Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate 3 RELEASE THREAD

[TheHeroOfTime]

I'm near to finishing act 1, finally. I'm enjoying the game a lot but I think I'm encountering a lot bugged/glitched stuff:

- In the quest of saving Maryna from the hag, I couldn't give her the magic wand. I had to go into stealth mode, open the coffin and resurrect his husband to finish the quest. Apparently the dialog of giving her the wand only pops up the first time you talk to her, I didn't have it at the time so I couldn't do anything. Is really weird considering the dialog she has while mourning her husband is always the same.
- On the Grove, I can't give to the tiefling blacksmith the piece of iron to deal with Karlach's core. I tried to give it to Karlach, donate him the piece, and to sell it to himtoo. But the dialog is like I didn't have it in my inventory. Apparently you find this guy later in the game, so maybe I'll manage to do it.
- I can't give magic items to Gale, so I can cure the effects of his "hunger". Also, it seems like his dialogs and events related to this are not going forward, but that may be my impression.

I managed to get through the goblin camp killing everyone, but I left Minthara unconcious. You are supposed to encounter her later in the game by doing so, but I read that in previous versions of the game that wasn't a chance. Why not? The game has an obvious in-game mechanic to defeat enemies in a non-lethal way. If that's true then it was a big oversight imo. Anyway, I have a bad habit of always pressing the "loot all" button. So this happened.

Spoiler

Dark elvussy

I had to defeat her twice, because she woke up after I took a long rest at the camp, and Halsin wasn't continuing the quest. In the second fight she couldn't do anything, she had no gear. Only some spells (The paralysis one, one for healing and one for motivating near enemies).

 

[Orutrus]

Hmmm. Are we sure it's called the Underdark and not the Underlight? It's more lit than the average bandit cave. It looks like a Trine map.

 

[luj1]

I'd dare argue the success of the game is at least partially due to the awful writing. People love to slurp up this shit. It's the same principle as fan fiction, what this game essentially is anyway.

Underrated opinion

 

[luj1]

Luckily most people love the game

Luckily for Larian only, and investors.

 

[Swen]

Luckily most people love the game

Luckily for Larian only, and investors.

Only unlucky for a marginal, small percentage of people on fringe rpg forums.

 

[luj1]

I doubt that.

I'd argue it is bad for art in general, and the political agenda is bad for humanity in its entirety.

 

[Vic]

When I check my friends trophies on PS none of them finished Act 2 LOL
They all quit after Act 1 it seems.

same happened to me, quit during act 2

 

[Vic]

dunno why that makes some people butthurt. Even after quitting during Act 2 there are no "open loops" in my mind like wondering how the story concludes or what's up with any of the character's stories. Game failed to grab me, and I'm convinced I'm not part of their target audience.

For the gameplay, man, I really hate Larian combat. Never finished any of the Original Sins either, and this is just DOS3 anyway.

 

[Tyranicon]

I will say one thing in defense of bg3 and that its combat is at least 50 million times better than DOS 1/2.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

I will say one thing in defense of bg3 and that its combat is at least 50 million times better than DOS 1/2.

The best thing is that it allows you to use the strongest weapon that ever existed: Gravity. I'm literally killing every single major enemy by pushing them off cliffs. I've also killed the giant spider below the village's well by shooting her webs and making her fall into the ground.

 

[Shaki]

I will say one thing in defense of bg3 and that its combat is at least 50 million times better than DOS 1/2.

Hard disagree, DOS 1/2 combat was a retarded eyerape with the whole map exploding, but it still offered occasional challenge and some "puzzle" encounters, and would only become piss poor easy in the second half of the game. And it had some mildly interesting character building and theorycrafting possible.

BG3 character building is more streamlined than Diablo 3, it basically doesn't exist, and the combat itself is completely solved after you get haste and fireball, after ~5-10% of the game. Then it's just rightclicking everything to death for the next 100 hours. Or pushing things into pits that Swen included in every single important battle, so even retards who didn't figure out that haste is OP, can still have an easy way to finish every encounter. With the exception 2 extremely early fights (gnolls and harpies), I had 0 fun with combat, for the rest of the game, and that's extremely rare for me, since I'm a combatfag and tend to find something at least remotely enjoyable in most turn based games. 5E made even more streamlined and braindead just isn't it.

 

[Swen]

https://twitter.com/PC_Focus_/status/1745839466793582899

 

[Tyranicon]

I will say one thing in defense of bg3 and that its combat is at least 50 million times better than DOS 1/2.

Hard disagree, DOS 1/2 combat was a retarded eyerape with the whole map exploding, but it still offered occasional challenge and some "puzzle" encounters, and would only become piss poor easy in the second half of the game. And it had some mildly interesting character building and theorycrafting possible.

