Baldur's Gate & Baldur's Gate II Mod Thread

[Ryzer]

I don't know whoever decided to make tight levels in BG2 to screw up the pathfinding. BG1 levels and thus combat are just so much more bearable because it's open.

 

[Krivol]

I don't know whoever decided to make tight levels in BG2 to screw up the pathfinding. BG1 levels and thus combat are just so much more bearable because it's open.

Firewine Bridge underground for example?

 

[Desman]

That's a terrible take Ryzer. BG1 is full of terrible maps for pathfiding (all the mine levels, the maps below Candlekeep, Ulcaster, the maze at the end of the game, the whole Durlag tower etc...)

 

[rojay]

I love BG1 but Ulcaster is a chore.

 

[cretin]

Settled on nostalgia pack for BG1EE instead of going through the trouble of installing bg1, bg2.... easytutu...tobex afterlife.. mods.. etc. I just want BG1 visuals + SCS. Alas, it is really gay SCS doesnt support the original engine.

using EE keeper to change your sprite after chargen is easy enough, thankfully, and as far I as understand it everyone else should be BG1 sprites unless you use some mod that lets you change their classes. For me, an interesting observation : BG1 sprites have no differentation between longsword and short sword. I had thought this was a bug when I used the 1pp mod that restored bg1 sprites in IWD post totlm, but apparently thats how it worked originally. Similarly there doesnt appear to be any difference between leather and studded leather sprites.

So ultimately, I think we cannot say BG1 sprites are objectively better or worse than BG2 sprites, they each have their pros and cons, and this is mostly just a matter of taste. BG1 looks more fantasy metal aesthetic and has non-mirrored sprites, BG2 has more variety and dual wielding and so on, but is mirrored.

 

[Brancaleone]

I just want BG1 visuals + SCS. Alas, it is really gay SCS doesnt support the original engine.

SCS doesn't support original IWD (much to my chagrin), but supported original BG1 and BG2 since the beginning.

 

[Melcar]

It's been a while since I played original BG, but I think there was a difference between long swords and shorth swords. Do you mean there appearance? I think they all used the same sprites (even scimitars) but the animation was different.

 

[Ryzer]

That's a terrible take Ryzer. BG1 is full of terrible maps for pathfiding (all the mine levels, the maps below Candlekeep, Ulcaster, the maze at the end of the game, the whole Durlag tower etc...)

I agree but that represents 20-30% of BG1 maps, in BG2, it's choke full of maps that screw up pathfinding: De' Arnise Keep, Akthlata sewers, Umar Hills crypt, Windspear hills dungeon (especially), the sphere, etc...

 

[Melcar]

Most maps in BG1 are outdoor areas, so yeah, you could say pathfinding in BG1 is better overall. The dungeons in the game have narrow corridors, with a few exceptions (both mines have wide corridors for example)

 

[cretin]

I just want BG1 visuals + SCS. Alas, it is really gay SCS doesnt support the original engine.

SCS doesn't support original IWD (much to my chagrin), but supported original BG1 and BG2 since the beginning.

Nah, has not supported og bg1 ever afaik. You need some form of bg1-in-bg2 (easytutu, BGT, EE) to install it. Per the readme.

 

[cretin]

blogposting at this point, but nixed my BGEE install of nostalgia pack becaue it doesn't support scimitars for some strange reason. Guess I'm going to try easytutu or BGT and infinity animations.

 

[Melcar]

SCS only supported BG1 if you were running TuTu or BGT.

 

[Average Manatee]

People seem to order their party to cross the whole map and complain about pathing when that doesn't work well. I've never expected pathfinding to do that and I'll give an order for every few rooms. BG2 is fine then. BG1's problem is that the claustrophobic areas are so incredibly packed that you can't even order 3 characters down a hallway without something going wrong.

 

[Krivol]

The EE version introduced a new pathfinding feature: party members stick inside each other. Something that should be a BG3 feature

 

[Glop_dweller]

Did no one simply increase the default pathfinding node setting in the Baldur.ini file?
The default is 4000; mine is set to —40,000— nodes; it's a trivial calculation on a modern systems. Pathfinding problems all but disappear.

 

[cretin]

Did no one simply increase the default pathfinding node setting in the Baldur.ini file?
The default is 4000; mine is set to —40,000— nodes; it's a trivial calculation on a modern systems. Pathfinding problems all but disappear.

Many people do and say it is nothing but placebo, others still say it could actually make problems worse.

 

[Glop_dweller]

Many people do and say it is nothing but placebo, others still say it could actually make problems worse.

