Game News Baldur's Gate 3 Community Update #1: The Secret Sauce of Dungeons & Dragons

[GreyViper]

Agreed as much as Id like Owlcat to do BG3 I think they need few more bug-free titles under their belt. And nothing stops them trying to negotiate with WoTC another D&D game set in Faerun or maybe even Ravenloft.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Yeah, clearly Owlcat is better for that, but... nobody likes upstarts sadly, and they are like that - too good, and too Easter European.

Would you trust them with a project this important, after the way Kingmaker was released?

They need to have a relatively bug free release of a large project, before any franchise this big will actually go to them.

It will probably happen after they properly release another couple of games.

I would much rather have a buggy game that faithfully adapts the pen & paper ruleset (that eventually gets patched) than a less buggy game that has very little interest in adapting the ruleset. Larian has talked about adhering to D&D lore, which is very different from adhering to D&D.

Owlcat made a great CRPG, they just released it six months too soon. But they made everyone in their studio play the Kingmaker adventure path and that’s exactly the right way to adapt this kind of property—it’s how BioWare made BG and BG2. You can fix bugs, you can’t really fix bad design choices.

 

[Lycra Suit]

I believe that Sven is the right guy to direct Baldur's Gate. And judging from the trailer it seems they won't go for their usual cartoon style so that's already a good sign.

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

Unfortunately, not unlike Obsidian, Owlcat's sole Inspiration seems the tabletop though, whilst they're at the same time cramming their systems into a format that is trying to ape BG. E.g. Bioware back then were also majorly inspired by their Warcraft 2 multiplayer sessions, that's how the entire combat format now refered to as RtWP came to be -- and had a better understanding of what may translate into real-time and what probably wouldn't. As a result, this were an even better game if it had been developed with turn-based in mind (Encounter design included).

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

As long as it doesn't get corny I'll follow their newsletter. I mean.. he won't do music videos... will he?

Spoiler

 

[luj1]

Yeah, clearly Owlcat is better for that, but... nobody likes upstarts sadly, and they are like that - too good, and too Easter European.

Would you trust them with a project this important, after the way Kingmaker was released?

True but there is a big difference. You can fix bugs eventually, you can't fix goofy writing, art direction or bad systems.

 

[Fenix]

Would you trust them with a project this important, after the way Kingmaker was released?

I think it was first and last time with mess like this, or their next game wont sell at all because everybody will be waiting for major patching.
It already can cut down sales of their future games.

 

[hpstg]

I would much rather have a buggy game that faithfully adapts the pen & paper ruleset (that eventually gets patched) than a less buggy game that has very little interest in adapting the ruleset. Larian has talked about adhering to D&D lore, which is very different from adhering to D&D.

Owlcat made a great CRPG, they just released it six months too soon. But they made everyone in their studio play the Kingmaker adventure path and that’s exactly the right way to adapt this kind of property—it’s how BioWare made BG and BG2. You can fix bugs, you can’t really fix bad design choices.

I know that the Codex has a hardon for 100% adapted D&D rules, but if anything, BG games actually showed you can have a good game that doesn't follow the rules 100%. I would say that Larian deserves a chance to at least show what they think on this.
The (possible) turn-based combat is already huge incline, and don't forget that tabletop rules don't necessarily fit well with computer games.

True but there is a big difference. You can fix bugs eventually, you can't fix goofy writing, art direction or bad systems.

I would argue that a game with that many bugs, implies bad backend programming for tools like quest creators etc. It took Obsidian more than five years to end up with a set of internal tools that minimise bugs of that sort. They have to at least have a proper internal tooling. I am not so sure they do, even by seeing the state of patches after the game was released.

I think it was first and last time with mess like this, or their next game wont sell at all because everybody will be waiting for major patching.
It already can cut down sales of their future games.

I agree 100%. The "press" would also mention that it was made by a company that got "middle of the pack" reviews and a buggy game, and it would completely deflate the effect that the game has now, when Larian was announced to be making it.
From a publisher standpoint, it's not even close.

 

[Bohr]

I know that the Codex has a hardon for 100% adapted D&D rules, but if anything, BG games actually showed you can have a good game that doesn't follow the rules 100%. I would say that Larian deserves a chance to at least show what they think on this.
The (possible) turn-based combat is already huge incline, and don't forget that tabletop rules don't necessarily fit well with computer games.

Sure, some form of compromise is usually necessary to transfer tabletop systems to a CRPG, but from the implementations we've seen over the years some have tried to implement as much as possible in terms of D&D systems given time/budget/practical gameplay considerations, whereas at the other end of the spectrum there have been games that seemed to mostly want the logo on their product while doing their own thing. BG, for all its imperfections, came across as being the first camp. Missteps like Sword Coast Legends and many others definitely fell into the latter.

It's obviously far too early to tell where on the scale Larian will come in (just as I'm not getting too excited about 'TB incline' until we hear something definitive), but the comments are reminiscent of what the SCL devs were spouting, as is the stuff coming out of WOTC about attracting a broader audience of gamers who aren't interested at all in D&D mechanics - and even the vagueness on the systems in favour of talk of 'the spirit'/story of D&D. It will of course be much bigger and shinier than shovelware like SCL and maybe Larian will produce an amazing system and all the concerns will turn out to be unfounded. But given what we have to go on right now, at a time in the dev cycle where we're always overanalysing scraps of info and deciding it will be shit, it's not surprising to see some of the reaction imo.

 

[hpstg]

But given what we have to go on right now, at a time in the dev cycle where we're always overanalysing scraps of info and deciding it will be shit, it's not surprising to see some of the reaction imo.

That's the largest issue, I think. We really have nothing to go on. If anything, DoS 2 showed that people will buy and play fairly hardcore Rpgs, if the whole package is compelling enough.

Maybe that's what they're aiming for.

 

[GreyViper]

I'm more curious if Larian is going to take BG1 or BG2 as a reference point or are they going to go their own way and do something totally different? One hand they can cater to the old fans while on the other hand, they could come up with something nobody expects (Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance).
What I did take away from the video they released, it's not going to be former Divinity project transferred into D&D.