#playing multiplayer bg3 with my friend has been so fun

[newvegascowboy]

Disappearing back into my dnd hole

[violetlypurple]

With the Windows recall shit rolling around, I'm going to be That Girl and put it out there that Linux is, indeed, still a thing, and a thing that has come a long way with regards to user experience and gaming. And a thing that runs 75% of the internet but anyways Saying, "Linux isn't just for nerds and enthusiasts anymore!" wouldn't be an entirely truthful statement, but if all you do is play games, go on socials, and hang in discord... It'll work? I'm speaking to a target audience here, posting from an FFXIV-focused blog, so let me dive into it a little for that target audience, with the assumption that none of you are out there being sweaty over Apex, Overwatch, Fortnite, or whatever zoomers play these days. Basically anything you play through Steam will run flawlessly* on Linux. Valve have baked the Proton compatibility layer into Steam for a while, and since Valve's Steam Deck runs on Linux, they are on point with updates for it. This means that Steam will do the work of making Windows games run on Linux for you without any additional software or tinkering. This includes the Steam version of FFXIV**.

Now, I can't speak to or ensure that reshade or any 3rd party plugin will work. In my case (details below the cut) reshade was more or less intact but all the presets broke so I just kinda said fuck it and removed the remnants. But thats ok, right? You want to try out the 7.0 graphical updates without instagram filters, right? Don't you..?

Mods and other plugins? Don't know, don't care, frankly don't like that they exist outside the narrow window of seeing people's fun screenshots. Sorry not sorry. That said, I have seen some things on the googles.

There are obviously various things that work differently/don't work on Linux like they do on Windows. I can't account for every case, so google is your friend here. The one particularly notable case I ran into was screenshare with Discord being unable to deliver audio, which makes group watching things like netflix a bit of a problem. There are technically workarounds but again, Target Audience.

Sooo... Yeah? If you're mildly tech savvy, go get Ubuntu, install it on a second drive, external drive, or even just try it out from the usb you put the install media on for an hour. If you wanna get spicy with it, do some looking around to see what distribution of Linux might suit you better. Pop_OS is also pretty beginner friendly. Yes, there are some adjustments and some things to learn, but if you have the energy to be mad at what Microsoft is doing, you have the energy to learn a few new things to get away from it. As with anything related to messing with your operating system; back up your important things, just in case!

The Notable Caveats:

*I can't speak to all multiplayer games, since some use anti-cheat or DRM that may not work on Linux. But frankly, a quick google of "will [game] run on Linux" can get you a quick yes or no on if this will be a problem for you. In my case, I mostly care about Helldivers 2 with its nProtect, and it works fine. BG3 has no problems either.

**You might be thinking, "But Basement Witch Noone Knows, I don't use the Steam version of FFXIV!" And yes, that does complicate matters. My brief tutorial is below the cut, should you find yourself committed to this notion, or just have a morbid curiosity.

Ok, so I don't have the Steam version of FFXIV either. There are two ways around this that I am aware of.

The first, which I would not recommend, is to get a 3rd party Linux launcher. If you care about this Windows recall thing, you probably fully understand why I would advise against using a 3rd party app to put your username and password into. If you are willing to do some research into the providers of these tools to determine their trustworthiness, I can't stop you, but I wasn't interested.

The second is Steam! Again! A fun fact about FFXIV is that it runs pretty self-contained in its folder. I have shit internet, so I have been just copying the whole ass SquareEnix folder off my drive and onto other drives to save myself two days of downloading for years now.

If you have Linux installed and familiarize yourself with the Home folder where your usual Documents/Pictures/Videos folders are, I just copy pasted my whole SquareEnix folder in there, to the cries and lamentations of Linux nerds everywhere that would insist I put it somewhere proper. Anyway. Once it's there, all you need to do is add it to Steam. In the Steam Library there is a button to Add a Game in the bottom right corner. When you click that there is an option to Add Non-Steam Game. When you click that, you will get a prompt to locate and select the game. Here you want to hit Browse, navigate to your Home folder, SquareEnix, FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn, boot. in the boot folder you will need to select ffxivboot.exe. Once you have selected it and clocked Open, it will return you to the Add Non-Steam Game list and you should see ffxivboot.exe selected. Hit Add Selected Programs, and that's it! You can now launch your bodged-in copy of FFXIV through steam, and it will apply the necessary Proton layer to make the launcher and the game work as normal. Yay Linux!

i use arch, btw

[okthatsgreat]

bg3 is extremely fun so far i’ve got three separate games currently running (two multiplayer) and the difference in characters is so funny. but especially their role in the story honestly. my oath of vengeance paladin run-through where she is firm on her views of justice and thinks in black and white when it comes to good and evil? that’s the main character no doubt. she leads and is the main character of this narrative. my multiplayer run-through wild magic barbarian that has been preconditioned to think only of her own survival even if her wild magic makes her just as much a danger to herself as others?? dual main character with the friend im playing with. they are progressing this story forward

but elese the noble born bard, the only character likely to insist she is the main character, is not the main character. frankly it is vital to her personality that she is a side character. she’s the only guy out of these three to go “come on guys follow me!!!!! 😁😁😁” only to run off with nobody following her. and that rules

[lutethebodies]

Tav Deep Dives: Olini/Wyll Friendship

On my Olini "Tav Tuesday" post, @n1ghtmeri asked:

"I was like, 'I like her,' then I saw Evangeline Navarro mentioned and went 'I LIKE HER.' I wonder what is her relationship with Wyll like?"