It has a measurable effect. When set to 1, the party cannot navigate from inside the wall of the Friendly Arm Inn to the outside if it's not line of site. This is not a problem if it is set to a higher value; the higher the better.

I have raised my setting to 240,000.

 

[Brancaleone]

I just want BG1 visuals + SCS. Alas, it is really gay SCS doesnt support the original engine.

SCS doesn't support original IWD (much to my chagrin), but supported original BG1 and BG2 since the beginning.

Nah, has not supported og bg1 ever afaik. You need some form of bg1-in-bg2 (easytutu, BGT, EE) to install it. Per the readme.

I would have sworn that SCS before unification with SCS II supported plain BG1, but I probably remember incorrectly.

 

[cretin]

I just want BG1 visuals + SCS. Alas, it is really gay SCS doesnt support the original engine.

SCS doesn't support original IWD (much to my chagrin), but supported original BG1 and BG2 since the beginning.

Nah, has not supported og bg1 ever afaik. You need some form of bg1-in-bg2 (easytutu, BGT, EE) to install it. Per the readme.

I would have sworn that SCS before unification with SCS II supported plain BG1, but I probably remember incorrectly.

I saw a comment that said a very old version of SCS supported bg1. Alas, these days it is only BG2 based (IWD included, ala IWDEE). And IIRC the way things are going DavidW wants to make use of supposedly EE exclusive features going forward.

 

[Yosharian]

Many people do and say it is nothing but placebo, others still say it could actually make problems worse.

It has a measurable effect. When set to 1, the party cannot navigate from inside the wall of the Friendly Arm Inn to the outside if it's not line of site. This is not a problem if it is set to a higher value; the higher the better.

I have raised my setting to 240,000.

It's not necessarily the case that 240k is optimal and makes a difference compared to 4k, just because 1 performs like shit

 

[Ryzer]

Currently I have been soloing BG games with a thief/mage multiclass, and I think this multiclass is seriously underrated. Sure you are squishy and can't equip helmets but these are minor downsides compared to the ability to skip all enemies, go straight to the boss and kill him with a backstab, doing him crazy amount of damage even in BG1. It's underrated compared to fighter/mage which is strong of course, but in the beginning of BG1, you can't sneak which put you at risk.

 

[Glop_dweller]

Many people do and say it is nothing but placebo, others still say it could actually make problems worse.

It has a measurable effect. When set to 1, the party cannot navigate from inside the wall of the Friendly Arm Inn to the outside if it's not line of site. This is not a problem if it is set to a higher value; the higher the better.

I have raised my setting to 240,000.

It's not necessarily the case that 240k is optimal and makes a difference compared to 4k, just because 1 performs like shit

But of course? What's optimal would change with every map. 1 is simply the worst, 4k is what they used on their target machines, and today even 240,000 (though 40,000 is just fine) doesn't make a noticeable impact on performance, and I was testing it on a twelve year old MAC mini.

 

[Average Manatee]

Currently I have been soloing BG games with a thief/mage multiclass, and I think this multiclass is seriously underrated. Sure you are squishy and can't equip helmets but these are minor downsides compared to the ability to skip all enemies, go straight to the boss and kill him with a backstab, doing him crazy amount of damage even in BG1. It's underrated compared to fighter/mage which is strong of course, but in the beginning of BG1, you can't sneak which put you at risk.

I don't think its underrated, I think people generally agree that anything/mage multis or duals are great (except possibly cleric/mage, and in fact anything/cleric is also very strong). It's just that both games already cover your thief needs really well and more than 1 feels kinda superfluous and memey. In BG2 your long term options for thieves are already mage/thief in fact. Obviously that doesn't apply to solo though.

 

[Yosharian]

Many people do and say it is nothing but placebo, others still say it could actually make problems worse.

It has a measurable effect. When set to 1, the party cannot navigate from inside the wall of the Friendly Arm Inn to the outside if it's not line of site. This is not a problem if it is set to a higher value; the higher the better.

I have raised my setting to 240,000.

It's not necessarily the case that 240k is optimal and makes a difference compared to 4k, just because 1 performs like shit

But of course? What's optimal would change with every map. 1 is simply the worst, 4k is what they used on their target machines, and today even 240,000 (though 40,000 is just fine) doesn't make a noticeable impact on performance, and I was testing it on a twelve year old MAC mini.

 

[Melcar]

The max pathfinding setting supported in the engine is 400K. It does alleviate pathfinding issues but you still run into problems. Beamdog introduced an "advanced" pathfinding option, but it was largely undocumented and it's not even enabled by default in the latest builds of their IE games. Turning it on made things much worse in my games, so I guess they took it out for a reason.