Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Mega-threads and Guides Reactions like Solasta!

I'm mostly sure there could have a good solution for all reactions in the game. In my opinion it could be a good compromise between combat flow and control.
Characters turns are a bit longer and the player has a bit more things to spend than speed + action + bonus action, which seems interresting to me.

Not something you have to do each turn but you can depending how things are going.

It could become a specific feature to use like spells and class features. You set up actively your reactions during your turns rather than writting conditions in a book or answering the constant questions of a popup.

This is what I have in mind to interract with reactions.
Skills you can customized "and cast" during your turns to define which reactions will be available during the round for your characters.
It would also allow us to manually select our targets.



No, it's not how it works in DnD

But
You don't have a popup that break the flow of combats constantly.
You'll have a decent control over your reactions. The reactions trigger under YOUR target's conditions when you've enabled them.
Creating "customized skills" seems fun gameplay-wise. Toggles used to custom your variations.
Re-doing said customized "spells" because the situation has changed a few turns later seems appealing tacticaly too.
It doesn't prevent to keep the actual system (on/off toggle on characters hotbar) as a secondary tool for players that want to go a bit deeper into management when a reaction has been made available.
Default options could be defined on "Select all" and with all variations toggled ON (as it works now).


The biggest next question I now have in mind is : when should ressources (spellslots, bardic dices, superiority, remaining charges,...) be consummed ?

- If they're consumed right when you use the skill :
Everything become a Hellish Rebuke. It mean that you spend a ressource for something that may never happen. Even if you can recast it freely at each turn to re-configure it, you'll still don't have your spellslot left, maybe killing your chances to win because a Feather Fall would have finally been better.

- If they're consumed when the reaction trigger it means that you don't have any limitations to prepare your reactions :
You can cast as much things as you want at each turn until you don't have the minimum requirement left (after which the whole toggles would be removed on all characters and impossible to "create").
But what if you have 1 bardic dice left ? You can customize as much reactions as you want but it will be deleted after 1 on them trigger ?

It doesn't seem to be an issue to me because I usually know what kind of reactions I'd like to use, when and VS which target(s)... I won't have to spend "too much" time into this. You can go deeper. You can go shallower.
But we should absolutely have to be able to change our mind at least during our turns (remove the custom reaction, choose another variation or different targets,...).

In th end I'm absolutely not sure we'd have (a lot) more click to do with such a system than with the current one or the "ask me anything" one.

It would not give us a FULL control though.

I'm just now sitting here thinking, can you all imagine what it would be like if Solasta didn't exist? What would the feedback in BG3 EA even look like if there wasn't such a clear frame of reference for many of the systems?

Lately there's been an anti-reaction push on the subreddit and it's just baffling. That said, that one thread on the subreddit has a ton of people on both sides accusing each other of being a vocal minority, so I'm kind of interested in starting up a poll on there to really see how the community feels about this. Let's say that regardless of whatever plan Larian has in regards to reactions, what would people prefer more, the current reaction system or a complete Solasta-style reaction overhaul?

(Don't actually answer that question in this thread. Or answer, if you want. Can't stop you.)

I've been thinking about some sort of gambit system in regards to reactions. Solasta already has reactions not trigger if they wouldn't affect the end result regardless, but we could probably go a step further than that. Like we could have it so that we aren't prompted for 'defensive reactions' if the incoming enemy attack does less than X damage and/or could be potentially lethal if the attack lands (if the character's current HP is lower than whatever condition we set for the former setting). And we could have a setting where we aren't prompted for 'offensive reactions' such as Smite and Hellish Rebuke if the enemy is below X amount of HP and/or their current HP is low enough that they would be KO'd by the base weapon damage die alone, if applicable.

And then there could be a toggle that flips between 4 options: 'Use Normal Reaction Settings' (which involves the settings above), 'Ask for all Reactions', 'Never ask for Reactions - use automatically', and 'Never ask for Reactions - Do not use Reactions'. The latter three obviously acting as overrides to whatever settings you have.

I want to naively believe that our feedback would be the same, just with less screenshots and videos of Solasta ... but more verbal description of exactly the same.

This is something you can observe in any discusion ...
Even here sometimes.

