Baldur's Gate The Baldur's Gate Series Thread

[Lilura]

They are both level 1 in BG1.

octavius: were you a MicroProse fan back in the day?

 

[octavius]

No. During the MicroProse heydays the Amiga had become obsolete, I had not got a PC yet, and I spent most of my gaming time with PBMs.
Also, I was rather disappointed by the Amiga version of Civ 1; the maps were not randomly generated, but with the same parameters you always got the same map.

 

[Lilura]

The Amiga was not obsolete in MicroProse's heyday.

 

[Sigourn]

Fucking Christ I've had many of my party members die permanently multiple times already, but only with Minsc I decided to accept it and let him turn to dust.

 

[Wayward Son]

"Ashes to ashes;
Minsc to dust;
Amen"

 

[octavius]

The Amiga was not obsolete in MicroProse's heyday.

It was obsolete the moment Ultima Underwold was PC only.
And that was one year before Master of Orion and Darklands, and two years before Master of Magic.

 

[Jason Liang]

Defender of the Crown on GOG.com

Speaking of the Amiga, have you guys seen this promo video for GoG Defender of the Crown? It's bonkers. Clearly this video was created for a very different purpose.

 

[Sigourn]

One of the handful of things that are very annoying about Baldur's Gate is having to hunt for entrances to homes because of the view of the game. Like having to hover the cursor over roofs and so on, hoping you will land on the door icon. It's kind of shit that the home interior assets are repeated EVERYWHERE too, enter a handful of games and you've seen them all, I think I just found my first true valuable (Diamond) since forever.

 

[octavius]

It's "funny" how all houses with visible doors have closed doors that are highlighted via TAB, but all the houses with obscured doors have open doors...

 

[Incantatar]

They are both level 1 in BG1.

Wrong. Their level depends on the PC level when first encountered. K&J can be level 1, 2, 4 or 6.

 

[Sigourn]

It's "funny" how all houses with visible doors have closed doors that are highlighted via TAB, but all the houses with obscured doors have open doors...

TAB does nothing in my Baldur's Gate, probably because I'm playing the original version as opposed to the EE remaster.

 

[octavius]

TAB was introduced in BG 2, not EE.
So it doesn't matter in BG1, but the fact that all obscured doors are open is still ironic.

 

[Pizzashoes]

Minsc deserves only a modified version of Baldur's Gate 1 where killing him gives 600 experience. "Oh no, I'll not follow a loon into battle" is probably the best line in the game. Fuck that retard. But given his popularity, the trajectory of Bioware is understandable. Not forgivable though.

 

[octavius]

Using the canon party and a Cleric of Helm CHARNAME, Minsc is responsible for nearly 50% of the kills in my current game (currently halfway through Durlag's Tower).
So while he may be a an annoying loon, he sure is useful.
But I never understood why his class is Ranger.

 

[SwiftCrack]

Purely to give him racial enemy: gnoll in BG1.

He also has that entire 'connected with nature/adventuring'-thing going on.

 

[rogueknight333]

... But I never understood why his class is Ranger.

Without Ranger abilities, how could he communicate with Boo?

 

[Sigourn]

Is there any way/mod that edits how the fog of war works? Like extending the range your character can uncover? My OCD clashes with the fact large areas of the map remain uncovered solely because your character can't pass through walls. I learned about Clairvoyance for outdoors, but indoors remains an issue.

 

[Melcar]

You can use the cheat console to reveal the whole map after you're done exploring.

 

[Sigourn]

Sometimes the cheesiest solution is the best solution.

I fought the guys at the Iron Throne base in the docks area and had my shit pushed in time after time. Must have died like 10 times in a row, horribly, before I decided to retreat, think out my strategy, and return with newly memorized spells. This time I had Lana, my character, drink an Oil of Speed while wearing the Cloak of Balduran and the Boots of Avoidance. Dynaheir made her invisible, and waited on the 4th floor. Lana went up the stairs and ran to the back of the room before unleashing her archery fury (she is equipped with the Bracers of Archery) on the bastards near the stairs. Her high attack speed meant I could interrumpt my enemies' spells when possible by simply switching targets at a whim; as I got them farther away from the stairs I had Dynaheir go up and weaken them using one of those flame wands, but it was still Lana how dealt most of the damage, running away to the back of the room and healing when appropiate. At the end I had Imoen go up the stairs too and help Lana take down the final fighter.

