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I think I had quite a few of the perennial issues. Jump is OP, shove is OP, dip is OP, backstab is OP, height advantage is OP. I don't mind so much they don't fit with 5E rules but the lack of balance causes issues. If there's a plan then great but right now just not super fun.

The following are things I haven't seen get attention, not sure if they're original but I figure I should throw my voice in at least.

1) The game is really slow. I think some of it is optimisation as the game just sits and thinks for a while but I also don't like just sitting and watching animations. I'd like an option to have all the moves play out in fast forward, something like you get in Fire Emblem. Also the movement speed is a bit sluggish and it makes wandering around the map slower and less interesting than it could be.

2) Some of the balancing of enemies just felt weird. Most of the non-optional challenges were pretty manageable with the application of cheese but they still felt frustrating. Like the Gnoll archers firing three shots a round, every round. When I'm still waiting for my second attack it feels unfair even if I can win by adjusting my approach after trying a few things.

3) I never saw all the content hidden behind using the mind flayer powers because the game was flashing a bright neon light saying "This is the bad option, it's really stupid, definitely don't do this, no really stop it." That's with the knowledge that it's early access and I not only don't have to worry about long term consequences I should probably be actively seeking them out.

4) I don't see this one come up as often but dim light gives disadvantage which is kind of weird. It's not in 5E as far as I know, it really doesn't look like dim light and carrying a light source from the Light spell doesn't seem to change matters, even in melee. It's neat making something like dancing lights have uses but also I was casting light everywhere before combat and also dropping items, casting light on them and putting them away which is way too much of a faff.

5) I'm not a fan of the way enemies are constantly shooting unconscious party members. Tactically it's not sound at all it just costs me resources. As a special case for a particular kind of dumb sadistic enemy it's fine but every enemy acting that way feels really strange.

6) If I try to attack an enemy that's just slightly out of melee range my character will instead waste their action swinging at empty air. Also the way characters will happily walk into danger or out of a threatened area so they can make a jump feels clunky.

7) I don't know if I'm missing something but changing party members is really clunky. Fast Travel to camp, tell someone I want them to stay in camp, tell someone else I want them to come with me, then get teleported to wherever I last used that party member, fast travel to the nearest waypoint then walk back to where I was. If this is a balancing act to stop me rotating party members it's not super well thought through.

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Fair points

1) Fire Emblem is a good point of reference for comparison. I've wanted to talk about it but also wanted to wait for the next patch to drop. Sometimes the enemy AI gets stuck and I feel if it is better optimized, the issue might go away. But then there is the fight in the grove...
You get a lot of goblin NPCs to fight with you, but you have to wait out their turn. I would be nice if the player got to control them rather than wait for lot of turns to pass between AI enemies and goblin allies.
If the AI can't be optimized then I would like to have enemy animations sped up.

Also in comparison to Fire Emblem, think it would be good to let the play redo movement in combat. Sometimes the character doesn't travel as expected, sometimes I would just like to find out if a position will be in range for spells or not, and sometimes you just miss-click and move you character out of position. My first playthough would have had less reloads if I could just reset movement to actually let my character be where I'd like them to be. Or, let the player tag the position, to see ahead of time, what spells, abilities etc. could be used from that position. There already is a forecast is you select an attack but it's not useful all the time. The position forecast is existing code, I'm okay with having an input to forecast from different positions the player gets to choose.

2) I'm hopeful this is just some of the growing pains with early access. I'm taking the stance that more fights should allow you to have a good start from the beginning. For example, higher ground providing advantage/disadvantage.
newborn gnoll fight
If you approach the gnolls from the low-ground, they get advantage and all your ranged attacks get disadvantage, then Gale gets focused down. If the player reloads and approaches the fight from the other side it's a completely different experience.

3) I think it's to incentivize multiple playthroughs. Which I'm fine with as I do want to try different routes.

4) Not too many people have brought this up, but it would be cool if torches were more streamlined.

5) I think it's bugged AI and hopefully a future patch will address this, some fights you can troll by letting Gale go down and picking him back up. It's funny in early access to let Gale tank with 1hp, but it's arguably exploitable. Combat would be more fun if unconscious party members didn't become the prime target.

6) I've been hopeful that this will get ironed out as early access goes on. And TBH everything about threatened feels wrong.

