arober

I have to say, after "fixing" the gamebreaking bug with entering the Sub-Arena with cheats, I have not ran into any other bugs. That said, it is still inexcusable to put out a game that needs to be fixed by cheating the system or is unplayable on a whole operating system, so...

I rushed through the intro just to see how long it was. It's like 5 minutes and certainly less annoying than the POE1 intro with the Engwithan ruins and looking for berries. Everybody calm down.

Funny thing is, while Aloth and Eder are programmed to like different things they get along just fine in my game (both have +1 rep with each other). Eder jokes all the time and somehow that's OK, but if it's me, Serafen or Tekehu Aloth just can't take it. So right now the only ones who dislike me on the faction wheel are Aloth and those criminal scums in Delver's Row. I hope he is feeling cozy in their company. It's probably Iselmyr subtly influencing Aloth to enjoy Eder's company in spite of Aloth's natural instincts. Shhh, let me headcanon this to make sense.

I do kinda hate this notion that we do this "I'M GAY LOOK AT ME" thing tbh. Like I don't talk about it irl much at all, I am still kind of afraid too tbh you never know how a person will react. I don't bring it up at work, I don't with most of the straight people I associate with. I don't even talk about it much around friends and family who know. Because we come in all the colors of the rainbow (heeeeeey!). For example, I talk about dudes all the time. When the straight coworkers talk about their dating life, why should I not? I don't consider it talking about my gayness, I consider it talking about my life. But that's me. You do you, boo, and stay safe. But also I work with a relatively small group of people and quite a large percentage of them are openly LGBT. I have other LGBT friends, none of whom I met in an LGBT space. The point is: four bi people on a ship? Puh-leaze. The fact that Aloth carries his big-ass grimoire in his pocket is less realistic than that.

Also - as a gay person, with lots of LGBT friends: trust me, we're not all that nuanced and sophisticated and complicated. Nobody really gives a crap. Our stories are not about being LGBT. Our lives don't revolve around that. We don't come out at the right time and in the right way. Our LGBT-ness does not really contribute all that much to our overall plot. At some point everyone just kinda gets over it. Our existence is not about political correctness. I don't see why Tekehu or Maia would talk about their bisexuality any more than Pallegina talks about her skin color. Because that isn't the point.

For what it's worth - I'm not talking about romancing everyone in one playthrough. Rather just having the option to romance anyone. And the idea of a gay orlan is no more appealing to me than a bi/pan orlan. I'd rather have the characters be non-romanceable on the basis of their personality/your behavior. Restricting characters makes sense - sometimes. To go to the Inquisition well once again: Solas being romanceable by an elf only - makes perfect sense. His being straight - not really, to the point of actually being weird, considering who he actually is. Dorian being gay - absolutely fine, that's what his story is (it'd still work if he were bi, but whatever, I'll roll with it. But Dorian, for example, not being into elves would be nonsensical. My point is - I like having options. But I'm fine with it if others don't. I don't play games to romance NPCs, that's just bonus. And I'm not gonna boycott a game because a character in it is straight/bi/gay/non-romanceable. That would be silly of me.

I don't know what you mean by pandering but I perceive it as devs trying to please everybody - they don't want to see people going mad when some character isn't eligible for romance because the player chose the wrong sex and race. And how is that bad? I enjoy playing as a male and romancing any male in my party. I also enjoy playing a female and romancing any female. Sometimes I even enjoy playing a male and romancing a female. If everyone's available, and you're not restricted in your choice, you have more options. And options are good. For the longest time only the straights were given any options. A little pandering is alright in my book.

Uh, how does roughly 20-30 minutes of companion cutscenes and dialogues (which include not only romance, for that matter) out of 50-80 hour games translate into a datesim, I wonder? I also love the "pandering" argument. Every time it doesn't pander to YOU, it's suddenly "pandering". Interesting. Real interesting. (and naturally I am not referring to you with this post.) (really, I am not.) (I keep adding more things because it comes off sarcastic when I'm actually being honest.)

Y'know, this all makes perfect sense. But I still wish my lady Qunari Inquisitor could bang Cassandra and that my male human noble mage could seduce Cullen. I genuinely do not care. Give me options. I'm glad Deadfire did just that. I'm already planning a lady Watcher romancing Maia.

Iselmyr comments that it always takes a lot of effort on her part to make Aloth touch anyone's flesh. But the scene in which it took place definitely did not suggest he has anything against men. Maybe everyone on Eora is just pansexual and nothing ever hurts.

