Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 RELEASE THREAD

[Grunker]

I think you're on the right track, although I would say that Solasta is a better simulator - it's just that it was made on a small budget by a tiny team.

I've never tried Solasta, but I'm putting the emphasis on the fact that Solasta is easier to swallow for a BG fan because it doesn't have Baldur's Gate in its name.

I had a pretty disappointed reaction towards PoE, almost 10 years ago, because it was doing all it could to ride on the Baldur's Gate/IWD/Torment brands. It edned up being a game that overpromised on what it contained, somewhat, but as a separate issue - was very far from my expectations for an IE-style game.

Yet if you ignore the name-dropping and approach it without baggage and associations with other titles, it's a game worth a playthrough.

I would say that just in terms of implementation of the mechanics and the UI, Solasta is in fact better than this game.

HAHAAHAHAAHAH...
AHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAA...

Solasta's UI may be ugly as fuck, but it is incredibly functional.

 

[OttoQuitmarck]

It's not trying to outdo them as a BG-like game, it's outdoing them in the broader task of being a better PnP adaptation to the videogame medium. And I think it's objectively better at that.

I'm still in act 1 (which makes me more qualified than the majority of gaming jouros out there) but I'd say that's spot on.

Hard as it is to say, this is more of an RPG than the old isometric classics. The production values and narrative focus are so good that they end up making a much better adaptation of going on a fantasy adventure with bros.

Heavy MOTB vibes by the way. You're not some Chosen One(TM) trying to save the world from Big Boss (at least not from what I've seen). You're just some dude with a worm in his head trying to get rid of it while trying to resist the urge to give in to it.

Yea, I agree. This game feels more like actually playing a ttrpg than any other RPG I've ever played.

 

[Orud]

Oh you should try Solasta, it's an interesting comparison of two 5e implementations. I would say that just in terms of implementation of the mechanics and the UI, Solasta is in fact better than this game. The flow of combat is so good with the UI design in Solasta that it almost feels like realtime, it's so transparent once muscle memory kicks in. (Unfortunately, Solasta's UI has a typically "modern" scaleable look - I much prefer the traditional fantasy look of this game's UI - but I'm talking about in terms of layout and ergonomics obvs.)

While I agree that he should try Solasta, I really do not agree on the UI. It's not shit, but I think the UI in BG3 is better for the following reasons:

• The breakdown of different submenu's shows a more compact and customizable grouping of my abilities,
• The top buttons make it SO easy to show EVERYTHING that I can or cannot do for a remaining action at a glance.
• The interactive inspect dialogue is much more complete, interactive and allows nested tooltips.

Where Solasta has the advantage is the following:

• Multiple weapon sets per character. Seriously, why can I only equip a ranged weapon and a melee (combination) weapon in BG3?

Solasta also has a clear squares grid (a cube grid to be exact, to include verticality). (I'm guessing this game has something like, I dunno, like a "hidden" grid where your character acts as being within a grid square or hex if your character is anywhere in it in terms of visuals? There are pros and cons to that, it does feel more like a virtual world, but it's less transparent in terms of combat gameplay.)

That's actually a thing I don't like and took me a while to get used to before I really tolerated it. It's strict adherence to the grid layout both in and out of combat makes your party's movement feel so artificial. I much prefer BG3's free flowing one.

(Also, purely from a technical POV, yes BG3 is using a mini grid that's invisible to the player)

Still I want to re-iterate again that despite my criticism, you should really play Solasta. It's a great game.

 

[Reinhardt]

I'm guessing this game has something like, I dunno, like a "hidden" grid

how you ever tried to look at the map? just asking.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Yea, I agree. This game feels more like actually playing a ttrpg than any other RPG I've ever played.

Kind of like that whiny article mentioned - this game has been designed to be as accurate PnP simulation as possible, and this company has been building up for this for the past 10 years. Just for that, it's worth checking out. In terms of technology, this game has been in the making for 10 years, think about it

Inb4, 10 years and still no day/night cycles.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

 

[AwesomeButton]

Just 80 thousand and this bears* Hogwarts. This is surreal

* I meant to say "beats" but I'll leave the typo there

 

[gurugeorge]

I think you're on the right track, although I would say that Solasta is a better simulator - it's just that it was made on a small budget by a tiny team.

