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

[Thonius]

Okay, played the game quite a few hours (8+) and I can say with confidence that:

• Combat is boring and feels swingy
• The characters hold two handed swords in a weird way, with the blade always resting on the other hand. This looks good for two handed axes and okay with spears.
• Movement is a chore. Having to click every action makes it feel like I'm playing a point and click adventure. It also seems like the game has verticality for the sake of it, and very few places and situations make the mechanic feel fun.
• There are a lot of NPCs with nothing to say, which is fine in and of itself, but dialogue with said NCPs forces the sequence "exploration mode" - > "dialogue mode" -> "exploration mode" which becomes tiresome really fast. The solution has always been there: text floating over the character head, indicating their non-importance.
• Floor zone effects still are too many and don't feel impactful, making dealing with them a chore.
• Party control is nearly non-existent. The closest thing we have is dragging portraits to make sub-parties inside the main party. This becomes a problem quickly, since the application of this mechanic is context specific: sometimes you need to position the characters for combat, other times you want to scout ahead with your rogue or bring the wizard close to the aggro range of enemies to blast them with a fireball. The game instead offers the same end result with increased difficulty of use and no added benefit.
• Resting mechanic feels disconnected from the rest of the game. I assume that different maps will have the camp changing skins to match its sorroundings, but if that is the case how is the party transporting all their camping gear? At least in Pathfinder your characters are carrying backpacks.

All in all a very disappointing, frustrating and boring experience. I liked Shadowheart and Astarion is a fucking unbearable idiot.

No word on an exploration of a theme park design map?

 

[Testownia]

Okay, played the game quite a few hours (8+) and I can say with confidence that:

• Combat is boring and feels swingy
• The characters hold two handed swords in a weird way, with the blade always resting on the other hand. This looks good for two handed axes and okay with spears.
• Movement is a chore. Having to click every action makes it feel like I'm playing a point and click adventure. It also seems like the game has verticality for the sake of it, and very few places and situations make the mechanic feel fun.
• There are a lot of NPCs with nothing to say, which is fine in and of itself, but dialogue with said NCPs forces the sequence "exploration mode" - > "dialogue mode" -> "exploration mode" which becomes tiresome really fast. The solution has always been there: text floating over the character head, indicating their non-importance.
• Floor zone effects still are too many and don't feel impactful, making dealing with them a chore.
• Party control is nearly non-existent. The closest thing we have is dragging portraits to make sub-parties inside the main party. This becomes a problem quickly, since the application of this mechanic is context specific: sometimes you need to position the characters for combat, other times you want to scout ahead with your rogue or bring the wizard close to the aggro range of enemies to blast them with a fireball. The game instead offers the same end result with increased difficulty of use and no added benefit.
• Resting mechanic feels disconnected from the rest of the game. I assume that different maps will have the camp changing skins to match its sorroundings, but if that is the case how is the party transporting all their camping gear? At least in Pathfinder your characters are carrying backpacks.

All in all a very disappointing, frustrating and boring experience. I liked Shadowheart and Astarion is a fucking unbearable idiot.

No word on an exploration of a theme park design map?

At the tempo they're going at right now, the game in it's 1.0 state or, in other words, half-baked and half-broken, will arrive in 2022. Then another year to make it feature complete and bug-free.

 

[DemonKing]

At the tempo they're going at right now, the game in it's 1.0 state or, in other words, half-baked and half-broken, will arrive in 2022. Then another year to make it feature complete and bug-free.

So ultimate edition one year after release then (with saves incompatible with 1.0 release)? Seems pretty standard for Larian.

I'm assuming this will be on consoles too and is not just a PC release?

 

[Sharpedge]

Gents, penny just dropped, isn't BG3 meant to have controller support? So how the fuck does the Toilet Chain work on it? 'Cause I can't imagine it involves "dragging" portraits in and out of the stack, it's gotta be a button press sort of thing, right?

