Baldur's Gate II

abradley · Feb 21, 2016

Oruc said:
I'm still here.

Good to hear

hope there are more around.

Going back to the BGT install, there's this:

Hey Tamriel Foundry, weve still got quite a while to wait for ESO to launch, so in the meantime I hope to convince you guys to share an incredible RPG gaming experience. Have you ever played Baldurs Gate? If not, read on and if you have, did you know that you can experience the entire epic saga in as a unified and comprehensive gaming experience? Im not talking about BG1: Enhanced Edition, which is a great update to the original game the series, but is ultimately a disjoint experience with a number of weaknesses. My belief, of which I hope to convince you all, is that the mega modification Baldurs Gate Trilogy is a unique gaming journey that any RPG fan should undertake. Need more convincing, here you go:

For the same price as the BG1: Enhanced Edition ($19.99) you can experience the entire Baldurs Gate saga with perfect continuity in one single game engine. For the uninitiated, this is the series which consistently tops lists of the best RPGs of all time (with good reason).
Play through the story with no separation of games, no importing/exporting characters. Your characters gear, experience, choices, and companions carry over throughout the entire saga (200+ hours of gaming).
Experience quests, characters, and areas that the original BioWare developers had always intended to make the final game but were cut during development.
A litany of bugfixes, combat improvements, and corrections to story discontinuities.
Still reading despite the fact that Im trying to convince you to play a 15 year old game? One last disclaimer before we get started:

Setting this up is a modding project, which will require about two hours of your time to complete. Its well worth the investment, though. Complete step-by-step instructions are listed below, its not hard, and well worth it!
(Continued)
http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/the-ultimate-baldurs-gate-experience/

A bit different, with some mods not included by dsimpson (above).

Now for a gripe. The last time I played BG1 was when it first came out, played it normal difficulty (out of the box difficulty) and don't remember the beginning being a reload/resurrection fest. Not so bad when first heading to Friendship Inn, Imoen and PC make a bee line to the inn, the assassin is easy, pick up the two companions, then head back to clean up the unfinished sectors. That's when the trouble begins ... the male elf is continually dying.

Had many healing potions at first, by the time those sectors are cleared it's zero. Yes the female druid can heal, but she's busy sling stones. After the battle she heals.

Like one battle, starts by see a gibbering, send the two warriors to attack, the archer and sling do their bit (Archering and Slinging). Then the true size of the opposition is seen, with the gibbering are two wolves, one a dire wolf. My level one warriors are missing, missing, and even more missing. And the Elf warrior is gulping down healing potions like there's an infinite supply ... there ain't. So a couple of battles like this and there ain't no healing potions and he's dead, back to the Inn and resurrect, back into battle again and back to the inn to resurrect.

Don't think it's just me: https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1242061

Will try some other tactics, maybe have the warriors hang back and use missile weapons, not be so hasty to get into battle.

PhroX · Feb 22, 2016

Dire Wolves are really nasty in the early stages of BG1 (hell, even normal wolves can kill you if you're not careful). If you want to kill them, best to kite them around (have them chase after one person who keeps running away, while the rest of your group shoots them with ranged weapons), but the best thing is to leave them for now and come back later when you're higher level.

BG1 doesn't hold your hand with regards fighting appropriate enemies in the early game. Most of the areas in the game are accessible from the word go, but that doesn't mean you should go to all of them from the start. There are plenty of things out there that can and will kill you.

On the subject of Baldur's Gate, Beamdog (the company behind the enhanced editions) have recently hired former Bioware lead writer David Gaider as creative director. BG3 anyone?

sherbz · Feb 22, 2016

abradley said:
Good to hear hope there are more around.

Going back to the BGT install, there's this: A bit different, with some mods not included by dsimpson (above).

Now for a gripe. The last time I played BG1 was when it first came out, played it normal difficulty (out of the box difficulty) and don't remember the beginning being a reload/resurrection fest. Not so bad when first heading to Friendship Inn, Imoen and PC make a bee line to the inn, the assassin is easy, pick up the two companions, then head back to clean up the unfinished sectors. That's when the trouble begins ... the male elf is continually dying.

Had many healing potions at first, by the time those sectors are cleared it's zero. Yes the female druid can heal, but she's busy sling stones. After the battle she heals.

Like one battle, starts by see a gibbering, send the two warriors to attack, the archer and sling do their bit (Archering and Slinging). Then the true size of the opposition is seen, with the gibbering are two wolves, one a dire wolf. My level one warriors are missing, missing, and even more missing. And the Elf warrior is gulping down healing potions like there's an infinite supply ... there ain't. So a couple of battles like this and there ain't no healing potions and he's dead, back to the Inn and resurrect, back into battle again and back to the inn to resurrect.

Don't think it's just me: https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/1242061

Will try some other tactics, maybe have the warriors hang back and use missile weapons, not be so hasty to get into battle.

Id get rid of Khalid. He is terrible. Instead you should go for Kivan the ranger outside high hedge, Branwen the cleric at the carnival (replace her with Yeslick maybe later), Xan for mage, imoen as thief (replace later with Coran), you as a paladin, and Minsc as the last character, and maybe replace him with Thaldorn if you want more healing later.

Evie · Feb 22, 2016

My first playthrough ended up with my party trapped in that little ruined home on the High Hedge map, besieged by skeletons and injured enough that any sortie on our part would result in the party getting slaughtered.

That was fun.

And that assassin at the hotel is a though bugger. If he gets lucky casting horror, it's game over, he'll just pick you apart while your characters are running around like headless chickens.

sherbz · Feb 22, 2016

Oda Nobunaga said:
My first playthrough ended up with my party trapped in that little ruined home on the High Hedge map, besieged by skeletons and injured enough that any sortie on our part would result in the party getting slaughtered.

That was fun.

And that assassin at the hotel is a though bugger. If he gets lucky casting horror, it's game over, he'll just pick you apart while your characters are running around like headless chickens.

Yea I think thats the problem with Baldurs Gate. The game is either ridiculously easy or ridiculously hard (impossible). Largely this comes down to saving throws and spells being slightly over powered.

That said, I do like the way you are totally hopeless at the start and can get decimated by a wolf. It makes the sense of achievement and power you feel at the end of the game that much bigger. I wish modern day rpgs would do something similar. In contrast though they tend to make you an over powered demigod in a short space of time. I like an unlevelled world where if I go in the wrong cave at the wrong time then I get turned to stone by a Basillisk. Its part of the fun. I dont like going into any cave anywhere and only finding rats to kill until I get a few levels higher. Fallout 3 is the worst example of this. You are a kid who just leaves the vault and right off the bat you can beat up security and take bullets.

I installed some of the realism mods on Skyrim and the game is so much better for it. I took a wrong turn in the far north and was totally spanked by some godlike frost antronarch.

Baldur's Gate II

abradley

Deity

PhroX

Deity

sherbz

Deity

Evie

Pronounced like Eevee

sherbz

Deity

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