Should BW retroactively add same sex romances to vanilla companions?

[Chugster]

One thing that surprised me when i first played SWTOR. was that after having played Dragon Age and Mass Effect was the lack of same gender romances. They rectified this with Lana and Theron but I cant help but wonder waht would happen if they added some SGRs to vanilla companions so that all tastes are catered to.

 

I am hetero and enjoy playing female characters when i have a choice but Im not keen on romancing guys as a girl....we have so many interesting female companions but female PCs miss out.

 

Would love to see an slightly inappropriate relationship form between my female jedi and her young padawan

Edited March 15, 2018 by Chugster

[rantboi]

No. They should use the money and time to add new stuff. Edited March 15, 2018 by rantboi

[Eshvara]

Theron, Koth, Lana and Arcann are all SGR. And I'm fairly sure everything in the future will be too.

Imo, they should just leave the vanilla companions alone, it's done, let it rest. Focus on the future, leave the past how it is.

 

What we need now or next, is another female LI for F/F romance. There's only one and that's not enough.

[IoNonSoEVero]

Theron, Koth, Lana and Arcann are all SGR. And I'm fairly sure everything in the future will be too.

Imo, they should just leave the vanilla companions alone, it's done, let it rest. Focus on the future, leave the past how it is.

 

What we need now or next, is another female LI for F/F romance. There's only one and that's not enough.

 

I am going to agree with this. I think it's a shame that SGR was not in the vanilla game but I don't think it's something they have the money or resources to repair. Going forward they just need to do better.

 

I'm not happy that there is only one F/F LI option. I happen to LOVE that option, but in a week there will be three M/M options, and still only our one F/F.

 

And I'm not concerned about that for male players who are playing female characters; I'm concerned about it for LGBT women playing who might want romances in the game that actually represent them.

Edited March 15, 2018 by IoNonSoEVero

[DarthSpuds]

Her'e my take on it.

 

We've already been told we are going back to Imp vs Rep - about time too.

That means and end to the Eternal Alliance, which must mean an end to the Eternal Fleet and Odessen.

 

That pretty much means we are going to go back to using our Class Quest Ship as our mode of transport (even though we don't need to anymore). Which should mean a return to a smaller, tighter knit, crew.

 

That means we are losing a lot of Companions - about time too.

 

But, the smart way to do this is to have us able to choose which crew we want from the existing companions.

Now some of us may want just our old Class Crew back, but some may want other Companions.

 

So, what I would suggest is have us "choose our crew", but to reinforce our relationship with and commitment to that Crew Member have us go on a small FP-esque mission with/for that Crew Member. During which it could be possible to include dialogue that has opens up SGR options for all companions.

 

Now, obviously we aren't going to be able to fully Romance every Crew-Companion at the same time. But opening up those options gives a lot more variability for Romance for those players that want it.

 

And crucially whether you use the Companion FP as Romance Unlock or not each such FP would be Story Content specific to that Companion. It could be a continuation of the existing back-story for each Companion, or something new to expand upon what happened to them while we (as the Outlander) were in Carbonite.

 

That would give us the potential to have a nearly unique Crew List, a lot more Romance Options, and whole swathe of Story Chunks that could be used as a bridge between the current state of the galaxy and a Post-Eternal-Alliance galaxy.

 

All The Best

[Quraswren]

IT should have been there to start with but at this point in the game. Lets hope they are smart enough to not go back and add it in.

 

This game is desperate for new content. The best you are going to get with companions is what we are getting and thats about two min of garbage in most cases. Just the idea they took time to add a SSR for arcaan is mindbogglingly stupid to me given the state of the game and how that story is played out.

 

At least there is a better argument to add it in to older companions because they were the original but to go back now? Complete waste of time in my eyes at this point in the game. Should have been there but that time is gone.

[JennyFlynn]

It should have been that way from the start, imo, but by now it would be far too much work (scripting, cut-scenes, re-recording conversations etc. for starters) to go back and redo all the original romances to become SGR. If BW had an endless supply of resources and time, I'd advocate an overhaul, gladly, but with the way things are I'd rather see new content than a revamp of the old.

[Galahard]

No, they should not.

Original content is very good as it is.

Everyone who wants to have this minority need catered to can get it in the expansions.

[TUXs]

No. They should use the money and time to add new stuff.

Agreed.

[casirabit]

Her'e my take on it.

 

We've already been told we are going back to Imp vs Rep - about time too.

That means and end to the Eternal Alliance, which must mean an end to the Eternal Fleet and Odessen.

 

That pretty much means we are going to go back to using our Class Quest Ship as our mode of transport (even though we don't need to anymore). Which should mean a return to a smaller, tighter knit, crew.

 

We have the activities tab which takes you directly to the daily areas, flashpoints, planets for the heroics and then a direct travel to the specific heroic. I seriously doubt they are going to do away with this, so using our ships will still not be that much, if they give us mission that don't have direct travel to the location.

[Tahana]

Which should mean a return to a smaller, tighter knit, crew.

