Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[ArchAngel]

Hey guys I saw the light BG1 & 2 are the best game I've ever played!!! There's even a bald guy who talks about his hamster, how lolesque is that?

Walk towards the light.

 

[Drowed]

Because of all the drama around Roxor's review of Eternity, I decided to (re)play Baldur's Gate.

...Holy shit, the game is really that boring?

I remember playing it at the time of release and think something along the lines of "it's interesting but nothing much". Now, I think the movement of the characters is *really* clunky (almost infuriating at times), the fighting is all over the place, and dialogues/quests can be quite ridiculous. I mean, people complain about the plot of Divinity, but what the fuck, the level of silliness in the dialogues in Baldur's Gate seems even worse (and without being funny at all). I didn't remember this game being like this. The maps are beautiful and generally really open; which is refreshing, since the modern games love confine the player in enclosed and claustrophobic places - a forest in BG *really* looks and feels like a forest. The songs are also nice, if rather generic. And... That's it, I guess? Most of the time I'm just clearing the "fog of war" on the maps, killing a lot of trash mobs, fulfilling ridiculous quest asked by some random NPCs scattered around.

I think I have about 15+ hours of playtime (levels around 5-6 I think). The whole game is like that? I don't know how anyone can consider BG as part of the the apex of RPGs. It's not a horrible game too, it's just mediocre - I keep playing because of the exploration and the beautiful levels. The game seems really easy so far, I just steamroll most enemies. (Except what appears to be a random encounter in which I appeared in the middle of a group of archers who almost annihilated my party before I could do anything, this was the only time I had a problem.) From what I see, the consensus here is that BG2 is a far superior game... I hope it is, indeed.

 

[ArchAngel]

Play BG1EE or BG1 with mods. Use SCS with if you want more challenge. Why are quests ridiculous?

 

[SwiftCrack]

My blue-haired gnome mage who flings fireballs and summons big ogres has to look for a distressed wife's husband in a mine.

How utterly absurd.

 

[Tigranes]

"Now, I think the movement of the characters is *really* clunky (almost infuriating at times), the fighting is all over the place, and dialogues/quests can be quite ridiculous. "

This could mean anything, so you've got to tell us more. I mean, I don't find movement clunky and I don't even know what 'all over the place fighting' means.

Dialogue / quests have this weird amateur feel to it, which is charming, but might be offputting. I certainly would rate the bald man talking to his hamster above every Larian effort at 'humour'.

 

[sigma1932]

Dunno if this is old news but I will just leave this here: http://youmustgatheryourpartybeforeventuringforth.com/

Brofist worthy, but would've been cooler if it was actually a real site... like the second coming of YTMND....

 

[ArchAngel]

My blue-haired gnome mage who flings fireballs and summons big ogres has to look for a distressed wife's husband in a mine.

How utterly absurd.

Is there a reason why you must do that? Nobody is forcing you. The XP rewards of such minor quests is such that you can ignore them all. You get about same XP as you get for killing 10 basic Kobolds.

At least it is not like PoE where you much do every such stupid quest if you want to level up.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Halp please! At the moment I'm soloing the whole series for the first time with a Mage. Even though I don't know alot about the games I had no problems in BG1, or so far in BG2, but here I am in the 'sphere' and have I to kill one of those Tanar'ri (the demons)...and it looks like I'm not able to make it. I'm level 15 but I'm missing some important spells like Resistance to Evil. Just summoning stuff doesn't work either. And since I won't cheat or go back to an old save I'm in trouble. I'm playing unmodded original version.

By the way, the BG games are the "Barry Lyndon" of RPG's. That's alot.

Do you have a pure mage? This was an error. You can still make it though, just summon some fodder as distraction (the level 5 undead summons for instance or Mordenkainen Sword) and attack the demon with melf's minute meteors (those give 5 attacks per round and strike as +5, so you should be able to damage the demon that way)

 

[Athelas]

Because of all the drama around Roxor's review of Eternity, I decided to (re)play Baldur's Gate.

...Holy shit, the game is really that boring?

I remember playing it at the time of release and think something along the lines of "it's interesting but nothing much". Now, I think the movement of the characters is *really* clunky (almost infuriating at times), the fighting is all over the place, and dialogues/quests can be quite ridiculous. I mean, people complain about the plot of Divinity, but what the fuck, the level of silliness in the dialogues in Baldur's Gate seems even worse (and without being funny at all). I didn't remember this game being like this. The maps are beautiful and generally really open; which is refreshing, since the modern games love confine the player in enclosed and claustrophobic places - a forest in BG *really* looks and feels like a forest. The songs are also nice, if rather generic. And... That's it, I guess? Most of the time I'm just clearing the "fog of war" on the maps, killing a lot of trash mobs, fulfilling ridiculous quest asked by some random NPCs scattered around.

