Mark your calendar for Tuesday the 18th August at 10am Pacific Time! Our Creative Director Swen will be joined by Geoff Keighley, Chris Perkins and Adam Smith on the Panel From Hell!
We’ll be deep diving into what you can expect from Early Access for Baldur’s Gate 3, there will be discussions about lobotomies, the permutations in gameplay and we’ll be showing the last part of BG3’s cinematic intro.
Check out the official countdown timer over at the Baldur’s Gate 3 website and we look forward to your company on stream next week!
And never miss any Larian, Divinity or Baldur’s Gate 3 news by signing up to the Larian Gazette.
Community Update #4: A Little About Combat & Stealth
Hey everyone!
We haven’t spoken in a little while - at least not since we released our latest trailer and took a deeper dive into development during our live gameplay stream - but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been extremely busy working on the early access version of Baldur’s Gate 3.
We know you all want to know when we’ll release BG3 into early access but you’ll have to be a bit more patient before we can announce an exact date. The one thing we can tell you is that we are making good progress.
Today we’d like to take a bit of time to discuss how Baldur’s Gate 3 gives you plenty of easy to understand systems which you’ll use to overcome increasingly more complex challenges. The way combat works and how you can use our brand new shiny forced turn-based to get advantage are good examples of this.
BG3 deploys fifth edition D&D rules and is class-based. We’ll go into what that means per-class later this year, but for now let’s focus on how BG3’s combat plays. It’s come a long way since the reveal in February. It’s now faster, and more responsive. And it works well in both singleplayer and multiplayer.
If you watched the gameplay stream, one thing many of you have noticed is how fluid combat in BG3 now feels. Despite being turn-based, which allows you to have an authentic D&D experience and really deliberate over your moves as a team, BG3’s combat is much faster than DOS2. But how? Magic? A rift in the space-time continuum? Currently, neither of those things. In fact a lot of it is down to how animations are both created and processed. We invested heavily into what drives our animation pipeline, and specifically made tweaks to improve the feel and motion in combat. The increased brevity and flow is down to many, many changes shaving off microseconds (and sometimes entire seconds). For example, another character’s turn will begin - behind the scenes - as the previous character is ending their animation. Even things as simple as combining move animations with the hit of a melee strike shaves seconds off combat.
Since the initial gameplay reveal in February, we totally overhauled the order of combat. Early Access means change, and change is shaped by feedback and testing over time. BG3’s combat is now set so that each combatant takes a turn at a time but there’s a twist. If multiple combatants of the same faction follow one another in the turn order, then you can simultaneously command each of them.
That means that based on the results of the initiative roll, you’ll experience a different tactical puzzle in each combat that really mixes everything up but still allows you to react to the “cards” you’re “dealt”, so to speak. (There aren’t literally any cards, sorry MTG fans!) Between the RNG of initiative, and the planning, you should be able to have a fresh experience with every combat while still being able to predict and plan with friends how to combine spells and abilities, and ultimately win the fight.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a party-based game that you can play alone, controlling each character, or as a party of up to four where each person rolls their own character. (It’s of course possible to also play as 2, or 3 people, with AI, etc).
In multiplayer, when your avatars and companions are next to each other in the turn order players can simultaneously control characters. This allows you to communicate with your friends and combine spells and abilities to take advantage of more brains on the battlefield, and more hands on the keyboard. This, compared with Divinity: Original Sin 2, drastically reduces the amount of time each player would have to wait between turns, since they’re able to move together.
Stealth is also a big part of Baldur’s Gate 3 - if you want it to be - and it goes hand in hand with the game's great sense of verticality, and ability to shove people. Sneaking is a really useful technique for positioning your party prior to the initiative roll, ensuring you get the first strike. Using stealth, it’s perfectly viable to sneak into a camp, avoid being seen, and roll crits to victory. With a little thought comes the perfect ‘shove’.
Using stealth to prepare for combat is even more fun due to the introduction of forced turn-based mode. This is a big new feature that allows players at any moment during exploration to switch to turn-based rules. Each turn equates to 6 seconds, allowing players to predict and navigate enemy movement, or solve puzzles that require clever navigation (for example, not getting hit by a fireball!).
