Icewind Dale The Icewind Dale Series Thread

[The Old Kiwi]

Guise, I just fired up again Icewind Dale Compete Edition on Windows 7, but it crashes immediately. It didn't do anything like this before (on the same Windows 7 installation), and I have no problem with other IE games.

I've already tried the direct draw fix, experimented with compatibility settings, turned graphics acceleration on and off, assigned either Intel integrated graphics or Nvidia card, and all the combinations of these.

I'm out of options, any ideas?

After trying literally everything, I manage to make Icewind Dale Complete edition work. Thing is, it only works if I disable my Nvidia card from the Device Manager: simply forcing the Integrated Graphics setting in the Nvidia Control Panel still makes it crash when starting. All drivers are up to date, and as I said I have no problem with any IE game.

Has anybody ever experienced anything like this?

Before I just couldn't stand the crap going on in the EA "Answer HQ" forums, I recall a ton of trouble that nVIDIA kept having with their drivers. Their mobile GPU devices have no front end functions, and must use the onboard Intel IGP to handle the chores that a desktop GPU's normal front end takes care of.

Personally, I cannot abide the poor keyboards in 90% or more of laptops, so yes, I have one, however, I avoid using mine often at all. The only "game" I think I ever played on any such has been "Spider Solitaire", I believe. My exit over there (AHQ) is long enough ago, I've forgotten the details, and / or any fixes that turned up when the conflicts arose.

 

[NameName]

How do those of you who swear by version 1.06 of IWD play on modern PCs? The locked 640x480 resolution is unpleasant on any recent monitor. Do you just run it windowed since the widescreen patch doesn't support vanilla IWD?

 

[Lilura]

IWD 1.06 is meant to be played on a Trinitron CRT.

 

[AwesomeButton]

How do those of you who swear by version 1.06 of IWD play on modern PCs? The locked 640x480 resolution is unpleasant on any recent monitor. Do you just run it windowed since the widescreen patch doesn't support vanilla IWD?

Widescreen mod.

 

[Jazz_]

Has anyone tried those mods for IWD2? Are they worth installing?

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/69911/semioverhaul-for-iwd2-update
http://forums.pocketplane.net/index.php?topic=27654.0 (this Tactics4IWD2 apparently makes the game ''very brutal'', have you tried it Lilura ?)

 

[razvedchiki]

I have tried tactics and indeed it makes the game harder,like scs and tactics for bg2 together.
For example at the battle for the bridge in chapter 1,as soon as you initiate dialogu.e with xuci 4 high malarite priests spawn at the bridge entrance and begin bombarding you with spells.
If you dont like to rest 100 times per map you will need a power gaming party for tactics.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

http://forums.pocketplane.net/index.php?topic=27654.0 (this Tactics4IWD2 apparently makes the game ''very brutal'', have you tried it Lilura ?)

I tried this one and have mixed feelings about it. Then again, I'm too fond of Tactics or SCS for the BG games ether. I don't think IE real time with pause goes well with maximum powergaming, but that's just me. Try it, you'll see if you like it as soon as that goblin mage attacks Targos.

 

[Average Manatee]

That first one looks kind of insane. Just think about fighters with +9 to hit +9 damage for free by level 20. Or possibly worse, ftr/rogues with +6 to hit +6 damage and +3 luck. Seems like its trying to balance non-casters against casters with infinite spell repertoire (i.e. rest spamming).

 

[Spukrian]

Yep, I get the same results. You seem to consistently get a round in enemy vision before becoming visible (if the enemy does their spot check the instant you enter their range you'll have several seconds before uncloaking), but as far as I can tell there's no way to beat the spot check.

AHA!!! I AM VINDICATED!!!!
Wish I had noticed this post before I wasted another 30 min spamming pics and stalking err, pinging Lilura.
So... to think that after all these years I am the only person within the RPG community to have noticed this... ya Grognards. All this time I was so confused.

I've had this problem too, but I was too lazy to login and post about it.

I'm annoyed by the way Sneak Attacks are implemented in IWD2. If I understand 3.0/3.5 rules correctly, you shouldn't need to hide in order to get a sneak attack, if the enemy is attacking another party member the rogue should get a sneak attack if he attacks from behind (or flanking).

Furthermore, I did an experiment: I created a party of rogues, went into stealth and attacked a goblin in the beginning. Now, according to the rules as I understand them, at least half of the rogues should get sneak attack, but only one of them does. I guess the probable reason for this is CUZ BALANCE.

 

[octavius]

There was a big discussion about stealth in IWD2 some months ago.

