General Gaming Baldur's Gate III - Information Thread, update: Larian doesn't plan to release DLC/expansions for BGIII nor develop BGIV

[Paperclyp]

Just spent like an hour and a half working my way through a massive battle in the under dark. My hunch is my honor as a paladin made it a helluva lot harder than it could have been. Took everything I had and a ton of cheesing. 

[Bacon]

I fought a giant spider 2 levels higher than me under some smith's house and nearly one shot it by burning the web it was on. No one even died, but man my AC did nothing. Had 2 or 3 people who needed healing pots tossed on'em.

[Xbob42]

I accepted and completed a quest from some random bird.

Then the betrayal happened.

 

[Bacon]

I was bummed that carrying this body and dropping it off in front of the guy had no interaction.

[Firewithin]

is there no limit to how many times gale asks for items to consume?

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

 

[legend]

11 hours ago, Paperclyp said:

Just spent like an hour and a half working my way through a massive battle in the under dark. My hunch is my honor as a paladin made it a helluva lot harder than it could have been. Took everything I had and a ton of cheesing. 

 

It's not cheesing when the game actively encourages you "cheese"!

 

Also, I've heard somewhere that no one has as many friends as the man with many cheeses.

 

2 hours ago, Firewithin said:

is there no limit to how many times gale asks for items to consume?

 

It's 3. Just 3  

 

I do sympathize with that feeling though. 3 is not a big number but it feels so bad having to destroy magic items even when there are crappy throw away items you can easily justify destroying. They really tap into the gamer horde panic feeling.

[Firewithin]

6 minutes ago, legend said:

 

It's 3. Just 3  

 

I do sympathize with that feeling though. 3 is not a big number but it feels so bad having to destroy magic items even when there are crappy throw away items you can easily justify destroying. They really tap into the gamer horde panic feeling.

 

good to know.  i think ive gave him three already.

[legend]

1 hour ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

 

 

I appreciate this person acknowledged that Monk feels better in this than typical 5e, but I think Monk should be higher rated than this. based on my playthrough thus far. First, you *must* get the mobile feat, which lets you hit someone, and then run away avoiding opp attacks *and* it lets you run really far. So much of BG3 is based around character positioning and the Monk is so fucking good at this. You can basically hit someone and run so far away that they can't reach you again.

 

And if a ranged character targets you, you an to catch the arrow mid flight and throw it back at them.

 

Finally, if you play Dark Urge, you're given at some point a cape that turns you invisible upon killing an enemy, which synergizes with this class so fucking well.

[Bacon]

So, I saw a post telling people to long rest.

I had only long rested once until now where I have done it 7 times in a row.

 

The first night had me dealing with Kar and Wyll.

On the second night, I got to know what a tiefling bard's insides felt like

On The third night, I got a visit from succubus and Wyll looks a bit flushed.

During the fourth night, my intrusive thoughts came and knitted me a cape which looks really bad when paired with the barb clothing

On the fifth night, a mosquito woke me up.

On the sixth night, Shadowheart took me down by the river.

On the seventh night, Lae'Zel wanted to wrestle. Pretty sure I won.

On the 8th night nothing happened so I made the F8th day not happen.

[Fizzzzle]

Are there penalties for long rests? I'm assuming maybe there are time sensitive quests or something? I got the achievement for doing 5 long rests in a single playthrough like barely into the game and part of my brain went "uh-oh."

[legend]

1 minute ago, Fizzzzle said:

Are there penalties for long rests? I'm assuming maybe there are time sensitive quests or something? I got the achievement for doing 5 long rests in a single playthrough like barely into the game and part of my brain went "uh-oh."

 

There has been at least one instance where something was time sensitive for me, but it was pointed out. Otherwise no, other than the fact that if you want the benefits a long rest (ability regen like spell slots, and I *think* regaining short rest options), you need to consume camp supplies, which are a finite, though generally plentiful resource.

[Bacon]

Just now, Fizzzzle said:

Are there penalties for long rests? I'm assuming maybe there are time sensitive quests or something? I got the achievement for doing 5 long rests in a single playthrough like barely into the game and part of my brain went "uh-oh."

