Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Day/Night Cycle and Dynamic Weather

Please play Zelda OoT (22 year old game) and you will find out what nights are for.

This is such a weak argument. Both because wrong in general (as already said a basic implementation would be already massively better than no implementation) and because generally short-sighted about the possibilities the feature opens.

It goes without saying that once you had a basic form of passing time-day/night cycle implemented in the game then content deliberately tailored around it would come, because you'd be giving the designers a pass to use the feature.
Conversely, to keep rejecting it because "You either DO A LOT with it or it's not worth it" acts as a complete showstopper to begin with.

It's like not putting a wardrobe in your new apartment because "You don't have that many clothes anyway" and then from that point going on you keep hanging your three pieces of clothing on a chair and every time you are offered a choice to buy some more you'll keep rejecting them because "you have no wardrobe, so there's no point".

I'm not entirely against the feature but I have played games with the cycle where it was mostly cosmetic, like Pillars. BG3 is already massive enough that they had to trim act1 content for EA. If cycle would add something to the game beyond atmosphere of the night then I'm happy to explore possibilities.

And they only came out at night!

hehe just wanted to add to the chorus. Of course there should be a Day/Night cycle.

Not only do I find this blasted daylight offensive to my general circadian sensibilities, but it just cuts off way too many story possibilities to set the game in a perpetual high noon scenario.

The hoops they're already jumping through so our one vampire Origin companion can go full daywalker is kinda comical. Meeting Bodhi in Shadows of Amn during the middle of the day would have been pretty lame.

Weather and the Day/Night cycle were part of the BG charm. It gave the games atmosphere.

Not that we need a full prince of persia hourglass of doom, but man, you'd think 20 years out they'd have like a lunar calendar and 5 day weather forecast by now. Instead of just you know, nixing Time all together lol

Agree

Agree. Make the world more alive.

Funnilly, the weather in the first act changes when you move the camera across the river before the Blighted Village and over the river infront of temple of Selune. The skies darken, rain starts, there is even some sounds of rolling thunder. Even the clouds change and show an actual storm in the distance over the hills, all dark sky and silver small clouds infront of it. If you push the camera far enough and then turn sideways you can see the clouds changed into dark cover over the area with goblins. But if you move characters in that direction and so the camera moves with you the weather immediately returns to blasted sunlight and those clouds disappear.

That atleast shows they can and did implement different weather. Its actually in the game, only its not currently allowed to last, or show itself in full.

The Underdark does show they implemented the actual darkness in this game about coughSharcough... and i really love the fact that not having the dark sight actually makes you almost completely blind in the dark. So its not just fake dark like most games and movies use. At least in Whispering depths, the Underdark has its own glowing thingies that make it less actually pitch black dark.

So... on the ahem, bright side, these features are already in the game. Created. Implemented. Functional.

From there it isnt so impossible or somehow difficult or "against some design preference" to expand the weather and the dark to show up and cover more of maps. Especially because the good side, Selune is mistress of the stars and the moon. Cant get those while the bloody sun is blasting.

I am about 1/3rd of the way with you on that one. I like having a solid day/night, calendar, and weather system. I like having strong resting restrictions. I also long for the RPG that has some (if not all) storylines proceeding with me or without me. I would love it if I had to look at possible side quests and think, "Oooh, yeah... I've already done 4 side quests, I ought not to dawdle." Give the player ample time to venture down a few rabbit holes, sure... but put in a little sense of urgency and make it so that you can do a few things and some things will just have to be left for the next playthrough if you want to eventually try them all.

Could we please have a mega thread about Day/Night cycle ?
This one could be a good beginning and I guess it could easily reach 30 pages if you merged other threads.

Two year later, same suggestion. Any news?

Other than the 18 pages thread, no. I don't think such a massive feature will be added now that the game is so close to be feature complete.

yeah with most of those mega threads topics remaining unchanged anyway, so why even bother with those? Going by last patch stream looks like EA is coming to an end anyway. I guess it's the end before the end?:)



Not like this is a small feature. It's not just something you would squeeze in at the last minute. Kinda big one, it effects stealth at minimum. I think we have to face facts we are not getting day and night festival.

Well, I don't know Day/night in Pillars of Eternity or other recent games were people say it's <cosmetic> (for my part if something enhances Atmosphere I do not think it can be called <cosmetic>). Being able to dye your hair any colors of the rainbow is way more <cosmetic> than Day/Night. And Larian clearly prioritized that aspect...

SO let us look at a previous Baldur's gate game : Baldur's gate 2 (2000).

Content
-Certain quest lines only came at night.
-Some dialogues and banters quicked in during nightime.
-Only certain creatures or encounters happened at night.
-Some areas available only at night.
-Nightime affected certain skills and items.

Atmosphere or <cosmetics?>
-Obviously graphics. Progressively gets darker/lighter. Cutscene to nightime. Dark and Lights turn on from buildings if in town.
-Some building closes, less NPCs walking around, generated creatures are different.
-Wildlife soundeffects matches the night. Music changes.
-Nightime weather effects are enhanced. (Lightning flash with rain...)

etc...

Now thats from a game 22 years ago. Surely this can be expended upon in 2022? Particularly since the (3) in Baldur's gate 3 tells us this is a Baldur's gate game? One of the major Baldur's gate game expectation is to have day/night included I would think. When I think of Baldur's gate (both games) are the contrasting night/day time city graphics! It looked spectacular.
Like ordering Turnips soup but getting served raw turnips with a spicy sauce!
Found this great image in the forum:

Well, cosmetic or not doesn't matter anyway it gives character to the game. it's definitely gonna remove 0.50 point from a review for me that's for sure we add 0.50 for having only 4 party cap we are down to 9 at best case but probably more like 8.5 - 8 probably gonna stay there ish... depanding on the rest of the game - full release

totally agree