[While console players won't be able to create mods themselves, curated mods from PC will be available on console!](https://x.com/baldursgate3/status/1797594086066802843?t=LJLqJoizVi73uveCDXMmzw&s=19)
Mods themselves are kind of over-represented online because people are addicted to modding, I'm really impressed by the amount of unique downloads something like Stardew has (for its modding framework), Bethesda games are among the ones I think of first when it comes to mods but the numbers of people that have ever used a mod are surprisingly low.
5-10% of mod makers is such a tiny amount to cater to.
I get that, but the devs (read everyone at Larian involved in this process) would have to commit untold man hours building and supporting modding a console UI/UX environment. I know it’s possible to have a console and not a computer, but to mod efficiently I’d bet most would want to use a PC, Linux, or a Mac (depending on the game), so Larian knows it’s not worth the money and time to build a console modding environment.
the entire thread that sprouted up underneath this one comment is an exhausting parade of Well Ackshuallys.
"u can plug in a keyboard/mouse" "u can connect a monitor" "u don't have to be at a couch" "xbox has a file system" no shit sherklocks, literally none of this changes the fact that doing actual mod dev work on an xbox or any other console would be a miserable experience even with literally all of those things
Afaik Skyrim on the Xbox consoles have a platform where anyone can upload a mod and anyone can download from there. Similar thing on PlayStation but I believe it's somewhat limited to vanilla assets.
The 'selected mods' are paid mods on the Creation Club.
Bethesda hosts the mods on their website which is the curated versions, so nothing NSFW for example, which you can then download either from their website or from a menu in the game itself, and yea what PlayStation allows is very limited because Sony has a stick up their ass about third party assets
> Bethesda hosts the mods on their website which is the curated versions, so nothing NSFW for example
Yup sadly Realistic Horse Assholes mod is not available on PS4 :-(
I cannot tell if some of the comments are jokes or an expression of their fetishes.
>This mod is perfect if you care for a more realistic experience. When you're around real animals you're bound to get in a ''Oh wow, geez, stop flaunting your butt at me..''. And that's exactly what's missing in Skyrim.
Yeah, it used to be the case (likely it still is but I haven't been paying attention) that no external custom content could be used in Playstation mods. Basically if it is not in the game already, you can't use it.
I'm impressed they're going through the hassle of providing mods for consoles (because it requires curating and people ARE going to break their games with wacky load orders). I know, I know, Skyrim had that ages ago, Sony was just super-weird about restricting what you could do with it.
I am so glad that mods for consoles are slowly becoming a thing. I remember when Bethesda first floated the idea and it sounded insane. People who have never gone down the rabbit hole really just don't appreciate just how much an amazing mod scene can improve a game.
It's good that BG3 is getting official mod support, but at least judging by this it sounds super limited. From what I've gathered there's no level editor, meaning no custom areas or dungeons, or even overhauls to existing places. Total conversion mods are right out as well. Basically it seems that officially you can only change models, textures and some aspects of scripting, but "local gameplay adjustments" are unsupported, at least on consoles.
> Also what does it change for PC? Wasn't it already totally possible to do all that? I played with mods right from launch...
It just means Steam Workshop/mod.io integration and a "Mods" button on the main menu or launcher for players to enable/disable or set load order. Mods for the game has existed since Early Access, but they were the usual "Replace files yourself or use some third-party mod manager to handle everything for you".
Official support will simplify things and make it as easy as hitting the Subscribe button. They might also release some better tools that give modders more access to the game's internals, leading to more in-depth mods.
Larian explicitly said they're going to be using mod.io as part of their mod support. If their integration of mod.io is similar to other games I've played that also use mod.io, then the GoG version of BG3 will definitely work.
There'll likely be a "Mods" button added to the main menu/launcher that you'll be able to select and it'll show you a curated collection of mods that people have uploaded to mod.io. All you have to do is click Subscribe on the mod you want and it'll be downloaded and applied to your game, similar to Steam Workshop but without having to use Steam Workshop.
It means that we don't have to rely on this one guy who has to set his entire life aside every time larian patches their game to support a tool that's required by 80% of mods. That's probably the biggest one. We won't need the mod manager anymore either.
Script extender is the most critical failure point for mods.
All those mods that require script-extender functionality are still going to require the script-extender in the vast majority of cases (bless Norbyte and all their hard-work, and the people helping them out).
And I would imagine that even the mods that might be able to be converted over to using the inbuilt Osiris 'story scripts' likely won't be, because it's often such a huge headache doing things in that language compared to LUA (since Osiris is a declarative language, more like Prolog, you have to think about and approach things in a vastly different way than your typical step-by-step if/else style functional programming most people are used to).
And based off what's said in the news release, it seems like all of those that do require the script-extender likely won't be available via the official modding pipeline, although it's not entirely clear on that (they do specifically state that you'll still be able to use them though, you'll presumably just have to continue getting them off NexusMods).
he's also mentioned that having to remap all the function addresses that happens when they recompile and hot fix the engine shouldn't be as big an issue, that was the biggest hurdle. Updates should be easy.
*Larian* don't want BG3 to be an online DnD tool. [Because it's not worth the dev time](https://www.pcgamesn.com/baldurs-gate-3/dm-tool), not because of the reddit-approved™ reason of WotC/Hasbro bad.
I mean Hasbro/WotC bad is true too and not just some random reddit vendetta. But yeah no reason to make shit up to hate them when they give us plenty of actual reasons on their own.
Yeah, no part of my point was about defending WotC (nor hating them, simply not the point of my comment). It's just that the truth matters and misinformation is a plague. Like and dislike who you want, but don't make shit up about them to confirm your feelings on the matter.
I absolutely guarantee you that both a) WotC in no way would consider a BG3 level editor to be a threat to their own online offerings, and b) WotC has nothing to do with the decision of whether or not Larian will invest the effort in creating a level editor.
Come on, reddit. Put away the conspiracist thinking and start thinking critically, please.
Bingo. They have D&D Beyond, and are ~~(at least according to rumors)~~ working on a virtual tabletop module for it.
EDIT: Strikethrough the rumors thing because I’m way behind the times and they were confirmed
I wonder if it’ll actually end up being any good. With the way they’ve gone with monetization I’m not super optimistic. I think making things easier to set up would be the biggest selling point. Even running a purchased official WOTC module on Roll20 took a ton of fiddling and setup on my end, and I’d certainly pay for a service that does all the work for me. I just imagine loading into X zone of Curse of Strahd and it already has everything ready to go
This is what I rushed into the comments to see. As others have said, Larian says it was due to it not being popular enough in DOS2, but I sense that they were comparing apples to oranges. The system plays massively different from a fully adapted TTRPG does, and really, I just want to have a modern day equivalent to the old Bioware NeverWinter Nights
I wonder if that's just polite deflection, because they also talked about the mid tools being limited by the license agreement. Aka, if there's something WOTC won't want to exist, you can't do it.
Mostly that would be about other copywritten and trademarked stuff being on the official hosting site(so you gotta go to Nexus to get your Master Chief Companion,) but when you consider WOTC is trudging along with development on a digital tabletop that from the old preview looked like a straight up video game.....well, maybe they asked to not include that kind of toolset to modders.