Only if you load time-sensitive stuff. I mentioned before about loading some NPCs that give a quest, but since I didn't interact with them they did their own thing and died. I reloaded and they are still there even after long resting 7 times (I check on them by loading and if they are still there I know I can load a quick save and something else.)

 

Basically, don't load time-sensitive stuff and time-sensitive stuff won't happen.

[Fizzzzle]

Just now, legend said:

 

There has been at least one instance where something was time sensitive for me, but it was pointed out. Otherwise no, other than the fact that if you want the benefits a long rest (ability regen like spell slots, and I *think* regaining short rest options), you need to consume camp supplies, which are a finite, though generally plentiful resource.

Yeah I haven't had a problem with camp supplies. Though that's because you find them most in shit like boxes and crates that maybe a lot of people just ignore. I stop to loot everything.

[Bacon]

Oh and all of those long rests were "partial" rests. Partial rests activate camp events and don't consume food.

[Massdriver]

14 hours ago, Bacon said:

I fought a giant spider 2 levels higher than me under some smith's house and nearly one shot it by burning the web it was on. No one even died, but man my AC did nothing. Had 2 or 3 people who needed healing pots tossed on'em.

That battle took me around an hour. Cheers! 

[Bacon]

2 minutes ago, Massdriver said:

That battle took me around an hour. Cheers! 

If it makes you feel any better, I had to reload a save, and now I can't pass this religion check that I passed earlier with no problem on my first go. I just keep failing the roll. If it wasn't a roll that updated a quest I wouldn't care but it does update the quest so I want to pass it again.

[Mr.Vic20]

Woah. Chapter 2 is done! This game is maasive, and I love that it is! 

[Bacon]

Night 6

Spoiler

 

VS

 

Night 7 but I'm a barbarian- NSFW

Spoiler

NUDITY NSFW

Spoiler

 

 

[TheLeon]

This game is going to take me forever. Not complaining, it’s just that so many encounters leave me exhausted and I feel the need to take a long rest IRL. 

[Biggie]

13 minutes ago, TheLeon said:

This game is going to take me forever. Not complaining, it’s just that so many encounters leave me exhausted and I feel the need to take a long rest IRL. 

You probably should buy another game to put in your rotation!

[TheLeon]

3 minutes ago, Biggie said:

You probably should buy another game to put in your rotation!

Oh, I get it. Because of the post I made in another thread immediately after I posted here. Very good. Ya got me. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

 

[Xbob42]

I installed Divinity Original Sin 2 because I wanted to see how it compared based on my memory. I've always been a huge fan of DOS and DOS2. I totally forgot it wasn't accuracy based. Your shit just... hits. No attacks of opportunity, no spell slots, just every ability on a cooldown (minus certain special ones that require a rest I think) based on turns and used based on remaining action points.

In my mind, Baldur's Gate 3 was just an evolved version of DOS2, but going back, they share a similar skeleton but DOS2 is like a much more accessible (though certainly not fucking easy), arcade-y game, with much more powerful environmental effects. It's also way sillier.

 

 

2 minutes into the game and my mage is in a karate stance, bucket on his head as a makeshift helmet, doing battle against another man (both men on fire of course) after breaking him out of his cell.

 

I think I might be playing both games at once now. The environment shit in DOS2 is way more involved. Blast a puddle with a fireball to make steam to obscure the enemy's vision, zap the steam cloud with lightning to shock everyone inside, so much cool shit.

 

I'm really glad it still holds up, it's like both games branch in different directions, both really fun, and I'd love to see a DOS3 using what they learned from BG3. But keep the rolls for accuracy and shit to the D&D based games.

Also no spell slots means my mage can just always use his full arsenal as long as he has enough AP! Especially my favorite spell, one that teleports friend or foe alike to wherever I choose. (Not into bottomless pits of course, but definitely into hazards or in range of my melee party members.) I think while spell slots might make sense for a tabletop game, I feel like they hurt the combat in BG3, they're very limiting and encourage hoarding abilities instead of using a wide variety of them, which can make you play in a very stale way. AP requirement + cooldowns means when something's not ready yet, use something else, so you're always thinking on where to best lay the pain or build up AP.

 

Plus you get cool shit right off the bad like flinging an oily ass boulder and a multi-projectile flaming magic name.