7) It is clunky, and the conversation gets old after a while. I'm okay with having to change the party at camp, but we should have quick options.

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Heya Rack, thanks for taking the time to write up some feedback ^.^

Much of what you say here has, indeed, been mirrored by many others, but it's still worthwhile doing this as each individual person who comes to the same or similar conclusions on their own is another point of data for Larian, and it's all relevant.

You won't find many people disagreeing with anything you put forward in points 1-6; I personally don't mind the general movement speed, but there's no doubt that the combat AI needs to be improved a great deal.

You're right that dim light should not have any effect on combat ability; only darkness does that, in the core rules. Many folks have raised objection - and just in general the lighting doesn't track well, and things get claimed as being shadowed when they're clearly not, etc.

For switching party members, the game expects you to just do it when you camp - and it expects you to camp constantly, at the drop of a hat. Rather than switching by going to camp on your own, you can switch your party at night, in camp, when you choose to take a long rest, and then return to where you left without having to run back next 'morning'.... but it's not a good system and few people seem to really care for it. there are pages and pages about issues with camping, resting and the camp itself...

The short is, yes, the game has a LOT of really bad clunk at the moment, in nearly every aspect of itself... but every bit of feedback helps, or at least we have to hope so.

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I definitely would appreciate to be able to fast forward the combat animations. Of course it's cool to watch everything play out for the first 10-20 hours but at the end of my 170 h Pathfinder playthrough I was gladly speeding through enemy turns until my party was up again.

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I usually agree with this feedback even if some points are less important to me (i.e 3).

Just a though about fire emblem, which is another tactical TB game I love...
You can speed up movement so combats are faster that's right, and that's cool.
But something else you have in FE is not more/less ennemies than in BG3... It's an increased party size...

This also contribute to
1) faster combats
2) more playing, less watching. Especially in games in which you only have 1 action/turn.

Is FE (xcom, wasteland,...) easier than BG3 ? Hell no.

Last edited by Maximuuus; 25/01/21 08:17 AM.

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Originally Posted by DragonSnooz
Fair points

If the AI can't be optimized then I would like to have enemy animations sped up.

For myself I'd like both.
Originally Posted by DragonSnooz
Also in comparison to Fire Emblem, think it would be good to let the play redo movement in combat. Sometimes the character doesn't travel as expected

Yeah I think there's a few times I'd use this. Mostly when I realise my character can't step over a small ledge and instead have to jump it wasting my bonus action.

Originally Posted by DragonSnooz
2) I'm hopeful this is just some of the growing pains with early access. I'm taking the stance that more fights should allow you to have a good start from the beginning.

I get that starting you in a bad position is a way to require you use strategy but starting in a good position is nice too. I think there's only one fight I can think of that does this and it's a well I'd like to see Larian dip into more often.

Originally Posted by Niara
Heya Rack, thanks for taking the time to write up some feedback ^.^

Much of what you say here has, indeed, been mirrored by many others, but it's still worthwhile doing this as each individual person who comes to the same or similar conclusions on their own is another point of data for Larian, and it's all relevant.

For switching party members, the game expects you to just do it when you camp - and it expects you to camp constantly, at the drop of a hat. Rather than switching by going to camp on your own, you can switch your party at night, in camp, when you choose to take a long rest, and then return to where you left without having to run back next 'morning'.... but it's not a good system and few people seem to really care for it. there are pages and pages about issues with camping, resting and the camp itself...

The short is, yes, the game has a LOT of really bad clunk at the moment, in nearly every aspect of itself... but every bit of feedback helps, or at least we have to hope so.

Glad to do it and it's good to hear a lot of this has been raised before it definitely gives me hope a lot of it can be looked at. One thing though, whenever I camp and then sleep other characters are still appearing where I last left them. It might be a bug or something to do with having previously fast travelled but no matter how I got back to camp my party would always reappear where I last left them.

Originally Posted by Maximuuus
I usually agree with this feedback even if some points are less important to me (i.e 3).

Just a though about fire emblem, which is another tactical TB game I love...
You can speed up movement so combats are faster that's right, and that's cool.
But something else you have in FE is not more/less ennemies than in BG3... It's an increased party size...

This also contribute to
1) faster combats
2) more playing, less watching. Especially in games in which you only have 1 action/turn.

