Baldur's Gate III Announced - ...and it's coming to Google Stadia and PC

[Just Some Other Guy]

It absolutely does. Are there any other CRPGs that let you save mid-combat or mid-dialog?

If there aren't others, does it really matter? (For the record, tons of games let you save mid combat) Any game with skill checks/rng/percentages has a potential for save scumming. It's up to the player to decide how much control they're willing to give up to the game to determine the outcome of a situation.

So when people complain about save scumming, they're really complaining about the game enabling them. Same with like FFXII gambit system. When people complain that it plays itself, that's because the game enabled them to go full autistic in setting up their party AI to do so.

I save scum. But whatever, it's my game and I'll do as I please. I don't sit there and then go "aw man, look what this game makes me do".

 

[Ser Prize]

scifi is less appealing to coomers, unless you limit your aliens to be green humans or something.

Cowards.

 

[SIMIΔN]

I'm loving this game, despite what some say, Act II is at least as good as Act I.
The only bug I've encountered is an exclamation mark that pops up twice on Wyll (just fast travel to the inn again, and it disappears)

If anyone thinks the dice roles take too long, just press 'Esc' and it skips to the result

The game also screams at you with 4-5 options that basically boils down to save the child either through dice rolls or class abilities. It's like they really don't want you to stand by and do nothing.

Save the child, then help a goblin horde butcher his people. If he survives, then you get a quest with him in Act II.

If there aren't others, does it really matter? (For the record, tons of games let you save mid combat) Any game with skill checks/rng/percentages has a potential for save scumming. It's up to the player to decide how much control they're willing to give up to the game to determine the outcome of a situation.

Yes, and the inspiration system gives a non-savescum way to reroll crucial dice. My 16 constitution warlock managed to beat a boss (Ketheric jnr) through masochistic levels of alcohol poisoning and 'inspiration'. If you are at that pub, be sure to read the book of "Drinking games", it makes the jolly drinkers creepy as fuck.

 

[Spunt]

It's kind of the way of things, though. There's a fight at the end of Act 1 where if you make certain dialogue choices, every enemy in the surrounding area is suddenly all on top of your ass and the fight is fucking impossible. Manually go through and fight all of the enemies on your own, though, and suddenly they filter in one after the other to wherever you're holed up, rather than all being on your ass, and it's ten-thousand times more manageable. There are lots of ambushes that, if you just savescum, are way easier if you know they're there.

One thing that really irks me with the writing is how passive aggressive the narrator can get when you act evil. It’s especially apparent from my perspective playing both a good half-elf acolyte bard and an evil lolth-sworn criminal drow warlock side-by-side.

The narration passive aggressively chides me for letting some idiot tiefling kid die after she got caught stealing a valuable idol; like no shit bitch what part of “lolth-sworn criminal” did you miss? Why should I care about the kid’s safety when her parents are clearly poor and I know that said idol she tried taking is going to be as good as mine regardless after I kill enough prissy Druid hippies.

I'm sorry, but is it me, or does this game practically beg you to save scum?

All these things are very much in the spirit of the series, at least. Playing an evil party in BG1 and especially BG2 was basically a challenge run. You got worse quest rewards, paid more for gear, were locked out of some of the best loot. There weren't even enough evil NPCs in the base game to form a full party, and even when they added another in the expansion you would have to play a thief to get a functional evil party because otherwise there would be no way to open locked doors and chests (where all the loot was) or avoid getting merked by the traps that were absolutely fucking everywhere. (Beamdog added one in their enhanced edition but we don't talk about the NPCs they added). Most quests had no evil solution and forced you to be a goody two shoes. The devs clearly never intended it to be played that way which makes you wonder why they bothered including the evil companions and quest outcomes they did put in there.

BG1's combat was so lethal and RNG-based that you had to savescum constantly. A single crit could turn a party member to paste beyond hope of resurrection in one hit from full HP. BG2 had many, many ambush situations that you could counter if you knew where they were. You could cheese them by moving to a point just before the fog of war would reveal the enemies then just lob AoE spells at the edge of your vision. Because the NPCs hadn't spotted you, they would often just stand there as they got obliterated by Ice Storms and Cloudkills. There was one otherwise very tricky fight in the Firkraag dungeon where you could set your party up in the rooms surrounding the corridor the enemies would spawn in, hurl Cloudkills into the room, close the doors (NPCs couldn't open doors) then loot the container that caused them to spawn, cackling at the combat log as a party of adventurers spawned into your gas chamber and shrieked their last clutching at their throats and chugging all their health potions in a futile attempt to survive.

Fun times.

 

[ZMOT]

I really want to go on some unhinged rant on some things to a hyper-autistic degree, but I think I'm just going to say that I despise how games are designed with it in mind. I know it's hard to design persistence when everyone will just reload when they hit a spot they don't like. I'm probably the worst one here at it, because I fear softlocking myself or worse having content locked out because of a choice I didn't even know about.

