Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[Anomander Rake]

Did you twist my words on purpose? This is the last time I will post about this subject because it seems that rationality is hard to find here.

<the spellbooks of mages vary greatly even at lower levels>

Are you serious? Please tell me you are actually trolling me. You've done it.
In Baldur's gate 1 everything works. How would a rationale mind talk about low level baldur's gate? Everything works at that point! you could cast sleep, charm, magic missile, larlock missile, the chromatic orb. No one would give a fuck because in baldur's gate 1 you can use whatever you want. In fact, take a look at the tactical component for the amazons party that is supposed to ambush you right after exiting the nashkel mines from the second entrance. They were changed to make them immune to sleep. What it was done was to actually remove an option for the player to survive the encounter..

Let's continue..
<Here's the memorized spells of the four conjurers(that is, the same exact kit) which are low level(level 3,4,5,6) in Spider Wood just to prove it>

Opening Nearinfinity to show these proves nothing. This misses the point on so many levels. Which points?
1) Low level mages - variety here doesn't harm the mod functionality
2) Party of mages (SCS author touched these to make them work together, it would be silly to have them casting the same things)

If I was you I would have compared the two druid following the "important" npc in cloakwood areas. But single cases would still prove nothing.



REGARDSSSSSSSSSSSSS

 

[Lacrymas]

What are you even talking about? SCS is a very good mod, probably one-of-a-kind, and one of the reasons BG is still popular. You can tweak it however you wish and I've seen mages use different spells, not only cast the same things over and over. Yes, they'll prioritize better spells, that's what the mod is supposed to do, but as the mod author himself said, he purposefully made them choose different spells sometimes so as to keep the variety. The usefulness of spells in the IE games has been a long talked about topic and it's well-known that some spells are infinitely better than others.

 

[Ramnozack]

What are you even talking about? SCS is a very good mod, probably one-of-a-kind, and one of the reasons BG is still popular. You can tweak it however you wish and I've seen mages use different spells, not only cast the same things over and over. Yes, they'll prioritize better spells, that's what the mod is supposed to do, but as the mod author himself said, he purposefully made them choose different spells sometimes so as to keep the variety. The usefulness of spells in the IE games has been a long talked about topic and it's well-known that some spells are infinitely better than others.

Lilura didn't think SCS was a good mod...

RIP Dragon Lady.

 

[Lacrymas]

I believe she means that in relation only to BG1 and due to the fact that it needs the BG2 engine to work, which adds a lot of overpowered shit that trivializes most of the content, and she's right about that. You can solo SCS as a Barbarian for instance (and it's quite simple I might add), but I'm pretty sure you can't solo original BG1 as a Fighter, or at least not as easily.

 

[smaug]

I played a bit of the original BG about an hour and a half. SCS has made things a lot more interesting as enemies use potions and different spells orders. Liking it A LOT more.

 

[JDR13]

I feel SCS works great in BG1 to add more encounters. In BG2 it felt off and oversaturated.
I found the added ambush encounters often tough, such as the Ogre-Magi.

So SCS also adds encounters that weren't there to begin with? Is that one of the things that's optional?

 

[Xeon]

It just changes the ambushes of the assassins that are coming after you, instead of them waiting for you at specific locations, they drop on you during travels. Pretty sure its optional from one of the tactical challenges options.

Improved Deployment for Parties of Assassins

Two groups of assassins (one made up mostly of dwarves and gnomes, one made up entirely of amazons) hang out in the vicinity of Gullykin. This component removes them from there and makes them proactively hunt the party down instead - they'll show up at random times in chapter 3 once the main character hits third level.

As of version 24, the assassins spawn in the usual random-encounter areas on TUTU and BGEE games, and on BGT games with BGSpawns or BGT-Tweaks spawns. (The old behaviour is fun, but a repeated source of bug reports!) If you want to hold on to the old version, you can force it via the ini file.

