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

[Safir]

Bioware shifted it to a more female-oriented model. Instead of the anti villain vampire lady finding it impossible not to love you because you're such a hero man(Quest for Glory 4) you get stuff like falling in love with the secret heir to the throne, who just so happens to be a mild mannered british twink(Dragon Age).

The vampire lady was written by a woman, too. I think the problem is the new writers aren't opinionated enough, it's all either designed by committee or at "best" (worst) has some pooner's fetish in it. Disney Wars killing off the emoboi is a good example of women getting btfo'ed, none of the wine aunts in charge had the balls to fight for their fapfiction.

Why do dwarves get no love? It's always fun to have a surly dwarf in the party.

I love dwarfs. In addition to everything else, they live in dungeons, which is the most impressive environment to create on the cheap in a video game.

While I think you nailed the issue of Dwarves not fitting the twink brigade, I also think Dwarves are now considered "problematic" because they are machoistic, racist and manly. The only way to make them palatable is making them either constantly mocked or making them even more Reddit than every other character.

Dwarfs are highly collectivist, industrious, long-lived, and aren't into bestiality, it isn't really conducive to human-style muh patriarchy or fuckboyism. Yeah they have a King but he's not you, you're a miner, or scout, or smith, or brewer, your marriage is arranged; if you mistreat your wife, you will shame your clan and bring a civil war on it or get dispwned. Come to think, the King's life was not much different back when he was a prince, he just had better equipment. Any residual problematicity and lack of wokeness is easily remedied by allowing the player to play as a surly female dwarf.

This would also explain why Baldur's Gate 3 seems way more streamlined and casual compared to the older games.

counterpoint:

Savescum is a core mechanic in Larian games. The Divinity games are full of encounters and events where the only practical way to not get your ass kicked is to savescum & cheese.

This is the opposite of casual (women-friendly). I don't hate this style of game, I loved the shit out of Dark Heart of Uukrul. I hate respecs and build planning, really everything that requires reading the walkthrough. It's not fun to plan the story with the walkthrough in hand, then act it out on the computer. Larian games have been full of it since Divine Divinity, the very first dungeon had a "you have to be this tall" fight.

I do not think these are insurmountable issues, just that they require a lot of work to make a romance that feels proper. Essentially, it would require developing a dating sim to fit inside the rest of the game.

The dating sim is the problem, they will always suck. It's a very contrived type of game that will not work well in a story that wants to be taken seriously.

Having a set romance in a game (or at least highly limited choices) will 99% of the time be superior to "buffet" romance that is designed from the getgo to have no effect on the plot.

This. Just have the protagonist fall in love with a preset character and write it well. It must be properly set up, it must be epic. IRL, a man's whole life is leading up to the moment he meets the woman he loves (or vice versa). It's hard to do in a game because the game is vastly less dense on content, and even harder to do for several romance options in a single story.

 

[Male Idiot]

It's not so much as the romance itself but the insane focus modern devs invest in it at the detriment of virtually everythin else in the game. Somone here said the devs have spent an entire year fine-tuning the romance in BG3 while barely touching the gameplay side.

And in the end the biggest issue of Bioware romances is that, it being multiple choices and optional, removes the entire contribution of such relationship in the narrative. You don't have a build up since, at best, you are only locked behind gameplay time/progression between each encounter. Events involving the companion in relations to it being a romance are incredibly limited, and the relationship itself ends up being a checklist of "I fucked X" that will have a tiny bit of feedback in the ending (sometimes).

Having a set romance in a game (or at least highly limited choices) will 99% of the time be superior to "buffet" romance that is designed from the getgo to have no effect on the plot.

Those are usually easier to do with a pre-written main character, like... you are Mario, Zelda, and you get Princess whatever her name is.

Much harder to do well with OC Donut Steel.

 

[11 Herbs and Spices]

The dating sim is the problem, they will always suck. It's a very contrived type of game that will not work well in a story that wants to be taken seriously.

They worked in ME games because of the pacing of the plot and the focus on romances being passion of the moment things, getting worse about implementation as the series progressed. I still like ME's view on them most of you picking someone you like most and it just happens. It's not deep for RPG mechanics or requiring picking specific dialogue paths that you would need to look up. Yeah, it's far too simple because you just pick the nice/paragon option every time and you get the girl. But anything more deep than that gets mired in doing too little to elevate it above that but trying too hard to convince you it's authentic. Or it does too much that the rest of the dev cycle wasn't spent on way more important matters. Pick-a-gf systems just don't really need to be far more than that because it will absolutely always be to the detriment of every other part of the game.

