Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[MrMarbles]

I much prefer Darkspawn as the antagonist, partly because in a way they are not the villain. They're just a placeholder. The real villain is the unknown force (the archdemon) that drives then, the same force that drives the char. This is clear from the dream sequences; they are not so much about darkspawn, as about the char and the changes that the unknown force are bringing.

Also, anyone comparing Baldur's Gate's dream sequances, which are adequate plot hooks, to the brilliance of TNO's search for self, deserves to be ridiculed

Here's a pro tip: Saying that two games share a feature is not the same as making a comparison of quality/ saying they are as good.

Learn the difference. Or alternatively you can start bashing people for pointing out that Diablo, like Planescape Torment, has character stats (or any other feature comparison).

 

[Grunker]

bashing people

You need to find your inner peace.

 

[Lilura]

Yep. You can basically fireball your way past half of BG in regular - in fact you can basically stock all your mages with evocation spells and even clerics/druids with damage-dealing spells. On SCS buff option - I tend to go for one of the 'medium' buff options and then limit my own buffing - and especially with spells like Dispel Magic revised (I recommend Spell Revisions also), you're often using a much wider complement.

SCS is still susceptible to brute force methods, I soloed it with a warrior. This isn't directed at you, but there is nothing elite or hardcore about SCS.

 

[Grunker]

OH YES, the "nothing is hard"-debate. We haven't had that in a long time!

 

[Tigranes]

"Hey I notice you aren't saying SCS is elite or hardcore but LEMME COME IN AND TELL EVERYBODY HOW IM AWESOME AND ITS NOT ELITE OR HARDCORE AT ALL anyway what were you sayin oh it doesnt matter OH MAN THE TIME I SOLOED EVERYBODY"

OK, you go do whatever you do when you're not posting irrelevant stuff

 

[Lilura]

Stuffing BG1 stock mages full of evocations (eg, MM, fireballs) is... unclean - and for fuckin newbies.

 

[Athelas]

Don't you have a Dragon Age blog to update?

 

[Grunker]

"Unclean"

 

[Tigranes]

"Oh, you're saying it's possible to just spam evocation spells in vanilla BG, which is an example of how SCS can encourage more interesting gameplay - FUCK YOU MAN EVOCATION SPELLS ARE FOR FUCKING NOOBS I ONCE TOOK OUT AN ENTIRE REGIMENT WITH JUST MY LEFT PINKIE AND HALF A GLITTERDUST, SON"

When an idiot needs to orgasm, you just have to give up on the thread for a couple of pages before you can talk about the game again.

 

[hell bovine]

Yep. You can basically fireball your way past half of BG in regular - in fact you can basically stock all your mages with evocation spells and even clerics/druids with damage-dealing spells. On SCS buff option - I tend to go for one of the 'medium' buff options and then limit my own buffing - and especially with spells like Dispel Magic revised (I recommend Spell Revisions also), you're often using a much wider complement.

I'm going through a Bgt/scs run now with 4 characters on Hard, reduced XP gain across the board (you gain far too much XP when you do everything, and do things like restore thieving skill XP gain into BG1 - 75% ensures that you do most things in BG1 and finish at the TOTSC xp cap). Very nice, careless means party wipe but basically nothing crazy unbeatable. I did have to wand-of-monster-summoning spam Aec'Letec, but I can never, ever figure out how his abilities work - there's one that basically puts on a countdown to explodey ghast-death, there's the hold gaze that lasts forever and is apparently unsaveable, etc.

The explode ability is also a gaze, save vs. something. Potions that protect from basilisks should protect from this. Or just use a dwarf & potions that help with saving throws.
As far as SCS goes, I've found the blindness spell basically takes an enemy out of the fight.

 

[Tigranes]

Oh, right. Now I remember I found that out after much frustration about ten years ago... then forgot it again in the interim. Yeah, Kagain + Potion of Invulnerability (& Gauntlets of Dexterity to boot) is a winner in a lot of situations.