Relocated bounty hunters

In the original game, a tough group of bounty hunters are waiting pointlessly in a locked building in the Docks, with no explanation as to why. This small component moves them to somewhere more interesting

 

[hell bovine]

I believe she means that in relation only to BG1 and due to the fact that it needs the BG2 engine to work, which adds a lot of overpowered shit that trivializes most of the content, and she's right about that. You can solo SCS as a Barbarian for instance (and it's quite simple I might add), but I'm pretty sure you can't solo original BG1 as a Fighter, or at least not as easily.

Why not? There are enough potions, green scrolls & magical items to cheese through the unmodded game even without access to wands.

 

[Lacrymas]

Ah, I forgot you could use green scrolls as any class, yeah, it isn't impossible, just not as easy as a Berserker for instance.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm enjoying Siege of Dragonspear so far

 

[rusty_shackleford]

It just changes the ambushes of the assassins that are coming after you, instead of them waiting for you at specific locations, they drop on you during travels. Pretty sure its optional from one of the tactical challenges options.

Improved Deployment for Parties of Assassins

Two groups of assassins (one made up mostly of dwarves and gnomes, one made up entirely of amazons) hang out in the vicinity of Gullykin. This component removes them from there and makes them proactively hunt the party down instead - they'll show up at random times in chapter 3 once the main character hits third level.

As of version 24, the assassins spawn in the usual random-encounter areas on TUTU and BGEE games, and on BGT games with BGSpawns or BGT-Tweaks spawns. (The old behaviour is fun, but a repeated source of bug reports!) If you want to hold on to the old version, you can force it via the ini file.

Relocated bounty hunters

In the original game, a tough group of bounty hunters are waiting pointlessly in a locked building in the Docks, with no explanation as to why. This small component moves them to somewhere more interesting

I got ambushed during the bandits camp fight

 

[Yosharian]

I'm enjoying Siege of Dragonspear so far

Thank you for sharing your story with me. I have another question for you.

 

[smaug]

I have a bunch of necklaces, some potions and a wand of lightning. I can’t sell this stuff to merchants? Can it only be sold to different types of merchants?

 

[Cael]

I have a bunch of necklaces, some potions and a wand of lightning. I can’t sell this stuff to merchants? Can it only be sold to different types of merchants?

Certain merchants only take certain things. You can't sell necklaces to potion merchants, for example. Look around. You will find some who will take them.

 

[laclongquan]

Or they wont take stolen goods unless they are fences.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Siege of Dragonspear quest involving Khalid

Spoiler

He wants to make a present for Jaheira and says "We need to take the time to show our affection when we can, none of us will live forever."

 

[Yosharian]

Spoiler

He wants to make a present for Jaheira and says "We need t-t-to take the t-t-time to show our affection when we c-c-can, none of us will live f-f-forever."

 

[Lacrymas]

I guess it's going to turn out exactly like I said, that SoD is fine and playable.

 

[smaug]

I guess it's going to turn out exactly like I said, that SoD is fine and playable.

Is SoD redeemable in anyway? I mean it’s $15.

 

[Lacrymas]

Don't buy it for 15$ and it's redeemable, yes.

 

[smaug]

Don't buy it for 15$ and it's redeemable, yes.

Why is It redeemable? Sell me on it.

 

[Lacrymas]

Why is It redeemable? Sell me on it.

So, I killed the last boss yesterday. Since I'm playing on Insane it truly was insane in a good way. Overall SoD is not bad and the story makes more sense than PoE's. That said, there's zero character drama, the characters make theatrically grand proclamations without having earned them and make little sense in context. It's absolutely disconnected from either BG1 or 2 in both tone and storyline. I actually struggle with finding the words to describe it because it's kinda ...nothing. It's basically one big mess with no coherent structure or idea. There are many little ideas that are strewn about and some of them are fun, but they don't gel well and don't amount to anything. Conflicts are resolved almost as fast as they pop up and are swiftly forgotten. Even big decisions like what to do with Bridgefort are swept under the rug and don't come up at all even at the end titular "siege". The siege itself can be resolved very fast if your main character is good at fighting and not dying from continual fire at the same time. I'm not gonna spoil anything because it's a new game, but there's nothing really TO spoil. The characters, their motivations and their actions are clear and obvious the moment they open their mouths. There's only one character who I thought would do something specific, but they didn't and it was even lamer for it. There's some class-based reactivity, it's token, but it's there.

