Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 RELEASE THREAD

[Reinhardt]

I have a question about Waukeen's Rest and the Toll Collector's office. They seem pretty disconnected from the rest of the 1st map's story, and I'm constantly feeling like I've stumbled into some place that I have no business being in.

The other sections of the 1st map all warrant my presence in some way, because some quest sends me there. But in the area north of the blighted village, everything feels like its own story, separate from the rest.

It's also self-contained when it comes to quests and locations, everything you in that northern area only happens there.

It also made an impression on me that some of the more annoying Wokeshit with gender and race-swapped paladins and guards happens there. The fact it made an impression on me is still a good sign, meaning there isn't much of that shit elsewhere.

Does it feel the same to you, and what's your theory on why it's like that? Rushed development of this part of the map, different designers?

No one to comment on this? It can't be just me.

nigga was killed by gobbos. gud enough for me.

WR has some stuff later on with the Duke, and also the whole Zentarim questline, which is really good for rogues. The toll collector's office seems a bit different from early access. I think exploring it was a way to tell that the paladins were evil. Maybe it still is. I just used speak to the dead for it though. So it's connected to Karlach.

no, it's two different corpses in same building. refugee corpse tells they made pact with devil, toll collector corpse in the basement says he was killed by gobbos.

 

[whydoibother]

and also the whole Zentarim questline

This could've been anywhere, it doesn't make sense to be exactly in that one place. You even see the Zentarim trader in the goblin camp, that entire chain thing could've also been hidden there. Or in the goblin infested town with the windmill, blacksmith, etc. Or literally anywhere, its self contained.

 

[Grunker]

yurgir is a damm good fight

one of the best fights in the game. actually had me reload

 

[Space Satan]

I am actually rather sad about BG3 release for a wrong reason.
The standart Larian set means we won't see a decent RPG for a long time, as other studios will reassess their standing and developement due to inevitable comparison with BG3.
There is also risk of devolving into a Paradox state - where only they develop Grand Strategies that sell in sufficient numbers and others simply cannot enter the competition due to huge gap in experience and resources available.

If Larian will "monopolize" RPG genre, that could result and magnificent RPGs of similar quality in cherished settings, like Waterdeep or Nevewinter Nights, Eye of the Beholder even or Menzoberranzan (marketed as a porn product of course) but with risks of monopoly and lack of competition corrupting them.
In case of RPG releases we have maybe Rogue Trader upcoming, and it is not a "heavy RPG", more like a tactical combat with RPG elements and dialogues. Other than that - Dreadwolf is being held for years on life support and BG3 release is cutting wires one by one.

Very unlikely. RPGs, even braindead simple ones like Skyrim, are still too niche to ever be captured by a single company like the FIFA games for EA or Call of Duty for whoever the fuck makes them now. Unless vast swaths of society suddenly grow a taste for (even shallow) stat growths, you will never see RPGs get taken over by a single dev and still be profitable for very long.

More likely that this is Larian's "Oblivion Moment". They made an ultra mega hit that puts them in the upper brass of RPGs, alongside Bethesda. Their games will be taken more seriously.

And ya know what happened the last time an upstart European company flew too close to the sun?

Cyberpunk 2077...

Really? Grand stretegy games were a niche games as well and were released a decade ago on regular basis...until certain company monopolized the market. It didn't happen overnight or after a single release but thye gradually pushed away not only competition but DESIRE to compete with them.
Who developes major RPGs today?
- CD Project Red with Witcher and Cyberpunk series - both have serious problems as you cannot live by Witcher 3 roaring success alone.
- Bioware, with Mass Effect and Dragon Age - no comment, a dying project from a dying studio, only waiting for a reason to be closed forever.
- Owlcat is grabbing a market share with they stellar performance on Pathfinder and there are high hopes for Rogue Trader, but it is obvious it won'tbe on par with BG3.
- Bethesda is withering with their Fallout franchize, Starfield is an unknows entity, and TES have a long developement cycle with unknown results
- Obsidian proved to be a mediocre team of developers creating mediocre games - PoE - led them to selling their butts to MS, Wasteland 3 - a failure after W2 somewhat successful launch.
- Shadowrun - let's face it - it was a mediocre indie game with heavy stat and skill cheks presence that saved it.
- VTM 2 is stuck in developement hell...and creative hell...and design hell...it is in hell, obviously.
- Gothic sequels - dead in developement.
and...well, that's it.
Major developers are atrociously few and big projects are almost absent. Meanin Larian can grab Waterdeep and Neverwinter Night settings and just make another games on BG3 engine and mechanics and people will be super happly to buy and play them.

