Let's Play Baldur's Gate III - Early Access

Well, since there are a number of us who are opting to download the Early Access version of Baldur's Gate III, I thought it would be advantageous to open up a thread specific to the fun and potential trials and tribulations that will invariably be had by all.

We can also work through bugs or issues together, so if we find something that seems reportable, we'll have a few experiences to relate to Larian

Plus, relate all the cool stuff we come across while playing through it. Just remember to use the Spoiler tags when discussing any potential plot twists and, well spoilers.

This is going to be FUN!

Adding the link Larian Baldur's Gate 3 forum for Technical Issues: http://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=89&page=1

OK. I'm in.

Downloading........

EDIT: The game won't launch for me.

Also, I created a Larian account just now, but I can't sign in because it doesn't recognize EITHER my username OR password.

This is way too much for first thing in the morning!

I just tried to create a new account and it just tells me that my email is already in use. Every time I try to log in it throws another curve ball at me. Now it wants me to verify my password, but when I do it turns me down because my email is already in use. Without being able to log in, I can't even tell them I can't log in.

I think their server is getting bombed with requests. I tried to establish an account direct through Larian, rather than doing it in game and received a "Server Error" message.

OK, from what I can tell it looks like the issue is when Larian tries to send an email for you to verify your account. I tried logging in, and it did register my user name and password, but indicated that I needed to verify my email. When I requested another email, it erred out.

Did you get a verification email Hagatha? That might be the problem. You probably do have an account, but haven't verified it due to the email snafu. Maybe?

I'm going to check their forums to see what's up. Publishing the BG3 Tech forum link in the main posting of this thread.

I can't search through the threads effectively due to the lack of the account, so sent a ticket directly to Larian indicating that their server is erring out when attempting to send the verification email. I'll let you know if they respond, otherwise will keep checking on the tech forum.


Even though I couldn't verify my email, I was able to sign in and get a game started. I stopped at character creation because I should, technically be working.

I agree that it could be server difficulties. Hopefully it will get sorted soon.

My son played the game for approximately six hours yesterday and only had one crash to the desktop during character creation. No other problems so far.

I'm playing right along. I've died once. The battles are slow and not very easy. It will be good to be apart of your crew.
Hagatha, I hate to say this cause it sounds so stupid, but I couldn't get the game to launch either. Then, I put it on Direct X and held the shift key down while I hit the play button and it launched. Before I was just getting a black screen. I know it sounds more like a cheat than a fix but it worked for me.

I'm ignoring the account issue for now, but I did manage to get the game going. It seems that this is one of those games where you have to run Steam as administrator, so at least that was easy and I should have thought of it right away. Not enough coffee, I guess.

So far, so good. I'm learning the controls. I've died once, too, but I've learned to leap away after my attack. Very helpful.

There was one oddity/glitch at Character Creation. Once I created my High Elf Rogue and hit "Venture Forth", I was shunted into a second character creation page, but one that had no creation menu running along the top. I was able to select gender and appearance but not race or class or anything else. After futzing around with it for a bit, I just hit "Venture Forth" for the mystery character and the game just started with my Rogue.

The one real issue I'm noticing is that the movement controls aren't as smooth as they could be. Turning the camera to a different direction is really sluggish.

I'm impressed with the graphics and I love the fact that I have a Gith character. It'll be interesting to see how the levelling functions once I get to that point.

I do wish that the menus were larger. The tiny script is very hard on my eyes.


EDIT: There is already an update downloading. I wonder it will bring?

That sounds like Larian. I'm guessing we'll be seeing updates everyday with this release. They are usually quite proactive at addressing issues. I'm done with work in any hour, so then I'll dive back into it. So....much....anticipations....argh!

That second screen is a character creation of who you dream about. I guess for the romance thing.
I agree with you about the camera being sluggish. I hate using the middle mouse button. In combat that's difficult or maybe I'm just a slow learner.
I've made a vanilla elf character for now. I wanted to see how things worked before I invested much into it and so far it's a nice game.

Has anyone worked out how to manage the Forced turn-based mode you enter when you get into the temple on the ground after you've landed?

It makes no sense to me. It's supposed to be the mode you use for stealth and avoiding traps, but it seems to me that it makes things much, much more difficult.

How does it work? Any time I try to do anything, I just get killed by fire bombs. It's annoying, because I already know the fire traps are there, but you don't get to move properly to avoid them It limits you to only a meter or two of movement.


EDIT: I wish I hadn't exited the game. Now I can't get it to launch by any means.

I haven't gotten that far yet, still working out what I like for key bindings. It's been a long time since I've played a game with the camera positioning options. Trying to strike a balance between the camera and character movement. The only time I encountered the turn-based mode was when I tried to jump a gap using the space key out of reflex. This is going to take some time to set up the way I like it.

I've been playing today. I didn't make a Larian account and didn't have any trouble getting the game to run.

I can't figure out how to move the camera around

I've had lots of fun playing, and I am the queen of saves, except apparently after I win a big battle and fall to the ground. I must have hit my head cos when I ran into a ship full of evil and died, oh well!

Had to load back from before the big fight, but at least this time I knew what to do, so the fight took much less time

Hagatha, I had to completely reboot my computer once to get it to launch again. After it rebooted, I used the Direct X, hold down shift and hit play method and it worked. I have been using it ever since.
I have not used the Forced turn-based mode and to admit it, I didn't know it existed. I hope you find out how it works and let us know.
Now back to me Does anyone know the secret of the locked door room listed as the "Dank Corridor"? It has several coffins and shoots fireballs across the room. I've tried lots of things, but I've finally given up. It's probably easy as pie, but not for me.

I've managed to get it running again by using the Larian Launcher in the game folder.

Still trying to work out how to get past that room full of traps. I suspect it's something to do with moving objects, but I haven't worked out the mechanics yet.

I guess at some point I have to look at some key bindings, too. I suppose I should also look at the Options to see if I can get the menus to be in a larger font, too. These eyes ain't what they used to be.

But so far, this looks really good. I enjoyed defeating the imps and getting the ship moving. The dialogue options are actually interesting and look as though choices really do set up companion relationships later in the game.

