Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General QA for Devs - Are suggestions considered?

First, off Larian, I want to say your product looks like quality work and a move forward from your previous games. I have played and enjoyed your DOS1 and DOS2.
After watching through the demo playthrough I actually really like what you're doing. I have some questions for the development team and not sure if you read all threads or respond. I'm mostly interested in the possibilities to make this game over the top in quality.

1. Is it too late stage in the process to tweak animations and sounds? For example, what if you determine a large portion of the customers points to a similar criticism is it even feasible to change this at the current stage of development in a practical way? A common issue from reading the responses both here, on Reddit etc. appears that many (but I don't know if its a majority) feel the DOS-style animations and sounds of actions are not the best choices for BG. If you were to create spell incantation verbal sounds, more realistic weapon sounds. don't make every action seem like a magical selection and change from the exaggerated movements found in DOS to something found in more serious RPG games is that even practical. If it is, do you see value in doing this if it were to change the overall vibe from the community?

2. I'm not sure if the community, in general, like the animations or if we are only hearing the vocal minority. But if you were to look at improvements that would be "practical" at this stage to change and provide a POLL to the fanbase, would you consider the outcomes?

3. Are there plans for any UI change from the current windows and graphics that look like DOS to something that you can call its own. Make it BG, not DOS? What about even D&D. Some sort of FONT, parchment, text that is representative of D&D even. (Like homebrew or manuals etc.). Is this UI really something that can change?

4. Graphic assets: are the weapon and item assets (which basically look identical to DOS) set in stone? Are they placeholders? Are there plans to update/refresh the item assets to look more unique for BG? Maybe even slightly less "DOS" like and again, maybe something that pulls you into the world without reminding us this is just DOS.

Most of these are just questions that would be awesome to hear DEV team respond to (as well as other players). I do plan to buy the game, I think it's well made and I'm sure I'll enjoy it regardless but my critical comment I'll leave with is this.

The more visual assets, sound effects, movements that are simply DOS-style, the more it reminds me as a player I'm not actually playing Baldurs Gate. It will constantly remind me I'm actually just playing DOS with a BG story. Is it even practical to make changes to the UI, sounds, minor animations to make this game stand alone on its own without reminding us it's actual DOS. (at minimum UI and graphic assets are probably the biggest reminder that pulls me out of BG).

With that said, I still think it will be a fantastic game by a talented group of developers.

Cheers and good luck with your project

Well, some are definitely read.

>more realistic weapon sounds

every time, like youre activeley out there to trigger me.

No, fuck boring weaksauce sounds.
Not to mention that Baldurs Gate pioneered over the top screenshake and meaty thunks that explode your eardrums for killing people

So are you saying that weapon sounds need to sound like slamming a cymbal with a sledgehammer or are you saying that his idea of "realistic" weapon sound is unrealistic? I'm kinda confused right now

I'm not sure if I'm relaying the sounds correctly. I don't want boring sounds at all. But I also don't want all the sounds to be similar. It's hard to say what I'm thinking and keep it constructive.

But if I am a new character with little skill and have a plain jane bow and decide I'm going to shoot it, I don't want it to sound the same as if I have a magical godzilla killer torpedo level arrow shooter. If they sound that similar it makes the starter weapon seem more amazing and the amazing weapon seem less?

The best way to describe it is that when I select a character weapon to aim I get this magical hum (that is primary in DOS) and then the attacks sound very similar regardless of power (which is very similar even if not the same). There is nothing exciting or unique about that really.

Can you not have amazing cool sounds that are more unique to the type, quality, amount and even area of damage? And what about Magic? Can we not have incantations and slower cool effects? I don't think I saw a single "magic missile" spell effect. Probably the most iconic of the early spells out there, represented differently (and yet so similar) in all games.

Sorry about triggering you. If you love the animations/sounds the way they are right now, just say so, your not wrong and I won't' claim to say you are and will just accept you think differently than me.

Cheers