Baldur's Gate Beamdog's Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 Enhanced Editions

[Lhynn]

but it's extremely time-consuming and energy-draining just to play

Indeed, and its not worth it imo, BG2 just wasnt designed to be an excruciatingly hard experience. im playing with stratagems but with an old character, level 48 kensai level 12 mage so far, immune to non magical weapons from my last playthrough, so he can tank pretty much anything that isnt a level 18+ wizard. At this stage of the game im still staying the fuck away from powerful mages, at least until i get the cloak. About to go to chapter 4.
I dont buy potions but have like 300 of the small ones and 400 of the extra healing ones, so most fights arent that hard, tho the game has a way to throw you a curve ball due to the magic of AD&D, so having fun.

 

[Lilura]

Indeed, and its not worth it imo, BG2 just wasnt designed to be an excruciatingly hard experience.

Maybe not, but I've played SCS/Ascension before and it wasn't that hard once you learned how to pierce the three basic layers of arcane defense. What makes this current setup harder is the amount of mods I have working against my power progression habits, in concert: old habits die hard. It's a far cry from vanilla, which I can play blindfolded.

Also, love the kensai. I was gonna go pure but ppl on my poll voted for kensai 9/thief 39 dual, which is a lot easier but definitely more fun, too!

 

[Lhynn]

Indeed, and its not worth it imo, BG2 just wasnt designed to be an excruciatingly hard experience.

Maybe not, but I've played SCS/Ascension before and it wasn't that hard once you learned how to pierce the three basic layers of arcane defense. What makes this current setup harder is the amount of mods I have working against my power progression habits, in concert: old habits die hard. It's a far cry from vanilla, which I can play blindfolded.

Also, love the kensai. I was gonna go pure but ppl on my poll voted for kensai 9/thief 39 dual, which is a lot easier but definitely more fun, too!

After coming back to the game after i dont know how many years, i was struggling a lot at first, and now im barely doing well. The first hour the game felt clunky, slow and unresponsive, but then i kinda figured it out and started remembering what to do in a fight and they go by smoothly. Past few days ive spent most of the night playing it, even till 5-6 in the morning, its just so addictive and fun, so much stuff happens and its all interesting and keeps you engaged. You simply have so many options as to what to do, hard fights give you enough time to watch and respond.

Id say the only problem this game has is the walkspeed, i remembered why i gave everyone on the team boots of speed in my previous playthroughs. And right now im playing with a mage with a stupid amount of hitpoints.

Using a mod that makes cowled wizards detect magic even if you do it inside houses or taverns, so im not really casting much, because i refuse to pay them for the license.

 

[Lilura]

Walkspeed should be ok if you're playing on 60 AI updates per sec. If not you could Shadowkeep the party's movement speed and keep your boot slots open. Might be too EZ to run rings around the mobs and fallback, though.

The game has a ton of problems but it's infinitely superior to the current gen crap I've been treating lately (Tyranny, TToN).

Using a mod that makes cowled wizards detect magic even if you do it inside houses or taverns, so im not really casting much, because i refuse to pay them for the license.

I'll have to add that to my setup, too. You can also increase the fee to max 50,000 GP (and the Gaelan Bayle fee to max 120,000).

 

[FugueLah]

I have not played these games due to my aversion to RTwP, but I am considering giving them a go.

I happen to have the enhanced editions on steam already. What would I be losing or gaining by playing these over the original versions?

Also, given my patience is probably limited for the clusterfuck that is RTwP am I best off to just play BG2?

 

[ArchAngel]

I have not played these games due to my aversion to RTwP, but I am considering giving them a go.

I happen to have the enhanced editions on steam already. What would I be losing or gaining by playing these over the original versions?

Also, given my patience is probably limited for the clusterfuck that is RTwP am I best off to just play BG2?

BG1 + mods allows you to customize your experience more. The downside is that you will lose at least couple of hours learning and doing it if you never modded Bg1 before.

BG1EE also has some features BG1+mods don't, like lightning fast loading times, some new UI features and some added content that is not that good :D

 

[MediantSamuel]

Also, given my patience is probably limited for the clusterfuck that is RTwP am I best off to just play BG2?

I wouldn't recommend playing BG2 first if you feel that RTWP is a clusterfuck; BG2 gets pretty clusterfucky.

BG1 is a simple enough starting point to see if you can stomach the series, imo.

 

[*-*/\--/\~]

Seriously?

Yes.

To be fair, there's a pretty cool twist to the why and wherefore of it.

