Baldur's Gate Beamdog's Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 Enhanced Editions

[Sacibengala]

This is beyond being funny now - they should be on wiki under cash grab article.
As much as I like GoG, I am sending them a huge fuck you for supporting those cucks and providing them a platform to sell more shit.

Incompetence and fixing the bugs for almost a decade is one thing, but selling fucking soundtracks for 10$ or some atrocious portrait packs, which are below free, fan-made ones is just insane. I suspect that with BG3 release this diarrhoea of a company will try to push some other ridiculous stuff, like new NPC for 20$ etc.

Some of the millennials buying BG3 will probably want to check the previous games - beamshit smelled it from a mile and probably dusted off their cash cow in order to sell some more abominable 'enhancments/packs/extras'. This target audience is already used for paying for incomplete games and later on buying fixes/new content camouflaged as 'DLCs', so we can definitely expect some 'extra content' for sale on GoG.

In the meantime, GOG denies monocled crpgs of great quality because of whatever reason. GOG is starting to make me regretful in supporting them for all these years.

 

[Fedora Master]

GoG = CDPR, right?
Why are you surprised?

 

[Chippy]

The unique update that BG needs is a OPTIONAL TB mode and dungeon creating tool like NWN.

How is it economically viable to still work on this?

Beamdog is small + a lot of players purchasing BG1/2 after trying BG3 and writing retarded reviews

You're trolling right? I think I read in one of the patch notes that there was some dead space in front of the Order of the Radiant Heart. I assume you couldn't click on it, walk over it, or transition into the building. So I've never encountered anything like that in the original game, and they're still patching stuff like that (almost a game breaking bug) 10 years after release.

And you're optimistic enough to expect them to whip up TB mode and a world building tool?.

Before even the millenials all die of old age???.

 

[Cryomancer]

And you're optimistic enough to expect them to whip up TB mode and a world building tool?.

You are right. It will only happen if BeamDog opens the source code... And spoiler : It will not happens.

 

[Jvegi]

The unique update that BG needs is a OPTIONAL TB

It doesn't.

 

[agris]

Nice alpha layer

 

[Bigg Boss]

Optional turn based mode is called pressing spacebar a lot.

 

[Average Manatee]

Technically BG's representation of combat is fairly close to tabletop AD&D. There everyone decides what they are doing at the start of a round and then everything is executed in sequence of initiative. Characters aren't supposed to have individual turns like in what is normally considered turn based combat. While it does diverge in that everything happens simultaneously, if you have "pause on end of each turn" enabled and only give your orders to characters then, it's a good approximation. I don't think you could really implement AD&D's intended turn based combat sequence faithfully in a video game since there's a lot of ambiguity.

 

[makchanka]

I tried replaying BG2 and the new beamdog content was so fucking awful it made me quit. Thankfully you can just avoid all of it, but holy shit it's like someone greenscreening kanye west into Lawrence of Arabia and having him just walk around yelling about how water is racist and cats can fly if you give them cocaine.

 

[KafkaBot]

I tried replaying BG2 and the new beamdog content was so fucking awful it made me quit. Thankfully you can just avoid all of it, but holy shit it's like someone greenscreening kanye west into Lawrence of Arabia and having him just walk around yelling about how water is racist and cats can fly if you give them cocaine.

Install the anti-Beamdog mods. They'll make your experience much more pleasant.

 

[Tavernking]

Saw this niche game on sale right now, looks like a good old school RPG. Is there a turn-based mode?

 

[Nano]

A turn-based mode could be cool if all the trash fights were removed too. Actually, the latter would be incline even in RTWP.

 

[Sarathiour]

That would require a whole overhaul of the combat system, without even considering the technical aspect. Just slapping an initiative turn and move point every round would lead to an absolutely terrible game.
I don't know who would be capable of doing such a thing, but it sure as hell isn't beamdog.

 

[Nano]

That would require a whole overhaul of the combat system

The game rules are literally built for turn-based.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

That would require a whole overhaul of the combat system

The game rules are literally built for turn-based.

RAW AD&D 2e is phase-based, not turn-based. I get the feeling a lot of people have an idea of what it should be implemented like, but not what it's supposed to be like.

IE games are actually a fairly accurate implementation of AD&D 2E's combat if you squint a bit. Yes, the actions are executed in order of initiative.

But here's a problem: This makes no mention of movement. Completely abstracting it away like many drpgs do is entirely fine with the rules from what we can read, despite a lot of people on this site seemingly averse to such combat. Simultaneous decision when using a tactical grid is a problem, what if your fighter moves to attack an orc at the same time it decides to move towards your mage? Your fighter would be out of position, standing next to where the orc used to stand, attacking the air.

