It sounds crazy, but we haven’t spoken since last year! My, how you’ve grown. Let’s hope this year will bring brighter cheer. You might have noticed the Larian Twitter handle mentions Patch 4 brewing, and it’s been that way since the launch of Patch 3. It’s taken a while, but we’re finally ready to talk about it… soon.
Patch 4 is right around the corner. We can’t be more specific than that at the moment, but look, today we announced the Panel From Hell 2! Mark your calendars, on February 17th at 10am PT we’re going back to Hell.
Following the success of last year’s live streamed event, the Panel from Hell is making its chaotic return. Featuring Principal Rules Designer of Dungeons & Dragons Jeremy Crawford, Creative Director Swen Vincke and guests Nick Pechenin, David Walgrave and more, next week’s stream promises to reveal a heaving assembly of news and updates for Baldur’s Gate 3 – including the biggest patch note ever forged in the fiery pits of Larian.
Panel from Hell 2 will also unveil the ways Larian is meeting the challenge of BG3, along with a peek at newly improved cinematics, Tieflings, spells and cows, oh my! And wrapping up the show, we'll be live streaming the latest content from Baldur's Gate 3's biggest update yet.
As for the patch itself, this amount of changes is invariably going to invalidate previous saves. That means saves prior to Patch 4’s release will not be compatible with Patch 4.
That said, we’re again branching out with the same solution as before. If you’re already accustomed to this as a hardened Patch 3 veteran, then simply follow the same steps as before and skip the text at the bottom of this post, because it’s not new text and it’s quite long.
Hopefully, once you’ve tuned into the Panel From Hell 2 you’ll have better clarity on what’s inside, but also a new yearning to re-roll. Hmmmmmmm!
How to keep playing on Patch 3:
The secondary branch will be the previous version, but the primary branch (default download) will be the latest version. To access the secondary branch, do the following:
Right click on the game in your Steam library
Select properties
Click the BETAS tab
In the list under "Select the beta you would like to opt in to", select patch3
Close the properties menu
If you do the above steps, you are all set to continue your current playthrough.
If you are unsure whether you want to update to the new patch, we recommend disabling automatic updates now, so that you have the choice to manually update to the new patch or opt-in to the secondary branch once the patch arrives. To disable automatic updates follow the below steps:
Right click on the game in your Steam library
Select properties
Click the Updates tab
Select "only update the game when I launch it" in the drop down menu
You can already move to the beta branch now, if you’d like to protect your save file and continue on the current version. Note: save files are not ‘deleted’ from your computer; they’ll remain in your folder, but you’ll only be able to load saves specific to their respective versions.
Important note: If you want the option to go back to the previous patch, it’s best to make a new in-game profile and backup your local saves from the previous patch. You can do the following before or after updating to the latest version:
Before starting a new playthrough, create a new profile by clicking the profiles button on the top left of the main menu. All your progress in the new patch will then be saved under this profile while your old saves are safe in the previous profile.
As an extra safety measure, you can manually back up your savegames: Go to /Documents/Larian Studios/Baldur's Gate 3/PlayerProfiles/ Find the folder that is named after the profile you used in the previous patch Copy and paste this entire folder into a backup location
If you want to revert back to the previous patch, follow the instructions above and activate your old profile
If you have somehow lost your progress by overwriting savegames and want to restore your old backed up savegames simply copy over your old profile folder into its original location again: /Documents/Larian Studios/Baldur's Gate 3/PlayerProfiles/ Sync back to the patch2 beta branch with the instructions above and load your old savegames
We know that having to switch branches may be annoying, but this is part of early access. All the feedback we’ve been gathering from your adventures and posts will go right into these patches, so next time you play it’ll feel like an experience you’ve helped to create.
Note: Branching unfortunately won’t be available on Stadia for the moment.
PANEL FROM HELL 2
Mark your calendars*, on February 17th at 10am PT we’re going back to Hell.
Following the success of last year’s live streamed event, the Panel from Hell is making its chaotic return. Featuring Principal Rules Designer of Dungeons & Dragons Jeremy Crawford, Creative Director Swen Vincke and guests Nick Pechenin, David Walgrave and more, next week’s stream promises to reveal a heaving assembly of news and updates for Baldur’s Gate 3 – including the biggest patch note ever forged in the fiery pits of Larian.
Panel from Hell 2 will also unveil the ways Larian is meeting the challenge of BG3, along with a peek at newly improved cinematics, Tieflings, spells and cows, oh my! And wrapping up the show, we'll be live streaming the latest content from Baldur's Gate 3's biggest update yet.
