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It's kind of reassuring - and at the same time, concerning - that even a game with production value as high as Baldur's Gate III frequently falls into the trap of voice actors (VAs) emphasising certain lines on the wrong word for the context at hand.

To explain what I mean in general, consider that even a simple sentence like "Why did you buy this book?" changes in meaning drastically, depending on the emphasis:
- WHY did you buy this book? (what's the motivation)
- Why DID you buy this book? (as opposed to not doing it)
- Why did YOU buy this book? (as opposed to anyone else buying it)
- Why did you BUY this book? (instead of stealing it )
- Why did you buy THIS book? (instead of any other book)
- Why did you buy this BOOK? (instead of anything else)


Maybe it's just me, but it really detracts from my immersion when I can clearly tell from the subtitles the sentence I'm hearing was supposed to be emphasised differently than the way the VA did. This is even more apparent when the subtitles feature the to-be-emphasised word in italics, but the VAs emphasis is elsewhere.

And in a game as long as BG3, this occurs more often than I would have expected - too often to remember all instances.
Here are just two examples off the top of my head - there are many more, would be interesting to compile them all here.



In other games, this is even more prevalent: I've heard VAs mispronounce important terms from the setting, and yet, the falsely-pronounced take gets used in the final version of the game. (In the German version of the first Lego Bionicle game, for example, Toa Pohatu at one point pronounces "Turaga", the priests of the setting, as "Taruga" instead.)

In BG3, I've only noticed this problem to a lesser extent when it comes to the fictional languages in the setting - most notably, the gith language, but also some drow terms - as the different VAs couldn't quite seem to agree on how they should be pronounced =D : Some gith will pronounce "ghaik" as written, whereas Lae'zel pronounces it "gaikh". Another notable example is the sentence "Gith'ka tav'kim krash'ht", said by multiple gith characters, but some pronounce the last word like "crush it", with two syllables, whereas Orpheus will only say "krasht", as one syllable.
For drow, it's the word "straj" that features different pronunciations between different characters.


Another pet peeve is characters ignoring even the most apparent grammar of their own language. I doubt the gith language has been developed as far as the Tolkien or Star Trek languages, meaning that you could actually speak them. However, what little grammar has been defined for it is so obvious, even to a new player, that it's really irritating whenever even that simple grammar is being ignored.



Those examples however are of course much less obvious than the falsely placed emphasis in the regular English voice lines in the game.

Given that I'm observing this with some level of frequency even in a game that had as much effort put into it as BG3, I'm suspecting a systematic cause behind it - and I wonder what that might be?

Do the VAs receive the lines they are supposed to record without the context the sentence is said in? I could understand that if the VAs are recording their lines at home, in their own studio, and then just send them in. But with all of the MoCap in BG3, and a director present, shouldn't it be obvious to everyone when the emphasis is off for a given sentence?

I recently upgraded my Mac OS to Monterey 12.7.8, after which I reinstalled BG3 via Steam. Now, when I click on "START" on the Steam page, I get a box which tells me "Verifying "Baldur's Gate 3"; the verification lasts for a very long time (over an hour), and when the bar is full... nothing happens. The Steam Library page suggests that the game is running, but nothing appears on my desktop. The BG symbol also appears on my active bar, but clicking on it does nothing. Rebooting and starting over also does nothing. Any suggestions?

I got a very nice response to my support ticket from Larian. I haven’t had a lot of time to play since then, but I couldn’t get the game to crash at all so far with this advice. Let me share the relevant parts:

If you are currently using mods or have used them previously, they may be what is causing this issue. It’s best to double check that all mod files are completely removed. To do so, check the '~/Documents/Larian Studios/Baldur's Gate 3/Mods' folder. Also delete or rename the modsettings.lsx file in the ‘/Baldur's Gate 3/PlayerProfiles/Public’ profile folder (it will be automatically recreated the next time the game is started).

Are you shutting down all non-essential programs before launching the game? Things like anti-virus, firewalls, overlays from graphics tweaking or monitoring programs, as well as chat programs, have all been known to cause issues.

Try lowering the graphics settings and resolution, and switch to Windowed or Fake Fullscreen display mode, to see if that will make a difference. If the monitor refresh rate is higher than 60, try setting an FPS cap in the game options for 60.

Try verifying local files: in the Steam library, right click on the game and select Properties, switch to the Local Files tab and then click on the 'Verify Integrity of Game Files...' button. Also in the Local Files tab, click the 'Browse...' button, then exit out of the Steam client and try launching the game directly from the app file in Finder. If you are using the GOG version, in the Galaxy client, select the game, then the settings icon at the top right, beside the Play button and under Manage Installation, select 'Verify / Repair'. That menu is also where you can select 'Show folder' to try starting the game from the app file.

