Baldur's Gate #BaldurGate: Siege of Dragonspear

[Infinitron]

Gregory A. Wilson interviews Trent & Phil: paraphrased extracts
Source: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussi...ith-trent-and-phillip-on-thursday-april-21/p1

 

[Rivmusique]

- you can't double-click a spell to assign it in the new list-based mage book and priest scroll (it should let you)

A single click on the icon rather than the name works for me (if you're referring to what I think, assigning known spells to the "memorised" section).

- zoom out is a lil' buggy and doesn't let you scroll at its extreme -> you have to mouse-wheel back in somewhat, if you want to continue scrolling.

There's a zoom lock option for anyone that doesn't like fiddling with it. Background is a little blurry, but I prefer it on.

- IWD2 style quick weapon switching (i.e, now you can have bow AND sword n board equipped)

Best new feature.

can be disabled

Indeed. I turned almost everything off (left sprite outlines and mouseovered character highlight on, first looked alright to me and second is useful), it's neat that they gave you a choice. Wish they left an option for the old journal, I don't like the new one at all. Same with the main gamescreen UI. Also, some of the new menu text sits awkwardly in its section, looks a little shit.

I like the new map screen well enough, but I think there should be a button to bring that "walkable area" overlay up, as the map looks quite good when it's off but it's too useful to leave off and sliding the mouse over to check/un-check constantly is a pain. Perhaps just the tab button (fingers always over it anyway).

 

[Lilura]

A single click on the icon rather than the name works for me (if you're referring to what I think, assigning known spells to the "memorised" section).

Oh shit, you can too. Thanks for that. Maybe the icons should have a border to indicate their function...

There's a zoom lock option for anyone that doesn't like fiddling with it. Background is a little blurry, but I prefer it on.

Yeah, I need it off for pic-taking purposes. The zoom in and out from map mode to playing field is an e.g of style over efficiency, too.

Btw, the changes to inventory/charsheet modes took me just a few hours to get used to, which was ok (like many on the Codex, I've been playing the IE RPGs since their inception).

 

[Dreaad]

I love the codex.

No where else could you get a discussion on IE games strategy that devolves into insult hurling.

 

[Infinitron]

Now on Youtube:

 

[Metal Hurlant]

You are potion quaffing and rest-spamming healbots to keep your fighters afloat, fuckstick. How many castings of Mirror Image do Edwin and Baeloth get before they have to rest?

As I pointed out, non-mundanes attain ACs of about -20; mundanes only -10 or so (vanilla OC).

Read my walkthrough and lrnsmth, you fuckstick.

You really are a shit stain on the toilet bowl of humanity. I'm not rest spamming heal bots at all. Nice assumption there. The only person that's rest spamming is you to get all your spells back from tanking with your mages. What a joke. Keep tanking those goblins. And what the fuck is that mess you call a walkthrough. Jesus Christ what a fucking mess your site is. It's no surprise at all coming from someone like you who has no fucking idea. It's all clear now and it's you who should read some walkthroughs to not only learn how to play but also learn some strategies. And maybe get some ideas on how to format a walkthrough.

I'll let you have the last say. You obviously want to. I can only hope someone slaps a cow's cunt on your head and some bull comes along and fucks some sense into you.

 

[Infinitron]

Trent sure does like namedropping James Ohlen. The man who taught him everything he knows. He's kind of a power gaming grognard. Mow down mobs with autoattacks until you meet somebody who mows you down, then reload a saved game, prebuff and blast away.

Philip Daigle seems to not really like romances, and is a fan of Arcanum and ToEE. Codex should like this guy! He says they investigated the possibility of doing a procedurally generated IE roguelike, but the engine couldn't support it.

 

[Delterius]

So how do you get your spells back when you've been tanking goblins with your Mage idiot? Yeah, that's a good strategy. If you're tanking with your Mage with defensive spells, you're the one that's going to be rest spamming to get those spells back. Not me with my fighters. As Lhynn pointed out, Fighters are good tanks as well depending on the situation.

You favour longer lasting spells, such as Stoneskin and Armor but also avoiding damage by not standing still. Mirror Image is a multiplier for Stoneskin, which sometimes protects the Mage even from multiple salvos of Arrows. There's also Protection from Missiles and Weapons. Plus, the Sorcerer's spontaneous spellcasting is amazing for this, given how many times you can cast Stoneskin while still leaving some points left for Greater Malisons and such, should you need it.

