I'm curious if some of that sense of grind or stalling out in Act III that I always seem to experience, might be partially down to the Basilisk Gate and the Elfsong area as our initial way into the Lower City. I mean like if they'd just turned us around and had us enter the city from the other side, by the docks say, if my impression there would have been any different...
Ok so you remember how in BG2, right after you first get to the huge city, Gaelan Bayle sends a messenger to collect you and bring you to the Copper Coronet area? I think something similar should probably have occured in BG3 when we first enter the Lower City. The implementation in BG2 was pretty simple... You got deposited to a central part of the city (still a bit under the radar) meet an NPC who gets the ball rolling, and are then presented with suggestions on where to go next. Based on character class or just a couple options by city district, it provided a way for the player to get at least somewhat oriented and start building momentum to complete the main quest of raising 20 grand. BG1 also did a bit more handholding when we finally managed to enter Baldur' Gate, where the party had a taskmaster and a suggested sequence for how to route around. Not that the player had to go anywhere in particular, in any particular order, but the vibe was more "go here and do that" to get started, as opposed to "just figure it out" like where we have to piece the puzzle together by talking to everyone we meet.
My initial thought was just that the Basilisk gate seems sorta sub optimal here as a way to route across town after first arriving. I think the idea is that we'd walk into one of the very first buildings we see, but my impulse is to do the exact opposite and starting blowing past all that stuff and jogging around randomly till something jumps out at me. The Elfsong is set up to grab us sure, but I almost wish we started on the other side of the City with the basic task to just reach the Elfsong Tavern. You know to serve as a simple goal for that first bit.
Couple reasons there, first it's way more likely that the party will see the other camp location before checking into the Tavern (which otherwise they might miss completely) and also cause it works nicely as a capper after crossing town. Elfsong leads naturally into the basement/sewers where we can find hostiles and do some regular dungeon crawling stuff. We see a familiar face when we get there, are offered some ways to grab our bearings, and are given an obvious quest to follow up on. There's a lot of doubling back around in the lower city generally, to the point where it seems like it would be cool to have a taskmaster of some sort or some flashing lights to point us in a particular direction. Like maybe Jaheira could step into that role, or Wyll, or any character I suppose, but where we basically start at the Docks or perhaps the Drawbridge Waypoint, or the gate to the upper city that's closed off, rather than the Basilisk Gate. I'm not sure why but I think that Gate just doesn't do the trick somehow. Rivington is a lot of talking about and some fetch grind, all the stuff immediately around the Elfsong is pretty similar. It would be nice if there was an initial path through the city that didn't have to lean so much on investigation or puzzling around the map. With Wyll in tow there's a draw towards the docks, Volo is down there too. Heading up the hill leads to the Sundries. I feel like that might be more exciting somehow than doing the Elfsong first, since there are at least some battles along the way to break up the pace. Arriving at the Elfsong would then be more like a relaxing respite indoors after sleeping outside by the docks for a few nights, for me at least. I think we should be able to check out of that inn, as mentioned in the other thread, but this way there'd still be a chance to camp and take in some of those views, even if we remain stuck at the Elfsong afterwards for the finale.
I think a welcome option for me would be an NPC who can keep us on track. I just picture something like the Unseeing Eye quest in the Temple district, where Keldorn would really push you to keep on in the sewers. Or the Nalia type situations where you'd get a focused quest with obvious enemies. There are quests like this for the companions, but they're all sorta B&E style, like talking your way into the dungeon, finding the right hidden door or the right key, all very convo heavy, leading to set piece fights with high stakes. All the places we're meant to go are somewhat hidden or scattered like that, with a lot of 'find the clue, follow up on that clue' before we can really find a main questline to pursue. Since most of RIvington was like that, just seems like a more obvious dungeon crawl to open things up in the lower city would have been refreshing. In both instances when we're about to get into a classic crawl, we're sorta talked off it by whichever Chosen, as if we should be doing something else first. It just creates a situation where the questing feels kinda aimless and disjointed, with a lot of fits and starts. The sense of overwhelm can be countered a bit if you allow yourself to be lead around by your companions and their priorities, but something more focused on Tav/Durge would have been helpful I think.
So anyway that's my idea, instead of starting us out in the same spot each time, at the Basilisk Gate, maybe this could be a branch convo choice where we're whisked to a different waypoint and given some very clear beats to follow? Assuming that the player might be a little tired of exploring for exploration's sake at that point, again because of Rivington, that they'd be given path or dungeon to handle, especially one which is more at the lvl 10/11 scale, since a lot of those major set piece fights for the companion quests will have us wishing we were lvl 12 at the cap before diving in, but there's no way to know that beforehand.
Rats in the basement or sewer stuff, those are a quaint callbacks, sure, but it's probably one of those situations where the player could use some clear enemies to trounce. A bit less cloak and dagger with our intital quests here. I feel like that works if you want to play as a rogue or an investigative journalist, but that's not for everyone. I just get this feeling of getting dumped off at a subway station, with like 30 connecting lines, all different colors, but also like no itinerary or a map to follow. Compare that to Act II where we're more on the rails and everything that happens feels major and important, building the excitment and tension. I think the same could be done for the Big City, but our starting location is simultaneously very busy and noisy yet somehow also very quiet. It's an odd pacing paradox, but I think it could be sorted with something as straight forward as an NPC who plays guide for us and counters the decision paralysis, till we get a feel for what we're meant to do.
What do you think? Could it be that simple?
I still think the game is probably missing a long interconnected Dungeon for Act III ala Durlag's or Watchers for the anticlimax. I miss having something like that as a way to skip into the action more readily when we get a little stuck or tired of doing the discrete smaller dungeons. I don't know if modding will allow for the creation of new sprawling dungeon areas, but something like that would be cool for this section of the game too. Not that we don't have options, it's more that there are just too many potential paths right at the start so I just kinda foot drag it and then forget what I'm about lol
Last edited by Black_Elk; 19/06/24 01:19 AM.