 

[whydoibother]

Another irony is that if EA, say, wanted to chase this trend, they would probably comission BioWare, likewise Microsoft Obsidian.....

I can see both Bioware and Obsidian making good games like BG3. They did make Dragon Age Origins and Neverwinter Nights 2, which are similar, and which I liked.
I know its not the same staff, and its not the same production values, but lets not pretend Bioware and Obsidian just make third person shooters, because thats what their last games have been.

Problem is, Dragon Age 4 has been in development for years, so its not like they'll change it to turn based cRPG randomly now. And Obsidian is (allegedly) making Avowed, a Skyrim type of game, and has years of work on it still.

 

[whydoibother]

yurgir is a damm good fight

one of the best fights in the game. actually had me reload

Skipped that one, through conversation checks. Which is also a cool outcome, if you haven't seen it.
I'll have to look for the quicksafe I made there and play through the fight, this is the second time people mention it as great.

Edit: Also, the third way to resolve that conflict is also good. It has to do with all the mice in the area.

 

[RegionalHobo]

yurgir is a damm good fight

one of the best fights in the game. actually had me reload

Skipped that one, through conversation checks. Which is also a cool outcome, if you haven't seen it.
I'll have to look for the quicksafe I made there and play through the fight, this is the second time people mention it as great.

Edit: Also, the third way to resolve that conflict is also good. It has to do with all the mice in the area.

i checked the conversation outcome before fighting, it s indeed one of the best in the game. did not know about the rats at all thou will check it out

 

[just]

are monkbros fucked? tried monkeh and compared to "ROAR!" and "ME SMASH!" barb there is literally nothing monkeh can do.

strength monk + tavern brawler
never miss a punch again and extra dmg
probably more fuckery if you want to multiclass

 

[Grunker]

yurgir is a damm good fight

one of the best fights in the game. actually had me reload

Skipped that one, through conversation checks.

Conversation? He attacked me on sight.

 

[Grunker]

Problem is, Dragon Age 4 has been in development for years, so its not like they'll change it to turn based cRPG randomly now.

Unlikely, yes, but I wouldn't count it out completely. Dragon Age: Origins' first screenshots are basically another game entirely than the one we ended up with. The game was in development for a very long time.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I have a question about Waukeen's Rest and the Toll Collector's office. They seem pretty disconnected from the rest of the 1st map's story, and I'm constantly feeling like I've stumbled into some place that I have no business being in.

Waukeen's Rest and the Toll Collector's were probably changed/added later, because they are the quest zones for Wyll and Karlach's personal quests, and those two were changed/added later themselves.
Honestly Wyll and Karlach could've been DLC characters, with how relevant they are to the main plot (from what I've seen). Smaller stakes, more individualized, separated from the rest. Maybe they were changed/added after everyone complained during early access that the entire party is made up of evil cryptic assholes.

That's sad, because I sort of like the area. It feels like I've entered an area on the Sword Coast while roaming around in the first Baldur's Gate. I just wish it was more developed.

Grand stretegy games were a niche games as well and were released a decade ago on regular basis...until certain company monopolized the market. It didn't happen overnight or after a single release but thye gradually pushed away not only competition but DESIRE to compete with them.

A slight correction, grand strategy games never really exploded as a casual-infested genre, and it's Crusader Kings II aka Dynasty Sims which specifically accounts for the explosion within that segment of the videogames market. And that in turn resulted from a major improvement in the same two components which I wrote about many pages ago here - 1. UI accessibility, 2. Production values, people like pretty pictures.

 

[RegionalHobo]

yurgir is a damm good fight

one of the best fights in the game. actually had me reload

Skipped that one, through conversation checks.