 

On the other hand, the production values are of course dramatically lower, the characters less interesting, and while the combat is super fun, it does lack that feeling of extra depth until later on. You also get less non-destructive environmental interaction, though I do enjoy my telekinesis which allows me to move things regardless of weight thanks to my ENORMOUS BRAIN.

And of course, in both games you can fill your pockets with explosive barrels and throw them out when the time is right! 

[TheLeon]

oof, definitely wasn’t paying attention to inspiration points. Looks like I’ve burned some because I’ve earned at least 10 and have only used 1 or 2.

[Xbob42]

On 8/6/2023 at 6:33 PM, Bacon said:

It could, but the weekend is over which is big game time for many.

That weekend was over, but that didn't stop this one!

 

[Bacon]

4 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

That weekend was over, but that didn't stop this one!

Yeah, but it didn't even hit 900k when I was talking about 1M.

[Xbob42]

I don't think an the arbitrary milestone like that is nearly as impressive as a big, full priced,  turn-based single-player CRPG somehow hitting a new all time peak over a week after launch. 

[legend]

1 hour ago, Xbob42 said:

I installed Divinity Original Sin 2 because I wanted to see how it compared based on my memory. I've always been a huge fan of DOS and DOS2. I totally forgot it wasn't accuracy based. Your shit just... hits. No attacks of opportunity, no spell slots, just every ability on a cooldown (minus certain special ones that require a rest I think) based on turns and used based on remaining action points.

In my mind, Baldur's Gate 3 was just an evolved version of DOS2, but going back, they share a similar skeleton but DOS2 is like a much more accessible (though certainly not fucking easy), arcade-y game, with much more powerful environmental effects. It's also way sillier.

 

 

2 minutes into the game and my mage is in a karate stance, bucket on his head as a makeshift helmet, doing battle against another man (both men on fire of course) after breaking him out of his cell.

 

I think I might be playing both games at once now. The environment shit in DOS2 is way more involved. Blast a puddle with a fireball to make steam to obscure the enemy's vision, zap the steam cloud with lightning to shock everyone inside, so much cool shit.

 

I'm really glad it still holds up, it's like both games branch in different directions, both really fun, and I'd love to see a DOS3 using what they learned from BG3. But keep the rolls for accuracy and shit to the D&D based games.

Also no spell slots means my mage can just always use his full arsenal as long as he has enough AP! Especially my favorite spell, one that teleports friend or foe alike to wherever I choose. (Not into bottomless pits of course, but definitely into hazards or in range of my melee party members.) I think while spell slots might make sense for a tabletop game, I feel like they hurt the combat in BG3, they're very limiting and encourage hoarding abilities instead of using a wide variety of them, which can make you play in a very stale way. AP requirement + cooldowns means when something's not ready yet, use something else, so you're always thinking on where to best lay the pain or build up AP.

 

Plus you get cool shit right off the bad like flinging an oily ass boulder and a multi-projectile flaming magic name.

 

On the other hand, the production values are of course dramatically lower, the characters less interesting, and while the combat is super fun, it does lack that feeling of extra depth until later on. You also get less non-destructive environmental interaction, though I do enjoy my telekinesis which allows me to move things regardless of weight thanks to my ENORMOUS BRAIN.

And of course, in both games you can fill your pockets with explosive barrels and throw them out when the time is right! 

 

 

Yeah the DOS2 mechanics are awesome and I absolutely want them to come back to the series. BG3's biggest "strict" improvement is that the engine lets them be more personal. *Much* better rendered people and you can pull the camera down low to feel more apart of the world. Perhaps motivated by that, they really focused more on the character stories and the world just feels better.

 

But while I like DnD a lot, there are a lot of gameplay decisions I'm not super fond of. D20s suck, but DnD will never remove them at this point because it's kind of a the face of the series. I'm not opposed to dice rolls, but multiple dice rolls (e.g., 3d6 or 2d10) leads to much more enjoyable RNG that feels like it makes more sense (because the distribution becomes more Gaussian). If your character is not proficient at something, they'll basically never make it, whereas a proficient character will make it regularly without much fuss.

