Beamdog Community Questions for the Larian AMA (scheduled at March, 12)
JuliusBorisov
Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,743
Let's keep this thread clean and clear. Post your questions in advance.
Larian will be hosting a Reddit AMA where you can ask Swen (Creative Director), David (Producer), Adam (Senior Writer), Nick (Lead Systems Designer), and Jiji (Writing Director) your questions. 11:00 PT on March 12, over on Reddit. I'll add the info about which subreddit it'll be later.
I remember how gathering questions in advance worked nicely for the Siege of Dragonspear AMA.
Larian will be hosting a Reddit AMA where you can ask Swen (Creative Director), David (Producer), Adam (Senior Writer), Nick (Lead Systems Designer), and Jiji (Writing Director) your questions. 11:00 PT on March 12, over on Reddit. I'll add the info about which subreddit it'll be later.
I remember how gathering questions in advance worked nicely for the Siege of Dragonspear AMA.
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Comments
--- A Baldur's Gate player
"If you don't think 'sequel' is the right word to describe BG3, what was the reasoning behind the title choice?"
"How/if do you plan to resolve the contradiction that Bhaal is dead in BG2, but alive in 5e?"
"Why do you think you are the right choice for this project? I understand that you aren't a fan of the gameplay or were familiar with the story before taking on the project."
"What are your concerns for old school fans who are following the development of your project?"
(I'm just saying you have my permission to add in Daran Highhammer to the game if you want a quick tie in)
Will there be any reference to the Twisted Rune plot that was barely scratched in BG2? We want more of badass liches in game!
Did you add any epic dragon encounters, like Firkraag or Shadow dragon in Umar Hills temple?
Do you plan to add subrace of elves, dwarves and halflings to the game? Do you plan to add human subrace as well?
Is there a chance that item descriptions would be as full of lore and awesome as in first two games? It is one of the little details that made BG1 and BG2 so awesome.
Also, how are they planning to compensate for removing most reactions and short rests?
With group initiative are they concerned about alpha striking? How will they avoid battles being entirely decided by a single initial initiative roll?
"For custom generated characters, what are the plans regarding voice acting? WIll the player be able to choose from an array of various types a la BG/NWN, or is it more of a fixed choice (e.g. male humans get one voice, female elves get one voice similar to Mass Effect/Jade Empire)? Or indeed, will custom characters even BE voiced for dialogue outside of standard combat/spell casting barks?"
Question #1: Uncle Scratchy is concerned about that lack of turnip peddling merchants and their ilk populating the Forgotten Realms. It reminded me of the time when the twins, Tat and Tot had a flumph riding race and the damn things were just impossible to control, even with specially designed saddles made by the late Ben Jansen. Late as in he was never on time, not dead, he’s still alive and kicking but only with one leg because... the point? Where are the playable gnomes?
Question #2: Ceremorphosis was only guaranteed with a few humanoid races (usually only human sized ones). How is this going to be explained with shorter races available for player selection already revealed such as halflings and any others you might add (like gnomes dammit)?
"Are there romances? If yes, can we romance a mind flayer?"
Do, do they even have genders?
The opening cinematic was a mind flayer professing its love for you.
(Since flay doesn't mean to control or warp)
But seriously:
Will the player be spending a lot of time dealing with the politics, threats, and affairs of Baldur's Gate and the Sword Coast? How much of Faerun will the player be exploring?
How closely are you sticking to 5th edition rules? What rules are you adapting to fit the gameplay you envisioned for Baldur's Gate 3? Will anything be a major difference from the rules?
Not going to happen. If this is a deal breaker for you, only thing left to do is to vote with your wallet.
I would much prefer RTwP for BG as well but it would lose them at least as much buyers as it would win over.
Since I'm not terribly familiar with 5E, this is also a concern of mine. Having one team take their actions and then the entire enemy team take their actions feels incredibly artificial. Are there any plans to factor in individual initiative rolls so that actions of enemies and allies are staggered? If multiplayer is a problem, perhaps an option to enable it or only have this in single player?
I read that BG3 will take inspiration in the adventures "Murder in BG" and "Descent into Avernus", can we expect some cameos of NPC of these modules? Are you going to take into account the different endings of this adventures as references in BG3?