Our stealth mechanics now also take light and darkness into account. You can be obscured or heavily obscured so that even when you are caught in the visibility cones of the enemy, you still have a chance to slip through unseen. Of course, that is if your enemies don’t have darkvision. Here’s a little table that summarizes how light, darkness and darkvision affect stealth.
Things get even more interesting when you discover you can manipulate light by using spells or throwing water at a torch, as lighting is dynamic, and thus shadows are also.
To summarize, forced turn-based mode, allows you to switch to turn-based rules in exploration, to set up traps, bypass patrols, steal, and otherwise head on many other roguish exploits. But you don’t have to be a rogue class, of course.
These are all super useful techniques that, when used imaginatively, really help you to get the best chances during your initiative roll as combat starts. Baldur’s Gate 3 has high-stakes combat, so making good use of surprise mechanics will give you a leg-up.
If you haven’t already, check out 90 minutes of live Baldur’s Gate 3 gameplay which was aired as a part of D&D Live 2020. It showcases several of the features highlighted here.
In the show, we allowed people to vote on which adventure we’d take. Down into The Underdark, or to dive deeper into the Goblin Camp. If it wasn’t clear yet, player choice is going to be a huge part of Baldur’s Gate 3 and not just for those playing.
But enough teasing, we’ll talk about that another time… Stay tuned!!!
The Road to Baldur’s Gate - Community Update #3
After announcing the game almost precisely one year ago now, we’re finally on the road to Baldur’s Gate. It’s been a lot of work getting there. Recent disruptions caused by Covid-19 slowed us down, but today is special because we’ve finally locked down the content we’ll be releasing as the foundation of the initial Early Access version. We’ll share this with you soon, but for now, let’s focus a little on the past, before we go full steam ahead towards AUGUST, 2020.
We announced Baldur’s Gate 3 just prior to E3 2019 with the first part of our CGI trailer, the first time you folks really got a sense of the mood and themes we were shooting for with the game. Shortly after, we shared with you our adventures at the Wizards of the Coast HQ, as we infiltrated the building and brought back with us the secret source of Dungeons and Dragons. Of course, it was all in jest. We’ve been working on this for far longer than the announcement; it’s coming close to about four years now, all things considered.
In the last Community Update we talked about the world-wide gameplay reveal of Baldur’s Gate 3, presented to an auditorium full to the brim of eager fans, curious to see where the game would take them. This followed the press-tour, where journalists sat through a 3 hour presentation of Baldur’s Gate 3, which was really the first time we saw people react live to the game. They laughed as we fumbled our rolls, and we laughed at the choices they shouted out at us that defined our journey. It went off script. There were bugs. But this is Early Access, and above all else Early Access is about interaction. It’s a long journey, but it’s one that’s supposed to be fun. We’re having fun, and we hope you are too.
In that update we talked about the tone, theme, and how Baldur’s Gate 3 takes place 100 years after Baldur’s Gate 2. We can’t go into too much detail about how they’re connected, because spoilers - we want you to discover these things when you play it. Between that press-tour, seeing your reactions as we played inside our awesome castle booth at PAX, and the live-stream, we’ve been collecting that energy and channeling it into the development, which admittedly in recent months has been problematic due to Covid-19, with an inability to record cinematics with actors. Work continued on though, changes were made, and you’ll explore some of these changes at the next live-showing of Baldur’s Gate 3 which is right around the corner. We’ll get to that in a bit.
Since then, we also did a Reddit AMA to answer a lot of your questions and the community has kindly and conveniently compiled that into an easy FAQ that you can read over on Reddit. Within that are certain teases that tie Baldur’s Gate 3 to Baldur’s Gate 2 and talks about many of the topics raised since the PAX Live Showcase.
