Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Disappointed in Larian

It makes me sad that there probably isn't even a point in sharing feedback like this anymore, since they have been so openly decisive about being done with the game.

I'm genuinely happy for game devs to have projects they're passionate about working on, but I think BG3 deserves more than being hurriedly and permanently pushed aside before it's reached it's potential in a truly satisfying way. I believe it's a disservice to an incredible game. It's disappointing that it won't be getting the same care that DOS2 was given after release. The way the main quest in particular in act 3 is structured leaves much to be desired. The potential is there but the act feels rushed and incomplete in many ways.

I wouldn't want the game to be worked on while the devs are burnt out from it, but the door should have been left open to improve upon it at another time. It doesn't need DLC but I believe the game itself still needs work and care. I had hoped BG3 would have a lasting legacy of care given to it's conclusion on par with The Witcher 3, but I don't see that happening now. Not when the devs are in their own words "elated" to put it behind them. It is a little heartbreaking to know that a game I've been deeply invested in for years is being tossed away with relish. And it does make it difficult for me to be excited about their future projects. If a game as beloved and successful as BG3 is being left behind in a less than satisfying state, I'm cautious about getting so invested again.

I tried around 5-6 playthroughs and dropped them just by slowly losing interest after noticing some things like unlimited resources( food, str pots, explosives).
Took me time to understand why monk/ barb (tavern brawlers) were realeased in the end. And a hard mode with a random +2 hit rate on mobs.
I feel like this game received their awards just for artistic expression. And here I was theorycrafting my party with a transmutation wiz in it lmao. Huge turn off.

I love the game and believe it deserves all the awards it received, but combat and party building were just necessary mechanics to experience the story to me. So I can't speak to how well done that was for people who really care about it. My issues are quest, story, environment and companion reactivity based in the final act. I'm sad that the most anticipated part of the game will always feel a little rushed, unfinished, and poorly structured to me. I think most of my criticisms of it are common ones and not really worth mentioning if Larian is leaving the game as it is. But I wish there was dedication to improving upon the shortcomings of this game instead of just a desire to move on and try again with the next one.

You don’t have to use the unlimited resources though. You can limit what you take which can make for a very challenging experience.

I assume the unlimited resources were included because they wanted the game to be fun for new players. No one enjoys having their party defeated in the first 20 minutes of playing.

You can self create extreme scarcity if that’s what you want.

I'm old enough to remember when this game was released with it's many problems and all the Larian groupies here were saying "just gIve it a year and Larian will release a Definitive Edition which will right all wrongs and make the world a better place".

This DIY approach you suggest should end at difficulty selection screen and the game maker should ensure it.
1) Unlimited potions (especially str pot on str dump char with tavern brawler) (abuse w/e) should not exist atleast in thier portrayed hardest mode.
2) Merchant should not have readymade potions in their infinitely refreshing inventory.
3) Player should buy ingredients/recipes and be challenged by medicine checks whether they succeed or not and transmutation dips to benefit from rolls above 15. (Maybe i'm suggesting a mechanic from a game other than a 5e game but u know what i mean)
4) Alchemy doesn't feel like a money dump in any way, sort or form but is a means to abuse!! Imagine a durge transmutation wizard with experise in medicine printing money selling potions. A lot of gameplay missed for a goty game. I wont even mention things like warding bond gale or barrelmancy which qre pretty irrelevant for first run standards. No crafting in general.

I might be hammering on alchemy alone ( as if I'm roleplaying a transmutation wizard from 5e lands who landed into bg3 world and found it broken) but the economy honestly feel relevant only when you are playing a wizard; in a 'pokemon- esque' gotta scribe em all adventure.

I agree. Having said that it’s still possible to DIY and it is really no effort. In fact it makes the game easier because looting can become time consuming.

I'd really like to know if there's a point in leaving feedback concerning the state of the game and it's future now. Is it even being passed on to Larian anymore? I don't even know if they're allowed to add or alter content beyond what was already agreed upon with WOC since they handed over the rights to the characters. As I understand it they wouldn't be able to add or alter real story content or do something like adding the upper city unless they revisited things with WOC. It would be nice to have some clarity on this.

While I’m not commenting in any official capacity - I have no more information about this than any other fan - these are Larian’s official forums so the chances are that feedback here will be seen, particularly if it’s popular, but given what they’ve said about moving on to other stuff it seems unlikely that anything said at this very, very late stage in development will lead to any significant change.

It’s probably best to see these forums more as an opportunity to share your views with other gamers, though potentially modders may be able to address at least some of the remaining areas of dissatisfaction. Or that Larian already have plans for patch 7, though I personally can’t imagine them adding or making big changes to the story at this point.

