Hey everyone,
We bring to you exciting news about Patch 7!
Finally, we hear you exclaim—though hold off on diving into our next patch just yet. We still have a significant amount of work to deliver our initial iteration of modding tools, diverse evil endings, numerous fixes, quality of life enhancements, and more, which we will elaborate on in a forthcoming Community Update!
Launching this September, the upcoming major update for Baldur’s Gate 3 will also feature an officially sanctioned toolkit for making Lae’zel sport a mullet. Why not? You only live once.
As mentioned in our previous Community Update, we want you to test out Patch 7 and the Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit, so you can provide us with feedback before the official release!
Patch 7 testing will now occur in two distinct phases, starting with collaborating closely with a selected group of community mod authors. This is our closed alpha stage, where they will assist us in further developing the modding tools and bring their existing mods to life using the Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit.
The closed alpha commences today, June 3rd, and we will gradually invite more mod authors to join.
In July, we will open registration for a closed beta, limited to roughly 1,000 players, open to all PC users. We need you to test the mods crafted during the alpha phase!
This phased testing approach allows us to refine Patch 7 over the summer, preparing it for its official release in September. Meanwhile, there’s plenty more coming your way, including some anniversary extravaganzas reflecting back on the months since release. We are also making strides in developing an in-game photo mode, crossplay, and additional fixes slated to arrive down the line!
Catch up on what’s incoming in Patch 7 and watch a teaser for the enhanced evil endings by reading our last Community Update here: https://larian.club/CU26
For now, we’d like to offer some insight into what the official modding tools mean for Baldur’s Gate 3, and we’ve compiled an FAQ to address some of your burning questions!
Whether you are an experienced modder eager to continue developing for Baldur’s Gate 3, or new to the scene with creative ideas, our new modding pipeline seeks to provide a seamless way for players and creators to access and manage mods across all platforms where Baldur’s Gate 3 is available, featuring enhanced compatibility, tools, and documentation.
Modding involves altering a game’s appearance or behavior. Whether it’s turning fireballs pink, enhancing the damage of a sausage, or arming every Faerûn citizen with a handgun, modding makes it all possible.
With the official Baldur’s Gate 3 modding tools, you will have the capability to add new weapons and armor, craft new classes and subclasses, design potent new spells, customize your game dice skins, and share your mods with the creative community.
Updates to Baldur’s Gate 3 and conflicts between third-party mods can disrupt game stability and hinder mod functionality. Official support aims to improve compatibility and ensure mods work seamlessly on all platforms where Baldur’s Gate 3 is played.
We will not restrict modding outside our official pipeline, but our implementation will ensure smoother experiences, at the cost of certain script-heavy mods, which can still be used outside our system. Thus, you have two choices for modding Baldur’s Gate 3, with official support only provided for mods through mod.io.
Mod.io enables us to extend modding support to all platforms. It provides the necessary infrastructure for downloading mods on both PC and Console, managing uploaded mods, hosting guides, and moderating content to keep the community safe.
We are currently inviting popular mod authors on Steam to explore the Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit, familiarize themselves with the modding environment, and learn the process of converting and uploading their mods, or even creating new ones.
In this early stage, participating mod authors will provide us with direct feedback as we continue internal development and testing, using a live development environment. They will have access to new features as they are developed ahead of a full release.
Initially releasing on PC, we aim to expand support to the wider community and various platforms soon after, including for Mac players, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles.
Due to platform-specific limitations, while players will be able to browse, install, and use player-created mods, the official modding tools will not be available to console players.
PC players will have access to the Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit for mod creation, and an internal curation process will determine which mods become available on consoles.
On PC, mods will undergo general stability and Terms of Service checks before being available in the game’s browser. On consoles, an additional curation process will determine which PC mods get cross-platform support. Although not all PC mods will be available on consoles, we’ll publish guidelines to help you understand what content will meet our checks, without blocking unsupported creative mods on PC. This allows continuous support for modding both within and outside our official pipeline.
Baldur’s Gate 3, as a Dungeons & Dragons licensed game, follows specific guidelines to maintain the integrity of the game’s universe.
While we strive to encourage creative freedom as much as possible, some NSFW mods and certain script-heavy modifications may not be supported through the official pipeline. However, modding outside our pipeline will remain an option.
For cross-platform support, direct level editing and changes to core game elements (like story, cinematics, dialogues, quests, and local gameplay adjustments) cannot be facilitated due to technical constraints and platform-specific guidelines.
We will work with our partners to explore ways to expand modding possibilities within these constraints and provide clear guidelines to help everyone understand what is feasible.
Changes that won’t be officially supported within our pipeline, such as scripting modifications or NSFW mods restricted by platform-specific guidelines, can still be packed locally using mod.io’s toolset and uploaded to other mod distribution platforms.
This means these mods can be manually downloaded, and the game’s browser will still recognize them, allowing you to manage them in the mod load order. However, because they alter unsupported systems, there will not be embedded support for updates and multiplayer session sync. Additionally, we cannot provide full technical support in case of crashes.
We recognize and value the dedication of the modding community and have no plans to limit modding to our official pipeline. We are committed to supporting the modding community comprehensively and look forward to seeing your creations come to life!
We are currently evaluating how much guidance we can offer for unsupported mods. This may include discussing the creation of official scripting API documentation and providing internal testing for the Script Extender and other tools to support compatibility between patches where possible. However, while we can provide guidance, we cannot offer support for mods outside our pipeline.
Beyond critical fixes post-release, we currently lack the technical capacity to provide long-term support while also focusing on future projects.
In addition to game code architecture for managing mods, we will release a subset of our internal development tools as part of the Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit. This will allow you to:
- Access the editor to create your own mods.
- Upload mods directly to mod.io servers.
- Load levels in read-only mode to examine all local entities, their setups, and test your mods in-game during creation.
- Use our internal editors for supported asset types like textures and visual models, allowing you to override them directly in your mod through the developer interface.
- Publish your mod via the editor, where it will be moderated and made visible in the in-game browser, or pack your mod locally to upload to a third-party site.
- Mod UIs through file editing, with provided documentation explaining how our internals are configured to resolve mod loading/compatibility issues.
- Within Baldur’s Gate 3, you will be able to:
- Download and manage your mods directly.
- Manage multiplayer and save game files through a verification UI.
Mod.io offers moderation tools for curating mods for consoles, and provides a hosting and distribution solution for your mods accessible via mod.io or our website. You can also subscribe or unsubscribe from mods using our in-game mod browser.
You will need a mod.io account to manage and create your mods, where you can upload, tag, and add screenshots, descriptions, and more.
If you’d like the full FAQ, visit our Discord at: https://discord.gg/larianstudios
We are thrilled about these developments and look forward to collaborating with mod authors. We can’t wait to see what you create!