Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Day and Night cycle: Long and short rests to add a notion of time

Day and Night cycle is a MUST HAVE in such a game and it does not have to be over complicated to add a lot of flavor to the experience.

The resting system already implemented in the game could work very well with a D/N cycle (2 short rests + 1 long rest).

1) At the beginning of the day it's the morning.
2) After you click on the short rest button for the first time it's noon.
3) After you click on the short rest button for the second time it's the evening.
4) After you click the long rest button you're at camp during the night to sleep. Then you start again at 1)

3 differents atmospheres and between them a short cinematic or something (in exemple time lapse morning to noon, noon to evening, evening to night, night to morning)

Ofc you can take your long rest even if you haven't click on the short rest button. The cinematic is just a bit longer (from morning or noon to midnight).


Why is it so important ?

A) This would add something that is really missing in BG3 : a notion of time.
It would increase a lot the feeling that the world is living.

B) But this feeling could also be improved with other features :
- Every NPCs does not have to be somewhere else if the cycle has changed, but some could do different things or be located at different places.
- Some ennemies could appear only during a specific cycle. In exemple the first time you cross the wood during the evening, there could be a combat against a few wolves. Some bandits could appear in the blighted village in the morning if you killed the goblins,...
It opens the game to many possibilities.
- Meteo effects could also be a thing with an easy transition (1 “random” effect / cycle)

C) It would also improve the short rest mechanic that is visually wierd at the moment.
D) It could also add variation in the gameplay mechanics (light / hide - easier to hide during the evening, to steal a sleeping character,...) and a lot more players agency.

There are enough potential to make the D/N cycle something really awesome.

That said, even the most basic D/N cycle (point A) would greatly improve the game just by adding a concept of time.

I'm not sure in Multiplayer but if players have to long/short rest at the same time, there's no issue.

Please please please Larian, create a D/N cycle in Baldur's Gate 3. Your games deserve it and Baldur's Gate 3 deserves the best.

why?
All time restraints do is punish people with bad rng.
All implementing it will do is prolong time in EA at level 4
Another drawback would be the restictive vision of characters without dark vision.
Think of it as a real time cycle and when you go to camp you just kick around there until it's night.

It really isn't a biggy and FAR from needed.

I REALLY like the OPs suggestion. There are lots of us who are grieving that there is NO semblance of day/night. The ambiance alone of night adventuring is a seriously missed element of BG3.

Oh how I remember the dark woods in BG2 when you encounter the shadow wolves and the werewolf when infiltrating the temple of Amaunator to save Mazzy and wipe out the evil presence there! It was so dark and spooky.

Oh, or the streets of Athkatla at night after you learn that someone has been murdering people and skinning them, or how vampires ambush you in the dark streets or thieves, jumping you out of nowhere.

I've imagined in BG3 roaming the dark ruined streets of Blighted Village at night, learning about the missing children and the murders. How I pictured exploring it when suddenly out pops ettercaps from one of the buildings, springing on you in the night. There is evidence they travel out of their lair, for they went as far as the bog to kill a parent and child. How spooky the whole ambiance would be.

Oh! And the tollhouse! You arrive. What is that in the ground. You light a torch. Severed arm. Pools of blood. A howl goes up in the night.

Aaaaargh! Larian! We flipping need Night Travel! I absolutely detest "sneaking" into the goblin camp in broad daylight. It's asinine! Especially for Drow MCs. They would detest walking around by day, and the ambiance for 90% of EA is ruined by broad daylight, not to mention time standing still.

If we can't get an actual day/night cycle in the game, then I think that having our short rests shift the visual aesthetic to simulate passage of time, from early morning, to midday, to dusk, would be a good consolation, that would soften the overly gamey feeling related to time progression, at least a bit.

100% agree.

+1

Restreints ? Where ?
EA at level 4 ? Go play something else.

Vision of characters could stay the same, it would not be more ridiculous than behing better hidden when you're under the shadow of a tree...

But it could also become better.
Some spells mostly useless could finally become really usefull, some items could give darkvision, torches, candles, interractive items could really become a part of the gameplay...

Light could really become a mechanic and even if it's not, the world would be more believable.

+1 to OP
To add a bit to the discussion (SINCE I AM KINDA FORCED TO WAIT ON STADIA GRRRMBL) , I haven't played patch 6 yet (Stadia ...) but from what I've read they actually made the whole light system 'dynamic' , I also saw a lot of posts where people complained about everything being too dark in patch 6.

I'm no dev but (since i am forced to contemplate the game rather than playing it, yeah stadia, did I tell you already?) wouldn't that mean that they can change the settings for each light-source per area - or even globally - to reflect changes from morning to dusk to night ? Wouldn't the perfect solution be to not look for the best middle ground between the allegedly too dark light of patch 6 and the pre-patch 6 too sunny atmosphere, but instead branch the light development into a sunny and a darker (dusk , night or whatever) light theme and use either long or short (2x short = 1 long) rest buttons to switch between the two light modes, perhaps even adding an automatic switch between dark/light after x-amount of time in-game (It exists in-game but isn't used for many things, right ? or is there no time mechanic implemented at all currently ? ). I think the NPC routine argument doesn't hold as everything is there already, it would simply mean placing the existing NPC's elsewhere and changing their models activity (e.g. instead of standing somewhere, the smith is sleeping on a bedroll near his forge). Routines would be nice but not even necessary (you could also 'wake up' a sleeping NPC , which wakes them up and just makes the NPC stand and switch to the already existing dialogue/cutscene with appropriate light theme).



