Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General NO DAY/NIGHT CYCLE confirmed by devs?

I guess we have pretty much established by now that because something was in BG1+2 that does not make Larian want to force themselves to also use it if it does not make sense for them.

Its nothing revolutionary these days. And peoples would expect all kinds of additional baggage with it like custom animations, voice acting etc that requires work while it still is limiting for your storytelling as explained above.

No you're right, just because it was in the previous games does not mean it should be in #3 per default and yes, why wouldn't there be an expectation on those things? Frankly, rightly so. I would expect to have to come back during the day to a shop for example, but I would also expect to rob someone blind at night!

It's a mechanic that makes sense in an RPG environment. Plus so far the only reason given is not one for the sake of narrative, but to accomodate Multiplayer and the differences in time when certain players are in TB Combat, vs those outside of the time bubble. I understand that reasoning, but for any other reason I would be dissapointed and expressing dissapointment / discussing potential solutions or workarounds is part and parcel of reasonable forum activity.

but NPCs don't have a 7/24 schedule in those games. They are either daily NPCs or night NPCs (and there is some randomness involved so not all the NPCs go poof/pop at the same time).

Larian only wants to do day/night cycles if the NPCs have 7/24 schedules with beds/housing/etc for them to interact with. Which is a lot more work than applying a darkness filter comes 18:00 and unspawning/spawning NPCs around.

How did it work in BG1&2 ?
I never noticed disapearing poeple... Does they all have a house and a bed ? I don't think so but i'm not sure, I never try to follow them...

Wasn't in Taverns, bit others were just de-spawned iirc. Certain missions could only be done at night, certain encounters only happened at night etc...

I can't remember people "sleeping", been a while since I last played though.

It wouldn't need to be too deep of a feature either. I don't think anyone really expects an isometric RPG to have some super involved season, weather or day/night cycle where AI has their own schedules or behaviors depending on the time.

It's more so a feature that adds a little atmosphere to the game, it can alter both race and monster gameplay and just all in all adds a little variety to the game. It's not the end of the world, but it's disappointing at least.

Some variable weather would have been nice, but hey ho...

There are people sleeping, but not so much.
I think it was something like in a "familly" (those living in the same house), some was in the house doing nothing during the day, and they were somewhere else at night, and vice versa...
There were a LOT of houses, and a lot of tavern, with lots of beds, but I'm nearly sure the majority of them don't sleep during the night.

Are you sure about the spawn / de-spawn ?
I' playing the EE for the first time now and I played many times but I never noticed that.

Variable weather and day/night cycle is something that really adds atmosphere and variety as you said,
I think it's really important in a "credible" RPG world. Of course, I'm really not fan of multiplayer, so the explanation does not convince me...

BG 1&2 both had Dynamic day/night system with a dedicated cut scene sunset /sunrise for each area you were in. When you selected a character with infravison you could tell, everything glowed red. If you were given a quest or asked to meet someone at night you had 2-3 hours in real time to explore/ rest up or otherwise kill time. Only certain NPC’s would come out at night. I remember the first time getting to Beregost and seeing courtesans outside of Feldpot's inn. They weren’t there during the day. The inns and homes would have several beds with people sleeping at night. Shops would be empty, the undead would roam.

Well it's official: Trials of Mana, a game remaking SNES classic Seiken Densetsu 3 features day-night cycle. And this game doesn't.

..So? Was there a point to be made in your comment?
Oh dear! A game in a totally different engine with a totally different play-style and made by a totally different crew has a feature BG3 does not!

Trials of Mana is also going to have an inventory wheel, and a magic wheel. BG3 does not have those!

Day and Night cycle (and meteo) is important in Baldur's Gate for many reasons. Please do it Larian.

My point is that technical "impossibilities" is an excuse beyond risible.

Not every engine can do what another engine can do. hence why I pointed out that ToM is a different engine.

That said, I think no day/night is a CHOICE by Larian, not an engine limitation?
Someone please correct me, if I'm wrong.

The point is that none D/N cycle game offers only linear immersion in game as in at 1 area is rain/night/or whatever on other area is sunny/windy/whatever so as u journey on u dont have an immersive feel and u can also guess that backtracking coz of that will also be minimal. What is also worse what I experienced in DoS2 for example in first act when fought with the big worm there was rain and from rain your party dont get the status wet but u get the status wet from puddles when u step on it AND what will happen in BG3 in that regard? I am really curious Fuk TB vs RTwP issue, perfectly placed tadpole, no D/N cycle, Camp with no point to be there other to socialize/talk, no random encounters. Dont know about u pips but to me it stinks a lot of VERY linear, unimersive 2010 game to me, also they didnt answered 1 topic about that in AMA except camp and that was so thick milky.. So can someone enlighten me what are the advantages of No D/N decision? Oh yeah... I know less work, less money to invest? No? XD

randomness isnt immersive either.
i dont even disagree with you on the day / night cycle.
bu acting as if fixed encounters are a bad thing is stupid.

handcrafted encounters beat 2d6 goblins any day

Lighting would definitely be a consideration if the game narrative or mechanics rely heavily on guaranteed lighting state. I also assumed that this played some part in the decision, although there are probably several factors.

If Larian WANT to put a day/night cycle in, they can, it is obviously NOT impossible. But there will be a cost associated with that in terms of developer, artist, level design effort, and therefore in elapsed time and financial investment. Larian may not believe that effort required will improve the game they are making, or they may think that other features are a more important use of the available resources.

BG1/2 used the d/n cycle to good effect, but other good RPGs have not bothered. To be honest, I tend to notice a d/n cycle when it exists because it is in some way inconvenient. I rarely notice the absence of a d/n cycle, so long as the game experience is well thought out. That doesn't mean I think Larian will necessarily produce a well thought out game, just that lack of a regular d/n cycle is not necessarily an issue.

I don't understand why some people insist on defending the fact that the game doesn't have a day/night cycle and weather.
That is terrible! mainly for BG fans.
These details are important to me!

Why do people insist on saying 'This is bad for BG fans'? It's like they're implying that anyone okay with a choice is not a real fan.

It's a narrative choice. It's not going to ruin the game.