Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Option this, option that

People keep putting forth their ideas and saying it should at least be an option. They say, "If you don't like it, you can turn the option off."

Saying that makes the suggestion seem more palatable, even to those folks who don't like the idea. After all, who wants to deny someone else a little fun?

The problem is, I don't want ten pages of options. One or two, sure, but everything can't be an option. It's too much to ask. Not to mention, imagine what a conflicting buggy nightmare that would be.

Just my opinion.

Well how about this:

Options:
-blah blah blah
-blah blah blah
-blah blah blah
-blah blah blah
-blah blah blah

Homebrew options: (click to expand ...)

And remember that many of those options dont really need toggle in settings ...
If you take things like possibility to learn Cleric spells as Wizard ... basicaly everything about Barrells ... two version of spells (with / without surface effects) ...
Those are things where "options" is simply just ignore it, no setting at all.

sounds like you want to deny someone else a little fun. Party pooper.

I agree. I want the developers to focus on making a solid game with defined mechanics that have been tested and balanced. When there are too many options, it starts to feel like I'm responsible for deciding what the game is supposed to be. Like I'm designing the game instead of experiencing it. I'm not even a big fan of difficulty levels but I get why they are necessary.

There's no way around the fact that not wanting options in a game is denying other people what they want that could make the game fun for them. And nobody, not one single person, has asked for ten pages of options.

And me being able to decide what the game is supposed to be (for me) is AWESOME.

The key point for options is that Larian would provide 3-5 default sets of options that they've (roughly) balanced the game for: story, normal, hard, 5e core, tactician. Then, each of those difficulties has a full suite (1-3 pages) of settings: toggles, sliders, etc. Most people can just click one of the difficulty settings and be on their way (or change 1-2 settings: e.g., unlimited resting box "on").

Games are strictly improved by adding options, as long as the developer still provides a sufficient spread of default options. Otherwise, the player has to decide everything for themself which I agree is some combination of tedious, stressful, overwhelming, and not our responsibility.

Obviously some things are not worth the effort of implementing (e.g., RtwP) as options. But small things that Larian probably experimented with anyway or would already change for different difficulties (# of short rests, spell surfaces, anyone can use scrolls, high ground advantage, natural 20s auto succeed on skill checks, perma-death) should be very small effort to include as options. These types of things also would have a small chance of creating bugs, due to their simplicity and/or having already been tested in EA.

Agreed!

Agreed with my whole heart, body, and soul! :3

Give us something like this Larian, i beg you:

Seriously, that would be so perfect. it wouldn't take 10 pages, and you could hide it in the options menu to not scare the people that want the "real" experience.

+1

Nobody needs more than one flavor of ice cream.

Kids these days.

But... My favorite ice cream has three flavors in it...

I'm with you OP. I, as everyone else ofc, want a defined fantastic game suited to exactly my preferences. And I don't want to have to fill in a form with boxes to get that. Will I get that? No, most probably not. I can only hope Larian will see it my way the most :P

Is that a selfish position to take? Yes, it is and I can stand for that. I didn't fork out 60$ so that other people can enjoy the game, I did it for my own personal enjoyment.

And I know there are people on these forums that has vocally let us know that they simply can't understand that disposition, but that's ok, because they don't need to. Difficulty choices and a few selective options in the Game part settings is enough for me. It has worked for 30 years so I don't see why it can't continue.

Maybe I'm just old and grumpy :P

a neapolitan man eh?

+1, it seems like there's a new request every day for this or that, to add one thing or another... it is going to take ages to finish the game with all the options to please everyone. As for me there's already enough options, just add a few (the most asked for) and move on.

Honestly, if I could start a game in and fill in ten pages of radio button or check boxes worth of configurable options for how I wanted the game to run, it's adult to kid-friendly tone elements, and what I intended this character to be like, and so on... and the game presented could actually *DO* that in a satisfying way, and respond to it... I'd be there in a heart beat ^.^ It's the later part that we're not there yet with, I think. Give it another 30 years and full feedback immersion virtual space experience capabilities (Just give me something like .hack, honestly...). Until then, doing what we can without creating too much dissonance from game limitations is the balance that game-makers need to find, and it's a line that's different for every player, and continuously advancing in small ways.

Thats exactly it ... it only "seems" that way but quite often isnt really ... bcs most of those request is only repeated over and over and over.

This actualy souds like argument agains changes rather than options ...

Please notice that most requested "options" were bring up when someone asked for some major change from curent state ... basicaly meaning that this "option" this topic is against would require no time or resources to implement ... since it allready IS implemented.

---

Wich takes me to the question ...
OP ... you are affraid of "ten pages of options" ... i obviously assume that number is exaggerated ... but lets use it anyway.

I would like to dare you to list me at least 10 EXAMPLES of those requested options ...
Bcs i honestly cant find as much ... meaning main point of this topic seems to be a little too abstract.

You don't think adding options doesn't necessite a change as well? In the code, in amount of extra work for coding and bug testing?

I know it doesnt ... resp. it does so little so you can ignore it.
Look, its basicaly just matter of deffinition.

Larian create thing A ... its in Early Acess ... we test it ... some people dislike it ... they request change ... some other people likes it ... and request to keep it as an "option" ...

Meaning all "extra work" is not around the option, since *that* is allready there ... its around the requested change, what would replace the option.

Also as i said, note that many options dont need even toggle in settings, you can effectively leave both in game and let people to use whatever suits them ... and those dont require any additional work.
Some examples:
Barrells, learning Divine Spells with Wizard, option to set on your hotbar spell with certain level aswell as upcastable menu, etc.

And all of that requires extra code, changes to the UI, testing for bugs, consideration of UI clogging and so on and so forth. There's already too many icon in the hotbar IMO ad this is just for the spells and skills you learn between level 1-4.

I dont seem to follow ...
How do you even do any "extra coding" for something that is allready written?

It seems you missunderstand me ...
Let me try to use an Example ... i shall use a Mage Armor:

Right now: You have Mage Armor icon ... and then you have to pick if you wish to cast it with 1 or 2 spell level ... will be much more in the future.

Previous version: You had Mage Armor lvl 1 and Mage Armor lvl 2 as separate icons ...

Asked option: Keep separate icons as they are, and just add popup menu ...

If that would be what larian chooses in the end ... we would have our Mage Armor icon, that would then open level 1, 2, 3, etc. ...
BUT if we would be anoyed by picking spell level for spell that have EXACTLY THE SAME EFFECT no matter wich spell level you use ... so if you upcast it, you are effectively just burning your stronger spellslots for no reason ... you would be able to put on your Hotbar Mage Armor lvl 1 and cast it allways with lvl 1 spellslot.

And there is really no additional work, since as i said, it was allready there ... all they actualy needed to do was simply dont delete it, when they implemented new version.