Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Mega-threads and Guides Feedback/requests for megathread topics

If you have any comments or requests about stuff that should go in the Guides & Compilations Forum, please reply here!

Continuing here, I was recommend separating out Content (gameplay guides, guides to certain classes, speed running guides, etc) into its own forum and Feedback/Bug compilation lists into their own forum.

The two subjects definitely have similarities (big ol'long forum posts with tons of replies) but they have very different purposes and topics. If I was a brand new user and wanted to provide feedback on the EA, I wouldn't think to click on the Guides sub-forum. My concern is that potentially useful user feedback will get lost because people won't know where to post it (in new thread in this forum for the mega-thread in the Guides & Compilations forum). I suppose ultimately it depends on what you intend to do with the Guides & Compilations Forum, but if you want users to post there (to add to the Feedback mega-thread for example) having the first word of the sub-forum name be "Guides" might confuse people.

I could change the wording around if you think that would help. It can easily be amended to reflect its primary purpose at any given time.

The main problem with multiple forums is that there're already quite a lot and that number will double once the modding stuff becomes active, and my aim is to balance "a home for everything" so it can be found easily without it degenerating into a Windows-style "maze of twisting drop-down menus, all alike" that's so easy to become lost in and hard to find what you want.

Perhaps then create 'official' threads for certain popular topics (Too many surfaces, some Bonus Actions should be Actions, Cantrips overtuned, etc.) so that once they get big enough, the feedback can be organized by topic within the "Compilation/Master Feedback" forum? Or alternatively, just move the existing threads on those topics to the new sub-forum? Players will be able to continue the discussions on the topics that are moved into the new sub-forum while simultaneously freeing up real estate in the main Feedback forum?

Hey Vometia,

May I suggest that you pin at least pin the 3 or 4 popular topics on the suggestion forum that will constantly get brought up?
Like character creation, evil path feedback and party size, Origin Character feedback for example.

I only say this to make it easier for Larian so they are no going through 30 pages of threads but just 4 to get a good splash of the general feedback.

Just my 2 cents.

Thanks, its in my own words but I have collated the strong feedback from both reddit and here. Would be happy to maintain a sticky with this kind of stuff

Be careful what you wish for. :p

Well, I'm serious! Would you like me to format it for the forum here? Its in reddit markdown at the moment but I can fix it up so you can sticky it

I didn't see an interior fog of war on your list, but otherwise pretty on point list.

I've seen relatively few discussions on fog of war, and not really a concise viewpoint I could present as what feels like a majority view. Do you have a thread you could link me that discusses the community idea in detail? Is it just being able to see the future terrain? Fog already exists for enemies and objects etc, you can't see them until your character is in LOS.

@vometia

People are already using this thread in the same way they were using the other thread that you just moved, as a place to list their feedback summaries and ideas. Not sure if that was what you wanted? I'm certain its because peeps know you are the main active mod right now and thus a potential conduit to the devs. So they will post their stuff where they think its likely to get the desired eyeballs on it, even if that's not exactly what you're after. Or maybe its because they expect you to be editing and distilling all this information into a giant list or something continously? That's a pretty daunting task to take on.

Do you have the power to create/rename forum categories?

If so I would suggest adding "EA" (early access) to each of the forums headings in the Baldur's Gate III section. That way when the game goes live a year from now, or whenever that happens, we can archive all these forums and start over with new sections and discussions relevant to the game after its fully cooked. This will help when people are searching the forums later on, and cut down on necro'd threads from the EA period that probably won't be relevant anymore at that point. Also provides an opportunity to create more focused sections later on based on the harrowing experiences and lessons learned from EA forums. When the game does eventually come out of EA, Larian should hire or deputize many more moderators to stay on top of these incredibly fast moving forums.

Right now its difficult to see much difference between the General section and the Feedback and Suggestions section, and there are already way more topics in each than any one person would be able to move around with redirects before going fully insane.

Are you the only one tasked with handling this right now? If so, I feel for ya. Its hard enough just trying to lock threads with offensive titles or personal attacks, let alone trying to stay on top of more basic organizational stuff like whether a thread is more appropriate in one section over another. A full party of 6 Flaming Fist moderators would be better than Lone Wolf'n it solo hehe.

Not sure but it seemed like you were looking at organizational ideas for a new forums section? If so I think I think you should consider dividing the feedback section into two basic branches, one that deals with the Narrative stuff and one that deals with the Gameplay mechanics stuff.

Some ideas for that kind of forums branching might be like...

Story Feedback and Suggestions EA: *Spoilers Abound
(for discussions about the Plot, Companions, NPCs, Conversations etc)

Stickied threads:

Charname
Lae'zel
Shadowheart
Astarion
Gale
Wyll
Goblins Camp
Druids Grove
Underdark
Good and Evil
etc


Gameplay Feedback and Suggestions EA:
(for discussions about game mechanics and rules *Please note any Spoilers)

Stickied feedback threads:

5e D&D (Rules and Q/A)
GUI
Character Creation
Spells
Abilities
Inventory and Equipment
Controls and Movement
Map and Journal
Monsters and Combat
Difficulty and Gameplay Settings
Environment/Surfaces
Multi-player
etc

Just riffing, there are probably a bunch of ways to organize the discussion topics. But the basic idea is that if we provide like a dozen subject threads stickied in each relevant section, then we can cut down on the number of duplicate threads or catch-all threads that are currently bogging down the forums and reducing its usability.

This way we can also have better and more informative thread titles at the top of each section. At least better titles than like "How Larian fucked up X" or "An Open Letter about X" or "My Feedback on Everything X" which is what we get now. Our Mods could draft or change those sticky titles to make them as clear as possible and help guide the discussions so that they are more constructive for Larian's devs or new users. Gives your forums members some direction, like "post here" for such and such, encouraging people to add to an existing discussion when possible rather than starting a new one. Searching forums is notoriously tough, so basically we'd be manually providing keynote subjects in the form of stickies.

For each sticky, after the initial post announcing which discussion the sticky is meant to cover, a Mod can place a post directly beneath to allow for periodic updates or to provide relevant links and stuff like that via edit later on. Hopefully have a Dev or Dev Liaison chime in from time to time, to keep the ball rolling, or at least prevent it from going flat or catching on fire. Forums are for discussion, so trying to transform them into archives is pretty hard, but stickies are basically the best we got in this kind of environment to keep things on course.

I really like the idea of a Guides section once there are guides to show off. I'm not sure its necessary now. I think unless it can be populated with enough threads to get onto page 2, it should be invisible for now and used as a clearing house later. The big feedback compendium thread was pulling weight before, since it gave people a place to post their big encyclopedia length feedback overviews and cut down on new topic creation in the feedback section. It won't serve the same role in the guides section. Guides section should be topical and specifically for guides if that's what it's called. The section descriptions right now are light hearted and that's fine, but I think they are way too expansive and would benefit from more focused descriptions. If this new section is meant as a clearing house for lengthy compendium threads, or to highlight or curate the more intractable debates going on that's cool, but then let's post a couple dozen in there to give the forum more purpose. Move the raging debate thread there or the party size thread and instead of calling it the Guides and Compilations forum call it the "Great Debates" forum.

Stickies within an existing forum are a better solution than creating a new forum section unless it has a clear purpose and enough content to be worthwhile. Most forums I lurk have at least half a dozen stickies per section.


As for the other forums sections...

