Baldur's Gate 3 Random News

So we still don't know when. But that was predictable, if they announced a date today, it would likely change.

Baldur's Gate III Patch 6 Previews

PC Gamer

If it wasn't already made clear by the whole 'worm inside your brain' plotline, Baldur's Gate 3 is intent on taking players to some seriously dark places, both literally and figuratively. Nere's duergar thugs are a thoroughly unpleasant bunch, cruel, coarse, and about as trustworthy as a bridge made of snakes. Indeed, Grymforge is seemingly designed to thwart the intentions of goody-two-shoes players. Kind words won't get you far here, while kind actions might be interpreted as weakness, and earn you nothing more than a knife in your back. On the flipside, Grymforge is ripe with opportunity to embrace your inner bastard, to make the lives of those poor gnome slaves even more miserable than they were before, or get in on the backstabbing yourself, joining at least one conspiracy among the duergar.

WCCFTech

The developers have also made big improvements to the visuals with Patch 6, completely revamping the lighting system with volumetric fog and lighting, allowing all particles to be lit by environment and Global Illumination, adding brand new effects like translucency, atmospheric scattering, and dynamic clouds, introducing an entirely new colour grading alongside much-improved HDR rendering and tonemapper, and support for NVIDIA DLSS 2.3 and AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution. Last but not least, the characters will now realistically look dirty, sweaty, bloodied, and bruised as they go through their perilous adventures.

Interview with Senior Game Designer Edouard Imbert - Gamebyte

I recently got the opportunity to sit down with one of the Senior Designers from Larian Studios at EGX 2021, Edouard Imbert. There, we had a delightful conversation about a surprise content drop the team is releasing for Early Access players. Beyond that, we also discussed how the team is making an RPG deep-rooted in Dungeons and Dragons mechanics accessible for a wider audience.

One year of BG 3: An adventure in Failure and Success - Gamesindustry.biz

When we talk to him this time around -- shortly after EGX, which marked Larian's return to physical events -- he's actually in Canada, on a tour to visit all Larian studios across the world. Vincke has been catching up with his teams, travelling for an entire month after a year and a half of staying put. And while the obstacles linked to the pandemic are still fresh in his mind, the greatest hurdle the team is facing is linked to the pressure it puts on itself, and nothing else.

"The biggest challenge is just getting everything done," Vincke says. "There's just so much, it's a very large project with a lot of ambitions with an insane amount of permutations, and making sure that everybody will have fun, regardless if you're a cleric of Shar or a Barbarian-Paladin-Druid multi-class.

"In terms of scope, you start with ambitions to do everything and then as the realities of production hit you, you say: 'Maybe not that, maybe not that'. That is the way it works, right? For us this project is certainly the most challenging one that we've done, just because of our sheer ambition of getting the polish level so high."

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
One year of BG 3: An adventure in Failure and Success - Gamesindustry.biz

Very interesting article, thanks!

A few things irked me.

"I think the most important thing I can say about that is also what I say to the team: it doesn't really matter how long it's going to be in early access, what's going to matter is what the result will be.

Objectively, that's completely irresponsible to say something like that. There is a budget, there is a fluctuating demand, normally you set your target and try to stick to it. But on top of that, they made an Early Access, which means they're not alone in this project, a lot of people have committed time and money.

"Making games is complicated and this is a complicated game, so there's little that we can do about accelerating it. We are scaling up, we're putting a lot of resources into it -- a lot more than we expected -- to give the game the development that it deserves, so we can't do much more than what we're doing. It just takes time."

If the game is 250+ hours anyway, which I don't think to be an exaggeration, why don't they cut it in parts? Acts are separated anyway, they would release Act 1 (or 1 & 2) early 2022, and get plenty more feedback from people expecting a finished game (with act instalments) instead of fans playing an EA where everything changes all the time. They'd get more money to finance the development, and release the pressure somewhat.

(about loaded dice) "This is actually the result of early access and how people reacted,"

I understand they like to listen a lot in order to try to make the game fun for as many people as possible. But they really try too hard to please, and dilute the spirit of the game and ruleset. Besides, it must take a lot of time to tune all the functionalities to "make it fun for everyone". If they had fixed a roadmap, a target both in time and scope, it would be much saner for everyone IMO.

But criticism on the side, they are really making a lot of effort to create a great game, I hope they get the success they deserve when it's released!

I have a feeling the retrospectives and interviews five years from now will once again talk about being burned out, the possibility of failing, and about what he had to cut.

Just watch his past interviews about the Divinity games for reference.

