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

[fantadomat]

Did anything interesting came from all those videos?

They dropped the party-wide initiative and adopted a system more faithful to D&D 5 where everyone rolls his initiative and acts accordingly. They also abandoned that awkward first-person dialogue style in favor of a more orthodox one where you are presented with a set of lines you can choose from.

The gith companion looks hotter and Shadowlove is more similar to the first iteration than to what we saw recently.

Throwing boots and shits is now an action (no longer a bonus action) and you can't just throw stuff every single round in addition to your standard attack.

There's a scene where you can force a goblin to lick the gith chick's feet. The goblin is visibly drunk, so he can't give express consent and that's basically rape.

There were only a couple of barrels in more than 20 minutes of gameplay, so that's at least 75% less than what we could reasonably expect from Larian.

Bows dipped in fire during the entire gameplay showcase: 0 (he dipped a torch, but that doesn't count).

It seems that Swen still reads the codex even if it is butthurt and don't post. Who knows maybe Ontopoly is actually swen .


PS:Calling that nosehook porn idol a better looking is like polishing a turn,it will never become a diamond.

 

[underground nymph]

speaking of, how and especially where do they gather feedback from players?
i mean it’s not here, right?

 

[Lacrymas]

speaking of, how and especially where do they gather feedback from players?
i mean it’s not here, right?

I'm sure Swen reads the 'Dex for that masochistic thrill, but other than that no idea.

 

[Saravan]

speaking of, how and especially where do they gather feedback from players?
i mean it’s not here, right?

Pretty sure he takes all design decisions from Ontopoly and sprinkles some fantadomat tears to spice things up.

 

[anvi]

I like mods for simple stuff but adding more party members is beyond the scope of modders I think. I tried it in DoS2 and it just wasn't good, it made the game far too easy, even on the highest difficulty. Two extra people is a big difference. It was also buggy. I think they should at least do it as an option, like Story and Explorer is party of 4, 'Classic' and 'Tactician' is party of 6 but enemies adjusted to compensate.

 

[anvi]

Thank God the initiative is in.

No we just have to cry loud enough about the party size for Swen to understand that 6 is the bare minimum.

Is there an email or something? I really want to tell him to allow party of 6, but I don't want to use social media.

I just plan on bothering him on Twitter. Sadly, I don't think the party size is a negotiable feature in their eyes, because I think they are firmly convinced that a larger party would inevitably lead to encounters that last for far too long. There are obvious solutions to this problem and I can't understand why larian strays as further from them as it possibly can.

It's also possible that they don't think they can put enough companions/origins in the game to support a party size bigger than the current one. You can't put just 6 characters in your game if the player can play with all of them in a single playthrough. I mean, you can (since you can create as many character as you want), but maybe they think it would look bad on the game.

Some turn based games have an animation/combat speed setting which although goofy looking, can make battles go very fast. They should consider that. I usually use SpeedHack which works the same way as makes turn based battles super fast. Also they could have some normal companions and then let the player make a couple of custom characters at a tavern or whatever which aren't voiced. I think they did similar in DoS.

 

[Gargaune]

Yes, the spell slots system seems very similar to how PnP works. The biggest difference I noticed so far is that you can change readied spells on the fly.

I assumed Swen had a cheat enabled by that point since he was pressed for time? He used cheats to recover progress after the game bugged out earlier.

The animations and dice rolls are just slow. This continues to be a really annoying concern of mine. Working through turns in combat is going to be a slog. I hope they at least give the option to double animation speeds, and either way I'm modding out the super saiyan dash animation.

Yeah, the dice rolls and the animu ability visuals are my biggest gripes about the UI as well. I wonder if WotC might be insisting on that dice roller as a form of subliminal marketing for their tabletop products.


