Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback "Don't make me think" - a general request

I'm a software engineer in my daytime job, I don't directly work with UI (because I'm a backend / technical solution design / software architect guy), but I found the following book very helpful - and, honestly, BG3 seems to need a lot of this in it's current state of being extremely contrieved and overengineered when it comes to "artificially limiting game mechanics":

https://www.amazon.de/Dont-make-think-Web-Usability/dp/3826608909

I can't count the number of times I wanted to shout during my 30-40 hours so far: "JUST DON'T MAKE ME THINK".

This is not meant with regards to the game content - the game content is REALLY good, but the way the player interacts with the game is... well... currently more like an "80s game with the complexity options offered by modern hardware" (read: more of terrible UI / metagaming decisions doesn't make a better game) than a smooth experience.

Quests, etc... should be complex, interesting, hard to solve, thats all fine.

But having player jump through 1000 hoops ("long rests") and an inconsistent UI is not a great idea.

Your title made me go 'huh? does he want things dumped down?' but reading your post I have to agree with you.

I think thats one of the major points that Larian needs our input for. When you create something yourself its sometimes hard to see if it isent working in a convulted way or not.

Could you provide an example of something in the game you think runs counter to the advice in that book? Your post complains both about bad UI (granted) and about quest design without any specifics.

Sorry it took a while, we're here testing the game in multiplayer concurrently for the first time.

I specifically said that I like the quests so far (I got to with my other profile), but I have grievances with the UI design and semantics, as well as with some game mechanics.

Besides the, in my opinion, really hard to use character creation, I also, for example, feel like the spell selection is really hard to use and lots of stuff feels "hidden".

D:OS2 had it's own problems, but it was much more "in your face" and "direct" when it came to usability. Here in this game I often feel really lost in the UI.

And when it comes to game mechanics: the "resting" thing is really breaking the flow for me. I think a hero can do much more than 1 fight per day before having to rest, except when he's already > 70 years old and drunk all the time.

"Smoothness over complexity" should be the main focus for the next sprint.

Yes, feeling lost in the UI is how I am right now. There are many things I simply don't understand, and I can't hover over them to learn more. Like I don't know what the difference is in a light weapon and a finesse weapon. but i can't hover over these traits because it disappears when i try to. if this game could implement the help-box system that Crusader Kings 3 introduced, I think it would help a LOT with me learning the systems.

I understand form other non-DnD 5e people this game has no explanation of mechanics and it really needs to. I'm sure they will add that in as they iterate.

FYI,

Finesse is a weapon that can use your Dex modifier instead of your Str modifier if you so choose. Finesse weapons are useful for people who have high dex.

Light weapons means you can use them for dual wielding.

Just to be sure: do you realize this is based on the ruleset of a pen & paper roleplaying game and therefore the primary focus is to be as faithful to those rules as possible?

Yes, but make the UI and the game semantics / mechanics accessible.

I'm still a little confused because I don't understand what's confusing about the things you've mentioned.

Character creation felt, to me, extremely straight forward. The only thing I think I'd change is moving the background selection to the end to more closely match how the PHB suggests you build your character, and maybe move the name selection to the end as well, since that's where it tends to be on most character creators in my experience.

Spell selection, I'm super confused on what you mean specifically, because no part of spells seemed confusing to me. Definitely would like more elaboration on that. There was definitely one issue I had with spells, but I certainly wouldn't describe that issue as confusing.


I 100% agree that those things should have tooltips to let players know what they do, but as other people have mentioned, this game is taking rules straight out of D&D 5e, so you can find that information out on the internet.

Again, I do not disagree with your point at all, those tooltips should be there. Just wanted to say that the information is currently somewhere.

Nobody's gonna make a video game that requires sitting down and reading the PHB a prerequisite to playing it. Try to look at it from the perspective of somebody who has never played D&D before. For them I imagine the game's mechanics and terminology are pretty impenetrable.

Personally I was shocked there's no hover text describing what different weapon properties do. I don't know how they're prioritizing ease-of-use, but maybe it will have more urgency given how wildly (and unexpectedly) popular the EA has been.