And I think it's nice I don't have to play through the entire game as an elven female to see the Solas romance. I'd rather be able to romance him with a dwarf male as well. It's fiction. Let the fictional people be without sexual preferences. There are more interesting things about them than who they bang.

(I love Sera.) But even in-game, quite a few of your companions cannot stand her.

Funny you should ask! When you recruit Pallegina, you can ask her about her and Maneha, and she says Maneha just got the wrong idea, so no, they were not a thing. So at least there is some consistency here unlike with Eder. I know, I did ask her. But I thought it was ambigous, it made me think something may have happened there but Pallegina wasn't comfortable talking about it. I was just wondering, since I never had those two in the party at the same time in POE1. But it was extremely odd to run into Maneha in the Deadfire and have Pallegina not comment on anything. It was also extremely odd to not be able to havea conversation with Maneha at all, basically...

How dare you? Cassandra/Dwarf Inky was one of the best, purest things ever. Also, speaking of companion relationships - did Pallegina and Maneha use to be a thing?

Wouldn't it be easier to just not bother yourself with the things you hate? I like a detailed description of what I have to do in a game. I don't have the time to waste looking for things/characters. I want to get into the story without all the nonsense around it. It's not 1998 anymore.

Oh, I am not saying it isn't excessive, it's ridiculous. This whole relationship systems seems to be bugged to hel, it's just that this one time the bugs are working in my favor.

It's not metagaming, I RP a fairly stoic, responsible Watcher, and Aloth seems to approve of that. And I think he views jokes as irresponsible. We would not be friends in real life.

Takehu is the kind of person who'd hit on anyone though As for how it'd work ask Serafan. He probably knows by first hand experience. (That said why the hell is everyone so quick to get approval but Aloth? Aloth please. I just want your quest!) Really? Aloth is quicker than Eder for me, even though I am being as nice to everyone as I could. I have them both as well as Serafen and Xoti, and they are all at 1. I still don't fully understand how the approval system works. It feels like aside from the obvious "Aloth rolls his eyes at Tekehu's every word" there are some hidden approvals and/or triggers in the conversations. That is when its an alignment-free response. It's the same for me, I have Aloth at +1 and Eder is still sitting pretty at 0. I should probably crack a joke, but then I'd lose allegiance with Aloth... Darn.

Wait for a couple of hours. When I initially got to his room, he wasn't there, but I waited for like 7 hours and he showed up and I triggered his OCD.

My Watcher has just been hit on by Tekehu and Maia within one minute. Had a conversation with one, took a step, then the other approached. It's getting difficult to hold out for Aloth.

DEAR LORDE

I'd rather have a game that's actually playable.

Is there an option to transition into the Sub-Arena using the console? Or has someone tried that and the loading got stuck all the same? Is there an option to give the PC the notes (quest item?) required to finish the quest via the console? It says something about being able to hand the governor the animancers notes in the quest log, but if it works... I don't know which "notes" they are as far as items go. I've tried adding various "quest item" flagged notes via the console already (FindGameData command is a godsend - THANKS!), but none have updated my quest journal when added so far, nor have I found any that change the conversation options with the governor. Believe me, I've already spent the better part of two hours just standing next to the governor, adding various items via the console (GiveItem <thing>), scouring item and quest names, and trying in vain to get the AdvanceQuest command to work so I could just skip that one map - for now - but to no avail. Hence why I just used AreaTrasition to go to the next town. If you'd like to do the same - for now - to at least experience a bit more of the game, just open the console and type "AreaTransition A" and then keep hitting Tab until you see the one with The Hole" in the name. The full command will be; "AreaTransition <long area name The Hole> South1 0" That'll put you inside a tavern in the next big city. You'll have to walk to the docks, and it'll whip you across the map for some rather... entertaining interactions. But there's SEVERAL more hours of content just in that city and the surrounding island, so it should tide you over for awhile. Thank you, what you wrote is a godsend. I will do just that and enjoy some of the side content and when the issue is fixed, hopefully, reroll a new character to enjoy the main plot.

Is there an option to transition into the Sub-Arena using the console? Or has someone tried that and the loading got stuck all the same? Is there an option to give the PC the notes (quest item?) required to finish the quest via the console?

Yeah. I created a different character, sped-run to that point and the same thing happened. I've played around with graphical settings, I've even changed my graphics card (not specifically for this, just happened to coincide) and it has not resolved the issue. Which is a shame, since I greatly enjoyed the hour of gameplay I'd been able to see up to that point. I'd love to know a timeframe for when this will be fixed. Or if it will be fixed. Because if it's longer than a week, I'm gonna need a refund.