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Post by skalpadda on Sept 22, 2023 1:02:38 GMT
I had a look at hirelings for the first time and was a bit disappointed that they're just a handful of pre-baked characters and you can't make them from scratch. You can respec them at Whithers but not customise their looks, subrace or background. There's this coming with the next patch:
But it says "your Tav" which makes me think it won't work for hirelings. Bit of a bummer as I was thinking of making a run with an entirely custom party of just Underdark characters. Guess I'll have to hope for mods.
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ekz
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Post by ekz on Sept 22, 2023 10:26:49 GMT
This has convinced me to go a bard for my dark urge playthrough. What a larrikin. |
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Post by JuniorFE on Sept 22, 2023 13:31:22 GMT
skalpadda FWIW there's a way to have a party with multiple fully custom characters (on PC at least) if you finagle a bit with Multiplayer and running multiple instances of the game dotesports.com/baldurs-gate/news/baldurs-gate-3-how-to-create-custom-party-members-in-bg3Although fair warning, I'm not sure if you'll be able to rotate Origin party members in if you go with a fully custom party, so you might miss out on questlines and interactions and such... I guess you could go with only two or three customs?
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f00b_inc
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Post by f00b_inc on Sept 22, 2023 14:32:38 GMT
Been running around the first little area of Act 3 and can definitely tell the difference in additional bugs (a character not appearing during a dialogue scene, some repeating dialogue from another character). Performance slightly better than I anticipated though - although maybe that's because I'm still not in the city proper. There are some great little moments though - I had a laugh seeing that the carrier pigeons are talking about their own war effort and they are all veterans at level 9 (with 5 HP)  |
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Post by skalpadda on Sept 22, 2023 15:08:37 GMT
skalpadda FWIW there's a way to have a party with multiple fully custom characters (on PC at least) if you finagle a bit with Multiplayer and running multiple instances of the game dotesports.com/baldurs-gate/news/baldurs-gate-3-how-to-create-custom-party-members-in-bg3Although fair warning, I'm not sure if you'll be able to rotate Origin party members in if you go with a fully custom party, so you might miss out on questlines and interactions and such... I guess you could go with only two or three customs? Yeah it seems like a pretty dirty workaround. The idea would be to skip the standard companions almost entirely (except perhaps Minthara), and I'd have to think about whether there are quests that would make keeping any of the others around worthwhile.
I really just find it baffling that they don't let you make hirelings from scratch. Like I can't think of any sensible reason to make them fixed templates. Even lore-wise, Withers pulling in dead people leaves the door open to you just choosing whomever you'd like.
edit:
From the patch notes: "Origin characters, hirelings and full illithids cannot use the Magic Mirror." Boo! "NPCs will no longer run away from anything but the [REDACTED ]to improve interactivity and flow." Yay! |
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Vandelay
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Post by Vandelay on Sept 23, 2023 8:30:02 GMT
Seems the latest patch has improved performance in Act 3 a bit, although I swear my GPU utilisation might actually be even lower than it was before. Weird how it was almost maxing it out earlier in the game (or maybe in an earlier patch), but now it doesn't. I had a similar experience with Spider-Man, which was under using my GPU unless I enabled DLSS 3. Had a battle with a wizard last night the Lorroakan battle was odd. I had about 3 or 4 attempts getting absolutely nowhere, with 1 or 2 of my party going down by the second round of actions. Nightsong joined the fight and she was normally dying fairly quickly. I was maybe getting one of the elementals and barely denting the others. One attempt I managed to kill Lorroakan, hoping that maybe killing him would end the fight, but no, I was very quickly killed by the remaining enemies. But then, it all just worked. Not really sure what changed, but I was able to take out a couple of elementals pretty quickly, by second round I think. None of my party were down and it became much easier to be able to focus on keeping Nightsong up and doing damage to the enemies. From there, it was easy to polish up. Not sure if I got lucky with some rolls or I just happened to target down the right elemental first, but it suddenly became a trivial fight. |
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Post by skalpadda on Sept 23, 2023 13:20:20 GMT
While the elementals are alive, Lorroakan has a buff that makes him retaliate with a huge amount of damage when he's hit. If you kill at least a couple of the elementals first while CCing or counterspelling Lorroakan it becomes a fairly easy fight.
