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Baldur's Gate Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear - Gameplay and Mechanics Thread (NO political crap!)

DeepOcean

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2012
Messages
7,394
Alright faggits, I have to confess that with that political crap apart, the game keeps some nice dungeon crawling and the IE feel to it. The game content is enjoyable and bonus points for BeamDog for trying to be loyal to the PnP on some fights like vampires needing to be staked at the heart and certain things needing their phylactery destroyed. I liked how some quests allow for an "evil" choice and a "good" choice. My major criticism on gameplay related stuff is the structure of the storyline that doesn't allow for much non-linearity and the handholding. You follow an army on the march and while it makes sense you can't walk at your leisure, I think gameplay should always overcome story on videogames and non linearity on RPGs is always a good thing.

The hand holding somtimes kinda ruins good content, I'm talking of the starting dungeon and a certain dungeon involving dwarves, those were the ones I fully explored so far. The starting dungeon, I tought it was excessive to have an healer following you around and a ton of money. The dungeon involving the dwarves had a great concept and an interesting choice at the end but an NPC gives you an item that pratically is an I WIN! button against the final boss and on the final puzzle to get that quest item to finaly get rid of the boss, it was nice you could find an item that helps you identifying the right item to pick but it was excessive to simply automaticaly destroy the other items that could mislead you. Maybe having the quest item hidden on a third floor that only opens up after the player faces the boss for the first time, in there, the quest item is hidden and the player has to frantically search for it while trying to fend off the boss and fighting lesser undead at the same time, to end the dungeon on a frantic fight is better than a sign posted quest solution.

Another complaint of mine is that the Baldur's Gate city section is too scripted, too restricting and too focused, the city section feels without a purpose and too restricting. The maps you visit, you can zoom out beyond the edge of the map, I know this is more of an expansion than a full game and the maps can't be huge and filled with content but even some empty streets around the places you visit so when you zoom out you don't see some ugly ass black bars around the edges of the maps would be better.

The city would be far better with some side exploration like there is later on the game, maybe you finding a conspiracy of a powerful noble that secretly supported the Shinning lady being the responsible for assassins sent to you on her orders. I dunno, the Baldur's Gate section needed some non linearity and needed some better link to connect you to the Shinning Lady on a personal way(fuck Imoen, if the Shinning Lady had killed her, I would be a fan). The way things are handled at the start of the game, it is too much talk talk of already known exposition, not enough new things, too much being pushed ahead and not enough doing stuff on Baldur's Gate city.

If any of you BeamDog staff (with exception of the faggits that censor people on their forums and added shitty preaching content on the game) is corageous enough to keep reading the codex, the game has fun content and I had more fun with it than Pillars of Eternity but there is too much casual pandering, especially on the excessive sign posting tool tips. Let the player be lost for the fucking sake. Bioware surprised people with a fucking demilich on the middle of Athkatla on BG 2, you have room to let the player be surprised too.

TL; DR: #DieCasuals #LessHandholding #LessRailroading #LessScriptedShit #KeepUsingDnD #SurprisePlayer #ThrowImoenOnTheFireElementalPlane
 
Last edited:

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,886
Alright faggits, I have to confess that with that political crap apart, the game keeps some nice dungeon crawling and the IE feel to it. The game content is enjoyable and bonus points for BeamDog for trying to be loyal to the PnP on some fights like vampires needing to be staked at the heart and certain things needing their phylactery destroyed. I liked how some quests allow for an "evil" choice and a "good" choice. My major criticism on gameplay related stuff is the structure of the storyline that doesn't allow for much non-linearity and the handholding. You follow an army on the march and while it makes sense you can't walk at your leisure, I think gameplay should always overcome story on videogames and non linearity on RPGs is always a good thing.

