Baldur's Gate 3 is more than Divine Realm: Primal Sin in Dragon and Dungeon Skin

Baldur's Gate 3 The first was a group of survivors pieced together after the shipwreck. Here are some recruiting and chat content, some knowledge about the task you are about to accomplish, and some people you can recruit. This is very similar to the opening of Divine Realm: Original Sin 2, where the shipwreck occurred on the beach outside Fort Joy.

It's easy to assume that you got the right accolades on Larian Studios' two outstanding Divinity: Original Sin games, and the team can reshape the rich appearances of former Dungeons & Dragons and their "Forgotten Realms". Early last year, Baldur & # 39; s Gate 3 first teased the details, but after watching the game for almost three hours and sitting down with Larian's passionate team, it was clear that this was real D & D: Video game that combines the evolution of natural Larian's outstanding RPG craftsmanship. D & D not only reflects Baldur's Gate and the forgotten realm in appearance and entertainment, but also adheres to a strict set of rules. In addition to the rule set, as far as D & D is concerned, it requires constant improvisation. Your battle will proceed south. Your tactics will need to be updated at any time. You need to adapt or die. You may be able to influence the lower die roll slightly, but never rely on it.

Now, we can flip the game screen of the first part of Gate 3 of Gate Broadgate to the side, which brings us multiple problems. We took this opportunity to discuss the comparison between the two games with veteran writer Adam Smith, implemented the fifth version of the D & D rules into a video game, making failure fun, how to interact with companions, multiplayer games .

"Our way of building is thorough D & D"

VG247: So what do you say to those who see it and go: "This is divine: original sin, but with a D & D license"?

Adam Smith: First, I will answer this question from the perspective of a writer. As far as we observe dialogues and characters, scenes, every part of them is completely aimed at the world. The number of books I read – how much I read D & D I find very sad.

VG247: That's your job. Literally, this is your job.

Adam Smith: But this is crazy. When you get to the level you want, "I read back 25 years, just because there might be something interesting here." And that's usually the case. You will find a very interesting thing. But from a writing perspective, everything is absolutely rooted in this world. This is what we think of this world, but it is entirely in that world. As far as rule sets are concerned, both are good in terms of systems. The main ones are environmental influences and elements, and there is a lot of discussion about similarities with divinity. But in reality, this is how the world behaves. So it's weird to take it away. It's strange to take something out of it instead of adding something. So designers spend a lot of time researching it and say, ‘how can we supplement this? What can we do with it? ‘But in terms of the actual system, this is the fifth edition of D & D.

And we've changed something because it's a different medium, so you can't just say, "Let's put all the rules of a table game into a video game." This won't work. So something will change, but fundamentally, this is D & D. It is based on the fifth edition. And the degree of headache it causes, for example, ‘well, how does this work? How do we make it feel good in the game? 'It's really tough. There are many very difficult redesigns. The entire combat system has been completely rebuilt. In some cases, ‘well, this is close to what we think of the fifth edition in the game, but it ’s not very interesting. ‘It ’s time to make it fun …

But yes, I mean, some people see it and think (this is the crystallization of divinity). Meaningful things always exist. The way we build it is thorough D & D. Pointlessly throwing something useful, so even to the original system. Like, we will keep the origin system because it works, but we will make it more D & D-like. And your operation is like a simple thing. Obviously, class and competition are very different, but again, you can say, ‘well, this is just a redesign. You just changed their names. ’But these skill sets are completely different. How backgrounds work, how characters work in games. So D & D. So what I want to say is, I know where you are from, but I don't think it's true.

VG247: How do you make those D & D systems easy to access? Because they are hard, they can be dull and esoteric. I'm quite confident in the basics of D & D, but I'm watching a game and it's growing fast, and I'm thinking, "Wait, why failed?" How can I make it unusable for people who are not familiar with it? Above the rules?