Good question! I think it's important to answer because it's a relationship that should be obvious based on Olini's backstory, but it's one that I hadn't considered enough when integrating her into the overall BG3 plot (I am not a Wyll expert). Mechanically, the answer is simple: Olini's approval with Wyll maxed at an exceptional 100 in early Act 3 of her solo run (he's an infrequent party member but they talk a lot) but sits at a neutral 14 in my multiplayer-Tav run (where I divided play between four Tavs so approval came at a premium, with romances taking priority, and hers is with Shadowheart).

The mechanical stuff can be fascinating, but it often feels bloodless and easy to metagame, so the less-quantifiable ways to measure relationships can often be more compelling. That's not news to most people who've played this game, but as someone who literally got back into video games after a 30-year layoff thanks to BG3's character relationships, it’s been a fun revelation for me. That goes double for those I haven't considered yet, like this one. The TL;DR is "their relationship is very good, like one of close siblings." Maybe the best way to go about this is addressing each of their overlapping connections.

Ulder Ravengard

Olini and Wyll are connected via his father the Grand Duke, and Ulder's background as the Flaming Fist's leader. Olini's 5e backstory involves investigating her own unit for war crimes against frontier nomads; in BG3 I translated that to her being an ex-Fist who's back in the city to expose her unit commander's war crimes in Chult. She tends to be annoyed by the unwritten rules of social hierarchy (she grew up mid-to-low class), and she has no patience for the subtleties of political power and how it works. Her misadventures with the Flaming Fist destroyed any respect she might have had for military rank, because she's seen how it can be abused.

So she'd soured on the Fist's general corruption anyway, but is perhaps naively convinced that Ulder (who was not born rich and powerful) would quickly right that ship if he hadn't been waylaid in Elturel. Learning about Wyll's complicated relationship with his father might disabuse that notion, but it would definitely strengthen an Olini-Wyll bond. She has a similar rocky past with her drow exile mother (a mage who became incapacitated by her own Weave experiments) and hyper-idealized memories of her long-lost human father (also a ranger).

Mizora

Olini is ambivalent about Wyll's warlock powers. As a ranger she's only a half-caster, and understands the Weave can be dangerously volatile. She's sympathetic to Wyll's situation—protecting the city from a dragon cult's abuse would have been an easy choice for her as well—but surely there were better options than a literal devil's deal. Though maybe not more successful options, which Wyll persuaded her to understand (here's where mechanics come in, i.e. Wyll's high CHA and Olini's high WIS/low INT).

As for Mizora herself, Olini despises her. The cambion's smarmy legalism reeks of hierarchy's sneaky tools of leverage and abuse, which flusters and frustrates Olini. The mental lanceboard of trying to outwit Mizora is utterly beyond Olini's ability, even if she were interested in doing so. She's an experienced ranger, but she's yet to fully appreciate the natures of other planes (though only in BG3; in 5e she's a Horizon Walker), so the fact that Wyll's survived Avernus' fine print to this point is certainly something admirable and worth emulating.

Shadowheart

Our favorite faux-goth princess is the most important reason why Olini and Wyll aren't going to be more than friends. Olini prefers women anyway, so if it's a contest between two attractive people who could help her understand the finer points of subtlety and tact, Wyll's always gonna lose out to Shadowheart. For all that Wyll and Olini have in common, the ranger and cleric have more (and more to learn from each other). That goes beyond whatever a shadow priestess and gloom stalker could talk shop about, too. I mean, two half-elves with nebulous parental issues, plus a shared thing for frontier fauna and urban wildlife? Sorry, Wyll.

Strong Siblings

An Olini-Wyll romance was always gonna be off the table for umpteen reasons. They really are like siblings from different parents. I don't care how clichéd that sounds; clichés exist for a reason, because their truth can be so frequent and common. Meeting and recruiting Wyll at the Grove would have been a relief for Olini well before he revealed whose son he was, because by even that early date the other companions had all rubbed her the wrong way. Sure, Wyll's a bit of a pompous dork at first, but she respected his ideals and the way he behaved when teaching the refugee kids how to defend themselves.

She also handwaved his "hunt the devil" quest as the cost of doing business, especially since he was relatively forthcoming about motivation compared to everyone else (except maybe Lae'zel). However, once Karlach was recruited and that truth unraveled, Olini backed Karlach immediately (another good reason to hate Mizora) and, as awkwardly as she and the tiefling could do so, conspired to set up Wyll and Karlach. The fact that this worked out well for Karlach in the end was an unintented bonus—but who do you think might have inspired Wyll to be a ranger-in-hell Blade of Avernus anyway? Perhaps his ranger sister from another mister.

That's all I've got for now. I hope that answered the question! Thanks again for asking and as always I'm open to more similar Tav-deep-dive prompts.

Whiny Side Note

Would it kill Larian to clean up the way gear clips on itself? I get that it might be a frustrating whack-a-mole task to do every piece, but so is slapdash-photoshopping Olini's scale mail scarf to match the Hood of the Weave every time I want to post a screen shot.