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Preview Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear Twitch Stream

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Excidium II

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Also for some reason BGEE is not on sale on steam, while BG2EE is.
 

Tigranes

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Yeah. This will be, what, $20-30? But if you have to buy the POS BGEE, which was $20, then that's $50 with possibly some bundle deal. "Buy a pointless piece of shit to get this decent-looking thing!"

BG:EE is regularly 75% off. I think some people ITT are being a bit overdramatic about this.

Makes it better, it's still an annoying surcharge for shit you don't want rather than TERRIBRU.
 

Nihiliste

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Even though gaider has been a pretty bad writer with bioware, his work is still far superior to the utter garbage reflected in the added content for the EE's.

Also, didn't realize they brought back brent knowles.

If they lure James ohlen from his purgatory at bioware austin to keep them from fucking up the combat design and earn enough money from this interquel to fund the project, they might be able to make a decent game.
 

AwesomeButton

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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
I would buy it if BGEE weren't mandatory for playing this. I won't give money for that subpar hack job.

What, this isn't standalone? I'm not paying more than $10 for an EE and that's only if I'm assured DoS is good! :obviously: Btw I haven't watched the stream yet.
 
Weasel
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They only have a license to make an "expansion" to BG (WOTC hasn't tended to grant licenses for new games using previous versions of DnD, their focus has been on pushing 5e with gems like... Sword Coast Legends). We don't know the pricing yet so probably too early to bitch, they could just make a joint package with BGEE a token $1 or something.
 

Zboj Lamignat

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Fuck these guys, seriously. How long did it take for them to shit out their final patches for the EE versions of BG and BG2?
Did they actually do that? As in: brought to the game up to the QA standard of original releases with official patches? I tried running BG II EE not so long ago and encountered a serious bug with the djinn quest in the very first dungeon.
 

ArchAngel

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Fuck these guys, seriously. How long did it take for them to shit out their final patches for the EE versions of BG and BG2?
Did they actually do that? As in: brought to the game up to the QA standard of original releases with official patches? I tried running BG II EE not so long ago and encountered a serious bug with the djinn quest in the very first dungeon.
I have not seen any bugs in BG1EE for a long time now.
 

Archibald

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J_C

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I would buy it if BGEE weren't mandatory for playing this. I won't give money for that subpar hack job.

What, this isn't standalone? I'm not paying more than $10 for an EE and that's only if I'm assured DoS is good! :obviously: Btw I haven't watched the stream yet.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/228280/

Safe bet that they are going to do some 70-80% sale when this is released.
I dunno, I would feel.....unclean playing this instead of the original. :)
 
Joined
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How many did they manage to entice?

I'm not familiar with the real names of IE modders, but check out this list of "amazing contributors" in the BG:EE credits: http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition/credits

Our Amazing Contributors Andrea Colombo, Dee Pennyway (I heard a rumor...), Jalily, Jeff Smyth (Balquo),Daniel Sanderson (Boaster), Omar Majid, Liam Esler (K'aeloree),Vincent Meliouh, Stephan Martins Claudino da Rosa (StephanMartins),Steve Catarino (Tanthalas), Kat Bella (Theacefes), Raphael Wong (Ascension64),Brian Miller (Bhryaen), Robert Rath (Galactygon), Lionel Bayle-Denise (La Voix),Mark Garrigus, Giuseppe Calì (Aedan), Robert Hull, Lorne Ledger (Cuvieronius),Giovanni Spinelli (Akerhon), Aleksandar Tomovic (aVENGER),Pete Camagna (CamDawg), Cédric Bakari, Stephen Vowles (Cmorgan),André Slupik (Zeckul), Inthel, Trevor Borg (Miloch), Adam Rambousek (Christof),David Pascaud (Graoumf), Tobias Lehmberg, Rodolphe Gilliot, James Berg,David Muellenborn, Maciej Kalinowski (Viader), David Wallace,Marie-Violaine Polonowski (Calawen), Alvaro Lamarche (Toloza-Kukaracha),Fred Richardson (Fred), László Tóth (Avenger_TeamBG), Tomi Lovric,René Mumme, Silvin Leroy (Aerynn), Alan Watson (Ajwz), Maciej Wojcik,Jason Compton, Edson Belo de Oliveira Júnior (Nasher), Peter Holda (Alu),Donald Poort, Lisa Savignano (LadyRhian), Manuel Montosi,Joshua Graham (El Ahorcado), Eric Van Honacker (Oldschool), Manuel Kracht,Davide Perrino, Małgorzata Oleszczuk (Aerith), Jiaxin Ma (Sir WH), Jessy Shen,Matteo Rizzuto, Deniz Edward Hooper (Shinorus), Dai Griffiths (Yovaneth),Yujiro Tani (VAN), Douglas Wagner (Illydth), Shandyr, Immortality,Mosi Konfidan (Elothran), Michal Goszczyński (Drian_Thierf), Gou Endou,Toyofumi Morita, Norimichi Tanaka (Norilm), Mieko Fukushima, Dusty Erker,Nicholas M. Cook (KaiserWolff), Samara Drewe, Pedro Tonda Monfillo,Davide Pianforini (Ivanhoe), Fan Zhang (Freedomourne),Mark Biswas (FuzzyPuffin), Paul Groves (Oxford_Guy),Marcelo Esteves (Mlnevese), Justin Proudman (ChurchOfBoo), Thomas Mook,Michael Natale, Alex Boitsau, Greg Scott (CoM_Solaufein),Anders Svensson (Hook71), Nifft, Christopher Ethier (Tresset), Tilly Underwood,Andrew Beale (Anduin), Gaëtan Landry (Headbomb), Sofia Favro (Sophia),Claudio Merlo (Metalloman), Petr Havliček (Pecca), Alexander Heddini (Shin),K. Marshall, Christophe Marchi

