Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Studios - now available on Early Access - coming August

[Aarwolf]

That would make me thank him for the first time in my life. Couln't he invade Belgium as well?

 

[NecroLord]

That would make me thank him for the first time in my life. Couln't he invade Belgium as well?

That's Germany's job.

 

[ferratilis]

I'm playing this rn, and just realized:
DOS2: you start on a ship, the ship gets attacked by a kraken, you end up stranded on a beach, you have to find a way to remove the source collar from your neck
BG3: you start on a flying ship, the ship gets attacked by dragons, you end up stranded on a beach, you have to find a way to remove a parasite from your brain
omg best RPG ever, 10/10 writing

One thing that I like is how there is no magic "highlight all" button. This game has actual secrets that reward exploration. Too many RPGs in recent years made it too easy and unrewarding to find hidden items.

 

[Tihskael]

I'm playing this rn, and just realized:
DOS2: you start on a ship, the ship gets attacked by a kraken, you end up stranded on a beach, you have to find a way to remove the source collar from your neck
BG3: you start on a flying ship, the ship gets attacked by dragons, you end up stranded on a beach, you have to find a way to remove a parasite from your brain
omg best RPG ever, 10/10 writing

One thing that I like is how there is no magic "highlight all" button. This game has actual secrets that reward exploration. Too many RPGs in recent years made it too easy and unrewarding to find hidden items.

No magic highlight button in 2d isometric games would have been perfect. Rotating the camera in games like DOS makes me want to kill myself. The Dragon Age Origins approach is perfect for a 3d game. Explore in first person or third person view and have the combat in the topdown view.

 

[Gargaune]

No magic highlight button in 2d isometric games would have been perfect.

I like PFKM's approach, automatic perception check in proximity. If you pass, the game enables and highlights hidden interactibles, if you don't it's as if they're generic level clutter. Actually, NWN's Swordflight has a similar design, passing a spot check will make hidden interactibles spawn in.

Rotating the camera in games like DOS makes me want to kill myself.

Rotating the camera in BG3 made my middle mouse button want to kill itself. And it did.

 

[ferratilis]

I like PFKM's approach, automatic perception check in proximity. If you pass, the game enables and highlights hidden interactibles, if you don't it's as if they're generic level clutter. Actually, NWN's Swordflight has a similar design, passing a spot check will make hidden interactibles spawn in.

BG3 has done it in a similar way, you can even see a small die being rolled above the character's head. It's a nice way to implement it imo.

Rotating the camera in BG3 made my middle mouse button want to kill itself. And it did.

I recommend using Q and E for rotation, that's what I do. Or instead of MMB, you can bind it to another, easy to reach key. Like ALT, for example.

 

[Gargaune]

Or instead of MMB, you can bind it to another, easy to reach key. Like ALT, for example.

That's what I did after I got a new mouse, precisely ALT. Of course, they could've easily added an edge turning option when the camera's locked to a character, but basic common sense just ain't the Larian way.

 

[AwesomeButton]

DOS2: you start on a ship, the ship gets attacked by a kraken, you end up stranded on a beach, you have to find a way to remove the source collar from your neck
BG3: you start on a flying ship, the ship gets attacked by dragons, you end up stranded on a beach, you have to find a way to remove a parasite from your brain
omg best RPG ever, 10/10 writing

D:OS - you start on a beach, period. They were still developing their ideas at the time, weren't ready with the whole premise.

 

[ferratilis]

I didn't think that Larian could design a worse UI than in DOS2, but they've outdone themselves. Tiny fonts that can't be increased, terrible choice of colors and transparency that makes tooltips hard to read, awful inventory screen, buttons and scroll bars that are put in unintuitive places and are too small, not using the screen real estate properly, actions hotbar that is not user friendly at all, lack of proper scaling etc. It's beyond bad.

Solasta's UI has the problem of not belonging to fantasy, it looks too sci-fi. But at least it's intuitive, easily readable, buttons and menus are easy to find and navigate, and most importantly of all, it doesn't strain your eyes. BG3 UI is an eyesore.

