Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General In your opinion, why did Larian chose this policy of near-zero-communication ?

Damage control for what?

Hey all,

It's taking me some time to write up my compilation/analysis of the brainstorming which constitutes the topic of this thread. Meaning I currently can't bring the thread back on the topic I opened it for by way of posting within the topic.

In the meantime, I've opened a new thread, dedicated to asking Larian questions about BG3 and about its Early Access. This includes in particular the current sub-discussion with Larian about community engagement and management.

Acknowledged, thanks Drath, I'll leave off with the derail in this thread ^.^ Good luck collating and curating!

"In your opinion, what are the possible reasons that explain why Larian decided to go for their policy of nearly non-existent communication ?"

I think this is because two-way communication is a double-edged sword these days. Interaction directly with the developers can be distracting, time consuming, frustrating, and sometimes hurtful. People will type things that they would probably never say in a face-to-face talk. We've all seen this, not just here but everywhere.

But at the same time, there is a spirit of community that has always been an integral part of the D&D universe. In my case, I played table-top D&D a little bit but never had much of a local community to play with. So when BioWare came out with BG I, I was excited to see what a high level character (7 or 8) could do. In my first play, my mage got immediately killed by a wolf and I almost walked away. I am not patient with games. But, for some reason I ended up making up an account on the forums and found tons of helpful people there giving advice, reporting bugs, telling funny stories, etc. I got some tips and good laughs, and I have enjoyed the game ever since. And I started to notice some of the BioWare people were actually participating in the discussions. Wow! I was communicating with the people who actually created this great game! And sometimes they even responded to my questions or suggestions. I will always be grateful to the BioWare crew for being so active as real humans on the boards, as that made me feel more a part of their game world. I suspect Larian has the same kind of people that I would enjoy talking to, and we have very good Moderators here, too. But at the same time, I respect Larian's decision not to stick their hands into the "tar baby" that is the internet these days.

Like when comunity was expecting some show on aniversary ... or on halloween ...
And both topics was here for more than month in advance, so there was certainly enough time ... but no show was planned ... so all it would take would be to post "no show is planned", wich would certainly be relevant information to contribue conversation?

Nicou,

I think Larian does a pretty good job of communicating. I think the Panel From Hell's have been great and people who expect answers on things like companion information are kind of being dorks. I also think having to address every fan theory about if an event will happen is also goofy. Getting "hyped" for events and announcements is something that happens in almost every gaming community - in my opinion that is part of the fun of discussing/following video games before they come out. Compared to any other game that I have followed before release I think Larian has done the best job communicating and providing a quality fan experience (even though the Panel From Hell events can be dorky sometimes I still like them! Haha)

That being said my feedback is that there have been several outstanding community questions that seem centered around basic functionality in the game that have been discussed for about two years or so. These are the items I think it would be awesome if Larian would address via the forums or social media. Some examples of this would be (These aren't the items I'd ask about - just the primary ones I have seen in the community):

Reaction System: The elephant in the room with this game. It seems like the vast majority of the community would like to know if this is being worked on, revamped, etc. I think it would go a long way to either just say yes or no and tell everyone more information is or is not coming on this.

Shove: A lot of people really don't like the shove mechanic and have stated it repeatedly. Is this something that is remaining in the game or will it be modified?

Party Control: People seem to have issue with the chain system in place and would like to see something similar to the more old school RPGs where you can just click and drag to highlight your team - stuff like that. Is this something that is being worked on or is this system settled?

Six Party Members: This is one I actually hope doesn't get implemented - I like the four party team. But a lot of people seem to be asking this. Will there be an option to have six party members? If not, even if announced I see no harm in once and a while reminding the community that this has been decided.

I don't know if you are given this information or even if you are - if you are allowed to tell us. I think the snarky comments toward you are pretty crappy without knowing that in the first place is pretty messed up. But if you can relay information to the higher ups who decide that kind of thing, that is what I'd tell them. I know you don't want to reveal changes on the forums themselves - Larian wants them to be major announcements. But I don't think it spoils any of the hype or anticipation if you just hop on from time to time and say "We are looking into that one, for sure!" or "Currently this is a settled system - the devs are not looking at changing this but we'd love to keep hearing everyone's thoughts on it!".

If you deem it is important like a critical bug after an update that prevents you and a lot of players from launching the game for example, or if the forums are attacked by Goblins!
We do our best to read the forums regularly, but it's more of a common sense: If it is an emergency, ping me

As we move forward with our plans, we will share some interesting details with the community.
There are questions we can't answer yet as it would evolve into more questions, but we're eager to show you "things" as soon as we possibly can.


