Hack the planet, warlock fans. A modder has unlocked some previously disabled capabilities in Baldur's Gate 3's official modding toolkit, allowing people to create their own levels or modify the game's existing environments. According to developers Larian, the toolkit (which launched last week) previously didn't allow you to do any of these things due to “technical limitations and platform-specific guidelines.” But the modders don't seem to care, nor do they comply. It took them just two days to infiltrate the devkit's innards and make the impossible possible.
To give you some context, last week the developers released a big patch that added a bunch of new endings to the fantasy RPG. But that patch also included official mod support and a modding toolkit. It was made available to help the usual perverts continue working on new hairstyles, custom weapons, and, uh, “other” stuff. The kit is essentially a watered-down version of what Larian would use at the studio, with some of the more powerful features disabled. For example, you could view the game's levels in “read-only” mode, but you couldn't modify those environments or create your own levels. That's until enterprising modder Siegre slipped an unlockable into the devkit and made everything possible.
BG3 Toolkit Unlocked is available (at least at the time of writing) from Nexus Mods, and it has a simple description: “This mod unlocks all disabled features and enables write permissions for BG3 Toolkit. Including level editing, save editing, and more.” As a demonstration, some accompanying images show a level filled with random environmental bits like dilapidated pillars, bell towers, and glowing webs of flesh. Mmmmmm, game development.
It's not 100% clear why Larian didn't include these features in the toolset initially, but it could be a case of preventing certain copyrighted assets from being easily removed from the game or modified in a way that wouldn't please DnD's intellectual property overlords. “As a Dungeons & Dragons game licensed by our partners, Baldur's Gate 3 has specific guidelines to ensure the integrity of the game's universe,” they said in last week's patch notes, hinting that the restrictions on the modding kit went beyond the studio's control.
They also may not have wanted to clutter the official mod library with mods that would cause technical and certification issues on consoles. For example, even if the studio doesn't care if PC players continue to do that kind of thing on Nexus Mods and the like, they still need to be wary of issues with the official in-game mod launcher. “Some NSFW mods and certain script-heavy modifications may not be supported through the official pipeline,” they said, “modding outside of our pipeline will still be an option.”
And what a choice. The moral of this story is that there's always someone willing to take a big bolt cutter to the words “read-only.” It'll be interesting to see what modders can create with the now fully unlocked toolset. The studio's previous game, Divinity Original Sin 2, allowed modders to create their own full campaigns using a huge library of assets from the game. The possibility of the same in Baldur's Gate 3 – no matter how technically challenging – could lead to some impressive creations filled with even more dungeons and/or dragons.