if this is going to be the dame absurd simplicity as in skyrim it is going to be a waste of time for sure

and i fear it is going to be something simple and rathezr political correct in how far you can go

so no witcher3 options ,not that it was really better as what bethesda done in the past , just as silly and oversimplified

I can imaging the scene...

Take off wedding ring (toggle) - romances the [censored] out of every potential companion.

By some plot contrivance, their partner survives the bombs.

Awkward....

I like the sound of putting the ring on to prevent romances. I basically hope for two things and that is 1. your partner from the intro is not alive and doesn't come back (it wouldn't feel like a clean slate) and 2. this is gonna sound bad and make me seem like a loser who wants to get off to a video game but I assure that's not it, I am hoping for a hot long haired big chested romance-able companion, I know I know it's not needed but I look at it this way, it's a video game and a hot companion makes it more interesting, to me at least.

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/6/63715/1664319-he_man.jpg!

I got the idea from the one article that discussed this issue that romance was initiated after completing a quest for the associated person. After doing the quest with, and for Piper, she asks you to stop by later or something like that. This to me gives us the chance to build a relationship and continue it if we choose to do so. My fear is that the dialog dealing with romance won't be quite right. Not sure how to define it, but basically if I help Preston Garvey, I don't want him to initiate romance with my male PC. My PC might want to hang out with Preston and have a beer, and that too should be an option to just have friendships with companions.

I also don't plan to take on a female romance character until it makes sense for my PC to do so depending on the story we are presented with.

Heck no! Hopefully they didn't touch either of those Western products for learning how to present romance in a game (or for character visuals, for that matter).

What they should do (and almost surely haven't based on things Todd has said in interviews) is play some of the excellent Japanese games which focus on character relationships and story, including romance (and yes, even eventual making love (not simply six) as the consumation of building a romantic relationship).

The Western offerings to date have been jokes compared to the in-depth offerings available in Japan for decades. This isn't restricted to visual novels and adventures, either, since games like Growlanser have decent presentations of romance even though such a game is a hybrid strategy/RPG. They also including development of friendships between characters, not only romance, so that's another point covered.

Look at coverage of the recent summer conventions and how the various industry people (developers and journalists) almost totally ignore non-Western games in their retrospective comments and you can see why Western developers continue to fail when attempting to present relationship-driven narratives. They keep trying to reinvent the wheel for no purpose.

I think romance in Skyrim was perfect for Skyrim. Pick about anyone, no real work involved, get married get a Lover's Comfort perk. The spouse moves in with you and you can role-play anything else the way you wanted. Better yet if you did want someone not in the marriage faction just a console command could make them marriageable (Hroki, Julienne, etc.). Win, win, win.

I'm pretty sure now with the voiced PC that just using a console to pick anyone will be out of the question since romance it now going to involve unique dialog with the NPC and maybe even a personal quest. The problem with this is once we have all the companions it will be that pretty young woman selling Mole-Bits on the street corner that I'll want to get to know better. Oh well. Sadly with the voiced PC even modding new options in will more than likely be very difficult.

With the voiced PC FO4 is playing a lot closer to DA and ME than prior TES or FO games. DAO had straight and bi characters, they made sense and it worked. DA2 made everyone PC sixual and it was just terrible. DAI, BioWare learned it's lesson and gave the NPC's their own sixual orientations and it made for much more interesting characters. It seems that FO4 is going for the DA2 format. It's unfortunate that Bethesda couldn't learn form BioWare's mistakes. But since we are coming from Skyrim I guess baby steps is about all we can ask for.

I really do not want 'romance' with ghouls and mutants. Deep caring friendships, sure why not. But romance leads to six and ... well I just wouldn't want to go there. A fully human looking syth maybe if made like some in some more recent sci-fi movies. But I would prefer the romances remain human to human, AND that they are all in the 25-35 age range since it's very much assumed (at least it's obvious to me) that's the age of the SS. If we just get 3 human females and 3 human males to romance, well that's some variety at least.

