Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Latest News Closed Beta Delay & Patch 7 Highlights

Hey gang,

Well, the Patch 7 Closed Beta was set to begin today, but while preparing the build for you, we were once more humbled by the classic lesson taught to every game dev while playing bug-fix whack-a-mole: if you fix one bug over here, another one might still pop up over there.

This happened with one of the fixes we wanted to introduce in Patch 7, which has caused passive rolls to stop working. We’re trying to figure out how we got here, so while we do that, we’ll be pushing the Closed Beta back to later this week.

On the plus side, if you haven’t yet registered for your chance to take part in the beta, you still have time! You can register to be randomly selected by visiting the Baldur’s Gate 3 store page on Steam.

To tide you over, we wanted to share with you a list of highlights from the Patch 7 notes, which include over 1,000 fixes and improvements!

As well as the new Evil Ending cinematics, split screen improvements, and the Modding Toolkit, these fixes include: making the way you use soap a bit clearer (we were noticing too many suspicious teeth marks on the bars), dissipating Gale’s Necrotic Aura when it should dissipate (terrible vibes), and making sure Jaheira doesn’t stop following the party after a Long Rest (she just needed a longer rest).

Also, by popular demand, you will now be able to turn on the Honour Mode mechanics in a Custom Mode playthrough! Select the option in the Ruleset dropdown menu and you’re set for new exciting battle mechanics without the pressure of Honour Mode.

For more information and some visual sneak peeks, you can also check out our latest Community Update!

Remember that Patch 7 will only be live in the Closed Beta on Steam for the time being, and we still expect to release it live to all players in September.

Spoilers: As always, some of these entries might contain spoilers, so proceed with caution!

HIGHLIGHTS

• Introducing 'Evil Endings': Brand new cinematic endings for the truly villainous playthroughs.
• Added our very own Mod Manager, which lets you browse, install, and use mods created by the community.
• Revamped split screen gameplay: When playing on split screen, the two halves of the screen will now dynamically merge together when player characters come close to each other in-game, and dynamically split back up when the characters move apart. This revamp comes alongside many other improvements and polishes to improve the overall split screen experience.

Honour Mode Combat

• If Dror Ragzlin finds himself inside the spider pit, he'll try his best to befriend the spiders residing there with a new spell called Arachnid Compulsion so they can band together to fight the real enemy - you.
• The Bulette has a new condition called Diamond Scales and a new Legendary Action called Shredding Scales.
• Malus Thorm has a new Legendary Action called Grasping Appendage.
• Added a new aura and spell for Spectators: Panicked Sentinel and Ocular Nightmare, respectively.
• Ch'r'ai Tska'an, the leader of the githyanki ambush in Act II, has a new Legendary Action called Soul Sacrifice.
• Ch'r'ai Har'rak, the githyanki leader at the Knights of the Shield Hideout, has a new Legendary Action called Tu'narath's Embrace.
• Ptaris has a new Legendary Action called Ptarian Dogma.

UI

• Revised and reorganised the in-game video options to be more logical and robust. You now have an Upscaling Type drop-down, an Upscaling Mode drop-down, and an Upscaling Sharpness slider, followed immediately by the options that are affected by them.
• Updated the Reactions UI so that you only have to toggle the Reactions you want to use and then confirm them. (This saves you from having to select 'Do not react' multiple times!)
• Added a new Equipment Options menu to the Character Sheet on controller.
• The panel that opens to 'Donate' magic items to Gale will now also show items in your Traveller's Chest. It also now indicates which items are currently equipped.
• We noticed some of you hiccoughing bubbles, so the action for washing yourself with soap and sponges is now called 'Use' instead of 'Consume'.
• Fixed your player character's name getting reverted to 'Custom' during Character Creation if you moved on to create your Dream Guardian and then went back to edit the player character again.
• Fixed the wrong spell Ability showing up when selecting a Feat during Level Up.

Art

• Added a new loading screen in Act III, showing the busy streets of Baldur's Gate.
• Fixed the skirt part of the Adamantine Splint Armour missing for female dwarves.
• Fixed the Adamantine Scale Mail clipping on large male characters.

