Hello Larian Community, My name is Antoine Retaureau, i am 35 years old, also a professional visual artist working in comics/manga/illustration.
Here is my artstation : https://www.artstation.com/shiroho . I am also a mod creator, my mods are known under the name of radiant mods on several video games (look for me on nexus or workshops). I did some for divinity 2 back in the day (i am the author of Black Sand Tiger Summon mod, the mosr popular i did for the game i guess). I am a big fan of rpg, video game or paper it does not matter. I sent to Larian my feedback of my first slow run of 100hr-ish, here is somekind of a copy of it so everyone can check it out to be inspired or just informed (removed some personal parts) ... I think i just might sounded a bit arrogant, but i am not feeling especially important lol i was just trying to genuinely introduce myself. So ! Here is comes (Talking to the studio) --------- FEEDBACK AFTER MY FIRST 100HOURS~ PLAY ---------First things first, the congratulations (i begin with pro, then i ll be moving on to some few animation/clipping bugs, then graphisms suggestions, gameplay suggestions and finally Gamedesign/balance suggestions) :
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Congratulations : On the face animations (Goblin, druids, children,Tieflings, humanoid monsters) some a really exceptionnal. Rarely saw that in a video games even with better graphisms than BG3. Keep it up, i love that tremendous work ! Keep using face capture actors the more often you can !
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Congratulations : On voice acting, all voices are different and alive, cheer your actors on they did a wonderful job so far. Please don't hesitate to go even further i want to hear more screaming, more extreme emotions, more scarry voiced sounds !
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Congratulations : On gameplay design, for now i like it better than divinity 1 & 2. Don't hesitate to do your own interpretation of the D&D rules you were inspired by. Im part of the people who think you should just do what you guys feel the best for us, for game balance and fun. Some people might get pissed at you for not respecting D&D this or that version of rules, well … screw that ! it's your game and you are doing a wonderful job so far imo. Just make sure each class is as much worth as any other and has its own perks, which seems really hard, don't hesitate to update them a lot of times, we don't mind testing the changes.
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Congratulations : Story/battle design, surely some hardwork here, the story telling is way better than divinity 1 & 2 (like having a better GM in front of you), more immersing despite the graphism/animation bugs. Keep going it ll be awesome ! Don't hesitate to go with borderline PEGI 25+ stories haha
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Animation issue : Blighted village = Chief of the ogre trio's body animation is weirdly freezing at the end of most sentences during cutscene.
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Animation issue : Blighted village = Attack cracked wall in forge basement sometimes results a character animation broken (more often with 2 handed sword)
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Animation issue : Goblin fort = If you ask the man tortured inside by Spike about the druid thing, it results a bugged cutscene / animation.
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Animation issue : Goblin fort = While Halsin is in bear form behind bars and during dialogues, his animation is glitchy/bugged/weird when he seems to stand up ?
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Animation issue : Defiled Temple = Moon phase Plates puzzle is glitching hard if you come back to solve it after trying once (implying re-enter the area).
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Animation issue : Alchemist cave = If a skeletton is woken up but dies by an opportunity attack, all coffin will be emptied but will still trigger a "surprised" message on your character. You will also miss all xp from these fights.
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Animation issue : Myconid Village = Spaw animation issues : his body, neck, head, everything is freezing brutally while he talks, but i guess you guys were aware or this was a "early stage of animation"
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Animation issue : Myconid Village = Brew get stucked while making his way to show me the reward (in stairs).
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Animation issue : All areas = The Tiefling tails is often going nuts like weird ragdoll forces were applied, they extend and tremble in all directions. Kinda breaking (hard) the immersion.
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Animation issue : All areas = Npc and team characters clipping while dialogs/cutscene (see the screenshot), may be a forced V formation for the linked members depending of selected character who enters dialog ?
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Graphism : light piercing tree in the swamp under illusion : give the dust particles a faster move, a more realist touch will be gained like that im 100% sure of it.
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Graphism : Can you add more beautiful faces for women in character creation ? No offense but … there are very thin possibilities of beauty. I know you can do it, i saw some perfectly handsome/pretty faces on npc's ! Mostly more delicate faces with good eyes ratios and more feminine jaw bones.
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Graphism : Can you add more short hairs for mens ? May be also a "2-3 weeks shaved skull", etc.
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Graphism : Can you allow us to change a little more the physical aspect of main characters like you did in divinity 2 ? (For instance choosing Laezel with a blu-ish skin instead of green, Will with a different haircut, etc.)
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Graphism : Too much npc you can see a shaved skull below hairs, especially those with colourful skins, please use a very quick texture of the hair color sticked to the top of the head with a helmet shape ?
