Baldur's Gate 3 - Adam Smith Interview @CGMagonline
 

Adam Smith, senior writer for Baldur's Gate 3, was interviewed by CGMagonline.

More information.

They have time for interviews but can't finish or update the game.:p

I like what they are saying. They just need to stop saying it and finish the damn game.

"Taking advantage of the latest technology while keeping the core of what made the series so memorable, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the follow-up fans have been begging for."

I'd be curious to hear if the Baldur's Gate fans agree with this ;)

Don't go there, I'm warning you don't go there.:devil:

OOO look at all that fire!! haha

but all in all kinda pff interview nothing new..

I can't tell if you folks are kidding, but a) most of the writing is probably done at this point in development, and b) nobody spends 24 hours a day doing their exact job and only their job.

As a Baldur's Gate fan I say: Better a good game, which is not very similar to BG than a bad game which desperately tries to follow BG or D&D lore, aesthetics and/or mechanics.

Edit: I don't want to imply that trying to be true to BG inevitably leads to a bad game. But it shouldn't be more important than making a good game according to today's standards.

With gamers it's heads they win tails you lose. When devs cave to pressure to release a game before its satisfactory by the devs the mob descends. When they take their time to "get it right" the mob descends.

As far as I can tell, Larian owes you nothing. If you choose to be an unpaid alpha/beta tester by purchasing a Steam "early access" that's your choice. The only thing a developer is beholden to deliver is a competent game commensurate with what they charge for it. I personally prefer devs to take more time and deliver a better initial game experience. Contemporary Exhibit A: Cyperpunk 2077.

I just want the game done before I buy….please finish.

100% agree

I'm not kidding their update schedule has been sparse and minimum all year long. All that amounted to was a few patches and the new druid class. Where's Act 2?

I'm a huge Baldur's Gate fan and this definitely is unappealing to me. As I said many times, what a turn-off, trying to cram a new "Baldur's Gate" game in an Original Sin engine. They might as well call it, Original Sin 3, D&D mod edition. (as said in numerous ways in a large number of negative reviews on steam)

I'm far from alone in this, of course, in my critical eye towards this game. The glacial pace of development and various other issues (bugs galore) have been noted by many players of the game as well. (Full price for a potential 3-4 year "early access game??" wow, Larian, just wow)

Larian can't always hit a home run, so I'm hoping this game was just a misfire (although a pretty colossal one)

Suggestions for both Bethesda and Larian in terms of their future games - junk the
Original Sin engine, and junk the ancient Morrowind whatever-they-call-it engine. I get it will cost heaps of money to do that, and to do brand new high tech cutting edge rpg engines from scratch, but it would be worth it, eventually. My 2 cents.

I am a huge Baldurs Gate fan and have 200 hours now into the EA of BG3 and so loving it. Can hardly wait till they finish. I am extremely happy with how they are managing it and feel it works fine so far … it is hard to know the "3" part in regards to plot but there have been a couple hints. Regardless I think its a great follow-up.

So as a diehard Baldurs Gate fan I can say I am very happy with how BG3 is going and find it super appealing. Looks fantastic and plays very well for an EA so far. I have finished the entire Beta twice now and started a third but waiting to see if they release more content.

I got plenty to do for the rest of this year, into the next, so prefer they polish the game so its released in good shape instead of rushing it.

I've only played 20ish hours so far of the early access. This is mostly due to stability and the game sometimes struggling to render during busy combat scenes then crashing. I'm well within specs so it shouldn't be a problem and there has been some improvement with patches I must say.

What I've played seems well thought out. Conversations seem natural and dialogue is not forced. Mechanically it is interesting but hard to really get into it when things start chugging. I have some, what some might term, minor quibbles here and there. For example I'm not convinced by the look of tieflings as they look too human like to me. I'm convinced the pacing of the game would be improved by speedier combat resolution so speeding up of combat animation should be a priority if they won't do real time with pause.

I of course want more classes to play with. Give me my paladin Larian! All together its not bad and quite polished for this stage and with plenty of development still to come.

But why drop that complaint into a thread about an interview with their head writer? I guarantee you he's not the one holding things up.

Hey Couchpotato,
I don't think they are going to release Act 2 prior to full release.

I really am looking forward to this game, but haven't bought it or played early access yet…. Would be too disappointed I think to not play it all the way through.

The game was supposed to have three acts. The first one was already released. Now in most EA games you get everything except the ending of the last act to test out.

So yes Act 2 will more then likely be released to play test along with Act 3. As the goal is to beta test the whole game before they release it. Just not the end game content.

It was the same with Original Sin 2.
Yes he's just a writer but he's still part of the development team. He's still employed and according to the updates still updating, and changing the game based on feedback.

I believe the Bethesda engine is called Gamebryo.

I don't have an issue with the looks of the different races so much as the voice acting attached to them. It's pretty bad in some parts. Not bad from a talent standpoint but rather how it's delivered. For example, goblins speaking the common tongue perfectly and with heavily exaggerated British accents. I found it quite immersion-breaking at times.

They started calling it the Creation Engine with Skyrim, but afaik, it's still largely based on the Gamebryo engine.

They're calling the engine being used for Starfield 'Creation 2.0' which leads me to believe it's just another modification of the same engine. I could be wrong though.

I didn't know they changed the engine's name starting from Skyeim. That's new to me. Thanks!

Yeah I agree with some of the accents being not quite what you would expect. Some of the delivery is a bit too hoity-toity and upper class from fantasy characters you would expect to be more down to earth. The player voices available are a bit limited also and not what I'm after for the character concepts I want to create.

I'm not sure how anyone could affirm they're slow at developing, since the EA only shows a small part of the game. It's a huge undertaking and Larian devs like to take longer than others to tune the game, which isn't a waste of time. I prefer a more balanced and polished result than an expedited release, there aren't many companies which can/would allow it, so for once we should appreciate it.

