Why can't we romance Companions yet?

spartaxoxo

Back in an old interview, Rich said that romance options were coming. They even gave us the Smolder Scrolls, so clearly the understand this is something people would enjoy. Has the idea being scrapped?

Parasaurolophus

Oh no pls... What functionality should this all have?

spartaxoxo

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Oh no pls... What functionality should this all have?

Maybe just a few quests, some gifts to make rapport gain easier. Some of them can be platonic gifts and some could be romantic ones that makes your companion more interested in your character. Perhaps let us use the ring of mara on a companion, and get a little extra exp with them out. Maybe the end quest culminates in unlocking a house that the companion walks around in.

Eta
I have no idea what they were planning, it's just how I would do it.

Treselegant

I second this. It comes up pretty often when reading posts from players outside the forums.

Oh no pls... What functionality should this all have?

Probably similar to things like Fallout 4? Perhaps having a quest and difference in dialogue. We're not talking Skyrim mods here. Some people like romance in games, it adds to story for them.

Parasaurolophus

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Oh no pls... What functionality should this all have?

Maybe just a few quests, some gifts to make rapport gain easier. Some of them can be platonic gifts and some could be romantic ones that makes your companion more interested in your character. Perhaps let us use the ring of mara on a companion, and get a little extra exp with them out. Maybe the end quest culminates in unlocking a house that the companion walks around in.

Eta
I have no idea what they were planning, it's just how I would do it.

This will cause compliters to want to marry all companions.

spartaxoxo

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Oh no pls... What functionality should this all have?

Maybe just a few quests, some gifts to make rapport gain easier. Some of them can be platonic gifts and some could be romantic ones that makes your companion more interested in your character. Perhaps let us use the ring of mara on a companion, and get a little extra exp with them out. Maybe the end quest culminates in unlocking a house that the companion walks around in.

Eta
I have no idea what they were planning, it's just how I would do it.

This will cause compliters to want to marry all companions.

So add a divorce system then? What I described isn't drastically different than Skyrim.

VaranisArano

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Oh no pls... What functionality should this all have?

Maybe just a few quests, some gifts to make rapport gain easier. Some of them can be platonic gifts and some could be romantic ones that makes your companion more interested in your character. Perhaps let us use the ring of mara on a companion, and get a little extra exp with them out. Maybe the end quest culminates in unlocking a house that the companion walks around in.

Eta
I have no idea what they were planning, it's just how I would do it.

This will cause compliters to want to marry all companions.

Hey, achievements are account wide now, so no need for divorce court!

Memory_In_Motion

Romancing employees is a bad idea, even in a fake world of video games

Treselegant

Romancing employees is a bad idea, even in a fake world of video games

Then don't then? I consider companions in game to be my Vestige's friends so it would be totally normal. Obviously, not all features available in game are going to appeal to you.

spartaxoxo

Here are some previous statements about romancing from Rich Lambert.

"With these companions, they have their own likes and dislikes," Lambert says. "You can go up one side and down the other side with your relationship to them. There is going to be something special that unlocks when you max out that relationship spectrum as well, though initially, romance won't be a part of it."

He adds, "Down the line, though, romance is definitely somewhere we want to get to. We just want to make sure when we add it that we do it right."

Source

Speaking of what the team learned, can you talk about what sort of plans there are for Companions in the future?

I can't get into all the things we're planning, but one thing I will say is that we know everyone wants to be able to romance their companions. It would be a pretty big miss on our part if we don't deliver on that at some point in the future.

Source

ixmike

That'd be cool. But unfortunately, Isobel likes chicks.

Carcamongus

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Oh no pls... What functionality should this all have?

Immersion. This is, after all, a role-playing game. For those with the inclination, it would add to their experience. For those who don't care about this sort of thing, they can just stay away from it.

spartaxoxo

ixmike wrote: »

That'd be cool. But unfortunately, Isobel likes chicks.

I think Elder Scrolls/Fallout games have mostly had all romance options be available to anyone? They seem to follow the playersexual model rather than having a variety of preferences. But even if they decided to go that route like the Dragon Age games and make Isobel strictly lesbian and unavailable to male player characters, there's still 2 other women. I'm sure they'd ensure at least one of them would be into men (probably Mirri, since Ember is a cat). If they did that Bastian would almost certainly be bisexual as well since he's the only male. Assuming we'd only have the current 4 characters, ofc.

Carcamongus

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Oh no pls... What functionality should this all have?

Maybe just a few quests, some gifts to make rapport gain easier. Some of them can be platonic gifts and some could be romantic ones that makes your companion more interested in your character. Perhaps let us use the ring of mara on a companion, and get a little extra exp with them out. Maybe the end quest culminates in unlocking a house that the companion walks around in.

Eta
I have no idea what they were planning, it's just how I would do it.

This will cause compliters to want to marry all companions.

So add a divorce system then? What I described isn't drastically different than Skyrim.

But that would bring along the divorce lawyers...

AzuraFan

ixmike wrote: »

That'd be cool. But unfortunately, Isobel likes chicks.

