Another big patch arrives for Baldur’s Gate 3, fixing over 1000 bugs and technical issues. Plus there are new highly requested options such as hireling customization and visual settings to benefit the color-blind.
Since the hit CRPG’s full launch in August, Baldur’s Gate 3 has also been mired with bugs and glitches. While that did not stop the newest adventure in the Forgotten Realms from being a certified hit, developer Larian Studios has had their hands full with hotfixes and major patches. Although to be fair, these continuous and consistent updates have only improved the game and endeared BG3 fans further to the care being given to it compared to other recent AAA games.
Patch #4 is the newest big update for Baldur’s Gate 3 and it appears Larian Studios took it a notch further from Hotfix #9. With that update, options to customize NPC hireling appearances were added. However, this could only be done via the Magic Mirror (which was a feature included in Patch #3).
With Patch #4, players can now alter NPC hireling appearances without the need of the Magic Mirror. Instead, the option to modify the look, sex, and other cosmetic details of the Baldur’s Gate 3 hireling NPC can be done as soon as they are recruited into the party. And if the player decides to do so afterward, the Magic Mirror option can still be used for that purpose.
Another major highlight of Baldur’s Gate 3’s Patch #4 is the addition of graphics settings to aid color-blind players. Larian Studios included options in the Accessibility tab of the BG3 UI to choose activating either protanopia, deuteranopia, or tritanopia. These add slight alterations to the visuals of characters, backgrounds, markers, frames, and portraits.
Although these provide little benefit to players with normal vision, Baldur’s Gate 3 players with color-blindness will have an easier time distinguishing visual details. This is particularly important with the visual cues that identify player characters and ally NPCs over hostile NPCs and monsters.
Other key gameplay changes included in Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch #4 are map markers to identify characters that want to talk to the player, map icons for the Magic Mirror and Withers’ Wardrobe, autosaves in important locations (Shadow-Cursed Lands, Lower City, Iron Throne, etc.), upgrading AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution to Version 2.2 (for players who like to upscale the visual quality, and soaps and sponges to wash your party with a proper bath.
We deployed a small fix today on PC to address an issue preventing players from clicking on filtered abilities and items related to equipped weapons. We still need to do further testing on Mac, but we'll update you once the fix is live on the platform.
— Baldur's Gate 3 (@baldursgate3) November 3, 2023
Note that there are bug fixes and updates applicable only to the specific version of the game (i.e. Windows PC, macOS, and Sony Playstation 5). You can find all the detailed notes of Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch #4 at the Steam Community Page or the official website of the game at this link.
As Baldur’s Gate 3 enters the third month of its critical and sales success, what other fixes and updates are you looking forward to? Should Larian Studios focus on an expansion that adds more Dungeons & Dragons options such as more character classes and epic-level content?
