Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Harthwain]

Just how much will players be pissed when the game ends literally the moment you're at the city gates, with a "to be continued in Baldur's Gate IV?"

BG2 doesn't take place in Baldur's Gate, so...

 

[Testownia]

If Abdel Adrian is still the canon CHARNAME, he died a few years before the events of the game, so that's out of the question.

Let's face it - if you HAD TO choose a canon romance, it would be Aerie, since she gets both a happy romance ending AND at least two children which, when combined with the theory that "The Kid" Origin Character will be CHARNAME'S child/grandchild, fits perfectly.

Nah dude, Viconia all the way.

Read the previous posts. Viconia has already been confirmed as a non-canon romance, and that was way before Baldur's Gate III was announced. She's still alive in the "present day" timeline.

Come to think of it... do you recall the exact wording of the romance ending? How long did it take for Lloth's assassin to reach Viconia? Maybe she is still alive, but her fate already sealed?

The ending in question had CHARNAME being alive at the time of the poisoning. Since he's dead, that particular epilogue is simply impossible.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Just how much will players be pissed when the game ends literally the moment you're at the city gates, with a "to be continued in Baldur's Gate IV?"

There was already a good deal of BG city content in when I was data mining it probably 150+ pages ago back when it released.

 

[Xamenos]

Read the previous posts. Viconia has already been confirmed as a non-canon romance, and that was way before Baldur's Gate III was announced. She's still alive in the "present day" timeline.

Do you really think that a single half-baked reference in a Korean MMO no one played is all that influential in their decision-making?

 

[Larianshill]

To illustrate Xamenos' point, let me demonstrate you the Dark Powers of Ravenloft in their current state - beatable, and potentially even mortal, contradicting every piece of lore from before.

Spoiler

 

[Nano]

Writers find ways to change canon all the time. She got poisoned? Oh oooops - she faked her own death to do A, B or C. Blah, blah.

Yeah, Viccy still being alive doesn't make her romance non-canon automatically.

 

[Sarkile]

Writers find ways to change canon all the time. She got poisoned? Oh oooops - she faked her own death to do A, B or C. Blah, blah.

Yeah, Viccy still being alive doesn't make her romance non-canon automatically.

The more important question is how canonical is that Neverwinter dumpsterfire anyways?

 

[Miserable Panda]

For Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2 did the dungeons leave any impact or memory for you folks? I've played through both and for the life of me the most I vaguely recall is the pirate cove area in DOS1.

It's probably the biggest concern I have for BG3 as nothing really stood out in DOS1 or 2 for me like The Hand did in Icewind Dale or the Fortress of Regrets in PS:T. Or the Modron Maze if only because I actually got a kick out of having to draw a physical map to do it.

The thing is, I remember DOS1 and DOS2 levelling zones extremely well because they are properly defined, thought out, and there are only a few (thankfully). But when it comes to dungeons, they are all the same. I remember only a few because of the frustrating puzzles (the one with the portals in DOS1) or because of the bosses (for instance, I can perfectly remember the final boss fight in DOS2, but I completely forgot what comes before that). Hope Larian focuses more on the outdoor experience, I believe that's what they do best.

 

[Thonius]

If Abdel Adrian is still the canon CHARNAME, he died a few years before the events of the game, so that's out of the question.

Let's face it - if you HAD TO choose a canon romance, it would be Aerie, since she gets both a happy romance ending AND at least two children which, when combined with the theory that "The Kid" Origin Character will be CHARNAME'S child/grandchild, fits perfectly.

Nah dude, Viconia all the way.

Read the previous posts. Viconia has already been confirmed as a non-canon romance, and that was way before Baldur's Gate III was announced. She's still alive in the "present day" timeline.

Come to think of it... do you recall the exact wording of the romance ending? How long did it take for Lloth's assassin to reach Viconia? Maybe she is still alive, but her fate already sealed?

The ending in question had CHARNAME being alive at the time of the poisoning. Since he's dead, that particular epilogue is simply impossible.

I would like to introduce you to the scroll revive dead. BOOOOOM plot hole dead.

 

[jackofshadows]

The thing is, I remember DOS1 and DOS2 levelling zones extremely well because they are properly defined, thought out, and there are only a few (thankfully). But when it comes to dungeons, they are all the same. I remember only a few because of the frustrating puzzles (the one with the portals in DOS1) or because of the bosses (for instance, I can perfectly remember the final boss fight in DOS2, but I completely forgot what comes before that). Hope Larian focuses more on the outdoor experience, I believe that's what they do best.

From my EA experience I'd say the opposite: outdoors felt too cramped and theme-parkey while all the dungeons felt very good and not too samey.

 

[Miserable Panda]

The thing is, I remember DOS1 and DOS2 levelling zones extremely well because they are properly defined, thought out, and there are only a few (thankfully). But when it comes to dungeons, they are all the same. I remember only a few because of the frustrating puzzles (the one with the portals in DOS1) or because of the bosses (for instance, I can perfectly remember the final boss fight in DOS2, but I completely forgot what comes before that). Hope Larian focuses more on the outdoor experience, I believe that's what they do best.

