Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General How big is the playable area?

As of right now, how big is the playable area in the game, currently? I had heard months ago that the only area was the starting forest map...

is it possible to go to the city and other locations, yet?

If not, any idea when the full game might be ready?

Fairly big but only act 1 so the forest area with a few towns and a portion of the underdark.

No cities in the game as of yet.

Unknown, only speculation on completion date.

I think they've said its twice the size of the beginner island in DOS2....unfortunately it is crammed packed with enemies, events, burned down villages, and goblins so it doesn't feel that big. There are no open areas to explore, just one encounter to the next

It's clearly more than twice the size of the island area in DOS2. I mean, you have to add the underdark map as well, the hidden cache of the thief guild, and the interiors like the temple, which is much bigger than the main priests house in the first area of DOS2.

Larian has stated the act 2 is the biggest one, so even bigger than what we've been playing so far.

As for the release day, my guess is 2022. Cause they haven't even finished to code the final act with its assets and cutscenes.

This is a huge game guys.

I think Larian missed a real opportunity to create the illusion of scope by not utilizing the overland map more. Right now everything is so crammed together it really forces you to suspend your disbelief.

If they used the overland map (like previous BG games and other cRPG) then they could have expanded the game more. It could have allowed more uses of history, nature and survival skills for instance by awarding successful rolls with small rewards or additional lore information. At the very least, it would have made the world feel bigger.

There is an overland map. If you reach the rocks to go to the next area, behind the goblins camp, it is shown to you. We haven't seen it yet fully because they don't want to spoil everything. But I am pretty sure it will available in the final release.

I know there’s an overland map. I meant some sections we have now should have been independent areas or points of interest. It really breaks immersion when the goblins can’t find the grove when it literally takes a couple of minutes to travel from their camp to the grove.

Yes I know it’s meant to be a long distance but that’s what I meant by illusion of scope. Cramming everything in one spot breaks it.

I definately think splitting some of the areas in EA into individual regions would have been nice. Everything is so cramped, and the proximity of the grove to the goblin camp in particular is such that it feels narratively very strange that the goblins would have to send out scouts and torture prisoners to find its location-it's practically on their doorstep!

I like the underdark map because I feel really immersed in the environment, but on the other hand there's the swamp, an entire distinct biome squished into a tiny corner of the map. Some of these areas could really have been their own maps. Plus, because of how cramped everything is with content, there really isn't room for places to have random encounters,

i think the issue with big open world vs cram packed is that in previous games people complained about the low walking speed.
In reality most top down CRPGs dont have huge maps, they have many small ones.
The thing is that with BG3 having them all stitched together instead of strung together by loadscreens, it all feels much smaller

walking through long stretches of empty wildenress is cool in a third person game, but it doesnt work in a top down crpg

You wouldn’t need all the empty space if you utilized the overland map more. Like Pathfinder: Kingmaker or Solasta, you have points of interest and you travel in a line. There may be encounters or discoveries along the way but the travel is abstract but still makes the world seem bigger.

while it makes the worldlook bigger, it also makes individual areas less impressive and nobody likes loadscreens

This is how Larian makes maps. I know it might not be for everyone's taste but personally I like it a lot. I prefer packed content than having to run everywhere with my group for 5 minutes before finding something interesting like in old baldur's gates.

I like the sense of scale in big RPGs like The Witcher or Horizon Zero Dawn for example. But for tactical turn based RPGs, the more action there is the better in my opinion.

Which Thief Guild? do you mean the Zhentarim?

I also like how Larian makes maps. So many games now are open world with large areas that either don't contain anything or are stuffed with boring filler content that wastes my time. Larian's maps are a nice change from that!