Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Mega-threads and Guides Early Access gameplay feedback compendium

tbh, I think they could even take it further and go with milestone based levelups. Tbh that is another thing many groups seem to do these days and something my main group moved over to in the last couple of years too. Forget tracking xp, GM just lets people know when it's time to levelup.

BEWARE SPOILERS FOR SOME

Hi everybody (and sorry for the Wall-Of-Text),

so here's my 5 Eurocents to the issues at hand (I read Vometia's opening post to get an overview of what is being discussed already, but I can't/won't read through all 15 pages of the thread + x other related threads right now). Everything is ofc my very own subjective opinion even though I write (MUST BE DONE, NEEDS TO BE CHANGED, stuff like that) like I own the place. Calm down, I just want to keep it easy and straight.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT:
I like the game (story, characters, flair, look) a lot and I am a happy early-accessor, player and fan. What bugged me, though, (besides the glitches and somewhat static facial expressions - my Drow warlock looks perpetually surprised) was that there are quite a few instances where something happens or needs to be done that pulls me out of the game-flow (for this, see my QUALITY OF LIFE section). Meaning the game requires me to invest quite a bit of time not into conversations, decisions, murderings or any other kind of action, but inventory and hot bar management.



GAMEPLAY:
1. You can enter turn-based-mode with one character, sneak up to an enemy, backstab it, then remain in combat with that char, select another out-of-combat-char and sneak up to the surviving (OUTRAGEOUS) victi...ENEMY again in real-time while the mob is stuck in turn based. that is HIGHLY ABUSIVE and kinda lame and counter to what turn-based is supposed to achieve, methinks. If turn-based is true for one char, it should be true for all chars. or at least it auto-switches into turn based when you enter a 30m range (or sth like that) irrespective of having been seen or not.


QUALITY OF LIFE STUFF:
0. "Add to wares" should not be character specific but global. At least, it would be possible to make this optional and make the game balance the weight/value of the "junked" items between all characters. And at the trader, the currently selected Character is the one that sells ALL-THE-WARES.
I get that this is counter to the 5e and Pathfinder Die-hard fans but in terms of inventory management, this would help alot.
0.1. ALSO: Introduce "Straight to Junk/Wares" button when finding new stuff. There is no need to deal with these kinds of items twice when you ONLY want to sell them.

1. Issue: hot-bar management;
Idea: in options, enable the player to auto-assign ALL useables to a specific hot bar section (like "Auto-assign all scrolls to hot bar 5" - "Auto-assign all spells/cantrips to hot bar 1" - stuff like that. I would use it, because as it is now, the system requires me to invest a few minutes every other hour because I pick up so much stuff
1.1. Related to this is the fact that the hot bar relocates after you open another window/pop-up or basically anthing happens. This resulted in me drinking all kinds of liquids mid-fight although I wanted to press the button above. Hot bar should be static and fixed.
1.2. Introduce a new button: "Clear current hot bar section"
1.3. Introduce a new button (or better: a hotkey somewhere close to WASD): CHAIN ALL PARTY MEMBERS / UNCHAIN ALL PARTY MEMBERS. right now, I have to do it manually for each char and the sneaky way I play it this time results in a few seconds of having to deal with this, each time I want to do (explore, set up ambush, sneak) anything. This button would increase the speed, better my...THE PLAYERS comfort, and keep the player immersed/in the action. System as is always pulls me out of immersion because of the tedious dragging and dropping of the portraits.

2. Issue: no selection rectangle;
Idea: yeah, i want a rectangle.
2.1. The selection-rectangle is clearly missing in party control. I couldn't find any options for formations neither or give positional commands to my troupe even when they are chained. Maybe I am blind, but I haven't intuitively found it after 13 hours
2.2. It's also missing in the inventory when I want to mass-transfer items to another char.
2.3. Current version is too tedious and reminds me of Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2. Didn't like that part of those games. I want control over my unit....CHARACTERS and my stuff.

3. Issue: Fast Travel not clickable on the map.
Idea: I know, there is the list on the right, but why not also fast-travel when clicking on the way points. like in DOS2.

4. Issue: character portraits
Sometimes (as in very often) the game doesn't accept my clicks on the portraits down-left. it seems to me it requires a "strong" (difficult to explain) click on them. Should be easier.