 

Maybe.. But I know I'm not the only one that has gone through the expense of getting some of the new companions up to influence level 50.. There would be some very harsh words spoken on my part if those companions disappeared. Personally I could care less about some of the original companions like Skadge, Loken etc.

 

And it isn't all of my characters either.. One established a good friendship with Koth, another made it his life goal to redeem Arcann. My BH killed off anyone and everyone that was a traitor to him. (I think his kill list is longer than his active companion list) Kind of depends on how I developed my personal story for each character since I didn't get a class story from Bioware. I am sure others may have done the same with some of other 'alert' companions.

 

I can say for a pretty certain fact that I'd have a hard time constraining my temper it if they screwed me over like that.

 

Yeah, yeah I know things are subject to change.. I would just hope that since they've introduced them into our story if they're going to take them away they'd better have a darn good reason and story to do so.. (Not a 5 second blerb and they're gone guys)

[xordevoreaux]

I'm homosexual and I've made no qualms of mentioning that on these forums, and I've flagged posts in this thread this morning and will continue to flag posts in this thread and others that demean or denigrate homosexuals (such as hanging mental illness on them).

 

So now that you know exactly where I stand on this issue ... as much as I would like to be able to romance Corso from the get-go on my male toons on Ord Mantel as soon as the smuggler's story starts ... I know that's not happening, and I won't be goading the developers about it.

 

The investment on old content is done. No amount of screaming over it or demanding that SSRs be put in place in old story content will change any of that now. For all the times I've posted that we need to concentrate on what can be done rather than distracting development efforts by retooling the game to accommodate our wants in old content, I must include my personal want in that as well.

 

So, for those people who don't want the changes made to accommodate SSRs in the original story content, I agree,

but not from of any lack of sympathy on the issue, but for knowing Bioware's remaining development resources are extremely limited (and may dwindle yet more in the future), so the greater good is served by continuing with new content, despite what I might want personally.

Edited March 15, 2018 by xordevoreaux

[Andryah]

No. They should use the money and time to add new stuff.

 

^^ Agree.

 

Also.. story cutscene integration has always been one of the most troublesome parts of the game to get bug free. Granted the bugs are cosmetic only for the most part (though any cosmetic defect gets railed on in cutscenes) ... but my point remains... the cutscene engine and elements that drive it IS NOT a can of worms to open up and empty on the table to sort and rework unless you simply have resources to throw away on anything and everything (which clearly is not the case). It will end badly.. for nothing more then the addition of an element that probably less then 20% of players have any real appreciation for.

Edited March 15, 2018 by Andryah

[Alec_Fortescue]

Oh stop.

[MrJunay]

I'm afraid that this is not possible with limited resources. For a same-sex romance with vanilla companions, it would take a lot of cutscenes and voiced dialogues.

 

Now the option of F / F romance is available only with Lana, but most likely in the future there will be new companions with the possibilities of such a romance.

[Estelindis]

I am hetero and enjoy playing female characters when i have a choice but Im not keen on romancing guys as a girl....

Respectfully, I've always found this phenomenon baffling. You're hetero, presumably a guy, so you would be looking for a hetero girl as a romantic partner. Yet the idea of playing a hetero girl, of empathizing with such a character, putting yourself in her shoes and exploring her story, is strange?

 

As a hetero woman, I play male and female characters, and I always enjoy exploring the vanilla romances. Hetero romances are the kinds of romances in which I can imagine myself. I don't see why it should become weird or off-putting depending on the gender of the main character.

 

Your comment is not something I usually see women saying - I more tend to see men say it. That makes me suspect that western society exhibits a much greater bias against male same-sex relationships than female ones, if the idea of a man playing a woman romancing a man is seen as so much weirder than a man playing a woman romancing a woman. Apparently from this point of view it's two men = eek, but two women = fine. I'd like to politely suggest that, while your personal experiences and preferences are perfectly valid, there may be some unexamined underlying assumption that, if examined, could allow you to enjoy playing the stories in more ways than you currently do.

Edited March 15, 2018 by Estelindis

[DarthSpuds]

We have the activities tab which takes you directly to the daily areas, flashpoints, planets for the heroics and then a direct travel to the specific heroic. I seriously doubt they are going to do away with this, so using our ships will still not be that much, if they give us mission that don't have direct travel to the location.

 

I meant I thought the SHip would become our de facto base.

 

Much like we almost never use Odessan, because of the things you mention, but it is our de facto base.

 

All The Best

[IoNonSoEVero]

Respectfully, I've always found this phenomenon baffling. You're hetero, presumably a guy, so you would be looking for a hetero girl as a romantic partner. Yet the idea of playing a hetero girl, of empathizing with such a character, putting yourself in her shoes and exploring her story, is strange?

 

As a hetero woman, I play male and female characters, and I always enjoy exploring the vanilla romances. Hetero romances are the kinds of romances in which I can imagine myself. I don't see why it should become weird or off-putting depending on the gender of the main character.

