Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Latest News Community Update #24: Looking To The Future

Hello all,

Since launching last month, a lot of tweaks and updates can already be seen in Baldur's Gate 3. Over the past few weeks we've chased down bugs, polished up some cinematics, and used your feedback to help organize our thoughts and inform our plans going forward. The first major patch just launched, solving over 1000 bugs to hopefully make Baldur’s Gate 3 an even better experience. But it was still a patch designed primarily to squash bugs.

We want to go further than that. We now find ourselves at a time where we’re able to properly sit down and consider how to parse feedback beyond bug fixing and UX tweaks. Patch 2 is just around the corner, and while it does include bug fixes, it also includes substantial performance improvements for the first time since launch. Perhaps more notably, we’re adding better closure to the story’s final act in the form of a more fleshed-out ending for Karlach - something many of you have been asking for.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s take a moment to focus on a conversation some of you have been having in the background. Many of the points that come out of this conversation are being funneled into the umbrella term of ‘cut content’, so we thought it would be helpful to give you some clarity about that as we think about the future of Baldur’s Gate 3.

We went through many different threads and reviews with our community teams, and we think we’ve managed to truncate the discussion about cut content and Act 3 into three topics: Performance, Bugs, and User Experience.

Performance. The city of Baldur’s Gate itself is ambitious. Technically, narratively, and in scope. One of the biggest issues with creating games is that technology is always trying to keep up with your ambition, and here we’ve been hit pretty hard by some setbacks. We know that Act 3’s performance isn’t as good as the first two acts, but the good news is that Patch 2 is bringing major performance improvements to the entire game, but more specifically to Act 3 where you’ll feel it the most. We’ll also be working throughout September to improve performance in Act 3 further with new technology that’s been taking a bit longer to release than we expected.

Bugs. We’ve seen your reports about Act 3, and we are as frustrated as you are by bugs spoiling the experience. So we’re dedicated to solving these quickly. And as you’ve noticed by our Hotfix and Patch rollout, we’re getting pretty fast.

Our approach is that whenever blockers pop up, we either release a hotfix if a patch is not imminent or include the fix as part of a patch if the patch is imminent. With Patch 1, your experience should already be a lot better, with most big issues solved by at least a workaround.

Patch 2 looks to further eliminate some of the more major issues, including those found in Act 3. Some things that are currently being associated with ‘cut content’ are actually things like companion reactions to events in the world that didn’t trigger. These are being solved. Where there seem to be loose ends, we’re tying them up.

User Experience. UX covers a lot of things: from how it feels to play the game, to how you feel when you’re playing it. Baldur’s Gate 3 is a game 3 years in Early Access and 6 years in the making. Many of the ‘building blocks’ or ideas, tests, or however you want to refer to the junk data that falls outside of what we shipped with, can and is being datamined.That’s okay, but it’s important to understand that not every building block in the giant box of Lego is needed to create the experience we ultimately envisioned and intended over years of iteration.

We’ve seen three types of complaints that are being referred to as cut content:

The first references content that actually doesn’t properly trigger because of a bug, for instance some of Minthara’s reactivity. We’ve located what’s causing that and are working on it - expect a fix for this soon.

The second is about the epilogue. What’s been datamined is not really cut content but content that we didn’t want to release because we didn’t think it worked. We’re pretty strict with ourselves and our ideas. If it isn’t good - if it isn’t fun to play - it doesn’t make it into the game. One of the reasons why we trimmed the epilogue is because we were afraid the ending cinematics were becoming too long and would detract from the epicness of the experience. But clearly, not everyone agrees with us! So we’re going to do something about it.

We’ve started expanding the epilogues and you’ll see the first results of that in Patch 2 with the addition of a new optional ending with Karlach. It’s fiery, poignant, and gives her the ending she deserves.

The third is about the things we actually didn’t plan for, and those we once considered but ultimately didn’t do.

It was always our intention for the Upper City to be an epic, cinematic epilogue bringing the story of Baldur’s Gate 3 to a close. But we didn’t talk about that in advance because it would have been a major spoiler.