*An object of the pre-lockdown era, when the passage of time still had meaning and wasn’t simply the amorphous period between Netflix binges.
Hotfix #6 Now Live!
Hello everyone,
We have just released another hotfix for you!
The game camera is no longer obsessed with showing you the ceiling all the time! We've also fixed some issues with pathfinding and issues with the Larian Launcher.
Thank you for your support tickets, Reddit, Larian Forum and Steam posts on these issues! We appreciate your support during Early Access so much!
Changelist:
Fixed several issues related to ceilings and walls being visible incorrectly
Fixed pathfinding issues that were introduced recently
Fixed the launcher not starting up correctly anymore on specific hardware configurations
Hotfix #5 Now Live!
Hello everyone,
We have just released a hotfix for you!
With this hotfix we've addressed the issue with scrolling in your inventory, so you won't have to worry about not being able to see all your sweet, sweet loot. We've also fixed a crash related to re-arranging party members and a crash related to objects fading in and out.
Thank you for getting in touch with us about these issues! We appreciate you being with us on our journey through Early Access!
Changelist:
fixed a crash related to objects fading in and out
fixed a crash related to re-arranging party members
fixed not being able to scroll in an inventory with a lot of items
Community Update 11 - Inspiration, Freedom & Pacifism
Hello everyone!
How are you? It’s been a little while. We’ve been very busy both reading feedback since launch, and implementing some pretty major tweaks & changes that represent your ideas. Today’s patch, which we’re calling ‘Inspiration, Freedom & Pacifism’ for reasons you’ll soon find out, is perhaps the first time you’ll see a lot of major changes to design and gameplay, inspired by your feedback and discussion.
Last week, we announced the fact that this patch would render prior save games incompatible once the update is applied, and you can read more on that here. There’s time both before and after the patch rolls out to set yourself up to continue your adventures on Patch 2, rather than today’s Patch 3.
For why all the hullabaloo you ask? Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted Swen’s chat with IGN where he openly reflected on a lot of the feedback from players since the release, October 6th. (Doesn’t it feel like such a long time ago?). That interview was conducted very much in the midst of the aforementioned design changes we’re going to talk about today. Fresh on the mind then, and fresh into the game today. Delicious!
What’s in Patch 3? Let’s get stuck in. Today we’re going to offer a Neat Factoid for every topic below. At the end there will be a quiz*, so make sure you don’t miss anything.
The road less travelled is now rewarding... Our games have always been about rewarding creativity and exploration, but some people were disappointed with the lack of experience rewards for pacifism, and creative solutions that utilize the road less travelled. Patch 3 introduces rewards for avoiding combat situations, whether in dialogue or through exploration and environmental puzzle solving. Now, all you pacifists will be able to carve out a journey more true to your character’s identity. Or, it’ll just offer more options for specific circumstances.
Neat Factoid:56% of players avoided combat with the Goblin Rooftop Ambush. Now those players will be properly rewarded without needing to kill the Goblins anyway.
Companions will now feel more… companionable On the topic of behaviour, we’ve certainly noticed your companions were perhaps a little negative at times. We’ve taken steps to move away from frequent nitpicking, so that they’ll start focusing more on the bigger picture. Companions will now be more tolerant. Not nitpicking about every single little thing they don't like but rather focusing on the things they do like while still maintaining their personality and having strong beliefs about certain things. In short, they’ll feel a little more like companions.
Neat Factoid:For all 204k of players who let Astarion chow down, you won't have to deal with SH's approval dropping in what should be a private moment between the two of you.
Dialog skill checks will be less likely to ‘lock you out of content’ Dialogues with particularly harsh or dramatic skill checks have been rebalanced - instead of failing an entire situation based on one difficult roll, you'll have a higher chance of succeeding the roll. This is to stop dice from locking you out of content unless the situation really merits it. Ultimately, however, you’ll still have to flow with the will of the dice.
Neat Factoid:A little over half of all players who use Speak with Animals on the Owlbear still fail the overall encounter. These success numbers only vary by about 5% for those without Speak with Animals. We've tweaked the DC here to reward investing parts of your character in animal handling.
No more micromanaging party jumping Micromanaging gymnastics probably wasn’t something you thought you’d be doing in the Forgotten Realms, so now when you jump across a gap, for example, your party will automatically jump across it to follow you. Hooray!
Neat Factoid:Just over 200k players jumped the crossing to speak to a wayward and injured tiefling near the busy rapids of the river. No doubt making that jump alone. Now your companions will join you automatically.