Conversation? He attacked me on sight.

if you meet him in the jumping/above path he ll insta aggro. i think this counts as sneaking on him since it s a much better position to fight

if you follow his beast instead ( he and his minions will be above you ) then he ll talk.

 

[Grauken]

Already posted earlier in the thread. They will 100% learn the wrong lesson. Expect a slew of demonic/lizard waifu simulators with realistic genital options.

 

[Grunker]

yurgir is a damm good fight

one of the best fights in the game. actually had me reload

Skipped that one, through conversation checks.

Conversation? He attacked me on sight.

if you meet him in the jumping/above path he ll insta aggro. i think this counts as sneaking on him since it s a much better position to fight

if you follow his beast instead ( he and his minions will be above you ) then he ll talk.

Interesting

 

[Grunker]

I have a question about Waukeen's Rest and the Toll Collector's office. They seem pretty disconnected from the rest of the 1st map's story, and I'm constantly feeling like I've stumbled into some place that I have no business being in.

The game’s biggest structural issue by far is lack of cohesion and sense of place

 

[Kiste]

BTW FSR is pretty good. This is the first game i've actually got a chance to try it on. At ultra pre-set i gain around 20-30 FPS. Haven't really attempted to see if i can spot the visual degradation but i think the gains are worth it no matter what. Currently getting around 60-65 FPS with all the graphics at max setting except for depth of field which i took out entirely. Of course this is just the tutorial and i'm sure the performance will degrade battling large groups or when hitting a town but i'm surprised at how well it plays considering i heard people bitching the game was slow on nu-shit like 4000 series Nvidia cards.

Maybe you should worry less about sniffing out faggotry and degeneracy and non-whites in video games and more about not being a poorfag so you can afford a better video card.

Instead of spamming the codex with edgy 4chan anti-woke takes, you could work a couple of hours and earn some money. Something appropriate to your intellect, like shoveling shit at your local pig farm for minimum wage.

It would be an all-around win-win. We would be spared your shitposting, the pig farmer gets the shit shoveled from the pigsty and you might be able to afford a new video card so you can enjoy this great game with better frame rate and image quality.

 

[whydoibother]

I have a question about Waukeen's Rest and the Toll Collector's office. They seem pretty disconnected from the rest of the 1st map's story, and I'm constantly feeling like I've stumbled into some place that I have no business being in.

The game’s biggest structural issue by far is lack of cohesion and sense of place

Probably the result of reworking things and making shit up along the way.
Knowing Larian, they were probably making big changes to quests and areas as late as six months ago.

 

[Grunker]

I have a question about Waukeen's Rest and the Toll Collector's office. They seem pretty disconnected from the rest of the 1st map's story, and I'm constantly feeling like I've stumbled into some place that I have no business being in.

The game’s biggest structural issue by far is lack of cohesion and sense of place

Probably the result of reworking things and making shit up along the way.

I think it’s entirely the fault of the map design. The fact that you only paint maps and hardly ever retread areas or have “quest hubs”/towns means the game has levels rather than dynamic areas.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

Another irony is that if EA, say, wanted to chase this trend, they would probably comission BioWare, likewise Microsoft Obsidian.....

Problem is, Dragon Age 4 has been in development for years, so its not like they'll change it to turn based cRPG randomly now. And Obsidian is (allegedly) making Avowed, a Skyrim type of game, and has years of work on it still.

Yeah, I could almost see EA forcing them to change development of Dragon Age 4 *yet again* (something like 4th time?), but it's probably too close to completion. These numbers are going to turn heads in the industry though... 2.5 million early access. Top of PS5 pre-order chart. 800,000 concurrent Steam players (currently; it may well breach a million this weekend). That is the kind of numbers that DOTA and shit like that deal in.

In my most fabulously optimistic hopes, I would like to see someone try a sci-fi RPG with BG3's production values. I'm guessing Larian's immediate future will be a Baldur's Gate III expansion, then Baldur's Gate IV developed with a new in-house engine. However I would love Larian or someone to give say Traveller a shot.

