Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Important Effects Feedback

Great game, cinematics are interesting (although am concerned that the Significant focus on character cinematics has, also, significantly lowered the "interaction" level within dialogue - in short, concerned that lengthy and extremely involved dialogue may be... "skipped" by the developers simply because there is either a lack of time to do that much cinematic or lack of interest because of how much there is to do), game is clearly evolved and a next generation RPG. That being said, as perhaps indicated by the parenthesis above, there are Serious concerns regarding "enjoyability" and "flow"/immersion. One of the most Severe and Immersion Breaking (and, almost certainly, one of the most difficult to defeat) is the developer Addiction to spell and spell-like effects. Somewhere, some senior developer made the awful unedited comment of "The player needs to see that something is happening when he/she clicks a button." and the developers/artists just went absolutely apesh*t, adding MASSIVE effects to EVERYTHING a character does, no matter how innocuous. And you need to understand how Severe and crippling a Problem this is, take Note and start taking real steps to Stop it NOW. Not that many of the developers/administrators are old enough to remember, but one of the most Widely downloaded and applied mods for Neverwinter Nights was a "lower FX" mod and the same was true for Neverwinter Nights 2 - it was damn near UNIVERSAL for players having played through either game to go back and play through it but "without all the godd*mn spam" (not to be rude). In this game, some kid (let's call him "Bobby") is sitting in the corner, a young, fresh out of something developer and, everytime someone says, "Ok... let's make it so the character can... jump (or shoot an arrow) (or throw a fire bomb) (or run faster) (or... whatever), Bobby thinks to himself, "Ooh... yeah! Yeah, yeah, YEAH! And we can make it BIGGER and, and.... BOOM! And, and BIG and Glowey and and... Oh, Yeah! Effects! Man, I'll make 'em see...!" so... when a player clicks on "dash", WONDERFUL MAGICAL SPECIAL DISNEY WE'RE ALADDIN EFFECTS go off. Or shoots an arrow at some one and BOOM! ZOWIE! WOW! I'M BOBBY! effects go off when it hits.
Just a normal...

arrow.

Jump...? BOOM! Dust, forces, effect, pressure wave, WOW!

Need to Tone it down. Not "a little" but Ninety damn percent. Not everyone - not even the majority - of players playing this game are 12 and you guys need to get Bobby under control (and do it fast). The effect (no pun intended) is more profound than you might, at first realize. It significantly increases player fatigue when every single click or action is The Most Important Thing EVER!, immersion and flow of battle is (deeply) compromised and those spells and effects that Are High level/"Important" get lost in the spam of "Bowie, Wowie, Zam!" constance. Last night, encountered a goblin boss. He "released" (for lack of a better term) an aura (leadership, I believe) and it looked like Freakin' CHERNOBYL! EFFECTS and GLOWS and W A V E S and MENACE and...

pure spam.

You guys are letting Bobby turn this into Pokemon and you need to Stop. There is No reason for Any "effect" on dash, whatsoever - none. No reason for any "impact powie wowie" on a common arrow hitting a target. And, also, godwilling that somebody, Anybody in even the remotest position of authority is listening, the square dance party hoedown Everytime you cast a heal or guidance or Any spell on another party character needs to Stop. Everytime, ALL three of the characters Not selected run around in a circle, for no damn reason, when you click to cast a character target spell.

Anyways, thanks for listening, ignore Any trolls that, like Bobby and effects, spam this post and good game.

You find the visual effects annoying and tiresome and asks for them to be tuned down. And at the same time you managed to insult the developers by insinuating them to be too young to have knowledge about a game released 18 years ago. When BG2 was released two years prior to that.

There. I shortened it down for you. You're welcome. And don't worry, my name is not bobby, I don't intend to troll and I'm 35 years old, not 12.

No one has "insulted" anybody, Kevin, except YOU and you are a Classic Internet TROLL, attempting to steal attention off the work and effort of others. Not a Single aspect of the OP was addressed, the TROLL simply seeks attention by attempting "cleverness" and "good boy" points by attempting "protection" where none is warranted. Classic internet cop "forum moderator wannabee". By this TROLL'S "math", NONE of these developers are even Remotely likely to have played even Neverwinter Nights 2 as, having come out in 2006 (and significantly less than Half as popular as NWN1, which sold 2.6 million copies), it is Fourteen years old which means that, given that the average age of game developers is, let's say... twenty five (to be Generous), they were ELEVEN YEARS OLD when it came out. Not... 12 (like "Bobby"), not 14 (like Kevin here) but ELEVEN. And, since that release (not to mention the release of BG1, BG2 and NWN), THOUSANDS of RPG's have been released that they are Far more likely to have played. In other words, Kevin here is trying to start a fight where there is none and is, now, REPORTED for post/forum harassment.
There goes the future "Moderator of the Year" award...