Aylin is a dumbass and has a tendency to go straight for Lorroakan, so she will likely take a fair bit of damage unless you can end the fight quickly. You could drop some buffs like Protection from Energy on her and be prepared to heal her I suppose. It's always worth right-clicking and examining bosses to see their stats and active effects. They usually have some glaring strengths and weaknesses. |
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Vandelay
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Post by Vandelay on Sept 23, 2023 13:49:40 GMT
Oh yeah, I knew all that, hence why I was trying to target the elementals most of the time (after falling foul of that in my first attempt, I examined him). As I say though, I was barely making a dent against those before everything had gone to shit.
It mostly just left me confused as to why it suddenly all went fine in my last attempt when I didn't really feel like I was doing anything different.
Worth doing though, as there were some very tasty scrolls down in the vaults.
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Frog
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Post by Frog on Sept 23, 2023 13:53:25 GMT
Sanctuary spell is amazing for protecting suicidal ai.
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Post by skalpadda on Sept 23, 2023 16:31:44 GMT
Sometimes it's just the dice. Definitely worth jumping down the floating furniture (or flying) to have a good looting around in the level below where Lorroakan was if you haven't. It's even better than what's in the vault. First time I fought him Aylin knocked one of the elementals over the railings and it fell below the barrier to where the loot is. So I had to get my whole party down there and figure out the puzzle while still in combat and not able to attack it. Yet another reason I dislike Dame Aylin I suppose. |
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Post by skalpadda on Sept 24, 2023 17:11:56 GMT
2nd playthrough finished. Letting Astarion ascend seems to have had some unexpected side effects... (glitch, not much of a spoiler, but just in case) I'll almost certainly play it again, but will probably wait until all the patching is done and maybe see if any interesting mods appear. Now I kind of have a hankering to replay Baldur's Gate 2. |
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Post by Destria on Sept 24, 2023 19:01:31 GMT
I just got through one of the boss fights in Act III Against Raphael in the House of Hope. Really tough fight, but damn if the music didn't kick things up a notch. Firstly the unexpected, but epic, operatic vocals at the start, and then I couldn't help but grin from ear to ear when Raphael started singing like a Disney villain |
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Post by harrypalmer on Sept 25, 2023 8:36:19 GMT
Picking this up today to play local co-op with the ladyfriend. I'm assuming I can have two games running - one for me to play solo and the other a co-op save?
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dogbot
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Post by dogbot on Sept 25, 2023 9:43:07 GMT
I believe so. Haven't had much time to play recently, so had to pick up again yesterday by cleaning up a load of leftover stuff in Act 1 to get back into the swing, for which I was probably a bit over-levelled, but I had fun with and I'm starting to get the hang of different party members and managing things and thinking outside the box and all that. Two incredibly annoying PS5 hangs near the very end of very long combat sequences, though. One of which is very important and I'd already tried to do a couple of times, gone away, come back after getting tougher and was just about to beat. This seems to be post-patch unfortunately. Ugh. I saved just before, but still. When so much can go wrong based on the random chance of dice rolls... Ugh.
Edit: Hmm, maybe it's this:
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alastair
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Post by alastair on Sept 25, 2023 9:55:47 GMT
I'm at the Last Light Inn.
Now that I've made it into Act II I'm quite pleased I didn't hang around in Act I to do any final mopping up. Feel like I am progressing the story a bit.
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dogbot
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Post by dogbot on Sept 25, 2023 9:59:55 GMT
Me too, although (pre-crash), I had carefully explored and uncovered most of the Shadow Lands.
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Post by salaman on Sept 25, 2023 12:32:41 GMT
Picking this up today to play local co-op with the ladyfriend. I'm assuming I can have two games running - one for me to play solo and the other a co-op save? I've not played local co-op but I have 2 different save games at the moment. The game groups all your saves for one game under your character's name. So it's quite straightforward to jump on either one of your 2 games when you want to pick up where you left off solo or in co-op. |
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Post by JuniorFE on Sept 25, 2023 21:25:27 GMT
I've been chortling to myself like an idiot for like five minutes now  |
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dogbot
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Post by dogbot on Sept 26, 2023 9:14:51 GMT
Disabling online on the PS5 definitely helped the crashes. There were none. Yay. Cleared the Gauntlet of Shar last night. I didn't go into Shadowfell yet, though. I've still got many things to do in the area and the warning seemed to suggest I should wait.
