Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 Pre-Release Thread [EARLY ACCESS RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Loostreaks]

It's also designed more like a consistent world as opposed to a video game world that revolves purely around the player. "Downtimes" in games typically are a no-no, were so even back in the day. So games tend to be built more like amusement parks where around every corner, you for sure know you're going to eventually find something -- be it loot, a quest giver, anything. Whereas in BG1, even if you happen to hit on a shack in the wilderness, there may be nothing inside. Which also makes things all the less predictable when something actually happens. Nowadays in any game upon hitting a shack, you know there will be something for you inside. Everything build has that sole purpose.

It's apparent by the feedback Bioware got for their first RPG that you and me and everyone who likes such is in a minority though. Much of what's changed in BG2 can be interpreted as an exaggerated response to the critisicm back in the day. Then again, in itself BG1 is an accident by itself. It shouldn't have worked given the team's inexperience. Whilst at the same time it is that same inexperience that still makes the entire structure of the game stick out this much to this day.


Btw, the very first thing I did back on Daggerfall upon surfacing from the starting dungeon: Admiring the snow, the Music, and trying to walk (not fast travel) to the next town on the map -- and eventually succeeding. You and me buddy. You and me.

Yes. Immortal cow being attacked by a horde of xvarts in the middle of nowhere, until player steps in. ( combat music kicks in right away) Assassins standing in the center of wilderness waiting for the player to somehow "show up". A wizard's apprentice polymorphed into a chicken chased by wolves, but: lucky for him, player arrives.
Virtually every outdoor map in BG1 consists of trash mobs plus one or two "quirky events", and player arriving just at the right moment.
( If the player leaves the map, npcs will remain standing and waiting with absolutely no changes, despite their hilariously hyperbolic life or death predicaments)
Consistent, living world.

 

[Volourn]

"not to mention Ao."

Ao doesn't interact with mere mortals. Hell, he tends to avoid interacting with the gods. Unless the mortal somehow bcomes a god (which actually subtley needs Ao's approval in Realmspace), Ao doesn't notice them at all.


BG3 should be set in Cormyr. It should be BG3; Crisis in Cormyr with the capital being the 'big city' and the handful of small villages being other areas to travel. The PC can be somehow cursed/blessed with godhood (maybe bhaalspawn or not). You eventually meet the bhaalspawn 9not stupid abdelshitz lol).

Instead, I will shrug my shoulders and hope we get a decent game because I'd be shocked it will have the same 'charisma' as the originals.

 

[Lacrymas]

I kinda want it to be set in the jungles of Chult. Or us playing as Sahuagin in an underwater city. Or starting out as nomads in the Calimshan deserts. Something that isn't the usual Sword Coast, Amn, Cormyr, Thay and so on.

 

[Chippy]

ITT, they will follow the canon so the protagonist will be neither "Abdel" nor another Bhaalspawn. Pretty sure the antagonist will be reincarnated Bhall himself, or his soon to be reincarnated self. Pretty shitty deal for those incel fans of the original. I think it is quite possible that the game's beginning is set around Abdel's assassination. I think this is all a given because with no strong link/hook to the original bhaalspawn saga it would be a hard sell to call it "BG3".

Personally I don't care at all. If they do a competent D&D romp I will have a blast with it. It is something missing in the market for several years and the closest we got recently(Kingmaker) was a resounding success by all accounts.

What happened at the end of 'Murder in Baldur's Gate?' Did Abdel get killed?. I can just imagine the focus group trying to decide on a title: "Hey lets call it BG3 to hook the noses of all the oldfags, then we can kill of the character that represents them that they all hate anyway, and go inna totally new direction...and they'll just play it anyway 'cause it's called BG3".
It would be worse than The Last Jedi.

