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

[HeyCheckOutHowHardICanPee]

Playing an instrument badly in front of NPCs no longer makes them refuse to speak to you ever again.

Game has gone from a realistic down to earth sim to a power fantasy in this one change.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

realistic down to earth sim

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Alienman]

"We are so sorry"

 

[Shrimp]

Was it ever disclosed how much money Larian got out of the Stadia deal?

 

[Larianshill]

post yfw you didn't fall for the Stadia scam

 

[Rhobar121]

post yfw you didn't fall for the Stadia scam

Actually, Google returned the money, so it turns out that those who used the Stadia played for free.

 

[NecroLord]

Fuck you Swen

 

[Stella Brando]

Is this game almost out yet?

 

[Swen]

Fuck you Swen

NO REFUNDS!

 

[Volourn]

DOS3... err... BG3 cant be Larian's breakthrough. They already had their breakthrough. It was he original DOS1. LMAO

Of course the game will make money.

I think it will be a fun game for the most aprt with some usual Larian flaws.

But, it will never be a true BG3. And, no, it's not because of turn base. I like turn base combat. But, Larian doesn't understand or even like BG or DnD. Their bashing of both, ignorance of the spirit and rules of both, and their treatment of criticism... Oops... that fits into modern Hasbro... perhaps they do fit in to nu HASBRO DnD.

LMAO


Still, not one legit dwarven npc and no H0T female npcs... EPIC FAIL.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

Fuck you Swen

NO REFUNDS!

You don't need a refund if you paid a negative price.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Was it ever disclosed how much money Larian got out of the Stadia deal?

Not what Larian got exactly, but there were "leaks" about how Google pretty much overpaid for every single agreement they signed.
According to the rumors in some cases up to 100 millions only to get a guaranteed Stadia port plus exclusive rights among streaming services.

Chances are a sizable part of the entire Baldur's Gate 3 budget has been courtesy of Google... And they didn't even have to deliver anything in the end.

 

[Cryomancer]

I'm glad that Stadia failed. Streaming in games would be a nightmare and bring a huge decline. Larian is the luckiest game developer ever. Talking about portables, did anyone played BG3 in steam deck?

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

did anyone played BG3 in steam deck?

I have one but I didn't even bother to try it yet.
The game has no controller support yet and I'd probably prefer hug a giant anthill covered in honey than dealing with the game's control scheme on a trackpad and without a keyboard plugged in.

 

[The_Mask]

So lemme get this straight: Swen swindled persuaded Google, and half of his Steam customers to buy his game on a promise that it will come out in the next 5 years at some point?

Todd is sweating in a corner over there at what Swen just pulled off.

 

[mediocrepoet]

So lemme get this straight: Swen swindled persuaded Google, and half of his Steam customers to buy his game on a promise that it will come out in the next 5 years at some point?

Todd is sweating in a corner over there at what Swen just pulled off.

Just wait til you hear about Star Citizen.

 

[Reinhardt]

BG3 will be what The Witcher 3 was

so confirmed shit and not an rpg.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Just crossed this interview from few days ago: https://www.gamesradar.com/baldurs-gate-3-will-bring-the-magic-of-dandd-back-to-gaming-in-2023/

And this quote caught my attention:

That's not to say that it's been smooth sailing. Vincke says that "in the beginning we thought adapting D&D into a video game format would be more straightforward, but we've learned a whole lot along the way about what makes sense in a tabletop RPG versus a video game."

I'm not sure why Swen keeps repeating this tired bullshit. At no point they served people with a faithful adaptation of the rules, and if anything despise their urge of WANNABE MODERN DESIGNERS they spent two years of EA almost systematically reverting some of their worst changes back to a more functional form (which incidentally overlapped every single time to the way the tabletop implemented them).
IF this EA should have taught them something, is not that "some things don't work in videogames" but that "some rules are written in a certain way for a reason and changing them on a whim rarely leads to improvements".

 

[Cryomancer]

"some rules are written in a certain way for a reason and changing them on a whim rarely leads to improvements".

