Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General What was purpose of Early Acess?

I know you didnt ask me ...
But you know me and therefore should expect me to answer. :P

Few things ...

First and foremost, every and each topic (at very least in megathreats section) would be clearly marked as either "aprooved", "concidering" or "denied" by Larian ... so people know clearly if there is any point in investing more time to testing and feedback that thing.
Also, any topic that Larian would find worthy of their attention would be moved there, even if it would be smaller in numbers (Like Elves are not Elven, or Niara's deep dive to Halflings) and they would receive same treatment.

Second, there would be regular community update, or dev. diary ... at very least once per 3 months, perfferably 2, or even 1 if there would be enough time.

Third, system and mechanics used in game during EA would be system and mechanics used for final release ... no last minute overhaul changes.

And finaly, there would be locked topic with FAQ, on the very top of forum, where roadmap would be represented and every major change of plan would be written, so people have as clear idea of final product as possible.

That would be my ideal world.

the answer is simple, it was staring at you in the face the entire time.

Money?

I must have missed something big. What exactly happened to cause a thread like this? I thought most people were happy with things other than shove still being a bonus action.

I've been out of the loop on what further changes have been made. I'm seeing something about very sudden racial changes?

Some major changes to the rules were announced for the full release of the game that deviate a bit further from D&D 5e than some folks would like. I don't like all of them either, and a couple I don't really understand why. But at the end of the day I won't let that affect my enjoyment of them, BG3 will still be an incredibly amazing game imo.

Yes, races now get floating +2/+1 stats, which makes hal elves, mountain dwarves and humans worse than before. And the ability requirements for multiclassing isn't there anymore, among other things. But the floating stats are the biggest discussion topic right now.

Humans are stronger all around

Half elves are situationally stronger

Hot takes right there lol. Nah, humans and half elves are really bad right now, worse than before, but it seems Larian are still balancing the races so I wouldn't worry too much about it...if not by launch then post launch those races will probably receive some extra boons to compensate for the lost stat points.

Nope, the are clearly not and it was discussed in a lot of other Threads, so don't make this one another one.

You just said the floating asi's are the biggest disucasion right now, and its relevant to the op. Also when you make a value judgment on the change it invites discussion.

A +2 in main stat is better than 3 +1s in dump stats

Again, this is your personal opinion, that you present as facts. If you follow the discussions, you see, that many people are not happy with the changes and I only expressed that. I have no stakes anyway, since my preferred races are not changed.

I'll echo what fylimar said above: we already have topic(s) on the new approach to ability score bonuses, so let's not get into that here.

There is also - possibly - an issues with warlock Pact boons being very restrictive in your choices BUT we are not 100% sure because we can't get confirmation.

example: pact of the tome chooses your cantrips for you.

We really need to wait until the game comes out to know for sure.

I have not heard anything about that. Could you say more about those speculations?
I do not really care about tome, more of a chain person myself - but that is a bit relevant.

Apropos Warlock, I heard some stuff about more contact with Patrons - does anyone know how much we can influence what kind of Patron we want?
I. e. We pick the Archfey Pact and can chose a Seelie or Unseelie Patron?

Also, I hope the Sprite Familiar will be in the game.

Certainly not words i would use ...

Some major changes were found by comunity in materials that were used in last PFH ...
Thats better.

Since there was no anouncement ... not even a coment on Larian side ... so we basicaly have no idea.
Was that some global change?
Was that testing some different approach?
Was that alternative build?
Was that something entirely different?
Nobody knows.

And that is part of the problem.

Yes, Saito Hikari ...
People certainly were somehow happy with how things are ... problem is, that this materials we have seen strongly suggests that many things will be, well lets just say not as they are.
And more and more changes appear every day ...

As i state in OP ...
It started with ASI bonuses rework, then we hear about Pack of Blade changes, then i learned that crossbows will provide Extra Attack without any feat, and so on and so on ...

This isnt topic about each respective changes being good or bad ...

What furstrate me is that there is SO MANY (we dont know what else was changed and not found yet) changes on last minute witout even a single word ... so even after two years spend in system we helped shape and get to this mostly acceptable form ... we have basicaly no idea how the final product will work.

//Edit:
No ...
But you can read about it in its own topic:
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=865164&page=1

Lore Bard is the source of that fear for me. In EA you get stuck with Arcana, Intimidation, and Sleight of Hand, rather than picking whatever you want.

Agreed that having the other 2 pact of the chain familiars. Hopefully buffed though so that imp isnt the only viable option.

Thanks for the link, will read it later. =)


I actually think that the EA period has drastically changed the game. I. e. Sven himself said that there was no plans for non-origin companions!
But I think they took all the feedback about a topic, turned it into a statement and then looked for a compromise between that statement and their creative vision. Those who monitored the feedback had to weight it against what the creatives at Larian deemed to be the fun way.

The result is different from even the loudest feedback, which can make it unrecognizable to those who gave the feedback in the first place.
Though I think weekly Dev Diaries like those from Paradox Interactive would really lessen those feeling, since they explain their reasoning behind certain decisions.

The early access itself was an unmitigated success, I can think of very few things that changed during the actual playable EA that weren't changed for the better. The recent problems are from things that were NOT in the EA and have been implemented at the last second, many of which have alot of people (myself included) up in arms about it because we don't like them, they were never publicly tested and so far it seems like we will have no options to go back to how things were (outside of mods).

Out of Paradox projects ... i have followed only Bloodlines 2.

And i use basicaly everything about it as prime examples of how its NOT supposed to looklike. :-/

Exactly.

I have to say, I really wish this post could have been made on the first or second page of this thread.

Although I don't personally feel slighted by EA (even if I don't agree with every change), I feel like this post communicates the OP's desires very clearly and felt the need to applaud this explanation.