Is FE (xcom, wasteland,...) easier than BG3 ? Hell no.

I'd assume larger party sizes would only make combats slower. You'd need more enemies to compensate for the larger group so the proportions wouldn't change it's just each individual combat encounter would take longer. Not saying I wouldn't like a larger party size but I think it's something that be more practical if the pace was improved rather than something that would improve the pace.

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Larger parties would make combat go faster (though maybe not the Encounter) by virtue of having more actions. it would make combat less tedious too, by not needing to wait through the enemy as much before getting a turn and to get to do something, you get to participate more. And with more actions/characters you can kill enemies quicker if needed, which does speed things up. Even if there are ultimately more enemies.

At the least it would make combat more engaging by having more to do rather than wait for the AI a lot.

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This probably depends on the player. I found it much less tedious to solo the fights, having a full group made the already painfully slow combats to be even worse.

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Originally Posted by Rack
Originally Posted by Maximuuus
I usually agree with this feedback even if some points are less important to me (i.e 3).

Just a though about fire emblem, which is another tactical TB game I love...
You can speed up movement so combats are faster that's right, and that's cool.
But something else you have in FE is not more/less ennemies than in BG3... It's an increased party size...

This also contribute to
1) faster combats
2) more playing, less watching. Especially in games in which you only have 1 action/turn.

Is FE (xcom, wasteland,...) easier than BG3 ? Hell no.

I'd assume larger party sizes would only make combats slower. You'd need more enemies to compensate for the larger group so the proportions wouldn't change it's just each individual combat encounter would take longer. Not saying I wouldn't like a larger party size but I think it's something that be more practical if the pace was improved rather than something that would improve the pace.

Does Xcom, FE or Wasteland have more ennemies per combats ? No. Are these game easier ? Still no.
Increase the number of ennemies would be a bad solution, I agree with you.

Originally Posted by Zarna
This probably depends on the player. I found it much less tedious to solo the fights, having a full group made the already painfully slow combats to be even worse.

I agree, but that's a bandage possible because the difficulty is completely broken.

Playing with 5-6 characters is far more enjoyable because it totally solve the speed issue, leading to faster combats with more playing and less watching. You should try.

Of course combats in their actual design are easier...
But combats are easy without any companions^^

Last edited by Maximuuus; 25/01/21 05:27 PM.

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When I played with a full party, it meant that I had to actually sit and stare at the screen for longer since turns were all mixed in. The thought of playing with more than the current party size sounds like a nightmare to me. :P Soloing at least made it possible to do other things not game related while the enemies took their sweet time to do a lot of nothing. I will be happy if they can speed this up. At least in proper DnD there is other stuff going on while people are deciding what to do in a turn, and it is not boring.

Maybe this tedium is a common thing with turn based games? This is the first one I have played, normally I play real time games and occasionally RTwP, so perhaps it seems slow for me since I am used to having to make quick decisions in combat.

I agree there is a lot that is broken, namely stealth play. I will still solo at least one playthrough just because I like different challenges but would prefer to play in a normal party if they speed up the combat.

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Originally Posted by Rack
5) I'm not a fan of the way enemies are constantly shooting unconscious party members. Tactically it's not sound at all it just costs me resources. As a special case for a particular kind of dumb sadistic enemy it's fine but every enemy acting that way feels really strange.
Tactically, it makes complete sense to properly eliminate enemy combatants.

When all it takes is one heal spell to bring them back into combat, then they're not eliminated until they're dead.

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Originally Posted by Ayvah
Originally Posted by Rack
5) I'm not a fan of the way enemies are constantly shooting unconscious party members. Tactically it's not sound at all it just costs me resources. As a special case for a particular kind of dumb sadistic enemy it's fine but every enemy acting that way feels really strange.
Tactically, it makes complete sense to properly eliminate enemy combatants.

When all it takes is one heal spell to bring them back into combat, then they're not eliminated until they're dead.
With all of the resurrection scrolls, there's really very little difference.

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If they keep killing them you'll run out of resurrection scrolls eventually. :P

Aso I think it might be worthwhile making it more difficult to resurrect during combat.

And as I've mentioned elsewhere, for narrative reasons, I don't think that PCs should be literally "dead". They should be KO'd in some way.


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