Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General A relatively fresh article from Techradar with S. Vincke; IGN article added.

I think many of the people here don't realize that what they consider better to be subjective. Sure, you can create some metrics, for example, you could argue that 5e is a more balanced system and then using balance as a metric argue that it is better. But what if the game Swen is trying to make, isn't supposed to be balanced? And don't take this to mean that I am perfectly happy with the game as is and believe that everything is fine and dandy. My "ideal" game has a lot of differences from the product which is being produced here. I can give you some easy examples, I am at core a simulationest, I like worlds which have a high degree of "realism" where everything is explainable and makes sense. As a result of this, I like a lot of mechanics which I can tell you without even polling people, most people hate. For example, I like the following:

• Encumbrance Systems.
• Hunger Systems.
• Fatigue.
• HP for individual body parts (think Deus Ex).
• Item Durability.
• Magic systems that actually make sense (The Vancian system fails here horribly in my opinion).
• Realism in inventory storage (stuff like heavily restrictive inventory tetris).

I could list a whole bunch of other things, but you get the idea. My ideal game would be a game so niche that its target audience is probably only 1 person and its not realistic to expect any company to make that game. But here is the thing - Swen isn't trying to make my ideal game or your ideal game, he is trying to make his studio's ideal game. As a result of this, there will be some very large deviations from something that you want, that I want and that they want. This isn't to say feedback is useless - obviously it isn't, but its likely far more useful for them if you identify what you dislike and why you dislike it, rather than trying to propose solutions for how to go about making it something that you like. I am also guilty of this and I won't deny that I like to throw out my hows just as much as anyone else, but I do that in the full knowledge that I expect that my solution will be completely ignored. What I expect isn't for them to implement my solutions, what I expect is for them to figure out how to address that dislike, whilst still making the game that they intend to make. Sometimes, this is impossible and the thing that I dislike is fundamentally at odds with one of their design pillars and in those cases, there can be no reconciliation.

What would be nice is if they would draw up a list and say, "these are the things we are unwilling to budge on," just so players know what not to waste time providing feedback on, but I also understand that giving that kind of message to a group of people is a very quick way to lose that particular sales group, so there is a strong incentive not to do so. It also might send the wrong message if not worded very carefully and players might interpret that thing they are unwilling to budge on to be much larger or smaller than it actually is.

Added to all of this, you have the fact that this forum represents a "bubble" in online spaces, where its community is only a microcosm of the entire game's community. I can tell you without polling the forum, on the whole, the majority of people here want the game to be closer to 5e, have a better camera system, have less surfaces and have a higher party limit. Some of those things I even happen to agree with. That doesn't mean it represents the majority view however, it only represents the view of this community. Btw, in the game's code next to the party limit of 4, there is a comment which says, "make it support up to 8 because we know modders will add that anyhow." They know that people want stuff like that, but they also know that is not the default experience they are trying to present to the world. To be honest they should probably just have a difficulty option that allows you to change the party size with a default setting of 4.