C&C in Baldur's Gate 1

[Forest Dweller]

Basically is there any? I know I want to play BG2 based on the good things I've heard about it here, but what about the first one? I only want to play these games for the c&c. Should I play it or just skip it? Once I skip it, there's no going back.

 

[whitemithrandir]

Basically is there any? I know I want to play BG2 based on the good things I've heard about it here, but what about the first one? I only want to play these games for the c&c. Should I play it or just skip it? Once I skip it, there's no going back.

Command and conquer?

No, there's no commanding or conquering in BG1.

Choices and consequences?

There are - but very minimal.

 

[Forest Dweller]

STALKER had minimal c&c. A good comparison?

 

[whitemithrandir]

STALKER had minimal c&c. A good comparison?

Well, if you look at it this way...

at least STALKER had multiple endings...

 

[Melcar]

You basically won't see any. Maybe like a few instances... and minor ones at that. BG you play for the hack 'n' slash, with the other stuff as a nice distraction. If you do end up playing it make sure you have BG2+TOB so you can use BGTuTu (BGT sucks and has a lot of bugs).

 

[Rosh]

Command and conquer?

Amusing side note. Baldur's Gate was originally planned to be an ADHD...I mean an AD&D RTS until Interplay/BIS decided to suggest adding in Fallout's speech system, or at least a simple facsimile of it.

There are two ways of playing Baldur's Gate, either of them, and your alignment is generally useless in most ways but determining what SPESHUL GOD POWAHS you get to overcome the general shittiness of the game's design. (I will admit there were *some* entertaining moments, but it was generally more dreary of a dungeon crawler than any of the Might and Magic or most SSI games.) BioWare came up with an arbitrary stat called "Reputation" that generally had squat to do with your character's alignment and was really how people reacted to you.

"Hi, I are goody two shoes!"
Massive discounts, the game becomes EZ-Mode after a bit as generally everyone kisses your ass. Except for a couple of worthless PCs I couldn't even stand as evil.

"I are evil!"
A paladin is capable of getting better prices at a Thieve's Den due to better reputation and charisma score than, say, a thief. So you then end up donating a bit of cash to a temple, which makes your evil PCs bitch and eventually leave/attack you.

There is more, but I've generally shunted memories of both titles from my mind in favor of the far superior Planescape: Torment and to hold onto better memories of Gold Box offering far better strategy fare, even better AI. Nothing like watching in amazement as an AI "hiccup" (as BioWare excused it) causes your mage, when you click on the fireball spell and target an enemy in range, to walk up to point-blank range and jihad himself along with the kobold pack.

Now think of the pain when you have the first public incarnation of the Inbred Engine think for itself. I could never let the party characters do anything on their own for fear they would kill themselves or worse. Yes, it is possible to break the first game. Avoid the first game (you won't be missing much), the second is at least playable for me.

 

[DemonKing]

There's not much there - things will end up the same way no matter what you do.

Choice of companions can lead to some issues (for example, some companions will attack each other). You can also decide whether or not to use something like the cursed +3 beserking sword, for instance...very powerful but potentially dangerous.

A lot of the sidequests are simple Fed Ex stuff and the game seems a little outdated, even in comparison to later IE games.

I still think it's worth a playthrough for historical reasons.

 

[Konjad]

There are not much C&C in this game, just some that have consequences instantly. Though it's worth of playing - it's still a good game, better than most of today's RPGs. Just know it is more action RPG than RPG - with no real choices or consequences. It has some interesting dialogues sometimes. It is worth of playing, but not for C&C.

 

[Texas Red]

"There is more, but I've generally shunted memories of both titles from my mind in favor of the far superior Planescape: Torment and to hold onto better memories of Gold Box offering far better strategy fare, even better AI. Nothing like watching in amazement as an AI "hiccup" (as BioWare excused it) causes your mage, when you click on the fireball spell and target an enemy in range, to walk up to point-blank range and jihad himself along with the kobold pack."

That was the beauty of BG. Spellcasters weren't just portable nuke launchers and you had to use spells from ALL schools(even divination egad).

 

[Volourn]

"Nothing like watching in amazement as an AI "hiccup" (as BioWare excused it) causes your mage, when you click on the fireball spell and target an enemy in range, to walk up to point-blank range and jihad himself along with the kobold pack.""

Only if you a retard who cna't handle the simplist of things. Moron.

Anyways, OP, outside of what companions to take and how they interact, BG1 has very few huge C&C. Just minor touches...

 

[Murk]

bg1's wilderness exploration was pretty fun, most of it was senseless area clearing but there were some fun encounters.

c&c is... minor, there's a lot of optional stuff for sure. worth playing regardless i'd say. i'm also kind of a sucker for low level d&d plays.

 

[The Feral Kid]

Basically is there any?

