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Yeaaaah, about that. Minthara would like to say hi grin

Minthara in the game pretty much goes downtown on us with plenty of tongue twisters and even doing the 69, which is quite visual. I mean it quite literally shows her eating us out, then going into the 69 pose where our character eats her booty while she has her fun on the opposite end with ours. Naturally the animations are still early access quality and they rely on angles to hide the fact that we have nothing down there, but... I don't know really, I don't see any other reason why they would suddenly start putting in genitalia files into the game unless they planned to not rely on angles to hide body model shortcomings.

I believe it will be out on full display. Naturally I do not expect anything hardcore as some people here to think. There won't be closeups of genitals interacting with one another most definitely. But I do see them not relying on angles to hide it and it being visible in brief moments as they're shuffling about, before the camera cuts to black.

For example with Minthara, instead of using Minthara's head or Tav's leg to hide the fact she has nothing under there, they might change the angle to show MInthara approaching her erotic zone in a glimpse before the camera cuts to black. So I definitely can see that. Soft erotic scenes enough to know you're not empty down there, but nothing hardcore as some people seem to think.

Cyberpunk for example has genitalia, but you don't even get to really see it during romance scenes. It's barely a glimpse even if you do. And to my opinion Cyberpunk has one of the most beautiful romance scenes ever made. The scenes with Judy are incredibly classy, intimate and lovely. Incredibly well done.

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Have you seen the Minthera(sp) scene? That one is pretty explicit. Soft core atm. We will see. I personally don’t mind really soft low level scenes; however, pornhub level stuff does put me off.

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I've just looked up the Minthara scene. There are different versions it seems (based on gender/race)? Anyway...yeah, not my cup of tea, at all. It looks so awkward to me. I'm really not feeling it 😕

That would totally break the immersion in my case 😓

So, really hoping for the option to have an automatic fade to black (not forcing me to click to skip every angles/shots of the scene) or something of the sort.

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the Minthara love scene looks ridiculous. One person is constipated while the other is confused and smiling. Super awkward and "explicit" only for the shock value, but it just ends up looking juvenile.

As MelivysilverRoot mentioned, I really hope they add a true skip cutscene feature, and not just a 'skip to next camera shot' as they have now.

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I hope you guys are familiar with Niara's opus Focused Examination: Intimate Choreography with Small-sized Characters If memory serves, she goes into detail about the shortcomings of the Minthara scene, from a cinematographic angle among other things.

I personally don't mind how explicit they go with it, outside the narrative I want videogames to be free to go there, and inside the narrative I think it can advance the dramatic development of the characters involved.
Judging from some of the choices you make during the [under construction] scenes, I hope the intimate scenes don't just exist in their own pocket plane, and are actually meaningful to the narrative.

Considering everything else, I wonder if the clip show vignettes in Cyberpunk were the original plan. I remember a sex scene in Andromeda that came out of left field for me, but I think that was just because I wasn't really invested in the characters there.

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Originally Posted by Sozz
I hope you guys are familiar with Niara's opus Focused Examination: Intimate Choreography with Small-sized Characters If memory serves, she goes into detail about the shortcomings of the Minthara scene, from a cinematographic angle among other things.

I personally don't mind how explicit they go with it, outside the narrative I want videogames to be free to go there, and inside the narrative I think it can advance the dramatic development of the characters involved.
Judging from some of the choices you make during the [under construction] scenes, I hope the intimate scenes don't just exist in their own pocket plane, and are actually meaningful to the narrative.

Considering everything else, I wonder if the clip show vignettes in Cyberpunk were the original plan. I remember a sex scene in Andromeda that came out of left field for me, but I think that was just because I wasn't really invested in the characters there.

Niara's ....I want to say Thesis, is exactly why I would rather them keep it simple. There's simply no way Larian is going to put a fraction of the effort Niara has done into these intimate scenes. It's going to end up looking ridiculous at best, creepy at worst.

