I'm at the end of my rope on this one: BG2.

[Grunker]

How is dark side of the sword coast by the way? That's the other one i was unsure about but decided to give the benefit of a doubt - and since it is BG 1, it probably will help flesh out things i thought.

(Vecna is the largest mod yet, i just wanted to try it).

DSotSC does two things:

1) Add more magic items into the game. For a mod, these are generally quite balanced, however, so it's not necesarily a bad thing. I don't use the mod myself, but that's because I'm running a hyper-difficult SCS-run.

2) Adds a big quest. This one is pretty terribly made technically, but it's not TDD-broken bad horrible.

As for the Vecna-mod, I don't even know that one. Which surprises me considering the amount of BG-mods I've played.

 

[bussinrounds]

Damn. I installed the standard version of the BWP with whole shitload of mods and i'm already deep into BG1 (in the city of BG) So it's too late to start over.

Any advise on how to avoid any of the really bad mods that add extra content, say ? (like this darkest day)

 

[Grunker]

You can't... They automatically add broken-as-hell spells to your clerics and you'll have no way to determine whether the spell-scrolls or items you find are broken-as-hell TDD ones or normal BG ones unless you're a gigantic BG-nerd like me.

My advice? Either restart or accept that some of the mods you have installed are shit. The BG-mod-jungle will cause this to people, just like Morrowind or other mod-heavy games will.

There's no way to avoid shitty mods except asking a place like this before installing.

 

[bussinrounds]

I have too many other games to get to after this, so i guess i'll just have to accept it then.

 

[Xor]

You can't avoid the darkest day. It has a quest that overrides the normal end of SoA before the transition to ToB.

Don't use any custom NPCs. I have yet to play one of those that was actually good.

Also, I ended up with the imoen romance mod installed and it was fucking irritating to the point where I would avoid using imoen at all if you have that mod.

 

[SCO]

Yeah: avoid npcs mods that are not for npc's originally made by Bioware - especially the females.

It doesn't tend to apply as much if the actual npc is already in the game even if not part of the party - Valen for instance. It's a little bump in the Sue-modder railroad.

 

[bussinrounds]

I'm not. Just rolling with Imoen, Jaheira, Branwen and Minsc.

 

[octavius]

Damn. I installed the standard version of the BWP with whole shitload of mods and i'm already deep into BG1 (in the city of BG) So it's too late to start over.

Any advise on how to avoid any of the really bad mods that add extra content, say ? (like this darkest day)

Don't install BWP.
Instead install a small amount of quality mods manually.

Quality mods:
BG1 NPC Project
Sword Coast Stratagems
Unfinished Business
BG2 Fixpack
Widescreen Mod


There are also various tweak mods that has much to offer like:
Hard Times (if you really want to feel the iron crisis in BG1)
Rogue Rebalancing
d0Tweaks
iiTweaks
aTweaks
BG2 Tweaks
Spell Revisions
Oversight
TB#Tweaks
Virtue


Of quest mods most are terribly unbalanced, but these are quite good:
Lure of the Sirene's Call
Baldur's Gate Mini-Quests and Encounters Mod (not very exciting, though)
Tower of Deception
Wheels of Prophecy (not played it, but it's made by the same guy who made ScS, so I assume quality)
d0 QuestPack


NPC Mods:
Avoid them like the plague.

 

[bussinrounds]

Maybe when i finish BG1, i should just start a fresh BG2 game with a few mods like you mentioned ?

 

[Grunker]

Maybe when i finish BG1, i should just start a fresh BG2 game with a few mods like you mentioned ?

Not a bad idea. Finish game, take notes on your character.

Come back here (I'll post my modlist the 28th when I get to my desktop), re-install, start BG2.

 

[SCO]

I no longer have the patience for updating mods. The idea of the BWS appeals, even if the execution does not (it doesn't work on linux) - a list like BWP at least allows one to keep up to date with minimum effort expended.

I bet you don't know about ToB Extender for instance.

 

[Grunker]

I bet you don't know about ToB Extender for instance.

I'm using it in my current playthrough

...which has ceased for the time being because of a bug I think I caused myself. Nothing that can't be solved I hope.

 

[Zed]

Play the game unmodified instead, the original as intended.

 

[Grunker]

Play the game unmodified instead, the original as intended.

