Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Why do companions wait at camp?

I mean, is the camp going to change between regions? It's been a peeve of mine actually. We're moving throughout the act 1 region or even going to the underdark and the camp is in the same spot.

Are we moving an entire day and then backtracking all that distance from the underdark to get back to the camp? Lol

The thread is not about that, but I personally believe that the camp will change with each act. Because in the first act, we literally sail away on a boat, we will no longer have the opportunity to return to the same place.

It kind of is though: The OP opens up discussing a stationary camp that the companions wait in.

My post is directed at the camp remaining stationary which is a key point of the discussion.

If it changes per region, that's all well and good, but it's still rather nonsensical. My party is exploring the underdark prior to jumping on the boat. Meanwhile the rest of my party and whatever gear I left in camp is still in the same location. The camp isn't moved to the Underdark castle or mushroom camp.

They also don't jump on the boat with my party. Am I calling them on my magical phone and telling them to break camp and move to the next region? Where do they get their boat?

The camp should be procedurally generated based on our party location, that way it's as though we have the main party of combatants and scouts, with the leftover companions following with the gear and camp.

The biggest plot mistake Larian made is starting the game infected by the tadpole. They wanted to create a sense of urgency but now it’s too urgent which makes all the other side quests less important.

But game wise it’s a bad idea because now they are trying to appear urgent but also don’t want players to ignore the other side quests. That’s why we have all these companions who should realistically bail on the player stick around when the player doesn’t actively seek a cure. The plot railroads you to a cure but at the same time Larian wants you to explore.

The plot is bad for a video game, at least this early. It would have been better to slowly ease the tadpole later on once some relationships between the player and companions have developed.

I said Larian should have started the game in the city. Let the player get accustomed to the environment and companions along the way then have the mind flayers attack and abduct them. But it seems Larian is a studio who like to go over the top so here we are.

Do you think it's that far from the camp to the underdark? You're wrong. Because there are FOUR PATHS in the underdark, and one is a TELEPORT and the other is an ELEVATOR (other two aren't that fast). So I fully consider the fact that your companions (as well as you) can easily get to the Underdark from the camp, which is why there is no need to make a camp in the underdark. So it's probably assumed that you went together.



In the first location, you will find out that your tadpole is asleep and there is no need to hurry, Nettie or Halsin will tell you this. So what's the problem? Why do you feel so rushed? Now that you know that the tadpole is being held back by magic, you need to find its source. At first, I was even afraid to sleep, because the days pass, but after the news that the tadpole is not growing, I relaxed and enjoyed the story.

Because it’s bad story telling. It starts by pounding in the fact that you are going to turn into a mind flayer and continues to highlight that over and over again and then all of a sudden, yeah no big deal.

And you still have a tadpole in your head. I don’t care if it’s sleeping. And quite frankly both Nettie and Halsin are completely useless when it comes to the tadpole. I wouldn’t trust their advice regarding it with any confidence.

TBF, teleportation stone is everywhere and the camp spot is one of the locations you can teleport to.

BTW I wasn't even talking about the stone itself, I was talking about Ethel's teleport, but you're right too.

Things feel too close together in this game. Going to the Underdark shouldn't be like walking around the corner to go to the store - it should feel like going to Mars. They did a good job of making the visuals of the Underdark feel very otherworldly and the initial approach is pretty substantial, which is good. But once you get there and find a waypoint, instant teleportation trivializes that distance and it doesn't feel right; the Underdark quickly loses its magical otherness. It really should not be worth it to leave the Underdark every day to go sleep and then return. Getting to the Underdark felt like a monumental task - leaving should as well.

So, this is separate from the issue with supporting characters not having wills of their own, but both point to the suggestion that having a semi-permanent camp in one location (even just for a single act) doesn't make any sense.

Considering the Underdark is at LEAST 10 miles below the surface (going as far as 26 at least too) with the Upperdark still above that, it does feel really silly you can just walk there just like that, from several locations. And then do a quick jog back to the camp that is somewhere outside at the static location to sleep.

Though not just the Underdark, but the entire map feels like a themepark where you just go from special event/special location to the other, all nicely packed together. It also makes it all the more hilarious how the goblins cannot find the druid grove, a few minute walk from their camp would get them there.

Yeah, there are plenty of little plot issues like this, the tadpole, etc. Running around in Baldurs Gate 1, you want to see what a 'world' looks like...

Precisely this, it totally trivialises the sense of going on a perilous adventure, even more so when you can just teleport back to basecamp at will. You really should just have to find a safe space to camp where your party currently is. The game is made more accessible/easy at the expense of any real kind of immersion and I feel suffers greatly for it.