Now taking some 'downtime' with the protagonist soloing mod-souped Irenicus Dungeon before I recruit some dudes again. Typical picks would be Korgan/Keldorn, Jaheira, Edwin, but maybe I can try others? I'm usually limited in that I refuse to take Aerie or Cernd.

 

[Lilura]

As far as SCS goes, I've found the blindness spell basically takes an enemy out of the fight.

Yep, great spell... -4 to saves, too. Coupled with Greater Malison and Doom, you can inflict a -10 save penalty on an enemy.

 

[Incantatar]

Yep, great spell... -4 to saves, too. Coupled with Greater Malison and Doom, you can inflict a -10 save penalty on an enemy.

In Vanilla it's contrary to the spell description just -10 to hit. The ToBEx tweak/fix seems to give -4 hit and -4 ac.

 

[hell bovine]

In Vanilla it's contrary to the spell description just -10 to hit. The ToBEx tweak/fix seems to give -4 hit and -4 ac.

The "to hit" penalty doesn't matter, it's the reduced sight radius that makes enemies practically helpless, though.
Since playing again I've realized that I still don't like babysitting the entire party, so for now it's a "divine spawns only" club. Made Imoen an assassin and now death comes in pink. :D

 

[Tigranes]

In Vanilla it's contrary to the spell description just -10 to hit. The ToBEx tweak/fix seems to give -4 hit and -4 ac.

The "to hit" penalty doesn't matter, it's the reduced sight radius that makes enemies practically helpless, though.
Since playing again I've realized that I still don't like babysitting the entire party, so for now it's a "divine spawns only" club. Made Imoen an assassin and now death comes in pink. :D

Yeah, it would be a winner even without any AC/hit penalties.

I didn't even do Spell Revisions this time but maybe they updated SCS? Enemies now wake up on hit from Emotion, making it just an upgraded Sleep. I suppose it's always more fun to confuse them by various means.

 

[hell bovine]

If only more games used a class concept like the wild mage...
The Bhaalspawn girls (sounds a bit like a girl band name ) made it as far as the kobold-infested mines, because I am such a fast player. Unfortunately, since Imoen died in the cleric battle, the remaining Bhaalspawn hired Xan as a pack mule. Only because Xan is made of wet tissue paper, she tried to cast invisibility on him, just so he could make it to town with all the precious loot.

Goodbye, precious loot.

 

[agris]

Found this post on the Beamdog forums: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/596612/#Comment_596612

nostalgia trip

What an interesting piece of humanity. I followed BG1's development as a young teen via PC Gamer articles in, I guess, '97/'98. I anxiously showed the screenshots and preview articles to family members who couldn't give a shit but thought it was great I was interested in something. I already owned Diablo and Fallout (my earliest gaming experiences besides some nascent Carmageddon, Full Throttle and King's Quest).

Anyway, my point is that this guy's criticism is shit. What, anything deviating from exactly what you were exposed to previous (lol @ Saudia Arabia vis-a-vis The Promenade) is bad? BG2 didn't remind you of walking in the woods so it sucked, quest density sucks? Based on the miss-spellings in his diatribe and the opinions conveyed, I think that what Infini quoted was just the product of someone with sub-par education opining on a series of games he happened to have played. The quality of his analysis and discourse is reflected in his own words.

Yes, I'm being elitist and I don't give a fuck.

 

[Modron]

Yeah some of his opinions are incorrect as BG 2 was a much better game in terms of roleplaying/combat/character building; but, I did echo his opinion that the exploration/wandering from the first game was lacking when I played BG 2 as well. You couldn't just walk across an area and go explore another one it was mostly just quest/progress gated hubs with associated areas which wasn't bad game design just lacked that charm of wandering into new areas/encounters/dungeons/caves/crap to investigate the first game had.

Of course I suppose the more focused adventuring supported the game's narrative what with you hurrying to prevent Irenicus plots/save Imoen (no link stopping to smash pots while the moon hurtles to Earth here no sir).

 

[Leitz]

I'm playing BG2 for the first time after many years. Can I turn off the hints in the text box? They ruin my holy immersion.