I can't think of single reason to play without at least Baldur's Gate Trilogy, One Pixel Productions and SCS/SCSII

 

[Max Heap]

Also, the German synchronisation is almost perfect, adding as much ridiculousness as it adds good atmosphere. "Meine Oide hat mir ganz schön eingeheizt!", "Weitere Eindringlinge im Komplex, Meistaaaaa..." :D Ah, memories...

Also let's not forget: "Muss aufhör'n mein eigenes Bier zu sauf'n"
Or from BG1: "Hey Freund, du i find des pfundig so eine feine Person wie di zu treffen!"


All with a bavarian accent

 

[almondblight]

Just playing through BG for the first time now. It's...OK. To be honest, nothing's really grabbing me the way, say, Exile III did. I'm still early in the game, so hopefully things pick up. Now it's mostly strolling through the wilderness, fighting lots of trash mobs, and completing lots of really boring FedEx quests ("Hey, I forgot my hat back in that other city, get it for me and I'll pay you 10 bucks!"...yeah...).

A few minor annoyances:
1. The 3D movies look horribly dated now. They could have just gone with artist sketches, but I suppose at the time having 3D movies was considered state of the art. Now it just seems silly.

2. Anyone else think it's weird that people in Candlekeep are trying to kill you, you are supposed to pack your bags to run, but at the same time you're completing quests where people say..."Hey, I can't be bothered to walk across the street to pick X up, can you go there and get it for me?" ?

3. Not being able to equip a bow as an alternate weapon will using a shield is very annoying, as you have to remove your bow to equip the shield, and sometimes when I'm selling off mass loot I'll end up selling it off too. It seems they just could of made the bow unusable if the shield is equipped.

Overal, it's OK so far. It seems to be just a lot of mediocrity, which is OK, but it's just not grabbing me. Hopefully once I get to Nishkel the quests will get longer and the game will pick up a bit.

 

[bussinrounds]

Maybe when i finish BG1, i should just start a fresh BG2 game with a few mods like you mentioned ?

Not a bad idea. Finish game, take notes on your character.

Come back here (I'll post my modlist the 28th when I get to my desktop), re-install, start BG2.

So if i were to start a fresh BG2 game, how would i get all my stats/abilities/spells/equ back from my current BWP playthrough ? With that shadow keeper thing ?

 

[Turjan]

2. Anyone else think it's weird that people in Candlekeep are trying to kill you, you are supposed to pack your bags to run, but at the same time you're completing quests where people say..."Hey, I can't be bothered to walk across the street to pick X up, can you go there and get it for me?" ?

Not really. I mean, those people who give the quests don't know about your problems, and you are free to skip those quests. Otherwise, it's the typical tutorial conundrum: You as the player know that this is the tutorial and that procrastination does not matter.

Hopefully once I get to Nishkel the quests will get longer and the game will pick up a bit.

Hmm. Nashkell has a rather annoying dungeon. Try to get through that, and it will get better afterwards.

 

[octavius]

Just playing through BG for the first time now. It's...OK. To be honest, nothing's really grabbing me the way, say, Exile III did. I'm still early in the game, so hopefully things pick up. Now it's mostly strolling through the wilderness, fighting lots of trash mobs, and completing lots of really boring FedEx quests ("Hey, I forgot my hat back in that other city, get it for me and I'll pay you 10 bucks!"...yeah...).

A few minor annoyances:
1. The 3D movies look horribly dated now. They could have just gone with artist sketches, but I suppose at the time having 3D movies was considered state of the art. Now it just seems silly.

2. Anyone else think it's weird that people in Candlekeep are trying to kill you, you are supposed to pack your bags to run, but at the same time you're completing quests where people say..."Hey, I can't be bothered to walk across the street to pick X up, can you go there and get it for me?" ?

3. Not being able to equip a bow as an alternate weapon will using a shield is very annoying, as you have to remove your bow to equip the shield, and sometimes when I'm selling off mass loot I'll end up selling it off too. It seems they just could of made the bow unusable if the shield is equipped.

Overal, it's OK so far. It seems to be just a lot of mediocrity, which is OK, but it's just not grabbing me. Hopefully once I get to Nishkel the quests will get longer and the game will pick up a bit.

