Originally Posted by Seraphael
I have a couple of issues with this. Having a lot of conversations take place in one bulk makes the artificial mechanic more obtrusive and obvious, nor does concentrating talk make for fun gameplay. Anything that gives the feel of a "talk/quest starter hub" tends to kill fun for me.

Why lock *all* this content to the camp at all? That is such a obtusely artificial gameplay mechanic! Instead having it occur more spread out, both in time and locations, makes for more believable gameplay and avoids the need to lock the content behind frequent camp rests - which leads to the narrative dissonance that has plagued the game since start of EA.

I agree with you and it was taken into consideration when I was writing this feedback. However no matter how the issue is approached, there will always be a downside because it's just how the resting mechanic is implemented currently. So all it comes down to is choosing the lesser evil;

  • Having one interaction per rest to experience less of the story, but require to do significantly more consecutive rests to experience it fully and risk potentially missing out on it due to story progression.
  • Having several interactions per rest to experience more of the story, but require significantly less rests to experience it and not risk potentially missing out on story content.

So no matter how it is approached, there will always be a downside and the only question is which is the lesser evil. I'd love for them to re-envision the resting mechanic so it feels properly cohesive and dynamic, but I do not know whether they intend to reinvent or not. So this is more of a feedback based on its current implementation, to make it less contradictory with itself in case they do leave it as it is.

Originally Posted by Wormerine
Making the camp the centre of companion interactions makes perfect sense from purely narrative point of view: downtime when characters relax after a day of adventuring is a very natural place for place party interactions. It also integrates resting with other aspects of game, and Larian might be worried how their existing audience will react to a new system that is long rest. You also avoid a very awkward thing from BG2 where conversations would trigger at the most inopportune of places and moments.

There is also a production advantage, as with pre-set enviroment devs can craft cinematics for those interactions - try to make those trigger anywhere on the map and you don't have a propt nor "stage" to work with, not to mention having to deal with objects obstructing the camera and all the other stuff you get to see when you try to engage in conversation with roaming NPCs. Really, they are just doing the same thing as other modern cinematic heavy RPGs are doing.

Unfortunately, Long Rest in BG3 isn't quite like, lets say Normandy in Mass Effects, which acts as a hub from which player accesses locations and missions - and amount of visits to the camp in BG3 could vary between players greatly.

Edit. As we talk about QoL UI changes to enhance conversations: The yellow exclamation point over characters when they have special conversation are a hit or miss for me. Usually they are fine, but with a bright background (like in the Druid Grove) it happens for me to miss those - and then they pop into view once I initiate a move order, but then it's too late and they dissapear. I would appreciate something more visible. A stronger outline perhaps? A sound que? Perhaps a companion saying "can we chat for a moment?"

Well said, especially the part about the amount of visits that can vary between players. I unfortunately fell into the same hole as many others have, where I avoided the resting mechanic entirely due to story immersion and ended up never seeing the story behind it. As a new player at the time it was a terrible first experience that felt incredibly shallow because I missed so much.

And yes, the yellow prompts are easily missed in certain sunny parts of the map, but I assume they will visually improve is. At least with a black outline so it stands out more. Personally I'd love if companions would say something in the sense of "We need to talk at the camp/I'd like to speak with you in the camp". It'd be immersive. I thought their lines about being tired and needing rest were meant for exactly that, but evidently not.

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