The Mage doesn't have to be a substitute for the Fighter, but if you play a no-rest run its good to make use of every resource at your disposal.

 

[DeepOcean]

The esoteric art of tanking by DeepOcean:

1- Tanking? WTF is this shit? Cast haste on your party and have everybody with fire arrows.
2- The trash mobs won't know what hit them.

 

[Excidium II]

Philip Daigle seems to not really like romances, and is a fan of Arcanum and ToEE. Codex should like this guy!

He's from SA, isn't he? We can't be friends.

 

[Lilura]

Just for reference, equipped as he is with Evermemory, Amplifier and Burden, my Baeloth, at the time of recruitment, boasts of fourteen first circle slots (Armor, Shield), seven second circle slots (Mirror Image, Blur) and five fourth circle slots (Spirit Armor & Stoneskin).

Edwin isn't far behind, and has access to an extended tanking repertoire.

And my Siege of Dragonspear Walkthrough is the bestest EVAH! ..fuckstick

 

[Theldaran]

Mow down mobs with autoattacks until you meet somebody who mows you down, then reload a saved game, prebuff and blast away.

That's just beginner tier, and to get the items that enable you to do that (such as fantastic magic swords, sets of magic arrows and powerful sets of armor) you've got to suffer quite a little beforehand.

Apparently the secret stuff such as hidden Ankheg Plate in Nashkell wasn't enough to get overpowered, they added the Story Mode too.

 

[Lilura]

The esoteric art of tanking by DeepOcean:

1- Tanking? WTF is this shit? Cast haste on your party and have everybody with fire arrows.
2- The trash mobs won't know what hit them.

24 collective ApR firing 6d6 detonations... MAYJA OVARKEEL.

 

[Lhynn]

And my Siege of Dragonspear Walkthrough is the bestest EVAH! ..fuckstick

I take it this means beamdog shat the the bed and ruined their reputations after actually making a good game?

 

[Lilura]

Maybe in your eyes... but yeah, my treatments tend to make IE and Aurora RPGs seem better than they actually are.

 

[vortex]

And my Siege of Dragonspear Walkthrough is the bestest EVAH! ..fuckstick

OT:
Could you make similar full walkhtrough of Icewind dale 2 and Arcanum?

 

[Lilura]

I started one for IWD2 because it's a nice, EZ linear campaign to write for (reached Goblin Fortress, covered every single skill/class/feat check to that point, then just never posted a Part), but Arcanum? Now, that would challenge anyone's rigor. Maybe oneday, after Swordflight Chapter Three.

 

[sstacks]

Infinitron by the way Arvan Eleron did a Twitch stream with Trent Oster and Phillip Daigle re: Dragonspear last night. Haven't had a chance to check it out yet myself but Arv being Arv I bet it was good.

 

[Infinitron]

Infinitron by the way Arvan Eleron did a Twitch stream with Trent Oster and Phillip Daigle re: Dragonspear last night. Haven't had a chance to check it out yet myself but Arv being Arv I bet it was good.

Scroll up.

 

[sstacks]

Interesting that Amber didn't make it... I wonder if she is laying low for the moment. However Arv definitely would not have given her a hard time.

 

[Average Manatee]

Is there a way to get a pixel-perfect scaling? The lock zoom feature seems to be for 800x600 or something and enlarging the screen doesn't increase the FoV, just stretches the pixels.

 

[Trashos]

Philip Daigle seems to not really like romances, and is a fan of Arcanum and ToEE. Codex should like this guy! He says they investigated the possibility of doing a procedurally generated IE roguelike, but the engine couldn't support it.

He looked like a cool guy on a pre-release streaming that they did, but I am worried that he may suddenly come out and call Arcanum sexist.

 

[Bubbles]

Philip Daigle seems to not really like romances, and is a fan of Arcanum and ToEE. Codex should like this guy! He says they investigated the possibility of doing a procedurally generated IE roguelike, but the engine couldn't support it.

He looked like a cool guy on a pre-release streaming that they did, but I am worried that he may suddenly come out and call Arcanum sexist.

