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And now the point where we're SUPPOSED to find out we're a Bhaalspawn!
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Feb 26, 2021 22:52
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There's a lot of good (vanilla) content here, but the line "I would tell you not to grieve for me, but I feel much better thinking that you would" always stuck with me. It's such an obvious twist on a tired cliché but I don't think I've actually seen it anywhere else. It's a really nice sentiment.  Also Yeslick continues to be the best. I dunno where I first came across that Shar-Teel banter, but I always thought it was vanilla content and liked that he was the one man who could earn her respect, simply by being a decent dude.
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Feb 26, 2021 22:52
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Well, thsss you too, game.
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Feb 26, 2021 23:04
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Zulily Zoetrope posted:Also Yeslick continues to be the best. I dunno where I first came across that Shar-Teel banter, but I always thought it was vanilla content and liked that he was the one man who could earn her respect, simply by being a decent dude. I was originally going to comment on just that, you can barely tell that it's mod content.
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Feb 26, 2021 23:20
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Midnight Voyager posted:And now the point where we're SUPPOSED to find out we're a Bhaalspawn! imoen being one too isn't revealed until like dang spellhold but she already turned into THE SLAYER so 'cant u yourself only turn into the slayer as a weird side effect of having your soul removed too?' 'right???'
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Feb 27, 2021 00:09
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Ramc posted:imoen being one too isn't revealed until like dang spellhold but she already turned into THE SLAYER so Got so mad her soul left her body!
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Feb 27, 2021 02:42
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Did we ever find out in BG1 if all the people from Candlekeep had actually been killed by the doppelgangers?
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Feb 27, 2021 04:05
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So there's something you missed out on by having the Black Pits mushed into the main game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gult454_BM And it's Baeloth's delivery when he meets your protagonist the first time.
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Feb 27, 2021 06:30
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Midnight Voyager posted:So there's something you missed out on by having the Black Pits mushed into the main game. I wanted to wait to pick him up after we did the Black Pits but promptly forgot about him, I might still do that later on. Maybe 'killing' him in Black Pits makes this impossible though.
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Feb 27, 2021 08:19
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Vichan posted:I wanted to wait to pick him up after we did the Black Pits but promptly forgot about him, I might still do that later on. Maybe 'killing' him in Black Pits makes this impossible though. Oh, I assumed they just disabled it in this case. I tried to look up the mod, but it appears to be a Roxanne addition.
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Feb 27, 2021 08:47
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Midnight Voyager posted:Oh, I assumed they just disabled it in this case. I tried to look up the mod, but it appears to be a Roxanne addition. I triggered his appearance early on but decided to reload because I wanted to do Black Pits first so it's definitely possible. When I went back to talk to Haeball I tried to trigger it again to no avail, I'll try again somewhere down the line for completion's sake.
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Feb 27, 2021 09:21
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Seyser Koze posted:Did we ever find out in BG1 if all the people from Candlekeep had actually been killed by the doppelgangers? I like to think most of them are still alive. The couple doppelgangers you meet in public are terrible at hiding, and the ones in the catacombs include the trio of Gorion, Elminster and Tethtoril, who very definitely have not been killed by doppelgangers.
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Feb 27, 2021 10:07
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Any doppelganger who could kill and successfully pretend to be Elminster deserves to be Elminster.
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Feb 27, 2021 12:46
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Vichan posted:I don't know why but I'm constantly baffled by how bad Imoen's dialogue is. Did no-one proofread this? You are the only person to ever make it this far. quote:Who needs Alaundo when we have Sandrah? ...and i'm beginning to worry for your mental state  If i wanted to get involved in conspiracies, i also would make up an alias to kover my as... and Zeus H. Christ i hate Sandrah so much  she really does ruin the entire loving game.I'm not fond of having npcs commenting on Gorion's letter. Why are they reading Charname's personal mail again?
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Feb 27, 2021 14:23
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vilkacis posted:I'm not fond of having npcs commenting on Gorion's letter. Why are they reading Charname's personal mail again? Many mods assume that the PC has some kind of visible reaction when reading the letter, or tells the party about it afterwards. There's no explicit conversation where the PC tells everyone they're a Bhaalspawn, in BG2 everyone just kind of already knows. At least when writing Valerie, her chat with the PC after escaping Candlekeep assumes the PC told everyone about the letter.
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Feb 27, 2021 14:34
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A dialogue option where the PC can choose to share the info with the party or keep it to themselves would have been fitting, I suppose. Everyone knows by BG2 but there's several villains openly calling you a Bhaalspawn between now and then (including that game's first line of dialogue), so your party's gonna find out even if you don't tell them yourself. BG2 starts having options like that, where the PC gets the option to check in with the party, but party members were largely an afterthought in the original Baldur's Gate.
