Baldur's Gate 3

[rusty_shackleford]

RIP Larian studios

Unless Larian fires 80% of his staff their next game will be awful.

Grew way too fast, culture changed rapidly.

[UnfairTradeCoffee]

Finally starting my first playthrough.

Right, is the sound mixing supposed to be this bad? I can barely hear the chatter during battles.

Nevermind, disable spatial sound seems to have improved the voices from sounding bad.

[pokafox]

DOS1 is 100% wholesome fairy tale-esque fantasy adventure. The two main protagonists are even eternal lovers of some sort, been years since I played it. Easily one of my all-time favorite games.
Really sad to see the directory Larian took tbh.

Replaying it right now splitscreen with the fam and having a great time with it. Story isn't anything special but there's as you said a naive fantasy wholesomeness to it. Larian's writing sure aint anything special and the constant joking tone isn't my thing but feels like a breathe of fresh air replaying it now. Much more than when I originally played it years ago.

[pokafox]

Relevant from the 29 minutes mark:

[Rand]

Alphabet fascist marxism.

[Vaako]

Relevant from the 29 minutes mark:

Sounds pretty much the same like ESG just one step in line before Blackrock gets its filfthy hands on it. And I read quite a lot in the last months that ESG companies are having huge loses so investors will probably look for something else soon than a stupid CEI or ESG score.

[pokafox]

You know what, I'm actually having fun exploring Act 3. Having this big city to explore freely in a true BG1/2 fashion and the story narrative slowing down dramatically is actually pretty immersive and quite fun. Ironically I read a lot of normies complain about Act 3 being weaker because of it's "lack of direction" and having quests pop up left and right. Performance does suck but heh. I'm sure the final story acts will be terrible again but for now I'm delaying as much as I can and actually enjoying myself.

Who knows, maybe the game might end up being the masterpiece it could have been in a couple years time when modders have fully cracked it and the whole tadpole narrative can be scrapped, full fledged companions can be added and it can be made a truly opened game.

[rusty_shackleford]

You know what, I'm actually having fun exploring Act 3. Having this big city to explore freely in a true BG1/2 fashion and the story narrative slowing down dramatically is actually pretty immersive and quite fun. Ironically I read a lot of normies complain about Act 3 being weaker because of it's "lack of direction" and having quests pop up left and right. Performance does suck but heh. I'm sure the final story acts will be terrible again but for now I'm delaying as much as I can and actually enjoying myself.

Who knows, maybe the game might end up being the masterpiece it could have been in a couple years time when modders have fully cracked it and the whole tadpole narrative can be scrapped, full fledged companions can be added and it can be made a truly opened game.

My only gripe with the big city is that it should have been multiple parts for performance reasons.
I wasn't getting FPS dips presumably due to being well above the hardware requirements, but loading times become atrocious towards the end of act 3 due to it.


Also, the city was supposed to be even bigger as it's missing a cut district. Presumably, they'll put it in eventually.

[pokafox]

Yup. I thought my playthrough was done when I first reached Rivington as it was literally unplayable. Had to switch to Vulkan, delete saves, disable dynamic crowds and lower quality dramatically to make it playable. Performance is still bad but Lower City I actually enjoy for now. Rivington was super weak in comparison I thought, especially that lame circus part.

[Red7]

what a waste of resources to make this cabbage face model. sadly there were enough fans like @rusty_shackleford to order that ****
https://kemono.su/patreon/user/14807057/post/91682684

i wish he made the mary sue ray from woke wars instead. ppl say she flat and fugly but i got thing for a ***** crying. her nosejob dont shows too much under duress thats good thing.

► Show Spoiler

[pokafox]

lol just realized level cap is 12 and I'm already there with tons of stuff left to do in Act 3 ... Serves me right for actually doing side quests right ?

In 2023, Early Access games win GOTY folks.

[Oyster Sauce]

lol just realized level cap is 12 and I'm already there with tons of stuff left to do in Act 3 ... Serves me right for actually doing side quests right ?

In 2023, Early Access games win GOTY folks.