Wow, Niara really went deep on that one and I only read 1 1/2 posts!

edit: HA, just realized there should have been photos but they were removed by Larian haha

Last edited by Boblawblah; 20/12/22 02:34 AM.
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Originally Posted by MelivySilverRoot
I've just looked up the Minthara scene. There are different versions it seems (based on gender/race)?

Yup, her scene is affected by Male/Female + Normal/Short height. So to me it's pretty cool that they're taking into account such things, even though I truly only experienced one variant with her. I love attention to detail.

Kinda makes me curious to see the more muscular body type for romance scenes, assuming we're getting them as was shown in the release trailer.

And whether any of the classes will take celibacy into account grin

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I'm fully on board with a role playing game that has romance options giving players the ability to engage with an important part of romance(sex). The game is 18+. We're already accepting gratuitous violence, body horror, gore, etc, so why draw the line at nudity and sex? If you don't want to see it, you don't have to engage with it, as you're not being forced to pursue romance options with your companions. Even putting that aside, we already know there's going to be a streaming mode for players to allow viewers to vote on their dialogue choices in the game, meaning unless Twitch has suddenly changed its policies on nudity sexual content, there is likely going to be a menu toggle for nudity and sex scenes. Complaining about Larian investing development into cutscenes that you personally don't want to engage in makes no sense to me. There will likely be tons of cutscenes that I'll never see simply based on choices I make as a player, but I'm not going to complain about them existing simply because I won't engage with them. Larian is making the game they want to make, meaning these assets and scenes were planned on, meaning the inclusion of them isn't detracting from development. Not including them wouldn't add to development elsewhere.

Also, for those saying how awkward it'll look. Have you seen how far 3DCG porn has come in the past couple years? If an indie animator can fully rig high quality Mortal Kombat porn, I'm sure Larian will do just fine.

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Originally Posted by Swagnar
Complaining about Larian investing development into cutscenes that you personally don't want to engage in makes no sense to me.

I don’t think that’s what folk are doing. Most of us are simply expressing a preference, which is what Larian have said they want to hear from us during EA. They are of course free to take on board or not.

Originally Posted by Swagnar
Also, for those saying how awkward it'll look. Have you seen how far 3DCG porn has come in the past couple years? If an indie animator can fully rig high quality Mortal Kombat porn, I'm sure Larian will do just fine.

Hmm, I haven’t seen but I’m going off the animation we already have in the game which can be pretty wonky. Of course there could be vast improvements between now and full release, and I very much hope there are. But I don’t find what we’ve seen from BG3 so far promising in this respect.


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Originally Posted by The_Red_Queen
Hmm, I haven’t seen but I’m going off the animation we already have in the game which can be pretty wonky. Of course there could be vast improvements between now and full release, and I very much hope there are. But I don’t find what we’ve seen from BG3 so far promising in this respect.

I've seen various cutscenes go from having wonky/no animation to a patch that makes them look very natural. Some of Kagha's scenes at various points had no lip syncing at all off the top of my head. I think it's fair to say that a lot of the worse scenes are just not yet complete.

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Basically the 3D/CGI content Swagnar talks about is pretty evolved by now that it looks incredibly realistic, especially by the more talented creators for the more popular games such as Overwatch, Cyberpunk, Witcher 3, Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider and basically any game that has a female character/protagonist. The community revolving around it is massive.

And games like Cyberpunk have shown how officially it can be done incredibly realistic and proper. But regardless of such animations, I do not doubt in Larian's capability since it's Early Access and optimization is not really their priority right now. Which is evident by so many wonky animations such as facial emotions, movement and other aspects.

For example like this one below. This is an animation error where our character looks sideways. And there's far far worse examples than this by them looking stiff, constipated and so on.
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

But then you have an incredibly high quality representation of what they're capable, such as with musical instruments where animations are incredibly fluid.


