Icewind Dale Beamdog's Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition

[Sigourn]

To you, less stability is awful. To others, less stability but UI + Zoom in/out + Resolution is worth the money.

But you can already get these things for free, and with much more stability. What you're really saying is that to some, not downloading small unobtrusive mods is worth the money.

Which is really sort of pathetic, but whatever.

There are no mods for the IE games that bring them on par with the Enhanced Editions' interface and zoom in/out capabilities. They all try, but fail hard. The ones that pull it off the best are Icewind Dale II and Planescape: Torment, though both suffer from "can't see shit" interface.

Keep in mind I play my IE games in fullscreen with correct scaling, so if you are one of those people who are perfectly okay with paying the IE in windowed mode, then you won't have any troubles with IDII and PS:T's modded UIs.

 

[hoverdog]

To you, less stability is awful. To others, less stability but UI + Zoom in/out + Resolution is worth the money.

But you can already get these things for free, and with much more stability. What you're really saying is that to some, not downloading small unobtrusive mods is worth the money.

Which is really sort of pathetic, but whatever.

There are no mods for the IE games that bring them on par with the Enhanced Editions' interface and zoom in/out capabilities.

Yeah, there are no mods that make the interface as shitty as it is in EE.

 

[Theldaran]

I have one of the first versions of GOG BGEE, not updated. The shitty "improvements" happened only in the later versions, however, they prove that Beamdog can't do shit. If this is their "hard work"... blergh. It's for that I doubt further "improvements" into IWDEE are worth it.

 

[ArchAngel]

I don't know which amazing location you live in, where downloading IWD takes longer than the post arriving with the disc version. (or alternatively, logic isn't your strong point) I am starting to suspect, however, that you are one of those young players that missed out on playing the classics when they came out, and now feel the need to defend them with a zealot's passion.

Unlike BG EE, IWD EE is fine.

And I didn't know you were too spergy to wait a couple days to play an almost-20 year-old CRPG.

I've played that almost 20-year old cRPG back in ye olde days. Which is the point that seems to fly over your head.

And now I'm starting to suspect you are actually Archangel's alt, created to troll these threads.

Wtf. Now I am accused of bashing EE editions?!

I am not trolling anyone, just defending EE from autists.

 

[ArchAngel]

As for the objective talks in this topic, only objective thing here is that some of you are dumbass for claiming your view is objective.

 

[Sigourn]

Yeah, there are no mods that make the interface as functional as it is in EE.

Exactly.

 

[hoverdog]

Yeah, there are no mods that make the interface as functional as it is in EE.

Exactly.

 

[pippin]

Can someone explain why do you need a zoom in or out version for Baldur's Gate? I'm still very puzzled as to why this is such an improvement over a game that wasn't designed with that in mind and also doesn't really need it. I mean, even in vanilla bg1+2 you can see your characters' butts quite well, which is the only reason to have a completely zoom out/in option in the style of Dragon Age.

 

[hell bovine]

You don't need it. I've found it useful in Icewind Dale, though. I tend to zoom out when aiming cone spells at mobs. And it saved me having to temporally change the resolution in the dwarven puzzle room, because those signs on the floor are tiny at higher resolutions.

 

[Sigourn]

Can someone explain why do you need a zoom in or out version for Baldur's Gate? I'm still very puzzled as to why this is such an improvement over a game that wasn't designed with that in mind and also doesn't really need it. I mean, even in vanilla bg1+2 you can see your characters' butts quite well, which is the only reason to have a completely zoom out/in option in the style of Dragon Age.

Because the environments in IE games are fairly beautiful, particularly so in IWD and Planescape: Torment. Being confined to a small screen doesn't allow you to appreciate the full beauty of the maps, IMO.

It isn't really *needed* though, but for a lot of people it is a nice feature to have. Personally I would play zoomed out during exploring, and zooming in when I need to pick up items or fight.

 

[ArchAngel]

Yea zooming out is especially useful in Bg1 so you don't need to edge scroll as much while removing black from the maps.

