Immersion breaking coop, bad coop system

[G W Y N E V E R E 蛇喰]

I am really enjoying playing Baldur's Gate 3 solo, but I must express my disappointment with the multiplayer experience, particularly the duo coop. I've noticed a few details that completely break immersion:

- We don't feel like a real group. Each of us has our own companion, and there's no interaction between our characters or companions. For example, if Astarion is following my brother, he completely ignores my presence and won't react to anything I do. The same happens with my companion and my brother's character. This aspect needs improvement to enhance the cooperative gameplay.

- During conversations, we never see the full group interacting with NPCs. Instead, it's always just me and my companion or my brother and his companion talking to the NPC, while the other player becomes invisible and merely observes the scene. This takes away from the immersion and teamwork feeling that multiplayer should offer.

- The choices and actions I make while my brother is spectating do not carry over to his game. For instance, if I perform a positive action towards an NPC and my brother talks to them later, they have no recollection of my brother being there to help them previously. This lack of synchronization in the game world reduces the sense of shared experience and impact.

I hope the developers can address these issues in the future updates as they significantly affect the enjoyment and cohesiveness of the multiplayer mode. Despite these drawbacks, I still love the game and look forward to seeing improvements that will enhance the cooperative gameplay experience.

Thank you for your attention, and I'm eager to hear from other players about their experiences and thoughts on the matter.

[Vinland]

The fact that you cannot use your party skills in conversations is game breaking for me. This is DnD for ♥♥♥♥'s sake, why cant my party members can use their skills???????

[Nicoy]

Is it for real that u can't even see other person talking and interacting with characters, and stuff? All other players are like npcts and u can only fight together?

[Gunboat Diplomat]

Originally posted by Nicoy:

Is it for real that u can't even see other person talking and interacting with characters, and stuff? All other players are like npcts and u can only fight together?

No, you can listen-in on anyone's conversation no matter how far away you are, as long as it isn't a "private conversation" and that player doesn't allow others to listen to those. I don't understand the rationale behind what is and isn't "private", so I just set my game to share everything; the setting is under the Gameplay tab in the options menu.

I think the intention is for this to be analogous to D&D where the DM takes one or two players aside to do something with them that is separate from the rest of the group, but in a video it just doesn't feel all that appropriate to me; it feels more like cutting particular scenes out of a movie and only letting certain people watch.

The biggest issue I find is I don't know who's watching. Are all my friends watching? Some? None? It leaves a big disconnect for if someone starts talking about what's happening in a conversation.

My suggestion to mitigate that coordinate tightly with whomever you're playing with so you stay together and watch scenes together, at the very least. In my opinion that makes the game feel much closer to a "playing D&D with your friends" vibe than a disjointed romp where everyone is doing their own thing.

[G W Y N E V E R E 蛇喰]

Moreover, the act of spectating scenes in BG3 feels quite meaningless. Even if you're right next to your friends, the NPCs won't acknowledge your presence, recognize you, or react to you. It's as if you weren't there at all. And, if your friends make different moral choices, the NPCs won't recognize those choices when you attempt to interact with them later on.

To summarize, you can indeed spectate scenes in the game, but the lack of proper interaction with NPCs and the inability to have meaningful conversations with your friends make them feel more like non-playable characters rather than true companions.
Well... At least my NPCs companions appear in the conversation... So your friends are less than NPCs

[Librarian]

Baldur's Gate 3 is an incredibly great game. But, Co-Op Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the least immersive D&D experiences I've ever had due to alot of issues you've mentioned.
Especially conversations. It feels like you're having a lesser experience just because you decided to play with your friends and playing with your friends is the best part of D&D. While I'm aware that Baldur's Gate 3 is not literally D&D with a group of friends, and as such it doesn't have the same freedom as you might have in a real life D&D campaign. The Co-Op experience is still massively held back by these seemingly small, immersion-breaking issues with a massive impact when it doesn't have to be the case.

[Creed]

The co-op is just soulless.

[Senyuki]

One big problem with coop, for us, is that approval doesn't work for both of us... when i'm talking (because i'm the bard and good at talking, you know ;) ) i get approval, but my husband with his character get's nothing... this makes no sense and he can't get friendships this way (or even a romance) ...

[hannibal_pjv]

We have player 3 plaer coop and it has been more much more fun than the single player campaign that I have done in side of it!
Aka this is really good Coop experience!
(I like the single player version too, but coop is just superior…)

[FIVE-STAR MAN]

One of the best implemented co op experiences in any CRPG game. Absolutely having a blast. Playing with 3 friends.

[TheProphet]

The coop is really bad at the moment , hope after "definitive edition" the situation will change

[Astarii]

Im finding coop to have less life in it. While playing solo, the NPCs interact with eachother more frequently. Gale will ask astarion something and he will respond. I also feel like there are more interactions between my PC and the non partied NPCs while at camp. During Coop--I've been completely stuck out of romances because my fellow players are changing the scenes or my chosen NPC thinks I've done something a fellow player has actually done... it sucks

[CptZhu]

agreed

[KingOfFriedChicken]

Originally posted by Vinland:

The fact that you cannot use your party skills in conversations is game breaking for me. This is DnD for ♥♥♥♥'s sake, why cant my party members can use their skills???????

You can use your party skills altough it seems to bug out sometimes, my brother boosts my rolls all the time though. It needs some minor work to prevent those weird bugs that cause it to have no pop up on rolls.

To the main post
As far as not interacting with others I think its intended, cuz dialog is 1 off and the only way to build a relationship, so imagine if you talked to leazel for e ample that followed your friend or brother around, and he missed out and couldn't romance her because you took the dialoge opertunites. This prevents it even by accident.

As for not talking I mean we talk to each other on discord, it doesn't have to be in game. I know Divinity offer a few of these moments but they felt so limited, I remember the 3 choices sometimes never being what I even wanted to say, and they should be in the background of scenes, I have seen others in my scenes as the scene takes place in the area you stand.

[G W Y N E V E R E 蛇喰]

Originally posted by KingOfFriedChicken:

Originally posted by Vinland:

The fact that you cannot use your party skills in conversations is game breaking for me. This is DnD for ♥♥♥♥'s sake, why cant my party members can use their skills???????

You can use your party skills altough it seems to bug out sometimes, my brother boosts my rolls all the time though. It needs some minor work to prevent those weird bugs that cause it to have no pop up on rolls.

To the main post
As far as not interacting with others I think its intended, cuz dialog is 1 off and the only way to build a relationship, so imagine if you talked to leazel for e ample that followed your friend or brother around, and he missed out and couldn't romance her because you took the dialoge opertunites. This prevents it even by accident.

As for not talking I mean we talk to each other on discord, it doesn't have to be in game. I know Divinity offer a few of these moments but they felt so limited, I remember the 3 choices sometimes never being what I even wanted to say, and they should be in the background of scenes, I have seen others in my scenes as the scene takes place in the area you stand.

I grasp the developers' reasoning for these limitations, it simplifies managing dialogue and relationships in the game for the 2-4 players. However, it doesn't necessarily translate into an outstanding and immersive system.