The hand holding somtimes kinda ruins good content, I'm talking of the starting dungeon and a certain dungeon involving dwarves, those were the ones I fully explored so far. The starting dungeon, I tought it was excessive to have an healer following you around and a ton of money. The dungeon involving the dwarves had a great concept and an interesting choice at the end but an NPC gives you an item that pratically is an I WIN! button against the final boss and on the final puzzle to get that quest item to finaly get rid of the boss, it was nice you could find an item that helps you identifying the right item to pick but it was excessive to simply automaticaly destroy the other items that could mislead you. Maybe having the quest item hidden on a third floor that only opens up after the player faces the boss for the first time, in there, the quest item is hidden and the player has to frantically search for it while trying to fend off the boss and fighting lesser undead at the same time, to end the dungeon on a frantic fight is better than a sign posted quest solution.

Another complaint of mine is that the Baldur's Gate city section is too scripted, too restricting and too focused, the city section feels without a purpose and too restricting. The maps you visit, you can zoom out beyond the edge of the map, I know this is more of an expansion than a full game and the maps can't be huge and filled with content but even some empty streets around the places you visit so when you zoom out you don't see some ugly ass black bars around the edges of the maps would be better.

The city would be far better with some side exploration like there is later on the game, maybe you finding a conspiracy of a powerful noble that secretly supported the Shinning lady being the responsible for assassins sent to you on her orders. I dunno, the Baldur's Gate section needed some non linearity and needed some better link to connect you to the Shinning Lady on a personal way. The way things are handled at the start of the game, it is too much talk talk of already known exposition, not enough new things, too much being pushed ahead and not enough doing stuff on Baldur's Gate city.

If any of you BeamDog staff (with exception of the faggits that censor people on their forums and added shitty preaching content on the game) is corageous enough to keep reading the codex, the game has fun content and I had more fun with it than Pillars of Eternity but there is too much casual pandering, especially on the excessive sign posting tool tips. Let the player be lost for the fucking sake. Bioware surprised people with a fucking demilich on the middle of Athkatla on BG 2, you have room to let the player be surprised too.

TL; DR: #DieCasuals #LessHandholding #LessRailroading #LessScriptedShit #KeepUsingDnD #SurprisePlayer #ThrowImoenOnTheFireElementalPlane
Well you do find the nobles plotting vs Dukes.
 

Gay-Lussac

Arcane
Joined
Nov 24, 2007
Messages
7,563
Location
Your mom
After last patch, Wyvern quest in BG EE is bugged. I have two heads but can't get a line about reward in Temple. Anybody had same problem?

I had completed that quest when I patched to 2.0. After patching, the quest was still on my journal as completed, but Coran left my party citing having to hunt wyverns anyway.

I pegged that down to some sort of conflict with SCS, but guess not. Pretty sure there's a console command that can flag the quest as completed, though.

Thanks, then I will look out for c. command. Coran is not important, I took him just for that quest.

In that case, I wouldn't bother. Quest rewards in BG are almost always meaningless in the grand scheme.
 

Metal Hurlant

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 21, 2014
Messages
535
Codex USB, 2014 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign
Didn't realise, you can't go back to some of the maps. Wanted to go back to a previous map (Coast Way Crossing) to finish off the statues which I put on hold because I thought I could do it later and now I can't go back.

:rpgcodex:
 

purpleblob

Savant
Joined
May 16, 2014
Messages
564
Location
Sydney
Is anyone going to do a proper codex review on SoD?

From what I've read so far I'm assuming:

The game feels like BG, faithful to D&D rule set, combat encounters are pretty decent but the party selections are too restricted, writing ranging from subpar to rubbish although more choices available for evil playthrough, avoid new companions, and the game is bug ridden, both game breaking or otherwise. Does that sound about right?
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,886
Is anyone going to do a proper codex review on SoD?

From what I've read so far I'm assuming:

The game feels like BG, faithful to D&D rule set, combat encounters are pretty decent but the party selections are too restricted, writing ranging from subpar to rubbish although more choices available for evil playthrough, avoid new companions, and the game is bug ridden, both game breaking or otherwise. Does that sound about right?
There is a patch coming this week so at least it will be less bug ridden.