More adventuring, and less resting You now get 2 short rests after your long rest. Previously, you only had a single short rest. That’s twice the rest, for the same price! This means you have more uninterrupted adventures, and all the perks of resting.
Neat Factoid:2 is exactly double the value of 1.
Rebalanced cantrips & fewer surfaces This was a wildly popular community request. Spells that cost finite resources to cast will now feel much more impactful, as cantrips are now less impactful than ‘true’ spells. This’ll make the management a lot more meaningful, and the ‘true’ spells a lot more rewarding to use. What’s more, we’ve made changes to surfaces, reducing them dramatically to avoid accidents as well as to address other feedback about how combat felt to the community. Fire Bolt, Ray of Frost and Acid Splash no longer create surfaces on impact. Fire Bolt still ignites flammable surfaces, and Ray of Frost still freezes water and blood puddles.
Neat Factoid: In the last week, players died 78,293 times by fire. Making up 28.6% of player death. Perhaps this will change as we expect surfaces to be a little less common now that cantrips are changing
UI improvements including spells & inspiration points Inspiration points are now visible in the UI, so you can actually use them!
You’re now able to select upcasted versions of spells via a separate widget to declutter the hotbar UI, see today’s update video for how that looks. DnD allows a caster to cast the same spell at different ‘levels’, costing different resources and generally producing a stronger effect.
Previously, each level at which a spell could be cast had a separate icon. After a while, this led to tons of icons cluttering up the hotbar and players having to tediously rearrange it on level up. Now all the variations are neatly packed into a fly-out menu inside the single icon per spell.
Neat Factoid:770k of you rescued the Fishermen Thralls in the crash site. Now, you'll clearly see that this also results in you gaining an inspiration point
Cross-save is finally here! And it’s finally activated! Something we’re working very hard on in the background at Larian HQ(s) is our own infrastructure for different services that allow you more freedom in how you play (see, freedom, it’s in the title!) The launcher - which we do not yet have an official name for - is to you just a simple UI layer when you start the game, but behind this are a bunch of people at Larian working on things like today’s cross-save functionality.
It was partially functional between Steam and GoG but we didn’t really want to talk about it widely until we had it working across all platforms we’re currently released on. Now, your Larian account facilitates cross-save via the omnipresent ‘cloud’ the world is always talking about. The best thing is that we’re the ones running this cross-save service, so we’re totally in control of it. This means you’re able to share your saves across Steam, Stadia, Mac, and GoG. If you’re online, your save file will automatically upload to the cloud once it’s created, including all autosaves as you play. In an airport lounge on a laptop? Connect to Google Stadia and continue your adventure, for example. On your MacBook for work? Well… let’s briefly talk about that.
Baldur’s Gate 3 was heavily featured in Apple’s November 10 event. In this event, Apple announced a truly revolutionary new chip: the Apple M1. It’s early days for Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Apple M1 architecture, but native support for M1 is right around the corner. As of today, both Divinity: Original Sin 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3 run on the new range of Macs, but they currently run via Rosetta 2, which doesn’t really make use of the exciting features M1 enables.
Practically, what this means is that you can now play Baldur’s Gate 3 across the whole suite of Apple’s new hardware. Before, you would never have been able to play BG3 on a MacBook Air, and it would have struggled on a MacBook Pro, but even running via Rosetta 2 we’ve been toying around playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on the ‘high’ setting with very little noise, which we think is super cool because it means your experience - when combined with cross-save - is now a highly portable one, ready for when the world starts to behave itself.
If you're lucky enough to have one of Apple’s new Macs, give it a shot today and tell us what you think. Be aware that our friends at Elverils are working hard on M1 native support, which will really make the hardware shine (and the game with it), but this is just the first step in what looks to be a pretty interesting journey into the future of AAA games on ARM architecture.
[previewyoutube="GLYoJdMQmGc;full"]
That just about covers today’s major points of focus! Of course, Patch 3 comes with a whole host of bug fixes. Want them? Have them:
Improvements
Improved character follower movement.
Added an option to hide your helmet in the equipment screen.
Added trajectory preview for force application when using spells.
All characters now correctly stop running when forced turn-based mode is activated.
Companions will now jump to follow the main player character.
Fixed and re-enabled Larian Cross Save between all platforms.
Assorted tweaks to companion approval ratings.
The Combat AI now accounts for falling from jumps.
Changed AI behaviour archetypes for the Boar, Intellect Devourer, and Tiny Spider.
Combat music no longer ends when a character joins combat.
Audio configuration now updates on selection of an option.
In multiplayer, other clients can now hear the dice roll events of a player in dialog.
Decluttered the hotbar UI by allowing selection of upcasted versions of spells with a separate widget.