5. Issue: Party Management and general oversight
5.1. Any speech or info that is the result of any kind of check-roll (failed or passed) should be "re-"readable. I had a few situations in which one of my chars found something/passed some check, but I was somewhere else with my screen, so I had no idea what happened. This could be kept in the dialogue ("Dialogue and Check-Roll(" section of the Journal.
5.1.1. RELATED TO THIS: Approval changes should either be completely hidden (eg. for any kind of super hardcore mode - meaning player has to know or understand the statements and visual cues of the other chars) or has to be completely transparent: I assassinated the initial goblin ambush in blighted village and only saw approval changes pop up for like a third of a second, but I had and still have no clue what my party members thought about pre-emptively slaying goblins. I have no chance to read or check what actually happened and how they were influenced.

5.2. Apply Hex (and all other abilities that can target different stats) needs some visual cue what kind of stat you actually lower. system as is, is not intuitive because I see the Apply Hex icon and then i see it five times more without any visual differences between the targeted stats

6. Issue: Where is my XP-bar? Am I blind or isn't there any?


OTHER STUFF I READ IN VOMETIA'S OPENER THAT I AGREE WITH:
1. Path Finding: safest vs quickest route. Right now the chars GLADLY take fall damage to get to some point quickest. Safer route better.
2. Space bar and conversation. Yeah, like skip-only, no convo-choice selection
3. One-liner NPCs should not get the cinematic treatment
4. Active party of at least 5 members. I know, this messes with the balancing MASSIVELY but in terms of fun and engagement: The more the merrier. also with 4 members you always lack one essential char. or leave someone useful at camp when there is no reason (at least I can't see any besides "Balancing"). I was angry when DA:O did this (NVN1+2 where awful in this regard) and D:OS and D:OS 2 kept it. I'm not a fan.

I hope someone reads this and it helps at least a bit!
Bye

Wyll dying before you even get to talk to him is pretty funny.

Perhaps his portrait on the loading screens should become a silhouette if he fails to survive the goblin fight.

Couple ideas, might be redundant but redundancy is good for statistics. This is a short list.

Camp may have spoiler

1. Camp Cleric - list of spells should be expanded to include healing, cure desease (okay brain doesn't want to spell). I can see it being exploitable if someone finds out how to duplicate gold, etc. Still with the amount of traps that are currently not showing up as disarmable, the things that make you ill, etc. It would be nice to have a secondary or tritary (??) third option to heal your party members. Adding another way to use resources (in this case gold) so your not burning through your clerics spells, health pots, food, etc. rapidly. Which may limit the amount of complaints from those struggling with the combat, and other things currently. This is also in keeping with 5e theme...

2. Skeleton?? Mummy? - Personal complaint is why does he have only a mummified head, while the rest of him is Skeletor? It should be one way or another in my opinion. Either he's complete skeleton, or complete mummy. The current way seems in my opinion a mashing of two ideas that in a sense doesn't convey strong feelings one way or another. Also to my mind just doesn't make sense.

3. The Camp - This is a curiousity tents appear, with no explanation, nor are they really useable. I can see how it adds a bit of flavor, but again as with a ton of barrels are they really necassary as they are currently unuseable, and except for side flavor add little to the game. Note: still thinking about this one myself as I'm not strongly for or against it.

4. Shadowheart (The Fickle One) - May be it's a bug, but still giving some feedback. Her randomly leaving the party is most annoying. If she leaves the camp it's fine, but when she's in a party she should at least say something before heading back to camp, then disappearing for a time.

5. The Companions - I personally believe they are fine, and don't need tweaks to make them (nicer), one need only go over the events that have forced them together, among other things. Captured by evil mindflayers (yup not going to make you trust, or be happy happy joyful), impregnated by said mindflayer (sure that will make you feel all warm and fuzzy), going to lose yourself as you turn into a mindflayer (Oh lets be friends with everyone we meet.), went through Hell (I need a new travel agent it seems positively lovely), fight demons and devils (just another day in a normal life), crashed a rare ship and nearly died all this time (a tea party is in order), and this doesn't take into consideration that every recruitable member of the party has sssecreets. Maybe it's my personal baised from having played pen and paper and seeing the same 'Oh we're in a party after just meeting so we're all friends, trope'

6. Not yet heard a dwarf say 'I'm caring a mules weight already!' okay this is just me wanting to hear it.

7. Overall impression. Of course it's still rough but its engaging, some outdated things in the story line (Being a Chosen is one and the biggest beef I have. Why can't I just be Joe Smo adventurer that got nabbed by filthy Mind Flayers and now has to find a way to get rid of it, and deal with his socially inept fellow pregnant people. Without all this Chosen bs.) Graphics have errors but are still as good as games that are fully released. Length of time is delicious since I know there is more coming out. Replayability so far is great, though some more dailogue options for each race would be nice. After all dwarves and elves don't see eye to eye. More like waist to eye, or eye to top of head. I'm looking forward to continueing each of my characters journey through FaRun, or restarting their journey over as incompatability happens. So far I'm enjoying Teethlings, and the interactions with all the npcs the game feels like it's actually a world, and not just a game. Cantrips for each race and subrace needs some work. To many have the same ones (this maybe a place holder). Also if you knock out people you should be doing the same amount of damage or slightly less. currently damage on a crit hit is 3, damage on a normal hit is 2. This no matter if your using a dagger, or a great axe.

