Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 is Trash

[Drakortha]

Day/Night cycles and schedules was a planned feature for Original Sin back in the Kickstarter era, but Larian cancelled the feature citing that it was 'too much work' for their budget and team size at the time. Okay, fair enough.

But conveniently this didn't change with the sequel Original Sin 2, and even more conveniently with BG3 and a 100+ million budget and their development team being 10 times bigger.

You would think that an 'amazingly passionate' developer (as we're beat over the head with daily by games media) would set out to fulfill their original vision, given the budget and resources to do so. But Larian sold out. It's actually absurd how little BG3 does compared to their previous games when you take their extra budget and team size into consideration.

Looking back 10 years ago, is Baldur's Gate 3 ultimately the game that Larian wanted to make? I don't think so.

Motion capture animations, cutscenes, professional voice acting, and fancy live panel events was all they had to show for. The rest of the game is a derivative piece of shit which would have been universally panned if it wasn't for the fact we are currently living on the worst timeline.

 

[Orud]

Disingenuous midwit, go play some more Veilguard, you're out of your depth here.

BG3 "reactivity" is all illusion. Vast majority of games do the same thing but hide that illusion better.

The game doesn't excel at anything other than production values.

I amend my statement. You haven't played any of the games you've mentioned at all, have you? And if you want to drag Veilguard in this, considering what you think of 'reactivity' that game seems right up your alley from what I've heard. Including ignoring whatever slightly different ending slide you had for Origins.

 

[MerchantKing]

One of these days Swen is going to make his Ultima 7 masterpiece. It could even be his next game!

His going to prove everyone wrong, you'll see. Larian is just warming up.

Unironically, yes.

Just two more weeks

 

[Orud]

As personal speculation, I don't think Larian skipped on it because of the workload itself, but rather as an exercise in risk assessment. They had a very successful formula in D:OS2 and, once they got their hands on the BG IP, they decided to play to their strengths and iterate on familiar designs rather than take chances on major new features they weren't experienced with. It's a sensible business decision and I don't fault them for taking it, but I don't see how it's wrong to remark what could've been.

Sure and being able to simply prototype entire blocks from the get-go without needing to wait on new core systems would've sped up development a lot.

Still, I think you're underestimating how pedantic Larian was with adding reactivity to dialogue or NPC's. Keep in mind that it wouldn't mean adding only one additional worldstate, but multiple (each chapter being its own). What happened during the day (or night) in one chapter/map could've escalated across either day or night in multiple chapters, causing 1 choice leading to 6 potential outcomes.

 

[Old Hans]

The purpose of RPG stores is to buy from you

Which is a HUGE problem in a lot of rpgs, and I hope Donald Trump addresses this issue. No vendor in their right mind would buy unlimited goblin scimitars

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

The purpose of RPG stores is to buy from you

Which is a HUGE problem in a lot of rpgs, and I hope Donald Trump addresses this issue. No vendor in their right mind would buy unlimited goblin scimitars

Goblins are incapable of smithing their own weapons and therefore are dependent on the vendors who purchase adventurers' loot, repair the weapons, and sell them back to the goblins at a higher price.

 

[Drakortha]

I started a new playthrough of Baldur's Gate 1 today and it's already more dynamic and immersive than BG3 and I haven't even finished the first chapter.

I was exploring the forest with my party during the daytime and didn't run into too much trouble. Decided to rest, and then it was night and began thundering and raining before my party was attacked by a pack of wolves that weren't out during the day.

This game came out on Windows 98 with like 100mb of ram..

 

[Drakortha]

jackofshadows If you are only still subscribed to this thread so you can lurk and leave ratings, then I would like to kindly ask you to fuck off somewhere else. Thanks.

 

[Old Hans]

I started a new playthrough of Baldur's Gate 1 today and it's already more dynamic and immersive than BG3 and I haven't even finished the first chapter.

I was exploring the forest with my party during the daytime and didn't run into too much trouble. Decided to rest, and then it was night and began thundering and raining before my party was attacked by a pack of wolves that weren't out during the day.

This game came out on Windows 98 with like 100mb of ram..