I also love the extra actions you can take in combat. Leaping out of danger/onto higher ground is loads of fun. Fortunately I'm still also playing Wasteland 3 (which is very good, BTW) so I'm in the turn-based headpsace already.

So far, so good, given that it's Early access.

There is a "First Look" about this game on YouTube by Upper Echelon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBdX9Xt4f8Y
Upper Echelon seems to be having the same problem you are with the so-called turn-based play limiting what he is able to do. Some of his fans tried to help him out.
I couldn't really see what was going on in the game -- too dark -- but maybe since you have the game in front of you you can tell what they're talking about.
I like how controls were easier to figure out in older games.
I'm not really impressed with modern games and their fancy lighting effects when you can't control them. That's not fun.

Unfortunately the game will not launch by any means this morning, and I am still unable to log in to my Larian account to look for help. I tried to reset my password, but the code I received by email doesn't work!

Thanks Jenny that helped me find a missing party member. I'll keep scanning and maybe I'll get lucky.

Debra, I'm not familiar with the method. How do I access Direct X this way?

I've been using the Force Turn-Based as a sort of "skip" function, if I'm out of moves and just want the scene to progress without waiting too long. I don't have too many issues with fire-based attacks and traps as I decided to go with a Tiefling as my character. They have a % of natural fire and magic resistances due to their "infernal" backgrounds. Most of my issues have been due to not getting out of the way of an attack. I'm too used to real time combat and keep falling back on those key movements. Got to get back into the swing of turn-based strategies.

I think I figured out my navigation issues. I use a Logitech G910 that has programmable macro keys, and I think the accompanying software is somehow interfering with my key reassignments. That camera is an odd one though. I haven't had a chance to search around, but would certainly like to customize it more as a follow-cam rather than having to control it separately.

This reminds me very much of the camera set up in Neverwinter Nights 2. I had the same issues with that until they tweaked the settings in an update. I'll have to check the forums to see if anyone else is complaining about it and weigh in as well.

Sorry your having so many issues with the login and game start Hagatha. For what it's worth, I haven't had a response from Larian on the ticket I sent regarding their server issue and the verification email. I'm guessing they are up to their ears in "stuff" right now. That hasn't stopped me from playing luckily, although the game save sync function seems to be painfully slow.

I have no problem using the turn-based system in combat.

The issue I have is with the Forced Turn-based system that is first introduced in the temple once you get to the ground. It is literally forced (it's actually called Forced). Apparently it's what you use to detect traps and sneak. The problem is that it severely restricts your movement capabilities to a fraction of what they are in combat. That means you can see the traps, but you don't have enough freedom of movement to avoid them.

I'm sure I'll work it out but first I have to get the game working again.

The issue I have is with the Forced Turn-based system that is first introduced in the temple once you get to the ground. It is literally forced (it's actually called Forced). [/quote]
I understand that much.
Upper Echelon was having the same issue with the "forced" aspect of it and not being able to get where he wanted to go.

Apparently it's what you use to detect traps and sneak. The problem is that it severely restricts your movement capabilities to a fraction of what they are in combat. [/quote]
Yes. Very slow.


Yes. That's the problem.


Good luck.
I'm sorry to hear the controls are so clumsy.

So, I got the game working by holding down the Shift key while pressing Play and letting the game load completely. Someone on Steam had come up with this temporary fix. No idea why it works, but it does.

The trapped section I was in is really tricky. It is possible to cover up some grease traps to stop them from burning when the fire traps trigger. However, the turn-base moves here are the same as they are in combat. The grease traps were slowing movement. My personal opinion is that this is a bit too difficult for the start of the game, before people have really mastered the controls. I think you can avoid the temple, though.

I dodged and weaved and finally got my hands on all the stuff in the various sarcophagi, but in the end just went for the door, burning grease and all.

Finally leveled up, too. Now to see how that works.

I'm glad to hear you're able to work through these controls and figure them out.
You might want to write down what you did in case you have to do it again, or explain it to someone else.
Sure sounds like it.
I would rate ease of use of controls as more important than graphics, but apparently the people who design game engines disagree.


You can also avoid the whole game if the controls are too obnoxious, but that is not the goal when you want to play something. (I've done it though, and will do again. If something is too big a PITA it's not fun, and having fun is the only reason to play a game).


Have fun.

I just found myself in a small room with five undead roaming around outside. I was no match for them, until I blocked the doorway with jars. I guess undead aren't too bright. They just stood outside the door like sitting ducks.

But then I chose Door #1 and got attacked by four guys that easily overpowered my two weak characters. So I opened Door #2, and got overpowered by four enemies, including two spell casters on the ramparts above me. It was an epic fail.

Hey, is there a difficulty slider in the Options? I thought I'd use it to get past this point but I don't see one in the Gameplay options.

Nope, not in Early Access. They have it set at "Classic", which I guess is perceived as the medium setting.

That's too bad. I have no idea how to get past those two areas, one of which is obviously the way out. Maybe I can block the doorways again.

I'm looking at this as a trial run. In any potentially complex game I usually start with an odd character to shake out the controls and features of the game.

In this case, we are for all intensive purposes playing a "Beta" release, which is basically what Early Access is, albeit a bit more finished than most Beta's I've come across.

That's one of the reasons I initially though about waiting until the final iteration was released, but my curiosity got the better of me, and I've got no regrets.

The positives I've seen so far:

~Character creation and development is extensive, depthy and harkens back to early RPG's.

~Dialogue choices actually change the direction of your character's next actions, and others perceptions of you. While there may be an overarching "point A to point B" so far, this doesn't look like fully linear game play. The one piece that seems to be missing is Alignment, the old Good, Evil, Neutral stuff. Hoping that might show up in the later version.

~Voice acting and music are excellent. Location and character graphics are striking. While there are a few lighting issues that pop-up, mainly I think due to video cards not being able to handle the particle resolution, it's a beautiful game so far.

I'm really not that uptight about the controls. Like I mentioned earlier, this is very similar to what was encountered in NWN 2. I think their intent is to give players a strategic advantage over their environment, allowing us to plan better. The new player base is a little different than us old fogies I'll probably take more time of the weekend, when I'm not so strung out from work, to play with the camera options and key bindings.