I'm not opposed to being a set romance for the PC but current studios will force you to be a queer or go after an ugly brownoid.

 

[Ser Prize]

@Safir I thought the QFG games were made by a Husband WIfe duo, weren't they? The fifth game had a bit of the dating sim shit and it pulled it off pretty well, IIRC. So the format itself isn't unsalvageable.

BG3's problem is it's appealing too hard to fujos and faggots.

I don't remember you being able to fuck your companions in Baldur's Gate I & II, and somehow, those games have a pretty good reputation.

You could rather famously fuck half the party members in BG2. Hell if you fucked the emo out of Aerie you end up having a kid mid-expac.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Those are usually easier to do with a pre-written main character, like... you are Mario, Zelda, and you get Princess whatever her name is.

Much harder to do well with OC Donut Steel.

If I had to do it I'd just limit the choice to like 3 characters tops (with them changing gender according to the main character) and have them all be major NPCs with very limited windows for interaction (though I'd have made sure the player knows when he can interact). That way it's actually feasable to make it well written. Pretty much what Witcher 3 did.

 

[Male Idiot]

If I had to do it I'd just limit the choice to like 3 characters tops (with them changing gender according to the main character) and have them all be major NPCs with very limited windows for interaction (though I'd have made sure the player knows when he can interact). That way it's actually feasable to make it well written. Pretty much what Witcher 3 did.

Yeah, but the Witcher guy was his predestined character, not a random OC.

It is much easier to write a fitting romance for Gerald? Gerard? You know him already. Donut Steel can be anything. At the very least you need to bland it down or do a hundred forked romanced.

 

[Snekposter]

It is much easier to write a fitting romance for Gerald? Gerard? You know him already.

Geralt, and his poor love interest....

"Geralt, why are you drunk and covered in someone else's blood?"
"So, anywaysh, I was playing dice pokin' a' the tavern wen I decided to head home afore it got too late..."
"That doesn't explain the blood..."
"An' I ran inta a couple o' robbers trying to mug summun who turned out to be a vampire, an' I had to kill 'em all!"
"Let's... get you cleaned up, shall we?"

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Yeah, but the Witcher guy was his predestined character, not a random OC.

It is much easier to write a fitting romance for Gerald? Gerard? You know him already. Donut Steel can be anything. At the very least you need to bland it down or do a hundred forked romanced.

Geralt is very much an OC donut (I don't mean by being a ripoff, just being kinda generic and very gary stu) and a good chunk of the people who played 3 didn't read the books and play the previous games.

 

[Male Idiot]

I mean he is a known character. The game writers know who he is. Like Captain Titus or Mario or Zelda whatever that elf twink is.

So if you know your player is Mario, you can make a romantic scene in a pizza restaurant. It is just easier to fit than "X race (wo)man of unknown alignment" which usually means a romance that is a hookup or bland.

You can kind of try to get around it by limiting it to alignment/sex but twitter will be giga butthurt over it.

 

[There Is Light At The End]

We'll see in 3 weeks

 

[There Is Light At The End]

Double posting some strangeness, you can select whether your character has a cunt or a dick

 

[Michael Wade]

Double posting some strangeness, you can select whether your character has a cunt or a dick

Yeah I got exposed to that on twitter.

They better hope the writing and murder choices are good becouse im not buying this shit if its mid garbage.

Apparently this game is still pissing off the woke crowd though, so I am keeping an eye on it.

 

[SiccDicc]

Apparently this game is still pissing off the woke crowd though, so I am keeping an eye on it.

That is not a good barometer as everything pisses them off. It is quite literally never enough.

 

[JimiHendrix]

maybe i'm just a massive pervert but i'll be brave and say the following: i like sex.

if you give me a bunch of different party members, i'm probably going to bang them if you give me the option to do so. it's not something i actively look for in a game, but if the game offers it it's certainly not going to bother me?

 

[Sniperwoof]

maybe i'm just a massive pervert but i'll be brave and say the following: i like sex.

if you give me a bunch of different party members, i'm probably going to bang them if you give me the option to do so. it's not something i actively look for in a game, but if the game offers it it's certainly not going to bother me?

