Romance isn't an Option

[AstralSpirit]

Question!  Why is the only info & discussion about romancing companions, & players asking for this to be improved or expanded, from 10+ years ago? Is this an indication of how useless the devs are or more probably how useless the decision makers are? because it seems obviouse that nothing has improved.

I have only recently started playing the game, & haven't had any success in romancing Kira on either character. The Romance speach from male companions / Doc, is exactly what isn't tolerated in normal Human society & those men with attitudes like Doc's in real life should keep it to themselves, & for Female characters wanting to romance a female companion there is no obvious way to answer.

The males seem to have (flirt) in brackets after the right question & females don't, & if it has been left for the women to make the right choice, they need better questions because most real women prefere honesty. Woman don't play the kind of games that men do, answering in a way that you know they want to here, just to please you.

It seems to me that answering the first light response is what doesn't get you to a romance when this is the most honest answer, but neither did the second. The devs, decision makers or story writers, whoever is responsible for all this, are the most sexist chauvanist apes on the planet. They have opened it up for any gender romance but not made it easy because they are probably homophobes.

This & all games that allow a romance need to be dragged into this century just as real life has been, any one of the LGBT+ community play these games as well & if they would have a relationship with a sex that they don't like, they shouldn't have to in game. If you don't have any LGBT+ people working for you to ask, then go out & ask, inquire, etc. If you do than it proves in a worse way how sexist those in command positions don't care to ask, faining it's been opened up & nothing actually is.

[LD_Little_Dragon]

I think Doc is a total sleezebag, but you're going overboard with the fingerpointing at the writers.  Sexist?  Try a fem warrior.  If you take the dark side options with her potential romance partner it's a textbook case of workplace harrassment (and I'm speaking as a total Quinnmancer).  It's fantasy, not the real world.

Almost every romance is problematic in real world terms simply due to the power imbalance between the PC and their companions.  It's like a boss dating an employee at the best, a teacher dating a student at the worst.

I forget the actual reasons, something, something publishers, but it wasn't bioware's decision to have no same-sex romances or flirts in the original class stories.  They did add f/f and m/m options with the expansions. 

[AJediKnight]

A lot of the romance options are just deeply, deeply unsatisying. That's one of the reasons I tend to romance Lana on almost every character (even if she tends to be kind of an insufferable Onee-sama type trope. At least she's a grown up, and fairly even-keeled.

[xordevoreaux]

9 hours ago, AstralSpirit said:

Why is the only info & discussion about romancing companions, & players asking for this to be improved or expanded, from 10+ years ago?

Investigate the forums more closely, I refer to this subject several times and far more recently than ten years ago.

[Ardrossan]

This seems like bait but I'll give it a shot. 

SGR (same gender romances) didn't happen until Rise of the Hutt Cartel (as flirts) and didn't truly happen until Shadow of Revan and expanded in Knights of the Fallen Empire. It was a step back for a studio that had been pretty good about giving the option, but to be fair they weren't trying to implement it in their own universe (Mass Effect) but in Star Wars which was and is deeply conservative. The devs' disinterest in talking to players and increased forum moderation can be directly traced back to the massive reactionary backlash from some fans about SGRs in Star Wars around 2013-14. The upshot is that if you'll have to wait for the endgame expansion content because there are no SGRs in the vanilla game and adding them in is evidently difficult, much like trying to update any of the dialogue from vanilla. 

Flirting most often happens on the ship, with your companions. If you miss a flirt you can always try again in the next convo, the game is pretty good about giving you chances to opt in, and once you do one flirt, you will automatically be considered opt-in for a romance, though you can also choose to opt out later, it's just a bit more difficult. This is because companion dialogues were restructured a few years ago with the change from influence to affection, all the dialogue trees get unlocked for every companion. 