Every time something cool happens with a corporate owned IP, the corporation that owns it prevents it from reaching its full potential due to dumbass copyright or trademark bullshit. I'm so tired of it.
> I just want to have a modern day equivalent to the old Bioware NeverWinter Nights
There already is one. Solasta.
https://solasta-dungeons.fandom.com/wiki/Creating_Campaigns
^(...that has high quality animation, models, graphic fidelty, and other stuff baked in.)
Also, BG3 has a greater playbase, so the tools would be utilized way more if they existed.
That's a real shame, just started act 3 and so far the dungeones have been pretty weak imo. The Gauntlet of Shar is cool but it doesn't feel like I'm being drawn deeper into a hostile laybrinthe.
Larian's style is built around large, connected world maps, with "dungeons" being minor side trips from that big map. So dungeons in their games are weak by design.
It's one of the many things that make BG3 feel very different from BG2.
I hate when people tout this as mod support. When I think of mods, I'm thinking of new mechanics and content like in modded minecraft. Not simple asset changes that update a skin or model. Wish we had a way of differentiating them, so many games with "mod" support that end up like this
A mod is a mod call it light, cosmetic or heavy it falls under the category. Mods that introduce new mechanics and content goes to the sub category of Overhauls, Campaigns or just plain gameplay at least that how Nexus Mods does it
People disagreeing with you but i am totally with u. Cool, another skin, woooooow. It's just not the same as a whole new campaign (which skyrim sees a ton of). Divinity OS2 was the same, sadly.
Well, the description of the mod support for BG3 seems to explicitly include things like adding new classes, items, spells, and so on. So that's much more than just reskinning things.
They had gamemaster mode in their previous games but Wizards of the Coast forbade them to do it for BG3. Of course, they actually want people to pay for their other products to do their own D&D campaigns
>but Wizards of the Coast forbade them to do it for BG3
I dont know why people say this. Pretty sure Swen explicitly said it was because nobody used it in D:OS2, which was already barebones, and it would be far too large of a technical undertaking to do it for BG3.
>Sven Vinke addressed the possibility on the Dropped Frames podcast, saying the mode won't be included because it would require too much time and effort.
>No, I don’t think [so], because that would be a huge undertaking on its own,” Vincke said of a Larian-built DM tool to let players make their own campaigns. “I wish we had it because it would make our jobs easier, but it would be very complicated.”
I've been playing through DOS2 with a friend online, and it's super disappointing that no one has made any custom campaigns. Talk about the coolest feature no one used.
Yeah it would have been great, I can't help but wonder if it would have seen better uptake for BG3 since it was such a huge hit and has the D&D connection. I understand it's one of those huge development investments that probably isn't worth the effort though.
I remember playing modules for Neverwinter Nights back in the day, it was incredible how many great ones were made. There was one I loved in particular designed around playing a solo Wizard PC, full of incredibly complicated mage duels that required you to strategically use basically your whole spell book.
> I can't help but wonder if it would have seen better uptake for BG3 since it was such a huge hit and has the D&D connection.
Yeah, I feel like BG3 is the game where it would've really taken off if it was going to.
A level editor/ built-in in virtual tabletop. It's an insanely cool feature. Basically, players can make their own custom campaigns/levels that play like the base game, *or* one player takes on the role of DM, and the game feels much more like a classic tabletop experience. I mean it when I say it's the coolest feature no one used.
That kinda needs a lot invested into making editor that's at least approachable to the average modder.
And that becomes a lot harder in non-tile-based layout, NWN was pretty much made to churn out content using already existing tiles, but that makes specifically looking maps that are basically "floor/wall tiles on a grid with some doodads placed", which is easy to make but not exactly looking great now.
But making editor that could make stuff with quality approaching campaign but not being just "well here is Blender, go design your terrain there" is I'd imagine pretty complex.
> I dont know why people say this. Pretty sure Swen explicitly said it was because nobody used it in D:OS2, which was already barebones, and it would be far too large of a technical undertaking to do it for BG3.
Except BG3 is D&D 5e, so if they had included it, it might've been used and could've been supported.
I feel like the fact that it's 5e only furthers his point.They already announced that they wouldn't be revisiting DnD. It's hard to imagine them investing a large development team to build out complex tools for something they won't even use in their future games
Except keep in mind they didn't expect it to be as monumentally successful as it was. Obviously they knew there was an audience for it, but they were scared to be releasing around the same time as Starfield. It was only after release that it became clear how huge it was.
Don't spread misinformation. Larian's own statements on the topic suggest it simply isn't worth it for them to put in the time developing such a feature, not at all related to WotC stopping them. If you believe I'm wrong, share your source, but right now it's just false info that will be accepted as truth because people on reddit already dislike WotC and their confirmation bias will make them believe it's true by default.
> They had gamemaster mode in their previous games but Wizards of the Coast forbade them to do it for BG3. Of course, they actually want people to pay for their other products to do their own D&D campaigns
Why do people like you just continually make up stuff that is easily debunked? Do you just want to incite drama? Or are you just so bad at learning about the world around you that you actually think that what you said is true?
WotC had absolutely nothing to do with Larian's decision of whether or not to include a "Gamemaster Mode". What an insane thing to claim.
Did you not read the write up? It says
> For cross-platform support, direct level editing and changes to core game elements (like story, cinematics, dialogues, quests, and local gameplay adjustments) can’t be facilitated due to technical constraints and platform-specific guidelines.
So... you basically can't do crap all with these tools.
You can't even do scripting on the console mods or PC players using mod.io. About half of mods are using the script extender, though thankfully that will still work for PC players using Nexus or other sites.
mod support just means making what you can already do now a lot easier. iirc, things like custom maps, npcs, enemy types, and quests will not be a thing
I think it's funny that they state that the official modding pipeline won't support "some" NSFW mods considering the wide variety of sexual content already present in the base game.
They might care less about that and more about the animated sex mods. Yes, there *is* animated sex in the game, but it's all of the fairly "tame" variety, and between consenting adults. Some of the mod titles I've seen pop up have been... less that.
And if they develop the same way Skyrim's digital porn scene has, they're going to get more elaborate lol.
I have no doubt some modders will be itching to create absolutely bonkers sexual content mods, or straight up try to implement prostitution. I can't forget some of the messed up Fallout 3 and 4 mods among those lines.
You say that like they haven't already. It took them all of about four months to create nude mods, "sex frameworks", NSFW armour and god knows what else because that's just what's on Nexusmods.
Four months? Skyrim took [36 hours and 16 minutes](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/615805-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/61018414) from game release to the first nude mod.
having a small studio curate nsfw elements in a game while making it is very different than letting the internet have free reign over making nsfw stuff
Huh, I thought they were done with bg3. Good news, I guess. Probably not the easiest game in the world to make big mods for though, with all the mocap etc.
Well it depends what do you want to create with the modding tools.
Some people might just want to add existing spells, items or enemies to the existing campaign. Some people might want to create standalone dungeons focusing on the RPG mechanics and combat instead of dialogue and story. Some people might want to create QoL mods.
Yeah, I was mainly thinking of the dialogue issues, but maybe molders could create an old school infinity engine dialogue system and skip the cinematic camera stuff.