I think I have about 15+ hours of playtime (levels around 5-6 I think). The whole game is like that? I don't know how anyone can consider BG as part of the the apex of RPGs. It's not a horrible game too, it's just mediocre - I keep playing because of the exploration and the beautiful levels. The game seems really easy so far, I just steamroll most enemies. (Except what appears to be a random encounter in which I appeared in the middle of a group of archers who almost annihilated my party before I could do anything, this was the only time I had a problem.) From what I see, the consensus here is that BG2 is a far superior game... I hope it is, indeed.

Install SCS.

 

[Leitz]

Halp please! At the moment I'm soloing the whole series for the first time with a Mage. Even though I don't know alot about the games I had no problems in BG1, or so far in BG2, but here I am in the 'sphere' and have I to kill one of those Tanar'ri (the demons)...and it looks like I'm not able to make it. I'm level 15 but I'm missing some important spells like Resistance to Evil. Just summoning stuff doesn't work either. And since I won't cheat or go back to an old save I'm in trouble. I'm playing unmodded original version.

By the way, the BG games are the "Barry Lyndon" of RPG's. That's alot.

Do you have a pure mage? This was an error. You can still make it though, just summon some fodder as distraction (the level 5 undead summons for instance or Mordenkainen Sword) and attack the demon with melf's minute meteors (those give 5 attacks per round and strike as +5, so you should be able to damage the demon that way)

OK I made it. After many many tries I was lucky and could lower his magic resistance just in time, than one of my earth elementals gave him a huge kick and the demon went panic right after he used his paralyze spell on me. This way I could survive the state. Btw I chose to play as a pure mage, because it's supposed to be difficult (at least if you don't know what you're doing).

 

[Drowed]

Play BG1EE or BG1 with mods. Use SCS with if you want more challenge. Why are quests ridiculous?

The dialogues, I will elaborate below.

"Now, I think the movement of the characters is *really* clunky (almost infuriating at times), the fighting is all over the place, and dialogues/quests can be quite ridiculous. "

This could mean anything, so you've got to tell us more. I mean, I don't find movement clunky and I don't even know what 'all over the place fighting' means.

Let's try then. When you click for the character to walk to certain point, he doesn't simply walk there. Even if you have no enemies attacking him at the time and he has no script on, he "stutters", makes some "short pauses" while walking and often chooses the worst way to reach the destination. This reminds me a little of the problems that existed in Starcraft 1 (but here they are worse, more apparent), when you tried to micromanage the zerglings or other units (especially the dragoon). They behave strangely and some times it requires you to make several small orders so they would move the right way. It's probably a engine-thing, something of the time that the game was made - but it's still very annoying.

Because of this, the fighting often seems more chaotic than what it really is (or should be). If you really want to have control of what's going on, you need to pause almost all the time to ensure that a character will not simply be positioned in the wrong way. And this doesn't happen because you clicked in the wrong place, but simply because the character "decided" to take a stupid path, or because they decided to hang in the way, allowing time for an enemy to arrive in the position that he should be if he moved the way he should. To avoid this, you need to pause constantly to make several minor corrections in the movement: if so, what is the purpose of a RTWP system if the real time part just barely "exist"? A turn-based system would be less confusing and more elegant.

So basically there are only two combat situations in the game so far: 1) most of the time the enemies are so stupid that even with what was said before, you can annihilate them without much concern, or 2) when enemies have effective spells/powers, which requires greater control of your characters but causes a huge mess when you want to position them correctly. I would not consider this as "fun".

Dialogue / quests have this weird amateur feel to it, which is charming, but might be offputting. I certainly would rate the bald man talking to his hamster above every Larian effort at 'humour'.

Well, I wouldn't. Minsc is a pain to read, and I played Divinity until last month, but I don't remember finding the text so ridiculous there. More than that, the way the characters speak is really strange. How to explain this... Let's say that they don't speak as "normal human beings". There is something very artificial in most conversations, the way the characters decide out of nowhere to join you, or even in the construction of sentences. It's not exactly what they are saying, but the way they say it. I would have to return to the game to take specific examples. The game's dialogue just seems off somehow.

Install SCS.

Will do.

 

[ArchAngel]

Play Bg1EE, not BG1. Pathfinding is much better in BG1EE although still not 100%.

 

[Seari]

Play BGT, not BG1EE. Beamdog probably fucked up pathfinding even more.

 

[Somberlain]

Beamdog probably fucked up pathfinding even more.

They didn't, IMO it's better than original.

However, I still wouldn't really recommend BGEE, unless you buy it from a sale. It adds very little worthwhile stuff that you can't get with mods and the original game.

 

[ArchAngel]

Play BGT, not BG1EE. Beamdog probably fucked up pathfinding even more.

No they didn't, and it is even more improved in IWDEE although still not perfect.

It is better than PoE inside combat.