We feel confident that there’s enough content in Baldur’s Gate 3, and the city itself, clocking in weeks-long playthroughs at a time. But that’s not to say Baldur’s Gate 3 didn’t see cuts just as every game. It’s just important to know that what ultimately shipped was planned long ago, in function primarily of making Baldur’s Gate 3 fun to play, not for us to close development quickly.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a game with many release dates, and despite us moving its launch up by around a month, it’s still a couple years late. It was late because we grew teams, ambition, and ideas in function of it being the best game it could possibly be. Thankfully, not every idea makes it into the final launch. It wouldn’t be the game you enjoy if they did.

We’re happy that Baldur’s Gate 3 has resonated with a great many of you, but we’ll never take that for granted. We’re committed to tying up loose ends, fixing the remaining bugs, and improving things where we see they could - and should - be improved.

So, what can you expect from us in the future?

First: we’ll keep on monitoring what bugs you encounter and we’ll make sure to patch them as fast as we can.

Second: We’ll start making improvements based on the feedback you’re giving us. Baldur’s Gate 3 means so much to a great deal of you, and in turn that means the world to us. We love this game and we’re not done with it yet. We welcome your feedback, your threads, and also your words of encouragement.

Withers’ Wardrobe of Wayward Friends - which we hope to launch very soon - is an example of us integrating your feedback. This feature allows you to get rid of co-op party members who join your campaign, so you can continue on without them. We’re also working on the ability to change your characters’ look once you’ve started a campaign, though we don’t have a release date for that yet. There will be more and you can expect us to come with modding support at some point too.

Once again, thank you for giving us so much feedback. It’s incredibly motivating for us and drives us to do better and better.

Is there a chance, that Helia, the cut halfling companion might make a reappearance somewhere in the future?

And yay for fixing Karlach.

I take a bit of issue with this because Swen talked about the upper city being being fully in and playable just two weeks before launch. That seems to be a pretty major lapse from it's in, stated two weeks or so before launch to we considered it but didn't do it. Did Swen not know about such a major piece not having entered development and thought it would be ready for launch? That's a huge miscommunication.

If the upper city doesn't make it, I'm fine with it, but I hope the epilogue that we get is good because that's the part that really hurts me to bottom of my soul. If you think the issue is time and that it takes too long then make it skippable or parts of it skippable so maybe if some people don't want to hear about Astarion or Halsin they can just skip those and hear about their favorite companions.

And also...I understand this ended up something that was considered and wasn't used, not necessarily cut as such but I would love nothing more than some of the Raven Queen content to arrive at some point after you are done with the epilogue. Maybe definitive edition content?

TRANSMOG FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE. I don't want my druid to look like a paladin for 80-90+ hours of the game because literally most of the viable medium armor is scale mail. No camp clothes that fit a druid at all, I don't want to have to rob Halsin of his undergarments to look like a druid and less a dandy or peasant.

I’ve complained a lot in the last few weeks, more as a form of live feedback as the game progressed, but as my first playthrough draws to a close (Good Tiefling Dragonborn Sorcerer Tav), I want to express my overall opinion about the game: genuine and thorough satisfaction.

Could the game have been better? Yes, but any game could have been better. Would I want every aspect of the initial vision that was cut to be restored? Probably, but I’d say the same of most of my favorite games, and I also think people should be careful what they wish for. Do I want more out of this game? Yes, but I want more out of my favorite games too. There’s a sadness that comes when you run on the path of an enthralling and enjoyable journey only for the path to run out, as all paths do. I’d like the cutting room floor, an expansion, and a sequel, but don’t think the lack of these things would diminish the initial release.

For every complaint I’ve made and still intend to make, I want to convey—on the off chance anyone at Larian has ever read anything I’ve written here— that this game is a masterpiece, and one of the greatest RPGs of all time, and the developers should be proud of what they’ve made.

Anyway, back to complaining.

I am happy to hear that you guys are working on improving the games performance and adding new/improved content, looking forward to seeing it.


