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

[legend]

32 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

 

I haven't watched this, but I do want to say that as someone whose never bothered with Cleric in DnD proper, BG3 has made me a convert. Clerics are so fucking good. Spirit Guardians is fucking amazing on its own and you get high armor to keep concentration spells going (especially compared to other spell casters). You just turn on spirit guardians and walk around melting everyone. And for some of the fights where you have a ton of scrub enemies, it's so fucking OP. They'll just run at you and die!

 

24 minutes ago, Massdriver said:

I think I'm going to lower the difficulty to normal so that I can move quicker through the game. I don't have enough time to play. I know too many people passing me up story wise and want to experience it in sync with them. 

 

No harm in that. As I said, this game benefits from replays so you can always replay on normal again if you want!

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Looks like Swen and Phil had an in-person coversation at Gamescom.

 

Per Swen:

 

Quote

Super happy to confirm that after meeting @XboxP3 yesterday, we’ve found a solution that allows us to bring Baldur’s Gate 3 to Xbox players this year still, something we’ve been working towards for quite some time.

 

All improvements will be there, with split-screen coop on Series X. Series S will not feature split-screen coop, but will also include cross-save progression between Steam and Xbox Series.

 

[Firewithin]

Phil probably saw the reviews and the player count on steam and was like "yah ok fuck the series S just get it done"

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

11 minutes ago, Firewithin said:

Phil probably saw the reviews and the player count on steam and was like "yah ok fuck the series S just get it done"

 

[legend]

Wow, they caved!

[TheLeon]

Man, the 10 people who were only ever gonna play this game split screen on the Series S must be heartbroken.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

5 minutes ago, TheLeon said:

Man, the 10 people who were only ever gonna play this game split screen on the Series S must be heartbroken.

 

It's not so much the absolutely miniscule number of people who this would impact on the Series S, but rather the notion that "gameplay feature parity" (as opposed to the understandably non-existent "aesthetic feature parity" such as framerate and resolution) between the Series X and Series S has now effectively been rendered null and void.

[CitizenVectron]

My current party is really, really fun:

My character - Berserker Barbarian (Dark Urge)
Shadowheart - War Cleric (already respec'd away from trickster cleric, may respec again to Paladin)

Lae'zel - Battlemaster Fighter

Astarion - Assassin Rogue

 

I gave my Dark Urge cape to Astarion, so he just one-shots people from the shadows while My char and Lae'zel frontline and faceroll mobs. Chose great weapon fighting/master for both, so if I kill a mob I can usually kill a second with the free action after. Shadowheart is usually also on the frontline, but can send a heal or two when needed. But I play her War Cleric more aggressively, usually, preferring to debuff the enemies rather than heal my team.

[Dodger]

22 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

It's not so much the absolutely miniscule number of people who this would impact on the Series S, but rather the notion that "gameplay feature parity" (as opposed to the understandably non-existent "aesthetic feature parity" such as framerate and resolution) between the Series X and Series S has now effectively been rendered null and void.

 

I'd like to think we live in a world of nuance where we understand this is is a rare case by case basis and not something that will happen with every other game. But then I remember social media exists so nevermind. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

2 minutes ago, Dodger said:

 

I'd like to think we live in a world of nuance where we understand this is is a rare case by case basis and not something that will happen with every other game. But then I remember social media exists so nevermind. 

 

It certainly won't happen with every game, however I have little doubt that this definitely got the attention of the major publishers.

[legend]

20 minutes ago, Dodger said:

 

I'd like to think we live in a world of nuance where we understand this is is a rare case by case basis and not something that will happen with every other game. But then I remember social media exists so nevermind. 

 

The thing is, the series S had always been a bad idea for this very reason. It drags things down and it's only going to become more of a nuisance as the generation goes on and as cross-gen games evaporate in favor of games that demand new technology.

 

So caving on this is good because it means more games can free themselves of its nonsense, even if not all.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

18 minutes ago, Dodger said:

 

I'd like to think we live in a world of nuance where we understand this is is a rare case by case basis and not something that will happen with every other game. But then I remember social media exists so nevermind. 