 

[Seari]

I didn't have any problems with pathfinding in BG2 with path search nodes set to 40 000.

 

[soulburner]

Question: are there any font mods for the enhanced editions? I find the current font ugly, the one used in the original BGs is much better, easier to read. Do they use the same BGEE/BG2EE font in IWDEE? If so, I won't touch it either (unless there is a mod), the font in the original IWD (Times New Roman?) was beautiful.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

you should change the font to comic sans

 

[Eyestabber]

Anyone knows a way of running BG/BG2 on an android tablet that doesn't involve buying Shidog's Enfucked Edition?

 

[soulburner]

you should change the font to comic sans

Would if I could :D

 

[Tigranes]

Play BG1EE or BG1 with mods. Use SCS with if you want more challenge. Why are quests ridiculous?

The dialogues, I will elaborate below.

"Now, I think the movement of the characters is *really* clunky (almost infuriating at times), the fighting is all over the place, and dialogues/quests can be quite ridiculous. "

This could mean anything, so you've got to tell us more. I mean, I don't find movement clunky and I don't even know what 'all over the place fighting' means.

Let's try then. When you click for the character to walk to certain point, he doesn't simply walk there. Even if you have no enemies attacking him at the time and he has no script on, he "stutters", makes some "short pauses" while walking and often chooses the worst way to reach the destination. This reminds me a little of the problems that existed in Starcraft 1 (but here they are worse, more apparent), when you tried to micromanage the zerglings or other units (especially the dragoon). They behave strangely and some times it requires you to make several small orders so they would move the right way. It's probably a engine-thing, something of the time that the game was made - but it's still very annoying.

Because of this, the fighting often seems more chaotic than what it really is (or should be). If you really want to have control of what's going on, you need to pause almost all the time to ensure that a character will not simply be positioned in the wrong way. And this doesn't happen because you clicked in the wrong place, but simply because the character "decided" to take a stupid path, or because they decided to hang in the way, allowing time for an enemy to arrive in the position that he should be if he moved the way he should. To avoid this, you need to pause constantly to make several minor corrections in the movement: if so, what is the purpose of a RTWP system if the real time part just barely "exist"? A turn-based system would be less confusing and more elegant.

So basically there are only two combat situations in the game so far: 1) most of the time the enemies are so stupid that even with what was said before, you can annihilate them without much concern, or 2) when enemies have effective spells/powers, which requires greater control of your characters but causes a huge mess when you want to position them correctly. I would not consider this as "fun".

Dialogue / quests have this weird amateur feel to it, which is charming, but might be offputting. I certainly would rate the bald man talking to his hamster above every Larian effort at 'humour'.

Well, I wouldn't. Minsc is a pain to read, and I played Divinity until last month, but I don't remember finding the text so ridiculous there. More than that, the way the characters speak is really strange. How to explain this... Let's say that they don't speak as "normal human beings". There is something very artificial in most conversations, the way the characters decide out of nowhere to join you, or even in the construction of sentences. It's not exactly what they are saying, but the way they say it. I would have to return to the game to take specific examples. The game's dialogue just seems off somehow.

Install SCS.

Will do.

IE games have their pathfinding quirks, but they should have no problems walking short/medium distances (and if you're telling them to walk halfway across the map it shouldn't really matter what they do, since you're probably just waiting for them). They start going haywire in places like Firewine Ruins, of course. I don't know, I have zero problem making them go anywhere I want them to in combat. They don't randomly stop moving, they don't randomly take the long way round (because you'd never give them very long pathways during combat). But then, I am so used to IE at this point.

 

[ArchAngel]

Anyone knows a way of running BG/BG2 on an android tablet that doesn't involve buying Shidog's Enfucked Edition?

Stab yourself in the eye.

 

[Lhynn]

Anyone knows a way of running BG/BG2 on an android tablet that doesn't involve buying Shidog's Enfucked Edition?

Well, you can always pirate it, that wouldnt involve buying it, but it would also be morally questionable, so i really cant recommend you do that. In fact youd be a bad person if you did, forget i even brought it up.

 

[Immortal]

ITT: People attempt to excuse PoE's short comings by saying a 20 year old game didn't age well.

Spoiler

 

[Eyestabber]

Anyone knows a way of running BG/BG2 on an android tablet that doesn't involve buying Shidog's Enfucked Edition?

Well, you can always pirate it, that wouldnt involve buying it, but it would also be morally questionable, so i really cant recommend you do that. In fact youd be a bad person if you did, forget i even brought it up.

Yes yes, I chose my words poorly. What I meant to ask was "is there any other BG port available"? Because the added content is so fucking bad, it's not even funny. I bought the BG 1 EE and OH BOY, that monk on Nashkell was fucking annoying. Good thing the Gnolls from the Gnoll Stronghold rid me of his dumbass. Adding shitty fanfic to a well established game is a HUGE "no-no".