Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General New interview with Sven by Gamespot

Whilst your post is very realistic there are some things I want to point out:
1. There are far more D&D players than DOS players. If they had to "choose" a direction to go, at least to me it would make more sense to appeal to D&D fans. D&D nowadays is definitely not niche.
2. Our complaints regarding Solasta is more about catching Larian downright lying about feature implementation than being purists. They were and still are highly dismissive about 5e implementation, however they first stated that "some of tabletop does not translate well into video games" and then that they "initially tried a more faithful implementation but it was NOT FUN".

Well, I think Solasta is very fun, and it shows 5e translates well into video games. Even low score reviews of Solasta praise its mechanics, which is the most criticized part of BG3.

That's a bit of a straw man, isn't it? From what I've seen, majority of the complaints are about it being a DOS game with some ham-fisted DnD elements. There is no 5E base there, just a minimum effort to adapt it to an incompatible system that already existed in the previous games. I would see no issue with the additional Larianism, if they were properly power scaled to the 5E ruleset, and didn't break the fantastical reality.

I'm not really a fan of D&D, I've played it a bit and I enjoy it well enough, but it's far from my favorite game system by any means. I've also blayed Divinity: Original Sin 1 and 2, I enjoyed the combat in both a lot (though for some reason I really could not get into 2). I have no issue with them changing the combat for BG3, my problem is that I don't think they've done a good job of it so far. The two systems work very differently and have different goals from the outset. Is it possible to merge D&D and Divinity? Probably, anything's possible. But they haven't managed that yet. Instead what we have is something that really feels as though it's fighting against itself. The stuff that's been added goes against what makes D&D fun, and the stuff they've left in drags down what makes Divinity fun. They need to commit more strongly in either direction, and since this is a D&D inspired game, committing more to D&D is the logical choice, but what matters is that the mix they've got now feels off.

It's hilarious when people try to use this direct competition/comparison between BG3 and Solasta as proof that what the latter is doing is unpopular.
I'm not sure if the ENTIRE BUDGET of Solasta matches the cost of the cinematic intro for BG3.
They are not even in the same ballpark when it comes to investments involved. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that the overall budget for BG3 ranges probably between 30X to 50X the one for Solasta (60-100 millions in total, maybe even more, vs 3-4 at most).

So Solasta doing as well as it's doing and gaining so much recognition compared to its low budget is a testament that it's doing something right, not something that should be held as an argument to prove it's trash.

I forgot the forum for a few days and a this interview emerged. I should be abscent more often, maybe we get more updates then.

I'm cautiously optimistic. I would like to see, that they changed some things, as the community wanted, especially concerning combat and the chaining system. And a bit less flash and bang stuff and more focus on the abilities of the the different classes.

And no, I don't want US to become a companion after leaving the ship. I think that wouldn't really make sense, so hopefully, the people speculating about this are wrong.

I'm really glad they finally talked to us, even if it's an interview!

Before I think that game would be released in early 2022, but after Swen's words, I don't think so anymore. He also mentions for the second time that the experience on the release will be completely different, which makes me very happy. About patch "based on player feedback" need to understand that the reviews are different and quite contradictory. Because BG3 community is divided into video game players and DnD players, I think this greatly complicates work for Larian. It's hard to please everyone.

You may not believe me, but there are really a lot of players who think that DnD system is bad/boring for video games, which is why Swen says that "you can't add everything from DnD". Because some of the players actually agree with him.

The question is what kind of reviews they are talking about.

I'm not too worried about the gameplay part, I'm sure they will try to make it as easy as possible for those who have never played DnD, but it is also possible to try to add more "DnD balance".

And if we are talking about sOlAsTa again, many ppl also consider it gameplay boring. It may be more "balanced", but many people still do not like it, even if it follows DnD, I think that's what Swen means.

For me, the story, the quest, and the characters are more important. And I like the way Larian writes, so I'm not worried.

I tried watching the interview a coupe of times but I was multitasking and wasn't paying attention. But I then realized that there wasn't much point of watching it because he was only saying "Wait until the next update. I also can't tell you when the next update will be."

Yeah, that's pretty much the gist of it.
As an added bonus there was a bit of "We are listening to some people, but I won'tell you who they are".

Also, the next patch will be focused on systems rather than adding content. Still not clear what it means exactly, since "not focused on content" could range from an optimistic "just one class and/or race rather than all the missing ones!" to a "When we said NOT FOCUSED ON we meant you get FUCKING NOTHING".