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

Re: Larian's storytelling and how that may fit Baldur's Gate. It's interesting how according to this documentation:

https://youtu.be/YZF_cP_oLH4?t=725

- They admit to being relatively more System driven, treating "Story" frequently as an afterthought, only ramping up their Story staff in more recent times (D:OS 2)
- To a Degree they cite Baldur's Gate as an opposite to their core ideas (12-13 minutes in)
- However, they've generally grown in size significantly in a short amount of time
- And also don't want to "repeat themselves", which makes tackling an IP like BG somewhat of a fit


Some of the "relatively System driven" talk also reminds me of the flak Arkane get with their Dishonored games -- similar to Larian as a studio with a knack for Origin Systems games, however they are working in the AAA singleplayer space dominated by big budget games big on cutscene expositions trying to ape Hollywood a plenty. Given that Larian have expanded their Studio already in such a short amount of time, and given that a BG3 would be likely their biggest Project to date; it seems likely that they may contract additional writing staffers for some help. Mr Avellone say hi?

 

[Chippy]

I found the answer to my question on the Beamdog forums (for wwhat that may be worth) apparently the canon fate of the Bhaalspawn according to WOTC is:

Spoiler

Abdel Adrian turns down the throne, becomes a duke of BG and about 100 years later Viekang (however you spell that - the teleporting coward) becomes a badass and kills him. Then the essence of Bhaal returns to and resurrects the god and the player of the module does something...

Fucking. Retards. They actually managed to write an ending for the character that was worse than the writing in the novels.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

fact:
Neera is a qt

 

[Catacombs]

I kinda want it to be set in the jungles of Chult.

A play on Tomb of Annihilation would be awesome.

 

[Volourn]

Chult's been done more times in video games than Cormyr has. I think Cormyr has a NWN module. Chult's been in two Obsidian games IWD2 and NWN2. L0L All Chult really has for it is 'dinosaurs'.

And, no, Ao doesn't interact with mortals. Making them 'forget' is not 'interaction'. L0L And, don't quote Cyric. He's a lair and a crazy person. LMAO

Abdel is a moran. Those books looked dumb. Even as a BG series 'fanboi' I never was interested in such silly things as a dumb book with a FAKE NEWS 'bhallspawn'. And, the fatc they got the c'oward Bhaalsapwn' to kill him is ridiculousness.

 

[ga♥]

Why would you even want a real sequel?

By the way, BG and BG2 took place in 1368-1369. It's now 1491 in the FR. 122 years have passed, if these folks aren't elves or gnomes, they're dead.

All hail Viconiafu!

 

[Darth Canoli]

I hope Minsc isn't in this game.

Larian being Larian, they probably can't help but using Minsc; even if he's not an available companion, they'll make him a NPC.
It would be fun if he was in a rival's party and we had to fight him every now and then.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

nd, the fatc they got the c'oward Bhaalsapwn' to kill him is ridiculousness.

I don't think they ever specify who wins the duel

 

[ga♥]

Is Drizzt still alive in the FR?

 

[Roguey]

Is Drizzt still alive in the FR?

194 years old, still potentially hundreds of years of life yet to go.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Is Drizzt still alive in the FR?

194 years old, still potentially hundreds of years of life yet to go.

Imagine having to live hundreds of years as a 5'4 manlet

 

[Bester]

Why would you even want a real sequel?

By the way, BG and BG2 took place in 1368-1369. It's now 1491 in the FR. 122 years have passed, if these folks aren't elves or gnomes, they're dead.

All hail Viconiafu!

Good point. Minsc dies of old age, but Viconia and Aerie are still there, still in their prime and yet also very experienced in the matters of romance. Very alluring.

 

[Mr. Hiver]

The Bhaalspawn saga cannot be directly continued but can and should have some consequences in this new main story as something that happened in the past. Bhaal himself could have some influence on some quests, even a part of the main quest but there is no need to make the whole thing about him again.

Plenty of other evil gods who play their games, and may have been affected by Bhaals shenanigans in different ways.

Look, we could be an Asmodeus avatar or attacked by one, because he finally decided to make his play for the rule of all the realms. Or another archdevil could be trying to overthrow him or ruin his plans and take over the hells instead.
That would be sufficient to top anything Bhaal ever done, yet could use him too.

edit: hmm, maybe an avatar of Asmodeus that got away from control (or was influenced by other diety) and is trying to free himself...

BG3 should be set in Cormyr. It should be BG3; Crisis in Cormyr with the capital being the 'big city' and the handful of small villages being other areas to travel.