 

[Barabus]

I’m playing IWD2 in Windows XP mode and it’s by far the hardest IE game I’ve played. It is battle after battle with no breaks or really any towns to visit in the later chapters. Right now I’m in Dragon’s Eye stuck in some kind of time loop. Hardest battle for me thus far was the Guardian.

One spell that tipped the scales for me was Remove Fear. Now when I read remove fear I think it’s to be used after I’m already feared but it works as a protection too. Ive wanted to just give up so many times but I’m pushing through it.

 

[Cael]

I’m playing IWD2 in Windows XP mode and it’s by far the hardest IE game I’ve played. It is battle after battle with no breaks or really any towns to visit in the later chapters. Right now I’m in Dragon’s Eye stuck in some kind of time loop. Hardest battle for me thus far was the Guardian.

One spell that tipped the scales for me was Remove Fear. Now when I read remove fear I think it’s to be used after I’m already feared but it works as a protection too. Ive wanted to just give up so many times but I’m pushing through it.

The Guardian can die to a well placed Disintegrate or something similar. That's what I usually do to him, with both wizard and sorcerer firing one off immediately.

 

[Chippy]

Yep, I get the same results. You seem to consistently get a round in enemy vision before becoming visible (if the enemy does their spot check the instant you enter their range you'll have several seconds before uncloaking), but as far as I can tell there's no way to beat the spot check.

AHA!!! I AM VINDICATED!!!!
Wish I had noticed this post before I wasted another 30 min spamming pics and stalking err, pinging Lilura.
So... to think that after all these years I am the only person within the RPG community to have noticed this... ya Grognards. All this time I was so confused.

I've had this problem too, but I was too lazy to login and post about it.

I'm annoyed by the way Sneak Attacks are implemented in IWD2. If I understand 3.0/3.5 rules correctly, you shouldn't need to hide in order to get a sneak attack, if the enemy is attacking another party member the rogue should get a sneak attack if he attacks from behind (or flanking).

Furthermore, I did an experiment: I created a party of rogues, went into stealth and attacked a goblin in the beginning. Now, according to the rules as I understand them, at least half of the rogues should get sneak attack, but only one of them does. I guess the probable reason for this is CUZ BALANCE.

Yeah. We were talking about this and some people admitted it's fucked, while others were quite annoyed that they've been playing the game for years and haven't noticed it said that it hasn't really effected them. I haven't tested this extensively - but I also think I noticed that shitty Dragon Age:Origins/SOA stealth bug, where you hide your character on one side of the map after they're being chased by enemies, and then the enemies just swarm to your visible party on the other side of the map.
So either a bug or a feature, or shit balancing and programming, but but always puts me off any game as I always play stealth characters.

 

[Jigby]

Has anyone tried those mods for IWD2? Are they worth installing?

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/69911/semioverhaul-for-iwd2-update
http://forums.pocketplane.net/index.php?topic=27654.0 (this Tactics4IWD2 apparently makes the game ''very brutal'', have you tried it Lilura ?)

I'd definitely recommend trying Tactics if you'd played IWD2 before, are familiar with it, know its shortcomings, so there's nothing to disappoint you any further. The game is considerably more difficult, then again, vanilla past chapter 1 was fairly easy, if you knew, what you were doing. Don't expect anything similar to the mage battles of BG2, the game simply does not have framework rich enough to support it. BG2 resembles a series of tactical challenges, puzzles, that you can take in nonlinear order. If you fail at one, chances are, either your tactics are bad or you need to go to a different place to get better gear. IWD2 with tactics is more of a strategical challenge, sprinkled with IE "tactics", the goal is to create such a party, that its power curve is strong enough, to meet every challenge in the game at every point. If you fail at one, you can't simply go to a different place to get Holy Avenger.

In Tactics, you don't need to follow some ultimate powergaming guide, but you do need to powergame to some extent. No grinding required, no level squatting/muling.

Personally, I find the opening vignette fun enough to try out different parties even without finishing the game itself (opening vignette meaning Targos prelude up to the Shaengarne bridge fight). There are 3 battles, that are beefed up compared to the vanilla, namely the orc sorcerer at the end of Targos, the wererat harpy encounter and the bridge fight itself. The vignette is short enough, that even failing can be quite fun.

 

[Barabus]

Anyone know if there is a merchant in the severed hand in iwd2? And where

 

[Barabus]

Nevermind I’m now at the last battle and can’t go back. This fight is complete chaos.

 

[pomenitul]

Anyone know if there is a merchant in the severed hand in iwd2? And where

Riki. Female drow, fourth floor (third if you're European), near the kitchen. She also gives you a quest to poison the guards.