"purist"

I'm pretty sure there's a lot of people who think the current combat design is fundamentally broken, and their reasoning has nothing to do with adhering to tabletop DnD or 5E. Or is wanting Larian to dial back a massive accuracy bonus or penalty based on a difference of a few pixels worth of positioning a '5E purist' concern? Or the exploitable time bubble stuff where you can send in one party member to initiate combat and then sit on their turn as the rest of the party freely sneaks into the fight as long as they don't wander into enemy sight cones?

If there really is a '5E purist' concern, it'd revolve around the lack of controllable reactions and ready actions, which make up a huge chunk of combat that they claim this game is an adaptation of. And quite frankly, I don't understand why people are hoping this game ends up serving as a template for future DnD games in its current state, when we're missing such fundamental features.

It is hard to believe you on this, simply because there is no evidence. There are like two people here on this forum that constantly say "dnd sucks", you being one of them.
Again, there are more people that like D&D than there are DOS players, and D&D players like video games too.

Fun fact, I never said that! All I said was that I didn't know about DnD too much, that's all.
About "others", try to go beyond this forum. And think about why Larian changed dice. Even in steam community, you could meet a lot of "haters" dice system. But this is the tip of the iceberg. Believe me, many who bought this game, do not even go to this forum. That's why you don't understand why Larian do this and what they are talking about DnD system. Not all players who love RPG games have played DnD. Is that so hard to believe??? Am I saying some unimaginable things?

Sven says that because it's literally impossible to add everything from DnD with the engine they are using. You can't have real flying, proper wish, suggestion, etc. DnD 5e is based on imagination not limited game engine. DnD system is neither bad or boring, it's a very good system for a turn-based game for combat, that is just very hard to implement properly. And everything Larian plan to add actually makes sense for a DnD adaption considering that DM being creative and using rulebook not as a holy scripture but as a foundation to build an adventure on is an integral part of any good DnD campaign.

Well, people think it's just an "excuse" and "the same crutch", that's why I wrote it. You should have written it to them, not to me.

So then we won't be getting a sexy drawing of Us from you. Hopes dashed.



Look at Mr. Fancypants with his expensive store-bought ketchup. :P

I have to break a lance for D&D- it's great system, that allows you to do a lot of stuff. I play D&D (different editions) for over 20 years now and it never gets boring. I don't believe, that it is that hard to get right in a video game (and no, I haven't played Solasta yet, tehre are some lovecraftian games, that need my attention atm).

Another Fun Fact: You dont need to say something to being rosted for it around here.
I bet i know who was the second one.

The only fact is that there are at least two camps of people ... except those who simply dont care, but i dont count them for obvious reasons.
- One would like to have pure DnD experience in video game ...
And its understandable that they are hungry for such thing, since it was (as far as i know) never, or at least almost never delivered. Therefore they kinda idealized BG-3 hoping that would be their holy grail ... bcs it was advertised as "based on DnD, with cooperation of Wizzard of the coast" ... yet, its just another videogame, and they are dissapointed ... wich is understandable, yet kinda irellevant, since the game was never suppose to be pure DnD ... they simply wished it, nothing more.
- Second one is either unexperienced, or not fan of DnD ...
Yet they like to play RPG videogames ... they (or should i say we) do not need pure DnD rules, since either we dont know them, or we dont understand them ... or in my case, both ... all we need is fun videogame with lots and lots of options ... that are all working by stated rules ... and the fact that those rules are different from another source of rules in the same world? Irellevant.

And since you cant make everyone happy ... you simply have to choose.
I believe its obvious wich camp Larian is aiming at.

Thanks Nira, your much more eloquent analysis pretty much sums up my own thoughts.

Unfortunately I think Sven is just a bit too fond of his own ideas and incapable of taking onboard criticism of what he is convinced is 'cool'.

Here's a good mod with some content. All good. All good.
https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate2ee/mods/3

I'm hoping the surprise will be just how much has changed at its core so that once we are on the beach, BG3 feels like an entirely different game from before.
I do want the option to keep Us around as a non origin companion, especially since him being made "permanent" would be great for the possibility of other non origin companions, but I also hope he isn't the surprise.

This is of course a straw man version of the argument and one that nobody actually makes.

Rather, those of us who want to see closer adherence to 5e argue that it is a better system than the mess they have in BG3 right now. Nobody is calling 5e a holy grail. Lol.