Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback WASD Character Controls

Hi everybody, I didn’t find any specific thread about that so I figured I’d create one, as it is probably the main issue I’m having with BG3 for now.

To me, clicking with the mouse to move the character to a spot takes away a part of the immersive side of the game, I don’t feel like I am the protagonist, but more like I tell de protagonist what to do, besides the fact that it just really doesn’t feel comfortable.

I’m not a dev but I assume that adding the option of controlling your character in a DOS2-on-console-way (controlling your character movements with WASD in third person view, with a key bind to switch to camera WASD control when needed) seems very doable, and I know a lot of people don’t care but it would make a big difference for me and for a lot of other people that come from console or just can’t get used to click-to-move control. I know you can maintain a mouse click in front of your character in third person but it doesn’t feel as smooth as WASD controls.

So pleaaaaase Larian I beg you, make it possible, the game is awesome but I haven’t been able to play more than a few hours yet mostly because of this. I’d love to be able to travel around the Baldur’s Gate universe feeling like I AM actually doing so, not feeling like I’m watching people running from a point A to B.

That said, thank you a lot for making this game, and for all the efforts you’re putting in it ! <3

I've never gotten into the WASD thing. I much prefer the mouse. It's easier in my opinion.

I'm curious though...

How does using a finger to press down on the W key make you feel immersed while using a finger to press down on the mouse button not?

If a control system is smooth enough that it slips into your subconscious, that's a positive boon for maintaining game immersion. If, on the other hand, you find yourself frequently fighting with or struggling against the control system or the UI, that's positively destructive for maintaining and sense of game immersion.

In this case, Noé seems to feel that the response delay between clicking on a point and having the character move there, as opposed to the zero input delay of direct-driving the character creates a layer between themselves and the game immersion that is a constant awareness while they play; I don't experience that personally, but I can definitely understand it, and I do have a friend who felt the same way when he was testing the game.

Support for different modes of control is never a bad thing; the question, I guess, is how much of a time and resource-sink it would need to be for Larian, and that's something we can't really know for certain.

It's more natural movement when you get used to it. W moves you forward, and moving the mouse moves your head left to right. A lot smother than a joystick. But I agree, there for a 3rd person dungeon RNG style game, mouse pointer is better. WASD wouldn't suit this game.

Considering we have to use our movement keys to micromanage the camera, I don't know why they can't add an option to use this for movement. Could even add another keybind to switch between using kb for character or camera movement. I can deal with click to move for isometric type games where I already experience the disconnect, but for third person games I find kb movement much better.

I think this is a good way of putting it. It is especially bad for me if the camera is not attached to my character for whatever reason, then it feels similar to moving pieces around on some game board rather than properly interacting with my character.

Neverwinter nights 2 had have 3 camera options. One of which was called "hero" and had WASD movement control. I played through the entire game with it, turning isometric view on only a couple of times during battles. Perspective does change a lot. Instead of just watching the story from birds view, you are now part of it.

Considering that BG3 are going to have controller support eventually, there is literally no reason not to allow this movement scheme for keyboard.

I have to admit, WASD controls wood be nice so I can move my character and search with mouse at the same time.

It would also fix the issue where I accidentally click on a party member instead of moving. Drives me crazy.

Also, I'd like to camera to not be so stuck that I can't look up. Some terrain makes it hard to see ahead of me when moving in Drive mode directly behind the character. I've run into a few traps just because I couldn't see.

That's exactly that feeling



Indeed, considering also that you can already move your character with maintaining click in third person mode, it should probably be easily doable for Larian to implement WASD movement. But again, I'm not a dev, and I'd be curious to know if and why it can be challenging to achieve.

Regarding controls, my first wish would be to control my chars like in BG1+2 and most other party based RPG since then.

I would not mind WASD control as an option. It should not be too hard to apply character movement to some buttons.

I agree, really. Been thinking about the camera and how it's stuck in the grey zone between "embodying your character" and "perfect tactical clarity." We make a character than is "I" complete with regular dramatic close up cinematics but then the camera and controls treat us as a "we." I feel the camera needs to go both more in (WASD as you describe) and more out (full wide shot of the battle, which rarely happens at the moment). Until then, it's set up as a bad RTS, like AoE3.

