Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback [OPTIONAL] AI controlled companions during combat

Please add a toggle-able option to enable or disable AI controlled companions during combat. I love the game and I dont mind managing inventories, but I don't want to control companions during combat. This was also an issue with Divinity Original Sin 2 but luckily theres a mod to allow this, but would much prefer it be an official thing. Companions fighting themselves feel more natural to me than taking control of them during combat, and I personally don't mind sacrificing more precise strategic battles that comes from being able to control how the party synergize if it means I can have AI take control of party members during combat.

Wow. I think the folks who would use the mod you mention would very much be in a minority.

I dont see AI-controlled companions as anything but a complete disaster. They would inevitably (and I suspect not infrequently) do something completely the opposite of what they should do. Picking their spells etc on level‐up? How could one plan synergies between abilities if you can't be sure the relevant abilities would be used synergistically?

This is why it would be optional, so those that take issue with the possibility of a party becoming chaotic don't have to deal with it, while those like me that aren't bothered can enjoy it. I personally never had issue with the mod in Divinity. Party AI performed like enemy AI. They fought and buffed and used what was available for them and avoided using things that would turn odds against them. It played fairly smoothly on my end.

I don't fully understand this suggestion. You want to play... less game? It's a turn-based RPG, not a real-time game. You're just going to be sitting there watching the AI make decisions instead of playing the game. You want that? You want more waiting for your turn and less playing the game?

Out of curiosity, would you also want them to auto-level themselves?

I guess I'm trying to determine if you're try to have a true RP of a single player story (I.E. where you only have control over your PC in all scenarios), or are you just not a fan the combat and want to streamline those choices? Also you could have a completely different premise, but those are what come to mind for me. Once again just curious.

I don't see how it's any different from waiting for enemy AI to make their combat choices. I personally enjoy companions but don't want to control them, similar to Dragon Age games for example. I enjoy their company and banter, but I prefer them being in control of their own actions during combat while outside of combat I manage their inventory/equipment/skills. If you see that as less playtime or less gameplay that's fine, what I'm suggesting is optional anyway so if you aren't interested it isn't forced. Also, the way I see it, waiting for your turn is part of the turn based experience, so to me that isn't a negative thing. You make your action, see how AI reacts, and when it's time for your turn you adjust course to deal with whatever the AI threw at you. It's all part of the gameplay.

I enjoy the combat, I'm a fan of turn based games, I just don't like controlling party members. Outside of combat I'd still manage their skills, equipment, and inventories since the game will be reactive to those things, but I mainly only play my own character. Sometimes I do switch to a companion to engage in dialogue if I think it suits the situation. For ex. if my own character is a fighter and we come across a wizard asking questions about magic I'd switch to Gale or something since he'd be better suited to handle that conversation. Scenarios like that is when I take control of companions, otherwise I let them do their own thing.

Why not play multiplayer and get 3 other people to run the other characters?

To be honest I am 100% sure that what you are asking for has not been implemented and I don't see it happening.

If you don't like talking to people you could find 3 other players on the Discord that don't have microphones.

Also you could just leave your game open on the Multiplayer and just let whomever take control from internet land - but I wouldn't recommend that.

I do plan on doing multiplayer playthroughs with friends, but I also plan on doing multiple of my own playthroughs solo so a toggle-able feature like this would be nice as an official feature rather than something added as a mod that's potentially buggy or breaks with updates.

I'd be willing to bet left foot that you'd only ever see this as a mod

Fair enough.

Pretty sure that won't be happening outside of mods, but if it does I'll be happy for you.

Is this a sneaky real time with pause thread ?

No, lets leave all those bait threads to the Steam forum, this is a legitimate suggestion that I'm hoping Larian comes across. Besides, I enjoy turn based combat and this post doesn't have anything to do with real time combat.

With full respect, yes, it's a legitimate suggestion from a "this is a thing I would enjoy in the game" point of view. But because I assume (an assumption I believe reasonably made on account of others' responses) it's such a minority position that just from a cost of development versus alternatives analysis, it's something that caters to such a minority that it's very unlikely worth it for the studio to consider.

There's a very reasonable argument to be made that what I've just said applies to some other things ursine related, but that's a marketing distinction. What you're suggesting doesn't, unless I'm very wrong, sell more copies, where other very niche choices they've made do sell more on account of how they land marketing-wise.

You're describing something that is very much the reason mods are a thing (and a very good thing).

I see it as a QoL feature, similarly to how Larian made it so that party members auto jump in some instances instead of the player having to take control of each of them and individually make the jump like you had to in older patches, and considering all the attention BG3 is receiving, many newcomers to the genre will likely pick it up, and from what I've seen there are plenty of people coming in that have previously played Dragon Age where controlling party members is optional. The benefit of this being an included base game feature rather than a mod is console players being able to use it as well on top of the implementation pretty much being guaranteed to be bug free or of quality.

Also, as you pointed out there were other features implemented such as heterochromia eyes that is less likely to benefit from a marketing standpoint compared to a feature existing in a popular RPG like Dragon Age that would be appreciated by players from that fandom checking out the game. From what I've seen Larian adds features they think are cool and players will enjoy. If they were willing to take development time adding in something like tail sizes for Dragonborn despite many people not caring(my assumption), I'd wager they'd be willing to look into this(if they even see this post, or any similar suggestions).

+1

I like the idea of it, sounds like a neat accessibility option. It could be triggered on demand if someone activates it.
However, giving away 3/4 of your agency to bots would mean that the game would pretty much play itself. At the very least in multiplayer you can discuss with others to form strategies, but having all these turns played very optimally without input would destroy any difficulty in the game. Kinda like letting bots like Stockfish play your moves in chess.

I like turn-based combat and controlling all my group, summons included.

While I understand that some people like the extra difficulty of not controlling their companions, the way it is now is perfect for me. XD

I never got that impression while playing with the mod in DOS2. Battles felt like a party effort and I still got to put in work, it didn't feel like the AI were carrying me through the game, but then again I also modded my game to be extremely difficult. I guess the benefit of having Larian implement this instead of it being added by a mod is that Larian can make sure party AI are intelligent but not to the point they know how to essentially insta kill the enemy. When I played DOS2 with AI controlled parties we still got completely wiped on occasion, but it was never just a breeze when we did win. I've never tried it with base game difficulty though.

Yep, I get that pov and it's why I think things like this should be optional. It's like how some people prefer having a full party and some people prefer only traveling with one additional companion or even playing with no companions at all - it's nice to have options so that people can play to what's most fun for them.