Icewind Dale The Icewind Dale Series Thread

[Johannes]

They "feel" really like what the cold north of faerun would be like.

That feels like running in a linear path filled with enemies?

 

[Serious_Business]

I'm not sure why people keep saying the combat is bad, I actually liked it. The combat is exactly the same as BG2 so ....

get out

 

[Surf Solar]

As a sideproduct of me learning more 3d modelling stuff, I also tried to create some fantasy themed snow landscapes. I came up with this:

It reminded me so much of some loading screens from Icewind Dale - then I realized that with that huge scene there it's easy to render it in the Infinity Engines camera and make an actual map out of it. I have created the inner city plus some interiors aswell. Now, I have not a single clue about IE modding and I also don't really have time to do this since I'm occupied with my game, but I thought it would be a shame if it would rot on my hd. So if someone is interested in that particular scene, the textures and the models and wants to create that map for later use in the game - just drop me a line. I'd LOVE to eventually play in that map.

For actual lore, I thought it would be cool if that city was Bryn Shander, one of the Ten Towns in Icewind Dale (the biggest, actually). It was never shown in any game and the lore for it is quit "thin" to stay generous...

 

[PorkaMorka]

It's hard for me to pin down why I hated IWD2 so much more than the other IE games.

Level design definitely played a role.

But I think that the pseudo third edition might have been a part of the problem.

When you convert AD&D to real time with pause, nothing of value is lost it suffers, but not too badly. AD&D was always kind of open to freeform combat anyway, at least when we played it. RTWP with the characters at least positioned on a map isn't that much worse than turn based with salt shakers and pennies roughly positioned on a table.

But 3rd edition is all about tactical positioning with the 5 foot steps, withdrawal and run move types, attacks of opportunity, tumble skill, reach weapons, etc. Converting it to real time with pause guts the combat system, leaving the third edition rules as simply a way to for making your guys really overpowered.

I should probably give it another try though, at least there is no Hommlet / Nulb to make the first five hours of the game miserable.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

So I thought about firing up Icewind Dale 1 again.
Found this widescreen mod for IE games which is supposed to allow you setting any resolution you want: http://www.gibberlings3.net/widescreen/

Does anyone of you guys have experiences with this mod? Does it work in general, and for IWD in particular? Does it cause any bugs?

I wouldn't care about higher resolutions, but I'll have to play the game on my laptop and anything below its native resolution (1280x800) will look blurry. Also, are there any known problems with running IWD on Windows 7?

 

[octavius]

So I thought about firing up Icewind Dale 1 again.
Found this widescreen mod for IE games which is supposed to allow you setting any resolution you want: http://www.gibberlings3.net/widescreen/

Does anyone of you guys have experiences with this mod? Does it work in general, and for IWD in particular? Does it cause any bugs?

I wouldn't care about higher resolutions, but I'll have to play the game on my laptop and anything below its native resolution (1280x800) will look blurry. Also, are there any known problems with running IWD on Windows 7?

I don't know about Windows 7, but with Windows XP I've had no problems with the Widescreen mod, in any resolution, using it with any number of mods for the BG games (including EasyTutu and the BG 1 GUI mod) and Icewind Dale.

 

[aron searle]

Ive run it on windows 7 and with that wide-screen mod.

I vaguely recall having to press a few extra buttons to get the game to work in windows 7, but other than that I had no problems at all, I would call it a very stable mod.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Thanks a lot guys, that sounds good. I'll try it out then.

 

[sea]

So I thought about firing up Icewind Dale 1 again.
Found this widescreen mod for IE games which is supposed to allow you setting any resolution you want: http://www.gibberlings3.net/widescreen/

Does anyone of you guys have experiences with this mod? Does it work in general, and for IWD in particular? Does it cause any bugs?

I wouldn't care about higher resolutions, but I'll have to play the game on my laptop and anything below its native resolution (1280x800) will look blurry. Also, are there any known problems with running IWD on Windows 7?

It works fine, except for Planescape: Torment and the original Baldur's Gate, as you will need to seek out GUI mods (Baldur's Gate one is some Ukranian/Russian/something thing, Planescape's is by Ghostdog and can be found at SHS Forums). You can set any resolution you want, and there are no real side effects to using the widescreen mod because as far as I know, the games don't use any triggers based on screen position. The only downside is that the pathfinding does not really play well with sending NPCs all over the map, and at higher resolutions you'll be tempted to click farther and farther away from them, so you'll probably end up with more cases of party members running all over the map because they got stuck on a door. However, the upside is that the 2D art is much more impressive at high resolutions, and your sense of space is much improved - you won't need to consult the map nearly as often.

You'll also want to download any of the Tweak Packs and Fixpacks available on G3, and possibly the Unfinished Business stuff if you want it. The various Tweak Packs are useful for most basic things, like being able to stack more arrows, potions etc. in your inventory, but other things, like the option to rest anywhere, cut down on a lot of tedium stemming from backtracking to town every 20 minutes. Fixpacks are also a given just for bug fixes, and should always be installed before any other mods.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Works well with all IE games under Win7, though I haven't tried IWD2 and I only play BGTrilogy nowadays. My only problem is that the games start lagging annoyingly at high resolutions.

I would have to disagree with the pathfinding. It depends on the map in questions and whether there are some nasty zig-zag turns but it usually isn't a problem.

 

[Falkner]

Works well with all IE games under Win7, though I haven't tried IWD2 and I only play BGTrilogy nowadays. My only problem is that the games start lagging annoyingly at high resolutions.

IWD lagged for me as well, but I managed to get rid of it by enforcing Direct Draw Emulation.