I agree that many things about this are wonderful, even now. The graphics are great -- even the faces of throw-away, soon-to-be dead enemies are detailed and they all look like they might have been joinable characters in another life, that's how much care was put into them. Even the voicing of random enemies is convincing.

I've had no graphical glitches and once I get the game going it feels solid.

Under the launch menu click the wheel (the settings are there). Then, change it from Vulcan to Direct X. When you hit play be sure to hold down the shift key at the same time. It's worked for me every time and I hope it will for you, too.

I wish you could just move your mouse as a whole; left, right, forward, and backward to affect the camera. This middle mouse is not a good idea.

Debra, I looked at that and the Settings wheel is there, but I only get the General category, and it doesn't seem to have those options. Above the General tab, there is a Settings tab, but I can't interact with it.

Fortunately, using the Shift key while starting the game works.

I agree that the middle mouse can be a pain in combat. I wonder if my new controller would be better? I should check it out.

So far, the game is running very smoothly -- no crashes (apart from the starting issue), no glitching. The dialogue options really do affect what happens. The skill check system is really helpful because you can see which character is going to be the best for the dialogue (so far it's been the cleric).

If this is what the Early Access looks like, we're in for a treat when the full game arrives.



EDIT: Oh, Duh! I just saw the Vulcan /DX options.

Yeah, I think those options were just introduced with a new update. I noticed they were showing your basic game preferences on the intro screen as well, now.

I'm getting better with the camera, it's still feeling awkward though. I have this natural tendency to want to look up by tilting, rather than pulling back to get a fuller isometric view.

I tried the Direct X option, but it didn't work, either. Not to worry. So far the Shift key is doing the trick. I notice that the DirectX option is for DirectX 11, and I have 12. I'm thinking that probably doesn't make a difference, though.

I got through that tough fight in the Temple by retreating and going around to what turned out to be the back door, picking up two new companions along the way. Made short work of them with a little more firepower.

Level 3 now, and my characters all have special class options to choose from. My elf rogue now has arcane skills.

Charisma is obviously a must for most of the skill checks so far.

It might. DirectX isn't backwards compatible anymore.
DirectX 11 came with Windows 7 and 8.
DirectX 12 comes with Windows 10.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX_12
And then they have all the different increments of DirectX 11 and 12 with their own version histories and different small features that don't really add a whole lot to games but can mess them up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX_12#Version_history


Glad to hear you're able to get on with the game.


Charisma has always been hard for me to figure out in games.
I have none of it whatsoever in real life, which may or may not make things more difficult to understand in games.

Nice to see your able to progress through the game now Hagatha

Yeah, that fight in the temple is what did in my Tiefling Ranger repeatedly. I decided to "re-roll" and try out a new character. Going with a more traditional fighter until I get things figured out. Sticking with a Tiefling just to get an idea how they run. One of their sub-races is good at martial skills, so going the sword swinging route this time.

Charisma is an odd attribute. I'm not as familiar with the D&D 5 rules, which I think is the ruleset from which they are drawing. In the earlier versions Rogues needed a fairly high level for Charisma checking when lying, or talking your way through stuff and even when sensing traps or lockpicking. It was also important for Warlocks, because Eldritch casting is different than the usual arcane skills in that their power source is basically hell. So, the Warlock needed a strong personality to deal with the power struggle between demons and such. Interesting thing was that they gimped Tiefling's Charisma in the earlier rulesets, which made it very hard to play a Tiefling Warlock up to about the mid-levels, even though it seemed like a perfect match being that they both have infernal associations. I guess they didn't want an overpowered character type. I'm going to have to try that combo in this game once I get the rules figured out better.

I do like the prominent dice roll attribute and skill check effect, that's so cool

The other very, very cool thing they've put in this game is the ability to climb and jump to higher ground in a fight. The battle outside the walls of the Druid camp would have been a nightmare but there were some handy cliffs to climb and once my crew was up there shooting down, it was no contest.

One of my characters has now been poisoned and I have to find her a cure. I suspect it might be like the poisoning quest n BG, or the Jaheira quest in BG 2, in which you really do have to resolve things within a certain time, so I'm making tracks for what should be the person I need to see, if I can find him in time.

Jenny, I wonder if my DirectX is the problem, then? It seems a bit odd that Larian would make the game for an older version, but I guess when they started that would have been the most recent version. If that's the issue, I'm sure it will be addressed as the game is further developed.

Hagatha I'm so glad the shift is working for you! The specs say Direct X 11, but maybe they will fix that for the higher end computers. Mine has all the higher end stuff except the OS.

All this sounds really good

Just hoping that by the time the full game is released my Win7 will be able to cope

I don't think the full game is being released for about a year or so? So hopefully your Windows 10 will be able to cope.

Yes, about a year.

Apparently the Early Access is about 1/5 of the game, time-wise (20 hours versus 100 hours) so there's plenty of content here to play around with and learn the ropes.

I had fun playing today for a bit. I figured out a couple of game mechanics that I couldn't yesterday. I'm sure there are many many more that I still need to have an "aha"moment with. I can now move the camera, though I find it clunky. The game itself is very absorbing. At least for me. I was about to start a big fight in the tomb when hubby came home, so that fight will be for tomorrow.

Where's the save game folder ?

Phoooey.

Back to the game not launching by any means.

Sorry you're having issues again Hagatha. This might cheer you up a bit.

Larian, berating players for creating boring characters in early access : https://baldursgate3.game/hotfix-3-theft-death-hubris_13/

Too funny. I'm guilty of boring with my High Elf Rogue, and since that ever-so-cute Aristo Rogue showed up (is he a vampire? I think so). I may try something a bit bolder next time.

I guess I will have to back up to Direct 11. I can't even remember how.

They don't give you useful things like save folders anymore.
They unilaterally decided you don't need them.
The closest thing you'll find is probably somewhere out in the imprecise and vaporous "cloud" somewhere where you'll never find it and it won't work properly if you do.

Be sure to bookmark the pcgamingwiki.com website in your web browser. Sometimes they can tell you exactly where a game's save folder is (though not in this case).

