Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Early feedback

Started the game and went through tutorial area and some of the early content. Overall: I love it, early acces issues and all, but here is some hopefully constructive feedback. Thank you for all the hard work!

Important points
1. The AI is way too agressive on downed companions. I noticed it during the demos and I don't quite understand why it works this way. I think that if a companion is downed the AI should ignore them because getting downed and immediately poked 3 times to death with 100% chance to hit is not fun nor realistic. A downed dying/hanging by the thread combattant is not a genuine threat. Enemies should ignore them and move to other active party members instead. Let downed companions roll for survival and stabilise unconsciously if they succeed thus making combat less clunky and cleaner in that regard. If everyone is downed - it's game over. There is little point in this edge-of-death system if it's not really used properly.
2. Character sheets don't seem to contain proficiencies. At least I couldn't find them even in expanded window where you see one character at a time. I hope there is a UI pass because it feels like a lot of information is hidden and the layout is a bit weird. Show us all the details!! The UI during combat with turn order and all the actions could also use another pass. I am not a UI expert but all I can say is that I had my eyes go all over the screen to see who goes when, the different skill bars and enemy health etc..
3. Speaking of enemies, I feel like they blend a lot with the background especially the early imps/brains. Maybe some highlight on the silhouettes or always on health bars above/below during combat would be good to just keep track of everyone considering how busy the battle can be even with camera zoomed out.
4. Camera is sometimes glitchy moveing through the walls and its movement is not always fluid. It also doesn't move when the mouse goes to the screen edge, not sure if there's an option for that but I think it should be on by default.

Minor Stuff
1. Make tutorials a bit more obvious. I missed a lot of them as they appear under the minimap without any sound and their location is not where my eyes are focused. It also feels like there should be more of them overall as the interface is pretty complex for new people.
2. I think HDR is not working? Or was it toned down compared to D:OS2? I feel like the world looks less sharp and lighting is bland for some reason on max settings compared to D:OS2. Highlights from the sun and fire are definitely less pronounced. (HDR doesn't seem to work with Vulkan, DX11 is fine - I don't know if bug or intended behaviour)
3. When we fail/succeed passive rolls for perception etc. can we have a number in the text for the actual dice roll? I feel like it would add a lot of D&D flair just as it does for the big rolls and it doesn't need to be hidden in some combat log.
4. Slow mo on crits? Cinematic camera is cool but there is a huge crit logo in the middle of the screen when that happens and the actions are so quick there's no time to appreciate the whole thing. Can this be slowed down as crits don't come often anyway? Otherwise I don't think there is a need for a huge golden D20 on a crit - a cinematic camera is good enough and a smaller text/logo will do just fine. Otherwise it will get tiresome after a while.
5. In fact some animations for spells seem to be too fast. I know the game is already quite slow being turn-based but I think 20% slower wouldn't hurt to get the impact right especially for spells like guiding bolt.
6. I don't know if there is a cover system in game but if we want to move into cover can there be an indicator that a character is in half/full cover (if that system is in the game). Same for movement if it ends in cover.

Personal Opinion
1. Love the early dialogue, characters and events overall. I hope the quality maintains for the whole game, you guys are doing awesome work in this regard.
2. Don't love the optional time stop mode. It feels gamey and gimmicky like it exists only to solve certain puzzles. It may grow on me but while Turn-Based combat is very D&D, Turn-Based puzzle solving is definitely not.
3. Music on first level doesn't feel appropriate to the tone. Some epic things are going on and it sounds too calm especially in critical tense moments when I expect it to swell.

Thanks for pointing these out! I am also having a blast with the game so far. Here are my thoughts in response to yours.

Important points
1. I completely agree about the AI. Not only is it too aggressive, but I found it strange that every single enemy knew the exact most efficient strategy in every single fight. That seemed off.

2. I don't recall the info on the character sheets but I do remember at some point referencing proficiencies. Perhaps you missed it, or I'm misremembering.

3. There is a way to highlight enemies with a circle and I found it particularly useful in this regard. Try toggling that option and see if it helps.

4. I didn't have any complaints in particular with the camera, as I appreciated the way it could glide, but I see what you mean.

Minor Stuff
1. "Make tutorials a bit more obvious." <<< YES PLEASE!

2. I'm not sure what issues you had, so I can't comment here.

3. I agree that having the actual number might be nice but not a big deal to me personally.

4. "Slow mo on crits?" I second this request, there were many times where a crit was rolled and I was just confused or disoriented by how quickly the cinematic camera came in and then went back to normal. The option to toggle it on or off would be nice, and if on, to have it be a bit slower and to reduce the size of, or remove entirely, the giant d20 logo.

5. I think the spell animations could be slower but don't think it is necessary. Combat is slow enough as is. sometimes, and waiting for an animation over and over and over might get to be tedious. Faster is better for gameplay (as I'm sure you'll get tired of seeing the same animation over and over). Perhaps option to toggle spellcasting animation speed between slow and fast?

6. I also don't know if there is a cover system but I seemed to be able to hide behind literal cover and be out of sight or have objects obstructing ranged shots. Perhaps it could be more clear. I would like a more intuitive cover system that could be clearly seen/controlled if possible.

Personal Opinion
1. "Love the early dialogue, characters and events overall. I hope the quality maintains for the whole game, you guys are doing awesome work in this regard." <<< 100% Agree! <3
2. The time stop system takes a bit of getting used to but I personally love it. It really helps to be able to strategize or experiment and brings the experience closer (imo) to that of playing a TTRPG.
3. As a musician I can appreciate what they were going for with the music. I agree though, that the tone at times did not seem to match the tone of the dialogue or setting.