People tend to believe that their opinion is the right one, and often fail to see how can anyone want something different ... it sucks, but its completely natural. :-/

//Edit:
Well ... i believe that to create full control with tons of pop-ups would be possible for some skilled moder ...
Your described method would be imho a little harder to implement ... so if Larian would go that way, i believe we all would eventualy get what we want.

...Is it just me, or did Reddit actually disable the ability to create polls? I can't find anything explaining why the option to create one is greyed out. Wondering if they gated it behind some crappy paid membership system or something.

EDIT: No, it looks like the moderation staff for the BG3 subreddit for some reason specifically DISABLED it there. The hell? Digging deeper, it looks like this was done nearly a year ago, and after a large series of poorly thought out polls that were basically designed to fish for specific results and fights in the comments. Hm.

Im' not sure it would be hard. They already implemented Hellish Rebuke.
The only thing to add is "toggles" in the variation windows if it make sense and a mechanic to select our target (which is something they should add at least for bless/bane/sleep/...)

Of course it would require a bit of job on every reactions. But they'll have to create something anyway.

No, not "hard" ...
"harder when compared to pop-up for every single potential reaction".

No spamming of Solasta on the BG3 forum? I wish!!!

Jesus Christ.

Solasta's implementation does have the caveat that any amount of damage of 10 or lower is an automatic concentration success. However for instances where one attack has two types of damage (like Piercing and poison), Solasta considers both of those to be separate attacks, which mean two concentration checks, and perhaps two death saves, from one single attack, which I don't like.



That is one reason why I would either set reactions to off or ask, never auto. But some people seem to want to select "auto" for certain things. "Auto" would be more useful for Fighters who want to either use AoO or Riposte. Auto would probably be less great in many other cases.

Spitballing stuff, don't mind me...

So I've spent the past few hours figuring out how we could go about having a far more fleshed out reaction system utilizing prompts, but also having additional settings to help automate the frequency of prompts based on player preferences, mitigating the potential issue of 'too many pop-ups'. I'm trying to go for a sort of gambit-style system in regards to reactions, and this is what it would probably look like.

Feel free to add to the list for situations I've overlooked.

---

Defensive Reaction settings:

* Never prompt for reaction if expected damage is below X amount (you can input a number in this option)
* Always prompt for reaction if incoming enemy attack or spell has a chance to KO a party member (a yes/no checkmark option which would override the first option)
* Always prompt for reaction if incoming enemy attack or spell would result in a party member being forced to make a concentration check or break concentration (a yes/no checkmark option which would override the first option)
* Always prompt for reaction (checking this option overrides/greys out the other options above)
* Always use reaction automatically (checking this option overrides/greys out the other options above)

Defensive reactions would include the following:

Shield, Protection fighting style, Bardic/Combat Inspiration: Saving Throws, Combat Inspiration: AC increase, Cutting Words, Evasion

The above is not meant to be a full list, but you all get the point.

---

Offensive Reaction settings:

* Never prompt if enemy HP is below X amount (you can input a number in this option)
* Never prompt for reaction if expected damage without added damage from reaction has a chance to KO the target. (This only really applies to Smite and Bardic Inspiration: Damage rolls. Let's say you're attacking a goblin that only has 5 HP, and your weapon damage alone already does anywhere from 6-11 damage. There'd be no reason for the game to ask you if you want to smite in that situation.)
* Always prompt for reaction (checking this option overrides/greys out the other two options above)
* Always use reaction automatically (checking this option overrides/greys out the other options above)

Offensive reactions would include the following:

Hellish Rebuke, Combat Inspiration: Damage Rolls, Smite

Again, not meant to be a full list, but you all get the point. I am certain there are more that would fit into this category, feel free to mention them so I can flesh this out a bit more.

The game would clarify that while Smite is not considered a reaction, the way it is used would utilize the same system for determining whether you want to use that feature or not. The game would also clarify that Bardic Inspiration: Attack Rolls is similar to Smite in that it is not a true reaction, but it will always prompt whenever its use could determine the difference between an attack landing or missing, unless the 'Always use reaction automatically' option is checked.

---

Utility Reaction settings: (Utility reactions are handled on a case-by-case basis, since they're potentially on a whole other tier of importance compared to the above two categories.)

