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

[Great Deceiver]

Lol at the latest Steam update:



FYI, Swen, this is your target audience - a white male.

Are they really surprised the most played characters are normie males? Shepard was 70+% the default soldier.

D&D, as it was designed, is centered on humans.
Gygax stated that his intention was for players to choose a human character and designed it as such because people want to identify with their character to some extent. It's in one of the earlier dragon magazine articles he wrote.
Gygax proven right ~40 years later

You could make the same "representation" argument for dangerhairs and the soy brigade to justify having wheelchair-bound trannies in the game. It shouldn't fly.

Now, Swen is making the capital mistake of trying to pontificate to his customers about what they should be doing. That's a critical error, all you have to do is see Blizzard's history of SNAFUs these past few years for a living example of disastrous results.

 

[Sharpedge]

The Journal UI is bad, really bad. It was the same UI in DOS 2 and even then it was hard to navigate. There needs to be much better tools to filter and sort it. Also, the inventory needs an option to automatically sell non magical items, that was one of the best features in pathfinder.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

You could make the same "representation" argument for dangerhairs and the soy brigade to justify having wheelchair-bound trannies in the game. It shouldn't fly.

They don't see themselves as human so there are plenty of races that accurately represent them. Like gibberlings, or gnomes.

 

[TemplarGR]

Although I doubt they will be able to keep this level of quality throughout the whole campaign.

Yeah, like DOS 1 and DOS 2. But it doesn't matter, really. Most people will play a couple of hours, rate the game "masterpiece 50/10" on Steam and turn our balls into zeppelins with their blabbering online, then when they begin playing the finished game proper they will realise it is not consistently good and the negative votes will begin. But then Larian will change the version to enhanced/definitive and will remove the negative reviews and here we go again.

I think the funniest thing about this is them proving through their own analytics that elaborate character creation is mostly a gigantic waste of time and budget.

No, it is a must have feature. Obviously no one will ever properly use it, but that is not the point. The point is to make the game pass as a "deep CRPG full of choices and customization". The average autist will always play the vanilla white male no matter what, but he will insist that the game should theoritcally contain all the other options or else he will call it vanilla streamlined dumbed down casual consolitis. So you have to spend around 30 million dollars per game to make sure there are enough theoretical customization options so the average hardcore autist can play his favourite vanilla white male feeling warm in the belly and thinking that the game is awesome and full of choices.

I have people in my Steam feed giving good reviews with 3 hs and not touching the game again even if I see them online constantly...
I think many are refraining to give a bad review because "eh... it's EA,"
At the same time I wonder if Steam is removing negative ones since it has a "bombing" policy right? Not sure. The truth is that I'm seeing a lot of complaints in those forums, more than I was expecting. Reddit even, the land of tralalalala.

Steam reviews are useless. The only way to properly review games is to pirate them and see them for yourself.

 

[Daedalos]

Aight niggas, I got some first impressions from a few hours of playtime in the EA:

So first things first: This screams D:OS 3 in a Baldurs Gate setting light, simply put. Is this surprising? Not at all.

If you don't particularly care about the deep autistic lore of Baldurs Gate like I don't, then BG3 Early Access is surprisingly decent.

You got more a serious/edgy setting and premise and writing than D:OS 2 which is fantastic in itself because it was fucking bad in D:OS 2, and less of the retarded combat and encounter mechanics from D:OS 2 as well.

Basically it plays and feels like what D:OS 2 should have been, but in a better world/setting.

That also means you got some of the same problems that D:OS 2 had. Mostly in terms of the UI, which is still fucking dogshit.. DOGSHIT, in terms of itemization and the UI clicky clicky management. Oh Larian, when will you do away with that shit?
You got your autistic clicka-roo on the screen for tons and tons of various objects, (which you cannot highlight.. yet) .. and it's basically a hoarders wet dream, still.

The VO from both the narrator and the companions were actually quite decent to me, the music is pretty good, and the sounds are fine. Animation and graphics are pretty damn impressive, I gotta say.

