Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback The 1.37% Still Want To Hang Out With Companions, We Just Don't Want To Bone

Heya, Larian forums. According to Larian's romance data, it claims that 1.37% of players decided not to romance any companions.I am part of that statistic. And in my case, as well as presumably a few others, this was because most of them wanted to get down & dirty with my PC. I, and I'm guessing a not-too-insignificant amount of players are uninterested in that kind of activity with our video game companions. However, I still really like the companions, and find them some of the best parts of the game. I would really like to have an option to talk with party members like Astarion and Lae'zel without having to... you know. I would find that much more satisfying than what is currently implemented.

see I don't like the current companions, so I when and slept with a non-companions one, Minthara. according to the interview, that's what the majority of people did.

I'm also part of that stat... But because I don't want to sleep with Gale... The only one that allow me to come in his bed.

I'm not evil enough for Shadowheart

I really want to know what exactly their criteria for determining whether or not a player decided to romance a companion, because I think those ~98% sound suspiciously high.
If we disregard that romancing them is something that happens towards the end of the early access campaign it already means a great number of players are removed from the equation because they haven't reached that part of the game.
Then there's the fact that half of the companions are ready to pounce on you at a minute's notice. You don't even have to seek some of them out; they'll be the ones asking you.

I have a feeling that the 98% just are the amount of players who outright were presented with the offer in an accept/decline format and chose to take up the offer. In reality it's probably a way smaller percentage of the players who chose to go with that specific route.

It's pretty hard NOT to romance considering they are all Bi-curious and horny af. The 1.37% must have just gone to bed.

It's presumably an EA thing though right, because I cannot imagine that when all of the Origin characters are in the game that you will have X companions all lusting after you simultaneously. Where's the option to simply have meaningful friendships (not to say they couldn't blossom if you choose) and swig some wine away from the overly lustful camp? Not all companions should hit on you at the same time, that or they should bloody well all get over themselves and be up for an orgy.

But yeah, EA surely? to test which relationships we were interested in character wise perhaps?

Yeah, seems weird to me as well. I'd expect the majority to engange in romance, but not 98-99%.

I fear "good relationship" will be equated to "let's fuck". Which I'd hate, because I'd like to end up with a party of friends, camaraderie and all that. Not a teen drama "I can't believe X looked at you that way" or "but why don't you love me".

I think the end-of-act-1 celebration romances are going to remain in the game.
When I first found out that you it was accessible this early into the game I was a bit surprised since I normally associate RPG romances with something that happens way deeper into the game, often as a culmination of a NPC's associated storyline once you have a chance to actually get to know them.
Romances are, for reasons I'm not sure I'll ever understand, often one of the more popular aspects of RPGs (as is evident if you take a look at various fansites dedicated to the games, BG3's community hubs included) and I think the decision to have them available this early was done consciously to satisfy these players. The fact that Larian straight up made a dev blog about how the game was going to have animated sex scenes seems to further support this.

I wouldn't be surprised if the options currently available to the player are used to gather feedback and data such as which NPCs the players seem to like the most, but I don't think the early access romances are included solely for this. I think they're here to stay, but whether or not the relationships you form with the NPCs will evolve further remains to be seen.

its ez , Sex sell, some people can't admit it, they bought the game when they saw community update about romance , and not because it was BG3 or a Dnd game or made by larian, but because of the sex in the game.

I mean the 1.37% are just the frigid/Girl Scout/goody-two-shoes/ A GOODY-GOODY..?

it seam normal to me.. that the other 98 % like sex.

I don't mind being able to hit on anything with a pulse at the party and I am certainly no prude, it just feels off that everyone instantly hits on you at the party in the initial conversation and I would personally like to see that ammended slightly come 1.0

That's more or less how I view it as well. I'm indifferent towards romances and sort of just accept them as being one of the features people 'expect' to be present in RPGs.
I just think it's odd that they are accessible this early into the game.

This is exactly my point. I want friends,please.

I'm getting a bit of a vibe of "not actually evil, just fell in with a bad crowd" sort of thing.

Maybe they want deliver some more "realistic" ones, I mean in most games culminative (sex/kiss/whatever) point is somewhere at the end. It makes relationships quite short. People used to have waiting.

Possibly. If our relationships with the characters we've chosen continue to evolve beyond just being platonic then I'm all for it.

They've made a few claims on people's predilections that are bothersome. "People are doing it, therefore that is what they want.". Something to consider: This is EA, people are testing all possible options as they look for bugs, narrative inconsistencies, and see how many people have sex scenes. After having done a playthrough on each companion romance, I don't do it anymore because I don't care and it isn't interesting. From what I have seen from people doing Data Mining and the many other mods, bug finders, game breakers, and host of other activities that are purely QA testing mechanics I think its an alarming mentality to have to have. Its why their continual referencing of their in-game analytics engine is a joke. I do business intelligence for a living, data is useless - information is important and the number of times you can lift stories out of numbers without some kind of narrative framework in place is low and people who do so often fail.

Ex: Web developers looking at website sales. "Hey, people always go to our Mission & Charity page before going to check out. This whole charity thing is a huge hit, lets beef that page up and start marketing around it!"

Real reason: Their cart checkout button is broken and the only link to the cart that works is from the Mission & Charity page and their users have figured that out.

From what I can tell, they are recklessly using their data.

I was very disappointed after we has slaughtered the whole enclave and I caught her red handed having feelings of an almost human nature and having a bad conscience over the whole murder of innocents and all that. This will not do!

From another business intelligence worker, you’ve nailed it Orbax.
I’ve said that in another post, in-game data analysis measures the user response to a given temperature/pressure condition. This data is completely counter productive and finds it niche in the meme guy universe.

I was gonna say that then i thought about it and was surprised to find that no, not really. Of the games that i can think of only the Mass Effect trilogy handled romance like that. In DA:Origins they all start way before the endgame, same for 2 and Inquisition. Also Witcher, Andromeda and even BG2 itself(not 100% about the latter).

I think what's off is the presentation. Like, a feast in the middle of Act 1 after accomplishing a pretty easy task that culminates with the companions standing in line and having to pick one to have sex with. Then Halsin being all 'yo bro' and shit. It's all very awkward.