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Graphism : Can we have a glamour system to wear the outfit we want different than the armor we equiped for stats (I mean some piece are beautiful, too bad we can appreciate when its stats sucks). As well as a dye system, that would be epic (but that require way more work i am aware of that, i did a mod on divinity 2 about it called "Radiant Origin Gear").
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Gameplay : Would it be possible to get a more faster movement on map outside combat, like double clicking for speeding things up like in divinity 2 ? This would be amazing.
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Gameplay : We surely need some better way to deal with books and documents. May be a scribe who write everything you read in a journal ? (all read book can be consulted in camp or idk)
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Gameplay : Too many times i missclick on a member while wanting to do a precise move and he start a conversation which really gets on my nerves. Conversing with members should only be accessible on rightclick on member imo.
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Gameplay : When you read a book in the menu, the container pop in front of the menu without closing it (forcing you to re-open the menu if you want to read another book). Pretty annoying the menu in the background is shutting down that way.
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Level Design : Since divinity 2, your levels are … getting more and more compact. I sometimes have the feeling to suffocate, always too much elements on a little place (quest related or not). Previous baldur's gate, 1 and 2, if you remember had big wide fields, i loved that, searching one big breathing open space this tiny detail … you know ? Searching big spaces also helps on the realistic/immersion page. It doesn't have to be complexe everytimes, it doesn't have to be filled at 100%. You can add places with big spaces but not so much in it, which will slow the pace, make for ambiance and mystery. That will also help to hide your stuff better, hide your npc better and ofc make us search harder ! I want you to think about that matter and discuss it.
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Gamedesign & Balance : Since divinity and here again in BG3 the weight carrying limit was always a bit weird. Yeah it's unrealistic to carry 20 enemy swords and 3 barrel, but also a Hero that re-sell his enemy gear is … you don't see that in Lord or rings or any fantasy book haha. You can still keep a weight rule, but may be you could ease our life by creating containers which allows object inside to be consider half or no weight ? Or may be equipable bags (invisible on models, but with a specific slot) who could add a carrying value like +30kg.
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Gamedesign & Balance : I am really sad of what is happening to crossbow, bow and light crossbow in the game. I Would have prefered more differences between them, something like : Bow = normal damage, crossbow = increased damage but one bonus action to reload, light crossbow = far less damage but only takes a bonus action to shoot. And also, a specific ranger sub-class to gain bonuses on these.
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Gamedesign & Balance : Limiting the "camp for the end of the day & sleep" action !!! This needs a serious nerf, that easily kill the immersion and difficulty by pressing long rest too often. A lot of player are agree on this on your forum, please listen to us, may be you already had the idea of nerfing it and was it just a test ?
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Gamedesign & Balance : Food complete rework. I am giving you the full suggestion later. To sum things up, we are a lot not wanting food to be consumed in fight and for HP instant healing.
And that's all for now folks !
I hope nothing in this would have upset you guys. I know making and dev a game is a fucking hell and these critics are so easy to make ! You are all great, BG3 is looking so nice already i think it might become a legendary game. I wish ya all much courage to keep going, stay focused, try not to rush any sensitive part, don't sell your passionate soul to devils !
--------- FOOD REWORK ---------Keep in mind this is a personal idea. I am of one of those who love the pre-buff moment before a fight (contributing to make the tension grow !), there is not much of these in the game already and i would like the food to be the items that helps you to achieve that. ofc i know some of you might not be agreeing with this. It's just a suggestion of a rework, based on some mods i did and some old school "paper and dice" Role playing game i ve experienced. -
RULE 1 : Each food or ingredient, when ingested, create a unique buff for a turn duration (20-40-60). That extended duration allows player to eat then engage the upcoming combat with no stress. Like i said i always loved that specific moment in rpg's, it participate to my video game pleasure and i am sure a lot of player also do aswell. On another hand, It will help players to succeed a hard fight they failed multiple times, after reloading a save knowing the moment it occurs, giving them somekind of little help that time if they feel stuck.
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RULE 2 : Any food or meal can't be ingested during a fight. They don't have instant healing properties anymore to let this job fully assigned to potions (Like most of your players would like it to be). This is also meant to preserve immersion/realism of such an action in a life threatening moment … because cracking a gruel in front of a 3m troll aiming at your neck is not a good idea.
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RULE 3 : When a new food or ingredient is ingested while there is still one in effect, it will simply erase the previous buff for obvious balance issues. Since 2 food effect can't be active at the same time, this will motivate player to keep (or craft) more complexe food dishes for hardest fights in the game.
