New male BG1 NPC that is romanceable in BG2

Bhryaen

Since NPC dialogue for BG1 NPCs is going to be curtailed, and since BG1's NPC dialogue is rather sparse anyway, this is a request for a new male NPC in BG1 who, like Jaheira, has the standard few lines in BG1 but in BG2 is romanceable with relatively the same amount, quality, and diversity of dialogue and dialogue-related quests as Jaheira has. Not a carbon copy, but the same sort of deal...

This still wouldn't balance out the romance option disparity for those seeking guys for romancing in BG2 since for guys there is both Nalia and Aerie who are often recognized as great to share dialogue with... while for girls there is only Anomen who is nearly universally disliked... but it would be a marked and significant improvement! And it would also go some distance to making BG more interesting for girls to play...

HeroicSpur

Yes, it's important that all genders get equally interesting opportunities.

Your post does seem to suggest that girls play as female characters. Remember that stereotyping is bad (mmkay?), some men I'm sure play as a female characters and vice versa.

Bhryaen

I know there's an element of relativity involved, but it's not really a tough call saying it. The most common complaint I've gotten regarding the scarcity of romance options for girls in BG is always from women not having enough opportunities to explore what guys can, not guys wishing their girl CHARNAMEs had an in-game bf. It's meaningful for girls. Since girl players tend to prefer the dialogue to the combat also, this statistical predominance only lends itself further to making this a priority for girl players, not girl-playing guy players (who are generally happy with how things already are). The former are the ones which would more intrigued by such a new romanceable male NPC, and thus a good group to reach out to this way.

HeroicSpur

Ahhh! More typecasting than you can shake a stick at!

On a serious note, I agree and think you're right. The game is clearly weighted in favour of the male player at the moment. There should be another romanceable male, who isn't Anomen.

As long as it isn't a mirror of Aerie I'm sure people will be happy. God what an irritating character.

Would be interesting to see the view of some female players on this (here).

Dee

As a male player who frequently plays female characters, I can attest that having a viable romance option for my female CharName would be preferable. From what Trent has said on Twitter, though, that's already in the works.

If this new NPC has anywhere near the depth that Jaheira had, I'll be satisfied. I'd prefer a Neutral and an Evil option to counter Anomen's quasi-good nature; although I suppose that can be addressed when it's time for BG2:EE.

Dazzu

It should go without saying that there is no excuse for Haer and Valygar's romances to not be restored!

Kore

"It should go without saying that there is no excuse for Haer and Valygar's romances to not be restored!"

Indeedily. It would be quite entertaining trying to stop Haer from sleeping with Aerie instead of you.

Bhryaen

I read that David Gaider was even writing a romance for Jan, in fact, and that that got nixed only due to time restraints. I request a totally new NPC though because it doesn't look like the devs will be able to do anything with the dialogue of the old NPCs, whether restoration or addition. If that changes though I'd certainly be happy

@Aosaw Did it seem confirmed to you though? I couldn't tell if he was being revelatory or just sarcastic

Dee

It seemed like a revelatory comment to me, but anything could happen. He also said that the mysterious new portrait on the site is CharName's estranged uncle; so maybe we shouldn't put all our faith in Trent's tweets.

Bhryaen

lol And that our new estranged uncle was bringing Gorion's dog with him. Trent does know how to be enigmatic hehe

EpitomyofShyness

Back on subject, please please please add a new romance-able male character. I can't stand Anomen.

trinit

i wanted to post this as a new discussion, and i do hope this would not initiate new flame war (as witnessed on other forums).
well, i would like for a new male character to be bisexual at least. (as suggested elsewhere, maybe the romantic preference of the player could be determined at character creation so the more sensitive players do not feel threatened by advances of a male character on their manly bhaalspawn).

while i think viconia's romance is excellent (actually, the best character development in recent gaming history in my opinion) as a gay male, once in a while i would really, really, REALLY like to play as a character closer to my preferences in real life.

if nothing else, maybe a developers could make the voiced lines more gender neutral, and written could be easily modified, so if nothing else, a player like me could very easily edit a few lines and use cluaconsole to initiate the romance. i know i sound desperate. :P

Kore

i wanted to post this as a new discussion, and i do hope this would not initiate new flame war (as witnessed on other forums).
well, i would like for a new male character to be bisexual at least.

I have no objections to this, but I think it would need a specific characters (Haer probably for dudes and I could see an argument for Shar'teel for the lasses) for them to romance. It seems weird in games like Skyrim and DA where any character can romance any other. Are all NPC's equally open minded about their sexuality? It seems unlikely.

trinit

Kore: you are right about skyrim and DA, it is weird.

as for the new character, he would be the only (open) bisexual in the game anyway. also with an option to decide players character orientation at creation, that NPC would be straight/gay respectively. it all depens how it is executed.
again- i really hope to see this happening...

Kore

You'll just have to hope that Trent was teasing us about him being the prot's uncle... it could get a little awkward otherwise, even if he's only the foster uncle

Conphantus

Viconia needs to turn bisexual! She's too hot for my female protagonist to miss out on.. ;-)

Anyway, I second adding a few bisexual romances. Perhaps one or two of the less popular NPC:s should be made romanceable and bisexual or gay to make them more interesting for the player to pick up.

Tanthalas

I never played DA2, but in DA:O I think they were a bit heavy handed with the relationships. Zevran was kind of stupid with him constantly going "I can do both!". At least with Leliana it seemed more natural. Skyrim "romances" were just silly.

If they could actually implement a bisexual character that acted naturally (pro-tip: not having the character going "I go both ways!" is a good start) I'm ok with it.