I like how bg1 simulates a dungeon master constantly checking for random encounters when you spend too much time dicking around in the forest

 

[KeAShizuku]

The purpose of RPG stores is to buy from you

Which is a HUGE problem in a lot of rpgs, and I hope Donald Trump addresses this issue. No vendor in their right mind would buy unlimited goblin scimitars

If we go for realism nobody is going to carry 20 swords around.

 

[Old Hans]

The purpose of RPG stores is to buy from you

Which is a HUGE problem in a lot of rpgs, and I hope Donald Trump addresses this issue. No vendor in their right mind would buy unlimited goblin scimitars

If we go for realism nobody is going to carry 20 swords around.

that is another bugbear of mine. I always thought a good idea for an rpg system is having to deal with the logistics of hauling all that treasure back to town from the dungeon. Like yea that dragon may have a horde of treasure, but its not going anywhere without 100 pack mules

 

[MerchantKing]

The purpose of RPG stores is to buy from you

Which is a HUGE problem in a lot of rpgs, and I hope Donald Trump addresses this issue. No vendor in their right mind would buy unlimited goblin scimitars

If we go for realism nobody is going to carry 20 swords around.

If a sword is 0.9 to 1.8 kg, it is plausible that a paladin may task their squire (one of the followers/companions you could get in AD&D as a paladin) with carrying a bundle of swords to sell off for the order's orphan fund. Even better, a genius Gnome illusionist can task his trusty pawns with hauling them around for him or loading up his merchant wagon with loot.

 

[Iucounu]

I always thought a good idea for an rpg system is having to deal with the logistics of hauling all that treasure back to town from the dungeon.

You mean like its own gameplay challenge? That sounds like an idea with potential actually.

The Long Dark has a similar challenge when killing larger animals; they often bleed out quite some distance away from the nearest shelter, and you can't bring all the meat back in one go (both due to weight and the scent of meat attracting wolves).

 

[Old Hans]

I always thought a good idea for an rpg system is having to deal with the logistics of hauling all that treasure back to town from the dungeon.

You mean like its own gameplay challenge? That sounds like an idea with potential actually.

yea. I was watching someone play Death Stranding and thought it would be a funny idea for an RPG. Just imagine your character trying to cross difficult terrain on his way back to town, while trying not drop the 50 rusty goblin scimitars

 

[Whipping Post]

I started a new playthrough of Baldur's Gate 1 today and it's already more dynamic and immersive than BG3 and I haven't even finished the first chapter.

That's because, despite the name, BG3 is less a continuation of the Baldur's Gate series and more of an homage to the early Forgotten Realms games.

 

[mondblut]

If we go for realism nobody is going to carry 20 swords around.

If we go for realism, they buy a cart and hire porters.

 

[mondblut]

That's because, despite the name, BG3 is less a continuation of the Baldur's Gate series and more of an homage to the early Forgotten Realms games.

Sweet days of innocence, when a man with D-cups was meant to be a hilarious joke, not annoying political statement from insufferable cunts.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I always thought a good idea for an rpg system is having to deal with the logistics of hauling all that treasure back to town from the dungeon.

You mean like its own gameplay challenge? That sounds like an idea with potential actually.

yea. I was watching someone play Death Stranding and thought it would be a funny idea for an RPG. Just imagine your character trying to cross difficult terrain on his way back to town, while trying not drop the 50 rusty goblin scimitars

Solasta resolves the issue using the Scavenger's Guild, which I appreciated.

 

[Devastator]

I started a new playthrough of Baldur's Gate 1 today and it's already more dynamic and immersive than BG3 and I haven't even finished the first chapter.

I was exploring the forest with my party during the daytime and didn't run into too much trouble. Decided to rest, and then it was night and began thundering and raining before my party was attacked by a pack of wolves that weren't out during the day.

This game came out on Windows 98 with like 100mb of ram..