Yes, male PCs get more opportunity to flirt with randos than female PCs, though it's also affected by class, smugglers and agents get the most opportunities. Yes, female PC Jedi Knights are stuck with Doc, a traditional, won't take no for an answer flirty 'chauvinist'. Although I feel like that is a bit of a harsh take, as he clearly doesn't think Fem!JK is too delicate to fight or something, and again, his dialogue is a little bonkers because the romance is on-rails from the moment you flirt back. The original conception showed that he did, in fact, take no for an answer.

 The quality of romance storylines is debatable. Common favorites are Fem!Agent/Vector, Male!Smug/Risha, Fem!Trooper/Jorgan, and Male!Warrior/Vette. Fem!Inquisitor/Andronikos isn't bad either. 

 

Edited March 22, 2023 by Ardrossan

[JediQuaker]

This is Star Wars: The Old Republic, not Star Wars: The Love Boat. 🙂

[xordevoreaux]

16 hours ago, JediQuaker said:

This is Star Wars: The Old Republic, not Star Wars: The Love Boat. 🙂

If one of the major flagship characters in this game can have a heterosexual fling and beget Theron Shan, and if the jedi consular's master can fall in love in a heterosexual relationship, and if Darth Jadus can sire that horrid Zhorrid, and if Darth Angral can sire Tarnis, and if the emperor himself in a monologue addressing the alliance commander says he found love (and sired twins and a daughter), there's a bit more hanky panky going on here than Captain Merrill Stubing ever had to deal with.

 

 

Edited March 23, 2023 by xordevoreaux

[SteveTheCynic]

On 3/22/2023 at 3:12 AM, AstralSpirit said:

The Romance speach from male companions / Doc, is exactly what isn't tolerated in normal Human society & those men with attitudes like Doc's in real life should keep it to themselves

Good thing this isn't real life, I guess.  I imagine that you never played Leisure Suit Larry either...

On 3/22/2023 at 3:12 AM, AstralSpirit said:

for Female characters wanting to romance a female companion there is no obvious way to answer.

In the initial part of the game (starter world to Ilum), this is correct.  It changes later in the story.  (Also, try to find [Flirt] options with Doc on a male Jedi Knight...) (Hint: there aren't any.)

On 3/22/2023 at 3:12 AM, AstralSpirit said:

The males seem to have (flirt) in brackets after the right question & females don't, & if it has been left for the women to make the right choice, they need better questions because most real women prefere honesty.

If this is still talking about Kira in the up-to-Ilum game (it's unclear), well, duh.  There's no F/F romance possible, so there's no [Flirt] option.(1)

On 3/22/2023 at 3:12 AM, AstralSpirit said:

Woman don't play the kind of games that men do, answering in a way that you know they want to here, just to please you.

[citation needed].  Really.  Can you cite *anything* factual to justify this astonishing statement?  (No, your opinion on the subject is not factual.)  I ask this because this sort of thing, telling someone what that person wants to hear to get what you want, is a very genuine-seeming part of Kaliyo's companion story.  (Agent companion.)

(1) There are a few F/F fllirts with companions that go nowhere, but they are all later in the story than Ilum.

[casirabit]

On 3/21/2023 at 10:12 PM, AstralSpirit said:

Question!  Why is the only info & discussion about romancing companions, & players asking for this to be improved or expanded, from 10+ years ago? Is this an indication of how useless the devs are or more probably how useless the decision makers are? because it seems obviouse that nothing has improved.

I

First, this was the way the game was introduced 10 years ago. They have made some changes after Illum but they will not go back and re-write the chapters prior.

On 3/21/2023 at 10:12 PM, AstralSpirit said:

I have only recently started playing the game, & haven't had any success in romancing Kira on either character. The Romance speach from male companions / Doc, is exactly what isn't tolerated in normal Human society & those men with attitudes like Doc's in real life should keep it to themselves, & for Female characters wanting to romance a female companion there is no obvious way to answer.

Doc changes after Ossus and you cannot tell me that some women don't act like that, so it is not one-sided.

I have never been a fan of the romance options for the NPC in the game.   It could be that I was used to the way it was done in SWG (when it was an actual player) because to me the NPC is a scripted romance and for me, no thank you, but that is my opinion.  