But both teams could learn a lot from Owlcat, Kingmaker still has the best UI I've seen in CRPGs. Not only in terms of style, but user experience. RPG, more than other genres, needs solid UI.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

I think Owlcat is a very mixed bag. There are parts of their UI that are exceptionally good (tooltips, character creation, no fucking toilet chain to select and move characters around, etc), but also some that are genuinely terrible (i.e. they rely a lot on the shitty auto-filling hotbar like Larian, the three mini-menu above said bar couldn't be made less comfortable to use if they tried, etc).

 

[Cryomancer]

In therms of UI, the UI of BG3 improved a lot. Before, was too similar to DOS2. But are wizards able to switch spells at will like in previous paths? I have no interest in playing this game till an mod which makes the most important thing(spells) more akin to 2E or at least 3E and remove the hp bloat.

 

[Shrimp]

 

[AwesomeButton]

From the picture, he would roll a shill.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Poor Keighley keeps getting involved in these Larian streams and every time these are so amateurish and cringey the guy doesn't even know where to look.

 

[Fedora Master]

Stop posting this crap Infin- Oh, sorry.

 

[Swen]

Poor Keighley keeps getting involved in these Larian streams and every time these are so amateurish and cringey the guy doesn't even know where to look.

Codexers are so sad, you all have become bitter and cynical. Having a fun little stream is automatically "cringe" in the eyes of the codex...SAD!

Atleast Larian still knows how to have fun just like the Dorito Pope.

 

[Cryomancer]

Agreed with Swen. Some peole here seems to HATE fun.

 

[NecroLord]

If I want fun, I will play the original Baldur's Gate games,not some modern 5E trash.

 

[017]

Swen lobbying with Geoff to get some Game Awards love once BG3 is out is kinda funny. Little does he know his game will be released in the same year as BOTW2. Much like in 2017, he's fucked.

 

[017]

Poor Keighley keeps getting involved in these Larian streams and every time these are so amateurish and cringey the guy doesn't even know where to look.

Faggot.

Here, shitface, let me give you something you'll enjoy:

 

[Infinitron]

Larian never uploaded the BG3 Early Access launch trailer to their YouTube channel. The official upload was on Google Stadia's channel and now that Stadia is dead it's been deleted. :facepalm:

 

[Fedora Master]

Having a fun little stream is automatically "cringe"

We keep saying Larian are shit at humor but you're not getting the message

 

[Cryomancer]

I criticized Larian for having epic low level content, with low level archdruids, nekronomicon, spelljammer ships and so on in a lv 1~4 game, but is not only Larian. Seems like most modern games are doing this shit. Recently I played retail wow for few hours and OMG. Is worse than Larian in low level epicness. At lv 10, I have destroyed an entire ogre city and killed a freaking undead dragon. And lv 10 in wow is akin to lv 2 in D&D; I was doing more epic stuff in lv 1~10 of retail wow than in lv 70 in WotLK classic.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

I criticized Larian for having epic low level content, with low level archdruids, nekronomicon, spelljammer ships and so on in a lv 1~4 game, but is not only Larian. Seems like most modern games are doing this shit. Recently I played retail wow for few hours and OMG. Is worse than Larian in low level epicness. At lv 10, I have destroyed an entire ogre city and killed a freaking undead dragon. And lv 10 in wow is akin to lv 2 in D&D; I was doing more epic stuff in lv 1~10 of retail wow than in lv 70 in WotLK classic.

You gotta have that to appeal to zoomers these days.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I criticized Larian for having epic low level content, with low level archdruids, nekronomicon, spelljammer ships and so on in a lv 1~4 game, but is not only Larian. Seems like most modern games are doing this shit. Recently I played retail wow for few hours and OMG. Is worse than Larian in low level epicness. At lv 10, I have destroyed an entire ogre city and killed a freaking undead dragon. And lv 10 in wow is akin to lv 2 in D&D; I was doing more epic stuff in lv 1~10 of retail wow than in lv 70 in WotLK classic.

You gotta have that to appeal to zoomers these days.

When the original meaning of a cultural practice is forgotten, it gets trivialized by subsequent generations. Especially if mass production is involved. For example, the smoking of tobacco used to have ceremonial purposes.