I've never tried Solasta, but I'm putting the emphasis on the fact that Solasta is easier to swallow for a BG fan because it doesn't have Baldur's Gate in its name.

I had a pretty disappointed reaction towards PoE, almost 10 years ago, because it was doing all it could to ride on the Baldur's Gate/IWD/Torment brands. It edned up being a game that overpromised on what it contained, somewhat, but as a separate issue - was very far from my expectations for an IE-style game.

Yet if you ignore the name-dropping and approach it without baggage and associations with other titles, it's a game worth a playthrough.

I would say that just in terms of implementation of the mechanics and the UI, Solasta is in fact better than this game.

HAHAAHAHAAHAH...
AHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAA...

The UI in Solasta looks disgusting, I'll grant you that, and as I said I prefer the look of this game's UI. But that's pretty superficial. In terms of ergonomics and facilitating gameplay, Solasta's UI is genius.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Just 80 thousand and this bears* Hogwarts. This is surreal

* I meant to say "beats" but I'll leave the typo there

Source?

I get this

Fagwarts BTFO long ago

Bear (hehe) in mind, this is Steam only. Smart people bought BG3 on GOG.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I get this

Fagwarts BTFO long ago

Bear (hehe) in mind, this is Steam only. Smart people bought it on GOG.

I'm watching steam DB: https://steamdb.info/charts/?sort=peak

 

[Orud]

The UI in Solasta looks disgusting, I'll grant you that, and as I said I prefer the look of this game's UI. But that's pretty superficial. In terms of ergonomics and facilitating gameplay, Solasta's UI is genius.

That's an illusion. It appears this way when compared to BG3 because the amount of possible character actions in Solasta is extremely limited compared to BG3.

 

[gurugeorge]

Oh you should try Solasta, it's an interesting comparison of two 5e implementations. I would say that just in terms of implementation of the mechanics and the UI, Solasta is in fact better than this game. The flow of combat is so good with the UI design in Solasta that it almost feels like realtime, it's so transparent once muscle memory kicks in. (Unfortunately, Solasta's UI has a typically "modern" scaleable look - I much prefer the traditional fantasy look of this game's UI - but I'm talking about in terms of layout and ergonomics obvs.)

While I agree that he should try Solasta, I really do not agree on the UI. It's not shit, but I think the UI in BG3 is better for the following reasons:

• The breakdown of different submenu's shows a more compact and customizable grouping of my abilities,
• The top buttons make it SO easy to show EVERYTHING that I can or cannot do for a remaining action at a glance.
• The interactive inspect dialogue is much more complete, interactive and allows nested tooltips.

Where Solasta has the advantage is the following:

• Multiple weapon sets per character. Seriously, why can I only equip a ranged weapon and a melee (combination) weapon in BG3?

Solasta also has a clear squares grid (a cube grid to be exact, to include verticality). (I'm guessing this game has something like, I dunno, like a "hidden" grid where your character acts as being within a grid square or hex if your character is anywhere in it in terms of visuals? There are pros and cons to that, it does feel more like a virtual world, but it's less transparent in terms of combat gameplay.)

That's actually a thing I don't like and took me a while to get used to before I really tolerated it. It's strict adherence to the grid layout both in and out of combat makes your party's movement feel so artificial. I much prefer BG3's free flowing one.

(Also, purely from a technical POV, yes BG3 is using a mini grid that's invisible to the player)

Still I want to re-iterate again that despite my criticism, you should really play Solasta. It's a great game.

I would chalk the positives of this game's UI down to, "Yes, they've done the best of a bad job." I mean, if you're going to stick to the creakingly antiquated system of a tray full of tiny, crabbed icons that look like an indistinguishable visual soup at a glance, then yes, I appreciate the "non-active/active" highlighting, the filters (the wee circle, triangle, etc, and the filters below the tray). But the great thing about Solasta's UI is that it clears out all that old-fashioned visual clutter and presents you with information on a "need to know" basis, and it also reflects the relative importance of moves you can make in the different sizes of the parts of it.

My only wish is that it had some decoration, I do loves me UIs that look like they're part of the world depicted (also why I vastly prefer Wasteland 2's UI over Wasteland 3's, though ofc WL3's is more like Solasta's in terms of having a modern scaleable UI look).

