Coupling

[mwesthoff]

Why does the game punish the player for not allowing coupling?

I think it sends a bad message when the game asks more than once for the same character to couple with someone and then punishes the group for not allowing it.

The developers are essentially saying, allow these two characters to be gay with each other or else everyone in the gang is going to suffer?

I understand the need for diversity, but why can't we just leave it at that instead of forcing an agenda by repeatedly punishing the player for not accepting it.

[Chaos]

Nah, you are thinking too deep into this.
The relationship system in this game is just naturally ♥♥♥♥ and have nothing to do with any "agenda", the same happen even with normal couple or even Human/Pony pair(wtf).

[mwesthoff]

Originally posted by Chaos:

Nah, you are thinking too deep into this.
The relationship system in this game is just naturally ♥♥♥♥ and have nothing to do with any "agenda", the same happen even with normal couple or even Human/Pony pair(wtf).

I haven't experienced the bestiality yet. Maybe I am over thinking it, but the achievement for coupling is two dudes facing each other. I guess that's better than standing behind a horse though.

[Wandering Flare]

Meanwhile you can have 2 hetero companions repeatedly pushing for a relationship and even a companion refusing to not love a horse or a bear like it's BG3, but hey, let's take a dig at the gays because clearly there's no reason not to.

[Dumeka]

it has nothing to do with wanting to be diverse and stuff.
The whole pairing system works like if two companions are building a relationship overtime through helping each other in battles or just simply spending their whole time together sitting next to each other during rests, their relationship will grow no matter the gender or if it's a creeper, an undead, male, female or a animal.
Through this you can have some VERY weird pairings like @Chaos mentioned the Pony situation. ^_^
If you want to push heterosexual relationships just make sure men are close to women during rests and fights (supporting, healing during battle or killing an enemy that is on the other one to help them and so on) while keeping animals, creepers, undead away from them.
However, when an animal attacks someone from behind to get a kill while the person is on one of your companions it will also deepen the relationship naturally between the two (which can happen in real life with the difference that we won't get sexual with our pets :p ).

[mwesthoff]

Originally posted by Wandering Flare:

Meanwhile you can have 2 hetero companions repeatedly pushing for a relationship and even a companion refusing to not love a horse or a bear like it's BG3, but hey, let's take a dig at the gays because clearly there's no reason not to.

You can't shame or punish someone into being gay, but nice try.

I have 300 hours in the game and have been punished by not allowing same sex coupling about 15 times so far with a grand total of 1 hetero relationship, 0 animals, and 0 others.

My personal experience is that the game is pushing homosexual relationships 15 times harder than any other type.

My suggestion would be to allow an alternative to being punished for not playing gay. Is that considered making digs at gays in your world?

[Wandering Flare]

Originally posted by mwesthoff:

Originally posted by Wandering Flare:

Meanwhile you can have 2 hetero companions repeatedly pushing for a relationship and even a companion refusing to not love a horse or a bear like it's BG3, but hey, let's take a dig at the gays because clearly there's no reason not to.

You can't shame or punish someone into being gay, but nice try.

I have 300 hours in the game and have been punished by not allowing same sex coupling about 15 times so far with a grand total of 1 hetero relationship, 0 animals, and 0 others.

My personal experience is that the game is pushing homosexual relationships 15 times harder than any other type.

My suggestion would be to allow an alternative to being punished for not playing gay. Is that considered making digs at gays in your world?

"why can't we just leave it at that instead of forcing an agenda by repeatedly punishing the player for not accepting it."

Your words, not mine. Because of how the game works, someone trying to get homosexual relationships could be punished for getting heterosexual ones because that's how they happened to control their companions. Would that make it "forcing a straight agenda" then?

[zAcEz]

Originally posted by Dumeka:

it has nothing to do with wanting to be diverse and stuff.
The whole pairing system works like if two companions are building a relationship overtime through helping each other in battles or just simply spending their whole time together sitting next to each other during rests, their relationship will grow no matter the gender or if it's a creeper, an undead, male, female or a animal.
Through this you can have some VERY weird pairings like @Chaos mentioned the Pony situation. ^_^
If you want to push heterosexual relationships just make sure men are close to women during rests and fights (supporting, healing during battle or killing an enemy that is on the other one to help them and so on) while keeping animals, creepers, undead away from them.
However, when an animal attacks someone from behind to get a kill while the person is on one of your companions it will also deepen the relationship naturally between the two (which can happen in real life with the difference that we won't get sexual with our pets :p ).

