Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 RELEASE THREAD

[Desiderius]

But why do you care how other people get their fun?
If someone runs a party of min-maxed wizards, rests after every encounter and boast about the game being too easy,
how does it ruin your personal experience of try-harding with a party of gimped rangers who only sleep once per two levels or something?

Kind of tired of rheotical questions myself.

Maybe attempt an answer as if it were real.

 

[Lacrymas]

But why do you care how other people get their fun?
If someone runs a party of min-maxed wizards, rests after every encounter and boast about the game being too easy,
how does it ruin your personal experience of try-harding with a party of gimped rangers who only sleep once per two levels or something?
To each his own.

Because it seems that only these kinds of people affect video game development. We have 2-3 examples in video gaming where you can't rest after every encounter and breeze through the game like that. It doesn't only have an impact оn difficulty, though, it also directly dictates how the game is played. Having full resources for every encounter means the optimal way to play is to find a tactic which works in the vast majority of encounters and do that over and over again. QED PoE2. From my many years of gaming, I've come to realize most of the challenge in cRPGs, and frankly tabletop RPGs, comes from resource management and attrition.

 

[Mortmal]

Solasta is technically a better adaptation because it actually sticks to the rules.

Solasta is boring.

You both are right.
Solasta gives a better impression of how tabletop D&D is played.
But it's base campaigns are pretty weak in story and encounter design.

Solasta follows the tabletop rules very well, except for one point: unlimited rests and encounters being handled one by one, except at the very end of the last DLC. With no attrition, you are at full resources all the time. Then, people save scum and like to lie and brag and say it's easy not mentioning how many time they reload. If the game only allowed saving at certain checkpoints with limited rests, it would be much more deadly and exciting. However, this isn't possible in any new game because most people would complain loudly if you changed that. Few players can handle Honor Mode in BG3, which is the same thing I am advising for Solasta. So, you end up with something very mainstream, acceptable for Game Pass and YouTubers, but with no challenge at all—situations and encounters seen hundreds of times before. Of course, it looks easy and bland. Yet, despite these flaws, it's still one of the top RPGs, which shows how low the bar is. Player made modules are not doing any better , none of them.

The base D&D rules don't regulate how rests should be handled.
There are some guidelines, but nothing set in stone afair.
It's up to DM to decide if he would allow adventures to sleep in front of Vampire Lord's door without punishing their recklessness.

Personally I limit myself to resting only in places and situations I myself consider to be logically possible.
But my habits were formed by years of tabletop gaming with a particulary cruel oldskul and inventive DM.

But why do you care how other people get their fun?
If someone runs a party of min-maxed wizards, rests after every encounter and boast about the game being too easy,
how does it ruin your personal experience of try-harding with a party of gimped rangers who only sleep once per two levels or something?
To each his own.

You start to care about how people are having their fun when your tastes are completely ignored and theirs become the standard. I'd prefer more thrilling dungeon delving, something like the combat demo before the Kickstarter. However, they are going to listen to the YouTuber who is failing at the game, which ends up with adding karmic dice. Why even roll then? Just give the guy an auto-hit. None of my suggestions were ever added to Solasta, and the difficulty slider is just some HP bloating for a system that really doesn't need more HP. The guidelines are not set in stone, but they make a far more entertaining game for me.

 

[AshenNedra]

Ah. then, thank you, but no thank you, I guess.

Maybe it's the themes touched upon by W and H, that I don't like?

The magic system was nice. The planes were beautifully described too, and somewhat creative.

The Death Gates' cycle was overall good, but I was always waiting for Haplo, or his Lord, to be somewhat useful. and not for super Alfred, the Messiah, to save the day.



Are the RS Drizzt's books more varied, 'exotic', and, dare I say, fun?

You might be confusing the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy (and the sequel Legends trilogy) with later series by Weis and Hickman, such as the Death Gate cycle of 7 books, that had no relation to D&D/AD&D. Dragonlance was conceived by TSR as a linked series of 12 adventure modules forming an epic Tolkienesque fantasy, with the associated novel trilogy an experiment that proved wildly successful, ultimately giving rise to a vast quantity of D&D/AD&D literature, including just about every setting published by TSR, but of generally declining quality.

