Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[chuft]

You don’t have to pretend play them. Just give them melee weapons and normal attack on sight scripts.

Then it's basically the ai scripts playing against itself. Boring.

Nah. Having the fighters (not the entire party) act impetuously is not boring at all. In fact it's quite challenging. It's rather like Fallout 1 or 2, you can't mind control every character all the time. They can drag you into interesting tactical situations.

 

[hell bovine]

You seem to be under impression that I've never played vanilla BG or with fighters on auto-attack. I have. It was neither tactical, nor challenging. I wouldn't replay BG if not for the difficulty enhancing mods.

 

[Cael]

You seem to be under impression that I've never played vanilla BG or with fighters on auto-attack. I have. It was neither tactical, nor challenging. I wouldn't replay BG if not for the difficulty enhancing mods.

One of the reasons why Sulik gets a .223 pistol ASAP. Him constantly charging into combat is irritating as hell.

 

[laclongquan]

Well, imho installing hardest mage options and waiting out their worst spells out of range is weird way to play SCS. My most universal tactics to nuke everything with couple of Acid Fogs and Fire Storms so nobody can cast anything, but it is kinda cheap too.

Well, I like to play tactic, doesnt mean I like to do the macho shit~ And fighting the Liches before gibbing money to the shadows is a bit too macho for my taste.

In. My. Fucking. Opinion.

 

[Kliwer]

Nothing is hard if you keep reloading endlessly. I don't like to do that. I want to be able to win a battle on the first try, and to raise my dead rather than reload if I take losses.

Only almost obligatory reloads with SCS are:
-low-level fights in BG1 (however it is avoidable if you play carefully, ex. using mostly range weapons)
-some encounters in BG2 which are unwinnable if you have not prepared right protection (ex. battle with shadow dragon is impossible without negative plane protection).

All above - max 1 reload if you do not try to blindly overcome encounters above your level. In vanilla BG2 I could slay shadow dragon with a party from the Irenicus dungeon without reloads. Or I could slay silver dragon (in Underdark) without using any spell, potion or scroll - just auto-attacking, so it doesn't seem a good chalange. There are youtube chanels, when you could see iron man chalanges with SCS AND Tactics - so reloding is really not necessarily if you can handle some losses (which means- use resurrection spell) and use basic strategy.

I'm playing now BGT(BG1) with SCS and reduced xp rewards (but with some a bit over-power items from mods) and to this point (almost whole city of Baldur's Gate done, all wilderness cleanded) I had mayby 3 reloads - and only becouse I was stubborn to force trought some enconuters which I should leave for later.

If you play SCS (and do not know the game by heart) it is necessity to scout areas, to preare some consumables, to cast some protective spells in advance (and it is no reason to not protect your wizards by Mage Armor and Stoneskin all the time becouse the duration of those spells is so long)... you know - use tactics, which is main reason to play BG.

Everyone plays as he wants but... "Select all" -> "autoattack" is not an engaging way o playing for me.

 

[Daidre]

Beautiful thing about BG that you'd never know what your current mod mix will bring.

My last drop not so long ago was a Gate district lich who did improved Alacrity + Time Stop combo and started spawning demons in threes. Afrer 9 or so he started spawning different Genies in 3 - packs.
I kinda decided that I am not macho enough to deal with it and nuked game from HDD to rebuild my mod config.

I guess DavidW overstated a bit SCS v32 compability with Spell Revisions.

 

[chuft]

You seem to be under impression that I've never played vanilla BG or with fighters on auto-attack. I have. It was neither tactical, nor challenging. I wouldn't replay BG if not for the difficulty enhancing mods.

One of the reasons why Sulik gets a .223 pistol ASAP. Him constantly charging into combat is irritating as hell.

To control freaks maybe.

When I want to play a strategy game, I play a strategy game, one with random maps and fog of war. If you know exactly what you’re up against, it’s a puzzle. Might be a hard puzzle, but a puzzle nonetheless. Not really a game. The essence of a game is having to react to the unknown.

When I want an adventure with a rich narrative, I play an RPG. Reloading feels like an unwelcome intrusion of mechanics into the story.

SCS seems great for people who like puzzles.

