Why are we featuring James in the screenshot above? Well, fancy you should ask…
There have been more advances in modding tools this time courtesy of TankMaster over on ME3Explorer. He’s figured out how to allow us to add new plot flags to the game. This is a pretty big deal. It means we can make the game “remember” certain events that it couldn’t previously. We can then use those new events when the player is in a later conversation. It opens the door to much more serious story modding for ME3.
One thing we’ve done as a result is restore content we previously stripped out of the game. Like all the James “anti-flirt” content. But, there’s a twist. We’ve re-edited all his conversations and they are now contingent upon what happens in Shepard’s first convo with James. In this first convo FemShep now has 3 choices instead of two. She can flirt (upper left), be nice (upper right), or be…less nice (lower right). If the player chooses the “flirt” option, then James will flirt with Shepard for the rest of the game. Which is fine, because now it’s very clearly in the player’s control. The player decides what kind of relationship they have with James, rather than James being a massive flirt to FemShep regardless of her actions.
ThaneMOD anti-flirt content for v1.0 and v2.0 was a part of the Romance Improvement module. This will be changing for TMv3.0. In v3.0 the RI module will be split up. Content related to relationship lock-ins (including Thane), anti-flirt, and more will be spun off into it’s own module for use by everyone regardless of their relationship status with Thane. In fact, this content will also be released as it’s own mod, so folks don’t even have to use ThaneMOD if they don’t wish to. We’re tentatively calling this module/mod “BackOff” but that might change.
What else will be in BackOff?
A cabin photo. Now not just for Thane and Tali. It will appear for every romance, displayed upon locking it in. The mouse-over caption will say “Photo.” Textures of all LIs will be provided.
ME2 Romances are Remembered. Significant edits will be made to the Prologue and Priority:Mars content so that the game takes into account your ME2 romance, rather than only remembering your ME1 romance. This will result in many small (and not so small) conversational changes with Liara, Ashley, and Kaidan.
James Anti-flirt. As already discussed. Also, as much “Lola” content is retained as possible, even if Shep doesn’t flirt with James. However, if James calls Shepard “Lola” and flirts in the same line, then the entire line is removed (assuming Shep chose not to flirt).
Kelly as a Real Romance. Kelly conveys Paramour in ME3, yet she doesn’t lock out any of the other LIs. This will be rectified.
Sam Ninjamance, Antiflirt, and Relationship. Lots of changes coming, including a restoration of her “relationship 3” dialogue (CIC “chess” convo) that was trimmed by about half. In short, she will flirt less, “flirt” dialogue options will be more obvious, and her romance will be more difficult to trigger.
Liara. We haven’t done too much research here yet, but the Prologue/Mars changes apply. The Aethyta changes already in place have already been moved into this new module.
Kaidan “Cheating.” Interactions with Kaidan will be getting an overhaul for those who romanced him in ME1 and another LI in ME2.
Jacob Fixes. Yep, we’re going there. We’re still not 100% certain how this will pan out, but the basic goal is to restructure his dialogue to remove all mention of “baby/family.” Brynn will still be in the picture (unavoidable), but we’re going to try to create a way for Jacob and Shep’s relationship to seem salvageable. It will not be tidy, nor have a bow on top. It will not be an overhaul like we’ve done for Thane, but we want to do something for these folks.
And, likely more. Not to mention the TMv3.0 content actually related to Thane, lol. So, we are…busy would be an understatement…but we’ll keep posting updates as we can.
As always, if you have questions or comments feel free to leave us a comment/ask, or pop into the forum. Thanks for reading :)
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