R.A. Salvatore's novels apparently have their fans.

No, no . I wasn't clear enough. I read the Death Gates' cycle way before I tried the Dragonlance trilogy.

I kind of liked the series as a teenager, except for the caveat mentioned above.

I even read the Arabic setting one, with djinns, warring gods, and the two feuding tribe of nomads (was it the Rose or Desert thorn's trilogy?).

I loved it, as a child/teenager.

I remember buying Arabian Nights the day after I finished the third book.



Then, many years later, I tried the Dragonlance series (Autumn twilight and the following books), and didn't like it at all.

I was thinking that maybe the themes favored by W and H were not for me after all.

 

[Nortar]

But why do you care how other people get their fun?

Kind of tired of rheotical questions myself.
Maybe attempt an answer as if it were real.

Hey, at least I'm consistent in my opinion.
But this is not the same (although kinda similar) thing as with Zombra 's ironmanning.
Even though it's not my cup of tea I came to understanding his point of thrill-seeking being not the same when you know there is a safety net.

I've come to realize most of the challenge in cRPGs, and frankly tabletop RPGs, comes from resource management and attrition.

You start to care about how people are having their fun when your tastes are completely ignored and theirs become the standard.

I can't argue with that, becasue I agree. I like the hard difficulty being hard and attrition is one of the ways of make it so.
But to better explain my point, take some single-difficulty Dark Souls for example.
Would you care if some guy grinds souls by cheesing mobs falling to their death?
I won't - it's his time, he can waste it the way he likes; and I will waste time by starting as deprived and keep dying constantly but with sense of pride.

 

[Lacrymas]

I don't like soulslikes, but I would care if that person who plays the game by pushing mobs to their deaths starts designing every soulslike in a way that makes pushing them like that the optimal strategy.

 

[Mortmal]

But why do you care how other people get their fun?

Kind of tired of rheotical questions myself.
Maybe attempt an answer as if it were real.

Hey, at least I'm consistent in my opinion.
But this is not the same (although kinda similar) thing as with Zombra 's ironmanning.
Even though it's not my cup of tea I came to understanding his point of thrill-seeking being not the same when you know there is a safety

I've come to realize most of the challenge in cRPGs, and frankly tabletop RPGs, comes from resource management and attrition.

You start to care about how people are having their fun when your tastes are completely ignored and theirs become the standard.

I can't argue with that, becasue I agree. I like the hard difficulty should be hard and attrition is one of the ways of make it that way.
But to better explain my point, take some single-difficulty Dark Souls for example.
Would you care if some guy grinds souls by cheesing mobs falling to their death?
I won't - it's his time, he can waste it the way they like; and I will waste time by starting as deprived and keep dying constantly but with sense of pride.

Dark Souls is a completely different animal. It's designed in the old-school Japanese way, meant for gamers. These are the kind of developers who, when testers complain a game is too hard, make it even harder. It doesn't bother me how others enjoy the game as long as it's possible for me to enjoy mine, which is the case in the Souls series, where exploration is thrilling and dangerous by default.

 

[Desiderius]

(hard games outsell faceroll)

 

[Cryomancer]

If someone runs a party of min-maxed wizards, rests after every encounter and boast about the game being too easy,

Throw an anti magical field against them or Nishruu.

But imo the power of mages and how resting is should be dependent on the setting. For example, in Netheril, they should be very powerful. In Athas(Dark Sun), being a preserver should be incredible hard, finding scrolls almost impossible, preparing spells very hard, having a full rest too and using flashy spells is suicidal(as mages are hated, is much better to use spells that draw less attention, eg - hold person, invisibility, charm person over most evocation/conjuration spells, unless you are out of sight)

 

[mediocrepoet]

I don't like soulslikes, but I would care if that person who plays the game by pushing mobs to their deaths starts designing every soulslike in a way that makes pushing them like that the optimal strategy.

