Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Storyline improvements?

So, Im curious.

How does the game look like now compared to release?
Did they fix up the storyline? Or did they pat themselves on the back and say we did enough, we made the best sex sim ever.

Because I have to say wwhen I played last, the game was still beta. Nowhere near finished. And I saw some comments from Larian stating that they are "content" with BG3. Well I will never buy a Larian game again, if all I get for funding early access is an uncomplete game with an almost laughably bad latter half.

The game had the makings of a masterpiece but the storyline in particular needs a massive overhaul. So, how does it look rn ? Because I finished the game and have had 0 interest in replaying the game considering all that I will meet in the end is an incomplete game.

I only first started BG3 in late October, so I cannot state the following with 100% certainty -- but my understanding is that the main storyline is pretty much what it was at release, with the one big addition being a tacked on reunion with the remaining characters some months after the climactic battle(s). So, in terms of story, if you didn't like what the writer's room cooked up before, I don't believe that there's any reason why you'd like it now.

In terms of gameplay, there have been several passes of needed bug fixes; but having said that, the combat is still largely the same with the exception that there are now additional difficulty levels including a custom setting that may make combat more interesting or slightly less horrid, depending upon your preferences.

Bottom line: If you didn't like it at release, I genuinely don't think you'll be won over by anything Larian has done since then. Or I just failed my Perception roll. Either one.

New kisses/romances/sex animations. Lots of bug fixes. Quality of life changes. And more quality of life changes. And yet MORE quality of life changes. Soon the game will be so convenient, it will give Starfield a run for its money. We will have a ''magic" map were we can just click on encounter icons.

Thats what Larian is mainly focused on. 'Extra' Difficulty is a joke. As long as we have unlimited inventory, gold, potions/scrolls and overpowered magical items littered everywhere in the game.

Turn base combat is still slow as *%&#$ (but hey that helps make it a 500h+ game).
Cinematic dialogues for EVERYTHING is still annoying ands slow as *$&% (but hey that helps make it a 500h+ game).
World immersion is still &%*$% bad. No time, no urgency, no day/night and dynamic weather effects. Zones are like a static boardgame/theme parks, no breathing room.
UI toilet chain is still annoying as $%&*# and is arguably the single worst UI developed control system in crpg history. Thank you console gamers (ironically, console gamers are asking for MOUSE AND KEYBOARD compatibility, alas to no avail.)

And the worst of the worst : Very little to NO gameplay/D&D options or customization. And still no toolkit.

Or to sum it up: They did everything to please all social media fans aka the white knights aka the real fans aka the one's who don't know s$%& about DnD.

So we are still forced to be the Emperors bitch for 98% of the game? In this game that they bragged so much about "your choices matter"?

Meh.

Yes, but you can be rude and hostile toward the emperor, if that’s any consolation

Ye did that on the first playthrough, unsatisfactorily.

Tbh that is not the only problem with the storyline. If you learned you have a tapeworm in your brain(or brain eating amoeba or whatever), would you go "ah lol, np, we have time to fix that later, just gonna look for some more empty vases first" ? Or would you do everything you could to remove it asap?

As I said this is just too beta state for me. No finished storyline should have glaring holes like this.

Until new writers are hired and the old ones are fired, in full force, nothing will change

I feel like this game has been released at least a year too early. They still change and add so much stuff to the game, it feels like it's still in EA.

One could argue that Larian just adds more fan wishes to the game and other companies don't, but I'd strongly disagree. When the game got released, they nearly immediately said they are not happy with the ending and they are still working on that - so why even release earlier than planned then?

Acts 1 and 2 are great. It’s Act 3 that’s still way closer to EA than it should be. Fingers crossed that polishing it is a priority.

Totally agree, I should've added that its act 3 where I feel everything falls apart.

It feels like it hit it's climax with Ketheric just to throw the next 2 important bosses at you in a hurry.
Add the upper city to be Gortash' playground and make act 3 all about Orin = way better pacing.

You could be hostile to the emperor since launch, and it changes nothing. It only showcases how player agency does not matter, because one conversation he is threatening the protagonist, the next conversation it's back to working together, as if nothing happened.

I don't think the main storyline can be fixed. They would need to add an alternative like Orpheus much earlier, but that would require a lot of new dialogues, while adding new animations is cheaper.

What bothers me, is that they also don't prioritize bugs and gameplay issues. I've managed to completed a patch 5 playthrough just to see the epilogue, and the quest bugs I have reported on my first playthrough were there and the ending cutscene was bugged yet again (which it was for me in all three playthroughs). I don't care about romances to the extent that new kiss or hug animations would make up for that.

I am of he opinion that Larian trying to truly fix the main story would be prohibitively difficult and frankly, a dumb thing for the to try and do because of the amount of time, effort and money it would require. I happen to believe that the whole main story is bad right from the start, the problems begin in act 1 but you can't see how they'll truly crash and burn until around act 3. The main story is made on a bed of sand and fixing it would require changes from as early as the opening cinematic.

