Baldur's Gate 3

[Lysrin]

Here's why per Sven Vinke:

"Greed has been fucking this whole thing up for so long, since I started," Vincke said, while collecting the GDCA Best Narrative award for Baldur's Gate 3. "I've been fighting publishers my entire life and I keep on seeing the same, same, same mistakes over, and over and over.

"It's always the quarterly profits," he continued, "the only thing that matters are the numbers, and then you fire everybody and then next year you say 'shit I'm out of developers' and then you start hiring people again, and then you do acquisitions, and then you put them in the same loop again, and it's just broken...

https://www.eurogamer.net/baldurs-gate-3-boss-blasts-publisher-greed-behind-layoffs

Not mincing any words there for sure!

I hate to mention it for the tomatoes that may be thrown my way, but that is why a development/publishing model like Star Citizen or other indie titles (I'll add that to lessen the tomato torpedoes) are doing it right. They are free to make the game they want, and ideally the ones we want to play.

 

[lowfat]

Here's why per Sven Vinke:

"Greed has been fucking this whole thing up for so long, since I started," Vincke said, while collecting the GDCA Best Narrative award for Baldur's Gate 3. "I've been fighting publishers my entire life and I keep on seeing the same, same, same mistakes over, and over and over.

"It's always the quarterly profits," he continued, "the only thing that matters are the numbers, and then you fire everybody and then next year you say 'shit I'm out of developers' and then you start hiring people again, and then you do acquisitions, and then you put them in the same loop again, and it's just broken...

https://www.eurogamer.net/baldurs-gate-3-boss-blasts-publisher-greed-behind-layoffs

I'm not sure if that is in regards to Hasbro or to the video game publishers. Up until Divinity Original Sin, Larian games always used a publisher and got boned from it. Barely making money or having to release unfinished games. I doubt we'll see them ever use a publisher again. But I'm sure after BG3 they have enough capital where it really shouldn't be an issue for their next game.

 

[LaughingCrow]

More awards for Larian Studio's Baldur's Gate 3 - Bafta games awards winners

Best game: Baldur’s Gate 3

EE players’ choice: Baldur’s Gate 3

Music: Baldur’s Gate 3

Narrative: Baldur’s Gate 3

Performer in a supporting role Andrew Wincott, Raphael in Baldur’s Gate 3 (voice actor for Raphael)


https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/apr/12/bafta-games-awards-gaming-winner-baldurs-gate-3

 

[FreeKnight]

More awards for Larian Studio's Baldur's Gate 3 - Bafta games awards winners

Best game: Baldur’s Gate 3

EE players’ choice: Baldur’s Gate 3

Music: Baldur’s Gate 3

Narrative: Baldur’s Gate 3

Performer in a supporting role Andrew Wincott, Raphael in Baldur’s Gate 3 (voice actor for Raphael)


https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/apr/12/bafta-games-awards-gaming-winner-baldurs-gate-3

Wincott's performance was stellar in that game. Most memorable villain since Irenicus or Kreia for me. It's funny that while a lot of people where pumped for JK Simmons in the game, I found he was pretty flat as Thorn. Raphael practically oozed devil.

 

[LaughingCrow]

Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 7 is available, a huge update with a lot added:

new endings (mostly evil ones apparently)

lot of tweaks and fixes

officially supporting built in modding, with mods already accessible in-game

their BG3 mod program will be available soon as a separate download

(from beta testers, online chatter, it looks like the game will support existing mod managers and mods but probably many existing mods may need updating/fixing to work with the patch)

The game is now on sale at Steam & GOG 20% off.
---------------------

Someone else figured this out, but when you're in the Grymforge area, you can see the Guantlet of Shar (but not access) in a few places. It's below and much deeper than the Grymforge area.

 

[LaughingCrow]

Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 7 is messy with existing mods. After I finished a game with the old version, I updated with Patch 7 and tried it out. A lot of mods didn't work. The in-game Mod Manager has mods. A lot of the early ones are simple, memes or silly. And some useful ones, like infinite arrows, etc. But there's some coming out now that were also on NexusMods, so modders are getting used to Larian's tool kit. Which now has a mod of it's own, that someone has figured out to unlock it...

I had an idea in mind to create a custom party of 2 players using the Multiplayer trick to create 2 players. And had trouble with mods and trouble figuring out the trouble. The patch version, once you install mods with the in-game Mod Manager AND connect to Larian's IO site in the game does some weird unexpected things. I had made sure to clean out the mod files. But every time you run the game, it reinstalls the in-game mods. With problems with NexusMods that I wanted, I decided to delete the game and reinstall. And still had some trouble but found out that the BG3MM has been updated for Patch 7, plus there's several other things needed tuning to get it to work.