BG3 character building is more streamlined than Diablo 3, it basically doesn't exist, and the combat itself is completely solved after you get haste and fireball, after ~5-10% of the game. Then it's just rightclicking everything to death for the next 100 hours. Or pushing things into pits that Swen included in every single important battle, so even retards who didn't figure out that haste is OP, can still have an easy way to finish every encounter. With the exception 2 extremely early fights (gnolls and harpies), I had 0 fun with combat, for the rest of the game, and that's extremely rare for me, since I'm a combatfag and tend to find something at least remotely enjoyable in most turn based games. 5E made even more streamlined and braindead just isn't it.

It depends if you view combat as a simulation or combat as some kind of gamey puzzle that needs to be balanced.

5e balancing is extremely poor, almost as bad as BG3. But I would still prefer a poorly-balanced system that simulates combat, rather than video gamey nonsense like DOS fire puddles and armor systems.

Of course, haste and fireball are overpowered, and of course powergamers will gravitate towards them. Just like spellcasters have been OP for decades in D&D. IMO, trying to balance every element of your system like Sawyer is a lost cause and ruins fun.

 

[Lagole Gon]

I took a peek at Larian forums and there's A LOT of people shitting on writing, mostly focused on main story.
Arguably more critical than Codexers ITT.

Huh.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

^

https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=930410#Post930410

This reads like a sound analysis. But I fear 'fixing the plot' is out of the question at this point. What should be possible is for Larian to learn from their mistakes, for their next games. They should make damn sure that they have a good backbone for the story in place, next time. It should be good enough to withstand and enable all story branches that are added, changed and removed later on.

Nothing will change in their next game with all the simps praising BG3. What BG3 has shown is that you do not need a good story for RPGs. Just pack waifus and genital customizations in and you are done.

Don't forget bestiality. What a world we live in today!

codex is spreading

 

[Elttharion]

https://twitter.com/PC_Focus_/status/1745839466793582899

Not that I am doubting that BG3 made bank and was a sucess but that list was made by vginsight and they are basically just guesstimating numbers and are not reliable at all. It first went viral on Reddit (lmao) and people there thought it was official.

You can check Steam official list here, no revenue numbers tho.

 

[Shaki]

I will say one thing in defense of bg3 and that its combat is at least 50 million times better than DOS 1/2.

Hard disagree, DOS 1/2 combat was a retarded eyerape with the whole map exploding, but it still offered occasional challenge and some "puzzle" encounters, and would only become piss poor easy in the second half of the game. And it had some mildly interesting character building and theorycrafting possible.

BG3 character building is more streamlined than Diablo 3, it basically doesn't exist, and the combat itself is completely solved after you get haste and fireball, after ~5-10% of the game. Then it's just rightclicking everything to death for the next 100 hours. Or pushing things into pits that Swen included in every single important battle, so even retards who didn't figure out that haste is OP, can still have an easy way to finish every encounter. With the exception 2 extremely early fights (gnolls and harpies), I had 0 fun with combat, for the rest of the game, and that's extremely rare for me, since I'm a combatfag and tend to find something at least remotely enjoyable in most turn based games. 5E made even more streamlined and braindead just isn't it.

It depends if you view combat as a simulation or combat as some kind of gamey puzzle that needs to be balanced.

5e balancing is extremely poor, almost as bad as BG3. But I would still prefer a poorly-balanced system that simulates combat, rather than video gamey nonsense like DOS fire puddles and armor systems.

Of course, haste and fireball are overpowered, and of course powergamers will gravitate towards them. Just like spellcasters have been OP for decades in D&D. IMO, trying to balance every element of your system like Sawyer is a lost cause and ruins fun.

There are different kinds of balance. Sawyerism is balancing classes, items, abilities, against each other as a first priority. This is unnecessary. Good system will have many options, some dogshit some average, some OP, because figuring out what's good and what isn't, is part of the fun. If everything is equal, then your choice is worthless, and you might as well not have it.

Balancing the classes against the enemies however, is not Sawyerism, it's common sense, and it is absolutely necessary for a good combat. You can have OP items/spells etc. or cheese that will trivialize the game available, but it should be something hard to find, or at least requiring the player to go out of his way to make the game piss poor easy for himself. When instead you have to go out of your way to make the game remotely challenging - it means developer completely failed.

It's especially important in turn based games. Because in something like Arcanum, I can forgive complete lack of balance, because combat is pretty dogshit anyway and the game is mostly about different things, so most of people won't cry if they can just turn realtime mode and instantly skip the encounters with harm machinegun spam. But in turn based games, like BG3, you'll be fucking spending at least like 50% of it in combat. That's like 50 hours of casting the same 2-3 spells and brainlessly clicking on enemies. It's not fun in any world, it's a fucking torture.

