D&D General Baldur's Gate 3 will now be releasing August 3rd on PC and September 6th on PS5, increased level cap, race & class details and more

[Jfdlsjfd]

The most sur

I mean, who is more guilty, a child, clearly under the age where they could understand what death is or permanent consequences or even really right and wrong, or an adult who psychotically murders a bunch of a children for stealing a genuinely insignificant and meaningless amount from him? I'm going go with the latter by... oooh... infinity? There's no "suicide by PC" for a bunch of 8-10 year olds. There's only child-murder by a psychopath who could have pressed the non-lethal button at any moment!

While I won't comment on your general point and it won't make anyone change his mind, Arabella tried to steal the Idol of Sylvanus, their most sacred item and a key part of a ritual they believe is the only way to save them all from imminent death, so I'd say it's not, for the druid, something "insignificant and meaningless", especially in a world where religion is objectively true. Whether the reaction is an overreaction or not, given the age of the offender, might not change, but the success of Arabella's plan, barring improbable main character involvement to save the druids and thieflings, will result in all of them being dead by goblins.

Also, the druid that decides on the death penalty is obviously a villain scheming with the Shadow Druids and you can expose him as such, which is kind of evidenced by her behaviour in this scene.

Ironically, I find it difficult to side with druids as a good playthrough because of this scene and the fact that the Druids fail to react to it strongly.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Whether the reaction is an overreaction or not, given the age of the offender, might not change, but the success of Arabella's plan, barring improbable main character involvement to save the druids, will result in all of them being dead by goblins.

What on earth are you talking about? At the time the PC arrives at the grove, the druids already have the idol back and the ritual is proceeding as planned.

The PC has nothing to do with it.

All the PC can do is influence how they treat Arabella.

Murdering a child is unarguably an overreaction - it literally doesn't matter what they did. It doesn't make any sense on either a moral, ethical or even purely, coldly rational basis. Even if the child did doom them, killing the child serves no purpose, and it's not like they're going to do it again. The only failure here was of the druids to protect their idol.

Ironically, I find it difficult to side with druids as a good playthrough because of this scene and the fact that the Druids fail to react to it strongly.

That doesn't make the slightest bit of sense. Good has never been about retribution or crying over spilt milk. Your objection seems to be entirely on the basis of crying over spilt milk.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

What on earth are you talking about? At the time the PC arrives at the grove, the druids already have the idol back and the ritual is proceeding as planned.

I might be misremembering, but I was under the impression that she was arrested trying to steal the idol (the mission Mol later tasks you with). I wasn't alone in understanding that since Arabella | Baldurs Gate 3 Wiki states that :

Arabella can be found at the Emerald Grove, inside the Druid Grove. She is held prisoner by Kagha, the Druid in charge during Halsin's absence. Apparently, Arabella attempted to steal the Idol of Silvanus, and got caught while doing it.

Which is entirely consistant with the druids having the idol back, since they arrested her and presumably got the Idol back.

It is totally possible that I misunderstood or misremembered, as did the Wiki, and I am willing to take my corrrection back if I am incorrect in my reading of that scene. No need to be agressive (what on earth are you talking about?), and thank you for remembering me why I left the board. I will resume my leave.

There is a boy that stole an insignificant locket in another scene, but I think the druid "just" wanted to beat him in a totally different incident.

The PC has nothing to do with it.

At no point did I imply the PC had anything to do with it?

All the PC can do is influence how they treat Arabella.

Exact.

That doesn't make the slightest bit of sense. Good has never been about retribution or crying over spilt milk. Your objection seems to be entirely on the basis of crying over spilt milk.

Saving a band child murderers isn't my definition of Good and I wouldn't say killing children is crying over spilt milk, but I am not going to argue with you over the definition of Good. Or split milk.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Saving a band child murderers isn't my definition of Good and I wouldn't say killing children is crying over spilt milk, but I am not going to argue with you over the definition of Good. Or split milk.

OH I SEE.

The issue is you said:

Ironically, I find it difficult to side with druids as a good playthrough because of this scene and the fact that the Druids fail to react to it strongly.

And in the context of her stealing the idol, I understood this to mean you thought they were insufficiently harsh!

But yes the druids are druids of Sylvanus, who are Neutral rather than Good, though Halsin is clearly Good and without his influence they have reverted to rather frown-inducing ways.

 

[Demetrios1453]

There is a boy that stole an insignificant locket in another scene, but I think the druid "just" wanted to beat him in a totally different incident.

It wasn't a druid demanding the locket back, but one of the mercenaries.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

It wasn't a druid demanding the locket back, but one of the mercenaries.

Oops, sorry. You're right of course.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

They're making their Big Patch #1 in time for the console release. The usual turn-around for console patch certification is, like, ephemeral, but the PS5 version comes out in a week...

