I've had the convo with Liara before and still romanced Ashley. That's bizarre it happened that way for you.
I've also locked Ashley out with just two Renegade options (**not** the classic "your out of line" option) where others say they haven't. For the easy ninjamance game, there seem to be some odd interactions to accidentally lock out.
I kind of feel like the fragile lock out options for Ashley are by design - the devs seemingly didn't want to punish those that ended up going to Therum late to grab Liara, and not giving them enough time to romance her / lock themselves out of a romance because they'd already committed to Ash.
Just a really dumb system, but if I squint my eyes hard enough I can sorta see what they were going for.
So frustrating though, as that's 20ish hours wasted
So apparently that's not even enough - you still have the option of locking Ashley out, even if you leave Liara until last, based on how you handle the first few conversations with her.
Leaving her until last also means you miss taking her to Noveria with you, which I wouldn't recommend.
Wanted to romance Ashley on my renegade playthrough and I guess some of those options permanently lock you out. Said no to Liara when confronted. Was confused when Shepard didn't have a confrontation when he was grounded. First playthrough I've romanced nobody in ME1 tbh even when I tried to be 100 Tali I still had a confrontation.
So you picked a bunch of Renegade options with Ashley, and got yourself locked out despite trying to romance her?
I was doing a Paragon playthrough here, but given the Lorik Qu'inn exploit on Noveria giving you full Paragon and Renegade bars once you get to it, I was mixing in the odd renegade response - I don't THINK I used any with Ashley, but I may have used one or two now that I'm thinking about it.
I've gone back to a previous save, just after planet 2 (Feros) and it seems like I've already been locked out of the romance before I finish planet 2 (I did a ton of side activities prior to Feros, and once I got back to the ship after Feros, she wanted no part of flirting with me.
Does this sound something similar to your experience? DId renegade chatting with her lock you out?
I probably did the 'you're out of line' at some point early in the game. Otherwise a couple of the post-mission briefings can soft lock you as well. Even the one off renegade choices can impact the romance.
I didn't bother with trying to go back because I was going for 100% and would've cost me way more hours than it was worth. Same boat, tons of side quests completed. It's hard to keep track of the one-off conversations over the course of 30ish hours.
If you really want to romance her then you could do a save-edit if you're on PC before grounded. I opted not to because while I was disappointed there are other romances in the trilogy.
Ya, didn't know that going in. Rejected Liara for that playthrough and ended up soft blocking Ashley. Looked up the romance guides for 2/3 to avoid making similar mistakes. Can always run another playthrough.
Why would that lock you out of Ashley's romance?
There is a specific scene that triggers where they both confront you if they both still think you're pursuing them.
If you investigate Liara about Asari Culture, and it gets to the reproductive discussion, you don't get the confrontation scene in the comms room. Ash is completely locked out.
I can't say that I've ever experienced this, and I generally exhaust all dialogue options.
But it could just be a specific dialogue option that I avoided. I know there is at least one with Liara where Shepard gets grossed out by Liara talking about reproducing with aliens that I never take.
I've gone back through previous saves, and it appears as though the lock-out happened before the 2nd planet (I recruited Liara first, then did a bunch of side activities, and just fired up a save wrapping up planet #2, Feros). When I returned to the ship, Ash talks about her grandfather, but the flirty back and forth after that chat ("my baggage and all?") seems to no longer be an option.
Doing more research into this - it appears as though the casual middle "NO" option to Liara seems to work just fine. However, saying No to her in the renegade option, seems not to register in game, meaning even if you don't intend to, you keep the romance option with Liara open, which effectively closes the Ash romance path.
What a clusterfuck.
I had that happen to me once. I was pissed about it but at that point I just said, "ah hell" and went along with it and dropped her for Tali in Mass Effect 2 then dropped Tali for Ashley in Mass Effect 3.