General section is kinda rough, because anything with the word "general" in it sort of has to service everything. Some ideas there might be like a BGIII "Introductions" sticky so people have a dedicated spot for that. Or maybe a couple stickies meant to cover a broad range like "What I love of BGIII" or "Gripes" or "Noober" just to try and get some clearing houses going. Maybe a sticky specifically for nostalgia related to BG1/2 or one about roleplaying or D&D history or whatever. I really don't know what to do with the section, since its a catch-all.

Help Tips and Tricks: I guess is a Help Q/A forum? Just based on the content there I think a Help request feels pretty different from a Tips and Tricks exposé. The latter might fit better in a Guides section.

Technical and Gameplay Problems seems to be working largely as intended. I think there should be a direct link posted in there to Larians feedback portal (the one that allows users to attach gamesaves and screenshots.) Forums aren't really the best place for bug squashing, so basically a sticky that directs people to the official bug reporting portal, which asks them to list stuff like system specs and such. Right now there is a sticky called "List of issues big and small." The lead post is well curated but the title isn't particularly descriptive. Perhaps stickies that are more topical like DirectX.11/Vulkan issues, or a place to list Audio glitches vs another for Video glitches/Clipping. Conversation bugs. Maybe a sticky specifically for Exploits, which are a little different than like stuff that causes the game to crash or go haywire in other ways? Not sure exactly what the best way to organize that section might be, but might be cool to have a way to flag something as "Reported to Devs" or "Resolved."

Probably each forum section should have another Moderator or two to help lighten the load. I'm not sure they were really ready for the influx of Android's Dungeon pedantics that were bound to occur when taking over D&Ds lead franchise. But now that they have, some more zots into their community management apparatus would probably be a good idea. The steam forums are already hopeless, but at least for their in-house spot here I think it would help. People should really be paid for doing this kind of work, because it definitely is work. Dealing with trolls and chauvinists or combing through discussions to try and clamp down on hate speech or whatever is fucking taxing. Its the developers responsibility to make sure there are enough moderators here to maintain a welcoming environment for their players and to set a civil tone for the discourse. Its also unfair to put just one or two individuals in the position of having to arbitrate and police everything, since they can become lightning rods and subject to harassment or just general burnout without some backup.

I'm sure you could deputize a least a few more helpers who would do it just because they enjoy helping out and want to participate in some way. We need enough mods to account for time zones too, so there aren't gaps in the day where the forums go unmoderated.

Just give them a "Flaming Fist" forums badge or a signature that says "I am the Law!" or something like that, you'd probably find a dozen recruits pretty quickly to help moderate.

I think they should unlock @s, polls, upvoting/downvoting on posts and things of that sort if its possible, just to make these forums more user friendly and simpler to navigate.

Anyhow, thanks for your hard work so far! I know its not easy

best
Elk

Based of this topic https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=680586

Make Intimidation a Str based skill or allow player to choose Str\Cha, this is a very common rule used by DMs. It allows you to avoid illogical situations when tiny bard is more intimidating than brutal barbarian.

A brief update: nowhere near done yet but a few things implemented or at least the intention to get on with it.



I have reworded the forum title and description which is hopefully a bit clearer, though I am happy for suggestions and other feedback if it's not quite "there" yet.


My current plan is to swipe some of the more active topics (with a courtesy PM to the OP with the option to put it back where it was if they're not keen) which can be retitled if necessary. Suggestions are welcome.


That is a possibility I'd considered; my main concern is that even just three or four combined with my pinned list of stuff and typically 1-2 global announcements creates a big enough block of seemingly unchanging stuff that people will probably just skim over it; and it doesn't leave a lot of latitude for adding stuff. This is my attempt to find something that works but it isn't set in stone, so if it doesn't work out we'll try something else.


Thanks very much for the feedback! I'm still playing catch-up (somewhat busy and lacking in sleep lately) but I'll go through your handy list and see what might be helpful to implement; I'll also post it in the moderators' forum for comments there too.

Thanks so much for your time and comments, all.

Looks better. Not sure if it makes sense to merge a couple threads that are discussing the same topics in different places? For example...

Party size (4 vs 6):
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=679595&page=1
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=690281#Post690281
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=672266#Post672266


Level Cap
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=663515#Post663515
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=673884#Post673884
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=667320#Post667320

Those could probably be merged if we have that feature on the forums.

I also saw a bunch of lengthy threads discussing 5e, or comparisons to DivinityOS 1/2 and BG1/2. Party movement/pathing. Romances. GUI etc. Couple subjects that seem to gather quite a few replies. I don't know that thread length necessarily means a better thread, but perhaps makes sense to just go through and see which subjects have garnered more than like 5 pages. Or if any of them might be merged into something more Mega sized to populate this section?

I still think it would be nice to have some stickies with general categories and discussion prompts. As opposed to just moving existing threads, maybe we gather internal links and then frame new stickies by subject, with links to earlier discussions where it makes sense. Going back past 50 pages and some subjects are more speculative, since they were clearly posted before the EA actually launched. But maybe there's some stuff in there too

Best
Elk

Not sure if this necessarily would belong in here but I thought this post was pretty slick. An official survey would also work if Larian wanted to put one together.

https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=712680#Post712680

With all the many posts going on it's sometimes hard to get a good grasp on where the community is standing on various topics. I thought this worked pretty well.

+1

Assuming Larian is ready to survey the state of the game.

There are many topics on the forum that are devoted to discussions about the number of party members - 4 vs 6
You can combine them, and add here to a large mega-thread

Re-iterating party size:
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=679595&nt=19&page=1 (the other threads are just a lesser repetition)

- not sure they need merging / recombining, those threads are in fact a repetition of the same statements since most people don't read the posts above theirs (given the size of the thread, one can understand why)

Party management:
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=679414&nt=12&page=1

I'd still suggest tapping some more forum moderators.

The EA for BG3 isn't even a month old yet, but the BG3 sections have like 70,000 posts already. The BG3 feedback section is almost twice as large as that of DOS2. Active threads frequently push to the second page and third page within an hour.

They really should try to get ahead of it, so they can hold onto all these peeps trying to provide serious feedback, before they just start dissappearing into the aether.

Prompts for guided feedback in the form of stickies would help, since there's a lot of reduplication of topics in the General and Feedback sections. Right now each section only has like 1 or 2 pins. I'd recommend targeting like a half a dozen pins or more, in each section, and creating new forums sections when needed with specific stubs/subjects in mind.

The current sections are too broad and trying to be too comprehensive with too much overlap. Better to have more targeted sections with more pins in each so people can see the major topics right away, rather than having to fish back several pages of threads to find the subject they want to discuss, or just creating a new thread for subjects already discussed at length.

It should just be a given that posts during EA are likely to contain spoilers, and basically everything right now falls under the suggestions/feedback heading.

I'd say creating new threads for hot topic discussions and pinning them might be simpler in some cases than searching for existing threads to pin.

Once pinned the thread/subject will draw plenty of attention I'd wager, and probably some reposts or copy/paste jobs from existing threads. But that's fine. Its more about just carving out some pinned spaces at the top of each section, with thread titles that are descriptive and focused, so hopefully people post there instead of creating new threads.

Here are some more ideas...

"My Feedback after the first playthrough"

There are many many threads with this title or something similar, and each new thread pushes and buries all the others. The more such threads there are, the less likely any of them actually get read. We could just have a single pinned thread with that as a title for people to drop their massive feedback missives.

That's a very generic type of sticky thread, others might be more specific. Maybe Fighter feedback, Thief feedback, Wizard feedback etc if trying to gather feedback related to class.

