IWD2 source code lost, Beamdog is sad

[Lyric Suite]

Out of all IE games IWD2 is in the most need of technical enhancements. Engine is really picky if it wants to work on particular machine, trying various mods, emulations, settings usually takes a lot of time and sometimes it works, sometimes nothing helps to achieve playable configuration.

Best part is how random it is.

Couple years ago i had to muck with DxWnd to make it boot properly. I reinstalled the game yesterday and just loaded up without a sinlge problem or glitch, no mods or patches.

 

[Jigby]

cnc-ddraw works well with infinity engine games. Just set to borderless window mode, aspect ratio preservation.

Edit:

Couple years ago i had to muck with DxWnd to make it boot properly. I reinstalled the game yesterday and just loaded up without a sinlge problem or glitch, no mods or patches.

Also if you're using the gog version, that one comes with preinstalled wined3d.

 

[Sykar]

It is a special game because of the great atmosphere and the quirky D&D ruleset. My only gripe is that there is a lack of certain feats, like some important spell schools are missing, Conjurationbeing the most missed.

 

[logrus]

Meanwhile, in Pillars you can easily make a tank with constitution as a dump stat

And your point is? If you think that you need to heavily invest in CON for a tank build in D&D you know shit about the system. Actually if you feel a need for investing in CON for your tank, it's a strong sign that you've fucked up your tank build and just try to cover it up with HP bloat.

 

[thesheeep]

And your point is? If you think that you need to heavily invest in CON for a tank build in D&D you know shit about the system. Actually if you feel a need for investing in CON for your tank, it's a strong sign that you've fucked up your tank build and just try to cover it up with HP bloat.

If you are gaming the system and min-maxing, maybe.
But the idea of a character that is supposed to tank damage while being some wimpy low-const beanpole is beyond ridiculous.
As a DM, I wouldn't even accept it.

Besides, isn't there even a minimum const requirement for martial classes in D&D? I might be mixing things up with other systems here...

And in Pillars, if you actually read the description of the attribute, it makes even less sense that any kind of "can tank damage" character should be able to dump the stat.

 

[logrus]

And your point is? If you think that you need to heavily invest in CON for a tank build in D&D you know shit about the system. Actually if you feel a need for investing in CON for your tank, it's a strong sign that you've fucked up your tank build and just try to cover it up with HP bloat.

If you are gaming the system and min-maxing, maybe.
But the idea of a character that is supposed to tank damage while being some wimpy low-const beanpole is beyond ridiculous.
As a DM, I wouldn't even accept it.

What is ridiculous is your way of thinking that tanking is just taking blows to the face. It's not even about min-maxing and making purely gamey toon mixing 5 classes, but just using your brain for a bit.
D&D is so rich system and gives so many tools to the players to build a character avoiding damage in different ways, but yeah all that shithead DM allows is a 18 CON fighter with a tower shield, give me a break.
And yeah, nobody would want you as a dullest DM ever, stop even pretending.

 

[Nano]

It reduced ability scores to merely their bonuses, then you must ask: what is the point of ability scores anyways if all they are used for is their bonuses?
It only made them easier to understand in the sense of robbing them of all purpose.

Is that supposed to be worse than 2E where there was no difference between Dexterity 7 and 14?

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

Meanwhile, in Pillars you can easily make a tank with constitution as a dump stat

And your point is? If you think that you need to heavily invest in CON for a tank build in D&D you know shit about the system. Actually if you feel a need for investing in CON for your tank, it's a strong sign that you've fucked up your tank build and just try to cover it up with HP bloat.

I actually like making a female front-line fighter with 7 CON in D&D games (make CON a dump stat basically in modern parlance) , do it all the time, and have been since 80's... and they can tank totally fine.

 

[thesheeep]

What is ridiculous is your way of thinking that tanking is just taking blows to the face.
D&D is so rich system and gives so many tools to the players to build a character avoiding damage in different ways

A tank has to be able to take blows. That's the entire point of it.
What you are thinking about is (I assume) some kind of DEX-based "dodge" build with high AC from "other sources" that is much less likely to get hit to begin with - and/or utilizing magic/abilities to ignore or mitigate.
That's all fine and dandy - but none of that is tanking, unless you are able to take a few hits as well.