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Feb 27, 2021 14:40
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Cythereal posted:Many mods assume that the PC has some kind of visible reaction when reading the letter, or tells the party about it afterwards. I mean quite a few people would have a visible reaction upon reading the last words of their recently-murdered parental figure. But either way i'm not fond of that kind of assumption about the pc's actions in a game where the player's supposed to make their own decisions. Charname could have any number of reasons to keep the lid on from ~it's my burden to carry~ to "it's none of these meatshields' business". Zulily Zoetrope posted:A dialogue option where the PC can choose to share the info with the party or keep it to themselves would have been fitting, I suppose. Ye.
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Feb 27, 2021 17:02
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vilkacis posted:I mean quite a few people would have a visible reaction upon reading the last words of their recently-murdered parental figure. But either way i'm not fond of that kind of assumption about the pc's actions in a game where the player's supposed to make their own decisions. Charname could have any number of reasons to keep the lid on from ~it's my burden to carry~ to "it's none of these meatshields' business". The information's gonna come out within like five minutes anyway. Villains stop being coy about it after this reveal.
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Feb 27, 2021 17:41
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I'm okay with NPCs talking about the plot when the plot is actually revealed. Kind of the whole reason why I installed these mods in the first place.
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Feb 27, 2021 19:06
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Chapter LXXI - you are a bit too sweaty for my taste at the moment. This was not a pleasant experience and I'm glad to be done with it. Before meeting Fabio I had two banters that I withheld last chapter.  Sandrah asks who inspires me, I'd have answered Drizzt but he's gone down a few places in my list due to obvious reasons.  Shar-Teel seems to be changing, is it really my doing or is it Sandrah's?  Anyway, back to this dullard.    Hurray, more adventure... I'd say no but I don't want to miss out on potential Sandrah content.  How interesting, do tell me more.  Garrotten seems like the perfect name for a den of thieves to be honest.  These are our leads.   Much as it pains me Fabio takes the place of Yeslick.  We talk to Sir BillyBob before heading for Garrotten. No new content in Restenford otherwise.  Our final dream of BG1.  Little did we know our real nightmare came afterwards. Why must Roxanne highlight how young she is?  We arrive in Garrotten. Dreary place.  Interesting.   Some of the local fishermen give us a quest to track down a creature that's been giving them trouble.  We'll come back to this kid later.   We eventually find our first suspect, Abraham.  He loves to talk.  Going back to the stableboy puts more suspicion on Oscar.  Subtle fellow, isn't he? We'll come back to this later.  Balmorrow is in the local theater.  He has a similar story to Abraham.  The house next to it turns out to be Balmorrow's house, this guy followed me throughout town for some reason.  Martin sends us to Balmorrow. Another bug, I'm assuming. Oh well.  One of the acolytes speaks up for Harper. We're visiting him next.   I'm sure this will go over well.   ...I'm pretty sure this guy is in the clear as well. That puts us in a bit of a bind. We might want to check with this Lothar.  I don't think the world is ready for Sandrahspawn.  This guy is definitely suspicious.  We find a Holy Symbol in Lothar's room.  Looks like he managed to give us the slip. drat. Before moving on let's deal with the fishermen's quest first.  These are the areas associated with it.  They're populated by lizards. Lots of lizards.  We rescue four fishermen in the second area.  Finally after a lot of combat we reach the king, he hits like a truck and has a shitload of HP.  He was standing in front of an altar carrying a Symbol of...  ...Oh dear.  We can't help but piss him off, can we? Look who it is.  We're in for another fight.   Snakes, really?  This should be e-  Uh.  Oh.  Looks like we have to use Sandrah's assets.   A lot of them.   That went way beyond my expectations, I've got to say. Talos teleports out before we can finish him, as usual.  After delivering the quest to Quenex we're back to solving the case.  Our cover is intact, time to head back to the inn.  Everything's going according to plan.  ...Oh well, it was good while it lasted.  Abraham tells us to talk to Martin but he has nothing to say. Bugs, bugs, bugs.  Let's just approach the situation head-on.  He casts an offensive spell but disappears after we unequip our weapons. We can re-equip them after passing this area making this whole thing useless.  Nice-looking area. There's guards guarding the left stairs who won't let us to the upper floors.  Kind of anti-climactic, I've got to say.  I guess there's nothing left to do but head for the inn.   Martin finally decides to be somewhat helpful, time to storm the castle.  We antagonise the guards by trying to head upstairs and kill the lot of them right there in the hallway.  ...Who the gently caress is Qualton?  The upper floor is pretty non-descript, full of guards.  We find documents in the mayor's bedroom.  Hey, I remember her. We helped her out the first time we were in this area!  We take her back to the temple and are glad to be done with this place. ...Yes, I managed to forget all about the kidnapped people in the castle. No, I've done nothing to rectify this. I want to be done with this area already.  As it turns out Qualton is in an area of the temple that I completely missed the first time we were in this area. Whoops.  He turns out to be totally insane. He dies almost instantly.  Seems word travels fast.    And just like that we're teleported out. I HATE HATE HATED this part of the mod. I encountered bugs at nearly every turn and found the whole experience to be very confusing. And we barely have any Sandrah content to show for it. Next time we'll return to Baldur's Gate, we're going to see how many more drops we can squeeze out of this bottle before finally putting BG1 behind us. Vichan fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Nov 7, 2021 |