So yea, if you kind of liked D:OS 1+2, but hated it because of the writing/setting/graphics and dumb combat mechanics, BG3 might actually prove to be somewhat a decent cRPG down the line, especially if they manage to not fuck up the BG lore too badly and the 5E implementation.

There's also seemingly alot of skillchecks with the DICE, which I like, and the character creation was fairly cool with alot of options already in the EA and more to come.

I normally don't comment on technical aspects of early access titles, because.. well you know. But the EA seems to run butter smooth for me on a medium rig, no crashes, no game breaking bugs or anything. Impressive.

I am causiously optimistic, most of all because you throw away all the dumb shit from the divinity universe. If Larian can keep up the pace from the EA and quality, and not let it fucking go down in flames like later chapters in D:OS 1+2, then yea.

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

This thread makes me want to jump off a c̵l̵i̵f̵f̵ nautiloid.

 

[Harthwain]

At the same time I wonder if Steam is removing negative ones since it has a "bombing" policy right? Not sure.

If you want to downvote something on Steam, make sure you're bitching about specific things (optimization, bugs, in-game features, etc.), because that isn't considered to be review bombing. Plus you can disable or enable "off-topic review activity in the Review Score" in your settings (Steam -> Settings -> View Account Details -> Preferences -> Review Score Settings -> Edit Preferences). I did that and the score didn't change.

The truth is that I'm seeing a lot of complaints in those forums, more than I was expecting.

It's easy to flood Steam forum with shit, considering how they operate. All you have to do is be controversial and with just a handful of people you can keep a thread endlessly on top, meaning it's seen by anyone visiting so there is a chance they may chime in to bump it up too. Perfect feedback loop.

It's better to check reddit if you want to observe how the public opinion feels about something. It's much harder to get something going there that isn't considered a real problem, because of the voting system.

Now, Swen is making the capital mistake of trying to pontificate to his customers about what they should be doing. That's a critical error, all you have to do is see Blizzard's history of SNAFUs these past few years for a living example of disastrous results.

I see it as a half-joke and half-reminder "there are some really cool options in the character creator". That said, when the game releases I will probably make human stoic-pragmatic assassin for my first run. Second run will be more open in regards to race and gender (for example: lesbian tiefling).

 

[PhantasmaNL]

Cmon guys
Swen wants you to make a blue-haired genderfluid wahmen (with horns) so you can venture forth screeching like an absolute psychopath and destroy the patriarchy with your superpowers
Just remember, clicking the Twitterati background will give you +1 Virtue signaling

 

[Andhaira]

Guys, how is the writing in this? I enjoyed DOS combat but the writing was atrocius and made me quit.

Have they improved or is there still the trademark Larian 'humor'?

 

[Gastrick]

Not bad for an Orcesse.

It won't be normal porn as well but some cuck and femdom shit.

I was right about there being a femdom scene, next in the full game is cuck porn.
They'll have a scene of the romantic partner having sex with another man while you are in the corner forced to watch. Then afterwards she will tell you "there's nothing wrong with this". The writers are proud cucks themselves so it makes sense that they would add it.

 

[Thac0]

Guys, how is the writing in this? I enjoyed DOS combat but the writing was atrocius and made me quit.

Have they improved or is there still the trademark Larian 'humor'?

Better but mostly unremarkable.
Through my 8 hours beta time I think i cringed twice, on the optional dialogue of a squirrel and once when the Vampire was a tad too gay.
Can't remember any standout moments apart from that, most dialogue is quite functional and gets the point across. There are some cool scenarios in there, but I saw no pieces of prose I really liked, unlike in games like Disco/PST/NumaNuma.
Imo better than Pillars, which has a habit of drowning you in super vague high concept lore which has 0 connection to what's happening right now, and close to but worse than BG 1+2, like most of the game.

 

[gunman]

At the very least, there need to be sort buttons in the inventory and I'm surprised it made it this far into development without them

Wait, are you guys not aware there's a sort button?
You can even sort the inventory multiple ways.