From my EA experience I'd say the opposite: outdoors felt too cramped and theme-parkey while all the dungeons felt very good and not too samey.

I barely played BG3, it was really barebones when it launched, and they are taking their sweet time releasing new updates. But that's concerning, I was at least expecting some good level design from Larian, not another WoW.

 

[SoupNazi]

Isn't the EA area basically the tutorial + first area of first act? DOS2 also only really opens up in the second part of the first act, and later even furthermore.

 

[Gargaune]

Isn't the EA area basically the tutorial + first area of first act? DOS2 also only really opens up in the second part of the first act, and later even furthermore.

I think the EA will turn out to be the entire first act, between Larian stating that the game will cap out a couple of levels beyond 10 and the world map that popped up a while ago. Already there's more than four levels' worth of XP in the EA and as you can see on the map, it spans all of the locations highlighted on the right-hand side.

So, assuming a three acts structure, my expectation is that you'll have a first one from the Nautiloid to Baldur's Gate, mostly covered by what's in the EA, a somewhat longer second act in the city itself, and then a third chapter set somewhere in the planes.

 

[Testownia]

Isn't the EA area basically the tutorial + first area of first act? DOS2 also only really opens up in the second part of the first act, and later even furthermore.

I think the EA will turn out to be the entire first act, between Larian stating that the game will cap out a couple of levels beyond 10 and the world map that popped up a while ago. Already there's more than four levels' worth of XP in the EA and as you can see on the map, it spans all of the locations highlighted on the right-hand side.

So, assuming a three acts structure, my expectation is that you'll have a first one from the Nautiloid to Baldur's Gate, mostly covered by what's in the EA, a somewhat longer second act in the city itself, and then a third chapter set somewhere in the planes.

There's also a strong possibility of us visiting Candlekeep, since one of the Origin Characters datamined is a mage who lives there at the time the Minsc comics take place - and those events are immediately before the beginning of Baldur's Gate III.

 

[Larianshill]

I have a bit of a doubt regarding this datamined origin character. This single mention is all that we have so far - meanwhile, Minsc is being name dropped left and right in every bunch of datamined voicelines.

 

[hell bovine]

So, assuming a three acts structure, my expectation is that you'll have a first one from the Nautiloid to Baldur's Gate, mostly covered by what's in the EA, a somewhat longer second act in the city itself, and then a third chapter set somewhere in the planes.

Same, my guess is that act 1 is the EA content plus moonrise towers, where the player will have to choose between the allied/ against the absolute path. Act 2 will likely be in the city, since some of the EA minor npcs/ questlines are tied to that already.

 

[Testownia]

I have a bit of a doubt regarding this datamined origin character. This single mention is all that we have so far - meanwhile, Minsc is being name dropped left and right in every bunch of datamined voicelines.

I'm getting the suspicion that she will be a... late-game Origin Character? In other words, than when you play her, you start at a completely different point in the game's story.

 

[Larianshill]

That seems very unlikely.

 

[J_C]

I have to say that I like this map a lot. This is the first time that I watch anything from this game and I say "yes, this is a Baldur's Gate" game.

 

[Renfri]

from scale 1 to 10, how polished is this game to play right now? I'm bored atm

 

[Thonius]

It's a demo.

 

[Gargaune]

from scale 1 to 10, how polished is this game to play right now? I'm bored atm

There's some obvious WIP bits dangling, as well as a variety of balance and interface issues, but I didn't feel like the EA was "unpolished." It's got some bad designs, but most of what's in is stable and playable.

The real question is how tolerant are you with a control scheme that'll make you wish you were playing NWN2 instead? Personally, I'm averse to recommending BG3 in this state, but then again it looks increasingly less likely that Larian will fix it.

 

[Yosharian]

a control scheme that'll make you wish you were playing NWN2 instead?

 

[Zeriel]

from scale 1 to 10, how polished is this game to play right now? I'm bored atm

There's some obvious WIP bits dangling, as well as a variety of balance and interface issues, but I didn't feel like the EA was "unpolished." It's got some bad designs, but most of what's in is stable and playable.

The real question is how tolerant are you with a control scheme that'll make you wish you were playing NWN2 instead? Personally, I'm averse to recommending BG3 in this state, but then again it looks increasingly less likely that Larian will fix it.

I felt the same way with DOS2 tbh. There's stuff that could be fixed, but I have no reason to think they will, because they don't think it needs fixing.

 

[Elex]

why people are soo obsessed by the canon of a setting made for being ignored (by every DM mastering a forgotten realm campaing)?
Wotc and Ed himself change stuff every year so they can put new stuff, it happen every edition or on every book, is even worse than the warhammer lore that serve a similar scope.