Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Classic BG map size

I feel like that it's probably already too late to address this, but I am heavily disappointed that Baldurs Gate 3 is going the same way Divinity 2 went with the map sizes. I was really hoping to see fenced areas like in the older games, but instead we have large maps again. I personally think that those large maps hurt the world building and immersion more, than they contribute to it, because everything feels absolutely crammed and unrealistic. A good example for this would be the crammed starting area with the ruins, a ship wreck, a druid grove at the get go, or when the thiefling in command called Zevlar, or whatever his name is, is furious that his little scout troop made the goblins aware of their camp at the grove, while the goblin camp on the map being only like 300 (?) meters away from it. Staying undetected being so close to a camp is very very unlikely. These "large" maps á la Divinity 2 DO NOT make the game world feel bigger, au contraire, they make them look even smaller in comparison to the older games.

Smaller maps would mean more load times transitioning between areas.
The reason maps were so small in the old days was because games themselves were smaller and had to fit on media like CDs.

I'd hate it if I had to load areas more often.

Instead we have super large loading times (even with a SSD). I'd rather prefer short loading times instead of waiting 20 seconds to quickload a game. But I guess that's just preferences.

Still, I feel like that smaller maps + the open world map with all the neat looking area tiles were another Infinity Engine trademark that I would have loved to see Larian adapt.

I'm one of the few who actually enjoyed BG1's exploration (vast, empty wilderness included, because that's what wilderness often is).

Larian simply go with the trend here. Game worlds aren't build like worlds, by demand they're build like theme parks. Even though logically it doesn't make much sense if everything is set just a rock throw apart. This started all the way back in BG2 btw. some.. one pleasant surprise in more recent times was playing Kingdom Come Deliverance. It's a game like the original BG1, not afraid to "bore" a part of its audience with long sequences of nothing much happening, just exploring pretty landscapes, and distances that make sense because that is what a landscape many times is -- something simply existing. (Numerous possible dangerous and curious random encounters still add some spice to it).

BG1 big time benefitted of the day night cycles and fluid weather transitions here too, alongside to the ambient FX, which likewise isn't this engine's forte.

I don't want to spoil anything, but there are plenty of loading transitions behind random doors and stuff.

Your theme park comparison is very good, because everything feels really calculated when exploring the worlds / maps of Larian games. Whereas in Baldurs Gate 1 you sometimes just had maps full of forest, without any special points of interest, but which were still fun to explore. This special kind of adventuring was definitely one of Baldur's Gate 1 strengths.

Right, I liked the worlds of BG1 and Morrowind more than those of many other games.
It should be normal that ancient temples full of demons should not be a few steps away from the next town.
Having to search yourself to find places is the whole point of exploration.

100000% disagree. Larger maps are almost always better, especially in a game based on DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS. This is not BG 1 or 2, nor is it Divinity Original SIn 3. It is Baldur's Gate 3, and I personally enjoy the take they have on it, giving us large, expansive maps.

Besides, have you ever actually looked at a map of the Sword Coast--the region Baldur's Gate actually is in? It is freakin HUGE man. Game is doing great with the map design so far, and I hope it stays that way.

In the game, it's actually pretty tiny. This is the area you have in the game (in-game map spoiler), and all the marked locations are but a couple feet away from each other. https://i.imgur.com/n1swH22.jpg

I agree with silent - in this world the map size is fine - the environment is stunning a huge open world isn’t required & this is only early access who really knows how large it gets
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If they open up the entire sword coast instead of just the forgotten realms area....oml. I run a campaign on Roll20 in the sword coast, and I set it to scale. (I did this by getting distance measurements between two cities on a to scale HD map that was posted on I THINK DnD Beyond if I'm not mistaken. I then kept adjusting my distances per hex until the distance between two cities matched up with the scale measurement on the map I found). Top to bottom is almost 1700 miles. This may be off give or take a couple hundred miles, but that is roughly the length of the entire map of the sword coast.

For scale, to travel from Baldur's Gate, as the crow flies, you will basically be traversing parallelle to the Chinthar River. It is about 210 miles between these two cities. And Candlekeep, which is South of Baldur's Gate, is about 175 miles away. That's the closest city marked on the map I have of the Sword Coast.

Huge distances here. Not so bad by horseback but on foot? yeah.