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

[Black]

This video says these tadpoles are not standard ones:

Wow, Gamespot making a video that isn't utter garbo.

 

[fantadomat]

Grotesque said: ↑

This is another issue: it doesn't look like placeholder as well as the whole UI because clearly there's more work has been done than it seems at the first glance. Therefore any changes in that regard less likely to be expected. Although EA feedback might affect that but I'm not holding my breath.

This sort of subtle UI changes but where the overall form and style remains the same (down to the mouse cursor art as seen in the "BG3" presentation), are typical to game sequels.
I am more and more convinced that this was designed as Divinity Original Sin 3 but slapped the Baldur's Gate 3 tag on it when Larian thought that it would be more lucrative to do so.

I would have gone with dark grayblue or blackish background and some fancy tentacle as sidebars,maybe a tentacleface on top of the itembox.

 

[mondblut]

Here's the thing. If you want to make a story in which the protagonists have superpowers due to some weird thing, why perverse already established lore? Or the game can be about mind flayers without us being infected. There isn't a single instance in the lore where being infested with a tadpole gives you superpowers. It doesn't even make sense, the tadpoles can't be commanded to do anything (like "give superpowers instead of feasting!"), they are parasites which uncontrollably eat.

Too much Stargate, I guess.

 

[Valky]

What bothers me about both D:OS games is not the 3d or the turn based with multiplayer (why would it?), or the environmental combos thing. It's the fact that both games are bloated with gameplay

 

[Grunker]

This is even worse than Adra-gate. Ruining Mind Flayer Tadpole lore gimme a fucking break

 

[Heroic Liberator]

They ruined more lore in 5 minutes

ruining forgotten realms lore after the spellplague, lol

Forgotten Realms in general is quite the infantile setting. Not much that you can ruin.

 

[DraQ]

We need a term for the Larian model of RPG which, like it or not, may define the next half-decade of isometric roleplaying.

Is "incline" not sufficient?

The only thing I really hate about Larian is that in pursuit or some misguided and flatly wrong ideas about how games should be designed they end up leveling large swathes of their own awesome ideas as they try to patch up the damage inflicted by applying even more misguided ideas causing more and more damage to be patched in turn, eventually leaving only scraps intact.

Main reasons to be optimistic about BG3 are what Larian won't do with it:

• They won't implement equipment treadmill
• They won't do item fever
• They won't add ridiculous stat bloat
• They won't simplify the fuck out of their elemental system

Main reason to not be optimistic is because brain eating race with tacky collars and brain shaped minions because need to keep pumping that braains! theme like a shotgun in a '90s action movie is actually very hard to take seriously, but that sadly comes bundled with DnD - even though it's a portal wide open to the very depths of the dork ages of PnP.

It's literally blatant historical revisionism. It's combat is still inspiring games 20 years later.

And quite a few people wish it fucking stopped.

I still remember everyone discussing BG and the great spells that can only be used in combat and how great mage vs mage battles were. I remember everyone planning builds. I remember people trying to solo or Beat the game in interesting ways. I remember people trying out a ton of new builds. Or sharing their builds. Or getting excited over new equipment or items. I remember people sharing strategies for fights and sharing interesting ways to combo spells. I remember people asking a ton of questions on the forum about combat mechanics and game rules instead of just playing on easy mode and ignoring it all. I can't be the only one who sees a contradiction between all those things existing in a game with bad combat. These are all hallmarks of a game with great combat.

And none of those things bears any relation to the combat system being RTWP.
BGs were party based games which works best with TB, they were based on TB ruleset. They just squeezed RTWP part in there because they were built on unfinished RTS engine.

Clinging to that RTWP parts even though it objectively made the games worse because RTWP both controls worse in a party based game and because RTWP cannot be as faithful translation of TB as TB can is like demanding that a sequel to a janky game that sometimes wiped your HD and shat onto boot sector must do the same in order to stay true. It's a party based game built on top of TB (PnP) mechanics - it should have been TB since two games ago.

Making a good sequel is also about understanding which part were good and which were shit and translating that into which parts to keep and which ones to ditch.

If anything Divinity 2 was the biggest mainstream compromise and this game is very well-liked, even if it was third-person and action-based.