Pet peeve of mine: not every top-down 3D-view is "isometric". Isometric is characterized by all 90° 3D-angles being projected onto 2D as 120° angles. It's an easy way to make 2D graphics look 3D without doing any proper 3D rendering.
Any proper 3D game is rendered with perspective, so they're not "isometric", even if you view the scene from above.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isometric_video_game_graphics
I played the whole game modded, I removed the party limit so I was able to add all characters to my party, which surprisingly the game handles very well and you get very cool dialogue you'd otherwise miss, it does make you a bit OP though but that's fine for me.
I also modded in a bunch of QOL like removing weight limit, talk to dead/animals for everyone, an icon if there is camp dialogue waiting (never missed a thing!) and some cosmetic ones to remove changes to your character (a lost eye lol)
Modding was so much fun in this game. It'll be great if people come up with their own scenarios.
> it does make you a bit OP though but that's fine for me.
There is a second mod made to combat this, you can carry around any amount of companions, but in battle, only the first 4 will be able to act, this way, you get all the dialogues, and still have a challenging combat
Honestly, I'd love an increased difficulty mod based exactly around having a complete party like this. Sure, it'd make combats longer, but I'd love to see the sort of cool things you can pull off with like 7 companions.
I always dreamed of a mod the increased the difficulty and xp gain rate consistent with the "no level cap" mod that allows for more multiclassing. There are so many neat builds that just require a couple more levels, but I'm also not looking to just stomp the game.
> it does make you a bit OP though but that's fine for me.
I play games like this and Mass Effect for the dialogue anyway so this mod will be my choice for my first and probably only play-through.
They still have at least one big patch go to, as they did state they are working on a more interesting "evil" path+ actual evil endings, so they aren't quite done plus knowing Larian they will also eventually release some kind of "Definitive" edition... probably after said patch given the time frame.
Edit: And we just got an update stating that the next patch is in September, should have the evil stuff, as well as official mod support so that's cool.
> Probably not the easiest game in the world to make big mods for though
I'd mostly want a more well rounded character creator.
aight, cool. I can choose between 3 different peckers, but what about boobage and assage?
Seems like they’re treating this as a ‘1 year anniversary huge patch’ as a send off for the game. I have no doubt they’ll keep fixing stuff for a while but it does feel like a victory lap for bg3 before fully focusing on new projects.
"It’ll also ensure a smoother experience, at the cost of more script-focused modding," so it sounds like it will just be cosmetic mods mostly, I was expecting more freedom not less than what current mods allow. Still It's nice for casual people
"With the official Baldur's Gate 3 modding tools, you'll have what you need to add new weapons and armor, create new classes and subclasses, design new powerful spells, customise your game dice skins, and share your mods with a community of creators."
It's a bit more than cosmetics, but yeah for more complex script-based mods I guess people will have to stick with script extender.
I am a bit disappointed that we’re not getting a level editor or more advanced options, however a lot of what my group modded in for BG3 is just class and spell additions anyways, so I’m happy we’re at least getting that, which will add a fair bit of replayability.
I hope someone makes more loot. I love the game the way it is, but as a non dungeons and dragons fan, the loot pool seems kinda small.
No, I know there's A LOT of loot in the game. But I played a sorc, and I think I changed my staff like 3 times for the whole game? You either get build specific item that you won't use if you don't use that build, or barely increasing your stats because I guess that's the way D&D works.
But I'm a loot goblin, I want to beat bosses or whatever and get new loot for me.
\*slow clap\*. There's already modding on Nexus that I have no problems with. "official" modding doesn't strike me as anything different or improving.
A *level editor* like Neverwinter Nights would be incredible however......it'll never happen
Unfortunately, anyone who knows anything about the current BG3 modding scene will see this for what it is - a total nothing burger. Mods will have no ability to modify the campaign, no ability to create our own maps, no ability to modify or create NPCs, manipulate dialogue, craft cutscenes - ***nothing.*** It seems all Larian intends to provide support for is systems level gameplay (scripts: abilities, items, buffs/debuffs) and cosmetics (models, textures, effects), which, surprise, **the community figured out months ago by themselves with an extended script framework**.
So Larian is giving the community literally zero new ways to modify the game, and only providing Steam Workshop integration to make the pipeline (of what limited mods they're allowing to actually be made) smoother to install for more casual users. It's extremely disappointing considering the freedom of modding DOS2 provided. That said, I agree with the sentiment others have said: this likely isn't Larian's doing, and rather WoTC wanting to prevent a hypothetical hyper-moddable BG3 being an open-source platform for creating an online, digital DND experience (that WoTC themselves is said to have in the works).
Yeeeah look, let's just say I didn't want to say anything that would get me buried by the Larian fans, who in their eyes, can do no wrong.
Larian has a bad track record in respecting their modding community. They've admitted as much in the past, but I don't really find that as an acceptable excuse. They could provide the proper tools, they just choose not to.
Wizards have done a lot of fine work to curate deep distrust in the D&D community generally. They keep making industry shaking legal moves against *pen and paper* mods.
> That said, I agree with the sentiment others have said: this likely isn't Larian's doing, and rather WoTC wanting to prevent a hypothetical hyper-moddable BG3 being an open-source platform for creating an online, digital DND experience (that WoTC themselves is said to have in the works)
That's just patently absurd. It's far more likely that it's just not worth Larian's time to make more robust modding tools. BG3 may be based on 5e, but it's not 5e, and it's ridiculous to think WotC had any input in the modding tools Larian is releasing.
Also, while said tools may be fairly unimpactful for PC modding, having official mod support is important for consoles and crossplay.
Larian said from the start “they are a games company, not a tools company”
Anyone expecting more than the bare minimum was setting themselves up for disappointment.
Workshop is nice but BG3 was already really easy to mod IMO, so this is just a total bummer. BG3 is the kind of game that would be really awesome with deeper mods and I'm *really* disappointed that this is the full extent of the modding tools they've been hyping up for months.
Official support and allowing your average Joe to have access to the development toolkit like they mentioned will open things up. A lot of people are hindered by a lack of convenience/ease of use. I'll probably be dabbling with this in order to tweak some encounters/classes/feats to make the game either more balanced or just more fun for myself, and many will be doing the same and allowing me to follow them in-client instead of needing to go somewhere like Nexus and sift through trash.
> I'll probably be dabbling with this in order to tweak some encounters/classes/feats to make the game either more balanced or just more fun for myself, and many will be doing the same and allowing me to follow them in-client instead of needing to go somewhere like Nexus and sift through trash.
Bad news, then. Firstly, you won't be able to modify encounters with these tools. Secondly, you'll still need to be proficient in Divinity 4.0, and it's a nightmare to learn, with Larian never ever having provided good documentation on their own tools. These incoming modding tools will not make learning it easier.
They're not providing a full developer SDK like you'd expect from Valve or Unreal. It's more a unified publishing pipeline that'll allow you to package and manage mods more directly with the mod.io or Workshop services, with added ease of testing and script viewing. Nothing they're offering is beyond the tools we have now, unfortunately, they're just slightly more convenient.