Which brings us back to the wedding ring as a romance toggle. When worn, you would indicate that you are taken and turn off romance. Removed, and you are eligible. When traveling with somebody who doesn't have the appropriate socket for your plug or who has a plug that you dont have a socket for, you keep it on (and romance off). Simple.

As long as I can bed her....And see boobage ala Witcher 3...

Exactly. As well as just turning on or off the feature, you could use it as a magic ring of sixual orientation on your companions.

I think there are websites for this kind of thing

Absolutely no comment my brotha!!!

I think romance in any game like this is a gamey and pointless feature.


In fact, unless it's a tightly scripted predefined relationship/s it is mainly about winning six or an extra side quest.

Sorry if you want deep meaningful relationships video games are not where you should be looking. And, certainly do not look at a open world sandbox like a Fallout game.

Exactly. I tend to avoid people that talks about six all the time, whether straight, gay, man, woman, etc. It just gets annoying, and it includes any subject related to six, like feminism or, once again, the state of LGBT people.

I just want to play a fantasy game without being shoved politically correct related rhetorics that breaks the immersion of this fantasy game and bring us back to reality.

Better watch out, some mod locked my topic because a random poster in it questioned the logic of having so many LGB characters.

It had nothing to do with the topic, yet they locked the thread.

I don't remember any gay or bi character flirting with me unprovoked in Dragon Age.

Maybe it's just me but I never think about the characters being bi in these games. I forgot everyone is bi in Skyrim.

I guess I'm not really sure, I'll have to wait and see. I'm glad romance is a feature, it makes sense to try given our new role in not just surviving the wasteland but rebuilding it. Inquisition I thought was pretty good and had established orientations, but it would also be nice to have my pick of all characters. I don't care so much if it's not realistic. It is a video game after all, one that espouses the "player choice and freedom" mantra. If they do a good job, then it'll work regardless of which method they use.

I agree about the bonuses - I can see bonuses for winning a companions loyalty via their personal quests, but not extra romance bonuses on top. I don't like "six as a reward" either, it's objectifying. These should be fully formed characters with whom you forge new experiences. The key isn't just in having interesting characters to start with; it's keeping them interesting over the course of the game. (That's a problem with all NPCs; once I finish someone's quest they tend to become static no matter what else happens in the world.)

It's the same person... don't need to let them derail this one too, I think most people here are contributing in a reasonable way.

Yesh... You sound biased toward Japanese stuff. I don't exactly look for romance within the Japanese culture, but if we're going to compare Western games and animes to Japanese game and animes, I mostly saw perverted stuff from their culture. Toys of very young anime girls in sixual innuendo positions, harem type of games with 1 male hero and 20 female cast, etc. The few times I saw proper romance in Japanese animes and games and such, it wasn't any better or worse than in Western games. Because games and such doesn't really compare to well made movies and books.

Well, that all depends on what KIND of marriage you had. If it was a loveless marriage of convenience for the sake of the child after a drunken one-night stand? OFF goes the ring!

I personally don't plan on romancing anyone, that's a waste of game space as far as I'm concerned. For me, there's no place for romance in the wasteland, just survival. I do want some casual six options, prosttutes etc., and other fun encounters, like Fisto. Just for the dark dystopian humor of it all.

My only real hope is that you can continue your relationship with your spouse after the bombs drop because they look to be fully customizable (at least apperance wise) and I'm almost certain that there won't be a romancable NPC that fits my extremely unconventional tastes otherwise.

A best bud would go a lot further than a romantic option in my book. It would be really cool if you could develop a friendship that went a little bit beyond mule capacity.

That's exactly what I was planning to do for my first character.

Well I'd hate to think that all that time I spent making my spouse look like Scarlett Johansson would go to waste, so yeah, I'd have no problem being able to romance my spouse (assuming she's not old enough to be my grandmother or something).