Try browsing to the '~/Documents/Larian Studios/Baldur's Gate 3/LevelCache' folder and delete the contents. A corrupt file there can cause problems when saving or loading, though that is less likely for an intermittent issue.

Try doing a clean boot and then test the game. Start/restart your Mac and hold the Shift key down as soon as the progress bar comes up in the startup window, releasing it after the desktop appears. Alternatively, from the login window, hold the Shift key when you click the Log In button, and release it when you see the Dock.



Disable Steam cloud support either globally or for only this game. For disabling Steam Cloud globally, within the client click on the Steam menu and select Settings, and then Cloud. Or just for this game: go to your Steam library and right click BG3 and select Properties, then switch to the General tab and check the Steam Cloud section. Alternatively, exit out of the Steam client, or Galaxy for the GOG version, and just start the game directly from the executable when required.

For the GOG version, in Galaxy cloud support can also be disabled either globally by clicking on the gear icon in the top left corner and selecting Settings, and then Game Features. Or for this game: with the game selected, click the settings icon at the top right, beside the Play button. Under Manage Installation select 'Configure...' and switch to the Features section. Alternately, exit out of the client and start the game directly from the app container.

Next, try browsing to the '~/Documents/Larian Studios' folder and rename the 'Baldur's Gate 3' subfolder.
This folder contains the saved games, configuration files and a level cache folder. Deleting or renaming it will get the game to recreate it on startup; playing the game from a different OSX user account would effectively do the same thing. With Steam running and cloud support enabled, the client would just download the cloud copy of your existing profile. If this is a new install and you don't have any saves, you can just delete the folder, and it doesn't matter if cloud saves are enabled.

After that, see if you can start the game. If so, check that you can start a new game and save/load. If that works and you have any save files, exit and copy a couple from the renamed folder into the newly created profile's /Savegames/Story folder. If that helps, move the rest of the saves over.

If the game still crashes, delete the new Documents BG3 folder and extract the replacement folder from the download below into your '/Documents/Larian Studios' folder, and see if that will let you start the game.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/o03s...rlkey=4owsvlivvu6mzsz3ig5k3qfc1&dl=1

The graphicSettings.lsx file is set to 1280x720 Windowed mode, Very Low quality preset, which you can change in the options either manually, or by clicking autodetect. See if this gets the game to start.

If the game still crashes, delete the replacement BG3 folder and if you have any saves that you wish to keep, rename the original back again.

I've done this several times on tenacious and never had the explosion, so it was rather shocking.

The "Server shutting down" and related bugs seem to occur a lot more if you "hit any key to continue", or, later, the continue button, and then alt-tab out to surf for a while while the game slowly loads.

It still happens if you sit there watching the game slowly load, bored out of your gourd, instead of alt-tabbing out, but it's much less consistent and loads properly that way.


This is a pure patch 8 introduction -- An Experienced Alt-Tabber-Outer

Updated BG3 blog. Book 4: Ascension of the Mastermind, Part 4, Chapter 38. Hope you enjoy it.

It is the final book in the Baldur's Gate 3 The Afflicted fan fiction. At last, the Afflicted have arrived at Baldur's Gate, but they quickly learn that there is SO much more going on than the Cult of the Absolute. Numerous schemes, conspiracies, and intrigues quickly entangle them and threaten to enslave or destroy them. Will the Afflicted stay united? Will they survive? Will they overcome? Or will the greatest mastermind succeed and ascend to absolute godhood?

This story is free on the blog site to all who wish to read the Baldur's Gate 3 story using characters I created as the protagonists.

MAJOR SPOILERS if you plan on playing the video game. Hope you enjoy.

https://baldursgate3theafflicted.blogspot.com/2021/08/home.html

Book 4: Ascension of the Mastermind (MAJOR SPOILERS!!! It is highly recommended you play the video game first. This story is based on choices and decisions I made while playing the game as well as on what I thought the characters would do if they weren't restricted by the video game. Also, SPOILERS for the Demon Hunters story as it is the prequel to the Afflicted story. Three of the characters from Demon Hunters - Aelun, Vlynrifane, and Fiovay - are among the main characters of this story. There are other characters from Baldur's Gate 3 that are in Demon Hunters, so the two stories are closely tied together. As before, I will be releasing portions of this story as I complete them, so watch for updates regularly.

When divination wizards consume 'portent',

they should not use reaction.

portent is just portent

They have no power to change the future.

according to D&D 5e PHB