With no mods installed - figured out how to delete the in-game mods that came back and figured out that I had to disconnect from IO, then uninstall the mods. Was able to create two main characters - Halfling Male Bard and Hafling Female Sorcerer via the Multiplayer method. Once that was working, I slowly added 3rd party mods from NexusMods, making sure I got updated ones where possible. The Script Extender has been updated and with a little tweaking you can get the in-game console working via BG3MM and adding a script. The game runs, but hiccups with a few of the mods where it seems to think there's multiple versions of the same mod installed, it loads them and runs okay. I think these are the older mods that were relying on an old BG3 Mod loader that's now redundant because they've included it with Patch 7.

I wanted to try out the mini companion mods that are now available, hence using the haflings race for this playthrough. So far I've only encountered Lae'zel and Shadowheart (and Gale earlier) but they look good. There's mini versions of all the companions. And a Giant Space Hampster for Minsc.

Here's an example standing next to a human on the ship and Mindflayer.

 

[LaughingCrow]

Found another interesting mod that works with Patch 7 but does require Script Extender (PC only).

I was getting tired of Gale's complaining & bragging. And I wanted to try a different approach. Plus, I wanted to try an honour mode game and then give BG3 a rest for a while. So I tried replacing Gale with one of the hirelings you can get from Withers; but I didn't like any of the hireling choices. Luckily I bumped into a Reddit post and found this mod: Full Custom Companions (Hirelings) on Nexusmods.

Essentially you create a custom companion(s) from scratch just like you'd do for creating your character. You can pick anything but a Dark Urge character. After installing the mod, you get a magic wand that starts the character creation process. So I created a custom companion. It will level up just like other companions; respec to change class, use the mirror to change appearance, etc.

There was another magic tool in the inventory that looks like a mirror. Researching that, you can use it to click on any NPC in the game and clone them as a companion. I was about to do the Inn with Shadowheart and Wyl and tried the 'magic mirror' on Councillor Florrick and found a good wizard replacement for Gale.

You can switch these characters around just like any of the other companion; mix and match. Can dismiss them to camp or dismiss them completely.

https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/4928?tab=description

So here's Wyll next to Councillor Florrick at camp. I selected Florrick since you only encounter her briefly on 2 or 3 occasions. Thought it might be a bit weird if you cloned one of the original companions or a character you encounter frequently in the game. Although it might be useful if you were planning on killing a companion (i.e. Dark Urge), you'd have a clone waiting. They don't get the original companion voice; you're limited to the ones in the character creator.

 

[Lysrin]

After having finished the main stories in a few other games, I'm dipping back into BG3 to progress that some more. I'm only level 5 still, but man I am astounded at how big this game is. Not a new revelation I know, but still I spent the last three play sessions, maybe a 1.5-2 hrs each, faffing around this small section of the Underdark. Amazing all the stuff to discover and the alternatives depending on what you do or how you act.

Just wondering, you guys that have finished several playthroughs, when you say that do you mean you've finished all game content several times, at least all content accessible for a given type of main character and companions combo, or do you mean you've finished the main story several times?

 

[LaughingCrow]

After having finished the main stories in a few other games, I'm dipping back into BG3 to progress that some more. I'm only level 5 still, but man I am astounded at how big this game is. Not a new revelation I know, but still I spent the last three play sessions, maybe a 1.5-2 hrs each, faffing around this small section of the Underdark. Amazing all the stuff to discover and the alternatives depending on what you do or how you act.

Just wondering, you guys that have finished several playthroughs, when you say that do you mean you've finished all game content several times, at least all content accessible for a given type of main character and companions combo, or do you mean you've finished the main story several times?

During the early access period, I tried various things, but I've only finished the game a few times. Right now I'm trying a limited party run to prepare for a solo attempt - I only have Shadowheart & Wyll at camp. Mostly playing with only Florrick as a wizard companion. In Chapter 2 now - will take Shadowheart thru a limited Shar trials (just learned you can skip most of them). I rescued Minthara at Moonrise, so I'll probably respec her as a Bard or Cleric/Bard for 1st time as a companion.

Have yet to try a companion story. Even so, I still come across things I've missed exploring or new things in dialog, etc. No way to play the game the same way twice.

 

[Lysrin]

During the early access period, I tried various things, but I've only finished the game a few times. Right now I'm trying a limited party run to prepare for a solo attempt - I only have Shadowheart & Wyll at camp. Mostly playing with only Florrick as a wizard companion. In Chapter 2 now - will take Shadowheart thru a limited Shar trials (just learned you can skip most of them). I rescued Minthara at Moonrise, so I'll probably respec her as a Bard or Cleric/Bard for 1st time as a companion.

Have yet to try a companion story. Even so, I still come across things I've missed exploring or new things in dialog, etc. No way to play the game the same way twice.

And that is pretty darn amazing eh?

Interesting, some aspects of what you described I don't even completely understand, but that's cool too. More to learn!