 

[Ruprekt]

https://github.com/jlanger/nvidia_ddraw_fix/downloads

Have you tried this (assuming you have an nvidia card)?

 

[GarfunkeL]

I got ATI but I'll try the DDE. Curiously, BGT does not lag but IWD does. Or maybe IWD just lags a little bit more than BGT so it's more noticeable.

 

[Surf Solar]

The widescreen mod works just fine, but it looks very ugly when no one thought of expanding the UI graphics (like ghostdog did for his very good mod for PS:T) - it looks especially horrible on IWDII - hence I rather use the smaller, but accurate looking original resolution.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Works well with all IE games under Win7, though I haven't tried IWD2 and I only play BGTrilogy nowadays. My only problem is that the games start lagging annoyingly at high resolutions.

IWD lagged for me as well, but I managed to get rid of it by enforcing Direct Draw Emulation.

Uh, how do I do that in Win7? I can't seem to find the the tab in advanced display settings, like you had in XP.

 

[Falkner]

Works well with all IE games under Win7, though I haven't tried IWD2 and I only play BGTrilogy nowadays. My only problem is that the games start lagging annoyingly at high resolutions.

IWD lagged for me as well, but I managed to get rid of it by enforcing Direct Draw Emulation.

Uh, how do I do that in Win7? I can't seem to find the the tab in advanced display settings, like you had in XP.

You need the Microsoft Compatibility Toolkit to do it. Here's an explanation on how to use it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQamKGzjsZg

 

[sea]

The only surefire, 100% bug-free fix I've found is the very recent mod found here:

http://www.shsforums.net/topic/48732-ddraw-fix/

It gets rid of the graphical artifacts like the mouse cursor trails when forcing DDraw emulation, too, unlike using the Compatibility Toolkit.

However, it only works for Planescape. Presumably it can be modified to work with other Infinity Engine games.

 

[turrican]

Ok, so with the current gog.com deal I will finally get both IWD games, never played them before.

It has been a while since I played any AD&D 2.0 system, I would be happy if somebody could do a basic rundown of the multiclassing mechanics of it.

For instance, AFAIR if you do not multiclass into a racial preferred class, you have to keep the levels of all classes of the character within the range of 1, otherwise there are penalties for this character? How is the EXP allocation different from a 3.0 system?

I am not looking for some lame munchkin minmax suggestions, rather I would like to get the gist of this component of the game so I do not cripple my party beyond repair. Thanks.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Multi-Classing is totally different in Second Edition.

You have "Multi-Classed" Characters and you can "Dual-Class" characters.

Multiclassed characters can only be non-human, and you select the multiclass combination at the start. Experience awarded to the character is split between the two/three classes, and the character levels up in a class when that classes' experience pool has hit the required amount (also note that each class has different experience tables and levels up at a different rate). This is useful if you want to make, say, a Fighter/Thief or Thief/Mage, so that your Thief character can actually help out a bit in combat. Thieves level up quickly enough, and you get a "bonus" class attached to them, at the cost of slower level progression.

Dual-classing is human only, and where the broken stuff is (if you get really munchkin-like). Humans can at any time, but only once, abandon leveling up in their original class and switch to another one, provided they meet the correct requirements. The character now levels up as the second class and the original classes' skills are locked until they hit the level of their original class plus one level. So you can start as a Fighter, level up to level 2, dual class to a mage, and then at level 3 as a mage, you get all of your fighter abilities back, and now have a mage who isn't totally inept in combat. You can never level up your Fighter class again, but seeing as Fighters gain less on the margin from level ups compared to spell casting classes, it wouldn't be a big deal in this situation.

 

[betamin]

Kinda unrelated but if you're looking for a tactical challenge try the IWD2 Tactics mod

 

[sigma1932]

Yes. Forgive the perspective, forgive the story, and just play it.

If you're a connoisseur of quality RPGs, you'll be sucked in the moment the title screen pops up. The music is fucking awesome. The atmosphere is just right.

Damn. Just play it.

Allllriiiight.... I'll buy it just to support the devs.

Dunno if that's the greatest idea....

Except for Biowhore making the engine and Hasbro (at the time, WotC) bringing the DnD license to the table, all the IWD's are owned by Interplay (one of the few IE titles they own), and was technically developed "in-house" for them by Black Isle before they were tossed in the meat-grinder...

That said, I just played through IWD/HOW/TOL as a solo single-classed mage... wasn't really all that challenging, but then, not much is for a level 20+ mage with double the normal 1st, 2nd, and 5th level spells. Regardless, it was more interesting than Bethe$duh and modern-biowhore crap, though not as intersting as my solo mage playthrough of BG1, though that was more due to the level cap of 9...

 

[Humanity has risen!]

My character portraits side bar just disappeared in Icewind Dale. Is there a key press to toggle it on or off that I might've touched accidentally, or is this a glitch?

This is really annoying.

 

[sea]

You can hide the sidebars with a hotkey. Don't quote me but I think it might be the square brackets. If in doubt just mash the keyboard until it works.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I found it, it was u.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

No story, no characters, no point, lots of combat area filled with hundreds of monsters to kill.

This. Although the art design and soundtrack are some of the best I've seen in a video game. I bought a complete Icewind Dale collection a few years back (probably when Atari got the rights and thought, "Hey, let's try and make people buy this) and I remember thinking how beautiful the box design was and all the DVDs and such. Then I played the game. I wish I hadn't, I wish I'd left that box unopened on my shelf, just sitting there in all its glory, and not having the actual game spoil it for me.