Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General So... what is Sven's big upcoming surprise ?

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Larian reveals the BG3 world creator. We can now make our own adventures and NPCs so Larian doesn't have too.
BG3 compatible with VR sets.
The TRIP mechanic. After shoving them, trip them into a new shove like effect.

I don't really understand why something they "can't wait to reveal" would be plot related. A plot is like that by definition - secret and has to remain so. A teaser about secret plot twists doesn't make sense since they are expected anyway. Also, the vast majority of players aren't so well versed in FR lore that they would even get it or care. Like if it turns out that....


...or something major and cool like that for FR fans.

1varangian, something I've kind of realized about a lot of fantasy creators, a realization spurred on by being a fan of Brandon Sanderson to be specific, is that they are often just as nerdy as their fans are. I have no doubt there's plenty of story stuff that he is suuuuuper excited to talk to fans about and see their reactions for. Plus another thing worth bringing up is that Sven didn't actually say that it's a thing he's going personally reveal when the game comes out.

But the thing Vincke is most excited about for the full 1.0 release is still a big secret. "I got a thing, and I can't talk about it. So I've been sitting on this thing for years already, so I'm going to be so happy when that thing is going to be out there," he says, grinning. "I just hope people are going to like it because I think it's really cool. Since day one - since day one - I saw people say something, and I said 'Oh my God. I wish I could tell them...'"

He's just excited for people to see it when the game launches. Which I think is a very important distinction to something he wants to reveal.

What is Sven generally excited about ? What does he generally find cool ? We might have a hint there.

I don't remember Sven being excited by former BG lore or FR setting.

But rather about fun or spectacular mechanics (like shove or flying)... or about celebrities involved ? (JK Simmons, Matt Mercer...)
Because of these words : "I just hope people are going to like it because I think it's really cool. Since day one - since day one - I saw people say something", I do not think it is about other celebrities.

So what about things like mounted fight or just mounts to move on the map ? (horse and flying creatures) and/or a fight in Avernus between hell bikes ?

Do you remember other things Sven was really excited to talk about in the previous interviews ?

Mounts definitely are not happening. The maps are specifically designed to be traversed on foot. If they were adding mounts then the maps would be larger and more spread out.

Yeah, I love the idea of mounted combat in D&D crpgs like BG etc, but BG III clearly isn't built with the intention of that being a feature. The more I think about it, honestly I wouldn't be surprised if there was more celebrities &/or Fanservice though. Mercer's involvement + wouldn't surprise me if that CritRole connection gets further pushed. Aside from that I could see more party members/cameos from the first two BG games. Minsc and Jaheria were a big hype-building reveal, so something of that magnitude being held back is a good yardstick to gauge our expectations if it's a character reveal. Since Jaheria and Minsc are heroes, perhaps one or more evil returning characters? Viconia and Edwin would be the obvious inclusions if that was the case.

Moving beyond that, what would generate more hype? IDK. Only Drizzt has the mainstream D&D appeal, but obviously Drizzt himself can't be a companion. Maybe RAS is involve in the writing of the plot somehow...? it could be a possibility, although from what I understand he's been busy dropping a book a year for some time now, so I don't know how much he could feasibly be involved. Still, we have a Baenre drow in-game, and some of the stuff in-game seems to indicate Larian at least got an early draft/memo/heads-up in regards to the upcoming drow retcons/developments that hadn't been revealed yet. So something regarding drizzt/drow/RAS could be possible.

So in summary, if it is story-related, I can see it going down several ways:

1) more celebrity voice actors. Don't know if there are many more out there super associated with D&D though.
2) something CritRole related. build on the hype they gathered by recruiting Mercer.
3) returning BG characters. Seems likely to me some way or another, even if it isn't the specific thing Sven is excited about, no way only Minsc and Jaheria are the only returning cast members.
4) something ras/drizzt related? RAS has collaborated on and written for video games before, and BG I + II had Drizzt cameos. Some aspects of BG III seem to have been written with the drow changes in mind.

Could be other possibilities I'm not accounting for-it is Larian after all, everything is fair game

Day and night cycle. That's what he's referreing to. 100%.
No way it's not about it.

yeah, pages and pages of discussion about how it's nighttime.

Love the positivity lol.

Meanwhile Sven: *EXPLOSIONS AND MEMES!!!*

Menzoberranzan is not the only Drow city. Similarly, it also not the only Drow city that worships Lolth. Menzo is just the one most dealt with in the books before of RA Salvatore and Drizzt.

The actual largest Drow city that worships Lolth is located under Thay and is about 4 to 5 times larger than Menzo.

Meanwhile Sven: " Barrelmancer class is now in the game " ^^

Can't believe it took us 4 pages to uncover the truth.

Or guns.
Guns everywhere.
Mini guns, machine guns etc.

(I suspect artificer will be the next actual barrelmancer)

Oh I'm aware. At least in the past that was the case. Hell Menzo was a third-generation Drow city and not all that large by their standards IIRC my drow lore correctly (I thought the one underneath Calimshan was the biggest, but I wasn't keeping track), but all that got retconned. The new lore recontextualizes everything to the point that drow cities outside Menzoberranzan are of doubtful canonicity. Like the 'udadrow' (what they are calling lolth-following drow as we knew them previously) are defined as a cult that she hoodwinked into sequestering themselves in the underdark so she could control them. That is Menzoberranzan under the new lore. Just one city-state. Now maybe WoTC will re-canonize the other cities. But right now Udadrow(or Lolthsworn drow as they call them in BGIII) means from Menzoberranzan.

Maybe more in depth backgrounds (there is only one atm and you don't chose it).

Fully voiced custom character.

Day night cycle.

More in depth conversations which include companions.

Could be something predictable like dragonborn...yep

Edit2* still crossing my fingers for gensai

I think the secret is that Boo has been the big bad in BG1 and BG2 and in BG3 he gets his alpha form (a giant giant mini space hamster).
Just ask yourself who has been controlling the lump of muscle all this time.

IIRC fully voiced main characters were a thing in the early datamines, but afaik the idea was dropped. Never say never though I guess?

Hehe. Yup. These are what qualify as "awesome" in the game for Swen.

If the main character was silent I would be exstatically overjoyed.

There's still quite a few that WotC is talking about. Guallidurth, the city under the Calim desert, isn't much bigger than Menzo in 5E time frame (only about 50% larger), but was much larger than Menzo in the past. But both still pale in comparison to the city that is under Thay (can't find the name of it) which at it's height was well over 100k Drow and about 500k slaves (Menzo at it's largest was around 20k Drow and 60k to 70k slaves and Guallidurth was around 80k, not sure if that's combined or just drow).

And the other two "Drow" groups I really wouldn't consider Drow as the one is the Starlight Elves (northern group) and I can't remember what the southern one is, but the southern one is closer to that of Green/Wild Elves (which the Drow were originally Green Elves) and are more like Wood Elves in mentality. The Lolthsword Drow are by far the largest group that remains of the "Green" Elves.