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Feb 27, 2021 19:49
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Midnight Voyager posted:The information's gonna come out within like five minutes anyway. Villains stop being coy about it after this reveal. Even less reason to deny the player the choice, then. quote:It's nice to see them address the possibilities that exist in the setting. It really irks me in 2 when you have this "someone was murdered" bit and have to take action but no one even considers the option of asking or raising the victim... and that is a high level game! You might have multiple people in the party who can raise the dead at that point, completely legit, no Sandrah hax abilities needed! "Could you un-busy him please?" is a pretty good line. As i recall, that holy symbol of Talos is something you get as a very high level cleric in ToB? Really not something that should be showing up in BG1.  156 poison damage. That's nice.I think Arrness' portrait is one of the villains from Dragonlance, Takhishis or something like that? Real not-evil looking character, that. Bugs aside, i liked this a whole lot more than the Sandrah sections 
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Feb 27, 2021 21:17
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I think what's starting to annoy me even more than the consent issues and ickiness and endless Sueishness is how pointlessly redundant Sandrah is. She's either telling us what's coming up next in the script or telling us the meaning of what we just experienced and already understood, she's not actually contributing anything. I'd actually be less annoyed if the plot was revolving around her, but when you look at it, it isn't - it's still revolving around Vichan, just with Sandrah constantly seeking attention by butting in and namedropping everyone we meet (who only know vaguely who she is if she slept with them) and trying desperately to seem like one of the cool kids. She's the equivalent of that one co worker everyone has on any team who talks constantly in every meeting, usually just repeating what everyone else says using a lot more words, in a vain attempt to cover up the fact that they don't actually know what they're doing. Combined with that one girl in high school who slept around in order to be popular and never quite realised that it wasn't working. You could remove her from everything she's tried to involve herself in and all that would change is the word count would go down (and we'd be less grossed out by the poorly written creepy sex). Her being Elminster's daughter and an avatar of Mystra and the Forgotten Realms Rental Bicycle have no impact whatsoever except on our eye-rolling muscles, none of it matters. I realise this particular mod didn't have any real Sandrah content, but imagine if it did - it would just be her explaining what each clue means and who we should talk to next. Contrasting this quest where Vichan was allowed to solve it himself with all the previous blather just set me off.
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Feb 27, 2021 21:20
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vilkacis posted:
Sandrah Saga's additions are an exercise in frustration unless you take advantage of her abilities. quote:Bugs aside, i liked this a whole lot more than the Sandrah sections Maybe this is a sign of my ever increasing insanity but I always feel bummed out when Sandrah doesn't react to something. Black Robe posted:I think what's starting to annoy me even more than the consent issues and ickiness and endless Sueishness is how pointlessly redundant Sandrah is. She's either telling us what's coming up next in the script or telling us the meaning of what we just experienced and already understood, she's not actually contributing anything. She has no personality quirks whatsoever. It's infuriating. quote:I realise this particular mod didn't have any real Sandrah content, but imagine if it did - it would just be her explaining what each clue means and who we should talk to next. Contrasting this quest where Vichan was allowed to solve it himself with all the previous blather just set me off. The fact that I was giddy about the possibility proves that I'm going insane. I'm legitimately excited about Sandrah's BG2 content, please send help.
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Feb 27, 2021 21:31
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Vichan posted:Sandrah Saga's additions are an exercise in frustration unless you take advantage of her abilities. I'm afraid it's too late, this sounds terminal The rest of us are just excited to see you suffer, which admittedly is its own kind of issue.
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Feb 27, 2021 21:38
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So I must have skimmed too much because I didn't realise you'd actually been fighting THE Talos this whole time, in person. Because of course you can just beat down a god. Of course.
