Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Reacting to the preview of the city of Baldur's Gate (trailer from 11/6/2023)

?? i think patch 9 is the final patch?

?

are you sure we are looking the same video? i do think the engine is working great.

your critical talking is a bit non-sense.

In the Gortash trailer, there's a scene with the party standing near a stained glass window and you can see the window's bright colors dynamically rendered on the character models. That's an encouraging sign for Larian's lighting tech, no? After all, what is the sky but a giant stained glass window?

In the new trailer, I'm particularly fond of the crowd effects. We'll need to hang out around them a little to see how well they hold up over time, but it's a huge step up from the static-character status quo. I'm also super curious about the city's soundscape. Swen mentioned you can hear conversations while walking about; I wonder if (and how) Larian tweaked the looped voice-lines paradigm.

baldur's gate is magnificent.

but i do like to see more info about "moon raise towers" before the game online.

I have noticed that as well - I am not sure if they mean that the game will culminate there, or if many of threads we have seen in EA will be paid off there. What I am curious about is that originally Baldur's Gate wasn't meant to be a singular map - that could mean that Larian isn't tied to "one map per act" design. I would be all for reaching Baldur's Gate in act2 and dipping in and out through the rest of the experience.

I am pretty sure most of our assumptions about the structure and later content of the game are just that. Until yesterday, some would question if we would even get to enter the city.

Heyyy! I was thinking to myself "I could use Panel from Hell showing off Baldur's Gate in actual gameplay". Let's hope this is it!

Something else that this video kind of confirmed for me is that act one really does seem to be a big setup for getting to Baldur's Gate. I've been saying that all of act one is really focused on funnelling us to the city, and the way they talked in the trailer seems to confirm that they see it that way as well. Which I think is a bit of a shame since it leaves the area feeling kind of... disconnected. Just a transitional place when the first act of a game should be setting up the setting more than they have done thus far.

I like the look of BG. And it looks like there are some political intrigues - should be interesting.

Stolen from Obsidian's forum as it is just too funny not to share:


Coming down from BG reveal hype - I wonder if they managed to do something with the camera. I can imagine the city being very frustrating to navigate with how the camera struggles with verticality. And it would be even more saddening to not be able to freely take a look around, with the city being so connected and sprawling.

Yeah, I think this (the "city" trailer) was their best showing of the game to a general audience so far, on a promotional level.
Well, this and the original cinematic video made by Unit Image, but cinematics are not actual games.

I swear the first thing I thought watching that scene was "Either these sails can bend at will or there's going to be some nasty clipping there".

The sea gate is simply stupid.

Everything seems bright and pastel. Really wish we could get some "harder" game shadows.
I hope we will have sliders to adjust these.
Did a quick edit on how I think it looks way better (top shot) compared to Larian's light shadow look (bottom) :


All I did is add a bit on contrast/sharpness, dark levels, lowered the color value and added a bit of warmth.
Another example from a previous pic posted:

Shame.

I gues i add it to my list of things that was better in early builds ...
I really wonder why it went wrong ... i mean, hair collors and darkwision were perfect in first patches ... then they "improved" them ... and not it both sucks. -_-

//Edit:
Also ... what happened to Wyll's head here? O_o

God i wish everyones weapons didnt float on the backs it instantly drags me out of emersion, hate hate hate it, juat for cool points ahhhhhhh

Bg looks great though lightning sucks but they sorted that in act 1 so hopefully they do the same

Im pretty sad we will never get to see bg at night

Did it? To me it looked as though Gale were moving slowly and horizontally rather than just doing a really big jump as now. Though admittedly my use of “flying” in early access was generally as a Raven rather than using the Fly spell so perhaps the visuals are the same.



I wondered if that might be the Low Lantern that’s had more city and various extensions built up around it, or even been moved, over the last hundred years. As someone who lives in a port area myself, I can confirm that using static boats as restaurants/bars/cafes is not something that’s confined to one place, though admittedly the real ones I’ve come across are at least moored in shallow docks, like the Low Lantern in BG1!

EDIT: And I've just watched the WolfheartFPS deepdive into the previous Gortash vid which also showed that ship, and Wolfheart more convincingly argued that it could be the Blushing Mermaid based on a zoom into what looks like a mermaid symbol above the door. The Blushing Mermaid wasn't built round a ship in BG1 but that's a cool idea, leaning into the use of mermaids as ships' figureheads, so would be a retcon or new addition that I'd approve of!


The question is whether it’s just act one, or act two as well. BG1 had us exploring the wilderness and smaller towns for quite some time before we finally made it to the big city, which had all the more impact as a result. But even once we got to the city, we still ventured out of it for new quests. In general, I’m wary of new series entries following the structures of older ones too closely, but I would quite like it if BG3 echoed BG1 in this way while giving it a new twist.

Regarding lighting, personally I quite like the high contrast look at least some of the time. It would get a bit much if every area were always like that, but we know from Ethel’s swamp that it doesn’t need to be. At the same time, I agree that there are lighting problems with patch 9 that are severe enough to appear bugs and don’t like the lack of subtler non-human-natural hair colours in the latest EA release. Personally, I hope that Larian can improve lighting and colouration in the full release without losing the look they’ve established. Given the lighting problems I have with patch 9 are only intermittently obvious to me, I don’t know if they’re fixed, but I didn’t see them in the trailer.

I am pretty sure he is just moving from the balcony to the top of the roof - flight doesn't move character from point A to B in a more direct path than jump video

Oh, okay perhaps I was getting excited for nothing. I agree the evidence isn't conclusive. Though I'll cling onto a bit of hope that we'll get better flying from the fact Swen specifically mentions being able to fly around the city. But then I'll concede being able to effectively jump from one distant rooftop to another would amount to pretty much that. Darn! Still, plenty of other stuff to get excited about so I'll focus on the positives .

Hah, already forgot recording this one
It does look kinda cool though, doesn't it?

As someone who's been and remains a harsh critic of the game overall, I do agree with all of you that this trailer was awesome and the city of Baldur's Gate looks and feels incredible. Definitely moves me toward wanting to play the game.