Have you played Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, perchance?

 

[Fedora Master]

It's designed in the old-school Japanese way, meant for gamers.

The only difficulty in DS is accepting that death is inevitable and hitting your head against the current brick wall enough times.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

 

[Barbarian]

A question for the lorefags.

Torment left me with a lasting impression of Githyanki as being plane-travelling oathbound mystical samurai able to create magical katanas with the power of their minds.

Was that basically an Avellone fanfic? Because in this, nwn2 and others Giths are just another flavor of generic violent and psychopatic pointy eared people.

 

[Fedora Master]

A question for the lorefags.

Torment left me with a lasting impression of Githyanki as being plane-travelling oathbound mystical samurai able to create magical katanas with the power of their minds.

Was that basically an Avellone fanfic? Because in this, nwn2 and others Giths are just another flavor of generic violent and psychopatic pointy eared people.

Githyanki are the murderhobos. Githzerai are the wise honorabu monks.

The fact that there are monk githyanki is yet another idiotic fuckup by Larian. They should be fighters, mages and warlocks.

 

[Fedora Master]

A question for the lorefags.

Torment left me with a lasting impression of Githyanki as being plane-travelling oathbound mystical samurai able to create magical katanas with the power of their minds.

Was that basically an Avellone fanfic? Because in this, nwn2 and others Giths are just another flavor of generic violent and psychopatic pointy eared people.

Githyanki are the murderhobos. Githzerai are the wise honorabu monks.

The fact that there are monk githyanki is yet another idiotic fuckup by Larian. They should be fighters, mages and warlocks.

Dakkon was a fanfic then. The wise and honorable Gith samurai makes no sense belonging to the same people as Laezel, Voss and Vlakith.

 

[Barbarian]

Nevermind, Dakkon is actually a Githzerai.

Stupid to have such similar names and shorten both to "Gith".

 

[Cohesion]

Nevermind, Dakkon is actually a Githzerai.

Stupid to have such similar names and shorten both to "Gith".

They were one Gith race before.

 

[Artyoan]

You start to care about how people are having their fun when your tastes are completely ignored and theirs become the standard. I'd prefer more thrilling dungeon delving, something like the combat demo before the Kickstarter. However, they are going to listen to the YouTuber who is failing at the game, which ends up with adding karmic dice. Why even roll then? Just give the guy an auto-hit. None of my suggestions were ever added to Solasta, and the difficulty slider is just some HP bloating for a system that really doesn't need more HP. The guidelines are not set in stone, but they make a far more entertaining game for me.

I've started working on a campaign that is based entirely on attrition but is meant to be a rogue-lite style of ironman play for six man parties. Random drops, random locations, random vendors, to the extent that I can randomize them in the dungeon maker. A dice roll can be done in the background so each playthrough should feel quite a bit different. There is no plot and will barely be any dialogue as the downside, so I can avoid burnout.

 

[Infinitron]

More from Digital Dragons: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/rp...ou-will-always-have-a-little-bit-of-overtime/

Baldur's Gate 3 had less crunch than Larian's previous RPGs, but its director says "you will always have a little bit" of overtime"​

"It would be a lie to say we didn't"

Crunch on Baldur's Gate 3 was "certainly less" than what Larian experienced on its other games.

Earlier this week, Baldur's Gate 3 director Swen Vincke spoke at the Digital Dragons conference in Poland, where he outlined some of the difficulties he and his team faced during development - including one brag that he instantly regretted. During a Q+A session after his talk, Vincke was asked if those difficulties had ever resulted in the team having to crunch - work substantial overtime in order to hit deadlines.

"Certainly less on BG3 than we did in the past," Vincke said in response. "It would be a lie to say that we didn't. We had things happen that we didn't foresee." To help with that, however, Vincke touched on the worldwide studios that Larian had set up in order to ensure 24-hour coverage and prevent any one person from having to work extra to fix a late-night problem (a seventh Larian studio has just been established in Warsaw, Poland, to help with the the team's two ambitious new RPGs).

