Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General What about day/night system?

Hello all ♥
1) Sorry for my english - not native language . __ .
2) This game looks great, i can't wait to play it.
but...
In DoS2 - always sunny, only in several places lights different.
"Time" looks like just stop.
In BG same sitiation?
Just for example (not a bite): Pillars of Eternity.

The original 2 BG games had day/night cycles, I'm wondering how it'll work with BG3. I certainly hope it'll use day/night cycles. We know the initial plot involves us looking for a cure for the tadpole within 7 days, I'm also curious if day/night cycles will play into that. will we only be able to rest X amount of times before we fail? or will the 7 days be a bit more of an abstract? Considering for example, the tadpole allows the vampire character to be out in the sun, it seems obvious the tadpole won't go away completely. I just hope that doesn't mean this 7 days drags out through a significant portion of the game.

I think I heard there wouldn’t be. If I remember right they said they already had enough to implement and didn’t think the benefits were worth the extra layer of complexity.

In a way, the campfire (and possibly taverns in towns) replaces the need for it. You’ll be exploring in the day and resting at night.

ah that bums me out if that is the case, although it is what i suspected based on the engine they are using. i personally think the complexity adds a good bit to the game. one of the things i really enjoyed about bg1 was how you were required to do certain things on time otherwise there were consequences, mostly related to companions. it's something i can live without, though, but it also does kind of diminish the whole cure the tadpole in 7 days threat.

During the original Divinity: Original Sin crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, the very last stretch goal mentioned a day and night cycle, NPC schedules and weather systems. All of these could have impacted NPCs, monsters and magic. Do you still discuss the possibility of making a truly simulated game world at some point in the future?

Adam: I do in my own head constantly. I think it's a very different game. One of my favorite games of all time is Ultima Seven and it was the first game that I played that had proper NPC behaviors. You could wait for someone to go to the pub and then you could rob their shop. I love stuff like that, but a game that's built like that does very different things. We are very, very story focused as well and there's things that you lose. Also: multiplayer. We're a multiplayer game and day-night cycles in multiplayer becomes incredibly complicated. We're doing so many really complex things already that we know are going to be really good that, on top of that, it wouldn't fit this game.

I love simulated worlds and we have a lot of that stuff in there. We don't do the day-night cycle but we do the things where things in the world happen because you caused them to happen and they can happen off-screen. So, there are things happening off-screen. The world isn't just what you see on your screen. There are events that happen and things that will, because of the choices you've made, things will happen elsewhere. Those are real, those are systemic. Our systems are running in the background the whole time. There are incredibly deep systems. Some of them don't make sense for this game, but yeah, we think about it and we've talked about it.

https://wccftech.com/baldurs-gate-3-pax-east-interview-listening-to-fan-feedback-adding-raytracing/

Nice thanks for posting the interview! I don't necessarily agree with their logic in the choice other than it does make things complicated, but we'll see how it plays out. It really does make the whole tadpole threat a lot less impactful to me. Story is also important though, so I can respect their desire to not sacrifice elements of that for a working time/day and night cycle.

Huh, i completley forgot about that little detail here.
Interresting.

I wonder if they just didnt bother with it after the stretchgoal didnt get hit because they didnt want to figure out stuff like NPC housing and such.
I remember that beeing a big limitation for elderscrolls games.

EDIT: i should probably learn to read. Yeah, it makes sense why they wouldnt have it.


Still a shame theyre not doing it. I always like immersive stuff like that

It would have been nice to add it at least visually, so it gives some variety/life to the environment.
Without huge game-play changes.

Not having day/night cycle is a major immersion breaker. Also I hope exploration is not like in DOS2. They are taking away all the attention to detail that BG2 had. And all of that because of multiplayer.

Agree.



^this ;}

btw, thanks for answers!
I hope, maybe some DLC after release game, or something else :}

^^ I agree. I was counting on a day/ night cycle. I even took the Keen Mind feat for my Necromancer build. So I just upped my Int to 20 instead. That's assuming the Necromancer subclass even makes it in the game.

>OS2 is taking away all the attention to detail BG had
ok. now explain this.
Using screenshots.

WoW! my hat´s off to you. You actually found a way to make the keen mind feat more useful (as in zero usefulness to marginally useful). The keen mind feat could be usable by vampires and drows to check dawn and dusk indeed (You can argue you can simply check a clock or have a rooster with you but at least this is something)

Well done, my man, well done.

I really really hope they'll (re)consider adding D/N cycle and weather.

I don't care about gameplay mecanics (i.e rain putting out fire) but the lack of N/D cycle completely broke immersion.
The game can be in real time even if a few characters are in TB combat so I can't understand why it should be hard to implement.
Find a bed for a few NPC (those you may see more than once at the same place...) is not difficult..

I probably won't consider buying the game with such (another) immersion breaker.

Lol ok bye

I agree it's a pretty big immersion breaker, and I'm bummed it won't be in, but I suspect this is one of those things that's a bit too late to change now since it would require some considerable work on their engine and gameplay mechanics. Perhaps stressing the importance of it would be useful feedback for any subsequent games, but I also doubt it'll end up coming in as DLC. I don't really see it as a dealbreaker, though... but it really does add to the experience.

Day / Night cycle is basically you resting. The camp is shown during night, rest of the world we've seen so far during the day.

I think all this doom and gloom about the lack of a proper day/night cycle being an immersion breaker, is a bit over the top.

First of all, the nights will be simulated during the long rest camping system placed at strategic locations. Secondly, the playable areas will be very diverse, including plenty of darkness playtime in buildings, underground and the underdark.

Also there is the aspect of class balance for spellcasters like Wizards that comes into play with nigh/long rest (speaking of which the Arcane Recovery ability of Wizards is buffed to refresh ALL expended spells once per day during short rest).

How immersive are such cycles changing around every 20-30 minutes of real time, in games that avoid forcing survival elements like needing to sleep (beyond refreshing spells) anyway?

Long rest camping is nothing except a close area in which you stay something like 10min.

Having a real D/N cycle is the opportunity for players to explore more than once the same places with different feelings, encounters, ambiant, sounds, lights...
This gives consistency to a world that looks real whatever the way you're playing.

I can admit everyone don't need that to enjoy the experience but in a RPg, It looks very important to me.
Probably my definition of RPG is not the same.

BG3 will be story-driven and not a sandbox. As seen from the gameplay videos; the areas are very diverse. If you desire different outcomes, play an alternate character exploring another path ie. goblin camp vs. underdark. This will constitute a vastly more significant change than any mere night and day difference. A completionist playstyle may not be possible, I would dislike being able to solve a situation diplomatically and be tempted into returning to kill all for a second round of rewards for the same area.

Long rest camping brings the illusion of day/night cycles and is therefore immersive. IMO more so than going potentially for days without sleeping in a day/night cycle like vanilla Fallout 4. The original Baldur's Gate was likewise story-driven, and if I recall correctly, albeit there was a cosmetic/shallow day/night cycle, there was no point in returning to almost any area you had previously explored. In many cases not even possible. Sounds like Larian/BG3 isn't for you, try Fallout 4 on survival mode?