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Game News Larian is making Baldur's Gate 3

Joined
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On a side note, I'm really hoping for the game to have its own distinctive art style/visual identity and to not look just like a modded Original Sin 2.
Not that DOS 2 was an ugly game* by any measure, but still.

*Except for the tacky armors with giant pauldrons. God, these things suck.
 
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
2,930
I liked D:OS, even if the plot was weak. The dialogue itself was generally good—even clever, but when it suffered it was due to the campy nature of the plot. When they keep the stakes low-key, I feel they do alright. They chronically go epic, which they suffer miserably at. Otherwise, D:OS took what was great about 1990s RPGs and took it further. It is an excellent example of a spiritual successor.

Baldur’s Gate 1 was a good adventure, with good writing. It doesn’t take itself overly serious though, which is actually beneficial. Some people fail to see the virtue in that and use it as a weapon against itself. Sven has a lot of reverence for the classics from 20 years ago, so if they can manage a plot and stick strictly to D&D 5th edition mechanics, they’ll produce something BG1 quality or better—which would be a miracle.

PS: They’ll also need to be mindful of their art direction if they stay in the Forgotten Realms. None of this pulpy quasi-Warhammer/Blizzard bullshit.

I really hate how most every RPG has to go for the epic be a god, kill a god, save the world plot line...stuff more grounded is so much more fulfilling imo..

that is what was so great about fallout 1, and why I liked old low level D&D modules like Against the slave lords, or B2 keep on the borderlands...more local, grounded events like wars, and trade lines and whatever. Get so burnt out from Gods and packs of dragons as wandering monsters...I actually turned a game off once because it had groups of dragons as wandering monsters
 
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The engine is the big question. If it's the OS2 engine, complete with mod tools, there should at least be some interesting modules if the ruleset is decent.

The real horrifying thing to contemplate is the ruleset. 2E is out of course, and 3E or 3.5E might be out too. If it's 4E or later we are really fucked, which is sad because older D&D rulesets are about as good as it's gonna get for a PC game. Its crazy to think how much the world has changed, if Larian was making a D&D game in 2005 I'd be so excited, but at this point there are so many ways this could go wrong.
man I would love to see a 1E game lol
 

luj1

You're all shills
Vatnik
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
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Eastern block
I really hate how most every RPG has to go for the epic be a god, kill a god, save the world plot line...stuff more grounded is so much more fulfilling imo..

that is what was so great about fallout 1, and why I liked old low level D&D modules like Against the slave lords, or B2 keep on the borderlands...more local, grounded events like wars, and trade lines and whatever. Get so burnt out from Gods and packs of dragons as wandering monsters...I actually turned a game off once because it had groups of dragons as wandering monsters

Noooo you are WRONG!!

*cue trailer* TO KILL A GOD *intense music* IN THE AGE OF GODS... THE DESTINY OF THE WORLD IS AT STAKE
 

Nihiliste

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 16, 2014
Messages
2,998
I hope they aspire more towards BG2 than BG1. Upgrading their writing is important but hand in hand with that is the level design. I loved that BG2 had these super long quests like the Beholder quest, or the red dragon quest, etc. that were like complete self contained DnD modules within the game, that not everything was tied into the main quest, and most especially that it wasn’t dependent on modern fetch quest mechanics. Hopefully Larian recognizes that aspect of the games and continues the tradition.
 

Sentinel

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Ommadawn
the armor system raping the fun out of the combat and poor writing fucked everything up.

They must obey dnd 5.0 rules according to the wotc.
Who says? Sword Coast Legends didn't bother with that.

I think the rule is that if you are using the DnD ruleset, you have to use the current one.
You'd think that, but, again, Sword Coast Legends didn't obey the rule.
 

Melcar

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Merida, again
the armor system raping the fun out of the combat and poor writing fucked everything up.

They must obey dnd 5.0 rules according to the wotc.
Who says? Sword Coast Legends didn't bother with that.

I think the rule is that if you are using the DnD ruleset, you have to use the current one.
You'd think that, but, again, Sword Coast Legends didn't obey the rule.

Because they did not use DnD (except for the name and setting) if I'm not mistaken.
 

Nihiliste

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The other thing that the spiritual successor types have failed in is recapturing the RTS influence on the infinity engine. Critical component of those games’ feel.

I think Larian’s positives are designing a good combat system for D:OS1, using spells outside of combat, not taking themselves too seriously.

Their weaknesses have been writing, visual atmosphere, and itemization which is just god awful. One of the best things about the old RPGs was finding unique and interesting items that weren’t just Item + 6% etc, and which were placed strategically within quests and not just randomly loot dropped.
 

Delterius

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Entre a serra e o mar.
I wish it was Dragon:negative:
26243.jpg
 

Sentinel

Arcane
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Location
Ommadawn
the armor system raping the fun out of the combat and poor writing fucked everything up.

They must obey dnd 5.0 rules according to the wotc.
Who says? Sword Coast Legends didn't bother with that.

I think the rule is that if you are using the DnD ruleset, you have to use the current one.
You'd think that, but, again, Sword Coast Legends didn't obey the rule.

Because they did not use DnD (except for the name and setting) if I'm not mistaken.
Okay but you aren't disagreeing with me.
The original claim I contested is
"They must obey dnd 5.0 rules according to the wotc."
The "why" SWC did it doesn't really matter since we have no information on what kind of deal Larian and WotC have. For all we know, WotC has completely dropped the contractual demand to have the video games use the tabletop ruleset.
 
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Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I can't wait to see the fear in the orc's eye as I blast him with a fireball.

^For the youngsters among you, this is a reference to something an Atari executive producer said waaaaay back in 2004, when they were talking about making another Baldur's Gate 3 after the cancellation of Black Isle's The Black Hound. The project never went anywhere and has been forgotten, but the expression lives on as an underrated Codex meme.
 
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