You are mostly moving your characters to cover, attempting to flank and removing cover from the opponent than determining which attack will do the most damage.
In BG3, from what I’ve seen, cover doesn’t play that significant of a role and, with team initiative it maybe easy for the winning team to bum rush the opponents wizard it other glass cannon before it has a chance to move.
This will lead to cheese balancing, when as you enter the places encounter their mage is going to be positioned behind obstacles already, while yours is going to be walking into a trap.
I removed all off-topic comments from this thread. You can find them here. Questions here, discussion - elsewhere, please.
Is early access going to be available for both PC and Stadia?
How much of the game is going to be made available during the Early Access?
If the full game is not going to be made available during the early access, how is Larian going to get feed back for late level abilities?
Is their going to be a discounted price, or any other incentive for purchasing the game during early access?
When is early access going to be available?
Roughly how long to do you think the game will be in early access?
Are there going to be stages to the early access (as in more of the game will be unlocked as you guys finish it)?
What type of feedback is Larian looking for if a person buys the game in early access?
~
Game mechanics
During Sven’s game play reveal, he highlighted that some objects in the environment are interactive, such as that exploding machine part in the first battle. Are these instances going to be tied to proficiencies in any way or is it just going to be meta knowledge from the player? Is every placed encounter, or the majority of them, going to have these interactive objects?
Roughly, we won’t hold you to it if time constraints makes you have to cut one or two, how many recruitable companions are there going to be in the game?
Are all recruitable companions going to have origin stories?
Is it going to be possible to create our own party and venture forth into the world? Besides party banter and quests tied to companions, if this was done, would the player ‘miss’ anything?
Multiplayer is something that you guys are focusing on, is it just going to be PvE or will PvP be available too?
How much is time going to play a factor? For example, if we take too long to do a quest or get to it, will there be any repercussions?
Is it possible to lose the game by ‘timing out’?
Sven played an origin story involving a vampire thrall, will custom characters be able to be vampire thralls as well?
Am I going to be able to romance that orchid jelly? Are romances in the game, and if so, how are you guys going to handle them (is it going to be like Dragon Age 2 where everyone loves the PC if they click the heart, are NPCs going to have their own sexual orientation or what?)
Will you be able to develop other types of relationships with NPCs besides romances in the game?
Are recruitable NPCs going to react to the choices that the player makes during the game? Will there be repercussions if you annoy a character too much?
Will the recruitable characters all get along, or is there a chance for fist fights to break out like the first Baldur’s Gate?
How is magical items going to be handled? Are they going to be set pieces that the player stumbles upon or colour coded RNG drops or something in between?
Will any ‘legendary’ weapons from the first two games make an appearance?
What is the level cap going to be? Assuming the player plays with a full party, roughly when would the player expect to hit that cap in the story?
Are there any plans for DLC?
Story
Without using the words ‘Dungeon and Dragons,’ or ‘Forgotten Realms,’ how is this a sequel to the first two Baldur’s Gate games?
Without being too spoilerish, do any events in the first two games play a role in how the story is shaped besides maybe featuring Bhaal or Bhaalspawn?
You’ve hinted at returning characters, what type of role are these characters going to have? Are they going to be recruitable? Do they play an integral part of the story? Are they just going to show up for a cameo?
Roughly how many ‘legendary’ characters from the first two games are going to make an appearance in any role?
Are these ‘legendary’ characters going to be fully voiced? If so, will the same voice actors be used from the previous games?
Besides Baldur’s Gate, is there any other location a player may stumble upon that they’ll recognize from the first game?
Will Noober, or one of his relatives be in the game?
Sven said this is the first time we’d be returning to Baldur’s Gate in 20 years. Does he want to make an apology to Beamdog for forgetting about Siege of Dragonspear, or is that title suppose to be wiped out from our memories?
When will it be released? How about now? How about now? How about now? How about now? How about now? How about now?
If I think of any more, I’ll add them to this post. I’ll be working, so I won’t be able to ask any of these myself,
Part 1 -> https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/fhk1u3/im_swen_vincke_creative_director_at_larian/fkbld0r/
Part 2 -> https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/fhk1u3/im_swen_vincke_creative_director_at_larian/fkbleo4/