I read the thread to this point and compiled all the repeating points I support, which are not on the first post (yet):

- a origin story would be nice
- more interactions from party member .. stronger opinions and consequences of your doing..
- more banters between party members (not only the pc) (e.g. BG anomen/keldorn, aerie/korgan, jan jansen/everyone, in DAO Morrigan/Mabari, Mass effect)
- more flags for camping... not telling your whole life story at the first camp, if you are not camping often (like telling everyone you are a vampire out of the blue)
- npc in later parts of the game.. npcs should have a life, goals and should act according (e.g. leave you, fight between party member, love between party members, comment on your choices and nag about them even later )
- wizards should not be able to learn spells from scrolls, which are not their class
- weather / day - night cycle
- get right of all the barrels oO
- better item and spell descriptions / lore / books
- alignment / reputation should play a bigger role (see npc reactions / leave you if you are to evil / good / do certain things)
- xp for non combat solutions
- fast travel should not be a teleport... it should trigger encounters if you travel through enemy territory
- cancel concentration on will
- an interface that shows details on progression for a given class and subclass - i.e. when I create a fighter I would like to be able to see what I can expect from the coming levels.
- would be great to be able to switch between companions during dialogues.
- dialogue options/ quest solutions tied to my selected background
- less divinity feeling more BG (much is in the presentation... and a bit in the writing. Some of it (UI, animations, voicework) (same shop as divinity e.g.)

Good detailed thread:
http://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=686488&page=1

The main short-form thing I have that I don't think has already been mentioned:

- Threatened. This should possibly have a smaller area of effect, I am frequently 'threatened' by people who couldn't hit me with a reach weapon if they were holding one, but that's minor. The biggie is that Sleeping, Held, Paralyzed, etc enemies should not Threaten. They are not a Threat, that's why I used Sleep, to stop them being a Threat. This combines very nastily with the new Elevation accuracy impact - which I like in isolation, for the record - to make some fights utterly impractical for ranged characters, especially Casters who lack alternative options. The ingame solution to this issue is to Sleep/Hold/Paralyse the offending enemies, but it doesn't work, leaving the player with no tactical solution available to them.

Its not used automatically. I attack twice with both weapons as an action and then I have the ability to use both my bonus action to attack two additional times. Look at the animation when you attack while wielding to weapons and see the damage numbers. It's always two numbers and the animation is of the character attacking with both hands.

Forgive me if any of the points are there already (especially in previous posts)!

1. Dice rolling is a core of D&D, but the number of dice rolls is overwhelming. Five throws in one conversation/action to get one single result is overkill, even for TRPG session. It's frustrating when you fail on a 4th roll to fail ultimately, making your rolls mean nothing. More about that here.

2. The difficulty of some dice rolls is absurd. Astarion is a pale guy with red eyes and visible fangs and he doesn't sleep at night, but when you see him next to a dead drained boar and he plays a fool, you must roll 15 or more to guess he's a vampire.

3. Lack of reactivity of your companions during dialogues with NPCs or other situations. I have a mage with high arcana on my team, but he stands behind me like a stake while I have option to roll for arcana. Why won't you let him roll instead of my character? A different situation - after failed roll my character leans in to mind flayer to let it suck his brain out, and my companions ignore it.

4. The linearity of dialogues straight from Fallout 4. Astarion is clearly behaving suspiciously, but I have no option to prevent him from attacking me. I can't draw my weapon (while there is an option when meeting Gale) and Shadowheart with Gale disappear for no reason. Forcing players like that is an opposite of TRPG.

5. The character creator is too ascetic regarding appeareance (I know it's still early access) and most of male faces are too sturdy in my opinion. Half-elven males are more elven than male Elves actually. Let us have more "beautiful" males for some races (human, elves, half-elves etc.). Here is a topic with good suggestions.

6. Enemies are much more powerful than their counterparts in the rulebook, making every fight a fight for life and forcing us to abuse long rest after each fight. It feels like DM is trying to destroy you at every opportunity. Here is a detailed topic about this problem.

