Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear Pre-Release Thread

[Zed]

4am what a shitty time for a reveal. I guess they don't want to generate hype where people actually are interested in this kind of games = yurop

only AMERIDUMBS are DUMBe enough to buy into this DUMB product!!

 

[Ismaul]

everything's more fun than beamdog-related countdown.

Well, I got to give them this: beaming > hovering

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

There's a live stream playing.

Edit: there's like three echoes, it's doing my head in.

 

[agris]

they've got a serious feedback problem

 

[Cynicus]

The audio is giving me a tumor.

 

[dukeofwhales]

It is making listening to it while pretending to work challenging.

 

[kain611]

They have Chris Avellone now?

 

[Johannes]

Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonschlong

 

[LESS T_T]

Reading is better than hearing. Here's a long interview piece: http://www.pcgamesn.com/baldurs-gat...beamdogs-25-hour-addendum-to-biowares-classic

 

[LESS T_T]

It transpires that Chris Avellone was brought on late in Dragonspear’s writing - playing the campaign through and offering a “couple of pages of hate” - suggestions for the team to work on.

“If Chris is going to be available for the future - I have great respect for the guy,” said Oster. “Every time we’ve hung out, it’s been a blast. Any way we can work together going forward, I’m happy to facilitate it. He has the world in front of him right now, though. He’s like the belle of the ball - everyone wants to work with him.”

Oh my..

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

Sounds like they've put enormous effort into Siege of Dragonspear (BGSoD).

 

[dukeofwhales]

Sounds like they've put enormous effort into Siege of Dragonspear (BGSoD).

I am hopeful, but I don't think the flaws from BG:EE's story/quest content were because they didn't try hard enough

 

[felipepepe]

So, Beamdog is nto only taking Obsidian's claim to the Infinity Engine spiritual successor thinguie, but also got Chris Avellone as well? LOL

Funny thing is, this might end up better than PoE.

 

[agris]

IGN has a gameplay video: http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/07/10/baldurs-gate-siege-of-dragonspear-expansion-announced

Looks like they've implemented the over-the-head health indicators for you and your party.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

Yeah, true about story content.

Optional combat health bars for party and enemies. (edit: ninja'd)
Item highlighting feature to show who can and can't equip certain items.
Two new difficulties. Story mode and Legacy of Bhaal (similar to Heart of Fury, for vets looking for a serious challenge).
New class: Shaman.

 

[LESS T_T]

Website: http://www.siegeofdragonspear.com/

 

[Zed]

Sounds like they've put enormous effort into Siege of Dragonspear (BGSoD).

thank you for establishing an acronym for this product?

anyway this sounds like trash. fucking streamlining and babymode features.

 

[Athelas]

I wasn't expecting Siege of Dragonspear to bridge Baldur's Gate and its sequel the way it did, and I was pleasantly surprised, especially looking back from Baldur's Gate II and seeing how the mid-prequel sets the stage for events to come.
- Chris Avellone
Siege made me feel as if I'd come home after a long absence to find old friends waiting for me, with the same life and spark I remembered from when they first journeyed by my side.
- Chris Avellone

I wonder if he's getting paid for these quotes by the word.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

thank you for establishing an acronym for this product?

anyway this sounds like trash. fucking streamlining and babymode features.

I'm not liking the sound of the new features either. BGSoDoff?

 

[CptMace]

I wasn't expecting Siege of Dragonspear to bridge Baldur's Gate and its sequel the way it did, and I was pleasantly surprised, especially looking back from Baldur's Gate II and seeing how the mid-prequel sets the stage for events to come.
- Chris Avellone
Siege made me feel as if I'd come home after a long absence to find old friends waiting for me, with the same life and spark I remembered from when they first journeyed by my side.
- Chris Avellone

I wonder if he's getting paid for these quotes by the word.

He's just a swell guy and likes to give a hand.
It's either that or he's been cursed and has to put his name along every game communication campaign in order to lift it.

 

[agris]

They want to unify all the games into a true BGT.

The studio hope to eventually weave all three campaigns seamlessly together, with every class in the series - including Dragonspear’s new ghost-calling shaman - available from levels one to 27.

“I think we’re going to get there,” said Oster. “And I think when we do, it’s going to break a lot of people’s lives. It’ll be just be this one, brilliant continuous story. We’re pretty excited about that.”

 

[Volourn]

"It’s “substantially larger” than Throne of Bhaal - 25 hours all told, and much longer with a little deviation from the critical path."

What kind of bullshit is that? TOB was longer than 25 hours. SO FUCK OFF.

I was actually intrigued for the first time ala Beamdog Losers but that flat out shit falsehood ruined it.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

Some pics:

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

There's a live demo playing at the moment http://www.baldursgate.com/

 

[agris]

A little bit about the plot from venturebeat

The most exciting aspect of this expansion — one that’s already interesting, considering this is new material for an old game for a storyline set in D&D‘s 2nd Edition of the Forgotten Realms in 2015 (D&D is now in its fifth edition) — is that it deals with Dragonspear Castle, an outpost historically dominated by devils and evil humanoids. Five years before the events of Baldur’s Gate, forces from the keep attacked the town of Daggerford before a band of adventurers routed them.

But the castle also hosted a temple dedicated to the god of war, Tempus, and this appears to be how Beamdog is trying the expansion’s story to Forgotten Realms’ lore. A warrior known as the Shining Lady leads a crusade in the north (the Sword Coast, where many Forgotten Realms games are set). Rumors point to her being the child of a god — like your character, who is the issue of the dead Lord of Murder, Bhaal.

Sounds like the castle might be Durlag's Tower 2.0, or Watcher's Keep beta.

“… But the cool thing about the tabletop incarnation of Dragonspear Castle is that although it firmly has a place in Forgotten Legends lore, the specifics of the caverns below the castle were left open for Dungeon Masters to flesh out on their own,” continued Tito. “I think it’s really cool that Beamdog is taking up the gauntlet and presenting their vision of Dragonspear Castle to D&D fans in this expansion to Baldur’s Gate.”

 

[Blackguard]

Someone posted this summary on their forums:

- Starts two weeks after the defeat of Sarevok, Charname hailed as hero, but suspected of a shared lineage with Sarevok.

- During this time, a holy crusade is rising in the north, besieging dragonspear castle for supplies. They're led by a woman named Caelar, whose origin is shrouded in mystery but could possibly also be a bhaalspawn. The Grand Dukes of Baldur's Gate ask you to end this crusade on their behalf, and you go north leading an army of mercenaries.

- 70 new areas, 25 voice actors with several returning from BG1/2, hundreds of new items, spells and abilities.

- Over 25 hours of new story and a bunch of side content. "Riddled with crannies" according to Phil Daigle.

- New class, shaman. Able to summon "an almost unlimited number of ghostly allies", but is rooted in place while summoning - a shaman NPC will be available.

- Meant to be more accessible than previous games without sacrificing tactical depth: new interface, journal pop-ups that deliver concise journal information (longer entries with more lore are still available); combat health bars (optional); inventory highlighting that suggests which characters to give items to.

- New difficulty modes: story mode (easy combat); "legacy of bhaal" difficulty, similar to heart of fury, for veteran players.

- Combines open-world exploration of BG1, iconic locations from BG2, art and combat from IWD.

Anyone know how many areas TotSC and ToB had?