Game News Baldur's Gate 3 announced at Google Stadia Connect event

[The_Mask]

In the shorter term, Larian has a lot of work still to do on Baldur's Gate 3. When I ask if it might come out in 2019, Vincke only laughs and says no.

So nothing this year, 100% sure.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Could anyone confirm that this mine worker exists? .

You're talking about a guard in chapter 4 in the cloakwood mines. He talks about lacking a little starch in his 'maypole' :"If you know what I mean" ... is basically the wording he uses. You can then tell him that it's because he's breathing fumes from the mines, and a bunch of other things. level 1 mines, cloakwood, second guard you encounter.

 

[Mr. Hiver]

I don't think it will be a conventional assault.

Who gives a shit? its an assault. Big ships in the skies, population infested and turned into more mind flayers.
Whats conventional about it anyway?

The time traveling origin is just one theory and doesnt change anything about this invasion, if it is or isnt true.

According to On Hallowed Ground (a Planescape AD&D book), there's Ilsensine aka the 'Great Brain'. Colin McComb writes:
"A being of pure energy, Ilsensine is the patron and creator of the illithid race (and, some say, the secret master of the cranium rats as well). Depicted as a huge, green-glowing brain, the power's tentacles extend across the multiverse, feeding information directly to the bloated mass of the god-brain."

So, eh, maybe I guess...? I really like the Illithids but I'm not sure if their center stage is a good fit for a.. Baldur's Gate game. Wonder why they didn't just make "The Underdark: a Belgian D&D adventure" or something similar.

I was just wondering about it in terms of Gods involvement, because Gods have to be involved in the BG game, where the player should play or be involved by some evil deity.
Since Illithids seem to be separate from the usual pantheon we should expect a lot of Gods meddling, evil and good and neutral.

Reading the wiki, it seems Illithids create different versions of their spawn depending on which races they turn into one of their own, from infested Dragons to rats and everything in between, so they shouldnt lack some diversity.
And of course there will be all other bestiary available.

I would also prefer they did something else, but... the basic plot by itself seems alright. Could have been much worse.

 

[MRY]

Also, by far my favorite part in BG2 is when you go to Beholder Town. That defines the game as much as space hamsters. As I've posted about previously, beholders are so amazingly dumb, like the fact of a beholder running a thieves' guild, it's just beautiful. There's not much like that left in gaming space. Many beholders probably have names that are simply team members' last names reversed. All beholders should have such names. So when you get to Beholder Town, and there's like a whole beholder community, probably some beholders are just proletarians who have to clean toilets, and there are some beholder hausfaus, and probably there are beholders who look at themselves in the mirror and shed a single tear out of each eye because "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" has a cruel irony when even other beholders think you're too round, etc., etc. Best area in BG. And as I recall, the Shelbyville to the beholders' Springfield was an Illithid town where there were likely Illithid shopkeepers and Illithid psychoanalysts (even mindflayers need therapy, etc.). That's Baldur's Gate to me. (Also wasn't there a crashed Spelljammer spaceship in the same area, which is maybe where Boo came from? Maybe Sn'erf can appear in BG3 that way...) Anyway, I really hope the Illithids in the trailer come from Shelbyville, and after the local dry goods merchant gets transformed into an Illithid, he just goes on with his job, selling alchemy ingredients for more than he buys them, while making weird squid noises with his mouth.

Gavin is the only person who will deliver me that game.

I'm not sure what I just read but I kind of want more of it

Go out and read I, Tyrant, which details "the race's history, religion, culture, settlements and psychology, as well as statistics on further true beholder deviants." The demographics on deviancy among beholders is particularly startling, particularly given that this was before the opioid epidemic.

PICTURED: A true beholder deviant.

 

[Gay-Lussac]

I thought mind flayers just sucked brains, never knew they actually infected people and turned them into their own.

 

[Mr. Hiver]

If i hate anything in fantasy then its trying to turn every fucking creature into a human, but limit it to some dumb single human sub feature or occupation.

