Baldur’s Gate 3 players are asking the developers for a preview option when using clothing dye, as they’re resorting to savescumming to see what items look like before committing to a choice. After all, this is a fantasy game, and you don’t want to save the world in mismatched colors.
RPG fans constantly face the issue of practicality versus cosmetic appeal. This isn’t a problem in tabletop RPGs, as you can imagine what your gear looks like, but in a video game, you sometimes have to dress like a clown if you want to use the best equipment. Some developers include Transmog features in their games, where you can change an item’s appearance while keeping its functionality, allowing you to have the best of both worlds.
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Baldur’s Gate 3 Players Want A Dye Preview Option
The closest thing that Baldur’s Gate 3 has to Transmog is the ability to purchase dyes, which can be used to alter the color of items. Unfortunately, you don’t see the changed item’s appearance beforehand. A new thread on the official Baldur’s Gate 3 Reddit page asks the developers to include a preview option, so you can see what the item looks like, as the only option is to reload a save or buy a new dye if you don’t like the change.
The lack of dye previews is an issue because you only find a finite number of them in shops and spread throughout the game world. The shops don’t stack every kind of dye, so if you only have one of a certain color, you might have to savescum to ensure that it goes to the correct character & garment. This can be especially annoying for people on slower computers, as Baldur’s Gate 3 can have long load times, even when running on an SSD.
One unofficial solution brought up in the thread is a mod that prevents dye from being consumed, allowing you to purchase one of every option so that you can try them all out at your leisure. As always, download and use a mod at your own risk, as they can potentially cause issues, especially in a game as big and complicated as Baldur’s Gate 3.
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It’s clear that Baldur’s Gate 3 still needs a lot of work in the bug-fixing department, especially as Hotfixes are causing issues with the game. A dye preview option might be low on the list of priorities, but it’s something that the devs should consider adding to the game to save players a lot of tedious loading.
