Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Fights takes forever!

Yeah, not sure why a nearly 2 year old thread has suddenly been resurrected when there are other more active discussions on similar topics, but I suppose it is a good thing to break things down and focus on specific issues.

And while I’m all for turn-based combat and don’t want RTWP, I do agree there are elements of the game that make combat slower than it needs to be, including the unnecessarily time-consuming animations for some actions such as Dash and Action Surge, dodgy AI for some enemies, and downright broken behaviour of some other enemies who will just do nothing for their whole turn with the game waiting on them for ages before giving up (Rugan in the Zhent hideout and one of the female goblin trackers in the sanctum courtyard were guilty of this in my last playthrough).

Things like this seem relatively easily fixable, and in the case of enemy behaviour fixing them would make combat better as well as faster. So I hope Larian do pay some attention to the things that make turn-based combat slower than it needs to be and consider whether these can be streamlined, beyond the swarm AI that has already been implemented.


I do agree though that sometimes it is hard to follow what’s going on if the camera is jumping about, too, and that perhaps could also be addressed somehow.

This also artificial makes the game WAY longer.
That first ship sequence would be less than 5 minutes, including all dialogues, if the game was in RtWp Baldur's Gate mode.
I hope Larian doesn't take the PR route: "Our game is over 300 hours long..." and takes into account the endless turn base fights even against hordes of rats.

I still prefer RtWp personally. I can go all out and crazy, or be meticulous. It also lends itself to a wider variety of combat situations that can also be randomized and feel more atmospheric/dynamic and realistic. You could have hordes of Warg race up to you with goblins shoot arrows in the back and phase spiders jump at you from tree tops all at once dynamically. Making this turnbase is just a chore of endless waiting. So you have to design battles specifically for turn base, it doesn't work for stuff planted logically in the world.

I like the combat. I don’t mind if it takes longer, because it’s fun.

If it’s not fun for you then you shouldn’t play. Nothing is going to change at this point.

Since the addition of the new AI, I don't have any complain about combat duration (bare some rare confused npcs). I don't see what could be improved in the turn based department at that point.

Also I am laughing at the guy who compared a 2D grid based game to a 3D game with free movement.

Maybe this is a problem with past updates or some PC's ability to run Bg3. I don't have any problems that are noteworthy...?

Of course, the stealth issue which makes enemies sit still and snarl instead of investigate exists. That's probably not the topic, though.

When horde action is triggered, 2/3/x enemies moving at once would emphasize that there's, well, a lot of enemies! Seems like a great idea on paper, at least.

Outside attacking the goblin camp outside all at once, the time has never really bothered me, though. Not because I like waiting. It's just that I observe and calculate my next move on the enemy's turn. If you don't do that, I can see it being uncomfortable.

It usually happens to me in at least one or two fights per run, so not a big deal but still noticeable. I think it might happen when there's a surface or something else that's preventing the NPC going where their script is telling them to, and should be fixable with some improvements to enemy AI. Though that doesn't explain Rugan just hanging around in patch 9, which he did for me in the Zhentarim hideout and in the cave for another player. Presumably these problems are related to bugs with his scripting that again should be easily fixable.

Then there are some NPCs who seem to take an oddly long time to decide what to do, which I suppose again might be to do with stuff like surfaces or their preferred route being blocked. For example, the goblin kids in the prison where we see Halsin often seem to take a disproportionate amount of time for their turns (even accounting for the slow Dash animation), particularly as all they are doing is running for the guards.

None of this is game-breaking, and I don't think any big changes are required to combat now that low HP enemies that share initiative move together: I wouldn't want anything else to happen at the same time as I like to follow what's going on. But just speeding up some of the unnecessarily slow animations for common, non-magical actions like dash and improving enemy AI would make combat feel a fair bit slicker for me.

This is not a fair thing to say. It's not black and white whether someone likes or dislikes the game. Combat is one part of the game, but by no means all of the game. There are other parts to the game. So what happens if I like those other parts but hate the combat? Should I play the game for those other parts, or should I not play the game because of the combat?

It is eminently reasonable for someone to play the game for the things they like about the game even while complaining loudly about the things they don't like about the game. That is perfectly reasonable behavior.

Certainly. I assume it is the way it is so every player can observe what is going on without effort. Even old people, or people not used to video games. The illusion that enemies think before taking their turn may be there, too.

The latter is unnecessary for enemies versed in combat, though. That's almost all of them. Run speed can also seem oddly slow. Attack of opportunity, shooting a crossbow, a long list of actions can be sped up. Too little speed can make enemies feel incompetent, or even confused at worst.

Yes, agreed!

You need to decide that for yourself. I am just saying, if you don't enjoy the combat, which is a huge part of the game, then you probably won't like the game overall. That's just - like - my opinion man - based on - like - observable - like- evidence - like you know?

Which brings me to - a whole lot of y'all seem to fucking hate this game judging by the comments. Do you usually hang around forums of games you hate? wtf? Is there a professional game hater occupation? Something else must pay better. :P

Step 1- Find game I hate
Step 2- Bombard the forums with vitriol.
Step 3 - ???
Step 4- Profit

The above was written tongue in cheek, the author assumes no liability for anyone who takes it seriously. Offer void in Milwaukee.