Baldur's Gate 3 - Interview @Wccftech

Wccftech recently interviewed Matt Holland, Combat Designer, and Adam Smith, Senior Writer for Baldur's Gate 3.

I'm just going to come right out swinging. As you guys probably already know, while most folks have enjoyed the reveal [of Baldur's Gate 3], there's been a rather vocal portion of Baldur's Gate fans who didn't feel like this looked like a true sequel. What can you say to assuage their fears that this is actually a Divinity: Original Sin game in disguise?

Matt Holland: Well, there's a few things to that. At Larian, for a very long time, we've been trying to emulate a pen and paper experience and bring it to video games. I think it's just that. If people think it looks like Divinity, it's because we're trying to make that tabletop experience that D&D, well, is.

Adam Smith: It's a continuation of what we have been doing which is to move toward a tabletop experience in a cRPG. For the people who think that it doesn't quite look like they wanted it to look or doesn't quite feel like they hoped it would, then honestly, I would just say to see more of it. I think they'll be convinced pretty quickly. The deeper we go into it, the more and more they'll feel the D&D [influence] and how it's truly the heart of it. The more they see the systems and rule set, they'll start to see we are really using that ruleset. Some of the stuff that they recognize stayed in there because it makes sense in the world. The surfaces and the environmental interactions, we've built on them but it didn't make sense to drop them just because [Baldur's Gate 3] looked like Divinity because Divinity is really good as well. It's a continuation of that but it's D&D to its core lore wise and systems wise.

[…]

During the original Divinity: Original Sin crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, the very last stretch goal mentioned a day and night cycle, NPC schedules and weather systems. All of these could have impacted NPCs, monsters and magic. Do you still discuss the possibility of making a truly simulated game world at some point in the future?

Adam: I do in my own head constantly. I think it's a very different game. One of my favorite games of all time is Ultima Seven and it was the first game that I played that had proper NPC behaviors. You could wait for someone to go to the pub and then you could rob their shop. I love stuff like that, but a game that's built like that does very different things. We are very, very story focused as well and there's things that you lose. Also: multiplayer. We're a multiplayer game and day-night cycles in multiplayer becomes incredibly complicated. We're doing so many really complex things already that we know are going to be really good that, on top of that, it wouldn't fit this game.

I love simulated worlds and we have a lot of that stuff in there. We don't do the day-night cycle but we do the things where things in the world happen because you caused them to happen and they can happen off-screen. So, there are things happening off-screen. The world isn't just what you see on your screen. There are events that happen and things that will, because of the choices you've made, things will happen elsewhere. Those are real, those are systemic. Our systems are running in the background the whole time. There are incredibly deep systems. Some of them don't make sense for this game, but yeah, we think about it and we've talked about it.

Thanks Farflame!

More information.

Ouch!
Nice picks, Silver!

"Also: multiplayer. We're a multiplayer game and day-night cycles in multiplayer becomes incredibly complicated."

THAT's easily solved. Just drop the MP.

I would love to see how many people actually played DOS1&2 in Co-op. Perhaps it's a lot more people than I assume since I don't go to far from this forum, but still…

Originally Posted by TomRon
"Also: multiplayer. We're a multiplayer game and day-night cycles in multiplayer becomes incredibly complicated."

THAT's easily solved. Just drop the MP.

I would love to see how many people actually played DOS1&2 in Co-op. Perhaps it's a lot more people than I assume since I don't go to far from this forum, but still…

It’s all anecdotal but i played it co-op and my son and several of his friends played hundreds of hours in co-op with many different builds.

My son says D&D, pathfinder, even startfinder pnp games are popular in his school. As well as TB Crpg’s.

Walgrave in previous interview: "It's 2020!"

Day/Night Schedules? Nope. Ultima VII had them in 1992. Even Baldur's Gate itself had a good sense of time passing with day and night. You were able to make fun stealthy plans at nighttime (BG2 museum quest comes to mind) and the ambience was great. Although I do remember a quest to hunt Bohdi that was scripted to only happen at nighttime!

