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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2801 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 24, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I posted the original in last Sunday’s small question thread, but posting my reply here.

Thanks you to @Thoroughlygruntled, @yofuckreddit, @MathWizard, @Hieronymus, @charlesf, @erwgv3g34, @Vollerei, @KingOfTheBailey, @orthoxerox, @Rex, @TowardsPanna, @chooky, @WhiningCoil, @ulyssessword, @birb_cromble, @aqouta, and @ToaKraka for the computer game recommendations. Before this post, I was already playing Skyrim and Baldur’s Gate III. I also bought The Long Dark.

I have a lot of work to do if I’m going to get through these. I’ll keep you all up to date. As @yofuckreddit said, it would be best if I was unemployed for a whole year so I could play them.

Does the combat in BG3 ever become less of a chore?

Warlockracy (whose channel I've been binge-watching) has come up with the theory of bimodal difficulty of combat encounters. He classifies them into three tiers:

  • trash fights, requiring no real effort to win
  • "captcha" fights, just hard enough to make you pay attention
  • challenge fights, that require you to come up with an ad-hoc solution

The theory is that "captcha" fights are bad, and you mostly need a combination of trash and challenge fights in your game. Weak encounters make you feel powerful and reinforce the theme of the dungeon. Strong encounters force you to master the combat system. But medium-strength encounters should exist only as an onramp to the next challenge fight, teaching you the new mechanic. Yes, players can complain about too many trash fights, but turning half of them into captcha fights will make the game worse off.

It sounds like BG3 has too many captcha fights.

The channel looks interesting. Is this combat encounter theory in his BG3 video or is there a combat theory video? They are very long so it will be hard for me to scan them.

I think its interesting that the internet has such diverse opinions on BG3 combat. Many (especially 5e veterans) say it is extremely hard. The min-maxing community considers it easy. Most people consider Larian's other hit, DOS2, to be a lot harder. I recently finally bought XCOM (2012), and that is truly an old game because it is hard.

I would say BG3 combat feels unrewarding -- it leaves me wanting more. That is similar to "feels like a chore." I think part of the issue is the game is schizophrenic, meaning it can't decide if its a narrative game or a combat game. Narrative gamers think the combat is hard, and a chore; Combat gamers think combat is easy, and lacking.

If you spend multiple hours straight doing quests, social encounters, and reap a lot of progression and quest rewards; and you don't like combat, you're going to find the combat is a slog. That's because it's not a combat game, and you can progress quite well without fighting at all. If your goal is to experience the story, then passing the conversation checks is quicker and less effort. In some sense, the combat feels like a slog because the rest of the game spoils you without requiring the player to play anything.

On the other hand, a true combat game would be structurally designed to condition the player to feel rewarded by the combat, making it fun, even if all the fights are captcha fights.

It's in the Pillars video, IIRC.

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