Another thing that keeps bugging me is the scope of the plot exposition. Think about it for a moment... In Baldur's Gate, you start off as a snot-nosed whelp whose foster father gets ganked in the woods. In Icewind Dale, you're a party of random pricks rolling into Bumfuck, Frozen North, looking for work. Icewind Dale 2? A party of random pricks rolling into Targos for mercenary work. Pathfinder: Kingmaker has you as a presumably-competent brigand signing on to help whack a local bandit chief. Hell, even Baldur's Gate 2, when your character's already got some heroics under his belt, only kicks you off in Zed's basement.

Now what have we seen of Baldur's Gate 3 so far? You're trapped on an interdimensional octupus blimp and a Mind Flayer surprise-sexes his tadpole into your eyesocket, and then he drives the octoblimp to Balance™ the town of Yartar, and then githyanki riding DRAGONS teleport in and tear into the octoblimp and it goes down KABOOM and then you assemble a team of fellow skullfucks and a powerful devil takes a sudden interest in your soul and then you drop down a hole into the UNDERDARK and then etc. I mean, who wrote this? Michael Bay?

 

[Robber Baron]

Now what have we seen of Baldur's Gate 3 so far? You're trapped on an interdimensional octupus blimp and a Mind Flayer surprise-sexes his tadpole into your eyesocket, and then he drives the octoblimp to Balance™ the town of Yartar, and then githyanki riding DRAGONS teleport in and tear into the octoblimp and it goes down KABOOM and then you assemble a team of fellow skullfucks and a powerful devil takes a sudden interest in your soul and then you drop down a hole into the UNDERDARK and then etc. I mean, who wrote this? Michael Bay?

Probably the smaller size of the game world dictates a tighter and more aggressive nature of narrative.

 

[Saravan]

Yes, the spell slots system seems very similar to how PnP works. The biggest difference I noticed so far is that you can change readied spells on the fly.

I assumed Swen had a cheat enabled by that point since he was pressed for time? He used cheats to recover progress after the game bugged out earlier.

The animations and dice rolls are just slow. This continues to be a really annoying concern of mine. Working through turns in combat is going to be a slog. I hope they at least give the option to double animation speeds, and either way I'm modding out the super saiyan dash animation.

Yeah, the dice rolls and the animu ability visuals are my biggest gripes about the UI as well. I wonder if WotC might be insisting on that dice roller as a form of subliminal marketing for their tabletop products.


Another thing that keeps bugging me is the scope of the plot exposition. Think about it for a moment... In Baldur's Gate, you start off as a snot-nosed whelp whose foster father gets ganked in the woods. In Icewind Dale, you're a party of random pricks rolling into Bumfuck, Frozen North, looking for work. Icewind Dale 2? A party of random pricks rolling into Targos for mercenary work. Pathfinder: Kingmaker has you as a presumably-competent brigand signing on to help whack a local bandit chief. Hell, even Baldur's Gate 2, when your character's already got some heroics under his belt, only kicks you off in Zed's basement.

Now what have we seen of Baldur's Gate 3 so far? You're trapped on an interdimensional octupus blimp and a Mind Flayer surprise-sexes his tadpole into your eyesocket, and then he drives the octoblimp to Balance™ the town of Yartar, and then githyanki riding DRAGONS teleport in and tear into the octoblimp and it goes down KABOOM and then you assemble a team of fellow skullfucks and a powerful devil takes a sudden interest in your soul and then you drop down a hole into the UNDERDARK and then etc. I mean, who wrote this? Michael Bay?

Dice roll animation seems fine to me but it's possible it becomes exhausting once you are playing the game yourself. Animation for mundane actions such as dash, jumping, etc. need to be less flashy and more grounded - I don't buy the argument that these need to be telegraphed so explicitly in order for the player to have visual cues as to what is going on. This can be solved more elegantly. The UI needs be refined with a visual style that takes more inspiration from BG I & II since they already done that with the spell icons. However the final version of the UI is typically something that is worked on in the last portions of development phase.

