The purpose of this thread is to provide a central place for all the romantics (and unromantics) out there to be able to continue discussions and debate the possibility of there being romances (or other complex relationships) in Project Eternity.

 

Some potential example points of discussion (but not limited to):

 

---what type of dynamic, complex character relationships are important to your gaming experience, if any?

---if you enjoy romances in games, what type of plots do you enjoy or dislike (tragic, happy ending, marriage/family)?

---what romance or relationship arcs from other games did you personally enjoy that can serve as examples?

---do you have any particular, preferred game mechanics for romance/relationships that you'd like to see included (optional questlines, dialogue, cutscenes)?

---what, even, is romance (to you)?

 

 

I'd like to remind members that while differing opinions and viewpoints are expected and welcome, trolling with purposeful intent to derail is not looked upon with favor. Try to play nice in the sandbox.

Edited October 18, 201213 yr by LadyCrimson
Better topic purpose clarification

I just want to say I would not like to see romance in the game. Didn't care for it in any of the Bioware games and don't care for it now.

Oh so this is a thread where only people who want romancable companions can post?

 

 

*gets popcorn*

Edited October 17, 201213 yr by nikolokolus

I will just restate my general views on romances in games from the other thread:

 

I'm fine with this (minimal, subtle, not latching into central plot) kind of implementation with the only caveat that non-romance content must be at least equal to romance content in the parallel/exclusive sense--it's a problem if a character is written with a romance path taking up 50% of its content, then someone who pursues it gets twice as much content as someone who chooses not to pursue it. A much better implementation is to have that 50% generic content that branches as a "Y" into two equal and exclusive paths, one of "romance" and the other of "bromance/best friend" or whatever.

 

And this cannot be dismissed with "just ignore it" because we only have eight companions. Eight. Not eighteen. For a party of six. Honestly, if we were going to have over a dozen companions of considerable depth, I'd have much less of a problem with this overall, but that's simply not within the scope of the project. Companion interaction is critical for PE, and that means everyone should have equal opportunity to experience it in both quantity and quality.

 

The only other fundamental disagreement I have with some people who want romances is the idea that "romance" somehow brings higher objective value to a character interaction. To repeat myself, since I doubt most would read the earlier parts of this thread: I don't believe stories "benefit" or not by inclusion of romance but rather that such stories are either designed to be such from the outset by virtue of genre application or the plot mechanism is specifically added to hook proponents of said genre--thus romance is not something I see as having additional intrinsic value in a fictional work, but is either the underlying nature of the story itself already or is used for marketing. Either you like the genre and reactive positively to the audience targeting, or you don't care for it (for whatever reasons). There are many other aspects of a relationship that give depth and meaning, and romance isn't by default any better than them.

 

 

Page 11 of the last locked thread also has a fair discussion on specific development resource limitation worries.

 

P.S.: I'm not against romance inclusion on its face, but there are plenty of caveats. PS:T subtlety seems to be the most favored.

Edited October 17, 201213 yr by Ieo

I'm all in for Romance options, I don't see how this will hurt the game experience for anyone.

 

HOWEVER, I don't support simplified get-go unrealistic romance (read harem) options. Just because I have a NPC of the opposite gender in my party it doesn't mean that this character's sole reason for existense should be defined by my ego stroking urges.

 

I totally want there to be romance options in the game and while I did like some of the romance options in BG2, I think that if there is such an option in PE it should be closer to what Planescape had. When you are nearing the end of the game or a party member's personal story arc, when you have invested a lot of time into understanding this chracter and have formed a bound with him/her only then should that option be possible.

 

I don't want a Date Tycoon game, I want a mature and intelligently writen story where forming a relationship with a certain character feels like reading a good book rather than getting to the next checkpoint in Super Mario.

 

Romances should be the ending branch of a NPCs character, the optional finishing touch to the relationship between the PC and the character in question.

So exactly what new information or opinions can we expect in this thread that were not already covered in the previous 28 page thread or the 17 threads before that one?

I was never big into the romance options. Always made me feel like some sort of creeper...

That being said, I don't care if they are in the game, just don't shove them down my throat.

Also if this is the 'Unofficial' P.E. Romance thread does anyone mind if I make an official one?