...and has fucking cooldowns, of all things.

A lot of people seem to forget that writing - yes, a lot of it the Larian's humour - was really one of the main things going for Divinity 2. You don't need to install whole game just listen to Kiril's soundtrack, you know.

DOS1 was indeed the low point of writing, but in other games it's at least serviceable (so no worse than BGs, imagine that!) and Larian's humour actually funny (that's some clear advantage over BGs right there).

I never really understood the DOS2 hate. Apart from few moronic decisions it really improved over DOS1, especially DOS1 EE which mostly got enhanced in the wrong direction.

Their new turned-based approach is superior in every respect, and it sells. Pretty abhorrent from the stagnating "decline" mentality that thinks everything is continually going to shit by default. The truth of the matter is, gaming right now is no longer unified into a single mainstream market, it does many things in many ways.

At least, if you're drown into a conflict between Ithilids and Giths, things might be a bit nuanced and interesting. With both planning to enslave you, only in one case you get to keep your brain. Actually, that sounds like choosing between libtards and alt right.

I don't see where "keep your brain" part comes in there.

Spoiler

And that's if I charitably interpret libtards as nu-left.

 

[deuxhero]

They ruined more lore in 5 minutes

ruining forgotten realms lore after the spellplague, lol

Forgotten Realms in general is quite the infantile setting. Not much that you can ruin.

Exactly. It's a setting where not a single innovation has been created in the last 500+ years.

 

[toroks]

Nice to see positivity between Larian and Owlcat and vica verca:

On one hand, it is nice and... "wholesome" as the kids say.

But on the other hand, I'd SHIT TALK so hard if I was one of these guys. Also because I know this is all a load of shit. The reality is every time Swen had a bug or glitch or something wrong happened, Owlcat was laughing and giggling and doing prisyadka dances. I'd love it if more developers were honest and direct and did some good old fashioned Sega vs. Nintendo rivalry hijinks. Owlcat does what Larian don't, make up some bullshit like blast processing, claim BG3 has ransomware hidden deep in its code that will sell your information to drug cartels, give us a good fight. You think Swen is there going, "I sure hope Pathfinder's new game is a smashing success!" Hell no. He saw Owlcat's response there and was FUMING at their compliment.

The sad reality is: the larian 3 week promotional trip budget is superior to kingmaker total budget.

Owlcat does have one advantage, though: Labor is cheap in Russia...

 

[Grunker]

They ruined more lore in 5 minutes

ruining forgotten realms lore after the spellplague, lol

Forgotten Realms in general is quite the infantile setting. Not much that you can ruin.

 

[DraQ]

There is also that other movie on yt, with the gith lady intro, where she remarks that something doesn't add up. That they should be already bleeding from the nose etc., but instead they feel and act like on magical steroids.

(maybe daddy B. impregnated an elder brain once upon the time, and now they carry Bhaalspawn tadpoles around, lol)

It's called brainfuck (and is Turing-complete).

 

[jackofshadows]

I am more and more convinced that this was designed as Divinity Original Sin 3 but slapped the Baldur's Gate 3 tag on it when Larian thought that it would be more lucrative to do so.

This is looks like it, however according to this interview, the deal was made ~ in june 2017, during the last stage of D:OS2 development. On the other hand, there was Divinity: Fallen Heroes, so maybe BG3 assets was recycled from that project.

Spoiler

Swen Vincke, Creative Director: I approached them after Divinity: Original Sin (DOS 1). I said, "You should let us make Baldur's Gate 3. We have a lot of Dungeons and Dragons fans in the office. It's something that would really motivate them." They said no, then. Then we were working on DOS 2. In between, I kept on bumping into Nate Stewart at Dungeons and Dragons. He asked me, "What game would you make actually?" I said, "This is what I would make." He said, "Okay, all right, that's kind of cool." But yeah, at the time, the stars were not aligned.

I then got a phone call from him in December before DOS 2 released - so that was in 2016. He said, "Do you still want to do this?" I said, "Yes, I am actually really interested in still doing this." He says, "Fly over to Seattle." I fly over Seattle and went to an obscure bar with him. There, he showed me three PowerPoints, which contained everything I'd talked about all this time. He said, "I'll present this to the board of Hasbro next week. Do you agree?" I said, "Yes." Then six months later we signed the agreement. We were still working on DOS 2 back then.

