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

[Jermu]

KOTC2 has great resource management with campfires (unless you played pussy mode)

 

[Ryzer]

Just because "it's usually not done very well" it shouldn't EVER translate into designers who can feel authorized to not even trying.

Calm down, I never said that. I simply mentioned that it's rarely done well, therefore I hate it.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

And back to the companions thing, another recurring bullshit I hate is the whole "there would be a mod to do it anyway".
Specifically about making stat spread better or changing classes or whatever.

Ok, so fucking what? What people CHEAT into the game through mods isn't any of my business.
Instead here we are, begging for mods to include the actual D&D rules or mechanics, while we are indulging in any sort of conveniently integrated quasi-cheat, for some reason.

And fuck optimization, anyway. Even putting aside any rationale, just from an "emotional" point of view, I LIKED being able to talk about companions in CRPGs in terms of "who was good and was not".
Hell, I liked a lot even when companions came with their own special weapons/pieces of equipment that the player wasn't allowed to remove.

Now any conversation about companions post-release this will be basically redundant, because every single person playing these characters will be given a free pass -directly in the game's interface- to adjust their stats, class and what-else at will. Which basically kills their identity.

 

[Maculo]

I am going down a rabbit hole that is the Larian forum, and someone wrote a 19,422-word chain post about how to best depict fucking halflings. 19,422 words concerning poses, weight, positioning of the feet, rhythm, motion, center of balance, and how to make fucking halflings artistic. 19,422 words generating almost 30 pages of content about fucking halflings. 19,422 words of contempt.

We have been deceived. The bear was just a distraction from the true threat...

 

[Fedora Master]

I am going down a rabbit hole that is the Larian forum, and someone wrote a 19,422-word chain post about how to best depict fucking halflings. 19,422 words concerning poses, weight, positioning of the feet, rhythm, motion, center of balance, and how to make fucking halflings artistic. 19,422 words generating almost 30 pages of content about fucking halflings. 19,422 words of contempt.

We have been deceived. The bear was just a distraction from the true threat...

L A R I A N
A U D I E N C E

 

[Spectacle]

The old way was the best. You don't need stupid ass "systems" or "zones". You just allow people to rest in a dangerous place and then they wake up with 15 kobolds kicking dirt in their face. If they survive that, now they *really* need a rest! Surely they won't get jumped twice in a row right? So they rest and then wake up with 30 kobolds urinating in their elf panty collection... and so on and so forth.

That just encourages people to rest as often as possible - if you can get jumped while resting you want to make sure you have resources left to deal with the monsters.

How many rude kobold awakenings will it take to convince you that you're in the equivalent of a "no resting danger zone" without the game explicitly telling you?!

Depends. Can I get jumped by kobolds when resting outside of the "no resting danger zone"? Either way, if there's any risk of getting ambushed then resting early will be the go-to strategy.

 

[processdaemon]

And back to the companions thing, another recurring bullshit I hate is the whole "there would be a mod to do it anyway".
Specifically about making stat spread better or changing classes or whatever.

Ok, so fucking what? What people CHEAT into the game through mods isn't any of my business.
Instead here we are, begging for mods to include the actual D&D rules or mechanics, while we are indulging in any sort of conveniently integrated quasi-cheat, for some reason.

And fuck optimization, anyway. Even putting aside any rationale, just from an "emotional" point of view, I LIKED being able to talk about companions in CRPGs in terms of "who was good and was not".
Hell, I liked a lot even when companions came with their own special weapons/pieces of equipment that the player wasn't allowed to remove.

Now any conversation about companions post-release this will be basically redundant, because every single person playing these characters will be given a free pass -directly in the game's interface- to adjust their stats, class and what-else at will. Which basically kills their identity.

I agree that allowing base class change is odd given how intertwined a lot of their classes seem with their backstory (if you have Gale running around as a barbarian it's going to push his personal quest into the realm of farce). I'm pro attribute editing though, if companions were locked to base classes it wouldn't make much of a practical difference, just allow for a little min-maxing.