 

[Latro]

they do prove the point that there is a market for these kinds of games

They do prove the point there's a market for nudity, porn and zoophilia, that's all.

I'd say piggybacking off of the hard work and legacy of the people who made famous, well-regarded classics makes your product much more popular than actually making your own thing. Which is why barely anyone creates anything new and interesting anymore. Reboots, remasters and reimaginings is all we deserve.

Shipping a new dragon age under a hallowed IP in the era of critical role was probably the recipe. People bringing up BioWare are right, they should have had multiple new games out to get sales from that crowd.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Source?

Get the "Augmented Steam" plugin for your browser. Then click "View on SteamDB" --> "Charts"

 

[Lacrymas]

Some devs are pushing the narrative that BG3 is some kind of one-in-a-lifetime anomaly and that we shouldn't expect anything even remotely like it from other devs.

 

[OttoQuitmarck]

Yea, I agree. This game feels more like actually playing a ttrpg than any other RPG I've ever played.

Kind of like that whiny article mentioned - this game has been designed to be as accurate PnP simulation as possible, and this company has been building up for this for the past 10 years. Just for that, it's worth checking out. In terms of technology, this game has been in the making for 10 years, think about it

Inb4, 10 years and still no day/night cycles.

I don't get why people think day/night cycles are such a big deal. They could obviously easily implement it if they want to, they just don't think it fits the game. Which is more than fair.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Shipping a new dragon age under a hallowed IP in the era of critical role was probably the recipe

It's surely part of the recipe for high sales, but in addition it's also a good RPG.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Some devs are pushing the narrative that BG3 is some kind of one-in-a-lifetime anomaly and that we shouldn't expect anything even remotely like it from other devs.

Granted, Swen has said he's looking forward to making smaller sized games again, 'cause the 6 years dev cycle was sucking the livin' Jeebus out of him.

 

[Latro]

Some devs are pushing the narrative that BG3 is some kind of one-in-a-lifetime anomaly and that we shouldn't expect anything even remotely like it from other devs.

My read is that larian is simply filling the BioWare hole if they had the brains to put out a high production D&D product in the critical role era.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Some devs are pushing the narrative that BG3 is some kind of one-in-a-lifetime anomaly and that we shouldn't expect anything even remotely like it from other devs.

In today's oversaturated entertainment market, quality is an anomaly. In the RPG market espectially, for reasons well known here.

So they are kind of right.

RDR2 was also an anomaly, Witcher 3 was an anomaly, every good game that has left a mark has been an anomaly.

 

[Latro]

Shipping a new dragon age under a hallowed IP in the era of critical role was probably the recipe

It's surely part of the recipe for high sales, but in addition it's also a good RPG.

There are so many players you can’t say it’s because Larian was secretly a top tier developer, or that divinity original sin was a masterpiece.

 

[Orud]

My only wish is that it had some decoration, I do loves me UIs that look like they're part of the world depicted (also why I vastly prefer Wasteland 2's UI over Wasteland 3's, though ofc WL3's is more like Solasta's in terms of having a modern scaleable UI look).

That, and they originally had some really nice (or at least, I thought it was nice) concept art on the selection screen of all the player races. Why the replaced those with the ugly ingame character renders is beyond me.

The gold standard for me will always remain the look and feel of the original BG2 UI. That UI made you feel like you were going through some arcane tomes.

 

[gurugeorge]

Re. the question of "what devs can learn from this," it's a double-edged sword. They'll probably take the wrong lesson. Instead of thinking, "Hmm, it turns out that huge well-made (in a technical sense) RPGs do sell well after all, let's make a huge, well made RPG" they'll probably think, "Hmm, games with sluts and faggots sell well, let's make more games with sluts and faggots and kowtow even more to the woke agenda."

The glimpse of the abyss here is that the latter is probably correct

 

[AwesomeButton]

filling the BioWare hole

 

[Orud]

Some devs are pushing the narrative that BG3 is some kind of one-in-a-lifetime anomaly and that we shouldn't expect anything even remotely like it from other devs.

Yeah, the same devs that have been telling us that "you think you do, but you don't really want numbers in your RPG's".