I think having it on the ground is not bad. But here's the thing. I had some poison gas or acid or something in the environment on the ground. I stepped away to let it disappear. I cooked dinner and baked two pumpkin pies and it never went away. so I had to just reload when I came back to my game an hour later. This is no joke. I literally went and put two pumpkin pies in the oven and cooked dinner and it never went away.
Some of that is just glitches. Take a short rest and a long rest and the fire is still there. Reload and take a short rest and it is gone. Sometimes it goes away immediately after a fight, "like I say program glitches." Except the poison from the Hag, I couldn't really get her to spawn when I went to save the girl unless I loaded an explosive barrel at her spawn point. Then she spawned but never fought back. The girl got stuck in loop and the quest never completed.
I killed her in the Tea House in 1 round using explosives and totally cheesing it. Not because I felt the need to cheese it, but because I wanted to finish the quest. After I killed her and I went to her lair. I noticed the poisonous clouds were not there at all. My point is that some of this is planned, and some of it is just EA glitches. I think the fire and acid being on the ground too long is an example. Also, I think that if you start a quest and then go do something else because maybe mobs are too tough, and then you come back. The game gets stuck in a loop. My guess is that those little bits of code are setup in an "If then else kind of statement" or a "Case statement." If they were coded into "Functions or Classes", then it would fix a lot of that.(If that code is already objects, it could be the logic that calls those functions is screwy.) A lot of errors happen when the game assumes the players will follow a Linear progression. I remember a total party wipe at LV3 when I ran into the Lv5 Githyanki. If I was smart, I would have turned back.
However, lets say I start a quest line by doing so. That kind of thing happens from time to time and the game must assume that players will bounce around a lot when they run into enemies like that and not complete quest. I think that is why these sorts of Games have an Act I, Act II, and Act III. Otherwise, the code would be God Offal complicated. This allows them to make it more concise. I don't mind them making the multiple acts and making things somewhat Linear in the progression. Just make it Sandbox to the 1000X in the individual acts. I don't mind dealing with the glitches until it is working 100% either.
I have a good idea of the amount of effort that goes into all of this. Also, the Cinematics are amazing. Everyone around you appears in the cut scenes, and their gear actually appears on their person during these cut scenes. I don't think this kind of thing has ever been done to this degree. Also, Larian is funny because I remember when I found the Shadow of Menzoberranzan, and went back to those same LV 5 Githyanki. I tried to pick-pocket the Dragon. The game said, "You realize what a Silly Idea this was." Larian, you have to Love these guys.