I would have gone with dark grayblue or blackish background and some fancy tentacle as sidebars,maybe a tentacleface on top of the itembox.

Yeah, something related to their fucking advertising art would be nice (from the lower part, obviously)

Spoiler

 

[rusty_shackleford]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with asset recycling. No, I don't need a new bag UI for every game Larian makes.

 

[Elex]

The tadpoles are codexer i

well this is the best theory.

 

[Elex]

I am hoping that encounters will not be balanced around using these gimicks. I hope we will be able to just use good tactics and our weapons/spells to beat enemies.

the power can also being resistant to certain mind flayer powers and become the only hope in the fight against the army of mind flayers.

 

[DraQ]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with asset recycling. No, I don't need a new bag UI for every game Larian makes.

Agreed, even though it feels a bit weird.

 

[Lacrymas]

The multiverse is vast and full of terrors. Who is to say this specific group of Illithids hasn't tampered with their own life cycle for whatever reason?

It's always bad optics to retcon long-established lore because it spits in the face of people who have bought the books and learned the lore. It also sets a bad precedent, if they can retcon anything, why bother having an interest in the lore or having any lore whatsoever? Exploring other worlds is only as interesting as the lore sets them up to be (not lore in of itself, but what we do with it). And the established lore is more dangerous, it's harder to escape the illithid so the stakes are higher and thus more thrilling. It's just bad a practice all around.

 

[jackofshadows]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with asset recycling. No, I don't need a new bag UI for every game Larian makes.

There's nothing wrong with the idea, if it fits. But I think in this case it doesn't fit at all. Actually, that particular bag rework is worthless, they could might as well just keep the old one.

 

[Roguey]

Larian confirmed all companions are romanceable. If Minsc makes it in I expect everyone will hold them to that. Poor boo.

I believe this will be it as far as companions go.

e.g. Look at what they used for D:OS 2

If Minsc is in the game at all, he'll be an NPC/follower (whatever that means).

(btw even the logo image uses the same format; D:OS 3 indeed)

Dude, you're trying to grasp at straws but there are no straws to grasp. As someone who's never quite forgiven CDPR for TW3 graphics downgrade, I tell you this: there's absolutely nothing wrong with the BG3 visuals even in the current pre-alpha state.

The models look good, but the environments aren't 2020 AAA in quality. Too blurry. Maybe that will change with time, though I have doubts.

True.
Here some reality check on how much people play other rpg.

5e killed Pathfinder and the Sawyerized Pathfinder 2e went down with a lead balloon. They deserve it.

Ugh. Fucking hate dice rolls in conversation checks.

So do I, but those are the rules. Take 20 mod when?

Any evidence Cyseal was designed with telemetry?

If was the only area available for playtesting during Early Access and received a ton of player feedback, hence the greater amount of polish.

 

[Terenty]

The UI doesn't even fit the size of the bag ffs. Shit looks like the abomination from Numenera almost

 

[DraQ]

LoL talking about being fateful to the worst D&D iteration

That's 4e.

Really??? You expect a tactical game from studio with thinks that the most tactical thing is to throw red coloured spell on to green coloured environmental blob?!?!?!?!

Still an improvement over about 100% of cRPGs out there, so?

The tadpoles are codexer i

well this is the best theory.

A codexer tadpole would at best develop into an intellect devourer.

Spoiler

A mutated one.

Spoiler

All smooth.

 

[AwesomeButton]

The tadpoles are codexer i

well this is the best theory.

Don't omit the "deficient and slow to mature" part.

 

[Theodora]

The UI doesn't even fit the size of the bag ffs. Shit looks like the abomination from Numenera almost

It's pre-alpha.

 

[Lacrymas]

I believe this will be it as far as companions go.

They said these are only for early access, they'll be more. 5 companions for a BG game is lame.

 

[Ontopoly]

I think I realised why swen decided to use the name bg3. Everyone is so distracted by the rtwp vs TB debate they aren't shining enough light on all the other shit. RTWP are too busy shit talking turn based and turn based people are on the defensive so they feel they have to defend the whole game in order to defend TB. He's a genius. A genius with no integrity