Has this ever happened to you?
NPC: So what are you up to?
YOU: (choices)
- Saving the universe because I’m awesome like that.
- None of your business, jerk.
- [Flirt] Nothing much…
You pick 3 and bam! Fade to black!
Wait, what? All I said was…? ESCAPE ESCAPE ESCAPE! Oh crap, too late, the quest completion popup is up. I guess I have space herpes now.
Congrats! You got BSOCKed (Black Screen of Carnal Knowledge). It can be pretty disconcerting if it’s unintentional or unexpected.
How to avoid the dreaded Surprise BSOCK.
- [Flirt] via holocom. If you’re on your ship and you’re talking to some dude halfway across the galaxy, you can be as suggestive as you want. I doubt he’s going to materialize and drag you back to your bunk.
- Avoid [Flirt] if you don’t intend to give it up. Be warned, that might not avoid all BSOCK, but should help avoid the surprise variety.
- Look at the question first! Even without a [Flirt] before it, some answers will still lead to the BSOCK. If the question is “do you want to come to my quarters?” and you say yes… well DUH. ”Wait, I thought we were going there to play Scrabble?” Not in this galaxy.
- Don’t send your companion away. If your companion offers to leave, and you say “sure, I want to be alone with this guy” you might as well paint your screen black.
- Hover over the escape button when you [Flirt]. If things don’t go your way, ESCAPE! Now if only there were such a do-over IRL for bad dates…
Don’t let space herpes happen to you!
I love BSOCK. Hilarious.
My Imperial Agent got the BSOCK by the time she was level two. I really need to get back to her and continue with the Adventures of the Imperial Space Mata-Hari.
My Trooper? Does NOT give it up. She mildly flirted with Jonas a bit but she’s engaged in a war and although you’d think she’d jump all over any opportunity to blow off some steam her discipline is, apparently, the size of a planet or two. Of course, she runs around with a giant cannon strapped to her back so perhaps she’s less impressed by anyone who can’t handle that kind of equipment (which is explains her relationship with Aric… given that he totes those things around, too.)
Her flirting, though, never leads to BSOCK. It just leads to grumpy Aric and a follow up of ‘Where are these Imps so I can kill them?’ Maybe that’s my Trooper’s idea of sex. It would explain a lot.
Can Jedi be slutty? I’ve got a low level Jedi Knight that might be fun to take the space herpes route.
Not sure about the knight. So far no real opportunities but my knight is level 25. I didn’t start getting real flirt-victims on the smuggler (besides Corso) until I got to Alderaan. So far my toon has turned down 3 hot guys because of Corso’s stupid “feelings.”
Well, there was that guy on Coruscant. There’s a You Tuber who is doing a playlist of the Smuggler story line with a Corso romance and apparently that contact on Coruscant is totally do-able. I flirted with him but didn’t push it further… I actually kept Corso around and then played sabacc with the old guy and fleeced him.
Frankly, I liked that option better.
Now I’m kind of sad I don’t have slutty options for my knight… I’m not surprised though. Those Jedi are so darn pure.
A male knight can get the BSOCK before he leaves Tython. Without ruining the story much, it involves the younger twi’lek matriarch.
Ohhhh. Yeah she wasn’t my favorite person…
Really? My Consular is male and I don’t recall him interacting with her all that much but then it was quite a different storyline than the Knight.
I do continue to wonder if anything pops up for female Knights. Other than the companion, that is.
Only the Knight can BSOCK the matriach’s daughter. The Consular, apparently, isn’t a lust-driven space knight who thinks about his ‘lightsaber’ too much, if ya know wha I’m sayin’ winkwink nudgenudge say no more!
I didn’t think that shagging gramps was a reasonable choice, regardless of whether it was technically possible. I mean, ew. But you are right, there were flirt opportunities there. Again, ew.
Yeah, I wasn’t too keen on shagging Gramps, either. Harmless flirting? Fine. Beating the pants off him (metaphorically, ew) in sabacc? Even better.
But if you continue to flirt you do get the option of saying you like older men and Corso skulks off and BSOCK happens. I was not aware of this at the time I got that scene but I still wouldn’t have gone there.
Actually it was quite funny. You get the opportunity later to talk to Gramps via holocom on your ship. I chose the flirt option, and I swear Corso came DASHING into the room from wherever the hell he was on the ship (after giving me the -1 of Shame). It was awesome. He even said “Ew” in response to Gramps’s flirting, and I had subtitles on and it was… “Ew.” right in the middle of the screen over Corso’s bucket helmet since, ya know, why would he take it off?
Alderaan? Let’s see… Taris? Check. Nar Shaddaa? Check. Alderaan? Check.Tatooine? Didn’t stick around long coz the sand gets everywhere – but I reckon I could have totally BSOCKed that Jedi. And the Sith. At the same time.
Yup – there might be a galactic war on but my randy old Smuggler is drinking and “smuggling” his way around the galaxy quite happily.
I think it may be a throwback to his hawtpant days in SWG, dancing away in the Mos Eisley cantina.
That sith made some suggestive comments to me which I can only assume were offering me her body. I’m like… Why are you even TELLING me this? I don’t even have a [flirt] option to respond to that. Wait until the “future date” when bioware implements that, k?
