Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 Pre-Release Thread [EARLY ACCESS RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[NJClaw]

At least I wasn't wrong about the amount of drama this reveal will cause. I'm actually excited about a game for once and this hasn't happened for a while. Massive incline, unbelievable, this sets a precedent.

I have never seen someone go from pessimistic to optimistic about a game as much as you on this one. God bless the gameplay reveal of the 27th!

Fighters in D&D 5 are amazing at that. They can reach very high levels of AC and they deal a lot of damage (as an example, the barbarian attacks 2 times each turn, while a fighter reaches 4 attacks and can burst 8 attacks in the same turn a couple of times each day).

how? I thought your AC stays relatively tame through leveling?

Yes, but the fighter with its fighting style and a shield can reach very high numbers. With a plate armor, you have AC 21 and for goons is almost impossible to hit you. If you add magical armor and shield, you can get to 27 and that's a 50% miss chance even for an adult red dragon.

 

[Lacrymas]

when they say bewildering things like "RTwP is faster" when a properly made TB lets you skip animations or executes all the enemies' turns at the same time depending on the combat system.

lol, if there is one thing that ain't up for discussion it is that

"RTwP is faster"

agreed.

Have you ever played any TB game outside of the D:OSes? Blobbers were/are considered incredibly fast paced. Skipping animations makes for very fast combat. Or when the enemies' turns are executed at the same time, see roguelikes.

 

[Shadenuat]

Blobbers are autopilot stat checkers, tactics has little to do with them.

 

[vortex]

I have a question for the RTwP defenders: In higher difficulties or harder combat scenarios how much time is the game actually UNPAUSED?
And since the obvious answer is very, very rarely, why is the "real-time" so important? What does it offer?

Pillars of Eternity solved this problem. I hardly had to pause the game after about hour when I got the gist of it.
The game plays itself with you. About harder combat scenarios, you just have to git gud (Concelhaut and Alpine Dragon).

 

[NJClaw]

I have a question for the RTwP defenders: In higher difficulties or harder combat scenarios how much time is the game actually UNPAUSED?
And since the obvious answer is very, very rarely, why is the "real-time" so important? What does it offer?

Pillars of Eternity solved this problem. I hardly had to pause the game after about hour when I got the gist of it.
The game plays itself with you. About harder combat scenarios, you just have to git gud (Concelhaut and Alpine Dragon).

What

In Pillars I had to pause the game almost a hundred times each combat.

Anyway, can we please move the discussion to the only thread that matters about BG3?

 

[Lacrymas]

At least I wasn't wrong about the amount of drama this reveal will cause. I'm actually excited about a game for once and this hasn't happened for a while. Massive incline, unbelievable, this sets a precedent.

I have never seen someone go from pessimistic to optimistic about a game as much as you on this one. God bless the gameplay reveal of the 27th!

That's because I have context sensitivity. I'm perfectly aware the content of the game might not be good, but the fact that a D&D TB RPG AAA game is being developed is incredibly exciting for me, this is almost a miracle in our capitalistic regime. Everyone who is complaining about any sort of minutiae are self-sabotaging and can not into context. This also sets a precedent for further attempts and it might get more people into RPGs, this is a good thing. The only thing I fear is if Larian don't make their budget back. The chat during the stream was awful for example.

 

[vortex]

In Pillars I had to pause the game almost a hundred times each combat.

When you learn about how does it work, you can anticipate what will happen so you don't have to pause.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

70 pages in a day? that's very hard to catch on. Anyway, it doesn't seem to have anything to resemble Baldur's Gate so I don't know why did they bother with using it rather than having their own ip in FR. With that said, I'm really impressed with what I saw, I'm not that of a fan of BG anyway.
The writing doesn't seem to be that interesting but I really didn't care that much either, the gameplay really seem to be solid. Sneaking in D:OS wasn't that useful and I really like the new system. The dynamism and environmental interactions seem to also be a steup up from D:OS, and most importantly now we have a way better ruleset that's faithfully implemented. I may not be in the majority here but I really prefer the 3D environment with verticality, I think they add a lot to the gameplay.
As much as I hate Early Access but I will get into this day one :D, it could the most excited I have been for an upcoming game.

Hmmm--lets see..lets sum this up...