Well, it's a matter of interpretation. Female player characters do not experience a lot of hardship or prejudice in the male-dominated, vaguely Victorian world of Arcanum, and I can imagine people interpreting that as a lamentable oversight and a missed chance to educate players. I'm not sure if "sexist" would be the most appropriate term for that, but it's easy to see a feminist writer inserting additional content into the game to draw more attention to the function of gender roles within the game world.

 

[Trashos]

Well, it's a matter of interpretation. Female player characters do not experience a lot of hardship or prejudice in the male-dominated, vaguely Victorian world of Arcanum, and I can imagine people interpreting that as a lamentable oversight and a missed chance to educate players. I'm not sure if "sexist" would be the most appropriate term for that, but it's easy to see a feminist writer inserting additional content into the game to draw more attention to the function of gender roles within the game world.

... and correcting the barbarian armor, because it is problematic.

 

[Metal Hurlant]

You favour longer lasting spells, such as Stoneskin and Armor but also avoiding damage by not standing still. Mirror Image is a multiplier for Stoneskin, which sometimes protects the Mage even from multiple salvos of Arrows. There's also Protection from Missiles and Weapons. Plus, the Sorcerer's spontaneous spellcasting is amazing for this, given how many times you can cast Stoneskin while still leaving some points left for Greater Malisons and such, should you need it.

The Mage doesn't have to be a substitute for the Fighter, but if you play a no-rest run its good to make use of every resource at your disposal.

SoD has a lot of trash fights. Yes, it also has some fights with a dragon, lich, mind flayer, etc. I've never once said you couldn't tank with a mage. As Lhynn said, it's situational and fighters are good for trash mobs and Mages are good for others. I agree with that. To make a general statement for the IE games and in particular this game (BG and SoD) and say Fighters are sub par is false. It depends on the situation. The complaint I'm seeing is there's not much choice with Fighter types who can tank. There's Minsc at the beginning and who else? When do you get the other two fighter types (Khalid and Dorn) who can also be on the front line? Quite a distance in the game.

I would not use a mage for tanking trash mobs when you can give Minsc the Guantlets of Dex including some of the best armour and items in the game to lower his AC even further to avoid being hit. He already has 18/93 STR so he can hit hard. And he's also very hard to hit by trash mobs with his low AC. Then you don't have to use spells on your Mage to tank when you can use those fighter types for those trash fights. Again, that's been the complaint from people who would like more Fighter type tanks up front at the start of the game. I agree with them.

Have a look at Sensuki's IWD lets play videos. Does he use Mages all the time to tank up front? No, because there's a lot of trash fights and he doesn't need to. Was he potion and rest spamming? No. Oh he must be a noob then for not using a Mage to tank because Fighter types are sub par! Obviously that's not the case. And I'll say it a third time, the complaint is there's not many options at the start of the game to have fighter type NPCs to tank up front and the accusation is these people who use fighter type characters to tank are newbies. Some might be newbies, however it's a true and trusted method by a lot of players including those who aren't newbies. I've been arguing that it would have been good to have more of the original fighter type NPCs from the base game to have as a choice to either accompany Minsc or to use other original NPCs instead of Minsc from the start of the game. I think that would have been a great option. Why anyone would be against this completely baffles me.

And my comment about writing a few lines for those other NPCs and not having a story. I don't see a problem with that because I would rather have the original NPCs with some lines like they were in the base game than most of the original NPCS missing. I never asked for their life history, I'm asking them to accompany me. I don't see it as lazy for Beamdog to not write their life history because as an extension of the base game, it fits well that they don't tell me their life story. And some NPCs are quite secretive of their past and won't tell you. Just read their biographies. The argument that Beamdog didn't have time to write additional dialogue for every NPC in the game is a false one. If the option is to have all NPCs in the game but a lot won't have interjecting dialogue OR we cull a lot of the original NPCs from the base game to fit in 8 new romances (including NPCs that you've never met), I know which option I would take - and it's not the romances.

This game was supposed to bridge the gap between BG1 and BG2. What happened in between? Totally forget about some of the NPCs that were travelling with you. They've just upped and vanished. Instead, we get things like meeting a gay gnome that you can romance! Where the hell did that come from.