Thirith on 15/8/2023 at 11:45
@Malf: Have you run into any issues with the mod that removes the party size limit?
Malf on 15/8/2023 at 13:24
A couple, but nothing major.
There's a transition between the first and second areas of the Underdark in Act 1 that can end up deleting extra companions completely if you take them through it (specifically, the boat journey).
Camp events, such as the tiefling celebration party at the end of act 1, can play up when you "end the day" and initiate a long rest, as you have more characters in your party than sleeping spots. The second time this happened, I just had to wait a little longer and it resolved itself.
But otherwise, it's completely seamless, and is actually really awesome. The game's base interface is even designed to accommodate more than 4 characters by default, with the main screen list scrolling vertically with the mouse-wheel when moused over, and the quick info screen that's initiated with the tab key scrolling left and right.
You can't even argue they made it like that to accommodate summons, as those appear next to the summoner in the list. I'm pretty sure this is Larian tacitly acknowledging that increasing party size was going to be very common.
I'm hoping that with the inevitable Enhanced Edition they make it official by allowing larger party sizes and rebalancing the encounters accordingly.
If you've ever read a Dungeon Master's guide, you'll know that they often advise designing encounters around the idea of "Hit Die" so that they're easy to scale. Bigger party? Just increase the total hit die of enemies in the encounter proportionately (I think this is actually an outdated concept now, having been replaced with Challenge Rating or CR, but the idea's sound for quick-and-dirty dungeon generation).
As it stands, yes, increasing party size makes the game easier, but I absolutely love getting to experience party banter between all possible characters, and getting to play with lots of different classes at once. The only downside is that by default, there are two druid characters (Halsin and Jaheira), but you can respec them to any class you like. I've actually left them as both druids after experimenting with changing one to monk, as Druids make awesome casters.
And unlike other mods, this one doesn't break achievements. The game complains about its presence when starting up in the launcher, but otherwise continues dishing out the achievements.
Second time around, I may also play with something that removes the need to rest, like a mod that replenishes resources after battles, as there are a lot of, not very well-telegraphed, long-rest sensitive quests.
D&D sticking to the concept of resting to replenish spells is beginning to feel really out-dated. Larian have done some interesting things to try and make players engage with the mechanic, but at its core, it still feels "anti-fun".
As noted previously, I would definitely be up for a co-op playthough in the future. But I also understand that it's a helluva time investment to make.
Thirith on 15/8/2023 at 14:24
Cheers, that's useful information. It'll probably be a while before I get around to BG3, and perhaps by then they'll let you play with a party of six or so, no mods needed. Fingers crossed.
Yeah, I definitely like the idea of Larian coop, but I'd always be the one who could only make one afternoon a week, except sometimes it'd be every second week, and I don't think that'd really work with an epic story-based RPG, sadly.
Sulphur on 17/8/2023 at 14:46
Thanks for the write-ups, Malf. I can see the game's pretty much consumed your free time, and that's fantastic(ish?). I'll admit I am very tempted to just pull the trigger on this and get to it, but I think I'll be better off waiting for the down the line patches and fixes and mod support. And like Thirith, I think I'll want to get through D:OS 2 first (and the bazillion RPGs I've left incomplete like, er, BG 1 and 2 and PoE, Tyranny, blah blah blah you get it).
So, in the true spirit of chaotic good-neutral, I'll probably be getting Armored Core 6 instead before I eventually get to BG3... provided the game is as good as it seems from this distance, and From does a decent PC version this time.
Malf on 17/8/2023 at 15:12
Tyranny's superb. I only got around to playing it recently, and kicked myself for not getting around to it sooner.
It also doesn't require a hundre+ hour investment, so is a lot more approachable.
I'm up to Act 3 now, and it's a little bewildering finally being in the city. It's just so dense.
At the same time though, it feels a little underdone, with some framerate hitches where there shouldn't be any. And I'm not sure yet, but I'm getting a suspicion that the quests could do with more fleshing out. It's just a niggle at the moment, and I'm not sure if I've been biased by pieces I've read elsewhere saying as such.
But it hasn't diminished the game's ability to surprise and delight me. There's an encounter in the Circus in particular that I loved.
Character level-wise, I'm at 10 out of 12 max, and it feels like there will be plenty of time to get to max level then play at it. Personally, I prefer a game that leaves you with a lot of content to play at max level; it helps you hone your skills rather than concentrate on builds.
This playthrough has been pretty goodie-two-shoes and my character's completely monogamistic, so there's plenty for me to explore in further playthroughs, and I'm looking forward to seeing how things play out differently.
There's one decision I've just made in particular, where I've ignored an offer that I suspect may have lead to the best outcome for everyone, but would have been completely against my character's principles. Besides which, it seemed a little too convenient and easy (taking the deal with the devil Raphael to remove the parasite, free Orpheus, but ultimately surrender the crown to him).
I also suspect there's going to be several characters that the story doesn't end well for, no matter what choices I make.
To be honest, I couldn't really give a fuck about Lae'Zel this time around, so I'm hoping to explore her more in a second playthrough, see if she becomes more sympathetic. This playthrough, she's pretty much just a racist, bigoted edgelord who makes it very hard to care about her. Even other Gith don't seem to be as rude as her.
Killing every last Githyanki in the mountain pass creche was incredibly cathartic.
