Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General ehem ehem... BG3 editor

First of all, I read some of the past announcements saying that the devs first would like to produce a full game, before they release the editor. With all due respect, any idea what is the status of a possible release of any (and I mean any) editor tool?

I know reality should be considered. Perhaps the team struggles with technical issues, so releasing any editor would be "shooting their own fingers", fans would start asking questions, fixing editor's bugs would become a nightmare etc etc. Is this the case? As an example, DOS2 editor is not easy to work with and has its ups and downs. What is the real status regarding BG3 editor?

Other than that, all I want to say is that BG3 (EA or not) seems to be a fantastic game, so fans input (via the editor) would surely enhance and promote the game.

Any estimate? Any comments please? What can be expected?

Also, any other way/ways for fans to help with BG3?

I'd guess you are correct that the editor is a long way off; you can't really create anything stable when your game engine is in permanent flux. Once all the game mechanics subsystems are locked down, an editor is more realistic, but even then, finishing the game would probably take priority.

At this point. I think up-to-date published data/file formats would probably be most helpful.

Let's put it in these terms: the most likely scenario is that IF *any* work on a public editor intended for modders is being done (and that's already a big IF) it must be some side project from one or two devs that would really love to release one and have the spare time and/or the will to work on it.
Because Larian has been quite clear about the fact that right now they really can't afford to spare manpower for that.

Also, to be clear, developers are most likely already using some type of editor (and a whole bunch of dev tools in general); the real challenge to make this stuff public is usually

A) deciding how to restrict it, what the users can and can't have access to
B) Document and tutorializing the whole thing in a way that makes it actually usable, otherwise it's like borrowing a college textbook about calculus to a middle schooler.

Hmm... if the team has some kind of editor, why not share it with fans then? I hear what was said so far. Still, even some partial access would let fans create some simple mods. Like a modified sword, for example. Or a new NPC, located even in the starting Nautiloid area.

Another thing, with the lack of editing tools for BG3, is there anything fans can do to add value to the project? I mean other than playing the BG3 EA of course. And other than modding using DOS2 editor, which is not BG3, it is DOS2.

i hate to say but I think WOTC will make it difficult to release a campaign editor. i know previous games like NWN2 had them but I just have a bad feeling...
I don't think it will be as open as DOS2's editor

...why?

Don't say that. I mean really? BG3 editor not as open as DOS2 one? That would be a disappointment.

I'm not fully familiar what is the licence status. WotC or Larian owns the rights to Baldur's Gate? So Larian doesn't have full rights? I'm confused.

From the official announcements I rather got the impression, that the creation of BG3 is a big strain for a company like Larian and they struggle with main technical issues of the game. Nothing about the licence problems was mentioned. So they would rather focus 100% on the main game production, rather than side-steping and preparing the editor for release and open yet another bag of problems. The editor would be based on the unfinished game, which is still undergoing fundamental changes. That was my understanding.

Still, can we mod anything about BG3 even without the editor?

There are various tools pinned on Discord in regards to unpacking .pak files, so anything not relying on osiris/anubis compilers there is readily moddable, but not supported by Larian until full release. Norbyte also has a beta for his BG3 extender which may allow for some lua scripting as well, however I haven't gotten around to try it out myself yet.



BG3 is mainly "Anubis" (lua) and Osiris, both has pretty solid documentation already as far as scripting goes. Other engine features such as dialogue editor, quest journal etc is fair to expect to be rather straight forward and intuitive based on experience in older engines.


Larian has confirmed modding support for "at or after full release", but what that entails isn't elaborated upon. Many assume this means access to the new version of Larian's engine similar to Dos2, but there's no details public about exactly what to expect or hope for yet.

Composer: thank you for an informative reply. Appreciate it.


From what you say it isn't that bad, after all. Firstly, you say the engine is mostly Osiris based and there will be similarities to the older editors (I assume DOS2), which is great. In other words, more experience in DOS2 tools = better preparation as we wait for BG3 tools.


That brings another question, namely when will BG3 launch in full. I've read public announcements saying some time in 2022, but unofficial gossips mentioned to expect rather 2023 (various YouTube videos etc.). From what I see by simply playing the game, there surely is still a lot to do. It doesn't seem that the full game will be released today or tomorrow. I got the impression more like a year or even more.


What is the link to Discord? Is it possible to take a look/participate in Discord discussions? I still mess around in DOS2 editor, but once I'm done with that, I will be curious to take a look, unpack BG3 goodies and play around. Maybe this would mean a possibility to release something fan-made even without the editor.

Last thing that was mentioned to the public afaik, is that Larian is hoping for a 2022 release, but might poke into 2023 as it seems now. Read that how you will, I personally have my mind set around the winter 2022/2023 part, roughly. But I don't mind waiting longer either, to me it's all the same, I just want a fun adventure in the end of the day ^^

The Discord link is in my signature, alternatively https://discord.com/invite/LarianStudios

I have no direct experience with modding, but I know as second hand information that a lot of people in the modding community for DOS 2 had problems with how limited and unintuitive to use the tools that Larian offered felt to them.

I’ve also read several complaints about how apparently inadequate for the job the “DM mode” was according to most of them.

If it’s a matter of unreasonable expectations rather than actual problems I wouldn’t know.

I am still using GateKeeper/ShadowKeeper/EEKeeper and DLTCEP while I play the original BG I & II series, waiting for the full release of BG III. It is fun to make new stuff ... but I don't want to be doing this for another two years.

If Larian doesn't want to issue an editor, just release the info the community. Get the game out!

Right. That would be approximately in line with the information presented on YouTube. It's fine, no rush. The most important is to have a good adventure and as smooth and bug-free game as possible.



I play around with DOS2 editor and it's not bad actually. Don't get me wrong, it's not ideal. People say they have a "love/hate relationship" with DOS2 editor. I mean it looks good, all that. If you want to create a small adventure or a mod, which is add-in, the editor is perfectly fine. But if you want more, then... well... you need patience. For whatever reason you often need to reload the editor for stuff to work. Osiris is not intuitive, but it's ok. Once you get hold of a syntax, you can work with it.

Actually I wonder why DOS2 editor is not that popular. It should be. You have the wiki all that, but usualy there is much more resources available on YouTube. Not sure why more people don't use DOS2 editor.


Patience... You don't want to do this for another 2 years?? DOS1 editor came 10 years ago. DOS2 editor came 4 years ago. BG3 will still be in production for at least another year.

I'm sure they have a solid roadmap of BG3 tasks and they will release BG3 when the time comes. In the mean time, you have EA to play around with. Patience....

I don't mind waiting for a year, but I'd love Larian to release any kind of editor at least similar to DOS2 one. But... ok, it seems we can still do a lot without the editor, so that's fine.

I suggested in this post in the suggestion forum to have a real-time collaborative editor. I hope, although editor not yet even confirmed, that they do have a roadmap for modding tools so it won’t be too late to include certain ground breaking things.

My hope they could have some collaborative functionality comes from the question how they remotely worked together in pandemic times.

Let’s see….