You can click the names to see which one were hired. Seems they had minor roles on the BG:EEs and some were promoted for IWD:EE, where they became more visibile.

People found under amazing contributors are official beta test volunteers (or alpha in the case of IWDEE). In some cases their status may have changed over time.

Edit: I meant to say these are listed as volunteer alpha testers in IWDEE.
 
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AwesomeButton

Proud owner of BG 3: Day of Swen's Tentacle
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Just watched the stream... I will refrain from the toughest comments that come to my mind only because there's a Beamdog developer on the Codex...

- But still... first off, I am simply thrilled by the decision to have one third of the horizontal space on my screen taken up by a useless Twitch frame/ad, and then one 1/4 of the remaining horizontal space being taken up by UI elements, while all the action revolves in a rectangle 3x2 inches on a 1280x800 screen.
- The arrangement of a short row of buttons underneath a wider console log is bad. I'm mentioning it although it was already said that the player will be able to rearrange UI elements.
- It's cringeworthy when a streamer goes "Yaay!" with the authentic enthusiasm of a sex-line worker. Please never do it.
- Talking about cringeworthy - so is interrupting a stream in order to promote your branded t-shirts. Using the word "beautiful" to describe a Heavy Metal band-worthy, black t-shirt, with a dragon's head on it, was just depressing.
- The new journal update system - I hope it can be turned off. You shouldn't have bothered imo. The only thing it improves is the gorgeous chance to finish a conversation that ends in battle, and just as you're going to click on an enemy, the stupid journal update pops up underneath your mouse pointer. Who the hell uses popups anyway? Paradox in HoI2? Beamdog should drop this nonsense!
- I'm really happy to hear about mucho reactivity in quests. I'm hoping for mutually exclusive and class/attribute-gated content. I think this adds to replay value and it was a huge mistake in PoE that they had made all quest resolutions give you the same rewards. Glad you haven't gone this way.
- I'm not a fan of the smoothened looking UI buttons' icons. Overall, the UI background was looking pretty dark, but this is probably due to the video quality. I liked the item icons that I had a chance to see.
- I said this to Obsidian too - it's useless, utterly useless, to leave empty space under the console log and other UI elements and to have them float in the air above the bottom of the screen. This is wasting valuable pixels while giving nothing to the player.
- Highlighting of lines of dialogue text on mouse over is overkill.
- These healthbars... whatever, I better not say anything, they are toggleable anyways.
- I don't see any use of the weapon icons on top of portraits.
- I had forgotten the satisfaction I associated with the sound of my characters scoring hits on an enemy. Thanks for not changing those.
- I was really happy of the feature "Absence of a Stash". It costs very little resources to implement and improves the gameplay immensly. The player has to actually make a call on what to carry and what to leave (taking into account the fact that items decay from the world with time, unlike in PoE).
- The combat looked and felt great. I had forgotten how nice it is to have a combat with an actual rhythm and pace to it, without inane and undocumented recovery time mechanics. Enemy behavior was unpredictable, instead of all enemies rushing to melee with a character they chose only once, at the beginning of battle, like I have gotten used to seeing them do in PoE.
- I fell for the bitter irony of the grain-moving quest. Good job.
- The voice acting is indeed spot-on. It felt indiscernable in style from the original games.
- I understand the portrait-highlighting tips for who is the optimal wielder of an item, as an insult to your players' intelligence.
- If that's the tip of the iceberg of interface improvements, please stop here. And whoever's idea it was that half the inventory screen will show nothing useful, just be black 90% of the time, it was a bad idea. The only good thing I see about the new UI is that it's moddable.
- The areas, to the extent to which I was able to see them, squinting at my laptop's display were very much on par with PoE's which means very very beautiful.
- "Sometimes you have to walk the line between being challenging and being frustrating. We try to err on the side of challenging." :lol:
- In filling areas with curious characters to talk to, and situations in which to take action, Obsidian should study SoD and work in the same direction.
- The "Valley Girl Drow" was a really fresh idea. :)
- That Priests scrolls screen... I realize you wanted to have more space for the important stuff, compared to the original layout, but please fix this.