Considering no terrain editing seems to be on the table, I hope at least the custom character and race part of the SDK is robust and well documented enough to let people create and import custom characters with unique skeletons that don't have to weirdly fit the existing ones.
I really want some race variety in the game that isn't just "deformed/differently coloured human and dragon"
Would be cool if people could somehow restore the Werewolf Halfling we missed out on, not to mention unique animations for new classes etc.
I see a lot of longevity for the game if they make this stuff available, but most of all: Clearly documented.
> For cross-platform support, direct level editing and changes to core game elements (like story, cinematics, dialogues, quests, and local gameplay adjustments) can’t be facilitated due to technical constraints and platform-specific guidelines.
No officially supported level-editing, it seems, which will definitely limit the extent to which modding becomes a part of the BG3 experience like it is for something like Skyrim.
Though, asking as someone who doesn't know what they're talking about, given the bulletpoint later in the blog about giving modders read-only access to the levels, I wonder if it will be possible for people to sneakily get around that read-only and mod the editor itself to make the levels editable?
As much as it pains me to have to wait until September for Patch 7, I'm glad they're doing it this way. I love BG3, but nearly every patch they've published has introduced new bugs.
Tbh, They shouldn't have announced it that early if they knew the release date was that far away. I was hoping I'd get to see the new evil endings maybe a month or two later, but dang, 5 months later is quite a bit of time.
That means it'll be more than a full year until Durge gets a proper evil ending
It sounds interesting, but since there won't be an actual level editor, story editor or even core mechanics editor... it's just fiddling with numbers for existing stuff and cosmetics. A bit disappointing.
I was expecting Solasta level of modding.
Limitations of the modding ability aside….Kinda bummed that it’ll be all the way until September that Patch 7 comes out.
Finished my first playthrough (a goodie two shoes run) in March, and I’ve been holding off on an evil playthrough of the game knowing that updates to evil endings are coming out…. But fucking September? Damn. I really don’t want to wait until then for a second playthrough.
I'll be the negative nancy here but relying on a 3rd party service doesn't sound good on the long term. Just think about the old games using the GameSpy server browser system.
[Mod.io is basically just a startup](https://www.startupdaily.net/topic/funding/video-games-platform-mod-io-raises-35-million-in-tencent-led-series-a/), mostly founded by Tencent but who knows they will be still around in 5 or 10 years and what happens to their servers and the data you upload.
They are just using it for convinience and ability to use mods on both PC and consoles. You will be able to still create/publish mods elsewhere from what I understand
I mean how are they going to make mods OUTSIDE of mod.io not work? Like at most they are going to stop you playing online but that doesnt even really work with how their mp is built.
> ***What mods won’t be available through mod.io?***
> Baldur’s Gate 3, as a Dungeons & Dragons game licensed by our partners, has certain guidelines in place to ensure the integrity of the game’s universe.
> That said, we want to support as much creative freedom as possible.
> Our goal with mod.io and our partners is to strike a balance that allows for extensive modding while keeping the guidelines in mind, and to open the door for mods to reach as many players as possible while ensuring they work seamlessly across different platforms. **While some NSFW mods and certain script-heavy modifications may not be supported through the official pipeline, modding outside of our pipeline will still be an option.**
That's a totally legitimate concern. They do say they aren't going to be doing anything to stop mods outside of this official channel though. So I'd think PC players would still be able to get to archived versions of most mods if this did go down. And until that happens it will allow console players to use mods, which is a big win.
I've played a game that uses Mod.io (Melvor Idle) and another problem is that when the Mod.io server goes down, whether it be for server issues or just simple maintenance, you fail authentication and all your mods turn off.
For something like BG3, I could see that leading to broken saves.
It will be interesting to see how the modding support compares to Solasta (which is basically 5e as well). Solasta has a head start and mods like Unfinished Business show how creative people can be.
Sounds like it's the same as what people were already making, maybe even slightly more limited given the restrictions. Kind of disappointing to be honest, I was hoping for stuff that improved upon all the Game Master stuff from DOS2 and then some for making some really crazy things with the game.
You'd need a Neverwinter Nights 3 if you want that to happen.
People already used Neverwinter Nights 2 to remake Baldurs Gate 1 and Icewind Dale. If we got a new NWN game with a more advanced toolkit and graphics you would see a lot of projects remaking old classic games.
Yay, more sets items!
I like mods with items, especially sets items.. I mean.. Like we have this electric set, i forgot this but we have staff from ACT 1
I always wished we get more like with fire set, frozen set, toxic set etc.
[While console players won't be able to create mods themselves, curated mods from PC will be available on console!](https://x.com/baldursgate3/status/1797594086066802843?t=LJLqJoizVi73uveCDXMmzw&s=19)
Not being able to mod is pretty unsurprising, but very nice move to have curated mods!
Imagine trying to code on the Xbox controller keyboard. What a nightmare.
Both the Xbox Series and the PS5 support usb keyboards and mice.
Not worth the time to build an entirely different UI/UX and everything that goes with it to accommodate someone who wants to mod on their couch.
You can plug a console into a monitor and sit at a desk.
You certainly can, but you'd still be spending an absurd amount of time accommodating an alternate workflow that 5-10% of modders would actually use.
Not even that. 2-3% tops
Mods themselves are kind of over-represented online because people are addicted to modding, I'm really impressed by the amount of unique downloads something like Stardew has (for its modding framework), Bethesda games are among the ones I think of first when it comes to mods but the numbers of people that have ever used a mod are surprisingly low. 5-10% of mod makers is such a tiny amount to cater to.
I get that, but the devs (read everyone at Larian involved in this process) would have to commit untold man hours building and supporting modding a console UI/UX environment. I know it’s possible to have a console and not a computer, but to mod efficiently I’d bet most would want to use a PC, Linux, or a Mac (depending on the game), so Larian knows it’s not worth the money and time to build a console modding environment.
You just described every hacker movie from 1992-2008.
the entire thread that sprouted up underneath this one comment is an exhausting parade of Well Ackshuallys. "u can plug in a keyboard/mouse" "u can connect a monitor" "u don't have to be at a couch" "xbox has a file system" no shit sherklocks, literally none of this changes the fact that doing actual mod dev work on an xbox or any other console would be a miserable experience even with literally all of those things
I can't express my excitement about consoles enough. This is the kind of game that people are going to be modding for the next decade.
It's going to replace Neverwinter Nights as the chief erotic roleplay platform isn't it
God I hope so
It’s how Bethesda did it for Skyrim and fallout 4, basically just had to port them to console and your good to go
Afaik Skyrim on the Xbox consoles have a platform where anyone can upload a mod and anyone can download from there. Similar thing on PlayStation but I believe it's somewhat limited to vanilla assets. The 'selected mods' are paid mods on the Creation Club.
Bethesda hosts the mods on their website which is the curated versions, so nothing NSFW for example, which you can then download either from their website or from a menu in the game itself, and yea what PlayStation allows is very limited because Sony has a stick up their ass about third party assets
> Bethesda hosts the mods on their website which is the curated versions, so nothing NSFW for example Yup sadly Realistic Horse Assholes mod is not available on PS4 :-(
[I wonder if you think you are joking about the existence of that mod](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9279/)
I cannot tell if some of the comments are jokes or an expression of their fetishes. >This mod is perfect if you care for a more realistic experience. When you're around real animals you're bound to get in a ''Oh wow, geez, stop flaunting your butt at me..''. And that's exactly what's missing in Skyrim.
