They waited until Patch 8 to showcase how little headway they had made towards a reaction system, when they could have been trying things out for months. Each patch where that system stayed unchanged meant millions of gamer-hours wasted. Even systems that were fine could have benefitted from some experimentation.
Larian listened to the community and adjusted BG3, I’m not disputing that. They obviously also iterate internally, and the UI and graphics are constantly updated. But I find it hard to believe that they could have nailed every game system on their second public try.
I guess that’s my worry for BG3: That it might feel like the second draft of a masterpiece. (I don’t think they’ll use that in their promo…)
I understand. Couple thoughts. First of all, I don't think we can assume that Larian does no further testing/research beyond what is in Early Access. As I understand behind-closed-doors NDA tests are a common practice. What they release into EA is not only a testing build but also PR build open for wide distribution. I would be surprised if they didn't do further testing in-house. While one might say "I don't care about content being polish, just give me stuff to test", even if it's true for one person, how true is it for a wide audience? I think that what they put into Early Access simply needs to be of reasonable quality - and that means investment into UI, art, sound effects, bug testing etc. At least a minimum viable product so to speak.
And continuing from there - how many of us are truly capable of critiqing a raw, in-development build of a game not in "minimal shipping product" stage. Lets say, they would give us early prototype of reaction system (assuming it happens in engine in game) which doesn't have dedicated UI, animations, sound effects, rebalancing etc. How helpful the feedback would be? In my time in Early Access a lot of time is spend discussing balance of the game - I always wonder how much point to it, or if devs just look at those post and think "no shit sherlock, we didn't get to doing balance pass yet". As a professional violinist I can listen to a student play a piece of music after a week or two of practice and judge how well they are progressing - I don't think I am capable of doing that with the game, as all I know are final products, not the pipeline.