 

[processdaemon]

I am going down a rabbit hole that is the Larian forum, and someone wrote a 19,422-word chain post about how to best depict fucking halflings. 19,422 words concerning poses, weight, positioning of the feet, rhythm, motion, center of balance, and how to make fucking halflings artistic. 19,422 words generating almost 30 pages of content about fucking halflings. 19,422 words of contempt.

We have been deceived. The bear was just a distraction from the true threat...

Funnily enough I was going to make an account on the Larian forums a while ago and this was the exact post that stopped me (unless there's more than one, in which case God help us all)

 

[jackofshadows]

I'm pro attribute editing though, if companions were locked to base classes it wouldn't make much of a practical difference, just allow for a little min-maxing.

Companions are already getting some unique abilities like Astarion's bite which was some sort of a trade-off for their suboptimal stats/subclasses. So it was an interesting choice from a powergamer perspective. Now there's no choice at all. I still won't respec them becauser it's such a fucking bullshit I can't even.

So they gave up dodge to the modders but implemented this? Ugh. And I would kinda get it if there wasn't mercenary system planned but it's there! This is not even a compromise, just a total retardation.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Giving up dodge is fucking bizarre, too.
It's literally a button that makes you pass your turn in exchange of a defensive bonus. What the fuck was even supposed to be hard about its implementation?
There are already mods coded in a couple of days that do it in fucking EA. Are these people for real?

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

I am going down a rabbit hole that is the Larian forum, and someone wrote a 19,422-word chain post about how to best depict fucking halflings. 19,422 words concerning poses, weight, positioning of the feet, rhythm, motion, center of balance, and how to make fucking halflings artistic. 19,422 words generating almost 30 pages of content about fucking halflings. 19,422 words of contempt.

We have been deceived. The bear was just a distraction from the true threat...

Ah yes, Niara. Believe it or not in many ways she was one of the best testers in EA. In terms of detailing her opinions and commenting on mechanics.

But her constant obsession with halfling (she really hated the way Larian modeled them) and with "coreographing" sexual poses was more than a bit weird, yeah. And of course her magnum opus was that thread where she combined both obsessions into one.
With what you are seeing now you are also missing the original version where she added TENS of pictures of basic 3D models clarifying the... logistics of humans and halflings interacting.

As one of the commenters nicely put it at the time "Welp, I guess we are all on some government list now".

 

[Maculo]

Funnily enough I was going to make an account on the Larian forums a while ago and this was the exact post that stopped me (unless there's more than one, in which case God help us all)

The only reason I found it was because the user in question posted a farewell and included a link to all of their "projects."

I am excited to try BG3, but the more I read about DND 5e and its fanbase, it sounds like the systems took a backseat to an identity simulator with a lot of weird sexual undertones/fetishes. I took the "dare you enter my magical realm" stories on /tg as mostly fake, but maybe there is a grain of truth to it.

Fedora Master, after what I read about DND and Ed Greenwood, I don't think you can lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of Larian and its fans. If anything, Larian just seems to have followed the trend in DND writing.

 

[jaekl]

The old way was the best. You don't need stupid ass "systems" or "zones". You just allow people to rest in a dangerous place and then they wake up with 15 kobolds kicking dirt in their face. If they survive that, now they *really* need a rest! Surely they won't get jumped twice in a row right? So they rest and then wake up with 30 kobolds urinating in their elf panty collection... and so on and so forth.

That just encourages people to rest as often as possible - if you can get jumped while resting you want to make sure you have resources left to deal with the monsters.

How many rude kobold awakenings will it take to convince you that you're in the equivalent of a "no resting danger zone" without the game explicitly telling you?!

Depends. Can I get jumped by kobolds when resting outside of the "no resting danger zone"? Either way, if there's any risk of getting ambushed then resting early will be the go-to strategy.

I don't know, the mystery is part of an adventure. Perhaps the kobolds will steal all of your food and medical supplies and now you can't rest at all. Oops, sorry about your strategy!

