Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Theme park map (where’s mine venturing forth?)

I somewhat share the sentiment, but realistically speaking this is one of these areas where "what's done it's done" and is completely out of the question to ask for changes/redesign now.

That said, I may be wrong but I expect act 2 to consist of more than one map.
Probably a central hub (the city of BG and surrounding areas) plus a bunch of extra zones loaded separately for various questlines.

How very charitable and optimistic of you, Tuco....

It wasn't meant to sound particularly optimistic. What makes you feel so?

Oh, sorry, just my jaded cynicism showing... I do not expect Act II to consist of more than one map, any more than Act I does, not at this stage...

Technically, act 1 will most likely have more than one map too

That is why I suggested a more feasible measure: try to hide the fact that the map is designed like a theme park, by denying the player a bird's eye view that is too wide.
Besides that, it is not very realistic for our adventuring posse to be able to use something akin to Google Maps. The in-game navigational tool would more likely be a blank piece of paper on which the environment is roughly sketched during exploration.
And wouldn't it be beneficial to replace some of the hand holding with a need to use one's navigational skills?

Nevertheless, there is a change that the playground designs for the next chapters aren't set in stone yet.

Is it really that hard to make some transition zones? It requires time and dev force, but it’s not something I would call impossible.

I honestly prefer the Larian maps over the way Bioware or obsidian did it with the endless loading.

Actualy it is ...
For one all curent work would be wasted. :-/
And for two, those zones that are in Baldur's Gate 3 are too small to split them ...

Can you imagine Blighted Village being its own zone? :-/
You run across is in less than 2 minutes, and no matter where you move from it ... loading is awaiting you. :-/
That is not how i imagine good design to be honest.

Yeah, it's probably too late for Chapter 1 at this point.

Not me. I'll gladly wait seven seconds for an immersive environment that is part of a large, rich world.

Really ? Is that what you imagine when someone is saying that more "smaller" maps would be better ? I can understand that this looks like a bad idea to you...

With more maps everything could be bigger. Like i.e the forest that could be a forest rather than 10 trees... They would have a lot more freedom to design consistent and coherent area.

The map could also have been divided in three or four specific area to improve the story consistency like crash site+church+grove / forest+blighted+swamp / goblins camp / nothern road (don't remember the name). Something "like" that, with side quests not related to the main story and so on.

No one ever suggested the blighted village as it is now to be an area surrounded by loadings.

But anyway... I'm really sad about it because the world feel totally unreal and inconsistent. It's one more thing that breaks the story/the world/the immersion to add more gamey gameplay.

But Tuco's probably right : what's done is done and Larian isn't known for being good at creating consistent world. "Theme park" is the word.

We are lucky Tavs. We connected the nerves just on time. The nautiloid could have crashed on the druid grove (or perhaps the temple, or the crèche maybe).

I understand the size argument but I don't understand how you would implement those multi maps (specifically the surface / external environment) and still preserve a high artistic value.
What would you see at the border of those maps ? on the horizon ?
a "low cost" blurry environment ? a "costly" graphically rich area that you can't explore ?
I wouldn't like to jump from pocket zone to pocket zone.

In this amusement park, I am more concerned by the perpetual russian hill topography. Not a fun ride imho.

I think the environment geometry should extend just beyond the traversable area. When you get to the edge of a map, have a popup that asks if you want to leave the area and continue your journey, then transition to the world map to select your next destination.

Well absolutely. Of course it should be extended hence the arguments.

That is something i dont quite believe ...
You know, even curent map "could be bigger", there is litteraly nothing technicaly stoping Larian to split the map in two and simply adding another landscape ... it would take time, it would require some resources ... but its entirely possible.

But they decided to create *THIS* map, and they probably decided that for a reason (i dont pretend to know that reason, i simply presume some was there) ...
Therefore if they would splis this map to smaller parts, they would split *THIS* map, they curently have.
That seem as only logical expectation, hardly they would throw away everything they did til today, and start over.

Same story as abowe ...

If you want smaller hubs with loading ... say smaller hub with loading.
If you want expand curent location ... say expand curent location.

You cant expect me to presume you want to expand curent location, when you say you want smaller hubs.

Not sure I get your idea. I can absolutely see the blighted village as a standalone location given it will receive an extension of some kind.

I'm not a fan of the map design either, mostly because it makes 'travel' nonexistant. I really liked how this was solved in Pathfinder: Kingmaker, with distinct locations and travel in between. The need to assign watches, cooks, hunters etc. felt very neat, and made the game so much more enjoyable for me.

In the end, BG3 is a story of survival, as Larian has pointed out many times, but so far it feels like living in the wilderness isn't as dangerous as it should be at all.

And as people already pointed out, the threat to the druid grove feels almost nonexistant with the goblins so close nearby, or the paladins having a nice view on Karlach.

Yeah, Kingmaker's map was the best.

Solasta’s travel map is also good. Best camp management I’ve seen was in Expeditions: Viking though. Camping skills there are more pronounced and worth to invest in.