 

[ropetight]

He is Gay European.
Commonly shortened to Belgian.

 

[Tyranicon]

You can have OP items/spells etc. or cheese that will trivialize the game available, but it should be something hard to find, or at least requiring the player to go out of his way to make the game piss poor easy for himself. When instead you have to go out of your way to make the game remotely challenging - it means developer completely failed.

I would also argue this isn't necessarily Larian's fault. As I said in my previous post, these mechanics are similarly overpowered in 5e tabletop. I've spent many sessions completely cheesing any encounter as a sorcerer twinning haste and greater invisibility. Don't even get me started on wizard tactics or sorcadins.

If you're going to lay the blame for this on anyone, it's Wizards of the Coast and 5e designers. Larian merely adapted their system.

 

[Lambach]

Why on Earth are you blaming Larian for the gameplay mechanics?

Larian did the best job that was humanly possible, if you ask me, considering the source material they had to work with. D&D 5.0 is a pile of radioactive dogshit doused in gasoline and set on fire.

God himself couldn't conjure up a really good gameplay system when restricted by one of the absolute worst PnP RPG Rulesets ever released. Garbage in, garbage out. If anything, Larian should be commended for making the source material they had to work with somewhat less shit.

 

[Shaki]

You can have OP items/spells etc. or cheese that will trivialize the game available, but it should be something hard to find, or at least requiring the player to go out of his way to make the game piss poor easy for himself. When instead you have to go out of your way to make the game remotely challenging - it means developer completely failed.

I would also argue this isn't necessarily Larian's fault. As I said in my previous post, these mechanics are similarly overpowered in 5e tabletop. I've spent many sessions completely cheesing any encounter as a sorcerer twinning haste and greater invisibility. Don't even get me started on wizard tactics or sorcadins.

If you're going to lay the blame for this on anyone, it's Wizards of the Coast and 5e designers. Larian merely adapted their system.

???

Larian homebrew the haste to make it even more op.

In 5E it grants you additional action that can be used only on ONE extra attack or Dash, Disengage, Hide, or Use an Object. Which is already super strong, but not hilariously broken and wouldn't trivialize every encounter by itself.

Larian instead made it just give you + action that you can use on anything, including casting two fucking spells in a turn and doubling all the fucking attacks you can do instead of letting you do just one more.

5E is already badly balanced and braindead, very true, but how tf Larian making it infinitely more retarded is WotCs fault my dude?

 

[Desiderius]

I'd dare argue the success of the game is at least partially due to the awful writing. People love to slurp up this shit. It's the same principle as fan fiction, what this game essentially is anyway.

Underrated opinion

What’s the competition?

 

[Desiderius]

He is Gay European.
Commonly shortened to Belgian.

A wounded Deer - leaps highest -
I've heard the Hunter tell -
'Tis but the Extasy of death -
And then the Brake is still!

The smitten Rock that gushes!
The trampled Steel that springs!
A Cheek is always redder
Just where the Hectic stings!

Mirth is the Mail of Anguish -
In which it cautious Arm,
Lest anybody spy the blood
And "you're hurt" exclaim!

Spoiler

- Dickinson

 

[Shaki]

I'd dare argue the success of the game is at least partially due to the awful writing. People love to slurp up this shit. It's the same principle as fan fiction, what this game essentially is anyway.

Of course, the reddit writing + the reddit promos. I'm 100% sure without the bear thing going viral, they wouldn't get even close to their current numbers. This shit was everywhere, and it was what made all the streamers and youtubers want to play the game, which in turn made all the normies want to play it.

 

[Tyranicon]

???

Larian homebrew the haste to make it even more op.

In 5E it grants you additional action that can be used only on ONE extra attack or Dash, Disengage, Hide, or Use an Object. Which is already super strong, but not hilariously broken and wouldn't trivialize every encounter by itself.

Larian instead made it just give you + action that you can use on anything, including casting two fucking spells in a turn and doubling all the fucking attacks you can do instead of letting you do just one more.

5E is already badly balanced and braindead, very true, but how tf Larian making it infinitely more retarded is WotCs fault my dude?

Oh yeah, I forgot they added stupid shit like that. Haven't played the game in months so I completely forgot.

Yeah, nvm, carry on. I remember thinking that was hyper stupid, but I was also trying to solo the game with my sorcadin :D, so I felt it less.

Man, wtf. That's so dumb. Let's make the most ridiculous spell in the game even worse.

IIRC, you could also quicken two full spells in BG3. kek.