Icewind Dale The Icewind Dale Series Thread

[Roguey]

IIRC (I'm pretty sure it was a Roguey post) Sawyer said that the switch to 3rd ed was really easy and took very little time. And really most of the area design and encounters are fine for an IWD game. I don't really see IWD2 being significantly better if it was cloned from BG2 systems and having a 3rd ed game is at least an interesting novelty.

The design was easy. The programming was hard. I can't find where he said it and my reliable Avellone Quote Finder is no longer available, but he said the programmers had to spend a lot of late nights to make it happen and he disliked that Sawyer put this burden on them.

Edit: should have actually tried searching my Avellone Quote Finder's post history, found it: https://twitter.com/ChrisAvellone/status/907848343497461760 https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/chris-avellone-appreciation-station.101693/post-5297015

 

[Nano]

IIRC (I'm pretty sure it was a Roguey post) Sawyer said that the switch to 3rd ed was really easy and took very little time. And really most of the area design and encounters are fine for an IWD game. I don't really see IWD2 being significantly better if it was cloned from BG2 systems and having a 3rd ed game is at least an interesting novelty.

The design was easy. The programming was hard. I can't find where he said it and my reliable Avellone Quote Finder is no longer available, but he said the programmers had to spend a lot of late nights to make it happen and he disliked that Sawyer put this burden on them.

Kinda based. Imagine currentyear commie Sawyer giving this little of a fuck about the people working under him.

 

[Mikeal]

Based Sawyer making codemonkeys work for their salary instead of sitting all days and doing nothing.

 

[laclongquan]

I wasn't up to Black Isle to decide which edition of rules to use, was it?

I can't recall everything I've read about the game's development, but wasn't the switch to 3E also mandated after the game was already in development?

No, it was going to be a 2.5e with kits like BG2 but Sawyer insisted that they absolutely had to switch over to 3rd edition and he got his way, much to the disappointment of Avellone and the programmers.

While I love the 3e system in IWD2, I must agree that the transition from iwd1 to 2 is not easy. The first run I played with IWD2 it's so much longer in chargen than iwd1 or bg2. And that one ended in ragequittan later~

Of course, once we are familiar with it (a year later I think) we love it~

 

[Snufkin]

Ok, seriously is there anyway to fix flickering fog of war when scrolling ?

 

[Jigby]

You can install the EE mod which removes the dithering. Other than that not really. You can change the game's resolution, on some resolutions the dithering pattern is more coarse-grained which lessens flickering. You can maybe use some shader that dissolves the pattern, I've had limited success with reshade+smaa.

 

[Snufkin]

Where can i download EE mod?

 

[Acrux]

EE for IWD1 isn't a mod. It's the newer Beamdog version of the game.

 

[Snufkin]

I was thinking about IWD2. Forgot to specify in first post :S

 

[Acrux]

Oh, in that case I refuse to aid in the delinquency of a minor.

 

[Snufkin]

Oh, in that case I refuse to aid in the delinquency of a minor.

Seems like there is EE for IWD2 for real but i dont know where to download it, SEEMS it's VIP.

EDIT: So i found IWD2 NON GOG version and installed it. Game does not have that ddraw.dll and in windowed mode fog no longer flickers. Gonna try it in fullscreen and widescreen patch.

 

[Melcar]

In my case (GOG IWD2 running with the latest Wine Staging) I managed to get mitigate fullscreen flickering (FOW and cursor) by switching to 16bit color mode in the game menu.

 

[Jigby]

Seems like there is EE for IWD2 for real but i dont know where to download it, SEEMS it's VIP.

I sent you the link.

 

[Snufkin]

Seems like there is EE for IWD2 for real but i dont know where to download it, SEEMS it's VIP.

I sent you the link.

So the EE you send me have build in fix in one of the menus, that suposedly help with fog of war flicker, and yes it does however games goes into CRAWLING BABY mode with like 3 FPS..

 

[Jigby]

I don't know what version of IWD2 you're using and what renderer. DX7? OpenGL? DX9?
I think most people play the GOG version with wined3d-> OpenGL which works fine.
I play with cnc->OpenGL, it's silky smooth with vsync.
Sorry that I'm of not much help, but this is a general usage problem related to your renderer.
Could be a problem with your graphics card and enforced gsync/freesync or something else that interferes.

I'd turn off g-sync or any fpslimit that you might have set in your graphics control panel and use cnc-ddraw borderless window OpenGL for a start.

 

[Snufkin]

I don't know what version of IWD2 you're using and what renderer. DX7? OpenGL? DX9?
I think most people play the GOG version with wined3d-> OpenGL which works fine.
I play with cnc->OpenGL, it's silky smooth with vsync.
Sorry that I'm of not much help, but this is a general usage problem related to your renderer.
Could be a problem with your graphics card and enforced gsync/freesync or something else that interferes.

I'd turn off g-sync or any fpslimit that you might have set in your graphics control panel and use cnc-ddraw borderless window OpenGL for a start.

THX i just did what you said - installed CNC renderer and put on OpenGL and it works now! Silky smooth and fog is finally fixed!

 

[Gargaune]

The only thing that works for me nowadays is https://github.com/CnCNet/cnc-ddraw/releases.

Gave it a go last night and the bloody thing bricked my IWD2 install. As in removing it didn't restore functionality, kept crashing on start, had to reinstall the game. Weird how finicky this one game is.

 

[KainenMorden]

The source code for IWD2 being lost is proof of a benevolent God.

IWD2 is most in need of an EE since it's buggy (graphics still can't run properly to this day unless you try a half dozen fixes to see which works for you), slow (save/load takes insanely long by the end of the game, linked to saved variable processing code being fucked up somehow), and has next to no mods to fix any of its issues or add anything. It doesn't even have a proper widescreen mod that doesn't leave the UI fucked.