Larian, where's the PC patch! You need us to test it before the consoles get it! Give! pls

 

[Gladius Legis]

I imagine the Big Patch #1 is going to be aimed mostly at Act 3 because that is where by far most of the issues are at.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Patch is live.

 

[Ondath]

They're making their Big Patch #1 in time for the console release. The usual turn-around for console patch certification is, like, ephemeral, but the PS5 version comes out in a week...

Larian, where's the PC patch! You need us to test it before the consoles get it! Give! pls

Man, you should've wished for a million dollars, because Patch 1 is out now!

Lots of bug fixes, some apparently target spoiler-y quests not appearing in the journal so I'm guessing that's Act 3 stuff.

Also, they made Gale's romantic intentions clearer, and also added a way to let him down nicely. The fact that they did that, but did not change the rate at which romance scenes trigger (which I'm guessing would be pretty easy to patch), makes me think that the general horniness of every companion character is more or less intended.

Apparently Patch 2 is also quite close, and Swen had said that this one would have more feature improvements, so I'm still debating keeping my playthrough on hold until that one comes out.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

That's a good amount of fixes, most of which I cannot read, because I've been too busy to play.

Apparently Patch 2 is also quite close, and Swen had said that this one would have more feature improvements, so I'm still debating keeping my playthrough on hold until that one comes out.

Last I saw, #2 is mainly the performance patch, and the feature improvements for it are a maybe.

I am curious to see the inevitable Digital Foundry comparison on what they've had to change for the PS5 version... let alone the XboxS version that they said they can get out this year, now that Microsoft gave them permission that it doesn't have to have all the same features as XboxX (that is, split-screen co-op).

 

[Ondath]

Finally descended from the hill at the start of Act 3 towards Rivington and my framerate immediately dropped like a potato. Are there any specific settings that I should lower? I enjoyed how pretty the game looked on my mid-range PC, so I don't want to lower everything. But I also don't know which settings particularly cause issues, so there's that.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Finally descended from the hill at the start of Act 3 towards Rivington and my framerate immediately dropped like a potate. Are there any specific settings that I should lower? I enjoyed how pretty the game looked on my mid-range PC, so I don't want to lower everything. But I also don't know which settings particularly cause issues, so there's that.

I dunno about lowering settings, but if you have a Nvidia card, make sure you turn DLSS on in BG3's video settings - it defaults to off, and I kid you not but even on quality it nearly tripled my FPS in the areas of Act 3 where my FPS was terrible. I've never seen DLSS do anything like that before.

On the down side with the patch, my loading times and alt-tab times are really significantly noticeably worse.

 

[MarkB]

I dunno about lowering settings, but if you have a Nvidia card, make sure you turn DLSS on in BG3's video settings - it defaults to off, and I naughty word you not but even on quality it nearly tripled my FPS in the areas of Act 3 where my FPS was terrible. I've never seen DLSS do anything like that before.

On the down side with the patch, my loading times and alt-tab times are really significantly noticeably worse.

I've noticed textures taking significantly longer to load in post-patch. Before, it might be half a second before a character's outfit resolved to full resolution at the start of a conversation, now it's a couple of seconds. There's even some noticeable pop-in when walking around, things like the waypoint glyphs take a moment to res up.

 

[Ondath]

I dunno about lowering settings, but if you have a Nvidia card, make sure you turn DLSS on in BG3's video settings - it defaults to off, and I naughty word you not but even on quality it nearly tripled my FPS in the areas of Act 3 where my FPS was terrible. I've never seen DLSS do anything like that before.

On the down side with the patch, my loading times and alt-tab times are really significantly noticeably worse.

It seems that my graphics card doesn't support DLSS (GTX 1650), I'll mess around with the settings I guess.

Funny thing is, I had bought this laptop in 2020 because my old one couldn't run BG3 EA properly. Then on EA, this machine was a beast. Sadly it looks like time caught up with it...

 

[MarkB]

BG3's downloading a large update this morning despite having already done so last night after the patch went live. Unannounced hotfix?

 

[Scribe]

BG3's downloading a large update this morning despite having already done so last night after the patch went live. Unannounced hotfix?

I got it as well, not sure. I also found that I'm critically short on space and need to clean my PC up.

 

[MarkB]

I got it as well, not sure. I also found that I'm critically short on space and need to clean my PC up.

I did find that the game seemed smoother today than yesterday. Textures resolved more quickly, and a couple of spell effects that had stopped showing properly were back.

 

[Scribe]

I did find that the game seemed smoother today than yesterday. Textures resolved more quickly, and a couple of spell effects that had stopped showing properly were back.

I'm now in Lower City, my laptop weeps and nothing loads smoothly anymore

 

[SkidAce]

I'm now in Lower City, my laptop weeps and nothing loads smoothly anymore

So I can manage my expectations...what laptop are you running and what the graphics settings?

(only if you have the time, I'm heading to work.)