But I think Karlach's going to meet a tragic end no matter what :(
And if I'm honest, I can't see a good outcome for Astarion either. I hope there is, as he's my partner in crime, and just delighfully acted, but it's not looking good.
HEAVY spoiler:
I could have encouraged Gale to blow himself up and end at the end of act 2, and I suspect that probably would have ended up saving the most people, but we would have all died.
I suspect Shadowheart has the best chance of redemption of the lot of us.
CrunchXSnacker on 1/9/2023 at 04:37
I can say regardless of side by side comparison, I haven't been this blown away by an RPG's openness and interactivity since Ultima VII. I mean ultima online also is worth a mention. Though I would say on the narrative/cinematic aspects Dragon Age: Origins is the closest comparison that comes to mind, although it is much much more dynamic here. The opportunity for things to happen that matter to your characters that won't be emulated in another person's play through is astounding. Its the delivery of so many branching story promises from so many developers over the years. Bioware is absolutely quaking in their boots right now. First Witcher slapped them around, now they get buried by the franchise that put them on the map.
The game itself is a treat, I can't expect to see it emulated by others easily, so might as well soak up every piece of it while it lasts. Funny that it should be a game so obsessed with sex. Like a cheesy romance novel tied in there for all the bored housewives, or househusbands. I can't really take that part seriously, but then maybe I am not meant to.
nicked on 1/9/2023 at 06:02
I think Bioware were already quaking in their boots for increasingly having to deliver live service drivel to the all-consuming maw of EA.
Malf on 1/9/2023 at 09:06
I finished my first playthrough midway through last week.
And since then and starting a second "Dark Urge" playthrough", I have some deeper criticisms of the story and how unbalanced it is.
They fall into bad old habits throughout Act 3, and overall, it feels pretty rushed and easy to break quests. I feel that this is one of the disadvantages of Larian's approach to Early Access. So much attention goes into the first act, they just don't have enough time or resources to spend on the areas not accessible during EA. At the same time, I can understand why they they do it this way; they don't want to spoile the WHOLE game before it's even released!
At the moment, if you play "good", the ending is a real bummer, and it feels like you're being punished for being good. I mean yes, there's value in telling stories that don't have happy endings, but I'm not sure it suits this game.
The big one for me is that I spent the whole game avoiding using any Illithid powers and trying to find a cure, being told there WAS a cure, only to be told right before the last battle that because I'd done the right thing by everyone else, I had to turn into a mindflayer, because only a mindflayer could perform the final ritual spell.
It just made me lose all investment in the last battle. I'd had to give up that which I'd fought so hard to retain.
They then followed that up with killing off my character's love interest and the most likeable, honest and good character in the whole game, Karlach, because throughout many conversations, she'd told me she would rather die than go back to Avernus or become a mindflayer, so I did right with her and stayed with her while she burned up and died. They kept hinting you might be able to save her, and you get plenty of the materials the smith needs throughout the course of the game, but that line just sputters out.
The other character I really liked and who I'd helped redeem, choosing the good option instead of power in his storyline, Astarion, had to run away into the shadows once the tadpole died and his protection was gone.
Then after all that I discovered that one of the origin characters, Gale, gets an out if you play him as the main character, which undermines all of the other choices I'd had to make.
Effectively, he can go full mindflayer, but at the end, if he give his goddess what she wants, she restores his humanity.
You kinda come to terms with your bitter-sweet ending, only to discover there's one character that gets a very literal deus ex machina way out of the whole sad ending.
That little discovery made me really fucking angry with the writers.
Also, deciding that I'd recruit a specific character the second time through that I couldn't recruit doing the good playthrough, revealed just how much content you have to sacrifice just to recruit that one companion. If you do it the expected way, you lose access to 3 other companions, and recurring, developing questlines throughout the rest of the game. Let alone chapter 2 will get no proper resolution thanks to one of those companions not being available.
This game is the best game I've played in years. I love it to death.
I recommend that if you're going to buy it, you wait until they release the inevitable enhanced edition.
The perfomances are spectacular (except Wyll and Halsin; fuck those guys), and the journey is incredible.
But Larian still need to mature when it comes to story-telling and finishing.
Sulphur on 10/9/2023 at 02:38
I just realised that Adam Smith was the lead writer for BG3, and the reason that stuck with me is because he was one of the more fun writers at RPS years ago, and I definitely enjoyed his flavour of article more than any of the current crop (except for the Alices). Good to see people branching out and doing things.
Malf on 10/9/2023 at 06:55
Recent hire Edwin's a good egg, and brings a lot of that old RPS feel back to the site. And to be honest, Katharine's doing a fucksight better job as chief editor than Graham.
Under Graham's tenure, the original owners sold the site, whereupon he let ReedPop run rampant with generic SEO content such as guides, video content (that no-one wants on a site they primarily come to read) and the hideous new looks.
Fuck Graham.
ANYWAY, still playing BG3, and am freshly amazed by it in the light of the Starfield release, which by comparison feels outdated and soulless.
I'd still say that if you've not pulled the trigger yet, it may be worth waiting for the inevitable Enhanced Edition, as the final act still needs a lot of TLC, and the whole evil play-through needs a good going over.
I'll also be interested to see if they release a DM tool for it like they did with DOS2, as at that point, I could see it just becoming huge.
Custom co-op campaigns in this engine with this ruleset? Oh my.
