There is another nice one with a single basilisk that spawns bit to a side of random map and petrifies MC before you can oops.
Should it also be removed?
I never DMed anything in my life since PnP was never a thing in my region, but as practice shows, in CRPG, even if you put the same non-random 10 archers in low-lvl D&D encounter and shower players with perception checks and hints to sneak around or find another way, some will still try to face-tank them and leave "this is bad design" review.
In BG it means reload in the case of bad luck. Lots of reloads if you made 1HP wizard. But 14HP fighter with heavy shield is also an option and would shrug off most of the attack rolls.
PS This critique is not aimed at you personally, I just have seen it too often regarding P:K and it rubs me the wrong way.
I didn't know Beamdog added random encounters to BG1.
This supposedly happened at level 1. They sure "fixed" the game
I just finished BG:EE and that sure didn't happen to me. And had it happened, I could have probably just reloaded to avoid it.
My two cents re the discussion: BG2 is the only Bioware game with good encounter design and a refreshing lack of trash mobs. It's actually quite amazing how consistently good everything is in this area. BG1, on the other hand, is one of the most painfully tedious experiences I've had gaming wise in the last few years. 95% of the fights are against the same bandits, goblins, gibberlings, gooblydoinks and gibbelydicks. It fucking sucks.
Everything about it is so easy that I actually wish something like the above had happened.
Retardex logic:
Trash mobs in Bioware games: "bad ! this game is a chore to play"
Trash mobs in M&M 6,Wizardry 8 and Icewind Dale: "Good ! don't you like combat ? then go read a book !"
Retardex logic:
Trash mobs in Bioware games: "bad ! this game is a chore to play"
Trash mobs in M&M 6,Wizardry 8 and Icewind Dale: "Good ! don't you like combat ? then go read a book !"
BG invented the mage duel
the difference is M&M6 (and 7 and 8) have fast resolution combat, moreover the combat is actually fun, it's a fantasy party based TB doom where you shoot things with arrows and spells and eventually hack them into pieces with your sword, by the time you clean a map (exterior) in M&M 6 you did two tedious trash mobs fights in Boringness Gate.
As for the other ones, the difference is M&M6 (and 7 and 8) have fast resolution combat, moreover the combat is actually fun, it's a fantasy party based TB doom where you shoot things with arrows and spells and eventually hack them into pieces with your sword, by the time you clean a map (exterior) in M&M 6 you did two tedious trash mobs fights in Boringness Gate.
As for Wizardry 8, there's probably too much fights involved but it's masterfully designed and you can avoid a lot of fights anyway with chameleon, teleport gates and portal.
I think every playthrough of every IE game after my very first BG1 run has been with no companion AI except for thief auto trap detection. I still feel that trash mobs in those games are quick but I also build my parties with an overwhelming martial focus with Flail of Ages +4, Crom Freyr, Belm, etc. and never really mess around with spellcasting unless it's a boss-like encounter. I even consider all the Beholder fights in BG2 to be trash mobs because I just have my main character and Jaheira with Chaotic Commands + Shield of Balduran tear through them with auto attacks while everyone else hides in a different room.
BG1 has ultra fast combat vs trash mobs with party AI turned on.
And you can avoid most of the trash combat by using stealth or invisibility to scout the map, and then rather concentrate on the good encounters, like the adventurer parties that virtually no other CRPGs use.
Lilura - was just perusing your blog post on comparing the best dual and multiclasses in BG and was curious of something similar existed for comparing the encounter design among the games your blog focuses on - BG/BG2, IW, TOEE, etc.
I think every playthrough of every IE game after my very first BG1 run has been with no companion AI except for thief auto trap detection. I still feel that trash mobs in those games are quick but I also build my parties with an overwhelming martial focus with Flail of Ages +4, Crom Freyr, Belm, etc. and never really mess around with spellcasting unless it's a boss-like encounter.
BG1 has ultra fast combat vs trash mobs with party AI turned on.
And you can avoid most of the trash combat by using stealth or invisibility to scout the map, and then rather concentrate on the good encounters, like the adventurer parties that virtually no other CRPGs use.
I even consider all the Beholder fights in BG2 to be trash mobs because I just have my main character and Jaheira with Chaotic Commands + Shield of Balduran tear through them with auto attacks while everyone else hides in a different room.
IWD has the best combat encounter design of the IE games, by far. Sustained horde-based encounter design is the best.
I keep flip flopping in between whether I prefer BG1 or BG2, but I do have to admit that overall BG2 has a much higher density of interesting content. That being said, I do enjoy having those wilderness areas in BG1 to serve as a contrast for when you get to the city proper and get to experience what feels like almost completely different games within a single playthrough. In BG2, it feels like a consistent barrage of NPCs and quests from beginning to end which isn't bad but it does kind of overload my senses while playing. It would have been nice to have some emptier spaces to explore and stumble through to balance it out.It's not even about combat speed, it's just that BG1's encounters are largely boring, the wilderness areas you get to explore are largely empty and the few encounters you find there are pretty generic or have little of interest to them. You can meet NPCs who say two or three sentences to you and then leave, and all you think is... that's it? The few side dungeons there are are usually terribly narrow so pathfinding becomes a pain. The setting is probably the blandest depiction of Forgotten Realms we ever got, BG1 just feels incredibly mundane throughout.
BG1 is one of Bioware's weaker games. BG2 is their best and the only one that can be called great.
True to the first point, but I guess I was commenting more on my distate of the party AI taking away from my autonomy moreso than the speed at which the trash mobs can be mowed down.Sure, but who said you need spell casting for mopping up trash mobs with Party AI on?
Shield of Balduran is something you use only for baby's first playthrough; it's so lame and cheesy. Try with SCS installed.
seriously ?
Yes, I like hordes. Big tough hordes of yuan-ti, trolls and giants.
It's not even about combat speed, it's just that BG1's encounters are largely boring, the wilderness areas you get to explore are largely empty and the few encounters you find there are pretty generic or have little of interest to them. You can meet NPCs who say two or three sentences to you and then leave, and all you think is... that's it? The few side dungeons there are are usually terribly narrow so pathfinding becomes a pain. The setting is probably the blandest depiction of Forgotten Realms we ever got, BG1 just feels incredibly mundane throughout.
BG1 is one of Bioware's weaker games. BG2 is their best and the only one that can be called great.