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

[Shadenuat]

And if your home is a famous library

wow so epic.

and the quests. carry a scroll, heal a cow, kill 3 rats.

they sure did know how to make action flicks even without mr Bay back then.

 

[Lawntoilet]

And if your home is a famous library

wow so epic.

and the quests. carry a scroll, heal a cow, kill 3 rats.

they sure did know how to make action flicks even without mr Bay back then.

Don't forget: get a sword and a hangover potion
And HURRY!

 

[rusty_shackleford]

If a character falls asleep(sleep spell, ...) you can zoom in on them and hear them snoring.

 

[Sweeper]

If a character falls asleep(sleep spell, ...) you can zoom in on them and hear them snoring.

No need for any of that. I'm playing BG3, I'm the guy who's snoring.

 

[MicoSelva]

MicoSelva you know what is expected of you.

I hope you do not mean playing something that is in Early Access, because I'm not doing that shit.

 

[Drakortha]

MicoSelva you know what is expected of you.

I hope you do not mean playing something that is in Early Access, because I'm not doing that shit.

Why not? Larian need's your valuable feedback, it's not about the money. In a few more days there will be the obligatory community update video from Swen where he will thank you so much for your support and tell you you're amazing. Isn't that worth it to you?

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

And if your home is a famous library

wow so epic.

Considering the kind of books it had, yes.

The point is it wasn't a farm. Though you wouldn't know it from boring quests.

and the quests. carry a scroll, heal a cow, kill 3 rats.

they sure did know how to make action flicks even without mr Bay back then.

Yeah, if only we could kill rats or deal with a cow that has the shits. Excitement? Interesting things happening? Oh no!

And Michael Bay movies aren't bad because they're exciting, they're bad because there's nothing beyond the explosions on the screen. They're hollow movies that are all action, which is hardly a description of BG3. I think that's been said repeatedly.

If explosions and an actually interesting start are a turn off, please, go play PoE instead. It has all the boredom you can handle.

 

[underground nymph]

I very much like that distance matters combat-wise. This makes me use more versatile builds and overall I tend not to focus only on one aspect of fighting capabilities e.g. melee.

Another good thing about combat is that you can’t just make one tank and cheese the fuck out of every fight (I’m looking at you Valerie). Instead AI tends to ignore your beefy warriors and strikes a weak spot. This again makes you keep everyone prepared for close combat.

Overall I’m finding combat stuff in this game damn fun though needing lot of polish.

 

[jackofshadows]

What I liked:

- Visuals. Although I am still waiting for their armor dirt system, because for now it looks ridiculously shiny. And I'm implying they'll replace various old assets because if not...
- Reactivity/C&C. What I love about Arcanum and VTMB the most is probably this particular aspect. The fact that Larian are really going for it has shocked me to the core.

I was fortunate to pick a drow because as far as I know, they got majority of reactions, so it's kinda deceiving in regard custom char vs origin char experience but impressive nonetheless.

Branching is real and it's awesome. Big scale, small scale, plot wise, meaningless shit wise... Excited to see more.

- Premise/Story. I agree with the points earlier about deconstruction and harvesting, sucking on established setting but why should I care, exactly? Please, harvest the shit out of FR and bring in whatever you can: space ships, the old Gods(?), some famous NPCs, devils and let me enjoy all of it. Just save something for the next game in case of this one turns out to be actually good. Also, premise itself working for their disgusting origin concept perfectly, I must admit.
- Companions. I'm genuinely surprised. The more I play, the more I grow on these evil cunts, Gale is very promising as well (and the warlock is dead, unfortunately). I'm not even sure to sell vampirefag away or not!
- Advanced romance system/Fantasy porn. Say what you want about juvenile romances in BG2 but they've added a lot of flavour to the game. So I'm definitely exited for this addition here. Furthermore, writing wise, and I can't believe at what am I'm about to type, but I have some faith in Larian's team here based on what I've seen.

As for porn, I'm judging by only one scene and it looks godawful atm but I'm sure they'll tune this shit up. Mocap of fucking being working remotely is hard, I presume (this concerns any kind of mocap obviously but I just wanted to type "mocap of fucking").

What I disliked:

- Map design. This is spoiling it for me big time. Everyone is saying that it's basically a "theme park" and it's true, damn it! Makes. No. Sense. Who would've thought that one might feel claustrophobic while being at a hueg map? Well, maybe it wouldn't that bad if not the next point. That said, dungeons are really good so far.
- Teleports/Camp system. It's my biggest gripe and it might potentially ruin the whole experience for me. If not for D:OS games I would've thought that teleports everywhere is just for EA's sake, for testers players convenience since they're not using console extensively. But no, of course not. It's a part of casual at its worst design and it strips out any feel of "journey" they keep speaking of.

