Co-Op Multiplayer Character Import

[Calcx]

I love videogames. I love videogames even more when I play with friends.

Right now, I have a friend who downloaded Baldur's Gate 3 after myself and another friend already started playing a co-op game. They want to play with us, on their own character. We are still level 1, the new character hasn't made a game yet.

I want to be able to let my friend play co-op with us by bringing their newly created character to the game. Or their existing character.

I understand it may break immersion. I understand that there could be some aspects of the story which are difficult to make work together.

Here's the thing, I don't care what it takes. Make it work. Use the host's story arc as filler. Make a requirement that the new character be within a certain level, or not. If it doesn't quite work as expected, that's better than it not working at all. I have friends I want to experience this game with. I bought them the game just to play with me. They buy me games to play with them.

You know what breaks immersion? Not being able to play with your friends, with your character. Playing as an NPC is stupid and ridiculous and something that terrible games from 20 years ago would force on you. How is a modern game this dumb? I don't believe it is, and I think that you're better than this. So make it happen.

I am a long-time Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age, etc etc. fan.

I am talking about Importing Baldurs Gate Characters into a Multiplayer Co-Op game. I am talking about letting people who are playing Baldur's Gate Multiplayer to use their existing characters in my co-op game. I am talking about joining a friend's Baldur's Gate Multiplayer Co-Op game with my character.

This also relates to this thread:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/0/1750150007022752301/

If you agree with me give me a +1 so we keep this thread alive.

In response to a comment from a Larian rep:
"If quest completion is save separately from the characters, then companion characters and NPCs can not react to how quests are completed, or change their attitudes in response to character choices or dialogue, etc. It also means character choices and actions can not directly influence the nature or availability of future quests."

Do you think that the technical or logical limitation of your game design choices should impact the player in such a way that they cannot play with their friends? Do you think this is an appropriate response to the player's desire to enjoy the game?

I understand that it would be difficult, but you can work around it. How about having characters imported assume the story arc of the "main" character? How about making them some kind of extension? How about letting them choose pre-defined backgrounds upon entering a world (i.e. pre-defined story arc choices, doesn't have to be too many or too in-depth) with a customization of config files for those who really care and want to swap them? There are technical ways which don't require too much investment. Try them, and give players the one thing they want: ability to share the experience with their friends.

[Razorblade]

Or just start a new game with all of you present. If you're still level 1, it's not like you've made any real progress. Be a good friend and let them actually experience the beginning of the story, rather than being too selfish to lose a *gasp* hour of progress. SImple solution, and the devs can work on actually important features.

[Calcx]

Sure, that's a valid solution for this one single case, what if my friend already experienced the beginning on their own?

Now imagine that in this case, the friend and I have already played for 4 hours, seperately, and we don't have the ability to dedicate each and every minute playing on the exact same schedule with eachother. So instead of being selfish, instead we want to be able to play when we are available with eachother. How do you recommend a solution to this? Or trying different character types and abilities until I find one that works for me?

I'm wondering if you have specific features which are important for you, which you are afraid the "devs wont get to" because of this issue?

[Razorblade]

Originally posted by .Radiative_Calcx ㋛ CRYPTO:

Now imagine that in this case, the friend and I have already played for 4 hours, seperately, and we don't have the ability to dedicate each and every minute playing on the exact same schedule with eachother. So instead of being selfish, instead we want to be able to play when we are available with eachother.

Then play an MMO? The game isn't designed to be drop-in, drop-out.

Imagine if you saw a thread on these forums with someone up in arms about there being no matchmaking, lambasting the devs for not accommodating that person's niche situation, and forcing them to actually go out of their way to plan a session. That fantasy is not dissimilar to the reality of your post. It is laughable that your solution to your minor problem is to commit significant development resources to completely reworking how the story and multiplayer interact. If your time is really so valuable that you cannot stand to restart a game you are a few hours into, then you shouldn't play BG3 in Early Access, cause your save isn't going to make it to the final game.

[Calcx]

I'll address your concerns here:

Originally posted by Razorblade:

Then play an MMO? The game isn't designed to be drop-in, drop-out.

I'm not looking to play an MMO. I'm looking to play an RPG like Baldur's Gate. The game is designed to be drop-in, drop-out, that is why they allow players to use NPC's. The point is that they should allow for players to use their OWN characters instead, however they'd like to implement this, without requiring that the only time a player can "add" their character to a storyline is at the single moment of the start.

Originally posted by Razorblade:

Imagine if you saw a thread on these forums with someone up in arms about there being no matchmaking, lambasting the devs for not accommodating that person's niche situation, and forcing them to actually go out of their way to plan a session. That fantasy is not dissimilar to the reality of your post. It is laughable that your solution to your minor problem is to commit significant development resources to completely reworking how the story and multiplayer interact. If your time is really so valuable that you cannot stand to restart a game you are a few hours into, then you shouldn't play BG3 in Early Access, cause your save isn't going to make it to the final game.

You are asking me not to play in Early Access, I'd say that no, in fact, this feedback is exactly the type of feedback the game developers are looking for. Whether they take it or not, is up to them of course.

I do not wish the developers to drop everything, and implement a feature.

However, I do expect them to be able to justify why this use case, such that players are not required to know, ahead of time, exactly who and when they want to play this game with, and forever be forced to only play with these players, is not implemented in the final game.

