I agree that the potential of BG3 is MASSIVE. 100%. And multiplayer is obviously a part of it.
Add BG3's graphics, multiplayer mode, a few more interraction with the environment, a deeper story and real companions to Solasta and it is not a "niche" game anymore. It's potential is also very good and the foundations are extremely strong for next games.
The differences you're tallking about included how it sold only comes from the size of the project and the money available. Not combats mechanics or the rules implementations/deviations. BG3's combats are a bit brainless because it's all about the OP mechanics inside Larian's box rather than the tons of creativity allowed by the D&D box.
Ofc you may have a better experience in MP if you're playing with players that aren't the best, if you try to solo'd the game or if you don't use Larian's cheeses..
But that's a poor tactical solo game that only rely on a very limited number of OP mechanics that can be summarized in a 5 minutes to read reddit post.
And when higher difficulty levels will come we'll have to stop using the tons of D&D sub-optimal choices even more to focus on Larian's cheeses.
PS : I don't really understand your problem with the camera. From my own experience it's only a real one when you fly but anyway.
This is something we agree on, they need to fix the cheese, and I am a big advocate of that. I don't use the cheesy stuff myself.
No jumping to disengage (unless rogue). No throwing creatures around. No barrelmancy. Shove needs to be a full action.
All three of those need to be removed and shove needs modified.
I have faith that they will address these issues given time. I would rather not depend on the mod community to fix it.
I don't know of anything else that really counts as cheese. Combat stealth feels more like a bug.
Solasta has no plans to build Multiplayer into it. The Developers have said as much. Multiplayer has to be built into a game from the ground up, to try to do it after the fact is nearly impossible and results in bad/buggy multiplayer.
The rotating camera should be controlled by the center mouse wheel by pushing it, like every other game does. You can't even re-map the keys to the mouse. You can't slow down the turn speed. Ugh.
What else do you see as cheese?
I consider as "cheeses" the mechanics that totally unbalance the game's difficulty and that reduce many choices to sub-optimal choices (DnD options including spells, features, choices, creativity). BG3 cheeses himself by cheesing DnD and Larian's layer is the only layer that really matter.
It may not be the right words but according to me the "it's all about creativity and players agency" is a bullshit marketing argument that doesn't suit BG3 at all. At the moment you totally have to think inside the small Larian's box to handle combats rather than having to choose inside the huge DnD box.
Hope you'll understand what I mean^^
That said, I don't consider barrelmancy as a problem. Barrelmancy is not something combats are balanced arround at all. You can solo's the game without using any barrels with almost every classes. It's an addition, a real choice for fun. It's not fun to me but anyway, I find cool that sometimes, ennemies use them. It can create unexpected situations and I'm perfectly fine with this (a bit less with the too huge surface effect it creates but it's a detail).
- Highground advantage + disadvantage is ont of the biggest issues. DnD's advantage/disadvantage system is interresting and offer many possibilities. In BG3, it's cheap. I could be fine with reasonable bonuses due to highground but not if it breaks a whole concept of DnD.
- It's the same about backstab. Advantages for attacking behind could be fine but not if it only rely on exploiting the turn based system (lol they can't face me, it's my turn !) and if it break tons of possibilities. This system is even more brainless due to disengage as a bonus action.
- Disengage as a bonus action also break the whole concept of AOO which is very important for melee character. It tone down the uniqueness of classes, spells, features and so on.
- Dipping is ridiculously easy and powerfull. +1D4 damage is an additionnal attack with a dagger / turn, +2D4 if dualwield, +1D4 damages if the target is burning. Cost : a bonus action.
- Eating pig heads during combats looks stupid in a serious game and heal spells / healing positions are close to useless because a lot of food do a better job.
- I could be fine with shove as a bonus action but it should have real consequences. It should never push your ennemies 4 meters away, you shoud never have 100% if you're hidden and it should give you a disadvantage on your action if you use it or something. Or it should just be an action. Pushing creatures in hole is a lot of fun but the fun goes down if it's something you can do 9 times out of 10. I'm not laughing anymore when I hear the same joke over and over again.
- Surfaces are too powerfull especially because you cannot avoid damages. It's way too easy to break concentration.
- I guess it's because of EA but being able to equip a shield to all characters before the ennemy's turn is ridiculous. If that's intended, increase our AC by 2 rather than giving us this tedious possibility.
- Unlimited resting system. Players have potions to heal and features to recover a few spells (and guess what, some classes recover their spellslot after short rests).
Anyway there are a lot of issues and I'm close to sure that encounters are so poorly balanced because of such things.
That's probably the short list.
If people are talking so much about Solasta it's because those games uses the same rules and because all issues of BG3's combats don't exist in it at all (It has other issues for a wider audience, it would be stupid not to agree with you on that one)
But what does it mean ? Thats Larian's implementation/interpretation of the rules and/or homebrew are the cause of BG3's combats issues. Nothing more, nothing less.