If we get a Stronghold, maybe we'll get a Lady/Lord to marry as well?

 

Maybe you can decide to have encounters (as in the Witcher) as well.

 

And you children start as PC in PE2.

 

And they meet the unclaimed children from you affairs from PE1...

Edited October 17, 201213 yr by oberjaeger

Oh, new "romance" thread?

 

If we get a Stronghold, maybe we'll get a Lady/Lord to marry as well?

 

Maybe you can decide to have encounters (as in the Witcher) as well.

 

And you children start as PC in PE2.

 

And they meet the unclaimed children from you affairs from PE1...

now I'm not sure if you're serious or just trolling. bsn version of Poe's law.

 

****ing urls, how do they work?

Edited October 17, 201213 yr by Hoverdog

Oh so this is a thread where only people who want romancable companions can post?

Of course not. I was merely trying to offer some discussion suggestions in the opening post, based on what I've seen other threads.

I want the romances from PS:T and KOTOR2 to serve as models for Obsidian in this case. A more subtle and complicated kind of romance.

Oh so this is a thread where only people who want romancable companions can post?

Of course not. I was merely trying to offer some discussion suggestions in the opening post, based on what I've seen other threads.

IMO it would be better if it was renamed to "Choices & consequences Affecting NPCs Behaviour" to open up the subject of the thread a bit, but whatever.

I want my character spurned at every advance. I want him to contract syphilis and die a gibbering fool, I want my character to be drowning his sorrows, alone in a tavern, lamenting why every person he ever loved died as a result of their association with him.

 

It's gonna be awesome.

 

 

I want the romances from PS:T and KOTOR2 to serve as models for Obsidian in this case. A more subtle and complicated kind of romance.

the best thing about kotor2 romances is Mira's not having the slighest interest in you.

Ego stroking, like you wouldn't like to be a powerful wizard, heroic fighter,

shadowy thief, a far more important figure for the world than you are now.

 

It's roleplaying, generally people want to achieve things and feel good about

achieving them, there's story and there's puzzles, but in the end it's all about

ego stroking.

If we get a Stronghold, maybe we'll get a Lady/Lord to marry as well?

 

Maybe you can decide to have encounters (as in the Witcher) as well.

 

And you children start as PC in PE2.

 

And they meet the unclaimed children from you affairs from PE1...

now I'm not sure if you're serious or just trolling. bsn version of Poe's law.

 

****ing urls, how do they work?

 

Why, serious of course, can't see any trolling..

I want BG2 romances as guidelines how to do romances (except Anomen, his could... be improved ) in PE.

Edited October 17, 201213 yr by Mrakvampire

it did sound completely absurd and taken straight from the deepest pits of BSN, to be honest.

If we get a Stronghold, maybe we'll get a Lady/Lord to marry as well?

 

Maybe you can decide to have encounters (as in the Witcher) as well.

 

And you children start as PC in PE2.

 

And they meet the unclaimed children from you affairs from PE1...

now I'm not sure if you're serious or just trolling. bsn version of Poe's law.

 

****ing urls, how do they work?

 

Why, serious of course, can't see any trolling..

Bravo then, because in that case your post have made lose my faith in humanity. AVE SATANAS!

Meh I wrote a really long post in the previous thread, dont really see the point if threads are going to be closed down after 20 or so pages.

Why is "Unofficial" in inverted commas*? Is this thread ironically unofficial? What does that even mean?

 

*My inverted commas are, obviously, there to highlight the use-mention distinction.

Ego stroking, like you wouldn't like to be a powerful wizard, heroic fighter,

shadowy thief, a far more important figure for the world than you are now.

 

It's roleplaying, generally people want to achieve things and feel good about

achieving them, there's story and there's puzzles, but in the end it's all about

ego stroking.

 

You clearly haven't played DND with me.

 

Quite frankly I almost always manage to pick the most underpowered option.

I just hate the word epic. (Goes back to dieing in NetHack, "Crash! A rock falls on your head! It explodes!")

Why is "Unofficial" in inverted commas*? Is this thread ironically unofficial? What does that even mean?

Think of them as geeky air-quotes. Since I'm a geek, this would easily apply.