Gameplay

• You can now start Custom Mode games using Honour Mode mechanics when starting a new playthrough. You'll be able to do this via the 'Ruleset' dropdown.
• The kuo-toa that promised to build you an army will now support you in the final battle. Unless they all died in Act I.
• The help that the Gondians promised for the final battle will now arrive in the form of a friendly Steel Watcher. Apologies from Zanner Toobin for the delay.
• The hair colour options in Character Creation will now remain accessible after you choose the bald hairstyle, so that you can continue fiddling around with eyebrow colours.
• Overhead dialogues that support multiple player characters can now involve characters assigned to different players. (They were limited to characters controlled by a single player until now.) This means that there will be more banter among player characters in multiplayer games.
• Group Hide will no longer affect summons that aren't linked to the group in the Party Line.
• Changed the behaviour for selecting camp supplies for a Long Rest. When selecting camp supplies that are stacked, the game now only takes what it needs from the stack.
• You can no longer cheese the Leap of Faith trial at the Gauntlet of Shar by just clicking the final platform and letting your character pathfind their way there. Shar threatened to smite us if we didn't fix this one.
• Fixed a bug where resurrecting Lae'zel on the beach in Act I would cause her to appear in the Party Line but not in the world, preventing you from leaving Act I.
• Patched up some savegames where Gale still had his Necrotic Aura when he shouldn't on load.
• Fixed Minthara's body sometimes turning invisible on the Level Up screen. (We sorta liked the floating-head-and-hands look, but hey.)

Animation

• Astarion now has idle animations at camp that aren't just him reading a book.
• Added a new idle animation for Minsc at camp - Boo may or may not have taught him some tai chi.
• Karlach will no longer brush the shaved side of her head.
• Polished the appearance of neck kisses in lovey-dovey scenes with Shadowheart on the Sharran path for characters with large body types and dragonborn characters.

Writing and Flow

• Dotted some dialogue options and voiced lines into dialogues across the game to add some more overall reactivity, particularly to account for edge-case flows.
• Dotted more Dark Urge reactivity (dialogue options and Narrator lines) into dialogues across the game.
• Resolved an issue that had been rendering some romance party banters inaccessible while adventuring.
• Avatar Lae'zel can now decide what she wants to do at the end of the game
  after the brain is defeated
  even if she wasn't the avatar making the choices in the main dialogue.
• Added a dialogue option asking for a kiss in more paths of Wyll's epilogue dialogue.
• If you're in holographic form in the epilogue, Wyll won't automatically assume he's talking to Lae'zel.
• Gave Wyll a new greeting for romance partners in Act III and characters with really low approval.
• Companions should now be more sympathetic to Astarion fleeing from the sun.
• Added a new dialogue in which Karlach will react to Dammon if she finds him dead after he told her that he can help her.
• Minthara will now react if you knock her out in Act I.

