Topic: Baldur's Gate 3

@Ravix I'm kind of hoping I can get her back before I find the thing I need as I refused Raphael's deal for it. (Oh yeah, I had a bit of a bug with that where Gale was annoyed with me in camp for the deal when I hadn't even met up and heard the deal yet. Still it kind of helped me make a choice with that so it ended up being a useful bug.)
It can be tricky at times to know what the best order to do things is but thankfully it does kind of warn you on some major bits and you can tell what the main story stuff is.

I've done the bank stuff as I went there as soon as I got a vault key off someone (can't quite remember where I got that, think it might have been on the murderer).

I don't use Wyll much either, he seems to be the only one who gets himself killed/downed in fights fairly regularly but that's most likely me not getting the best out of him. I turned down Mizora's 'offer' in camp if that's what your referring to, I wasn't sure how Shadowheart would take it. I loved that saying that was actually a dialog option but didn't use it. In fact I've actually laughed at some of the dialog choices and I'm definitely going to replay sometime and be a selfish, sarcastic git as I'd love to see the reactions.

I've not stumbled across a newspaper quest yet, at least I don't remember doing so. There are so many quests and random things you can just encounter though it's amazing. I still need to find Volo again as I found his note when he disappeared from camp. Still, there is quite a lot of map to I have to uncover.

Have you done the firework factory quest? I did a reload on that one it was tricky.

@BearsEatBeets yeah. I think I left a comment here about the fireworks factory haha. I didn't have to reload, but I had to use 2 short rests, and a Bardic rest, and then just run to camp via fast travel to stop getting locked in an endless battle. 3 waves was enough, and each party member had about 10hp left 😂😂

Newspaper is right near basilisk gate, just a woman stood next to the kid selling newspapers, no icon, just happened to talk to her xD

@VoiceWithin1991 I'm curious. What does "too much inclusion" mean? Which characters would you have excluded and why?

@VoiceWithin1991 I'm just so disappointed that you weren't joking. I've already sent a screen grabs of your earlier reply to several of my friends who are all (at this very minute) wetting themselves with laughter, convinced that you're a satirical genius. Damn.
.

@VoiceWithin1991 As I inferred, I'm only disappointed that you're not the brilliant and subtle satirical comedian that I thought you were - the fault is entirely my own. Have a super day!

@VoiceWithin1991 Well in my "fantastical made up world" it's time for me to go to work, fun as this has been there's only so much "truth" that one can handle before their morning cornflakes. Good work on not "lashing out" by the way. You're truly an inspiration to us all.

"I really do hope you find the help you so desperately and obviously need." Because I thought you were a clown posing as a bigoted sociopath? Fair enough, I suppose. I'll look into it.

Hey @LN78, thanks for making us aware of this 🙏 Just letting you know I've removed one of yours only because it quoted an offensive (now also deleted) comment

A lovely derailing of the thread this morning. Fantastic.

Anyway, I was back to my evil co-op playthrough yesterday evening for a couple hours. Not much was achieved admittedly but we did finally get to the Underdark and we'll get to exploring there on our next session. It was small progress, but progress nonetheless.

@Ravix My Halsin story consisted of saving him, he waited at camp but wasn't quite ready to join the full team and then one time i returned to camp and he was just dead on the floor. No idea what happened to him, so just looted him and carried on

@Throb haha why am I not surprised. No idea why he'd just die, though 🤣🤣 are you sure you didn't kill him too 👀 I imagine if you didn't do his quest he'd just get frustrated and go and be a bear in the wild or something. But maybe he killed himself out of shame of not lifting the shadow curse? 😅

@Ravix Sounds like your Fireworks Factory went way worse than the one I reloaded. I got lucky I think as no-one outside the building got involved.
On my first try I split SH and Karlach from the group and left them up the hill slightly and just took Astarian in with my tav (I guessed this meant player character but had to google why a while back). We invisi-sneaked up to the third floor and kicked things off. Basically I got confused when some of the enemies suddenly ran back downstairs and discovered they were going after SH & K outside despite them being completely out of view and separate from the group. I did a couple of turns but didn't fight back as SH & K as the guards were close. Seeing as it had got so messy I just decided to restart as I had quick saved before going in. The second time I got K to shut the metal door by the stairs and stand by it and SH by the main door which I shut. Although the main downstairs guy still threw an explosive which blew all the doors off I managed to keep the fighting contained inside without the guards doing anything. However, the second I tried to loot a body after the fight (on the top floor) I got the cutscene bit of being spotted by a guard! So in the end, seeing as the quest was classed as complete, I left the top floor unsearched/un-looted.
Having read bits online about the quest spilling into the surrounding area (as it seems yours did) it sounds like that quest could do with some tweaking about what can and can't be seen/alerted. I wonder if there is a less destructive way of completing it but it certainly doesn't look like it by checking online.

