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

jackofshadows

Magister
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Messages
4,490
Eh, who cares. When the fuck is the release is a much better question.

It seems that all major shit has been postponed to 2023.
 

Swen

Scholar
Shitposter
Joined
May 4, 2020
Messages
1,881
Location
Belgium, Ghent
Where the fuck is the patch, Swen?
enhanced-buzz-28895-1301694293-0.jpg
 

Volourn

Pretty Princess
Pretty Princess Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Mar 10, 2003
Messages
24,924
Are you actually forced to take the vampire npc? Can you kill or ignore you? Are they even allowing to make/hire your own party or are you stuck with their shitty npcs?
 

CodexTotalWar

Learned
Joined
Jan 19, 2021
Messages
121
No, you can avoid him completely, or reject having him join after the initial dialogue. You can also kill him any time before, after, or sometimes even during the first dialogue you have with him (you need another party member though).

Funny enough, the game has dialogue for if you chose to kill and then resurrect him outside of your party (this dialogue is different depending on who you talk to him with - the killer or one of the companions). It's extra fun because the last patch introduced "fucked up faces" for characters at low HP.

uwwK4p3.png


JW7ieSC.png

There are a couple of story events in the EA that will let you kill him beyond resurrection though.

So far, I've found that you can stake him the first time he tries to bite you (perma-kills). You can also sell him out to a Bounty Hunter looking for him.

Not sure about how custom parties will be implemented. Right now, the only way to do it is via opening multi-player sessions - somewhat like how you did it in the OG BG games. Though it's even more complicated in BG3 since you need to open multiple instances.
 

copebot

Learned
Joined
Dec 27, 2020
Messages
387
New small Gamespot video about BG3's core design:



https://www.gamespot.com/videos/the-box-that-broke-baldurs-gate-3/2300-6458407/

The Box That Broke Baldur's Gate 3
Baldur's Gate 3, like Dungeons & Dragons, is a game meant to evoke player freedom. But somewhere early in its making, a small decision was made that collided with that basic principle, and sent its development into a cascading spiral of problems.

At the heart of an unforgettable Dungeons & Dragons campaign is a great dungeon master. It's their responsibility to guide the player on an adventure and make sure the world reacts to their actions in a way that feels natural and unplanned.

For developer Larian Studios, to capture that D&D essence in Baldur's Gate 3, it has to evoke that same sense of freedom and role playing. It's collaborative storytelling between the player and the story. Every choice, action, reaction, and consequence has to feel like it really matters, no matter how big or small.

But somewhere early in the making of Baldur's Gate 3, the game's dungeon master, Swen Vincke, made a small decision that sent its development into a cascading spiral of problems that has been a big challenge to solve. And all it involved was getting the player to acquire one very specific item: the Mysterious Artefact and it belongs to a character named Shadowheart. In an effort to get the player to receive this item as elegantly and naturally as possible, as though it was their own decision, has resulted in creating 100s of possibilities that plagued the game's development.

This is the story of how the Mysterious Artefact broke Baldur's Gate 3.

On one hand you have to appreciate the dedication to the craft.
On the other one, I found myself wondering "What if you just made very clear that the box was important and you were supposed to keep it, and then reserve yourself the right to FUCK THE PLAYERS hard if they just didn't listed to the advice?"

Why is a "fail state" (and especially one purposefully caused by the player itself, rather than by a random roll) so much of a tabu in modern design?


So it's a literal... mystery box. Why even bother writing a story if you are going to be less creative than GPT-3 would be? Why bother with the facade of "player choice" if they are going to force you to either take this NPC or to take the item? If you are going to take such pains to not try to railroad the player, why is the game structured around prewritten material rather than making it a multiplayer game or a more procedural game which doesn't involve an attempt to create a freeform system within the context of prewritten modules?

Neither BG1 nor BG2 really offer much player choice apart from the creation of your main character and the option to create additional characters for multiplayer. Basically nothing else matters. All of the interesting choices are related to the gameplay tactics, character development ,the equipment, and the map exploration.

There are some minor choices here and there in the two games and none of them really matter. Your alignment and some other things change the color and type of a couple of your "I'M SPECIAL" buttons that you receive from dreams, but it really doesn't matter that much. Some NPCs will not join your party, so maybe some of the characters you bring along with you will have slightly different stats and JPGs.

The same is essentially true for tabletop. If you want to provide players with choice, you have to prepare yourself with some combination of systems, worldbuilding, and improvisation to respond to their choices. If you want to give them a curated, balanced, and railroaded experience, then that's going to be much better paced and balanced without providing a lot of room for player choice.
 

Volourn

Pretty Princess
Pretty Princess Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Mar 10, 2003
Messages
24,924
Good about it not being forced on you. That said, I just read there are only 5 recruitment npcs. Unless they are adding more that is ridiculously low. Even less than Dos2. Don't they realize that players haver varying tastes? Some people might love the vampire others may not. They are basically forcing you you to create custome characters based on alignment. Geezers. People got mad at Bio because Bg2 only had like 4-5 legit evil npcs and just a handful of rogues. Lmao

Come on, dudes. You'd think they learn what worked or didn't work for the Bg series. They've had decades to check out reactions, praise, and criticisms of the series. This is why I know they clearly hate BG. If they actually liked it, they would be focused on improving what worked.

