Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[Lagole Gon]

This is the bioware forum and not the place for discussing the POS early access garbage BG3.

Go be a commie somewhere else.

 

[Joggerino]

This is the bioware forum and not the place for discussing the POS early access garbage BG3.

Go be a commie somewhere else.

Have to defend the honor of the infinity engine flagship game BG2.

 

[Ninjerk]

how many orphans do you think candlekeep has, on average?

How often do you think the Candlekeep monks have sex?

You don't already know how often monks have sex in Forgotten realms lore?!

 

[Melcar]

how many orphans do you think candlekeep has, on average?

How often do you think the Candlekeep monks have sex?

You don't already know how often monks have sex in Forgotten realms lore?!

Well Imoen was there. She was the only young woman there and I doubt Candlekeep allowed hookers. I have no doubt she often got caught picking pockets and locks and had to "pay" her way out.

 

[Swen]

The simple fact that you're defending this shows how desperate you are to increase your Larian Fanboy Cringeometer™.

"I'm an orphan raised in Candlekeep, my adoptive father has been assassinated" is a perfectly fine background that would be accepted in most sensible campaigns.
On the other hand, the clusterfuck that BG3 went for would be ridiculed by any player with even the smallest semblance of a functioning brain.

It's not Larian's fault, this is simply how things have to be presented to be accepted by the D&D 5 community. Why can't you accept it? Why do you have to pretend that this retarded pathetic excuse for a plot hook is even remotely similar to what BG1 did?

how many orphans do you think candlekeep has, on average?
why would candlekeep have an orphan there, one of the worst possible places to raise a child?
literally the only reason to keep a child there would be if he's either dangerous to others or others are dangerous to him

if you thought you were some random orphan at the start of the game, then you only have your ignorance to blame

This is just weird autistposting for the sake of winning some imaginary game.
Here's some facts instead:
1. BG1 has a classic simple low-level start. An orphan in a peaceful secluded location. Basic stuff.
2. BG3 starts with you escaping a crashing illithid space ship. This alone would be fine for an adventure focused on illithids. But the space ship is flying through ABYSS because... adding another wildly different high-level theme to the intro will make it more epic? Does Michael Bay work for Larian? And the tadpole in your brain is not a regular eldritch alien tadpole... it's super special and magical (add another high level theme later).
3. This whole thing can be made worse by playing a pre-made character. Why would you be just a boring CHARNAME with a magical tadpole flying through hell when you can also have a netheril nuke in your ass?
4. This is all the very beginning. Throwing all this cacophony in your face.

Damn, sounds fcking awesome when you type it out like that. Holy fck BG3 is going to be the GOAT....and it makes the codex seethe 24/7. What's not to love?

 

[razvedchiki]

there was a site with 1st edition dnd portaits, like this one

Spoiler

anyone remembers what was called? cant find it, everytime i format i forget where it was.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

If you're not playing Gnome Fighter/Illusionist or some other variety of Gnome Illusionist, you're making a BIG mistake

Spoiler

 

[Sunsetspawn]

Mordeki Lebowitz?
Mazel tov!
So that's where he ended up after The Daily Show.


Okay, so my first foray into the IE games was nine years ago; duly noted. And it was BG2, to boot. What an ass I was. My final impression is that the first Baldur's Gate is better than the second. Also, I never bought the second one GOG, opting instead to use discs I inherited, so I guess I'll never own a digital copy of that game due to Beamdog's (or whoever) troonery. But, I own digital copies of all the other IE games.

And now I've started the last of them: Icewind Dale 2.

But on to the real question: seriously, should I buy the enhanced editions, or do they ruin the joy of that simpler time when fun was the one and only design philosophy?

 

[Melcar]

Mordeki Lebowitz?
Mazel tov!
So that's where he ended up after The Daily Show.