Of course there are. The Merchant League and Eldoth - Silvershield Estate quests to name a few.

STALKER had minimal c&c. A good comparison?

An unfortunate comparison to say the least

 

[Cthulhugoat]

As Rosh said, skip the first one, go for the second. BG1 is only worth anything if you're REALLY into its not-so-great combat system, and even then there's Icewind Dale, whose combat seems to be better.

 

[spectre]

As said, skip 1. If you really have to (like, you'd like to give yourself the masochistic pleasure of playing the same char to godhood, make the pantaloon guest without cheating), use TUTU mod for it. If you're just playing this for the story, you're better off just reading spoilers imo.

Although, to be perfectly honest, the dungeon that came with the expansion wasn't all that bad.

As for C&C, the only particularily memorable one for me was choosing to kill off Jaheira, just to make Khalid tag along on his own, with the direct consequence of having to do the same thing again in bg2.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

I didn't like it back then, and I don't like it now. Perhaps it's because back then I played it after Fallout 1 & 2, IWD, PST, etc. Now there's no nostalgia to it and I don't find the gameplay very good. It has superior control compared to NWN2, perhaps, but level-ups are rather boring, the quests aren't really very interesting, and while I kind of liked the exploration and let's say that would make it at least a decent game, sadly it still had some game-breaking bugs which ended my Baldur's Gate experience (all text vanished from the game).

 

[Melcar]

bg1's wilderness exploration was pretty fun, most of it was senseless area clearing but there were some fun encounters.

c&c is... minor, there's a lot of optional stuff for sure. worth playing regardless i'd say. i'm also kind of a sucker for low level d&d plays.

I liked those. It really added to the sense of exploration, even if those areas were mostly empty of major encounters. Kinda like Oblivion, but cooler. Never understood why they took them out in BG2.
And yeah, low level adventuring kicks ass. BG2 was cool at 12-18th lvl or so; after that (mostly in TOB) it just became a big cheesefest.

 

[Texas Red]

BTW, what enemies do epic characters fight in actual D&D? I thought it pretty damn strange that in ToB everyone was suddenly selling generic +5 weapons and every mercenary thug could put up a fight to a meteor shower conjuring priest.

 

[Xor]

Depends on your DM. I've been in campaigns where everything level-scaled to keep combat challenging and EPIC, and I've been in games where the DM basically let us stomp all over his gameworld at epic level, generally ignoring the plot.

Come to think of it, I've never played a well-run epic level game.

 

[spectre]

It seems the popular choices for epic levels are beefed up beholders, liches and dragons, just like in the good ole bg2. Yeah, a lot of this depends on the GM, but from what I heard the popular choice is to go to some other plane and start smacking its inhabitants around for good xp and phat lewt.
For rather obvious resons, demon realms and minor deities are the most common.

 

[Darth Roxor]

beefed up beholders, liches and dragons, just like in the good ole bg2

This reminded me, how finding one cloak that made spells bounce off your character was breaking the game totally, basically being iddqd in a nutshell. Pumped up beholder/lich ahoy? Send the character with the cloak into the fray, and watch as the monster kills itself with its own spells.

Ah, gud times.

 

[Texas Red]

It seems the popular choices for epic levels are beefed up beholders, liches and dragons, just like in the good ole bg2. Yeah, a lot of this depends on the GM, but from what I heard the popular choice is to go to some other plane and start smacking its inhabitants around for good xp and phat lewt.
For rather obvious resons, demon realms and minor deities are the most common.

Yes but I meant more urban Faerun locations. What's to fight in cities?

 

[Lesifoere]

4th Ed will offer level-scaling, far as I recall.

Otherwise, I hear killing gods/Drizzt/the Seven Sisters/Elminster is a popular choice. Trying to topple the Lords of Waterdeep is another thing that gets asked about a lot.

 

[thesheeep]

That's not C&C.

That is sidequests. Very good and fun ones, but there really isn't any meaningful C&C in BG1.

 

[denizsi]

There are some short run and some long run C&C in party NPCs you can pick, and also just a few in some side quests. All pretty insignificant. That's all I can remember.

 

[Volourn]

"Never understood why they took them out in BG2."

Because people complained about the big, mostly empty areas. And, then many of the same people whined about BG2 not having them. *shrug*

I much prefer BG2's style of fully fleshed out areas, anyways. Not that BG1's open spaces was inherently awful just not my preference.

 

[Melcar]

beefed up beholders, liches and dragons, just like in the good ole bg2

This reminded me, how finding one cloak that made spells bounce off your character was breaking the game totally, basically being iddqd in a nutshell. Pumped up beholder/lich ahoy? Send the character with the cloak into the fray, and watch as the monster kills itself with its own spells.

Ah, gud times.

In BG2 you had the Shield of Balduran, which reflected Beholder rays. Fun, but eliminated all the challenge.