 

[Cael]

You seem to be under impression that I've never played vanilla BG or with fighters on auto-attack. I have. It was neither tactical, nor challenging. I wouldn't replay BG if not for the difficulty enhancing mods.

One of the reasons why Sulik gets a .223 pistol ASAP. Him constantly charging into combat is irritating as hell.

To control freaks maybe.

When I want to play a strategy game, I play a strategy game, one with random maps and fog of war. If you know exactly what you’re up against, it’s a puzzle. Might be a hard puzzle, but a puzzle nonetheless. Not really a game. The essence of a game is having to react to the unknown.

When I want an adventure with a rich narrative, I play an RPG. Reloading feels like an unwelcome intrusion of mechanics into the story.

SCS seems great for people who like puzzles.

If you believe that your NPCs charging into combat and getting shredded is a good thing because it gives you the shits and giggles, well, that is not a roleplayer but a lunatic dickhead.

 

[Kliwer]

Puzzle is something with only one or two solutions. SCS battles have countless ways of solving. It is enough to roleplay a careful adventurer, not almighty son of god who can kill anyone with his farts.

 

[octavius]

my fragile casters like Aerie or Nalia get chunked

Wot, not Stoneskin?

 

[laclongquan]

At that time? Too early in the game thus my casters cant cast it yet I think.

Illusions doesnt help because once it goes out quickly (because too low level), CHUNK~

 

[chuft]

Puzzle is something with only one or two solutions.

Not in gaming, no. Mage Knight is widely considered a very puzzley board game. There are numerous solutions to the situations it presents. The key thing is that you know what you are facing at any moment in time. The game’s job is to set up the challenges for you to solve. The randomness is used to generate new puzzles every game.

I like Mage Knight but I don’t consider it a RPG.

IE games will still have some randomness due to resolution system but if you are never reloading even with SCS then that randomness doesn’t seem very significant.

 

[Bester]

I just had an idea for a mod to fix some of Dragonspear problems.

Make Mizhena a male. He wants to transition, so he gives you a quest to find a gender changing belt.
You bring it to him, he thanks you for it. No "dead name" bullshit, nothing, he's just polite and thankful about it.

Then way way later, in BG2 you find a nameless dead female body - apparently a suicide. On it, you find the belt again.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

With SCS I found, with 2nd level party, that I was having encounters like (on way to Gnoll Stronghold) having ogrillons attack from the front while an invisible ogre mage ran around the back and cast Sleep five times. There is no defense against this except the meta one of having Viconia and having her magic resistance work every time, which it did, but I (as so often was the case with SCS) lost a party member and had to turn around and go back to town for a costly Raise Dead on an evil character.

Tent in Nashkel Carnival similarly had a pre-buffed high level mage who could knock out most or all of the party and summon monsters to butcher us while down.

There is no tactics in having your characters stunned or unconscious by Sleep and Color Spray when they are 1st or 2nd level. It was stupid. Game got much better after uninstall.

What in the Nine-Hells are you doing? Excluding the minor quest (which you don't fight in), I have never once encountered an Ogre Mage in those areas, let alone and invisible ambushing one in the areas adjacent to the Gnoll Stronghold. Some Ogre Berserkers, yes. That's a very different challenge though. Also, heading there are level 2 is a dicey proposition. You're still wet behind the ears at Level 2. Assaulting a literal fortress and all the dangerous along the way isn't wise. The mage at the Nashkel Carnival is not pre-buffed, and he's only Level 6. The only level 3 spell I've ever seen him cast is Protection from Normal Missiles. He's a good fight, but high level, pre-buffed, monster summoner? No.

You've done something fucked up with your installation. Every time you mention difficulty, it sounds like you've got Tactics installed and don't even realize it.

 

[coldcrow]

Spell revisions isn't fully compatible with the Smarter Mages component of SCS, sadly.

 

[chuft]

With SCS I found, with 2nd level party, that I was having encounters like (on way to Gnoll Stronghold) having ogrillons attack from the front while an invisible ogre mage ran around the back and cast Sleep five times. There is no defense against this except the meta one of having Viconia and having her magic resistance work every time, which it did, but I (as so often was the case with SCS) lost a party member and had to turn around and go back to town for a costly Raise Dead on an evil character.

