We're a mercenary squad, not a traveling brothel!

[Daggerknight]

I am probably in the minority here, but I have to say, if there's one part about companions that Pillars of Eternity 1 did better than 2, it was the lack of romances. 

 

A thing I always liked about Obsidian titles (not counting NWN 2 and I guess Alpha Protocol, which has a suitable context at least) was how they did not go the Bioware route of making every companion shaggable. I liked how in POE 1, everyone honestly had more important things to do (and some even had family's of their own), and were more interested in the mission. In POE 2, Xoti is constantly looking for someone to bang (seriously, she rebounds off of Eder to you, then to Mia), Fish boy is constantly coming on to anything with a physical body, Mia tries to make a move almost as soon as she joins (though maybe with her its being a poor spy)... honestly, what happened to the whole "political powder keg and raging giant god" matter? Can no one keep their pants on till the big giant problem is sorted?

 

It's not that I have a problem with romances per say, just that it's one of the things I felt like separated Obsidian narratives from the pack; a feeling of a more plausible set of relationships that didn't just immediately fall back to "we're here to bang". 

 

To be clear, I love the companions and writing in general, but honestly, I for one kind of hope this doesn't become a focal point going forward. What's the general thought on that? 

 

(And again, before anyone jumps on me, no this is not about censorship, prudishness, aversion to sexual content in games in general, etc etc. Just a comment on narrative). 

[house2fly]

It's harder to keep it in your pants when your day-to-day life consists largely of sailing with nothing much going on

[Zaris]

You certainly have a point, although I must say that no romances is even weirder than BioWare f**kfests. After all it’s only natural for people to get closer to each other during shared adventures; in real world a mere mountain expedition can cause a number of romances among the group so we can imagine what would happen after a couple days of fighting pirates, monsters, undead and chasing a literal god. After experiencing death, dealing it and being so close to it people want to feel alive. It made sense to lack romances in Tyranny, because people there were used to war and violence on top of just being broken and/or evil (although a rut with Verse should be possible given her nature and maybe some flicker of romance with Sirin who was the only „pure” character in that game) but PoE presents a world in times of peace (relative) and change, times that foster feelings required for romance to blosom.

Other thing is the fact that companion dialogue in Deadfire is terrible and doesn’t give you the feeling of actual connection at any point, so no wonder romances feel unnatural. Mere friendship seems strange when you can talk only about „how you got that bird?” or „how you feel about Eothas” over and over again. They really should just give up on recorded dialogues and make a normal amount of conversation options because what we got is even worse than a half-decent BioWare game. That’s like loosing with McDonald in food quality.

So to sum up: idea of romance on itself is good, but it’s destroyed by bad companion dialogue.

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

Yeah, the whole 'romance' - flings, more like, thing is too much in my face. I don't know about yours. It's devoid of subtlety. That gives it a feeling of shallowness. 

 

Would have appreciated a bit more depth to it. 

[Heijoushin]

Well, I enjoyed Fish Boy's anecdotes. Nothing wrong with having one or two character for whom sexuality is a major part of their personalities. But I agree that overall, Deadfire was too much.

[house2fly]

I like Tekehu because it fits well with his character, and I enjoy Aloth getting stuffy about it. The rest of them, well, they come on to you quickly but you turn them down and never hear from them again. Having them outright try to leap on you instead of making suggestive comments and having the romance be something the player initiates was frankly a rookie mistake, and hopefully if there are romances in future games they'll learn from it

[uuuhhii]

serafen and tekehu are very sexually active but not easily get into serious relationship

maia easily get into physical relationship because soldier life

only xoti are the passionate romantic teenager in high school shows

and the problem are relationship with watcher

obsidian really not good at this

maybe because lack of practice

take out the relationship with watcher all the character part are at least ok

[Guest Psychovampiric Shield]

Are there any companion-companion romances? Because from what I saw, companions were super quick to initiate or attempt to initiate intimate relationship with the Watcher, but not with other companions, which only made their hasty attempts towards the Watcher all the more weirder. More generally speaking, I would prefer if the player character was not the centre of the universe. I get it that to a degree that has to be the case for various reasons, but how readily everyone offers anything from job to sex to the Watcher is appalling.