Counterspell:

* Never prompt for reaction if the enemy spell being cast is below X spell level (you can input a number in this option)
* Always prompt for reaction if the enemy spell being cast is identified as a defensive spell (examples being healing spells, Shield, etc.)
* Always prompt for reaction if the enemy spell being cast is identified as a utility spell (examples being Darkness, Fog Cloud, enemy Counterspells, etc.)
* Always prompt for reaction if expected damage from the enemy spell has a chance to KO a party member or force a concentration check
* Always prompt for reaction if the enemy spell inflicts a status effect
* Always prompt for reaction if the enemy spell being cast is unknown. (This option assumes that Arcana skill checks to identify enemy spells before you attempt to counter them are in BG3.)
* Always prompt for reaction (checking this option overrides/greys out the other options above)
* Always use automatically (checking this option overrides/greys out the other options above)

Feather Fall:

* Never prompt for reaction if expected fall damage is below X amount (you can input a number in this option)
* Always prompt for reaction if expected damage can KO a party member or force a concentration check
* Always prompt for reaction (checking this option overrides/greys out the other options above)
* Always use automatically (checking this option overrides/greys out the other options above)

Hmm, are there other utility reactions besides these two that should be handled on a case by case basis?

---

Attack of Opportunity settings: (This would be a toggle option for each character that you can view during combat. It's split by character because a Wizard would probably never want to blow their reaction to AoO if they want to save their reaction to, say, counterspell. Martial characters like a Fighter that doesn't have much else for reactions probably would want to AoO at every opportunity.)

* Always use automatically whenever possible
* Never use this reaction
* Always prompt for reaction

---

Reaction Override toggle settings: (Basically a way to override custom settings quickly during combat, if let's say there's only a couple enemies left and you just want to get things over with without the game asking you for any prompts. Think of the practical use of this being like swapping from turn-based to RTwP in one of the Pathfinder cRPGs. This would also be grouped into defensive and offensive categories. Utility reactions and attacks of opportunity will retain their custom settings.)

* Use custom settings
* Always Prompt for Reactions
* Never Prompt for Reactions (do not use reactions automatically)
* Never Prompt for Reactions (always use reactions automatically)

On a side note, I do wonder how feasible it would be to use these settings in regards to multiplayer. Everyone having different settings might throw a wrench in this programming-wise. It could probably just be simplified so that only the host's settings will apply to everyone. It's their room, after all.

I know the chances of Larian doing something like this is unknown, considering we haven't heard anything in regards to the reaction system this past year. But maybe it could act as a frame of reference for some crazy mod programmer in the future if the game does release with reactions remaining as is. I also wonder what would happen if the Solasta devs were to implement the above. All the pop up complaints would probably vanish overnight. For all we know, they might already be doing something similar for their upcoming Bard/Monk/Warlock release...

So I tried describing something like the above over at Reddit.

https://old.reddit.com/r/BaldursGat...a_full_reaction_system_with_settings_to/

The amount of downvotes this is getting along with no one even bothering to reply seems to tell me that people would rather argue about things instead of actually coming up with any solutions at all. It's the ultimate evidence that it's a shit platform for actual feedback and discussion, because whether your ideas are seen at all basically depends on what kinds of people happen to see them first and they effectively decide if it gets an audience at all. I hate that Reddit has effectively replaced proper forums for this reason.

The overall community has quickly spiraled into a lost cause in regards to actual gameplay discussion ever since the patch was released. Maybe we've reached the point where discussion of gameplay has circled down the drain so much that everyone's just tired of hearing about it. Probably one of the negatives of having such a long EA period.

Eh, I should probably just delete that thread and try it again on the weekend when more people are around. A quick glance at the current subreddit activity over the past hour tells me that there's a number of people online on that subreddit right now that seem to treat any suggestion that implies that there's anything inadequate in BG3 like a direct attack on Larian or something.

Or maybe many people don't care about this as much as you do. Always good to reflect.

I certainly think the Solasta method is better, but in terms of stuff BG3 does wrong and should fix it's not top of the list.

Maybe, but there are other threads with people discussing this exact sort of thing that have gotten many upvotes not even a whole 24 hours ago. All I've done is put it into a fully fleshed out format for the sake of gathering feedback in case there were situations I've missed, and to act as a guideline for what Larian might be trying to implement if they happen to see it, or for future mod creators if the game's going to release with the reaction system remaining as is.