Edited March 23, 2023 by casirabit

[Hadsil]

When you're not professionally offended by everything you get to enjoy story for the sake of story. Not even about romance just character I personally hate Guss and Skadge and never wanted them as Companions, but I'm not offended by their existence. I get to enjoy insulting them at every dialogue option and never use them on missions. After Fallen Empire my Bounty Hunter enjoyed killing Skadge in the Rusk alert, and my Smuggler doesn't even bother to look for Guss. Don't do the reunion alert with Doc if you want. If you do, reject him to his face he's not welcomed into the Alliance.

I find it hard to miss a romance with Kira with male Jedi Knight. She flirts with you as soon as she's on board your ship. There are several dialogue scenes where you can hook up or dismiss. She doesn't give up after the first time you don't [flirt]. If you're upset your female Jedi Knight can't romance Kira, see about not being professionally offended. Start romancing Lana on Manaan.

 

[Shayddow]

On my first playthru, my knight did romance Doc, although I the player think he is a lounge lizard.  It was more for mechanical reasons, at the time he was the only healer (before companions could be in duel roles), so I wanted to get his influence as high as possible (this was also when it capped at 10 and the gifts were on a reduced scale). When KOTFE came out I did want to romance Theron, however,  I didn't make the correct conversation choice in chapter 9 in the cantina conversation (I wish you could have a do-over).  So.... when the Scourge reunion happened, she chose Scourge (even tho she is very much Light-side aligned).  When Doc reunion happened, she didn't renew her romance with Doc, but she still took him into the alliance. Her rationale was that the alliance still needed talented health professionals, which Doc is. Even if his ego is overblown, he still does a good job in his profession.

[devilkat]

12 hours ago, Hadsil said:

When you're not professionally offended by everything you get to enjoy story for the sake of story. Not even about romance just character I personally hate Guss and Skadge and never wanted them as Companions, but I'm not offended by their existence. I get to enjoy insulting them at every dialogue option and never use them on missions. After Fallen Empire my Bounty Hunter enjoyed killing Skadge in the Rusk alert, and my Smuggler doesn't even bother to look for Guss. Don't do the reunion alert with Doc if you want. If you do, reject him to his face he's not welcomed into the Alliance.

I find it hard to miss a romance with Kira with male Jedi Knight. She flirts with you as soon as she's on board your ship. There are several dialogue scenes where you can hook up or dismiss. She doesn't give up after the first time you don't [flirt]. If you're upset your female Jedi Knight can't romance Kira, see about not being professionally offended. Start romancing Lana on Manaan.

 

Based! Some people try so hard to be offended...

[Muckbeast]

It still completely boggles me that you do not have, at a minimum, the option to re-trigger a handful of romance discussions/cut-scenes with your primary partner simply as a reminder or for fun.

It would cost them nothing. All the dialogue exists. Just let people walk up to their otherwise dead silent companion and have them as dialogue choices.

[SteveTheCynic]

1 hour ago, Muckbeast said:

It still completely boggles me that you do not have, at a minimum, the option to re-trigger a handful of romance discussions/cut-scenes with your primary partner simply as a reminder or for fun.

It would cost them nothing. All the dialogue exists. Just let people walk up to their otherwise dead silent companion and have them as dialogue choices.

So it wouldn't cost them "nothing".  At the very least it would cost them the time and programming effort to add the code to do what you suggest.

CAVEAT LECTOR, in case it wasn't already blindingly obvious from many of my previous posts: I have been a professional developer, although not of video games, since 1989, so I know whereof I speak about programming.

[PallyHk]

Skadge should be romancable. He is the man of the ship! 8.0 : Daddy Skadge's Leisure Suit.

I don't mind the old romances, you get Theron/Lana to be the "not spicy" option that all classes can fall back onto.

[Shayddow]

I wish you could actually have a marriage ceremony with your companion-of-choice.

This could be done similar to the one in the Agent story on Voss. 

And open for whichever companion you choose.