Spoiler

The girl in the first portrait is a human dominated by the vampire in the second portrait. Recruit her, follow her quest, and you'll end up in the vampire's lair. She'll kill her and join your party in her place. She's also scarily OP, being a vamp and all.

Let me guess, there is no option to save the dominated character and kill the fucking vampire. Just like there was no option to side with bandits and kill Dorn in the first EE.

 

[Projas]

Essentially.

Spoiler

You can't save the dominated character. You can kill the vampire, but the game doesn't acknowledge that in any way. You don't get any xp or loot or any kind of reward for it and the quest even stays open and unresolved FOREVER. It's like they couldn't even imagine someone would want to kill their special snowflake character. After this, I just ignored all the Beamdog companions. Which was made harder by the fact that they are frequently introduced to you by watching an unnecessarily long uninteractive scripted scene, where you just stand like a retard unable to do anything.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

I happen to have the enhanced editions on steam already. What would I be losing or gaining by playing these over the original versions?

Gain: instantaneous saving and loading, improved looting (this is probably the change that makes EEs worth considering).

Lose: the new UI is kinda shitty and there are still bugs that you won't find in originals.

Most of the the other changes (which are questionable at best) are a toggle and you can skip a vast majority of the (universally horrible) new content. You're only forced to go through a few scripted initial encounters with the new companions.

Also, given my patience is probably limited for the clusterfuck that is RTwP am I best off to just play BG2?

Good IE games: BG2, IWD
Overrated IE games: BG
Bad IE games: IWD2
Special snowflake IE games: PST

But most importantly, if you start with BG1 I'm 99% sure you'll get burned out before finishing BG2. So I'd say yeah, go ahead and start with the superior game. On a side note, the official addon for BG2 isn't great, but the vanilla campaign is cool and more than long enough.

 

[ArchAngel]

Essentially.

Spoiler

You can't save the dominated character. You can kill the vampire, but the game doesn't acknowledge that in any way. You don't get any xp or loot or any kind of reward for it and the quest even stays open and unresolved FOREVER. It's like they couldn't even imagine someone would want to kill their special snowflake character. After this, I just ignored all the Beamdog companions. Which was made harder by the fact that they are frequently introduced to you by watching an unnecessarily long uninteractive scripted scene, where you just stand like a retard unable to do anything.

I mostly played BG1EE, Dorn I only tried in one run and he is irritating while also a bit too strong for low level D&D; Neera is good for 1 minute until you take a free Gem bag from her; Monk is.. who cares, low level monks sucks; Sorcerer is cool but you only get him a bit later and he is kind of hidden and finding him requires certain triggers that not everyone will satisfy.

In Bg2EE I found Neera a good companion but only because her sidequest eventually lets you enter Thay Enclave in Athkatla which was a very cool fight with better AI and enemies than rest of vanilla BG2.

 

[calgary.alberta]

People's hate on BGEE, and BG2EE at patch level 2.2 doesn't make any sense to me.

I got around to building the entire trilogy mod for the original games using very default standards. It doesn't even come close to what enhanced editions have. Let alone I can't see anything in the interior spaces since they are rendered so small, compared to the EE which allows some level of the ability to zoom. The old UI drops from either full screen, to the world map which only takes up the center of the screen.

Beyond that even with the mods, the pathfinding issues are still there, and by the time I left Candlekeep I ran into some bugs that have been long corrected with the EE.

Also coming up the EE is getting it's own Trilogy mod and it's very close to release. Also several larger mods from the original series is coming back.

Comg from a half blind guy, the original games are a pain to look at without the EE version

 

[ArchAngel]

People's hate on BGEE, and BG2EE at patch level 2.2 doesn't make any sense to me.

I got around to building the entire trilogy mod for the original games using very default standards. It doesn't even come close to what enhanced editions have. Let alone I can't see anything in the interior spaces since they are rendered so small, compared to the EE which allows some level of the ability to zoom. The old UI drops from either full screen, to the world map which only takes up the center of the screen.

Beyond that even with the mods, the pathfinding issues are still there, and by the time I left Candlekeep I ran into some bugs that have been long corrected with the EE.

Also coming up the EE is getting it's own Trilogy mod and it's very close to release. Also several larger mods from the original series is coming back.

Comg from a half blind guy, the original games are a pain to look at without the EE version

I hope you wore your flame resistant suit before writing this.

 

[calgary.alberta]

People's hate on BGEE, and BG2EE at patch level 2.2 doesn't make any sense to me.