No, I think nudity and fanservice are almost always net positives. Most people who loudly protest this kind of thing are trying to signal to their political allies how outraged and righteous they are rather than any personal moral objection.

I'm trying to have fun, I don't give a fuck about accumulating political good boy points or updoots from moron's on reddit.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

No, I think nudity and fanservice are almost always net positives. Most people who loudly protest this kind of thing are trying to signal to their political allies how outraged and righteous they are rather than any personal moral objection.

I'm trying to have fun, I don't give a fuck about accumulating political good boy points or updoots from moron's on reddit.

I like fanservice in games as any other guy, but usually sex just doesn't look good and is treated in a very childish manner. I might as well just watch porn.

 

[Estate]

I played a bit of EA and I enjoyed it so far. The game is fun and while the build autism is low, compared to Pathfinder games, I found the tactical play quite impressive.
I see all the shit about bear fucking or dick customization as cheap marketing, appealing to the degenerates for easy word of mouth. It's whatever and nobody should really care about it since it's not forced on you and you can literally murder hobo any and all.
That being said, I will fuck the living shit out of that big red horny bitch, first chance I get.

Anyway, once the game is released and I get to play a bit, I'll come back to this thread, to share with my fellow kiwis talks about builds, party setups, funny encounters and clever solutions to certain fights. No fucking story spoilers though!

 

[ZMOT]

They worked in ME games because of the pacing of the plot and the focus on romances being passion of the moment things, getting worse about implementation as the series progressed. I still like ME's view on them most of you picking someone you like most and it just happens. It's not deep for RPG mechanics or requiring picking specific dialogue paths that you would need to look up. Yeah, it's far too simple because you just pick the nice/paragon option every time and you get the girl. But anything more deep than that gets mired in doing too little to elevate it above that but trying too hard to convince you it's authentic. Or it does too much that the rest of the dev cycle wasn't spent on way more important matters. Pick-a-gf systems just don't really need to be far more than that because it will absolutely always be to the detriment of every other part of the game.

I'm not opposed to being a set romance for the PC but current studios will force you to be a queer or go after an ugly brownoid.

there's nothing wrong with that, because characters, if they're written as actual characters, will have their own likes and dislikes. an evil character won't fall for you if you're a goodie two-shoe (unless it's written as some corruption thing), a good character won't if you're a murderhoboing asshole etc.

the main issue was that ME's choices at best are puddle deep, only got worse over time, and bioware always being lazy fucks going with "eh just enable everything for everyone" (also the reason most choices don't really matter).
properly done you'd have actual decisions, down to which companion actually becomes and stays a partymember, and your longterm decisions having an effect, but that doesn't work if you want to save on budget not writing redundant/missable content and is written where choices make no difference 5 minute later just to get a funny soundbite and +1 good/bad boy points.

EDIT:
that's not limited to bioware, they were just the posterboys for it (not like there were or are many players in the field, unless you wanna include jrpgs etc.)
the other issue is the genre itself, no one likes to notice missing an important flag only 20 hours later (if your are that lucky) just because the devs in charge were too dumb to make it obvious enough or let it flow organically. so better play it safe or make it boringly obvious, which then in turn drags the game down either way. same reasons plots are often more linear than not, where you can't really be good or evil - you're still supposed to save the day, but you're allowed to be a cunt about it. sometimes. that's it.

 

[SIMIΔN]

Varric is one of my favorite fantasy dwarves

He's the most skytouched (read, whitewashed) Dwarf in the setting. Worships human gods, dresses and acts like a human. Compared to the ultratraditional dwarves of Orzimar, he's a big surprise.

I prefer Ogren, he's unapoligetically dwarven, but they actually let the flaws play out realistically .
Sigrun - a plucky manic pixie deathseeker. A fun character that explores the harsh reality of their society. BTW, thinking about it, it is insane sending females on suicide missions into the underdark, what with how they can be turned into broodmother birthing machines so easily.

 

[Mega Black]

Compared to the ultratraditional dwarves of Orzimar, he's a big surprise.

I find the fact that he isn't traditionally dwarven interesting, but ultimately it is more the fact that he is a bit of a scoundrel but a total bro at the same time that makes me like him.

BTW, thinking about it, it is insane sending females on suicide missions into the underdark, what with how they can be turned into broodmother birthing machines so easily.

I always got the impression that very few people actually knew about broodmothers. And dwarven society is so far on the back foot when it comes to the darkspawn they probably can't afford to be picky about who they send into the deep roads.