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Joined: Jun 2019
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jun 2019
Hi guys, never posted on this forum before, but I wanted to mention one thing that I hope changes between D:OS2 and BG3.

First of all, I played and adored the original Divinity, waaaaaay back in the day. Loved every minute of it. Also played BG and BG2 and enjoyed all 500 hours xD. Both of these RPG's are legendary in my book (Divinity and BG) and I couldn't be happier Larian has taken it upon themselves to continue the story of Baldur's Gate.

I'm not going to wade into the turn-based vs real-time-with-pause discussion. Instead - there's ONE change I'm hoping you make to BG3, that ended up killing my interest prematurely in D:OS2 (also a very good game). That change is:

In D:OS2, every single battle is a stressful, white-knuckled fight to the almost-death. No matter how powerful you supposedly become, no matter if you're fighting bandits or knights of the highest order, and no matter what level your party is, literally every battle is this massive, tactical, near-death affair. I just don't have the willpower to be forced to literally balls-out battle every single time combat erupts. It also hurts the players' sense of progression, in my mind. These are the two points I will make, below:

1) In BG, you would sometimes have huge boss-battles, for sure. But along the way, sometimes you'd just fight one enemy! Or like a wolf or two. And it'd be an absolute slaughter. Sometimes just a few bandits would unwittingly jump out and ambush you... and also be slaughtered. It felt good. You could breeze through some sections, and then hit a boss and it was all-out-war. A cycle. That sort of build-up was really fun. In D:OS2, it was the exact opposite. It's like every battle had to be some sort of epic set-piece. You would trigger combat with what appeared to be a skeleton, but once that fight triggers? 7 more skeleton fighters, 3 skeleton mages with high-ground, 2 archers and a skeleton brute would pop out of nowhere to attack. No matter how good your gear was, you would have to set up multi-stage traps, surface warfare, 3-stage spells, a thief to backstab position, warriors rushing in to block, and take your archer to high-ground... JUST TO SURVIVE. Move one screen over, and out jumps 3 basilisks, 4 archers, 2 sorcerors, and 3 bandits and you have to do it all over again. It's like, I don't want to have to do that EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. Sometimes I want my crew of badasses to march into a cave or a tavern and just wreck the place. It got to the point where I was just dreading yet another massive battle. Combat should ebb and flow like in BG1 and 2. Just when you're getting bored of the lull, you hit the end boss with all his guards! D:OS2 just felt like every battle was a boss battle. Who can go balls-out for 70 hours straight?

2) In a strong RPG, and even ARPGs, there is always an ebb and flow to progression, as well. You score some killer gear... and for a short time, the game is "easy" for your group. You slice and dice your way, ahead of the game, until it catches up to you and you need even better gear to advance some more. So for a bit, it becomes a slog, where you're just barely winning for a while, until you score that sweet loot again and carve a carefree path through your enemies for another period of time. It's so rewarding, and some games really nail that. BG sure did! Just when you thought you couldn't make it any further... bam! Some awesome, named weapon drops and you're back in action, cutting swathes through the horde. Until you eventually found yourself surrounded by evil closing in again and could barely squeak out a win. And if you pulled it off? You peeled that awesome armor off their dead bodies and found yourself on top again! That cycle needs to come back, because as I mentioned, no matter what weapons and armor my group would find, I never for a moment felt like I could *finally* kick some serious ass. It was always a dredge through another drawn-out, brutal battle to the death.

I think it would be awesome if you guys adjusted that a little. I'm not talking about an easy-mode or a story-mode, or whatever. I'm talking specifically about the actual game giving you a chance to breathe and flex your muscles. After all, bosses aren't foreboding, if the mobs along the way are just as powerful.

Thanks for listening!

Joined: Jan 2011
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2011
"In D:OS2, every single battle is a stressful, white-knuckled fight to the almost-death. No matter how powerful you supposedly become, no matter if you're fighting bandits or knights of the highest order, and no matter what level your party is, literally every battle is this massive, tactical, near-death affair. I just don't have the willpower to be forced to literally balls-out battle every single time combat erupts. It also hurts the players' sense of progression, in my mind. These are the two points I will make, below:"

I don't remember this version of DOS2 and if it did exist and one didn't like that, I can't believe one was playing on the easiest levels. On top of that the Workshop had many ways to make you even stronger.


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