 

[Space Satan]

A slight correction, grand strategy games never really exploded as a casual-infested genre, and it's Crusader Kings II aka Dynasty Sims which specifically accounts for the explosion within that segment of the videogames market. And that in turn resulted from a major improvement in the same two components which I wrote about many pages ago here - 1. UI accessibility, 2. Production values, people like pretty pictures.

Back in the day of Dragon Age 2 release EVERYONE was talking about how single-player cRPG cannot survive and that multiplayer is a must and how everyone should make their own MMORPG and have mandatory multiplayer integration. Then Mass Effect 3 failed, then DAO: Inquisition failed miserably, then Witcher 3 came, then Andromeda failed and it suddenly turned out that single player RPGs are not destined to die and multiplayer inteegration does not guarantee profitability and cRPGs are not a niche games but people actually bought them en masse.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I can see both Bioware and Obsidian making good games like BG3.

Like I wrote earlier, Obsidian couldn't pull such a project off even if Swen handed them the engine, the tech and the documentation, hell even the engine and tools developers. Obsidian is creatively and organisationally paralyzed.

They probably could make something of the size of one big map, but in RPGs quantity has a quality of its own, memorable RPGs are big enough to let you get lost within the world.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Got the Act 2 "ending", thanks to Gale.

It was amusing to see the credits roll afterward.

 

[Grunker]

Another irony is that if EA, say, wanted to chase this trend, they would probably comission BioWare, likewise Microsoft Obsidian.....

Problem is, Dragon Age 4 has been in development for years, so its not like they'll change it to turn based cRPG randomly now. And Obsidian is (allegedly) making Avowed, a Skyrim type of game, and has years of work on it still.

Yeah, I could almost see EA forcing them to change development of Dragon Age 4 *yet again* (something like 4th time?), but it's probably too close to completion. These numbers are going to turn heads in the industry though... 2.5 million early access. Top of PS5 pre-order chart. 800,000 concurrent Steam players (currently; it may well breach a million this weekend). That is the kind of numbers that DOTA and shit like that deal in.

In my most fabulously optimistic hopes, I would like to see someone try a sci-fi RPG with BG3's production values. I'm guessing Larian's immediate future will be a Baldur's Gate III expansion, then Baldur's Gate IV developed with a new in-house engine. However I would love Larian or someone to give say Traveller a shot.

It’s never going to happen, but Larian would be the ideal studio for Spelljammer. Heck, BG3 is 50% Spelljammer as it is :D

 

[AwesomeButton]

A slight correction, grand strategy games never really exploded as a casual-infested genre, and it's Crusader Kings II aka Dynasty Sims which specifically accounts for the explosion within that segment of the videogames market. And that in turn resulted from a major improvement in the same two components which I wrote about many pages ago here - 1. UI accessibility, 2. Production values, people like pretty pictures.

Back in the day of Dragon Age 2 release EVERYONE was talking about how single-player cRPG cannot survive and that multiplayer is a must and how everyone should make their own MMORPG and have mandatory multiplayer integration. Then Mass Effect 3 failed, then DAO: Inquisition failed miserably, then Witcher 3 came, then Andromeda failed and it suddenly turned out that single player RPGs are not destined to die and multiplayer inteegration does not guarantee profitability and cRPGs are not a niche games but people actually bought them en masse.

You are recounting the facts correctly, but what is your point? What you recount confirms what I said: same as BG and BG2 back in the day, same as Witcher 3 in 2015, same as Crusader Kings II, BG3 succeeds on the back of two main advantages: more accessible than before, higher production values.

 

[Non-Edgy Gamer]

Waukeen's Rest and the Toll Collector's were probably changed/added later, because they are the quest zones for Wyll and Karlach's personal quests, and those two were changed/added later themselves.
Honestly Wyll and Karlach could've been DLC characters, with how relevant they are to the main plot (from what I've seen). Smaller stakes, more individualized, separated from the rest. Maybe they were changed/added after everyone complained during early access that the entire party is made up of evil cryptic assholes.

Wyll was changed to be more evil, not less. Or at least, more edgy. He was an idealistic sped at first. Now he just half-pretends to be one.