Scripting

• Fixed several issues (related to resurrecting characters via Withers, restructuring the party at night, and automatic camp night scenes) that would trap you in an eternal slumber, unable to end a Long Rest.
• Fixed a bug causing Shadowheart to keep repeating one line when you talk to her after she's resurrected by Withers from the Shadowfell.
• Fixed a small flow issue preventing you from commenting on Gale's last name.
• Fixed several occurrences of Wyll still having an exclamation mark above his head when he already told you everything he had to say.
• When playing as the Dark Urge, Minthara will no longer act as though you accepted Bhaal when
  you've been stripped of his influence.
• Fixed a broken kissing scene after you gave Shadowheart the Idol of Shar.
• Fixed an issue where Jaheira would stop following the party after spending a night outside of the party.
• Fixed the rune tablets on the nautiloid sometimes not triggering the Narrator's lines.
• Clerics of Lathander should now recognise his symbol on a Lathanderian amulet.
• Ensured the avatar is prioritised as the main speaker in dialogues related to the hag's Act I surrender.
• Minthara does, in fact, now have something to say about
  Orin
  after you kill her.
• Made the romance scene at night with Wyll in Act III unskippable if it triggers to avoid accidentally skipping it and not being able to finish the romance arc.
• If Avatar Karlach and Wyll are partners and go to
  the Hells
  together, he'll now act accordingly during the epilogue.
• Fixed Karlach's scene
  in Avernus
  not playing if you decided to go with her when playing as Wyll.
• A bug has been fixed so that Wyll will now talk to his father if
  Ansur is defeated
  after the pact with Mizora is broken but Ravengard is saved from
  the Iron Throne
  despite this, to decide on his title.
• Lae'zel will now wait a little longer for you at the site of her recruitment if you tell her you'll be back.
• Improved Lae'zel's idle camp behaviours to align a bit better with the other companions'.
• Fixed the fade-to-black after Karlach's scene
  in Avernus
  at the end of the game, which would give you a very brief glimpse of Game Developer Land.
• Breaking up with Karlach by speaking with another companion you're dating the morning after her romance scene won't block her dialogue anymore.
• Reinstated Gale's last line in his detailed explanation of ceremorphosis and tweaked a dialogue option to react to it.
• Now that you can give Gale magic items from the Traveller's Chest, he will leave again if you refuse to do so.
• Patched up some savegames that had a bug that would prevent the dialogue between Gale and
  Mystra
  at the end of the game from triggering.
• Fixed a bug that let you kiss Gale even if he was in a disguised form before confronting
  the Netherbrain.
  . Also fixed this dialogue with him cutting off before you could give him a smooch.
• Reworked the script that determines whether a character is too busy to talk. This will prevent bugs like Minthara's dialogue not triggering at Moonrise Towers after you rescue her, and knock-on effects as a result of this, like not being able to rest or fast travel.

Performance

• Continued to make performance and stability optimisations across the game and implemented many under-the-hood code fixes.
• Optimised performance. This will have a more noticeable impact in areas with large numbers of NPCs (like the Lower City) and will reduce peak memory usage when loading levels for the first time. It will also be noticeable when managing lots of loot (e.g. when transferring everything from a camp chest to a character's inventory).

Cinematics

• Reworked and revamped the cutscene that plays when you interact with
  Ansur's bones in the Wyrmway.
• Polished facial expressions and emotions across companion dialogues, including to the facial animations of your character during some kissing cinematics, including with the
  Vampire Lord
  Astarion.

Note: Please bear in mind these are just some highlights from Patch 7 and we will share the full patch notes once Patch 7 is live for everyone.

That's so awesome, praise Mahkloompah! Been hoping since Early Access to see something come out of them and now it's finally happening. Also Honour Mode rulesets

Yay for more Dark Urge reactivity!

These are really awesome highlights for the upcoming patch, and are definitely helping to ease my disappointment with the fact that we’re never going to be getting substantial content updates for the game in the future. New reactivity and lines throughout the game (especially for dark urge) is gonna be huge in terms of making everything feel as polished as it deserves to be! We’re obviously never gonna get stuff like new karlach endings (sorry karlach lovers) or durgetash romance (I’m not even gonna apologize for this one yall need to chill)… but that being said I really hope that before the development on the game well and truly ends, we can come together as a community and beg Larian to add in an actual romance scene for Minthara once you’re actually in a relationship. We know Larian isn’t afraid of adding more horniness to the game given all the work done to kissing, so surely it can’t be too unreasonable to animate a scene and add in a couple lines… right? (Plz I beg you us evil world domination lovers just want to have something to make it feel like it’s worth pursuing a real relationship with her 😭

Take your time to fix things up, shit happens that's just development, so delays don't bother me but always appreciate this sense of communication!

Love and regards from Xenonian

Having HM mechanics in custom playthrough is nice, thank you.

And I agree with Xenonian - take your time.

Patch 7 is gonna be good!

With how many fixes there are I'm not surprised some bugs appeared. Take your time.


Second this. I know not everyone cares about romance or character story, but it's a huge part of the game and many people do care. Minthara needs at least one more romance scene imo.

My Dark Urge is very excited about patch 7 and all the new dialogue and possibilities. I'm also excited about the new abilities of the opponents in Honor Mode. I am very happy.

Once Minthara gets her updates, the world conquest can begin.

(Sceleritas would like to accompany his master permanently after he finds him again. Right now his master needs his help, even if he is of course less worthy than Scratch.)

"Dotted some dialogue options and voiced lines into dialogues across the game to add some more overall reactivity, particularly to account for edge-case flows."

