Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Jump Still Sucks

OK. I think Jump is better, but I still hate it. It's still very clunky. I don't understand why we can't just have the game auto-jump to places.

Example: I click on a free space across a gap that is 5 feet wide. My character runs up to the gap and simply jumps to the free space on the other side. Why do I need to hit the Z key and then try to play around to find a free space and then have my character jump and then land and then sit there for a few seconds and then I'm able to finally move again. These leap frog moments where you jump from one platform to another to another is tedious and makes no real sense as to why I have to manually hit Z, find a free space, land, wait for seconds, hit Z again, play around and find a free space, land, wait for a few seconds, etc.

Instead, why not just let me click on the free space I want to go to and if jump is needed to get there, the character automatically jumps to get there.

That said, I realize that a Jump/hotkey is necessary in some circumstances. You might need it if you want to jump over an obstacle as opposed to run around it. Maybe you want to jump over a table because there are flames on both sides of it. Maybe you want to jump over running water, as Astarion, because it will hurt you to run through it. So, I'm not suggesting get rid of Jump as a button/hotkey, but why not make Jump, for the most party, auto-jump?

I'm going through the Underdark right now, and I feel it the worst in that area. It really is tedious jumping from place to place all the time.

I do think jump feels like an odd mechanic at the moment. I think that it feels like a combat ability rather then movement ability is an issue - jumping is award with pause when setting it up, and recovery after landing, with a very annoying loud noise when landing. It makes jumping around feel janky, and makes companions lag behind then they start hopping around.

I would welcome automatic jumps, though overall BG3 needs to work on Pathfinding. Character can't seem to find their way at this moment - partially to ladders bugging out, and partially to their range being surprisingly short (they can't find a way, if you point too far from them).

I would love an autojump during normal movement too, but for now i would me more than happy when the chars stopped creating earthquakes on landing....

jump should be automatic out of combat for normal traveling. The only reason it isn't automatic is if they're trying to make secret areas more rewarding to find, but there are better ways they can do it.

I agree and I'm glad someone else sees it. It may sound like nitpicking because after you get used to it, I guess it's one of those annoyances that fade into the background (like a very slow computer). But when I first started playing the game, it felt very noticeable and is one of those "first impressions" things that although small, can have a pretty large overall impact on a first player's experience (especially those who are new to Larian games).

I love your suggestion. A bit like what the party members that follow you just do automatically. If not that, I would just modify the jump animation itself. In an ideal world, we would have both the below AND your suggestion of auto-jump (maybe a toggle for auto-action, like the way riposte is implemented for example currently? That would solve the situation where you want to actively jump over an obstacle instead of going around it. Want to auto jump? toggle auto jump. Otherwise, just click on the icon or hit Z).

So here are my two additional suggestions:
1) I would remove the landing animation's "THONK" sound that makes it feel like you just landed a Boeing 787 without deploying the landing gear.
2) I would remove the coil animation on take off and landing (to continue the airplane comparison). In Mario, you press jump, Mario jumps, end of story. There is no animation to "prepare" the jump or the landing. He just goes. OK, I get that is maybe not a fair comparison. I also get that some spells require an intermediary animation and I find it cool (click on the spell, intermediary pose activates, click on the target, rest of the animation executes) but jump should not follow the same format, it makes it feel too burdensome for something you're going to be using every 30 seconds when outside of combat.

The above is compounded by the fact that clicks on actions sometimes don't register and there doesn't seem to be any action-queuing (if a character is mid-jump animation for example, you can't click "hide" until the character lands and is done with the jump animation).

TL;DR: Jump feels like a chore, to the point where given the option, I would use an intermediary ledge over the jump action when outside of combat (ledges that characters climb automatically).

EDIT:
Should have refreshed the page before posting. This illustrates my point exactly.

And what's with these ginormous jumps, too. I still feel like it's ridiculous and like super heroes jumping around all over the place. There's a jump that is obviously like 15 feet wide, but my character can jump 30 feet, so we're good.

Your Strength determines how far you can jump. Long Jump. When you make a long jump, you cover a number of feet up to your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing long jump, you can leap only half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement.

THIS is how it should be done. So, if I'm in combat, and I jump away from an enemy, if my Strength score is 15, I should only be able to jump maybe 7 or 8 feet. If I'm not in combat, and I jump over a gap, that gap should be no more than 15 feet. I should see my character run and jump automatically over the gap. If it is more than 15 feet, my character should stop and say, "Sorry. I can't make that. It's too far a jump." Or something like that.

This rule assumes that the height of your jump doesn’t matter, such as a jump across a stream or chasm. At your GM’s option, you must succeed on a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check to clear a low obstacle (no taller than a quarter of the jump’s distance), such as a hedge or low wall. Otherwise, you hit it. When you land in Difficult Terrain, you must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to land on your feet. Otherwise, you land prone.

High Jump. When you make a high jump, you leap into the air a number of feet equal to 3 + your Strength modifier if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. So, out of combat, you should be able to jump up, with Strength 15, 5 feet. That's it. 5 feet! Not this crazy stuff Larian's got going on where Lae'zel can jump up into the air like 20 feet.

When you make a standing high jump, (so when in combat), you can jump only half that distance. So what is that? 2 feet? Maybe 3? Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement. It's not an action or a Bonus Action. In some circumstances, your GM might allow you to make a Strength (Athletics) check to jump higher than you normally can. You can extend your arms half your height above yourself during the jump. Thus, you can reach above you a distance equal to the height of the jump plus 1½ times your height.