We’re really excited to show you how the game is continuing to shape up. There are many improvements between what you saw at PAX and what you’ll see later in June. The narration in BG3 has been totally overhauled, the impact of your choices is becoming impressive, Origin characters have been adjusted, many visual improvements are already implemented, and the game’s UI continues to be tweaked and shifted around with a new UI style in development (But not ready for prime time yet). We started refining how the DnD fifth edition ruleset is integrated and are having loads of fun seeing the emerging gameplay that comes from so many systems working together. Combat is starting to be really fun with many tweaks getting implemented and we have a new initiative system which adds a lot of depth to the gameplay. We also have the new, official key-art nearly ready to be revealed. And we haven’t even started Early Access yet!
That pretty much covers where we’ve been, but where are we going? SO MANY PLACES. Today we’ve released the first official trailer for BG3 featuring the latest up-to-date visuals and mood we’re targeting. This trailer, functionally to announce the release window, comes with the caveat of a MAYBE. MAYBE is a real thing, because the world of development is a complex one with a lot of challenges, especially in the face of a global pandemic, and we wanted to be 100% honest with you. Secretly, all release dates are targets. Games are ready to be released when they’re ready to be played, and that’s true for Early Access games too. Though we’re back in the office, equipped with hand sanitizer and face-masks, and performance capture can continue with a two meter distance, we’re still playing catchup on the last three months. But that’s okay, because on June 18 we’ll be kicking off D&D Live with another massive chunk of live Baldur’s Gate 3 gameplay, and we’re incorporating that community spirit that’s inspired us ever since that initial press tour.
We’ve never created vertical slices or “press builds” of the game, it’s always been the latest we had. While we have a good idea of what we want to show you, we’ll try to let the game do the talking and that probably means we’ll go off script. It instills horror into the hearts of our QA team but we like doing it because it’s super fun when people shout out directions, laugh at our mistakes, and cheer on our successes. That’s the way of the dice, right? So during D&D Live you’ll be able to choose - live - if we delve deep into The Underdark, or take on the nefarious Dror Ragzlin. Maybe.
Between the initial announcement and today, we’ve had an ongoing game of spot-the-difference, and that’ll continue towards August as we roll into Early Access. We can’t wait to start getting that feedback when you start playing the game for yourselves. It’s a huge game, much deeper than anything we’ve ever done before. The visual and systemic target is also much higher than anything we’ve done before.
https://youtu.be/-YsT9eQ_CO4
We hope that today’s Announcement Trailer gives you strong mood-vibes, and sets the tone for the live session we’re hosting with our friends at Wizards of the Coast on June 18th. We haven’t gone into a huge amount of detail on what’s changed in BG3 over the course of the year, because it’s fun when you find it. We enjoy that engagement. Expect many more changes, improvements, and announcements of content the closer we get to August. And after.
The road to Baldur’s Gate is paved in friendship, and the adventure defined by the party. 2020 is a weird year. We’re used to seeing you in person at PAX and elsewhere, and we hope that at least this live-stream and today’s announcement will bring us a little closer. We’re very eager to see you again, and to share some more memories and talk about Baldur’s Gate 3 before we really start the journey together in August.
Baldur's Gate 3 Reddit AMA
Baldur's Gate 3 was a secret for a long while, and we were super excited to finally show it to you at PAX East. We're sure you have loads of questions, and since we're about to embark on an epic adventure together into Early Access, what better time than to sit down and talk with you guys, our party!
Early Access will be a constantly evolving development, and we're happy to have you there for the journey. Every party needs to sit down, camp, and chat. So, let's talk!
Though this journey began now years ago when we visited Wizards of the Coast for the first time in 2017, these past few weeks have been momentous and emotional, since this was the first time we were able to share Baldur’s Gate 3 with all of you, the people for whom the game is being made.
We will soon embark on an epic adventure as Baldur’s Gate 3 enters Early Access, and we couldn’t possibly venture forth without first gathering you, our party. One thousand of you gathered with us as we streamed the game live for the first time at PAX East in an auditorium filled to the brim, and an extra thousand of you were sadly turned away because there was no more space. Hundreds of thousands of you gathered online which - we’re told in confidence - broke some records. Thousands of you each waited three hours to gather with us at our PAX East booth, to see what would have happened if the dice rolls weren’t against us. It has been humbling and exciting to gather together as we start this new journey, venturing forth, going the way of the dice.