Zymran86

Id rather that they dont add any more romance's, better to spend that time on expanding NPC's Banter between party members etc.
however if another romance option would be implented i would like to suggest Korax, a NPC that briefly helps you in an area outside beregost to become joinable, romanceable for both male and female, any race etc, he will find your toon quite delicious i am sure.

HeroicSpur

I think bisexuality/homosexuality is dealt with in a very clumsy fashion in some of the games listed above. In fact I think that's coupled with the very shallow way in which romances are generally dealt with in games. It seems that if there's a female character -they'll be romanceable (regardless of their character/personality).

@Trinit: while I am not homosexual but I think you hit the nail on the head when you said, 'it all depens how it is executed.' I wouldn't object to having the option of gay romances, as long as there's some substance to them. Most of the time it seems to me these romances are chucked in to say 'look! we cater to gay/lesbian players!'

Like Tanthalas says it should be done properly and appear natural rather than contrived as it so often does.

The final thing I would mention is that they're only adding one new NPC to BG. Someone asked on the twitter about romanceability, and Trent has made some remarks about that (being challenged?). So I doubt we will see much more added in this department anway.

Zymran86

You sure that they will only add 1 more NPC?

HeroicSpur

@Zymran86: nope. I think their plans for what BG:EE have been expanding everyday since they first announced it. Firstly we were told there would be a new adventure, and recently we've been told that there are going to be two. The same is easily possible for potential NPCs.

My personal opinion is that it's unlikely they would add more though.

Zymran86

Glad to hear that, thanks for the clarification Heroicspur

Bhryaen

I believe I did hear there will be two new NPCs but that the 2nd is a female. Trent did mention that one of the new NPCs will be "romantically challenged" but then recently on Twitter someone said their heart would be "aflutter" if there were a new romance for gals and he replied, "Flutter away." If that wasn't straight sarcasm, could mean either a 3rd or a rework of NPC X.

As to introducing a gay theme, I'd almost like to just keep open any romances regardless, but then they'd have to leave out gender-related comments like "You're such a beautiful woman" or at least keep the "woman" text variable. There are other specific themes too of course that might get addressed as women's issues (unless gay guys can get preggo, not sure :-P), so just opening romances doesn't address everything, but still. I think just a single new quality romance for a straight woman (or a guy playing one) is a pretty big leap for BGEE- works wonders- particularly since the devs didn't seem to have that on their priority list previously.

Mind you, this is just BGEE, so the new NPC I'm requesting just fits for the carryover equivalent of Jaheira. They've still got fully BG2EE-native Nalia and Aerie in BG2 that could get a fully BG2EE-native romanceable guy for symmetry who can exhuberantly tell everyone how happy he is to go both ways. Mind you, it would be conspicuously incongruous to BG2's play setting to suddenly have a recruit who makes such declarations, but actually Zevran happens to be one the best party members in DAO due to his humor and savvy... whereas Leliana only really loves the Lord and fancy boots. ;-)

trinit

@HeroicSpur: I agree. most important thing is to avoid contrived character and shallow dialogue, that presumes that the same sex romance is very big step in itself and therefore less prone to emotional conflict and other dilemmas.

also, i am quite ambivalent to adding romances to BG:EE. I actually like how at first, character is thrown into the epic scale conflict, being focused on survival and understanding his heritage and dealing with the life of an adventurer. in bg2 stakes are more personal and hero opens up to other people-romances, now coming to terms with constant turmoil around him.

maybe the most sensible thing would be to include mild flirtations, and hints on what the characters could/would become, not so much full blown relationship. since modyfying the original characters is not an option in bg:ee, including VERY developed new characters might feel out of place and weird. i think if new characters are intended to be romanceable, maybe the relationships should really develop in sequel.

at the end with my suggestions, i'm only trying to prepare terrain for the upcoming BG2:EE, and eventually, if implementation of gay romance fails, for developers to leave it open enough to be easily modified.

Bhryaen

@trinit Since there's not even a chance to develop dialogue for original characters in BG1EE (except through the new NPCs apparently), I'm definitely not requesting a BG1EE romance at this point, only, as you say, "to prepare terrain for the upcoming BG2:EE."

Tanthalas

This is off-topic, but speaking of having the new BGEE character moving on to BG2EE, I also hope that there will be a way to have some more of the BG1 NPCs appearing in BG2.

Bhryaen

@Tanthalas Actually that might be a good Feature Request on its own. I wonder if undeveloped BG1 NPCs in BG2EE are considered off-limits for dialogue and such also...

Tanthalas

I only such a request on standby for the moment because BGEE is what's currently on the plate. Thought I shouldn't clutter the forum with a request that's not relevant for now.

kamuizin

I see no problem with BG romances, maybe they just didn't had the idea of romances when BG was created. If someone should have flirt dialogues, that's safana for sure. Main char don't need to marry or date the girl, but a way to de-stress would be nice (if the game new engine and graphic upgrad allow the spice scenes that exist in Dragon Age: origins, where you actually explicitly lay down with morrigan, just don't do that with panties plz, play with the camera angles if need, cos that was ridiculous).

Razor

More romanceable chars(m/f) are welcome. But I hope those chars are not too easy to "get intimate with", make them actually add something to the story, even if they are boring sometimes or most of the times. (yes ME and DA are a bit too easy to...)

Communard

I want a romanceable Edwina! (soften up that bitter, bitter woman! )

Jokes aside, definitely seconding all the requests for both a new romance for women and a gay one. Also agree making everyone bisexual seems quite forced, but it is a problem since they will probably only be able to make one gay romance and if people don't like it...well, bad times.