Console support is the reason I assume most of the UI is crap. I can't imagine a nice way to use radial menus on a console without a Keyboard and Mouse.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Okay, played the game quite a few hours (8+) and I can say with confidence that:

• Combat is boring and feels swingy
• The characters hold two handed swords in a weird way, with the blade always resting on the other hand. This looks good for two handed axes and okay with spears.
• Movement is a chore. Having to click every action makes it feel like I'm playing a point and click adventure. It also seems like the game has verticality for the sake of it, and very few places and situations make the mechanic feel fun.
• There are a lot of NPCs with nothing to say, which is fine in and of itself, but dialogue with said NCPs forces the sequence "exploration mode" - > "dialogue mode" -> "exploration mode" which becomes tiresome really fast. The solution has always been there: text floating over the character head, indicating their non-importance.
• Floor zone effects still are too many and don't feel impactful, making dealing with them a chore.
• Party control is nearly non-existent. The closest thing we have is dragging portraits to make sub-parties inside the main party. This becomes a problem quickly, since the application of this mechanic is context specific: sometimes you need to position the characters for combat, other times you want to scout ahead with your rogue or bring the wizard close to the aggro range of enemies to blast them with a fireball. The game instead offers the same end result with increased difficulty of use and no added benefit.
• Resting mechanic feels disconnected from the rest of the game. I assume that different maps will have the camp changing skins to match its sorroundings, but if that is the case how is the party transporting all their camping gear? At least in Pathfinder your characters are carrying backpacks.

All in all a very disappointing, frustrating and boring experience. I liked Shadowheart and Astarion is a fucking unbearable idiot.

No word on an exploration of a theme park design map?

At the tempo they're going at right now, the game in it's 1.0 state or, in other words, half-baked and half-broken, will arrive in 2022. Then another year to make it feature complete and bug-free.

DOS1 & 2 didn't have very many bugs at all at release.
DOS2's biggest bug was probably the journal frequently not updating correctly.

At the tempo they're going at right now, the game in it's 1.0 state or, in other words, half-baked and half-broken, will arrive in 2022. Then another year to make it feature complete and bug-free.

So ultimate edition one year after release then (with saves incompatible with 1.0 release)? Seems pretty standard for Larian.

I'm assuming this will be on consoles too and is not just a PC release?

DOSEE and DOS2DE were major revisions to the game along with a lot of added content, not just a bunch of bugfixes like most games.

 

[Infinitron]

Baldur's Gate 3 is currently still officially a PC-exclusive (but obviously will come out on consoles at some point).

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I can't imagine a nice way to use radial menus on a console without a Keyboard and Mouse.

...

much of ToEE's UX is unsurpassed to this day tbh

 

[Ninjerk]

Lilura what did you do with rusty_shackleford Give him his account back.

 

[Serious_Business]

I actually bought this stupid shit. Talk about a lack of self-respect. This is the infinite becoming of being a little bitch ; you just come back for more because you don't know any better. This is what I'll fucking write on my tombstone : "bought BG3, shame"

 

[Ghulgothas]

This is what I'll fucking write on my tombstone : "bought BG3, shame"

You're not focusing on the source of the shame. "Sold myself out for a $60 Early Access and crawled back begging for more for all the while" is more on the money.

 

[Delterius]

if you feel like buying something but also that you won't enjoy yourself with BG3 you can always just send me the money

 

[Brujoloco]

Okay, played the game quite a few hours (8+) and I can say with confidence that:

• Combat is boring and feels swingy
• The characters hold two handed swords in a weird way, with the blade always resting on the other hand. This looks good for two handed axes and okay with spears.
• Movement is a chore. Having to click every action makes it feel like I'm playing a point and click adventure. It also seems like the game has verticality for the sake of it, and very few places and situations make the mechanic feel fun.
• There are a lot of NPCs with nothing to say, which is fine in and of itself, but dialogue with said NCPs forces the sequence "exploration mode" - > "dialogue mode" -> "exploration mode" which becomes tiresome really fast. The solution has always been there: text floating over the character head, indicating their non-importance.
• Floor zone effects still are too many and don't feel impactful, making dealing with them a chore.
• Party control is nearly non-existent. The closest thing we have is dragging portraits to make sub-parties inside the main party. This becomes a problem quickly, since the application of this mechanic is context specific: sometimes you need to position the characters for combat, other times you want to scout ahead with your rogue or bring the wizard close to the aggro range of enemies to blast them with a fireball. The game instead offers the same end result with increased difficulty of use and no added benefit.
• Resting mechanic feels disconnected from the rest of the game. I assume that different maps will have the camp changing skins to match its sorroundings, but if that is the case how is the party transporting all their camping gear? At least in Pathfinder your characters are carrying backpacks.

All in all a very disappointing, frustrating and boring experience. I liked Shadowheart and Astarion is a fucking unbearable idiot.

Bah, been skimming the thread for the past minutes. I am truly saddened BG3 seems to be another wasted potential of a game IP. I remember seeing the first plays of people in Youtube and feeling very very underwhelmed so decided to put it out of mind as I keep replaying some of my old favs.

I wonder if the game itself will be open to modding.

Personally I feel that modern games that open themselves via Official Modding Tools, Dev Input or a strong community that reverse engineers the game not only help the game directly but give it a much longer life in your mind and memories

 

[Brujoloco]

if you feel like buying something but also that you won't enjoy yourself with BG3 you can always just send me the money

This reminds me of a friend that some years before the pandemic used to spend half his salary buying exclusives, pre orders and all the bells and whistles on games only to play them some days and discard them as awful.

I more or less asked him to stop doing that, as he had the habit of saying in my whatsapp group how bad they were, and begin saving all that money and putting it in a fund or savings account.

Skip to 2021 and he now moans about why he never listened to my advice (he really spent thousands on them for years) so yes, in a sense you are correct.

He now roams the strange bays of the internet to do the same now that he is unemployed.

 

[rojay]

I can't imagine a nice way to use radial menus on a console without a Keyboard and Mouse.

...

much of ToEE's UX is unsurpassed to this day tbh

No shit.

 

[Testownia]

Okay, played the game quite a few hours (8+) and I can say with confidence that:

• Combat is boring and feels swingy
• The characters hold two handed swords in a weird way, with the blade always resting on the other hand. This looks good for two handed axes and okay with spears.
• Movement is a chore. Having to click every action makes it feel like I'm playing a point and click adventure. It also seems like the game has verticality for the sake of it, and very few places and situations make the mechanic feel fun.
• There are a lot of NPCs with nothing to say, which is fine in and of itself, but dialogue with said NCPs forces the sequence "exploration mode" - > "dialogue mode" -> "exploration mode" which becomes tiresome really fast. The solution has always been there: text floating over the character head, indicating their non-importance.
• Floor zone effects still are too many and don't feel impactful, making dealing with them a chore.
• Party control is nearly non-existent. The closest thing we have is dragging portraits to make sub-parties inside the main party. This becomes a problem quickly, since the application of this mechanic is context specific: sometimes you need to position the characters for combat, other times you want to scout ahead with your rogue or bring the wizard close to the aggro range of enemies to blast them with a fireball. The game instead offers the same end result with increased difficulty of use and no added benefit.
• Resting mechanic feels disconnected from the rest of the game. I assume that different maps will have the camp changing skins to match its sorroundings, but if that is the case how is the party transporting all their camping gear? At least in Pathfinder your characters are carrying backpacks.

All in all a very disappointing, frustrating and boring experience. I liked Shadowheart and Astarion is a fucking unbearable idiot.

Bah, been skimming the thread for the past minutes. I am truly saddened BG3 seems to be another wasted potential of a game IP. I remember seeing the first plays of people in Youtube and feeling very very underwhelmed so decided to put it out of mind as I keep replaying some of my old favs.

I wonder if the game itself will be open to modding.