Now onto this part. I really, really don't want to come of as an ass but c'mon. C'mon Larian, you thought that actual epilogue that expands on the story by telling us what happens with out characters/companions wasn't good enough and it didn't work but a whole ass scene showing random npcs and a black screen was? C'mon now. (I know it PR but it did make me laugh)

Either way I wish you guys the best in improving the game and hope you are reading the spoiler story section.

I will be glad to see the new/improved content. I really really am surprised that Larian felt the current endings were good, it was so weird for me. Jarring and jumping quickly between people and just not making a lot of sense. I am glad they will be bringing something back, hopefully as epic as all the cut scenes throughout the game were with passion and emotion.

Karlach fixed... oh my, faith is restored in love!

Pretty exciting news, can't wait to dig my hands into the patch. Now we need #JusticeForMinthara!

It s very sad, goodbye Larian.

Rob Jaheira for her camp oufit

Still no transmog feature and no real way to have full custom party... that's quite frankly annoying.

That's sobering.

So Minthara not having any actual story content after you free her was intended?

No, they mention her in the bit I quote bellow...seems that some of her events or mission triggers aren't working as intended. So she should be getting more content soon. I hope it is good because she is by far the best companion.

"The first references content that actually doesn’t properly trigger because of a bug, for instance some of Minthara’s reactivity. We’ve located what’s causing that and are working on it - expect a fix for this soon."

They're talking about reactivity. That's not the same as an actual quest. It's probably more along the lines of her commenting on events during quests or in camp and perhaps banter as well.

I mean most companions do have a second romance phase towards the end of the game, so they mention reactivity but surely there's more missing there. I'd imagine some of that will be part of the fixed content.

They might. But nothing in this blog post indicates that they will.

I don't doubt they're working on that. Even if it's not all done in the next patch I think they recognize Minthara is quite popular and a lot of people are quite miffed by the missing content.

Hmm ... didn't read anything about fixes to major story inconsistencies towards the ending, where the narrative just falls apart and doesn't make sense:


This is not just bad writing. These are mistakes in the narrative.

This scene needs a complete overhaul.


And I'm shocked that you thought after a 100+ hour game with relationships to these wonderful characters, people would be happy with a quick wrap up: "boss defeated? Great, finally some time to do the dishes. Thank good the game skipped to credits right away."

Really? Really Really!?

It's clear as day people want to have a slow and drawn out ending. I agree, 30 min of cutscenes are too long! What you should have done is a similar but bigger event than the Act 1 Ending / Party.

Not cinematics, but actual gameplay!!!

That's ALL you needed to do. Make it possible to talk to all major NPCs. Have a final conversation with all of your party members. Have an additional scene only with the character you romances.

Have a final good bye scene.

I've really been wanting to play a Minthara run, but I've been hesitant because I've heard it's not working well. Crossing my fingers that there's more for her character.

YES!

Please give my flaming hot girlfriend the happy ending we're all praying for! <3

Honestly I do not mean to be rude but I do have to voice my frustrations with this whole launch not just the game itself. This game was being praised up and down as a true form return for gaming with the phrase we have not heard very often since like 2005, "Feature complete". However, this game is so far from complete it almost feels like another Cyberpunk 2077 launch, many many bugs hindering questlines from being finished, main companion quest lines with no resolution whatsoever, the whole ending regardless of what choices are made being the worst ending I have ever seen since the original launch of Mass Effect 3, zero consequences for using Tadpole powers despite it Literally being the main floccule point of the game... Furthermore, this game is being praised because of the quote "Honesty" Larian should be put right next to Blizzard, EA, and Bioware with the level of DISHONESTY that was present with the release of this game. The CEO of Larian clearly stated that the upper city would be fully explorable, if that was never the indented case then that should have been properly communicated because this is blatant fraud behavior. Honestly, Larian should issue refunds just like Cyberpunk 2077 then maybe just maybe us consumers can invest our hard earned money WHEN/IF the game is ever actually complete. As it stands now I have zero faith in this company, they are liars and I will never purchase one of their products again.