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Kortel posted:About to start a new game of BG1 HD. Was thinking of doing a Lawful Neutral Monk run. Any recommendations on what to be on the look out for? Keep in mind your character will be as useful in combat as a thief, without the out-of-combat abilities of a thief. Monks don't get powerful until the teen levels, really.
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Sep 24, 2014 06:26
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:Someone tell me they're still working on BG2EE. I never had an issue with the pathfinding in BGEE but it's really bad in BG2. There are also some daily powers that don't have any tooltips, like Mazzy's "courage" ability. The pathfinding is truly atrocious and people told me that I was imagining it. It feels like it was when the game was brand new, before they introduced the pathing changes that you could alter in the settings menu. I could walk to Cromwells from the entrance of the docks without having to stop before, now I can't.
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Sep 24, 2014 14:26
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Is this from one of the "goldbox" games I've heard about? Are any of those worth playing today? Taear posted:The pathfinding is truly atrocious and people told me that I was imagining it. It feels like it was when the game was brand new, before they introduced the pathing changes that you could alter in the settings menu. Man tell me about it. Sometimes I'll tell the party to go somewhere. I'll get up and stretch, walk around, grab something from the fridge in the meantime but when I get back a couple of them either took the long way or one guy never moved at all. 
Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 14:36 on Sep 24, 2014 |
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Sep 24, 2014 14:29
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Yeah, I noticed the pathing took a major poo poo with Enhanced Edition. Part of the reason why those beholder fights were a problem (machine gun death aside) is because my guys would get caught up on each other so my mage couldn't get to them in time to Cast Glitterdust. Going from the north entrance/exit of the docks to Cromwell causes them to go every which way through the dock to get to their destination. I hope this game gets unofficial fan patches because despite that I really like what I've played so far.
Jimbot fucked around with this message at 15:51 on Sep 24, 2014 |
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Sep 24, 2014 14:49
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Oh btw thanks for mentioning glitterdust. I missed that spell the last time I played through and it's a god send. The thing is I never had a single issue with the BGEE pathfinding and most people I talk to say it's way better. With BG2EE though not only is it bad but it's downright infuriating. I'll tell my characters to go somewhere and when I get back one rear end in a top hat apparently never moved or a couple of them went in the opposite direction for some reason. edit: Are all of the items that were in BG coded into BG2? Because losing your items when you start BG2 just makes playing BG seem kinda pointless except for the skillbooks. It would be neat if you could actually find the people that bought all of your good gear. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Sep 24, 2014 |
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Sep 24, 2014 15:45
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Mostt of the items in BG1 are coded into BG2, but people get way too hung up on losing your items at the start of BG2. Within the first couple quests you'll find better gear than existed in BG1.
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Sep 24, 2014 16:20
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:Is this from one of the "goldbox" games I've heard about? Are any of those worth playing today? I can't speak for those (first person or Menzoberranzan etc) but for older BG-style games you can find Dark Sun (1+2) and Al-Qadim on abandonware sites, often with DOSbox integration so there's no need for technical tweaking. I'd link but don't know whether it's kosher. Those three games share the BG perspective and ruleset, though they suffer from the dynamics of mediocre A/V quality due to their era. Still perfectly playable and enjoyable, they just lack polish and a mod scene. DS2 is buggy as hell and you need to seriously read up on the penalties of importing DS1 characters (double enemy HP, forever  ) if you don't awkwardly recreate the same party while transferring wealth and items, piecemeal.
sweart gliwere fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Sep 24, 2014 |
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Sep 24, 2014 16:55
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Skwirl posted:Mostt of the items in BG1 are coded into BG2, but people get way too hung up on losing your items at the start of BG2. Within the first couple quests you'll find better gear than existed in BG1. Cloak of balduran 
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Sep 24, 2014 17:04
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:edit: Are all of the items that were in BG coded into BG2? Because losing your items when you start BG2 just makes playing BG seem kinda pointless except for the skillbooks. It would be neat if you could actually find the people that bought all of your good gear.  )
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Sep 24, 2014 17:48
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To Sephiroth I'm amazed that nobody recognized it, but that screenshot is from Eye of the Beholder, either 2 or 3. A somewhat humorous moment in a game not really built for humour.