For example in Neketaka, the Watcher can go from the harbour straight to the queen or other Important People, while absolutely classic design would require completion of lengthy quest before some upstart watcher would be allowed to The Palace.

[Zaris]

Are there any companion-companion romances? Because from what I saw, companions were super quick to initiate or attempt to initiate intimate relationship with the Watcher, but not with other companions, which only made their hasty attempts towards the Watcher all the more weirder. More generally speaking, I would prefer if the player character was not the centre of the universe. I get it that to a degree that has to be the case for various reasons, but how readily everyone offers anything from job to sex to the Watcher is appalling.

For example in Neketaka, the Watcher can go from the harbour straight to the queen or other Important People, while absolutely classic design would require completion of lengthy quest before some upstart watcher would be allowed to The Palace.

Sure, in any other RPG that would be appalling but remember that we are Watcher of Caed Nua, lord with a sizeable land to his name (even if said land is in questionabke state at the moment), one of the most important figures in Eastern Reach and Champion of Berath, risen from dead. It would be appalling to send somebody like that for a fetch quest before leting him inside Palace. If anything it was strange that people were not waiting for you in Queen’s Berth with an escort since you’re the only authority in the current crisis. The note we find at the digsite shows the respect people have for the watchers, so a watcher with our experience should be VIP. It’s like in Witcher 3, where you have much better standing with major political figures because there is a lot of common history with them.

[Guest Psychovampiric Shield]

 

Are there any companion-companion romances? Because from what I saw, companions were super quick to initiate or attempt to initiate intimate relationship with the Watcher, but not with other companions, which only made their hasty attempts towards the Watcher all the more weirder. More generally speaking, I would prefer if the player character was not the centre of the universe. I get it that to a degree that has to be the case for various reasons, but how readily everyone offers anything from job to sex to the Watcher is appalling.

For example in Neketaka, the Watcher can go from the harbour straight to the queen or other Important People, while absolutely classic design would require completion of lengthy quest before some upstart watcher would be allowed to The Palace.

Sure, in any other RPG that would be appalling but remember that we are Watcher of Caed Nua, lord with a sizeable land to his name (even if said land is in questionabke state at the moment), one of the most important figures in Eastern Reach and Champion of Berath, risen from dead. It would be appalling to send somebody like that for a fetch quest before leting him inside Palace. If anything it was strange that people were not waiting for you in Queen’s Berth with an escort since you’re the only authority in the current crisis. The note we find at the digsite shows the respect people have for the watchers, so a watcher with our experience should be VIP. It’s like in Witcher 3, where you have much better standing with major political figures because there is a lot of common history with them.

 

Except that Dyrwood has apparently reputation in Deadfire of being foremost exporting country of hay, so unless there was severe shortage of hay, Deadfire elites should not be terribly impressed by some Lord/Lady from Dyrwood.

Edited September 16, 2018 by Psychovampiric Shield

[InsaneCommander]

I don't think it's that bad, but my character's personality (combined with relationship bugs) made me avoid romances (except with the crew ) and once I denied them, I even forgot they existed.

 

But I agree that it's strange that they always come for the Watcher (or do it after being rejected by Eder) and do it so quickly. It would be better if something significant had to happen first, for example:

 

- Eder would only be interested after you helped him with the kid, although he already knows the Watcher for a long time, so maybe it would already have happened

- Maia would pretend to be interested for spy reasons, but depending on the conversation you had with her, she would confess and say she is genuinely interested now or only confess and apologize

- Xoti would only come after seeing you interact with Eothas (you would look very special)

- Someone might only get involved if a quest forced them to stay in a cell or abandoned island with the Watcher for some days...

 

And so on.

 

Fish boy is constantly coming on to anything with a physical body,

 

Since he is a watershaper, I wouldn't be surprised if he went after something without a physical body.

[Hawke64]

Nothing against romances, but I strongly dislike when an important part of companion's arc is locked behind it or when it devalues friendship and camaraderie, so I like how it was handled in PoEII (could have been better, but could have been much worse).

[Verde]

I'll argue the opposite, well kinda. Its weird not having romances in a game where you spend years with chars. But POE2 did it so heavy handed that they should have just left it out. So I guess in agreeing or maybe disagreeing, I dunno lol

[Metaturtle]

I'd have to agree that the romance feels forced and way too early like I just met Tekehu and talked up to his favor after he joined my party then suddenly he gives me the whole fish in the sea deal as soon as I exit the temple. Maia is just about as bad too.