Let's reel in the attitudes by about 100%, please? I don't see where the relevance of age comes in, and I'm sure Bioware had staff across all ages when they developed NWN1 as well.

You'll find yourself being taken a lot more seriously by expressing your thoughts in a calm, organised and level-headed manner.

Let's try that onwards.

And now you do your best to insult me.

And sure, my comment may have been a bit bumptious. That was unnecessary of me. But your input was a huge wall of text when a couple of lines, in a polite manner, could have forwarded the same request you're making.
Accusing the developers of being too young and inexperienced to understand, in your opinion, good visual game design is not really helping your request either.

Larian Studios was founded 1996 by Swen. And, I can only estimate his age to be around 45ish. And having a quick look over their staff you can see that there is definitely some young newly recruited talents. But there are several senior staff members too. And game developers are usually very passionate about their work. Gaming is their life. So even those just in their early twenties have probably both played older games and studied them.

And my name is not Kevin either. It's Chris, short for Christian. And I'm still 35, not 14. And god forbid anyone would give me the "Moderator of the year" award. I would totally suck at being a moderator, eventually completely lose it and tell the whole community to go and....do a lot of stuff not suitable to mention here....
But thanks for the report Have a good day! (Yeah, now I went bumptious again, bad habit)

I made simple metaphor (for the Clear purpose of illustration), there was Nothing, whatsoever, disrespectful in it in Any way, shape and/or form, not a Single Reasonable human adult on the planet could even Remotely construe Any personal criticism of a developer whatsoever and this TROLL came in, looking for a fight.
Simple
as
that.

I have NO interest in "You'll find yourself being taken a lot more seriously" by trolls nor do I by moderators that did not read the initial post but are, instead, reacting to a specifically engineered conflict by an individual with severe attention seeking behavior issues. I am, Constructively, taking part in the requested "Alpha Feedback Process" and, be Very clear about this, the Forum Experience/"moderation" is ALSO part of the game. If the game is, let's say, satisfactory but the Forum is filled with trolls and "moderators" that both allow and facilitate those attempts to foment conflict, then the review is OVERWHELMINGLY Negative and will be posted, as such, on Steam, YouTube, Google and various PC/Video game mag websites. hundreds of times. In short, when I am posting Constructive and, possibly, Important game critique that may, very well, have significant impact (through the reflection of many other reviewers) on the potential income created by a company (and which, in Fact, the Entire company financial viability rests upon), one <might> consider the impact that Publicly favoring troll assault might have upon that company and the owners/shareholders of said company.

Was That "calm, organized and level-headed" enough for you or do I need to start dropping hundreds of negative reviews on-line and sending certified letters to Larian Corporate Officers regarding game experience/volunteer administration because a TROLL decided to get attention and create a conflict or can we get back to the Original Post now? Your call - a Single key stroke is all it takes and, right now, honestly not caring all that much which path you choose. Constructive Alpha criticism or income affecting troll facilitation. Your choice.

And reported AGAIN - GO AWAY, Kevin. This is a post on SPAMMING OF EFFECTS - not Attention Seeking Behavior. And, depending on if the "moderator" that was dragged into your Intended conflict Continues that conflict, "Sven" may, very well, get far more "Alpha Feedback", via certified letter and vast negative review, than he had hoped for. TROLLS and INTENDED CONFLICT are evaluated as "Part of the Overall Game Experience" and will be reviewed As Such.

You forgot to say "literally" a bunch too lol. Also closure in 3....

And... reported. Can just feel the negative reviews and physical address searches for company headquarters headin' this way...

Ok, I'm closing this thread. It'll be left up for Larian to read for feedback, but the discussions have clear-cut sign of not going anywhere constructive.

And yes, I do know what you imply by Kevin, but as the meme goes, the manager says you should behave and consider this as a warning. Behave, be civil, be rational.