Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General So what now?

Time isn't really getting that short though. It's still 6 months to the earliest possible release date from the current expectation assessment. It could easily be 9 months away, or they could shift the release date goalposts again.

If I were them, I'd keep those rounds in the chamber for as long as possible. On the one hand, to space out the fresh meat for the EA players, and on the other, if the game releases a little early, there could be one class that no one has touched.

You haven't missed anything. Perhaps I didn't word it clearly, but I was referring to 2023 as the current release target. But noting that Jan 2023, which is about 6mo from now, isn't necessarily going to be the point in 2023 when it's released.

The main bottleneck is cutscenes, a feature noone cares about.

It has already been established in these forums that there are people who actually enjoy the cutscenes so in that you're incorrect.

Maybe a healthy middle ground: cutscenes for important stuff and the rest can do without them. It would help set ressources free for other important stuff, like working in a meaningful reaction system for example.

How would that work? Some cutscenes don't have dialogue, just a character delivering a single line. We would not lose much if those interactions don't have a cutscene. But still the line would need to be audible, and it would need to be supported by appropriate movement. If not, that would interrupt the flow of the game. So if sound and movement are indispensible, all that remains for a cutscene is setting the camera. And perhaps camera position, focus and framing need not even be set manually for each encounter. Probably there are sensible defaults.
So my point is: it is quite possible that all the cutscenes combined take only a very small amount of development time.

"Cinematics were a huge complicating factor that affected everything else in the game, even dramatically impacting the writing process. On Original Sin 2, the writers could tinker with text until essentially the last minute, thanks to an automated pipeline they built that would send new text straight to the recording studios for actors to record the next day. But that doesn't work when every dialogue scene is meticulously animated—writing has gone from one of the first steps in the process to one of the last.

"There are so many steps in between now, so many people that need to look at it," Vincke said. "Cinematic designers, cinematic animators, the casting director, lighting, VFX, SFX. So you don't just add a line like that anymore. You're very aware of your cinematic budget, the cost, and the waterfall that follows from it. We've had to reinvent ourselves, how we work… so that we can still iterate."

How would that work? Some cutscenes don't have dialogue, just a character delivering a single line. We would not lose much if those interactions don't have a cutscene. But still the line would need to be audible, and it would need to be supported by appropriate movement. If not, that would interrupt the flow of the game. So if sound and movement are indispensible, all that remains for a cutscene is setting the camera. And perhaps camera position, focus and framing need not even be set manually for each encounter. Probably there are sensible defaults.
So my point is: it is quite possible that all the cutscenes combined take only a very small amount of development time.

pretty sure

Question tho:
I wonder ... am i the only one who have this odd feeling like every single week (after that Very AFK tease) Larian posts some Tweet ... that isnt related to next PFH, but instead is about is like slap on our face?
Sometimes i feel like im overreacting a lot ... but then again, frustration is cumulating ... dunno, thoughts?