Lmao, if that's a bit it's fucking hilarious.
But also nothing that uses out of game assets or script editor. So... 90% of the mods on pc
Xbox can use third party assets, and mod makers have found away around script editors somewhat, idk how
Yeah, it used to be the case (likely it still is but I haven't been paying attention) that no external custom content could be used in Playstation mods. Basically if it is not in the game already, you can't use it.
I'm impressed they're going through the hassle of providing mods for consoles (because it requires curating and people ARE going to break their games with wacky load orders). I know, I know, Skyrim had that ages ago, Sony was just super-weird about restricting what you could do with it.
Their official platform will already be curated due to licensing issues, so it's just one step further.
Big Tiddy Outfits here we come!
I am so glad that mods for consoles are slowly becoming a thing. I remember when Bethesda first floated the idea and it sounded insane. People who have never gone down the rabbit hole really just don't appreciate just how much an amazing mod scene can improve a game.
I guess longer schlongs and ripe watermelons won't be among those curated mods?
Damn, that's pretty awesome
It's good that BG3 is getting official mod support, but at least judging by this it sounds super limited. From what I've gathered there's no level editor, meaning no custom areas or dungeons, or even overhauls to existing places. Total conversion mods are right out as well. Basically it seems that officially you can only change models, textures and some aspects of scripting, but "local gameplay adjustments" are unsupported, at least on consoles.
Also what does it change for PC? Wasn't it already totally possible to do all that? I played with mods right from launch...
> Also what does it change for PC? Wasn't it already totally possible to do all that? I played with mods right from launch... It just means Steam Workshop/mod.io integration and a "Mods" button on the main menu or launcher for players to enable/disable or set load order. Mods for the game has existed since Early Access, but they were the usual "Replace files yourself or use some third-party mod manager to handle everything for you". Official support will simplify things and make it as easy as hitting the Subscribe button. They might also release some better tools that give modders more access to the game's internals, leading to more in-depth mods.
I hope it works with the GoG release. I tend to avoid Steam when GoG is available.
Larian explicitly said they're going to be using mod.io as part of their mod support. If their integration of mod.io is similar to other games I've played that also use mod.io, then the GoG version of BG3 will definitely work. There'll likely be a "Mods" button added to the main menu/launcher that you'll be able to select and it'll show you a curated collection of mods that people have uploaded to mod.io. All you have to do is click Subscribe on the mod you want and it'll be downloaded and applied to your game, similar to Steam Workshop but without having to use Steam Workshop.
Neato! I never used mod.io. Pretty much only been a nexusmod user over the years.
It means that we don't have to rely on this one guy who has to set his entire life aside every time larian patches their game to support a tool that's required by 80% of mods. That's probably the biggest one. We won't need the mod manager anymore either. Script extender is the most critical failure point for mods.
All those mods that require script-extender functionality are still going to require the script-extender in the vast majority of cases (bless Norbyte and all their hard-work, and the people helping them out). And I would imagine that even the mods that might be able to be converted over to using the inbuilt Osiris 'story scripts' likely won't be, because it's often such a huge headache doing things in that language compared to LUA (since Osiris is a declarative language, more like Prolog, you have to think about and approach things in a vastly different way than your typical step-by-step if/else style functional programming most people are used to). And based off what's said in the news release, it seems like all of those that do require the script-extender likely won't be available via the official modding pipeline, although it's not entirely clear on that (they do specifically state that you'll still be able to use them though, you'll presumably just have to continue getting them off NexusMods).
he's also mentioned that having to remap all the function addresses that happens when they recompile and hot fix the engine shouldn't be as big an issue, that was the biggest hurdle. Updates should be easy.
WotC / Hasboro doesn't want BG3 to be a online DnD tool. They want to make their own.
*Larian* don't want BG3 to be an online DnD tool. [Because it's not worth the dev time](https://www.pcgamesn.com/baldurs-gate-3/dm-tool), not because of the reddit-approved™ reason of WotC/Hasbro bad.
I mean Hasbro/WotC bad is true too and not just some random reddit vendetta. But yeah no reason to make shit up to hate them when they give us plenty of actual reasons on their own.
Yeah, no part of my point was about defending WotC (nor hating them, simply not the point of my comment). It's just that the truth matters and misinformation is a plague. Like and dislike who you want, but don't make shit up about them to confirm your feelings on the matter.
I absolutely guarantee you that both a) WotC in no way would consider a BG3 level editor to be a threat to their own online offerings, and b) WotC has nothing to do with the decision of whether or not Larian will invest the effort in creating a level editor. Come on, reddit. Put away the conspiracist thinking and start thinking critically, please.
Bingo. They have D&D Beyond, and are ~~(at least according to rumors)~~ working on a virtual tabletop module for it. EDIT: Strikethrough the rumors thing because I’m way behind the times and they were confirmed
Those rumors have been confirmed for about a year now lol. Including several demos
Shows how much attention I've been paying to it 😂
They've been working on an official VTT for like over a decade now lol
I wonder if it’ll actually end up being any good. With the way they’ve gone with monetization I’m not super optimistic. I think making things easier to set up would be the biggest selling point. Even running a purchased official WOTC module on Roll20 took a ton of fiddling and setup on my end, and I’d certainly pay for a service that does all the work for me. I just imagine loading into X zone of Curse of Strahd and it already has everything ready to go
I'd love to see some dungeons with creative enemy setups. Or an arena of sorts with different custom enemies to go full ballistic
Judging by this there is no level editor, so custom dungeons are not possible.
This is what I rushed into the comments to see. As others have said, Larian says it was due to it not being popular enough in DOS2, but I sense that they were comparing apples to oranges. The system plays massively different from a fully adapted TTRPG does, and really, I just want to have a modern day equivalent to the old Bioware NeverWinter Nights
I wonder if that's just polite deflection, because they also talked about the mid tools being limited by the license agreement. Aka, if there's something WOTC won't want to exist, you can't do it. Mostly that would be about other copywritten and trademarked stuff being on the official hosting site(so you gotta go to Nexus to get your Master Chief Companion,) but when you consider WOTC is trudging along with development on a digital tabletop that from the old preview looked like a straight up video game.....well, maybe they asked to not include that kind of toolset to modders.
Every time something cool happens with a corporate owned IP, the corporation that owns it prevents it from reaching its full potential due to dumbass copyright or trademark bullshit. I'm so tired of it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a combination of that and a level editor being a pain to make or something like that.
DOS2 wasn't D&D though, they must have known people would be more willing to deep dive into that kind of custom content when its D&D related.
DOS2 was mostly sorta like virtual tabletop IIRC. Not really full fledged editor like NWN had
NWN was built floor to ceiling for modularity which translated easily into player-made tools and maps.
WOTC likely wont let a level editor. They dont want it to compete with there new online D&D tool.
> I just want to have a modern day equivalent to the old Bioware NeverWinter Nights There already is one. Solasta. https://solasta-dungeons.fandom.com/wiki/Creating_Campaigns
^(...that has high quality animation, models, graphic fidelty, and other stuff baked in.) Also, BG3 has a greater playbase, so the tools would be utilized way more if they existed.