 

[Gauldur's Bait]

Just finsished this on Core with two characters - an FMT and an Inquisitor. It really was quite easy. FMT used mainly longbow and longsword&shield, and the INQ went shield + axe,/morning star/hammer (for Conlan's hammer). INQ finished as level 21, can't remember the levels for the FMT but they were about 13/13/16 or something.

The main strategy was to boost the ac and thac0 for the inquisitor who then goes hand-to-hand with any and all enemies on screen, while the FMT shoots arrows and spells/buffs from behind. This strategy was viable for basically the whole game through. Both Yxunomei and Belhifet fell quite easily, with only 3-4 reloads. I planned too lazily first and was punished. With proper micro none of them proved a problem. If any enemy melee-attacked my FMT, I just quickly set up a mirror image and some more buffs and hack them down in melee, temporarily using the Inquisitor to assist if necessary.

The repeater longbow solves a lot problems for example in the Severed Hand, as that bow combined with haste allowed me to interrupt spellcasters quickly and effectively for the Inquisitor to then easily hack them down.

The Inqsuitor wasn't as overpowered here as in the BG series, mainly due to true sight not being as useful (the invisible theves in Dorn's Deep being an exception) and dispel magic neither being that frequently used. Dispel Magic was effective in the early part of the game for getting the FMT out of trouble if suffering from some negative effects. Of course protection from evil was useful for the AC boost, so there is that.

The whole point of the excercise was to get my duo to the Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster expansions, and see how they fare in the expansion. The suspicion is that it won't get that much harder. We'll see.

I remember the first time I faced Belhifet with a six member severly unoptimized party. That was not fun, and it came close to being a fight I thought I wouldn't be able to win. So it was pretty fun to see how easy both Yxunomei and Belhifet went down in this playthrough.

Overall, replaying Icewind Dale felt less grindy and more engaging than my recent 4-member party BG and BG2 playthroughs.

 

[ArchAngel]

Just finsished this on Core with two characters - an FMT and an Inquisitor. It really was quite easy. FMT used mainly longbow and longsword&shield, and the INQ went shield + axe,/morning star/hammer (for Conlan's hammer). INQ finished as level 21, can't remember the levels for the FMT but they were about 13/13/16 or something.

The main strategy was to boost the ac and thac0 for the inquisitor who then goes hand-to-hand with any and all enemies on screen, while the FMT shoots arrows and spells/buffs from behind. This strategy was viable for basically the whole game through. Both Yxunomei and Belhifet fell quite easily, with only 3-4 reloads. I planned too lazily first and was punished. With proper micro none of them proved a problem. If any enemy melee-attacked my FMT, I just quickly set up a mirror image and some more buffs and hack them down in melee, temporarily using the Inquisitor to assist if necessary.

The repeater longbow solves a lot problems for example in the Severed Hand, as that bow combined with haste allowed me to interrupt spellcasters quickly and effectively for the Inquisitor to then easily hack them down.

The Inqsuitor wasn't as overpowered here as in the BG series, mainly due to true sight not being as useful (the invisible theves in Dorn's Deep being an exception) and dispel magic neither being that frequently used. Dispel Magic was effective in the early part of the game for getting the FMT out of trouble if suffering from some negative effects. Of course protection from evil was useful for the AC boost, so there is that.

The whole point of the excercise was to get my duo to the Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster expansions, and see how they fare in the expansion. The suspicion is that it won't get that much harder. We'll see.

I remember the first time I faced Belhifet with a six member severly unoptimized party. That was not fun, and it came close to being a fight I thought I wouldn't be able to win. So it was pretty fun to see how easy both Yxunomei and Belhifet went down in this playthrough.

Overall, replaying Icewind Dale felt less grindy and more engaging than my recent 4-member party BG and BG2 playthroughs.

Hah, I played in on Core with 6 man party and I went to do expansion content at party lvl 11 (game allows you to access it at lvl 9 and beyond). It was very hard but interesting to do at that level.

 

[Gauldur's Bait]

Hah, I played in on Core with 6 man party and I went to do expansion content at party lvl 11 (game allows you to access it at lvl 9 and beyond). It was very hard but interesting to do at that level.

