Baldur’s Gate 3 Update Shines Light on the CRPG’s Future
Aug. 29, 2023Baldur’s Gate 3 Update Shines Light on the CRPG’s Future
Baldur’s Gate 3 outlines developer Larian’s immediate plans for their highly successful entry into the CRPG genre.
Larian Studios took to a community update to shed some details on their plans for Baldur’s Gate 3. The team has been hard at work in the month that the game has been out, implementing tons of hotfixes, as well as a major update called Patch #1. This time, they look to the future with Patch #2 which is “just around the corner” and talk about what the community is calling “cut content”.
One of the biggest pain points of the community right now is in terms of game performance. While Acts 1 and 2 are relatively light on the system resources, Act 3 is a different beast. Since this chapter introduces Baldur’s Gate, as well as the outlying town, it is a massive jump in terms of size and scale. As Larian puts it, the city is ambitious “Technically, narratively, and in scope”. From what we’ve seen, we tend to agree.
Due to its humongous size that’s packed full of content, performance arguably struggles. SomeSteam Deckusers also report that Act 3 is borderline unplayable on the handheld. Patch #2 will bring tons of performance enhancements that should ideally help out in this regard.
While the update is going to improve performance across the board, the team is focusing the majority of the efforts on Act 3. They also tease that they are working on some new technology for Baldur’s Gate 3 that will bring about even more improvements, but that isn’t quite ready just yet.
Baldur’s Gate 3’sPatch #1which was released last August 25 was an extremely beefy one. It fixed over 1,000 bugs and had tons and tons of pages worth of notes. Larian acknowledges the bugs and other creepy crawlies, particularly in Act 3, and is quickly addressing them. Their focus here is all of the “blockers” which are usually game-breaking or cut off entire segments of content.
One other point that Larian addresses on Baldur’s Gate 3 is what people are calling “cut content”. In the grand scheme of things, game development is an iterative process, and Baldur’s Gate 3 is no different. It goes through dozens, if not hundreds, of revisions, changes, and new ideas, many of which do not get included in the final game. Sometimes remnants of these “cut” content still reside in the game’s data files, which users have begun to systematically data mine.
Larian categorizes “cut content” to be one of three things.
The first type relates to content that doesn’t properly trigger due to bugs, like companion reactions to decisions in the world. The second, and perhaps the biggest, is related to the game’s ending and epilogue. The bottom line here is that there are things that Larian purposefully did not include because they felt it did not work or align with their overall vision. However, they have heard fans loud and clear, as they are starting to expand the game’s epilogues. Specifically, they will touch uponKarlach’s ending.
Lastly, we have content that was never actually planned, or considered at one point but removed somewhere down the road. They put the Upper City as an example, though we will not venture forth on this to avoid spoilers.
It looks like overall Larian is very happy with the success of Baldur’s Gate 3, and considers it to have enough content for weeks and weeks of playtime (except those 300 folks who finished it over the launch weekend). It is very ambitious in size and scope, and affords player agency and creativity thanks to the many decisions the developer had to make.
Looking to the future, the developer makes commitments to fix any bugs encountered by the community. They will also listen to player feedback, as they know that the game means a lot to the players.
One piece of feedback they heard was that online multiplayer games that the host decides to continue on their own were quite… problematic. There would be up to four different Tavs (the defaultcharacter) running around, causing a ruckus. Enter Withers’ Wardrobe of Wayward Friends, a literal closet where you can keep extra co-op players when their masters are doing stuff out in the real world.
Larian is also looking at implementing some systems that will allow players to change their appearance after finishing up in theCharacter Creationscreen.
The highly successful turn-based RPG took the video game world by storm. Despite reaching over400,000 playersin its first four hours, andalmost 900,000soon after, Larian has confirmed thatthere are no DLC plansfor the game at all. This shouldn’t come as a surprise for those who follow the developer, as their previous games were already considered “complete” as of release, with some polish and free overhauls done post-launch.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is alsoreleasing on PlayStationquite soon, as well as theXbox Series sometime this year.
Be sure to visit theBaldur’s Gate 3 Wikifor more on the game. We also have variousBuildsandGuidesavailable for every type of player!
In other news, check outSoulframe Gameplay Reveal Shows “Elden Ring” Inspiration, andPath of Exile 2 Shows Off Some Explosive Gameplay of the Druid, Warrior, and Huntress.
Auberon
Writer at Fextralife. I really like vanilla ice cream.