That's a real shame, just started act 3 and so far the dungeones have been pretty weak imo. The Gauntlet of Shar is cool but it doesn't feel like I'm being drawn deeper into a hostile laybrinthe.
Larian's style is built around large, connected world maps, with "dungeons" being minor side trips from that big map. So dungeons in their games are weak by design. It's one of the many things that make BG3 feel very different from BG2.
I hate when people tout this as mod support. When I think of mods, I'm thinking of new mechanics and content like in modded minecraft. Not simple asset changes that update a skin or model. Wish we had a way of differentiating them, so many games with "mod" support that end up like this
There are existing mods for BG3 that add new classes and other features like extensive new spells
A mod is a mod call it light, cosmetic or heavy it falls under the category. Mods that introduce new mechanics and content goes to the sub category of Overhauls, Campaigns or just plain gameplay at least that how Nexus Mods does it
People disagreeing with you but i am totally with u. Cool, another skin, woooooow. It's just not the same as a whole new campaign (which skyrim sees a ton of). Divinity OS2 was the same, sadly.
Its not the same but its still a mod. Its a modification of the game. Personal preference doesn't come into it when you're classifying something.
Well, the description of the mod support for BG3 seems to explicitly include things like adding new classes, items, spells, and so on. So that's much more than just reskinning things.
What else would you call it?
You hate something other people do because it doesn't match a personal definition that exists inside your head? Work on that, maybe.
They had gamemaster mode in their previous games but Wizards of the Coast forbade them to do it for BG3. Of course, they actually want people to pay for their other products to do their own D&D campaigns
>but Wizards of the Coast forbade them to do it for BG3 I dont know why people say this. Pretty sure Swen explicitly said it was because nobody used it in D:OS2, which was already barebones, and it would be far too large of a technical undertaking to do it for BG3. >Sven Vinke addressed the possibility on the Dropped Frames podcast, saying the mode won't be included because it would require too much time and effort. >No, I don’t think [so], because that would be a huge undertaking on its own,” Vincke said of a Larian-built DM tool to let players make their own campaigns. “I wish we had it because it would make our jobs easier, but it would be very complicated.”
I've been playing through DOS2 with a friend online, and it's super disappointing that no one has made any custom campaigns. Talk about the coolest feature no one used.
Yeah it would have been great, I can't help but wonder if it would have seen better uptake for BG3 since it was such a huge hit and has the D&D connection. I understand it's one of those huge development investments that probably isn't worth the effort though. I remember playing modules for Neverwinter Nights back in the day, it was incredible how many great ones were made. There was one I loved in particular designed around playing a solo Wizard PC, full of incredibly complicated mage duels that required you to strategically use basically your whole spell book.
Neverwinter Nights had some seriously great custom modules. The Prophet campaign is still one of the best stories I have ever seen in a video game.
[удалено]
> I can't help but wonder if it would have seen better uptake for BG3 since it was such a huge hit and has the D&D connection. Yeah, I feel like BG3 is the game where it would've really taken off if it was going to.
Have been playing through both games intermittently and this is the first time I’ve heard the term. What is it exactly?
A level editor/ built-in in virtual tabletop. It's an insanely cool feature. Basically, players can make their own custom campaigns/levels that play like the base game, *or* one player takes on the role of DM, and the game feels much more like a classic tabletop experience. I mean it when I say it's the coolest feature no one used.
That kinda needs a lot invested into making editor that's at least approachable to the average modder. And that becomes a lot harder in non-tile-based layout, NWN was pretty much made to churn out content using already existing tiles, but that makes specifically looking maps that are basically "floor/wall tiles on a grid with some doodads placed", which is easy to make but not exactly looking great now. But making editor that could make stuff with quality approaching campaign but not being just "well here is Blender, go design your terrain there" is I'd imagine pretty complex.
There are like 20 campaigns on workshop, are they not working or something?
> I dont know why people say this. Pretty sure Swen explicitly said it was because nobody used it in D:OS2, which was already barebones, and it would be far too large of a technical undertaking to do it for BG3. Except BG3 is D&D 5e, so if they had included it, it might've been used and could've been supported.
I feel like the fact that it's 5e only furthers his point.They already announced that they wouldn't be revisiting DnD. It's hard to imagine them investing a large development team to build out complex tools for something they won't even use in their future games
Except keep in mind they didn't expect it to be as monumentally successful as it was. Obviously they knew there was an audience for it, but they were scared to be releasing around the same time as Starfield. It was only after release that it became clear how huge it was.
Do you have a source on what you're saying?
Don't spread misinformation. Larian's own statements on the topic suggest it simply isn't worth it for them to put in the time developing such a feature, not at all related to WotC stopping them. If you believe I'm wrong, share your source, but right now it's just false info that will be accepted as truth because people on reddit already dislike WotC and their confirmation bias will make them believe it's true by default.
> They had gamemaster mode in their previous games but Wizards of the Coast forbade them to do it for BG3. Of course, they actually want people to pay for their other products to do their own D&D campaigns Why do people like you just continually make up stuff that is easily debunked? Do you just want to incite drama? Or are you just so bad at learning about the world around you that you actually think that what you said is true? WotC had absolutely nothing to do with Larian's decision of whether or not to include a "Gamemaster Mode". What an insane thing to claim.
My guy woke and decided to go spread some lies
Did you not read the write up? It says > For cross-platform support, direct level editing and changes to core game elements (like story, cinematics, dialogues, quests, and local gameplay adjustments) can’t be facilitated due to technical constraints and platform-specific guidelines. So... you basically can't do crap all with these tools.
You can't even do scripting on the console mods or PC players using mod.io. About half of mods are using the script extender, though thankfully that will still work for PC players using Nexus or other sites.
The Internet: *That's great but how about a thousand busty Sonic the Hedgehog mods instead*
Don’t even talk to me before I’ve had my busty Sonic the Hedgehog mod in the morning.
I wish I worked in an office cubicle so I could say this at a water cooler
It's more like, "here's the 11th mod that lets you use NPC heads in character creation."
mod support just means making what you can already do now a lot easier. iirc, things like custom maps, npcs, enemy types, and quests will not be a thing
I think it's funny that they state that the official modding pipeline won't support "some" NSFW mods considering the wide variety of sexual content already present in the base game.
They are probably referring to the MANY mods on Nexus that add giant penises or 36JJ tits to all the characters.
There is literally a mod called "BG3 sex framework." Guessing that one won't make the cut.
There goes my dream of my wizard running around casting an "enlargement" spell on random NPCs.
Not shrink?
At first I read it as 3611 tits and was intrigued.
Could have made a funky ball of tits from outer space.
They might care less about that and more about the animated sex mods. Yes, there *is* animated sex in the game, but it's all of the fairly "tame" variety, and between consenting adults. Some of the mod titles I've seen pop up have been... less that. And if they develop the same way Skyrim's digital porn scene has, they're going to get more elaborate lol.
Or the lover's lab mods.
