Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Technical & Gameplay Problems Slave trader Coal & Miconiids

PC (GOG) - Hotfix #30, system spec is in my signature - I am not using GOG Galaxy to launch the game, nor am I using the Larian launcher, I just launch the game using BG3.exe. - No mods in use.

A few problems with Slave Trader Coal, Miconiids and a little girls boots

I Offered to help Slave Trader Coal first, then went to find the Miconiids.
Then befriended the Miconids and talked with the Sovereign .. and agreed to help. At this point I also talked with the Girl and also offered to help, at which point she gives me the boots which Slave Trader Coal is after.

1. First problem, on going back to Slave Trader Coal, it seems his dialogue does not update to acknowledge you have the boots. Its all the same choices again including offering to help get the boots. I then proceeded to kill all of the Slave Trader group ..

2. After killing the Slave Trader group, I went back to the Sovereign Miconiid, and he basicly says help yourself to anything (forgot the exact words) .. But fungal barrels are still coming up Red, and indeed stealing is still a bad thing to do as the Miconiids turn aggressive .. So what exactly can we help ourselves to?

I still managed to achieve what I wanted to, and got on the boat, but its just the above two issues which dont seem to make sense

The stuff you can help yourself to is in a little grotto that was previously blocked by plantlife. It's just behind Derreth & Baelen's ox in the Myconid Village.

I'm afraid I've never even tried to help the slavers get the boots back, so can't comment on that bit, but it does sound like you've found a bug. EDIT: Unless you spoke to Gekh with a different character the second time around, which would be easy to do especially if the first dialogue with him autotriggered - as I think it might - and caught someone other than your main character? The game doesn't handle that situation well, and the new character usually just gets the whole conversation again, with no acknowledgement they were right there the last time. Did you try just giving the same responses as the first time and then talking to again with the same character? It's possible that could move things along.

I must have missed it, didn't spend too much time looking around there before going back to the Slavers.

Your edit suggestions sounds like a possibility, I did try giving the same responses but nothing positive came of that, regardless even if it did give a positive result though anyone having to do that means its still a bug.

Fingers crossed Larian do pop in to this forum and take notes of what needs to be looked at.

which character talked to the slave traider the first time?
the 2nd time it will auto select the main character unless that person is too far away to join the talk... i know you have now moved on but that is how you can work around this

and yes The_Red_Queen is correct that this new patch 9 change causes more bugs than it fixes

as a side issue, running the game from BG3.exe instead of letting Galaxy fire up the Larian launcher makes the game more unstable... at the very least you should set the exe to run as admin by default when it fires [that will help]

I am not sure now, I normally lead the party around with Tav taking the lead, and pretty sure the first dialogue with Gekh was with Tav (although if an auto dialogue can grab any party member then this itself gives me doubt, and I dont remember distinctly who engaged with Gekh).

Surprised to find out just running the exe can be more problematic, logically I would have thought running GOG Galaxy itself, and then through that launching the Larian Launcher, which in turn launches the game exe, would be adding more scope for problems rather than less.

I run the game just by the exe because the individual chained launchers dont offer anything I want, and just present more things to turn off (overlays etcetera), form communications with the internet I dont need (for market research and advertising more games / friends / chat / multiplayer features) = rubbish I dont want.

I do already run the game exe as administrator, and I also disabled full screen optimisations which Microsoft periodically mess up with tweaks
( Read more about full screen optimisations here https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/demystifying-full-screen-optimizations/ )



Plus I think some of us should be testing the game as it is launched just from the exe. Personally I cant attribute any bugs I have found so far to have this method of launching the game to be the root cause.
Can you name symptoms / issues to watch out for that can be pointed out to Larian?

Galaxy fires the larian launcher which in turn loads the game exe

Galaxy tracks your time in game, your screenshots, and your network so thats F12 to place a screenshot in folder X, 100 hours played and the fact that two of your pals are currently online if you want to multiplay

The larian launcher is in charge of running video & feedback scripts so if your system doesn't have the current Gpu driver that info is stored and in the game locks up it can send [with your permission] a error report back to Larian witch is far more helpful than most of the bug reports they actually get in this forum from people just saying this or that is busted... Tracking info still needs to be read by someone that understands code but its a clue

every single time you update the game the 'run as admin' needs to be reset... I personally do this at the Larian launcher and the main thing that goes wrong without that launcher running is the in game vids lock up

p.s, reports posted here are still helpful [mostly to other players] please say you run the game without this or that and if mods are included... if the 1st trader talk was a vid lock up then it could be because of the launcher but imo its much more likely a script error as patch 9 is riddled with these

Hmm!, an exercise in keeping up with avoidance of answering the question ..


My bold above .. plus


Your response ..


Ehm, yes, I know this already


I have never had the in game vid lock-up, and I do check after every game update that my preference for elevated privileges (Administration), plus disabling full screen optimisations are still set.

And posts here being helpful to other players is a standard thing for forums ..

I already stated that in the first post (first sentence).

.. But you still do not explain anything to do with just running the game via the BG3.exe making the game unstable .. Do you have a link to any previous conversations which back this claim up?. I am new to this forum and would appreciate the info if other people have already discussed and imperically proven that is the case.

1st, Im just trying to point out the catch 22 of saying you want to help Larian but don't use their reporting system

Errors aside the stats for how many people pick female, play an elf, help the druids instead of the Goblins and who kills the paladins for Karlach etc are collected by the game and its the larian launcher that sends it all home so by not running the launcher you block that data this EA is trying to learn

2nd links to results = no its my findings based on my own testing and data collected that tells me running without the launcher is less stable than using the game as designed

The 3 options are Stadia, Gog and Steam with Steam being possible but hard and Stadia is a closed system so the number of Gog players not using their launcher is a small %... I'm willing to believe Larian has some people testing with out launchers but its catch 22 above their data is limited

In my own case i tested each class, race, patch and hotfix I play evil and good and i go out of my way to try the odd choices, when i encounter a bug i take screenshots / vids witch i post along with any work arounds or steps needed to reproduce the bugs

I also keep records of when these bugs get fixed and if others encounter them or if running Galaxy, Mac, the launcher or off line builds makes any difference and of course mods

Ok, thank you for your replies.

Where I can reliably reproduce bugs I will be submitting all relevant data via Larians Support site, I just found out yesterday they have a form to fill out and submit (including the usual DXDiag, any logs, screenshots, game saves and anything else relevant to the case). I understand the game does communicate player behaviour in the game to Larian so that they can get a better idea of scenario's where things may be going wrong, and that the Larian Launcher is required to be running to relay this information to them .. But I never intend to use the launcher so would rather keep my reports to the traditional methods and be as detailled as I can possibly make them.

In the absense of any hints of how the game will become unstable from the practice of just running the BG3.exe, and no clue as to how this instability will manifest, I will continue running the game this way, but I do take your advice onboard as something to be aware of.