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Sep 24, 2014 18:29
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Factor_VIII posted:The statbooks are important and you also start with around double the XP you otherwise would (more if you've removed the XP cap in BG1). You'll only miss a handful of items from BG1. E.g. there are no rings of wizardry that double level 1 spell slots (wild mages would be really crazy with those thanks to Reckless Dweomer) or Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity (pursue the Anomen romance, then remove the belt after you've consumated your relationship. Pretty sure you keep gaining XP even when you hit the XP cap in BGEE (100% sure it happens when playing Tutu), so you don't even need to remove the XP cap. Starting the game with ~200k XP or so can lead to some pretty weird situations with multiclass NPCs if you're playing a fast leveling class like druid or bard/thief, since the game uses levels instead of xp totals to determine what level the NPC joining you is going to be (which incidentally makes Haer'Dalis kind of suck early on if you didn't roll a bard/thief). I'm pretty sure one time I recruited Aerie with 1 million XP total right after the starting dungeon. It, uh, certainly made things easier for me for a while. (The downside is that I'm pretty sure that the game uses average party level to determine the area difficulty, so you'll end up facing more challenging mobs too. This is bad if you still have lovely starting gear/no access to better spell scrolls.)
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Sep 24, 2014 19:16
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I think the next time I play BGEE I'm going to do a multiplayer game because I'm getting tired of the other playable characters. edit: I've heard that you can get rep 20 as a blackguard with no consequences and still run around with a good party. Is that the case?
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Sep 24, 2014 19:58
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:Is this from one of the "goldbox" games I've heard about? Are any of those worth playing today? The screenshot is from one of the Eye of the Beholder games. I'm not sure which but it's probably not the first one because the Beholder was the boss of that game. The gold box games are excellent in an old-school, dungeon-crawly, 1st-edition AD&D kind of way. They're all about creating a party and leveling up and finding loot while exploring in the first person. They differ from the dedicated dungeon-crawlers like Eye in that their combat is turn and grid-based instead of real-time in the first person. Also, your characters don't need to eat.
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Sep 25, 2014 01:51
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So never having played an Infinity Engine game, should I be using a walk through for Icewind Dale? I don't want to miss any quests or something.
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Sep 25, 2014 14:46
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Annath posted:So never having played an Infinity Engine game, should I be using a walk through for Icewind Dale? I don't want to miss any quests or something. That's a good idea; there's a gotcha in the very first area for the end of the game, for example. Also consider taking a druid and a paladin, since they have unique content.
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Sep 25, 2014 15:04
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Arivia posted:That's a good idea; there's a gotcha in the very first area for the end of the game, for example. Also consider taking a druid and a paladin, since they have unique content. Cool. Any good walkthroughs? Or just any old thing from GameFAQs? Also drat managing 6 dudes is gonna be tricky.
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Sep 25, 2014 15:11
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Annath posted:Cool. Any good walkthroughs? Or just any old thing from GameFAQs? Space pauses the game. Use it frequently. Rogues are optional 
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Sep 25, 2014 15:17
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Annath posted:Cool. Any good walkthroughs? Or just any old thing from GameFAQs? I like GameBanshee's walkthroughs for IE games, since their use of area maps makes it a lot easier to figure out what is where. Regarding managing multiple people, the games give you a lot of tools to make it workable: 1) You can click on a portrait to select one person. 2) You can click on the lantern icon in the interface to select your entire party. 3) At any moment, you can press Spacebar to pause the game, issue as many commands as you'd like, and then hit Spacebar again to unpause the game and have it carry out your commands. 4) In the options screen you can set out auto-pauses where the game pauses itself on specific triggers. These really help you get a handle on what is going on - Round End, Enemy Destroyed, Trap Detected, and Enemy Sighted are the really big ones that help a lot. Set those, and any time something new happens or a character finishes doing what you told them to do, the game will pause itself so you can react. 5) I forgot a big one! You can left-click and drag in the game to get a selection box like you would in Starcraft. This is an easy way to get your warriors to go one way and your wizards another, or whatever. 6) Formation matters a good amount. You can change formation by selecting a group and picking an option from the list on the action bar; you can right click a formation option to choose from even more options. Formations go by order of your characters' portraits. The top-most portrait is party "leader" and is the silver dot in the formation image. Click and drag portraits on the right hand side of the screen to rearrange your formation. 7) If you have a group selected, you can right click and hold, then move your mouse to rotate the formation. This is helpful if you want to arrange your party to break through a door or whatever. Arivia fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Sep 25, 2014 |
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Sep 25, 2014 15:19
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I also recommend a bard as your odd man out in IWD. Early on they're pretty much just another ranged attacker with the occasional support spell thrown into the mix, but their mid-to-late game songs are pretty great, not having to use a bunch of identify spells every hundred feet is handy, and they get a couple unique items that are fairly useful.
