Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios said in the game’s previous update that the human wizard Gale was the most-murdered NPC in the game, with a “party-member kill-rate” that was four times higher than any other NPC in the game. But apparently he sparks other kinds of passions too, as Larian said in today’s update that he’s also the most “romanced” member of the party.
Gale has been romanced by 33 percent of players so far, followed closely by Shadowheart at 31 percent. Just 1.37 percent of players chose to sleep alone, which I think is an interesting reflection on how virtual boots-knocking has become an almost obligatory element of RPGs. Larian is holding back other stats for now, saying that “it might be fun if you gave it a shot and guessed them,” although it also hinted that “stan memes” don’t reflect its actual data.
Other bits of data, including some that are slightly spoiler-ish, so avert your eyes if you’re sensitive to such things:
- Number of players who pet the dog: 400,000 (approximate)
- Players who tried to steal the ring: 5.87 percent
- Players who biffed it and ended up sucking a toe: 26.3 percent
- Players who jumped into the Underdark but died immediately because nobody thought to cast Feather Fall first: 40.79 percent (good work, everyone)
- Players who stood with the Tieflings: 74.85 percent
- Players who joined with Minthara: 25.14 percent
The final two points relate to a major choice in Baldur’s Gate 3’s opening chapter—I won’t get into any specifics, but for the benefit of anyone struggling to decide which way to go, the outcome indicates that “good outweighs evil,” Larian said.
The new Baldur’s Gate 3 patch makes a number of “cinematic tweaks,” ranging from fixes to the addition of brand new content. Here are a few examples:
He was starting to get a crooked neck, and we’re pretty sure he doesn’t have health insurance so we helped him out a bit.
As many of you know, despite playing through the Early Access content sometimes for up to a hundred hours or more (wow!) you still haven’t seen all of the content, because incrementally new things are seeded into the game. In this case, a missing cinematic. Where once was darkness, there is now light!
A certain song has also been ‘re-shot’ by our cinematics team, which gives you an excuse to check it out again. Did you need one?
The update is live now, and this is what it does:
Improvements
- Optimized overall sound settings to improve performance on lower spec machines
- Added polish to several in-game cinematics
- Attack of Opportunity indicator is now correctly hidden for invisible enemies
- Improved timing of some tutorial messages
- Improved usability of skill selection in character creation
- Added new tutorial messages related to combat
- Listening to other players’ dialogs now correctly shows the other players’ dice rolls
- The reason for a waypoint being unavailable is now displayed on the map
- Party members now correctly cancel their spell prepare state when switching to another character
Fixes
- Fixed a crash on startup for specific driver and hardware combinations
- Fixed a crash related to trading with Zevlor after the raid on the grove
- Fixed a crash in dialogs related to dynamically adding items
- Fixed a crash in combat AI
- Fixed a potential crash with moving platforms
- Fixed a crash related to loading savegames while in a dialogue
- Fixed a crash when destroying multiple familiars with a single spell
- Fixed a crash related to unloading resources (when loading a save or returning to main menu)
- Fixed a blocking issue when someone would join during level transition
- Fixed a blocking issue when starting a dialog just as someone leaves the game
- Fixed not being able to save anymore on the host when another player is stuck in “in dialog” state
- Fixed players getting stuck in the same dialog inside the camp after choosing to fight Minthara
- Fixed characters being stuck in animation if downed during precast spell
- Fixed characters not being at the correct position after loading
- Fixed not being able to talk to party members after talking with gale and summoning the weave
- Fixed not being able to use some spell scrolls when out of spell slots
- Fixed a rare issue for players that don’t have a profile on startup, requiring selection or a profile or creation of a new one
- Fixed quest markers not showing up correctly when multiple markers point at the same object or location
- Fixed the tieflings’ celebrations not proceeding correctly if the player had already done a long rest right before
- Fixed the physics of the door on the Nautiloid reappearing after saving and loading
- Fixed Ethel not triggering her ambush if she leaves her home during combat
- Fixed several minor bugs related to in-game cinematics
- Fixed zone spells not targeting invisible characters
- Fixed summons from items not having an owner, causing them not to join combat
- Fixed the goblins not using the war drum correctly
- Fixed issues with lockpick progress going out of sync
- Fixed savegame screenshots being too dark
- Fixed spell sounds not playing correctly in multiplayer
- Fixed a long black screen being displayed if a dialog was started just as another player was joining
- Fixed Zevlor initiating dialog during combat
- Fixed audio settings not resetting when switching profile
- Fixed not being able to correctly switch character in trade window
- Fixed not being able to click through scenery you can see through, improving navigation
- Fixed the Gith becoming hostile incorrectly if Lae’zel was never recruited
- Fixed additional reroll when using an inspiration point
- Fixed inspiration points not being able to go up after using an inspiration point or gaining another one
- Fixed an issue with the hidden vault entrance closing again after the puzzles are already solved
- Fixed marking an item as a ware not getting set correctly
- Fixed being able to select summons in the trade window
- Fixed Zariel Tiefling clerics not being able to level up to level 4
- Fixed character creation color tooltips
- Fixed characters sometimes falling off moving platforms
- Fixed several animation issues with torches
- Fixed being able to select invalid targets for Misty Step skill
- Fixed not being able to see other players’ hidden summons at all
- Fixed party members being rearranged when detaching and reattaching characters to the group
- Fixed certain equipment still generating sound after unequipping
- Fixed several texture and skinning issues
- Fixed several minor localization issues
- Fixed minor issues with the action log