I got around to building the entire trilogy mod for the original games using very default standards. It doesn't even come close to what enhanced editions have. Let alone I can't see anything in the interior spaces since they are rendered so small, compared to the EE which allows some level of the ability to zoom. The old UI drops from either full screen, to the world map which only takes up the center of the screen.

Beyond that even with the mods, the pathfinding issues are still there, and by the time I left Candlekeep I ran into some bugs that have been long corrected with the EE.

Also coming up the EE is getting it's own Trilogy mod and it's very close to release. Also several larger mods from the original series is coming back.

Comg from a half blind guy, the original games are a pain to look at without the EE version

I hope you wore your flame resistant suit before writing this.

Sure did

See this what I get, no one gives me solid valid points via game mechanicis have changed the game so drasticly. Beyond kits, eax sound, and a few other oddies.

The new content can be mostly bypassed, and mods are pulling some of it out..

 

[oldmanpaco]

See this what I get, no one gives me solid valid points via game mechanicis have changed the game so drasticly. Beyond kits, eax sound, and a few other oddies.

Most of the hate is from the way the EE was seen as a money grab when first released. The EE basically brought nothing to the table that something like BWP could not do (modified resolution, bug fixes, script extensions, better AI, poorly written companions, better art assets) except you needed to pay $20 for it. And while its true that the release made it easier for the general Steam public (at least after months of patching which was another issue) to get into the games without having to mod them that was never a barrier for people here.

Anyway I bought both of them at 75% off last year and next time I play I'll be going for those sweet, sweet, steam chivos.

 

[Parabalus]

People's hate on BGEE, and BG2EE at patch level 2.2 doesn't make any sense to me.

I got around to building the entire trilogy mod for the original games using very default standards. It doesn't even come close to what enhanced editions have. Let alone I can't see anything in the interior spaces since they are rendered so small, compared to the EE which allows some level of the ability to zoom. The old UI drops from either full screen, to the world map which only takes up the center of the screen.

Beyond that even with the mods, the pathfinding issues are still there, and by the time I left Candlekeep I ran into some bugs that have been long corrected with the EE.

Also coming up the EE is getting it's own Trilogy mod and it's very close to release. Also several larger mods from the original series is coming back.

Comg from a half blind guy, the original games are a pain to look at without the EE version

It's even worse when people write "ORIGINAL WITH MODS IS THE BEST" when you can use every single mod on the EE versions, save maybe a few Tactics components. Heck, if the new NPCs trigger you so hard you can mod them out.
The games have substantial usability improvements even if you consider Beamdog's content shit.

 

[agris]

It's even worse when people write "ORIGINAL WITH MODS IS THE BEST" when you can use every single mod on the EE versions, save maybe a few Tactics components. Heck, if the new NPCs trigger you so hard you can mod them out.

Level1NPCs and Ascension still aren't compatible with BG2:EE

L1NPCs is a requirement for those of us who have finished the game a lot, and is completely inconsequential for first timers, fwiw.

 

[Parabalus]

Level1NPCs and Ascension still aren't compatible with BG2:EE

L1NPCs is a requirement for those of us who have finished the game a lot, and is completely inconsequential for first timers, fwiw.

Ascension works and all functionality of L1NPCs can be reproduced with Shadow(EE)Keeper. Don't agree with it being essential though, just fun to try out different builds.

 

[agris]

Ascension works and all functionality of L1NPCs can be reproduced with Shadow(EE)Keeper.

That's like saying the Item Upgrade mod can be accomplished with Near Infinity and the EE Keeper. Yes, you can do it, but why would you?

Also, this doesn't read like "Ascension works".

 

[ArchAngel]

People's hate on BGEE, and BG2EE at patch level 2.2 doesn't make any sense to me.

I got around to building the entire trilogy mod for the original games using very default standards. It doesn't even come close to what enhanced editions have. Let alone I can't see anything in the interior spaces since they are rendered so small, compared to the EE which allows some level of the ability to zoom. The old UI drops from either full screen, to the world map which only takes up the center of the screen.

Beyond that even with the mods, the pathfinding issues are still there, and by the time I left Candlekeep I ran into some bugs that have been long corrected with the EE.

Also coming up the EE is getting it's own Trilogy mod and it's very close to release. Also several larger mods from the original series is coming back.

Comg from a half blind guy, the original games are a pain to look at without the EE version

It's even worse when people write "ORIGINAL WITH MODS IS THE BEST" when you can use every single mod on the EE versions, save maybe a few Tactics components. Heck, if the new NPCs trigger you so hard you can mod them out.
The games have substantial usability improvements even if you consider Beamdog's content shit.

