Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback [Feedback] Drath's report - Mechanisms (part 4)

UI, Controls, QoL : Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.
Roleplay, Story, Immersion : Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
Mechanisms : Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

OUT-OF-COMBAT, ADVENTURING, AND MANAGEMENT MECHANISMS

Short rest vs long rest ...


Please figure out proper rest mechanisms.

Currently, long rest is superior in every way and is just as accessible as short rest. Thus, there is no reason to use short rest (unless you are a Warlock who wants to buff themselves and recover spell slots in the blink of an eye). 

And free long rests means that every combat lets you give it all you have. The concept of careful resource management cannot begin to take roots here.

Obviously, deleting short rest would imply such a massive cascade of changes for so many classes that it is probably a very bad idea. The alternative is to figure out mechanisms for the use of both short and long rest. In particular, some mechanisms to limit long rests.

Edit (Patch 3) : without a restriction on long rest, it won't matter that we have 1, 2 or 9000 short rests per long rest.



Stealth.


How does the vision cone works exactly ? How can people see behind their backs ?

I can often get close to someone while Hiding (from whichever direction), or sometimes not even that close, and if I un-Hide, they see me despite me not being in their vision cone.

One example is the intellect devourers on the ravaged beach after finding Shadowheart. But my favourite example is probably Warryn : I can sneak behind him, so he doesn't hear me. If I un-Hide (going from crouching to standing up), yet do not move, not a single step, suddently he can spot me ! Does he have eyes behind the head that can only see non-crouching creatures ? What's the point of having vision cones ?

This is most confusing.


When out of combat (whether there is a combat going on or not), characters shouldn't make a stealth check every round.

Just check for Stealth once and, if they succeed, the Hiding character remains unseen. At least until either they move.

This is particularly annoying when I'm handling some characters in combat, and another character out of combat comes under Stealth check rolls which keep happening at an alarming rate because times passes much faster outside combat. And I can't activate turn-based for them out of combat since "there is combat nearby". Even with an 90% chance of success, independent repeats of a random experiment will yield a failure in finite time with probability 1.

Obviously, this issue wouldn't exist if it was not possible to have parts of the world in turn-based mode and part of the world in continuous time mode ...



Traps.


Traps should be findable.

At the moment, there are some chests that are trapped, and I'm far from convinced there is a way to detect that.

All traps, of the vast majority of them, should be findable. Whether it is Perception or another other skill check (e.g. Arcana, in the case of magic, rune-based traps). And the few that are absolutely not findable by any means should be reasonably justified, story-wise. Even if it is not a major plot point, characters should at least react banter-style, if not with an exclamation mark cutscene reaction.

A trap that is not findable breaks the pact between players and the game or the GM (i.e. Larian). Like any other break to the established rules of the fictional world and the mechanisms of the game, this is to be avoided. And well motivated if it really cannot be avoided. Otherwise, they it unfairs and merely encourage players to reload.


Most of the traps should be disarmable.

And when a trap cannot be disarmed, a character should say "I don't know how to handle this type of trap" or "I'm not sure much can be done about this". So that we players know where we stand.


Failed Perception checks should, perhaps, not be indicated ?

Technically one could ask whether this idea should apply to all skill checks, but failed lore checks in conversations are harmless. We just know that there is some lore information we didn't get. However, knowing about failed Perception tends to create metagaming. If I see all my party fail a Perception check in a dungeon, I will be extra cautious and cross with just a tank at first, leaving the rest behind : a prudent behaviour adopted because I, as a player, know I failed to notice something.

No big deal either way really, but it would be fun and immersive if Perception failures were hidden. At least, players who want to hide them could be given this as an option, that can be activated or de-activated in the options menu.



Jump.


Should Jump really allow to cover more distance ?

Jump has a movement cost and a jump distance, which is usually greater than the movement cost. So, when using Jump, you can travel more than the standard 9m in a round. Is that decision point intentional ?