I still think an easy division might be between Story feedback (say for specific companions or quests, feedback in the plot/writing, Evil or Good playthrough and such) vs Gameplay/Mechanics type feedback (where threads could be organized by the related Char creation or UI elements.) Just an idea, its a bit of work, but I think it would help to really differentiate the forums sections as much as possible.

Best
Elk

Hope, this is the right thread. Also english is not my native language, so please be kind to me trying to express myself here.

1) I´am OCD person, so I would really like the hotbar to be divide by abilities, spells, items, potions and scrolls. Lot of times I missed new trick just because it was behind some scrolls and potions. (In my second run I´am more organised)

2) In the inventory I would like to sort my items by price, weight and so on.

3) It would by really greath if all the characters went into stealth mode if they are in the group together

4) This ones are just for fun in the camp...
a) sending items in the camp... Books go to books, potions go to some potions rack, weapons to weapons rack and so on
b) i would really like to throw the bone (of my enemies) to Scratch
c) there is this chapel/ruin in the camp and I picked up a lot of paintings ... I would like to hang them on the walls
d) also I would like to make some altar to the gods (I have the statue of Selune to iritate Shadowhart)

5) And because I´m OCD and a collector... I would like to collect things in the game (but this is also purely optional and for fun)


The game is amazing and I love it more and more, cant wait for the whole act 1 and act 2 and 3.

Not to bumpty bump again too hard, but this section really needs more threads hehe

I still think curating pins in the sections we already have might be more useful than moving threads here. Not sure if we need a special spot for mega threads just as a way to keep them from getting lost. That's really what pins are for. The current default for a forums section shows 20 threads per page, or at least did so for me without switching up any settings. That's plenty of room to pin say half a dozen hot button threads in each section. Can always unpin them later on if they cease to be active or relevant after more patches come through.

For the General forum section how about a pinned thread with the following...?

Baldur's Gate 3 Community Links:

-Official BG3 feedback and bug reporting
https://larian.com/support/baldur-s-gate-3#feedback

-Larian BG3 discord
https://discord.com/invite/larianstudios

-BG3 reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/

-BG3 Modding
https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3

Or maybe for people who haven't played D&D something like...

-D&D general intros
https://dnd.wizards.com/basics-play
https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/DnD_BasicRules_2018.pdf

-Forgotten Realms intros
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page
https://dnd.wizards.com/dungeons-and-dragons/what-is-dd/forgotten-realms

or some other similar links to D&D or 5e primers, since there are probably a few good ones floating around that might be cool to signpost. A thread like that might work to showcase BG3 twitch or youtube categories as well, or at least like
https://www.youtube.com/user/LarianStudios for the official whatevers.

That's just like basic basics, but could do similar things for major discussion topics too.

I still think some more Flaming Fist mods would be good to have on hand. I don't know but I see a lot of people on these forums who seem to be pretty adept at the cataloguing and categorizing things to make subjects more accessible, or who seem to be knowledgable trying to help others find links or info, especially in the Q/A forum. Also a few of those people collating the big lists and such who have the gift of gab with forums formatting and imbedded images etc, trying to frame out discussions in more focused or visually organized ways. Recruiting a few more mods from the less abrasive cohort of forum soapboxers, and just putting them to work on building out specific sections for the forums. It might help to stay abreast of the rapid thread turnover. It could be done in an invisible section first and organized there to see how it looks, before pushing it out to the full forum.

Here's a cool chronology topic just popped up when glancing the General section
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=675618#Post675618

ps. Vive la Fête! heheh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGPIttN9SmI

I am a Korean buyer, and I am uncomfortable because it is noticeable to add elements that are not in the rules or change rules. Clearly, didn't you promise to make a game that faithfully implements D&D?

I hope that I don't keep inserting elements that aren't in the game or change the rules at will, and look at the rulebook properly.

If D&D TRPG players are frustrated, how close will the Nexus come up with a mod that modifies it closer to the D&D5 version?

If you want to make an original Larian game, go back to the Divinity series, and if you want to make it properly, I want you to look at the rulebook properly and make it.

Even if the original Larian element is not added unconditionally, there are already many elements that guarantee the degree of freedom in D&D.

For example, if you want to make a fire blanket with a cantrip, you don't need to use the function of making a fire cover by removing the damage of a fire bolt, but find a cantrip that makes a fire cover and insert it. Or, fire bolts have more damage in each specific section, but are you going to reduce the damage that is strengthened? Then it would be very disappointing.

And I hope you don't limit the number of game parties to four. Whenever I need a character's function, it's very inconvenient to have to take a long break deliberately to put that character into my party. At least 5 people. It would be nice if there were 6 people generously.

And I'd like to solve the bugs that are still not resolved (e.g., a bug where shadowhearts are recruited for a very short time, but shadow hearts are doubled in cutscenes). Even by having you work from home

Translated by Google Translate, this can be very awkward.

They didn't. They said that they'd adapt the rules to make them work in videogame.

I'd like to hear Larian's intentions on that topic too. I've tried to ask in other threads but couldn't get an answer.

First I started reporting the deviations, as I'm sure others did, then I noticed a post from an admin saying the purpose of the Early Release wasn't testing (implicitly saying we should not report problems, only suggestions). It wasn't clear though, so at this point I'm not sure what is useful to Larian and what is noise to them. I'm not sure this deviation from D&D 5th Edition is unintentional either.

Actually, if I had to guess at this stage and without any comment nor feedback from them, I'd say the deviations are intentional: changes in the type of actions / bonus actions / interactions, no reactions, prerequisites and benefits of some features like sneak attack, how often we can perform those actions, ... So I suppose the idea was to take inspiration from the D&D settings and rules, and adapt them.

I'm not judging, each path has its merits, but it would be nice to know where we stand. For example if someone plans to host DM sessions, should they announce it's a custom ruleset, or D&D 5th Edition? It would also fix the ideas and avoid many people from reporting "deviations" and creating mod on Nexus to fix them, if the intention is to have a customization based on D&D rather than a strict implementation like Solasta (which is the only one to my knowledge, there might be others) for 5E, NWN 2 for 3.5E, and so on.

EDIT: Also, in the FAQ, this makes it even more confusing:



... because that is incorrect.

So which is it?

Also saw davil974's question (and so, my reply) don't belong to this thread. The title has apparently changed en route, so I hadn't realized at first.

Mate is a videogame, they are trying to adapt the rules at the best capabilities possible for a videogame, that still needs to be engaging, not too repetitive. Plus is not easy to include everything that runs through your imagination on a DeD session in a limited size game, please be serious.
There needs to be quality of life mechanics on a videogame.

There's a difference between adding/having quality of life mechanics and changing fundamental mechanics of 5e... and quite frankly, there are too many unnecessary changes to fundamental 5e mechanics in BG 3 already.

It's too easy to get advantage in combat, making various class features undesirable to use, hide and disengage removed from the rogue's Cunning Action feature and given to everyone, certain spells not worth taking because of changes to monster AC/HP, etc.
I'm not asking for Solasta 2.0, but a somewhat closer implementation of 5e rules would be great.

Having to rely on modders to fix these issues is problematic, since there's no guarantee a mod gets updated.

Obviously you're not familiar with D&D, please check the ruleset before commenting on the subject. This has nothing to do with the type of implementation (video game, board, ...). Also, we're talking about Baldur's Gate 3, not Mate (whatever this is).

It's a CRPG, and many of those are based on Pathfinder or D&D, there was no problem with that (but it was already in my post, you jumped at the first words without reading the rest).


I haven't tried this mod, it was a very courageous move! But yeah, I wouldn't like to maintain that, especially if that changes the balance in the game: the other risk is going against what the dev intended for their custom ruleset.