Try doing an Internet search for the name of the game and "save folder" and you'll find websites like these where other people are having the same problem --
https://gamesgds.com/baldurs-gate-3-save-file-location/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/

I saw that, Trail. It made me laugh, a lot.

I made a drow.

OK Jenny so what happened to the other character I created? Did she just evaporate? Does this mean we can only make one character for this game no alts? This is new to me.
Would we need to make a new profile for each one?

I found the save game folder on my computer under C:\Users\Owner\Documents\Larian Studios\Baldur’s Gate 3 but only one character the other one evaporated.

With purple hair and demon eye in an orange color??? If not a re-do is in order!

Debra, it may be that for the time being, you can only make one character. I'm sure the full release will have more options.



Because this is a trial run on the game I'm making fairly reckless choices in the dialogue options. I think some of my party members already hate me. They've chosen to throw both "good" and "not so good" party members at you right off the bat, so you can't just assume everyone will be copacetic with the choices you make. I'm waiting for the goody-two-shoes Cleric to go after the Gith.

EDIT: I have managed to get the game running again using Shift. It's about 50/50.

I agree with hagatha and Trail on this one. It's not really a finished game yet -- more like a beta. Early access means you can start the game and take a peek around. But the game isn't really finished yet and not everything works 100%. Don't expect character creation and saving created characters to work 100%. Hopefully they will eventually.

Give the developers time to fix the character creation/saving of the game before spending time making your character again. Otherwise you might very well just lose the character all over again and your time wasted.

I have to say I'm a bit disappointed. IMO creating your own different characters is often the most fun part of RPG's.

Me, too. I spent hours and hours rolling characters for my BG and BG 2 games. I still have a bunch of them on my old laptop. Super-rolls, too, over 90 points and able to be really good multi/dual class powerhouses. It was one of my favourite parts of the game.

Glad your game is sort of working again Hagatha and thank you for the information. I've got to quit thinking of BG3 as finished. The other profile works though. I wanted to try a warlock out and see how that works. Thanks Jenny for your help.

Hey Debra, I'm playing in Windows 10, but the location may be similar. For me it's:

Documents/Larian/Baldurs Gate 3/PlayerProfiles/[folder with the name of your character]/SaveGames/Story

They also do a cross platform and device cloud save if you allowed that in the beginning of the game. I'm thinking that the later version will be similar to other D&D games, where you'll be able to manage multiple character profiles.




Jenny, why are you disappointed? The game offers a good amount of variation in character creation even in early access, and it's going to be expanded for the final release. What characters have you created, have you had issues creating them?

I finally found that Druid I've been looking for, but it would be awfully nice to have a mage in my party as the last fight I had used up a lot of my spell scrolls. In my next go-'round I think I'll make a mage.

Yes. I hope so ... if the Win10 machine does actually get made in time.
[The way the virus spread keeps escalating could easily put it on hold again as my Son in Law is a key worker.]

But I'm sure I'll be able to attempt the game at SOME time

Starting again with a spellcaster type as I ran into an unwinnable battle that would have been fairly easy with a spell caster. Previous saves are safely tucked away on a thumb drive in case I decide to pick up my Rogue again.

Does anyone know how to split items like healing potions? I've tried holding down shift, but it doesn't seem to work.

I think you have to hold Shift and drag the item to the person you want to give to. Not absolutely sure,, though.

So, having made a Tiefling Wizard, I found the darned Mage on the hill. So now I have two spellcasters. I've cleaned out part of the Temple and heading off to the Druid camp to pick up supplies.

A Tieflling Wizard is pretty awesome.

Did anyone else find "Us?" And did it ever actually do anything, or is it just an Easter egg? It was supposed to have claws for attack, but it never used them.



EDIT: Grrrrrrrrr I'm now able to launch the game about 1 in 10 tries, maybe even less than that. Feels like it's going backwards.....

Yeah, I dig Tiefling characters in case you didn't figure that out by now Looks like this rule set gives them some advantages as a spell caster.

I tried having "Us" follow the first go round with my Tiefling Ranger, but it wouldn't follow. After that I just squish it before leaving the ship.

You might want to submit a bug report. Seems like your configuration is really have a time of it getting things going. There's a built in tool for pulling down your system specs to include with the report to Larian if you feel so inclined. https://steamcommunity.com/app/535930/discussions/1/3393916911748815446/

Keeping my fingers crossed that it gets easier for you as they load updates.

There's an active bug in the works related to the spit function. It works for some folks for others it may not work, or may cause you to drop the items.

Thanks guys I'll try the shift+drag thing and see how that works. I hope I don't have the bug.

Trail, I have sent them crash reports and so far I've been told to roll back to DirectX 11.


I'll try sending them my specs and see if that helps them.

Hope it works out Hagatha.


My plans for today are:

1. Take dog for a walk
2. Play Baldur's Gate 3
3. Eat unhealthy snacks while gaming



I haven't played since the last set of updates, so we'll see how it goes with the new character.

Sounds like a great day!

You right click on an item in inventory to split it

My Tiefling Wizard is slaying it. I can hardly wait until Level 4, because apparently you get two Attribute points to spend. 18 CHA here I come!

I wonder if the game will keep giving Attribute points throughout, or if this is a one-time deal? I'd like to get my Dex up a bit, too.

I ran across my first bug this morning. I got stuck in a battle, having just killed 9 out of 10 undead and having got the last one down to about 10% health, I could no longer end my party member's turn and had to start over again.

Yes, if you right click on a stack, while you have the full inventory open, you'll get a drop-down menu that includes the "Split" option.

As I understand it though, you should also be able to split a stack from the quick inventory by holding down the left shift and dragging. That would come in handy during combat if you want to drop a potion to a companion.

What is the quick inventory?

Also, has anyone been able to successfully play without including a fighter in the group?

I'm still having issues with the quicklsots. It seems to be just a jumble of items and spells. It's just that bar at the bottom right of the character information.

I think you do need a fighter. I have not been able to get through the quest to rescue the Druid so far. Even with a fighter, the three Boss fights are too hard for my party, especially the Drow. My characters miss more times than they hit, even without having been hit with a negative spell effect.

In my first try through this, with two Rogues, I was doing better than I am now with a more balanced party. Go figure.



