following options comes *closest* to your view, or that you’d pick if they were the only available choices.”

Both, but patch 6 expressions are too exaggerated and cartoonish, were they more neutral, they'd be ok

I'm fine with both somehow being implemented, I agree with Stacyreed, I wish the patch 6 ones would be toned down a bunch but idk its really whatever to me as long as everyone is happy in the long run

i agree. this poll here will not be representative at all, on reddit there are way more people which would come a bit closer if anything.



also agree, i dont mind the neck and bite expressions, but in the kneeling kiss, going from mortified to liking it is a bit much. though, the kneeling kiss in patch 7 is also not that much better, the other two are more neutral but the kneeling one looks straight up orgasmic as some described it

I voted patch 7 because too much time and effort has been wasted in this tiny detail while other parts of the game are still in shambles, Wyll for example, and are much more in need for attention.
So just leave it as it is.

Let’s please draw a line under discussion of whether the poll will be representative of fans as a whole. Of course it won’t be, but that is okay.

There’s no need to belabour the point!

As I said above:

@LiryFire

i think there are lots of things getting lost in translation here. tav can totally enjoy it, thats why people want both expressions. and having P6 doesnt mean they dont love astarion or anything. i think there is a great and valid RP reason for them. for example, i played a naive, madly in love tav who just wanted everything for astarion. after ascension, of course she was still in love with him but didnt realize AA would be so different from before. of course she still stayed with him, she was just taken aback with the new kisses. she enjoyed it, it was just different. and in that case P6 fit perfectly, P7 would ruin it.

just like there are RP reasons for the other way around.

there is a good solution that can be implemented easily, with a option to choose one (!) internal dialogue when tav reflects on how they feel about the changed dynamic. that would be it.

Not a funny joke.

feel free to elaborate? there are way more people on reddit than here, so it would be more representative. thats how polls work. even only taking into account the people on the OF sub who actually care about Astarion as a character, it would be more representative.

Please *don’t* elaborate.

As I said:

sorry didnt see the comment before

I am surprised at people saying they would like a neutral face option when, in my opinion (just to be clear this is only my opinion), the faces in patch 7 are very neutral except for the throat grab kiss where Tav smiles. I can see why they chose a more positive expression for that one as a throat grab/choking is potentially triggering unless it is very clear that the action is consensual.

Honestly I think players wishing to RP non con would be better using mods. And players like me, who would prefer to see a happy and enthusiastic Tav, the same.
What we have is a compromise and once again, I would like to thank Larian for taking the time to redo the expressions. I am not 100% happy with what we have now, but I can live with it.

Hopefully we get both happy faces and the Patch 6 face mods on console.

this is not about non-con though. pretty much only the kneeling kiss was handled poorly in patch 6 AND 7. both look goofy. the others are as neutral as can be in both patches without having no expression at all. all of the actions ARE consensual, as tav is always free to leave after a kiss and they ask for the kisses themselves.

edit: see my comment above for a valid RP reason to have patch 6 expressions without it being non-con

Agreed. The community that has formed here is not very representative of what the actual majority would want. I feel like it's important to mention that I have seen it mentioned elsewhere by a considerable amount of people that they don't come here because of the way people who want a toggle are treated by other forum members.