Relationships, what am I missing?

[Zewtastic]

I have a stable full of BFFs, all hearts, etc. but zero romances.
I am 200 hrs. in and at the spaceship section.
I do all sorts of romancing, gifts, critter games, dinners, etc.
But nothing moves past BFF.

Does it just take a $hit load of all the above? Or am I not doing something right?

[Jarlim]

You either have to pick the flirty heart options in dialogue to trigger them straight up asking you to be sweethearts, or gift them the heart knot from Aarvios store

[SimuLord]

You've got to give your would-be paramour a Heart Knot (available from Arvio's shop) to declare your romantic interest.

Later, if you want to marry them, you'll need the engagement ring; you buy that from the Mysterious Man.

Come to think of it, I don't think the game tutorializes this at any point. I think they just expect people who played Portia to recognize the items.

[Zewtastic]

Thanks, yes that Heart Knot detail is not given anywhere, aside from the general descriptions on the item. I had read it prior, just did not believe you had to buy an item to enact the romance, which frankly is counter-intuitive and idiotic.

This is a failure with the current design, and needs to be adjusted/expanded before release. A notice somewhere that the relationship needs you to "buy something" to advance to romance. Sounds like you are 'buying' the romance. And why do you have to initiate? Why doesn't the NPC also initiate? Or is that just too complex a concept.

I never played Portia, and have zero knowledge of the game. Seems a lot of assumptions are being made by the writers/designers that you have to had played Portia.

Additionally: Can I not have everyone be a sweetheart? Can I give everyone those Heart Knots? Or am I only allowed one?

[Jarlim]

Any romanceable character can be given a heart knot once they like you enough(which is almost all unmarried characters), you can pass them out like candy, but if you take someone on a date (similar to the playdate, but for lovers) and another lover sees you, they both get depressed, and you need to gift apology bears to them

[JVC]

Originally posted by Zewtastic:

Thanks, yes that Heart Knot detail is not given anywhere, aside from the general descriptions on the item. I had read it prior, just did not believe you had to buy an item to enact the romance, which frankly is counter-intuitive and idiotic.

This is a failure with the current design, and needs to be adjusted/expanded before release. A notice somewhere that the relationship needs you to "buy something" to advance to romance. Sounds like you are 'buying' the romance. And why do you have to initiate? Why doesn't the NPC also initiate? Or is that just too complex a concept.

I never played Portia, and have zero knowledge of the game. Seems a lot of assumptions are being made by the writers/designers that you have to had played Portia.

Additionally: Can I not have everyone be a sweetheart? Can I give everyone those Heart Knots? Or am I only allowed one?

Some of the npcs can initiate a romance. It you pick the heart option enough times when you speak to Arvio, Amirah or Logan they'll initiate a romance. Other characters probably work the same way.

[Zewtastic]

Originally posted by JVC:

Originally posted by Zewtastic:

Thanks, yes that Heart Knot detail is not given anywhere, aside from the general descriptions on the item. I had read it prior, just did not believe you had to buy an item to enact the romance, which frankly is counter-intuitive and idiotic.

This is a failure with the current design, and needs to be adjusted/expanded before release. A notice somewhere that the relationship needs you to "buy something" to advance to romance. Sounds like you are 'buying' the romance. And why do you have to initiate? Why doesn't the NPC also initiate? Or is that just too complex a concept.

I never played Portia, and have zero knowledge of the game. Seems a lot of assumptions are being made by the writers/designers that you have to had played Portia.

Additionally: Can I not have everyone be a sweetheart? Can I give everyone those Heart Knots? Or am I only allowed one?

Some of the npcs can initiate a romance. It you pick the heart option enough times when you speak to Arvio, Amirah or Logan they'll initiate a romance. Other characters probably work the same way.

I Always pick the Heart option, yet have had zero romances. I suck.

[syzara]

Originally posted by JVC:

Some of the npcs can initiate a romance. It you pick the heart option enough times when you speak to Arvio, Amirah or Logan they'll initiate a romance. Other characters probably work the same way.

Wait they do? I guess I'll need to start a new play instead of doing all the new content in my already waiting save. Ha. Good to know, thanks :)

/I do know you can also trigger these with a Heart Knot, and seeing the discussion on another game about how romance options are way too aggressive about it? Yeah I'm glad you can just initiate it the 'here is an item' way tbh.

[Zewtastic]

Ok, think I found the problem.
I've played both genders now and basically women on women romancing is not allowed.
If you play a female, the code throws the men at you constantly, with each wanting immediate romance. It's almost predatory.
The best you get from the females is BFF.

[SimuLord]

Originally posted by Zewtastic:

Thanks, yes that Heart Knot detail is not given anywhere, aside from the general descriptions on the item. I had read it prior, just did not believe you had to buy an item to enact the romance, which frankly is counter-intuitive and idiotic.

This is a failure with the current design, and needs to be adjusted/expanded before release. A notice somewhere that the relationship needs you to "buy something" to advance to romance. Sounds like you are 'buying' the romance. And why do you have to initiate? Why doesn't the NPC also initiate? Or is that just too complex a concept.