I have no big problem if they do their custom ruleset, I enjoyed Divinity: Original Sin 1&2, Pillars of Eternity and other games that were not using Pathfinder nor D&D. Although I quite like D&D and would prefer to have it here, that's sure But something in-between is disturbing, especially when it's advertised as such. Tactical Adventures showed that it was possible to implement the ruleset faithfully and get really enjoyable combat mechanics.

That, and indeed the balance... now the rogue is clearly over-powered.

Can we have a Mega thread for six-party members discussion? people keep creating those and they are everywhere. Just take one of the more detailed ones in the suggestion forum and refer everyone who wants to discuss it there

+1 to 6 party

Also:

AC reduction / HP bloat

Surfaces on cantrips

Barrelmancy

Backgrounds for characters

Party movement needs improvement

We demand Borat thongs

Okay, I'm willing to compromise on the last. A mod can make that into a loading screen.

But it would be nice to see the others become megathreads

Sorry to say, but I really disagree with this approach. I think its a solution in search of a problem that doesn't currently exist, and that the forums would be better served with more topical pins in each relevant section, at least for now.

In my experience people do read pinned threads, especially people who are new to a forum. Pins are a very useful organizational tool for everyone, especially when a forums section is very broad in scope, which is the case with the General and Feedback/Suggestions sections.

The forums aren't being bogged down right now with a proliferation of guides, or an overabundance of stickies that are taking up too much screen real estate here, but they are being beset by thread/subject reduplication.

The most direct way to get a handle on it is to pin hotbutton threads with clear descriptive titles. If you find that there are way too many pins to manage, then adding a few more moderators and creating a new forum section at that point might make sense. But I just don't think we're there yet, or likely to get there soon. Right now the issue is more the sheer volume of contributors and feedback being provided and lack of overall structure to the two main discussion sections. The news, QA, and technical help forums are fine. Its General and Feedback that are caught in the maelstrom.

My impression is that the General section is maybe more for servicing levity, and the Feedback section is more for gravity, but that's just an impression and its rather inconsistent right now. Pinned threads with descriptive titles could help to frame each section out a bit more and model the kinds of discussions we want to encourage there. A couple new sections might also help.

For example, having a BG3 new users section which is maybe more inviting and welcoming for newbs and introductory level stuff, with general info and useful link pins and an atmosphere less prone to condesension pedantics might be nice. Shout-down or abrasive posts in this section should be strongly discouraged and the section should be carefully moderated. We don't need assholes ruining the welcome wagon, so the Mod hammer should fall hardest here. The attitude should be "welcome to the party" or "thanks for stopping by, we're so glad you came. Here's the bar and there's the restroom, come meet our friends" as opposed to like, "fuck off newb! Who invited you anyway?! You don't know thing one about jack! That's so last year!" Lol. So we need some deft mods and friendly pins to help engender the friendly kind of environment I think. Everyone casting bless and cure light wounds basically.

To offset perhaps a section that is more specifically for sour grapes where people can go to grumble and complain about things they really don't like, or to play devils advocate and argue in flame wars, which is fine for a forum with this many members as long as its contained. Maybe a warning like "Here be Dragons" or arguing into uncharted terrain so people know what they're getting into. Giving trolls a bridge to congregate under can sometimes be helpful in a gripes thread, as long as they're only part time trolls, but it should really be more for spirited debates or strong opinions, never personal attacks, so again highly moderated, ideally, if we know its going to be a more fraught section. 'BG3 ruined my childhood' or whatever, walling it off so flaming hands and fireballs don't bring down the rest of the castle.

Those types of sections for a forum tend to be more siloe'd off which I think is useful. The idea is to have a couple sections that are almost mood oriented. Like maybe

"Lets meet" all the intro stuff, FAQ, linkchains
"Let play around/humor" general section BG3 on topic/ sub section slightly off topic D&D or gaming etc
"Lets learn/teach/review" news, QA section, EA feedback
(Needs the most work I think in pins, with story vs gameplay mechanics topics or guided discussion.)
"Lets scribe/archive" which is what the above turns into after a year or so I'd guess. Or this section we're in right now. Curating feedback.
"let's argue/debate" flaming hands, the opinion section on topic agon.
"let's fix/build" bugsquash and development/mods

I just think this place needs a bit more structure overall so its easier for people to navigate and locate the topics they are interested in discussing. I think feedback section could be broken up into 2 or more forums sections with a dozen or so pins to cast guiding bolt on the whole thing hehe

Right now the single most useful pin for feedback section would be one called "My comprehensive feedback"

Not a discussion thread, but a place for people to make single entry posts (giant lists or walls of text), that contributors can then edit/update as time goes on.

This is the most reduplicated thread I've seen so far on these forums (usually with a subtitle like "after 120 hours", or "from a D&D veteran" or "Larian please listen to me!" whatever.) These could all be in one large thread, or a dedicated section where contributors are only allowed to start one thread per person. There are probably a thousand of these right now in separate topics, often with no replies or just a couple +1 type posts if they are well organized.

The reason to do it in a large mega thread with single post entries, or single subject section with only 1 new thread per contributor is so that people are encouraged to join a topical discussion already ongoing if possible. You know instead of trying to post an encyclopedic "cover everything all at once" type thread, which is likely to just get buried anyway, regardless of how good or useful the feedback might be. It will also help new users or devs to see where there is broad concensus or broad divergence on a particular issue that keeps coming up. This is basically the feedback compendium thread you have posted here already, but it should really remain in the Feedback section where it originated I think, where it can do the heavy lifting, and in the OP explain that this is meant for large compendium length posts only, not open discussion or multiple short replies.

Feedback template could also be helpful. Like where the larian feedback link is provided
https://larian.com/support/baldur-s-gate-3#feedback
Maybe pin to note weekly/monthly guided feedback on particular topics or stuff that has been patched in recently. To help it stay on target for whatever is coming down the pipeline.


Forum feature to merge threads and upvote would also be good I think.

Indeed. Forums can't serve all purposes, it's fine for people to discuss topics among themselves, but it's not the right tool for massive feedback to a developer. Not as such, anyway.

Categories we currently see:

• actual problem reports (PR), duplicated since there is zero feedback to the users, so a) a user who reported the problem doesn't know whether it's been seen, overlooked by lack of time, definitely forgotten and drowned. Examples: the game doesn't start, hit points are not correctly computed, a quest is broken
• simple suggestions (same issue as bug reports, though it's less critical), by "simple" I mean it's quite obvious, quality-of-life issue but not a bug. Example: an inventory auto-sort button would be nice
• "controversial" suggestions, which tend to generate debates and very long threads, which new posters don't read so they just repeat what other said above, even if that was answered already. Those threads are duplicated because there is no resolution. Examples: we need 6-character parties, implement D&D 5E correctly, group selection
• mega "report-all-issues-here" threads with many unrelated PRs or suggestions: gathering everything in a single thread is probably the worst that could happen, since it's impossible to classify, to keep track of, and because people won't read posts above theirs. Those should just be avoided.
• communication from the devs or staff, that are very important in a forum, with proper use of sticky, separate thread for feedback, and so on. Example: release notes (sometimes found in multiple sub-forums, allow some people to reply but not all, ...)
• other discussions that have their place in a forum, and are discussions between users (here the forum is not used as an interface to the staff)

I don't know how many forum admins there are, nor how they percolate the useful information to the dev team.