Oh look! that creature is a shopkeeper! Oh its so funny! aaaaaa!

Spoiler

I thought mind flayers just sucked brains, never knew they actually infected people and turned them into their own.

People and all other creatures. The tadpoles need to find a host to evolve and those that dont are eaten as a delicacy - serve as food source for Elder brains which command every illithid colony.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

In the shorter term, Larian has a lot of work still to do on Baldur's Gate 3. When I ask if it might come out in 2019, Vincke only laughs and says no.

So nothing this year, 100% sure.

In another interview he said

We're also in 2019 now--so it's not going to necessarily launch this year

The interviews are all over the place honestly.

 

[Murk]

"Cavalier Oblique"

The gentleman scholar's perspective.

That was Fallout 1/2, are you sure BGs and IWD used the same?

No, was just quoting Tim Cain when talking about "isometric camera" for F1/2.

The Infinity Engine games didn't have a standard perspective as far as I'm aware because the point of reference to objects varied; it wasn't tile based and so some buildings WERE at an isometric angle while others were at varying rotations. Judging from sprites, I'd say it was 3/4 top down and people called it isometric cuz that's just the general term for "top down at an angle".

Arcanum was proper isometric I believe.

EDIT: For what it's worth, I don't care if game is truly isometric or not since I'm fine with varying degrees of rotation on the X axis. DivDiv1 was also at a very peculiar angle, but I didn't mind and thought it worked well enough.

 

[The_Mask]

From the Baldur’s Mouth
One of my favorite aspects of Murder in Baldur’s Gate is the Baldur’s Mouth, a newservice in the city. It has town criers and printed broadsheets. As an ex-newspaper reporter and editor, I had to ask if the Mouth would be in Baldur’s Gate III.

“I’ll give you this exclusive,” Vincke said with a laugh, after fending off a number of questions. “Yes. There’s an awesome quest involving Baldur’s Mouth.”

And that’s the scoop on Baldur’s Gate III.

...

This guy Jason Wilson, must be one charismatic dude, because none of the others got anything even remotely like this from Swen - even though this is not much either, but... it's still information - I guess.

 

[Ulrox]

the single thing people remember most about the franchise

The thing I seem to remember most about the writing was the random mine worker in one of the later mines who told this long ass story about how he can't get an erection anymore.

Since I appear to be the only one who remembers this and I could never find a screenshot and don't know exactly where it was in the game either, I am suspicious that my brain is pulling a Rashomon on me.

Could anyone confirm that this mine worker exists? Maybe its just me who can't get an erection anymore and my subconscious somehow projected that into the game.

Since I have no life, I just cheated my way to the guard with the ctrl + j command and took a screenshot, uploaded it for you

 

[rusty_shackleford]

From the Baldur’s Mouth
One of my favorite aspects of Murder in Baldur’s Gate is the Baldur’s Mouth, a newservice in the city. It has town criers and printed broadsheets. As an ex-newspaper reporter and editor, I had to ask if the Mouth would be in Baldur’s Gate III.

“I’ll give you this exclusive,” Vincke said with a laugh, after fending off a number of questions. “Yes. There’s an awesome quest involving Baldur’s Mouth.”

And that’s the scoop on Baldur’s Gate III.

...

This guy Jason Wilson, must be one charismatic dude, because none of the others got anything even remotely like this from Swen - even though this is not much either, but... it's still information - I guess.

I hope we get the option to call them fake news

 

[Murk]

inb4 Baldur's Mouth is a literal Balduran's Mouth artifact and/or le talking head makes a return.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Since I have no life, I just cheated my way to the guard with the ctrl + j command and took a screenshot, uploaded it for you

Thanks, bro and also to the other bro. Glad this exists!

Edit: also glad that on the Codex you can ask a stupid question about some obscure NPC with erectile dysfunction in some two decades old RPG and within minutes people will not only know exactly what NPC and where to find in the game, they will also provide you with screenshots and videos

 

[Gay-Lussac]

Since I have no life, I just cheated my way to the guard with the ctrl + j command and took a screenshot, uploaded it for you

Thanks, bro and also to the other bro. Glad this exists!