Maybe not justify here, and now, in this thread, but this is a question that will be asked, has been asked, and the answer provided as "it's too difficult to get the story right" is losing sight of the mark: people want to play games with eachother: forcing the players to choose only at the beginning of a campaign who they will play with severely limits the ability of players who play co-op to enjoy the game.

[Cat]

I too was looking forward to playing this cool looking game with friends when i found out that they could *only* play as the npcs. That for me isn't any fun and we dont get to experience how each person would build a character to work in a unique group dynamic. i hope this changes in the future for sure.

[Calcx]

I'd like to bring this back up, I wonder what the current status of multiplayer character importing is?

[desrtfox071]

Originally posted by Calcx:

I'll address your concerns here:

Originally posted by Razorblade:

Then play an MMO? The game isn't designed to be drop-in, drop-out.

I'm not looking to play an MMO. I'm looking to play an RPG like Baldur's Gate. The game is designed to be drop-in, drop-out, that is why they allow players to use NPC's. The point is that they should allow for players to use their OWN characters instead, however they'd like to implement this, without requiring that the only time a player can "add" their character to a storyline is at the single moment of the start.

Originally posted by Razorblade:

Imagine if you saw a thread on these forums with someone up in arms about there being no matchmaking, lambasting the devs for not accommodating that person's niche situation, and forcing them to actually go out of their way to plan a session. That fantasy is not dissimilar to the reality of your post. It is laughable that your solution to your minor problem is to commit significant development resources to completely reworking how the story and multiplayer interact. If your time is really so valuable that you cannot stand to restart a game you are a few hours into, then you shouldn't play BG3 in Early Access, cause your save isn't going to make it to the final game.

You are asking me not to play in Early Access, I'd say that no, in fact, this feedback is exactly the type of feedback the game developers are looking for. Whether they take it or not, is up to them of course.

I do not wish the developers to drop everything, and implement a feature.

However, I do expect them to be able to justify why this use case, such that players are not required to know, ahead of time, exactly who and when they want to play this game with, and forever be forced to only play with these players, is not implemented in the final game.

Maybe not justify here, and now, in this thread, but this is a question that will be asked, has been asked, and the answer provided as "it's too difficult to get the story right" is losing sight of the mark: people want to play games with eachother: forcing the players to choose only at the beginning of a campaign who they will play with severely limits the ability of players who play co-op to enjoy the game.

You can drop in drop out right now, but you cannot do that using characters that are not part of the save.

So, you can do drop in drop out. Not an issue. So your friends can play.

The save state, and quests, and items, etc. are all tied to the characters themselves. this is why there is no character import/export.

[Gudaden]

i have played baldurs gate 1, 2 and i started playing back when i was young i created a char and would play that char through the game several times and i imported that char over and over and have the char saved on a thumb drive just in case my computer crashes i am very fond of this char it is old enough to drink at this point. i know i can not import this char in to the new game due to the time difference but the char i want to make has a background where they are a direct line of this original char i have created.
I also had friends that played with me on my games or i would import my char in to there games when our jobs allowed us to have the same days off or when we would start a new game and Truly Role Play in a new game together or just pop in to a game for some hack and slash together but having that option is what made the game worth playing over and over! i am a strong agreement of this idea.
i also would love to be able to import a char from baldurs gate and have not a new char but a background for the new char with a family Heirloom (Ring, Amulet. armor, Weapon, Boots) something simple dont have to be a big thing but i would love the item to say something in the description saying this item belonged to ,,,,CHAR NAME HERE...... and used it in his quest or something like that, this would feel like a link to the past games that would make me feel like i was able to keep some part of my Main char from back in the day. this is just a Idea of how Importing would work to connect the old games as well.

[Calcx]

Originally posted by desrtfox071:

You can drop in drop out right now, but you cannot do that using characters that are not part of the save.

So, you can do drop in drop out. Not an issue. So your friends can play.

The save state, and quests, and items, etc. are all tied to the characters themselves. this is why there is no character import/export.

Understand that it's not technically feasible in the current game as it is. I'd love to see it actually be something that is made possible, though! Being able to have a character be "fresh" or somehow not tied to quests, as long as they're a multiplayer character, would be great, it would mean someone can participate using their own creativity to draft a character.

Otherwise, you're stuck with either:
1) NPC's or
2) Starting a game with someone right from the beginning only

it would be awesome if there were a
3) Play with your friend (and their) character even if they weren't there at the moment the game world was "created"

It could even be something like, you match the current main character's level, and are able to then go through the normal level up process upon joining, from lv1 until their level, right off the bat.

[itsthexypat]

I'm going to resurrect this mildly older thread. It is near the end of 2023 and they did not fix this. This is still a problem. My friend started a coop game and I created a character later to join in thinking logically that MY character that I created would save locally to my PC then cloud sync with Larian and Steam. This is not the case. MY character is now an NPC on their coop game.

I also wanted to set the record that this should not have been a problem. As others erroneously stated, it was too complicated to implement an export/import character function. This is not true, roughly 20 years ago the entire Neverwinter Nights Series of games allowed the creation of characters, either solo or coop, and then you could one button click an "export" to have your character go back to the list. You could play that character forever either solo, coop or both.

Why hasn't this been fixed in 2023? Probably because this game is a big pile of ♥♥♥♥ and not the "wonderful" game that it was overhyped to be.