 

[Volrath]

Found this post on the Beamdog forums: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/596612/#Comment_596612

nostalgia trip

What an interesting piece of humanity. I followed BG1's development as a young teen via PC Gamer articles in, I guess, '97/'98. I anxiously showed the screenshots and preview articles to family members who couldn't give a shit but thought it was great I was interested in something. I already owned Diablo and Fallout (my earliest gaming experiences besides some nascent Carmageddon, Full Throttle and King's Quest).

Anyway, my point is that this guy's criticism is shit. What, anything deviating from exactly what you were exposed to previous (lol @ Saudia Arabia vis-a-vis The Promenade) is bad? BG2 didn't remind you of walking in the woods so it sucked, quest density sucks? Based on the miss-spellings in his diatribe and the opinions conveyed, I think that what Infini quoted was just the product of someone with sub-par education opining on a series of games he happened to have played. The quality of his analysis and discourse is reflected in his own words.

Yes, I'm being elitist and I don't give a fuck.

That guy sounds like Sawyer

 

[Explorerbc]

There are many companions in the game and I gotta catch them all.

Right now, I have a full 6-man party but I wanna do minsc's quest. Can Minsc and Dynaheir be temporarily dumped and re-recruited ? Also, when I find Dynaheir I am guessing I will have to leave one member to open a slot, so is it better to have them wait at a safe town and go with a team of 5 ?

 

[Infinitron]

There are many companions in the game and I gotta catch them all.

Right now, I have a full 6-man party but I wanna do minsc's quest. Can Minsc and Dynaheir be temporarily dumped and re-recruited ? Also, when I find Dynaheir I am guessing I will have to leave one member to open a slot, so is it better to have them wait at a safe town and go with a team of 5 ?

IIRC, some companions might leave you forever (exit the game, basically) if you dump them while you have a reputation that doesn't match their alignment. But most will stick around and be able to rejoin you at any time.

And yeah you'll want to leave them in town.

 

[Gentle Player]

Found this post on the Beamdog forums: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/596612/#Comment_596612

nostalgia trip

What an interesting piece of humanity. I followed BG1's development as a young teen via PC Gamer articles in, I guess, '97/'98. I anxiously showed the screenshots and preview articles to family members who couldn't give a shit but thought it was great I was interested in something. I already owned Diablo and Fallout (my earliest gaming experiences besides some nascent Carmageddon, Full Throttle and King's Quest).

Anyway, my point is that this guy's criticism is shit. What, anything deviating from exactly what you were exposed to previous (lol @ Saudia Arabia vis-a-vis The Promenade) is bad? BG2 didn't remind you of walking in the woods so it sucked, quest density sucks? Based on the miss-spellings in his diatribe and the opinions conveyed, I think that what Infini quoted was just the product of someone with sub-par education opining on a series of games he happened to have played. The quality of his analysis and discourse is reflected in his own words.

Yes, I'm being elitist and I don't give a fuck.

So, this is my story with Baldur's Gate and where my dislike for the sequel came from.

His post isn't supposed to be an objective analysis of the game's quality.

 

[soulburner]

Not sure if this thread is used for questions like this or just for general discussion, but I'll take a risk and ask.

I decided to replay Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 (originals, not EEs).

I have a problem with BG1 on my Windows 8.1 machine. I installed all the base mods (widescreen, unfinished business etc.), added Direct Draw emulation and the game runs... not so good. The performance is fine, but:
- when 16 bit color is set in the options, the mouse cursor sometimes stays on menu items, leaving corrupted graphical leftovers. Additional screen flickering also occurs.
- when 32 bit color is set, the problem is gone, but when I move my mouse cursor after loading a save, the game freezes for the duration of mouse movement

I contemplated installing BG Trilogy, but I already played a while in 16 bit mode and refuse to start from scratch, so... any ideas?

 

[pippin]

The DDrawfix solved the mouse trail for me in BG1 and PST.
I used this one: http://bitpatch.com/ie_ddrawfix.html It's probably the same one you used, but it solved the mouse trail problem for many users, so I think the problem might reside in your hardware, maybe? I'm not tech savvy so I can't really help you beyond that.