Of course, it currently consumes a Bonus Action. But it also and already avoids paying double movement to go across difficult terrain. So, shall it also give more movement ? It feels a bit off. Like eating the cake and still having it.



How do trade prices work ?


How do prices work ?

Items have a price indicated to the bottom right of their tooltip. Which is a great thing, as it tells me which ones to pick up and which ones to leave out when I'm looting. No more do I need to memorise the approximate value of gems ! Except that this price is neither the price I can sell the item for, nor the price I can buy it at. So ... why not telling me the useful prices ? What is this price ? Is there a reference buy-price and a reference sell-price ? From what I could see, the displayed price is between the buy-price and the sell-price, but it's not the mid-price, regardless of charisma.


How does Charisma affect prices ?

I have noticed it has an effect, but I don't know which one. We'll need a manual somewhere in the game at some point. (And better tooltips, but I feel having some manual somewhere could not hurt.)



How does carry capacity work ?


Why can everyone carry twice their indicated carry capacity ?

It seems that characters are absolutely fine until twice the capacity number display.

I'm certainly not asking for stronger restrictions. I find the management of loot and inventory to be the opposite of exciting. I'm happy with my what characters can carry so far. I'm just trying to understand the numbers shown to me. The current "max weight" that isn't the max weight is confusing.


What at are the rules for character carrying more than their max capacity ?

When reaching the max of the real carry capacity (i.e. double the number shown), they are slowed down. A bit further in weight and they become incapable of moving. They can still Jump alright though. That makes Jump a really impressive feat. But that's not very credible.


How does Strength relate do carry capacity ?

This is similar to how does Charisma affect trade pries. It would be great the have the rules somewhere (unless they're already in the game and I haven't found them). Naturally, this is far from the most urgent.



Scouting.


The camera should not be our scout.

If a player wants to scout, they should use means available to the party, in the game world. Currently, we don't need to send a discreet character (or summon) scouting ahead. The camera allows us to see way too much. It even allows to see behind closed door and walls !




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CLASSES AND PROGRESSION

Classes or sub-classes that don't get the proper features.


Rogues don't have the correct features.

They should have Expertise.


Life-domain Clerics don't have the correct features.

They should be proficient with Heavy Armour.


Light-domain Clerics don't have the correct features.

They should have Flaming Sphere.



Skills.


We are not given the proper skills when there is overlap.

When skills from various sources overlap (in particular when race or class gives the same skill as the background), we are supposed to choose another skill. Currently we can't, and so we lose out.

For example, the Noble Ranger Knight gets History twice, and cannot pick something else.

A lot of this is poking at those edges of stuff that's just plain missing where we, as players, have to assume in good faith that it is intended to go in at some point - but it's still worth pointing out as you do, since we can't know that for certain!

They absolutely do not share enough information about the mechanics of their game, whether it's part of the 5e ruleset, or part of their customisation of that, or their own invention entirely. The game currently feels like Larian are afraid of using words, and afraid that if they tell us how everything works we'll get scared of all the information.

I'm hoping to get around to full class break downs and analyses some time soon, but don't let that detract from doing your own if you want to: every detailed report matters, especially if one players notices or records things that another misses.

great post

- Rest is even worse
+ As you have written, short rests are pointless because you can long rest any time
+ If you do not rest you will not progress companion quests or get some cut scenes.
So its not just that resting after every encounter has no downside, not resting often punishes you because you miss quests.

- total agreement to traps
You should be able to detect traps, you should be able to disarm all traps you see ( or give a reason why not ) and the game should not show failed perception checks.
It would be nice if there was an option: pause the game when you detect something, highlight it until you unpause (so players can find it when the camera is in a bad position) and stop movement when you detect something.

trade: please stop the D:OS nonsense that merchants give us better prizes when you give them stuff for free.
Moving inventory to the char with the highest char before shopping is annoying.
Guidance helps us to get better prizes, which makes no sense.