Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General BG3 - Online Multiplayer or offline LAN ? :cool:

I would like to know and start a discussion, if baldurs gate 3 would start with an online multiplayer or if the game would follow its legacy into an offline lan mode for multiplayer?

From my point of view the pros & cons are simple. Divinity had the offline lan where you could play with your real friends like an old school Pen&Paper adventure, but in online multiplayer you do not have to go outside your home, which could be cool for some minor players of the mass market.

My first thought from the news of a new baldurs gate form larian studios was "hell, yeah, with the cool balancing of games like divinity 2, it could be fun to play like old school". But the technical bad coded multiplayer games in last years and the streaming "stadia - news" for always connected internet acces tend to be a new money policy (?) I think good games are not only good from their innovative idea but from a heavy impact of good old story telling like a good game master at the front of the table. The second step of good multiplayer follows a good singleplayer story and a free choice for players which multiplayer variant they want.

What are your thoughts of multiplayer gameplay for baldurs gate 3? What are pros & cons you think of?

post scriptum: will there be a multiplayer mode without online access at all?

Direct connect to IP address and allow port forwarding. That way you can do either lan or online

The IP adress and port forwarding may still be a problem.

As examble for modern multiplayer games: "Stellaris". I think personally, it is a true successor for Masters of Orion 2 and makes a lot of fun. But if I want to play multiplayer, I have to go over active internet connection to official game servers, get a host Server-IP, and only then I can open a game for the joining of my friends.

That is not exactly like the old good _offline_ lan mode in Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, or for another examble the brilliant offline lan mode from divinity original sin 2. I want to play with friends without internet connection and have my freedom. We meet in a cottage at a lake every summer. There is wood and nature, we go for fishing, swimming and beside much beer, we love to connect with our pc or notebooks like in good old times via hub and lan cable. There is no internet connection at all. Although we would like it, we are outside of civilization and we want to play independent and free.

Yk2?

Direct connect to IP works over lan as you are still connecting to an IP address even if there is no internet.

@ 0Muttley0 : If you mean only for connecting two or more pc via their operating system, fine it works. But for a multiplayer mode it has to be coded to connect this way. I do not know how you manage direct ip for playing, let´s say, latest diablo or stellaris, ... you would have to emulate the server maybe, or miss I some point here?

I havent played the latest Stellaris or Diablo. But for all the BG/IWD/NWN games you can direct connect to an IP address. If you are on a lan it is the local/internal IP address, if its online then you use the external IP address(you normally have to forward the appropriate ports to do so). In terms of number of computers that can connect, it would be however many the game limit is. BG/IWD is 6 player limit. NWN there is no real limit per se. It is based on how fast your connection is before it starts lagging too much.

I would like hotseat.

Is that even a thing in 2019? The last game that i remember having featured hot seat multiplayer was Medieval 2 in 2005.

Warhammer 40.000 Gladius, Disciples 3, Endless Legend, Age of wonders series, Heroes of Might and Magic series, Armello, etc
Hotseat is pretty common in TB games, modern or classic.