Personally I feel that modern games that open themselves via Official Modding Tools, Dev Input or a strong community that reverse engineers the game not only help the game directly but give it a much longer life in your mind and memories

At the very least Larian is taking into account community feedback. So if you wish anything changed, you should round up anyone you can and write them, write them, write them. SJW whales have proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that bitching at companies gets things done.

 

[Salvo]

At the very least Larian is taking into account community feedback

Tuco Benedicto Pacifico

 

[Grunker]

I can't imagine a nice way to use radial menus on a console without a Keyboard and Mouse.

...

much of ToEE's UX is unsurpassed to this day tbh

It was when I saw those menus I knew that RPGs would have a shitty future

 

[Gargaune]

Console support is the reason I assume most of the UI is crap. I can't imagine a nice way to use radial menus on a console without a Keyboard and Mouse.

Baldur's Gate 3 is currently still officially a PC-exclusive (but obviously will come out on consoles at some point).

My point is that BG3 controller support will require some sort of "button press" interaction to chain and unchain characters from the stack. If Larian keep ignoring the obvious need for Shift+Click selection on PC, they might just earn the dubious distinction of making the first ever cRPG to control easier on the PlayBakws.

...

much of ToEE's UX is unsurpassed to this day tbh

A bit of ToEE's UX is unsurpassed to this day. The Radial Menu was absolutely excellent, but the rest of the UI was a steaming trainwreck.

As for the Radial Menu itself, it's probably the best still, though NWN comes as a close second. The chief distinction is that ToEE's is quicker by virtue of expanding on mouse-over. NWN's requires clicking and "enters" categories, but it's better spaced out on the screen since ToEE's "pie slices" can get fiddly to select when there are a lot of sub-options.

 

[Lacrymas]

Given how both D:OS1 and 2 can be played on consoles and have the same chain grouping scheme, BG3 wouldn't be the first. I actually played D:OS1 with a controller once, but I don't remember how unchaining and chaining worked.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Poorly.

 

[Black]

the rest of the UI was a steaming trainwreck.

How so? The combat log combined with its glossary to this day make for the best combat log in all of video games and gives you an actual tabletop/dnd experience without shoving d20 icons down your throat.

 

[Gargaune]

Given how both D:OS1 and 2 can be played on consoles and have the same chain grouping scheme, BG3 wouldn't be the first.

That's a fair point, I drew a blank on D:OS on console. So I guess it won't even be a distinction, just another instance of established Decline.

How so? The combat log combined with its glossary to this day make for the best combat log in all of video games and gives you an actual tabletop/dnd experience without shoving d20 icons down your throat.

The way I've summed this up before is "haphazard button placement, poor partition of screen space, arbitrary, unreliable modality, and insufficient feedback". I won't go at length about each and every misstep, would take too long, but to give you a few examples, you've got no context menu, can't inspect equipped items, modal equipment and char sheets while the inventory uses up space with gigantic icons, no party orientation, insufficient spell descriptions etc. Even the combat log suffers - while the hyperlink functionality is great, the poor screen partitioning had it crammed to the side when a wider frame could've comfortably showed you the rolls without the extra clicks.

ToEE's UI successes are the radial menu, log hyperlinking and party formation editor, but almost every other UI element was due significant iteration and improvement. Don't get me wrong, it's not BG3 Toilet Chain-levels of concentrated fail, you could put up with ToEE's UI, but there was room for much better.

 

[Fedora Master]

"Hey guys I played this Alpha of a known bad game by a known bad game dev and it was bad, what gives?"

 

[Brujoloco]

"Hey guys I played this Alpha of a known bad game by a known bad game dev and it was bad, what gives?"

As a newcomer of sorts I must confess I enjoy the RPG Codex Community a ton

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Gargaune In NWN, you could use the numpad to rapidly traverse the radial menu. Also, I recall that if you held the left mouse button after bringing it up, it would auto select whatever you put your cursor over. This allowed you to access any "depth" of the radial menus with only 2 clicks.