Don't worry, now you get to respec all of your characters every time you find a new piece of gear to optimize!

[Anon]

lol just realized level cap is 12 and I'm already there with tons of stuff left to do in Act 3 ... Serves me right for actually doing side quests right ?

In 2023, Early Access games win GOTY folks.

Yeah and that's why Larian has cut so much content before release. They knew people would burn out playing around act 3 without any more leveling progression.

[pokafox]

This feels like such a joke tbh. Level progression is a big part of the fun for me and now losing motivation to keep playing again just when I thought I was finally having fun lol

Might give the Lvl.20 Multiclass mod a try.

[Anon]

Agreed, and I think Larian themselves were aware of it, as they publicly addressed characters become too strong past level 12. They could've easily solved this by changing leveling rules etc, but if I could speculate I think wotc wouldn't want them tweaking 5e crappy rules too much.

[rusty_shackleford]

XP curve needs readjusted to be a bit faster until level 5 then slow way down

[Anon]

Imo characters should either go through mountain pass or underdark, not both. Characters start act 2 overgeared and overleveled when doing both.

But I think either change would be too late to have been done at this point, would cause too much outcry, and Larian doesn't have a spine to defy reddit and twitter crybabies.

[Vaako]

This feels like such a joke tbh. Level progression is a big part of the fun for me and now losing motivation to keep playing again just when I thought I was finally having fun lol

Might give the Lvl.20 Multiclass mod a try.

Would recommend that mod. Have done most of playthroughs with that and if you think its too op just play with 2-3 characters.

[Anon]

I'm gonna check it out, thanks. I've been using combat extender mod, that's another option if you think game becomes too easy.

[Lhynn]

XP curve needs readjusted to be a bit faster until level 5 then slow way down

I think it should be 6, as thats the point in which you get to a new realm, but yeah, I agree that after that it should slow down, seems to speed up instead.

[pokafox]

This feels like such a joke tbh. Level progression is a big part of the fun for me and now losing motivation to keep playing again just when I thought I was finally having fun lol

Might give the Lvl.20 Multiclass mod a try.

Would recommend that mod. Have done most of playthroughs with that and if you think its too op just play with 2-3 characters.

Ended up installing UnlockLevelCurve + 5e Spells. "Level 20 (Multiclass)" seems to have issues and the ones I installed instead actually allow for additional spells and improvements.

Will probably be OP as hell but tbf the whole game felt like a breeze already. They sure mellowed difficulty for that one.

[Vaako]

This feels like such a joke tbh. Level progression is a big part of the fun for me and now losing motivation to keep playing again just when I thought I was finally having fun lol

Might give the Lvl.20 Multiclass mod a try.

Would recommend that mod. Have done most of playthroughs with that and if you think its too op just play with 2-3 characters.

Ended up installing UnlockLevelCurve + 5e Spells. "Level 20 (Multiclass)" seems to have issues and the ones I installed instead actually allow for additional spells and improvements.

Will probably be OP as hell but tbf the whole game felt like a breeze already. They sure mellowed difficulty for that one.

If you min/max and play the best builds its a breeze mostly, but if you know already where every fight is and you can prepare thats usually the case in these games. You can also install the additional enemies mod + fix and there also some mods which increase enemy hp. And you can cheese so many enemies with gravity in the game. Alone two of Thorm bosses in the second act (brewer and the gold guy) if you use the knockback arrows/shove or explosive barrels.

[pokafox]

► Show Spoiler

So I just got Minsc. I gotta say I don't have anything bad to say about how they wrote him so far and it actually even felt like a long time reunion. A lot more than with Jaheira in Act 2. She did grow on me as well in Act 3 though and felt like herself after a while eventhough she suffers from millenial writing everynow and then. Despite that, these two definitely have a different feel from other characters and I don't think it's only from knowing them previously. The way they're canonically written makes them in essence immune to many modern writing tropes: being selfish, whiny, self centered etc ... They are in essence stoic heroic characters which is something pretty much no one writes anymore nowadays.