We live in a world where people can’t even tell the difference between a writer or a level designer and the CEO or Publisher when trying to place blame for the state of AAA games. Nuance is there, but not enough people can recognize it. 
 

But also this sends up a flare to say “if your game is a big enough deal MS will make an exception rather than risk losing it entirely.” Not saying it would be ready that soon, but imagine if Rockstar decides to try their luck and making GTA6 not even playable on the Series S. Would MS lose GTA6 entirely for the rest of the generation or just approve a Series X only release? 

[Dodger]

5 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

We live in a world where people can’t even tell the difference between a writer or a level designer and the CEO or Publisher when trying to place blame for the state of AAA games. Nuance is there, but not enough people can recognize it. 
 

But also this sends up a flare to say “if your game is a big enough deal MS will make an exception rather than risk losing it entirely.” Not saying it would be ready that soon, but imagine if Rockstar decides to try their luck and making GTA6 not even playable on the Series S. Would MS lose GTA6 entirely for the rest of the generation or just approve a Series X only release? 

 

I would say for something like GTA6 is so big and based on the success of V Rockstar would have that game working on your TI83 if you could connect to internet and pay for online transactions with it. MS knew there was a risk developers would just skip their platform with the S and I'm honestly shocked a bunch haven't just said screw your potato console your market share isn't worth it anyway. Phil must running up a lot of tabs with heads of Pubs and Devs to keep the games coming. I figure the real problem is if MS does this too often, they have a massive false adverstising lawsuit to deal with S owners. 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

37 minutes ago, Dodger said:

 

I would say for something like GTA6 is so big and based on the success of V Rockstar would have that game working on your TI83 if you could connect to internet and pay for online transactions with it. MS knew there was a risk developers would just skip their platform with the S and I'm honestly shocked a bunch haven't just said screw your potato console your market share isn't worth it anyway. Phil must running up a lot of tabs with heads of Pubs and Devs to keep the games coming. I figure the real problem is if MS does this too often, they have a massive false adverstising lawsuit to deal with S owners. 

no I get we don’t have to worry about GTA6 not running on the Series S. I’m just throwing out there that this kind of caving seems to signal that if R* didn’t want to target down to the Series S, MS would cave to prevent GTA6 from being an “accidental” PS5 exclusive. 
 

I was just using GTA6 as an extreme example of a title so big MS might allow it to skip the Series S entirely. So some games might have an easier time getting away with leaving out entire features from Series S, like BG3 is getting away with. 
 

1 hour ago, legend said:

 

The thing is, the series S had always been a bad idea for this very reason. It drags things down and it's only going to become more of a nuisance as the generation goes on and as cross-gen games evaporate in favor of games that demand new technology.

 

So caving on this is good because it means more games can free themselves of its nonsense, even if not all.

 

The one theory I have seen said is that the Series S, with its limited RAM may be the only thing keeping devs on PC even trying to keep their games within a budget of 8GB of VRAM for recommended settings. That without the Series S devs would be starting targeting 8GB for minimum for low settings these days, with 12GB being really the lowest for an acceptable experience. 

 

[Dodger]

It does seem that other than whatever games Sony moneyhats to keep away from Xbox in general Devs seem to get games running just fine on the S. LIke I haven't seen mass outcry that games on the S are just broken unplayable messes because it's just so shitty. If anything I see the opposite, games come out at 1080P 30/60 FPS and people are mostly impressed it gets the job done. Devs are getting the games on it and getting them to apparently run well for the parameters the system is aiming for. So is it really the big roadblock they make it seem?

[legend]

1 hour ago, Dodger said:

It does seem that other than whatever games Sony moneyhats to keep away from Xbox in general Devs seem to get games running just fine on the S. LIke I haven't seen mass outcry that games on the S are just broken unplayable messes because it's just so shitty. If anything I see the opposite, games come out at 1080P 30/60 FPS and people are mostly impressed it gets the job done. Devs are getting the games on it and getting them to apparently run well for the parameters the system is aiming for. So is it really the big roadblock they make it seem?