 

 

[Xbob42]

I feel like most video games solved that ages ago with damage ranges. Eventually in most RPGs that have accuracy, you can choose to hit an accuracy cap and straight up stop missing barring some buffs/debuffs, and then it's all about damage ranges. And not these fucking silly damage ranges like "2-68 damage" (what the fuck?) but like, 48-70 damage. You always have a good baseline.

 

Also it's hard to believe I'm going to be doing any serious world saving when I miss a melee attack against a dude flat on his ass a foot in front of me. Kinda feels like this but less delightfully stupid:

 

[Bacon]

48 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

I don't think an the arbitrary milestone like that is nearly as impressive as a big, full priced,  turn-based single-player CRPG somehow hitting a new all time peak over a week after launch. 

I mean, that is impressive, but not like... Not really sure what to call it. Cuz like, if it hit 1M, it would be monumental. Not that nearly 900k isn't, but a new peak while still remaining in the 800K area is just, it's just impressive, but no more than that. Like, that it got more players the second weekend is awesome, but the new number wasn't high enough for me to really care, even tho I should and it is very impressive and noteworthy. It just feels not too impressive considering they already had over 800K.

 

Like, if you won 10 million dollars people would find that more awesome than winning 4.5 million dollars two times. You won big twice which is definitely more rare, but like, you still don't have 10 million dollars.

 

Or like, you have two dicks but both dicks are average with one being slightly bigger vs a 10-incher. Two dicks? Very cool. But, like, I mean, they aren't big dicks. Of course, Larian out here is having two 8-inch dicks and I'm saying it's a shame they don't have a 10-incher.

[osxmatt]

2 hours ago, Xbob42 said:

I installed Divinity Original Sin 2 because I wanted to see how it compared based on my memory. I've always been a huge fan of DOS and DOS2. I totally forgot it wasn't accuracy based. Your shit just... hits. No attacks of opportunity, no spell slots, just every ability on a cooldown (minus certain special ones that require a rest I think) based on turns and used based on remaining action points.

In my mind, Baldur's Gate 3 was just an evolved version of DOS2, but going back, they share a similar skeleton but DOS2 is like a much more accessible (though certainly not fucking easy), arcade-y game, with much more powerful environmental effects. It's also way sillier.

 

 

2 minutes into the game and my mage is in a karate stance, bucket on his head as a makeshift helmet, doing battle against another man (both men on fire of course) after breaking him out of his cell.

 

I think I might be playing both games at once now. The environment shit in DOS2 is way more involved. Blast a puddle with a fireball to make steam to obscure the enemy's vision, zap the steam cloud with lightning to shock everyone inside, so much cool shit.

 

I'm really glad it still holds up, it's like both games branch in different directions, both really fun, and I'd love to see a DOS3 using what they learned from BG3. But keep the rolls for accuracy and shit to the D&D based games.

Also no spell slots means my mage can just always use his full arsenal as long as he has enough AP! Especially my favorite spell, one that teleports friend or foe alike to wherever I choose. (Not into bottomless pits of course, but definitely into hazards or in range of my melee party members.) I think while spell slots might make sense for a tabletop game, I feel like they hurt the combat in BG3, they're very limiting and encourage hoarding abilities instead of using a wide variety of them, which can make you play in a very stale way. AP requirement + cooldowns means when something's not ready yet, use something else, so you're always thinking on where to best lay the pain or build up AP.

 

Plus you get cool shit right off the bad like flinging an oily ass boulder and a multi-projectile flaming magic name.

 

On the other hand, the production values are of course dramatically lower, the characters less interesting, and while the combat is super fun, it does lack that feeling of extra depth until later on. You also get less non-destructive environmental interaction, though I do enjoy my telekinesis which allows me to move things regardless of weight thanks to my ENORMOUS BRAIN.

And of course, in both games you can fill your pockets with explosive barrels and throw them out when the time is right! 

 

I really appreciate this post. All the talk the past week of Baldurs Gate 3, and I too decided to revisit Divinity: Original Sin 2. I purchased it 2-3 years ago on sale, put about 30 hours in, hit a pretty big difficulty spike (I don’t think I leveled my party efficiently since I’ve never really played games like this) and sort of just stopped playing.

