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

[naossano]

Not an expert, but i guess the modded version bring more improvement, but is a pain in the ass to install.
Beamdog version, you just press the *Install* button. (but don't buy it full price. It is a freaking patch, not a whole new game)

 

[Ramnozack]

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.

You said it yourself, they made the game accessible and easy to install/use for a modern audience. Who besides a few hardcore nerds on RPG Codex are going to heavily mod the original Baldur's Gate, a game from 1999 that you're lucky if it will run correctly on a modern PC? Beamdog get major props for doing what they did. Easily worth $20.

I ran BG series on my Win 8 PC, modding does not take more than 10-20 minutes, unless you are a blithering retard or modding very extensively and have to manually check for compatibility issues, but most would not mod that extensively anyway since it is not needed for the BG series.

EEderp is nothing more than a cash grab for the gullible feeble minded retards.

Sword Coast Stratagems takes a metric fuckload of time to install. That alone will take you more than 20 minutes

 

[Lilura]

aTweaks with SCS is hardcore. Fucking demons...

 

[oldmanpaco]

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.

You said it yourself, they made the game accessible and easy to install/use for a modern audience. Who besides a few hardcore nerds on RPG Codex are going to heavily mod the original Baldur's Gate, a game from 1999 that you're lucky if it will run correctly on a modern PC? Beamdog get major props for doing what they did. Easily worth $20.

I ran BG series on my Win 8 PC, modding does not take more than 10-20 minutes, unless you are a blithering retard or modding very extensively and have to manually check for compatibility issues, but most would not mod that extensively anyway since it is not needed for the BG series.

EEderp is nothing more than a cash grab for the gullible feeble minded retards.

Sword Coast Stratagems takes a metric fuckload of time to install. That alone will take you more than 20 minutes

Well you still need to install that with the EE so no real change.

 

[Ramnozack]

aTweaks with SCS is hardcore. Fucking demons...

Is it? Im planning on starting a long ass EET playthrough with tons of quest mods and other shit including SSC and atweaks installed tomorrow. Should be fun

 

[Sykar]

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.

You said it yourself, they made the game accessible and easy to install/use for a modern audience. Who besides a few hardcore nerds on RPG Codex are going to heavily mod the original Baldur's Gate, a game from 1999 that you're lucky if it will run correctly on a modern PC? Beamdog get major props for doing what they did. Easily worth $20.

I ran BG series on my Win 8 PC, modding does not take more than 10-20 minutes, unless you are a blithering retard or modding very extensively and have to manually check for compatibility issues, but most would not mod that extensively anyway since it is not needed for the BG series.

EEderp is nothing more than a cash grab for the gullible feeble minded retards.

Sword Coast Stratagems takes a metric fuckload of time to install. That alone will take you more than 20 minutes

For you, maybe.

 

[Krivol]

Well, being evil is still inconvienient... But you are right, evil guys are overpowered (well, there is no decent evil thief, only good and easy to get is Imoen, especially if you dual her to a mage, Safana is neutral IIRC).

Montaron can do everything, you don't need a pure thief. Imoen is annoying to no end, even though she can stay with the party even if you are a villain. Safana being neutral doesn't change much, the only time she'll leave is if you drop to 1 rep. Playing with an evil party gives the game a much different flavor. You are on a mission for your own betterment, you are powerful and you know it, you can do whatever you want and you take no shit from anyone. I wouldn't say it's darker per se, just more ...my type. Good parties are a little bit too happy-go-lucky, like a bunch of children playing on the playground, just going out and having fun adventuring together, slaying dragons like white knights. Both approaches are valid, it's just interesting how different the game can feel depending on that. I guess kudos are in order for Bioware.

True, I totally forgot Monty.

I'm not saying being good is better in BG, I'm saying it's easier and a bit bainless ("yes" to everything and you will get same rewards and cheaper stuff in shops).

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

If it's a cash grab than they can grab my cash. I support anyone who wants to enhance older CRPGs and make them accessible and playable for a new generation. Plus we got Siege of Dragonspear out of it, an expansion for a nearly 20 year old game, and will be getting more old-school style CRPGs from Beamdog.

Beamdog is doing great work.

 

[Parabalus]

I never had any stability issues myself, infact Im playing through it right now, no problems.

But what do you get from EET instead of seperate installs? "Immersion" by not having to exit the game? Only thing that I can think of is you could console in some BG&SoD items since you have the .itm's loaded, but that's hardly relevant in a normal playthrough. But if something bugs out you'll wish you had them seperated.

 

[Ramnozack]

I never had any stability issues myself, infact Im playing through it right now, no problems.

But what do you get from EET instead of seperate installs? "Immersion" by not having to exit the game? Only thing that I can think of is you could console in some BG&SoD items since you have the .itm's loaded, but that's hardly relevant in a normal playthrough. But if something bugs out you'll wish you had them seperated.

Smoother experience really. You can revisit any of the areas from any of the games any time you want to (you obviously can't visit areas you haven't gotten to in the story yet though) and finish up any quests you still have there. Any modded kits and weapons and things like that will carry across all the games. Companion stats will be consistent across games. Probably missing some other major benefits as well but can't think of them ATM. Its really not difficult to install either and has no major or even minor bugs really, none that I have noticed anyway. So why the hell not use it? Just makes for a smoother seamless experience. And they also plan on adding Icewind Dale to the mod at some point as well, they have already been working on it for a while now.

EDIT: Apparently the IWD-in-EET addon is in closed beta ATM, close to a release maybe?

 

[Jason Liang]

There are some large expansion mods for BGT that require EET to work. But otherwise it isn't worth the headache.

