Originally Posted by Blackheifer
Solasta is a D&D simulator for a single person. You know there are companies that make those if you just want to do that all day. Probably cost less.

And its insultingly linear. I mean, hey I get it - some people need that linear kind of game that tells them to go from A to B to C - otherwise they get confused and end up with their underwear on their head and a ham sandwiched stuffed in their pants.

I love the tactical combat of BG3 personally. I am sorry you have such a hard time with encounters. I posted a list on Reddit for top ten mistakes you are making in BG3, you should check it out. Its great for new players.

But listen, I think its probably a great game for Philistines...I mean If Music, Art, Immersion and Story are things that just puzzle you anyway...

This is probably the first time I've heard about people having issues with the camera in Solasta, but I have had issues with the camera in BG3 in comparison. Though admittedly, I think your camera issues are referring to how the camera tends to go wonky if you move the camera by clicking on the map rather than normally scrolling, which is a big side effect of the verticality (and apparently nothing stopping the camera from going out of bounds via map clicking right now).

At the same time though, I've played a wide range of cRPGs, and the Larian games tend to have a different camera and overall control style than the rest that I have to spend an hour readjusting to after playing any other cRPG extensively. One could say that this is basically a litmus test to see who plays cRPGs in general, and who is only a fan of Larian cRPGs. Though one could say that BG3 actually has more verticality than say, DOS2. It arguably has even more than Solasta, but the BG3 combat mechanics in their current state make it seem more detrimental rather than adding any tactical complexity.

That said, everyone's already openly admitted that combat is really the only thing Solasta has going for it in comparison, and that's enough for people like me who understand the context and are okay with it. My main concern in regards to BG3 is that I look at the various mechanics and how the encounter balance is designed to encourage or discourage them, and I'm really not seeing how BG3 is really that tactical in its current state. The vast majority of strategies involve some variation of 'make a really really good surprise round/alpha strike', probably because the encounter balance seems to be deliberately designed under the assumption that you're always doing that to begin with, and failing to do anything meaningful in your attempt immediately causes things to go to hell in most situations. That's not tactical at all, that's just flipping the chess board and saying you won the game.

I've noted that players being able to mount an effective comeback when things go wrong is pretty rare in this game, due to a combination of being grossly outnumbered or the absurd action economy that everyone has. The comebacks I've done mostly consisted of Healing Word abuse on a downed party member, and that's a case of AI manipulation more than anything else. Maybe the phase spider fight could be an example of mounting an effective comeback, but you can't really alpha strike the phase spider fight to begin with unless you are already 100% aware of how the fight works, and you can't argue that 'destroy the webs that they are conveniently standing on' is tactical when the game straight up implies that this is what you are supposed to be doing. It's a nice setpiece mechanic, but people shouldn't be acting like they have choices in that matter or that they're any smarter than anyone else for using it.

Even without all the comparisons to tabletop DnD, the combat design is still an unbalanced mess that - let's be perfectly honest with ourselves here - would be considered completely unacceptable among most turn-based enthusiasts if it wasn't a Larian game.

(And if people look far back enough in my posting history to see when I cared enough to argue about this kind of stuff, one would notice that I barely give a damn about faithfulness to 5E rules, and far more about how the mechanics actually interact with each other. I would be in favor of changes if they were good and sensible changes to begin with, but they're clearly not at this point. And I only care about proper reactions this much because the complete lack of them is a total net loss to tactical variety and could potentially offset some of the imbalance brought about with the changes, and I have yet to hear any argument about why the lack of them is a good thing other than silly theoretical vague 'immersion!' concerns.)

Also, you seem excessively hostile over this topic for some reason. Should probably tone down the emotion there, or people will get the wrong impression and respond in kind. I mean, really, I only made an offhand comment about another cRPG being on Gamepass while we wait for the next patch. And then you went and turned it into... This.

On another topic, I saw your top 10 mistakes thread on Reddit a few days ago. So I'm going to break down what each point actually means to me.

https://old.reddit.com/r/BaldursGat...mistakes_you_are_making_in_bg3_or_how_i/

1) True Strike requires a bit of thought to use, but it's generally not worth the opportunity cost. It's mostly for removing disadvantage on yourself on the next turn, provided you are able to maintain it. It can also be argued to be a net gain for classes that get extra attack, but as we are level capped at 4, we don't get to see this for ourselves in BG3 yet. Though let's be real here, with such easy ways to gain advantage in BG3, it's worse in this game than in most traditional DnD gameplay.

2) Item-based debilitation. A common mistake, but irrelevant to this discussion at least.

3) True for all of DnD.

4) True for all of DnD. The Shadowheart example by the way needs an extra footnote - she used to have more Strength than Dexterity, before Patch 3 (or was it 4) shifted her Strength points into Dexterity so that she can actually act as an off-tank. That mace she starts with is likely getting replaced with a dagger and light crossbow later.

5) Imbalanced homebrew rule. An example of what I argue above, although this is more advantageous for the player than the enemy as currently, the enemy AI does not exploit this. But should backstabbing remain as is, and the eventual Tactican mode sees the enemy Ai upgraded to exploit it along with the bonus action jumps and disengage... What will people say then? (This has a high probability of happening, after having gone through numerous Tactican playthroughs in DOS:2. And I mean REAL Tactican with a full party, not lone wolf cheese like most of the community needs to handle that level of difficulty.)

6) Imbalanced homebrew rule. Many of us have said enough on this particular subject already.

7) True for ranged weapons not provoking opportunity attacks, but actually 100% false for shields not protecting you even with it being stowed away, at least in regards to BG3 right now. Unless the recent hotfixes changed something, your AC value currently does not change between wielding a bow VS wielding a shield and one-handed weapon in your other weapon loadout.

8) True for all of DnD.

9) Another high ground observation, with an ambush/alpha strike focus.

10) True for all of DnD, though the exact importance of darkvision is going to depend on how often we're actually going to be in dark caves in this campaign.

That said, your list can basically be broken down into three categories. Stat-based mistakes, tactical mistakes, and item-based mistakes. It's the tactical mistakes that people are focusing on, they're the ones that involve the greatest deviations from the base rules, and they're the ones with a disproportionate effect on the game's combat flow than anything else in the game for various reasons - most of all being heavily encouraging ambush/alpha strike mentality, because actually engaging with the negative aspects of these mechanics is like rowing up shit creek because you actually have to wrestle with the RNG there, and in a definitely not interesting way.

Last edited by Saito Hikari; 19/05/21 09:25 AM.