Little feedback from experience: In another game, we used forums for the feedback, and moved the threads to a "known issues" sub-forum. Or after a while, better yet, we simply tagged the thread titles with the usual "[reported]", "[fixed]", "[won't fix]", ... tags. That more or less worked, but it was still a lot work for us admins, so we were a few to share the work. We had access to the bug tracking system and could give feedback to the users when we had the time. Of course there are always people who won't search first, so there were still duplications, but nothing to do with what I'm seeing here. And at least there was feedback on what happened to the PRs.

So, how to address the different issues? Duplication by laziness or lack of feedback seem to be 2 good candidates to address. For the threads, I'm of course assuming one thread per issue, which is summarized in the title (that's the most basic classification one can have).

Suggestion of appropriate tools:

• category sub-forums: basic partitioning of the issue at hand (avoid multiple levels and too many categories).
• upvote threads: if users have the same problem, they upvote an already-reported PR. They know the number of votes will drive priority, so it's in their interest not to duplicate.
• up/down votes for suggestions: same idea, will not avoid the "I don't read past posts" issue, there is simply no way around that, most people have an attention span of 15 seconds and can't be bothered. But at least, at a glance, one can see the trends, and some priority can be established.
• bug tracker: a read-only access will give all the necessary feedback. BUT it's quite technical. As an alternative, a maintained list of known issues, but by experience they tend to be too long to maintain in a forum.
• tagging PR: [reported], [cannot reproduce] and so on. At the very least, anything that tells the user that someone has seen his/her problem. This could be applied to the PR and suggestions, with or without the upvote system.
• bug report from within the game: the most efficient for the user, and with some drop-down to classify, perhaps a very useful help for the devs (since all details on the user's system and a screenshot can be included). Have a look at Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, from Owlcat Games, for example.

Then about the communication to the users. It's an early access, it would be good to be clear about what is expected from the users, to avoid pointless threads and discussions.

• when there are long and duplicated discussions ("controversial" suggestions, above): why isn't anyone from the staff giving some feedback? Examples like the "more than 4-char party", "deviations from D&D 5th Edition" generate a lot of noise. If the users know that it's on purpose, that it won't change, that it may change, that would help. Just ignoring the problem won't.
• idea of the roadmap: if peole know what to expect, there's less speculative noise

PS: those forums also have a few other issues, like no image upload, the cursor disappearing when writing messages, and an improper notification system, but I suppose it's possible to live with it. But again, when you start having many users, it's worth considering tuning and patching the system, or even replacing it with a more appropriate one.

I think what we want is a number of threads that the person who takes this stuff to the higher ups can easily access. And we want those 'megathreads' accurately represent the opinions of the forum.

I just saw yet another "stop the surfaces" thread. Clearly, this is a topic worthy of a megathread. I don't know how many "please implement D&D combat rules accurately" threads there are but there sure are lots of 'em.

Hi
I dont know where to put this.
I feel that all the classes feel the Same: most of them can have access to the same spells, the rogue, ranger and warrior abilities are just normal attacks with bonus, i use the cleric or wizard the same way as a ranger when there arent spells anymore... They dont feel "special" like classes can feel in other rpg games (like Pillars). So more special tactics and ways of playing and spells would be welcome.. not just different kinds of "enhanced basic attack"

Too many scrolls, yes, and too many potions/bombs/poisons

Well heck, I believe this is a bug but not 100% sure but I'm hoping that it gets fixed in the next update. When you are running a Ranger Knight and you get to Level 4 you get to taka a FEAT instead of taking your ability score improvement. And under the Dual Weapon, it says "Gain a +1 when wielding a Melee weapon in each hand and currently it's not giving us the +1 to the AC like it should be doing. And as for me, I'm liking my current Female Half-elven build as she really knows how to kick arse and take names<G> Can we get this one taken care of, please?



Now if you'll excuse me I've got to go see a Tiefling about my reward for taking out the Toll house take care and happy gaming

6 party? Why so many? Been a while since I played a BG game but don't remember that there was 6 party members. I could be wrong though like I said it's been years. Might have to load up BG2

OG BG/BG2 have 6 including your PC as the max party size, though you're not beholden to that. I know some people chose to play with fewer as the game divides XP rewards by the current number of party members, so you'd level up quicker at the cost of more tactically difficult encounters.

1.Now as for the Hotbar you mentioned I couldn't agree with you more. if not like that for which you say one that separates your regular spells from your cantrips so that they are easily distinguishable.

2. As for the sorting of the Inventory by price weight etc. That there is would be easier said than done. With the price, it depends on charisma.

3. I disagree with the whole party going into stealth together. You see most games like this for which I've ever played the Stealth mode was only useable by the thief/rogue character

4. A. Sending items to camp is already done and goes to a chest but if you want them to auto-sort I think that would take a lot more to do.
B. Now being able to give a bone of one of your enemies to scratch on occasion would be cool.
C. I don't remember the Chapel/ruin are in the camp
D. I take it you don't care for Shadowheart?<G>

5. Well then you should be playing Skyrim with the museum mod installed.

As for me I'm not a fan of Lae'zael<sp> or Astrions Lae because she seems to hate everyone that isn't her race and Astrion because the SOB tried to kill me the first time I came across him. If it weren't for the fact that so far he's the only thief in the game I'd of killed him the first day we met.

I do agree that we need a place for game bugs

This 60 page topic should definitely be moved to the mega-threads section

https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=659630&nt=60&page=1

So, I think this is the area to put it. I just wanted to throw a couple of suggestions for races/subclasses out here, A.) Because these are some of my favourites and I really hope they get added, B.) I am hoping to see other people play around and experience them (I don't play a lot of dnd but I really love it) and C.) I think that these are really cool and they can add some great encounters that can help shape more unique experiences within the world. Now, without further ado, the races:

Deep Gnome:
Ok, so, this is assuming that Gnomes get added in. Deep Gnomes are really cool little guys that will help encourage thinking about the stealth aspects of the game (stone camouflage, I believe it's called). Also, Deep Gnomes already exist within the world and we can see them in-game! Though, this might work as a detractor because they are supposed to be rarer and if you see one within the character creator it would make rescuing the Deep Gnome from the windmill seem less extraordinary. Though I feel that because they are rare, this could greatly add to their uniqueness as more races are going to be surprised by seeing them, this would also boost the existence of races hailing from the Under-Dark that would have special interactions with the Drow. Deep Gnomes likely have a history with the Drow as Drow are typically conquerers and subjugators, this would give different options for interacting with Minthara and her crew. (As an aside to this, I would like to see if there can be some DIalogue options with the Drow turned to stone by the Beholder in the Underdark. They really interest me and I was hoping they wouldn't be hostile to my Lolth-sworn Drow, but alas they were)

Goblin:
So, I must admit that this one is quite selfish. I have a character concept that I want to play as but haven't had the opportunity. Aside from playing my College of Valor Goblin Bard who is terrified of everything and everyone but sings the songs of heroes to give herself courage, Rosemary Blackthorn, I also think that Goblin would just be more fun to play as. It would add more interesting experiences when interacting with the goblins who are worshipping the absolute. Currently, you get special interactions from playing as a Drow, someone who is usually high on the totem pole, but imagine playing as a Goblin, you certainly won't be intimidating them because you are a Drow and therefore usually someone to command them, but instead you are a Goblin, someone who is a grunt and is sent out to do the dirty work, you could earn a name for yourself (maybe Minthara might even let you live, provided you take none of the glory). Additionally, tons and tons of Goblin assets already exist in the game, so it would most likely be easier to implement into the game than some of my other suggestions.

