Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Suggestion for BG3

Little intro about me : As someone in my mid 30s, who played BG since as a teenager and on and off since then. Completed BG2 TOB in my late 20s.

When I think about what made the BG so unique and special to my memory, I think followings are elements what made it good. I hope they get implemented in BG3. I also added suggestions.

*/ Suggestion
In BG1, 2, I wished different characters would make different stories and different NPC reaction. For example, lawful evil character would cause different reaction from NPC. Or half-orc would cause different reaction when talking to orc NPC. As far as I remember, that barely happened or didn't happen at all. The only thing that did affect NPC reaction was charisma points which you could use it to get discount from merchant, and slightly advantage of storyline in terms of side quests (never the big quest).
And another factor that did affect NPC reaction was reputation, but it was usually just between NPC being hostiled or not and if they are hostiled, it means you killed someone in town or stole something and you are most likely to be surrounded by town guards. I think it would be wonderful to have different NPC reactions and stories based on different characters with different class and alignment. It will add more complexity and richness of the story, providing a unique experience for being different character you want to be.

*/ Element
Nothing but staff. When it is the first stage of the game, you have very little gold, and only a staff. You can barely buy anything but something like leather armor. I think this vulnerability and poor looking characters are actually makes games more exciting and challenging. The impression I got from BG3 trailer is the characters are wearing something fancy, even the leather armors. Maybe you can change the design of it to be poor looking armor especially in the beginning.

*/ Element
Identify - I think identifying the unidentified item was pretty exciting part of the BG. It is sort of blue greish colored on the background of the item until it was identified. You had to go to the temple and meet priest to identify it , or use mage who has spell to unidentify. Sometimes those items are cursed and you might equip or drink it without knowing it and that was pretty fun. I wish to see same to go on in BG3.

*/ Suggestion
I do not know if items can be seen when looting after killing monsters in BG3, but please have them to be visible. If I am about to pick up some magical sword, I would like to see them on the ground before I pick it. If it is flame sword, show the sword with the fire so that it is exciting to see before picking it up.

*/ Element
I really liked the design of platform of menu and buttons. In BG1, you have the stone looking menus with gold inscription and I really liked the vibe coming from it. The following link is the example. I hope BG3 provide multiple platforms. The wood like platfom in BG2 was pretty good as well.
https://gaminggraveyard.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/i-love-goooooold.png

*/ Element
Vague definitions and interesting story of the items. Pretty much every items in BG has story in it, usually with long giant paragraph. I used to believe one of gems (emerald?) had healing property because the story of that item mentioned it is believed to have it. It turned out it does not do anything, but I think it made me wonder a lot and got me the wishful thinking. It definitely add more excitement to the game. The only way to clearly tell is if the item says clearly something like "+1 to damage, tacos" then you know it.
If I am correct , there were items that did not clearly specify those added properties on the description, so you had to actually look at the stats of characters to see if it changes , or be in the battlefield to see its real effect. I am thinking it was the shadow cloak for example. It think it provided the characters to see better each other in the night times (infrared vision or something) and made the wearer to be stealthy although it did not describe it specifically in the description.
So I am looking forward for those items as well, items that does something but not clearly stated in the description. More assumption is much more fun than knowing everything.

that's it for now, but I will keep this updating. Thanks

As far as character interaction goes, what you are describing is pretty similar D:OS2, where companions had very specific goals and backgrounds. Sometimes you would be speaking to somebody and they would interject and start acting autonomously because that NPC was a part of their quest. Since BG3 seems very much about a band of characters who are all True Souls, as opposed to the prior games where the Bhaalspawn was the star of the show, I think you will see this, again.

In 5E you start with a selection of different equipment based on your class. I’m sure that this will also be in BG3.

I don't see an option to open a new topic, so I just put my idea here if you don't mind. The name of this topic is general enough.

What do you think about people joining our game temporarily as enemies?

I mean there could be a setting in the menu to allow "guest enemies" to request joining and for example random people from the community could join our game, however not as a companions, but they would replace the AI in a battle? So not like an arena, but like a guest during our story progression in a normal battle. Sure, some people would try to cheat and make the combat easier for themselves, but it is their loss.
There could be a rating system to avoid unserious people who could ruin the experience for the player. And there could be a timeout to avoid too slow battles.
I just had a sort of flashback that it could be fun to see a name appear in the middle of the battle next to an enemy and *boom* it is one of our fellow community members! It could spice up the battles...

What do you think? Does something similar already exist in another game?

In each forum there is a 'New Thread' button in the top left of the page, below the banner and menu, above the list of topics.

Sounds like a potential interesting feature for streaming - overall, I feel D:OS1&2 are more fun to watch someone play and play oneselves. Personally, I don't want randos in my game - I like to immerse myself in an RPG, and generally multiplayer features go against that. But as a fully optional feature (something you can turn off) I don't see a harm in that.

That said, I think PvE and PvP encounters need to be designed in different ways. There is no way an AI can emulate thinking of a real player, therefore encounters need to be to some extend asymmetrical. Enemies need to behave in semi-predictable way, and they will usualy need an advantage in power to pose a threat. If you give a life opponent control of those units I think player might end up in a real disadvantage. Some games tried it before (Total War series I think). I don't know how it turned out.

Thanks Raze, I might be half blind, I found it now.

Yes, I know it would be a lot of work to get this work and be fun, but I really like the idea to spice up the combat with such a feature. Larian will for sure know if it could be worth the effort, I can imagine that this might be a nightmare to optimize and it could break the balancing. Maybe it could be allowed only on Easy and Classic mode, not on the harder modes...
But for example they could also allow the guest enemy to impersonate the NPC boss only or similar, so that they could have enough power to have fun, but not enough to break the battle.
And an optional chat could be also fun, who knows?

It’s a pretty nice idea, and might not even be too hard to balance. Perhaps the game drops the difficulty down a notch for any fight against a human opponent.

The main potential problem I see is what the enemy player would do during all the non combat parts. Would they just watch the party player(s) as they explore the world, talk to NPCs, do some shopping, try to chat up companions, etc for an hour before they get to participate in a 5-10 minute fight?

I think they’d need to add some extra features to make this more interesting for the enemy player or they’ll get bored quickly. I’ve no idea what they could be though.

When you are making your own mods in NWN or DoS2 in GM mode you act as a storyteller and also somehow as the enemy overlord, maybe it could be feasible that way. I really hope that they will include mod-friendly options and a DM mode to allow you to make your own adventures too.

Well, I think the idea is for players to jump in for individual fight. So you que in, game finds fight for you and you jump in and jump out when it is done.

Anothing annoyance might be the host waiting for combat to start. Afterall first load in D:OS2 isn't a brief one.

Oh, right. I assumed it meant asking a friend to play the bad guys (or potentially good guys). So we’re talking about the servers matching randoms for individual fights? I guess that could work. Not sure how popular it would be?