What you will eventually play has been in the planning at Larian and closely with Wizards of the Coast for over 4 years now, with their key creative people colliding with our key creative people in ways that we will eventually talk about in greater length. Our task is to create the ultimate Dungeons & Dragons game; a loving and modern sequel to Baldur’s Gate 2. Oozing with 5e D&D greatness, set in the world that you know and love. You will explore Baldur’s Gate 100 years after Baldur’s Gate 2. The Bhaalspawn saga has ended, and a new threat is converging on the city of Baldur's Gate. But the gods do not forget, and the shadows and scars of the past will not stay silent. You will meet and get to know many new characters, and encounter some of the legendary characters you know and love.
Most importantly, you’ll learn how their stories have evolved. And as you play, you will heavily influence their fate. Over the course of the past 3 weeks, the final missing ingredient has been added into our new development pipeline: you.
Let’s look at how we’ve evolved since the release of Divinity: Original Sin 2 in 2017. Firstly, we finished Divinity: Original Sin 2 with 120 people. DOS2 was shipped on the second version of the Divinity engine (we still haven’t found a cool name for it yet), and our Producer David Walgrave said recently in an interview with TechRaptor that in BG3 "there’s about 20-30% of the Original Sin engine left and we rewrote so many systems and so many things." We’ve been colloquially calling this 4.0 engine the “Baldur’s Gate Engine”, and it’s designed from the ground up for Baldur’s Gate.
But how does this happen? Between 2017 and the announcement of BG3 we’ve grown to 250 people + we have over 100 outsourcers working on this. Still independent. Funded entirely by yourselves who dived so eagerly into Divinity: Original Sin 2. We were quiet since the announcement just before E3 of the previous year. But internally, kinetic energy has propelled us forward with new systems, pipelines, and people who when not playing D&D were all helping us to put together what you saw at PAX East, 2020. There’s quite the adventure ahead.
We’ve built an engine that allows all 250 people at Larian collaborate to become the ultimate DM. Allowing for near-limitless reactivity, responsiveness, and a memory that never forgets who you are, or what you’ve done. No matter who you roll, dice-rolls, modifiers, and physical simulation have all been designed to simulate a D&D experience that feels as though it’s straight from the imagination, where no matter the dice roll the story will continue. It’s also a game that is intended to span the entire range of human emotion. It is in equal parts a dark and a light game. “We always want to make failure as interesting as it possibly can,” said Senior Writer Adam Smith. “We don’t put everything that’s cool and interesting behind success.”
“Light and dark are really good sources of advantage,” noted Swen in a recent GameSpot interview. The philosophies that define the rules in D&D 5e also define the narrative, where you’ll often make difficult decisions through initiative or through the roll of the dice. The Baldur’s Gate games were dark - sometimes darker than many people remember. Baldur’s Gate 3 is no exception, though in 2020 we’re able to take the gamut of emotion and experience and stretch it further due to systems, simulation, and of course also our cinematics team. Unfortunately we did not make it to the end of our PAX East 2020 live demo due to a feature (see: bug), but those in the hall witnessed a scene where Astarion’s hunger got the better of him, and through a series of dice rolls (and often audience choice), Astarion sank his teeth into Shadowheart to varying degrees of mortality. Astarion was happy (systemically), but Shadowheart often ended up dead (also without irony, systemically).
Baldur’s Gate 3 is on course to be a ‘Mature’ game, which is publishing language for “if you go any further the ratings board is going to be extremely annoying”. We want to push the limits of every theme within the game, which should allow you to play exactly how you’d like to play. Astarion may be a Vampire Spawn, but that doesn’t mean he has to be evil - if hungry. Though you saw one path at PAX East, there were many possibilities for good, and evil -- note also, everything in between. It has always been Larian’s plan to create games that allow you to play however you wish. This larger team, and this new engine, allow us to push this further than ever before. Much further than Divinity: Original Sin 2.