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Feb 27, 2021 21:49
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Wait, did you leave Yeslick on the terrible island? He doesn't deserve that. 
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Feb 27, 2021 22:06
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Zulily Zoetrope posted:Wait, did you leave Yeslick on the terrible island? He doesn't deserve that. I sent him back to the Elfsong, not to worry. I'd never leave him in such a ghastly place.
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Feb 27, 2021 22:12
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Competent writers: A powerful evil god of storms walking the earth freely is a terrible thing, a foe only the mightiest mortals could possibly hope to withstand and inspiring terror among the common folk. Roxanne: Lol he's a bad man from my animes
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Feb 28, 2021 00:11
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vilkacis posted:Even less reason to deny the player the choice, then. Unless maybe you don't want to have to write conversation paths with all the NPCs where they're dubious about your honesty and nature because of your lying and blah blah blah blah blah, leading to a lot more words than just being straightforward and causing the story paths to be very lopsided. I mean, I don't see what being able to lie would add if the truth immediately comes out, other than one of those tedious misunderstanding story arcs that could be solved by people talking to each other like adults. But I loving HATE those, so I'd jump at a lack of choice in comparison. I guess you could just have everyone be okay with it, but that's just as much nothing as not having a choice.
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Feb 28, 2021 01:38
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Midnight Voyager posted:I mean, I don't see what being able to lie would add if the truth immediately comes out It would add the ability to role play, in a role playing game. This is the single biggest reveal in the whole series and a huge opportunity for the player to define their character (and their relationship with their companions), so if you were going to spend time and effort writing npc reactions then this would be the place for it. (And it's not even a lie, it's just... not letting various people read a personal letter.)
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Feb 28, 2021 02:30
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vilkacis posted:It would add the ability to role play, in a role playing game. This is the single biggest reveal in the whole series and a huge opportunity for the player to define their character (and their relationship with their companions), so if you were going to spend time and effort writing npc reactions then this would be the place for it. Almost all NPC reactions to anything are mod-added. The letter being a "conversation" is also mod-added just so NPCs CAN react, otherwise they just kinda don't. It's not really that kind of game. That's more of a BG2 thing. As far as modders go, god knows what their train of thought was. Just not the type of drama they wanted, I guess. Anyway, this is what I came here for and almost immediately forgot: Did anyone else notice this? It just struck me while DOING this quest.  "We'll explode if we answer a question." "Why hasn't this happened before?" "Because nobody has-" YOU ARE ANSWERING A QUESTION RIGHT HERE Midnight Voyager fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Feb 28, 2021 |
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Feb 28, 2021 04:44
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Midnight Voyager posted:
Beamdog's writing is extremely hit-and-miss. It seems Sandrah's banters with mod NPCs are triggered by initially healing them, expect a lot of banters next update!  We've almost run out of story content, Vichan fucked around with this message at 10:42 on Feb 28, 2021 |
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Feb 28, 2021 09:45
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They should be more embarrassed for using such an overused logic puzzle, Is there anyone here who hasn't heard it told at least four times already?
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Feb 28, 2021 10:16
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Private Speech posted:Sandrah does have a fair bit of english content with Breagar, looking at the mod files. How can I find these banter files? Do I need a special program to open them? Sorry if I've asked before, I'm extremely forgetful. EDIT: So far I've managed to find some dialogue and triggers but it's all over the place. Vichan fucked around with this message at 12:08 on Feb 28, 2021 |
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Feb 28, 2021 11:36
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There's multiple different ways, Near Infinity in particular but I don't know how it works with EE; I just used find in files from Notepad++, pointing at the TRA directory.
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Feb 28, 2021 13:15
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Private Speech posted:There's multiple different ways, Near Infinity in particular but I don't know how it works with EE; I just used find in files from Notepad++, pointing at the TRA directory. Thank you, browsing through it I'm pretty please with how much I've been able to show. I think we can end things sooner than I originally thought.
