Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Again, Battles are TOO long

don't think the combat takes too long at all. more enemies the better! also surprisingly i actually really like the turn-based style. i know nothing about D&D and have only ever played BG1&2 and icewind dale so real-time-with-pause is all I've ever known, but I'm glad BG3 didn't go that route.

one thing i have learned about D&D though (solely based on these forums) is that it has the snobbiest, most toxic player base ive ever seen in my life haha. and on top of that everyone that posts anything ends up blatting about every response they get. if you're that sensitive don't post your opinions. honestly though, i think you all get offended intentionally just to get into these pointless de-railing debates to see who can sound the smartest. talking like you're writing a thesis paper in a video game forum lol

Large engaging battles are whats best about the game, im not here to play diablo.

You fell asleep...while playing a video game... this is not healthy. Get some rest and take care of yourself. Also, stay hydrated!

None of that makes sense, but the neutral third party therefore im right, pipe smoking, armchair analysis was much appreciated given your own admittance of ignorance and lack of experience. I think you might think this is some intense kaiju battle based on you thinking it takes effort for people to think. Some people can actually just do it :\ But the way you set up an argument of "if anyone responds to this post then I am right" premise you put forth youll have a nice masturbatical experience of being ignored and feeling youve changed something or someone responding and a smug smile creeping across your face.

What people are doing in this forum Larian ostensibly peruses is giving feedback on what players are experiencing in their game and frustrations with possible solutions. As requested by the studio. This isn't complicated.

fed the troll hahah. not sure what was so hard for u to make sense of..

more enemies the better! <--- this would be my feedback Orbax.. in case u struggle again

Ummm, Mr. Holmes your losing me... and that.. is that a violin sounding like bagpipes??? is killing me.

Effort to think, honestly I am really surpised that some people haven't stopped breathing, just saying yah know some people...... eeeeeeeeeekkk

When it comes to the game mechanics as far as combat, I can agree that large battles can be off putting. A few examples relate to certain battles in the swamp, or if you choose to attack the grove for instance. In these battles, depending on what happens, you may encounter 12 or more enemies. When this is coupled with the turn base, AI "lag" or "thinking process" it can be off putting, boring, frustrating or any other number of mixed emotions.

It is one thing to have a turn based combat system and feel excitement as your turn is coming up thinking "oh perfect, the enemy is falling right into my trap." However, it can be extremely frustrating to have a 30+ minute combat session with multiple enemies that out number your party 3 or 4 to 1 and the entire combat session is centered around the AI thinking. Of course we have to take into consideration this is early access and will definitely be addressed prior to release, which is an upside.

I have also noticed various issues with combat where if a character makes a stealth action, say stealth attack and kills an NPC it can go one of two ways. One the NPC dies and the character can continue on their way, or two, the NPC dies and everyone who is not in or around the area becomes hostile and targets the player. I am not sure if this is a bug or something that is meant to happen, but it is confusing to say the least.

Other issues with combat are the random NPC's that become hostile on one save state, but when it is reloaded they are fine.

Combat is not only too long, it's also really dull. You mostly get to do one real thing per turn, which is fine in tabletop but lends itself very poorly to a video game. At least in Divinity you could often do at least two things on a turn, and sometimes even more. When 90% of the things you do in the game consists of simply clicking to auto-attack an enemy, it's just such a chore to grind your way through these 20-minute battles. BG3 should have had an option to choose between TB and RTWP. It's such a boring game in its current state.

For major encounters it's mostly fine but it's almost every encounter. Dror Ragzlin encounter is pretty bad though. For the sheer number of enemies in the room, his stat bloat, the scale to which it can escalate, there not really being an alternative to just fighting head on.

I agree that combat are too long.
It looks like they're not a part of the story and it's flow is broken many times, especially with huge encounters.

I like fighting against many ennemies butz they have to adjust the creatures so your characters are more efficient to kill those trash goblins.
Every combat doesn't have to be ridiculously slow and/or """Epic""".

I guess "combat is too long" falls under the category of difficulty levels not being there yet. Most of the fights were disappointingly easy.
Combat will be a bit longer on higher difficulties and depending on how well you mid-maxed your team I hope. Right now we're playing on arbitrary numbers.

I would be ok with Larian making enemies have twice as much HP to actually make us use those LV2 spells a bit more. Without increasing their DMG even cause in their current state they kinda hurt.