Its not easy to see, but yes it is there.

I didn't spot it until it was pointed out by this picture here.

Why the hell do you have to open a new window, to select an option and then click on another button to sort the inventory. That is 3 clicks when you could have done the same with a single click.

 

[gunman]

the reactivity in all my years of playing RPGs I have never played a game where my race and class really impact dialogue this much + non-combat magic.

Better than Arcanum?

Far from it. In Arcanum you don't only have special dialogue for race and class, but for low INT, what you are wearing (naked, barbarian clothes...) etc

 

[Robber Baron]

I mean, you already get to crawl through a massive cavern under the earth, see an ancient druid grove and explore a forgotten temple.

It's fucking nothing. It's a AAA high fantasy blockbuster it needs to deliver in variety department. And by needs to deliver I mean it needs to have at least as much of variety as the last high fantasy blockbuster aka Dragon Age Inquisition, which had desert locations, snow locations, savanas, deep forests, different ancient ruins, grand fantasy city(if only as vista but still) and it's own version of a demonic plane. It's the absolute fucking minimum. And I don't mean he needs exactly these types of locations or whatever, just the variety of it. Because if it's again another 4 acts with slightly different assets each time I won't even bother getting mad at the game.

 

[NJClaw]

The amount of devs is irrelevant. When you over blob a production team,it tends to produce less. As they say,too many cooks in the kitchen. Also my italian frendo,when the game release and there are only those fagz....i will be behind you,nudging you to come to terms with reality. Also it was not possible to make a 4man dnd rpg,or a tb successor to bg2,yet here we are.

When more companions get revealed, I'm going to bother you so fucking much.

 

[Sharpedge]

The amount of devs is irrelevant. When you over blob a production team,it tends to produce less. As they say,too many cooks in the kitchen. Also my italian frendo,when the game release and there are only those fagz....i will be behind you,nudging you to come to terms with reality. Also it was not possible to make a 4man dnd rpg,or a tb successor to bg2,yet here we are.

When more companions get revealed, I'm going to bother you so fucking much.

Trying to get a Fantolover tag to go along with the Onto tag?

 

[Alienman]

Steam blocking negative reviews are lame as hell. People always complain that people have too little time invested to post a negative one, but it's A-OK to post a positive one after 1 hour. Guess it all comes down to the

 

[TemplarGR]

Steam blocking negative reviews are lame as hell. People always complain that people have too little time invested to post a negative one, but it's A-OK to post a positive one after 1 hour. Guess it all comes down to the

Metacritic does the same thing. I have had like 3 accounts banned on metacritic for daring to give a non-10/10 review during the launch window of a major game. Like Zelda Breath of the Trash or Sid Meier's (let's keep the same AI as in the 90s and let barbs become OP to balance the difficulty) Civilization VI.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

The default is randomized.

Not in my experience. Maybe an update? I created 3 characters the first day. It always started as an elf, then I had to select human, then I had to change from black to white human.

 

[Eastwood]

Are feats in the game yet?
Want to decide if I'll go Thief or Arcane Trickster with my Rogue. Read somewhere that you can attack three times a turn as a dual wield Thief and the dual wield feat would make that even more powerful.

 

[Lacrymas]

RE: Low level Underdark - we've talked about this. In the beginning of 5E, there were very, very few types of enemies with a low enough CR to support a low level adventure in there, but that has changed with the supplements and Out of the Abyss in particular. Here's a list of them. I'd have preferred the Underdark remain a hostile environment meant for higher level play, but that's what we got.