Kobold:
This one is also a more selfish suggestion. Kobolds are my favourite race to play. They are so small, and almost dog-like but with reptile bodies. I just think they are extremely cute and would love to see them. I understand if they don't get added, it might be a lot of unnecessary work to add in the textures and try and find a place to fit them into the world, it wouldn't be very easy. I love them though so I will still try for an argument. Kobolds might be found to be working with groups such as mountain dwarves, being the natural miners that they are, and have a faction who are basically mercenaries that work by night. I also just now realise that Sunlight Sensitivity would be a thing so another detractor for many people (though this might be an opportunity to allow the different shadings of light affect gameplay. Meaning the clear, lightly obscured and fully obscured settings). It would be difficult, still, I would be doing a disservice if I hadn't tried.

Tortle:
I saw some whispering that this might be coming because of a book next to Bex. I very much enjoy Tortles, and one of my Tortle characters will actually influence one of my subclass suggestions. Tortles are great for having an inherently tanky character on the front lines. I love them. They would also be a good way to have some special areas that can only be accessed by certain spells or races, I am thinking of watery areas here. Maybe there is a location that is hidden underwater, you wouldn't have to include more verticality here, but there could be an opening/door system that can only be gone through if you are under the effects of a water breathing spell or you are playing a race/class that has specific water-breathing or breath-holding abilities.

That is all for the races. As you can probably tell, I have a preference for the smaller races, I think that they are tons of fun and really cool! I hope someone will read this because it's a long one and there is even more to go! Now, onto the subclasses:

Circle of Spores:
This is the one that I said was influenced by my Tortle. Though, I feel that there could be somewhat of a legitimate argument for this. The myconids that we meet in the Underdark likely would have some words to say if they met a druid that was connected with the circle of Life and Death, one whom also had the ability to use spores. They might feel more inclined to treat this druid with respect, giving them a gift or maybe teaching them a new spell. Or, perhaps someone like Glut would see them as a usurper, someone who can be used an immediately turned upon when they have done their service. Circle of the spore druids are also relatively new and it would prompt players to look outside of the player's handbook to find things, which I think would be awesome!

Oath of Redemption:
This one I also feel like could have a strong argument. Oath of Redemption paladin focuses on the rehabilitation of foes, rather than the destruction of them. It would be awesome to see some moments specific to Oath of Redemption where a villain who was previously unable to be talked down, is able to because you are just so adjusted to helping people along, this could open up new story pathways where a former enemy, might just be there to help you out, provided you keep helping them along the path of redemption. This is the one that I am the most excited about, and if you ignored anything and everything else but this, I would be a happy, happy man. This subclass would also emphasize the going the pacifist route, which I've recently tried and find it to be rather difficult. I bring up the pacifist route because it seems like something that Larian Studios wants to emphasize as an option and make it available (I gather this from the "Inspiration, Freedom & Pacifism" community update). Again, I would highly suggest adding this in, it can be tons of fun and might even add a few really enjoyable moments to the game!

School of Necromancy:
While watching the Panel from Hell 1 video in anticipation of the Panel from Hell 2 video, I saw that the Creative Director seemed to want people to try the more nefarious route, and I am sure that the School of Necromancy would boost the want for people to do this. I don't know if you already plan to add it, you are including a good amount (if not all) of the content from the Players Handbook, but just in case you weren't. This is a great one. And, it doesn't necessarily have to be for an evil character, perhaps some of the more radical, nature-infused minds of the world will recognize necromancers as upholding a vital part in the balance of nature. This could also be an argument for the Grave Cleric subclass which I also would not mind.

Final words: I love this game, and I really hope to see plenty of unique interactions and a variety of gameplay options. If you are only reading this part because the rest is too long (I don't blame you) I want to refer you to the Oath of Redemption part, that is the one that I want to hammer in the hardest, I think that it can be tons of fun and that it would add a great deal to the game! I love you all.

I didn't even realize that this subforum existed until one of the feedback threads was moved here. Is there any chance of having feedback-related megathreads just stickied in the feedback subforum? It's weird that the same kind of feedback lives in two different places based on how long the thread is and it's really easy to miss the threads that live here.

Yeah I still think that too.

I just wish more energy had been spent before actually launching the EA to really set up a more impressive and dedicated forum portal specifically for this game. This forum feels like it's a dozen years old, probably because it is lol.

Rather than adding more sub sections to the existing developer's forums for the Divinity games, or allowing this to become a space for speculation months before the EA was even out, we could have launched a whole new spot. With like BG themed avatars, sidebars, image attachments, flying news headers and such, or other features to lean harder into the D&D angle. Maybe invest in some D&D themed emojis and whatnot so the feel would be more exclusive to BG3. I think this clearly bled over into the attitude that Baldur's Gate was being approached as a continuation of the existing Divinity franchise, since we're basically on the Divinity forums to do all the feedback for it.

Short of that, I wish at least for a completely separate and invisible section only accessible to Early Access players. Not that they couldn't have a more open general public space too, but it's just annoying if these forums are allowed to morph into another version of the Steam Forums or Reddit or whatever, where everything gets buried in a crossover rando flurry. Could have shored up a ton of the sprawling ramble factor at the outset with a little more attention to curating the discussion prompts or organizing stuff on the front end. It's hella hard to clear a path after letting it get this overgrown. Maybe blank slate it and launch a new forum/portal when the game goes live, but it would have been better I think during EA.

ps. Also, do these boards have an excessively long load time from the main page for others? I'm really only interested in the 6 sections that have to do with the BG3 game, but to get there that way, I had to load like 72 sections worth of old stuff from the main forum directory. I just have the BG sections bookmarked in my browser now, but even there it still takes a noticeably long time to load. I know its nice to have a big archive and multiple language formats spanning a couple decades worth of game development, but still, that's like way way more than I need out of this place lol. I'm just here for the Baldur's Gate. If you click the "Forums" tab from the game launcher it should take us directly to the relevant BG3 directories.

Also finally, the title of this thread and the forum section mentions "guides" but I don't think that's really how its being set up. Right now it is more of survey or repository of hotbutton design type conversations. I think it should be called something more like that maybe so people understand what they're diving into? Any Guides type section should probably be pulled from the "Help Tips and Tricks" section. I still think the General forum could use an introductions thread, and some more curated stuff in stickies too. Focused feedback threads are pretty interesting, but I can't even remember where to look for them after like a week of activity hehe. Flaming fist divine intervention on bumping interesting stuff please

I wish we could also rate feature requests on here so we could actually tell which ideas are popular

Could we please have a day/night cycle thread in this mega thread section please ?

There's many conversations about it everywhere and some threads have many pages.
I'd love having a unique thread to discuss and share (New) feedbacks or suggestions.

We should have a thread about the reactions and reaction system!

Day/night cycle and reactions now added to megathreads.

Thx a lot !

As silly as this may sound I think after nearly five months it wouldn't be a bad idea if an update was released. There you all go now you can amuse yourselves by attacking me for not being patient enough. Pretty much the only entertainment your likely to get from this game.

Hi!

If I understood correctly, this is the right place to write a suggestion regarding the developement of Baldur's Gate 3. I don't think this one needs it's own topic as I feel there's not much more to it than what I came up with ...other than exceptions to the situations mentioned below. And honestly this is a polish kind of thing.