As you delve into an epic adventure that subverts the binary morality found in many RPGs, and explore Baldur’s Gate with new and existing characters, 100 years after the story of the first two games, dice roll by dice roll, we hope that together we can reignite that great sense of discovery you felt as you dived for the first time into Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2, bringing the experience of an open-ended D&D game to photo-realistic realisation, albeit with 5e rules in place of 2nd edition rules. Things have come a long way in 20 years, but what’s important to us is that you’re along for the ride.
You have many questions, and we have answers. We’ll be hosting a Reddit AMA where you can ask Swen (Creative Director), David (Producer), Adam (Senior Writer), Nick (Lead Systems Designer), and Jiji (Writing Director) your questions. 11:00 PT on March 12, over on Reddit!
See you all in Early Access.
Baldur’s Gate 3 World Gameplay Reveal at PAX East 2020
We are excited to announce the eagerly anticipated gameplay reveal of Baldur’s Gate 3. On Thursday 27th February at 1500ET at PAX East, our Creative Director Swen Vincke will be playing the game live on stage with Jesse Cox, revealing more about the story, mechanics, and the answers to much asked questions.
Take a look at our announcement video below to get all the details about the gameplay reveal and to get a sneak peek at our brand new booth that we will be unveiling at PAX East.
[previewyoutube="maijYOOO-pE;full"]
Since we announced Baldur’s Gate 3 back at E3 last year, we have grown our team to 350 people and have been working on new technology and pipelines to allow our team to create a truly next-generation RPG. There will be more than 100+ hours of content, with all the depth you’d expect and many surprises along the way.
Tune in on February 27 at 1530ET to discover why we've been quiet over the past few months, and which direction the studio is heading.
In addition to attending PAX East with our brand spanking new Baldur’s Gate 3 booth, we will also be showcasing Divinity: Original Sin - the Board Game with our friends and collaborators from Lynnvander.
Don’t forget to stop by booth 20002 to check out the board game.
Speaking of backing, if you missed out on the board game Kickstarter we now have late pledging available through our pledge manager CrowdOx here
And to our beloved Kickstarter backers, we thank you for your support and we will be in touch with you in the very near future about managing your pledges in the pledge manager.
While we are at PAX we will also have a limited number of physical copies of Divinity: Original Sin 2 for Nintendo Switch. These will be available for purchase at the board game booth.
So whether you’re excited about Baldur’s Gate 3, Divinity Original Sin: The Board Game, D:OS2 on Switch or all of these things, if you’re around at PAX East, please come and say hello to our team. And if you’re not around be sure to follow Larian on Twitter, Facebook, click YouTube’s notification bell and sign up for the Larian Gazette to ensure you never miss exclusive coverage of the excess of shenanigans to come.
The Gazette prides itself on bringing you the latest and greatest breaking news about all things Larian, and the insider stories that go with it.
“LARIAN STUDIOS IS MAKING BALDUR’S GATE 3!” A teaser trailer of our new role-playing game was unveiled few days ago, and it was so spectacularly intense that the internet went into auto-censorship mode. In case you missed it - and you have the stomach for it - you can find the uncut version here:
https://youtu.be/OcP0WdH7rTs
The Gazette was more than a little intrigued by the mind flayer invasion of Baldur’s Gate. Our best reporter pursued their slimy trail to discover how Larian convinced Wizards of the Coast to let them unleash their madness on the crown jewel of the Sword Coast.
The brave reporter went deep undercover and resurfaced with a harrowing tale involving no less than the brutal abduction of Wizards’ own Mike Mearls! Interpol has been alerted of the situation, and you, dear reader, may rest assured that the Gazette is monitoring the situation closely! In the meantime, please enjoy our full video report:
https://youtu.be/LI4v6hC_rjM
For more breaking news and behind the scenes stories about everything Larian, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter at baldursgate3.game. You've helped us make two amazing games already, dear reader, and your reactions and feedback as we post updates will be as valuable as ever. We will not be doing any more Kickstarter updates so signing up for the newsletter is the definitive way to stay posted.
You can of course also follow us on social media, and click Youtube’s notification bell, just to make sure you never miss the many shenanigans and investigative journalism to come.
Speaking of social media: try using the hashtags #gatheryourparty, #baldursgate3, and #bg3 when tweeting to see our brand new Mindflayer Emoji!