Consider Candlekeep a tutorial. The game starts properly after Gorion dies and when it's just you and Imoen.
If you want to skip Candlekeep there are mods for that. Sword Coast Strategems has a "Skip Candlekeep" component which works very well. If it's your first time playing BG you may only want to install a few components of that mod, though.

 

[SCO]

Does anyone else think BG2 portraits suck compared to BG 1 ones?

 

[Xor]

Maybe when i finish BG1, i should just start a fresh BG2 game with a few mods like you mentioned ?

Not a bad idea. Finish game, take notes on your character.

Come back here (I'll post my modlist the 28th when I get to my desktop), re-install, start BG2.

So if i were to start a fresh BG2 game, how would i get all my stats/abilities/spells/equ back from my current BWP playthrough ? With that shadow keeper thing ?

Export your character just before the fight with Sarevok, then import the character in your new install. I don't know off the top of my head where the game stores those, but it shouldn't be difficult to find. As long as your new install of BG2 has the same kit you were using before it should be fine.

edit: Looks like the game stores them in the /characters directory. Back that up when you reinstall.

 

[Grunker]

Maybe when i finish BG1, i should just start a fresh BG2 game with a few mods like you mentioned ?

Not a bad idea. Finish game, take notes on your character.

Come back here (I'll post my modlist the 28th when I get to my desktop), re-install, start BG2.

So if i were to start a fresh BG2 game, how would i get all my stats/abilities/spells/equ back from my current BWP playthrough ? With that shadow keeper thing ?

You can do what Xor suggests if you're perfectly sure no mods from BWP has messed with the character file.

A safer way is to just re-create the character, cheat in the stats and experience via the CLUAConsole, and cheat in Spell-scrolls to learn from via the CLUAConsole too.

Equipment at the end of BG1 is not imported into BG2.

 

[sea]

Just playing through BG for the first time now. It's...OK. To be honest, nothing's really grabbing me the way, say, Exile III did. I'm still early in the game, so hopefully things pick up. Now it's mostly strolling through the wilderness, fighting lots of trash mobs, and completing lots of really boring FedEx quests ("Hey, I forgot my hat back in that other city, get it for me and I'll pay you 10 bucks!"...yeah...).

That's the entire game, pretty much. Hope you like Hobgoblins, Bandits, Gnolls and Kobolds, because that's about all you'll fight except for the occasional Wyvern and some spiders. Seriously, aside from a few bosses, and the mage fights, it's... bad. Better with the expansion, because it doubles the number of enemies and things get very challenging even with a maxed-out twinked party, but those are still limited to the expansion areas, so the original game isn't any better off for it.

Some of the quests in some of the smaller towns and Baldur's Gate itself get better, but not by that much, and unless you're using a guide, you're going to have to enter every single goddamn identical-looking house (probably over 500 in the game) and talk to every single random NPC you see, because even a name on said NPC isn't a guarantee it has a quest (or vice versa, some come from generic "Townsperson" types too). If you want interesting quests and exploration that's actually rewarding rather than just shooting in the dark, stick to Baldur's Gate II.

 

[MMXI]

Equipment at the end of BG1 is not imported into BG2.

Lie!

 

[Grunker]

Just playing through BG for the first time now. It's...OK. To be honest, nothing's really grabbing me the way, say, Exile III did. I'm still early in the game, so hopefully things pick up. Now it's mostly strolling through the wilderness, fighting lots of trash mobs, and completing lots of really boring FedEx quests ("Hey, I forgot my hat back in that other city, get it for me and I'll pay you 10 bucks!"...yeah...).

That's the entire game, pretty much. Hope you like Hobgoblins, Bandits, Gnolls and Kobolds, because that's about all you'll fight except for the occasional Wyvern and some spiders.

And Ankhegs, and Doppelgangers and Ogre Mages and Carrion Crawlers and Ghouls and Skeletons and Zombies and Werewolves and Demons and Oozes and Ogres and Dryads and Sirenes and Basilisks and Doom Guards and Helmed Horrors and Invissible Stalkers and more.

And that's BG1 only, don't even get me started on BG2.

In the genre, I believe that monster list is about average (and BG2's is absolutely insane). In other words, to quote another famous Codex-member:

that's about all you'll fight

Bullshit.