This ^

Essentially, this game doesnt discriminate against any kind of relationships.
Its all about who you keep putting together in combat & rest.
If you get man-pig, woman-horse, man-man, woman-woman, etc... thats on you.

It only penalizes you for denying their love after encouraging it.

[Nabster]

Why can't you have a best mate status between people instead of couple? Why dows it always have to be couple?

[Nasarog]

Gender/Species? Doesn't matter. As long as you survive and have a warm body next to you... I think that's the message. As long as it isn't the training dummy or the bee hive, I think it's all good.

[mwesthoff]

Originally posted by Nabster:

Why can't you have a best mate status between people instead of couple? Why dows it always have to be couple?

An alternative would be nice, unfortunately you will be labeled a hater if you mention any alternative to being gay or having sex with animals.

[EMT-Fields]

I see what you mean. I think there should be an option to keep your mercenaries just friends.

[Nasarog]

Originally posted by EMT-Fields:

I see what you mean. I think there should be an option to keep your mercenaries just friends.

I love my cars. I can declare my love for them without offending my wife, kids, family and friends. I also loved my pets when I had them, more than some of my friends...

That's my take away. Bestiality and automality aside. I have no issues with any of it.

[VipreRX]

All this crying over a 10point happiness hit. The issue is in your head, the game isn't tracking the gender and species of the mercs, they might as well be featureless cubes as far as it's concerned. It's tallying up randomly collected "relationship" points and triggering the dialog when featureless cube A and featureless cube B hit the threshold nothing more.

It's just fluff, take a breath.

[mwesthoff]

Originally posted by VipreRX:

All this crying over a 10point happiness hit. The issue is in your head, the game isn't tracking the gender and species of the mercs, they might as well be featureless cubes as far as it's concerned. It's tallying up randomly collected "relationship" points and triggering the dialog when featureless cube A and featureless cube B hit the threshold nothing more.

It's just fluff, take a breath.

I'm surprised they didn't use two cubes for the "Soul Mates" achievement thumbnail.

Why would they use two dude's about to kiss with a beaming heart symbol above their heads?

The game has way more male characters than it does females, so by design, your "featureless cubes" are going to be gay men more often than not. It doesn't have to track anything because the most common way it will be played will result in gay male relationships.

I'm sure there are hundreds of examples of people who did it differently... like went out of their way to pick more females, or disbanded all but one archer and used 15 animals; however, players choosing random "featureless cubes" will end up with a band of mostly gay men by late game.

[Wandering Flare]

Originally posted by mwesthoff:

Originally posted by VipreRX:

All this crying over a 10point happiness hit. The issue is in your head, the game isn't tracking the gender and species of the mercs, they might as well be featureless cubes as far as it's concerned. It's tallying up randomly collected "relationship" points and triggering the dialog when featureless cube A and featureless cube B hit the threshold nothing more.

It's just fluff, take a breath.

I'm surprised they didn't use two cubes for the "Soul Mates" achievement thumbnail.

Why would they use two dude's about to kiss with a beaming heart symbol above their heads?

The game has way more male characters than it does females, so by design, your "featureless cubes" are going to be gay men more often than not. It doesn't have to track anything because the most common way it will be played will result in gay male relationships.

I'm sure there are hundreds of examples of people who did it differently... like went out of their way to pick more females, or disbanded all but one archer and used 15 animals; however, players choosing random "featureless cubes" will end up with a band of mostly gay men by late game.

Because whoever was making the artwork for the achievement felt like making it like that? You're trying to correlate things that don't correlate.

If *your* company has more male characters than female, that's *your* choice, not the game's. *You* can have an entire company made of male companions, female companions, a 50/50 of a single companion with a zoo. It is entirely up to you and it looks like *you* chose to prioritize hiring male companions for one reason or another.