 

I found it a bit amusing that the Deadfire companions are considered attractive to many of Eora's inhabitants according to their various histories and interactions, which adds to the inevitability that someone is going to bang at some point.  It inspired me to have a playthrough as the "ugly" watcher and his/her "hot" friends.  If there was a romance I'd love to see played out more, it would be the watcher and Aedalys although the watcher and Modwyr would be hilarious.

Edited September 17, 2018 by Metaturtle

[Boeroer]

As with all RPG "romances" Deadfire's are cringeworthy. Really awkward. But maybe only if you actually have (or had) a real sex life. I can imagine that I would have liked that kind of stuff when I was 15 or so. So... maybe the best way to please all players would be to give us an option in the game menu to switch "romances" them off/on. Like:

 

[ ] Gibs
[x] Cage Cursor
[ ] Romances

[x] Send 1$ to Boeroer each time you load a savegame

[daven]

Yep I made a topic just like this way back when it came out. Everyone wants to get in your pants immediately.

 

At least in BG2 the romance crap developed over the entire game, not over 1-2 conversations.

[WiduMew]

Well, I'm known to not romance most Bioware games, and I quite enjoyed getting closer to Aloth in Deadfire. It's just a few lines, which is fine with me, no boinkfests, and entirely optional. And he's very Aloth about it, which I thought was great  

 

Tekehu, Maia and Xoti practically jumping you when they first meet you is weird, but to mee it looked like that was just some bad or at least very optimistic programming.

[InsaneCommander]

"We're a mercenary squad, not a traveling bro..." Wait...

 

[kaiki]

I am enjoying the flirtations between Eder and Xoti. I always love a good romance or love story in my games. So please keep them in your future games :D

[uuuhhii]

I'll argue the opposite, well kinda. Its weird not having romances in a game where you spend years with chars. But POE2 did it so heavy handed that they should have just left it out. So I guess in agreeing or maybe disagreeing, I dunno lol

yes it should exist somewhat since in deadfire every companion at least have some reference of romance of sexual life in dialogue

even though for aloth and pellagina it was the rejection of it

but it was noticeably clumsy for watcher's relationship with companions

maybe writers should try to give player option to romance with non companion npc next time

Edited September 19, 2018 by uuuhhii

[Walter.Richards]

I read the title and think ... Can't we be a mercenary brothel?

 

 

 

 

The romances definitely weren't as good as any of the Dragon Age games.

Of course, I get more involved with characters if I see them from a "real" POV perspective, rather than isometric.

[InsaneCommander]

I read the title and think ... Can't we be a mercenary brothel?

 

Of course you can. Go to the new classes thread and suggest the Courtesan, the Masseur and the Dominatrix.

[lorddarkflare]

Hmm. I thought it was fine. It get a little annoying if you do want to go bachelor because you hit the triggers for all the party members.

 

And think some of those triggers are pretty hairy, but Obsidian handled it correctly for the most part (I.E. did not lock too much character progression behind them).

 

 

That said, Romances in RPGs are always going to be weird because of overall game structure, character choice, and disassociation from the main plot.

 

I think it is much worse when there is pretty much nothing when you have a mixed group.

 

In an ideal POEII:

 

-One or two companions could have a relationship with each other.

-The Watcher can have a fling with a party member (the most likely relationship to develop in such a situation).

-The Watcher can have a 'serious' relationship with a non-party member.

 

This to me is much cleaner and allows for writers to actually do something substantial. People would bitch about not having choices though.

 

Unfortunately, Bioware has trained many players to expect an almost full on romance sim. And even as someone who likes romance in his speculative fiction I find that too pandery.

Edited September 23, 2018 by lorddarkflare

[Walter.Richards]

 

I read the title and think ... Can't we be a mercenary brothel?

 

Of course you can. Go to the new classes thread and suggest the Courtesan, the Masseur and the Dominatrix.

 

HA!

Sounds like a "Harem" LitRPG book.

LOL

[InsaneCommander]

HA!

Sounds like a "Harem" LitRPG book.

LOL

 

Well, Konstanten is a masseur and there is that Fire Godlike npc, so they are in the game already.