spoiler Leliana's Unrequited Love for Female Warden--Glitch or Part of Game?

[FIREFLY11]

Hi all, this is really more of a tech subject, but it contains spoilers, so I decided to post it here to avoid giving anyone any unwanted plot surprises. I've reached the point in Origins where my HNF is now engaged to Alistair. Back at camp, I got the "I heard about you & Alistair..." conversation from a heartbroken Leliana even though my character never romanced her. And yes, I was very careful to keep all of my warden's interactions with her strictly platonic. I've had this happen on my PS3 & Xbox versions of the game and remember reading some years ago that this was a glitch specific to the consoles, so I was surprised when this occurred with my PC game. So I'm wondering, is this an actual glitch that happens regardless of the platform the game is played on, or is Leliana supposed to develop an unrequited love for HNF warden who marries Alistair as part of the game?

 

This is unrelated, but I forgot to ask, is it better to download DAO Ultimate from EA directly or get the code off Amazon? Anybody out there reading this, DON'T buy the physical disc! You'll have more crashing & glitches than you can shake a severed darkspawn limb at!

 

Thanks & Happy July 4th (& belated Canada Day) to everyone!

 

FIREFLY11

[theskymoves]

Ah, the Leliana ninjamance! Happens to pretty much any female Warden that says so much as "Hello" to Princess Stabbity.

 

IIRC, it has to do with a combo of high approval and picking some dialogue options that no-one in their right mind would think were romance starters. I think someone made a fix, though I never used it... it's easy to just not talk to her any more than is absolutely necessary.

 

I'm the wrong person to speculate as to whether it's a glitch/bug, or intended... I may know the relationship mechanics for Alistair backward, forwards, inside out, upside down, and in my sleep, but the other romanceable companions, not so much. Someone smarter than me is sure to know, though. :yes:

Edited July 2, 2019 by theskymoves

[FIREFLY11]

Hey Sky, thanks for the input. You're right about the lines that no sane person would interpret as romance starters. Maybe it was the developers doing it as a prank. Or maybe Leliana spent too much time in the cloister. Guess we may never know. I'll try that fix you mentioned & see what happens; I'm very curious to see what her response will be if the ninjamancing can be eliminated.

 

BTW, & this is for anyone out there, did it ever seem odd that most of your companions comment about the warden's relationship w/ Alistair during the campaign, but once they get engaged nobody mentions it aside from Leliana's ninjamancing? Even after the coronation. And when the warden talks to her brother Fergus he doesn't even mention that his sister is getting married, let alone becoming QUEEN OF FERELDEN! Never mind that his future brother-in-law just announced it & is standing right there. You'd think there would be a way for the warden to introduce them. Also w/ Eamon. Being the traditionalist he is, you would think he'd be thrilled that Alistair had found such a perfect match, yet not so much as a "congratulations". If I can get my modding skills up & running I'll see about fixing this.

 

Best always,

 

FIREFLY11

[theskymoves]

Fergus does have conversation about the engagement at the boon ceremony, but it's contingent on the dialogue choices of the player character and easily missed:

 

 

I've never seen mention of it being bugged at all, that I can recall.

[FIREFLY11]

Hey Sky many thanks for the info! Luckily I had a post-coronation save handy. I tried the conversation branch you showed me (as well as every other possible one; don't ask how many times I reloaded), but I never did get the "At the wedding, for certain." option. Maybe it is bugged? For the record, I do have the Royal Wedding mod installed, plus ARR and tons more mods. I even went back & fought the Archdemon again b/c I thought that maybe the boon I selected the first time (continuing to serve the crown) might have affected the dialogue outcome w/ Fergus. This time I asked Alistair to make the Howes pay for their crimes, tried all the different branches as before, but still never got the wedding line. Also Fergus' line in the file you showed me "Howe has lost everything. That bastard. Vengeance is bitter, but I think about Oren...it barely seems like its enough." never appeared under any circumstances either. He only says his "At least Amaranthine now belongs to the Grey Wardens..." line. Any thoughts?

 

Thanks & best,

 

FIREFLY11

[theskymoves]

Ah. ARR probably removed the line or moved it to another place in the convesation tree... that mod deviates significantly from the vanilla game re Alistair's romance and associated dialogues, with certain dialogue and roleplay options being omitted entirely. My memory is fuzzy on the exact changes, and I don't remember them being well documented in the ReadMe. (My preference is for an experience much closer to the original game, so my use of that mod is limited to a single playthrough.)

[FIREFLY11]

Ok, I think that makes sense. I looked in the ARR ReadMe, & it says that there is a mod also by Kajana called "Alistair's Proposal" that is not compatible w/ ARR, so that may explain things. I checked out the proposal mod & it includes an option to introduce Fergus to Alistair, so that might be what's doing it. Do you think disabling the ARR mod & then loading a post-coronation save & seeing if the wedding dialogue comes up would be a good idea, or could that damage the game?

 

Thanks again!

 

FIREFLY11

[theskymoves]

Ok, I think that makes sense. I looked in the ARR ReadMe, & it says that there is a mod also by Kajana called "Alistair's Proposal" that is not compatible w/ ARR, so that may explain things. I checked out the proposal mod & it includes an option to introduce Fergus to Alistair, so that might be what's doing it. Do you think disabling the ARR mod & then loading a post-coronation save & seeing if the wedding dialogue comes up would be a good idea, or could that damage the game?

 

Thanks again!

 

FIREFLY11

 

It's been a couple of years since I worked on it and I don't have any of my notes from that time, but I tried to make my own plot-dependent Alimance mods like A Ring from Alistair compatible with ARR, and IIRC, ARR adds new plot flags to Alistair's romance arc regarding the engagement.

 

If my memory is accurate, then, I would not advise removing ARR; uninstalling or disabling a mod that adds flags would almost certainly be save-breaking.

 

Kajana would be able to give a more definitive answer on whether your proposal (uninstall ARR, install engagement thingy) is plausible, though, since both mods in question are her work... as I mentioned previously , I only used ARR once and I don't think I ever even looked at the engagement mod.

 

Sorry to not be more helpful. :sad:

Edited July 4, 2019 by theskymoves

[FIREFLY11]

Hi Sky! Thanks for the info; I wouldn't want to risk my saves unnecessarily. And don't worry about it--you're always crazy-helpful! :smile: I think I discovered a minor bug in ARR & think I should tell Kajana about it anyway, so I'll ask about the whole thing w/ Fergus when I contact her. BTW, I used your A Ring from Alistair mod & it worked (thanks for creating that--makes things feel more realistic). The ring didn't appear right after the Landsmeet, but after Alistair proposed to my warden back at the camp (they'd become engaged prior to the Landsmeet; ARR lets you do that) on the next load. It's not so much the proposal @ the post-coronation that I'm interested in since it happens earlier, just hoping for a chance to have Fergus ask about his sister's upcoming marriage & hopefully introduce him to Alistair for immersion's sake. Have a great 4th!

 

Best always,

 

FIREFLY11

[theskymoves]

Yay! I'm glad the ring mod worked for you! It worked similarly in my ARR playthrough as well, but I've also had numerous reports from other players that it didn't work.... no idea what the reason for that is, though.

 

I always liked finding lore-friendly and immersive roleplay-type mods to add to my game, and I made a lot of them for my own characters... stuff like the engagement ring, a similar gift from the Warden to Alistair after the engagement, a Ferelden 'bastard prince'-themed set of armour for Alistair after his backstory is revealed, and the one I am perhaps most proud of, the completely useless 'revenge albatross' ring that spawned in inventory after Cousland arrived at Ostagar:

 

Edited July 5, 2019 by theskymoves