Absolutely, I love how the weather, the night cycle, and the amazing music made nights in the early areas incredibly immersive. That said, the first areas of BG3 3 feel contained and artificial, with the only real "danger" during sleep being someone's rod bumping you from behind (not by accident). But apparently, that’s what counts as a GOTY and gets universal acclaim on Steam. Even worse, some companies were complaining that this already laughable bar of "quality" was somehow unrealistic for them to meet (as if Larian pulled off a once-in-a-lifetime miracle with BG3).

 

[Ol' Willy]

that is another bugbear of mine. I always thought a good idea for an rpg system is having to deal with the logistics of hauling all that treasure back to town from the dungeon. Like yea that dragon may have a horde of treasure, but its not going anywhere without 100 pack mules

 

[JarlFrank]

Classic D&D already solved it by letting you hire henchmen, which high level adventurers with more gold than they knew what to do with would often do, both for transporting goods and for being cannon fodder in dungeons.

Not one PC game using D&D rules adapted that mechanic. That's why almost all of them have a broken economy, because the stuff high level characters are supposed to spend money on don't exist.

Kingmaker, while being a very flawed game with a very half-assed kingdom management system, at least tried to be like real D&D. Even though it's based on Pathfinder rules, not actual D&D. Funny how that went.

 

[Axel_am]

No, it is not. 4E was a fantastic edition of D&D purely for the combat, which is the best D&D combat has ever been. It's a real shame it's the only edition of D&D that never got a CRPG made for it, it would've been phenomenal.

There was an isometric Action-RPG called Sword Coast Legends a while back, that was 4E-based. It reviewed quite poorly in general, however, and was eventually pulled from sale as of 2017.



I played a bit of it and, going in with low expectations, it wasn't all that bad, but it's a very "diet" sort of RPG experience and not really something that would appeal to hardcore genre fans.


P.S. Still a better interface than BG3, though...

The game itself definitely needed more time in the oven. It also had this bug that your difficulty would reset when you load a save. The story was also extremely forgettable. I can only recall bits and pieces of it here and there but nothing that substantial, other than a few boss fights. The game was a true letdown for me as I was really looking forward to playing a good DnD crpg. Maybe I can play it now and enjoy it more with the attitude of "so bad it's good", but that wasn't the case back then.

I recall they also released an expansion or a DLC expansion with the warlock class in it but I didn't get around to playing through it. Drizzt was also in it. If anything the expansion vaguely reminds me of wrath which is immensely better. Maybe if the expansion is 10-15hours long I can give it a shot later this year just for the sake of seeing Drizzt again.

The UI was indeed really shitty but what got to me was the design style they choose for the spells and items icons. It didn't feel like any of the the icons belonged to a fantasy game.

A shame really, that BG3 can be compared to Swordcoast in any way. Really hope Larian improve on their UI and Journal sections. Easily one of the weakest parts from Larians latest projects.

 

[MerchantKing]

The purpose of RPG stores is to buy from you

Which is a HUGE problem in a lot of rpgs, and I hope Donald Trump addresses this issue. No vendor in their right mind would buy unlimited goblin scimitars

If we go for realism nobody is going to carry 20 swords around.

that is another bugbear of mine. I always thought a good idea for an rpg system is having to deal with the logistics of hauling all that treasure back to town from the dungeon. Like yea that dragon may have a horde of treasure, but its not going anywhere without 100 pack mules

It happens in multiple trips during downtime. That's if it doesn't fit into the bags of holding.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

If we go for realism nobody is going to carry 20 swords around.

that is another bugbear of mine. I always thought a good idea for an rpg system is having to deal with the logistics of hauling all that treasure back to town from the dungeon. Like yea that dragon may have a horde of treasure, but its not going anywhere without 100 pack mules

Original Dungeons & Dragons already included mules, 4 varieties of horses, saddlebags, carts, and wagons on the item list:

 

[MerchantKing]

If we go for realism nobody is going to carry 20 swords around.

that is another bugbear of mine. I always thought a good idea for an rpg system is having to deal with the logistics of hauling all that treasure back to town from the dungeon. Like yea that dragon may have a horde of treasure, but its not going anywhere without 100 pack mules

Original Dungeons & Dragons already included mules, 4 varieties of horses, saddlebags, carts, and wagons on the item list:

I do like Merchant Ships.