Tent in Nashkel Carnival similarly had a pre-buffed high level mage who could knock out most or all of the party and summon monsters to butcher us while down.

There is no tactics in having your characters stunned or unconscious by Sleep and Color Spray when they are 1st or 2nd level. It was stupid. Game got much better after uninstall.

What in the Nine-Hells are you doing?

In that case, playing with SCS.

Excluding the minor quest (which you don't fight in), I have never once encountered an Ogre Mage in those areas, let alone and invisible ambushing one in the areas adjacent to the Gnoll Stronghold.

Count yourself lucky.

Some Ogre Berserkers, yes. That's a very different challenge though. Also, heading there are level 2 is a dicey proposition. You're still wet behind the ears at Level 2. Assaulting a literal fortress and all the dangerous along the way isn't wise.

Going there as soon as you get to Nashkel and pick up Edwin or Minsc is pretty standard since it’s a timed quest for both.

The mage at the Nashkel Carnival is not pre-buffed, and he's only Level 6. The only level 3 spell I've ever seen him cast is Protection from Normal Missiles. He's a good fight, but high level, pre-buffed, monster summoner? No.

Allow me to quote the author of SCS:

“That Nashkel tent encounter is one of the harder ones in the game.”

https://www.gibberlings3.net/forums...-curve-problem/?do=findComment&comment=271607

And yes, in SCS the mage will be pre-buffed and will summon monsters.

You've done something fucked up with your installation. Every time you mention difficulty, it sounds like you've got Tactics installed and don't even realize it.

What is it with the disbelievers around here?

I mentioned this in the SCS difficulty thread on G3. I was proven right. See

https://www.gibberlings3.net/forums...-curve-problem/?do=findComment&comment=271730

Encounters are picked based on time of day at starting travel time and encounter time. The files show ogre mages for this area. SCS raises their levels. You are wrong.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Something hilarious happened just now. I cast insects at the enemy mage to disable his spellcasting. The exact moment my spell started working he casts time stop. He didn't get to cast a single spell during his time stop, cause he was getting constantly bitten by bugs

 

[Curratum]

Something hilarious happened just now. I cast insects at the enemy mage to disable his spellcasting. The exact moment my spell started working he casts time stop. He didn't get to cast a single spell during his time stop, cause he was getting constantly bitten by bugs

You should tell that story to all the turn-based autists on here.

 

[Harry Easter]

Just finished Throne of Bhaal. Took me almost another 20 hours, which is a good time, considering how small the Addon is.

Thoughts:

- Watchers Keep is good shit. I still have to play Durlags Tower, but the Keep is not too short, not too long, you do always something different on every level and there's a good build-up to the final boss. That said: he's bullshit. The whole monsterspamming is annoying enough.

- Speaking of bullshit, characters that got on my list too: Draconis and Amelyssan in the second encounter.

- The twist with Amelyssan is useless. Just a twist for a twist. We should have just fought Bhaal and he should have appeared more in the addon. The whole series was build-up for this fight and sometimes you have to follow up on the stuff you used.

- The five were a cool idea on paper, but at least two of them (Sendai and Abazigal) don't make sense. But they could've been just followers of Bhaal or something like that?

- That said: the stuff with Yaga-Shura and Balthasar is great. Makes me sad that they got cut so early.

- What doesn't make me sad is Rasaads final fate. Dear god, it is an artform to stay so annoying over the course of the series. His final quest was again fun, but I really wish it would've been him and not Keldorn that got turned into a floating piece of meat. It would've fit his personality more. It's weird: Beamdog can create quests, but this guy is like that one emo-character you create with fifteen and be ashamed for the rest of your life. In this case, somebody still thought of him as somebody tragic. No, he isn't. You do something wrong, when I think "man, he has the emoest backstory ever" instead of "ooh, poor... guy I traveled with and I feel somehow connected."

- You can really see, that they had bogger ambitions with this addon, after all the backstory Yaga-Shura gets. That said, I think this works as the best game, to really make it about the player and which fate he will choose.

- I think, I finished the game so fast, because there was no chance to redeem Sarevok. Is there a timecounter, when he will start to speak with me?

