In a newly published presentation for Sofia Game JamLarian, screenwriter Mihail Kostov outlined the work and thinking that goes into an RPG as free-form as Baldur’s Gate 3, focusing on the “edge cases” that Larian had to account for, even though an incredibly small percentage of players might encounter them. We’ve heard similar stories from Larian before, but Hostov offered an interestingly silly approach.
This comes on the heels of newly discovered content from Proxy Gateway Tacticianwho discovered new security safes and a rare unsolved soft lock associated with the loss of the all-important Netherstones in Baldur’s Gate 3. One of these protections, a group of kobolds who can recover your Netherstones from a destroyed factory in case you somehow left them behind before the explosion, comes Kostov’s speech. The rest of the presentation is an equally fascinating look under the hood of a famously detailed RPG. Spoilers for Baldur’s Gate 3, up to and including Act 3, ahead.
Hostov and Larian define edge cases as “any way in which a player’s action can drive the system to an extreme”. Larian’s goal in these cases is to “make sure the game is always completed from start to finish” no matter what the players are up to, and to maintain consistency in the narrative – no teleporting or inexplicably animating characters and whatnot. This challenge runs counter to Larian’s desire to “encourage and reward player creativity,” Hostov explains, and ensure that “player choices have consequences.” This corresponds to the previous comments of Larian boss Swen Vincke, who emphasized the importance of creating content that very few players will find.
The “but” looms over this situation: there are many ways to crack Baldur’s Gate 3. The guest shared a list of challenges that will undoubtedly strike fear into the hearts of game developers:
- Most NPCs can be attacked and die
- NPCs can be knocked out immortally
- Items can be attacked/destroyed/moved/stolen at any time
- Important items can be put away in areas that are no longer accessible
- Most launch/observation areas can be sneaked
- Any dialog may fail to launch for a number of reasons
- Any dialogue can be interrupted at any time
- Tasks can be completed in any order
- A party can have more than one character (or player) in different locations
- NPCs could have been used in previous situations with multiple results
- Most fights can be run away from
- Multiple fights can be started separately and then combined into one
- NPCs may move as a result of crimes or other disturbances
Even then Hostov says “there are many, many more, that’s just a few.” But these factors alone create a number of potential abuses and loopholes that appear later in the conversation.
The first example of “true edge cases” in Guest is also the simplest: how do you prevent players from bypassing checkpoints by having characters sneak around while another character is chatting with guards? Guest Response: add more guards and give them escalating warnings for crimes like trespassing, which can suppress other cases. Small fixes and mini-quests like these can fall into Larian’s “booster” category as opposed to full quests.
What if a quest is missing a needed NPC due to complications from another quest – or perhaps an untimely demise due to a freak accident where their head lands on your hammer? In this case, Larian will often use another character you’ve met before to fill in, and if that character is dead, next one. If they are also dead or MIA, create a new one if necessary. Hostov argues that it’s okay for the overall fidelity of each situation to drop as scenarios become more and more narrowly defined — and even then “not all edge cases, if overlooked, can be fixed in the best way” — as long as everything is tonally consistent and ticks the necessary boxes.
My favorite example is associated with Lae’zel and one of the basic Githyanki quest lines. In Act 1, you’ll meet the Githyanki leader Voss, and if you follow his questline to the end, he’ll give Lae’zel a legendary sword in Act 3. Hostov agrees that this is the best melee sword the Githyanki build, so of course the players figured out a way to get it in Act 1 by casting the Heat Metal spell, which drops metal weapons on the characters, on Voss. The problem is that the dialogue originally associated with this sword could spoil the events of Act 3. This forced Larian to adjust Lae’zel’s lines, knowing full well that this would allow for a wildly outmatched early build.
“It would be easier to block players from using Heat Metal on Voss,” explains Hostov. “But we don’t like that about Larian. We love this kind of stuff, so let’s fully support it. Let the players keep the cool weapon. Find a way to use the game, let them, it’s awesome. And rewrite Laezel’s Dialog to they made sure it works in Act 1. This may mean recording new lines, it may mean hiding some lines, but the support for the player’s creativity is amazing, as we found out later there is actually a wiki page for this exploit. It’s also super long. That’s amazing.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 7 won’t be the RPG’s last update after all, as Larian promises extra support including cross-play and photo mode.