Also yeah the idea of releasing the game in seperate parts might have been the better decision to go with. Now it sounds like we'll be lucky if the game fully releases by 2024.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
why don't they cut it in parts?

Oh, they don't need to cut because they are financing the extra time with the EA sales (?)

…and what about the salami?

Outrageous?

Originally Posted by largh
Oh, they don't need to cut because they are financing the extra time with the EA sales (?)

I doubt it but what do I know. My opinion is early sales of Early Access were a goldmine of cash to help development, but it has since trickled to a tenth of what it was by now.

The majority of funding is probably now from investors, WoTc, and past game sales.

Perhaps. D:OS2 is probably selling quite well still on all platforms combined. Perhaps they also scaled up the production of BG3 due to the EA sales and that money would be (already?) spent for making the game. Difficult to say.

Originally Posted by largh
Oh, they don't need to cut because they are financing the extra time with the EA sales (?)

…and what about the salami?

Outrageous?

Sure, but I'm talking from the customer point of view too, especially people who bought the EA and who must find it longer than expected.

Don't even get me started on the salami! If that's a serious question… I don't know. It's not my type of humour but as long as it's discrete, remains the player's choice and that we're not forced to fight goblins who are yielding a salami, I see no harm in it.

What's your take on the salami? I know many hate it.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
I doubt it but what do I know. My opinion is early sales of Early Access were a goldmine of cash to help development, but it has since trickled to a tenth of what it was by now.

The majority of funding is probably now from investors, WoTc, and past game sales.

D:OS2 sold pretty well, that must help too. But such a long development must cost a lot, indeed. That's not for us to know anyway. (EDIT: I'm just repeating what largh says above, I had missed that)

Originally Posted by Redglyph
What's your take on the salami? I know many hate it.

I don't care. I like D&D and I love the Baldur's Gate games, but I am not a believer. Seems like the haters think it's a sacrilege against D&D lore. Nothing should sacred be in my opinion. It was a joke. Just chill out and wait for a great game…It will come…maybe in 2023. I don't keep my hopes up for next year's release.

Originally Posted by largh
I don't care. I like D&D and I love the Baldur's Gate games, but I am not a believer. Seems like the haters think it's a sacrilege against D&D lore. Nothing should sacred be in my opinion. It was a joke. Just chill out and wait for a great game…It will come…maybe in 2023. I don't keep my hopes up for next year's release.

I don't think it has to do with lore as much as fans just not wanting that sort of vibe in a BG game. That stuff was fine in the Divinity games since Larian did it from the start and it's their IP.

I agree about it just being a joke though. I also have pretty high expectations for the game.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I don't think it has to do with lore as much as fans just not wanting that sort of vibe in a BG game. That stuff was fine in the Divinity games since Larian did it from the start and it's their IP.

I agree about it just being a joke though. I also have pretty high expectations for the game.

Yup. I get that. I don't want it either (although the animal conversations in D:OSes always made me laugh and happy). Still, people are too serious about the salami joke.

For me, it's the lack of night that makes the current BG3 to feel like D:OS. The colors are too saturated and the atmosphere feels bright because of that. They really should introduce day-night cycles even if it would take a year longer to develop.

Originally Posted by largh
For me, it's the lack of night that makes the current BG3 to feel like D:OS. The colors are too saturated and the atmosphere feels bright because of that. They really should introduce day-night cycles even if it would take a year longer to develop.

I wasn't aware that there won't be a day-night cycle, but it doesn't surprise me since neither D:OS game had one.

I haven't touched the EA since the original release, and I don't pay much attention to the updates. I thought maybe they'd add that feature later, but I guess I was being overly optimistic.

Oddly enough, the original Divine Divinity had a day/night cycle, so it's not like they've never done it.

I have 2 issues with the current EA. First they're making all these changes with Act 1 yet haven't increased the level cap which makes playing additional content a waste of my time. Second, we've seen nothing of the rest of the game and by now we should have!!

Originally Posted by Corwin
(…) Second, we've seen nothing of the rest of the game and by now we should have!!

2023, here we go!!

I've avoided any type of spoiler for this game, but somehow the full BG3 soundtrack appeared on my Youtube page today. As someone who believes a solid RPG soundtrack is essential and often under-appreciated, I figured it wasn't spoilery enough to avoid. Hope this hasn't been posted already, but here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygDJlMqiKfs

Baldur's Gate 3 - The Biggest Secret of Early Access?

In this video I am going to dive deep into the Necromancy of Thay book. This is a rather secret questline that contains a lot of important information.