Examples? I can only think in very few cases of a adaptation from P&P into computer which improved the game. Warlocks in DDO, their pacts affect their Eldritch Blast damage which makes each pact more unique. But in most cases, it only makes things worse. See nwn2 without spell fixes and with spell fixes how much spell fixes improve the game.

And some adaptations are necessary. The most iconic example is the wish/limited wish with a "wish list" of some pre determined wishes.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Wish is a stupid example, because it's basically an "open spell" where you can come up with fucking whatever and the GM has to negotiate the plausibility. Of course in a videogame that's going to be restricted to a limited range of possibilities (and Throne of Bhaal did just that).

Back to the first question, one banal example of " don't mess with a rule if you don't understand why it's there" would be Larian's implementation of the Shove action. They thought it was a great idea to "give characters more things to do per turn" and the unintended consequence now is that shove moved from being "situationally useful" to "too fucking convenient to pass" compared to a lot of other bonus actions, to the point even their own "dynamic AI" learned to abuse the hell out of it at any given chance". As a result some fights now resemble more closely a Benny Hill skit that an ideal battle of sword and sorcery.

Other examples would be... Well, the entire laundry list of POOR homebrew tweaks Larian originally implemented and then spent the last two years reverting:

- disengage for free on jump
- disengage on a bonus action
- their terrible implementation of backstab, with advantage applied just by walking slowly being an enemy
- advantage given for standing on higher ground (sometimes even two goddamn crates above the target)
- disadvantage for being on lower ground (no, it's not a repetition of the previous point, they used to add up)
- food used for healing
- making stealth work based on cones of vision rather than skill checks
- no fatigue or exhaustion
And more.

These are all examples of " minor changes" from the tabletop that ended up having a far bigger impact on the flow of the game than Larian ever realized.
And now they are releasing the Nth interview where they try to pass the idea that their struggle so far has been about "being too faithful".

I also happen to disagree in general with the idea that CRPGs should strive to have the numeric/mechanical predictability of a videogame-centric ruleset.

As a side note, I don't want to see absolutely shit from NWN 2 if I can help it.

 

[Volourn]

They can't be faithful to dnd. They hate dnd. They've made that clear.

 

[Fedora Master]

BG3 will be what The Witcher 3 was

so confirmed shit and not an rpg.

And Codex GOTY

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1086940/view/3656394723635462015

Hotfix #32 Now Live!
Version Number: 4.1.1.2154614

Hello everyone,

Today we bring you a new hotfix, which addresses some common reasons for crashes and other gameplay issues.

This hotfix will also take care of the issue causing parties of 3-4 players to crash when a second player joins an already-started conversation. (
Warning:
We're pleased to assist in making your party chats run smoothly, but you're on your own when it comes to avoiding small talk.)

A big thank you to all who reported this issue and all the rest!

For our Mac players, we know you’re still waiting for Patch 9. We’re continuing to work on the stability of the build on Mac, but need some more time to address the issues.

CRASHES AND BLOCKERS

• Fixed a crash caused by RAM corruption that would occur when loading into the tutorial.
• Fixed a crash that would occur when booting the game using Vulkan.
• Fixed an issue prompting the 'Mid-dialogue saves are currently disabled' error while not in dialogue, which was preventing you from saving.
• Fixed a crash that would occur in 3- or 4-player sessions - if one player is in a dialogue and another listens in, the game no longer crashes for everyone else.
• Fixed an issue in multiplayer causing the UI to disappear when switching from listening in on the host to listening in on the client.

GAMEPLAY

• Fixed an issue causing your equipped weapon set to switch from melee to ranged or vice versa when loading a savegame.
• Fixed an issue causing some of Shadowheart's spells to disappear from her prepared spell list after saving and then loading that savegame.
• Fixed some visual issues with the Vision of the Absolute spear.
• Fixed a certain non-interactable NPC appearing in the goblin camp.

 

[LabRat]

Almost three years, Larian still doesn't made their own homebrew subclasses, while Solasta has a lot of homebrew subclasses.