Baldur's Gate 3's first hotfix addresses more than 150 issues including that nasty savegame bug
The first Baldur's Gate 3 update isn't massive, but it's a good start.
Baldur's Gate 3 has had a pretty smooth launch overall, which is especially impressive given how expansive and complex it is. But no game ships bug-free, and Larians' big RPG is no exception—and so today the studio has rolled out the first hotfix, which clears up more than 150 "bugs and issues."
One rare but nasty bug that came to light earlier today was preventing players from saving or loading their game, which is obviously a big problem in a massive game like this. Today's hotfix doesn't fully fix that issue, but it does (or at least should) keep it from happening anymore: Larian said the problem is related to cross-saves, and since there's no need for cross-save functionality until the PlayStation 5 version comes out on September 5, it's disabled the option entirely and will fix it between now and then. Larian said players shouldn't notice any difference in the game, and Steam Cloud saves will be unaffected.
"Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to report these issues to us," Larian said. "As always, reach out to our support team if you run into trouble.
"And please keep showing us your Tavs and their adventures in the Forgotten Realms! We’ve been waiting for so long to see what you get up to."
Thank you for reporting these issues to us, please remember that the best way to get reports to the team is to submit them through our support page: https://t.co/NO0zhTdvsFAugust 4, 2023
Be aware that the full patch notes contain what seem to me to be major spoilers: I'm probably the only person at PC Gamer who's not currently playing Baldur's Gate 3, but I spent a lot of time with the first two games and I'm getting a strong sense of "implications" here. The spoilers are covered up in the patch notes on Steam, but out of an abundance of caution I'm leaving them out of our post. (I had the whole "Yoshimo in Spellhold" thing spoiled for me when Baldur's Gate 2 came out and lest there be any doubt, yes, I am still mad about it.)
The full patch notes (minus those spoilers) are below:
CRASHES AND BLOCKERS
- Fixed possibly getting stuck in a dialogue in the first confrontation with a major boss.
- Fixed a rare issue where player character states would not update properly after dying.
- Fixed a crash that could occur related to one of Astarion's cinematic dialogues in the endgame.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when loading an old savegame while at Last Light.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when using the brain reader in the Colony.
- Fixed an issue that could cause you to get stuck in a loading screen when loading a savegame after dying.
- Fixed a blocker during Character Creation preventing you from progressing if you chose a Zariel tiefling as your Guardian.
- Fixed a potential crash triggered by the light system.
- Added an error message to prevent crashes being caused by mods when starting the game.
- Disabled Larian Account cross-saves temporarily to solve an issue blocking loads and saves. Steam cross-saves are unaffected.
- Fixed a startup crash with the Steam API.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when quick-loading a game while a container or corpse was open for looting.
- Fixed a crash that could happen if an item unlocked a spell for a game entity without stats.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when switching a race or a class in Character Creation.
- Fixed potential crashes that could occur when closing screens like the options menu or when ending dialogues.
- Fixed a potential crash when an enemy tries to use the Motivator during combat in the Steel Watch Foundry.
- Fixed a blocker that could occur if you choose to attack the Emperor during a dialogue after you side with him.
- Fixed a crash in PhysX.
MULTIPLAYER
- Players will now correctly join cinematic dialogues that require all players to be present if they were listening in previously.
- Fixed an issue that allowed players to listen in on private dialogues using the context menu.
- Fixed an issue causing players to get stuck and not be able to join a dialogue if someone else is already in a dialogue.
GAMEPLAY
- Fixed hair physics on drow and elf male strong body types.
- Fixed an issue causing phase spiders to skip their turn in combat if they're standing on a web that's been destroyed.
- Fixed an issue with dice rolling, where retrying could cause the roll to fail if you were applying bonuses and clicking really fast.
- Duplicate spells no longer appear on followers' hotbars and you can no longer customise their radial menus. (Important to note: followers are not companions or full party members.)
- Fixed Dark Urge randomisation in Character Creation for non-white dragonborn characters.
- Fixed an issue preventing you from interacting with Withers in one of the camp locations.
UI
- Fixed issues in cinematic dialogues when listening in.
- Fixed an issue causing the character models for half-orcs, dragonborn, and half-elves to not update correctly when unequipping armour in the character sheet.
- Fixed some issues with prepared spells during Level Up, when multiclassing.
- Hid the version number during dialogues.
- Fixed splitscreen cinematics showing sampling garbage.
AUDIO
- Fixed audio issues with grunts, shouts, and moans across gameplay and cinematics.
- Fixed a line being cut off when speaking to the Restless Myconid in the Underdark.
- Removed a clicking sound during the credits.
- Fixed audio levels in a dialogue with Mayrina in the Lower City.
ENGINE
- Fixed a bug causing textures to appear in bright, neon colours.
- Fixed a splitscreen issue causing characters to remain invisible after a dialogue ends.
- Fixed an aspect ratio issue when FSR is active during splitscreen.
- Fixed surface texture details not updating when changing Texture Detail in the game video options.
CINEMATICS
- Fixed characters looking in the wrong direction in a dialogue with Mizora.
- Fixed the Emperor turning backwards in an endgame cinematic.
- Fixed a camera issue with the deep rothé.
- Fixed camera and lighting issues with the strange ox at Last Light.
- Fixed a blank screen in the cinematic when you put on one of Auntie Ethel's masks.
- The nautiloid crash scene will now play even if your avatar is dead and a companion used the transponder instead.
- Fixed an issue with clipping characters in a cinematic dialogue in the Colony.
- Fixed the avatar's head popping into place in a dialogue in the Colony.
- Fixed Cazador's staff disappearing in a cinematic dialogue.
- Fixed a camera that was zoomed in too far on a wolf.
- Fixed Lae'zel's head popping in a dialogue with Vlaakith.
- Fixed Orin and her victim clipping into an altar.
- Fixed a blocked camera in the dialogue with Lunkbug and Laridda.
- Fixed companions disappearing the morning after the Dark Urge gives into a particular Urge.
- Fixed lighting issues in a scene with Z'rell at Moonrise Towers.
- Fixed Araj's hands clipping when talking to her in the Lower City.
- Fixed some companions being visible in the background of dialogues where they shouldn't be.
- Fixed Ketheric's corpse standing back up in an idle pose.
- Fixed a blocked camera in the dialogue with the ogres at the Blighted Village.
- Fixed Raphael popping during the dialogue with the orthon.
- Fixed camera, audio, and character movement issues in the dialogue with the monk's amulet.
- Fixed a looping animation in the cinematic dialogue with the Brewer.
- Fixed half-orc hirelings clipping when speaking to the pale individuals in Fraygo's Flophouse.
- Fixed male halfling Dark Urge's hand clipping through his body when lying down.
- Fixed lighting issues in the endgame cinematic.
- Fixed Jaheira having jittering and popping hands in a dialogue in the Lower City.
- Fixed a repeating animation on the submersible.
- Fixed Wyll looking in the wrong direction when recruited.
- Added reactions to the player character's face when talking to the ox in Last Light.
- Fixed clipping between two Zealots of the Absolute in the Colony.
- Fixed popping issues with Cazador in several dialogues with Astarion.
- Fixed some issues with where characters are facing, animations, and cameras in the final combat cinematic.