My suggestion would be related to the dialogue scenes. The idea would be that when you hovering over a select dialogue line with a skill-check, your character facial expression would smoothly trasition over to express that specific intention. How I imagine it is like that the animation would have some small delay to start after hovering, so jumping between the options wouldn't create a weird back-and forth changes in the facial expression, making it more subtle and immersive. Most easily this would be functioning with the deception, intimidation, persuasion checks. What I imagined as quick examples for these actions the character would do the following mimikry:

deception - a smirk, menacing smile
intimidation - maybe the camera angle could change and show a more dark, scary expression
persuasion - a kindhearted / confident smile

I know the above would not fit into every situation...I can also see the counter-argument for the deception one, which beign: if you want to deceive someone you would not show any ill intent on your face. However I feel like that seeing our character while thinking about which dialogue option to go for is more of an an "inner" perspective, and not a real life representation of a conversation viewed from a third person, and therefore as an inner-self interpretation could still hold up in my opinion.


Thank You for Your time reading this!

Cheers

Why does it take so long for BG 3 to either load or reload? I've got games like Doom and BG for which reload within sends and they are as much as 20 years old or more and with 6 patches and who knows how many hotfixes it's still taking up to 3 minutes to reload the game? This should have been fixed long ago as there is no reason for which a new game should take so long to load. Even saving the game takes a while now and it didn't before.

Also in Patch 6 in the quest "Find the missing shipment" I think that one there is bugged. When Wyll used the spell Mysti Step to gain the High ground by where the ladder is the battle started and once it started all my other players were frozen in place where they were and I couldn't get them to move, attack, or anything because they weren't including right away. Also what the heck is the gnomes AC and saving throws for that quest? That was the worst battle I've been in this playthrough and I had a heck of a time hitting with anything; didn't matter whether it was a spell or weapon. Even if I had 100% chance to hit I'd get a critical miss. Yet most time of the time there strikes on one of my members would land. It was like I was battling a group of 20th level foes and I was only 3rd level.

Thats bcs this game is loading whooooooole map at once.

Still they should have figured out a way to correct this as long as the game has been in Early Access. Even Skyrim which is a lot bigger game with more resources to load takes next to nothing to load.

I'm at waukeens rest on the Druid rescue mission. Now I've got the Ranger with Wasteland Wanderer: Fire and the Ranger have taken a potion of Fire Resistance. which means I shouldn't be taking any damage at all from the fire but I'm taking damage like I've not taken the potion nor have the Wasteland wanderer: Fire. What is up with that there? After all, just with the fire resistance potion, I shouldn't be taking any damage but I'm dead in no time when I try to rescue that man that is trapped in there. What good is a "Fire Resistance" potion if it doesn't work? Better off leaving it out of the game.

No, that's not how resistance works, I'm afraid...

As I mentioned to you, DragonMaster69, the last time you posted this:


You are taking damage as though you hadn't drunk the potion, because you are already fire resistant, and the potion has no further effect on you. You'd be better off giving it to someone who is not already resistant.

Thats bcs Skyrim works differently ...
In Skyrim only nearby surrounding is loaded ... if your pc is slow enough you can even see textures (and sometimes even characters) getting loaded.
So if you are for example in Riverwood, game dont have Whiterun loaded ... bcs its purely single player game ...

Here, if you are at beach, game need to load everything ... including Waukeen's rest, Goblin camp, Hag's Teahouse or Gnoll Encounter.
Reason is possibility of Multiplayer.
Since every player can go different way, game needs to chceck whole world state at once sinve every action any of them do will affect the others and bcs game provides info about their deeds in real time.

So i would not expect this to change.

Now mentioning this ...
I wonder how much performance would timed events take. :-/

Well it seems that nol matter who takes the potion of fire resistance they burn up. I don't care if it's Lae'zel, Wyll or shadowheart. The potion is bugged

Potion dont prevent burning...
It only halvens the amount of damage you get from fire ... and as Niara said it dont stack ...

So if your character allready is resistant to fire damage it does nothing and that is corect by design.

So if you stand in fire you get 1d4 fire damage + you can get Burning status that gives another 1d4 per turn ...
If you stand in fire with fire resistance (no matter if from race or potion) situation is same but your damage recedived is reduced to half ... so 1d4/2
And if you havw racial resistancw AND potion they dont stack so still 1d4/2
With resistance firw still burns only slower.

I may be mistaken so please correct me if I'm wrong. Did they not change it in this latest patch so that when you strike with your off-hand weapon if it has things like Concussive Strike or Backbreaker for example that you get with the Intransigent Warhammer; or Lacerate which is on the Ritual Axe; Or the Shattered Flail that heals 1d6 that you can use get them whether you have it equipped in your right or left hand? Or am I misunderstanding this here? Or is that like if it's a 1d8 +1 it will add the +1 to the off weapon?


Fixed attack roll with off-hand weapon not applying a bonus from the ability modifier.

And if I am can someone explain to me what it actually means?

The potion description doesn't say you only take 1/2 damage from fire. It Says "Gain resistance to Fire damage until your next Long Rest" whereas with the Waste Land wander Fire it specifically states that you 1/2 damage from fire. Now you can see how someone can be confused by this and it should be corrected in the potions description.

Because pretty much the only way to save that guy is by pure luck. It took me several loads to save that guy.

Any chance of us getting decent versatile weapons that we can actually Dual wield? A lot of the good ones that are "Versatile" say that "They Can't Be Dual wielded which I think sucks. not to mention the fact that Larian assumes that everyone is right-handed making the right hand the main hand. what about the left-handers in the world? Surely you can't say that they didn't exist back then.


So far the only decent weapons for which you can dual wield are either one-handed weapons or if they are a versatile weapon they either can't be dual-wielded or their enchantments don't work in the off-hand like the Shattered Flails 1d6 healing damage. Shouldn't matter what hand it's in as long as you got it equipped the enchantments should work. How is the inanimate weapon going to know what hand it's being used in?

Greetings one and all,
my first point to make is simple: Love what you are doing and what you are attempting to do! Keep at it!
Now for the nit-picking. I am curious about the cinematics employed. Firstly, the early scenes onboard the Nautiloid. The last character-centred cinematic prior to crashing on the beach, your character hangs precariously from the control panel. Gripping stuff - no pun intended. My thought was the other characters. Is there any reason why the other figures cannot be manipulated in basic ragdoll fashion to reflect the physics that the main protagonist undergoes? For instance, in my play throughs I see Lae'zel, Shadowheart, a Cambion and an Illithid just standing around whilst I am thrown about the cabin. If it's an issue of processor versus effect, then I can understand. But small inconsistencies are often what seperate a truly great game from the rank and file. Several other cinemtacs suffer similar fate, with the main character reacting (as focus of the graphics) whilst they stand in the background and do nothing.
Also, the fact that you blatantly openly display Astarion's Vampiric nature, Wyll's demonic pact and Gale's...um...mental state in your artwork, completely negates the whole intriguing backstory search. Although graphically, these characters are enticing and can be explored in great detail through the retail version when available, it currently "spoils" some of the surprises - not all, by any stretch of the imagination, but I do feel the revelation of these characters/companions closer to release date would have been more enticing consumer-wise.
I have logged only 45 hours but am nowhere near finishing Act 1, let alone the rest. I tend to replay areas and scenarios with different combinations to see how things could be different. I will be intrigued to see how further character classes and races may be offered as we go forth.

An awesome game to date and a great experience all round. Can't wait to see what comes next.

I've got around 40 hrs into this now, both in update 4, & 5, and now 6. My request is that you put a storage chest in the camp for all of the equipment we find, but don't want to sell or cart around for long stretches. My one question is this: where is the myconid treasure that Spaw gives you after killing all of the Duergar ? I think that any awarded treasure should pop up on the map so we don't have to hunt all over the place to find it.

Shove discussions and balance should be in here. This needs to be the next thing Larian adjusts.

