Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Fresh water = Settlement?

Why? This question bugs me every time I start over. Why must there be a settlement if there is fresh water? Why not, "Dead fishermen. Must be a fishing village nearby."

And where IS said fisher village? No one ever says where? I originally assumed Moonhaven until books and tomes indicated it was destroyed 120 years ago. So... Where'd they come from? Does the village have a name? Why can't we get to it? Why does no one from there come to check out the crash to see if their missing loved ones are dead or alive?

One thing I learned, discussing the plot holes in regards to the lore and just simply "why aren't they noticing certain things", is that Larian... hasn't really given the details much thought in terms of "is this realistic". Bioware was really good at this, which is probably why we had such immersion with a lot of their games. The fishing village is nearby, but the fishermen who are trying to help the illithid just whine that their boat is messed up and they're stuck (my wizard: "... so no using the random boats that litter the shore then?"). The said fishermen also notice the tadpole and scream and run away (why the hell do they know about illithids, what they do, and the tadpole thing, to begin with? It's not like they crawl out of the underdark every tenday...). A gigantic nautiloid crashes but the Flaming Fists ignore it. The illithid decides not to slurp down the fishermen's brains but instead waits until the PC comes along (stop being a picky eater, illithid. You have 3HP left). Astarion whines about not having seen his face in 200 years when (in my playthrough) he has a scroll of mirror image in his pack (and yes, it works on him). Also, why would a rogue with an INT of 11 be able to read a book that is apparently difficult for my wizard? Etc.

I wish Larian would address these problems, as a lot of them aren't that difficult to fix, with a few lines of dialogue. I doubt they will. With any luck the fishing village would be on the way to Baldur's Gate, although why the fishermen would fish so far away from their homes would be a bit puzzling (maybe a good fishing spot is where the PC crashed?).

Its historical fact...
If you check any Europe maps you can see that cities often were made close to river or other water suply in middle ages...
If i had to gues i would say they were thirsty and lazy ... just as they say: Repeating is way to mastery ... lazyness is way to technological advance.
Of course more corect way to say that would be: "Fresh water! IF there is settlement nearby it will be close to river."
But that would be a formality on same level as discuion about that if two people can "form a line"

About fishermans ...
They actualy imply exactly the oposite ... you never fish close to the village for various reasons ...
Just to list few:
Noise scares fish away ...
You usualy want to fish in deep water rather than shallow ...
And last but not least lets be honest with each other for a second ... where do you think that all and every trash ended?

Sure, but we already come across two settlements in the wilderness map. Looking at the big map, the wilderness that we get to explore accounts for about 100 miles worth of distance across by a very rough estimate, if not more (10 days to Baldur's Gate, walking nonstop). That's more than 3 day's walk with walking non-stop for 10 hours. Offshore fishing is somewhere around 9 miles to 30 miles off the shoreline. No one will row 40+ miles to fish for the day everyday, especially if rowing by hand. This isn't Old Man and the Sea.

A fresh water source doesn't imply a civilization. There are plenty of freshwater sources in the world that no one lives by.

Now seeing dead fishermen, that implies a settlement.

Wich one do you mean?
Blighted Willage that had its own Well, and was build just between two rivers?
Tollhouse that (unless i remember incorectly) also have its own Well and was build next to the very same river?
Or Waukeen's Rest, where i honestly dont remember if i had seen well, but cant help the feeling that there was even fountain in the garden ... and yes, just behind barns, there is a river?
Or Druid Grove, that litteraly reach to river, where a Bear is hunting for fishes?

Personaly i believe that world map simply dont show everything that is there, just important zones for us ... or at least not now ... after all, even Moonrise Towers isnt there.

I never said how many miles ...
I simply stated that no sensible fisherman will go fishing right next to the village, you allways swim a little futher.

You think there was ever any water in that well in the Blighted Village?

Even back then, over a hundred years ago, the apprentice was down there stashing that book gem.

It was a small fishing village. The Nautiloid landed on top of it. Duh.

oh...that's unfortunate.

There's water in the well right now, there's an underground stream flowing through it.

Where do you land if you jump down the well? I can't remember, I usually go through the smithy cellar wall.

You missed my point. My point was that there are clearly settlements within the area map, so it doesn't make sense to say "the fishing village is off the map, it's a little distance from the beach!".


The rough size doesn't change just because the landmarks aren't there. If we are getting a 100 mile area map, and there is no fishing village, then the fishing village is 100 miles away or more. That's not a reasonable distance to cover to get to the shore.


Offshore or away from the village by a few miles? Sure. Offshore by 100 miles or more? That's not plausible.

At the bottom of the well with a hanging bucket and no water.

I'm trying to think of where the stream is that you're mentioning.

I guess there is that waterfall area, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head. And it's back against a wall where you can't go any farther.

I don't think he means offshore (off-bank?) I interpreted it was up-shore (or down-shore(-bank)).

I forgot to mention it by the way but yeah assuming there's a settlement nearby because you find a fresh water source -- particularly a big one such as a river -- seems completely in-the-ordinary to me. All civilization is built on the accessibility of fresh water. If you're lost in the wilderness and find waterflow your best survival bet is to follow that flow downstream because that's where chances are the highest you'll find other people or their dwellings.