Not including day night scheduling of some description but instead spending so much on cinematics in that quasi-Dragon Age style is a conflict which I think will be a bit polarising.

Full classic D&D parties? Nope. Baldur's Gate continued the Goldbox tradition of allowing six characters, giving the player fantastic choices and options. BG3 not allowing this significantly limits its scope on this front.

So whilst the game may fundamentally resemble a D&D experience under the hood mechanically which is well reinforced in the above answers, there arguably remains some short comings for me which undermine its connection to Baldur's Gate as a legitimate sequel. The challenges at Larian are certainly inmmense at this point.

2020 indeed!

Seriously, at this point, I don't even see them trying. Sure, they're doing "a" D&D game, but they're approaching this from such a different angle. There is no Baldur's Gate DNA in this and I resent them for not openly admitting that.
I really think this would go on to become a very good game, but nicking the Baldur's Gate name just seems like a very cheap, inconsiderate marketing ploy that will cause a lot of bad blood.

Originally Posted by TomRon
I would love to see how many people actually played DOS1&2 in Co-op. Perhaps it's a lot more people than I assume since I don't go to far from this forum, but still…

at this point if I had to bet, I would say that a huge percentage of people do it, probably closer to 50% than to 20

Not having day/night cycles is indeed disappointing.
I also don't understand why this would be "incredibly complicated" for multiplayer.

I would personally appreciate stronger focus on SP in simulated world. But what I read between the lines, that would be too much work and marketing surveys suggest MP implementation as n.1 priority anyway.

Maybe in future, when socialist regulators rule the world even tightly then today and internet is restricted up to its neck, some future lord Brittish will create the (SP) worlds again.

So, when asked about the Baldur's Gate aspect, they go on about how it's D&D, which doesn't answer anything. I haven't seen any doubts about whether or not it's going to be a proper D&D experience, but the game should have been called Dungeons & Dragons: Divinity or something like that.

I get that calling it Baldur's Gate 3 is potentially great for marketing, but it could also backfire, as there's already been a fair amount of criticism due to the fact that it's such an obvious marketing ploy. It's not even subtle.

Originally Posted by sakichop
It’s all anecdotal but i played it co-op and my son and several of his friends played hundreds of hours in co-op with many different builds.

I also played it in co-op with my GF and have seen lots of streamers do the same.
Also played BG1 & 2 with my GF and some friends in co-op.

Not all games that have co-op are great to do with co-op, but D:OS2 sure was. And I'd hope this one will be as well.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Not having day/night cycles is indeed disappointing.
I also don't understand why this would be "incredibly complicated" for multiplayer.

Maybe he was thinking from the perspective of players going to sleep. E.g. in something like Minecraft, everyone has to go to bed at the same time or nothing will happen.

Then again, in this game, the party will have a leader and if that leader says "sleep!" then everyone will go to sleep. It's not like people will be able to split up wildly.

Originally Posted by CRD
at this point if I had to bet, I would say that a huge percentage of people do it, probably closer to 50% than to 20

Really? In that case they would be mad not to have it as a heavy cornerstone, I would have guessed MUCH lower numbers. Would be interesting to find out what the truth is. I played a couple of hours of Co-op in DOS just to try it out, but generally prefer my games not to include other people…

Pfff and I hoped for once they could pull themselves together and make day/night cycles, especially for such a game as BG! It could add so much for ambience and as in old games, you could play around it by making some quests happen only at certain times. But no again

I also have played D:OS2 with friends and my wife in co-op. Its a great experience! If the BG3 co-op is similar or better than D:OS2 then its already going to have successful Multiplayer gameplay! Can't wait!

It is going to be instructive to see what it is left from the original.

Taking out day/night cycle could remove a lot from the sense of adventuring provided by the original products.

