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It's an abstraction that does need tinkering with.

It is very immersion breaking. I'd like to see it limited to having to walk to a portal to travel, at minimum.

It would be cool to have a camping option in dungeons or wilderness with a portable outfit, sleeping bags and campfires, that requires a set guard to avoid surprise nighttime visitors for a full rest. Save the main camp for crafting, interactions, visiting merchants, etc.

With say, two quick camp options and a longer wait for the "HQ camp", it would lessen all the nutty travel back and forth that is entirely unrealistic.

At the very least, give us a "hardcore" option that gives the play more of a solid reality than whisking about the map at will, topping everyone up constantly makes things too easy and unreal feeling, I think.

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Originally Posted by trengilly
If you find fast travel immersion breaking . . . then just don't use it! I'd rather they leave it the way it is . . . trying to [write] it into the actual lore is just going to cause more issues. It should remain a player convivence only (Gale just brings it up once, in a fun way, as a tutorial for the player).


It could remain a player-only thing. But then don't have Gale mention it. Larian already has ways to deliver tutorials without breaking the immersion. From the moment a character gives you a tutorial on a player-only feature or user-interface, the fourth wall is broken. Gale should only speak to the PC, not the player.

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Replace them with signposts to keep the funcitonality (since its mainly quality of life) without breaking the in-world logic.

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Originally Posted by RagnarokCzD
Originally Posted by Drath Malorn
they should be really part of the world, commented on and used by everyone.

This dont even seem so hard ...

So far the only group that could want to use them, that i can think of, are Tieflings ... (can anyone find another?)
All Larian need to do is add some conversation option with Zevlor sugesting portal, where Zevlor answer something like:
"We have ox drawn carriage here, animals dont handle magic well ... they could get scared and cause a lot of problems, we don't want to change one danger for another."

And voila! Portals are here, everyone knows about them, yet they are useless for them.

If only the world was such a simple place.

A teleportation system would have immeasurable value in the realms for both commerce and warfare. The wilderness would be overrun with interested nations and parties trying to chip the portals off the rock and use them for their own benefit. The Zhents are already there, how did they overlook this prospect of the century? Red Wizards would want them, Harpers would try to make sure any wrong faction doesn't get them.. Drow and Duergar would use them to make surface raids for slaves. Goblins would use them for hit and runs between the fort and the grove.

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I dunno about immersion in that regard.

We know the world "is not truly alive" as in Skyrim for example.
Even there you have obvious 'encounter places' on the map.
Something pops up there, or it doesn't. But when it does, it will always be on a certain part of the road.


When I walk through the Baldurs Gate 3 first Arc, I know nothing unusual will appear. So I fasttravel without a second thought.
Yes of course you can trigger party-interactions like dialogues by walking around, but they do not seem that important after all.
In fact most of the time I do not hear the talks starting, because my camera focus is already further ahead, since this is just how I play and I notice the voices very quietly at the beginning.

And when I scroll back... most of the time another character is already answering. ( -_-)
I wish the voices would just not quiet out at all. That is very annoying.

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They are immersion breaking to those of us who actually know Forgotten realms lore. Those eof us who have read books and have played in this living breathing world for 30+ years now. Do portals exist in Toril, absolutely, are there 15 of them in one square mile....hell no. Think of them as Dragon age Aluviels (spelling). Extremely rare and very few and far between. To me this would be the same as putting in a modern railway system into the Lord of the rings setting. It makes zero sense and frankly ruins the lore of the world.

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Originally Posted by biomag
Replace them with signposts to keep the funcitonality (since its mainly quality of life) without breaking the in-world logic.


Yeah, and use the beautiful and so Baldur's Gate worldmap to travel from your location to that signposts.

Last edited by Maximuuus; 29/11/20 08:32 PM.

