Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Baldur's Gate 3's... "Comfort Zone"? I'll explain.

Hello gamers.

I'll keep this simple and straightforward...

In RPGs, at least most of them, or at least the ones I know of, they have what I call the "Comfort Zones". Let me give some examples and if you happen to not know of these examples, I'll explain what I mean further below. Please bear with me...

Balamb Garden in Final Fantasy 8, Battle Tower in Divinity 2 (DKS), Houses in Skyrim, Your chosen turf with your teleport stones in Divine Divinity (and probably a house too, and I know for a fact Divine Divinity has housing available), Every main city in practically any MMORPG, Pretty towns in Legend of Legaia as soon as you acquire the Door of Wind, Your spaceship in Mass Effect: Andromeda, The encampment in Dragon Age: Origins, and many more...

The trend, if you don't see it yet from the examples, is this... In an RPG, there has to be some kind of access to a place we can call home. How this place looks like, feels like, and functions is up to the creators of the game, but we have to agree with the basic premise that any good RPG has a "Comfort Zone", a home, a place to AFK on. Sometimes you get access to it early, or sometimes, like in Divinity 2: DKS, you gotta fight like a devil to get it. But no matter what, it has to be there.

Will Baldur's Gate 3 have the same thing? Because my God, Dragon Age: Origins, which is basically 3D BG2, has a terrible one. You live in an encampment that, as you progress in the story, gets attacked by the ugliest abominations after your friend and your character have a nightmare...

I think what we're getting is much like in DA Origins: a camp. And I don't mind at all, it's fine. It's all up to what the devs manage to do with it.

Although being able to rent a room for the night at the local tavern would be sweet. I dunno if we're gonna be able to do that.

I'm not sure I'd like a more permanent residence, if the story of the game is more like a big adventure where you travel around from here to there. I want whatever suits the story and atmosphere of the game best.

In Pillars 2 Deadfire we have a ship, in Mass Effect we have a spaceship. In Dragon Age 2 you sleep on the floor in your uncles house, then you get your family mansion back. But DA 2 is special because the entire game takes place in and around the city of Kirkwall, which I actually at the time found rather neat and refreshing (where most other RPG's are about traveling & exploring the land/world/galaxy, and then saving the land/world/galaxy). So in DA 2 I think a permanent residence made a ton of sense. Whatever works best within the particular game / setting / story.

It depends - not all stories make sense to give you a safe haven. DOS and DOS2 (Lady Vengeance) both give you a haven, but Beyond Divinity does not, which makes sense, as your goal is to escape the dangerous, demon-infested dimension you're currently in. You don't reach a place that even feels safe until Beyond Divinity's last act.

BG2 called this a Stronghold, it was a very well like feature in that game and which you would get was dependent on your class. We know from the demo we will have a camp, but I'm going to guess that this will eventually turn into a nautiloid once the story gets going. I hope they somehow vary it based on your character/party, and add upgrades to it (please no PoE:2 style ship combat though)

Did you played BG2? Seems that you never played since for you DA:O is 3d BG2 when BG2 is way better in any aspect. BG2 doesn't have cooldowns and bullet sponge enemies which are the two main problems from DA:O.

There are a LOT of strongholds depending on your class https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Stronghold

If you are a BArd, you gain a Theater, arcane caster gain a mysterious sphere and they hand crafted quest for each PC class in a way that is hard to do the quest to get the stronghold.

Whenever an RPG should have a home depends on an RPG, and overall adventure it presents. I usually find, that keeps, as I usually call it work best if they are integral to the story and gameplay or world structure. The usual one is a ship - be it a space ship in Outer Worlds or KOTORs, or on sea ship in D:OS2 or Deadfire. I dislike keeps, which are added to the game, with little connection to our role in the world - if Players job is to explore the world and doesn't have reason to return to the keep, outside keep stuff, then it feels tacked on (Pillars1).

Baldur's Gate had such keeps. BG2 gave PC a keep depending on their class, and Throne of Bhaal had a pocket plane, to which we could return at any time. While BG2 has many traits of a keep I usually dislike, so much of it happens in Athkatla anyway, that having a "home" feels alright. Keep is one of those things people remember from BG2 - it was one of the few instances when game recognised player character by what they were, and not just a Bhaalspawn - so it would make sense to have something similar in BG3 - give player a place once they reach BG3.

One thing I miss from old good BG days, is having to commit to companions. So many RPGs allow players to hord companions like Pokemons. I was impressed that D:OS2 doesn't do that. Hopefully BG3 won't either.

I prefer to have a caravan, or a camp that you can customize and hire people to work for you there, or even a ship (or a space ship-spelljammer) like wormerine said than a big keep you have to go back to. I prefer the exploration and wandering the world.

In games like POE and P:K its cool at first to have your big, upgradeable keep and go back to your fortress to see what´s new, but later it becomes a chore to travel to the keep and then go back to adventuring.

If you goes to Arvenus on BG3, having a customizable vehicle would be awesome.

Isn't that on one of the lower planes? That doesn't seem very likely with a level cap of 10.

In the gameplay they are fighting (and beating) 3 intellect devourers at level 1 so there´s hope.