Right now apart from a few encounters, you can just execute everything in 2 hits max with a competent self-made cleric(Shadowheart sub-class is trash after me). 2 Arrows per target. Cause yes, my cleric has maxed out wisdom +dexterity and it's enough to roll over everything if you add his spells over it.

This really hasn't been my experience unless i decide to exploit terrain (like actually exploit not just use it effectively) and cheese skills like shove or hide, but not so much in standard play. I keep hearing people say things like that. Am I just bad at this game?

I grew up with Baldur's gate. The way those fights unfold,the spells they throw at me..I know every single one of them. I know what kind of spells to expect from which mob. It's not necessarily you being bad, is just a part of the people on this forum finished BG2 three times. Than a year later one more...and one more...and 20 years have passed ... so yeah after that much time you figure out a way to trivialize D&D combat ^^

I appreciate the insight. I do have a really firm grasp of the rules of 5e and how things work and I trivialize D:OS2 but still find this game pretty challenging at points. But i think it may have more to do with my dice rolls; I've never missed so many 90% chances in my life lol.

Strongly disagree. Maybe you need a better computer because most rounds end fairly quickly, even in the larger battles with 10+ enemies. I'm also used to playing D&D, so I'm familiar with most of my turns at lower levels being "I attack. I miss. End turn" for a few rounds until either side dies.

Battle speed is WAY SLOWER than BG2. I mean, not a LITTLE slower, its WAY SLOWER. Bummer since this is a sequel :(((
A fix? Have concurrent enemies take their turns at the same time (like Temple of Elemental Evil did I think?) There. x3 faster. This would give you that BG2 real time "feel" to it

Again,

the only thing that really is too long is the AI thinking. Atm even one enemy going for the "don't know what to do loop" is adding 20secs to the enemies turns. If you have multiple of them it really drags. Fights where all the AIs know what to do are just the length of the tabletop. This seems to be just another sneaky "gimme RtwP" threads. Maybe it is time that people get over it.

One good proposal in this thread was: enemies doing their concurrent turns at the same time, as players do. This could have potential to fasten combat up. I just think Larian fears that players don't see all the things the enemies are doing, which I think is a fair point.

And to be quite honest: either OP does not know what the word literally means or needs to evaluate their sleep habits

+1 for simultaneous AI. It doesn't need to be full chaos either, for example, maybe about halfway through one turn, another enemy starts their turn. It could be a setting how much AI overlaps their actions when they have multiple character's turns, depending on how closely the player wants to pay attention to every move

I think some battles drag on for long, but I've noticed it's usually due to three things, and neither of it is "it's because it's turn based". Turn based games are awesome, but they need the right pacing that's for sure. Look at Xcom, the game is all about turn based combat, and it's popular.

But here's three issues in BG3:
1. "Plotting next move", this is a bug, some enemies time out while "plotting"
2. Movement speed. Honestly, everyone in a combat moves waaaaaay to slow.
3. Combat maps are too big, and starts too far from each other. This can be fun in some cases. But if none of my characters can engage in combat turn 1, then you are going to waste a turn of everyone slowly running towards each other (slowly) When you also then add elevation, and maybe two areas of elevation etc. This adds to difficulty, and I don't mind it, but it also adds "slowing" issues.

So optimizing the AI, and then add in a "2x speed" button or something, and the combat would be a lot faster. (We need this for moving overland too honestly, because it's so slow)

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I personally like the big combats, but I agree they can get tedious. Just like in DnD 5e, the more monsters you put into a combat, the longer it takes.

But it should be said: The more I have played, the more effective my combats become. I know who's where, and how to engage to not pull everyone etc.

As for "It takes away from the story". What? All the huge combats I have had are part of the plotline. It makes it more fun in my eyes that you get huge battles, but they just need to optimize the speed.

My issues with large battles are:

1. The AI needs a lot of work. I have had time where the AI takes a minute or more just sitting there and then does nothing for a mob. If each mob was doing their action in like 6 seconds, it would feel much better.

2. Don't throw all of the encounter as me at once. If you have dozen mobs for a encounter, start with like 6 an have 2 join after 2-3 rounds so they come in waves.

3. Stop with the NPCs, games should be about the party. I don't want to watch NPC fighting mobs.