Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Quality of Life ideas!

I will update this post with some ideas for QoL improvements I feel could go a long way to making the game more fun to play overall, these are just my opinions and suggestions.

1.) This is a very minor annoyance, but if a check already succeeds without factoring in bonuses, skip adding bonuses to the roll, any spells or other beneficial items used to improve success chance should still be consumed, though.

1) Biger Action bar.
2) Even biger Action bar.
3) Even more biger Action bar.

Pause game function. If not multiplayer then enable a pause game function. As people get older life demands our attention more and more. Even if it is difficult to implement I know programmers have overcome greater challenges than this. Being able to pause a game could also encourage some gamers to take a break, eat, drink, stay healthy. I will always advocate for this.

+1 heuron, can't overemphasise how important it can be to take a break.

I had a fire in my house last year, it's weird how poorly we prioritise sometimes. Taking time to log out first before investigating my kitchen was a mistake. But, a pause button would have had me out my seat quicker. Anyone with kids has "fires" to put out too!

I really dont want to ruin this topic so quickly ...
But its going there anyway, as all of "wishlist" topics around here where people sooner or later start posting any and every other topics that are around thinking that this one it the most important.

So i simply have to ask ... even tho im asking everytime, and so far nobody was able to give me proper answer.

I mean most enemies dont even patrol ... the few that does can easily be stoped by turn based mode ... and even if you dont, and the patroling npc will spot you, it either start a conversation that is waiting for your forewer ... or it starts combat, where everything is caused automaticly and you can affect it until your turn ...
Combat sustains from two parts, where in one (other turns) you cant do litteraly anything ... and second (your turn) the whole world is more than willing to wait litteraly forewer for your next action.
There is no time passing, no time limited quests, no timed events, nothing.

If you just "want" pause, bcs you are used to that, tell me that ... its okey to simply want something even tho you dont actualy need it.
BUT! (And its a big butt)
What exactly do you need to pause in this game?

And note that im not asking why are you going afk ...
Im asking about what activity you need this game to pause and wait for you, that isnt allready waiting for you by default.

Invisibility potions come to mind. They are time limited. I haven't tested if turn based mode will halt its progression but pausing the game certainly would.

My next example may be a bug but while reading books and letters I've had neutral NPCs (like the dog, Spike, and Halsin + his crew) suddenly turn hostile and I had to kill them. I don't know what happened but I've been conditioned to hide away from NPCs whenever I want to read stuff.

Ultimately, I think it's just peace of mind. To know that the program will not do anything until I am ready to play is a good thing. If I had kids I don't think I would even give you an argument; I would just say that a pause function is mandatory. As a programmer, it bothers me that pausing isn't there because it just feels as fundamental as having a save function.

Now that I think about, being able to pause while sneaking around would be good too. As you said:


If the NPCs are already hostile towards you they will not engage in dialogue. Let's say that I did have an important reason to stop playing the game for a while and because the NPCs are patrolling I know that eventually they will spot me. A pause function here would be a perfect time to use it. I can attend to whatever the incident is in my life and then come back to my game in exactly the state I left it so that I can continue role-playing my super sneaky character. Now I am not forced to let turn based mode be the only way to halt the program.

Yes it does ... its one of main purposes of Turn Based mode.
All potions, and magical buffs expiration is paused until you end your turn ...

This is certainly bug ...
So the only place to aplicate this example would be for reading in middle of hostile patrolling enemies.

That is what i was thinking ... its just something we are used to have, and we feel naked if we dont have it ... no matter if we actualy need it or not.

You know i completely understands the urge to have pause in real time game ...
But when you explore enough of BG-3 ... sooner or later you find out that whole world is actualy paused, until you get there and starts to interact with it.
And once you realize this ... you start to wonder.

Yeah, but turn based here is working exactly the same.

Does turn based mode stop NPCs from patrolling?

Yup.
It freezes them on place until you end your turn.

The point of Turn based mode is that the time will "stop" ... and then your party have 6-ingame-seconds of action ... that could take 12-realtime-years with no consequences ... and then, when you end your turn, NPCs have the same amount of time.

I conducted a quick experiment.

I went to the blighted village. If you enter the village normally (across a bridge, dead bodies, then the village entrance) there are some goblins waiting to ambush you. One on the roof of the building to the left and 2 on the roof of the building to the right. I've played through this before so I already know there is another way to enter the village where you can sneak up on the 2 goblins on the building on the right.


You are correct. I made my character sneak and move right behind the goblins. I entered turn based mode and they were frozen. The goblin on the building on the left, however, was not frozen. This means that it is possible for more goblins to move into my immediate area. Even if they do, inevitably, become frozen by the turn based mode the fact that the whole world (the program) is not frozen is what bothers me.

So it really just comes back to peace of mind, which we both seem to agree on:

I want to be assured that nothing will happen while I am away from the game. I don't want "maybe". So that's my opinion on pausing for single player games. For multiplayer I can definitely understand the problem, though.

Sorry to hear about your fire, Umbra. That is, for sure, a situation where a pause button would be nice to set your mind at ease after dealing something that sends your mind into a frenzy.

One more vote for the pauze button !

When the party is running from point A to point B and you hit Turn-based, they will stop. But when you return to continuous mode they will not continue the path, but just stay where they are. A pauze/run would make them continue the "active" run.
Small things, I know. But I honestly don't see why a total pauze would be something that cannot be added.

As mentioned by someone else in another thread, I'd like an automated way to perform the "morning routine", ie casting protection spells and summoning familiars. I'd love it to allow for fairly complex routines, such as :

1. Gale prepares Mage Armor
2. Gale casts Mage Armor on himself
3. Gale prepares Find Familiar instead of Mage Armor
4. Gale casts Find Familiar to summon the spider
5. Gale prepares Grease instead of Find Familiar
6. Gale uses Arcane Recovery to regain two level 1 spell slots
7. Wyll summons Imp
8. Wyll hexes Imp
9. Wyll re-summons Imp
10. Wyll casts Armor of Agathys
11. The party takes a short Rest

Option to toggle off encumbrance.

I'd be in favor of a simple automated system that only casts spells or uses items as your morning routine, but I'm not a fan of some of these more complex automations that encourage exploiting/gaming the system. Things like the re-prepping of spells while allowing de-prepared spells to remain active effectively just increases casters' "spells prepared" daily limit, and (if left in the game) should at the very least require player effort. Unless they're intended gameplay, at which point Larian should just make certain spells (e.g., mage armor) not take up a spell preparation slot and save us the hassle entirely.

I agree. I was going over my current "morning routine", but I'd rather the prepared spell exploit was either fixed or fully acknowledged by Larian, as you mention.

Wyll hexing his imp, though, does seem intended. That trick takes nine clicks and it seems to me like that could be streamlined.

While i agree this would be welcomed for many players (not me tho) ...
It sounds more like difficiulty adjustment than QoL ...

Feel free to corect me but Quality of Life adjustments are things that will play easier but dont broke any rules.
Rule about carry weight would certainly be broken by this.

That sounds fair. Maybe an encumbrance toggle would be more appropriate in a mod as it does enable the player to circumvent a mechanic that is meant to provide a balance in difficulty. A carry weight and encumbrance require the player to be more thoughtful about how to prepare before venturing out.

For me it is not about what I venture out with but what I get once out there. Encumbrance just makes me waste time moving goblin bows, etc., from one character to another.