#varric mod

Varric: Nice job getting us those maps. I'd say Bartrand will be thrill— Well, "less sour" is the best he gets. Varric: Now, onto other matters: I think I have something that might interest you. Varric: I have a guy that can get us some work with the thieves' guild. Hawke: How much do you know about them? Varric: I'm not a member, if that's what you're asking. But I know some of their people. Varric: The Coterie is the strongest guild in Kirkwall. If you care to bed anyone, they'd be the ones to court. Hawke: Point me to him. I need all the work I can get. Hawke: This just reeks of trouble. Varric: And coin. They go hand in hand, you know. Varric: Gallard's in Darktown. Probably worth knowing what he has in mind, even if you're not interested.

Since the quest is, per MKirby, meant to trigger after completing at least one of the qunari quests (so, Blackpowder Courtesy) but at present typically doesn't trigger until after All That Remains, I'm of a mind to split the difference. So: trigger after completing 1) any romance scene, 2) Blackpowder Courtesy, and 3) at least one of: Offered and Lost, Prime Suspect, or Night Terrors. I feel like that delays it far enough to get the ball rolling on non-Isabela romances while still giving a solid buffer before All That Remains (which requires Blackpowder Courtesy, Offered and Lost, AND Prime Suspect as prerequisites before it even triggers), after which point the scene is profoundly tone-deaf.

Which romance Varric actually wants to talk to you about won't lock in until you actually go talk to him, to account for both Kirkwallycule and the reactions from your love interest I've already restored. So as is currently the case in the mod it'll first prioritize whichever active/intimate romance you have currently in your party, then fall back to any other active/intimate romance.

But with the fix involved then if you DON'T have a romance active but you've gone through with a romance scene (romance intimate) and then cut it off (romance ended) either at the end of the scene or elsewhere in the act (though in Act 2 I'm only aware of this as a possibility with Anders in Night Terrors?) you'll still get the talk but with two differences: 1) you won't get the scene interruption from the person you're not actually dating (they're ignoring you and Varric as hard as they can) and 2) there will be a restored dialogue option to tell Varric the relationship is over and done with.

Getting locked out of pursuing Isabela's romance by agreeing to remain FWB rather than selecting the one dedicated "pursue romance" line

Getting locked out of pursuing Fenris's romance by telling Varric he broke up with you(? I'm not familiar with this one, but that particular conversation with Varric is messy as fuck and already on my to-do list as needing more attention than I've already given it.)

And I've personally taken issue in my last replay with

Getting locked out of Merrill's romance dialogue in the climax by failing to select the one single flirt in the conversation about what she should do with herself in the future

according to Mary Kirby in this bioware forums thread, Friendly Concern is supposed to trigger after sleeping with at least one character and completing at least one qunari quest. according to the replies to the thread, the quest only triggers for Anders romances with very few exceptions for other characters

supposedly, this was fixed in patch 1.03. according to the wiki talk page, however, while the quest might trigger for all romances now, there's a possibility that it won't trigger until after all that remains, regardless of any other quests completed beforehand.

also, according to Mary Kirby in the above forum thread, it's deliberate that hawke is still supposed to be able to complete the quest even with a relationship that has been broken off, with special dialogue options for such a case.

so looking at the game files, the way the conversation actually works is that, if the quest has triggered for you, when you go talk to varric the game checks TWICE to see which character he's talking to you about. first it checks the standard "active romance" flags, but if none of those are true, it also checks special flags that were set specifically for the quest that also indicate a romanced character. I believe these are supposed to facilitate the special "breakup" conversation with varric, if you haven't initiated a new romance after the breakup. however, according to the wiki, this is only possible with anders after cutting off the relationship in Night Terrors, and the conversation ends early rather than playing out as intended.

so there are two different ways that this quest is initiated, both of which set flags to initiate the quest as well as the special "character romanced" flags I noted above

the first is flag 22 in act00pt_main. this flag is set within the following plots: Blackpowder Courtesy, Offered and Lost, Following the Qun; Prime Suspect, All That Remains; and Night Terrors. however, this flag, rather than checking all four "romance active" flags, ONLY checks anders' flag four times. this is why this quest only triggered for anders prior to the patch, and still might not trigger until after All That Remains. this wasn't fixed in the patch.

the second is in the area script for the estate. this checks different flags than the standard "romance active" flags, flags which would indicate the romance had been intimate, but it DOES check them for all four characters, and it does this at the same time it sets up the cutscene for Hawke's partner to comfort them after All That Remains, so a romance would have to be active regardless. this must have been the part they patched to work.

Repeatable Romance Scenes (by QS) - Will upload a patch to the kirkwallycule mod page that will randomly pick between cutscenes for all active romances. I’m itching to overhaul RRS more extensively with new/updated cutscenes but that’s definitely a later later later project because both Twinception and SebRe have much higher priority cutscene fuckery demands.

Epilogue Restoration - Not planning to update for kirkwallycule. If you have multiple romances active varric just starts muttering eldritch nonsense as all applicable lines of dialogue play over each other at once and I’m fine with that. Low low priority to patch for SebRe since it already works fine when he’s solo romanced.

Kidnappapalooza - Won’t require patching for kirkwallycule since (by design) you can already exert a decent amount of control over who’s kidnapped by changing up who you have in your active party. Do need to patch for Kirkwallycule+SebRe so rivalmance Seb is still flagged kidnappable even with other romances active.