Unfortunately, although the game now starts properly for me, I am experiencing inventory bugs and constant freezing and crashing. I'll give it a rest until the next update.

Hagatha's got it, "Quickslots" I mistakenly called it quick inventory. In previous D&D games like NWN 2 you could split and share your inventory using the quickslots. So far it doesn't look like that works here. Using left shift outside of the main inventory seems to select a particular area of the surroundings.

I haven't tried it without a fighter yet. My Tiefling Fighter makes short work of baddies with his long sword, although he seems to be wielding it great sword, two handed style most of the time.

Yeah, the hotbars/quickslots don't organize real well. Neither do the additional abilities. I've been trying to sort them, but it doesn't hold or they won't move from their slot.

Update: Looks my quickslot organization is working OK now. Still can't split stuff without going to the main inventory, but at least the hotbar is a bit more organized now.

The fights in this game are frustrating. They are long, have few rewards and the level up process is slow. More than often I lose at least one character or even worse I wipe my party.
I have tried mages, fighters, warlocks, and a ranger. The fighter and ranger have worked best. I wander around looking for fights that are at least equal, but they are hard to come by. The quests I get are above me- like the creche. I can't win that for love or money, but then I'm a level 3. How are you guys managing it?

I did get the split to work. At first I didn't have the drop down option (go figure) and then I did the shift drag and that worked. Thanks everyone for help with that.

The most frustrating thing to me about combat is the camera. The isometric view that can be accomplished by pulling the camera up and back leaves everything too small and blocks my view of foes I would normally see at ground level. I also have the constant urge to move the camera forward and up, but that's not available. Makes the muscles in my neck hurt because I'm tensing

The best strategy I've found so far, and this is far from being totally successful (I've also lost entire parties) is avoidance. My last move is almost always having the character or party member jump as far out of reach of the foes as I can. That seems to pull them in, making my next attack more successful, and makes any ranged attacks from foes less successful, because I'm farther away. That said, ranged attacks are the ones that take my group down most of the time.

I sort of feel like there's either a block of leveling/grinding quests missing from this version, or they need to work out the combat leveling system to make it more even.

I briefly saw an explanation of Threatened in Combat meaning that if someone in your party was near the baddie, you had a better chance to to miss, which makes no sense to me. Of course, now I can't find where I saw that so perhaps I misunderstood. I am currently trying to rescue Halsin. I left my fighter in camp because I thought Will would help as that is what the quest said, but am thinking I may need to warp back and get my fighter.

Has anyone found a fighter other than Lae'zel? I don't trust her.

That Threatened in Combat made one of my party members dead in the water for about three turns I think. I had to End Turn to force combat to continue, and only until I killed the foe that was by her did she free up.

I've been reviewing the 5e ruleset, and I think they're using that "Threatened in Combat" as an indicator that the character has failed some some sort of attribute check. The problem is that I don't find anything that specifically states "Threatened in Combat". My best guess is that your character failed a Charisma check and as a result certain attribute are lowered during the battle OR the character failed some sort of skill check against that particular foe, resulting in the same situation. It would be nice if they defined these a bit more... I need to see if they have this laid out in the game's handbook, is there one yet I wonder?

OK, update: Best I can tell, they are using something similar to Threat positioning or squares, at least that's what we called them back in 3.5. It's determined by a couple different calcs, but I haven't found the specifics yet except that they are distinct for each party member/character due to that calculation. Doesn't really help much, but at least now I understand something about what's behind it. Rumor has it that flanking also gives an advantage both ways, so don't get between foes or it could trigger that Threatened state more easily...I guess?

Thanks, Trail. I would like to have a little more info available, that for sure

I've found that the very best tactic in combat is to get up as high as you can, and if you can anticipate a battle, do it before you blast off your first attack (hopefully it's a surprise attack). If there is high ground, the enemy will try to take it first. Getting the drop on them has saved me a few times. Then the jump away tactic will save your life and allow you better ranged chances.

My son played the game for 21 hours and never found another fighter, but maybe he missed something.

The reason I'm focusing on rescuing Halsin is the fear of becoming a tentacled horror. Maybe that's not going to happen for a while and the better plan is to forge outward for a bit. Anyway, once the game is more stable on my machine that's what I'm going to do.

And if I become an Illithid, well, then I'll just conquer the world and all shall fear me.

That's the spirit! Sort of the "when life hands you intrusive brain devouring tadpoles, make lemonade!" thing.

Sorry to double-post, but Larian released a newsletter listing among other things, all the fixes that came out with this last patch and some very interesting info on the state of the Early Access game itself. If folks aren't getting the update and anyone would like me to post the info up here, please let me know. Thanks!

Yes it would be nice if you'd either post it here or provide a link.

Per Larian, the last patch contained the following:

Improvements

• Added polish and bug fixes to several in-game cinematics, such as Shadow Heart recruitment, Astarion recruitment and Volo's Poem. (These will be ongoing throughout EA).
• Added minor text tweaks to various bits and bobs.
• Altered certain dialogue choices for different NPCs.
• Added extra combat tutorial messages to better explain the basics (let us know how you get on).
• Astarion no longer thinks Lae'zel inspected you at camp when she is not in your party. Quite rightly.