 

Your comment is not something I usually see women saying - I more tend to see men say it. That makes me suspect that western society exhibits a much greater bias against male same-sex relationships than female ones, if the idea of a man playing a woman romancing a man is seen as so much weirder than a man playing a woman romancing a woman. Apparently from this point of view it's two men = eek, but two women = fine. I'd like to politely suggest that, while your personal experiences and preferences are perfectly valid, there may be some unexamined underlying assumption that, if examined, could allow you to enjoy playing the stories in more ways than you currently do.

 

It;'s an interesting thing. Nothing wrong with playing a character you're not, of a different gender or sexuality. BUT a lot of straight men seem to really enjoy playing these SGR because they like seeing two girls kissing. Let's be honest. They seem to think SGR is there for their gratification. It's why I said what I did, that I think any SGR romances in the game should be about representation and diversity and variety and not about what straight men want.

Edited March 15, 2018 by IoNonSoEVero

[Jdast]

In the 18 months I've been perusing this forum, this question arises every couple of months. While there are some outlying dissenters on both sides, the overwhelming consensus based on my reading is that it is just not worth the time and effort given scarce resources. This consensus includes, FYI, a number of individuals such as myself who consider themselves members of the LGBT community.

 

Moving forward...Sure, include those options. But the past is the past and this game is starving for new content as it is.

 

--Dasty

Edited March 15, 2018 by Jdast

[tahol]

Won't happen, ever. This has been brought up many times during years, and it hasn't happened yet, so it won't happen now either. I'm gay btw, so I definitely have a horse in this race, but still, it won't happen, period. So do yourself a favor and don't even dream about it, speaking from experience here.

 

This is the one time I wish SWTOR could be modded, and we could get a mod that removes gender flagging from romances. It wouldn't cost anything for BioWare, and people who don't want it wouldn't have to even acknowledge that such a thing exists. But that either won't happen, so Theron tends to get lots of love in my game.

 

And I'm sooooo interested to see if I get warning because of this post too. It looks like I can't say even the most innocent thing without someone reporting me, and me getting a warning. Gee thanks, I love all that attention.

Edited March 15, 2018 by tahol

[Eshvara]

Won't happen, ever. This has been brought up many times during years, and it hasn't happened yet, so it won't happen now either. I'm gay btw, so I definitely have a horse in this race, but still, it won't happen, period. So do yourself a favor and don't even dream about it, speaking from experience here.

 

This is the one time I wish SWTOR could be modded, and we could get a mod that removes gender flagging from romances. It wouldn't cost anything for BioWare, and people who don't want it wouldn't have to even acknowledge that such a thing exists. But that either won't happen, so Theron tends to get lots of love in my game.

 

And I'm sooooo interested to see if I get warning because of this post too. It looks like I can't say even the most innocent thing without someone reporting me, and me getting a warning. Gee thanks, I love all that attention.

 

Well, nothing you said is inappropriate so I don't see why you would get flagged.

[xordevoreaux]

Well, nothing you said is inappropriate so I don't see why you would get flagged.

 

Yeah I don't see where the post flouts forum rules.

[DuchessKristania]

In a perfect world, where they had unlimited resources I'd say go for it. If we lived in that world what I'd actually like to see is some comps straight, some homosexual, some bi. Realistically, I know that wouldn't work because different people have different tastes, but I think from a representation point of view it would be cool.

 

Anyway, got a little derailed there. I think if there were the resources it would be cool for them to do it. Although, I'm not a developer so I have no idea if that is something they could actually do without major technical issues. At this point, I'm with those who say the resources should go to creating new content, rather than adjusting romance options in the vanilla game. I'm happy as long as I have Vector, but I hope that as they move forward they provide more options for the LGBT players.

[Kyrra_T]

In a perfect world, where they had unlimited resources I'd say go for it. If we lived in that world what I'd actually like to see is some comps straight, some homosexual, some bi. Realistically, I know that wouldn't work because different people have different tastes, but I think from a representation point of view it would be cool.

 

Anyway, got a little derailed there. I think if there were the resources it would be cool for them to do it. Although, I'm not a developer so I have no idea if that is something they could actually do without major technical issues. At this point, I'm with those who say the resources should go to creating new content, rather than adjusting romance options in the vanilla game. I'm happy as long as I have Vector, but I hope that as they move forward they provide more options for the LGBT players.

 

I agree. If they had the resources to rewrite the entire original class stories to add this in I'd love it. I don't really think they have those resources though. And we do have romances with the KOTFE romanceable companions that are LGBTQ.

[Chugster]

Respectfully, I've always found this phenomenon baffling. You're hetero, presumably a guy, so you would be looking for a hetero girl as a romantic partner. Yet the idea of playing a hetero girl, of empathizing with such a character, putting yourself in her shoes and exploring her story, is strange?

 

TBH its as simple as preferring to look at a female than a male for hours on end, I do have male characters and i do romance the females on them and I do romance male companions on a few of my female toons...it just has no connection when i romance a male as a female....so i prefer any romance where i romance a female, something i do have experience of IRL (albeit not nuch)