 

[Mebrilia the Viera Queen]

Funnily enough I was going to make an account on the Larian forums a while ago and this was the exact post that stopped me (unless there's more than one, in which case God help us all)

The only reason I found it was because the user in question posted a farewell and included a link to all of their "projects."

I am excited to try BG3, but the more I read about DND 5e and its fanbase, it sounds like the systems took a backseat to an identity simulator with a lot of weird sexual undertones/fetishes. I took the "dare you enter my magical realm" stories on /tg as mostly fake, but maybe there is a grain of truth to it.

Fedora Master, after what I read about DND and Ed Greenwood, I don't think you can lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of Larian and its fans. If anything, Larian just seems to have followed the trend in DND writing.

Bioware at the time forgot to implement part of the more mature content of the setting. Bu was also an age games were meant for kids.

 

[Perkel]

I am going down a rabbit hole that is the Larian forum, and someone wrote a 19,422-word chain post about how to best depict fucking halflings. 19,422 words concerning poses, weight, positioning of the feet, rhythm, motion, center of balance, and how to make fucking halflings artistic. 19,422 words generating almost 30 pages of content about fucking halflings. 19,422 words of contempt.

We have been deceived. The bear was just a distraction from the true threat...

Ah yes, Niara. Believe it or not in many ways she was one of the best testers in EA. In terms of detailing her opinions and commenting on mechanics.

But her constant obsession with halfling (she really hated the way Larian modeled them) and with "coreographing" sexual poses was more than a bit weird, yeah. And of course her magnum opus was that thread where she combined both obsessions into one.
With what you are seeing now you are also missing the original version where she added TENS of pictures of basic 3D models clarifying the... logistics of humans and halflings interacting.

As one of the commenters nicely put it at the time "Welp, I guess we are all on some government list now".

Well seems like they are going for bioware forum of how would Tali from mass effect smell.

 

[Shaki]

Ah yes, Niara. Believe it or not in many ways she was one of the best testers in EA. In terms of detailing her opinions and commenting on mechanics.

But her constant obsession with halfling (she really hated the way Larian modeled them) and with "coreographing" sexual poses was more than a bit weird, yeah. And of course her magnum opus was that thread where she combined both obsessions into one.
With what you are seeing now you are also missing the original version where she added TENS of pictures of basic 3D models clarifying the... logistics of humans and halflings interacting.

As one of the commenters nicely put it at the time "Welp, I guess we are all on some government list now".

Pretty sure it was a pedo, just roleplaying as a woman and using halflings as a replacement for what he really wants. Similar to loli fans from codex jrpg board.

 

[Artyoan]

Giving up dodge is fucking bizarre, too.
It's literally a button that makes you pass your turn in exchange of a defensive bonus. What the fuck was even supposed to be hard about its implementation?
There are already mods coded in a couple of days that do it in fucking EA. Are these people for real?

Every time I open this thread I feel like I need to set my expectations lower for this game. Meanwhile, non-larian developers are talking about how everyone needs to not judge their own games by this obvious world champion crpg about to be released.

 

[Mebrilia the Viera Queen]

Ah yes, Niara. Believe it or not in many ways she was one of the best testers in EA. In terms of detailing her opinions and commenting on mechanics.

But her constant obsession with halfling (she really hated the way Larian modeled them) and with "coreographing" sexual poses was more than a bit weird, yeah. And of course her magnum opus was that thread where she combined both obsessions into one.
With what you are seeing now you are also missing the original version where she added TENS of pictures of basic 3D models clarifying the... logistics of humans and halflings interacting.

As one of the commenters nicely put it at the time "Welp, I guess we are all on some government list now".

Pretty sure it was a pedo, just roleplaying as a woman and using halflings as a replacement for what he really wants. Similar to loli fans from codex jrpg board.

The problem of halfling in 5th is they appearance was morphed with bigger head and disproportional body.

This created the child effefct they are suffering.about now.