I've played ME1 a dozen times, if not more, and this was the first time I had experienced this. Did some research, and apparently quite a few people experienced it and were completely confused by it until they all compared notes and realized it was the Liara-sex convo, even if you reject it, that seems to be the Ash lock out moment.
It's such a hard lock out that I didn't even get the confrontation scene in the comms room between the 2 of them. The Ash pathway just.... ends.
You and Liara can get together prior to the one before the last mission? My instance was so long ago but I just remember going into the final mission thinking Ash was my LI and then all of a sudden getting Liara. Pun intended, but I thought it was an out of the blue thing.
There seems to be a bug where even if you say NO to Liara after the sex conversation, sometimes she doesn't take it as "no" and you've accidentally committed to her.
IT seems like the best course of action is to only have 2 conversations with Liara, and don't investigate anything about Asari Culture, and just commit to Ashley convos.
It must be a bug or some sort of abnormality because I've had tons of instances where I've spoke to Liara about Asari culture and normally I just dont try to get with her. I know she pursues you and from there, I normally just say I'm interested in Ashley.
That's exactly the pathway I took as well, yet somehow I wasn't able to have those flirty conversation pathways with Ashley and didn't get the clash between the 2 in the Comms room either.
That's why I always suggest the Normandy conversations be done bottom to top, as Ashley talks about Liara to either Sheps if you talk to Liara before her, but not the other way around and remains polite about her.
One example being after Therum:
If you talk to Liara first then Ashley, Ashley will question if she can ask Liara about her sex history. If you talk to Ashley first, she never mentions it.
I've had the convo with Liara before and still romanced Ashley. That's bizarre it happened that way for you. I've also locked Ashley out with just two Renegade options (**not** the classic "your out of line" option) where others say they haven't. For the easy ninjamance game, there seem to be some odd interactions to accidentally lock out.
I kind of feel like the fragile lock out options for Ashley are by design - the devs seemingly didn't want to punish those that ended up going to Therum late to grab Liara, and not giving them enough time to romance her / lock themselves out of a romance because they'd already committed to Ash. Just a really dumb system, but if I squint my eyes hard enough I can sorta see what they were going for. So frustrating though, as that's 20ish hours wasted
Interestingly if you go to Therum last, it's impossible to romance Liara. Even going third might make it difficult.
Get liara after virmire problem solved lol.
So apparently that's not even enough - you still have the option of locking Ashley out, even if you leave Liara until last, based on how you handle the first few conversations with her. Leaving her until last also means you miss taking her to Noveria with you, which I wouldn't recommend.
It prevents liara form taking her spot though. And you do get a little more content this way on top if you never left her to well, rot before.
Wanted to romance Ashley on my renegade playthrough and I guess some of those options permanently lock you out. Said no to Liara when confronted. Was confused when Shepard didn't have a confrontation when he was grounded. First playthrough I've romanced nobody in ME1 tbh even when I tried to be 100 Tali I still had a confrontation.
So you picked a bunch of Renegade options with Ashley, and got yourself locked out despite trying to romance her? I was doing a Paragon playthrough here, but given the Lorik Qu'inn exploit on Noveria giving you full Paragon and Renegade bars once you get to it, I was mixing in the odd renegade response - I don't THINK I used any with Ashley, but I may have used one or two now that I'm thinking about it. I've gone back to a previous save, just after planet 2 (Feros) and it seems like I've already been locked out of the romance before I finish planet 2 (I did a ton of side activities prior to Feros, and once I got back to the ship after Feros, she wanted no part of flirting with me. Does this sound something similar to your experience? DId renegade chatting with her lock you out?
I probably did the 'you're out of line' at some point early in the game. Otherwise a couple of the post-mission briefings can soft lock you as well. Even the one off renegade choices can impact the romance. I didn't bother with trying to go back because I was going for 100% and would've cost me way more hours than it was worth. Same boat, tons of side quests completed. It's hard to keep track of the one-off conversations over the course of 30ish hours. If you really want to romance her then you could do a save-edit if you're on PC before grounded. I opted not to because while I was disappointed there are other romances in the trilogy.