A remarkable point is as so often the mental contorsions.

BG3 had to be UgoIgo because DnD is UgoIgo. DnD is the authority. BG is not.

BG had day/night cycle, DnD has day/night cycle, both are MU, suddenly, nothing of this works as an authority. The authority is now complicated in MU.

The way it works. The cause is known.

Originally Posted by TomRon
"Also: multiplayer. We're a multiplayer game and day-night cycles in multiplayer becomes incredibly complicated."

THAT's easily solved. Just drop the MP.

I would love to see how many people actually played DOS1&2 in Co-op. Perhaps it's a lot more people than I assume since I don't go to far from this forum, but still…

Not so easy. As stated many times already, one property of UgoIgo is that it leaves much time, down time to be filled in. Which usually is used in board gaming, tabletop gaming etc to socialize with game partners. Which also explains how it is better seen by streamers as it allows them to interact with their viewership without training.

And D OS2 is streamed quite often as a MU experience. What used to be called gaming is now a cultural asset and people prefer to chill out. Excellent product to do so as shown by streamers.Not demanding, takes a lot of time to resolve etc so people can talk to each other. It is tea time, sit down around a table, order cups of tea and cakes and chat.

Originally Posted by ds77
If the BG3 co-op is similar or better than D:OS2 then its already going to have successful Multiplayer gameplay! Can't wait!

Yep, I think Larian really developed MP gaming with the DOS games adding value.
However I prefer playing SP. So for me having MP negatively impocting SP is negative net value.

I couldn't care less about day/night cycles. They're often awful, anyway, and tend to be a huge waste of time. Unfortunately, I also couldn't care less about MP…

Originally Posted by ChienAboyeur
It is going to be instructive to see what it is left from the original.

Taking out day/night cycle could remove a lot from the sense of adventuring provided by the original products.

A remarkable point is as so often the mental contorsions.

BG3 had to be UgoIgo because DnD is UgoIgo. DnD is the authority. BG is not.

BG had day/night cycle, DnD has day/night cycle, both are MU, suddenly, nothing of this works as an authority. The authority is now complicated in MU.

The way it works. The cause is known.




Not so easy. As stated many times already, one property of UgoIgo is that it leaves much time, down time to be filled in. Which usually is used in board gaming, tabletop gaming etc to socialize with game partners. Which also explains how it is better seen by streamers as it allows them to interact with their viewership without training.

And D OS2 is streamed quite often as a MU experience. What used to be called gaming is now a cultural asset and people prefer to chill out. Excellent product to do so as shown by streamers.Not demanding, takes a lot of time to resolve etc so people can talk to each other. It is tea time, sit down around a table, order cups of tea and cakes and chat.

Yeah, that's one reason I'm not interested in playing with others in this game. IF I do play multiplayer I prefer action/sports/MMORPG's where I don't have to wait around for others. It's a completely different thing in PnP, like you say that's a social gathering where it still doesn't feel "slow" because you fill the time with social interactions AND you watch the other players actually roll the dice.

During university we tried to play Baldurs gate 2 with a group of 3 friends. We all loved BG2 and were all very enthusiastic when starting out. After only 1 hour of play it went south quickly. Some people want to do a minmax playthrough, others did more roleplaying. We had to wait ages for someone to finish dialogue, or some people going too quickly through the dialogue, etc. Even if we all got along pretty fine in real-life, it just did not work when playing BG2.

I think you need:
- to be in a certain relaxing, non-caring that you don't make progress mood (beers help)
- have the right set of friends that play games the way you do
- be patient

Originally Posted by TomRon
I would love to see how many people actually played DOS1&2 in Co-op. Perhaps it's a lot more people than I assume since I don't go to far from this forum, but still…

Played it in coop with my daughter - and loved the ability to do that. I can understand people not wanting/caring about coop but I think it is more popular than some of us old-timers might think. I see my daughter gravitate to coop games with her friends a lot.