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.