Bugs

• Fixed a crash related to having the level up screen open while in a dialog.
• Fixed a crash related to dropping items from inventory.
• Fixed a rare crash that could happen at the start of combat.
• Fixed a possible blocking issue when using the transponder at the end of the tutorial twice.
• Fixed black screen issue when ending tutorial if the transponder was used by any character that is not the main player avatar.
• Fixed a possible blocking issue when reassigning characters to others players while in combat.
• Fixed an issue with lip sync not working correctly.
• Fixed several localization issues.
• Fixed combat UI not updating correctly when someone joined during combat.
• Fixed party shared gold and items not always working in dialog checks.
• Fixed summons from NPC’s getting stuck in combat.
• Fixed levelled up characters having duplicated racial and class features.
• Fixed not being able to level up to level 4 on a Zariel Tiefling Cleric of Light due to cantrip selection.
• Fixed text cut-off issues in several interfaces.
• Fixed party members getting stuck trying to open doors they run past.
• Fixed listening in to dialogs getting stuck in multiplayer, also causing players not being able to save.
• Fixed camp button being broken after closing the camp window with escape key.
• Fixed "end the day" multiplayer message being broken if a player closed it with an escape key.
• Fixed certain quests not having map markers.
• Fixed certain secret entrances incorrectly showing up on the map.
• Fixed incorrect player portraits in the lobby screen as more people joined.
• Fixed Cambion wings and Tiefling tail animations.
• Fixed map not centering correctly on player characters in smaller subregions.
• Fixed health values not being synced correctly to the Baldur's Gate 3 twitch extension.
• Fixed superiority die not showing actual values when using abilities such as Menacing attack.
• Fixed minor issues with hair, skinning and textures on several models.
• Fixed lighting issue in owlbear cave.
• Fixed not being able to walk over corpses.
• Tweaked ragdolls to reduce the possibility of models exploding (or glitching. Idk how to explain it, but it’s spooky).




Enjoy

I still can't play. Waiting for the NEXT next update, I guess.

Thanks, Trail.

Well those are certainly important. Tail and wings have got to look right.


It's probably got to download many many GB of data before it's ready to play again.

The tail and wing fixes were probably "low hanging fruit" or a quick easy fix for a player annoyance while the Developer was already in that code module fixing something else.


I don't envy today's game developers attempting to build a stable product on the Window's platform. Microsoft has taken to releasing minimally tested patches almost every month forcing users to be beta testers. Combine that with the high number of PC configurations available, plus console support and you pretty much have to use your customer base as a test bed. It's not the best business model, but fairly common in many programming/application realms given the aforementioned.

I imagine they're similar to Lara Croft's pony tail.
The proper animation may not sound like a big deal, but it can sure make a difference when it's animating correctly.


No kidding.
Each version of Windows seems worse for games.

Waiting is okay with me. I have lots of games to play.

Maybe replay one of the first two Baldur's Gate games with a mod you haven't tried before.

Actually I did play both BG games recently. It was a fun meandering trip down old roads. I still even have a couple of characters rolled and ready to go right here on this computer.

At the moment I also have Death Stranding and Wasteland 3 on the go, both good games. Plus about 100 games I bought and forgot about.

You won't be getting bored any time too soon, hagatha! I've been meaning to ask how your Razer laptop is working for your games...

Draclvr,

The Razer has been great. I love it.

BG III is problematic but it is Early Access so that is to be expected. BG 1 and II are in a very tiny resolution and are unplayable on this computer until I find a solution for this. I have uber-characters ready to go!

Otherwise, everything has been great. I got Red Dead Redemption running beautifully (not played yet) and Death Stranding, smooth as silk. I can see this being my laptop for a long time. Might get myself a gaming desk top at some point, or maybe, dare I say, an X-Box.

Hagatha, there are widescreen mods for Baldur's Gate I and II.

Here's a website where you can download a widescreen mod.

Thanks, Marian. It turned out to be operator error, as is so often the case. I can get back to this at some time. Right now Wasteland 3 calls.

They really need to get a handle on that camera. I've gotten stuck in rock and walls too many times now, and during battle yet.

I personally need to get a better grip on reviving my party members as well. So far, the only thing that's worked for me is the "Help" action, after battle is done. I haven't been able to use rejuvenate scrolls or invoke any of the cleric's powers to do it. That said, I have found the Cleric's spell attack that shoots a bolt of holy light to be devastating to foes. I'm also coming across a bug where doorways seem to be viewed as further distances than the code realizes. Was trying to attack a foe on the opposite side of a doorway, totally in line of sight. My action meter was completely full, and kept getting the message "too far". Somewhat infuriating, because it resulted in the death of my wizard - poor guy didn't stand a chance. Ah well, more updates on the way I suppose.

Other than that gripe and moan session, I'm actually having quite a bit of fun.

I've had enemies shoot my party through a solid rock wall. I, on the other hand, am not able to return the favour. Seems a wee bit unfair.

Must be those new "quantum phasic arrows"

Yeah, I've come across some definite balance issues in foes vs party members. While the spell capable party members have some really decent attacks, those that rely on, or eventually rely on melee or standard ranged attacks always seem to be out-gunned by their foes. That first big group of looters you hit in the temple seem to have way more movement capability than my fighter or Cleric. I could only cover maybe half the distance they could, which made it a constant dance of attack, back-back off, get smacked, back-off, attack, back off, rinse, wash, repeat. That doorway issue was a real stinker though. My character was only about 1.5 meters from the foe on the other side of the open door, as was my Cleric. My fighter could have easily closed on him and ended the round, but the game kept telling me he was too far to attack.

Ah well, I still need to get that stinkin' Illithid worm out of me head.

I've had some kind of bug (I guess) that happens if I get close to a wall. (Say I'm lighting a candle near the wall.) I then click behind the character and the scene enlarges and I get some kind of clipping type incident and it tells me I need to jump. The only way to fix this is to use "O" and then I'm able to turn around and go back. That camera thing has to get fixed or that pathing thing or both!

I haven't played for a few days. I'll check back after the next update.

My problem with the Temple fights is that breaking the war drums doesn't work, and neither does the Silence spell, so you always get mobbed instead of being able to commit a nice, quiet murder.


Since I was in the mood for some BG-style play, I loaded up Pillars of Eternity. I'd forgotten how much fun that game is. I haven't played the DLC, so that's something new to look forward to.

Hagatha, I'm glad you're finding other games to while away the hours with that you really like

Pillars of Eternity is good.
Did you try the 2nd one?
I liked the first one better, but both are good.

I did play the second one, but I didn't finish it. I do find the combat in these particular games to be quite grueling at the start so they can be a slog through certain parts. Nonetheless, they are enjoyable. Challenging, I guess.

Is it possible to find the Druid in the Early Access BG3?

I've found that to be true of a lot of RPG's.
Even a miserable little rat can kick your butt.
Sometimes I can find save game editors for games (especially older ones) where you can boost your stats slightly -- enough that you can survive more than one rat before having to find somewhere to recharge.
I understand that I can't expect to go to the more dangerous places right from the start.
But really, a little rat in a barn can beat you when you at least have a club to whomp it with?

