2024

8 January, 2024. 779 words.

Dispatches from @ultrviolet@gts.endgameviable.com:

Monday 01/01

09:56 # An interesting addition to Baldur’s Gate 3’s difficulty options would be a timer on how long you have to make a decision on your turns. That would certainly ramp up the jeopardy if you had to pick from one of a thousand different options in, say, one minute or less, or forfeit your turn. #baldursgate3

21:29 # I have reached the credits in Baldur’s Gate 3. Didn’t quite get the ending I wanted though. I gave up on that last fight after two tries because yeesh. I successfully kept a total of two companions alive by the end of game. #baldursgate3
- 21:32 # There’s so many credits the music actually repeats. This game surely must set a record for most audio visual assets in one game. #baldursgate3

21:09 # First attempt at BG3 Honor Mode: Died before reaching level 3. Forgot how hard that encounter in the Refectory was (I barely survived it on Tactician in my first game). Just charged headlong into it and that was the end of my first game. Didn’t even get a chance to setup my party with hirelings like I wanted to. #baldursgate3
22:05 # Second attempt at BG3 Honor Mode: Died at level 1 on the beach fighting the first Intellect Devourers. I was thinking to myself “I should take this seriously because these things hit hard and there’s only two of us” and then both of us went down one after another and it was game over. #baldursgate3

11:50 # So I bought BG3 for the PS5 so I could play it before bed. BG3 controls on the PS5 are actually pretty dern good. I almost like them better than mouse-and- keyboard. Anyway I died in my first Honor Mode game there (at the Intellect Devourers again… that first 2-on-3 fight at level 1 is way more dangerous than you might think). My second Honor Mode game is going much better, and I’ve made it to the Grove. #baldursgate3

15:02 # Barely escaped alive in my PS5 BG3 Honor Mode campaign, fleeing from the gnolls on the road. My main character fled back to camp, and everyone else died, which is the exact minimum requirement for continuing the game after such a catastrophe. I burned my only invisibility potion to ensure survival. I learned well the turn-invisible-then-run technique in my first playthrough on Tactician. Those Gnoll Hunters with three arrow shots per turn each are terrifying against my pitiful level 3 party. At level 3 in this game, I don’t think there are any easy roads to take to reach level 4. #baldursgate3
19:31 # In a desperate attempt to keep myself from replaying another 200 hours of Baldur’s Gate 3, I’ve gotten Warhammer Rogue Trader, which had the great misfortune of being a CRPG released after BG3, but it’s by the folks who made the Pathfinder games, which I like a lot, so I’m probably going to like it. I know exactly nothing about Warhammer, having never played anything in the Warhammer universe except the ill-fated Warhammer Online. #warhammer #roguetrader

09:16 # A total of five TPKs now on the final Netherbrain fight on Tactician difficulty, which I think is more than any other in the game for me. Best I’ve done is getting three characters through the portal and getting the brain down to 262 of 450 hit points. It’s easy to get my Bard in there but, you know, my Bard can’t do any damage. #baldursgate3
- 09:19 # If only they’d told me at character creation my character would have to do 450 points of damage in 4 turns all by themselves to beat the final boss and conquer the world, I might have made different choices. #baldursgate3
12:26 # Hrm I’ve just noticed my upload script is all wonky after the last changes I made. #videos
16:56 # Okay finally killed the stupid Netherbrain on Tactician. It took 7 tries and some save scumming, and circumventing the first phase almost entirely by turning the whole party invisible. And it took some luck. And I still almost lost it in the end. Was down to the final turn before all the platforms vanished. #baldursgate3
16:58 # Also I have no idea how to get to the Epilogue camp site I keep hearing about. I’ve reloaded my last save game multiple times now and I got nothing but credits. Maybe it isn’t available if you turn yourself into a Mind Flayer. Or maybe I have to replay the whole game from the start with a new save file to see it. #baldursgate3