Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback More reasonable romance options.

Dear Developers, Dear All,

[Warning! Spoilers ahead]

I was playing a male character, in this play through. A Cleric of Selune.
I got rid of Shadowheart early on (she is not traveling with me but stay in the camp, as i cannot get her to leave - why?),
sent away Astarion when he tried to...
and Lae'Zel and I do not agree too often. - So understandably I do not have a great reputation with them.
As I try to play a good character, mostly Gale and Wyll agree with me.

So we killed the "gobo leaders", and we had a party with the Tieflings.
On that Night, Lae'Zel told me, that i can be sorry, that I turned her down so many times...
Talking to Gale, he tried to offer me his services... And I was quite surprised, as I never had this before.
And then talking to Wyll, "Tav" had the option to get him to his Bunk... and I was like: WHAT? - This is too much.

I absolutely respect if someone is like that, and prefers it that way, and I think it was quite fun from Astarion (in previous playthroughs), as he is a Spawn, calls you Darling all the time...
But getting offers from the other two guys in the party was a bit too much for me. - as I respect if someone prefers that, so do I expect to be respected for NOT prefering that.

So I was thinking how could this be tweaked so, that it better suits everyone's taste.

Here is my idea:


Tell me, whom do you dream of at night?
I think this could be a great filter.

If we select a female character (the woman of our dreams), we should get (and be able to offer) romance invitations with females.
If we select a male character (the man of our dreams), we should get (and be able to offer) romance invitations with males.

Now I also think, that Astarion being a neutral one would be generally fun, if we keep him in the party, and you have a high enough reputation with him.
And maybe another female Origin character (added later) could also be neutral, just to keep the balance.



I generally think the game is meant to be fun, and it really is, but for me, getting offers only from male characters in my party, as a male, is not something I prefer, and I am sure, a lot of others think the same. In my opinion, its better not to get any offers then get the "wrong" ones.

With my above idea, I think everyone can get what they prefer, (and not get what they do not prefer).

As said, I respect if someone feels the other way around, (and with the above we can keep him/her happy), but I also expect to be respected for not feeling that way.
And with the above, we can also keep me/us happy.


Thank you for reading.

So, in your vision here... what do player characters who pick their intimate interests based on things like attitudes, personality and demeanour, rather than boxer-short anatomy, do?

I'm sorry, but for me this is a hard disagree to your suggestion.

Right now one issue is that everyone in the party all attempts to jump you at the same time, and, also, everyone, regardless of any other aspect of their personality, apparently thinks it's a good idea to jump into bed with someone they barely know at the end of an alcohol and post-battle-mortality fuelled party. That's definitely a problem. Exactly "who" asks you if you're interested is not.

That said: The tactful route that most games take in this regard, and which Larian are, at present, completely disregarding despite there being well established reasons WHY every other game does this... is that the player MUST give the first indication of pursuit, and it must be clear that that is what you're doing. Even for assertive companions/NPCs that will lead the romance, the player must give a clear flag of some sort first to let the game know that they are interested; this is like letting your DM know, "above the table", that your character is interested in someone, even though the character might not have done much to show it yet herself... Most video games handle this by way of a dedicated flirt dialogue line early on in the game, or at least prior to any major romance interactions, to signal that you want to pursue. It's not completely fool-proof, but it's at least functional... The game doesn't do this at the moment, and it should.

The other thing the game *could* do, if it isn't going to leave the first signal of intent to the player, would be to give you a clear and obvious conversation response that lets the propositioning character know that you're not going to be interested in them in that way - and the game MUST then accept and respect that with no further questions, and WITHOUT otherwise damaging the relationship, regardless of the personality and inclinations of the NPC; this might seem heavy handed, but that's because it's about the game being respectful to the player, and not about the characters involved. If you get upset by someone who doesn't match your intimate preference asking if you're interested, that's on you... people aren't psychic, and asking does no harm to anyone, as long as the game gives you the tools to let them know, and then respects your decision.

Tying what the game offers you to the Daisy is a fundamentally bad idea... although I'm personally of the opinion that the Daisy itself is a fundamentally flawed concept... or at least that it fails utterly at what it is attempting to do. No matter HOW or WHO I've ever played, it has ONLY ever come across as deeply creepy, unpleasant and unwanted. There is no allure, no temptation, no endearment at all... it's just gross, invasive and creepy at every level.

What if I want propositions from both?

Well, good point, and that is why I also wrote, that Astarion, and maybe another female character could be neutral.
I also think it is not really logical to have propositions from the whole group anyway, so 2-3 max should be enough.

(Yes, yes, and what if I want a "party" with 5...
Well that option is for whatever reason missing form the game.)

I would 100% support implementation of prefferences for our companions ... but it should be set by character, never by Player. :-/

I mean, Dorian (DA:I) was great character and i loved interaction with him, even tho im regular heterosexual male and never feel any atraction towards him ...
But imagine he would turn straight, just bcs player picked something when created his character? :-/ That would ruin it whole.

I dare to say that some dialogue option "Im not interested in fe/males" in conversation with any of them, that will block out proposions from others of same gender ... should be suficient in my opinion. :-/
I mean, our companions knows about everything else that happened in camp imedialty, and they are judjing ... so, what is the harm here?

I'd be a bit surprised, because afaik for Gale romance you need to go through the other camp scenes like the weave first and indicate some interest in him. Otherwise you get his standard invitation during the party, which may sound like romance, but if you take him upon it turns out he isn't interested.