Improved look of toggle-able Passives that can be added to the hotbar.
Improved some skill tooltips in Character Creation.
Added a tutorial for Inspiration points.
Cinematics: Adjusted emotions and lookats in certain areas.
Cinematics: Camera tweaks and lighting improvements in certain areas.
Cinematics: A large pass of improvements on emotions and attitudes.
Cinematics: Improved fade timings.
Cinematics: Improved blending between poses.
Any dialog associated with a mask will play before equipping it instead of after.
Jumping down a hole now teleports any following characters as well.
Overhauled the sheath/unsheath weapon logic for more consistent behaviour.
Experience is now awarded for avoiding combat and completing smaller side quests.
Added a new sound for rolling initiative in combat.
Balancing Changes
Fire Bolt, Ray of Frost and Acid Splash no longer create surfaces on impact. Fire Bolt still ignites flammable surfaces, and Ray of Frost still freezes water and blood puddles. Fire Bolt's damage has been adjusted accordingly
Tweaked default ability distribution for Clerics and Rogues. Clerics start with more DEX to take advantage of medium armor; Rogues start with more INT to open them up for Arcane Trickster archetype.
It is no longer possible to perform infinite actions by moving in and out of a White Spore Cloud in a single turn; the status from a White Spore Cloud should now persist until the end of a character's turn.
Toned down camera shakes for spell prepare effects.
The Shatter spell now works properly with Sculpt Spells.
Melee Sneak Attack now requires a finesse weapon.
Invoke Duplicity now only works properly if the attacker is within 3m of the summon.
Surprised statuses can no longer stack.
Increased price of drow armor to 800 gp.
Allowed effects of multiple Hex spells to stack on the same character.
You can now use Dash while staying hidden (sneaking).
The party can now take 2 short rests per long rest.
The default action on a container's tooltips is now 'Open' instead of 'Pick up'.
Rebalanced difficulty of dialog skill checks.
Changed the melee skeleton's ability from Cleave to Slash to make it consistent with his weapon.
Fixed NPCs not reacting to Hunter's Mark as a hostile action.
Tweaked the AI archetypes of Goblins.
Performance and Stability
Fixed not being able to load some saved games.
Reduced long save times - better thread planning for 4-core CPUs.
Improved stability of the Vulkan version.
Fixed a random crash when removing a character that has followers.
Fixed a random crash when switching weapon set while dual wielding.
Fixed a crash when deleting a lot of saved games
Fixed a crash when lock-picking a heavy chest.
Fixed a random crash on passive roll fail.
Fixed a crash that can occur when items fall on top of each other.
Fixed a crash while loading, related to being in a jump state
Fixed a crash when looting several imp bodies in a sideroom in the tutorial.
Fixes
Resolved a multitude of cinematic staging issues.
Fixed incorrect flow in some dialogues.
Characters can now walk to positions even if blocked by an invisible object.
Automatic pathfinding has been fixed for a few specific items.
A weapon that can't be dual wielded will now automatically be equipped by double-clicking on it.
All Passives should now display on the Character Sheet.
In combat, the chance-to-hit preview should now be correct — even if your character still needs to move.
AI melee archetypes now properly calculate damage done to allies and neutral characters. This should reduce unnecessary friendly fire when characters use any area-of-effect attacks or abilities.
Incantation sounds have been restored to some spells.
Summoned guards will now patrol an area before leaving it.
Some dialogs got stuck after being prompted with a Persuasion check roll - these have been fixed.
You can no longer switch weapon sets when casting a spell or moving to cast a spell.
After loading a saved game, quest markers should now correctly disappear when objectives change.
Added input delay to prevent spamming through roll states.
Fixed a desync issue where client characters would move back to their previous positions after a jump.
Journal notifications should no longer get stuck on the screen.
Fixed a bug where visuals wouldn't show up in the Examine window.
Fixed a bug where the player profile would not be created correctly when using specific characters in the profile name.
Profile switching now carries over any changes made to sound settings.
Fixed animation issues when applying statuses to NPCs in forced turn-based mode.
Doors that have been opened now look like they're open.
Scroll of Invisibility now costs the same as scrolls of other 2nd-level spells.
Armor of Agathys now correctly deals 10 cold damage when using a 2nd-level spell slot.
The Life Domain Cleric's version of Cure wounds now heals for 2d8 HP when using a 2nd-level spell slot.
Great Weapon Fighting no longer triggers on ranged weapon attacks.
When wielded two-handed, the quarterstaff now does 1d8 base damage instead of 1d6.
