Baldur’s Gate 3 modding has arrived for PC players. After a closed alpha in June and an open beta in July, the long-awaited Patch 7 — which may be the game’s last big update — is now available. It lets you play around with user-created weapons, armor, classes and subclasses, spells, dice skins and just about anything else you can imagine.
Mods are available through an official (mod.io-powered) in-game Mod Manager and external channels. “We will never prevent modding outside of our own official pipeline,” Larian Studios wrote. But the developer says its officially approved mods are targeted for stability and cross-platform compatibility. “It’ll also ensure a smoother experience, at the cost of more script-focused modding, which can still be done outside of our pipeline,” the studio wrote.
Larian said earlier this summer that Baldur’s Gate 3 mod support would arrive on PC first, with Mac and console support “shortly after.” But the developer clarified in an update today that console (PS5 and Xbox Series X/S) and macOS players can expect Patch 7 in October.
That presents some short-term compatibility issues. If you want your game save files to work across PC and console, you’ll need to hold off on installing Patch 7 on your PC. However, cross-platform save compatibility will return in October when the update lands on PlayStation, Xbox and Apple devices.
Larian says Patch 7 in Baldur’s Gate 3’s console versions will include “an additional curation process” to determine which mods will be available across platforms. “While not all PC mods will become available for console, we’ll be sure to publish guidelines to help you understand what kind of content will pass our necessary checks — without blocking any unsupported creative mods on PC — so that we can continue supporting the modding community both inside and outside our official pipeline,” the studio wrote.
Mod support isn’t just a fun bonus for gamers; it’s also a way for Larian to keep the game alive as it pivots resources to new projects. CEO Swen Vincke said in June that opening the gates to modding would allow the developer “to say ‘ok, now it’s yours fully,’” according to Eurogamer. Of course, the studio will still push updates for critical bug fixes, but today’s arrival of Patch 7 is likely the first stage of calling it a wrap on one of 2023’s best games.
If you want to roll up your sleeves and dive into Baldur’s Gate 3 mods, Larian has created a series of handy tutorials for modding guidelines, getting started with mods, creating mods and browsing others’ creations.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/you-can-now-officially-create-and-use-baldurs-gate-3-mods-on-pc-210006703.html?src=rss
