Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Environment, weather and times of a day

You've already heard a lot about these features of the game, so count this as one more.

In both DoS games and in this EA one thing about how you handle the environment is very obvious.

Its always high noon. And there is no weather except sunny.
I cant understand why is that forced for whole games you make. Sure, some areas can be sunny and in permanent high noon. But why all of them?
If there was some actual benefit to that, some logical reason i could accept it, but obviously there cannot be. Not from internal logic of the setting and or the story, not from developing and technology angle.

I know you wont provide day and night cycles. I dont like that, especially in a BG game which has many nocturnal creatures - and Vampires - but Fine. Whatever. Dont.
But you could create areas and maps where the narrative happens during the night. You have night time in the camp.

More importantly, the usual daytime is not and does not need to be high noon sunny all the freaking time.
There should be different weather environmental effects, there should be clouds, some shade, some rain, some fog. Dust, smoke, early morning, sunsets, afternoons, evenings.
Right now there is a bit of rain happening when we get close to the blighted village. Thats good.
A sort of dark gloom falls over the swamp where the Hag is, and there is some beautiful dust and smoke in Waukeens rest.

Give us more. It all creates an atmosphere, makes specific places stand out as unique and it could provide some influence on the mechanics and the gameplay, make some companions skills more valuable, more valuable to the very idea of a band of adventurers. It gives the players a stronger sense of environmental diversity connected to their experience in the gameplay and some increased sense we are exploring different parts of the story, of the world.

Yes the internal areas are dark and the Underdark is also "dark". Thats not what im talking about.

I especially hope we wont be forced to spend all of our time in the Baldurs Gate in high noon sunny weather. That would be horrible.
And you still make a lot of surfaces way too bright, so i dread what the stone architecture of the city will look like.
Changing the gama setting doesnt help. It just makes things difficult to see at all. Weather and different times of the day would.


Also, the Environment design itself.

A lot of places look very gorgeous but the problem is that there is something literally around every corner of the map.
That drastically reduces the believability of the world and makes nature look artificial. It also reduces a sense of exploration - even if its a trick in other games, like it was in the original - that trick needs to be there. The players actually dont mind some walking through the forests, some pure "exploration" of the nature in between points of interest. I dont mean you should do the opposite extreme and create the "huge empty maps" but rather mix and match.

Also, despite increased possibilities of movement, verticality and jumping and teleporting - we are constrained into specific corridors in the nature. All the time.

Right now the area in the EA is basically just corridors leading straight from one event to another. It feels very railroaded and constrained. Hopefully its only the EA version but considering other DoS games...

You could also reduce the amounts of chests found in some "secret" corners of nature or other types of areas, sometimes even protected by traps and guards - that have 11 gold in them.

I too am hoping that weather is not placed/determined by specific areas, for example.

I want there to be a chance when I load my game/short rest/long rest that it starts raining, or there's overcast, etc. Not only does this diversify fights (Bye bye Fire Bolt ground effect), but it adds a much deeper feel to the game.

Two versions of rain would be nice; a light rain, and a downpour that really impacts missile attacks/fire spells.

Yea BG2 had all of that. Light rain, wind(as a sound effect) snow, thunderstorm, dust storms, night time (with its accompanied special effects).

At least why cant some areas be at a different time of day just boggles the mind. I refuse to believe the game wont have that.
Larian worlds have no sense of passing time. No calendar, clocks, time of day...

Part of that design philosophy of Larian is why the game will feel more like a story-book than an RPG. There is never any sense of time in Divinity Original Sin/Divinity Original Sin 2; camping seems like an attempt to rectify this as the game immediately changes to night time for that sequence, granted you camp in the same area each time (I'm assuming it will change by "Act" to match the general area).

A lot of what the Divinity Original Sin games and to an extent thus far in Early Access this game does is create set-pieces; dynamic systems like weather/day & night cycles/random encounters are not something they have demonstrated in any of their previous works. Considering the potential scale of the game these features are unlikely to be added unfortunately.

I just logged out of the game about 20 minutes ago. As I was wandering around the cliffs by the main goblin camp, it rained.

Is the rain localized only to that specific area? If you run out of the area does the rain cease, only to return when you go back regardless of time passed? If not then then that would mean they indeed did add dynamic weather; which would be good news!

When I played I noticed it rained yet it was only in a specific area. When I left the area the sunshine returned and when I moved back to the area it rained again like a set-piece, like how the graveyard in Divinity Original sin 2 becomes gloomy and gray, but returns to sunny skies if I return to the nearby town.

I can't say, it did stop raining, but I was exploring, and not thinking about whether the weather was a localized thing or not.

No, that always plays in that area. No change to the light either.

And while Bg2 had different weather it didnt affect the mechanics, nor was it dynamic. But it did make everything feel better even so.

I just want to add, after playing more that the effect of "something around every corner - literally" has become even more grating.

Ive come to the Underdark and was amazed how beautifully it was made. Really, my compliments to the visual design team - that is outstanding work.
And the goblin main temple is excellent and gorgeous too, as is the rest of the starting area. But the Underdark is even better.

And then... it becomes a series of "something around the corner" and that completely ruins the sense of vastness, of exploration, of immersion into the world. Its not a vast underground area, practically a country into itself - but just a series of closely squished encounters.

There really needs to be some space in between encounters. It wont bother anyone, we have all the fast travel anyone could want and then some. Both the teleporting spots and meta fast travel from anywhere to anywhere - always on.
And it doesnt seem like that should be a problem since all the assets are already made.

Just enlarge the maps a little bit. Give us some space.

I really really dislike there not being the option to move around in the dark.

Especially given they want us to explore the 'evil' options. As a thief I want to sneak around in the dark.

As a PC from a disliked race, I would like to be able to enter settlements in the dark to avoid the law abiding citizens and meet other sketchy or undesirable NPC's.

I wonder how they will approach things like thief guilds in the city itself, will you be supposed to RP you're a super evil well known villain somehow able to walk around in the day without people attacking you ?

How are you supposed to have believable encounters with creatures such as vampires, fences, ... that are supposed to be hidden from the law/sun but might come out at night ?

How are supposed to go rob houses during the day ?

So far I'm really enjoying the game and I don't mind their changes with regard to the older BG (or other CRPG) games, in so far as they actually offer a 'full alternative'. So TB instead of RTWP , both are valid. 4 instead of 6 party members, ok both are valid. But the game simply forcing you to roleplay an evil or otherwise not really law abiding, criminal or darkness loving character in a world that is set to take place in a permanent 'sunny afternoon' , nope sorry, I really do not see any credible argument for that, it simply doesn't make sense to me....

Also I don't really see what is holding them back, they already have the maps , it's a lot of work indeed, but also only adjusting the lighting. I guess they have both the know-how and also think their engine CAN handle it, given that they managed to create relatively dim/dark dungeons, etc.

Moreover, they broke sale records with their EA (1mil x 60) so budget should not be the issue.So please Larians , be kind and give us thieves, outcasts and other undesirables of Faerun the option to avoid the daylight , night time is the right time !

PS: I made the same comment on Reddit but decided to post it here as well because this day/night and permanent noontime-summer thing are the only things really bothering me in the game at this stage in EA.