Last time I checked SCS was broken for new versions of BGEE and BG2EE but that was months ago.

 

[AetherVagrant]

Coming back to BG2 for the first time since 2005. Enjoying it even more than I remember now that I've replayed BG1 and can compare the two. Torment TON took maybe two days to beat, but I've been playing bg2 for the last 4 and am still only in chapter 2 with LOTS of unfinished quests. I forgot how DENSE this game is despite having a fairly small world. I can't go across a single map without finding something else interesting to do. I do cheat -- give everyone extra walking speed, and added 4000 gold at the beginning of the game so i could get my ideal party and not have to grind the very beginning. Still gets rough but im trying to complete everything in my journal before moving on, as there was TONS i never saw the first time around or even knew was a possibility. I wish a modern game could be this dense without being a Ubisoft map of infinite (!) markers. I beat POE, Tyranny Torment, AND Deus Ex in less time than Ive spent on the first 1/4 of BG2.

 

[calgary.alberta]

People's hate on BGEE, and BG2EE at patch level 2.2 doesn't make any sense to me.

I got around to building the entire trilogy mod for the original games using very default standards. It doesn't even come close to what enhanced editions have. Let alone I can't see anything in the interior spaces since they are rendered so small, compared to the EE which allows some level of the ability to zoom. The old UI drops from either full screen, to the world map which only takes up the center of the screen.

Beyond that even with the mods, the pathfinding issues are still there, and by the time I left Candlekeep I ran into some bugs that have been long corrected with the EE.

Also coming up the EE is getting it's own Trilogy mod and it's very close to release. Also several larger mods from the original series is coming back.

Comg from a half blind guy, the original games are a pain to look at without the EE version

It's even worse when people write "ORIGINAL WITH MODS IS THE BEST" when you can use every single mod on the EE versions, save maybe a few Tactics components. Heck, if the new NPCs trigger you so hard you can mod them out.
The games have substantial usability improvements even if you consider Beamdog's content shit.

Last time I checked SCS was broken for new versions of BGEE and BG2EE but that was months ago.

Looks like this:

http://www.gibberlings3.net/scs/

and is fixed by this:

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/732385/#Comment_732385

 

[Parabalus]

That's like saying the Item Upgrade mod can be accomplished with Near Infinity and the EE Keeper. Yes, you can do it, but why would you?

You are comparing making your own item, scripting the forging process + Cromwell to 3-4 clicks in EE Keeper. Yes, you can do it, but why would you?

I googled it and somebody actually updated the mod this week. Don't like the mod myself, if I wanted to change classes of NPCs I'd do it when I hire them, not that far in advance.

Also, this doesn't read like "Ascension works".

That's a year old and if you scrolled down you'll see it's been solved.

Last time I checked SCS was broken for new versions of BGEE and BG2EE but that was months ago.

I don't keep up with updates, just use Big World Setup to install, if it's listed there it works. Haven't had any problems myself with an install from early this year.

 

[agris]

Parabalus so you've used ascension for BG2:EE? That thread lists people's problems up to September 2016, and the OP was last edited May 2015. Are you sure you know what you're talking about?

Regarding new race/classes for NPCs in EE keeper: you would need to manually edit all the saving throw tables for each NPC, RNG their 1dX HP + con modifier, manually add any special abilities and ensure the number and type of weapon proficiency PIPS were correct for the given class/kit and add in the correct thieving values when relevant for the race/class changes. EE keeper doesn't do that automatically when you change race and class, as far as I'm aware (granted I'm used to ShadowKeeper). It allows you manually change everything, but it's on the user to make sure the values are correct, and if the NPC you're editing is past level 1, have fun with what I listed above. That doesn't sound sound like 3 - 4 'clicks' bud, it sounds like you don't know what you're talking about.

I'm not an EE hater, although I think the Beamdog content is bad (I liked SOD though), but saying that someone can easily implement what L1NPC does in EE keeper is misleading at best.

 

[Lhynn]

I'll have to add that to my setup, too. You can also increase the fee to max 50,000 GP (and the Gaelan Bayle fee to max 120,000).

None of those options are remotely coherent, and that really bothers me.
Gaelans bayle fee would be enough to buy an entire fleet and keep it staffed for years. And you could probably buy brynnlaw for what it would take for the cowled wizards to let you cast a cantrip, we are talking more money than most noble families have ever seen, enough to build a castle.