Adam Smith: It has many interfaces, and the interface is not yet complete. For me, the UI is the most important way for you to convey this kind of information. You can design the best system in the world, but if your user interface can't convey the message, that's nonsense. So this is a big part. I think we need to do that because we need to make sure people don't have to delve into it. You can see everything in the battle log, so if you really care, you can say, ‘What ’s my status? What are the advantages? What are the disadvantages? Why are they? ’

But in reality, whether it's an advantage or a disadvantage (which is one of the core things we use in combat), and it's surprising that you just don't need to think about it. You just have to say, "I'm an archer, so if I were higher, I would have a better hit rate." And you would only see the hit rate. You wo n’t see, “So you have an advantage now.” You can find and track in the battle log, but in reality you just say, “If I stand taller, my chance of hitting disappears up to 80%, not 40%. If I stand too close, it drops to 30%, because being too close will adversely affect me. 'Then savings happened (rolling the dice on the screen). Again, again There is no final user interface, so whether we continue to show this thing, you just throw a savings ball to cross difficult terrain, I do n’t know yet. I ’m not sure how we will decide to communicate. I may not know, it may Text, which may be optional. But we need to make sure we communicate in a way that people understand.

VG247: I'm glad to see the system and dice. I love seeing it on the screen because it helps me understand the rules and more processes.

"If it fails, you will probably have a more interesting experience."

Adam Smith: The same is true for me. I think this makes it less frustrating.

VG247: I think Divinity feels like there is an element of trial and error. I'm learning from mistakes and I don't mind making mistakes, but it's frustrating when I don't know what the mistake is. So you then try to learn rote memorization, because you basically know what's going on in the next room, because last time it absolutely overwhelmed you. How can you take steps to ease this frustration?

Adam Smith: Part of it is making failure fun. So, especially in conversations, sometimes if you fail to roll the dice, you may have a more interesting experience. Sometimes it can be fun to fail. Conversely, it wouldn't be fun if you fail to be punished and have to load quickly. Terrible So there is a balance between making things fun (which happens when you do bad things) and giving you some cool things to do (basically calm problems). Still from a conversational point of view, this is a completely new branch you may not have. In some ways, if you don't have a conversation, you may end up with someone you've never met before. Imprisonment can be really fun, because suddenly you meet other criminals. There is such a thing. So if you play the game perfectly, you may have a great time, but you will never do it anyway.

If you make a difficult game, there will always be frustration, and in the current version, this game is very difficult. We haven't set up a difficulty mode yet, as balance has not yet been determined, but we will consider a lot. For me, I really like tactical combat, so I'm very satisfied with it. Generally, for RPGs, I tend to be story-based. This is where I am happy. But I like turn-based combat. In some cases, we are doing things in stealth. What does it feel like? Shadow tactics or old commando games in which you can use all these different systems. You can also do very stupid things. I really like some of them.

The first time we were working in stealth, it was actually what I was working on, then we suddenly had light and darkness, we saw the cone and everything, we got a spoiler, but we got rob -y after. Play as a multiplayer game, like ‘it ’s not like D & D games anymore. It feels like something else. Then, like, "Of course, no, in D & D, you can do that. "You can. People do this kind of work in D & D. This is not a game I've played in D & D's video games before. That's what really excites me in terms of systems. It's complicated, but you can also see Frustum, shading, and shading. So it's readable. And I think readability and bringing readability into the system is really difficult because there are many of them. And some people want to see them, which helps They understand it. For some, this is a hindrance. So we can find a balance.

VG247: As a senior writer, how do you keep your narrative on track when you have no control over too many random elements? Just like at some point this afternoon, it was just stuck in hysterics, and death and destruction were caused by simple conversation. Do you need to check your ego because you want to say "I am writing a story here" and there are many burning fairies shooting on the screen. You can't improvise like a dungeon master.