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Feb 28, 2021 14:14
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Chapter LXXII - Are you prepared for a hard fight, loverboy? There will be one in our bedroll tonight if you have the stamina not to run away from me. This is the penultimate chapter of the BG1 section of this LP.  As soon as we're teleported to the outskirts of Baldur's Gate we're approached by a smuggler. We accept his offer.  A red mage tries to stop us on the bridge, to no avail.  Said encounter was not related to the smuggler so I've no idea what he just did for us. Did we get scammed?  Before entering the city we ask Sandrah about Khalindra. If she's anything like her daughter said 'courting' involved lots and lots of badly written sex.  Eltan poisoned? Scar dead? It's a good thing we came along when we did. Before moving on I stop by the Elfsong to see if anyone has got anything new to say.  Xan is positively euphoric.  Things definitely seem over between us.  Branwen leaves us, never to return...   An OP spell is the only thing we have to remember her by.  This dialog really is something else.    Well, that was a mistake. We promptly kick him out for a final time. Did I mention every single of his banters has music? We add Coran as a sixth member and head out.  A strange woman approaches us with information about Duke Eltan.  Uh-oh.  We're brought before Angelo and only Shar-Teel's presence saves one of our party members from certain death.   He even frees us soon afterwards.  Just as we're thrown out we run into Tamoko again. She asks us to spare Sarevok's life once we defeat him.  Sandrah sees a kindred spirit in Tamoko. If only Sarevok had listened to his counsellor. Anyway, back to triggering banters.   The thought of Audhild with someone else is driving Breagar up the wall.   Imoen's Dwarvish is getting better.  And we finally get a Breagar-Sandrah banter.  I'm pretty sure that last part is a dig at his height. Bad form, Sandrah.  Remember this guy?     He's the Yang to Gavin's Yin.   Turns out he did have banters with Sandrah after all.  Minsc and Dynaheir rejoin us.  Oh God there's more romance talks!  Anyway, we might as well make some more progress with the main quest.    We rescue the duke from the Flaming Fist headquarters and bring him to the harbormaster.  The Iron Throne building is next on our list.  The people here are in quite a panic.  This guy is Brunos' son, if you tell him you want to clear your name he decides to attack you.    We run into more people on our way to the top.  Sarevok's 'consort' summons two ogres to help her to no avail.  She has some letters from a guy called Slythe as well as...       Sarevok's diary, extended due to BG1NPC. Quite the tome, isn't it?  God, knowing what will happen makes this so heartbreaking... Anyway, more banters!   I...actually quite like these banters.  This is all I could squeeze out of Faldorn.  Kagain also had one last hurrah.  Hey, Isra interacts with Sandrah after all! And with that we're done with banters, there might be some drops left but we have to stop it somewhere. We put Minsc and Dynaheir back in our party and go right back to our quest.  The sewers connect to this underground brothel. A cool concept but the actual area feels a bit wasted.  These guys creeped me the gently caress out as a kid, Krystin being invisible right from the get-go didn't help either.  Anyway, on their bodies is another letter and an invitation to Sarevok's inauguration in the Ducal Palace.    Everything's going smoothly.  Sarevok's looking pretty smug there.   Oh, they'll be answered alright...   Yes, please do. This chapter is bloated enough as it is.   The noblemen turn out to be doppelgangers, keeping Belt alive was quite the operation.  Sarevok attacks us by himself.  Winski teleports in to teleport both Sarevok and himself out. I'd screenshot it but for some reason the sequence was a bit bugged.  He teleports us to the Thieves Guild.  I can only imagine their surprise when Sarevok teleported in. We follow him downstairs to the Thief Warrens.  I have no idea why Sandrah does this, they don't have any dialogue afterwards. Pretty random.  After navigating the maze (I HATE THIS AREA) we run into Winski who seems to have been betrayed by Sarevok.    He summons a demon who promptly chokes the life out of him. This was a nightmare to screenshot, partly because the demon dies so quickly.   If only we'd taken Dynaheir's advice... Next time we'll change our party line-up and finally confront Sarevok once and for all. 
Vichan fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Nov 7, 2021 |
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Feb 28, 2021 19:18
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This leap of logic stands out a bit. What would a healer be doing in a whorehouse? Either healing someone or getting laid, would be my guess. Or both, if he's efficient, or creative about his payment scheme. I'm not sure why that's apparently suspicious.
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Feb 28, 2021 21:10
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I absolutely love how Sandrah just kicks npcs from the party when she's done with them. And by "love" i mean "words cannot describe my hatred for this mod at this point" But on the flip side, the delivery on "Dreadfully sorry, but i'm afraid... i'm gonna have to kill ya" is so good.
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Feb 28, 2021 21:14
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vilkacis posted:I absolutely love how Sandrah just kicks npcs from the party when she's done with them. Oh no, that's always fantastic. "I have no more content with you, so you are garbage." Dump em in the bin. What do you mean a player might still want the person around??? PS: There are people on the Beamdog forums thanking you for saving them from considering this mod, Vichan. https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/64857/sandrah-saga-for-eet/p12 Midnight Voyager fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Feb 28, 2021 |
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Feb 28, 2021 21:58
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