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Originally Posted by Dreygor6091
They are immersion breaking to those of us who actually know Forgotten realms lore. Those eof us who have read books and have played in this living breathing world for 30+ years now. Do portals exist in Toril, absolutely, are there 15 of them in one square mile....hell no. Think of them as Dragon age Aluviels (spelling). Extremely rare and very few and far between. To me this would be the same as putting in a modern railway system into the Lord of the rings setting. It makes zero sense and frankly ruins the lore of the world.


Ah okay I can get behind that one most easily.
Well - it's a videogame still. And this living breathing world is created by peoples imagination, unburdened by limiting game mechanics.


I personally don't care either way. Maybe because I am getting old or something I dunno.
But when I played Diablo 2 and always used a Townportal to just sell trash, I could still see it as... well... being a good sport about it or something.
Nowadays though? Meh.
Almost makes me wish to be able to just sell everything I pick up at a vendor instantly, even though there is no vendor actually there. wink
Maybe I am somehow rotting away in that regard.
But immersion can go many ways. Example:

When we watch LotR 1, the Fellowship is taking on this vast, tedious journey.
In a videogame, every Humanoid enemy they overcome, will gamewise drop its shitty trash weapon, maybe a few coins, or food, or gear.
And since the game is balanced around the expectation that you pick it up for selling later -> you pick it up.
But you have to be smart about it.
Cause you can only sell during certain vendor visits.
Imagine how annoying that would be, to actually put into a Movie. grin

Nobody wants to see that sh°t.
And to certain lenghts this goes for my gamer perspective too nowadays.
Also the goldprices in the Druidplace are MURDER.
So becoming a cleptomanic grabber comes even easier.


I would not want to miss my waypoints. Make it fasttravel without the magical runes, I don't care.
But either I want to get my money without all this tedious item grabbing, or I feel missing out on the waypoints is going to impact the gamequality negatively.

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Originally Posted by Uncle Lester
+1

Just make fast travel implied walking and don't overcomplicate things with detriment to worldbuilding and believability.

Copy TW3 system and call it a day. Would be perfectly fine and more immersive.


+1 to this. These new portal waypoints don’t feel very Sword Coast at all.

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Originally Posted by 1varangian
A teleportation system would have immeasurable value in the realms for both commerce and warfare.

I disagree ...
Since its usable only for sentient beings, and you cant use it with animals, or war machines ... all you get is a potentialy faster transportation for infantry, wich is useless by its own for any siege.
Yes, you would get reinforcements much faster, that i would agree ... but so will your oponent, so in the end the scales are still in ballance.

Also we are talking here about world, where single archmage can create fireball that will destroy whole regiments ...
I think warfare is working based on a little bit different rules here. smile

Originally Posted by 1varangian
The wilderness would be overrun with interested nations and parties trying to chip the portals off the rock and use them for their own benefit.

Unless they allready know that this portals are simply manifesting on such places, and ist tied to them physicaly, so they cannod be "chiped off and moved" ...
Wich i would presume they allready noticed, since this magic is there obviously for some time allready.

Originally Posted by 1varangian
The Zhents are already there, how did they overlook this prospect of the century?

Did they tho? laugh
I dont see much reasons to believe that its just a coincidence that one of their hideouts was made just next to portal ... nor see much reasons to believe that they bringed everything they had stacked there by the ladder they have there. smile

Originally Posted by 1varangian
Red Wizards would want them, Harpers would try to make sure any wrong faction doesn't get them..

Sory, i dont know this factions ...
But if you mean by it that factions related to some portals should have guards there, i agree.

Originally Posted by 1varangian
Drow and Duergar would use them to make surface raids for slaves.

Instant dazzling with daylight, instead of slowly getting used to it ... it sounds absolutely great, I'm sure every Drow or Duegar can't wait to do it again.

Originally Posted by 1varangian
Goblins would use them for hit and runs between the fort and the grove.

If they even know where this grove is ... or that portal (since as you surely noticed, you can transport only to portals wich exact location you know) ... yes. smile
But if you listen closely, they were talking all the time about the fact that no one knows location of the grove. wink


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The TW3 system would be fine.