 

I’ve put about 12-15 hours in over the past few days and am having a blast. I found out you can respec your characters at the big mirror on the ship in Act 2 (I know I know), so made some changes and am crushing things now.

 

I plan to purchase Baldurs Gate 3 down the road once it goes on sale, but it’s good to know some of the key differences.

[Xbob42]

31 minutes ago, Bacon said:

I mean, that is impressive, but not like... Not really sure what to call it. Cuz like, if it hit 1M, it would be monumental. Not that nearly 900k isn't, but a new peak while still remaining in the 800K area is just, it's just impressive, but no more than that. Like, that it got more players the second weekend is awesome, but the new number wasn't high enough for me to really care, even tho I should and it is very impressive and noteworthy. It just feels not too impressive considering they already had over 800K.

 

Like, if you won 10 million dollars people would find that more awesome than winning 4.5 million dollars two times. You won big twice which is definitely more rare, but like, you still don't have 10 million dollars.

 

Or like, you have two dicks but both dicks are average with one being slightly bigger vs a 10-incher. Two dicks? Very cool. But, like, I mean, they aren't big dicks. Of course, Larian out here is having two 8-inch dicks and I'm saying it's a shame they don't have a 10-incher.

Uhh, I think hitting a new all-time peak is way more impressive. Because these are concurrent player numbers, it's not like they're total sales. It's just how many people happened to be playing at the same time. 1 million would be neat but not much more. Cyberpunk hit 1 million. What Cyberpunk didn't do is hit an all-time peak nearly 2 weeks after launch while on a continued upward trajectory. In fact it was at about half the player count by this time in its launch cycle.

 

Elden Ring is the only similar single-player (sorta?) game I could find with a similar bump, and that was a single week after launch before dropping steeply. Nothing else came close. Skyrim, GTA V, Cyberpunk, MH World, etc. Some get spikes later on due to sales or free weekends, big patches or expansions, but almost universally the first day is the peak outside of any external events.

 

It's not so much the number on its own as much as the number and the trend, this is an extremely unusual thing to happen, whereas a hype game getting a lot of players on its own is kind of expected, to an extent.

[Bacon]

Also, I think DnD rules suck. Game is still great, but remove the DnD gameplay and it would just be better.

 

Don't care for spell slots

Don't care for how combat is calculated

Don't like how much is tied to long rests

A lot of dice rolls for things that I should just automatically succeed in. Like, a dice roll for not turning insane after opening the Necronomicon? Ok, sure. But does my Barb really need to pass a strength roll to get Astarion to fuck off? No, I don't think so.

 

Also, as someone who has never played any DnD, at times I wish the game had a codex. Like, I don't know anything about the gods tho the game acts like I should. I get that, you know, it's Baldur's Gate 3, but I feel what is not expanded on is the actual DnD stuff, not BG-specific stuff. Like, I don't even know who Shar is and why I should care. I mean, I kinda do now, but wow is it really hard to care about what god someone worships when you don't know any of them. Thankfully, there has been a decent amount of "shrug idc" dialogue options.

[Bacon]

6 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

Uhh, I think hitting a new all-time peak is way more impressive. Because these are concurrent player numbers, it's not like they're total sales. It's just how many people happened to be playing at the same time. 1 million would be neat but not much more. Cyberpunk hit 1 million. What Cyberpunk didn't do is hit an all-time peak nearly 2 weeks after launch while on a continued upward trajectory. In fact it was at about half the player count by this time in its launch cycle.

 

Elden Ring is the only similar single-player (sorta?) game I could find with a similar bump, and that was a single week after launch before dropping steeply. Nothing else came close. Skyrim, GTA V, Cyberpunk, MH World, etc. Some get spikes later on due to sales or free weekends, big patches or expansions, but almost universally the first day is the peak outside of any external events.

 

It's not so much the number on its own as much as the number and the trend, this is an extremely unusual thing to happen, whereas a hype game getting a lot of players on its own is kind of expected, to an extent.

I get it. I do. I'm just a size queen when I should be more impressed they have two 8+ inch dicks and masterful love-making skills instead of just one 10-inch dick that can only violently take you to pound town where you'll either have an average or worse experience.