can you explore the whole world from the beginning?

[DruidX]

Do you have access to the whole map from the beginning of the game, or  do you have to advance in the story quests to get areas to unlock?

[Sedrefilos]

I'm quite sure that you have to learn about locations (thus revealing them on your map) before you go somewere. Maybe some standard known location will be there from the start (meaning after the prologue) like a village or a grove or something.

Edited March 20, 2015 by Sedrefilos

[CaptainMace]

Considering the habit of the last decade, there's probably gonna be a more or less linear introduction to the game. There might be some sort of "milestones" like baldur's gate opening at chapter 5 but I doubt, and would be disappointed, if it's more than that.

Now I didn't spoil myself with the videos made about the beginning of the game, which has probably changed anyway, so I don't know about these. But what I'd like is the design of the first BG. You could choose to immediatly speak to Gorion and immediatly get started, or newcomers could wander around Candlekeep to get controls and such.

 

I'm quite sure that you have to learn about locations (thus revealing them on your map) before you go somewere. Maybe some standard known location will be there from the start (meaning after the prologue) like a village or a grove or something

 

Not so sure, the BB lets guess the games works like BG1, when you had to exit a map from a certain direction to unlock the next one. A system that I like more.
Might be a mix of both though.

Edited March 20, 2015 by CaptainMace

[Bryy]

I'd say 50/50. It's not going to be Open World or even Sandbox, but I highly doubt each major area will not have two or three open areas.

 

In the backer beta, besides the town, you have two areas to explore.

[mychal26]

I much prefer the BG2 exploration as opposed to the BG1 exploration (that is, regions open up as you get quests or progress through the story). I don't mind a few regions you can explore for no prior reason at all (other then adventurous spirit), but I feel that some linearity can produce a more cohesive story (this is probably one of the reasons I don't like many of the sandbox games like Skyrim).

[wolfrider100]

I hope it's more like Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn's exploration was, where regions open up as

 

you get quests and progress through the story. I would be somewhat disappointed if it's not like that.

Edited March 20, 2015 by wolfrider100

[Tartantyco]

BG1 style is the superior style. Anything else is heresy.

[Horrorscope]

Related: How large are the loaded area's in comparison to BG's? Being 2015, my first guess would be much larger to give more a sense of adventure, but maybe not.

[Tartantyco]

If I remember correctly, some areas would rival those of BG1, but the majority would be smaller. I'm sure someone has a more accurate answer, though.

[Horrorscope]

If I remember correctly, some areas would rival those of BG1, but the majority would be smaller. I'm sure someone has a more accurate answer, though.

 

Interesting, one would assume BG's were small because of the era they were from, memory and disk size, things we don't have to worry about any more.

[CaptainMace]

Yet I frankly don't see how bigger maps would have helped BG in any way. Most of the wilderness maps were already half empty.

[KingNee]

BG1 style is the superior style. Anything else is heresy.

 

Pretty much this. Now release the game Obsi. 

[Verenti]

I like BG1 much better, because it was actually exploration. To get places, you need to trek overland. It took places and you could get distracted along the way. I mean, getting lost is pretty much the essence of exploration.  If you can't get lost, I don't think you are actually exploring.

[Tort]

I like BG1 much better, because it was actually exploration. To get places, you need to trek overland. It took places and you could get distracted along the way. I mean, getting lost is pretty much the essence of exploration.  If you can't get lost, I don't think you are actually exploring.

In general, unless you playing a sandbox game like DayZ, you can hardly get lost, what you can do in cRPG like this is royally screw-up your plot\quests (unless you love level scaling) That why a mix of freedom and progression through the story is a winning strategy.

Edited March 21, 2015 by Tort

[Sensuki]

Progression through the game (from what I've seen of the world map) is actually fairly linear (way, way more linear than BG1) but there are some "side-paths" with like 1-2 optional areas together that you absolutely don't have to explore.

I'm pretty sure the game will take you through the majority of exterior maps, even if you skip the content.

Edited March 21, 2015 by Sensuki

[CaptainMace]

Do you mean that there are some sorts of objectives or such to fulfil before you can access the next chunk ?

Edited March 21, 2015 by CaptainMace

[PBJam]

assuming you could, wouldn't you run into high level enemies and get killed?

[CaptainMace]

assuming you could, wouldn't you run into high level enemies and get killed?

Like in BG1, or deathclaws north of Goodspring, that's not really a problem.

[Striped_Wolf]

The large portion of empty open ended wilderness in BG1 was what hooked me on the genre.

Edited March 21, 2015 by Striped_Wolf

[Luckmann]

BG1 style is the superior style. Anything else is heresy.

 

This. All of this and only this.

 

So sayeth me, myself and I.

 

I like BG1 much better, because it was actually exploration. To get places, you need to trek overland. It took places and you could get distracted along the way. I mean, getting lost is pretty much the essence of exploration. If you can't get lost, I don't think you are actually exploring.

And even when places were revealed on the map, you still had to actually go there. You couldn't just teleport across the lands to where you needed to go.

 

Once you had explored to there and back (in other words, knew the way) you could fast-travel.

 

Baldur's Gate exploration is superior to anything I've seen ever since, and I hated what they did in BG2. We shouldn't have been dumped in Athkatla to begin with.

Edited March 21, 2015 by Luckmann

[Tartantyco]

Hat-trick!

 

Edit: Awww, new page...

Edited March 21, 2015 by Tartantyco

[ruzen]

the triplets are on roll

[Katarack21]

 

assuming you could, wouldn't you run into high level enemies and get killed?

Like in BG1, or deathclaws north of Goodspring, that's not really a problem.

 

Pfft. You never tried to explore north of the Friendly Arm Inn to early and got slaughtered by ankhegs, did you?

[Luckmann]

assuming you could, wouldn't you run into high level enemies and get killed?

 

I would hope so. Anything less would just be insulting.

 

 

**** **** **** **** **** where is Ajantis get me out of here where is Ajantis there he is AJANTIS GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE WE NEED TO GO THIS IS ANKHEG COUNTRY WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING HERE?!

 

 

Edit: Since the Deathclaws north of Goodsprings were mentioned, though, I must say that I thought that was a bit ham-fisted. They're practically there just so you'll approach Vegas from the "right" direction and go through the town that the legion burns (because while certain parts of the legion are great, and the writing of Caesar is good, they still just HAD to be hurf durf rape kill hurf).

 

It didn't really feel natural, it felt like an artificial barrier not quite like other areas of the game. But the point still stands.

Edited March 21, 2015 by Luckmann

[Tartantyco]

I was just re-watching Sawyer's stream from January, and to me it seems like to work mostly like BG1. There's a lot of wilderness maps that tie different areas together, and he has Dyrford Village revealed on the map, but can't go directly to it from Defiance Bay, so it seems you have to trek through the wilderness to get to areas.

 

On this mark, you can see Dyrford Village greyed out:

https://youtu.be/jfz0hu8Zjqg?t=51m25s

 

Here you see wilderness maps connecting areas of interest, and I think Raedric's Hold is greyed out, as well:

https://youtu.be/jfz0hu8Zjqg?t=31m52s

 

Looks like BG1 style to me. Lots of open travel, having to go to places before you can quick travel to them, with a few areas that are restricted until revealed through story progression.