Beyond that, however, Vincke said that paid overtime helped soften the blow if anyone had to work late, but that any crunch on Baldur's Gate 3 might not have been "as long as you would consider crunch." Offices would be almost empty beyond 8pm at night, and would only be occupied "very, very, very rarely" at weekends."

"We didn't overly crunch," Vincke says, "but we did have to do a bit of crunch. And I think, to be honest, you will always have a little bit when you're trying to finish something, especially when there's so much complexity that needs to be brought together."

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/ba...t-made-to-just-hit-our-earnings-next-quarter/

Lead Baldur's Gate 3 writer says "I don't care" what happens in a potential RPG sequel, as long as it doesn't get made to just "hit our earnings next quarter"​

Baldur's Gate 4 needs "to come from a position of wanting to do it"

Larian Studios' narrative director doesn't want the Baldur's Gate 3 sequel's future developer to make the RPG solely for financial gain.

After creating countless Tavs and playing over a thousand hours of Larian's RPG, I'm ready for Baldur's Gate 4 - or at least some confirmation that it's coming. Adam Smith, Baldur's Gate 3's lead writer and master wordsmith, says that he is too - as long as the successor is made for the right reasons. Sadly, Larian is done with Baldur's Gate 3 and D&D, but that doesn't mean another studio won't pick it up.

Speaking to GamesRadar+ at the Digital Dragons Conference in Krakow, Smith reveals that he doesn't care what direction the fourth instalment takes, he just wants its developers to craft a game out of passion rather than for financial gain. "I don't mean that in a harsh way. What I would want is for somebody to do it because they wanted to do it, not because somebody said 'that would hit our earnings next quarter.'"

Smith explains why Baldur's Gate 4 shouldn't come from someone thinking they "need a bonus next year." Instead, "it's got to come from a position of wanting to do it." If a developer makes the potential sequel because "they have an idea and they go, 'this is a story I can tell with these characters in this world,'" Smith says he hopes the game is "fucking great."

Thinking back to Larian's own work on Baldur's Gate 3 and how the team refused to sacrifice quality for money, the writer delves into what inspired the studio to make the third entry and why it fit well within the series. "We love Baldur's Gate. We always knew this was a Baldur's Gate story, because thematically, Baldur's Gate was always about people who were put into positions where they could change the world and people's lives, but were struggling against something inside themselves - an inheritance, a legacy, that pushed them towards darkness."

From the Dark Urge to the wriggling parasite behind Tav's eye, Smith says that every element of Baldur's Gate 3 works to "justify the title." Larian recognised that the beloved RPG "wasn't just a Forgotten Realms game - it was a Baldur's Gate game." If there ends up being another sequel, Smith wants it to stem from a similar thought process. "I hope that if there was a Baldur's Gate 4, it would come from the same place where somebody said, 'Here's the thing that I think is cool about this, and here's what I think I can do with it.' I think it has plenty of stories that can be done with it." Until we see whether or not Smith's hopes for Baldur's Gate 4 come true, Larian is gearing up for its "two very ambitious RPGs" that we have to look forward to for now.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Nevermind, Dakkon is actually a Githzerai.

Stupid to have such similar names and shorten both to "Gith".

Githyanki and Githzerai were both introduced in the 1981 fiend folio, created mostly by a few British designers who were involved with Games Workshop while it had a brief relationship with TSR as the UK distributor before TSR founded its own British division:

As mentioned in the Fiend Folio, Gith led a rebellion that freed slaves of the mind flayers (Illithids), who then diverged into the evil Githyanki and the chaotic neutral Githzerai.

 

[Infinitron]

The prominence of Dak'kon in Planescape: Torment can be misleading, in that it can cause players to assume that the Githzerai and Githyanki are equally common in the D&D universe. In a typical epic adventure you're far more likely to run into the latter.