It's interesting to see the different opinions on the game. It confirms my conviction that Larian games requires some flexibility to accept them. People who really want the game to feel like classic isometric D&D games will reject it, others who can enjoy the game for what it is will probably love it (unless Larian makes a big blunder).

I don't know what their development pace is like, but I'm pretty sure the changes player can see are the tip of the iceberg, compared to all that needs to be done behind the scenes, including the remaining acts, classes, systems, etc.

Also, I'm happy with them using this engine they are using. They can tweak it and improve it as they go, but I see no need to overhaul it at this point in time or for whatever would be Larian's next game.

I also find hilarious that some people are calling BG3 a missfire when it hasn't even released, Though I can't blame them, only Larian is to blame for that by going with this lame EA route, and that is the one aspect I'm hoping they will learn from in future - don't leave your raw ribeye steak exposed before it's fully cooked for it to be enjoyed properly. The dogs will find it, and dogs can only do two things; bark and bite.

I don't get the "misfire" thing either (is the EA too long?), nor do I see any issue with the engine. I think it's more the association with D:OS/D:OS 2 that bothers people if they didn't like those games, rather than the actual 3D engine, so probably what they mean by that is the feeling of it, interactive environment, more or less similar graphics, infamous AoE and so on. I may be wrong.

Both correct and wrong. At one time it was the Gamebryo engine but that engine was discontinued. Bethesda heavily modified it to create their new creation engine.

Sure a small part of the code is the same but it's no longer the same engine.

Anyway yes I would like to see them create and use a new engine but it probably wont happen. As they rely on the mod scene to make their game better and sell more.

I've read about the latest creation engine 2 and it's even more upgraded and modified.

Well that's you I've always been a hater of Early Access. It started out as an option for small developers, and somehow became a tool for larger developers to exploit.

So yes I firmly believe Larian is large enough with multiple studios that development should be faster. They also should not have gone the Early Access route either.

As for development being slow it's been almost a year what have they shown or released yet? I already answered that the druid class, and a few patches that's all.

I know you, Nereida and many others are against the idea, frankly I don't think it's always correct either. I just don't mind in some cases where it's a good formula.

They did the EA for the feedback, they're all about stats so it made sense, but selling EA at full price is pretty much revolting. I don't hate myself for purchasing it because I wanted to see how it looked, and I was confident they would make a good game. But I won't do that often for others than selected indies (EA or better, Kickstarter).

That's what we just said, they only show a little part of what they've done, and their updates are not frequent. So it doesn't mean much. Anyway Swen said lately "maybe 2022, maybe 2023", so there's the ETA, no matter what was done in the past. Who knows, maybe they can already anticipate and switch to D&D 6E? :D

"was"? The game hasn't even been released yet. How can it already be a misfire?

What? :D
Why would they do that? I mean I could think of one or two jokes with Brits and Goblins, but apart from that this decision totally doesn't make sense.

I’m actually a fan of early access. It’s basically just a pre-order with the option of trying the game out early if I want. No one is paying to be a beta tester either ( unless they want to). It’s totally optional. As is the option to buy at release.

I am surprise by how long development is taking considering they already had the engine. It doesn’t bother me though I have plenty to keep me busy.

I meant for myself, its already a misfire. As I already said, just lots of aspects and from my point of view, bad and unappealing decisions made about the game from the get-go.

If it sounds like I have already written BG 3 off, in my mind, well, yea I have. Just my opinion.

I am not totally trashing Larian, just hoping for better stuff in future. (that appeals to me)

I still consider Larian a leading rpg developer, sorry if I'm coming off too harsh or blunt.

The game looks like it's going to be great -- when it's done. I agree that years of early access by a major developer is way too much.

Although I guess if the norm is to release buggy games and then patch them live it's at least more honest to just openly say that you're putting it on the market in an unfinished state.

Early access can be a good thing exactly for the reasons you give. I was in early access for Grim Dawn and there it was very good because they gradually added more areas so you could play on after every update without having to repeat earlier things. If it is done in this way, it is great.

However, if it is done in a different way, e.g. the story is already complete and you add only things like new character classes, then the risk is there that people get tired of trying every new version and burn out on the game.

I don't know, how they do it here, but since I have enough other games to play, I will wait a little bit.

Apparently it's ok to do that with other games but not anything from Larian. ;)

Good question. I wish I knew. The silly exaggerated accents might have worked in the D:OS games, but they seem really out of place here.

I'm pretty sure in the case of Bethesda, they're not going to give up the mod scene and authors that have guaranteed them billions of dollars in profits over the last 15 years. They will keep the basic framework from gamebryo that allows modding. Everything else has been scrapped long ago. I'm not sure what computer role-playing games people are playing that really have better graphics than a fully-modded Skyrim or Fallout 4. DOS2? Hah!

That makes more sense.

I personally try to stay kind of neutral until I finally play it. Of course I read a snippet about the game here at the watch but so far there hasn't been a show stopper. There seem to be some decisions that I don't like myself, but that won't make it a bad game. It just won't be a perfect game (for me), which is ok. Still looking forward to it.


Hm… you're hinting something. I don't get it.

Yep, that would fit the D:OS style… I had hoped that we wouldn't see this in BG3.
Is there a video with goblins speaking?

https://youtu.be/9DJ5dfCPBdE?t=183

I think I see what you mean.

To be fair, they had accent in LotR too: https://youtu.be/ufFOghMt1yI?t=88

They've got to have some, the idea of a "no accent" is only subjective to people with the same accent. Perhaps it could be lighter though.

I'm not sure what Orcs in LotR have to do with Goblins in the Forgotten Realms, but it's not like they set a very high bar in those films anyways.