I also want to address that the Upper City being a scrapped thing seems to be kind of an urban legend, and I've seen certain things attached to it being spread as truth that are completely untrue (most notably, that this is where Karlach would be fixed and that the current game just defaults to her bad ending)

Act 3 is very much rushed and feels incomplete, but when Swen talked about the Upper City, he meant the ruined parts we see in the final battle, and just didn't want to spoil that that's where it'd be happening. This was clarified both by Larian early on when they addressed some of the backlash over what fans perceived as cut content, and by Swen later on during an interview, where he and another employee (Adam Smith, I think?) quickly corrected an interviewer who affirmed that the Upper City had been scrapped.
I imagine some could think that they're just covering the truth up, I suppose, but the timeline of them talking about the Upper City in July only for it to be "nowhere to be seen" in August is too incredible for them not to be telling the truth. That is an insanely small time period to do a content chop of that caliber.

Larian also said right before release that overusing the tadpole would have consequences. Don't put much stick into what they are saying.

Well, I suppose it does have a consequence. An extremely underwhelming and stupid, circumventable consequence, but a consequence nonetheless.
I think what people imagined the Upper City to be makes the story of Larian going from mentioning it in their latest panel shy of a month away from release to just straight up deleting it for full release with no trace of it in the datamines too incredible. I try to stick with Occam's Razor for this one.

Except that the razor says that Larian was/is lying for marketing purposes like they did for other topics.

And its not as if they are above making radical changes to the game in the last minute. See the entire Emperor storyline.

"The upper city was just the parts of the upper city found in the final battle" is much simpler than "Larian lied several times about a secret scrapped section of the game that would explain away the incompleteness and also held the key to fixing Karlach, despite the lack of datamines pointing to any of these plot points or locations, and it was all deleted within the span of a month after its apparent development was highlighted".

Unless I'm missing info, the Emperor wasn't a change made within a month. It was obviously after EA, but, for reference, IIRC Theo Solomon (Wyll's new VA) started working on his character in 2022, so did Karlach's, IIRC. Both of these characters feel very rushed and they're still the work of almost 2 years, and they're not necessary to the main plot, unlike a new section of the game. Next to that, a month to delete all traces and ramifications of an entire new location is insane, especially after having apparently tried to showcase it's appearance in the game.

Yes and no. I can’t be bothered to look up the exact quote, but from what I remember it was explained that there was a lengthy epilogue that took place in the Upper City (and I believe that is what Sven was referring to when he was hyping up x amount of endings). However, it was judged to not be effective and the whole thing was scrapped.

But even if my memory is correct and all I have written is true, none of that would impact content of act3.

To me the biggest hint the upper city was scrapped is Cazador’s palace where you enter from …the city wall?

That makes no sense

Swen said the cut content with Karlach in the upper city was untrue, which I believe because the trajectory of her story always seemed to be leading up to her scene on the docks, coming to terms with etc.

As far as I know there hasn't been any clear answer for why they were talking about being able to explore the upper city very close to release. This was on their steam page in July:

"many of these locations are back, and many news ones are waiting to be discovered for the first time - giving you a chance to explore the menacing roads of the Outer City, the opulent estates of the Upper City, and the dark alleys and pubs of the Lower City."

Swen also mentioned being able to explore the upper city in a video published close to the game's release.

There's always going to be cut content in games but I think the upper city was cut very close to release and that's why so much of the third act feels clunky.

I don't think they're "lying" about it never being there because they haven't given a clear explanation for it. It was also abruptly announced that the game would be released a month early on PC, but not PS5. So I don't know what happened, but I think there are indications in Larian's comments, the moved up release, and within the game itself that the upper city was cut and quest locations moved around. For example Silfy, one of the tiefling children, mentions that Mol is behind the gates of the upper city. Clearly she is not lol.

Maybe they realized it would take too much time for consoles to be able to handle it? I don't know.

The Emperor's storyline wasn't drastically changed. He was always meant to be the source of the dreams even though the content of the dreams was changed with him taking on a role that was less obviously deceitful. And it seems like more drastic consequences of using the tadpole was cut much earlier for story/combat mechanic reasons.

Briefly entering the Upper City for a battle is not the same as having it open as an area to explore. We can't explore the opulent buildings as it was said we would be able to in July. They also, to my knowledge, never said they were only referring to the final battle. So this not being the case would not be a lie on their part. As I said they've mostly just avoided giving a clear answer on anything but Karlach's alleged cut content. They said that was untrue and I believe it.

As for there not being anything indicating cut content in datamined files, there wouldn't be much evidence, if any at all, of anything significant that they cut. I always explore datamined files and there's almost never evidence of anything they cut between patches and hotfixes. If I do find something it's pretty insignificant, like a line of dialogue flagged "impossible." They are thorough in removing everything and making the correct edits to files because not doing so affects the game. The smallest change or inclusion/exclusion of a single file can change an entire scene. I've added content that has been removed or edited back into the game myself by using files from old patches.

Also not being able to see it over the city wall when you can talk about it being a huge gothic monstrosity with Astarion in act 1. There's also leftover content in the palace that wasn't cut until after release when people found it.