Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Companions should position themselves on lifts/moving platforms

I realise this probably won't be implemented in BG3, but I thought I'd write it down and maybe it gets into the next game if not.

Often when I try to use lifts with my party, only a couple of them actually step onto the platform. I have to ungroup, then select each other companion and tell them to get on as well. It's common in lots of games, but The Outer Worlds gets it right - as soon as you go to use a lift, your companion snaps into a pre-defined position. I'm not sure if it's a trick and they teleport in or if they actually walk there, but they've clearly marked where one or two companions should stand.

I'd imagine you could set three positions for BG3's companions (or more if you've got extra followers) and have them try to walk there while the player character is on the platform, then resume following when the player steps off. And/or make them teleport into place when you pull the lever, depending on the realism/gameplay balance.

It's just annoying when you have to do it manually, and it would be nice to see the engine handle it instead.

I tend to simply walk to the very back of the platform to get companions to get on (The elevator in the Grove I sometimes have to do a little jig to encourage the last person to actually get on).

Of course, most similar games (Including Larian's prior game, Divinity 2) do it better by having formation settings so it's easy to manipulate positioning of companions. A feature that BG3 for some reason completely lacks (Which also impacts other aspects of the game, like positioning when starting combat or when traps exist and you don't want companions running through them like complete morons)

I'm not sure of the reason for it not being included in BG3, but hopefully they won't omit such a fundamental feature in future titles.

I usually ungroup and move them one by one to make sure no one moves at the last moment.
I also had a case where I took my rogue up only and let the rest wait below. Then when the elevator decended again, some party members ran underneath it and got crushed to death.

It's frustrating, notable examples would be the gondola in the Mountain Pass and the moving umbral platform in the Gauntlet of Shar. I mention those because they're sorta like story moments (even if they're not actual cutscenes) which are quickly undermined if you have to go back to pickup Karlach ,or because Shadowheart fell down a chasm. Then there are other situations, like the regular elevator in the Gauntlet of Shar, or the moveable platforms in Grymforge, which aren't really moments but just sorta annoying.

I can't really figure out why they did the party movement controls the way they did, especially since there were many criticisms during EA. It's one of the longest megathreads on these boards.

Honestly the only rationale I can come up with for it being so janky is that they really couldn't find a way to make traps or area design features (like railings or whatever) actually provide a real challenge without taking control away from the player and relying on goofy companion AI to get us in the weeds. AI Pathing is somewhat improved compared to earlier patches, but no it's a situation where it's very rare for a trap to go off, or for a player to stumble into a surface or hazardous terrain. The only time it happens for me now is as a result of companion pathing antics. It's much the same when it comes to strategic chokepoints, which more often than not are being created by my own party members body blocking the path. How many bonus action are used to leap frog over companions to get through a doorway hehe. If the companion pathing wasn't there to shoot me in the foot and freeze me in place, I'd probably never get caught in the weeds at all.

Then there is that thing which often happens, where the 4th party member also has to run off and randomly face the opposite direction when changing the selected character, like magnets with reverse polarity bumping into each other. If that 4th character gets too close to the other 3 companions, they have to shoot away at the last second, but of course. Probably right as I'm trying dodge an ambush or avoid the party getting sucked into initiative, or maybe just taking a selfie, but of then 1 companion always has other ideas. They apparently want us to ungroup and everything pushes us that direction if we want to make considered moves, but it's also made pretty inconvenient and click intensive to lure us into staying chained for convenience, but then dealing with the fallout of that ill advised choice not to engage with the tedium of pre-positioning.

To put it plainly, if we had more nuanced controls nothing would ever go wrong probably, since that's the encounter design, it seems very reliant on control randomly being taken away at inopportune times as the main way to achieve tactical tension or surprise factor here. I'm not saying that's a great design, but it seems to be the design rationale, or the only one I can come up with for why it had to be done like so. This is an issue to be sure, but it's not exactly out of keeping with the BG legacy either, meaning I'm pretty sure the last time a trap actually went off on me in BG1 was probably some time in 1999 lol. Many runs were undone there by pathing snafus or ill timed click woes, in much the same way that things go haywire in BG3. The computer putting it's thumb on the scale with goofy pathing, as seemingly the only way to overcome the players meta advantage. The environmental features, the terrain and traps, all that stuff is static. It would be different if roving monsters were dropping traps or if sometimes the various crates and obstructions were moving around, but that's not the set up. The only variables are things like companions goofing into the combat with a real time blunder, or the player forgot to ungroup or hit spacebar in time to freeze frame. Or just in/out of initiative weirdness that comes from NPCs wandering along their circuits in RT while the party remains TB. Basically all those times when I actually do get tripped up, that's how it tends to happen.

Simplest formation would be a line. A cluster formation inside a set radius could probably be in any shape similar to the random rhombus, provided nobody waltzed outside that radius. I think it would be easy to set a distance for the lead, like short line vs long line. Basically that view you get in every fantasy adventure movie since the Followship of the Ring came out. Party marching single file along a mountain ridge. There's probably a place for those moments too right?



For stuff like elevators, the approach taken for the Arcane Tower in the Underdark area was pretty decent. Any of those button elevators where the party just warps never gave me probs, although the vibe is less pause and have a pseudo-cinema moment than the moving platformy lifts, functionally though, at least those always works and nobody falls off or gets left behind.

I haven't seen any mods on Nexus that offer really anything in terms of formation or how intra-party space is handled. A lot of the tactical challenge in any given area comes down to combination of incomplete information about where the character will actually end up if we confirm a movement click, not being able to see where the lines of sites from the new position will land us, not having clear information about how much space is actually being taken up by random objects or party members or NPCs. Though if it was any more exact (say no body blocks from friendlies) how often would that just flatten most areas and no one would ever really find themselves out of position or without a sightline or realizing they just wasted a turn on a no-backsies movement. Weapon attacks can be similar, not to take it back to the Nautiloid, but like how many times does the firebolt have to miss that one illithid kaboom barrel to open the fight on the bridge? It's that shaking confirmation click at the last second that undoes half those encounters right. I just remember that first Elevator with US in Early Access, where they'd constantly be getting stuck on the literal first elevator in the game, or failing to clear the first gap hehe. I mean I know it can be worse I guess.

Also honourable mention, the Matriarch's lair beneath the Blighted Village. There is a path leading off the spiderweb platform on the one side that will just drop a character straight off the cliff. It's like a 9 meter drop for sure. The character will show a path line as if there were meant to be a rope ladder or some vines, but instead it's just a death drop if the player were to say accidentally click the wrong ground plane, or if a companions decides that somehow it's a shorter distance to fall to their death before firing off that firebolt to hit the other spiderweb bridge. It's happen more than a couple times hehe