7. The dialogue options and their frequency in the camp are low. Even in Dragon Age Origins, there were many more at the beginning of the game. I hope for well written relationships rich in dialogues and other activities.

8. Lack of background for our original characters. Dialogue options regarding our character's past would be a huge step forward. Here is an interesting topic about that matter.

9. Banters between companions are too short. It was well done in Dragon Age: Inquisition, where characters exchanged several sentences in interesting and funny way.

10. Perception roll is not helpful at all. It's important that my characters detected something, but I'd like to know what exactly and where. In BGII I knew it's a trap or hidden door in front of me, in BGIII I have to find it myself making perception roll useless.

11. Limited camera angle does not allow you to enjoy the graphics.

I've seen few similar threads, but i just copy/paste my own just to throw something here

1. Colors - many people see the colors in BG3 and instantly compare to DOS2, but it's true, and i think it's because of so much similarities with light green, too bright. if you look at BG1 the colors were definitely darker green

2. Party control - i think in old BGs had it right, click on portrait that avatar was selected, select 2 or 3 use mouse, select all you get the idea. this chaining HAS TO GO, i spent yesterday most of the day playing, my wrist hurts now. and if you say it worked in DOS (not really) and that's precisely why it shouldn't be here


Yer blind it's under the character sheet (N)

The hotbar needs some sort of organization. Every time I pick something up a new icon gets added to the hotbar. Every time I change my spells they get moved around on the hotbar. I just spent like 15 minutes cleaning up the hotbars for my party and after 30 minutes of play they're already back to an absolute mess.

The fix is simple: spells and abilities should just be locked on a bar and visible at all times. Items shouldn't be added to the bar unless I put them there.

look in the: bottom bar options in the settings, you can already select what's added and what's not right there

Open game preferences, there is a option for that.

+ 1, this list is good so far.

Can we have rolls of 20 and 1 be more of an event? At the moment I am finding the special animation happens quickly, the attack is made (similtaneously) and the action quickly moves on. I personally love the gratification of rolling that 20, and also the sheer gutwrenching hopelessness of rolling the 1 when it happens. I want the game to make me feel that more than it currently does by putting in more of a pause.

Also I agree with the request for more dice rolls because i love tabletop, but maybe make it a selectable game setting as non-d&d diehards would find it tedious.

As there are many threads like "This is not Baldurs Gate / d&d" ect.
Let me post a really good analysis of the "feeling" problem: Why does this not feel like BG and more like divinity


I would add that the party members add to this. In BG you get "normal" humans where Victoria is exotic. Here we start with a Githyanki and get a Vampire spawn right from the start.

So I'm with you on the "five consecutive dice rolls conversation", but this is nonsense. Astarion is an Elf, who like all Elves, doesn't sleep at night. He uses the same meditating animations PC Elves do. And also no, you aren't likely to leap to the conclusion that the pale Elf guy stood next to you under the midday sun is a vampire, I would think. Since he should, if he is, be a pile of ash at that point.

...tadpole.

According to Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes (p. 38), in the "Dreams from Beyond Memory" sidebar: Yes, elves can sleep, but find dreams to be mysterious and weird so they generally choose not to. I forgot about it completely and got confused by the conversation with Astarion in which he explained why he does not sleep when it's so late. The explanation was that he got used to the luxurious bed. I admit I was wrong about sleeping, but I don't buy Astarion's sun resistance. His fangs are obvious, even more abvious when he stands next to a drained boar.

Character Colors... like the Major and Minor color selection scheme ala BG1/BG2

I am seriously missing the option to change the trim colors of clothing/armor from a character menu. Since we spend so much time just viewing the back of CHARNAME's head anyway, I'd say this is probably the most expedient way to give us some kind of control over "the look" of our PCs. Not that we don't need more heads, cause of course more heads is best. But I think character colors would definitely help and be much simpler to execute.

If I can't import a portrait, design a unique 3D face, or change the look of the avatar beyond whatever the stock armor models can provide, then it just doesn't feel like I really have much control at all over my character's aesthetic or visual vibe. Like I'm glad that we spend so much time on our hair, but honestly a trim color wheel does a lot of the heavy lifting for creating a basic look on the fly. Its absence makes me sad, so just had to post it to the big thread in case we can still get it in here.

A color picker provides at least as much gameplay value as a couple dozen rotoscoped heads or additional armor sets. It's a simple concept but has a big return in replay value. It goes a little beyond Character Creation, since this was one of the few visual things we could actually change at any point in BG. Not to put too fine a point on it but how many photoshopped BG portraits must exist out there, just trying to change the color of Edwin's robe? lol. This is something everyone should get behind hehe

http://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=89379&Number=686883


ps. Mini Map

Also didn't see that mentioned here yet, but its been kicked around in a couple threads. Right now character/party orientation can be hard to quickly parse from the mini map.