If you do such a build, and your "tank" takes a hit anyway (cause you can never FULLY prevent that, especially in low-mid level range) and then crumbles over because of low HP. Well, that's not much of a tank now, is it?
You need both, the lower chance of being hit to begin with and the capability of withstanding the hits that do come in.

Nobody is talking about the classic tower shield-high-CON combo, although that certainly is one of the most viable in terms of survivability.
And nobody demands 18-CON, either.
But some gimmicky dump-CON shit? While I'm mostly talking about PC gaming here, in a PnP scenario, that won't survive for long with me as a DM, cause my enemies act intelligently (well, if they do have intelligence).

I actually like making a female front-line fighter with 7 CON in D&D games (make CON a dump stat basically in modern parlance) , do it all the time, and have been since 80's... and they can tank totally fine.

That just tells me your DM sucks in providing challenge or willfully enables some gimmicky crap with unrealistic encounter design or you're talking about high level characters.
With high level characters, yeah, anything is possible. But we're talking about PC gaming here, where high level is what? 10-20% of the game?
That's not what this is about.

Most of the time (looking at BG, IWD, NWN or Pathfinder), you'll be strongly limited by what your low-ish-lvl character(s) can do, and a tank in that scenario will not be able to mitigate being hit all the time. It needs the HP.

 

[Skdursh]

Does anyone here have access to the "IWD2:EE" mod? I'm curious to check out what it is purporting to offer, but don't really want to have to make a Beamdog account, link my Git and then wait for who knows how long to get a response from them in order to access it. I suppose I could make a burner Git and I could make a burner Beamdog account (even though it goes without saying that every Beamdog account is a burner account), but it would be much easier if someone here already has access and is willing to send me the files via private message.

 

[Average Manatee]

I actually like IWD2's implementation of 3rd ed. A slimmed down 3rd ed without a hundred fucking feats or a dozen prestige classes is just a straight up improvement. 3rd ed spell DCs and saving throws are infinitely better than AD&D's version and this improves the combat hugely over the BGs/IWD1. The only selling point of IE's AD&D implementation over 3rd ed is the variety of stupidly OP dual classing/multiclassing combinations.

 

[EdgyRightWinger]

Does anyone here have access to the "IWD2:EE" mod? I'm curious to check out what it is purporting to offer

Here's a recent changelog pasted from discord https://pastebin.com/PY0Y2R2H

I haven't played it either, but it appears they've gone far beyond bug fixes and are basically making their own custom version of DND 3E. Which I'm not interested in.

It doesn't help that the main developer is a

Spoiler

jewish

Spoiler

troon

 

[Average Manatee]

Says a lot when there's 49 mentions of the word crash in their changelog for a game that had no crashing issues to begin with. They are turning the engine into swiss cheese trying to implement all their crazy shit.

 

[Sykar]

"The Black Dragon shapeshifted form becomes even more powerful at levels 40 and 50."

Wait, what?!
Level 50? Did they add 20 levels to the original level cap? Just pure

 

[Nazrim Eldrak]

I was hoping they would polish it up and make it compatible with new age hardware and software.
Anyone interested could have then made their own branch or mod for this clean bones of the EE version.

What a shame to read that it contains fan made stuff.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

The game could use a combat encounter overhaul. I thought I'd give it another go since the last time has been many years ago, but I have to say that its more of a chore than a joy. I've finished Solasta not too long ago and combat was much better in there. I haven't progressed far yet, in IWD2, but there were next to no tactics involved as it stands and its basically trash mob after trash mob, which are only "threating" due to the tiresome amount that is thrown at you. The beginning with almost nothing but goblins and orcs is extremely dull.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

 

[taxalot]

Still doesn't explain why he lost the source code though.

 

[King Crispy]

If it doesn't lead to a (real) Icewind Dale III then who gives a shit?

 

[Gargaune]

If it doesn't lead to a (real) Icewind Dale III then who gives a shit?

I do. I want Beamdog to make me an IWD2 EE.

 

[d1r]

 

[Sacibengala]

He knew that in the future it would be used for evil, so he lost it. The end.

 

[Arbiter]

If it doesn't lead to a (real) Icewind Dale III then who gives a shit?

Don't give Larian new ideas. Do you want to romance a polar bear?