Plus whether people care about things is irrelevant anyway. We as mere onlookers are free to prioritize whatever the hell we want, but what we want to prioritize doesn't really matter, when the actual reality is that Larian as developers are fully capable of doing multiple things at once. If only because it's not like the writing staff works on the same things as the gameplay design staff.

I tried to go take a look, Saito, but it's already deleted <.< >.>

In general, I'd recommend, if you're going to brave the reddit mire, to at least give threads ~48 hours to percolate; it may look bad initially, but there are audiences that check at different times, and at least a portion of them check based on new posts, regardless of other people's ratings.

I don't know how much of an impact the time of the day has (it's got to be the middle of the night somewhere).

Also, I think your post was very long. What's more attractive, especially on Reddit, an image macro meme or a wall of text ?

Finally, and this is just my personal opinion,


is not my job. It's the devs' job. I generally take very little part in "the community brainstorming and coming up with solutions".

As GMTK puts it, "focus on problems, not solutions" (section at 7:49 in this video). The advice is meant for the devs, but I feel it is valuable for players giving feedback as well.

That's why I always prefer to analyse what doesn't work, and why it doesn't work. And I prefer describing what the criticised feature cause in terms of player experience (impracticality, tediousness, frustration, feeling of unfairness, break of immersion, boredom, un-engaging gameplay, etc).

Yes, I occasionally make suggestions. Often they are requests (e.g. adding options for an equally deep experience as a non-musician Bard). Sometimes, when analysing an issue with a feature, the solutions are pretty clear, so I might suggest some. But that's overall rare.

On top of all that, Larian really does not engage with their community. And they certainly don't motivate their changes or non-changes (contrast with how the devs of Diablo 2 Resurrected commented on their patch notes). There is no way to know why Larian hasn't implemented satisfying Reactions. It is a lot harder to look for solutions when you don't know what the problem is. And it is harder to convince someone to do something when you don't know the reasons for their reluctance.


So, as far as I'm concerned, I upvoted your post (in the hope to increase visibility for the general issue of Reaction, not so much out of agreement for the detail of the proposed solution), and moved on.


——


I always sort by "New" instead of "Hot". I hate the idea of seeing mostly/only what others have upvoted.

Selecting our target should work with the current system since we can select to attack. When we cast Shield or Hellish Rebuke we should be able to select the enemy who we want it to trigger with. It would be better than having no control. I still think a toggle system would be best though. And bane, bless, and sleep should have definitely been fixed.

You probably made all the pixel sex fanatics' heads hurt so they downvoted you. Your idea looks complicated on the outside but it would offer the most flexibility.

Same here. I cannot stand popularity contests, especially somewhere like Reddit where stupid stuff gets the most upvotes and intelligent stuff gets nothing or downvoted.

Solasta reactions are horrible. Pop-ups are clunky and will become very tedious to deal with if you have a bard in a party. Just because DnD purists want a videogame simulator of the rules they obsess over doesn't mean that the majority of casual players will like it.

I think that we should be able, when we CAST the "reaction", to choose which toggle we want to be available on the target.

If I want a combat inspiration for damage roll on Lae'Zel...

Currently :
- cast combat inspiration
- click Lae'zel
- select Lae'zel (=> she has now 5 new toggles)
- toggles OFF 4 reactions

What I'd like :
- cast combat inspiration and select "damage roll" in the variation windows (or "toggle OFF" attack roll, ST, skill check, AC bonus)
- click Lae'zel (=> she has now a single "damage roll" toggle)

This would allow us to go deeper into reaction management on top of being a better gameplay imho.
We'd still don't have a perfect control but at least we could choose what we like during our turns rather than constantly having to toggle OFF options we're not interrested in.

TBH I could live with my Lae'Zel using his bonus to damage roll not to the best target I'd personnaly have chosen if it trigger during the ennemy's turn... But I have a hard time with the "now you have to manage Lae'zels toggles or her bonus is totally out of control".

Depending the reactions we could also be able to target specific ennemies.

In exemple cast "riposte"on my fighter the only variation is the target(s).
A ON/OFF toggle appear on my fighter's hotbar but the reaction will only trigger on the target(s) I've chosen.
If I want to change the target, I just have to "recast" riposte and select another one.

I just can help the feeling that this is once again work for options.
Create whatever half, or fully automatic stuff you want ... and just add option for people who are not bothered to confrim popup every few seconds ...

Everyone will be happy.