Dissonant Whispers now shows the correct damage values at 2nd-level.
The Mother's Loathing potion now lasts until rest (as stated in the tooltip).
Some broken healing potions no longer display as Superior versions.
When loading a game saved during turn-based mode (on an NPC's turn), characters now have all of their equipment properly equipped.
Characters will now take fall damage when hit by an Eldritch Blast with the Repelling Blast passive feature.
Faithbreaker's weapon action (Absolute Power) now correctly triggers a pushback.
No more UI overlap when 4 players recruit Lae'zel and Us in the tutorial.
Removed trade & attack buttons from Lae'zel's recruitment.
When recruiting Lae'zel, you can no longer gain double XP.
Harpies should now be able to reach more spots in combat.
Journal entry is now correct when players leave without fighting the harpies.
In the Thayan Cellar, skeletons now destroy their caskets when spawning.
Music should now play and transition more cleanly in the goblin camp.
Minthara no longer vanishes after asking certain questions.
The moon puzzle no longer flips the moons after rotating adjacent disks in succession.
The stats of the companion bear no longer have ten times the intended weight.
The dialogue with Ethel and Mayrina's brothers no longer ends early if you side with no one.
Fixed a bug preventing you from picking up the letter to Kagha.
Removed an incorrect music trigger in the swamp.
Lae'zel no longer refuses to speak after the encounter with the Githyanki at the bridge.
When entering the aura of a Sussur Bloom, spells are now correctly disabled in the hotbar.
More general quest fixes and flag check improvements to make the story experience smoother.
Flags fixed in Kagha's denouncement scene to prevent nearly-identical nodes from repeating.
Fixed a custom crime flag when clicking the goblins' beer tub to make sure the right dialogue appears.
Fixed quest-giving and journal flags in the Zhent's shipment situation.
Ensured Arabella dies when she's meant to.
Flow-blocker fixed in Anders' dialogue - it now correctly checks the right flags.
The Thayan undead now has idle behavior.
Flags added to add reactivity to Shadowheart's part of the Arabella court scene.
Edits to Lae'zel's recruitment flags in the plains to better account for the flow leading up to it.
*there won’t be a quiz.
Updated Pre-patch Announcement
Hello everyone!
Patch 3 (which hasn’t been named yet) is just around the corner, and with it comes the first changes that affect story. Unfortunately, this means Patch 3 will introduce the first save incompatibility, transitioning to the new version.
Fret not, however! Each patch will come alongside a secondary branch which will allow you to continue playing the previous version with your existing savegames, until you decide you’re ready to play on the latest version. Maybe you’d like to wait for a few patches to pass, for example, before you re-roll. Totally up to you!
It’ll work like this:
The secondary branch will be the previous version, but the primary branch (default download) will be the latest version. To access the secondary branch, do the following:
Right click on the game in your Steam library
Select properties
Click the BETAS tab
In the list under "Select the beta you would like to opt in to", select patch2
Close the properties menu
If you do the above steps, you are all set to continue your current playthrough.
If you are unsure whether you want to update to the new patch, we recommend disabling automatic updates now, so that you have the choice to manually update to the new patch or opt-in to the secondary branch once the patch arrives. To disable automatic updates follow the below steps:
Right click on the game in your Steam library
Select properties
Click the Updates tab
Select "only update the game when I launch it" in the drop down menu
You can already move to the beta branch now, if you’d like to protect your save file and continue on the current version. Note: save files are not ‘deleted’ from your computer; they’ll remain in your folder, but you’ll only be able to load saves specific to their respective versions.
Important note: If you want the option to go back to the previous patch, it’s best to make a new in-game profile and backup your local saves from the previous patch. You can do the following before or after updating to the latest version:
Before starting a new playthrough, create a new profile by clicking the profiles button on the top left of the main menu. All your progress in the new patch will then be saved under this profile while your old saves are safe in the previous profile.
As an extra safety measure, you can manually back up your savegames: Go to /Documents/Larian Studios/Baldur's Gate 3/PlayerProfiles/ Find the folder that is named after the profile you used in the previous patch Copy and paste this entire folder into a backup location
If you want to revert back to the previous patch, follow the instructions above and activate your old profile
If you have somehow lost your progress by overwriting savegames and want to restore your old backed up savegames simply copy over your old profile folder into its original location again: /Documents/Larian Studios/Baldur's Gate 3/PlayerProfiles/ Sync back to the patch2 beta branch with the instructions above and load your old savegames
We know that having to switch branches may be annoying, but this is part of early access. All the feedback we’ve been gathering from your adventures and posts will go right into these patches, so next time you play it’ll feel like an experience you’ve helped to create.
