Okay, I've seen this covered a few times but it's big enough a deal to me that I want to put it in its own feedback thread for me.
Right now, the dice is absolutely terrible and shows up at awkward moments. Being a longtime DnD player, when the dice is used is usually an indicator of the kind of GM we have running things, but it's usually newer ones that try to make people roll for literally everything - you just got up from bed? Roll to see if you rose too quickly and got dizzy. You just ate your sandwich? Roll to see if it gives you heartburn. Etc, etc. A good GM will lean on the dice enough to keep things a little chaotic and fun but not so much that it just gets tedious or slows the game down. A good GM is also a human that can carefully gauge the party and people behind them and then make conscious decisions, more or less ensuring the group is having fun. At least, a good one will. Yeah, some will be rule lords and treat the books like bibles, while others instead ofcus on storytelling and a fun experience and aren't afraid to change things up or fuzz rolls/consequences a bit to keep the game fun and moving or allow for moments of character development/portrayal.
There's no GM here, which is something it seems all developers who translate tabletop games to PC always forget. Right now, dice roll moments feel sort of random and not at all very tied to my character. Some make absolute sense, but some I'm just scratching my head.
The second part is that unlike, say, Bioware games or Dragon's Age, stats alone aren't enough to guarantee an action, since rolls always mean it's really up to chance. When something fails despite building your character to excel at that one thing, it feels terrible, and the lack of varied states of success or failure (as far as I can tell), makes it feel crazy binary.
Now, there's nothing wrong with the dice itself - obviously. It's like, the very core of DnD. But you need to give a better sense when it'll come up and make it more exciting and/or terrifying, other than a fear of blind stupid luck ruining your roleplay or plan. Important decisions should always have varied levels of success or failure. SHOW players their bonuses at the end, after the base roll, so players feel good that their specific character choices are what won them the roll by one point, or whatever. It gives a better feel of player agency.
I hate to say it, but it probably needs to be presented a lot better too, like having the numbers/dice grow green and surge, with a nice sound effect, when a player's bonuses wins them the role, or they just BARELY fail, as well as during extremes (like critical misses). These are moments GMs usually really hang on and build up suspense,and it's completely absent here. I very quickly began to sigh whenever the dice came up and I rarely feel that way in the tabletop.
I know you guys have WoTC breathing down your necks, but you should seriously consider decoupling the game from the tabletop a lot more, imo, and focus on making the game FEEL more like the tabletop instead of trying to make it BE more like the tabletop, because
that it will NEVER become. The lack of a true GM already slaps that idea across the face. Some areas that imo need a bit more work:
- there needs to be more information - you guys seriously need to do active tooltips for new players to explain stuff like Finnese
- The slower pace of DnD leveling pretty much flat-out doesn't work in the computer game space, and a ton of players will probably not be happy waiting until halfway/near to cap before really becoming their class. I'm not sure what you can do here, but going by interviews, it seems you're aware of this and testing stuff out. Good. I really don't mind and/or care, but a lot of my friends are already planning stuff like they're going to hit level 7 in the first few hours of play, lol, and are mighty disappointed knowing they're going to be, like, level 4 for a third of the game if not more, probably.
- You need to make dice rolls a thousand and one times more exciting. I seriously think you should consider adding in bonuses and any negatives at the end, all flashy like, to add that extra flair and sense of excitement. Maybe add custom dice you can earn from achievements and stuff in game; custom dice are always cool to bring to the tabletop
- Any chance there'll be a highlight intractable button? Not a must, but people are already used to having one. Just a suggestion. It's already a little bit tedious scrolling over every desk to spot little scrolls I had a hard time seeing zoomed out.
I haven't played much, so these are mostly my initial thoughts, and I'll put out more as I continue to fiddle around with the game. Overall though, I think you guys really have something here. The game IS fun, flaws aside, and looks and especially sounds beautiful. The standard injection of Larian passion oozes from every bone, vessel, and facet of BG3, and I honestly couldn't think of anyone else - not Obsidian, not Owlcat, not Inxile, not Bioware - I would have preferred to have made this game instead. And you guys DELIVERED. A year of polishing and fixing the subjective player experience (lol), and I honestly think you guys will end up baking 2021's GoTY, easily.
Keep it up!
