I'm not sure how many here remember, but originally DOS 1 -strong of its declared inspiration from the Ultima series- was supposed to have NPC scheduling and a full nday/night cycle.
It was suggested as a stretch goal for the Kickstarter campaign, the goal was reached, the feature was promised... And then late in production canned because too challenging to achieve.
Then we got to DOS 2 and it was more or less the same. The feature was TENTATIVELY promised as something they were trying to accomplish at first, then canned because too expensive and challenging to achieve.
And then it was the time to reveal Baldur's Gate 3. The biggest, most expensive Larian game to date, the follow up of a series that made of the day/night cycle a core feature. One that could occasionally influence gameplay, too, with enemies that showed up just at certain conditions (i.e. vampires were roaming the city roads just at night). One would think that BOTH the increased budget and the legacy of the series would be strong arguments in favor of developing the feature, but NOPE.
We were told pretty early in production (months before the EA even started) that one of the first major design decisions the studio made was to can the feature once again. Too complex and too expensive to realize (no matter that dozen of RPG with budgets that were a FRACTION of BG3 managed just fine for two decades).
Now we are moving to the next Divinity. In their own words their most complex and ambitious RPG to date, built over new and improved technology, over the foundations of everything the studio learned so far from the previous titles....
SO... Should we expect an improvement in this area?
Will we FINALLY be able to get this bare minimum of credible world building this time? Or is the cinematic angle the only side of the production that will cannibalize the overwhelming majority of the budget?