All in all, it's nice to habe played it again, but most of it was kinda wasted potential, while still delivering a good conclusion on my characters story. So win-win, I guess?

 

[Cael]

Just finished Throne of Bhaal. Took me almost another 20 hours, which is a good time, considering how small the Addon is.

Thoughts:

- Watchers Keep is good shit. I still have to play Durlags Tower, but the Keep is not too short, not too long, you do always something different on every level and there's a good build-up to the final boss. That said: he's bullshit. The whole monsterspamming is annoying enough.

- Speaking of bullshit, characters that got on my list too: Draconis and Amelyssan in the second encounter.

- The twist with Amelyssan is useless. Just a twist for a twist. We should have just fought Bhaal and he should have appeared more in the addon. The whole series was build-up for this fight and sometimes you have to follow up on the stuff you used.

- The five were a cool idea on paper, but at least two of them (Sendai and Abazigal) don't make sense. But they could've been just followers of Bhaal or something like that?

- That said: the stuff with Yaga-Shura and Balthasar is great. Makes me sad that they got cut so early.

- What doesn't make me sad is Rasaads final fate. Dear god, it is an artform to stay so annoying over the course of the series. His final quest was again fun, but I really wish it would've been him and not Keldorn that got turned into a floating piece of meat. It would've fit his personality more. It's weird: Beamdog can create quests, but this guy is like that one emo-character you create with fifteen and be ashamed for the rest of your life. In this case, somebody still thought of him as somebody tragic. No, he isn't. You do something wrong, when I think "man, he has the emoest backstory ever" instead of "ooh, poor... guy I traveled with and I feel somehow connected."

- You can really see, that they had bogger ambitions with this addon, after all the backstory Yaga-Shura gets. That said, I think this works as the best game, to really make it about the player and which fate he will choose.

- I think, I finished the game so fast, because there was no chance to redeem Sarevok. Is there a timecounter, when he will start to speak with me?

All in all, it's nice to habe played it again, but most of it was kinda wasted potential, while still delivering a good conclusion on my characters story. So win-win, I guess?

Sarevok's conversation is random, IIRC.

None of the cuckdog NPCs are really any good, except Baelorn, but he is more of a joke character than a real one. Oh, and Wilson, but that is probably because he doesn't talk. Cuckdog should really be renamed emodog.

 

[hell bovine]

- I think, I finished the game so fast, because there was no chance to redeem Sarevok. Is there a timecounter, when he will start to speak with me?

You can trigger conversations with ctrl + I, if you have cheats enabled. There is also the Ascension mod, which ties Sarevok's and Imoen's dialogues to event timers instead. Fair warning, the final Ascension battle (even moreso with SCS installed) makes Draconis look like a llittle puppy.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

What doesn't make me sad is Rasaads final fate. Dear god, it is an artform to stay so annoying over the course of the series. His final quest was again fun, but I really wish it would've been him and not Keldorn that got turned into a floating piece of meat.

That's what I wish (and actually do with ctrl+Y for venting, before reloading) for the super annoying Saemon Havarian.

 

[Daidre]

I do not know what mod (or EE feature) did it to me, but even ctrl + Y is powerless against new NPC. I tried to nuke Hexxat in Copper coronet, but she does not die even after 3k of damage.

Now I need to level my mage and eat her brains

 

[Cael]

What doesn't make me sad is Rasaads final fate. Dear god, it is an artform to stay so annoying over the course of the series. His final quest was again fun, but I really wish it would've been him and not Keldorn that got turned into a floating piece of meat.

That's what I wish (and actually do with ctrl+Y for venting, before reloading) for the super annoying Saemon Havarian.

I guess exploding Rasaad in Nashkel via Phoenix Guards was the right thing to do... :D

 

[Jvegi]

I do not know what mod (or EE feature) did it to me, but even ctrl + Y is powerless against new NPC. I tried to nuke Hexxat in Copper coronet, but she does not dies even after 3k of damage.

Now I need to level my mage and eat her brains

It might be because new NPCs were patched to be unkillable so they couldn't die in their introductory cutscenes. Brat Witch bugged on me in EE1 and wouldn't die when already in my party so I had to give her GateKeeper treatment.