Adam Smith: no no. I will tell you a good anecdote, and that is the truth. So when we built the dungeon, the first, small, chapel you saw was sometime – when I designed it, you did n’t see most of the actual backstory because the players did n’t read books, plaques And stuff. But it has a long history and has a place in the world, and you can learn a lot. So when we built it, we quickly did it. It ’s like, ‘we should have a dungeon early in the game, because otherwise there would be dragons in our profile, but no dungeon. So this is not a fucking dragon and dungeon game. We should probably add a dungeon to this game. ’

VG247: Absolutely.

Adam Smith: So we were like, "Let's have a dungeon at an early stage, and here we can use some of it." So I quickly established a narrative for that. It ’s like, ‘OK, this is what we do. ‘This is the first question, this is a small church. Who is it dedicated to? I thought, "Well, it's dedicated to Selune," and you might see it on the screen. Celun is a goddess of peace. So we were designing, and I thought, ‘well, let ’s do this in this room, this in this room, this is this. ’Then one of our early game designers came back to me. He said, "I put all the traps in that room." I was like "what traps?" Then he walked in, and that abominable flame started shooting at me, and everything was on fire. I was like, "This is the goddess of peace and motherhood." He was like, "Yes, but this is the gameplay." I was like, "Fair enough." So I had to go back and explain why this happened. That was a very outspoken example, but the thing was like, "Sometimes you have to shut up, Adam, and let people play some games."

"If people are smiling, laughing and killing a character that took me three weeks to write, I didn't even tell me & # 39; 你好 & # 39; to be honest, I'm happy. That's more important. "

The truth is that dialogue is gameplay. There is plenty of gameplay in the dialogue. But in truth, the honest answer is that if people are smiling, laughing and killing a character that took me three weeks to write, to be honest, I did n’t even say "hello" to it, I am very happy. Because that's more important.

VG247: Yes. And they have a chance to see it a second time.

Adam Smith: Yes, that's it. Like, no one can see everything in the first place. Just like my goblins, because I spend a lot of time working on these goblins. Once I was writing these goblins, someone said, "They always say," Write what you know, "Adam." And I'm like, "Charming, man." So I have a real feeling for them. I spend a lot of time thinking about goblin. I spent a lot of time researching goblins and how they fit into goblins. What is their culture? What do they think of their place in the world? Goblin is almost a feeling, it's the bottom of the food chain. They are things that adventurers kill in order to gain experience. I thought, ‘they must be despicable about it. ’

VG247: Basically, they are above the rats in the food chain.

Adam Smith: Right, that is it. So I thought, ‘OK, let people in, make Goblin a little cheeky and arrogant, but they ’re also afraid of you. ‘If you ’re the first level, then there ’s not much. However, if you are stronger, they will know that you can use them to clean the floor. But they are the kind-not everyone, because they are all personal-but they have the mentality: "Everyone has been stepping on us." So they have a chance to step back soon. And they will accept it. But this is because they are scared. But it's good that so many people are going to kill them all. honest. Then, when they die, you can also talk to them with the correct spell.

VG247: In terms of peers-how many will there be?

Adam Smith: We showed five. However, there is more. There will be five early access. Yes, then we will throw more.

VG247: Okay. Can you romance all your companions?

Adam Smith: Yes. They can be romantic with each other, yes.

VG247: Obviously, does this have an impact on group dynamics and dialogue between roles?

Adam Smith: Yes. So I think I can give you an example. We haven't talked about it yet. But if you actually do any research, it's one of them. . . So Lisselle is Githyanki. And Githyanki is indeed not monogamous. So if you sleep with Liselle one night in the camp, the next night you may find her sleeping with others. She thinks, ‘oh, that ’s fun, is n’t it? How are you? ‘You ’re like,‘ oh! ‘Heartbroken!