RE: Normie white males being the most played characters - this just confirms most people have no imagination and just play themselves. This 100% does not mean the only choice should be a normie white male, I can count on one hand how many times I've played one and definitely prefer to roleplay something else. I'd say it goes against the spirit of roleplaying to be playing yourself. What leaves a bad taste in my mouth is some people's assumption that what the majority do is the only thing that matters, so the game should only cater to do them "in order to not waste resources". If we are looking at this only from a capitalistic point of view, this is not the case, the other exploitable groups with money are numerous enough to at least nudge, nudge, wink, wink at their direction. Why do you think big companies splatter their PR campaigns with the pride flag during pride month? It's not because they care about rights, let me tell you. On top of that, gaming is the most profitable entertainment industry in the world. So, yeah, even from the most inhumane point of view, it's worth it to not only include normie white males as your PCs.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Basically it plays and feels like what D:OS 2 should have been, but in a better world/setting.

yeah, just D:OS 2 in a different world/setting, with different game mechanics, different/better dialog, different/better writing, vastly reduced reliance on gimmicky environmental effects (all of which can be bypassed/ignored in favor of stats and skills).

other than the fact that everything is different and better though, it's exactly the same. great point.

I see what you're going for, but I don't feel it's accurate at all. This is almost nothing like D:OS 2 in anything but the most superficial ways.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Are feats in the game yet?
Want to decide if I'll go Thief or Arcane Trickster with my Rogue. Read somewhere that you can attack three times a turn as a dual wield Thief and the dual wield feat would make that even more powerful.

feats are in the game and you can go arcane trickster, but don't expect you'll get a ton of feats, given that your level is currently capped at 4.

 

[Infinitron]

Lol at the latest Steam update:

https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/1086940/view/2896336186738209915

Hotfix #3 - Theft, Death & Hubris

We’re back with the third hotfix today, addressing a few crash scenarios that definitely aren’t supposed to happen. We also have for you a Frankenstein amalgamation of crowd-sourced character creation, and boy does it look boring!

Firstly, yesterday as a joke we asked you to send us a 3080, because they were too popular for us to buy one (which prevented us from testing those cards internally before launch - all fixed now!). Quite a few of you reached out with sincere requests for how to do that. That was very sweet, thank you for those messages. Keep them! They’re yours. Besides, without your graphics card, how are you going to play BG3?

Before the fixes, let’s share something you’ve created yourselves (this is your own fault) through your choices in character creation. We took the most popular choices in character creation, and recreated this. We thought our analytics system wasn’t working! We checked. It is.

Congratulations, you’ve basically made the default Vault Dweller. What the hell guys. We gave you demon eyes, horns, and even tails. We are sorely disappointed. Go crazy. We worked hard on this!

We’ve got a lot more analytics that run in the background. We’ll share more insights and data in the next Community Update, but for now, you should know that it’s not just bug reports that help us solve issues and improve the game, we have a system of anonymous analytics running in the background that show us a lot about how the game is played, and thus how we can improve it. Simply playing BG3 makes it better for you now, and everyone else in the future.

One important thing this hotfix has solved is the resolution upon the death of Gale. Those who’ve let Gale die may have found that an important item is missing, which is required. That’s back! So, which was it? "K'ha'trach'ash'ssji", "K'ha'ash'ssji'trach", or the easier to pronounce “K'ha'ssji'trach'ash”? Only Gale lovers will know.

Also, we fixed an error where people were stealing from merchants by directly equipping the stolen items out of their inventory. Hubris! It’s in the title!

We still currently recommend you play the game on DX11 mode if you experience frequent crashing, or graphical errors. But they should be reduced now. The next big patch will include a host of fixes for cinematics and animation as well as UI glitches, and a community update diving into the game’s launch.

Don’t forget to read the EULA
Better the Devil you do know, eh.

FAQ attached here, updated with new workarounds and known issues: https://larian.com/support/baldur-s-gate-3

Fixes attached y’all:

• Fix for crash related to showing a move preview with an AoO when in combat.
  
• Fix for crash related to surfaces requiring concentration.
  
• Fix for crash related to drag and drop of items in the trade inventory.
  
• Gale's Scroll of Resurrection is now correctly added to the player's inventory.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Infinitron I would have, but I didn't want you to think I was trying to take your job as News Jew.