Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General I don't understand the game's location

So I went to the Druid's place and looked at the map and one of my companions tells me we're in Elthurgard. O.K., only problem is according to this map Elthurgard is considerably inland, so how the heck is there a beach and a cove?

It is meant to be a river, though it does look a little too much like ocean.

To the best of my knowledge, Rivers don't have beaches. Your starting point after you land is literally called the Ravaged Beach.

This map may help. Elturgard covers a fairly wide area but you can see the river that runs from Baldur's Gate past Elturgard - The Chionthar - on the below map.

Credit to u/Brylock_Delux from the r/descenttoavernus subreddit.

This is the river Chionthar. Just look at the game's worldmap (google).

And yes, in BG3 this river have beaches...

Does it reach the coast? Because if it reaches the coast I'm just going to assume you've landed further down the coast to Baldur's Gate, because I'll say it again, Rivers don't have beaches.

You must not see a lot of Rivers, as they do have beaches.

"Although the seashore is most commonly associated with the word beach, beaches are also found by lakes and alongside large rivers. Beach may refer to: small systems where rock material moves onshore, offshore, or alongshore by the forces of waves and currents; or. geological units of considerable size."

From the Wikki article on 'Beaches'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach

Nope, got plenty of Rivers around me, not a single one has a beach, and if you're going to play smart Alec, the beach in BG3 is sandy. Beaches near rivers are often muddy or soft. Not my idea of a beach. The only thing missing from BG3's beech is Palm trees and a hotel resort.

Rivers absolutely do have beaches in the real world, as sand or small pebbles get carried downstream and deposited.
Some rivers can be very, very wide.

Here's an example of a real life river with many beaches, in Australia:
https://www.visitthemurray.com.au/p...ry/things-to-do/explore-the-land/beaches

Are you judging the geography of the entire planet by where you personally live?

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

The rivers where I grew up have sandy beaches. It's pretty common to hang out at them like one is at the beach, with parasols and sunbathing on towels. I am from a desert though lol...

Sorry, I was being a little snarky. I think you mean beaches in the sense of sand that is the product of Parrot Fish and others who eat corral as a form of sustenance and then they poop out tiny little bits of it digested which then becomes the super fine sand commonly found on Ocean beaches. That's right. You are lying on a giant pile of Parrot Fish poop.

But there are many ways that rocks can be ground down to make sand. Albeit not so fine as the sand found on many beaches. The regular flow of water can cause the grinding, and as the river changes course, gets dammed up it leaves those areas exposed. Living things in freshwater also sometimes ingest small rocks or bits of them and poop them out.

Its funny to think our world looks the way it does because of all our incessant pooping.

There are rivers that have traditional looking ocean-style beaches. However, this does bring in how people can have a bias with how things should look based on where they live, and many people are used to Rivers lacking any kind of beach or having a rocky grey-er style one.

That brings up the idea on if Larian should actually try to play to those biases to make it clearer that this is a River, or keep it as is thinking it is clear enough?

Sand can also be made from hundreds of teeny tiny bits of shells, which is pretty amazing. I remember a beach like that from my childhood, and examining all those tiny shells under a magnifying glass.

And anyway, there's also the example of New Zealand where you can drive for half an hour and find yourself in a completely different landscape. It's why they film so many movies there - all the landscapes you need for a setting are within easy reach. After visiting NZ's South Island, I stopped complaining about totally different landscapes in games being smushed so close together... Because they really can be like that in real life!

Listen if its not made of tiny bits of sun-bleached animal poop then I am not stripping down naked and lying on top of it. I have standards...

or possibly a fetish.

With how often you've mentioned poop for some reason in this thread, I'm going with fetish.

Rivers can indeed have beaches, although as you say, they're usually silty rather than sandy.

What really swings the coastal argument though is the Secluded Cove where the Harpies are. Rivers do *not* have coves.

Rivers most assuredly do have beaches. Beaches are not merely of sand; they can be sand, silt, rock, dirt, vegetation. Do not limit your imagination simply by what you think you know.

The geologist in me just died a little inside.

Well --- maybe a lot.

Please google erosion. For all our sakes.

And know that one day, the full game will be out and we can all leave the beach behind for lavender scented baths.

I was one of those who initially thought that the river was actually a full blown ocean, and that we landed south of Baldur's Gate rather than somewhere east. Although I think it has to do with the coloration of the sand looking quite a bit like Fort Joy, which WAS surrounded by an ocean, more than anything else. I forget, weren't there shells on the beach too, or do I have that confused with the DOS games?

I had a thought while making this post, though. It'd be a bit neat if NPCs reacted to thrown objects in their environment, so there should be shiny rocks around the river beach that you can use for this purpose. Precedence already exists with that rubber ball and the dog, after all.

Sure, this encourages ambush/alpha strike behavior more than before by potentially luring enemies into a situation that they wouldn't normally find themselves in, but at least it's interesting.