The story I have no opinion on as there is not enough of it available at the moment. When exactly in the game you meet Raphael or gain access to Underdark is unclear as the gameplay reveal didn't clarify that and what was shown could easily just have been presented out of context to showcase those events and areas. As repeatedly demonstrated in this thread people jump to conclusions on very limited information.

 

[Gargaune]

The story I have no opinion on as there is not enough of it available at the moment. When exactly in the game you meet Raphael or gain access to Underdark is unclear as the gameplay reveal didn't clarify that and what was shown could easily just have been presented out of context to showcase those events and areas. As repeatedly demonstrated in this thread people jump to conclusions on very limited information.

I suppose it's possible the scene with Raphael might normally play out later on in the game, true enough, but it seems unlikely. The party dynamics as shown in companion dialogue - e.g. characters sizing each other up, the aimless urgency around the tadpoles - gave me a strong impression that it was still in sequence and relatively soon after you assembled the group, following the Nautiloid's crash.

Either way, the point is that they seem to be going for an exceptionally bombastic opening to the campaign, featuring the sort of content we'd more typically expect well into the plot or in an epic-level expansion.

 

[Incendax]

In minor defense of the game, the octoblimp capturing random schmucks in Yartar suggests that the PC is also a random schmuck.

It would be great if the custom character gets an option to shit their pants and scream about being a peasant.

 

[Delterius]

octoblimp... hah

very good

 

[The_Mask]

octoblimp... hah

very good

You know... we laugh and kid, but the intro has a lot in common with Arcanum. Air battle. Flying things "piloted" by some demi-humans spitting fire. Crash. Special person on board with an interesting quest to resolve. It is pretty similar.

All that it is missing is MCA whining about canines.

 

[Elhoim]

They just have to drop the excessive visual effects they are using for every single action.

Animation for mundane actions such as dash, jumping, etc. need to be less flashy and more grounded - I don't buy the argument that these need to be telegraphed so explicitly in order for the player to have visual cues as to what is going on.

This so much. WTF is that shout and sonic boom when selecting "dash". It's just running FFS jajaja

And the camera work was ugh. Apart from that, looks to be shaping up great.

 

[underground nymph]

what are actually the pros of having 6 party members other than “TWAS IN BG LIKE THIS!!”? a... bigger party?
with the increase of character building complexity and shit i’ve started to find it quite weary to level up all 6 characters

 

[underground nymph]

Think about it for a moment... In Baldur's Gate, you start off as a snot-nosed whelp whose foster father gets ganked in the woods.

a whelp who is coincidentally, surprise surprise, a descendant of the

Spoiler

god of murder

right, nothing to look at here folks

 

[oldmanpaco]

what are actually the pros of having 6 party members other than “TWAS IN BG LIKE THIS!!”? a... bigger party?
with the increase of character building complexity and shit i’ve started to find it quite weary to level up all 6 characters

You're right man. The Might & Magic, Wizardry, Bard's Tale, Ultima 4-7, Gold Box, BG1&2, IWD 1&2, PS:T, ToEE, PoE 1(combat/party was not the problem), and P:KM games all got it wrong. Dragon Age is where its at.

Can't wait to play split screen on a Switch with my kids.

edit: Also 5E is D&D for the masses (not saying that's a bad thing). Not a lot of depth in character progression unlike previous versions. BG3 is a casual game for a casual rule-set (this is a bad thing).

 

[urmom]

IIRC

PoE has 5-member party (plus animals and summons).

Oops, only the sequel has 5-member party.

 

[AwesomeButton]

speaking of, how and especially where do they gather feedback from players?
i mean it’s not here, right?

I'm sure Swen reads the 'Dex for that masochistic thrill, but other than that no idea.

He reads it when trying to go to sleep, but it causes him insomnia.

They just have to drop the excessive visual effects they are using for every single action.

Animation for mundane actions such as dash, jumping, etc. need to be less flashy and more grounded - I don't buy the argument that these need to be telegraphed so explicitly in order for the player to have visual cues as to what is going on.