My main problem with the current system is not fast travel between waypoints, its that you can go to camp and back every moment.
Especially when the camp is not a place on the map, even though other people can go and stay there.

My suggestion:
- Fast travel in TW3 style
- Your camp is also a fast travel point, so you have to go to another point and travel if you want to rest.
- You do a long rest by selecting a bed or the campfire while you are in the camp.

For me it feels just wrong that I can teleport my party from almost every point to almost every other location at once without problems.

PS: I miss the teleport pyramids from the previous divinity games.
Are such items consistent with DnD lore?


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Portals are a huge QOL feature. Yes, they break immersion, but seriously, walking from a to b and back again just because isn't exactly 'fun'. That said, I find myself very much in agreement with earlier posts that portals need explanation and a good, solid lore appropiate reason why the player can use them.

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Originally Posted by Schepel
Portals are a huge QOL feature. Yes, they break immersion, but seriously, walking from a to b and back again just because isn't exactly 'fun'. That said, I find myself very much in agreement with earlier posts that portals need explanation and a good, solid lore appropiate reason why the player can use them.


Fast travel doesn't have to mean portals ....

Last edited by Maximuuus; 30/11/20 01:55 PM.

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Exactly you don't need crappy cheesy portal to have a fast travel feature...

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Originally Posted by Maximuuus
Originally Posted by Schepel
Portals are a huge QOL feature. Yes, they break immersion, but seriously, walking from a to b and back again just because isn't exactly 'fun'. That said, I find myself very much in agreement with earlier posts that portals need explanation and a good, solid lore appropiate reason why the player can use them.


Fast travel doesn't have to mean portals ....


Yeah I thought OPs title would help people who aren’t getting it, but it still seems to be confusing people. Travel can still be instantaneous from a player perspective, just make it offscreen. Look at Valhalla as a modern example, you can fast travel but your character isn’t actually magically teleporting around the map.

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Portals have been in use since 4th edition and are even more in use in 5th edition and I doubt Larian is going to change that.

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Originally Posted by Iszaryn
Portals have been in use since 4th edition and are even more in use in 5th edition and I doubt Larian is going to change that.


Arcane Gate, which is the closest ‘portal’ spell is 6th level and lasts for ten minutes, is concentration and only has a 500’ range. So while there is precedent in recent D&D for portals, having permanent ones is incredibly rare. Having a network of portals you can access from anywhere all clustered together in one region? Totally unheard of. Feel free to prove me wrong though.

Teleportation circles would be more appropriate, but even having them clustered so closely would be very strange. And you’d need to cast the spell or use some kind of item to access them (neither of which you need to do in this game).

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Originally Posted by Iszaryn
Portals have been in use since 4th edition and are even more in use in 5th edition and I doubt Larian is going to change that.

It depends ...
If by "change" you mean delete portals and act like they was never there ... then yes, you are not alone who doubt.
If by "change" you mean change the perspective how world see portals, and taking them to concideration ... that is entirely in their hands.


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I think portal system is huge mistake. It is too "gamey" and don't have good enough explanation.
It is just absurd how even in Act I we see how people died trying to deliver some letters. Why didn't he travel by portal? And lorewise it is wrong too.
Fast travel mechanics is convinient and super cool to have in this game. But it must be implemented differently. I like the idea with signposts and message - "You traveled for 1 hour".

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I completely agree, turn the magical waypoints into fast travel, just the way it was done in BGII.

Also, I love the way they made the Underdark, and think it is one of their greatest achievements so far. But it makes no sense whatsoever that such an eerie, unreachable place should have the same waypoints, or even fast travel back to the surface option.

The game makes it hard to get there, so why would it be so easy to come back?

I'd much prefer it to basically be stuck in the Underdark once we get there (with maybe a warning), or be able to get back to the surface only through the stairs to Gut's chambers or the portal to Ethel's place.

Also, as has been mentioned, camp should NOT be available in the Underdark.

Unlike BG2, the Underdark here seems to be a place like any other because of the waypoint / camp system. Soooo immersion-breaking

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