Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Modding Modding Baldur's Gate 3

It's not the software they would be issuing a cease and desist order over. But their IP. You make an alteration to software that allows end users to access Wizards' IP, and that then in turn led to people buying their products less because there is an 'alternative' means of consuming their products for free and that caused a loss of profits they would be able to ask that person to stop giving their IP away.

I'll start with the caveats that IANAL and I don't have any insider knowledge on what Larian's business strategy is wrt this general area.

However, I would be very surprised if mods ended up being in conflict with business interests as Larian have been promoting modding since being their own publisher and have been rather conspicuously not indulging in EA-style nickel-and-diming for minor content. I don't know WotC at all and wouldn't like to comment either way about them, but I would be quite surprised if Larian entered into an agreement that involved doing a 180⁰ turn on the player involvement that they've been fostering for years.

As for anyone trying to monetise mods, it's an absolute minefield especially when looked at from an international perspective which is why modding tends to be free and the various T&Cs I've seen to date explicitly preclude charging money for them. Just the copyright ownership itself is probably at best highly impractical to resolve once money starts changing hands. Which is why it tends to be a hobbyist venture, though "hobbyist" certainly doesn't imply amateurism as I've seen a lot of very polished stuff released over the years.

thx for the response! much appreciated - i think we are of the same wave length so plz know that my line of questioning is just genuine curiosity and i would agree that such a business decision would be a departure larians history. that being said, i would be eager to hear larians comments on the matter - if just to reaffirm that no such issues are anticipated, but can understand if such an item is not a priority topic with the community given the ea state of the game

I know what you mean. I can't add anything that isn't already stated in the OP; just that modding will be a thing (I think... that's said without the relevant quote immediately to hand) but not before the full release happens, whenever that is. Right now they have their hands full processing feedback as well as technical reports and so on, so I would consider it very unlikely that any announcement about modding will be forthcoming for the foreseeable future. The state of things at the moment is that players can do so at their own risk but that there is no official support, neither for modding nor for games that have been modded.

Correct. I'm pretty sure that would require explicit permission.

You can't ask for money but people can freely support your work, in fact it's pretty much the same but it's not in regards of laws.
The only thing they can do is to probitit direct support link but they can't block people asking you where they can give you some money to thanks you.

Actually they can, and probably should. Soliciting or offering payments for something whose legal situation is unclear has the potential to become very complicated and I would certainly intervene if I saw something like that until I had clear guidance from the legal department.

Having considered this matter for a moment I think it's best that I close this discussion until I have an official answer. Please do not pre-empt it by bringing it up elsewhere; thanks. Sorry to those who just wish to discuss modding but as the subject has turned to monetisation I think it is best to wait for someone who can comment more authoritatively than I can.

I've decided to re-open this but please no more talk about monetisation and how to sidestep the rules: we don't even know what they are yet.

Actually we do, it's not the first game with modding possibility, but ok.

I'm sorry I started with that thing, I didn't mean to cause trouble for anyone.

Anyway, one thing we can say for sure is that even at this stage the game has some mod support. you have a modsetting file in your documents folder, and it doesn't really work well right now but it exists. It could be just a leftover from Dos, but could also mean Larian fully intend on supporting mods somewhere down the line

They have stated that modding will be available once we see the full release; though there are few more details than that at present.

A certain amount of modding does work now and updates to stats, model-swapping and other stuff can be implemented as loose files in the installation folder, though it seems that not everything works consistently (or indeed at all) so it's all a bit "on your own head be it" at the moment. And as others have said, it's probably best to turn off feedback especially if some really game-changing alterations have been made.

yeah, this is my experience as well. it's not the most complicated game to mod I ever played, but the experience is not as easy as it is in DOS2 for example.

I guess the mod support is not fully implemented in the current state, maybe they will make it simplier for the release, like LUA/XML modding in WoW.
I haven't take a look how it is right now, it's more like Pathfinder: Kingmaker with C# coding & custom libraries ?

I have no idea. I just know it's easier in theory to install mods in bg3 than it was in pathfinder

Most spell assignments, character creation models, and so on are driven by text-based files. There is no kind of "deep" customization available yet. You can implement new abilities, but that's only so far as their DSL spec lets you. You couldn't do something completely new the engine doesn't currently account for.

Mod at your own risk has always been the case. There will be mods on release or shortly after to change whatever mechanics people have issue with. Currently I think its better to let the devs get on with it rather than mod things in and out that will likely be changed anyway.

True. I don't intend to install any mod that changes gameplay significantly for that reason, and because I generally think the gameplay is fine as it is. However, just browsing the Nexus is a must for everyone who is worried about aspects of gameplay. As support for mods will only increase with the full release, I strongly believe mods are the golden road to making everyone happy (at least regarding to gameplay).

The only gameplay related things that might be impossible to mod are perhaps things like day/night cycles and RTwP, but everything else seem very possible, so if you can get over these there is a big chance you'll be satisfied.

On the other hand. Minor gameplay mods such as remove multiple damage ticks when moving through fire/acid/poison gives you a sense of how the game would play if that one mechanic would change.

I will most likely try out the bigger rules overhaul to see how the game plays as well (in relation to enemies, hp, etc.)

I don't want to Mod BG3, but is there a place to record or see the combat logs? I'd like to see the rolls and information in there because There seems to be a LOT of Critical Misses, which would indicate rolling a 1. If that's the case, I think their D20 random number generator is not seeding correctly or is flat out broken.

This is more likely a problem of perception. No given sample can guarantee the randomness of the roller. Keep in mind randomness doesn't guarantee an even distribution per se. It's random. That's the whole point.