Amusing that my doppelgängers in the "Self Same Trial" all somehow managed to get 40 and 50 point hits on their real counterparts... none of whom have ever managed that sort of damage at all to anyone else! Doubtless that's just absolutely random rolls of the dice, of course. Still beat 'em easily, so fuck you game.
I'm enjoying talking most of the way overpowered bosses out of fights, though. That's a nice touch, that you don't have to fight someone who's got 800 HP when your guys have about 50. The targeting (presumably designed for a freemoving mouse) and AI pathfinding on the PS5 is a bit shit, though. I've lost count of how many times I've jumped a gap, only to have to go back later because one of my party (usually Shadowheart) is just standing there staring at it. |
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Vandelay
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Post by Vandelay on Sept 26, 2023 9:30:56 GMT
I have that issue with a party member not following after a jump for some reason on PC too. To prevent a back and forth of jumping party members, I have to split the group, select the one that hasn't jumped and manually jump them, and then re-group everyone. It's probably more than 50% of the time that I have to do this. Very rarely it might be just because that character (often Shadowheart) has a smaller jump than the others and I may have to boost that somehow, but normally it was just the pathing not working.
It's probably the only reoccurring bug I have encountered to be honest.
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alastair
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Post by alastair on Sept 26, 2023 9:42:27 GMT
Yeah, I've had some issues with jumping too.
It amused me the first time they then all jumped back after I got the final one to jump the original gap.
It stopped being funny when they all jumped back a third time.
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ekz
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Post by ekz on Sept 26, 2023 11:17:06 GMT
There was a spot near where you meet Raphael's buddy to get the orb that made me so irrationally angry with the stupid jumping.
And it was of course, shadowheart that would be the lingering one. Also noticed a similar issue in the floating section as well when you're jumping between the rocks.
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dogbot
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Post by dogbot on Sept 26, 2023 11:18:56 GMT
Glad it's not just me, then. The game could easily have done without the occasional little jumping sections anyway. |
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ekz
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Post by ekz on Sept 26, 2023 11:20:43 GMT
It took me ages to figure out I had to jump as a skill so for a few hours I just assumed a bunch of places were inaccessible, lol.
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alastair
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Post by alastair on Sept 26, 2023 11:26:33 GMT
It took me ages to figure out I had to jump as a skill so for a few hours I just assumed a bunch of places were inaccessible, lol. I guess that's why it's there! I noticed it in the Underdark or Grymforge, and discovered extra bits of loot because of it. |
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dogbot
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Post by dogbot on Sept 26, 2023 11:29:58 GMT
I knew it was there because I always go and look at the controller layout before I start a new game, otherwise I'll end up shooting my companion because I've forgotten the buttons are different. |
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Duffking
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Post by Duffking on Sept 26, 2023 11:42:50 GMT
There was a spot near where you meet Raphael's buddy to get the orb that made me so irrationally angry with the stupid jumping. And it was of course, shadowheart that would be the lingering one. Also noticed a similar issue in the floating section as well when you're jumping between the rocks. My Monk was set up in such a way that he could jump about as far as the fly characters could fly... trouble was that he would constantly bump his head on shit and get stuck in the scenery lol. |
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Tuffty
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Post by Tuffty on Sept 26, 2023 12:14:38 GMT
I came back to camp for the night and Shadowheart, Karlach and Lae'zel are all demanding to jump on my half elf dick. I dont even feel like I've earned it!
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Post by skalpadda on Sept 26, 2023 12:22:12 GMT
The G key is your friend whenever stragglers refuse to jump. Also works to stop everyone in their tracks when you spot traps.
Playing BG2 now and dear god the pathfinding is atrocious. With a full party it really does feel like herding cats. I don't know if it's my memory that's faulty but I don't remember it being this bad, and I'm starting to suspect the Enhanced Edition broke something.
At least it's nice to see something that's really improved over the last 20 years.
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askew
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Post by askew on Sept 26, 2023 12:30:00 GMT
When was the A* algorithm invented? |
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