Note: Branching unfortunately won’t be available on Stadia for the moment.
Hotfix #4 - 4.1.85.5707 (PC) 4.1.85.6028 (Mac)
Adventurers! We have just released a hotfix for you.
This hotfix addresses Windows 7 start up issues, the most common DX11 crash and a possible crash when using a Revivify scroll.
Thank you so much to everyone who has submitted feedback so far in Early Access, we appreciate you taking the time to let us know about your experience so far!
Community Update #10 - Romance Numbers & Cinematic Tweaks
Hello everyone,
It’s big patch time. But this time, not only are you going to feel the improvements, you’re also going to see them. As we’ve previously said, Early Access is about improving and iterating on every single facet of the game, and that includes all of the things you see and hear.
In this big patch, we’ve got general fixes for cinematics such as this one below. He was starting to get a crooked neck, and we’re pretty sure he doesn’t have health insurance so we helped him out a bit. See for yourself:
It’s not just about tweaks though. As many of you know, despite playing through the Early Access content sometimes for up to a hundred hours or more (wow!) you still haven’t seen all of the content, because incrementally new things are seeded into the game. In this case, a missing cinematic. Where once was darkness, there is now light!
See if you can spot the differences in the game for yourself, or continue to read this Community Update with attached patch notes for spoilers. You know you want to.
A certain song has also been ‘re-shot’ by our cinematics team, which gives you an excuse to check it out again. Did you need one? Side note: we’ve been watching your reactions to this song in your VODs and YouTube videos, as well as in various streams, and the reactions are beautiful. Watching you play the game as we improve it is very motivating for all of us.
On the topic of music and joy, last week saw the Symphony of Sin, which included the first ever live performance of some of the music from Baldur’s Gate 3, as well as some wonderful songs from Divinity: Original Sin 2. You can watch the VOD here, it’s well worth it: [previewyoutube="3duWZPJm-9s;full"] With that said, let’s look at some of the data that’s been making us smile over the week.
Everyone knows you can pet the dog in Baldur’s Gate 3, but did you know the dog has been petted 400k times? Such a good boy deserves that many pets.
Speaking of good boys, last update we discussed how Gale was ultimately attacked quite a lot. Check out last week’s update for the stats on that. Somewhat contradicturally, he’s the most “romanced” of the party. He’s been “romanced” by 33% of players. Shadowheart came second, falling in love with 31% of players, and in return 31% of players fell in love with Shadowheart.
1.37% of players chose to sleep alone. Which is cool too! We have the other stats, but thought it might be fun if you gave it a shot and guessed them. One thing we’re seeing is the stan memes aren’t correlating with the actual “romance data”. For sure, there’s enough tinder in the campfire to ignite some flames.
On a less romantic note (though this really depends on your tastes), 5.87% of players tried to steal the ring… but 26.3% of those players merely sucked a toe. If you haven’t got there yet, you’ll know when you see it. Since we’re talking about failure statistics, many people have made it to The Underdark. But 40.79% of players who jumped down a large, dark hole arrived dead, because they leapt without Feather Fall.
We’re saving perhaps the most interesting until last. Slight spoiler, so if you don’t want spoilers, don’t read this. You may know that at a point in the game, you may side with one of two factions: the Tieflings against the goblins, or with Minthara who demands the gates are opened for the goblins to attack the Druids Grove.
74.85% of you stood with the Tieflings, and 25.15% of you sided with Minthara. Good outweighs evil, it seems.
An optimistic note to end on.
