Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Concerns about: Tooltips, Teleportation, and Immersion in the Final version.

While I disagree with your opinion on timed quests (and really, I only actually lightly disagree. I had no problem with them in Pathfinder: Kingmaker, I just thought that only one such quest really used the idea to its fullest) I generally agree with all your other points. What I was saying is that LARIAN themselves disagree with you. Their attitude and approach, based on observable evidence, seems to be far removed from what you want to the point where I don't think some of the things you want would have ever even been serious considerations from Larian.

Speaking about timed quests specifically, like I said I think that at a table, no one would consider taking a random long rest because, ironically, the table setting enforces a greater sense of realism and groundedness in the setting than the game does. As to the idea in general? Implementing it in any sort of satisfying way would require changing a lot of fundamental aspects of the game. Most importantly, the companion stories. So far they're tied to long rests, and there is no way of knowing when you have one available, and the companion dialogues can overwrite each other. Currently I'm resting after every exchange and story happening so that I don't miss any companion stories. If quests were also timed, then I think the system would break entirely. The fact that companion stuff is tied to resting, to me indicates that Larian wants us to rest a lot. The same goes for the number of things and other characters which can be accumulated over the course of the game. The camp is a location in and of itself, an interesting one where stuff happens. So to me it seems that Larian wants us to be there with some frequency, and that approach clashes with timed quests. Timed quests sort of worked with Kingmaker because there was basically nothing inherently interesting about resting in and of itself. It's a thing you did because you had to for practical purposes. Now there's story stuff encouraging you to rest as well.

Another thing to consider with timed quests that go beyond this game is making them interesting and actually fun. I think for timed quests to really be good, then they should be more than just a pure failstate. I said earlier that I think only one quest in P:KM made great use of its timed nature. That was a quest where you had to uncover a location and get there before your enemy. You had multiple ways to find it, but if you didn't get there first, then what happened was that you lost the ability to settle the confrontation non-violently, and missed out on a couple potential boons. Failing was genuinely interesting because it changed the context of how things played out. I think people get too hung up on the idea of consequences equating to punishment. It can and definitely should sometimes, but at the same time, if devs only tool for consequences is gating content then I think that's not so interesting. "you didn't play the right way/make the right choice, you get less game to enjoy. Suck it" should be one option, not the first option implemented.

Some things are already timed.
Some areas block teleporting.
In tabletop you ask the DM about taking a SR or a LR, they can consider the situation ( like the party was all crit on every attack and will have a tpk if they continue).

Some timed fights and quests are a good idea. But not for the whole game, let players play how they want.
And I hope we get maps where we can't rest or teleport out of, nice test of strategy and resource management. But I don't want that for the whole game. The Hags lair is a simple version of that in act 1 (encounters will be more challenging in act 2+ and with higher difficulty settings).

Larian has an RPG game developer gets near to last place for world immersion in their games.
They HISTORICALLY make goofy fun super polished games. BG3 is no exception.

My current Top tier immersive RPG game developers includes :

Obsidian (PoE, Tyranny...) Most consistent.
CD ProjektRed (Witcher) <losing their way...>
ZA/UM studios (Disco Elysium) <--------- Looking forward the most to this dev's future projects.
Bethesda Studios (Elder scrolls series...) <losing their way...>
Atom Team (Atom RPG, Turbograd...) <-------- Looking forward to future games.

Interesting choices ...
I would certainly give some studios abowe Bethesda ... but nevermind, thats not the point.

Question tho: Is it in this order, or did you just wrote them as they come to your mind?

I have some bad news for you. There has been some major drama and falling out between key creators and the studio owners.

Just some reports but there has been a lot back and forth, and various accusations thrown at various parties.
https://www.pcgamer.com/battle-betw...ns-the-company-we-built-has-been-looted/

https://www.pcgamer.com/dollar48-mi...the-battle-over-disco-elysium-continues/

Edit.
I would also add Arcane, though also "loosing their way" - with Deathloop being quite a mess, and Redfall being straight up bad if reports are to be believed.

Despite all the drama at ZA/UM I'm still curious to know what the coming game will be like.

The thing is that it's fine when you're making a game less immersive when the graphics aren't that immersive to begin with, but the more realistic your graphics become, it comes with the territory that people are going to expect a more realistic immersion.

BG3 looks decidedly more realistic than D:OS2. But yeah, I'm probably preaching to the choir. Let's hope this game blows up and generates a lot of immersive mods to compensate.

Taking rests and using fast travel are both entirely optional features.
Nobody is making you use them.

I would absolutely despise having to walk everywhere all the time, especially on a map as big as the one in this game and this is only EA.
Personally I use the long rests only when I ran out of spellslots, which means that I don't use it very often. However I really see no problem with someone using it as many times as they want, they can play the game on easy mode if they so choose, this is also a totally optional feature, nobody is making you long rest after every single battle.

Sheesh, great. Scandals now everywhere even in indie studios.
Glad 90% of my gaming are pre2000 console systems and computers. Still have a lifetime of stuff to play.

So regarding teleportation something just occured to me. Where the hell did Gale end up before he came to us through the portal? Like, he had to have gone somewhere, why can we not ask about that? Or get some comment from him when we get there ourselves?

About the teleportation topic, I've advocated your (OP) point with fervour in the past.

Who is contrary to changing the current system typically says "If you don't like it, don't use it" but it's a lacklustre argument imho. This type of system still breaks your (mine, at least) immersion even if you decide not to actively engage with it. You always know that if things get too hot, the game simply lets you teleport away for no reason, taking away any sense of danger. It is in the UI, it's a button, always there, you can't choose not to look at it.

I always make the same analogy: fast travel in this game is like having a scooter parked in the middle of a Renaissance fair. You can choose not to use it, but it's still there for you to see, breaking your immersion.

It would be so simple to balance it out, just restrict its use in certain locations, such as the goblins and druids camps, while leaving it available in the "open field". I mean, even Skyrim, a game which takes fast travel to the next level, doesn't let you teleport away from a dangerous zone, such as caves, dungeons and the like.