So I am not too worried about animation quality, as the optimization hasn't even started yet, but I have a feeling judging by the ones showcased above that this shouldn't be something to worry about.

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Originally Posted by Boblawblah
Wow, Niara really went deep on that one and I only read 1 1/2 posts!

edit: HA, just realized there should have been photos but they were removed by Larian haha

Yeah, it was a big project and one that, unfortunately, I was not able to dedicate the time to finish to my satisfaction, considering the difficulties imposed...

Unfortunately, in its present state, the thread is difficult to parse without the supporting models and pose references - it really needs them in order to be easy to digest. The problem was that the forum's rules for this were too fuzzy, and though I had communications with Larian representatives on the matter, and they conveyed that they were going to reform those rules to make it clearer what I could post and how - and thus what a solution would be to proceed - that never eventuated, so I can't progress.

The issue was that I was using 3d models and poses to support my discussion - these were just completely blank, featureless 3d body models, but they were nevertheless considered NSFW enough to be disallowed, while images from the game itself, being Larian official content, are allowed regardless... but I couldn't conduct the examination I needed to built just on shots from the game, since I needed to discuss choreography and illustrate the difficulties or advantages of various choices and how they affected a scene.

I cannot provide a public link or reference to the unedited version of the document, formally speaking, but I'd like to encourage anyone who has an interest in the dynamics of choreography and scene-writing for intimate moments (and, you know, how to convey feeling and emotion without making it completely awkward or creepy, and the considerations that must be kept in mind while writing and choreographing such...), to send me a PM, where I can share a link to the examination in its intact form.

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That part at the end of the video you originally posted made me feel sick when he mentioned the half-lings, because I had forgotten about the small child height classes in the game. Yeaaah, no thank you. Please just fade to black. 🤮

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Originally Posted by MelivySilverRoot
I've just looked up the Minthara scene. There are different versions it seems (based on gender/race)? Anyway...yeah, not my cup of tea, at all. It looks so awkward to me. I'm really not feeling it 😕

That would totally break the immersion in my case 😓

So, really hoping for the option to have an automatic fade to black (not forcing me to click to skip every angles/shots of the scene) or something of the sort.

I agree here. If they really go full porno, I'd like to have the option to fade to black too.

I mean, I totally get, that people are exciting about this, after all, the first mods that come out for most games are nude mods. I just don't need that in my game and would very much appreciate a fade to black option and that my character keeps her knickers.


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I actually find sexual scenes a good playground to present and develop the characters. By making Minthara's scene pretty vulgar as if straight out of porn they establish her predisposition to dominance and love of pleasure, presenting her as an unhinged person once again and adding a little extra to the character. I expect sex scenes to explore on our companions' initimate traits and fears. Sexual behavior can tell a lot about a person, one opens up and fully exposes themselves as they are, others remain emotionally closed. Good field to work with, actually. Removing it is like removing body comedy from Jack Sparrow. We need to have some visual storytelling in the game which is not just gesturing while staying in one place, imo. That'll contribute to the richness of the story.

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I wholeheartedly agree that the romance scenes are an important extension of characters and their personality, and an important contribution to the story meant to enrich them as characters rather than be a mindless sex act just for eye candy, as they tell a lot about our characters.

  • Shadowheart is an innocent and shy romantic who loves picnics, so her romance slowly blossoms which I find absolutely beautiful.
  • Gale is a gentleman and quite a romantic. I hope to see some magical creativity during his romance.
  • Lae'zel is pretty much a straight forward "strip! we're banging right now!" type because the concept of love does not exist in her culture of warriors. So to her it is just a carnal pleasure meant to be satisfied and she doesn't mince words, which I absolutely adore and enjoy seeing as part of her culture. However I hope that by the time the game ends we'll get to teach her in some extent the concept of love and devotion, along with other values. I would really like that for her as a character.
  • Astarion I didn't get to research a lot, but we do actually get incredibly important details about Astarion and his past, especially the scar on his back
  • Wyll I admit, never slept with. But I will eventually.

