Hi everyone. I'm a DM for 8 years and an RPG gamer for even longer, so I'm super excited about Baldur's Gate III. The Early Access has done well in many aspects, but I also see things that has room for improvement, so here's a long list of feedback. Currently my playtime is around 30 hrs (not in one playthrough) and I expect playing much more, so I'll probably throw in more feedback from time to time.

Spoilers alert (of course).

1. Surfaces shouldn't be that easy to create.

Combining the elements is a core aspect of Divinity but not D&D. Spells that can interact with other spells or objects have rules written in their descriptions. There can be exceptions when it really makes sense, but cantrips creating surfaces out of nowhere is absurd and have many unintended interactions. And surfaces are less fun without the divinity skills anyway. This has been talked a lot so I won't go into detail.



2. Too many containers with too little loot. And too much trash loot.

Clicking around all those containers are terribly boring. They are difficult to click on. And too many of them don't contain loot.

There are many ways to work around this. For example you can make lootless containers uninteractive or highlight them in a darker color. Or simply don't make that many containers. Or instead make the option to use a skill check (investigate probably) to simply gather all the loot in an area, that players can take 20. Or maybe no skillcheck, just have an options to gather all the objects in an area.

In D&D we don't have to say "I loot the 1st goblin, and then the 2nd goblin, and then the 3rd goblin... and then the 16th goblin, and the 1st crate behind them...". I really hope we don't need to do that in Baldur's gate either. Or at least give us an option.



3. Barrels are so many they are hilarious.

Like, why are there a dozen barrels full of water in a house that's on fire? And no one's using them? Come on we are playing RPG. It can have riddles but they need to make sense in the game world. And my enemies store barrels of oil just waiting for Gale to blow them up. In a fantasy world with fire-shooting spellcasters it's almost like sitting beside a box of TNT.



4. You have good cutscene tech. Use it more often instead of characters running around.

For example, the fire scene. It could have been done so much better, so much more atmospheric if we just put it in a cutscene.

Currently it's like this:

Cutscene. See a building on fire and NPCs trying to get in. Skill check. Cutscene ends. Player goes in, finds some loot and some water barrels (which IMO is stupid, see point 3). Get fucked if opens wrong door. Characters are moving slowly and can loot everything they like which ruins the atmosphere. See door, smash, smash again, door opens, see an NPC, cutscene, NPC gets out, cutscene ends. See another door, smash, smash again, door opens, see another NPC, cutscene, skillcheck, cutscene ends, enter turn-based mode to get the NPC out (very buggy), and if you forget to inter turn-based mode you are also fucked.

It should be like this:

IN A CUTSCENE: See a building on fire and NPCs trying to get in. Skill check. Rush in, dialogue option: some skill checks for more information, loot some valueables or head to 2nd floor where people are calling for help. Can only take several actions in dialogue, if waste too many actions building will go down and NPCs will die. Rushes to 2nd floor if chooses so, a series of skillcheck to notice the possible explotion, to break down doors in time and rescue NPCs. Dialogue options to decide how NPC gets out.

ALL IN A CUTSCENE.

If people like that turn-based mode it can be kept at the end to escape the fire, but the spirit of it is: Cutscenes tell much better stories. In cutscenes there are many actions included in a short period of time. Out of cutscenes there are a handful of actions which half of them are no-brainers, and they are included in a long period of fun. LESS EXCITING.

The cutscene tech is wonderful with motion capture and awesome voice acting. So use them more often.



5. Better camera and movement control out of combat.

The camera can't be pulled up over a certain angle which is stupid. I don't want to do all the exploration in tactical camera, but out of tactical I'm still looking at the damn ground and can't see what's ahead of me. Also WASD for movement control outside combat.

The world of Faerun is beautiful, allow us to see them in all angles instead of looking at the damn ground. PLEASE.



6. Having the option to camp is good, but it shouldn't be available everywhere.

I understand it's convenient. But slaying 2 goblin leaders, take a long rest, and then coming back out of nowhere to finish off the 3rd leader is awkward. It should only be able at outdoors, or at certain spots, or whatever. Long Rests are for characters to regain their strength when they are out of trouble. Therefore, it shouldn't be available when they are ass deep in trouble. Or it loses the charm.

If this increases combat difficulty too much, maybe increaes the number of short breaks.



7. Camping should move the world forward.

If I butchered the 3 goblin leaders, Camping should make the goblin crowd outside disperse. If Nettie forced my hand, the other druids should have discovered something when next time I return. I understand currently Camping has some consequenses, but I really hope that more things would be affected by this.



8. Waypoints should be fast travel points, not TELEPORT points.

Using waypoints inside the goblin stronghold after slaying the 3 leaders to bypass the goblin village is very awkward. We should only be able to use it in the wilderness, or have some other restrictions.



9. Not-in-party companions shouldn't have approval changes apart from the most important choices.

Like how it's executed in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Companions in camp having opinions on something I said to an irrelevant NPC is absurd (and bothering), it's not like they read every memory of mine with illithid powers when I'm asleep. It's probably more of an oversight than a feature, because, uh, what a stupid feature that would be.



10. More minor approvement floats for in-party companions.

I think it's important to have minor floats of approval, because this way we can learn what the NPC loves or hates more easily, and makes the character more consistent in the player's eyes.



11. Longer banter.

It's really good to have banter, and some of them are very well written, but some are too short! Some banters are like "-- How's the weather? -- Good." At least have some back and forth between banters to not let them end so abruptly! Cheeky remarks, ripostes, grunts, anything to make the banter less abrupt and more confortable.



12. More visible initiative (or at least an option).

I'd like a screen that every character has a dice, rolls, and gets re-arranged in initiatvie order. Initiative is important, I don't want to skip the rolling.



13. Don't turn off cutscenes due to NPCs becoming hostile.

Hostile NPCs can have badass cutscenes! Even if we lose all the diplomatic options, at least show how badass they are with a cutscene instead of letting them attack on sight! Or to solve this another way: don't make important NPCs hostile ("red") easily, instead make cutscenes but cancel some of the more peaceful options. Again, we have awesome cutscenes, USE THEM.



14. Don't make combat "spreading" to other places too easily.

I understand it's a decent design idea, but it's executed poorly. The most common result of combat spreading, apart from more difficult combats, is boring turns in which me and my opponents trying everything we can to approach one another.



15. If a jump is going to leave a character damaged and prone, show it.

It's difficult to estimate the height in tactical mode.



16. Dipping can be fun but should be limited.

Dipping metal weapons in fire is not something adventures should do commonly, it's bad for the metal. It shouldn't be a no-brainer action, it should be a special tactic in rare occations.



17. Magic that influences communications should be usable in-dialogue.

At least some of them should. Maybe some occations should need some check to cast spells at opponent's faces, but still. For example, "Detect Thought" definitely looks like a spell helpful in dialogues, but if the option never shows up I really don't know when to use it. It's terrible if I use it but recieve no extra infromations, so maybe the game should give more instructions on when's a good opportunity to use them. I understand in Pen and Paper it's usually not like this, but I think CRPG shows its limitations here and should make adjustments to adapt.



18. Make characters stop moving or enter turn-base mode if they spotted a trap.

No need to explain this one.



That's all I have to say for now. Thanks for reading. Any discussion is welcome!

Last edited by Sirius Wolf; 10/10/20 05:59 PM.