WotC Baldur's Gate III Announced; Powered by D&D 5E

CapnZapp · Jun 12, 2019

Having the PHB content is the obvious goal here.

They wouldn't want to exclude any PHB character option unless they have to for technical reasons.

But expecting more than the PHB (in the basic start offering) comes across as wildly unrealistic.

I can't come up with a single reason why they would want to give away for free when it's an easy sell if the game does well. And the game certainly does not need more options than the PHB to do well, it's not as if anyone is going to look at all those classes and races and say "blech, that's hardly any choice, I think I'll pass on this game"

Paul Farquhar · Jun 12, 2019

gyor said:
I guess we will see, although we know they are not forcing it out early.

They seem to have a pretty tight deadline for November 2019 and two years is a pretty short development time for a game of this type.

Paul Farquhar · Jun 12, 2019

CapnZapp said:
Having the PHB content is the obvious goal here.

They wouldn't want to exclude any PHB character option unless they have to for technical reasons.

But expecting more than the PHB (in the basic start offering) comes across as wildly unrealistic.

I can't come up with a single reason why they would want to give away for free when it's an easy sell if the game does well. And the game certainly does not need more options than the PHB to do well, it's not as if anyone is going to look at all those classes and races and say "blech, that's hardly any choice, I think I'll pass on this game"

Actually, I do know a couple of people who where put off Pathfinder: Kingmaker because they where intimidated by the large number of choices at character creation, so more is not necessarily better.

And there is an alternative way of looking at microtransactions: if the non-PHB races and subclasses are sold separately then you don't have to pay for options you aren't interested in playing.

And we know that it is statistically proven that the majority of players will choose to play a male human fighter called Bob...

gyor · Jun 12, 2019

https://youtu.be/-GPX69dNWDI

It might just be the PHB options, it's hard to tell.

gyor · Jun 12, 2019

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pcgamesn.com/baldurs-gate-3/leveling-system?amp

5e style leveling is in, but it's causing them headaches.

"Dungeons and Dragons’ leveling system is too slow for Baldur’s Gate 3"

"Nevertheless, Larian is making a D&D game. Therefore: “We wanted to stick to it. So we’re figuring out ways of letting you still feel that you’re progressing in a meaningful manner, but in a videogame manner.”"

Sacrosanct · Jun 12, 2019

I understand why there is skepticism, but I think it's unfair skepticism. I think people are subconsciously conflating D&D movies with D&D video games. I.e, D&D movies have a pretty bad track record. They mostly suck. So I think people are assuming a D&D video game will also suck based on that. However, D&D video games have a much better track record. The only one that really sucked in recent history was Sword Coast Legends. All the rest were either OK, or actually pretty good. The original BG games, Torment, Neverwinter Nights (and many of the expansions), Temple of Elemental Evil were all at least pretty decent. Excluding off genre games that just used the license of course.

gyor · Jun 12, 2019

Sacrosanct said:
I understand why there is skepticism, but I think it's unfair skepticism. I think people are subconsciously conflating D&D movies with D&D video games. I.e, D&D movies have a pretty bad track record. They mostly suck. So I think people are assuming a D&D video game will also suck based on that. However, D&D video games have a much better track record. The only one that really sucked in recent history was Sword Coast Legends. All the rest were either OK, or actually pretty good. The original BG games, Torment, Neverwinter Nights (and many of the expansions), Temple of Elemental Evil were all at least pretty decent. Excluding off genre games that just used the license of course.

The last one that was any good was Storm of Zehir expansion to NWN2, every single one has been aweful.

So I understand the Skeptism, but I look at what has been said, and look at Larian's rep and that makes me hopeful.

Gladius Legis · Jun 12, 2019

gyor said:
The last one that was any good was Storm of Zehir expansion to NWN2, every single one has been aweful.

So I understand the Skeptism, but I look at what has been said, and look at Larian's rep and that makes me hopeful.

Other than the Neverwinter MMO (which was more or less meh) and Sword Coast Legends (godawful), both of them from rather subpar developers, has there been any other D&D video games since NWN2? I recall D&D video games as a whole just dying off after that ...

CapnZapp · Jun 12, 2019

gyor said:
5e style leveling is in, but it's causing them headaches.

"Dungeons and Dragons’ leveling system is too slow for Baldur’s Gate 3"

Given how even official adventures eschew the xp guidelines, and basically level up after specific chapters, I am having trouble seeing what the problem is.

Or hand out twice the default monster xp, or whatever.

What I'm really interested in is, didn't those old AD&D games, including Baldur's Gate, follow the official xp amounts?

I can't recall ever hearing this complaint against 5E before. That you level up too slowly.

Did you level up faster in AD&D?

Parmandur · Jun 12, 2019

Gladius Legis said:
Other than the Neverwinter MMO (which was more or less meh) and Sword Coast Legends (godawful), both of them from rather subpar developers, has there been any other D&D video games since NWN2? I recall D&D video games as a whole just dying off after that ...

Several games, though not RPGs strictly speaking. Idle Champions of the Realms, Tales of Candlekeep, etc.