Aside from that IWD1EE was basically fine:

- Half Orc is reasonably balanced compared to Dwarf. Also optional to use
- Kits/New classes are generally either underpowered or balanced compared to multiclassing (single class was underpowered as fuck in IWD1). Only two that I'd call overpowered is Archer and Sorcerer. Again still optional whether you use kits.
- New spells are OK. All the overpowered BG2 spells are so late that you'll barely use them (timestop scroll is the room before Icasaracht which you can't leave without fighting her and she's going to be the last thing you can do before Belhifet). Sorcerer does break this progression but again, optional.
- Everything else is fine, no new fuckup characters added, game scales to different resolutions and save/loads instantly.

The only minor criticism I have is that it sticks to BG2 weapon proficiencies rather than keeping the IWD1 ones, but there's a mod to fix that.

Berserker/barbarian are overpowered in iwd ee but I did a solo run with a half orc berserker, it was fun.

 

[Grunker]

Based Sawyer making codemonkeys work for their salary instead of sitting all days and doing nothing.

Programming video games is pathetically underpaid compared to the time investment relative to most other IT work. In fact, this goes for most positions in video game development

 

[Butter]

Based Sawyer making codemonkeys work for their salary instead of sitting all days and doing nothing.

Programming video games is pathetically underpaid compared to the time investment relative to most other IT work. In fact, this goes for most positions in video game development

The Invisible Hand is trying to starve all the shitty devs so we get better games.

 

[Average Manatee]

The only thing that works for me nowadays is https://github.com/CnCNet/cnc-ddraw/releases.

Gave it a go last night and the bloody thing bricked my IWD2 install. As in removing it didn't restore functionality, kept crashing on start, had to reinstall the game. Weird how finicky this one game is.

I had that once, it was because I installed it on top of another ddraw replacer. It works for me if I install it on a vanilla game.

Berserker/barbarian are overpowered in iwd ee but I did a solo run with a half orc berserker, it was fun.

Ehh, overpowered compared to a normal fighter? Sure (though I'd argue against Barbarian being overpowered, it sacrifices a lot of AC along with Grandmastery compared to what it gets). Overpowered compared to a fighter/mage, fighter/cleric, or other multiclasses like OG IWD1 Cleric/Ranger? Heck no. Arguably the whole reason BG2 added kits was to balance out the power of single classing vs. multiclassing and Bioware did a pretty good job at that.

Although this does remind me, one of the actual huge changes that IWD1EE introduces is dual wielding, which is generally the strongest fighting style (aside from needing extra AC vs. missiles in the final floor of Dragon's Eye). Ranger did get a semi-botched dual wielding implementation where a single handed weapon with no shield received an extra APR, which is another reason why Cleric/Rangers were so good. Everyone getting an extra APR and also getting extra weapon bonuses is probably the biggest general power increase in IWD1EE over IWD1. For example everyone can wield one of the defensive weapons with +2 AC in the offhand and basically replicate the effects of a shield while also attacking faster.

 

[cretin]

How do you play IWD on win10? I have obtained a gog release dated at 2013. It runs at 1/5th of the normal speed. The DDrawFix fixes the speed, but makes the cursor leave black squares in menus.
I've got ddwrapper now, out of the box it does nothing, I have to configure it somehow.

Any advice based on your experiences? I'm fine with the native resolution. No mods either, unless you think otherwise. I've finsihed the EE version, but on the original I've only ever dabbled in the opening chapter as a kid.

I had trouble with it a while ago and the thing i ended up doing to fix ALL of the problems was deleting the ddrawfix that gOG packed in there. That's it, seriously. At least for me it runs fine on windows 10.

 

[Gargaune]

I had that once, it was because I installed it on top of another ddraw replacer. It works for me if I install it on a vanilla game.

Not in my case, I thought about that so I tried it on clean reinstall and I still got the same issue. Maybe it's conflicting with whatever I've set in the DX SDK, I dunno and I'm too fed up to toy with it anymore. What threw me for a loop is that the problem persisted even after I completely removed CNC's files.

 

[Average Manatee]

Not in my case, I thought about that so I tried it on clean reinstall and I still got the same issue. Maybe it's conflicting with whatever I've set in the DX SDK, I dunno and I'm too fed up to toy with it anymore. What threw me for a loop is that the problem persisted even after I completely removed CNC's files.

Curious. IWD2 at this point tops my list of old games that are cantankerous to get working. I'd guess it's because so little attention is paid to backwards compatibility on 2D rendering of that era. Even 3D games around the same time that used to be difficult to get working either now seem to have good backwards compatibility support in OS/Drivers or readily available fanpatches that work for everyone, but getting IWD2 working seems to be a trial and error thing for everyone.

 

[KainenMorden]

Not in my case, I thought about that so I tried it on clean reinstall and I still got the same issue. Maybe it's conflicting with whatever I've set in the DX SDK, I dunno and I'm too fed up to toy with it anymore. What threw me for a loop is that the problem persisted even after I completely removed CNC's files.

Curious. IWD2 at this point tops my list of old games that are cantankerous to get working. I'd guess it's because so little attention is paid to backwards compatibility on 2D rendering of that era. Even 3D games around the same time that used to be difficult to get working either now seem to have good backwards compatibility support in OS/Drivers or readily available fanpatches that work for everyone, but getting IWD2 working seems to be a trial and error thing for everyone.

I did a run this past summer on windows 10, ran it in compatibility mode with windows 7 instead of xp as my PC recommended and had 0 issues.