-70 pages, did not read...
-Its called BG, but does not seem to be anything like BG. That is okay, you don't like BG anyway...... are not a fan.
-Writing does not seem to be that Interesting.... Thats okay, you don't into writing that much anyway....






- Verticality.


-Go Zoomer Go.

 

[Jimmious]

I have a question for the RTwP defenders: In higher difficulties or harder combat scenarios how much time is the game actually UNPAUSED?
And since the obvious answer is very, very rarely, why is the "real-time" so important? What does it offer?

Pillars of Eternity solved this problem. I hardly had to pause the game after about hour when I got the gist of it.
The game plays itself with you. About harder combat scenarios, you just have to git gud (Concelhaut and Alpine Dragon).

What? I remember the Adra Dragon combat. I literally was pausing constantly to keep him paralyzed. Maybe I didn't git gud iI guess

 

[Jimmious]

I have a question for the RTwP defenders: In higher difficulties or harder combat scenarios how much time is the game actually UNPAUSED?
And since the obvious answer is very, very rarely, why is the "real-time" so important? What does it offer?

Simultaneous movement and continuous order-giving. That's pretty much the difference.

So whether you like RTwP or not really depends on this.

I get that but I don't think you actually see the benefits of that if you basically watch a paused screen all the time..

 

[vortex]

What? I remember the Adra Dragon combat. I literally was pausing constantly to keep him paralyzed. Maybe I didn't git gud iI guess

I got to him after Concelhaut. I think Alpine is harder.

 

[Lacrymas]

Blobbers are autopilot stat checkers, tactics has little to do with them.

That's why I said it depends on the combat system. A skip animation button is enough for a game like BG3.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

I'm a big fan of BG, I played the second in particular something like ten times or so over the last 20 years, from start to finish.
I still think the combat being real time was the most glaring flaw of the game, despise having some damn good encounter design to ALMOST make up for it.

Conversely, I liked a lot of the two Orginal Sin, but what I hated the most about them was their half-assed ruleset/progression system and the horrendous randomized itemization.
This new title automatically addresses both flaws (at least to some extent) even just by merely being based on D&D.

No matter how I look at it, this is a win/win for me.
That said, they should put some effort into giving this a more distinctive identity from Divinity, especially in terms of UI (which is without a doubt mostly placeholder in the current state) and visuals.

 

[Black]

You can bang an half-elf divine spellcaster. That's the core of the BG games.

The other core of BG games is horrible writing and hack-of-a-job AD&D implementation so maybe that's for the best.

 

[Quillon]

Have you ever played any TB game outside of the D:OSes? Blobbers were/are considered incredibly fast paced. Skipping animations makes for very fast combat. Or when the enemies' turns are executed at the same time, see roguelikes.

Nah I only played DOSes, was there any other TB game beside DOS1&2?

I wouldn't recognize what you call blobber if it hit me in the face, and don't like roguelikes neither. But skipping animations, speeding them up etc sounds dumb, am I playing a VIDEO game or am I here just to see the results? Otherwise its admitting that TB is boring af and one can't bother even watching it play out, which I agree. /incoming shit ratings 3 2 1...

Anyway, RTwP is faster lol... it is just faster, I mean it is, really :D

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Shame on you, Codex

that is pretty funny response.

 

[Black]

If I was there I would have asked why in God's name they used the Baldur's Gate IP if they were going to so clearly deviate from the spirit of the original games in the series.

Man, of all the power fantasies you decided to fantasize about shouting at game devs.

 

[Lacrymas]

Nah I only played DOSes, was there any other TB game beside DOS1&2?

I wouldn't recognize what you call blobber if it hit me in the face, and don't like roguelikes neither. But skipping animations, speeding them up etc sounds dumb, am I playing a VIDEO game or am I here just to see the results? Otherwise its admitting that TB is boring af and one can't bother even watching it play out, which I agree. /incoming shit ratings 3 2 1...

Anyway, RTwP is faster lol... it is just faster, I mean it is, really :D

We are talking specifically about speed of combat, it doesn't have anything to do with how boring it is to watch. TB has the potential to be faster than RTwP with a simple skip animation button (depending on combat system), if you want to watch the animations go ahead, nobody is stopping you. It is incredibly obvious people don't have experience with TB games when they are trying to argue RtwP vs TB.

 

[Rostere]

Yeah, I don't. And if nobody plays with it, why is it even there. If it's fundamentally broken, it should be discarded

Yes, and most people wouldn't notice.

