Firstly, thank you all for the comments and support. It makes me feel much better to see many people in the community who feels the same way in regards to how the current dialogue system is not very good for a party-based game. Especially when in D&D, as a party, we rely on each other for our various skills and expertise.
Welcome to the forums Kappa Omicron (and cool pseudo by the way).
A couple of quick points.
The specific issue of not being able to act as a party during conversation has been reported many times. Although it probably took a back seat to other topics (e.g. Reactions) since the release of Patch 8, a couple of weeks ago. And now that I think of it, I may have seen this pop up on Reddit more frequently than here. But in short, no, you're certainly not alone in caring about conversations. And more generally, you are not alone in feeling that the game fails to deliver on the "party-based RPG" aspect, on so many occasions.
I'll briefly add a couple of points regarding the multiplayer experience.
- When your friend starts a conversation (and thus a cutscene), you have to actively opt in to experience it as well. Instead of having to opt out if you don't want to see it. In my view, that's clearly the wrong default setting. I can think of few cooperative games where I have to ask the game "yes please, show me the story as well, I'm not here just for combat and shenanigans".
On top of that, you have to be quick to opt in, otherwise you miss out the beginning of the cutscene. Not really appropriate in a turn-based game.
- When your friend selects a dialogue option in a conversation, you do not see what they selected. You have to either ask your friend constantly "so what did you say" (not an authentic tabletop or coop feel), or overlay the dialogue history (and miss out on the graphics).
Your point about not being able to use a party member's skills (e.g. Guidance) if they are controlled by another player is a good one though (and new to me, as I didn't playtest multiplayer since the so-called "Active Roll UI" was introduced in Patch 5).
Thank you for the welcome and kind words.
In regards to the issue you brought up with having to constantly opt in to the dialogue in multiplayer when another player initiates a conversation with an NPC, I was actually planning on starting another thread at some point on that. It's an issue that's been the bane of even Divinity Original Sin 2, which I was really hoping Larian would have changed for Baldur's gate 3.
After experiencing playing co-op with a friend recently, I was actually happy to see that they did fix one of the issues that I remember being in DOS2, and that was the voice acting would not play the first line when clicking into the dialogue of another player. In BG3, whenever I clicked into dialogue when my friend was in one, the cutscene would play like normal with full voice acting, but sometimes would skip ahead when the next scene played for player who initiated the dialogue.
Something I found myself wishing I could do while playing through the game for the first time with a friend was being able to "link" my player character onto my friend's character just like we can do with the companions so they follow us.
Being someone who has played through many parts of the EA dozens of times, I grew a little weary of having to follow my friend around manually everywhere when we were, say, just at the Druid's Grove and talking to all of the dozens of NPCs all over the place, and me having to click into the dialogue every time. The shorter dialogue with 90% of the NPCs where they just say one or two lines were never worth clicking into, because the cutscene would end before I could even see it fully due to it ending for the player who started it.
My thoughts are if we had the ability to attach our characters to another player character, our characters would auto-follow that player around, and automatically be put into any dialogue he initiates or is drawn into without us having to do anything. Just like what happens with the NPC companions we already have.
If we were able to do something like that, that way we could clearly define who our "player face" of the party is. While attached to the party leader, our characters would just auto-follow just like the AI companions already do, but when combat starts, we have full control of our characters. Whenever we want to split up, we could just detach ourselves and then go along our merry way.
I wish Larian would be a little more transparent with us and just tell us if they are still working on improving the dialogue system or not, and why. If it's a technical issue or limitation with the engine, then just let us know. Isn't that what Early Access is for in the first place? For us to be able to help suggest things and give feedback?
The community definitely has been helping out and working together with Larian, but then there are these topics that just get completely ignored with no word or input from Larian. Despite putting great emphasis on their development structure of asking feedback from fans and working together during early access to make the game the best it can be.
The topic of this discussion seems popular and highlighted (to a point) enough for them to have taken notice. If they could just confirm they are still working on improving the dialogue system to be more party-centric so we can all use our skills to help the group, then that would be fine.
Or if they could just confirm that they are no longer working on improving the dialogue system, then let us know so we can give more useful feedback in other areas or alternatives.
It's just not a good feeling when a certain type of feedback, that has been quite consistently said since the beginning and echoed from many, yet 8 patches later, there is no acknowledgement or word on whether it is being seen or treated as an issue.
Will I be upset if Larian confirms the dialogue system isn't going to be improved in a way that lets us work together as a party using skills during dialogue? Of course, it's supposed to be a party-based game.
But at least I'll know not to waste my time giving feedback in an area that Larian has no intention on ever changing.
I apologise if I may have come across a little prickly in some areas, I genuinely do not mean any ill-will or anything of the like. I'm just quite passionate about party-based games and working together, and I really do love everything I've seen and experienced so far in Baldur's Gate 3. I just feel that the current dialogue system is holding the game back a lot and is working against many features in the game. Especially for those who plan to co-op a full party together.
Every Patch seems to have to have some big thing added onto the game, such as a new class or race, but will there ever be a patch that just completely overhauls the dialogue? Or is that too lacklastre and wouldn't develop enough hype for more sales like the latter would?