I managed to find the newspaper quest today but in a different way it seems. I released I had walked into the printing office when first entering the Lower City area but had just had a quick look and left again. This time I spoke to someone down on the main floor
He told how he was going to print a story tomorrow of how it was my fault all the refugees (who were absolutes) had flooded the city. He wouldn't tell me his source of why he thought this and then threw me out. So yeah I now have to find out how to stop the press.
Haven't figured out how I'm going to do that yet but I did the Hag quest today and got that cool rapier.
Which is great as I had been rocking the same sword since SH had pulled it out of a stone in the Underdark all the way back in Act 1. That was the toughest fight I've had in a while though.
I was happy I managed to kill the hag without killing any of the 'mask wearers'. However, after the fight the real pub captain had removed her mask and was fine but the others were still wearing theirs and were just crying about the hag. I couldn't figure out a way to get them to take it off as it should be safe with the Hag dead.
Oh yeah and after telling Mayrina the good news, I persuaded her to let her zombie husband go and got the cutscene of her breaking the wand and him dissolving, but after the cutscene was over he was still standing there in the room 😄

@BearsEatBeets oh, god. The hag fight.

As for the newspaper, I can turn invisible and lock pick, which helps. I used a misty step scroll to start my plan of action, though. But I won't give any more tips unless you ask lol.

A weird thing about the hag, it didn't go as I expected story wise, as I'd found notes and letters in her initial hut that mentioned she had a sister in Baldurs Gate, but it wasn't the sister. Maybe they changed the direction of the quest and forgot to remove the letters, or maybe there is another hiding in human form still 😅

New patch is out. And now shadowheart won't follow my main character in the group on any save. The game autosaved before the counting House last time. And when I loaded in, she won't move. Go back to an old save, same thing. So it's not anything I've done since any part of the game, it's simply since the patch came out on all saves.

Great 🤦‍♀️

Edit:

I had Karlach shove her into the ocean, and then I revived the glowing orb. And she now follows again. Hopefully this is has fixed it? If anyone else is having the issue. But if it's on every save, I can't imagine how this will fix it long term? We shall see

@Ravix I've got the exact same problem since the update. I thought it was cool that the patch resolves the 2 minor bugs I mentioned just the over day but yeah it seems to have broken SH. If I switch to her I can move around and everyone follows and she does everything fine in turn based mode but when free-roaming she just doesn't move. When I searched online I could find some mention of similar issues but no solutions, most simply explaining how grouping/ungrouping the party works.

I did a little bit, finding and freeing Florrick and then a little uncovering more of the lower city map but decided as it wasn't a lot I would try reloading a previous save when SH was working but like yourself she was suddenly broken then too.
I've not played again yet but will try your method of killing and reviving and hope it works.

I'm going to let the bad article run when I do a more morally corrupt run through someday just to see how the populace reacts.

🤞your method works for SH when I next play.

@BearsEatBeets I ended up playing for a few hours last night, made some new saves since and checked reloading them too, and it seemed fixed. Very strange. I'm not going to load any of theprevious ones though, and I usually delete old saves after a while, which is quite refreshing, knowing my decisions are locked in 😁 it must just be something that happens when you load a save from the old patch, but on the new patch, or something. I imagine it must have affected a lot of people, as the only option on a first use of a new patch is to use your current saves, unless it happens to be a new game.

I'm just glad there was an area right next to the Counting House with a broken guard rail in front of a big drop to the water (although first shove she actually landed on a small dock and survived, which was quite funny 😁 I had to jump down and push her again into the water) as a shove into a void seems to fix other character bugs, so thought I'd try it.

I was exploring the Counting House for Jaheira, rather than randomly, although I had a good loot of all the vaults on the way for good measure, and I'm now quite rich. I also have about 1000 paintings that I must sell one day, I was hoping for a way to decorate somewhere when I first started grabbing them tbh 😅 but I can now be a big city art thief/dealer, I guess.

Did the vault fight, the idiot bank manager walked into Jaheira's Cloud Kill, so he died 😅 but he seemed like a d*ck anyway.

I then respecced from Bard/Fighter to Bard/Rogue as I've not been using second wind, and sneak attack is probably better than a once per rest action surge. But I will still be a roaming front line fighter with my sword bard, just I can make much better use of my greater invisibility with sneak attacks and +whatever number stealth bonus I get from rogue, and really boost my damage output, along with getting even more bonus actions for more situations. I can now do a full bonus attack via the Rapier, or hide, dash, use a quickened encantation like hold person, confusion, hypnotic pattern, greater invisibility, all after making my main attacks. So I can either rush in, attack/attack attack/cast and then use a bonus action to turn invisible or cripple an enemy with another spell, and go around wrecking people, or start range stealth, teleport in, and then go on the attack with my rapier, but also control areas at any moment with an action or bonus action. Which seems just about perfect for my all action Tav.

