Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Sooo... when's BG4?

They also haven't had a game sell upwards of 50 mil....

Why not better NWN3? xD

Can’t wait for Baldur’s Planescape Dale Nights 3.3

Just to follow up from the similar thread that was redirected to this one, I beg, plead and will offer all my unborn children to never follow this game up with an MMO.

MMO mechanics are not compatible with DnD rules. We already have one that I mention a lot - Dungeons and Dragons online. I enjoy the game and have maybe sank 5000+ hours into it, but so many and all the regular MMO problems are present:

1) With the game being so old, its basically dead now. There are too few players to find groups, and even fewer players capable of 'end game' content.

2) With relation to 1, you cannot enjoy the game solo. It is designed for party sizes 6 and 12 for quests / raids.

3) In line with MMO mechanics, spell slots are replaced with a mana bar, no matter if they want to call it 'spell points'. While most of the spells are well balanced and equally viable, the content is also made for that, you will run out of blue bar. A lot. Then you are useless until you reach a rest shrine.

4) MMO player mentality, initially 'OMG HJEAL ME, USELESS CLERIC /BLACKLISTED FOR CRAP HEALING. Then Clerics and FVS players united to 'I'm not a healer then, bring your own heals' And only heal themselves and uno reverso 'You're a crap player because you died'. Also the usual 'Play how I tell you, not how you want or /blacklisted.

5) Oh look, shiny new content with more powercreep and stronger gear, but you need the gear to do the content, and can't get the gear without doing the content, and groups won't let you join the quest / raid that drops the gear you need because you don't already have it.

6) Somehow, magically, you get into the group for the gear you need. 1/100 or worse drop chance, but OMG IT DROPPED, LOOK ITS IN THE CHEST, PLEASE I NEED IT! ... 'Roll d100 for gear'. I roll a 1. The player on a class that doesn't need it wins and is like 'Yay, I can pass it to my alt who I very rarely play'.

I enjoy the game for its character building and DnD related content. The worst part is needing to play with others. The only arguably an MMO that has ever addressed this was Guild Wars 1, where eventually and only due to immense community pressure, they eventually allowed you to use a fully custom AI party. And then no one ever played with anyone else ever again, so like what even is the point?

Given the choice, players will choose to play solo, or with a fully customised group to their choosing. In every MMO, 99% of players will only complain that other players are not playing how they want them to. MMOs are trash.

Oh theres a neverwinter MMO, I played it for a bit and gave up because it was the typical Pay to Win type, also one of the classes is 'Control Mage'. Oh cool, finally an enchantment spell class? Nope, Ice Evocation with freeze and slow stuff for 'Control'. Lolwut, hard pass.

I'm pretty sure, that Larian would not think of making an MMO. Where does this come from?

Edit: ok, I saw the other thread, but it was only one person suggesting it.

BTW: isn't there a NWN MMO? How is that working out?

There’s like 3 people on the forum asking for a BG3 MMO every other time they post.

Oh the time I tried to make a conjuration wizard build because web is actually super good, stops most enemies, stops them attacking, great. The cleric thats not a healer because 'healing potions exists' seemed to enjoying casting firestorm at everything, which burns away the webs, then all the mobs are free, and the party takes loads of damage / dies because the same clric isn't a healer and won't use any blue bar up to cast heals.

Well I mean if you don't want to heal, sure play how you want, but I was kind of already fixing not having heals by webbing everything that you so inconveniently decided to burn away .... Ok so I admit I was nowhere near polite about it and became the blacklister.

There are so many mechanics and assets this game uses but could be reused for other adventure paths and original adventure paths. Like the bards can perform to making money busking or distract for crime reasons, but you don't get to a town till act 3 when you're richer than midas.
The lower city could be rejigged for other adventures easy, or other parts of the lower city using same assets in different combinations, so multiple adventures could start in BG, have an act investigating a plot/crime/danger in the city, discover it''s coming from warlocks crypt? Mintarn? Elturgard? Troll Claws?, some spooky cursed barrow in Fields of the Dead? Najara? hells Candlekeep!
Little 1-2 act adventures based in or around BG city could be a great way to make use of and extend the mechanics and assets of this game. Either stand alone or expansion style sub adventures (think how PoE did White March or Fallout 3-4 has it's offmap new map side adventures within the main game.)

I would love a stand alone+available in game giant dungeon, like the watchers keep in BG2 or Oud Nua's dungeon in PoE, or beneath the stolen lands in KM. Larian could do amazing things with their puzzle combat in a no story just giant dungeon DLC!

For a sequel though, this game front and centre has Nautiloids, so to me to follow up should be Spelljammer. I don't know what the Dead Three are up to on other planets in the solar system but I think in BG4 Withers should send us to find out and stop it. Especially if that Pirate asteroid colony was somehow involved

I think starting a new party in the city and having some adventures there would be an interesting idea. Larian have already made the assets and everything. It could be a prequel and cover events leading up to BG3 even.

That's be brilliant, having unrelated adventures by occasional dark hints about this absolute group doing something? You run off to investigate the netherese ruins at Warlock's Crypt to, idk? stop a rogue lich from raising all the dead of the fields of the dead to conquer BG? Stopping Edwin from some evil plot? thrawting that cult that wants to make dragons undead? something but while you're doing it, you meet Gorlach and theres a sidequest to help him do some research on this netherese crown. Easy sidequest no consequences right?
You could have wholely unrelated adventures, but then if you think about it after winning or next time you play the main game go, wait a minute, it all ties in!