And writing was always so so, I only care that combat and dungeons are cool and they are (on Insane).
 

Metal Hurlant

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 21, 2014
Messages
535
Codex USB, 2014 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign
With the 'you have been waylaid by enemies' encounters. Has anyone actually participated in any of these? I find it hilarious that it puts you at the edge of the screen which you can automatically click the side of the map and avoid them and continue on with the world map. I don't even know what enemies there are as they're hidden by the fog of war.
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,886
With the 'you have been waylaid by enemies' encounters. Has anyone actually participated in any of these? I find it hilarious that it puts you at the edge of the screen which you can automatically click the side of the map and avoid them and continue on with the world map. I don't even know what enemies there are as they're hidden by the fog of war.
Why would you not explore them lol?! It is not like Bg1 where you lvl 1 ass is toast if you get anything but gibberlings/wild dogs.

And SoD random encounters are actually different because they often have extra content and also can feature creatures fighting each other and you can join the fray or fight vs the winner or even just choose one side.
 

Metal Hurlant

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 21, 2014
Messages
535
Codex USB, 2014 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign
I assumed they were trash mobs which is why I click the edge of the map since you're already there to continue on where I'm going.
 

Space Insect

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
868
Location
Shaggai
Is anyone going to do a proper codex review on SoD?

From what I've read so far I'm assuming:

The game feels like BG, faithful to D&D rule set, combat encounters are pretty decent but the party selections are too restricted, writing ranging from subpar to rubbish although more choices available for evil playthrough, avoid new companions, and the game is bug ridden, both game breaking or otherwise. Does that sound about right?
I believe that Delterius was doing the review.
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,886
I assumed they were trash mobs which is why I click the edge of the map since you're already there to continue on where I'm going.
If finding a young Dragon fighting Hill Giants and Dragon asking for your help is trash mobs...
 

Nipslip

Novice
Joined
Apr 11, 2016
Messages
24
What is this? A normal discussion about the expansion? Blasphemy!
Got burnt on a stake on another forum for trying to ask a simple question about this expansion..

So, the general consensus is that the combat is good and the writing is so so or okay..
That is all I wanted to know.. Thank you!
 

Gauldur's Bait

Arbiter
Joined
Oct 14, 2015
Messages
247
What is this? A normal discussion about the expansion? Blasphemy!
Got burnt on a stake on another forum for trying to ask a simple question about this expansion..

So, the general consensus is that the combat is good and the writing is so so or okay..
That is all I wanted to know.. Thank you!

It depends on what you mean. If Infinity Engine = good combat then the answer is yes. However, In many fights (from my experience at least about 80% of the fights) you simply battle a huge mob of enemies that move as one group, at least on Core Rules (or below, I assume), which gets boring quickly. The higher difficulties have more challenging and varied combat, from what I understand. Some fights were better orchestrated, and some were even fun!
 

Metal Hurlant

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 21, 2014
Messages
535
Codex USB, 2014 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign
So, the general consensus is that the combat is good and the writing is so so or okay..
That is all I wanted to know.. Thank you!

No. Not at all.

This pretty much sums it up:

The game feels like BG, faithful to D&D rule set, combat encounters are pretty decent but the party selections are too restricted, writing ranging from subpar to rubbish although more choices available for evil playthrough, avoid new companions, and the game is bug ridden, both game breaking or otherwise. Does that sound about right?

Most combat encounters are boring and very easy. You only need one spell. Fireball rules. And if you have a wand, then you have 50 fireballs at your disposal. Just napalm everything!

Also. I wouldn't say it feels like BG in 'exploration'. More like IWD/ToB where you're railroaded into doing what the game tells you to do. And I found out earlier as per my post above, you can't always go back to previous maps to finish off quests. The game forces you to go forward.
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,886
So, the general consensus is that the combat is good and the writing is so so or okay..
That is all I wanted to know.. Thank you!

No. Not at all.