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Sep 25, 2014 16:40
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Is it recommended to play IWD1 before IWD2? is it worth it, not from a nostalgia view, but an actual gameplay/plot/story view?
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Sep 25, 2014 16:46
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As far as I remember IWD1 and IWD2 aren't plot related much. If you enjoy 2nd edition DnD gameplay then IWD1 is for you. IWD2 used 3.0 edition rules so it can be a bit of a culture shock to play after IWD1.
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Sep 25, 2014 16:52
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Iretep posted:As far as I remember IWD1 and IWD2 aren't plot related much. If you enjoy 2nd edition DnD gameplay then IWD1 is for you. IWD2 used 3.0 edition rules so it can be a bit of a culture shock to play after IWD1. Was BG2 2nd edition or 3rd? It's the game I'm currently playing.
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Sep 25, 2014 16:54
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IWD2 plot is born out of the ashes of a dead IWD plot, but it's nothing critical. At the beginning of IWD2 you can find a fat old woman with a house full of cats who can inscribe IWD plot into your journal.
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Sep 25, 2014 16:55
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Drifter posted:Was BG2 2nd edition or 3rd? It's the game I'm currently playing. 2nd
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Sep 25, 2014 17:01
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What's the best of the gold box games? I also haven't played any first person dungeon crawler RPGS before so I'd love some recommendations.
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Sep 25, 2014 18:09
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:What's the best of the gold box games? I also haven't played any first person dungeon crawler RPGS before so I'd love some recommendations. They're all tough to play in 2014, but I would almost be tempted to skip Pool of Radiance (first title of the eponymous series). It has very limited classes, just the basic 4, and it doesn't have Fix and a lot of other convenience features. Now, if you want to jump into Curse of the Azure Bonds and go through the other 3 games, you're in for a treat. Secret of the Silver Blades, though, is very combat-heavy and is somewhat more tedious than the other games. I personally think that the Krynn trilogy, Champions/Death Knights/The Dark Queen of Krynn, is excellent. Lots of variety, interesting classes with some interesting dual-classing opportunities, and lots of variety. Plus, you got to meet the famous book characters without them overshadowing you; you really get to be the hero.
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Sep 25, 2014 19:33
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Pools of Radiance is a bit of a slog but I'd still recommend toughing it out. I could be remembering wrong but I think it's a bit more open in that you can get several quests to do instead of it being a linear "do this, then do this" Azure Bonds is maybe my favorite of that trilogy, maybe just because it was the second gold box game I ever played (first being Champions of Krynn) and it hits a sweet spot of not being a low level slog for a long time but not getting so crazy overpowered the other direction like Pools of Darkness (which I never finished and need to get around to). I like the Krynn trilogy too but Dark Queen has some really loving hard poo poo and can be confusing as all hell at times to figure out what you should be doing. Sweet graphics though. It may have been discussed but I haven't been reading this thread lately, are the ipad ports of BG1 and 2 any good? Not sure I want to spend $20 on them but maybe if they ever go on sale...
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Sep 25, 2014 19:57
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Are these on GOG?Levitate posted:It may have been discussed but I haven't been reading this thread lately, are the ipad ports of BG1 and 2 any good? Not sure I want to spend $20 on them but maybe if they ever go on sale... Sucks that they make you buy them separately. You would think the PC version would just include them. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 21:36 on Sep 25, 2014 |
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Sep 25, 2014 21:33
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Any suggested party comp for IWD? Aside from a totally  Fighter?