Also set after the game too, imagine a group of adventures hired to clean up one of the crashed Nautiloids on the outskirts of BG, you press the wrong button or touch the nerves on the control panel only for it to use the last of it's power/life transporting it, and you to some other plane (Ravenloft? Dark Sun? maybe even Sigil from planescape? or just any random other plane) and you've got to find a way home saving the planes while you do it?

Can Larian just be the official maker and creator of all D&D games moving forward in perpetuity? Let's get games in different D&D settings like Dragonlance or Ravenloft for example, I can't imagine what they could do with either of those 2 IP's

Strike while the iron is hot and announce that a sequel is on the way! hehe

I swooped BG1 off the shelf at Fry's electronics in the summer of 1998. Tales of the Sword Coast was out by 1999 and the BG2 was out within 2 years Fall of 2000. Part of the staying power came from knowing that the adventure would continue and that your characters could be brought over. There were other games that released in the interim period, Planescape and Icewind Dale that helped to maintain momentum, but BG1 and BG2 together inside of a 5 years is what made "Baldur's Gate" such a thing.

BG3 can do much the same I think, even if they detour a bit to relax with a DOS3 or whatever. I think they should announce it as a plan or at least express a desire to take us all the way there. What they have going already here in BG3 is a really nice introduction to D&D and the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. Faerun is a big draw. I think the strong sales are at least in part because of the setting. I know for myself I just have way more attachment to this material than I do for similar stuff set in other IPs.

So yeah, BG4 seems like a no brainer! Or an elder brainer, whatever works hehe.

I think in a follow up, they should make it more class focused. Similar to BG2 where each companion/class got a stronghold and related class themed quest that threaded into the main plot. They should do something like that for BG4, and delve deep to round out whatever missing content we'd want for a full treatment, like the old class handbooks. Similarly with fantasy race, Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings etc to build out some more there and just add that on top of what they've built here. Taking it to another corner of Faerun and showing us how that looks these days. We also need one of those massive dungeon crawler arenas like Durlag's or Watcher's to really ice it.

Even if they don't want to do an expansion per say, I think Baldur's Gate 3: "Insert Class campaign subtitle" could work well. Cause then they could have it broken up into more manageable treatments. Something like BG3: "the Complete (Ranger's, Wizard's, Clerics etc) Handbook" or "BG3: Volo's guide to... (Thay, Cormyr, Waterdeep)" somewhere we haven't been in a while or "BG3: Dwarves, Gnomes and Halflings" things like that. A BG3: "Book of Artifacts" would also be cool. You know like a self contained campaign all about Baba Yaga's Hut or the Dragons Orbs or something like that. The upside to doing that is that they could create more content keying off the lvl 1-12 campaigns. Reaching lvl 13 would be enough of a draw I think, cause then BG4 could take you from lvl 10-20, or you could start slightly over-levelled at 12-13 on a higher difficulty setting. This would give them ways to build it out and keep it humming while they create the systems or story hooks that'd be needed for a higher lvl campaign. After hitting lvl 20, I think they should do it where you build out followers or progress via itemization through powerful artifacts, stuff like that, rather than reinventing D&D to create stuff at the epic lvls.

I have to disagree, the thing I hate most about Wotc is their high exclusivity to license their stuff for video games.

And while this is a good game, it has so many BS decisions made particularly with the spells.

The combat in BG3 is primitive for a CRPG at best, plenty of other games and devs have done this a lot better, just that such games are too hardcore for the masses.

5e so far is also pure garbage in general.

Personally, I hope they first add the actual Act 3 instead of the half-made Silence of the Lambs flesh mask of an empty promise we ended up with.

It'd be amazing to get more Larian D&D games, but why exclusively? D&D games have always excelled in diversity, BG3 has amazing bones and reuseable assets for future BG games, but that doesn't mean other devs with different approaches shouldn't be, idk reviving birthright as a grand strategy? action game set in dark sun?
I mean look at Deadfire and tell me a Spelljammer game made by Obsidian wouldn't be amazing?

I really want Larian to make more from the foundation of BG3, but the official all thinking BG3 would never have been made because they're not the people who made the last D&D game?

A licensed D&D game by Tactical Adventures (Solasta devs) with a bigger budget offering improved visuals and writing would be fantastic.

And different writers, I love Solastra but if I never need to read a line of dialogue written by them every again I'll be happy for it. They can be in charge of the mechanics, light systems and graphics just please Gods not the jokes or the plot.

Story in Solasta is as good as bg3's, and that's a fact.

The only other CRPG that has anywhere near as complex and fun combat is WotR - but even then, this trumps that for me for pure innovation and verticality/new ideas. Pray tell what CRPGs are doing it a lot better in terms of combat?

Unless by better you mean faster, then yes - there are plenty of them.

To me BG3's combat is better than WotR, some things I like in Solastra more than BG3 but others let it down, and nostalgia is always telling me it's ToEE, but honestly BG3 might be the most fun. options filled and complicated D&D style combat in any CRPG?