Okay, so my first foray into the IE games was nine years ago; duly noted. And it was BG2, to boot. What an ass I was. My final impression is that the first Baldur's Gate is better than the second. Also, I never bought the second one GOG, opting instead to use discs I inherited, so I guess I'll never own a digital copy of that game due to Beamdog's (or whoever) troonery. But, I own digital copies of all the other IE games.

And now I've started the last of them: Icewind Dale 2.

But on to the real question: seriously, should I buy the enhanced editions, or do they ruin the joy of that simpler time when fun was the one and only design philosophy?

If you have the originals and can get them to run comfortably on your current system, then play those only. If you find yourself absolutely needing QoL type mods just to play them (and would rather not take the time to install mods) or need to serious hacking to get them to work then buy the EE by all means. The EE do change the original gameplay a lot.

 

[Jvegi]

But on to the real question: seriously, should I buy the enhanced editions, or do they ruin the joy of that simpler time when fun was the one and only design philosophy?

There is a very good argument for not playing BG1 on EE. Especially the first time around.

I struggle to find the similar argument for BG2. It's QoL and bug fixes all around at this point. Oh, wait, I got one. I was playing BG2 for well over a decade without EE, so.. They're good enough. Experience and learn. Then, when the mod thirst seats in, go for EE and all that other shit.

And now I've started the last of them: Icewind Dale 2.

Fuck. Play EE. There is only so much original EE junk one should endure.

 

[Sunsetspawn]

I played BG1 at least a dozen of times and every single time I found something new. Often only a detail, a NPC with a funny quote, maybe a hidden secret behind an image, something in a tree stump... it wasn't much, no epic reward, no massive riches, but paradoxically it felt much more rewarding. It's as if the game world opens only part by part and every time you decide to dedicate yourself to explore it you have the chance to discover something.

Sheeeeit, negro. You're about to make me abandon my Icewind Dale 2 playthrough. You're about to make me abandon the taxes I'm halfassedly doing but also currently procrastinating with the RPGcodex. Loved me some Baldur's Gate 1 and I only played through it once.

 

[Jvegi]

I played BG1 at least a dozen of times and every single time I found something new. Often only a detail, a NPC with a funny quote, maybe a hidden secret behind an image, something in a tree stump... it wasn't much, no epic reward, no massive riches, but paradoxically it felt much more rewarding. It's as if the game world opens only part by part and every time you decide to dedicate yourself to explore it you have the chance to discover something.

Sheeeeit, negro. You're about to make me abandon my Icewind Dale 2 playthrough. You're about to make me abandon the taxes I'm halfassedly doing but also currently procrastinating with the RPGcodex. Loved me some Baldur's Gate 1 and I only played through it once.

Don't. IWD2 is problematic, but it has some awesome late-game fights.

 

[Sunsetspawn]

Funny how BG2tards criticize BG3 for being a "theme park", the irony.

BG3 starts with main character on illithid SPACE SHIP damaged by githyanki DRAGON RIDERS flying through ABYSS. You have an illithid TADPOLE in your brain, but it's not a regular TADPOLE it was modified with NETHERIL SHADOW MAGIC, it gives you SPECIAL POWERS and IMAGINARY WAIFU FROM YOUR DREAMS.
And if you are playing a pre-made character, let's say Gale, in addition to all that you can have A NETHERIL NUCLEAR WARHEAD IN YOUR CHEST.

And that's only the early part of the game. There is no fucking comparsion.

Nice caricature. The actual gameplay is:
>you are a shipwreck survivor
>you need to find where you are
>you fight bandits and goblins
>you recruit some allies along the way
>you reach a village where you can resupply and help the locals
You know, a low level D&D campaign. It has a fancy coat of paint, but its not a theme park that you go through to watch the highlights from your seat. You interact with a classical adventure.
Of all the tings to complain about, fuck.

I haven't played 3 but if what you're writing is true than all the dragons, lovecraft wizards, spaceships, and interdimensional travel should really be hidden behind amnesia that gets slowly removed later. This way it can actually feel like a low-level adventure while it's still a low-level adventure. Having a D&D game open right up into OMGTITSFFSFML!!!111!ONE is fucking dildos. Is there an awesome button too?

