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

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Why aren't they just PAYING people to work at their boot?

 

[underground nymph]

Why aren't they just PAYING people to work at their boot?

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1086940/view/3103549331483165019

Hotfix #22 Now Live!
Version Number: 4.1.1.1501963

Hello everyone,

We’re back with a new hotfix for you today, looking at multiple crashes, bugs, and pesky glitches.

Have you ever turned up at a party and felt like an uninvited guest? Well, for some of you, the Druid Grove was that party. And that uninvited guest? Well, you. An unusual glitch was making characters back at the Grove hostile towards characters that have been to the Zhentarim Hideout - recognising them as both ‘criminals’ and ‘trespassers’ upon their return to the Grove. We’ve put in a polite word with the druids, or at least talked with the animals in our local petting zoo, and they should be a little more understanding now.

As ever, thank you so much for reporting these issues to us via all our usual channels - we always welcome your feedback as we forge this adventure together. Thank you for playing Baldur’s Gate 3.

CRASHES

• The game no longer crashes if you attack Brakkal's cage with the Magic Missile spell.
  
• The game no longer crashes when you climb down certain rocks in the Whispering Depths.
  
• Fixed a rare crash that occurred when loading a save game.

GAMEPLAY

• The entire Druid Grove no longer becomes hostile towards you when you return after having entered the Zhentarim Hideout.
  
• Killing Polma no longer causes the inactive companions at camp to become hostile.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the game to think Surfaces on bridges and other raised walkways were actually on the ground beneath them.

UI

• You can no longer remove hotbar icons for followers and temporary companions.
  
• Tooltips now display the action point cost of certain passive features.
  
• Closing the panel that pops up when you open a container now closes the correct panel.
  
• Clicking on a filter in the inventory now displays the Party Inventory.
  
• You can now sort the items listed on your Character Sheet with the Party Inventory filter as expected.
  
• Hovering your mouse over ‘Attack Bonus’ and ‘Damage’ in the Character Sheet now highlights the background and opens a tooltip.
  
• Fixed the sorting pop-up in the character panels.

AUDIOVISUAL

• The game audio no longer gets muffled when you press the I key from the Party View.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented Shadowheart from talking on the beach if she was recruited on the nautiloid.

MULTIPLAYER

• You no longer get blocked from modifying your character’s looks, spells, and ability scores if you cancel your Venture Forth.
  
• Fixed an issue causing the 'Waiting for other players' pop-up to appear in single player.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

• The game no longer crashes if you attack Brakkal's cage with the Magic Missile spell.

Bugs like this are always among the weirdest and difficult to understand for me.
Like, what part of your code should even trigger some issue SPECIFICALLY because a certain spell was used to break a certain mundane item.

 

[Efe]

probably it was dealing damage to an object lacking hit points.

 

[Cael]

If it was Magic Missile, it could be the Force damage. It is pretty unique as the only low level Force damage spell available.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

• The game no longer crashes if you attack Brakkal's cage with the Magic Missile spell.

Bugs like this are always among the weirdest and difficult to understand for me.
Like, what part of your code should even trigger some issue SPECIFICALLY because a certain spell was used to break a certain mundane item.

likely involving the unique homing animation/pathing it has

 

[hell bovine]

If it was Magic Missile, it could be the Force damage. It is pretty unique as the only low level Force damage spell available.

Eldritch blast does force dmg.

 

[Infinitron]

https://schedule.gdconf.com/session/the-many-challenges-of-making-baldurs-gate-3/882170

The Many Challenges of Making 'Baldur's Gate 3'

Just how difficult is it to create a long awaited sequel to a beloved series? How hard can it be to follow up from a critical success like Divinity: Original Sin 2? Working on Baldur's Gate 3 is a monumental challenge, responsibility and exciting prospect. But assuming the objective is to continue to improve, innovate and invent great new ways of making and experiencing games, what are the major challenges when doing so? How can you manage a community's expectations? And what possible tools do you develop for a new way of telling your stories?

Swen Vincke (Creative Director) from Larian Studios, will present the various challenges and lessons Larian has learned during the development of Baldur's Gate 3. From dealing with fan expectations and establishing the team's own vision, to scaling up effectively without jeopardising the core beliefs that got Larian to where it is today.

Takeaway
Attendees will learn about the pitfalls of growing a team, developing your own engine and the challenges of creating new tools that affect your entire team and pipeline. They'll hear of several lessons learned during the ongoing development of Baldur's Gate 3 and how to turn those lessons from failures into future successes.