THIS is more realistic and less crazy. Again, we really need an implementation of the ACTUAL rules, and we need the game to be less clunky.

I agree. Jumping is tedious.
Out of combat jumping should be automatic.

Of course I'll still ask Larian to remove those ridiculous visual effects and sounds that makes your level 1 human character looking like Hulk...

Agreed on combat, jump seems a little OP right now, but for out of combat situations I think it's fine to keep as is (I mean the jump distance, not the jump mechanics as previously discussed). The world they crafted is gorgeous and I'd hate to see them have to shrink all of the chasms and leaps for the sake of realism. It's a video game after all and there are some leaps (no pun intended) of the imagination that I am willing to accept .

If you ever played any crpg, should be grateful we have even any kind of jump tbh. But one thing annoys me more than anything. The impact sound, I don't know who thought was nice to add that jump sound Hulk Like, but damn it. sneaking and then jumping remind me of sneaking in Skyrim. makes no sense. The sound alone should warn the whole area to look at my character.

Agree. Just to be clear, all this feedback is coming from a place of wanting to make the game even better. The verticality introduced in BG3 is AWESOME. The jump mechanic takes a bit out of it .

Is there any way to tell before jumping if you'll take any damage or not? Not including fire and other effects. Sometimes I jump too far I guess and take damage.

I'm fine with manual jumping being an option in general. It works when you want to do something specific or take some risk, etc.

But yeah, in most of the cases when it's the only possible logical action (i.e. walking between two big stones in a riverbank) the characters should cover that 10-feet gap jumping automatically.

I suppose Larian was looking for a way, to reimplement their mobility skills from D:OS2, and giving everyone “decent” jump was the simplest solution to make “flying” available to everyone.

Which is not something I am fan of just as a design principle that ripples through the whole design. The cool part of DND spells and skills is that they allow to do stuff that is otherwise impossible. So everyone in BG3 could compete in olympics (not to mention their throwing range!). But wouldn’t it be cooler if characters unique abilities would allow for that? Gythianki’s jump, fly, spider crawl, Misty step etc. I hate to bring the-other-game, or really any other RPG with exploration, but isn’t it cool if we can do something cool because we invested in something unique to us (speak with animals, speak with dead, movement abilities) rather then allow everyone to do everything regardless of choices?

Yeah, I think jump in exploration mode should be automated (since actions don't really matter). It's clearly possible since the "following" party members can auto jump once the first character clears something.

In combat, it obviously makes sense to keep jump the way it is now since right now it consumes the bonus action.


Alternatively, they can just follow PnP where Jump is a part of your movement so you don't really have to worry so much about it.

Most of the characters can't actually jump all that high. Laezel can, but then she also jogs around while carrying a backpack that I couldn't climb a flight of stairs with.

Obviously the combination of those feats, jumping like a kangaroo on steroids while carrying a backpack is utterly cartoonish, but I think the bigger problem is how exaggerated the jump animation is. A loud yell, a weird angle on the jump, probably too much range at higher strength levels, and a Hulk style heavy landing. That is over the top and feels weird.

As for other RPGs, how many can you think of that really did a whole lot with 3D verticality? Morrowind springs to mind, but the jumping in that game makes BG3 feel a bit lame by comparison. Morrowind let you jump so hard that you could crash into a ceiling and be stuck there for a second because of your inertia. You could jump onto the roofs of houses without magical aid and with a tiny bit of magic you could literally jump across city blocks. And with a bit more magic, you could start crossing the continent in a few leaps. Now that's jumping taken to the next level.

The recent The-One-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, Deus Ex, but I had overall in mind exploration abilities in general - skills that allow for exploration rather then jump as well, but also hacking, lockpicking etc. depending on the game. Afterall, jump allows to access different routes or find secrets. Functionally, it is not much different then other barriers that require a "key" to progress - with "key" being unlocking door, speech check, hacking, crawling into vent.

I would be honestly quite fine if my character would at least move "as close as he could" before he would need jump ...
Instead of "oh, there 4km away you just clicked is a cliff ... i cannot get there, so i just stay here" -_-

They do attempt a lot of suicides with all that jumping back and forth. Jumping up the illusionary mushrooms appear to have become impossible except via jump or misty step spells too.

oh and the well in the burned village is broken. I could enter once, but not again. And i burned the web from the smith into the underground. My str 18 dwarf wizard and Laezel could still jump and Astarion did a misty step. Well maybe i could kill the big spider with 3? Shadowheart could (once grouped) run around and meet you in the spidertunnels.

The game claims its a "cannot reach" issue. Something bothering a lot of minor places like a necklace in the zent hideout, painting in waukens rest & more.

Noticed the diplopath for gith is now actually doable with skillhelps (other than just requiring insane luck). So yeah friends is powerful, but diplomacy is in the real world. I mean loads of people in positions their skills never should allow them to access, only there in wealth, power and and influence because they can persuade like a cha 16+friends+guidance & skillbonus diplomancer.

Another thing Solasta does better.

Also BG3 jump animation is ridiculous as reported for more than a year.

Probably not going to happen, there is several jump puzzles setup, with more probably to come. +1 on calming the cartoony animations down.