This pretty much sums it up for me:

The game feels like BG, faithful to D&D rule set, combat encounters are pretty decent but the party selections are too restricted, writing ranging from subpar to rubbish although more choices available for evil playthrough, avoid new companions, and the game is bug ridden, both game breaking or otherwise. Does that sound about right?

Most combat encounters are boring and very easy. You only need one spell. Fireball rules. And if you have a wand, then you have 50 fireballs at your disposal. Just napalm everything! Just like other IE games!

Also. I wouldn't say it feels like BG in 'exploration'. More like IWD/ToB where you're railroaded into doing what the game tells you to do. And I found out earlier as per my post above, you can't always go back to previous maps to finish off quests. The game forces you to go forward.
I fixed that for you.
 

Nipslip

Novice
Joined
Apr 11, 2016
Messages
24
Most combat encounters are boring and very easy. You only need one spell. Fireball rules. And if you have a wand, then you have 50 fireballs at your disposal. Just napalm everything!
Okay, well I guess I could gimp myself a bit and not use Fireball or cloudkill, to make things more challenging, if the overall experience is good otherwise..
 

Metal Hurlant

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 21, 2014
Messages
535
Codex USB, 2014 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign
I'm a bit of a completionist so I reloaded a previous save to do the statue quest (argh, all that time I wasted) and I'm noticing some new items that I didn't have before. Some of the loot must be random.
 

Metal Hurlant

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 21, 2014
Messages
535
Codex USB, 2014 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign
Most combat encounters are boring and very easy. You only need one spell. Fireball rules. And if you have a wand, then you have 50 fireballs at your disposal. Just napalm everything!
Okay, well I guess I could gimp myself a bit and not use Fireball or cloudkill, to make things more challenging, if the overall experience is good otherwise..

The game does have bugs, multiplayer isn't working (I don't use it), some quests can be bugged and you may have to reload, the story doesn't make any sense imo, but I'm going with it just the same. Your save games WILL get corrupted. This is guaranteed! The writing is terrible and the choices you're given are downright diabolical. eg. You are asked something and you basically have the following options: 1) Yes, 2) Yes, 3) Yes.

There is quite a bit of political stuff and it feels hamfisted and forced. Also, all that money you accumulated in the base game is now all gone. Stolen and the refugees have it and can't get it back. You start with zero gold. Your given the option of either take this NPC or go without when you leave Baldur's Gate. eg. There is only one original NPC Thief (Safana) for quite a bit of the game whether you like it or not.

Also mentioned is the power level of the encounters are out of whack. One minute your fighting Lich, Dragon, Mind Flayer (which are optional) and then 5 minutes later, you're fighting orcs and spiders. It's a bit all over the place.
 

Nipslip

Novice
Joined
Apr 11, 2016
Messages
24
The game does have bugs, multiplayer isn't working (I don't use it), some quests can be bugged and you may have to reload, the story doesn't make any sense imo, but I'm going with it just the same. Your save games WILL get corrupted. This is guaranteed! The writing is terrible and the choices you're given are downright diabolical. eg. You are asked something and you basically have the following options: 1) Yes, 2) Yes, 3) Yes.

There is quite a bit of political stuff and it feels hamfisted and forced. Also, all that money you accumulated in the base game is now all gone. Stolen and the refugees have it and can't get it back. You start with zero gold. Your given the option of either take this NPC or go without when you leave Baldur's Gate. eg. There is only one original NPC Thief (Safana) for quite a bit of the game whether you like it or not.

Also mentioned is the power level of the encounters are out of whack. One minute your fighting Lich, Dragon, Mind Flayer (which are optional) and then 5 minutes later, you're fighting orcs and spiders. It's a bit all over the place.

Okay, well I picked up BG and BG2 enhanced to do a run, and I guess I wont be missing out on much, if I do not do the expansion in between..
The political stuff, I do not really care about.. That shit is in pretty much every game nowadays, in one form or another..
Gamebreaking bugs and corrupt saves on the other hand I do not have time with.. I have little time to play as it is..
I think I will leave it for now and let it get some patching.. Thanks!
 

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