Check this example from the dmg:

Does this not read a bit like baldur's gate combat?
Simultaneous decision making, DM hurrying them forward(and even warning Anne that she will lose her round if she doesn't decide soon)?

The grid-based combat issue was resolved by the supplement player's option book Combat & Tactics, which describes how to play AD&D 2E using turn-based combat on a grid, and was used as the basis for 3e combat.

So if one were to make IE games "turn-based", the combat rules detailed within would be what you should model it upon.

 

[agris]

Holy shit, you’re telling me that people actually associate TB with AD&D because of… 3e? The abomination that threw all of Gygax’s work out the window and mounted the withered husk of the IP to appeal to the “next generation” of gaymers?

As someone who only knows 1st/2nd, I never appreciated the connection. This must mean some people virtue signal by asking for TB as if to demonstrate their hardcore roots… when it’s actually rooted in the popamolization of D&D!

Bwahahaha!

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

IE games are actually a fairly accurate implementation of AD&D 2E's combat if you squint a bit. Yes, the actions are executed in order of initiative.

Pity neither the original nor enhanced versions of the Infinity Engine games stayed true to Gary Gygax's vision of a 1-minute combat round.

 

[Theldaran]

Gary Gygax's vision went to shit fast.

Still, we could salvage some bits, even in 3ED too.

 

[V17]

I'm too lazy to read through 200+ pages, should I play BG2 EE or just play the original with some community patches (I'd like to have widescreen support at least)?
It's going to be my first playthrough. (don't judge, I was too young and didn't speak enough english at the time of release)

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I'm too lazy to read through 200+ pages, should I play BG2 EE or just play the original with some community patches (I'd like to have widescreen support at least)?
It's going to be my first playthrough. (don't judge, I was too young and didn't speak enough english at the time of release)

The EE as a first playthrough are fine. Just skip Siege of Dragonspear until after you have completed Throne of Bhaal. I would also recommend avoiding any of the Beamdog NPCs.

 

[Melcar]

I'm too lazy to read through 200+ pages, should I play BG2 EE or just play the original with some community patches (I'd like to have widescreen support at least)?
It's going to be my first playthrough. (don't judge, I was too young and didn't speak enough english at the time of release)

I say the original with the fixpack and widescreen mod. Nothing else if you want the "original experience" with some QoL enhancements running on a newer machine.

 

[Humbaba]

I'm too lazy to read through 200+ pages, should I play BG2 EE or just play the original with some community patches (I'd like to have widescreen support at least)?
It's going to be my first playthrough. (don't judge, I was too young and didn't speak enough english at the time of release)

EE's are fine, these days they are bug free and run well. As far as the new companions go, your mileage may vary, I never used any of them because they never fit in my party lineup. They're alright mechanically, except Rashad because low-level monks are trash.

 

[coldcrow]

EEs and use the eemodtool to apply some QoL and difficulty mods. Stay wide away from compilations, those are pure cancer (multitude of idiotic huge mods, retarded anime love-prosa and whatnot).

 

[Average Manatee]

The EEs are fine now, just don't hold beamdog's new tumblr NPCs against the original games.

There is a reasonable argument that BG1 non-EE is sufficiently different (not because beamdog fucked with it, just because its running on a BG2 engine with BG2 classes/spells/items), but I'd not say that BG1 EE is specifically a bad way to play. Just keep in mind that the balance can get a bit wonky. Major differences off the top of my head include:
Proficiencies for weapons have more categories. For example swords were either "long sword" or "short sword" in BG1, while in BG2 and BG1 EE it's split up between daggers/short swords/long swords/bastard swards/katanas/scimitars/two handed swords. This can mess with some of the character power levels, all the categories are not itemized as well in BG1 EE. Beamdog sprinkled a few new items to compensate but it's still kind of iffy and certain categories might only have one +2 weapon in the whole game, good luck if you miss it.
Kits, which are generally just improved versions of the base class. Some are especially poorly balanced at low levels since when they were made for BG2 Bioware assumed you'd start at level 7.
Half orc player race, debateably a little big overpowered thanks to 19 str and con (It's really barely noticable tbh).
Some spells working differently, for example Sleep is vastly overpowered. In BG1 enemies woke up as soon as you hit them, in BG2 and EEs they'll stay asleep and let you wail on them till they die.

If you're skipping to BG2 though then I see no real reason to avoid the EE.

 

[Melcar]

They also changed some minor quests and added a few (nothing too retarded from what I remember).