Changelist:
Improvements:
Optimized overall sound settings to improve performance on lower spec machines
Added polish to several in-game cinematics
Attack of Opportunity indicator is now correctly hidden for invisible enemies
Improved timing of some tutorial messages
Improved usability of skill selection in character creation
Added new tutorial messages related to combat
Listening to other players’ dialogs now correctly shows the other players’ dice rolls
The reason for a waypoint being unavailable is now displayed on the map
Party members now correctly cancel their spell prepare state when switching to another character
Fixes:
Fixed a crash on startup for specific driver and hardware combinations
Fixed a crash related to trading with Zevlor after the raid on the grove
Fixed a crash in dialogs related to dynamically adding items
Fixed a crash in combat AI
Fixed a potential crash with moving platforms
Fixed a crash related to loading savegames while in a dialogue
Fixed a crash when destroying multiple familiars with a single spell
Fixed a crash related to unloading resources (when loading a save or returning to main menu)
Fixed a blocking issue when someone would join during level transition
Fixed a blocking issue when starting a dialog just as someone leaves the game
Fixed not being able to save anymore on the host when another player is stuck in “in dialog” state
Fixed players getting stuck in the same dialog inside the camp after choosing to fight Minthara
Fixed characters being stuck in animation if downed during precast spell
Fixed characters not being at the correct position after loading
Fixed not being able to talk to party members after talking with gale and summoning the weave
Fixed not being able to use some spell scrolls when out of spell slots
Fixed a rare issue for players that don’t have a profile on startup, requiring selection or a profile or creation of a new one
Fixed quest markers not showing up correctly when multiple markers point at the same object or location
Fixed the tieflings’ celebrations not proceeding correctly if the player had already done a long rest right before
Fixed the physics of the door on the Nautiloid reappearing after saving and loading
Fixed Ethel not triggering her ambush if she leaves her home during combat
Fixed several minor bugs related to in-game cinematics
Fixed zone spells not targeting invisible characters
Fixed summons from items not having an owner, causing them not to join combat
Fixed the goblins not using the war drum correctly
Fixed issues with lockpick progress going out of sync
Fixed savegame screenshots being too dark
Fixed spell sounds not playing correctly in multiplayer
Fixed a long black screen being displayed if a dialog was started just as another player was joining
Fixed Zevlor initiating dialog during combat
Fixed audio settings not resetting when switching profile
Fixed not being able to correctly switch character in trade window
Fixed not being able to click through scenery you can see through, improving navigation
Fixed the Gith becoming hostile incorrectly if Lae’zel was never recruited
Fixed additional reroll when using an inspiration point
Fixed inspiration points not being able to go up after using an inspiration point or gaining another one
Fixed an issue with the hidden vault entrance closing again after the puzzles are already solved
Fixed marking an item as a ware not getting set correctly
Fixed being able to select summons in the trade window
Fixed Zariel Tiefling clerics not being able to level up to level 4
Fixed character creation color tooltips
Fixed characters sometimes falling off moving platforms
Fixed several animation issues with torches
Fixed being able to select invalid targets for Misty Step skill
Fixed not being able to see other players’ hidden summons at all
Fixed party members being rearranged when detaching and reattaching characters to the group
Fixed certain equipment still generating sound after unequipping
Fixed several texture and skinning issues
Fixed several minor localization issues
Fixed minor issues with the action log
Mac specific:
Automatic crash reporter is now enabled for mac
Community Update #9 - Launch
Hello everyone!
We launched Baldur’s Gate 3 exactly 1 week ago, ish. The launch surpassed all our expectations. Our philosophy heading into Early Access was to hit a comfortable amount of players, gather feedback, and incrementally iron out and improve the game towards launch.
Good news! That’s still the plan. But the *bigger than expected launch* broke a few things. In chronological order, it apparently broke Steam, it then broke our launcher sign ups because the servers couldn’t keep up, and then it went on to break our support pipeline with a huge influx of support tickets. We’re not complaining. These are good problems to have.
The day before launch, the weather also broke the Ghent basement. Which was suboptimal because we were shooting a thing for those who get to the end of Act 1 (no spoilers).
Soon after, the power broke in Quebec. This is the 3rd launch in a row where Larian has had a powercut somewhere. One of the good things about upscaling to 5 studios globally, is that now if one gets defeated by water or electricity (please, not both together), we have 4 other studios to deal with the tornado, earthquake, or a Kaiju. At this point launching a game is basically like playing Sim City.
On launch, which we managed to get to in the end, we celebrated very socially, very distanced, and watched you all play the game. Someone at the office (we won’t mention the name of the perpetrator... I mean, we get it) stole Gale from the gateau. We have since recovered Gale.
Since then, we’ve shot out 3 hotfixes that have greatly reduced the number of crashes and stability issues experienced in the first week of launch. The real heroes in this are the community who stuck with us as we were working on those patches and hotfixes. We know that jumping into an unfinished game in Early Access, when your saves will eventually be wiped, is a big ask. We are phenomenally grateful to each and every one of you who’ve jumped in, provided feedback, and sent error reports. These reports are channeled back to our QA leads and producers, and the information you provide helps us to understand why certain things are happening, and thus reproduce and solve them.
Working with feedback
All feedback, positive or negative, is extremely helpful and important to us. We’re really grateful to everyone who organizes their thoughts and talks to us on Steam, or the forums, or the feedback form. For us, that’s a big part of what Early Access is about. Keep the feedback flowing, and we’ll keep shooting out those updates.
Under the hood we’re starting to get our first look at data, and decisions players are making, which teaches us how you’re playing the game. Before you launch a game, you’re making a lot of assumptions about what people will do, and why they’ll do it. When you launch, you can start to see if you were right.