And, yeah, I am currently on a Bg kick. Lol


Added: Bg series gives the player a lot of freedom in his to play an interactive in the world. Sure, it is no FO, but the freedom is there. Sure there aren't many peaceful ways to solve quests but that is because the npcs didn't want to. You can give players lots of choice and still have a good to great story. It isn't that hard. Good Dms have been doing it fir years.
 

vortex

Fabulous Optimist
Joined
Mar 25, 2016
Messages
4,221
Location
Temple of Alvilmelkedic
Guys, what do you think was BG3 overbudgeted and mismanaged for overbloating with cinematics and AAA graphics? If not for this we would already get finished version.
BG3 now requires 150 GB of drive space.
I think the project is overbloated. It should have been scaled down and than with this current approach went with BG4.
 
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Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
Sometimes it's nice to have AAA graphics in our grognard TB RPGs. The problem is not budget, it's writing talent imo.
 

Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
Messages
14,474
Location
Frostfell

jackofshadows

Magister
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Messages
4,490
What are your main issues with the game, just summarize and dont go into details?
- Theme-parky approach to the game map; too many shit cramped in closely together. Especially silly looking when you have the same "portals everywhere" design as in D:OS games. That said, Underdark looks great so far.

- Still to this point as far as I know too many barrels around.

- No day/night cycle. Nuff said except it's a massive issue.

- "Evul" branch is retartet but it's been rewritten so we'll see.

- Concerns regarding frontloading. Enough of an issue in itself to delay the purchase.
 

jackofshadows

Magister
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Messages
4,490
hat said, Underdark looks great so far.

What?

So far, this is the WORST underdark in any vydia. I saw underdark in Menzoberranzan, BG2:SoA, DDO, NWN:Hordes of the Underdark, Dark Sun : Wake of the Ravager and honestly, Larian is the FIRST video game developer to manage to make Underdark boring.
I was saying mostly in the context of theme-parky surface. Underdark represent a huge coherent location as it should be. It also very curvy again as it should and has enough of points of interest to me but again, located sparsely enough.

What's your idea of non-boring Underdark then? Don't say for starters it should be 45-55 lvl location though please.
 

Cryomancer

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Jul 11, 2019
Messages
14,474
Location
Frostfell
Don't say for starters it should be 45-55 lvl location though please.

Never said that. When I reached Menzoberranzan(city) in menzoberranzan(game), I was lv 10. In BG2:SoA, I reached underdark for the first time at lv 13. In Dark Sun : Wake of the Ravager, I reached underdark at lv 13(talking about my main character). That is not exactly epic level. My point is simple. Underdark should't be in the beginning of a low level adventure. You only get access to underdark in CRPG's in late part of the adventures. Even Hordes of the Underdark, only at chapter 2, you are in underdark and the adventure starts at lv 15~20(new char~importing char).

You can make it a mid level adventure, in Menzoberranzan, you spend most of the time in the underdark disguised. In NWN1 - HotU you go "guns blazing" destroying everything in your path. What is ridiculous is having it in freaking chapter 1 of a extremely low level adventure and nothing more than a few spiders with ridiculous levels of hp bloat.
 

Larianshill

Arbiter
Joined
Feb 16, 2021
Messages
1,719
So, since there are no BG3 news anyway, might as well discuss literally anything else. For example, reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGat...ally_like_the_fact_that_we_will_get_a_voiced/

This is a reddit thread praising BG3's voiced protagonist - a little bit odd, the protagonist is not and will not be voiced. There is otherwise literally nothing special about this thread or this opinion, just another fart in the void.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGat.../?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

This is literally the same thread, word for word, made by a different user a year ago. Why? But I ask again, why?
 

d1r

Busin 0 Wizardry Alternative Neo fanatic
Patron
Joined
Nov 6, 2011
Messages
3,577
Location
Germany
Voiced protag needs to go. We need custom voice sets instead.

Only getting like three or four retarded British voice sets would be a huge decline.
 

Pink Eye

Monk
Patron
Joined
Oct 10, 2019
Messages
5,793
Location
Space Refrigerator
I'm very into cock and ball torture
Take the Chalice 2 route. Make all the voice sets voiced by a sexy female. Problem solved! If I'm going to play a game for hundreds of hours, I'd rather listen to a female speak sweet nothings in my ear than some gruffy male.
 

d1r

Busin 0 Wizardry Alternative Neo fanatic
Patron
Joined
Nov 6, 2011
Messages
3,577
Location
Germany
Take the Chalice 2 route. Make all the voice sets voiced by a sexy female. Problem solved! If I'm going to play a game for hundreds of hours, I'd rather listen to a female speak sweet nothings in my ear than some gruffy male.

I actually want to play as Xzar in my first playthrough, so I need an option to use his voice sets.
 

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