This shit is all the result of design-by-committee to maximize profits. You know that 60% group of the achievements/trophies that don't complete the first mission, the people that bought the game because it looked kino? Yeah, appealing to those things makes entertainment moderately retarded while still being tolerable enough that people with taste stick around for the good parts. Unfortunately, the only way to avoid that shit is to avoid AAA shit altogether and stick to niche products meant specifically for you, like Pillars of Eternity. For all the bleating about POE's various issues, nobody here can say the narrative didn't unfold exceptionally well.

 

[underground nymph]

Funny how BG2tards criticize BG3 for being a "theme park", the irony.

BG3 starts with main character on illithid SPACE SHIP damaged by githyanki DRAGON RIDERS flying through ABYSS. You have an illithid TADPOLE in your brain, but it's not a regular TADPOLE it was modified with NETHERIL SHADOW MAGIC, it gives you SPECIAL POWERS and IMAGINARY WAIFU FROM YOUR DREAMS.
And if you are playing a pre-made character, let's say Gale, in addition to all that you can have A NETHERIL NUCLEAR WARHEAD IN YOUR CHEST.

And that's only the early part of the game. There is no fucking comparsion.

Nice caricature. The actual gameplay is:
>you are a shipwreck survivor
>you need to find where you are
>you fight bandits and goblins
>you recruit some allies along the way
>you reach a village where you can resupply and help the locals
You know, a low level D&D campaign. It has a fancy coat of paint, but its not a theme park that you go through to watch the highlights from your seat. You interact with a classical adventure.
Of all the tings to complain about, fuck.

I haven't played 3 but if what you're writing is true than all the dragons, lovecraft wizards, spaceships, and interdimensional travel should really be hidden behind amnesia that gets slowly removed later. This way it can actually feel like a low-level adventure while it's still a low-level adventure. Having a D&D game open right up into OMGTITSFFSFML!!!111!ONE is fucking dildos. Is there an awesome button too?

This shit is all the result of design-by-committee to maximize profits. You know that 60% group of the achievements/trophies that don't complete the first mission, the people that bought the game because it looked kino? Yeah, appealing to those things makes entertainment moderately retarded while still being tolerable enough that people with taste stick around for the good parts. Unfortunately, the only way to avoid that shit is to avoid AAA shit altogether and stick to niche products meant specifically for you, like Pillars of Eternity. For all the bleating about POE's various issues, nobody here can say the narrative didn't unfold exceptionally well.

While all that about the opening of BG3 is true (yet of course caricatured), it didn’t strike me as overly out of place. Quite the contrary I’ve found it refreshing and engaging. Why repeating the same old tropes, when you can do something new and better? The latter is arguable of course, but again nothing clicked when I was playing it for the first time.

What is really the problem of BG3 and what is rarely mentioned by those who just find it trendy to shit on it is the following the BG2 design of New Cool Adventure Around The Corner. It is even worse than BG2 because of smaller seamless maps. You basically walk from one point of interest to another with them being like two minutes apart at best. For example there’s a quest when a paladin asks to find and finish of a demon and she literally can be seen from the window of a building said paladin resides.

That above question is what people call a theme park — absence of any kind of exploration.

And well yes the companions are too a very unique snowflakes with Very Cool Backgrounds. But this will probably change when new not origin companions will be added.

 

[Sunsetspawn]

That above question is what people call a theme park — absence of any kind of exploration.

And well yes the companions are too a very unique snowflakes with Very Cool Backgrounds. But this will probably change when new not origin companions will be added.

Truth be told, these are more serious issues than the wacky beginning, but I'll probably buy it when it comes out anyway, unless the Codexian consensus is that it's roughly equivalent to Original Sin 2. I've tried twice on that hot garbage and just can't seem to do it, which is wild because I loved the first OS.

If you have the originals and can get them to run comfortably on your current system, then play those only.

