Project Eternity: What type of romance do you want?
 

I'm just curious. Since PE is a party-based game, what type of romance options do you want in the game, if any at all? I'm playing through Fallout New Vegas, which is one of the recent games Obsidian has made that has companions. In that game, romance is basically taken out of the equation for hetero males because Veronica is gay, Cass is bi, but only when drunk out of her mind, otherwise she's gay too, Boone is the only hetero male, while Arcade might be a romance option for males, but I really don't know because I don't lean that way. I can have as much sex as I want, but romance isn't viable. If anybody has played as a female courier, can you have a romantic relationship with Cass and/or Veronica? I enjoy the companion mods that offer romance, but most of those are about sex more than love. The Willow mod is a very nice blend of the two and mostly clean. The kissing and sex scenes are all fade-to-black with sound making the suggestion. I believe the mod was written by a female. Alpha Protocol had a very nicely written romance that was far more innuendo than reality, but I thought Ming was a good attempt at writing plausible romance in a game.

What do you think?

My opinion is to leave the physical side of romance out of this isometric game and instead focus on the mental and emotional aspects. I think physical romance should be left to first person games and doesn't really fit in this type of environment. To be fair to everyone, either have romances for hetero, gay, and lesbian or leave it out all together. Bisexuality should probably be an option too, to cover all the bases. That just seems like a lot of characters for the budget Obsidian is dealing with….

I wouldn't want any.

Romances are typically a generic cop-out to give gamers a shallow facade upon which to care for characters in the game. There's plenty of ways to get emotionally invested in a title's characters without some cheesy flirting dialogue or pixellated baby-making.

Give me characters that I would instead feel pangs of regret over letting die in battle, or characters whom I both despise and respect (ala` Irenicus).

"Romances", as they're used today, are a distraction.

Planescape: Torment.

You know, Anna pretty much jumped on your character despite calling you ugly.

But…Chris Avelon write "great romance". They fall into the category of creepy, end badly or just plain wrong.

Having been force fed ingame romances for years now i would much rather they focus on fleshing out the party as a whole and skip the tired cliche that rpg romances have become.

I would like to see them like BG2. I know many weren't happy with them, but I still regularly consider leaving my wife for Aerie :biggrin:

Though I was much more long-winded about it, I'm with the leave it out group. I enjoy the rated-R "romances" in Bethesda mods for the escapist fantasy that it presents, but I don't need to have that type of stuff in every game. I just don't think that with all the rest that they've promised in the kickstarter, they have time to do whole sets of romance options. I also have strong feelings for Aerie, bn. Although with that voice of hers, I always felt a little guilty about them. She sounded like she was 14 :D

However, I'm trying to think of a non-romanced character that I ever cared about dying and come up blank.

Best adult romance game ever made:

A Dance with Rogues, Part One & Part Two (NWN 1 mod)

More like a disaster.
I want no type of romance. Absolutely nothing. Not in PE, nor in any game ever. Haven't seen a single game that handled this aspect in a way that didn't make me feel annoyed. Of course I have no problem with including it as long as no important quests or in-game items are related to it, but other than that, it's repulsive.

Imo, BG2´s romances are pretty much the worst way to go about it.
Quality of writing aside, gating large chunks of content via romance checks without compensation sucks.
If there are to be any developing relationships between pc and companions in PE (and there very likely are), it definitely should not be along the "either you´ll romance me or I´ll be silent for most of the game" lines.
There´s a whole spectrum of possible kinds of relationships and I hope Obsidian will implement this stuff organically and without devoting more content to one type at the expense of others, both in the context of the companion roster as a whole and in the context of individual companions.

Also, coincidentally there´s a brand new interview with Avellone where he sorta addresses the issue :):
Sounds like a plan to me :).

Definitely I want romances in. Makes the game more believable when characters can fall in love, it's an RPG after all.

None. They aren't done well at all.

It's a staple of every rpg now and people who will buy the game will want them. You guys do realize people will be buying the game after release right?

Romances if they are done right enhance a game. So yes put them them in. All the naysayers can go cry in the corner on there soapbox that romances ruin games

And yet, they didn't fund the game. So if the majority of backers want actual depth to characters and not just some sophomoric attempt at puppy love, yay us.

Obsidian wants to sell the game after release also so yes it does matter. Yes you and I backed the game but they will make more money after release. Also you can have actual depth to characters and add romance.

People also want multiplayer and vanity armor DLC, but that ain't what this project's about.

In all likelihood, Obsidian will likely include some token relationship quest trees to appease backers who, for whatever reason, like to play their part in a pixelated romance novel with awkward dialogue. And I'll skip it, as I've done for every single game that i can recall.

But, first and foremost, I am hopeful that they won't cater to and try to appease the mass market mentality that didn't fund the project in the first place.

Edit: What truly vexes me is this question: "What the hell is wrong with being a great friend to another character, a character with whom you share complex thoughts and worries… what is wrong with being such a friend and not wanting to get into that person's pants?" It's so damn irritating and just plain insulting to feed me this shallow drivel dialogue when all it leads to is some ultimate "let's bang" option. And that's what I hate about romances - it detracts from deep characterization all around. And they're almost always juvenile.

Yuck. Romances in RPGs are terrible. Please focus on the important stuff instead. Good party banter seems much more feasible, though.

Wow, regarding Avellone's lack of real world experience with this sort of thing! I wonder if all romance plotting devs have this excuse. That would explain a lot. :p ;)

DeepOne nice find. Hopefully that will ring true. And since this is a crowd sourced game I'm guessing this sentiment will get heard as its a popular notion.

To me "adult romances" is the main reason I have bought any of the modern RPG's particularly from Bioware.

But that's not to say its not an important element in any storytelling. The only author in the novel form that I think has been successful without romance was Asimov, and he didn't add romance to Foundation because he just didn't even think about it as a 20 year old geek writing sci-fi for pulp magazines in the 1930's. He would add it in his 1980's sequel and it makes it much more interesting.

Maybe video games are just too much in their infancy for this or (more likely) the companies are just too desperate and insecure for sales.

Another one who wants romance in PE to be like BG2 romance. However, I have no consideration of leaving my husband over Anomen :p

A well written romance enhances the game for me.
The more escapism the merrier.

Some of the viconia BG2 romance put tears in my eyes, but there have been a lot of dredge written as well.
C