Larian Studios
While it is rather obvious that there will be no day/night cycle in the game in the traditional sense, given how Larian always wanted to incorporate it in a meaningful way rather than just a cosmetic addition ever since the unmet D:OS1 stretch goals, I can't help but think how the DA2-like implementation of a "daily" city and a "nightly" city would probably be the best middle ground there is.

Granted, DA2's nighttime Kirkwall was little more than a combat fest which you occasionally had to visit when a quest demanded so, but BG3 could go much further and transform its city at night, with seedier places opening up, bandits lurking in the back alleys, and entirely different opportunities appearing. If you are playing a more lawless/villanous character who is not on good terms with the Flaming Fist or would rather not be seen during the day (kinda hoping that there will be at least some need to conceal themselves as drow and githyanki and such), the nighttime is your chance to traverse the city unmolested. Resting within the city would then change the time of day, or you can just wait it out at whatever the equivalent of the camp would be while in the city.

Everything is obviously pure speculation as we have no idea what the BG city-specific parts of the game will be structured like - unless there is something in the datamined materials, which I personally avoid like the plague, as I have already spoiled a few things for myself as it is? Time will tell, I suppose.
I just recently realized that my past assumption that we "obviously will spend a lot of time in BG" is not exactly a given and I'm mildly terrorized by it.
To be clear, I'm sure we get there... But at some point I remembered that you can find posters/letters talking about how the city would be currently quarantined or something like that.

What I'm starting to question is if it will be a city we explore and interact with extensively or if Larian will "pull an Arx" and give us a semi-abandoned city, that is basically a sieged warzone and where only few sparse oasis (or battle arenas) will be accessible to the player.
Not that I would expect the ENTIRE city to be there and reproduced 1:1, anyway, but the scenario describe above would be a fair bummer, compared to, say, having few selected quartiers of the city that you can explore in detail.
Originally Posted by Tuco
What I'm starting to question is if it will be a city we explore and interact with extensively or if Larian will "pull an Arx" and give us a semi-abandoned city, that is basically a sieged warzone and where only few sparse oasis (or battle arenas) will be accessible to the player.
That’s pretty much what I expect - Baldur’s Gate being a setting for a chapter rather then a distinct place. It won’t feel like a city, just as a current chapter doesn’t feel like a wilderness.
I believe that DA2 style day/night toggle would be an improvement over the current status quo, at least.
A toggle would be more than halfway there. At least we would have night time.

Drow and goblins could attack the Druid Grove at night. That happening during the day is just completely wrong. Different creatures could come out in the wilderness at night.

Shady meetings could happen in Baldurs Gate at night. Vampires could come out to hunt.

I just don't see how a game like this can succeed without night time. With vampires and dark cultists, how's it going to play out in a world where its always bright and sunny? The scenes will be completely lackluster and unexciting.
We should be able to see various parts of the Sword Coast at night; it should be more than just our base campsite immediately prior to sleeping.

At minimum, certain locations/events should be during night. E.g., Goblin Raid. BG city quests. Things involving non-tadpole'd vampires.
I sure hope we get to access all of Baldur's Gate city; I think I left some diamonds in that djinn house near the docks, so I'd like to go back and pick them up.

The day/night thing is something I definitely want in BG III. At night there is more chance of encountering undead or roving thief gangs or Narlen Darkwalk. But on the positive side, stealth gets a bonus and if they do infra-vision correctly, that will also have a big impact on engagement ranges. I think there are also some moonbeam spells and the Ring of Shooting Stars that work best in darkness outside. I've always wanted that ring, but never got one.
Sometimes I feel like I am the only D:OS2 player ever who actually liked Arx, even in the non-Definitive version. It didn't feel much like a city at all, but the interactions and the things you got to do in it were really neat in my book. I didn't really feel like Arx and the Nameless Isle had to be switched around, either - although it could have worked better if there was a pre-Nameless Isle Arx and a post-Nameless Isle Arx, or something along those lines.

It would be a bummer if Baldur's Gate ended up similar, though. It's not like Larian don't have a history of making large-scale urban areas (Divine Divinity had Rivertown and Verdistis, and the entirety of Flames of Vengeance takes place in Aleroth with a lot of places to go to). Even if some of the buildings are just there for decoration, it would be really nice for the city to feel like one this time around. They kinda had it easy back in the day with the tile-based maps that didn't have that much detail, but I am hopeful that the development time the game's taking is indicative in some way of the scale that the city in BG3 will have in the end. One can hope, if nothing else.
I would be ok with a similar Day/night implementation like DA2. At least, we would get nightquests.
I mean, how should the entire Cazador thing play out in plain daylight ? ( Unless Cazi has a tadpole too).
Originally Posted by fylimar
I mean, how should the entire Cazador thing play out in plain daylight ? ( Unless Cazi has a tadpole too).
Inside sunproof lair? O_o
Originally Posted by fylimar
I would be ok with a similar Day/night implementation like DA2. At least, we would get nightquests.
I mean, how should the entire Cazador thing play out in plain daylight ? ( Unless Cazi has a tadpole too).
But it's not just about explaining it somehow to make sense in broad daylight.

It's much more about atmosphere. We are already missing 50% of the atmosphere in Early Access where nothing ever happens after sundown.

How would this scene be in bright sunny daytime? We already have Drow and Goblins attacking the Druid Grove during the day. Creatures whose advantage is darkvision. I can't get over how wrong and lackluster that assault feels.
Originally Posted by 1varangian
We already have Drow and Goblins attacking the Druid Grove during the day. Creatures whose advantage is darkvision. I can't get over how wrong and lackluster that assault feels.

I agree that the cognitive dissonance is quite strong there, to me it feels like as if Sauron and his orcs would have chosen the shire/the teletubby hills as their base of operation because the weather is so much better there than in Mordor.
Originally Posted by 1varangian
We already have Drow and Goblins attacking the Druid Grove during the day. Creatures whose advantage is darkvision. I can't get over how wrong and lackluster that assault feels.

+1

I'm finding that the more attention I pay the game, the more a lot of it fails to hold up. It gets pretty nonsensical and immersion-breaking when you stop and really think about some aspects of the game.
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