BG3 Baldur's Gate 3 News Thread

Baldur's gate 3
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.
 
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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."
 
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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!
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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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! :lol: 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.
 
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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)
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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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.
 
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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!!
 
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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
 
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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.
 
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Since none of this gets shared in a news-bit here you go.

The Box That Broke Baldur's Gate 3 - Gamespot

Baldur's Gate 3, like Dungeons & Dragons, is a game meant to evoke player freedom. But somewhere early in its making, a small decision was made that collided with that basic principle, and sent its development into a cascading spiral of problems.

At the heart of an unforgettable Dungeons & Dragons campaign is a great dungeon master. It's their responsibility to guide the player on an adventure and make sure the world reacts to their actions in a way that feels natural and unplanned.

For developer Larian Studios, to capture that D&D essence in Baldur's Gate 3, it has to evoke that same sense of freedom and role playing. It's collaborative storytelling between the player and the story. Every choice, action, reaction, and consequence has to feel like it really matters, no matter how big or small.

But somewhere early in the making of Baldur's Gate 3, the game's dungeon master, Swen Vincke, made a small decision that sent its development into a cascading spiral of problems that has been a big challenge to solve. And all it involved was getting the player to acquire one very specific item: the Mysterious Artefact and it belongs to a character named Shadowheart. In an effort to get the player to receive this item as elegantly and naturally as possible, as though it was their own decision, has resulted in creating 100s of possibilities that plagued the game's development.

This is the story of how the Mysterious Artefact broke Baldur's Gate 3.
Baldur's Gate 3 - Are You Ready For These Upcoming Spells!?

 
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Baldur's Gate 3 - Panel From Hell + Patch 8 Launch


Baldur's Gate 3 - Pre-Patch Announcement - Patch 8 Incoming
Hello there, everyone! We hope you're all good, wherever you are.

We've been hard at work since our last major update, and Patch 8 is almost ready for primetime. We're putting the finishing touches on it right now, and preparing a Panel from Hell to give it a full unveiling.

On to our feature presentation: Patch 8 is drawing near, and it's going to be roughly 40GB (so make sure you have space free!), bringing the total install size for Baldur's Gate 3 to approximately 104GB. As with our previous patches, and saves made on Patch 7 or prior will no longer be compatible when updated.

In addition, we'll be using Patch 8 as the opportunity for a little bit of digital house-cleaning. Once it goes live, we'll be removing the ability to download all but the 2 most recent Patches. In this case, Patches 6 and 7 will remain available for download, but we encourage all players to update to the most recent version of the game in order to get the latest fixes and content updates.

With that bit of housekeeping out of the way, let's talk branching. We've got options if you want to continue saves from earlier patches, or if you want to make sure you're staying current. Check out the below instructions for whichever method suits you best.
 
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