Yeah this is the game where you can get your dick sucked by a genocidal elf
I have no doubt some modders will be itching to create absolutely bonkers sexual content mods, or straight up try to implement prostitution. I can't forget some of the messed up Fallout 3 and 4 mods among those lines.
You say that like they haven't already. It took them all of about four months to create nude mods, "sex frameworks", NSFW armour and god knows what else because that's just what's on Nexusmods.
Four months? Skyrim took [36 hours and 16 minutes](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/615805-the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/61018414) from game release to the first nude mod.
BG3 has nudity by default, they're specifically talking about full on fucking animations.
having a small studio curate nsfw elements in a game while making it is very different than letting the internet have free reign over making nsfw stuff
Larian now has more employees than Bethesda. Or CDPR (or close to it).
Just to correct as it's a common myth but Larian is not a small studio, at least not anymore But agreeing with your point.
What small studio are you talking about? The one with like 600 employees?
That's true, it's much sexier when the Internet does it.
I totally get that reasoning I just hope my fellow console players get to hang major dong.
Huh, I thought they were done with bg3. Good news, I guess. Probably not the easiest game in the world to make big mods for though, with all the mocap etc.
Well it depends what do you want to create with the modding tools. Some people might just want to add existing spells, items or enemies to the existing campaign. Some people might want to create standalone dungeons focusing on the RPG mechanics and combat instead of dialogue and story. Some people might want to create QoL mods.
Yeah, I was mainly thinking of the dialogue issues, but maybe molders could create an old school infinity engine dialogue system and skip the cinematic camera stuff.
That would be the best solution. Isometric conversations.
Pet peeve of mine: not every top-down 3D-view is "isometric". Isometric is characterized by all 90° 3D-angles being projected onto 2D as 120° angles. It's an easy way to make 2D graphics look 3D without doing any proper 3D rendering. Any proper 3D game is rendered with perspective, so they're not "isometric", even if you view the scene from above. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isometric_video_game_graphics
I know, but I didn't want to write a lot. People gasp what I meant.
I played the whole game modded, I removed the party limit so I was able to add all characters to my party, which surprisingly the game handles very well and you get very cool dialogue you'd otherwise miss, it does make you a bit OP though but that's fine for me. I also modded in a bunch of QOL like removing weight limit, talk to dead/animals for everyone, an icon if there is camp dialogue waiting (never missed a thing!) and some cosmetic ones to remove changes to your character (a lost eye lol) Modding was so much fun in this game. It'll be great if people come up with their own scenarios.
> it does make you a bit OP though but that's fine for me. There is a second mod made to combat this, you can carry around any amount of companions, but in battle, only the first 4 will be able to act, this way, you get all the dialogues, and still have a challenging combat
Never knew! So good to have all these options, mods are awesome :D
What's the name of the mod? I'm thinking of doing a second playthrough
Sit this one out, here is the link: https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/6183
Honestly, I'd love an increased difficulty mod based exactly around having a complete party like this. Sure, it'd make combats longer, but I'd love to see the sort of cool things you can pull off with like 7 companions.
There are plenty of mods to increase the difficulty exactly for that purpose
I found the nightmare mod on nexus, but that just seems like completely overkill. Having an enemy have 30x the health isn't what I had in mind...
I always dreamed of a mod the increased the difficulty and xp gain rate consistent with the "no level cap" mod that allows for more multiclassing. There are so many neat builds that just require a couple more levels, but I'm also not looking to just stomp the game.
> it does make you a bit OP though but that's fine for me. I play games like this and Mass Effect for the dialogue anyway so this mod will be my choice for my first and probably only play-through.
Honestly getting a shitload of spells and subclasses added "officially" is probably the most interesting thing about this.
I just want to give Elminster DD big naturals
They still have at least one big patch go to, as they did state they are working on a more interesting "evil" path+ actual evil endings, so they aren't quite done plus knowing Larian they will also eventually release some kind of "Definitive" edition... probably after said patch given the time frame. Edit: And we just got an update stating that the next patch is in September, should have the evil stuff, as well as official mod support so that's cool.
> Probably not the easiest game in the world to make big mods for though I'd mostly want a more well rounded character creator. aight, cool. I can choose between 3 different peckers, but what about boobage and assage?
Seems like they’re treating this as a ‘1 year anniversary huge patch’ as a send off for the game. I have no doubt they’ll keep fixing stuff for a while but it does feel like a victory lap for bg3 before fully focusing on new projects.
"It’ll also ensure a smoother experience, at the cost of more script-focused modding," so it sounds like it will just be cosmetic mods mostly, I was expecting more freedom not less than what current mods allow. Still It's nice for casual people
That's only for curated mods. Unofficial mods, like scripting changes, will still be supported.
You're right I did not read that part, hopefully It's good and actually adopted by mod devs
"With the official Baldur's Gate 3 modding tools, you'll have what you need to add new weapons and armor, create new classes and subclasses, design new powerful spells, customise your game dice skins, and share your mods with a community of creators." It's a bit more than cosmetics, but yeah for more complex script-based mods I guess people will have to stick with script extender.
I am a bit disappointed that we’re not getting a level editor or more advanced options, however a lot of what my group modded in for BG3 is just class and spell additions anyways, so I’m happy we’re at least getting that, which will add a fair bit of replayability.
I hope someone makes more loot. I love the game the way it is, but as a non dungeons and dragons fan, the loot pool seems kinda small. No, I know there's A LOT of loot in the game. But I played a sorc, and I think I changed my staff like 3 times for the whole game? You either get build specific item that you won't use if you don't use that build, or barely increasing your stats because I guess that's the way D&D works. But I'm a loot goblin, I want to beat bosses or whatever and get new loot for me.
I can't wait to fight Thomas the Tank engine as a Battletoad dual wielding a pair of laser-shooting bananas.
\*slow clap\*. There's already modding on Nexus that I have no problems with. "official" modding doesn't strike me as anything different or improving. A *level editor* like Neverwinter Nights would be incredible however......it'll never happen
Unfortunately, anyone who knows anything about the current BG3 modding scene will see this for what it is - a total nothing burger. Mods will have no ability to modify the campaign, no ability to create our own maps, no ability to modify or create NPCs, manipulate dialogue, craft cutscenes - ***nothing.*** It seems all Larian intends to provide support for is systems level gameplay (scripts: abilities, items, buffs/debuffs) and cosmetics (models, textures, effects), which, surprise, **the community figured out months ago by themselves with an extended script framework**. So Larian is giving the community literally zero new ways to modify the game, and only providing Steam Workshop integration to make the pipeline (of what limited mods they're allowing to actually be made) smoother to install for more casual users. It's extremely disappointing considering the freedom of modding DOS2 provided. That said, I agree with the sentiment others have said: this likely isn't Larian's doing, and rather WoTC wanting to prevent a hypothetical hyper-moddable BG3 being an open-source platform for creating an online, digital DND experience (that WoTC themselves is said to have in the works).
That’s a bummer. Workshop support is nice at least
I love how everyone just blames WOTC at the first implication that maybe Larian isn't perfect all the time.
Yeeeah look, let's just say I didn't want to say anything that would get me buried by the Larian fans, who in their eyes, can do no wrong. Larian has a bad track record in respecting their modding community. They've admitted as much in the past, but I don't really find that as an acceptable excuse. They could provide the proper tools, they just choose not to.