Funny you say that. Last night before bed I fired up Baldur's Gate to maybe start a second run. It's the only IE game I finished and loved wholeheartedly so I figured why not see what's up.

Well, the fog of war has gone all retarded, with the edge tiles seemingly facing random directions and not actually aligned to where CHARNAME is standing. I'm going to try again right now.

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

The current start of adventure in BG3 is only acceptable for me if main character after that famous Intro sequence of "uber epic hero fantasy",
wake up in mental hospital and all of that was a just a kind of prophet dream. Then game should follow of low start into Forgotten Realms awesumness.

 

[Chippy]

If you're not playing Gnome Fighter/Illusionist or some other variety of Gnome Illusionist, you're making a BIG mistake

Spoiler

It was lost on me years ago that the Gnomes would have access to unique multiclass class(s) that were unavailable to other races. Still, we're not all Gnomes in RL and some of us can't get into playing that...'chosen' race.

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

The open world exploring in the first BG felt great. It really felt like hiking outdoors analog for CRPGs.

Vocal normies didn't like it, so Bioware ditched it (which also makes BG2 a game more true to their entire line-age -- they're less of a world sim company, and more of an interactive movie company, where every single location, every character, everything is part of a carefully planted movie set piece, as opposed to a .. world).

Kingdom Come Deliverance's exploration reminded me of BG1 a lot, albeit in a different format. Also a game not afraid to have stuff existing because it ... exists, as opposed to existing merely for the sake of being part of a quest, a monster, NPC or loot location.

Watching some gameplay of Black Geyser, I've recently wondered if it may be kind of similar too (any opinions?)

Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness - Gameplay Walkthrough - E9 - YouTube

Yeah Black Geyser is very similar to both Baldurs, you should try it.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

If you're not playing Gnome Fighter/Illusionist or some other variety of Gnome Illusionist, you're making a BIG mistake

Spoiler

It was lost on me years ago that the Gnomes would have access to unique multiclass class(s) that were unavailable to other races. Still, we're not all Gnomes in RL and some of us can't get into playing that...'chosen' race.

It's perfectly fine for a goyim to admit that they are a lesser race and that they cannot play as the race of their superiors.

 

[Nano]

Dual-class is superior to multis. Mage specs are supposed to be available for dual-classing in AD&D but Bioware didn't bother implementing that in BG2.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

if you don't mind having aerie in your party there's very little reason to multiclass in a traditional playthrough.

 

[JBro]

Making my way through BG2 again. What's the OP shit?

 

[Sunsetspawn]

Well, the fog of war has gone all retarded, with the edge tiles seemingly facing random directions and not actually aligned to where CHARNAME is standing. I'm going to try again right now.

Thought I would post the solution.

https://github.com/narzoul/DDrawCompat

There's a ddraw.dll that you drop into the main folder next to the exe. Makes shit right as rain. I knew getting that 3070 would bite me in the ass; I should've sprung for the 3090.

 

[underground nymph]

Well, the fog of war has gone all retarded, with the edge tiles seemingly facing random directions and not actually aligned to where CHARNAME is standing. I'm going to try again right now.

Thought I would post the solution.

https://github.com/narzoul/DDrawCompat

There's a ddraw.dll that you drop into the main folder next to the exe. Makes shit right as rain. I knew getting that 3070 would bite me in the ass; I should've sprung for the 3090.

Try also integer upscale. That’s my must have in all IE.

 

[Chippy]

Well, the fog of war has gone all retarded, with the edge tiles seemingly facing random directions and not actually aligned to where CHARNAME is standing. I'm going to try again right now.

Thought I would post the solution.

https://github.com/narzoul/DDrawCompat

There's a ddraw.dll that you drop into the main folder next to the exe. Makes shit right as rain. I knew getting that 3070 would bite me in the ass; I should've sprung for the 3090.

Try also integer upscale. That’s my must have in all IE.

Anyone have a picture of the newfound technical devilry? I'll need to see if it's worth buying a new video card before I start throwing out my old Win98 and XP PCs after all.