The icons meant to show which direction a character is facing are currently planchette shaped, but a simple arrow would read better I think, especially when the mini is zoomed out.

When I searched the topic I saw others asking for a compass that is easier to read, or for more interaction like movement commands issued from the mini map.
I've toggled between the "rotate mini map" and the "no rotate" and can't decide which I prefer as a default. Anyhow its a core feature that could go under the List III User Interface heading. I'd like some freedom to move the UI elements around

1. Choosing to serve the illithids/absolute seems like just a "perfection" suicide with nothing to gain.

Joining, what basically seems like a suicide cult or a cattle pen, isn't IMO something any character I'd like to roleplay would choose.

2. Submissive romances/relationships force you into the dominant role(as always in RPGs).

Romantic/sexual interests(at least if they're women) that have some dominant tendencies in the game are at times way too fragile and eager to let the PC to take the reins and help/guide/save them. This shoehorns you into a dominant position in relationships(like prompting Lae'zel to speak to her kin at the bridge encounter and influencing her in ways that keep her from getting herself killed) regardless of any token submission you may choose to exhibit in the sack or otherwise.

Posted this on reddit and it's own thread, but I'm thinking Larian will most likely look here for most suggestions, so here's my list:

Spells

• Some spells from 5e have projectiles that don't travel in a direct line (like Magic Missile) and reach their target no matter what, and some work needs to be done to reflect that in game.
• Disguise self should allow us to not only look like all the available player races, but also goblins, hobgoblins, orcs, duergar, anything. I don't expect the game to reflect the height change rule with disguise self (because that's just probably really hard to set up so it works differently for halflings or something).
• I haven't tested detect thoughts much, but I've given it a shot on some critical discussions and it works and is pretty cool! However, I think spells like that should be changed so that the effect lasts a little longer. Because you can't cast it mid-dialog, I find myself rushing through dialogs to get to the point where I can use it, and I don't think that's intended.
• I love Speak with Dead so far, it's been really useful!

Inventory, items and Hotbar

• The improvements made to the hotbar and the customizability is a BIG improvement over DOS2. I love how this works, and I like being able to choose what gets automatically added.
• However, there don't seem to have been many improvements made to the inventory system itself over DOS2.
• Currently, we've got some weird variations of potions of healing and basic poison that don't stack with each other, don't have the correct text, etc, etc.
• We need a better way to move multiple items - multi-select, something like that. I spent WAY too much time in inventory management.
• Camp storage shouldn't just be an ordinary container. It needs to be at the least a popped out thing like when you pop out one character's inventory.
• Being able to name bags or customize auto-sort options for them would be really useful as well, though I bet that would be difficult to set up.

Combat and systems

• At first I didn't understand the high ground thing but now I'm beginning to think that it's there because the game doesn't have cover? This makes sense to me, but I don't think it should give disadvantage to range spell users (or whatever it's doing to reduce my percent-to-hit). Honestly, high ground should make you MORE susceptible to being hit by a warlock with eldritch blast from across the room.
• Advantage and disadvantage is REALLY important and it needs to be made more clear when you have advantage/disadvantage on something and when you don't.
• I don't really like the percent-to-hit system. I would prefer if we had other options as well: one where you see a full breakdown in tooltip of AC, advantage, all your modifiers, and what dice you're rolling, and one where you get only the information on what your modifiers are and what dice you're rolling (basically a harder difficulty one where you wouldn't be able to see resistances and AC when you examine a character).
• The range tolerances on melee weapons need to be increased a little - sometimes you can be just SO close to hitting someone, with your melee range circle actually ON their circle, but somehow you can't hit.
• War caster NEEDS to be added to the game. Concentration is really important right now, because it allows a lot of spells to be reapplied, etc, and currently it doesn't seem like characters make a saving throw to see if they can keep concentration.
• Some things need to be made more clear for players with no experience in D&D. Things above like advantage, but also what the damage dice mean, how modifiers work, how concentration works, initiative, and so on. I've seen a lot of streamers drop concentration on REALLY important things in combat (like hold person) because they didn't know the new spell would break concentration.
• Make it more difficult to accidentally skip a characters' turn when two characters have the same initiative. I found myself doing that many, MANY times.
• Shove needs to be nerfed, as much as it hurts me to say it. I love the mechanic, but it's WAY to strong right now, I've used it to win soooo many fights laugh