In3.5 they were more recognizeable.as tiny adults.

 

[Shaki]

Giving up dodge is fucking bizarre, too.
It's literally a button that makes you pass your turn in exchange of a defensive bonus. What the fuck was even supposed to be hard about its implementation?
There are already mods coded in a couple of days that do it in fucking EA. Are these people for real?

It's a boring button, and in modern RPGs only awesome buttons are allowed.

 

[Mebrilia the Viera Queen]

Giving up dodge is fucking bizarre, too.
It's literally a button that makes you pass your turn in exchange of a defensive bonus. What the fuck was even supposed to be hard about its implementation?
There are already mods coded in a couple of days that do it in fucking EA. Are these people for real?

It's a boring button, and in modern RPGs only awesome buttons are allowed.

They told that they will see if people will miss that and eventually add it.

 

[Maculo]

Giving up dodge is fucking bizarre, too.
It's literally a button that makes you pass your turn in exchange of a defensive bonus. What the fuck was even supposed to be hard about its implementation?
There are already mods coded in a couple of days that do it in fucking EA. Are these people for real?

Every time I open this thread I feel like I need to set my expectations lower for this game. Meanwhile, non-larian developers are talking about how everyone needs to not judge their own games by this obvious world champion crpg about to be released.

Having a game filled with interactivity/reactivity is an admirable goal. There is, however, a backdrop of what DND became over the years. I don’t think that is necessarily Larian’s fault though.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Every time I open this thread I feel like I need to set my expectations lower for this game. Meanwhile, non-larian developers are talking about how everyone needs to not judge their own games by this obvious world champion crpg about to be released.

It's because the two things aren't mutually exclusive.
There are a lot of aspects of BG3 that are genuinely impressive, regardless of one's opinion of the game and where it focuses its attention.
For instance in terms of sheer reactivity to your choices and actions I can hardly think of any other big CRPG that comes even close. You should probably move back to Arcanum to get something even close to what Larian is doing in that sense... And we are talking about a game that is fully voice and where every fucking dialogue is framed with a cinematic camera.
Too bad that all this "awesomeness" is tied to a bunch of puzzling design choices., sometimes even far more resource-intensive than the better solutions they choose to ignore.

Not to mention that you could take Larian's gameplay designers, put them in prison and tell them that their freedom and lives depend on making some balanced system and you would find every single one of them stabbed in the shower in a matter of days.

 

[Fedora Master]

@Fedora Master, after what I read about DND and Ed Greenwood, I don't think you can lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of Larian and its fans. If anything, Larian just seems to have followed the trend in DND writing.

As it states in the 1d4chan summary, Wizards of the Coast usually makes sure to clean up Eds worst degeneracy. I'm not sure they would approve of what Larian are doing, considering their idea is that "DnD is for everyone" - including kids.

 

[Shaki]

As it states in the 1d4chan summary, Wizards of the Coast usually makes sure to clean up Eds worst degeneracy. I'm not sure they would approve of what Larian are doing, considering their idea is that "DnD is for everyone" - including kids.

Swen: Say no more, we'll introduce sex scenes with kids right away

 

[Mortmal]

Giving up dodge is fucking bizarre, too.
It's literally a button that makes you pass your turn in exchange of a defensive bonus. What the fuck was even supposed to be hard about its implementation?
There are already mods coded in a couple of days that do it in fucking EA. Are these people for real?

Every time I open this thread I feel like I need to set my expectations lower for this game. Meanwhile, non-larian developers are talking about how everyone needs to not judge their own games by this obvious world champion crpg about to be released.

Only Diablo 4 devs, and they should feel sorry indeed when you see the state of their game at 70-100 euros price tags + 20 euros for cosmetics. You'd expect everything to be finely tuned, polished, and balanced before the official release, but no class is balanced, itemization is terrible, and the end game is a slog. They made it even worse with the latest patch, feeling more like some indie amateur MMO from the 2000s. You'd expect something top-notch, but it's a far cry from that.