Companions are very one-dimensional. I was running with Edwin, Viconia, Dorn, Baeloth and Corwin (with the Helm of Opposite Alignment). There's really nothing to say about Viconia, Edwin and Dorn, they are one-dimensional to a fault and just go through the motions. There was some jarring OOC talk from Viconia at two points, but that doesn't make her an interesting character. There's a lot of OOC talk in general and I found it in bad taste. Behind all his theatricalities Baeloth sometimes shows himself to be a petty sadist and he's creepy for it, if they had more writing talent he would've been a good character. I told Corwin to shut up about her personal life in the very beginning, but Lilura says she's the second best written character after M'khiin. Speaking of M'khiin, a LOT of the items in the game are tailored for her. She can pretty much be totally equipped with items either specifically made for her or for shamans in general. I was jealous lol.

There were some good encounters and some good itemization, but I thought that some items are too specific in their usage. Like an amulet that gives perma-Bless, but also + 1 Wisdom to ONLY Shapeshifters (the druid kit). There are many such items that are better for specific kits, as opposed to whole classes and, as a druid, I found 1 item for me and it was that amulet (while I'm not a shapeshifter). There are some well-made encounters, but generally it was pretty cheap on Insane. The game throws massive numbers of enemies at you on that difficulty and that's why the tactic of rounding up everything and bombarding them with Fireballs is so effective. They like to throw in a bunch of spellcasters as well and you are bound to fail a saving throw every. single. time. if you don't have immunities and sometimes it got frustrating. I wouldn't play it on a lower difficulty, though. The AI isn't stupid either and it will fuck you up even without big numbers. What more can I say? All in all it's a popcorn game, not a bad way to spend some time, but it won't blow your mind, quite the contrary, if you think too much about it it soils itself. If you want some more IE combat and want to start BG2 with a little bit more experience go for it.

Good things about SoD - most of the dungeons; itemization; the goblin is fun and a unique companion in the BG saga; some good fights (the end fight is brutal on the highest difficulty); a little bit of race/class reactivity; multiple solutions to most major quests; varied random encounters. This comes with the usual IE combat. The biggest flaw is the writing, obviously, but here's the difference - it isn't as bad as the other games I mentioned, and luckily they didn't try to shove in allegories to the immigrant 'crisis' and how immigrants are great.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I think the difficulty for SoD was heavily inspired by SCS btw. So far I'd rank it comparable to Whitemarch part 1 & 2 tbh.
If they got their hands on some competent writers they'd probably make a pretty solid game.

 

[Chippy]

I wont derail the thread going into the SOD controversy, but one comment that always stood out for me (when Trent Oster was talking about it) was when he said: "If someone hijacked your game and inserted their own agenda, something not approved by the company, you’ve got to figure out what to do from an internal management perspective." Source:https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/52379/trent-osters-interview-about-dragonspear-controversies

I suppose if taken in context with the rest of what he was saying, it wasn't very specific. Maybe he was trying to appease Codexians? Surely? But in any case it that sentance raised my eyebrows slightly.

Edit Lacrymas Lilura said Corwin was the second best written character? Jesus.

 

[Lacrymas]

The controversy is artificial anyway, it's ideologically-based and nothing else. Is the writing cringe? Yes, but that's hardly a reason to denigrate the whole game and give it the lowest possible scores.

As for Lilura, yeah, here's her opinion about that, it's in the companion breakdown section - https://lilura1.blogspot.com/2016/04/Siege-of-Dragonspear-Walkthrough-Part-IV.html