 

[pippin]

If it's a cash grab than they can grab my cash. I support anyone who wants to enhance older CRPGs and make them accessible and playable for a new generation. Plus we got Siege of Dragonspear out of it, an expansion for a nearly 20 year old game, and will be getting more old-school style CRPGs from Beamdog.

Beamdog is doing great work.

You call an unwarranted "enhancing" that took them one year and a half after release to make somewhat playable on a technical level, plus with dubious added content, plus with the removal of the original versions from digital distribution, plus adding a "story mode" for a combat oriented game "good work"?

 

[Ramnozack]

There are some large expansion mods for BGT that require EET to work. But otherwise it isn't worth the headache.

I just dont understand what the headache is, you install BGEE+SOD and BGEE2 you download Big World Setup pick the mods you want click install and thats it.

 

[Jason Liang]

Except a lot of mods have compatibility issues with other mods, ESPECIALLY SCS. Getting BG1 modded is headache enough without fucking around with Ascension and the other BG2 mods on top of that.

And FU, it's not as easy as "clicking install." At the minimum you have to install and run modmerge on SoD first.

I ended up using BWS to download the mods, but I weidu'd them manually.

 

[Parabalus]

Smoother experience really. You can revisit any of the areas from any of the games any time you want to (you obviously can't visit areas you haven't gotten to in the story yet though) and finish up any quests you still have there. Any modded kits and weapons and things like that will carry across all the games. Companion stats will be consistent across games. Probably missing some other major benefits as well but can't think of them ATM. Its really not difficult to install either and has no major or even minor bugs really, none that I have noticed anyway. So why the hell not use it? Just makes for a smoother seamless experience. And they also plan on adding Icewind Dale to the mod at some point as well, they have already been working on it for a while now.

EDIT: Apparently the IWD-in-EET addon is in closed beta ATM, close to a release maybe?

I just dont understand what the headache is, you install BGEE+SOD and BGEE2 you download Big World Setup pick the mods you want click install and thats it.

My point is, having had problems with BGT in the past, that there is very little payoff in running the T instead of modding both games separately and importing. The stuff you mentioned is very minor (props if you think of something "major", there really isn't anything since you are still blank slated by Irenicus) and if you run into problems troubleshooting is much harder in Trilogy, Jason Liang explains it well above. Props to you if you run from Candlekeep to the end without a single hiccup, but why add unnecessary risk?

 

[Ramnozack]

Except a lot of mods have compatibility issues with other mods, ESPECIALLY SCS. Getting BG1 modded is headache enough without fucking around with Ascension and the other BG2 mods on top of that.

And FU, it's not as easy as "clicking install." At the minimum you have to install and run modmerge on SoD first.

I ended up using BWS to download the mods, but I weidu'd them manually.

So run a simple program where all you have to do is open the exe and press y. Big deal. I swear people on the Codex give me a vibe of being technically illiterate. and any compatibility issues with mods can be dealt with easily via BWS program. It detects any incompatibilities and tells you about them and lets you deactivate any components causing incompatibilities and gives you an auto-resolve conflict button as well.

 

[Wayward Son]

So run a simple program where all you have to do is open the exe and press y.

That's how simple it was using the WeiDU command in Linux after either mounting the folder in ciopfs (a non-case sensitive fs) or running the oft-included lower command(though that had a chance of breaking running the game and demanding a fresh reinstall anyhow).

 

[Tigranes]

If it's a cash grab than they can grab my cash. I support anyone who wants to enhance older CRPGs and make them accessible and playable for a new generation. Plus we got Siege of Dragonspear out of it, an expansion for a nearly 20 year old game, and will be getting more old-school style CRPGs from Beamdog.

Beamdog is doing great work.

If only they actually enhanced anything.

If you want to support old-school CRPGs, give your money to people who work hard on making good old-school RPGs like VD, Styg, etc. - and not some cocks whose friends got them the license so they can make some easy money, then still fail to actually release a full game after literally four different products.

 

[Lilura]

aTweaks with SCS is hardcore. Fucking demons...

Is it?

Well, depends how you have it set up. This is my setup (bottom of post). Haven't biffed my override but it seems pretty robust after about 60 hours of play. (Spent several hours setting it up and working out what borks what, so it'd wanna be.) Also, I consider aVENGER's Rogue Rebalancing to be must-have for this kind of playthrough. Such a thoughtful mod.

 

[Jason Liang]

You got rogue rebalancing to work with SCS? kudos

 

[Sizzle]

Dorn does force himself on you

Tastefully?

 

[Lacrymas]

Tastefully?

I realized what I'd written after I hit the post button, but decided not to edit it :p Beamdog don't have the balls to try something like that, making a companion attempt to rape you (maybe only in specific circumstances). It would've been interesting, mostly because very few companions in games actively try to harm you or work against you. Bishop from NWN2 comes to mind, I guess Yoshimo's betrayal counts too. What will you do with Dorn after he tries to do it? Many interesting questions would spring up.

 

[Melcar]

You got rogue rebalancing to work with SCS? kudos

According to the compat. guide it works as long as it is installed before SCS.

 

[agris]

this is the bar, and why the EEs were made. reading a guide that explicitly tells you what order to install things in garners 'kudos' these days.

 

[Jason Liang]

Weidu automatically installs mods in the correct order. The problem is that both RR and SCS modify so many different files and have a ton of compatibility issues.

Anyway, I couln't get them both to work with BG:EE+SoD without breaking other mods as well, so kudos.

Most of RR changes are for BG2:EE anyway (HLAs and high level abilities) so might as well not install it for BG:EE.