Yes, the Druid is in the game. It's possible to blow it, though, and not have him in your party.

Thanks Hagatha. I'm just not finding him I guess.

He is in the Temple in the goblin village, but

Thanks again! I thought I was in the Goblin Village, but I was in the Blighted Village. To be fair there were a lot of Goblins there though!!

So true. I remember my first BG game, and those rats in the shack in Candlekeep, whacking them with a quarterstaff, I think.

I decided POE is too exhausting for me right now, so I have regressed all the way back to Oblivion for some really easy gameplay.

Back to BG 3 in a couple of days to see how the land lies, though.

Yeah, I remember if you play a noble in Dragon Age, one of your quests is to clean the rats out of the pantry. The dialogue from one of the character's accompanying you makes fun of the RPG rat thing after they start to attack by saying, "like the beginning of every bad adventure tale"

Still can't launch the game.

The awful thing is that I can't launch Oblivion, either. And Pillars of Eternity sometimes doesn't launch.

I have this awful feeling it's the new laptop, not the games. And my chat session with Razer does not give me confidence...

Oh no.
Since more than one game is affected, do you think it might be
because of a change in Steam rather than the games?


I'm going to guess it's not the fault of the laptop or the individual games.
There might be something "new" that the Steam client is doing before starting
the games though, if all the games are from Steam.


I remember some game with rats in a barn, but don't remember which game it was.
The rats whupped my characters' collective behinds, and they weren't even very big rats.
So embarrassing.

Jenny, I had trouble launching Red Dead Redemption a while back, too and now Oblivion and BG3. They all do exactly the same thing. The game starts to launch, then there's a black screen that flickers with a smaller screen popping up in the left corner, the game music starts, and then the game crashes. I'll try something from GOG to see what happens.

EDIT: You may be right, Jenny. I downloaded Oblivion from GOG and it's running just fine, fingers crossed. RDR may be a special case anyway because of its requirements.

Too bad I bought the Steam edition of BG3.

I tried to do an Internet search for those symptoms, and it does seem to
be a problem caused by the Steam client -- not just with Windows but also
with Mac and Linux.
It's not a new problem either, with some posts going back to 2017 and earlier.
Maybe different issues cause the same problems starting games though.

Suggestions include newer drivers, older drivers, verifying your files,
unencrypting your files, and various other things that people
claim don't work.


At least you know the game itself works and you're able to play it.
And that's the game you wanted to play right now anyway.


Is that the first one or the 2nd one?
The requirements for the first one don't look that high for your Razer.
Of course there might be some other reason it won't start other than
not having the listed requirements.


Hopefully Steam will fix the problem with their Client.
Or at least produce an easy workaround or alternative way of starting their games.

Have fun playing Oblivion.

Hagatha bought Red Dead Redemption 2.

I still think the Razer should be able to handle it.
Maybe there is some sort of check before starting the game though,
and laptop versions of drivers don't pass the check even though the
laptop itself would have no problem playing the game if the check weren't
blocking it.

At least Oblivion is working.

I've been running BG3 along with a number of other games through the Steam client without problem.

That issue you mention sounds suspiciously like a conflict related to resolution and / or a graphics driver or a DirectX issue.

Personally, and this is just me, I would uninstall and reinstall BG3 to see if that helps. I know you installed an earlier version of DirectX, which normally shouldn't cause an issue, but if a reg entry went wonky associated with that, it could play havoc with your display settings.

Also, just checked my settings and I'm running DirectX 12 and haven't hit any major issues.

Just for grins you might want to run dxdiag, just to see if anything pops up in the problem box under Display.

Hey thanks everyone. It all seems a bit too much.

I will say that the GOG version of Oblivion runs perfectly today, whereas the Steam version has not launched even once since I first tried this morning. That's about all the sleuthing I'm able to comprehend at the moment.

But I will try a fresh BG 3 install just to see if that helps.

EDIT: It seems that the only games that crash on load are Steam games. So BG3 is still a no-go.

I'm sorry I haven't been able to find a fix for the 2020 version of this Steam launcher
problem (as opposed to the 2018, 2016, and 2014 iterations of the problem).
Some people are able to use a sort of workaround, starting the games
directly from a game exe without the Steam launcher, but most Steam
games can't be launched that way.

At least you have Oblivion to play.
That was lucky that one of the games you wanted to play was on GOG
and didn't have a launcher problem.

Bummer, sorry to see that. If you haven't tried a reinstall on the games that are crashing, another couple quick things to try if you haven't yet is clearing the download cache and verifying the game files integrity.

For download cache clearing, click on File, Settings, then Downloads from the Settings menu. Hit the Clear Download Cache button towards the bottom of that window. Now exit and right click on the offending game in your library, bring up properties, go to the Local Files tab and hit the Verify Integrity of Game Files button. Sometimes that helps if a file was damaged or was deleted for whatever reason.

There's also the last ditch option, which is uninstalling the Steam Client, doing a quick disk cleaning and then reinstalling Steam. I haven't personally had to do that, but I'm assuming as long as you have all your appropriate login information available, it would go OK?

TM

As an FYI, BG3 just got a slightly under 4GB patch today:

Community Update #10, Romance, Numbers and Cinematic Tweaks

I have reinstalled BG3, and verified all the files (I do that for all my games any time there's an issue) and it's still not launching. I uninstalled the Steam version of Oblivion and installed my GOG version, which runs perfectly even though it's linked to Steam and is using the same game saves.

It does seem to be Steam-related.

I'll try cleaning the cache and uninstalling Steam (my Steam creds are hard-wired into my brain via a mnemonic from my past so I never have trouble getting back in).

Sounds like BG 3 is coming along. I'm eager to get back in, but that said, playing Oblivion is like taking a brain holiday, which is quite nice.

Agreed. I look at Oblivion like that bag of candy that everyone hides in their underwear drawer.

Oblivion is the game I recommend to anyone who wants to start playing RPGs. You can literally level up just by walking around, sneaking around, chatting up the people you meet, selling things, and committing burglaries. Heck, running away nets you Acrobatics points.