What does this mean? I'm not savvy enough (or proficient enough at English, for that matter) to understand what an edge-case flow is. It sounds exciting, but I don't know exactly what I'm being told.

Hear, hear!
The "dotted" baffled me and my son, although we are quite fluent in English.

Still nothing on being able to recruit and romance Khaga .... SNIFF SNIFF

Dotted as in adding something here and there. I am also not a native speaker but I understood it much in the same way as the line about Durge reactivity below. Some player dialogue & voiced lines were added so you or the characters have a broader range to react to what's going on. I am very curious what those additions will be. Edge-cases seem to be situations that only come up under very specific conditions which would make you expect a unique reaction but currently don't have one.

I am looking forward to heroic mechanics in custom mode, as well as being able to ask Gale about his last name and am also very glad to read that Wyll's family drama has been sorted out, it's a little weird currently. But like everyone said before: Take your time. I hope the dice rolls can be sorted out again easily as that sounds like a nightmare scenario.

While I am looking forward to this patch, of course, I think it loses a lot of steam because it focuses on evil playthroughs. I'm not sure how many people go that route. In that sense, it feels sad that this is probably the last big patch.

Would have been nice to go out with something big. The kind of big that would have excited the player base. Like a single new companion or adding in the Upper City.

The Upper City may have been the size of a whole Act... at least the size of a DLC. I gave up on ever getting the Upper City when there was the statement about Larian moving on to another project. Not that I would have bought the DLC, with the base game as unfixed as it is after one year, but moving Cazador's up there at believeable size and infrastructure for a *alone* would have been the work of months. Combat, bug, and balancing fixes are a reasonable best case scenario.

I suppose, aside from Halsin, Bex, and god knows who disappearing in Act 2 for no reason and, yes, the other NPCs acting as if no one's died, at least Act 2 is now somewhat polished. I just wish I could say that about the other Acts. I got lucky, too, with me getting to complete Halsin's questline and Rolan not being vanished, I probably shouldn't be the one to complain, but no else has yet anyway on the same grounds.

I am not into the evil endings myself and will probably only experience them on yt, but I feel they are a part of improving the overall reactivity of the game, which is something I am greatly looking forward to. From what I have read, reactivity to the durge questline has been frequently asked for - and I'd be very happy for some additional lines for the other Origins too. So this seems to be something for the whole player base - even though it might not be as flashy as new companion or a new portion of map.

If evil ending means "controlling the netherbrain", then I think many people will try it. I mean, you do the complete PT, and after 60 hours or more get the choice at the end to destroy it or control it. My own natural reflex was to save the game and try out both. Even though the character's preferred choice would be to destroy it, out of curiosity, I couldn't just not have a look at what would happen with the other choice.

Now, we all know that "controlling the brain" choice was quite disappointing. I imagine they embellished this one to show us in action as the new absolute. Maybe with some choices to be either a real oppressive despot absolute or a more enlightened despot absolute. We'll see.

I agree, I mean, even redemption Durge, which I prefer, has reactivity missing in some scenes. So more reactions are always good.

I'm not against the new scenes. I just don't think it's the big bang ending patch a lot of folks, myself included, were hoping for.

Yeps, I was hoping to go to Menzoberranzan with Minthara and Araj Oblodra and use the blood bombs to overthrow the drow hierarchy and become ruling house. But I'm also afraid that's not what will be in the patch.

I came upon this articel which defines"edge-cases" with some examples and explains why Larian finds them important. (article contains some spoilers)

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/b...t-the-game-let-them-have-it-its-awesome/

Larian’s commitment to contingencies and unique dialogue/scenes for edge cases really shows a phenomenal dedication for the player agency aspect of an RPG. It really does feel like you can play the game any way you want and still feel rewarded for your actions. What I find confusing is that all these fixes to incredibly rare scenarios seem to be taking priority over fixes to core aspects of the story that seem disjointed, especially later in the game. A dialogue pass just to address the flow of conversations and story progression in Act 3 would go a long way towards making it feel polished and wouldn’t even require adding new content or areas as some people seem to think act 3 requires (In my opinion, what’s already there is plenty of content, it just feels jankier than the rest of the game).