Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Suggestion (Controversial) - Remove Camp Mechanic

Hello,

I understand that is really hard to make a game that is able to give a lot of freedom to players so they can choose how and when they will tackle the obstacles, and still keep the narrative and story you created. I also understand that this is the reason Larian created the Camp, so if you miss a key part of the story they can make it appear on your camp during a long rest and move the plot forward.

However, the camp seems so inorganic and the story bits being forced on the camp does not seems natural. I much prefer to have to go to a city or settlement to take a long rest, and maybe you can make the NPCs appear on the city going about doing something and they can casually bump into you to trigger the event. Something like that feels more natural, like it is something that could happen naturally.

Having a massive camp with a lot of NPCs appear out of nowhere every time your party wants, may not only be abusive, but also breaks the feeling of going on an adventure. I would much prefer to have the option to create a campfire somewhere in the map and sit around the fire to take short rests and maybe talk with your party members.

The feeling of having to get to a "checkpoint" and manage your resources until you get there adds a lot to the adventure and it could enhance the atmosphere of the game. Please consider that moving forward because I really want this game to be the best it can be.

Where's a camp checkpoint? Do you start out on a map always knowing where one is? Which way is it? What do you do if there's no camp checkpoint around and you're tapped? Reload and lose possibly several hours of progress?

"Okay, the camp can remain in one spot, but you have to walk back and forth to it." If there isn't any threat around, what does the walking do except add padding?

I agree that there has to be some form of resource management revolving around long rests. A cost-free long rest makes the Warlock class too weak compared to Wizards or Sorcerers, and thus pretty pointless to play. There are things which could be done to tweak the long rest system, but I don't think forcing rests at specific locations (especially in cities) is the best solution.

Unless they allow a fast travel option It would be a chore to travel to the same spot to rest and craft like in Greedfall or DAI. They could make an option to limit long rests instead.

So far, vast majority of RPGs using rest mechanic don't have structure to properly utilize it. I thought, Pillars1 supplies were a decent way of pacing how often devs wanted you to rest and worked well for me, but in the end one could easily overuse that system by a little bit legwork (or playing below hard difficulty). Pathfinders timed nature encourages pushing forward as much as you can, but personally, I didn't much enjoy it. Perhaps Dark Souls style bonfires could work? But respawning enemies? Infinite XP gain? Nah.

As to it's use in storytelling - right now it looks super weird, as camp seems to use one location no matter where we are resting. I trust Larian will put some more work into it, and make it fit into various locals we will be visiting in our journeys. I still don't understand the concept of the followers.

The gist I get is that they kinda want a "keep" kind-of a place, without having a keep or a boat. I am not sold on it just yet.

The only thing I don't like about the camp is the fact the surroundings don't match where you are. Whether your party is in the underdark, a cave, in a city or in the wild, the camp seems always to look like a nice opening in a forest, which kills the immersion in my opinion.

I know it would be more work for the artists, but if they could make the camp look like the area you are actually in when you decide to take a rest, I would be fine with the mechanic.

What do the surroundings have to do with storytelling? And camp with the concept of the followers? Genuinely curious here.

It's fine to do it this way for the alpha, but having the camp area at least share the same general tileset as the area you're in is something I think Larian could at least look into.

Sorry. Late night post. I didn’t articulate myself too well.

Having camp take place in a forest rather then an set similar to a space we are exploring completely dispells any illusion of adventure or travel.

Followers are to appear in your camp, no? So what, a entourage invisibly follows your group of adventurers around and joins you whenever you sit down? Seems too silly to be true.

ahem...

NO

yes tho ia dmit that the camp should mirror your surroundings

Better suggestion than this entire thread: you should only be able to camp at designated locations.
Making rest spam impossible. Also there should be an ambush chacne (which gives zero XP) that goes up by how ofthen you use the same spot

The camp seems to be a mixture of Dragon Age Origins camp which is only accessible from the world map, and Baldur’s Gate rest system which you can do anywhere except in towns.

It looks a bit odd as is, because it appears that you are supposed to setting up for the night wherever you press the long rest button. That might potentially be even more strange once you get camp followers who could seem like they appear from nowhere.

Perhaps what you’re really doing is going back to wherever your camp is on that map when you say you want a long rest, and then returning?
Or maybe that’s what happens once you start getting camp followers? Camp could actually be a place on the map (near where you start each one), and a long rest just fast travels you there and (perhaps optionally) back again?

It’s clear that the camp is going to be a significant part of the game, so it’s definitely here to stay. Between long and short rests, I’m sure it’s possible to have it make sense, possibly with a few tweaks from early access feedback.