Shame they don't appear earlier in the game ....

Might look into a 5 party members mod to play with him. I'd dish LaeZel but she's the one character I actually kinda like. Balance doesn't matter much at this point anyway.

edit: went for spoilers just in case

[rusty_shackleford]

► Show Spoiler

So I just got Minsc. I gotta say I don't have anything bad to say about how they wrote him so far and it actually even felt like a long time reunion. A lot more than with Jaheira in Act 2. She did grow on me as well in Act 3 though and felt like herself after a while eventhough she suffers from millenial writing everynow and then. Despite that, these two definitely have a different feel from other characters and I don't think it's only from knowing them previously. The way they're canonically written makes them in essence immune to many modern writing tropes: being selfish, whiny, self centered etc ... They are in essence stoic heroic characters which is something pretty much no one writes anymore nowadays.

Might look into a 5 party members mod to play with him. I'd dish LaeZel but she's the one character I actually kinda like. Balance doesn't matter much at this point anyway.

edit: went for spoilers just in case

Both of them became instant permanent members of my party along with Shadowheart. I can't stand the other characters. Only problem is how late they introduce them.

[jaeleth]

Might as well get this out of the way.

I haven't followed this closely at all. Convince me to buy this game. Or ignore it.

Here's one thing I'd like to see, but I know will never happen: It looks like the install size is 150GB. I wish a smaller install package would be made available for the people who don't care about the motion capture cut scenes.

The game itself is fine, honestly it is a good successor to BG2 and as close as possible implementation of DD 5e rules. Too easy at anything but top levels (Tactician or Honormode). Great soundtrack, great graphics, no DLC's, full game (which was a good reversal to that despicable trend). Overall is an excellent game...But it is not perfect. Why? Well, if you care for canon DnD setup particularly what regards modern wokism trends like "them they" pronouns in speech, oddly distributed male-female ingame jobs statistics, sexually neutral NPC party members, Orcs with makeup, bearded guys talking about their... husband, in public. Shaved dwarves, bearded Elves... Drow prostitutes (both one male and, lol, female, yeah, right...), "diverse" city with many antagonist species living happily together... you got the picture. If you DO care too much about DnD canon, it'll be dissapointing, but if you, like me, can dismiss all this woke stuff and concentrate on combat and power mongering than, by all means, get it. It's a great experience, it is well built. And plus, you practically can follow ANY moral path so, if you want, you can kill all the characters you don't like and STILL be able to finish the game, lol.

[jaeleth]

Isn't there only one black companion revealed so far?

Tecnhically 2... You can recruit a Dark Elf (Drow) female and then there is Wyll, the black son of a black Duke of Baldur's Gate. But then again, Laez'el is yellow(ish) with speckles and Karlach is a big, red, beautiful Tiefling woman (that would be BRBTW )

[rusty_shackleford]

Was going through my steam library and noticed Divinity Original Sin was only 8.31GB. BG3 requires nearly 20x the storage space of DOS, ridiculous.

[Goblin_Hammer]

Was going through my steam library and noticed Divinity Original Sin was only 8.31GB. BG3 requires nearly 20x the storage space of DOS, ridiculous.

Dev's don't compress video and audio files anymore and you don't even have to go to Balder's Gate 3, just look at Divinity Original Sin 2 it's 58GB.

[pokafox]

Was going through my steam library and noticed Divinity Original Sin was only 8.31GB. BG3 requires nearly 20x the storage space of DOS, ridiculous.

It's crazy how optimization in general has gone out the window since the 2010s and no one talks about it. If you do almost anywhere you get "update your potato" answers.

BG3's 150GB and is almost mandatory to be ran from a SSD. I know, cause I don't and textures sometimes take a couple minutes to load and it has a "slow HDD" option which never works. And it barely looks better than DOS2 which ran fine on mid PCs 7 years ago.

And yeah meanwhile we run 2 instances of DOS1 on the old living room PC to play splitscreen and it runs butter smooth.

[pokafox]

the one sane guy in the whole game

► Show Spoiler