"STOP! YOU VIOLATED THE LAW! Pay the court a fine or serve your sentence! Your stolen goods are now forfeit!"

Sorry, couldn't resist. Lost count of the number of times I heard that line in Oblivion

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming

Well I have both Morrowind and Oblivion installed practically permanently .. Just so I can dive in and dabble whenever the mood takes me

The strategy involved in games like BG3 can get a little tiring at times, it's definitely nice to do a "rock'm sock'm" combat action/adventure/rpg to break things up.

I like to get lost in Morrowind too, there's something about the musical themes that really add to the immersion. Been trying to get the Morrowind: Rebirth mod to run, but it's been problematic on Win 10. Thinking I might have to revamp my Win 7 box to get it to play.

Maybe we should have a "Let's Play Elder Scrolls" thread running to break things up... Hmmmm.

Not a bad idea if you have enough people wanting to take a break from BG3.

Why not?

I'm going to download BG 3 again tonight and see if my fresh install of Steam and BG 3 will result in the game launching properly.

(EDIT: And since there have been a few less than polite words uttered every time I try to launch the game, the Spousal Unit has suggested simply buying the GOG version if the current effort fails. But he's very naughty about stuff like that. He also recently convinced me to buy the least practical red brocade shoes you can possibly imagine . )

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


EDIT: The game is now working, after a new install of both Steam and BG3. It still seems a bit flaky during the loading process, with some ominous flickering in the background, but it is launching now.

After playing Oblivion for a few days I'm once again struck at how amazing the graphics are in BG3, as well as the voice acting.

I am stuck on the Druid rescuing quest. I've managed to get him out of his cage, but the three bosses I have to deal with afterwards are just too tough for my low-level party even with all the tricks and spells I've tried. That Druid boss just takes a minute or two to take us all out. I even climbed up on the rafters above and tried to snipe her out, but that didn't work and I thought that was my best shot at it.

Does anyone have any hints as to how to deal with these guys?

And the burning question: is there really an urgency to get the wormy things out of your head in a certain amount of time? Or can I happily play on, ignoring that Druid for the time being while I level up some more? I don't want to restart the game again for fear of getting sick of the opening chapter before the game even comes out.

I'm guessing that it's a forced sense of urgency to push you to play on. Betting that you could play the whole campaign up to the end before your teeth fallout and your brain liquifies. I mean in the game. (cuz my teeth already fell out and my brain is well on it's way to liquification)

Good one!

I hope so. But I do remember that quest in BG1, where you get poisoned and really do only have a limited time to get the two halves of the antidote.

Or maybe BG3 allows you to become an Illithid. That would be cool, though the game would be over soon with a party of Illithids running amok.

Merchant: "All my wares are authentic. Really." Me: "Submit to my will, worm."

OK, looks like there's a very big patch on the way that not only fixes some technical issues, it also changes some of the character dynamics...Why? Because Larian Studios actually listens to player feedback! Got to give them credit.

Because of the extent of the changes though, any save games you have will be rendered unusable.

Here's Sven himself giving a broad summary of the changes that were made. I will post up a listing for those that may not get the Larian newsletter. It's quite extensive.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLYoJdMQmGc&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=LarianStudios

Does that Owlbear look amazing or what!

That's good news. I think I'm going to give it a rest for a few months, though, because I don't want to get sick of the opening chapter before I've even got the full game.

When it's finished, it's going to be great.

EDIT after watching:

That Owlbear reminds me of Gryphons in Witcher 3.

I appreciate the changes to party member reactions because they were all starting to be annoying, like Jaheira in BG 1.

So it's pretty much assured that the early access won't be getting any new classes or levels. Level 5 has been confirmed as the cap at this point, and classes are still in the works until the final release. My guess is that pretty much all the game mechanics are being represented in the first 5 levels and existing classes.

Not really surprising since it is an early access, which is never a fully flushed out or polished game. They've been pretty proactive releasing patches up until mid-December. I'm betting they are ramping everything up for the full release now. It is odd that they haven't released a newsletter in awhile, they must be tremendously busy getting ready for the final.

So, here we are, almost a year later.

I've loaded up the game with all its updates, so I have to start a new character. This time I'm a Drow Druid. Why not?

I''m noticing a few things that may or may not simply be an affect of the amount of time that has passed, but it seemed to me that the opening has changed, with fewer enemies to battle on the way to the Nautilus controls. Apart from that, nothing else is appaarent, so it's full steam ahead with what's available so far in the game.

Once again I'm struck by how difficult I'm finding the combat. As a veteran BG player I'm a bit suprised by that (I can take Drizzt with one hand tied behind my back! ) And I'm finding the controls to be difficult to master, but that's just a learning curve. I hope I can get farther into the game this time -- last time I got frustrated by the combat and gave up. Since there's no difficulty slider in the Early Access, I'm stuck with what is.

Keep us posted. My son bought the game last year but after having played it a for a while after that, he now wants to wait until it's complete.

I was going to wait, too, but I'd finished Days Gone, played The Outer Worlds for a while and got bored, and so here I am looking for another adventure.

Well, I hope it's enjoyable.

Yes. But I have to say that the interface is still not wonderful in some respects. Party AI/management is a particular bugbear. You can start combat only to realize that half your party didnt follow you up a ladder or through a door.

But so far, enjoyable again, though I've encountered nothing new so far.

Hopefully people are still giving them useful feedback about the game including the issue you mention - that would be a trifle annoying.

"You must gather your party before venturing forth."

I sort of miss that. And it would be VERY helpful in this context.

Okay, well, let's not play BG 3

I'm having monstrous issues with the game now, issues that didn't exist in the game's earlier incarnation. I've been trying to play all day and got nowhere fast. It's a mess.

Uninstalled, and wake me up when the full game is released. If it ever is.


EDIT: Lairan did send me a long list of things to try, but some of them suggested to me that this game will not play on anything but very new high end computers. I mean, it was suggested that I turn all my settings down from High. If my Razer can't handle the game, then most people's computers won't. I mean, I can play RDR2 with all the settings on High, and that game has some pretty steep requirements. And anyway, I fail to see how graphics settings would have anything to do with followers not following...

When I feel like messing around with the game I'll work my way through the suggestions.