This so much. WTF is that shout and sonic boom when selecting "dash". It's just running FFS jajaja

And the camera work was ugh. Apart from that, looks to be shaping up great.

I want to join you in this complaint. Imagine how much cooler would have a graceful jump animation looked during the sneaking into the gobln stronghold, instead of that over the top screen-shaking. Bonus points if the animations were contextual to the kind of jumping or to the character performing the action. Spell effects which cause two screen shakes and pillars of colorful lights just look out of place.

 

[Harthwain]

I agree on the animations. Every time Swen was deciding what to use I could hear an explosion. It was really distracting.

I am OK with the roll animations. They show you your target roll and then you... roll. Then there is a brief period of uncertainty to create tension and you get the result. An option to skip the roll animation could be good, but personally I don't mind it.

I like change to the dialogue and I am fine with silent protagonist.

What did they change about the Gith that people suddenly went from hate to love? I am pretty bad at facial recognition, so I can't really tell what's changed.

 

[santino27]

Next month I'll be DM'ing technically my first 5E D&D game (I have "DM'd" a 5E game once before but it very unusual, the entire party were commoners trying to pay their feudal lords for the month) with at least 3 other people, so I'll report how that goes then and compare that to BG3. But yeah, from my limited experience as a player, a round of combat doesn't take an hour lolol. We'll be running Dragon of Icespire Peak if anyone is interested.

I've been playing in a roll20 campaign with 3 other players. Battles can take a while (I think we make it through 3 encounters a session, max), but individual rounds go pretty quickly, especially as we learn wtf we're doing. 5e character progression feels very limited though.

 

[Cassar]

what are actually the pros of having 6 party members other than “TWAS IN BG LIKE THIS!!”? a... bigger party?
with the increase of character building complexity and shit i’ve started to find it quite weary to level up all 6 characters

The reduction of party members is a design compromise made to better acomodate controllers. Its not that they think its better or something. As Avelone was pointing out years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAdvqAG5goA&feature=youtu.be&t=6m27s


By the way, seems we're canceling Avelone now

https://www.resetera.com/threads/ch...ving-sexual-predator-a-twitter-thread.231604/

 

[Thal]

The most significant effect of the reduced party size is the reduced power of the party. If you had a 6-member party in D:OS or BG3 for that matter, encounters should be beeffed accordingly, by adding more enemies or making them more powerful. Considering the limited size of the battlefield and manipulation of the environment acting as a force multiplier, it may be harder to fine tune encounters so that gameplay remains fun. For example party members can be cramped together, which makes AoE spells more powerful, and ganging up on single party members becomes more effective. Not saying it can't be done, but modifying party size can have pretty far reaching effects. You can balance this by sharing exp, making 4-member parties a level or two higher, but even so, it may be easier to fine tune the entire game for a standard party. Say what you will about D:OS 1 and 2, but imo their encounter designs were very well done, which shouldn't be taken for granted.

 

[guestposting]

I agree on the animations. Every time Swen was deciding what to use I could hear an explosion. It was really distracting.

I am OK with the roll animations. They show you your target roll and then you... roll. Then there is a brief period of uncertainty to create tension and you get the result. An option to skip the roll animation could be good, but personally I don't mind it.

I like change to the dialogue and I am fine with silent protagonist.

What did they change about the Gith that people suddenly went from hate to love? I am pretty bad at facial recognition, so I can't really tell what's changed.

I think they gave her more of a nose.

 

[Xamenos]

I'm man enough to admit I was wrong. Shadowheart remains unchanged. Mea Culpa. I wonder if it's evidence we can customize companion appearance, as others have said.

Changing the dialogue and the initiative are inarguably changes to the right direction. Probably not enough to make it a good game when the writing will almost certainly sunk donkey balls, but you can't have everything.

And I now find the Githyanki weirdly sexy. Too bad she's explicitly the cuck choice.