What do you mean doesnt make sence? O_o
That willage is there, we were told by Fishermans that has ben used by the Illithid inside crashed ship. :-/

Or its simply not written on the map ...

Funny story:
Just few years back (like 5y cca) when you buyed map in Germany and looked at it, the city i live in for last 30y was not there, we were simply not significant enough for them to recognize our existence.
Instead of Liberec, there was Reichenberg ... wich is name Germans give to this city during WW-II. ocupation ... and never bothered to change it back.
(Not sure if they do by now ... but at least they finaly give us corect signs on the road.)

You keep throwing here distances, and i still have no idea where you get them.

I believe he does mean that waterfall and stream ...
You have to keep in mind that this willage (and well) is abandoned for more than 100y now ... there probably was some spring back then ... and by time, one wall from cave that was used as a well collapsed and revealed much bigger cave system ... it seems obvious that in well without single wall will not be much water left.

Yeah, I keep it in mind. That's why I mentioned that the apprentice was down there stashing the gem over a hundred years ago.

So here is the post i wanted to react ... well lets do this now:

As far as i know, every boat that is on the shore is damaged and taking water ...
Not exactly best means of transport. :-/

I also dare to presume that when they went to fishing they didnt take hammers, nails and paint with them to fix their boat, or use the other ones as a source of raw material.

As far as i know (and i do, i just watched the scene few seconds ago ) they dont notice "the tadpole" ... they notice that they can "feel you" just the same way they felt that Mind Flayer just few seconds ago ... its logical to presume that Mind Flayers (and their tadpoles aswell) create some kind of psyonic field that resonates with others.
BTW

They dont.

Concidering other events happening on the map ...
By the time gigantic Nautiloid crashed ... Flaming Fist was probably too busy saving their asses while they were attacked by Drow and Goblins.

I would not be surprised if they didnt even know about it.
Once again ... its not like it crashed litteraly 15minutes walking away ... concidering the map and distances, crashsite is probaby at least day, or maybe few days away from Waukeen's Rest.

Illithid was too weak to force anyone get eaten ...
Wich was explicitly shown when your character gets "lured" ... you get multiple changes (at least one dont require even diceroll) to free youreself ... and only if you stubbornly keep pushing, then it uses the opourtunity and bites.

Im not quite sure how this magic works ...
If caster (aka the person who gives them their look by projecting his own) dont remember his visage ... what would we see? And more interestingly, what would HE see?

Why wouldnt he? O_o
I mean last time i checked reading isnt skill that is reserved for most intelligent person in party ... nor skill that would require tremendous intelligence far beyond capabilities of meere mortals.

I mean i know he is reading about magic ...
But do we really know WHAT is he reading? O_o
As far as i know, even your Int 8 Fighter is "able to read" this book ... and the book will litteraly burn ability to Speak With Dead to his mind, even tho he dont even have spellcasting abilities.

You're not alone. I also reacted to that statement. But I guess it's because my personal definition of "nearby". Like others have pointed out, if you follow a river there's a high chance that you eventually will reach a settlement. But that settlement can be several days worth of travel away, or even further, and then I wouldn't call it nearby anymore. So seeing my character making that assumption took me a bit of guard. I was like "Girl, you have no idea where you are, don't make assumptions like that"

How many lakes and rivers, freshwater, exist with no settlements "neartby"? Of course you will eventually find a settlement somewhere along a large river, but that doesn't mean there are any nearby.

Let's take a major river. Let's say someone crashed along the Amazon River in South America. How many settlements are along that river? How far apart are they? Just because you crashed in the Amazon River doesn't mean you're near a settlement.

Likewise, take the Mississippi River before Europeans settled there. How many settlements existed along that river?

My point is that in BG3 you just crashed in some random remote area. You don't even know what plane of existence you're in because you know darn well you were just bouncing all over the place into the Hells and everything. For all you know, you could be on some random unpopulated realm with literally no cities.

So why would you assume there is a settlement nearby because of freshwater? Dead fishermen? Yes. Freshwater? No.

And as far as a village goes that the nautiloid crashed into and devastated and is on top of, there are literally no signs that this is true. There is not one shred of evidence that points to a village being there in that spot. No ruined buildings, farmlands, cattle, nothing. So...

... but then... you were probably joking. Right? RIGHT?

Barely any. The concentration of settlements are much higher along rivers and by lakes than anywhere else.



Do Indian settlements not count? Any village or people would do.



Even if they don't know where you are, why would a person from the Sword Coast assume wherever they are don't work the same as where they are from? They're likelier to presume it works exactly like what they are used to.

Hey, what gives? Whose survival skill are we using here, anyway? Yours or Tav's?


Oh, there's plenty of room under that flaming Nautiloid. Check out the map. It's at least as big as the Blighted Village.

And look, there's a couple of docks, one on the west side and one on the east. Dead fishermen all over the place. I'd be surprised if there wasn't something under all that mess.