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RULE 4 : The more a dish is complexe, the more the effects of the buff will be rewarding. With the complexity/rarity level of these food, effects will grow in nature, duration and power.
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RULE 5 : It's up to you dev to implemente a crafting system for food. Honestly i don't think it's such a great idea no matter how appealing it may sounds (taking time to craft multiple dishes would ruins a bit the pace of the game, i already experienced that on other games/mods). If we decide not to implement cooking craft, the Ingredient/meal/dishes will only be left to be found around the world to land directly in inventory for later consumption or sell. When you think about it, it's logically a little too far fetched to find a skilled warrior or mage who is also known to be a famous cook. But i would not mind you decide it otherwise if you hold to it. Another big issue you might guess : it will surely require a lot of tedious work for you (all receipes, additional ingredients, etc).
Here is an exemple of what the food buff would look like to me, but feel free to correct me with more realism/logic
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Fish dish = Intelligence / Wisdom (fish pie, grilled fish, fish and chips, etc.). In my country, we use to say that fish make you more clever, it's actually kinda true while Fish's vitamin D & B participate to neuronal cells sustain.
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Meat dish = Strengh / Dexterity (sausages, grilled meat, smoked meat, etc.). A Meaty meal for the warrior ! A cliche that works everytime and never dies.
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Potato dish = Constitution / charisma (fries, puree, gruel, poutine, etc.). Heavily nutritious, these allow your character to inflate his chest and belly and looks stronger and thicker !
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Bread = Hp + / Armor boost (baguette, bread, cheese bread, garlic bread, egg sandwich, baguel, Sourdough bread, etc.). A bit like above, but in a different way. Could use some other ideas.
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Alcohols = Status immunity (Biere (Silence), Expensive wine (Charm/paralyze), Rhum (Cold/Fear), Wine (Fear), etc.). I wanted to give alcohol a very useful effect here : defuse horrible incoming status effects. And since this could be OP if you already know what kind of enemy is coming to you, the side effects would be to be drunk, meaning also debuffed at the same time. This deal might be fun to take, for exemple getting drunk in purpose of resisting a very fearful enemy ! which is not out of realism haha !
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Tea = Poison immunity, Tea and Infusions are known all over the world to have some body purifying properties.
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Coffee = Sleep immunity, the obvious … you are way more excited after a good cup of coffee. Several kind of Coffee could have different resisting power.
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Milk = Movement boost / Bonus Action boost, Milk would somekind be a rare drink that will greatly help your overall presence in a fight. Milk is indead a drink full of nice and nutritious elements for body.
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Water, Fruit juices, fruits = Health regen, 1 or 2 HP per tick. Even if Potion are here for instant Health healing, having these in your metabolism is crucial for the healing process over time. They could do the job, out of fight around a very very slow Hp regeneration.
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Vegetables = ???, I don't have any idea for these beside the one where they could only help to craft more complexe meals, thus create more powerful meal effects in combination of other ingredients ? IF crafting system there is …
Eating only the ingredient or basic dish : Normal effect
Eating a complexe dish : Longer effect or more Powerful effect or Split effects
Eating a very complexe dish (or High quality, could be a %chance to occurs while crafting) : Longer effect or/and more Powerful effect or/and Split effects
Exemples (It's made in a hurry, just to have the big idea) :
Salmon : +1 Intelligence [20 turns]
Grilled Salmon : +1 intelligence, +1 Wisdom [40 turns]
Salmon Skewers : +1 intelligence, +1 Wisdom, +6 hp [40 turns]
Salmon Pie : +1 intelligence, +1 Armor, restore a spell slot I. [60 turns]
Salmon meuniere : +2 intelligence, +1 Wisdom, +10 hp, restore a spell slot II. [60 turns]
Dried pork sausage : +1 strength [40 turns]
Dried spicy pork sausage : +1 strength, +1 dexterity [40 turns]
Grilled pork Ribs : +2 strength, +6hp [40 turns]
Pork ham sandwich : +1 strength, +1 dexterity, +6hp, restore a Superiority Die. [60 turns]
Bread : +10hp [20 turns]
SourDough Bread : +10hp, Speed +3m, +1 Armor [40 turns]
Butterbun : +10hp, +2 Armor [40 turns]
Milk : Speed +3m [40 turns]
Honey Milk : Speed +3m, Bonus Action +1, +1 Armor [60 turns]
Biere : Silence resistance + 50%, cold/chill resistance +20%, drunk status, +1 HP Regen, [20 turns]
Water : +0.5 HP Regen [20 turns]
SourceWater : +0.5 HP Regen, +6hp [40 turns]
Lemon Juice : +1 HP Regen, restore a spell slot I [20 turns]