Edit: also glad that on the Codex you can ask a stupid question about some obscure NPC with erectile dysfunction in some two decades old RPG and within minutes people will not only know exactly what NPC and where to find in the game, they will also provide you with screenshots and videos

Wait until you find out he photoshopped it just to mess with your old man's mind.

 

[Sacibengala]

I thought mind flayers just sucked brains, never knew they actually infected people and turned them into their own.

Can't remember where I read it, maybe it was volo guide to monsters, that they reproduce this way. They take a host, does something with their body and it turns out as a ilithid later. The cool part it is that the ilithid could retain thoughts and memories from the host, turning them not as bland as clones of the big brain that they serves or whatever.

 

[luj1]

Found out some decline things in the meantime


- the plot involves "time travel"
- the game may not be isometric after all

 

[agris]

luj1 where/what did you read about time travel?

 

[Uncreation]

I thought mind flayers just sucked brains, never knew they actually infected people and turned them into their own.

That's how they breed, they are asexuat. There are no different genders for illithid. As far as i remember from the lore, each individual deposits eggs at some point in their life, from which tadpoles hatch. These are kept in the elder brains tank and they eat each other as they grow. The ones that live long enough are implanted on a host. They eat its brain and take over its body and that's how a new mindflayer is born. Also, different kinds of mindflayers are created, depending on the type of creature the tadpole was planted on.

Knowing all of this, it got me wondering how that guy turned into an illithid seemingly out of nowhere and in a manner of seconds. Is that a thing in the lore now?

Also, i don't have high hopes for this game. It will probably be pretty shit.

 

[ItsChon]

If this game is good, I'll be shocked.

 

[luj1]

That's how they breed, they are asexual. There are no different genders for illithid. As far as i remember from the lore, each individual deposits eggs at some point in their life, from which tadpoles hatch. These are kept in the elder brains tank and they eat each other as they grow. The ones that live long enough are implanted on a host. They eat its brain and take over its body and that's how a new mindflayer is born. Also, different kinds of mindflayers are created, depending on the type of creature the tadpole was planted on.

Knowing all of this, it got me wondering how that guy turned into an illithid seemingly out of nowhere and in a manner of seconds. Is that a thing in the lore now?

Yeah, if they are going to "infect" people from now on like some kind of a zombie, that would legit suck monkey balls. Gotta love retcons and time travel eh?

 

[Sensuki]

Not isometric is already a huge red flag.

That it exists at all in 2019 is a red flag.

Also "We tried implementing 5E rules and it didn't work" likely implies we tried implementing it into action combat and it didn't work. I see no reason why it wouldn't work in TB or party based RTwP.

They're definitely going for the maxxx profits on this one

 

[Uncreation]

Well... like rusty_shackelford said earlier, time travel is part of the lore of the mindflayers in d&d, so for me that wouldn't be out of place from that point of view. Still, a time travelling invasion sounds like serious shit and i'm not sure if Larian will be able to pull off something of that magnitude well.

 

[MRY]

Time-traveling would be spectacular, especially if it included two things:

(1) A SQIV / Avengers: Endgame style element where you time-travel to the events in Baldur's Gate I and II, and the graphic style and gameplay change to the original, with the characters making ironic comments on it, like Minsc could say, "But how can Boo go for the eyes when they are only one pixel large?" and so forth. Like, you go to the future where gold pieces are super devalued to quickly bypass the main quest in BG2, etc., etc.

(2) Future technology against dragons, like that great illustration in Weiss & Hickman's third Darksword book of the dragon fighting an F-15. I'm thinking that the good guys go into the future to gather gear, and only Alora or Mazzy can figure out how all the tech works, Minsc uses like a big plasma gun as a club, etc.

Think about all the zany emergent gameplay that Larian can introduce using time-travel mechanics.

 

[sstacks]

Baldur's Gate: Skyrim?

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Bester was right! Bring us more juicy RPG gossip (and your distinct flavor of trolling)