Intended Audience
Anyone from the design, production, writing and marketing departments can benefit from this presentation. There is no prerequisite knowledge required, and all contextual information will be provided during the session.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamer.com/larians-bal...gger-than-when-it-made-divinity-original-sin/

Larian's Baldur's Gate 3 team is 10 times bigger than when it made Divinity: Original Sin
The studio chose to scale up instead of scaling down its vision, which it calls 'the benchmark incarnation of D&D 5th Edition.'

Larian Studios always goes all-in. After nearly bankrupting itself to make Divinity: Original Sin, Larian tripled in size to pull off an ambitious sequel, growing to around 150 developers. With one of the best RPGs of the decade under its belt, Larian then set out to make Baldur's Gate 3. A year in pre-production let them build out estimates of how much work this even more ambitious game would take, hiring developers to work on fancy cinematics Divinity didn't have. "We thought we had it all figured out. We even estimated how big we'd have to become," said Larian founder Swen Vincke.

They were wrong.

"I never expected us to be 400 people to make BG3," Vincke told me. "Nobody expected it. But it's literally what we needed to do it. We had a choice. There was a moment where we started understanding what we needed to do to make this game. We thought we understood. Then we actually really understood. And so we had two choices: we could scale it down, or we could scale ourselves up. And so we chose to scale ourselves up."

I asked Vincke where he thinks BG3 fits within the broader D&D landscape, in all its forms, and the answer came easily. "The benchmark incarnation of 5th Edition in a videogame," he said. "That's what we're trying to do. I think it's already very good, and it's still getting better."

The growth for Baldur's Gate 3 means Larian is nearly 10 times the size it was in 2014 making Original Sin, now spread across 7 studios around the world. Cinematics were a huge complicating factor that affected everything else in the game, even dramatically impacting the writing process. On Original Sin 2, the writers could tinker with text until essentially the last minute, thanks to an automated pipeline they built that would send new text straight to the recording studios for actors to record the next day. But that doesn't work when every dialogue scene is meticulously animated—writing has gone from one of the first steps in the process to one of the last.

"There are so many steps in between now, so many people that need to look at it," Vincke said. "Cinematic designers, cinematic animators, the casting director, lighting, VFX, SFX. So you don't just add a line like that anymore. You're very aware of your cinematic budget, the cost, and the waterfall that follows from it. We've had to reinvent ourselves, how we work… so that we can still iterate."

I asked Vincke if the growth is risky, thinking back to Larian dancing on the edge of bankruptcy to make Original Sin. Of course it is, he said. But based on Larian's track record with the Original Sin games, I also believed him when he said: "We've never been about the money."

"I guess a lot of people say that, but it's really about what we need to make this game. I would literally have a revolution inside of my company if I forced them to lower their aspirations, the things they want to do. They're really proud of Baldur's Gate 3. They really want to reach the ambition that they have, because they all played Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 in their youth. This is a very important project for them. I'm happy we're doing it this way, because I think it deserves it, and we have the means of doing it because of the success of the previous games. I would not have wanted it to be a game that had to be scaled down."

Larian's currently working on Baldur's gate itself, building out the city, and also filling out D&D's spell library and implementing its remaining classes. Then there's time-consuming polish, which is why he announced that Baldur's Gate 3 won't be fully finished until 2023.

"This is a very specific niche of game where you have a lot of narrative with a lot of systems coming together," he said. "If your agency is [limited], you're guided down the routes, you're not gonna be happy when you're playing it. It breaks the entire thing. The problem is the only alternative is just, fuuuuck, you need to cover it all. But we figured it out, and we're doing it.

"There were really lots of easy cuts that we could've done. But then it wouldn't have been the game that it needs to be. We're not going to release it if it's not ready. It's going to be quite the thing, you know. When you go to the character creation and you can select all those classes, all those sub classes, and then you start that journey—knowing everything you can do on that journey, it's going to be quite the thing."

https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/gnome-lovers-rejoice-theyll-be-playable-in-baldurs-gate-3/

Gnome-lovers rejoice: they'll be playable in Baldur's Gate 3
Larian wasn't going to forget about Faerun's best and stumpiest illusionists.

In D&D, gnomes are objectively the best. They're like halflings with more personality and less disgusting feet. Thank goodness, then, that they are definitely going to be playable in Baldur's Gate 3, eventually.