Man, even when playing my swoon-worthy male bounty hunter I’ve only had the chance at BSOCK once and I really had to go through multiple flirt options. >: Meanwhile, my lady imp agent got to experience the vertical tango at level 2 (3?) with some guy who… wanted to extort money from her? The game made it very clear the sex was just a bribe though, because after the screen un-faded from black, my agent pretty much face-palming and shaking her head.
But yeah; amazing post. :v
The agent has more BSOCK opportunities than most classes combined. Let’s just say my agent, Targeter, didn’t have to worry about spending too many nights alone with a quart of Haagen-Daaz and his copy of Notting Hill.
Since I plan on making my Agent a Space Mata Hari, this pleases me.
Wait, why would you *NOT* want the BSOCK?! I’ve been trying to BSOCK the hell out of Vette since day one. No love though. Apparently, being a Light Side Sith Warrior isn’t good enough for her! And to think I took her slave collar off! How ungrateful!
Moar presents. Seriously.
Should have left her collar on, she’s a kinky little Twi’lek…
I love your concept of BSOCK, made me lol.
I was actually cheering at my screen when my Inquisitor shared sexy time with a Sith on Alderaan. I kinda like the idea of her being a little slutty.
But maybe that’s just me. ^^
I was all ready to have a slutty smuggler and then stupid Corso was all charming Space-Georgia and… sigh… I think I’m losing my mind that I don’t want to offend an NPC by shagging other NPC’s.
I’m lucky, Andronikos doesn’t get jealous when I fool around.
As long as Corso doesn’t name all the weapons he uses, you should be ok. Lord help you if he pulls out “Pokey.”
That’s brilliant.
AMG! /rolls under the table laughing
It seems the real lesson here is don’t flirt with people unless you’re willing to seal the deal. Or in layman’s terms, “Don’t be a tease”.
Seriously! Flirting is dangerous business.
And space herpes is a threat. Who the hell knows what these space sluts are doing before AND after your character shows up. Sleeping with everyone your partner has ever slept with takes on a whole new meaning when we’re talking GALAXIES, you know?
One hopes our characters always carry protection. And I hope my Jedi does more than ‘The Force is my protection’ because, come on…
I’m guessing the NPC is ready to sleep around with the NEXT person to turn in that same quest.. and the next and the next.
Lol, that was hilarious! Can’t say I’ve ever had that problem though. My trooper hasn’t had many chances to flirt, and whenever she tried, it didn’t lead to anything.
On my Agent I did get to enjoy the infamous low-level lay, because hey, what better way to make a cute Zabrak forget about his blackmail ideas? Since then her luck hasn’t been too great though, the next guy she flirted with ended up going deep undercover before they had a chance to do anything, and all my other options have been too creepy for me to want to do it. o_O
You know I’ve never actually been surprised by the BSOCK. Usually my options have been pretty straight forward though. “So how about you give me a tour of your quarters *wink*” or “I could help you blow off some steam..” stuff like that. However, I suppose if one plays fast and loose with their flirting this could easily happen. I know some people who compulsively flirt and must hit any option with [flirt] before it. Admittedly.. it is tempting.
I was thoroughly amused by this post. So glad my friend and co-poster pointed me to this site! It has absolutely made my day XD
Well it’s dangerous… you could get the bait and switch. I’m flirting with this dude all through Balmorra, right? And he keeps saying “oh we need to go out” and “blah blah dinner” and then at the end, when the crisis is over and we have some downtime, he’s like “blah blah come back to my place.” Wait what? I was promised dinner, you ass!
How very tricky of him! Promising you a nice dinner and then deciding to hit you with the BSOCK instead! Typical guy.
What really cracks me up is that I warned a guildmate about this, but did not mention that multiple NPCs offer dinner. She says, perplexed: “So this guy offered to take me to dinner and we… went to dinner.” So I guess I chose to blow off the wrong dude (dude who actually meant dinner) and flirt with the wrong dude (dude who just wanted BSOCK).
I managed to have surprise BSOCK with CORSO! I mean, I’d been trying to unbolt those plasteel pants since Ord Mantell so it wasn’t ultimately unexpected, but it was certainly unexpected at that time. He was all, “I’m very country boy, may I have your hand, I reek of purity!” and I was all like “Purity, schmurity, I like bad boys” and POW BSOCK. O_O At least I’m pretty sure there’s no space herpes involved since Corso was definitely a space virgin.
It can happen to you.
Wait, you mean you weren’t trying to get BSOCKed?
Clearly I’m playing the game wrong.
Also, sometimes there’s an ambiguous screen of carnal knowledge, too. Like, Cedonia, the sister of the two Alderaan nobles? I can’t tell if we played some horizontal pazaak or if it was just a jump cut.
See, the ambiguous screen is troubling. Maybe there was a BSOCK attempt, failure to launch, and the parties agreed to never mention it again.
“Don’t worry, Jjaro. It happens to all men sometimes. Even smugglers.”
Ahahaha, not only is inventing the acronym BSOCK hilarious, but this post and then reading all these comments have made my day. Great stuff.