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

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

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

The positives I've seen so far:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All this sounds really good

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

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

Yes, about a year.

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

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

Where's the save game folder ?

Phoooey.

Back to the game not launching by any means.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I made a drow.

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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