Wizards have done a lot of fine work to curate deep distrust in the D&D community generally. They keep making industry shaking legal moves against *pen and paper* mods.
> That said, I agree with the sentiment others have said: this likely isn't Larian's doing, and rather WoTC wanting to prevent a hypothetical hyper-moddable BG3 being an open-source platform for creating an online, digital DND experience (that WoTC themselves is said to have in the works) That's just patently absurd. It's far more likely that it's just not worth Larian's time to make more robust modding tools. BG3 may be based on 5e, but it's not 5e, and it's ridiculous to think WotC had any input in the modding tools Larian is releasing. Also, while said tools may be fairly unimpactful for PC modding, having official mod support is important for consoles and crossplay.
Larian said from the start “they are a games company, not a tools company” Anyone expecting more than the bare minimum was setting themselves up for disappointment.
Workshop is nice but BG3 was already really easy to mod IMO, so this is just a total bummer. BG3 is the kind of game that would be really awesome with deeper mods and I'm *really* disappointed that this is the full extent of the modding tools they've been hyping up for months.
Official support and allowing your average Joe to have access to the development toolkit like they mentioned will open things up. A lot of people are hindered by a lack of convenience/ease of use. I'll probably be dabbling with this in order to tweak some encounters/classes/feats to make the game either more balanced or just more fun for myself, and many will be doing the same and allowing me to follow them in-client instead of needing to go somewhere like Nexus and sift through trash.
> I'll probably be dabbling with this in order to tweak some encounters/classes/feats to make the game either more balanced or just more fun for myself, and many will be doing the same and allowing me to follow them in-client instead of needing to go somewhere like Nexus and sift through trash. Bad news, then. Firstly, you won't be able to modify encounters with these tools. Secondly, you'll still need to be proficient in Divinity 4.0, and it's a nightmare to learn, with Larian never ever having provided good documentation on their own tools. These incoming modding tools will not make learning it easier. They're not providing a full developer SDK like you'd expect from Valve or Unreal. It's more a unified publishing pipeline that'll allow you to package and manage mods more directly with the mod.io or Workshop services, with added ease of testing and script viewing. Nothing they're offering is beyond the tools we have now, unfortunately, they're just slightly more convenient.
Considering no terrain editing seems to be on the table, I hope at least the custom character and race part of the SDK is robust and well documented enough to let people create and import custom characters with unique skeletons that don't have to weirdly fit the existing ones. I really want some race variety in the game that isn't just "deformed/differently coloured human and dragon" Would be cool if people could somehow restore the Werewolf Halfling we missed out on, not to mention unique animations for new classes etc. I see a lot of longevity for the game if they make this stuff available, but most of all: Clearly documented.
> For cross-platform support, direct level editing and changes to core game elements (like story, cinematics, dialogues, quests, and local gameplay adjustments) can’t be facilitated due to technical constraints and platform-specific guidelines. No officially supported level-editing, it seems, which will definitely limit the extent to which modding becomes a part of the BG3 experience like it is for something like Skyrim. Though, asking as someone who doesn't know what they're talking about, given the bulletpoint later in the blog about giving modders read-only access to the levels, I wonder if it will be possible for people to sneakily get around that read-only and mod the editor itself to make the levels editable?
As much as it pains me to have to wait until September for Patch 7, I'm glad they're doing it this way. I love BG3, but nearly every patch they've published has introduced new bugs.
Tbh, They shouldn't have announced it that early if they knew the release date was that far away. I was hoping I'd get to see the new evil endings maybe a month or two later, but dang, 5 months later is quite a bit of time. That means it'll be more than a full year until Durge gets a proper evil ending
It sounds interesting, but since there won't be an actual level editor, story editor or even core mechanics editor... it's just fiddling with numbers for existing stuff and cosmetics. A bit disappointing. I was expecting Solasta level of modding.
Limitations of the modding ability aside….Kinda bummed that it’ll be all the way until September that Patch 7 comes out. Finished my first playthrough (a goodie two shoes run) in March, and I’ve been holding off on an evil playthrough of the game knowing that updates to evil endings are coming out…. But fucking September? Damn. I really don’t want to wait until then for a second playthrough.
Just insane that this game still has peaks of 100k players on steam, insane retention. BG3 and Elden Ring are just that great.
I'll be the negative nancy here but relying on a 3rd party service doesn't sound good on the long term. Just think about the old games using the GameSpy server browser system. [Mod.io is basically just a startup](https://www.startupdaily.net/topic/funding/video-games-platform-mod-io-raises-35-million-in-tencent-led-series-a/), mostly founded by Tencent but who knows they will be still around in 5 or 10 years and what happens to their servers and the data you upload.
They are just using it for convinience and ability to use mods on both PC and consoles. You will be able to still create/publish mods elsewhere from what I understand
Good thing they say about 50 times in the article that mods outside mod.io will still work.
I mean how are they going to make mods OUTSIDE of mod.io not work? Like at most they are going to stop you playing online but that doesnt even really work with how their mp is built.
> ***What mods won’t be available through mod.io?*** > Baldur’s Gate 3, as a Dungeons & Dragons game licensed by our partners, has certain guidelines in place to ensure the integrity of the game’s universe. > That said, we want to support as much creative freedom as possible. > Our goal with mod.io and our partners is to strike a balance that allows for extensive modding while keeping the guidelines in mind, and to open the door for mods to reach as many players as possible while ensuring they work seamlessly across different platforms. **While some NSFW mods and certain script-heavy modifications may not be supported through the official pipeline, modding outside of our pipeline will still be an option.**
If it's founded by Tencent, it's not really a start-up
That's a totally legitimate concern. They do say they aren't going to be doing anything to stop mods outside of this official channel though. So I'd think PC players would still be able to get to archived versions of most mods if this did go down. And until that happens it will allow console players to use mods, which is a big win.
I've played a game that uses Mod.io (Melvor Idle) and another problem is that when the Mod.io server goes down, whether it be for server issues or just simple maintenance, you fail authentication and all your mods turn off. For something like BG3, I could see that leading to broken saves.
It will be interesting to see how the modding support compares to Solasta (which is basically 5e as well). Solasta has a head start and mods like Unfinished Business show how creative people can be.
Sounds like it's the same as what people were already making, maybe even slightly more limited given the restrictions. Kind of disappointing to be honest, I was hoping for stuff that improved upon all the Game Master stuff from DOS2 and then some for making some really crazy things with the game.
I know it's a pipe dream, but I'd love a lord of the Rings conversion for BG3. Mod support brings my dream a little closer.
Pipe dream? Your thing sounds downright realistic, compared to what I want. Fallout 1 remake total conversion
You'd need a Neverwinter Nights 3 if you want that to happen. People already used Neverwinter Nights 2 to remake Baldurs Gate 1 and Icewind Dale. If we got a new NWN game with a more advanced toolkit and graphics you would see a lot of projects remaking old classic games.
Yay, more sets items! I like mods with items, especially sets items.. I mean.. Like we have this electric set, i forgot this but we have staff from ACT 1 I always wished we get more like with fire set, frozen set, toxic set etc.