As an example, let’s look at a cut down version of a heatmap (avoiding spoilers)! This is a *map of death* (make a spooky noise when you read that). *MaP of dEaTh*.
As our early access campaign progresses, you’ll see a shift as combat is tuned and content is altered. It might not look like much, but this shows us where to investigate. We can correlate this with direct player feedback, balancing feedback, and even bug reports to find out why people are dying where they’re dying, and also is it normal that people are dying there? It’s just one example of how people are helping simply by playing the game.
A strange point of interest is for instance that there are lots of deaths where you first meet Gale. Maybe people don’t like being ambushed by a spooky wizard jumping out of a rock? Something to investigate.
The amount of death in the camp is also surprising. We won’t spoil as to why that may be, but there are many, many in depth stories online, and on Reddit, about how death befell the campsite. They’re hilarious so please keep sharing them!
We also know how many times characters are dying. Gale died 333757 times. 333758 if you include the cake incident. Gale has a party-member kill-rate 4 times higher than any NPC in the game, so maybe he deserved it?
The Owlbear Cub has killed 5717 of you brave enough to try and tame it. Exactly 4000 people died as a result of interrupting the intimate moments of Ogres and Bug Bears.
And Shadowheart is the only companion that died more than the player character.
We’ll continue to share more data and insights over Early Access, but this is early days. Play however you want, in whatever way you want. There’s no one way to play the game. We’ve created systems that try to react to whoever you are, and whatever you do. The results of this make the game better.
(We’re working on this btw. Soon.)
Quick note on Discord and public multiplayer lobbies: The public multiplayer lobbies will soon be set live. Discord integration is in the works, so your friends can stop pinging you when you’re trying to tame a Mind Flayer (and dying 3753 times).
With that said, here are the full notes for Patch 1 - Launch. TLDR; fewer glitches, better stability, and more polish.
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.
Bug Fixes:
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.
Picking up stackable items in when in combat will no longer crash the game.
Tweaked ragdolls to reduce the possibility of models exploding (or glitching. Idk how to explain it, but it’s spooky).
Hotfix #3 - Theft, Death & Hubris
We’re back with the third hotfix today, addressing a few crash scenarios that definitely aren’t supposed to happen. We also have for you a Frankenstein amalgamation of crowd-sourced character creation, and boy does it look boring!
Firstly, yesterday as a joke we asked you to send us a 3080, because they were too popular for us to buy one (which prevented us from testing those cards internally before launch - all fixed now!). Quite a few of you reached out with sincere requests for how to do that. That was very sweet, thank you for those messages. Keep them! They’re yours. Besides, without your graphics card, how are you going to play BG3?
Before the fixes, let’s share something you’ve created yourselves (this is your own fault) through your choices in character creation. We took the most popular choices in character creation, and recreated this. We thought our analytics system wasn’t working! We checked. It is.
Congratulations, you’ve basically made the default Vault Dweller. What the hell guys. We gave you demon eyes, horns, and even tails. We are sorely disappointed. Go crazy. We worked hard on this!
We’ve got a lot more analytics that run in the background. We’ll share more insights and data in the next Community Update, but for now, you should know that it’s not just bug reports that help us solve issues and improve the game, we have a system of anonymous analytics running in the background that show us a lot about how the game is played, and thus how we can improve it. Simply playing BG3 makes it better for you now, and everyone else in the future.
One important thing this hotfix has solved is the resolution upon the death of Gale. Those who’ve let Gale die may have found that an important item is missing, which is required. That’s back! So, which was it? "K'ha'trach'ash'ssji", "K'ha'ash'ssji'trach", or the easier to pronounce “K'ha'ssji'trach'ash”? Only Gale lovers will know.
Also, we fixed an error where people were stealing from merchants by directly equipping the stolen items out of their inventory. Hubris! It’s in the title!
We still currently recommend you play the game on DX11 mode if you experience frequent crashing, or graphical errors. But they should be reduced now. The next big patch will include a host of fixes for cinematics and animation as well as UI glitches, and a community update diving into the game’s launch.
Don’t forget to read the EULA ;) Better the Devil you do know, eh.
FAQ attached here, updated with new workarounds and known issues: https://larian.com/support/baldur-s-gate-3
Fixes attached y’all:
Fix for crash related to showing a move preview with an AoO when in combat.
Fix for crash related to surfaces requiring concentration.
Fix for crash related to drag and drop of items in the trade inventory.
Gale's Scroll of Resurrection is now correctly added to the player's inventory.