I also don't think Larian trying to fix anything is going to be helpful. They delivered this shambles of a story to begin with, why would they do significantly better when having to work around the dregs of what they've already done? I just don't think Larian has it in them to put out a better story. More time or money wouldn't have helped, I just dot think they have good storytelling instincts, not for this sort of thing. If you're looking for a strong, engaging main storyline then look elsewhere. If you're looking to spend ime with lots of engaging characters and see their stories, that's the part Larian seems to be good at. And good for them, that's a valuable skill. Maybe they'll len into that for their next game.

I still think they could've come up with a better story and most likely would have done so if it wasn't for the plethora of rewriting and I feel like they had to do it because they were lacking a lot of time.

Also not sure about their knowledge of DnD lore (I know some stuff but not the depths) but some players said it's pretty bad.

Believe it based on what, though? There's evidence to suggest they had to cut the upper city out of act three, but the problems with the game go far beyond that. To the attack of a major city by a nautiloid going unremarked upon ever at any point, to the fact that a major section of land near a major city is horribly cursed and basically no one ever mentions it beyond that area, the way the game does not seem to actually know who the central antagonist is or if it does, utterly fails at presenting it. They added two companions by fan demand and completely screwed up in doing so, while a main companion who by evidence was always seeminglyintended to be a companion has a storyline that's just "collect these bits of useless metal and have a few conversations" only to then have a thematically baffling conclusion. Or the main villain of the second act, whose whole story revolves around family, having three random family members who no one in the game ever talks about and who muddle his themeing by their mere presence. Then there's the fact that we are presented with two ways to make it the the act 2 zone and they're framed as mutually exclusive, but there's actually no reason at all not to go to both, and in fact if you don't go to one of them then you lose one of your companions as well as missing out on informtion that makes later events of the story make complete sense. There are problems at every step of the way with this story, and the way I see it, they can mainly be traced to a lack of discipline on Larian's part, a lack of willingness to say no to ideas in favor of shoving in whatever seemed cool. If they had more time, we'd just get an upper city that has all the same problems and frustrations as the rest of the game, just maybe in a different package.

Let me point you to one other baffling choice there's really no excuse for; in the ilithid hive you can find notes that entirely spoil the reveal that the Absolute is a controlled elderbrain. What? When I first read those notes I thought "wow, if they're willing to spoil that, what other reveals do they have set up that they're saving? Turns out, nothing. Nothing at all. They just undermined what could have been an awesome moment for no apparent reason. That's what I call a lack of discipline. Stop asking for the people who made this poor story to fix it, they can't, they never could. Accept that the story is bad and move on to other games that do have good stories.

My believe was mostly build upon hope, tbh.
But everything you said is on point and there is no reason to deny that the story is really bad.
I always wondered why Larian ended up winning awards for best story but I guess it's more to hype and "just pick the most popular no matter if deserved or not"

I think people mistake the characters we meet andtheir stories-which are in my opinion genuinely good and very much the best part of the game- with the plot, because the plot is so barebones and rickety. You can see it in how all the things people resonate with in the game has to do with the characters. They are well written, have good stories and arcs (with the exception of Karlach) and even the side characters have a lot of charm. It seems everyone was too dazzled by them to notice that the actual adventure we're all going on is barely functional plot and the story itself is not actually character driven. It's entirely about its plot.

I think, they should stop listening to the thirst crowd ( I swear, if I hear one more stupid complaint about AA kisses, I will just loose it) and look to maybe expand some of the existing story lines.
Maybe have Omeluum with you as your mindflayer companion, if you go with Orpheus.
Instead of having Haarlep take up time in the house of Hope for a frankly very creepy and weak mic drop on Raphael, focus on the story between the Hearthflame sisters, which is so much more interesting, than a rapey encounter with an incubus, who just pops up and brings nothing to the story at all.
Have the hag circle restored. I love Auntie Ethel, but we were promised more hags.
Give a bit more depth to the main antagonists in act 3. I like the idea of Gortash as the ruthless, manipulative politician and cult leader, but he doesn't get enough to do. Same with Orin.

I think that all of that stuff would be worthwhile since, as I said, character stuff is Larian's strong point. The problem is that adding that kind of thing to any meaningful degree would be really expensive because of the voice recording, writing, mocap and animating that would be involved. At this point it would be borderline irresponsible to incur that kind of cost for a game that's already selling like gangbusters without any of these additions. Kisses are far cheaper and less time-consuming to add than introducing two new hags and all the writing that would be required for them, or making Gortash and Orin live up to the promise of their characters. That's the problem with them shooting for these high production values, they've not left themselves space to addthings in a cost-effective manner. This is one of the reasons I maintain silent protagonists and the presentation of Owlcat's Pathfinder games, etc, are superior for crpgs.

This, 100%. I never expected that but this huge part of the fandom kinda made me hate the fandom and the game to some degree. I can't stand all these horny, desperate people.


Haarlep brings sex to the table, that's it and that's what Larian's whole marketing is about. It has never been about the story or the secrets but about the romances, the sex options you don't (want to) have in real life and to some degree the brutality.
The more I think about the, the more shallow the game feels outside of the characters.