When you loot, you can just send every relatively valuable item to camp via one click and later on stand next to a trader, pick the whole pile from the camp, teleport back and sell it all. Convenient but stupid beyond belief. You must have a weight mechanic and inventory management system in RPG. When you sneaking or stealing any sense of danger fucks off because you can fast-travel anywhere via map any second. Simply ridiculous.

When I've learned that they've cut day/night cycle I was disappointed to hear that. Well, I'm still is but turns out, they tried to make camp not just a camp but a compromise to said cycle since it's closing a day every time and often brings various events with companions, apparently. Problem is, you're not forced to take rests - game is piss easy on basic difficulty, even if you got hit, food is, like, everywhere to heal up not to mention other sources so the whole progression system via camp becomes questionable.

- Dice rolls. It has been discussed: the way it's implemented now feels like there're no specialists and everything is too random even if it's not exactly true (+5 is no joke) and faithful to the tabletop. That said, recent podcast convinced me that thanks to future optional loaded dice/flat checks (if they'll pull that off, Swen didn't exactly promised this) coupled with careful approach to losing high rolls will make this aspect fine.

They also have to work on check passing rewards: for now it mostly looks like classic munchkin's dilemma: deliberately fail dialogue check with some bandits and gain exp+loot or pass the check and suck a dick receive a pat on the head.

- MP/Co-op mechanics that makes no sense in a SP:

During any dialogue there's an option to change char. First I thought "wow, so cool, I can probably pick the other char to persuade here". But no, it's for stealing paintings again, apparently. Idiotic.

When some of your party members are engaged in a fight and others are not it can be exploited via stealth tremendously. Stealth is a separate topic though, you have to pass a check at least once even if you're behind someone's back, otherwise it suddenly brings an arcade mechanic that no one asked for into RPG.

- UI/UX. I'm not pissed with it as some others since at least hot-bars can be adjusted to a degree but it's still a mess and looks like dogshit. Where any art-direction, damn it? It's not a fucking MMO, Larian.

Combat log is next to useless, pathetic. To be fair, it allowed me to confirm that Lae'zel, being on the roof was hit by a guy with a fucking greatsword who was still inside the building

Spoiler

Overall, I'm curious about this project. It still might turns out to be great, even if some of its design flaws from my standpoint aren't going to be solved at all.

As the thing with past tense dialogues has shown us, Larian are ready to make drastic changes but also that they're lacking in terms of vision so judging the final shape of product is far, far too early.

 

[Murk]

What I'm really hopeful for is future premium modules as well. If Larian releases the editor we may potentially get some really awesome fan or premium modules.

Not to mention the ability to add any classes/races/whatever else that isn't in the base game.

 

[Darth Roxor]

What I'm really hopeful for is future premium modules as well. If Larian releases the editor we may potentially get some really awesome fan or premium modules.

i feel like everyone always says that for every game that comes out with an editor nowadays and yet i still have to see one that actually delivers those hundreds of awesum fan mods

 

[Shadenuat]

Yeah, if only we could kill rats or deal with a cow that has the shits. Excitement? Interesting things happening? Oh no!

Faerun always was absurdly high magic and retarded flipping mountains shit, but the fact that bg and iwd somehow managed to keep it within realms of what players don't consider retarded was surprisingly clever move from their developers.

Why do you insist on working against this, doesn't D&D5 to an extent itself tries to work to keep things sane? Are you so easily amused? Maybe visit an amusement park, ride a carousel with horses.

If explosions and an actually interesting start are a turn off, please, go play PoE instead. It has all the boredom you can handle.

Most people agree beginning of POE, villages + dark castle, is actually best part.

Most people think gods walking around yet still doing kinda nothing in Deadfire was a big problem.

People need normality to be excited by magical things.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

- MP/Co-op mechanics that makes no sense in a SP:

During any dialogue there's an option to change char. First I thought "wow, so cool, I can probably pick the other char to persuade here". But no, it's for stealing paintings again, apparently. Idiotic.

You can switch to a different character to buff the character in dialogue to help pass a check btw.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The combat physics are impressive with regards to projectile pathfinding. Shooting a crossbow through small holes in a wall at an enemy, jumping through windows, etc.,
also, the 'ghost' that shows up to represent where you'll be moved to is very nice

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Faerun always was absurdly high magic and retarded flipping mountains shit, but the fact that bg and iwd somehow managed to keep it within realms of what players don't consider retarded was surprisingly clever move from their developers.

Again, the Illithid are the main antagonists. It was never going to be low magic.

I’d really love to go in circles with you about things I’ve already discussed with others, but it’s pointless.