Like, I said - I don't play that way. But if the feature is there it is meant to be used, and if it's detrimental to the player it should be removed.

It is not "meant to be used" any more than story mode. Party AI is for people who don't have the mental faculty to manage several party members. This is like saying you MUST use auto-resolve combat if there is such an option in TB games.

That is the entire problem RTwP. The real time is broken because of the design. Maybe in another 20 years when AI gets better RTwP will be actually good.

What does RTwP have to do with AI?

There is exploitable AI behaviour in both RTwP and TB games.

And if during harder encounters I'm only playing with Pause why do I need RT anyway. Just give me TB it's superior to Pause button combat.

Like I said, the difference is simultaneous movement and continuous order-giving. IRL people don't move in turns, so therefore many people think RTwP gives a more realistic and less abstracted experience. It all boils down to if you want something abstract and "gamey", or something more realistic, but harder to quantify.

If a game that was suppose to be faster and be more action oriented isn't because I'm pausing all the time. Then on a fundamental level it failed to be what it was touted to be. And it that case if the game will be as slow just give me TB. It is just better and more engaging.

You're just making shit up. Nobody has claimed RTwP is more "action-oriented", and anyhow it's not as if the intention matters, it's the end result. If you want "action-oriented", play Diablo or some other action RPG.

 

[Elex]

Oh you mean the peak of D&D? Imagine living in 21century and still thinking that D&D is a thing in the real world lol. The only people that still play that shit are old farts like us mate. Kids have their telephones and don't give a rat's ass about your muh paper shit.

...the last D&D book announced was first on amazon chart.

 

[Shadenuat]

horrendous randomized itemization

Itemization is in many things a practical science, you can still have random +2 swords of speed ala iwd, or bad item spread with +8 belts for everyone like in Kingmaker.

In fact I'm almost certain that while it won't be as bad as DOS2, Larian will ruin itemization anyway since they have no restraint.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Imagine, just IMAGINE people not actually following D&D or understanding anything about 5E and living in their own rabbit hole where 3.5 is still a thing.

Oh you mean the peak of D&D? Imagine living in 21century and still thinking that D&D is a thing in the real world lol. The only people that still play that shit are old farts like us mate. Kids have their telephones and don't give a rat's ass about your muh paper shit.

I'm not sure in what bubble you are living but D&D has never been more popular than it is right now.
Not even a subjective opinion. There are explicit stats backing the claim.

 

[Rostere]

I get that but I don't think you actually see the benefits of that if you basically watch a paused screen all the time..

I don't think we agree on what the "benefit" is. The benefit is not that you get to watch continuous movement, the benefit is that in the game world characters move and take actions continuously and simultaneously. This obviously creates an entire different game compared to if characters move discretely in turns.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

horrendous randomized itemization

Itemization is in many things a practical science, you can still have random +2 swords of speed ala iwd, or bad item spread with +8 belts for everyone like in Kingmaker.

Eh, doesn't really matter that much. Dropping one hundred +2 swords as vendor trash is still substantially different than having to stop and compare items on your inventory every two seconds because even common items come with completely randomized stats.
What's more important, even ranging from "newbie rusty sword" to "god-tier artifact" weapons in D&D have a relatively limited RANGE of power (i.e. from basic to +5/+6 AT MOST) and special abilities are what makes the most difference.
We are nowhere near the insane spread of OS 2 items (ranging from 4dmg to 600dmg or so in the end game. That's a more than 100X inflation of values).

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

One thing Larian could've done differently to troll the entire RPG audience is go with RTT system (Real Time Turns).

Basically you queue up your moves during your turn, and the enemy does the same, then you have like 5-6 second turn where everybody is moving at the same time executing commands and you as a player have no control over it. Then it's back to issuing commands again. It has both the franticness and awesome explosions of RTwP and meticulousness of a TB system. And if pretty much hated by everyone. I only saw some JRPGs trying to implement it and it's a majestic chaos. It's a shame they didn't go this route. The butthurt would be glorious and everybody would remember BG3 for years and years

you sure you are not describing simultaneous turn based system? This is a thing, and actually lots of people like it. Its used in lots of games (numerous war games) not just cluster fuck Japanese games, unless you are describing something else and I am misunderstanding.