I really disagree that it is a waste of resources - the thing is that to make day/night cycles shine the game needs features that synergize with it: large-scale free-form exploration is usually one (think Morrowind), and NPC schedules are another (think Ultima, Gothic or Skyrim). All of those games would lose a lot of their appeal if they were restricted to cheap tricks like static night/day boundaries. The same is true to a lesser extent for the original Baldur's Gate: arriving in the dark after a long journey & potentially having to contend with thieves and vampires added to the game experience.
For a game like Mass Effect where exploration exists but is restricted to specific zones and times day/night cycles aren't important - in fact, making sure that the time in game fits the story pacing is more important, especially with the focus the game has on cinematic dialogue and in-game cutscenes. That's a game which would not be improved by adding them. Both the games above and Mass Effect are good games.
You can also see an interesting tension in BG 2 which relies a lot more on pre-scripted story scenes than BG 1 where they had to resort to cheap tricks like forcing the game to Nighttime when returning to confront Bodhi after exiting the Underdark - though this specific example could have been easily solved by just moving the kidnap scene to when you enter the crypt.
But this nevertheless feeds into a dissatisfaction I have with BG 3 - I think it should be more like the first category of games, especially since Larian mentioned Ultima 7 as a game to take inspiration from. I think the proper way forward for the franchise would have been to build upon those kind of features: more exploration and an even more living world with NPC schedules, instead of moving so much into the cutscene-driven story direction instead.
So I agree that Baldur's Gate 3 would not profit much from day/night cycles, but at the same time this doesn't make me any happier since I think it's just due to them moving into the wrong direction in other aspects as well.
Final Edit: I think it is really weird to say I don't understand why all those AAA titles did it. BTW I only ever played this one game, which did not have it. Don't you feel you should have tried out some of those games to understand what it brings to the table?
Last edited by MarcAbaddon; 23/09/22 07:18 AM.