 

Most games up until about now were also cross gen games where they were designed to support substantially worse systems than the S. For such games, the S isn't going to be a problem because it's not the bottom. But that's starting to change. That developers can make games that work doesn't mean there are not sacrifices either. It can just as easily be the case that developers begrudgingly target the series S as the base from the start and work from there, and that they may have done things differently if they could have started higher. And then you have the fact that even if developers who did target higher get it to work, that doesn't mean it didn't cost them significant effort which indirectly affects us all in various ways.

 

In other words, we're reaching the transition point where it's going to start to be a pain, and BG3 is the first very clear example of that pain. When these systems first came out, my prediction was the S wouldn't be so much of a problem for the first few years because of cross-gen and just general slowness to update to new targets but that it would start to be more of an issue after that. And so far that prediction seems about right!

[Bacon]

So, does anyone know if I was supposed to figure out the Arcane Tower (in the Underdark) on my own? Like, I didn't mess up a quest, did I?

 

Spoiler

So, I went all sneaky and ended up working my way down to the bottom level of the tower with the generator. I tried so many things that were already in my bag, but then I remembered the Sussur tree plants outside and how it was said that the tower's owner experimented on them. So, I went out and grabbed one and put it in the generator and it worked.

I'm just wondering if there is a more story-related method to activate the tower.

[Paperclyp]

47 minutes ago, Bacon said:

So, does anyone know if I was supposed to figure out the Arcane Tower (in the Underdark) on my own? Like, I didn't mess up a quest, did I?

 

Spoiler

  Reveal hidden contents

So, I went all sneaky and ended up working my way down to the bottom level of the tower with the generator. I tried so many things that were already in my bag, but then I remembered the Sussur tree plants outside and how it was said that the tower's owner experimented on them. So, I went out and grabbed one and put it in the generator and it worked.

I'm just wondering if there is a more story-related method to activate the tower.

 

Spoiler

As far as I know the only specific quest associated with the tower is you need to collect a couple of specific mushrooms down there for...a thing. 

 

[Bacon]

2 minutes ago, Paperclyp said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

As far as I know the only specific quest associated with the tower is you need to collect a couple of specific mushrooms down there for...a thing. 

 

That's what I figured after emptying the tower. There is a story there about the tower master, but it's just a story for the player to finish on their own. There is no quest for it, only for the shrooms.

[Bacon]

Fuckin' natty - Like a true Barbarian!

Spoiler

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Patch #1 has gone live.

 

Patch #1 Now Live!

BALDURSGATE3.GAME

---

<p>Patch #1 is now live for Baldur's Gate 3, addressing over 1000 bugs, glitches, and blockers.</p> <ul> </ul>

 

 

Baldur's Gate 3's first major update is so big, the patch notes exceeded Steam's text limit

WWW.EUROGAMER.NET

---

Larian has released its first "major" update for Baldur's Gate 3, and when the studio said major it wasn't kidding.

 

Quote

As Larian joked, it is so immense, the patch notes couldn't be detailed in their entirety on Steam, as they exceeded the platform's text limit.

 

[Bacon]

Fixed the dialogue flow when dating Minthara.

So, is the romance fixed tho? Cuz, like, you couldn't actually start dating.

Fixed dialogue notifications, like approval ratings and roll results, disappearing too early.

Praise be!

Fixed the critical hit text sometimes not appearing.

I thought I noticed this since the visual still happened.

Spoiler

Undergoing partial ceremorphosis will now rot your teeth!

I don't like that one.

NPCs are now less likely to attack Spiritual Weapons.

Dang, but it makes sense lol.

Minthara is no longer immortal for the entirety of the attack on the Emerald Grove.

wow

Made some especially repetitive overhead dialogues in the Emerald Grove less annoying

TOO LATE

 

[legend]

38 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

Patch #1 has gone live.

 

Patch #1 Now Live!

BALDURSGATE3.GAME

---

<p>Patch #1 is now live for Baldur's Gate 3, addressing over 1000 bugs, glitches, and blockers.</p> <ul> </ul>

 

 

Baldur's Gate 3's first major update is so big, the patch notes exceeded Steam's text limit

WWW.EUROGAMER.NET

---

Larian has released its first "major" update for Baldur's Gate 3, and when the studio said major it wasn't kidding.

 

 

 

 

Quintessential Larian move.