As for Minthara, I wouldn't call her unhinged as that is not what her romance is supposed to portray nor who she is. I fear a lot of people have misconceptions about her, and all other companions for that matter. People think she is just a lustful pleasure driven dominant badass Drow, when in truth she is an ex-Lolth Drow with an extremely traumatizing past of consecutive betrayals against her who for the first time ever actually lowers her psychological and emotional barriers in order to overcome her traumatic fear of being betrayed, by putting all her trust in Tav because for the first time ever she is genuinely in love. And she is in fact so much in love that she wishes to take Tav as her consort to spend an eternity together in Menzoberranzan after the war is over, which utterly shatters her heart when that dream is almost ruined by the Absolute's wishes. But her love runs so strong within her that she goes against the Absolute's wishes and helps us reach Moonrise Towers, with hopes that her dream with us will become a reality eventually.

So hardly unhinged and hardly just a pleasure ride for her. Her romance actually portrays that she sacrifices a lot in order to make love to Tav by going against the very essence of who she is in order to surrender to the moment fully and for the first time ever experience something she never ever had the privilege to receive... love and trust. Which is why if you try to probe her during the romance, you'll break her heart and she'll see it as betrayal.

Personally it kinda hurts seeing people perceiving these romance scenes as nothing but porn and eye candy, when in truth they are quite beautifully crafted and meaningful intimate moments with a lot of subtle meaning and lore about our characters meant to enrich their backstories and them as characters.

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I’m not sure that many people associate graphic sex scenes with romance. A sex scene can absolutely be romantic but I don’t think that would constitute vivid depictions of various sexual acts or positions. Has pornography ever been called romantic?

I really don’t see why the game needs it personally. Maybe I’m weird but I like these kinds of games for the appeal of undertaking a grand fantasy adventure, not to explore carnal pleasures. I mean, what are Larian aiming for here…Baldurs Gate: 50 Shades of Greyhawk?

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Originally Posted by Etruscan
I’m not sure that many people associate graphic sex scenes with romance. A sex scene can absolutely be romantic but I don’t think that would constitute vivid depictions of various sexual acts or positions. Has pornography ever been called romantic?

I really don’t see why the game needs it personally. Maybe I’m weird but I like these kinds of games for the appeal of undertaking a grand fantasy adventure, not to explore carnal pleasures. I mean, what are Larian aiming for here…Baldurs Gate: 50 Shades of Greyhawk?

That is exactly the thing - is it romance or is it just sex? Is it just a way to escape harsh reality or a way to make love to the person you care about? Those could be discernable with the help of the well-structured sexual narrative. It is all very raw for now tbh, I guess we'll wait and see.

But honestly, what an adventure it is if there is no sex in it laugh
Let us shed the skin of insecurity here, fantasy games are based on real life, because fantasy is an exaggerated reality. Sex is a part of real life. So not liking it in this game/setting becomes a matter of personal preference, not inappropriateness.

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I agree that it is totally a personal preference. I don’t agree that a fantasy video game adventure needs sex though. Can anyone seriously say for example that The Lord of the Rings is worse off for not having graphic sex in it?

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Romances have become one of the number 1 cringe "features" in RPGs anyways (imagine if a party member betraying you rather than luvin' you had become a "feature" requested and you get an idea why it's become so shallow -- it's nothing surprising anymore, plus it's something to be ticked off a list, which both is the polar opposite of character depth).

There's a lot to say about how romances play out in RPGs too. The formula of gradually leveling up companions, unlocking ever more dialogue and eventually, as the "big price", pardon me, banging them, has always been juvenile to the max. But then that's probably the gaming industry for you, which is comparably still in its infancy.

I'm not holding my breath that BG3 is going to stop that trend in the slightest. (Which is is fine, I'm then just going to ignore all that stuff.)

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