People here shit on Disco Elysium but it's exactly what I'm looking for when it comes to a game that actually makes failure fun.

I wouldn't say they're designed with it in mind, more like most devs are lazy and cheap, so only ever have one route - or one route with detour.

Cowards.
Ver archivo adjunto 5283350

you say that, and then you have to wade through a deluge of warframe porn...

 

[Baraadmirer]

Yes, and the inspiration system gives a non-savescum way to reroll crucial dice. My 16 constitution warlock managed to beat a boss (Ketheric jnr) through masochistic levels of alcohol poisoning and 'inspiration'. If you are at that pub, be sure to read the book of "Drinking games", it makes the jolly drinkers creepy as fuck.

My bard with deft fingers kept throwing the drink over his shoulder with everyone none the wiser while watching the fucker drink himself to death.

 

[Manul Otocolobus]

I am such a dirty save scummer. At this point I think I need a fucking 12 step program.

I played for 8 hours, and barely clocked 5 hours according to the in-game time register. I can't help it! It is one of the very few things in my life where I express an OCD trait is when I'm gaming.

It's a good thing one can't save scum in real life. I'd be the only 20 something that is 80 years old.

Obsessive save scumming needs to be added to the DSM-5 TR. My suggested treatment would be aversion therapy. Everytime you reload, you get a shock, and each time you are shocked it gets stronger. Eventually you'd have people losing bladder control over even thinking of reloading.

My bard with deft fingers kept throwing the drink over his shoulder with everyone none the wiser while watching him drink himself to death.

Bards For Life!

On another note, I don't think my DLC loaded correctly. I haven't seen any of the in-game items yet.

On yet another note, is there any advantage to avoiding fighting ones way out of situations? I don't fight, I get no exp. I fight, I get exp. It seems like it encourages you to fight it out.

 

[Evil Peter Griffin]

Paladins not having a deity felt really odd. For someone whose entire existence is devoted to a deity, it would have been neat to have dialogue options about it that isn't just "muh oath".

In 5e it's all about the Oaths. Paladins don't need to believe in a God just their Oaths. I think they wanted to move away from the stereotypical Good guy Paladins of old editions and have them be more flexible with their beliefs.

 

[Baraadmirer]

On another note, I don't think my DLC loaded correctly. I haven't seen any of the in-game items yet.

Have you been to camp yet? The in-game items should be in the Traveler's Chest.

I am such a dirty save scummer. At this point I think I need a fucking 12 step program.

I think 40+ hours in I've made roughly 450+ quicksaves, so you're not the only one.

On yet another note, is there any advantage to avoiding fighting ones way out of situations? I don't fight, I get no exp. I fight, I get exp. It seems like it encourages you to fight it out.

You should be getting XP if you talk your way out of combat encounters. You're not seeing XP numbers float above your head?

 

[Manul Otocolobus]

Have you been to camp yet? The in-game items should be in the Traveler's Chest.

They finally showed up, I had to repair my install, a file was damaged.

You should be getting XP if you talk your way out of combat encounters. You're not seeing XP numbers float above your head?

Oh. Nope, not that I noticed. Is it the same XP if you fought them or do you get more for fights?

Eh, those guys probably didn't need to live...

 

[Kaktus Kompot]

As such, most failed skill checks are... just failures. There is no other branch they can put you on, because there's two.

I really want to go on some unhinged rant on some things to a hyper-autistic degree, but I think I'm just going to say that I despise how games are designed with it in mind. I know it's hard to design persistence when everyone will just reload when they hit a spot they don't like. I'm probably the worst one here at it, because I fear softlocking myself or worse having content locked out because of a choice I didn't even know about.

People here shit on Disco Elysium but it's exactly what I'm looking for when it comes to a game that actually makes failure fun.

One example of beneficial failed rolls that I noticed is that when you let the torturer from the goblin camp enact his deep ♂ dark ♂ fantasies on you and fail the skill checks, you get a permanent blessing that boosts your stats when your HP gets low. But, being a bit of a compulsive player, I can't help myself from reloading a save when a check boils down to miss game content / don't miss game content. I agree that the Disco Elysium system that could give you both bad and good (and often funnier) results from failing rolls is great and more RPGs should implement it.

 

[Baraadmirer]

Is it the same XP if you fought them or do you get more for fights?

Can't say for certain.

One example of beneficial failed rolls that I noticed is that when you let the torturer from the goblin camp enact his deep ♂ dark ♂ fantasies on you and fail the skill checks, you get a permanent blessing that boosts your stats when your HP gets low.

You also get Loviatar's Love if you pass all the skill checks, but I suspect it's because my bard hammed up the pain.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

If there aren't others, does it really matter? (For the record, tons of games let you save mid combat) Any game with skill checks/rng/percentages has a potential for save scumming. It's up to the player to decide how much control they're willing to give up to the game to determine the outcome of a situation.