We don't want to give players false expectations.
All suggestions need to be reviewed, and we can't implement them all unfortunately. However, your suggestions help us shift the direction here & there when we see a fit for it.

• Is it something largely demanded by the community?
• Does it fit our vision for the game?
• Do we have resources to spend on this?
• Do we have the technology for this?
• Etc...

A good example would be Reactions. Players have pushed for Reactions, the feature was discussed within the team, suggestions were taken into account, iterations started, testing, bug hunting, ...
While in Early Access, design is in flux as we work to build & implement new systems & features.
How reactions are handled in the game is an example of a that is system currently being explored internally, but we're not yet ready to talk about it.


We are working on communications as I write these lines, so keep your eyes peeled!

Neat.

OK, I'm more hopeful about reactions now. That was among my biggest grievances with the game.

Sorry Drath, one quick reply to Nicou.

How does it work, should they ALL be checked, or it depends?

For example:

Is it something largely demanded by the community? ✓
Does it fit our vision for the game? χ
Do we have resources to spend on this? ✓
Do we have the technology for this? ✓

Would such a feature be implemented?

I'm okay with their communication. I'm happy it even exists because most of the time it doesn't.

But I also think that the game vision is paramount because we are a community but we don't count as the entire player base. There are those that don't understand what DnD and CRPGs are and will play the game. The same happened with franchises such as the witcher, which only became famous after the third game, and dark souls, which needed Elden ring to become mainstream.

Reactions in Solasta annoy me to the point I gave up playing as a paladin because every attack I made needed a reaction to use Smite Evil.

Communication has existed. Larian has read the forums and such stuff. Much has been improved. I remember in the begining when you could eat food that would heal but gradually this game has at least become more close to Dungeons Dragons 5. We will get all classes in Players Handbook. We know that Patch 9 is coming out this year so logically in December 2022 would be my estimate for that. I would guess either Paladin or Monk class is released in Patch 9 though it could in theory be both or no new class.

There are also bug reports and technical stuff and such that Larian try to fix bugs.

Larian also confirmed recently they are on track on for year 2023 release which is very good.
It is true that in beginning there were more often major patches and Panel in the Hell, but main thing is that this game will be released excellent done and with this budget and resources and from what I have seen this is an AAA game.

Finally my best advice do some other things as well on your freetime play other games, see movies TV series I for example am very eager also to see sport World Champion football (I wish Belgium good luck in World Championship football and I cheer for all Europe countries in World Championship fooball) that will start very soon. Well or whatever else you want to do on your free time.

I am not constantly playing BG3 Early Access andin fact I have had long time breaks even months of not playing, but would be very interested to try it again if Paladin class is released and that is my favorite class to play in pen and paper Dungeons Dragons 5.

I do it the other way around. A short YT summary or the result in the newspaper the next day is enough for me. I want to boycott watching the World Cup in Qatar and need at least one playable Patch 9 to do so.

Ah if you mean the workers conditions in Qatar well I understand, but I am going to see it anyway. I also cheer for Germany by the way. Oh and I know that Brazil and Argentina are both strong gold candidates. Well or if you mean that previously you felt Germany have excellent chance for gold and now less well I think hard to predict who will win.

Perhaps I get it.
THE POWER of FINLAND 2019-2022! MEN ICEHOCKEY!!
2019 FINLAND GOLD! CANADA SILVER! RUSSIA BRONZE! CZECH REPUBLIC 4th.
2020 not played COVID 19!
2021 CANADA GOLD! FINLAND SILVER! USA BRONZE! GERMANY 4th.
2022 OLYMPIC GAMES FINLAND GOLD! RUSSIA SILVER! SLOVAKIA BRONZE! SWEDEN 4th.
2022 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINLAND GOLD! CANADA SILVER! CZECH REPUBLIC BRONZE! USA 4th.
This means I do not usually watch every freaking group game in ice hockey and I tend to get more interested towards end.

Perhaps as German citizen you have so high expectation early games do not matter and it only matters towards end of the tournament in World Championship football for you? Well ok I understand big football countries might think it is more fun to watch toward end.
As for high expectation... well I would say every good football country has that. My expectations for Finland men in ice hockey World Championship 2023? Skyhigh , but they could fail and not even get a medal in Ice hockey 2023. That remains to be seen.