I’m hitting some bugs that are pretty annoying. Spoilers through the very beginning of Act II:
First, after killing all the leaders in the Goblin Camp, my log told me to talk with Zevlon. But Zevlon had nothing quest-related to say to me at the party that night, and after that he disappeared along with the rest of the refugees, leaving this quest incomplete in my log until I made it to the Underdark, at which point it weirdly completed. I spent way too long looking for him. Minor annoyance, but still.
Second, on the hag quest, I went way out of my way to save Mayrina. In the final battle, I switched to totally nonlethal damage and knocked her out. Afterwards she was unconscious and at one hit point. I threw a healing potion at her, healing her to full, but she stayed unconscious. My quest log says the “save Mayrina” quest is complete: “Mayrina is dead. We knocked Mayrina out.” Grr! Nonlethal damage should make a difference, dammit!
Also, I knocked the hag out and looted her for some mediocre treasure. When I was searching online for how to bring Mayrina back, I saw that she should have better treasure, so I went back and killed her unconscious body and searched, at which point I got a completely different set of treasure. This seems buggy: I suspect that unconscious people carry the stuff you can pickpocket, when they really should carry their full treasure load.
Third, I just fought the spectator and drow near the beginning of the underdark, talked with Dhourn, and fought him. After the battle, all his companions are there–but his corpse is missing, along with that memory shard he carried. I don’t THINK the shard is crucial for finding that Adamantine Forge he told me about, but I’m not sure. Maybe he got knocked into the abyss by some effect I’m unaware of? Anyway, it’s pretty frustrating.
All that aside, I’m loving the game. The voice acting is top-notch. I just wish there weren’t these bugs that take a really fun quest and sabotage its ending.
I certainly agree that such bugs are annoying but such things are almost guaranteed to happen on a game as expansive as this one is. That does not make it less annoying but I am willing to give some leeway here. That the bugs have been as relatively minor as they are is kind of amazing.
Doubtless these will mostly get sorted over time but it could be a long wait.
Totally agree and I’ll add that the writing is excellent as well. I don’t get that stilted NPC speech vibe with a giant ‘quest incoming’ banner on it. The ambient dialogue is great too – I like the conversation with the goblin bragging about capturing a dwarf.
I haven’t noticed those logic bugs, but I have gotten a few crashes during big battles.
I had a pretty funny bug when following Lae’Zel’s path:
I get to where the Gith are, I tell Lae’Zel to take the lead, then persuade her to play along when the Gith leader orders her to look for the artifact. She manages to convince the general that she will look for the arrifact and he flies away.
Then my character walked a bit closer once the cutscene ended, and a new cutscene began. I was challenged by the Gith commander myself (he was suddenly back), and I managed to convince him that rather than killing me he should send me to look for the artifact too. Then he flew away again.
I hope the cutscene playing twice doesn’t break any flags, but at least I achieved the same outcome both times.
I have not been loving the 3D pseudo-platforming you need to do to navigate in the duergar fortress to get to the forge. The engine just doesn’t handle elevation changes very well and makes it frustrating to try to figure out paths to get from A to B.
Yeah, I also wish my party was a little more risk adverse when moving. They’ll happily sprint through lava in their quest to take the shortest route and so I had to do a lot of fiddly movement micromanagement in places. In a more perfect world, people would stay out of environmental hazards unless explicitly told to walk in them.
Reach the Gith Creche and see if they can help us (starting to doubt it, somehow :P)
Park Lae’Zel, get Karlach, clear out her Paladin side quest and look for the missing shipment while I’m there.
Park Wyll, bring Astarion when we go talk to the Zhentarim again - he’ll probably want to rob them blind
Go check in on that old lady I rescued and find out why she was so sus (I have an idea as to why…) - maybe park Astarion and give Halsin a try
I think that will wrap up all my active plotlines that don’t involve the Underdark or Shadow Lands. But knowing this game I expect to run into some new sidequests before long.
Head to the Underdark (Shadowheart and Halsin wanted to go, not sure who to send alongside them - maybe Gale, I’ll have parked him for a long time)
Does anyone else find themselves wishing the party had a slightly larger limit? If I had 4 companion slots I wouldn’t feel so hard pressed to fit everyone I want to interact with in.
So I just tried Vulkan on a new campaign start late last night and everything looked fine (maybe even very, very slightly better). However I did get my first ever crash to desktop for this game right after I engaged in the mind-flayer/cambion fight. Might be coincidental. I’m going to push that campaign a bit more and see.
Yeah, I want 5 but I get that things are probably tightly balanced. I just not a huge fan of Astarion though, goody two-shoes that I am (I don’t steal much, so it mostly about locks and traps). So lately on my more recent numerous restarts I’ve been playing around with taking the urchin background with decent dex and just permanently parking him (warlock and now sorcerer).
I’m trying to help him become a better person. Also Lae’Zel, and Shadowheart. Not to mention representing Wyll as a contracts attorney and serving as a mechanic/doctor for Gale and Karlach. My Bard is basically a wandering psychiatrist/physician/lawyer/mechanic who solves problems for anyone but takes his long-term difficult cases with him.
Like a psychological experiment, and your party members are unknowing test subjects? That’s an interesting concept, and seems really appropriate for a number of evil characters.
I was thinking more along the lines of, I’m still guiding the other characters, but to do evil instead of good. Convince them to give in to the tadpole, revel in killing (Astarion/Lae’Zel), devote to Shar, etc…
For most of them, though, it’s not their fault, which is why I feel compelled to help them:
Lae’Zel was indoctrinated by the Githyanki’s supremacist doctrine; and while the Githyanki are certainly evil, their society was forged through a slave revolt against the Illithid empire eons ago, and is entirely dedicated to preparing for the prophecied end times battle against the Illithids. I wouldn’t condone or support the Githyanki’s methods, but it’s understandable why they are like that. But I think that when she sees that the creche is not interested in helping her, despite her loyalty, while us “lesser races” are eager to - she may come around.
Shadowheart was abducted as a child and brainwashed into hating her own people (Selunites).
Astarion spent 200 years shackled to a cruel master’s will, not to mention the vampiric bloodlust he’s controlled by
I haven’t learned enough about Wyll or Karlach, but Wyll apparently made his pact to save someone in a situation that was so desperate that he doesn’t regret it even after being punished by his patron and Karlach is obviously Zariel’s victim.
Gale I honestly have the least to say in defense of. He just got power hungry. But, to be fair, I don’t think the human mind is built to handle the godlike power that comes with being a high level wizard, and in my headcanon all powerful arcanists are at least a bit mad.
Nope. It was Vulkan. Tried to launch from the last crash and this time a long bit of verbiage popped up and specifically blamed a Vulkan error. Switched to DirectX for the same save and no problems.
(I don’t steal much, so it mostly about locks and traps). So lately on my more recent numerous restarts I’ve been playing around with taking the urchin background with decent dex and just permanently parking him (warlock and now sorcerer).