Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General The elephant in the room that nobody is talking about

When we get to actually see the city of Baldurs Gate.

This is what i am looking forward to most and i have very high expectations of this upcoming experience.

I am expecting this city to be modeled and rendered immaculately with more depth and character as what we experienced in BG2 when we visited Athkatla.

I think the current act 1 we are playing in EA is just a warm up to the vast city we are about to experience.

Can you guys please share your thoughts on this?

Most likely it will be the final map of the game. Same way Arx was in DOS2.

I just hope it feels at least as vibrant as say Novigrad was in Witcher 3.

Baldur's Gate is a big deal and it deserves a degree of reverance. Not that it should be a millstone around the developer's necks, but yeah, it's kind of a big deal!

what was novigrad like? i quit witcher 3 before i reached it?

Going with hints Larian people gave in the past, it's supposed to be the focus of "Act 2", which in itself is supposed to be "the biggest Act by far" out of the three that are going to structure the entire game.

One thing I can already tell I won't be trilled about is having the city frozen in a single moment in time (like the rest of the game) and without a single hint of a day/night cycle.
You'd imagine exploring the streets of the city in daylight and when the night falls, looking at street lamps turning on, being careful of not being ambushed by thugs in dark alleys, etc, etc...
Instead Larian decided that the whole day/night thing, that has been a standard feature in the genre since the days of the Ultima series, was some fanciful waste of resources compared to CORE features like "I can replay the game as one of my companions".
So no Baldur's Gate at night for us.

What a bummer.

In terms of 3D modeling/assets/details? The golden standard for a medieval big city in a RPG any title in the genre should aspire to.
Not exceedingly interactive, on the other hand.
Stuff like Gothic 2 and Ultima VII did more for immersion, if on a smaller scale.

I thought it was fudged quite well with Aleroth in Divinity 2. But yeah, I'd prefer to have seen a day & night cycle. Well, ish, I always feel that most games seem to get the timescale really badly wrong in what is admittedly probably a case of "read my mind and do what I want at this moment dammit".

Yep... No Day and Night cycle is quite frankly a design choice I cannot get behind, even understanding the MP limitations that were part of the reason. A way should have been found as I just find a proper Day and night cycle adds a deeper layer of graphical immersion and allows you to play with the light sensitivity aspects of certain races.

it was a very simple limitation to work around in the end: "Freeze the clock for everyone when one of the players is in turn based mode. Make it march again when all the players are in real time".
I mean, the limitation that everyone needs to agree for a long rest (and that no one can be in combat) was already in place, anyway. So it's not like that was going to make a big difference.
Sure, the length of the day (or night) may extend a bit even for the player that was in "real time all the time". But so what?

Sometime I hear the designers at Larian saying things about "design challenges" that make me think of the proverbial "drowning in a glass of water".
Like when one of their lead gameplay designers explained on stream that "Sure, in pen & paper the player can choose to spend his battlemaster points (aka "superiority dice") only after he's sure a hit lands, but that wouldn't work in a videogame because it would break the flow of the action, so... tough luck for him".
Ehr...? What about doing so that you DON'T SPEND THE POINT if you miss the attack, without needing to "break", "pause" or "interrupt" anything?

I'm kinda hoping that our long rest area will greatly expand when we reach Baldur's Gate. As in, instead of being tied to one of the taverns, we can roam a night time version of the city or at least part of the city. I'd be ok with that in the absence of a proper day / night cycle.

In the BG I-II series, the darkness of night provided a significant benefit to stealth. And for the city of Baldur's Gate, Narlen Darkwalk very understandably conducted his heists only at night ... *gasp* does this mean that Narlen won't ... oh, I can't write any further.

It will be a unremitting farce if we can only walk around the city in permanent midday sun. All daylight and no night time/weather/calendar makes Jack a dull boy.

i would be very disappointed to have Baldur's Gate be stuck in a perpetual state of sunniness with no night/day/weather cycle. It's amazing just how much of an effect weather and day/night has on the atmosphere of a game.

I can't imagine the city looking too lively. So far in BG3 NPCs are pretty static, so I can't imagine the city of Baldur;s Gate feeling much alive by modern standards - and who knows maybe Larian will pull the card of "city under attack" again, like they did in D:OS2.

If anything, I think BG1&2 got a way with a lot thanks to nice ambient tracks - those created an atmosphere of crown and liveliness that wasn't present in actual locations. Later games never replicated that, even PoE2, which IMO has one of best cities in isometric RPGs.

As to OP: I doubt we will see the city of Baldur's Gate until 1.0. As far as campaign content, what we got is most likely all what we will see.

Although I doubt they will end up doing a day night cycle, I am willing to bet they will have something like night missions or something once we reach BG.

According to the NPCs in the game, all roads will eventually lead to Baldur's Gate. I'm sure with the amazing graphics we have so far, we won't be disappointed.

In regards to the day/night cycle, I would very much like to see that happen, and have a feeling it will happen eventually. At the very least, seeing as Astarion is the only vampire that can walk in the sun, dealing with Cazador who is in/near Baldur's Gate is going to REQUIRE a night-time quest line.

And yet I'm afraid we'll see some stratagem as palliative instead.
Like "You'll face Cazador only underground or "that mission (or even just a part of it) will play in a separated, instanced nocturne map used only for that encounter".

Nightime gameplay is a pretty huge part of the Baldurs gate series. There are tons of iconic areas that people clearly remember during nights. Definitely not <<cosmetics>>.; as Larian seems to think. Its part of the world building and atmosphere of the series.
Some events/dialogues/quests could only happen during nighttime. It was extremely moody. Some abilities were tied to nighttime. The music changed, the environmental effects changed...
Instead of REGRESSING BACK , because for whatever excuse they come up with THATS whats happening here, in 2021 they could of even improved more that system. A very bad decision on Larian's part.

BioWare jettisoned the Day/Night cycle for Throne of Bhaal.

On their forums, back when BioWare had forums, they explained that the Day/Night cycle was more of a bother than a feature.
There was a frustration from fans about waiting around for shops to open and the implementation of clicking on a map traveling for 36 hours and showing up exhausted, without having rested, was pretty ridiculous.

In truth not having a Day/Night cycle is the choice that is consistent with the BG series as that's how BioWare evolved the gameplay for Throne of Bhaal.

Yeah ,but Throne of Bhaal was set in a pocket dimension.


Which they were wrong about. But that's easy to dismiss when the rest of your game is already sustained by the feature and you apply your new shitty rule just to your power romping final act.


Wow. That's a load of condescending, dismissive bollocks.

Parts of it were. Parts of it were not.


That their opinion was different from yours does not make theirs wrong.
Game developers tend to make choices based on all available data, which doesn't always agree with individual opinions.


Nothing condescending or dismissive about it.
It is an accurate accounting of the evolution of the series.

You prefer a Day/Night Cycle.
BioWare moved away from it and Larian is following in their footsteps.