I don't see much evidence that Isobel likes chicks. She had an adolescent crush on a girlfriend (which is a common experience and doesn't mean she's into chicks) and says she sees those old feelings differently now. Apart from that, I've seen her comment on the looks of a male NPC (part of one of the quest dialogs) and talk about how she likes romance books (she doesn't say the main characters are both female, so who knows?).

If she's meant to be lesbian, I'd like to see it made more obvious through what she says and how she interacts with Tamriel and the people in it. Right now, there's not much there to support that she is.

Amottica

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Oh no pls... What functionality should this all have?

Maybe just a few quests, some gifts to make rapport gain easier. Some of them can be platonic gifts and some could be romantic ones that makes your companion more interested in your character. Perhaps let us use the ring of mara on a companion, and get a little extra exp with them out. Maybe the end quest culminates in unlocking a house that the companion walks around in.

Eta
I have no idea what they were planning, it's just how I would do it.

That gifting sounds a lot like Star Wars. Let us avoid that.

If and when Zenimax does add romantic aspects for companions, it should be a separate system from Rapport. Maybe require max rapport before it is even possible to start with the romance option. That makes much more sense.

Bekkael

ixmike wrote: »

That'd be cool. But unfortunately, Isobel likes chicks.

All they have to do is make any romanceable NPC player-sexual. That allows for maximum choice for the gamer, which is what games should be all about IMO.

Bekkael

AzuraFan wrote: »

ixmike wrote: »

That'd be cool. But unfortunately, Isobel likes chicks.

I don't see much evidence that Isobel likes chicks. She had an adolescent crush on a girlfriend (which is a common experience and doesn't mean she's into chicks) and says she sees those old feelings differently now. Apart from that, I've seen her comment on the looks of a male NPC (part of one of the quest dialogs) and talk about how she likes romance books (she doesn't say the main characters are both female, so who knows?).

If she's meant to be lesbian, I'd like to see it made more obvious through what she says and how she interacts with Tamriel and the people in it. Right now, there's not much there to support that she is.

If you take her to meet Lyris, she gushes about her and asks if Lyris is seeing anyone, so is clearly attracted to her... Of course, she could easily be bi.

Lady_Sleepless

It would be something nice for those who want it. I just hope it isn't an achievement as I don't want to feel like I have to romance them. None of the current companions are my type.

AzuraFan

Bekkael wrote: »

If you take her to meet Lyris, she gushes about her and asks if Lyris is seeing anyone, so is clearly attracted to her... Of course, she could easily be bi.

Ah, ok, I haven't done that yet. Thanks for the info.

AzuraFan

Lady_Sleepless wrote: »

It would be something nice for those who want it. I just hope it isn't an achievement as I don't want to feel like I have to romance them.

Me too. Imagine if there were romance achievements for all of them lol. I guess that's one case where AwA might help, but you'd need a growing number of alts to keep up! I'd rather it be completely optional with no rewards whatsoever except whatever the players want to roleplay in their heads.

rpa

Sounds like something to release as main feature of some otherwice undewhelming future chapter.

TheGent

🤦🏻‍♂️

bathynomusESO

My official comment: Ewww , gross

Treselegant

Ewww , gross

Why though? I think its one thing not to interested in such a feature, its quite another to call it 'gross'.

It's not like you're going to be forced to engage with it anyway if it is added to the game, you can ignore it to your hearts content.

spartaxoxo

Amottica wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Parasaurolophus wrote: »

Oh no pls... What functionality should this all have?

Maybe just a few quests, some gifts to make rapport gain easier. Some of them can be platonic gifts and some could be romantic ones that makes your companion more interested in your character. Perhaps let us use the ring of mara on a companion, and get a little extra exp with them out. Maybe the end quest culminates in unlocking a house that the companion walks around in.

Eta
I have no idea what they were planning, it's just how I would do it.

That gifting sounds a lot like Star Wars. Let us avoid that.

Gifting is a really common gaming mechanic in games with romanceable allies. I see no reason why this game should avoid a mechanic that makes sense to lore and improves the quality of life of using the Companions.

AzuraFan wrote: »

I'd rather it be completely optional with no rewards whatsoever except whatever the players want to roleplay in their heads.

Almost every activity in this game has rewards. This would be easily accessible so I don't see why it shouldn't.

katanagirl1

Just please don’t make an achievement for this. Not everyone enjoys doing these things,

EnerG

It was already said they were interested so i feel like zos needs to make a statement on either this is still comming/scrapped/delayed because YES PLEASE its not an everyone thing but what part of ESO is FOR everyone, for those of us who come from the mainline games itll be great.

It wont be anything explicit, itll be just extra roleplaying or voicelines, so anyone whos agaisnt it im not getting lol

emilyhyoyeon

I never get when people are so against roleplay features in a TES game of all things. I understand not everyone plays TES games for rp, but it shouldn't be weird that other people do. Come on.

BretonMage

Looking forward to companion romance. It wouldn't be a bad thing to have additional depth to our interactions with them.

Regarding achievements, my initial reaction was, well, they made catching different types of fish an achievement, so why not? But on second thoughts, I realised it's actually a little creepy to tie an achievement to a romantic relationship, so I agree achievements would be a bad idea.

EdmondDontes

My ESO experience won't be complete until I can same sex marry Bastion.