[Bacon]

Also, spent a long time in gyrmforge or whatever. Man, I spent the entire time walking up to dwarves, they decided it was wise to be an asshole, and then they died...

 

Like for real, I was killing groups of dwarves over and over again. And when it was all over, I still ended up having to clear the entire place of dwarves cuz they were all hostile at the end. Sorry, Kith. I liked you but, *shrugs*.

 

e:

feels pretty good tho that I can properly kill off anyone who thought it was wise to talk shit

i'm lookin' at you ME:A

[CitizenVectron]

Incredible first big patch.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Patch #2 isn't too far off either.

 

Quote

You won’t be waiting long for Patch 2, which is right around the corner. This update will feature significant performance improvements - but we’ll go into more detail about that closer to its release

 

 

I'm guessing that patch will reflect performance optimizations that they've managed to implement for the upcoming PS5 version.

[Kal-El814]

Meanwhile, at EA…

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

20 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

Meanwhile, at EA…

 

 

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf's development does appear to be encountering some issues:

 

Dragon Age Dreadwolf keeps getting delayed internally, report claims | VGC

WWW.VIDEOGAMESCHRONICLE.COM

---

BioWare is currently said to be targeting a summer 2024 release “at the earliest”…

 

Quote

 

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf’s release “keeps getting pushed back” internally at BioWare.

 

That’s according to Giant Bomb reporter Jeff Grubb, who said on Thursday that he’d discussed behind the scenes goings on at the EA studio with unnamed sources, following the news that BioWare is making a new round of layoffs.

 

Earlier this week, BioWare general manager Gary McKay said the company would be cutting “approximately” 50 roles as part of a “shift towards [becoming] a more agile and more focused studio”.

 

Grubb’s sources claimed Dragon Age: Dreadwolf was once being considered for release in September 2023, but that the game keeps getting delayed.

 

The game’s target release window was then moved to March 2024 a while ago, but it’s currently planned to come out next summer “at the earliest”, it’s claimed.

 

However, Grubb also said he thinks it’s “very likely” that the game’s release will get pushed back even further, “probably” to late next year but possibly to early 2025.

 

 

[Bacon]

I hope DA4 sucks so bad it kills the brand. 

[legend]

2 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

Meanwhile, at EA…

 

 

Absolutely insane. 

 

 

2 hours ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf's development does appear to be encountering some issues:

 

Dragon Age Dreadwolf keeps getting delayed internally, report claims | VGC

WWW.VIDEOGAMESCHRONICLE.COM

---

BioWare is currently said to be targeting a summer 2024 release “at the earliest”…

 

 

 

Given that, they should restart it and make it more like a DA:O given that Larian just proved people want these games. I'm sure EA understands that now.

 

 

 

[Keyser_Soze]

EA also sitting on the Ultima series which they could be their "Baldur Gate" project.

[Spork3245]

46 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

EA also sitting on the Ultima series which they could be their "Baldur Gate" project.

Also Neverwinter Nights

[Bacon]

I was just trying some stuff out. If your character die-dies on nautiloid, when you need to reach the controls, you will be revived automatically once the fight is over. This is not true of companions. Also, trying to kill the demon dude is WAY harder on tactician and requires massive amounts of luck, not only on your rolls but on the rolls of the squid guy as well. I'm not even sure if it is possible without having two casters that can deal either force, radiant, necrotic, or thunder damage. I had to massively save scum to even have a chance. Considering the weapon isn't a +1 weapon it's really not worth it, but it is a large chunk of EXP if you can kill that guy and the squid. You'll be level 2 on the beach, and level 3 by the time you clear out the overgrown ruins. At least that is how it is on normal. I'm not sure how the rest of the game is, but that fight was way harder than the normal version. The demon guy had 40 more HP, he attacks twice now, he will use opportunity attacks on your party, and I'm pretty sure his friends spawn sooner. He doesn't seem to hit harder tho, just twice, which makes sense considering his level. I was not able to beat the demon guy on a test paladin, but I did on a test sorc.

 

I was just having fun. I was kinda tired and didn't wanna play for real so I just messed around.

[Spork3245]

Looks like another patch dropped - v1.1