 

[Old Hans]

Dark Souls is a completely different animal. It's designed in the old-school Japanese way, meant for gamers. These are the kind of developers who, when testers complain a game is too hard, make it even harder.

maybe Demon Souls/Dark Souls, but after that it's been noting but compromises

Nevermind, Dakkon is actually a Githzerai.

Stupid to have such similar names and shorten both to "Gith".

Githyanki and Githzerai were both introduced in the 1981 fiend folio, created mostly by a few British designers who were involved with Games Workshop while it had a brief relationship with TSR as the UK distributor before TSR founded its own British division:

As mentioned in the Fiend Folio, Gith led a rebellion that freed slaves of the mind flayers (Illithids), who then diverged into the evil Githyanki and the chaotic neutral Githzerai.

that Russ Nicholson art rules.

 

[moon knight]

Is this nuBioware?

 

[jf8350143]

But why do you care how other people get their fun?

Kind of tired of rheotical questions myself.
Maybe attempt an answer as if it were real.

Hey, at least I'm consistent in my opinion.
But this is not the same (although kinda similar) thing as with Zombra 's ironmanning.
Even though it's not my cup of tea I came to understanding his point of thrill-seeking being not the same when you know there is a safety

I've come to realize most of the challenge in cRPGs, and frankly tabletop RPGs, comes from resource management and attrition.

You start to care about how people are having their fun when your tastes are completely ignored and theirs become the standard.

I can't argue with that, becasue I agree. I like the hard difficulty should be hard and attrition is one of the ways of make it that way.
But to better explain my point, take some single-difficulty Dark Souls for example.
Would you care if some guy grinds souls by cheesing mobs falling to their death?
I won't - it's his time, he can waste it the way they like; and I will waste time by starting as deprived and keep dying constantly but with sense of pride.

Dark Souls is a completely different animal. It's designed in the old-school Japanese way, meant for gamers. These are the kind of developers who, when testers complain a game is too hard, make it even harder. It doesn't bother me how others enjoy the game as long as it's possible for me to enjoy mine, which is the case in the Souls series, where exploration is thrilling and dangerous by default.

Do you even play souls game? The game gets easier by the title.

Dark Soul 3 are the easiest of the series and Elden Ring is by far the easiest of all the FS games.

 

[Rhobar121]

But why do you care how other people get their fun?

Kind of tired of rheotical questions myself.
Maybe attempt an answer as if it were real.

Hey, at least I'm consistent in my opinion.
But this is not the same (although kinda similar) thing as with Zombra 's ironmanning.
Even though it's not my cup of tea I came to understanding his point of thrill-seeking being not the same when you know there is a safety

I've come to realize most of the challenge in cRPGs, and frankly tabletop RPGs, comes from resource management and attrition.

You start to care about how people are having their fun when your tastes are completely ignored and theirs become the standard.

I can't argue with that, becasue I agree. I like the hard difficulty should be hard and attrition is one of the ways of make it that way.
But to better explain my point, take some single-difficulty Dark Souls for example.
Would you care if some guy grinds souls by cheesing mobs falling to their death?
I won't - it's his time, he can waste it the way they like; and I will waste time by starting as deprived and keep dying constantly but with sense of pride.

Dark Souls is a completely different animal. It's designed in the old-school Japanese way, meant for gamers. These are the kind of developers who, when testers complain a game is too hard, make it even harder. It doesn't bother me how others enjoy the game as long as it's possible for me to enjoy mine, which is the case in the Souls series, where exploration is thrilling and dangerous by default.

Do you even play souls game? The game gets easier by the title.

Dark Soul 3 are the easiest of the series and Elden Ring is by far the easiest of all the FS games.

Most of the bosses in DS3 are incomparably more difficult than virtually every boss in DS1 and DS2 (not including the DLC).
The most difficult parts of DS1 and DS2 were the pseudo-platforming elements or maliciously placed enemies (the damn archer in Anor Londo).
The most difficult boss in the basic DS1, O&S is easier than Abyss Watchers.
There's no need to even mention DS2 because most of the bosses there are crap.