Also, and very handily, Karlach's blood is now explosive...

😁😁😁😁

@Ravix I managed to do a couple of hours a little while ago and started by loading my most recent quicksave a bit after freeing Florrick. When it loaded I turned the camera to notice SH walking up to the group from the shop I had left her in just round the corner. So tried moving around and she was following again. Super pleased, I fast travelled to Lower City Center and after walking a bit realised she was standing still back where landed again. I also noticed she had switched to her camp outfit! So considering what you said I walked her down to the coast next to the mansion below the fireworks factory (still haven't had a snoop for anything interesting in there yet). I noticed there was a small wall so out of curiosity I checked what would happen if she jumped over and it said death. So I had her commit suicide into the sea. At the cost of a revive scroll and a couple of potions she was back and most importantly was following again so thanks for the tip.

Played for a bit uncovering the lower coast. Finally found and rescued Volo again. Got an outside look at the Steel Watch foundry and discovered a sneaky way in but left that for later. Also found some sexy dressed sea worshipping people and got a quest to kill a sea beast. Also found a building higher up which the journal has suggested may contain the Artist I saved in act 1. Plus noticed another bridge which I assume could lead to the Upper city maybe (how big is this game?)

Oh yeah and I forgot to mention last time I also thought when I found the hag hunters it was going to be a sister. Also I have no understanding of what the ring you get of the Hag's body actually does, the touchpad inspection doesn't explain it much like most things. I've given it Gale and will try and see what it does.

I started as Rogue as I wanted to be able to lockpick/disarm easily and leaned a bit into charm too. I've kind of tried to build my character to be super useful in conversations and out of combat and I quite enjoy playing this way even if my own character might be the least potent in battle out of my party. Managed to persuade Thorm's brother to basically let his nurses kill him and the toll collector to kill themselves in Act 2.
Just hit level twelve a couple of days ago and I've finished as a 10 Rogue/2 Ranger. I split around level seven to up my armour options and bow proficiency. I think I'm going to try a bard on my next playthrough. I've kept all the other companions dedicated to their main class so I have never had any bards in the party and missed out on playing instruments. I considered taking a perk in it but wanted other perks more.
I had my first fight with that rapier saving Volo and it's certainly made my Tav more potent too.

@BearsEatBeets I think you've seen more of the city than me now. I've been exploring the same (what feels like a third of the total city) area for a while, making sure to get everything I want. Not played it much recently, but last time I cleared the murder quest up to the point I want to, and I'll leave that on the back burner for a final confrontation, I guess.

As the city sort of hit water in the lower west section of the map, I'm guessing I'll follow the outskirts around next time to scout out the steel watch foundry too. Maybe head to find

But then I think I'll focus on the Shadowheart thread, Astarion, and maybe the Orphic hammer too. I guess I've got to find Ravenguard as well, I don't think it's marked on the map, so I'll just explore more. And obviously there's city based side quests too, so still so much to do. Which is making act 3 the longest act, I think 😁😁

Glad the bug fixed for you too.

Just remembered I've got to count the clown parts I've collected haha. Not sure if I've got them all yet, I sent them to camp.

And that hag reward, I think it's for Sorcerers with Wild Magic trait, so it probably won't do anything for Gale.

@Ravix Sounds like you may have paused on the murder quest at the same point I have. Despite finding/stopping the murderer I still have a quest marker for one of the victims on the map. Maybe it will clear once the final section is done.
While I've probably unearthed more of the city, some of it is just a quick look to see what's there without digging too much (similar to what I did with the newspaper).

I've found the building for Astarion's quest so could do that soon. At the moment I've no clue where the Orphic hammer is, where SH's quest continues (although she recognised a bit of graffiti in the city she did as a child) and like you, have no clue where Ravenguard is. He's certainly not in the same jail Florrick was.

I've got one bit of Clown to find (according to the log), but they seem to be in completely random places. I think eventually I'm going to have to explore every building in the city.

I managed a little bit today before the sports kicked off. Did the Artist building and have discovered it has a connection to the one near the firework factory. Curious how it could have played out if I had explored there first.
I also found a house that belongs to one of the companions so looking forward to going back when they are in my party.

I'll probably just sell that ring then. I must admit there is quite a lot of equipment that seems only useful in a very specific situation, or very precise character but I suppose it gives you more to sell. Although I've reached a point where I have 17k sitting in the camp chest.😁