How so? How many have played the early release vs people who are impatiently waiting for the actual release? Maybe less exciting to those who played through some of it?
How is an upcoming new BG by Larian a has been? I’m looking forward to it. But I’m not spoiling it by playing the early access.
Ah, I guess its mostly a me-problem? I also don’t do early access and just see so many games wallow in that state forever and so for me all EA tend to get thrown into the “forget about it” drawer. Thus the early hype I felt about the game initially has basically disappeared now.
It’s listed as Oct 6 for a release, and I’ve not heard anything that would say that it’s not on track for that.
Like Wendelius, I’m staying away from it until it’s at least out of EA. I think EA games, in general, end up lacking some of the hype that can build from marketing right up to the day when everyone can jump on it at once. I’m definitely eager for it, as I’m ready for a new RPG.
I should be done with Solasta by then …
They need to overhaul the entire mechanical sub-structure of the game to feel like D&D and not a total conversion mod for Original Sin 2, is my 2 cents. It will never happen, of course, but they have made several questionable rules choices/changes that a lot of folks aren’t happy with - and these issues are compounded by the fact that Solasta with 1/10th the budget (or less) solved these issues handily. In fact, many of my issues with BG3 stem from having enjoyed Solasta so much, and are exacerbated by how much BG3 feels like D:OS2. A great game, don’t get me wrong, but it BG3 doesn’t feel like it’s own thing, let alone a D&D game, in many important ways.
As just one example; Reactions. In Solasta, if an action triggers something you have a reaction for (a hit that Shield would mitigate, falling prevented by Feather Fall, a spell to Counterspell, or an Attack of Opportunity, etc.) you are given a prompt to see if you want to do it. In BG3, as it stands right now, you have to opt into using those reactions by way of icons that you turn on or off with a right-click. As an example of how that implementation sucks, my Fighter has Superiority Dice he can spend to deal a counter attack if an enemy misses him. I leave that on so I can use it, but I only have 4 dice to spend per short rest, so if I have one dice left and I forget to turn that reaction off it will auto-trigger and now I can’t grant temporary hit points to the almost dead Wizard. My option is to turn it off and then I will probably forget to turn it back on later, and I’ll miss chances to use it.
Possible (these are not implemented as classes/spells yet but when they are…) other issues with this include Paladin Smite - the power of Smite is being able to agree to proc it when you score a hit (especially a crit) - in BG3’s system it’s just going to auto-proc, draining all your Paladin spells, every time you score a hit, even against an almost dead target. Or Counterspell. If you prepare it and the first time an enemy casts Acid Arrow you’re going to blow a Counterspell on a Cantrip? Do you keep it turned off and hope you remember to turn it on before someone casts a spell? They need to address reactions in BG3 and they need to make them work like they are supposed to under 5th edition.
There are countless examples just like this - don’t get me started on how the obvious answer in melee combat is to always be using a bonus action to JUMP behind your enemy to get advantage on attacks because you are attacking their back. That’s… just now how any of this is supposed to work. Oh god, and the controlling of characters that share an initiative, just sucks right now. I have high hopes for BG3, don’t get me wrong, I want it to be just amazing as hell, but as of the last time I played it (the latest build) I spent more time yelling at the monitor than having fun with it, to be honest.
I was actually thinking about pre-ordering the game so I could play around with it in the beta and this post shoved me back from the thought. I couldn’t agree more that the last thing I want BG3 to be is a OS2.5 game.
Concern about exactly this is what has kept me away from the game entirely.
I guess I just don’t understand that POV - do people really care that much about the ruleset? I just want a competent party based RPG with good writing.
It does have good writing. It’s not a lot of fun to play/control your characters currently, is the bigger issue than even the strange ways they are shoe horning D&D into their D:OS engine.
I still kinda maintain that it generally seems like BG3 is making a much more fun D&D game by actually being flexible and “rule of cool” by stretching the otherwise aggressively restrictive d20 ruleset (that is to say, I’d much rather play with a BG3-style GM than a Solasta-style GM), but even then, yeah, the stupid Reaction system sounds awful.
But if you’re treating D&D as a tactical combat sim, I can see how messing around with the rules might bother you.
I played a bit of BG3 before Solasta left open access; it never really clicked for me as I struggled with the controls and camera. Now that I’ve finished Solasta I’m more interested in the current Humandkind beta, despite all the fuss about its flaws, than going back to the current BG3. I will give it another try when it finally releases.
Which I am, because these are video games and not pen and paper. When they figure out how to tell fun stories that let the players really let their imaginations run wild, I’ll be all in - until then I’m here for the tactical combat and the story telling. BG3 has a compelling story with cool NPC’s (though the companions feel a little lackluster at the moment - not in characterization but in what they gain as they level up) but the combat isn’t as much fun as Solastas.
the Solasta companions and side quests are pretty lackluster but for me the combat is fun because i can understand what’s going on. And as opposed to P:K I like not having to cast so many buffs
Thing is, jumping around constantly to get backstabs isn’t really cool. It’s derpy and annoying. Hell it’s faster than running even. Everyone should really jump every round or they’re playing poorly.
Standing a foot above someone and getting advantage isn’t cool. Especially since the enemy invariably starts the fight with like 5 archers on a rooftop that will take you forever to climb up to.
And so on. Like, none of the changes are cool or interesting. They all make the game feel bad and generally make the players weaker or force you into behavior to exploit them. Fighting with melee weapons is generally regarded as foolish because ranged is better in basically every way. So, good news for the Legolas’s of the world, but bad news for the Drizzt fans.
Of course the Legolas’s will also suck most of the time because they started the fight on “low ground” so they never hit anything unless they spend a couple rounds climbing up someplace. So really more good news for goblin fans, you get to watch your heroes get manhandled by goblin archers standing on a rooftop repeatedly and often.
Edit: The best part is people on Reddit who don’t want a reaction system because it will “slow the game down”. But they’re fine with jumping every round which takes for-fucking-ever and multiple mouse clicks. And clicking for sneak attacks. And so many other weird UI/design choices.
Those are fine, but being able to choose if you want to cast counterspell or shield is too disruptive.
I am feeling a sniper town™ situation by way of D&D. Goblin arrows from on high every 6 feet!
So, if you ignore the purity of D&Dness rules, is the game fun?
Man, that is giving me serious Divinity vibes. Which is too bad because I loathe that game.
More importantly, how is the Inventory system?
Is it a total pre-aborted mutant disaster like Original Sin?
I am talking large as fuck icons on a small gird so lots of scrolling, a fuckton of trash and metric assload of rubbish. KEYS. ALL THE BLOODY KEYS!!! And notes, and more crap besides. The complete JUNK experience!
I feel like no one saw any of my posts in that thread.