I said a little while back that I’d create a new megathread for Stealth, which with one thing and another I’ve not got around to, but I promise I will soon.

While I’m at it, is there any appetite for other new megathreads? Personally I find them useful when the same debates keep popping up, given they tend to be easier to find than a thread buried in the other forums. Plus they keep discussion in one, or at least fewer, places for ease of review and to help prevent good ideas or discussions being missed or getting lost. And at least to some extent reduce the number of times we end up repeating ourselves when a popular topic raises its head again.

Possibilities that spring to mind are shove, jump, conversation handling, companion dialogue triggers, looting, inventory management and character creation options.

But obviously it’s a balancing act, as if there are too many megathread topics it might defeat the purpose. Though I suppose some of the ones that have died down, eg due to changes in later patches, could also be cleared out and moved back to the general feedback forum.

Your thoughts and suggestions would be welcome!

Seems like the multiplayer contingent might appreciate a megathread. I don't understand them, but I respect their choices.

Would be helpful if someone could compile the various links and developer-linked threads that list all the changes (and fixes) that EA players can expect to see come release. (Not including new areas and such, of course... just referring to stuff like new mechanics, generally the *how* the game works.).

Rescuing our Lae'zel, I noticed there was no specific direct option to not lie or or tell the Tieflings that you are with Lae'zel or that you have fought with her to escape the Hells.

It seems more focused on forcing a conflict or that you have to be underhanded. There's no higher road, so to speak.

If you said you were with her they would probably try to kill you and even if they agree to let you rescue her she'll want to murder them xD. Ofc there's always social skills so they could add that for sure.

I would be perfectly fine with them reacting like that ...
Curently my Paladin is either forced to lie (bad) or kill pptential teammate (also bad) ...

+1 to more options without a doubt!

I think this section should be re-named something like...

"Early Access: Archive and Mega-threads"

This would more accurately describe what's here. It might be worth revisiting some of the stickies in other sections that have been up since EA as well, or moving some of the EA feedback compendium threads here where they'd be more visible/useful when thinking about conducting future EAs. There are no "Guides" anywhere in this section. I know the category was set up in the hopes there might be eventually, but I think those are more likely to be posted in tips and tricks, and for very specific things. This place desperately needs new forums with modern functionality. The simplest thing we could do to eliminate one word replies like "+1" which tend to bury threads quickly onto the second or third page, would be to enable upvoting. Just upvoting, not downvoting, since downvotes encourage pettiness and beef, and aren't really necessary for a site like this on a smaller scale. Upvotes on the other hand encourage a welcoming atmosphere and give people a sense of being heard.

I also think there could be links to Larian's main feedback portal as well as a link to the BG3 Discord, prominently displayed somewhere in a sticky for Feedback and quick Q&A. The modding section could have a link to Nexus, stuff like that. There's a showcaae stickie there currently, but it's empty. Perhaps a link to the top 30 popular downloaded list at Nexus would be coo there?

The new sections for Story, Builds, Multiplayer and Mods are good. There should probably be a section specifically for PS5 and consoles, or by playform. There is some danger in creating too many discussion sections though, as people will always want to post where they think it's mostly likely to be seen. So posting in Feedback or General for stuff that might fit better in other sections will be common regardless. Creates a lot of busy work for moderators trying to move threads to the right spot probably. I think volunteer moderators would be much easier to recruit if the boards were updated.

Anyhow, keep up the good work and fighting the good fight! I'm sure it's tough, but we appreciate it!


ps. Some further thoughts on the structure of these forums...

For overall metrics you can get an alright anecdotal sense of what's drawing eyes by looking at the viewership of a section. If you look down the main forums tree, you'll see that most of the current viewership here is on BG3. Other than the DOS:II categories which are still seeing traffic, it's mostly BG3, and this is to be expected since it's the newest game.

Right now for example we have 300+ viewers in the Feedback section 200+ in General, the rest of the BG3 sections have somewhere between 30-100 viewers. All told there are probably a thousand people viewing the BG3 forums here at any given point in time, except during timezone gaps. This section "Mega-threads and Guides" is the least viewed, since it's the least active. News section gets many views, but functionally could probably be handled as a sticky, with previous News announcements archived. The main news people would be interested in I imagine would be stuff relating to the most recent game version, current patch and hotfix. Old news, especially going back to the start of EA should just get locked and archived. Let people dig around with the microfiche if they want to check out reactions from 2 years ago or the EA at various points. This would leave more room for whatever is current.

Keep the community updates and panels from hell, but I mean all the hotfix threads mostly. Here again the Discord and Larian's twitter could take some pressure off the news section. I'm sure the BG3 subreddit does some heavy lifting there too. Unfortunately Valve has allowed their steam boards to become rather unpleasant. It's not just BG3, pretty much any game over there with a large audience is seeing the same. Also those boards move so quickly that they become pretty difficult and impractical to use. Probably Larian wouldn't have much control there anyway, even if they could staff moderators at steam, which I'm not sure they could. But this spot is of a more manageable scale, and also probably a pretty good in-house development resource if they could figure out how to harness it a bit more. The home boards could be made to feel different than some of those other spots in various small ways.

I think it would be easier to build up a new castle for some of this stuff, rather than merges and redirects on top of the old. You know, a new spot and modern boards, with design elements to help support it and make it feel unique to BG3. Perhaps a fun avatar generator that uses the Char Creator to go along with the themed emojis. Speaking of emojis, I think we should disable animated emojis for new threads, even for the current boards. Only moderators should be able to activate those sorts of attention grabbers and they should be reserved for stickies or news or "read first" type threads, say for spoilers etiquette or welcome wagon stuff. Hopefully they will consider investing in updated forums for the new era. Although it's a somewhat more oldschool way to connect it still serves an important function and it's a lot easier to use as a reference/archive. Another section which would be useful is probably is something like "Cry me a River" or "the Gutter" for sour grapes and vent threads which are primarily critical or purely provocative flame baiting. Threads which are cathartic and constructive are different, but without dragging down the overall morale. Maybe a sticky called "Fuck All" for that? I don't know, but the idea would be to sort of separate that stuff out, not censoring it entirely, just giving it a place to go. Locked threads, ban hammer stuff, and then sweep it all into one spot to keep the others welcoming. Another idea might be a place for off-topic discussion on D&D or other games/genres, as currently these would just hang around in the General section. I think ideally we'd have maybe 3 or 4 very active forums, and then a couple which are almost totally inactive and largely archival.

Not sure if it's helpful of not, but the majority of my 504 gateway timeouts occur when directing from the main page at Larian.com. Mainly between the hours of midnight and 4am Pacific Standard Time. This I think is when the hot girls of dubai showed up too? and maybe other spam bots are targeting gaps in moderation. I'm an insomniac so I'm usually awake at odd hours, but could also be because they don't have a satellite office in Oz or the West Coast/BC, so between Montreal and Singapore you got like half a day maybe. I imagine going from GMT to Atlantic you get another gap though probably not as long. One option might be something like recruiting a couple moderators based on time windows, just to make sure there's overlap. More limited moderating tools for that, simply to block spambot type behavior with multiposts that are obviously spam, or to issue warnings. Could work. It's just hard when that's an unpaid position cause it can be very taxing and a lot to ask of volunteers. I think you need more of a rotation so people don't get too burnt out probably. Full party so people can tap in tap out periodically, for short and long rests to recoup and regroup hehe.

I think the boards are much improved lately compared to a couple years ago. New boards would make some of this stuff easier to pull off at a go.

Anyhow, it's a thankless job usually I'm sure, but thanks all the same! It makes a difference!

All the best
Elk