Another vote for Cormyr.

There are three bigger cities in the region, huge protected forest, swamps, range of Storm mountains, a large lake or two, connection to the inner Sea of Fallen Stars, dragon lands across the dragon sea, and even Myth Drannor ruins and Shadovar are relatively close and thematically connected. So a visit and a interesting Shadovar wizard as companion would be possible. Even Thay is not that far off.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Why would you even want a real sequel?

By the way, BG and BG2 took place in 1368-1369. It's now 1491 in the FR. 122 years have passed, if these folks aren't elves or gnomes, they're dead.

All hail Viconiafu!

Good point. Minsc dies of old age, but Viconia and Aerie are still there, still in their prime and yet also very experienced in the matters of romance. Very alluring.

Minsc gets petrified and becomes a statue.

 

[Mr. Hiver]

Shut up about Minsc already. He clearly went to space on his hamster to have his own adventures and will become a God of Hamsters.

 

[Chippy]

Is Drizzt still alive in the FR?

Yeah. Book spoilers:

Spoiler

His god filed away the souls of his companions on a sort of pocket plane and gave them the choice to go to their afterlife, or save Drizzt when he was mortally wounded. They all came back for a new wave of novels. Artemis Entreri was immortal because his soul was tied to Charon's Claw (his sword). Pwent the dwarf became immortal due to vampirism, but was killed and now inhabits a horn similiar to the horn of valhalla - and is eying his return. Even Drizzt's father - who was killed, brought back as a zombie, took control of his zonbie body and jumped into a pool of acid, completely obliterating his body has had resurrection cast on him by a drow matron (I think) who is also the reincarnation of the big bad they killed in their 'previous lives'. I'm probably missing a resurrected companion or two, but you get the idea.

Constantly amazes me that in a fantasy world like this, people are still "Yea, but - old age ya know, and creaky knees". I would be cautiously optimistic that Luke K and James Ohlen could pull off some key party members returning with the original Bhaalspawn without it being cheesy. Otherwise just leave the story as it is, and give it an original title.

 

[Mr. Hiver]

Would be nice if there was no resurrection at all this time around. It cheapens everything.

Yet in DoS it wasnt even acknowledged to exist in the setting or the story - at all.

edit:

Getting obliterated so thoroughly that even the character UI avatars disappeared was awesome though.

Yet of course "the players" will cry and scream because they got killed in the game and have to reload - as if its dark ages! And guess who the Larian will listen to.

All of it should be converted into "magical revival" done after the fight, since magic is there anyway.
As long as you didnt get damaged too much or completely obliterated. And that way you would still need to heal other normal injuries. While that revival should be tied to some specific mechanic - cost - resource.
Not a free forever feature that is separated from everything else.

I mean a rare resource not those dumb resurrection scrolls you had by dozens - but nobody else ever used except your party.

 

[Volourn]

Ressurection should be handled the way it is in pnp. PERIOD.

 

[Mr. Hiver]

No, because its dumb and isnt integrated into the setting at all. It completely removes any significance of any death and that makes any story or plot nonsensical.

"Someone killed Gorion!?"
Just resurrect him. Whats the big deal?

"Oh someone killed my son, daughter, family, whatever!! Vengance!!! "
Why? Too cheap to pay for a few resurrection scrolls?

Its utterly stupid and should be completely removed, only it wont be because developers listen to mass market and its a convenience feature.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

No, because its dumb and isnt integrated into the setting at all. It completely removes any significance of any death and that makes any story or plot nonsensical.

"Someone killed Gorion!?"
Just resurrect him. Whats the big deal?

"Oh someone killed my son, daughter, family, whatever!! Vengance!!! "
Why? Too cheap to pay for a few resurrection scrolls?

Its utterly stupid and should be completely removed, only it wont be because developers listen to mass market and its a convenience feature.

BG2 lampshades this with Jaheira/Khalid, she makes up some nonsensical reason as to why you shouldn't resurrect him and just accept he's gone

 

[vortex]

Can vancian magic system exist with turn-based combat ?