Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Mega-threads and Guides Day/Night Cycle

Those two things are neither directly related nor mutually exclusive (if anything, they can complement each other) so it seems a random-ass "I prefer" to put on the table.

But fine, if we are going to lie down personal preferences and play at "budget manager", then I'd prefer a day/night cycle and all the nuances of world building that come with it over redundant "Playable companions as Origin characters".

Apart from it isn't really is it.
I think you could reign it in a little Tuco, especially given most people in the big threads are actually on the sampe page with what we want.

That said, the D/N discussion in CRPG's as a whole is not tied just to BG3 (though on these forums it obviously is) and there are arguments for not having one that transcend budget (for example people hate schedules, and want 24/7 vendors, quest givers, etc...). But yeah,irrelevant to what you or I WANT in BG3.

The fact is Larian only don't want it for reasons of Multiplayer (at least that's the only semi - official line I know of).
I could add that if you have dynamic time and weather, you can end up with quirks in your encounters. Why is that Encounter always there irrespective of D/N or weather?

If however you control that by determining the area to a time and perhaps even weather (if you want to go that far), then you set a scene and control it (like a film per say). Dialogue, interactions, events can all be set to fit that scene and the environment.

So IF you just plonk in D/N as an effect, it becomes an argument of shall I say, generic immersiveness vs Scripted immersiveness at the opposite end (which is how I believe Larian want to do it later on when they have "night" areas - in fact we have seen this with the party scene).

I feel the need to point out that having a progressive day/night and/or weather cycle isn't exclusive with having set pieces that occur during specific time periods or weather conditions. The most straight forward way that older games have done this is to have the weather and time patterns fade or merge into the appropriate one as you approach the set piece, if it's a set piece that occurs in the wider world, along with hard transitions for set pieces that can occur in isolated spaces or independent settings (like the party scene). They're not mutually exclusive things at all, and games much older than this one have handled it decently well.

Agree.
I certainly wasn’t claiming it as a valid excuse.

I agree

Playing Kingmaker, I must say, it is more like BG1 and 2 than BG3. Part of the reason for this is Day/Night and weather. I know some might think this is dumb, but bottom line is, without Day/Night and weather, you just don't get the full experience of a D&D adventure.

we do need a day night cycle tho i mean would add to immersion

Welcome to the club!

Yes. I REALLY hope they add it.

Minthara at night, let's go.

I know, right? Why would she even consider attacking by day? Is it just to flex on the tiefs? She's a Drow and it makes more sense to attack by night. More intimidating.

i too love a day & night cycle. but i read elsewhere.. can't recall correctly where it was but someone mentioned and explained day & night cycle couldn't be implemented was due to the turn-based.

Yeah, that makes no sense to me. Why would turn-based have anything to do with day night cycle? You going to turn based mode and time stops. Each round is only 6 seconds. So why would that affect anything having to do with the lighting in the game?

It was proposed that the day night cycle could be managed via the short rest system. Click a short rest and it switches from morning to afternoon. Click it again and it switches from afternoon to evening. Day night cycle implemented.

as you mentioned time stops during turn-based mode. so it will became weird if someone joined a battle with different weather transition. not quite sure day & night on dnd5e, does it has any rule advantage during night or day?

Why would someone join a battle with different weather or day/night?

In BG3, you start the game together as members of the same party. Though you could separate and go different ways, in order to join a fight, you'd have to move into the vicinity of your party mates. So as you approach the battle area, if it was raining somewhere else, it would stop raining as you approached the battle. If they built it so you can't transition from day to night without everyone agreeing to it, then you wouldn't have someone traveling by day and someone by night. Either everyone is traveling by day or night.

Maybe You're thinking realtime clock. I'm not. Day/night by short rest or something similar would make it so everyone must agree to transition between.

Since Larian said they actually want to hear what we have to say on matters, I'll go ahead and agree that I believe a Day/night cycle would add plenty to the game. I'll also throw in that caves need to be darker.

While I agree with the general sentiment overall, they need to fix this "obscured by shadows" nonsense first.

Whatever. The point isn't what they have to fix first or second, just that they need to implement Day/Night.

I disagree. We don't need "obscured by shadows" creeping into the rest of the game just because they make it dark outside. They need to fix that problem before implementing something that will exacerbate it.

Alternatively, implementing a Day/Night cycle will make it very apparent that "obscured by shadows" is a problem. Whereas now, since most of the map is above ground during the daytime, it's a less prevalent issue.

Whatever. I just want proper Day/Night.