Arcanum will never change it’s intro no matter how many times you complain that an airship being shot down by half-ogre fighter pilots is too “bombastic” and neither will BG3.

To bad, so sad. I’m sure Larian will cry all the way to the bank.

But hey, at least you have that sweet, slow tutorial in BG1 to play through over and over. Enjoy.

 

[underground nymph]

The combat physics are impressive with regards to projectile pathfinding. Shooting a crossbow through small holes in a wall at an enemy, jumping through windows, etc.,
also, the 'ghost' that shows up to represent where you'll be moved to is very nice

Yes, for example some part of magic missiles’ projectiles which have somewhat bended trajectory can hit an obstacle, while the rest of them will land where needed.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Most people think gods walking around yet still doing kinda nothing in Deadfire was a big problem.

The problem was that you can just wander off and do anything when you're supposed to be chasing a god.
If you try to help people in BG3 your companions not-so-politely remind you that you have a parasite eating your brain and to hurry the fuck up.

 

[underground nymph]

Again, the Illithid are the main antagonists.

Highly doubt this. Guess we’ll have some kind of a plot twist.

Spoiler

That chapel in the beginning and the undead there which will follow your camp. Does it all have something to do with Jergal? Bhaalspawn saga everybody

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Again, the Illithid are the main antagonists.

Highly doubt this. Guess we’ll have some kind of a plot twist.

Spoiler

That chapel in the beginning and the undead there which will follow your camp. Does it all have something to do with Jergal? Bhaalspawn saga everybody

Spoiler

There's no way to tell if it's just a throwaway note or not, but there's a note referencing someone who believes themselves to be Sarevok and otherwise seems to not remember anything.

 

[Shadenuat]

If you try to help people in BG3 your companions not-so-politely remind you that you have a parasite eating your brain and to hurry the fuck up.

And? Nothing will happen anyway, because parasite is magically sealed. Plus companions chatter about walking god in Deadfire too, Eder in particular takes it all personally even after he was rewritten into a more silly person.

Arcanum will never change it’s intro no matter how many times you complain that an airship being shot down by half-ogre fighter pilots is too “bombastic”

Arcanum also claims you're the Chosen one, yet your first task is very mundane. Its whole schtick is subverting expectations.

 

[Sarathiour]

https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/diversity-and-dnd

I really wish i could unread that and pretend that it never happened .

 

[rusty_shackleford]

If you try to help people in BG3 your companions not-so-politely remind you that you have a parasite eating your brain and to hurry the fuck up.

And? Nothing will happen anyway, because parasite is magically sealed. Plus companions chatter about walking god in Deadfire too, Eder in particular takes it all personally even after he was rewritten into a more silly person.

You have no way to know that until near the very end of act 1

Spoiler

Because a powerful rogue illithid tells you so

And even then, it's not much of a sure thing.

It's a moot point anyways because nearly all the quests in the first act are very well designed with this in mind. They're all either directly about removing the tadpole or are a subquest in one of those. There are few quests that have you just go do random, unrelated stuff that I can think of unlike dumpsterfire.

 

[underground nymph]

Again, the Illithid are the main antagonists.

Highly doubt this. Guess we’ll have some kind of a plot twist.

Spoiler

That chapel in the beginning and the undead there which will follow your camp. Does it all have something to do with Jergal? Bhaalspawn saga everybody

Spoiler

There's no way to tell if it's just a throwaway note or not, but there's a note referencing someone who believes themselves to be Sarevok and otherwise seems to not remember anything.

Another nice thing to do is to read notes that could be found here and there. Haven’t I read one of them I wouldn’t have found

Spoiler

the Sorrow

.

 

[Xamenos]

If you try to help people in BG3 your companions not-so-politely remind you that you have a parasite eating your brain and to hurry the fuck up.

And? Nothing will happen anyway, because parasite is magically sealed. Plus companions chatter about walking god in Deadfire too, Eder in particular takes it all personally even after he was rewritten into a more silly person.

You have no way to know that until near the very end of act 1

And you had no way to know you're a Bhaalspawin in BG1 until way, way later, but you have no problem bringing that up to justify why a random hobo shanking your foster father in a forest is just as epic as red dragons chasing a spaceship into hell.

Man, those defenses of BG3 as more grounded because you're a random nobody will not age well if it turns out you're a Bhaalspawn as has been theorised.

 

[Shadenuat]

You have no way to know that

Oh come on, we are rpg adults here. We know developers wouldn't allow player fail on a meta level, and you can't fail, so, as you see, the premise of the quests you need to solve asap actually doesn't matter.

It's a moot point anyways because nearly all the quests in the first act are very well designed with this in mind

Yeah, fair enough. But what next? One can't design whole gigantic world with side quests like that forever.