Overall, I'm a cautious optimist about SoD ("Service of Denial"). The best surprise will be if the game really proves to be as imaginative and original content-wise, as the stream suggested.
 
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aVENGER

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Just watched the stream... I will refrain from the toughest comments that come to my mind only because there's a Beamdog developer on the Codex...

There's no need, we are always open to constructive criticism.

The new journal update system - I hope it can be turned off.

Yes, the journal popups can be toggled on/off from the Options menu, same as the healthbars.
 

AwesomeButton

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Just watched the stream... I will refrain from the toughest comments that come to my mind only because there's a Beamdog developer on the Codex...

There's no need, we are always open to constructive criticism.

The new journal update system - I hope it can be turned off.

Yes, the journal popups can be toggled on/off from the Options menu, same as the healthbars.
Keeping in mind that I'm speaking with real people makes me omit the unconstructive free associations ;)

Keeping UI additions configurable through the game options is really the best policy. Best of luck with winning the audience. I'll await the reviews and I hope SoD raises the bar in the whole "IE-like niche" of RPGs.
 

Electryon

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Did they actually do that? As in: brought to the game up to the QA standard of original releases with official patches?

The QA standards of the original games were at least as non-existent as the ones for the Enhanced Editions. The only reason the BG games were ever made nearly bug-free was because of unofficial patches by the modding community. As for your question though, as of patch 1.3 for both games, they are pretty solidly stable and hundreds of bugs have been ironed out. I've never encountered an issue with BG1 and very minor ones in BG2.

I'm not saying anyone should absolutely buy the Enhanced Editions. BUT if you are new to the game, or just don't want to fuck around with Tutu or Trilogy and the Widescreen mod and the bug fixes, there is no real reason to shy away from them either. People have valid reasons for playing the originals, I've almost switched back myself on several occasions. But this idea that the EEs are some kind of blight on humanity is just absurd. If you want to pick on a remake that really IS that bad, Heroes of Might and Magic 3 HD is ripe for the picking....
 

Bester

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Is it possible to play SoD without going through BG1 again? And to just select what NPCs from BG1 I should have with me?
 

Electryon

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Stuck on Axeoth
Is it possible to play SoD without going through BG1 again? And to just select what NPCs from BG1 I should have with me?

Yes. It will be the same as being able to select starting right off in Throne of Bhaal once it's installed. Unsure how the NPCs work, or what BG1 NPCs are making the journey to the expansion. There are also 4 new ones that are SoD exclusive.
 

Perkel

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Mar 28, 2014
Messages
15,872
Why change perfect BG2 UI to something like this ? Same with font.
Though they said it is work in progress.
I hope there will be option for solid art designed UI. Can't stand free spaces and hate NWN like UI.

If they want to make inmprovements to UI they should focus first and foremost on rebindable keys from game itself. Want to use some skill you always use ? Hover it and press F1 or whatever key you want. Pressing alt shows you magic book and when you take of that press it autocloses.

Also framerate ? Is that me or i saw poor framerate ? Though this might be caused by game speed which i am not used to as i played mostly IE games with 45fps animation speed.

Other than that can't really comment of rest of stuff. Need to play it.
 

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