Dragon Age: Origins dealt with this well. Maybe Larain haven't played it?

How do I set the keyboard and mouse controls to be similar to BG 1 and 2 on the pc? The mouse panning is terrible, It won't let me pan right or down with the mouse and I really dislike that camera moves with the wsad keys. Maybe I don't have the settings right or is this just a thing with the pc version compared to using a controller?

Definitely agree with this, especially after playing Disco Elysium. I started out just using the mouse, about 30 minutes in I realized I could move with WASD and it made it a whole lot more immersive. Something similar to that at the least would be much appreciated.

My last console was Sega Genesis lol. For RPGs I've always been a PC player. But I hate click to move. WASD would be a welcome addition, but only if I could change keybinds. I'm left handed, and I use the arrows instead.

The camera and controls in the game are absolutely atrocious, true. And yet, its a technological miracle considering that the engine was not built for 3D game like that. I highly doubt it is physically possible to make it true TP-view cameras here, the mechanics are just not in the engine.

I knew someone would mention it Strangely enough, I didn't have much use for keyboard movement in this game. Steering slightly sideways was awkward and inconvenient, for me anyway. Can't recall if there was an option for mouse look there, because that's the key in making the keyboard movement smooth and enjoyable. KOAR for example did it right, so the devil is in the details I suppose.

The main reason to introduce keyboard movement is to provide an alternative pathfinding / routing. When you are WASD'ing your character, you are choosing the path yourself. When you click a mouse, you only choose a destination point, and the path to it is for the game to determine. Sometimes that path happens to be quite undesirable, and trying to dance your own way with a mouse is just too much micromanagement, especially if it happens often.
This, it's an absolute killer of an argument.

More options is always nice, but it's anything like NwN1, It would be really off putting / strange.

This is good news! Do you have a quote from larian saying this? I'd like to see it.

Me, I prefer controllers. I grew up a console player, and if a game has an option that allow me to use a controller, I take it. For me, that's the best way to get immersed. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

OK. After playing just now, I realized that although I was not so concerned about WASD controls, I am now a total advocate.

The mouse point and click/hold system of movement is driving me nuts. I am constantly accidentally clicking on things like ladders or enemies or SOMETHING else, and it is causing me to go places I don't want to go. I can't zoom in a lot of the time because if I do my cursor clicks on the wrong things, makes my characters go in wrong directions. The more objects around you, the more the mouse point/click/hold feature just doesn't work well. If you let us have WASD to use for basic movement and then allow us to use edge panning for camera turning, or a standard hold right mouse button and move mouse to move camera around, that would make our lives so much easier.

And half the time, by the way, I have to zoom out just to see where I'm going because I can't tilt the camera up enough to see up a road or something. Give us camera tilt too so we can actually see from zoomed in mode where we are going and what we are doing. There are so many raised surfaces. We really need to be able to look up.

A simple UI toggle could do the trick. Toggle between WASD and mouse control. That way, if you want to move the camera around with WASD to view the map more, you can do so. Then, when you want to move your character, you flip the toggle back to Drive Mode, or whatever.

Absolutely agree with you OP! WASD controls would make this game so much better for me. I constantly struggle with the controls and camera in this game, and it definitely breaks immersion.

This, so much! I want to look at the world around me, and I'm constantly getting locked into bad camera angles as it is right now.

I’m definitely NOT a fan of “WASD controls” in a game that is meant to be first and foremost an isometric/top down one, but admittedly few games managed to make it SOMEWHAT work in a hybrid system. Like Dragon Age Origins.

Someone mentioned NWN2, which had the options but I wouldn’t take that game as a model of ANYTHING as I remember hating both its controls and its UI.

Still, not a fan. In a party-based game I want to have constant control of the position of everyone. Not pretend to be in a third person game and look up close to how low the detail of textures is when zoomed at few cm from my face.


I don’t think I’m going to surprise anyone after repeating it for eight months straight and putting it even in my signature, but my actual preference as usual would be for having far more competent “RTS-styled controls” (you know, like the past BG games and pretty much any competent party based isometric RPG of the last 20 years) and ditch completely the indecent obscenity that is this chain/unchain horror that Larian insists on using.