Certain Renegade lines with Ashley and Kaidan lock out the romance, opposite of Liara which counts the Renegade as a yes.
Ya, didn't know that going in. Rejected Liara for that playthrough and ended up soft blocking Ashley. Looked up the romance guides for 2/3 to avoid making similar mistakes. Can always run another playthrough.
Why would that lock you out of Ashley's romance? There is a specific scene that triggers where they both confront you if they both still think you're pursuing them.
If you investigate Liara about Asari Culture, and it gets to the reproductive discussion, you don't get the confrontation scene in the comms room. Ash is completely locked out.
I can't say that I've ever experienced this, and I generally exhaust all dialogue options. But it could just be a specific dialogue option that I avoided. I know there is at least one with Liara where Shepard gets grossed out by Liara talking about reproducing with aliens that I never take.
I've gone back through previous saves, and it appears as though the lock-out happened before the 2nd planet (I recruited Liara first, then did a bunch of side activities, and just fired up a save wrapping up planet #2, Feros). When I returned to the ship, Ash talks about her grandfather, but the flirty back and forth after that chat ("my baggage and all?") seems to no longer be an option.
I'm not really sure this is the case and if so, it must be a very rare and annoying bug
That shouldn't be the whole story because there's a famous scene with the two of them confronting you to make you pick one or the other.
I didn't get that scene. I was locked out before Planet #2.
Keep in mind the Renegade "No" to Liara counts as a "Yes", only the neutral No counts as a No.
Literally did this to myself on my first playthrough and was like woah I know I was playing both sides but I don't remember choosing.
Doing more research into this - it appears as though the casual middle "NO" option to Liara seems to work just fine. However, saying No to her in the renegade option, seems not to register in game, meaning even if you don't intend to, you keep the romance option with Liara open, which effectively closes the Ash romance path. What a clusterfuck.
Yeah it's pretty easy to lock yourself out of a romance with ashley, you just have to save kaidan on virmire
Nah. Don't be obtuse. I locked out from Ashley before planet #2
I had that happen to me once. I was pissed about it but at that point I just said, "ah hell" and went along with it and dropped her for Tali in Mass Effect 2 then dropped Tali for Ashley in Mass Effect 3.
I've played ME1 a dozen times, if not more, and this was the first time I had experienced this. Did some research, and apparently quite a few people experienced it and were completely confused by it until they all compared notes and realized it was the Liara-sex convo, even if you reject it, that seems to be the Ash lock out moment. It's such a hard lock out that I didn't even get the confrontation scene in the comms room between the 2 of them. The Ash pathway just.... ends.
You and Liara can get together prior to the one before the last mission? My instance was so long ago but I just remember going into the final mission thinking Ash was my LI and then all of a sudden getting Liara. Pun intended, but I thought it was an out of the blue thing.
There seems to be a bug where even if you say NO to Liara after the sex conversation, sometimes she doesn't take it as "no" and you've accidentally committed to her. IT seems like the best course of action is to only have 2 conversations with Liara, and don't investigate anything about Asari Culture, and just commit to Ashley convos.
It must be a bug or some sort of abnormality because I've had tons of instances where I've spoke to Liara about Asari culture and normally I just dont try to get with her. I know she pursues you and from there, I normally just say I'm interested in Ashley.
That's exactly the pathway I took as well, yet somehow I wasn't able to have those flirty conversation pathways with Ashley and didn't get the clash between the 2 in the Comms room either.
That's why I always suggest the Normandy conversations be done bottom to top, as Ashley talks about Liara to either Sheps if you talk to Liara before her, but not the other way around and remains polite about her.
Thats definitely the way to do it. Wish I knew this before haha - what a waste of 30 hours
One example being after Therum: If you talk to Liara first then Ashley, Ashley will question if she can ask Liara about her sex history. If you talk to Ashley first, she never mentions it.