Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Potential of Modding Tools in Baldur's Gate 3

Hello everyone,

I recently tried to ask about the features of the modding tool for Divinity: Original Sin 2 on Larian's modding Discord, but unfortunately, I faced some issues with phone verification and was unable to do so.

From what I've gathered, the modding tools for Divinity: Original Sin 2 allow users to edit the existing game, which gives me hope that any desired features for Baldur's Gate 3 can be implemented by either ourselves or skilled modders who master the tool. As someone who hasn't played D:OS 2, I can't attest to the full extent of how much of a difference these tools can make. However, I'm reminded of X-Com's massive update called "The Long War," which completely changed the game due to its modding friendly stance by the developers.

I'm quite positive that there's a bright future for Baldur's Gate 3 because of this. We might enjoy the game for years to come due to really cool mods from the community and professionals alike. To what extent are you excited about the modding tools? Do you think they have the potential to cover most of the gripes often discussed on these suggestion & feedback threads?

Side note: Apparently D:OS 2 has a day and night cycle, so perhaps it's not so unreasonable to expect to see this in Baldur's Gate 3.

No it doesn't.

Modding tools are always welcome, and as BG3 uses Larian's own engine, it is not unreasonable to hope that players will get a more indepth access to the game.

I rarely find mods compelling, with few exceptions like "Long War" that you mentioned. However, I generally don't expect that level of craft from modders. "Fixing" BG3 would require a rather substantial overhaul, and I am sceptical if fanbase will have enough knowhow, time and organization needed to achieve that. It is important to underline that "Long War" team was exceptional - XCOM1 wasn't mod friendly. The initial Long War release took some reverse engineering to make the mod possible. To Firaxis credit, they ended up helping out the Long War team, and made the game more moddable with the expansion. XCOM2 is far more mod friendly, yet, I don't think mods for XCOM2 are as strong. XCOM1 provided a fresh, solid, but small in scope baseline which could be expanded. I feel fixing BG3 would be untangling a sprawling mess of conflicting designs, and I am not sure how many people will be willing to spend time tackling that, instead of going to the competition. It is Baldur's Gate IP, though to me personally the name stopped meaning anything in the last two years. I am not sure if others will feel the same.

IIRC, The Composer told once that he had created a D/N cycle mod for DoS2. So I still hope someone will be able to fix that in BG3 if Larian doesn't.

Don't know what I could really expect from modding too though because the mods I'd like to use the most would have to rework "big" systems of the game (resting, fast travel, UI, item sets, VFX, physic).

I guess many things will be possible as some modders already created massive overhaul.

LostSoul will probably see this thread and be able to give more informations.

LostSoul has seen this thread. Lol

Larian mentioned giving us modding tools after 1.0.
We have no idea how extensive these tools will be
We hope to get support for Script Extender from Norbyte (fantastic modder).

In Dos2 ppl built new campaigns with new maps.

As this is based on DnD this would be the perfect opportunity to build homebrew and core campaign modules in their game engine.
Imagine Stradt, Icewind Dale, whatever mods you love built into the game. Plus a great DM mode.

If WoTC and larian can license the game/ engine it would encourage new game developers to create something. Plus all the free stuff from modders.

Have a look at nexusmods what modders have accomplished without any official support/ tools.

In terms of game content, NPC, storylines etc..I am VERY pessimistic on what Larian has in store for modders. Looking at DOS2...there is nearly nothing. No extra NPCs worked into the story. Very little or any kind of extra quests.
Most mods has to do in adding/changing skills, cheats, more items, fixing bugs or just changing the combat system. Very artificial stuff.

Just take a look on whats available for Baldur's Gate 2 in the modding community. Freaking amazing. Still going strong in 2023. Tons of extra NPCS with storylines tide to the main story, cross mod banters with all characters, boat load of new quests, areas etc etc...
These older games are so incredibly flexible in modding in new adventures within the world. In BG3 we have 3D characters/asssets in a 3D game world, cinematic camera movements, voiced dialogue instead of text for everything = a royal pain the rear to mod anything in.

I predict the first mods we will get are, as always:

Naked xxx characters
Elves that look more like elves, dwarves more like dwarves etc...
Combat system/skill changes
UI changes.
Cheat this and that / Skip this and that
HD Graphics pack overhaul
New items/weapons/armors

Well yes, modding a 23 y/o sprite based game with close to no voiced lines is easier than a modern 3D game with full voice acting. Adding animations for a closed source engine is next to impossible too. Even Skyrim which probably has the most active modding community ever has only a handful of companion mods, and we are talking about Skyrim, the most barebone RPG out there. At the very least, Larian has a quite friendly environment for modders where every resources is extractable (models, textures, JSON, VFX, SFX...) which is a rarity in the video game world. I would expect great things to come out as soon as the game release so that modders wont have to repair their deprecated mods every few months.

Many of the BG2 NPC mods out there ARE voiced A well designed voice, dialogues, story implementation and character portraits goes a long way even for a sprite based game. I'd argue it can be even more immersive than a shallow 3D world.

Still...it is kind of sad that we now live in an RPG 3D age were we cannot ADD any kind of impactful story/quest/npc content to games through mods. You could do that 20+ years ago.

Speaking of which would be amazing to port BG3 to the BG2 infinity engine as a mod while keeping the BG3 cut-scenes. This would include the added benefits of the infinity engine; day/night, more NPCS, dialogue choices/writing, encounters/quests flexibility, RtWp etc...;)