So when people complain about save scumming, they're really complaining about the game enabling them. Same with like FFXII gambit system. When people complain that it plays itself, that's because the game enabled them to go full autistic in setting up their party AI to do so.

I save scum. But whatever, it's my game and I'll do as I please. I don't sit there and then go "aw man, look what this game makes me do".

I wanted to post in A&N some Kotaku shit about "I save scum and that's okay", but in the case of pure RNG it's just bad game design. In a roleplay you have a human GM who will cater to the results so nothing too severe happens. In a game you might have fucked yourself on content and cool loot based on a coin toss.

 

[Male Idiot]

I am not sorry for doing this. She can't hit a thing.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

I wanted to post in A&N some Kotaku shit about "I save scum and that's okay", but in the case of pure RNG it's just bad game design. In a roleplay you have a human GM who will cater to the results so nothing too severe happens. In a game you might have fucked yourself on content and cool loot based on a coin toss.

But it's not "pure rng".

It's okay. Just reload the quick save. Nobody's going to judge you. Just don't get salty if you feel compelled to do so lol.

 

[Oddjob OTP]

On the point of save scumming, a lot of the checks are unreasonably high. I'm ok with shit like DC 30 to tell the act 2 boss he's a bitch and should surrender but explain shit like the DC30 to see the Cursed Twig Blight ambushes in Act 2 (where they use their ambush round to run into melee and when they die they explode for 6d6 necrotic )

Semirelated, fuck whoever thinks you need to be 5 ft from a trap to detect it and made it so that the game doesn't pause or issue a stop command to movement when you actually find one.

 

[Mr.Miyagi]

The inspiration system (and how often they get given out) along with the "karmic dice" (if those do work on checks and not just combat, it's a bit vague) seem like they want to disincentivize save-scumming, but since there's not any "seed" system or equivalent, there's nothing stopping you from just reloading to pass every feasible check in the game, outside of how much time you wanna burn. It's a bit strange.

Semirelated, fuck whoever thinks you need to be 5 ft from a trap to detect it and made it so that the game doesn't pause or issue a stop command to movement when you actually find one.

"Oh hey, a chest tucked away in this hillside pass", click to loot it, character steps on four explosive traps on the way there. Guess I should've known there were traps and switched to turn-based mode.
It's funny how some traps have obvious models where you don't even need a character to find them, but then others are just totally invisible until you're already standing on it like an actual landmine. They feel kind of like a time-waster since, if you blow your party up, you can just go to camp and rest up if you're hurting, and it feels like I'm getting absurd levels of food everywhere. Throwing a lit candle on a gas vent and causing an infinite explosion that made my GPU cry was fun.

 

[God of Nothing]

All these things are very much in the spirit of the series, at least. Playing an evil party in BG1 and especially BG2 was basically a challenge run. You got worse quest rewards, paid more for gear, were locked out of some of the best loot. There weren't even enough evil NPCs in the base game to form a full party, and even when they added another in the expansion you would have to play a thief to get a functional evil party because otherwise there would be no way to open locked doors and chests (where all the loot was) or avoid getting merked by the traps that were absolutely fucking everywhere. (Beamdog added one in their enhanced edition but we don't talk about the NPCs they added). Most quests had no evil solution and forced you to be a goody two shoes. The devs clearly never intended it to be played that way which makes you wonder why they bothered including the evil companions and quest outcomes they did put in there.

just have saves for days

BG1's combat was so lethal and RNG-based that you had to savescum constantly. A single crit could turn a party member to paste beyond hope of resurrection in one hit from full HP. BG2 had many, many ambush situations that you could counter if you knew where they were. You could cheese them by moving to a point just before the fog of war would reveal the enemies then just lob AoE spells at the edge of your vision. Because the NPCs hadn't spotted you, they would often just stand there as they got obliterated by Ice Storms and Cloudkills. There was one otherwise very tricky fight in the Firkraag dungeon where you could set your party up in the rooms surrounding the corridor the enemies would spawn in, hurl Cloudkills into the room, close the doors (NPCs couldn't open doors) then loot the container that caused them to spawn, cackling at the combat log as a party of adventurers spawned into your gas chamber and shrieked their last clutching at their throats and chugging all their health potions in a futile attempt to survive.

I was personally a big fan of buffing myself to untouchable levels before casting sunfire on all the peons thinking ganging up on me was a good idea.
and i'm a fan of using skull traps for that scenario myself

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

my "badass Bard. dont like how mustache look in this game but you cant be a Bard without facial hair.

 

[God of Nothing]

Ver archivo adjunto 5284791

my "badass Bard. dont like how mustache look in this game but you cant be a Bard without facial hair.

why can't anyone model facial hair in a way that doesn't make it look like some weird wig?