Yeah, I was thinking of going to Lonelywood ASAP, but then I wanted to be a little better equipped, and then the urge to take on Belhifet became too strong to resist.

 

[Sacred82]

Bought this on release on still haven't played it, have they done anything about the balance? Is there a way a fast-levelling sorcerer doesn't break the game?

 

[Tigranes]

I don't know about the beamdog crap, but at least in originals, IWD had one win button - Haste. It's a win button in all IE games, but it just made a massive difference in IWD. Whether full party or solo, in most difficulty settings, you end up not bothering with most of your spells afterwards because you're smashing people into bits so fast.

 

[Sacred82]

This is certainly true for 6 character parties. With smaller parties I still had everyone hasted all the time, but I did play more tactically.

 

[Lockkaliber]

Just finsished this on Core with two characters - an FMT and an Inquisitor.

Nice. I just finished a replay myself on insane. I started with a solo Sun soul monk, which hit level 30 around the severed hand, at which point I added a pure fighter. The Sun soul monk was incredibly good solo, because it got a some decent AOE fire spells that did extra damage to undead. I probably could have soloed the rest of the game with only the monk, but it got a bit boring. The fighter also hit level 30 before the end of the game, and I pretty much steamrolled everything, except for Trials of the luremaster, Yxonomei, Belhifet and the dragon, which took a little more effort. On the whole, soloing with a monk on insane felt like cheesing the game, since the XP rewards are unreasonably large.

 

[gunman]

So, uhh, how terrible is this version for a person who never played the original? Like, is it the BGEE level of that you could get the same thing with some mods on original edition?

This is, imo, the best EE. It adds kit classes, and zoom in/out feature, making it a little more interesting and enjoyable than the original (again, imo). As far as I know, there are no mods that add these things.

Beamdog has thus far refrained from adding too many 'enhancements' (no companions fortunately...), though that will undoubtedly change when they get around to updating it and changing the user interface. If you're itching to have a go, get it before they update it.

About the zoom feature, did they have this time the area assets in high resolution, so when zooming in it does not get blurry, or it's the same like in BG:EE, zooming in is a blurry mess? I ask this because reading this they say the world map and mini-map artworks are remastered from original high resolution assets, but nothing about the area artworks.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

To the best of my knowledge, area artwork wasn't remastered.

I don't zoom right in, ever.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

To the best of my knowledge, area artwork wasn't remastered.

I don't zoom right in, ever.

Why do you list it as a positive then?

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

Because the maps look better when you zoom out, and it's easier to observe a battle. In the original, I found it a little tiresome and difficult to find out/know which enemy was doing what, when they were outside the limits of the resolution.

Zooming half way in is as far as I find myself ever needing to go to select specific enemies when they are clustered.

 

[Kayerts]

Not sure how interesting it is to this thread, but I did a solo ironman Heart of Fury Let's Play of IWD:EE some time ago:

link

It has some questionable-tier narrative, and more detailed exploitation (and explanation) of IE game mechanics than sane players probably knew was available.

 

[Gauldur's Bait]

Finished my two character run of Heart of Winter on Core. Also finished Trials of the Luremaster just before I went to face Icasaracht. Trials was really easy, as even though the Spectral Knights have good stats and could be dangerous, my high level Inqusitor with some buffs by FMT just wiped the floor with them. To kill Icasaracht and beat HoW wasn't a challenge in it self, but keeping both characters alive required a tiny bit of planning, but not too much. Project Image, improved haste, skull trap, and tenser's transformation tipped the scales, along with potions of hill giant strength and oil of speed. Also had a nice sequencer of greater malison, slow, and haste which gets the duo out of a tight spot pretty effectively. All in all a nice romp, although my FMT missed out on level 9 mage spells. Probably then a F/T and a single class mage would be an even more effective duo. EDIT: Or, an F/T and F/M.

 

[Severian Silk]

Is this game stuck at one resolution? I don't want to play at fullscreen, but the window is too small otherwise.