A battle for the ages. Really cool tbh, even though the only actual cheese was getting Dynaheir to the 4th floor after she was near death, instead of letting her die a hero.

Party consists of Lana & Imoen, Khalid & Jaheira, Dynaheir and feminist Shar-Teel.

 

[octavius]

I've found that Web + Free Movement (Spiderbane!) for your melee guys is the winning combo in most battles against other parties, especially if you use a mod like SCS where enemies counter your Fireballs by drinking healing potions.
It gives me great joy to see enemy mages buffed with Stoneskin, Melf's Meteors, Protection from X Weapons, and Mirror Image being stuck in the Web.

But I guess you are not quite there yet, young Lucas.

Do you scout ahead, and then buff when seeing an enemy party?
The Iron Throne party is a typical case where I send my scout ahead, see a party waiting and I know that there will be a battle even though they are not red yet, so I have no qualms about doing some serious buffing.

 

[Sigourn]

I've found that Web + Free Movement (Spiderbane!) for your melee guys is the winning combo in most battles against other parties, especially if you use a mod like SCS where enemies counter your Fireballs by drinking healing potions.
It gives me great joy to see enemy mages buffed with Stoneskin, Melf's Meteors, Protection from X Weapons, and Mirror Image being stuck in the Web.

But I guess you are not quite there yet, young Lucas.

Do you scout ahead, and then buff when seeing an enemy party?
The Iron Throne party is a typical case where I send my scout ahead, see a party waiting and I know that there will be a battle even though they are not red yet, so I have no qualms about doing some serious buffing.

To be honest I just save ahead. Mostly because it's just more convenient to simply go walk around and get ambushed and reloading than having to hide Imoen a few times (for it to be successful), go ahead, find there's nothing, bring everyone there, and repeat until the one time I do get ambushed (so that the whole time I spent with Imoen hiding was worth it).

The amount of spells in D&D is staggering, it's cool that they are useful in different situations, but because of how Vancian magic works I find it that sometimes it's just easier to plow through with what you've got instead of carefully thinking out a strategy. The battle against the Iron Throne was, I think, one of two battles I had to think out so far.

 

[Sigourn]

Now at chapter 6 and with most of the city of Baldur's Gate improved, I've come to the conclusion this game is a solid 5.

- Awful pathfinding that impacts many, many things (makes exploration annoying, makes combat annoying, makes dialogue annoying, makes area transitions annoying, makes EVERYTHING annoying). This alone is my biggest complaint with the game.
- Very slow movement speed, which wouldn't be so problematic if pathfinding didn't fuck up movement so often.
- Inventory management is kind of shit since it lacks some quality of life improvements, like being able to switch items between two characters with filled inventories.
- No particularly interesting quests.
- No way to filter out the filler NPCs so you can get right to the meaty ones that serve a purpose.
- Breaking into homes is very unrewarding, and reminds me of the whole "let go of the checklist" thread because of how much time I spent in those homes yet how little I get in return.
- That fucking inability of my characters to move in formation.
- Map is absolute crap. In a city like Baldur's Gate, it becomes even more obvious how crap it is.
- Juvenile, laughable writing.

Mediocre game that has its fun moments (mostly in the wild; even then you will spend lots and lots of time walking around doing nothing). The combat is nice, though.

Why this is ahead of Gothic on the Codex Top 70 list is beyond me.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

- Map is absolute crap. In a city like Baldur's Gate, it becomes even more obvious how crap it is.

I can understand, yet not necesserily agree with, all your other points, but what's wrong with the map ? It's pleasant to the eye and serves its purpose pretty well.

 

[Jason Liang]

BG1: EE is a pretty mediocre game, really only a graphic update compared to the Gold Box games, not an improvement in adventure gameplay. People view it with rose-tainted glasses due to BG2: EE, which is the only true lightning in a bottle. I've never rated it higher than an equally rough game like Darklands, for example.

 

[Sigourn]

I can understand, yet not necesserily agree with, all your other points, but what's wrong with the map ? It's pleasant to the eye and serves its purpose pretty well.

Sorry, I meant to say "area map" (the world map is neat). Unless you start writing down where everything is, the map is awful since it doesn't tell you what building is what (once you've visited them, of course).