I'm a gay female irl and have no problems romancing a male character in a game, if I think, it leads to an interesting storyline. I seldom base my romance options on my personal preferences (although I do prefer Shadowheart from the companions we have now, but she is just the one, I like the most as a character). Why is it such a problem, if a male character ask you for sex? Simply say 'No', problem solved. My favorite romance in Dragon Age Inquisition was Iron Bull btw. And he was a gender, I don't prefer, a religion/philosophy, I don't really care for and I didn't think, I would even like him, when the comapnions were announced. Since then, I keep an open mind.
I do agree that it is really annoying and not very realistic, that all companions, no matter how they like you, make advances at the same time. That bit is creepy, but I do hope, that they change that

I don't think it should be a problem if a companion goes after you, I mean, all you have to do is not accept their advances, right? I had everyone wanting my Tav. But in the end, I wanted was Shadowheart, so I spoke with her first. If you don't want any, is easy, just don't pick the more obvious dialogues that would lead to it, or just refuse them/leave if they made you feel uncomfortable. This is not uncommon irl as well.

I don't mind getting "invites" from Gale or Wyll as a male PC, but I think they should still work a little more on the system as a whole.

When having slightly high reputation with companions let them have some lines with a [Flirt]-Tag. So I can decide who I am interested in. Maybe I want to romance Gale, but just be best buddies with Wyll. This should not be decided by which of them I take my first chance to sleep with. There should be some build up to it and my best buddy should not try to squeeze benefits out of me.

on that, I agree. But I think the whole approval for romance is just for now so players can test it on EA and give feedback, etc. I remember in not only one interview they said that they want the romance not to work only in approvals, but what you say and how you act towards them. I hope they can do it, a basic approval then you're good to romance is not something I'm eager to have again.

I honestly do not get this part.
I read it now 5 times, and have no idea what you mean.

As for the rest.




I also think that the biggest issue is that everyone jumps at you at the same time.
And also I do not think every Origin character should be interested in the Player Character.
That is absolutely unrealistic.



I very much like this. - honestly I do not play too many games nowdays, so I wasn't really aware of this.

I think you got me wrong.

I do not want to make X character change preferences, but if I choose on the "Whom do you dream of at night" character selection a female let's say, then the guys would just not (at least not every single one of the guys) make you an offer. (Because they know, they you are not interested.)

I would also be okay, if the Origin characters whold have actual preferences, or something, and turn you down if you do not match theirs.

My own opinion here but I'm not sure how the others know your preference based on the whom do you dream of at night. Can they tell?

Also I kind of like the idea of being pursued first instead of having to initiate it. Makes it more "real" I guess? I mean people don't wait for you to pursue them. They might ask you first. You can just turn them down.

It is not the problem. As I wrote in the original post, I found it quite fun that Astarion asked me in my 2nd playthrough (I think).
If was fun, because he just acts like that the whole game, it fits his character.

However being asked by Astarion and Gale and Wyll is my issue.
Sorry, but that really feels forced onto you. And not everyone wants that.

Would be great if you could tell the game what your preference is (with that character), and the game would (largely) respect that.
You can feel free to change your preference during the 2nd play through if you wish, or just stay true to who you are IRL.

But this kind of things should not be forced onto the player that much.

Hmm, but how would they know based on your dream character, unless you share with them. I mean, in the technical side would make sense, but not on the story side. Like, If following it, then a female Tav shouldn't propose to Shadowheart, since her dream version is someone she clearly says she's very attracted to and it's a man.
I'd feel better with a single dialogue option that would make you show the companion you're interested in, Dragon Age and some other games had a similar system that you had to use certain flirty dialogues to show interest or not.

This is something I also like.
However, I think it would be also maybe a good idea, if you could set the preference of your character maybe during character creation, and would get less options that do not match that preference. - for me it feels forced.

But a preference set at creation - with nothing else changed - would still have the problem with maybe 2-3 NPCs trying to get down with you in short order. Which still feels weird to me. I think the flirt option is the most elegant, as some people maybe just are not interested in romancing at all. So the player has the agency what they want to do.

I agree about the fact, that all companions becoming interested at the same time is unrealistic. But then I'm sure that this is just in EA, so that you can theoretically experience every romance early on. They probably (hopefully) change that later on

I'm not ok with predefining your choice and limit yourself to one gender. As I said, I don't go necessarily after my real life preference in a game, but choose a character, that promises to be interesting (which I think is, what Niara meant in the sentence, you didn't understand).

Totally agree.
Everyone being bi-sexual in this game is a bit ridiculous, even if I absolutely don't have any problem with some male/female asking for sex to the same sex.
And obviously they shouldn't just want to have sex with us at the same time...

I like the (new?) romance with shadowheart. it's cute even if the kiss is a bit too much.
I'd rather have more romance scene for every characters in short times (a few in game days) than only 1 with sex and kiss... Just let them talk in private please. Make romance romantic. This is the beginning of the game.

eh, the safe bet is to make all characters player-sexual. it leads to the most available content. that said, it would be very interesting to see a gay romance that wasn't just treated as a hetero-sexual romance. Before you crucify me, let me explain. Most games that have gay romances just insert the same dialogue for both romances, there's no mention of "we're gay" at all, which seems a bit odd. your character is just treated like a member of the opposite sex. I'd like to see a romance that actually talked a little about some of those unique issues that gay people have to deal with.

just a random thought, it's probably not feasible/practical in anything but a game purposely meant to discus those issues.