Baldur's Gate 3: What Will Larian Studios Do After Patch 7?

For the longest time, I have been opposed to the high fantasy genre involving pointy-eared beings, necromancers, you name it. My memory fails me in remembering why I was so adamant in avoiding it because if I were to tell a friend of mine now about how I held this prejudice, they would think I hit a pole recently and have gone bonkers.

In their eyes, there is no bigger known nerd for the fantasy genre amongst their contacts, and I wear that title with pride. I will rarely ever take their protests into account when dragging them to play Dungeons and Dragons, and no power on earth can stop me from ever yapping about The Cruel Prince book series written by Holly Black. This brings me to the topic of discussion today, Baldur’s Gate 3.

Larian Studios has recently signed up for yet another YouTube channel, this time to connect with the community of Baldur's Gate. Because of this approach towards connecting with the fans, we are being generously provided with much more details, in the form of videos, about the beloved Baldur's Gate 3.

What we could anticipate has already been teased in their first upload. It seems that updates on their progress with behind-the-scenes footage, videos of them unboxing the game’s goods, and the presence of patch explainers will be a frequent part of their broadcasts and event posts in a documentary-esque format. From time to time, Swen might even make surprise appearances.

A second film commemorating the release of Baldur's Gate 3 a year ago has already been uploaded on Larian's second channel. The majority of this video is devoted to expressing their gratitude towards the community and its members; they are thanked for their support, artwork, videos, and more. Beyond that, Swen Vincke opens with an appearance and subtly hints at their next game, stating that it would be massive, flashy, and, of course, time-consuming to build on their end.

Finally, we know that Patch 7 will debut in September. Since the next patch will officially support mods and Baldur's Gate 3 Toolkit, I am pretty darn positive that we will get to watch video uploads regarding this patch.

They have often teased us with details about what's to come, including new wicked endings. However, they just released a slew of additional upcoming patch highlights, including details on features we were previously unaware of.

Players will get a taste of the legendary actions in Honour Mode Combat, and more foes will have their abilities evolved. Circling back a bit to the former, during a playthrough, you may now use the workings of Honour Mode to initiate custom mode games. This was a widely requested inclusion and one of my favorite new features. And an interesting development is that the 'Ruleset' dropdown will allow you to accomplish this.

The reaction UI has also been revamped so that selecting reactions is now as simple as toggling a switch and then confirming. You may avoid the tedious repeating clicks of the "Do not react" option by using this method. Alongside that, they integrated a new loading screen depicting Baldur's Gate's bustling streets for the third act, and the character sheet on controllers will now have a new menu for equipment selection.

Progressive enhancements for speed and stability have been made for the overall gaming experience, and several changes to the game's underlying code have been introduced. The Lower City and other regions housing a high concentration of NPCs will feel the effects of this patch's reduction in memory use from loading levels, more profoundly so than before. It will also be easy for you, the player, to observe this when dealing with large amounts of riches.

Overall, I think what the Larian Studios team is doing for Baldur’s Gate 3 is amazing. After all, they are giving us more than what we could have expected. As someone who already has a soft spot for this genre of games, I cannot say I have any complaints regarding their selection of things to improve on for the enhancement of the game’s experience. If anything, I just want to play again.

Of course, with the trust that they have built, there is no doubt in my mind that the upcoming game that Swen was hinting at will fall short in terms of the effort. Larian Studios clearly understands what the fans want and what they need to do to make their projects memorable. I will definitely look forward to Patch 7 of Baldur’s Gate 3 and whatever else they have hidden in their arsenal.