But you know, we don't want to join the romantic system, that is, "I won this person." We want it to be more real. We want to be jealous. We also hope to be very happy about this. But yes, we don't want this to happen, "You brought me my favorite gift, so you get +50 love." It depends more on how you handle them and what you do Things to do. So when I say "everyone can be romantic with others", not every gameplay is the same. In multiplayer games, you can actually be in the opposite position as other players, which is really cool. You may encounter two different aspects of the war, because at this point you have chosen only different aspects. Then you just go your own way.

VG247: So, how does multiplayer work based on player branching and following multiple storylines?

Adam Smith: In essence, it is very similar to Divine Realm: Original Sin 2. So basically, it can accommodate up to four people, and you can separate or act your way. One of the things we hope to move further in D: OS 2 is that people's agendas are different. Therefore, I think we are doing very well, but D: OS 2 is not doing well. In D: OS 2, we sometimes encounter this situation: cool story. "I thought," He may have a cool story, but he feels like a little story. "So one thing we are going to do here is to say that your story is intrinsically linked to the main story. The story. The truth is that it helps our main story," You are all infected with parasites. "So everyone has something in common. But other than that, they have nothing in common. So they have their own way to handle everything, not want to deal with it. Then, as you get deeper, The sense of urgency and threat grows, and the sense of tension grows.

"We know the turn-based system, and the fifth edition of D & D is repeated, so it makes sense."

What really matters to me is that this does n’t necessarily turn into “everyone is hostile and everyone is nervous” because it may also turn into “well, we ’re in a bad situation, so we have to Count on. "I want to get that too. But yes, there are divergent opinions on how to do it, especially in multiplayer games, because with companions, companions can leave you and they can do their own things, but especially in multiplayer games, there will be many similar Thing, & # 39; well, you know what? I want to follow this leadership, you have to follow your own leadership. ‘And then maybe when you follow your lead, you ’ll find,‘ oh, Adam ’s place is just too bad. No matter what he is doing there, I don't trust him anymore, because you learned something else. So we also want to include it.

VG247: The last two Border Gates did not use turn-based combat. Obviously, this is. And I don't think I have any problems with it, but do you think it might delay the original Baldur & # 39; s Gate fan?

Adam Smith: I think real Baldur Gate fans come in all shapes and sizes, and have different opinions on this. Therefore, it is not a group, but a very broad and diverse group. I'm an original Baldur Gate Gate fan, so I never particularly liked live and pause because — and, that actually goes back to the question you asked first — I'm really bad at micromanagement. Therefore, if I think there is a stress factor, then I tend not to bother. So I'm going to set up a very simple party at Gates 1 and 2 of Baldur, because then I would say, "Well, I think I can solve this problem." And if I have to monitor others and keep clicking On them, then I'm a bit frustrated. But based on rotation, I feel easier to control. So for me, it feels good.

Part of the decision was that we knew the turn-based system. Second, the fifth edition was based on rounds, so it made sense to say "let's do that." As time increases, you can do and pause in real time, but it makes sense-again, I'm not saying you can't do these things in real time and pause, but I think it's much more difficult. However, it allows you to do things such as separate parties and have one person stand on a high ground while another is on a low ground. This means that when the battle begins, there will be a better feeling, ‘I will understand the tactics. I want to send this person here, I want to do this, I want to send this person to the back and push an enemy. That level of control can zoom in and say, "Well, what am I doing here?" What do I think I want to do? ’I can enter the inventory and take stock. I don't feel like I'm wasting sports.

And there are things we can do in stealth. It is much easier to perform force-based operations. I mean, you can play whole turn-based games. It's really boring, but it can. But it does allow us to do super complicated robbery situations, and so on, which is really interesting. It feels different.

The problem is that we will never please everyone. And you never will. No matter what you are doing. So we try not to guess, we say, ‘we know what we do is true to this spirit. We know it will be interesting. So we have to do it. ‘This does n’t mean we need to annoy anyone, it does n’t mean we need to make anyone upset. We really don't. But if people – if they are rejected for that, then what we want to say to them is to try it out. & # 39;