Since gnomes have been playable in both the Baldur's Gate series and Icewind Dale, the safe money was on them appearing in Baldur's Gate 3 as well, but so far Larian hasn't given much away—aside from confirming that the Early Access build does not contain the totality of the playable races.

This has made fans of stumpy illusionists (their preferred class) sad, even though a kindly soul did create a mod that added them. But thanks to what may have been a slight slip-up during a GDC 2022 talk by Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke, we now know gnomes are coming for sure.

Chatting about body shape diversity and the difficulty of implementing different physiques in games with a wide range of fantasy races, it looks like Vincke briefly forgot that gnomes were still on the list of things not yet announced.

"This game supports a whole bunch of player races, right? And I'll give you some of the examples of problems we have to deal with. You can play as a human, and you can play as a gnome…"

But, of course, you can't play as a gnome. With the cat out of the bag, Vincke just carried on. "Gnomes are not in there, so that's your scoop today." If anyone is going to accidentally announce something to the press, I guess the CEO is the least likely to get a telling off.

Unfortunately, he wasn't ready to share any details about them, their subraces, or when they might appear. It could be during Early Access, but it's equally possible we'll have to wait until launch. Given that they already exist in D&D, however, we can make some educated guesses about their stats from the official page.

For more Baldur's Gate 3 details, check out our full interview with Vincke.

 

[vortex]

Larian's currently working on Baldur's gate itself, building out the city, and also filling out D&D's spell library and implementing its remaining classes. Then there's time-consuming polish, which is why he announced that Baldur's Gate 3 won't be fully finished until 2023.

And then Enhanced divine edition by 2026.

 

[Larianshill]

True as it may be, that divine edition will be the greatest RPG ever made by a human.

 

[Cryomancer]

True as it may be, that divine edition will be the greatest RPG ever made by a human.

Play a single D&D adaptation from Strategic Simulations Inc... Black Geyser is closer way closer to Baldur's Gate than Divinity : Faerun edition.

 

[LESS T_T]

Madman making an isometric turn-based RPG with resources that some mid-size studios could use to make 2 or 3 popamole AAA games.

 

[AetherVagrant]

It is 25-40 hours

I put in over 100 hours in 2 playthroughs that were very different
It's "25-40 hours" if you just rush through everything like a tard and skip most of the content.

That's what you guys told me when i finished POE in 20 hrs and still squashed most side quests,

 

[Swen]

I asked Vincke if the growth is risky, thinking back to Larian dancing on the edge of bankruptcy to make Original Sin. Of course it is, he said. But based on Larian's track record with the Original Sin games, I also believed him when he said: "We've never been about the money."

Das right, I'm the good guy, remember it codex.

 

[Arbiter]

Has Larian revealed a release date?

 

[Gradenmayer]

Has Larian revealed a release date?

2023. That's all.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

Given the current year™. What are the odds that Edwin gets turned into a token tranny character and added to the game?

 

[Gradenmayer]

Given the current year™. What are the odds that Edwin gets turned into a token tranny character and added to the game?

Gale is basically Edwin. Don't think he will appear in any shape or form that is not a reference in in-game book.

 

[Gargaune]

Working on Baldur's Gate 3 is a monumental challenge, responsibility and exciting prospect. But assuming the objective is to continue to improve, innovate and invent great new ways of making and experiencing games, what are the major challenges when doing so?

Damn right. Back in the dark days, people would have to click and drag a rectangular shape on their screen to select multiple characters in their party. Or worse, they'd have to hold down the Shift button and then click on the portraits. But I'll give it to you, Swen - painstakingly clicking and dragging each portrait in and out of a springloaded toilet chain like a slackjawed toddler playing with melted cheese on the carpet? That sure is a great new way of experiencing games!

 

[Cael]

Given the current year™. What are the odds that Edwin gets turned into a token tranny character and added to the game?

After the events og BG2, you don't need that girdle. Elminster took care of it. Permanently.

 

[Larianshill]

Chances of Edwin appearing in the game are extremely high, especially if at least parts of Minsc and Boo's Journal of Villainy are canon. Chances of Edwina making an appearance are low, which sucks, I would love some Edwina.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

Chances of Edwin appearing in the game are extremely high, especially if at least parts of Minsc and Boo's Journal of Villainy are canon. Chances of Edwina making an appearance are low, which sucks, I would love some Edwina.

Elminster did make Edwina permanent! He did!

 

[Larianshill]

He made it permanent 125 years before Baldur's Gate 3 starts. A lot of things can change in 125 years, even the so called "permanent" things.