Yeah sure, isn't that exactly the purpose of darkvision ? Namely providing a competitive advantage to characters/parties that have it compared to those that don't ? Simply adding a 'group darkvision/infrasion' button like in the old BG games would also solve this issue from a QoL player perspective (aka if you select group darkvision, you only need one character in the party to 'see things with darkvision' on the player map, but for attacks, saves, and other rolls, the characters still roll according to if they can see in the dark yes or no). So no, not convinced, actually the opposite, if there is no D/N in the game I see little point in devoting dev resources to darkvision specific mechanics, they could simply re-name it to 'subterranean-clearvision' or 'genetic-headlight-torch' as it only applies to inside spaces and has no real connection to these races affinity to the night or undark.

We really do need this, would make it so much more immersive

If bad rng bothers you that much then just reload
I would rather they prolong the EA and add more immersive features than rush it through without them
If you don't have darkvision then just play as you would now, in the daytime. It wouldn't be mandatory to be awake at night. Drow and the criminally inclined would normally be active at night, being forced to be awake in the day is stupid.

This, kinda takes away the whole point of being a drow or rogue (not to mention a vampire spawn) when you're either forced to roam when the sun shines or when the game trows unconvincing rule exceptions at you to explain why you do while you shouldn't even be able to ( yes, looking at you astarion ...

I thought of a flaw, though. If you HAVE to short rest to get to night, then you would not have anymore short rests left to go longer during night adventuring.

I just think they need a Time Progression button to transition from day to night, if they aren't going to do true realtime clock. I would want the ability to short rest during night adventuring.

That said, I'd settle for no short rests if they did just implement your idea. I want night travel just that much.

it is a mechanic that at this point is not even close to needed.
DnD suggests the adventuring day that a party should get just under 10 medium to hard encounters per day with around 2 short rests, and it seems this is what they've been building on.
Basically you like falavour, I prefer depth, and until that depth has been established flavour is just a kick in the head.

D&D does not suggest adventuring by day. It depends on your character. If I'm a drow, with sunlight sensitivity, I'm going to naturally travel by night to avoid disadvantage on all my rolls. If I'm going to sneak into the Blighted Village, since I've heard that goblins and monsters are everywhere, I would not waltz into that ruined town in broad daylight. I would sneak into it, assuming there are monsters lurking around every corner. Astarion would also be more comfortable traveling around by night. If I'm trying to sneak into the goblin camp to assassinate their leaders, I would not even remotely consider doing so in broad daylight. I would wait for nightfall and then sneak in.

So night adventuring makes sense depending on your character and the circumstances. It is very much needed not only for this reason but also for ambiance. That Blighted Village would be SO much more fun to explore at night both with goblins and maybe the occasional spider or ettercap. The forest would, likewise, be more fun if wolves suddenly sprang out at you from the bushes, or zombies (there was a necromancer in the area once upon a time after all).

The game is just too bright, and that's why I now have the other post about dungeons needing to be more like dungeons. Even in supposedly dark and dank crypts, there are beams of sunlight streaming down illuminating everything. It ruins the classic ambiance of the entire D&D genre. The whole fun aspect of D&D was creeping through dark, dank dungeons with only a torch or lantern to light your way with shadows everywhere and dark things jumping out at your party and attacking you. THAT is classic D&D. Either by night or in a dungeon, classic D&D is about evil things that go bump in the night coming to get you, but you are the brave adventurers who vanquish them.

I think most of us agree that a DN as proposed by OP would be a good , if not necessary to some, addition to the game. Would be nice if Larian could just explicitly share their decision in the matter so that people can stop wasting their time on writing lengthy essays for a feature that might have been put off the table even before the EA was released.... But hey, guess we'll just keep ourselves busy until 1.0 release...

+1

Man would Iove for them to just tell us what they are planning on regards to items like this. It would cut down on the endless debating and repeating.

Yeah any indication of how features are decided in relation to 'feedback' would be welcome and calm down most of the heated debates here and elsewhere. Would be good practice to address returning questions in an expanded faq that addresses the 'new' frequently asked questions or issues mentioned here and elsewhere directly. the mega threads could be an obvious start , I mean even if it takes one issue a month at least close those discussions and decide on where your vision of the game will go (or definitely not go) ...

I don't see it as a flaw at all.

The idea is to give a sense of time, to change the ambiances and eventually a bit the gameplay.
Not to play only at night if you wish.
Explore, talk with NPCs and so on... Even players using a short rest after every combat could have interresting game sessions at "night".

A real day/night cycle would be better but way more complicated. It would require a real time routine for many NPCs. It would also be very hard with lights that seems to be handcrafted most of the time.

With such a system they could handcraft 3 ambiances and rework what has to be reworked for each cycle... and CHOOSE what they rework (Lights definitely but in exemple NPCs positions may not be "necessary").

It's probably a lot of job, but I guess it's easier than reworking whole parts of the engine.

1M$ for a real D/N cycle in DoS1. I guess it should be possible to add an easy D/N cycle in BG3.

This so much! I mean I can't imagine why they don't speak out about this. It was their stretch goal for their own crowdfunded titles in the past, so it's def. something they have been thinking about as a solid improvement to their games. Now they developed a new engine, broke fucking steam with their EA sales, opened/acquired new studio's around the world, and went all the way AAA in terms of cinematics and fancy graphics, thus giving them all the financial and HR means to go for the damn D/N they themselves would have loved to have (and i guess a lot of the OG crowdfunders) in their previous title already !

They talked about it during the AMA pre-launch.

They said something like "we're thinking about it all day but it's really complicated, especially now that our engine is much more complicated than it was when we worked on DoS. On top of that it would require a routine for every NPCs and beds and so on".

Yeah beds is too hard, but dual wielding salami's and that damn cutlery and food everywhere isn't ? Also, seems a bit stupid to make your own engine and design it in such a way that it actually makes it less possible to do the things you want and knew in advance you would want the engine for. But I'm no programmer so there's probably good reasons for that I suppose ...