I never played Portia, and have zero knowledge of the game. Seems a lot of assumptions are being made by the writers/designers that you have to had played Portia.

Additionally: Can I not have everyone be a sweetheart? Can I give everyone those Heart Knots? Or am I only allowed one?

If it's a failure with the current design, it's a failure with the entire genre—pretty much every Harvest Moon-like has had some variation on the concept, although as you rightly point out, this should be explicitly mentioned in-universe. I think of Stardew Valley as the best example of this—when you reach 8 hearts with one of the marriageable villagers, you get a letter in your character's mailbox from the owner of the general store encouraging you to buy the Magic Relationship Token to unlock romance.

No reason Arvio or the Mysterious Man can't send the Builder a similar letter upon reaching friend level/ready-for-marriage with a romanceable for the first time.

[naturalwoodpulp]

Originally posted by Zewtastic:

Ok, think I found the problem.
I've played both genders now and basically women on women romancing is not allowed.
If you play a female, the code throws the men at you constantly, with each wanting immediate romance. It's almost predatory.
The best you get from the females is BFF.

Really? I've played both genders and I don't seem to notice the difference..? There are only very several few of the NPCs who WILL initiate romance, despite the builder's gender and I do believe that even then it depends on the options you've chosen when chatting with them.

[JVC]

Originally posted by syzara:

Originally posted by JVC:

Some of the npcs can initiate a romance. It you pick the heart option enough times when you speak to Arvio, Amirah or Logan they'll initiate a romance. Other characters probably work the same way.

Wait they do? I guess I'll need to start a new play instead of doing all the new content in my already waiting save. Ha. Good to know, thanks :)

/I do know you can also trigger these with a Heart Knot, and seeing the discussion on another game about how romance options are way too aggressive about it? Yeah I'm glad you can just initiate it the 'here is an item' way tbh.

I'm playing on an old save. Arvio asks you to craft a mask for him, then he wants to dance. If you go along with it, you're in a relationship with him.

Amirah is part of a tea party thing and if you attend it, it can lead to a mission about fireworks. When you arrive, she's the only one there. You can guess the rest.

Logan, you get a lot of romance answer options in a mission during a visit to a cave and if you go with the romance options in the follow up mission at his home that's also pretty much a done deal.

Unsuur: he has a few missions about how much he loves rocks. Same thing.

That's how it played for me, don't think they've changed anything.

Zewtastic: that sounds very weird, the npcs are all player sexual. My character is male and gets hit on by both male and female npcs. Provided you go with the heart options. If you don't pick them just a few times, the npcs doesn't initiate anything.

[Zewtastic]

Originally posted by naturalwoodpulp:

Originally posted by Zewtastic:

Ok, think I found the problem.
I've played both genders now and basically women on women romancing is not allowed.
If you play a female, the code throws the men at you constantly, with each wanting immediate romance. It's almost predatory.
The best you get from the females is BFF.

Really? I've played both genders and I don't seem to notice the difference..? There are only very several few of the NPCs who WILL initiate romance, despite the builder's gender and I do believe that even then it depends on the options you've chosen when chatting with them.

Interesting. I am not experiencing that. In fact I am getting annoyed at how aggressive the males are vs. the females regardless of NOT choosing the dialog options with hearts for the males.
Maybe a new play-through after full release.

[Zewtastic]

Originally posted by JVC:

Originally posted by syzara:

Wait they do? I guess I'll need to start a new play instead of doing all the new content in my already waiting save. Ha. Good to know, thanks :)

/I do know you can also trigger these with a Heart Knot, and seeing the discussion on another game about how romance options are way too aggressive about it? Yeah I'm glad you can just initiate it the 'here is an item' way tbh.

I'm playing on an old save. Arvio asks you to craft a mask for him, then he wants to dance. If you go along with it, you're in a relationship with him.

Amirah is part of a tea party thing and if you attend it, it can lead to a mission about fireworks. When you arrive, she's the only one there. You can guess the rest.

Logan, you get a lot of romance answer options in a mission during a visit to a cave and if you go with the romance options in the follow up mission at his home that's also pretty much a done deal.

Unsuur: he has a few missions about how much he loves rocks. Same thing.

That's how it played for me, don't think they've changed anything.

Zewtastic: that sounds very weird, the npcs are all player sexual. My character is male and gets hit on by both male and female npcs. Provided you go with the heart options. If you don't pick them just a few times, the npcs doesn't initiate anything.

I'm fairly far along and did the whole tea party and fireworks part Amirah, and chose all the heart options but nothing came of it.

The Logan forced romancing is over the top imo and fairly annoying considering I did zero to encourage it, in fact I did the opposite. Chose all the dismissal options and nothing to encourage any relationship. This is where I'm getting the whole stalker feel from the game.

[Zewtastic]

Just as an addendum, I do NOT do commissions for the males at all, as much as I possibly can as I am trying to keep them from getting ANY positive interaction from me. I don't make their items they desire, I basically ignore them.

Yet they still seem to think I want a romance. Stunning.

Lol.

[Dimensional Traveler]

It has been said the best way to attract someone is to play hard to get....