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Sep 25, 2014 22:40
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:Are these on GOG? No. You can buy used copies on amazon or ebay or find them on abandonware sites. Pretty sure you can't actually buy them new anywhere any longer but I don't really know where that falls into the grey areas of abandonware, etc. You have to run them through dos box
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Sep 26, 2014 15:09
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So, are Beamdog just going to drop IWD EE rather unceremoniously or what? Going by the original announcement, the game should probably be releasing any given week now unless they hit some kind of massive snag...
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Sep 26, 2014 16:05
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ExiledTinkerer posted:So, are Beamdog just going to drop IWD EE rather unceremoniously or what? Going by the original announcement, the game should probably be releasing any given week now unless they hit some kind of massive snag... According to Trent Oster's Twitter they just had Mark Meer in their office a couple of days ago for IWD:EE stuff so I guess they are still finishing up work on their terrible NPC additions.
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Sep 26, 2014 19:00
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Testicle posted:According to Trent Oster's Twitter they just had Mark Meer in their office a couple of days ago for IWD:EE stuff so I guess they are still finishing up work on their terrible NPC additions. Now now, at least wait until the game is released... then you can poo poo on their terrible NPC additions. I wasn't that down on the BG1EE additions myself, honestly, except for Neera's voice actress being (deliberately or accidentally) annoying and the cheeky drow sorcerer not being included in BG2EE. My biggest worry with IWDEE is trying to crowbar in all of the kits and BG2 things with no care or playtesting, taking whatever gameplay balance is left, snapping it in half and throwing it down a mine.
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Sep 26, 2014 19:56
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Testicle posted:According to Trent Oster's Twitter they just had Mark Meer in their office a couple of days ago for IWD:EE stuff so I guess they are still finishing up work on their terrible NPC additions. I don't think there will be NPC additions, it doesn't fit with Icewind Dale at all. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a Black Pits 3 though and Mark Meer voiced Baeloth if I remember correctly. Edit: According to a developer on the forums, he came in to do promotional stuff but won't be in the game itself.
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Sep 26, 2014 22:39
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I forgotten how much of a hot mess it was tearing down all the mage defenses and which spell does what and what's most important. loving confusing. What's the shimmering pool around him mean? That blue sphere? That sparkling sparkles? The whowhatits? loving it, I'll start with the level 9 one then work my way down. Oh, a contingency that puts up a bunch of poo poo! Time to do it again! On the bright side my Fighter/Cleric with 25 strength thanks to Crom Faeyr. Greatest goddamn thing. I just wish there were more Scimitar variety, Jaheira is lagging behind.
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Sep 27, 2014 01:03
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Jimbot posted:I forgotten how much of a hot mess it was tearing down all the mage defenses and which spell does what and what's most important. loving confusing. What's the shimmering pool around him mean? That blue sphere? That sparkling sparkles? The whowhatits? loving it, I'll start with the level 9 one then work my way down. Oh, a contingency that puts up a bunch of poo poo! Time to do it again! She has proficiencies in clubs too. The Trademeet clubs are actually pretty decent, and with the scimitar of speed in her off hand she's a beast.
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Sep 27, 2014 01:48
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Yeah, I got to Throne of Bhaal so I'll have to look into Clubs she can get. Did Enhanced Edition restore the new bhaalspawn powers you get or do I need to get a mod that restores that cut content?
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Sep 27, 2014 03:31
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Jimbot posted:Yeah, I got to Throne of Bhaal so I'll have to look into Clubs she can get. Nope, and Ascension isn't compatible with EE officially. I have heard some people got parts of it to work though, but I have no idea if it's stable.
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Sep 27, 2014 03:50
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To use Ascension with EE, you have to install the Ascension module of the Big World Project I believe. You can just install that module and nothing else though. Nobody has bothered to update the standalone Ascension mod itself.
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Sep 27, 2014 15:01
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Gaider
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Sep 27, 2014 16:08
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