 

[Parabalus]

Yep, I get the same results. You seem to consistently get a round in enemy vision before becoming visible (if the enemy does their spot check the instant you enter their range you'll have several seconds before uncloaking), but as far as I can tell there's no way to beat the spot check.

AHA!!! I AM VINDICATED!!!!
Wish I had noticed this post before I wasted another 30 min spamming pics and stalking err, pinging Lilura.
So... to think that after all these years I am the only person within the RPG community to have noticed this... ya Grognards. All this time I was so confused.

I've had this problem too, but I was too lazy to login and post about it.

I'm annoyed by the way Sneak Attacks are implemented in IWD2. If I understand 3.0/3.5 rules correctly, you shouldn't need to hide in order to get a sneak attack, if the enemy is attacking another party member the rogue should get a sneak attack if he attacks from behind (or flanking).

Furthermore, I did an experiment: I created a party of rogues, went into stealth and attacked a goblin in the beginning. Now, according to the rules as I understand them, at least half of the rogues should get sneak attack, but only one of them does. I guess the probable reason for this is CUZ BALANCE.

Biggest issue is you can only sneak attack once per round with one character, makes it utterly useless, especially with TWF.

 

[Barabus]

Anyone know if there is a merchant in the severed hand in iwd2? And where

Riki. Female drow, fourth floor (third if you're European), near the kitchen. She also gives you a quest to poison the guards.

Thanks. Beat the game last night!!! Final battle wasn’t too bad either.

Spoiler

you don’t even have to kill both siblings just the guy

 

[Fairfax]

I tried to find out who designed each area in IWD2. Old interviews and Roguey's review had most of it, but some were still unknown. Thanks to Chris Avellone, here's the complete list with what he remembers (plus some comments):

• Targos – Avellone (Steve Bokkes did the initial area summary, inc. summaries of characters, then I did a lot of the content after he quit to go to Troika, I think – I added a lot of characters, wartime quests, and turned the opening area into a fight zone to get to the action quicker)
• Shaengarne - Deiley
• Horde Fortress - Foletto, Parker
• Western Pass and Glacier - Holloway
• Ice Temple - Holloway
• Wandering Village and Fell Wood - Maldonado
• Black Raven Monastery - Maldonado
• Underdark and Citadel - Maldonado
• Kuldahar – Avellone (Josh did initial area summary, he didn’t have time to finish, so I fleshed it all out)
• Chult - Avellone, Deiley(?) (Josh may have done initial area summary, he didn’t have time to finish, so I worked on it – Deiley may have helped, I honestly can’t recall – Deiley was doing a lot of work across the project, he was a workhorse just like on Fallout 2).
• Dragon's Eye - Holloway
• Fields of Slaughter - Foletto
• Severed Hand and Endgame - Foletto, Deiley

Other info:

Severed Hand could've been a bit different:

However, when I got assigned to work with a fellow designer (John Deiley) on IWD2’s end game area, Severed Hand, I let loose my chains (as much as I could) and tried to be as freewheeling as possible. Originally, I wanted the player to have the option of not only siding with the evil god, Iyachtu Xvim, but also taking over Severed Hand and using its power to overtake the Ten Towns for themselves. Unfortunately, this was a bit too ambitious for our very tight schedule, so you got what shipped instead – a very slight nod to evil options. Some people thought Severed Hand was too spread out and not “actiony” enough, others really liked all the different quests and options they had while exploring Severed Hand. I can’t please everyone, but I’m really proud how Severed Hand turned out given the very restricted amount of time we had to flesh it out.

Maldonado was used to PS:T's IE code, which is why he struggled with his areas a bit. [thanks, Roguey]

A lot of the coherency issues came to light relatively late in the project, when we started doing extensive playthroughs. By that time, we could recognize that there were problems, but we didn't have time to overhaul the areas. For example, Targos and Shaengarne and the Ice Temple all feel very different and had many different problems during the course of development. It probably would have taken a long time to get those three areas to feel "right" and to better establish the story and characters in them.

Areas like the Fell Wood and Black Raven Monastery were the victims of vision exceeding grasp -- not because Dave made bad inherently bad designs, but because he kept running into engine and scripting limitations. There were aspects of the engine with which he was familiar on PS:T that were different in IWD2's code base, but he often didn't realize the difference until he had put a certain amount of time and effort into going down a particular path. He was disappointed with how he wound up having to implement those areas.

Chris thought the Mortuary was too slow and didn't have enough combat, which he corrected in Targos:

The beginning is very slow and exposition-heavy, and I don't think that helps get the player into the mystery of his character. This is something I tried to correct in future opening levels of Black Isle games (notably Icewind Dale 2, where you're in trouble the moment you step off the boat in Targos).

Examine pacing and expectations. As an example, Torment was an extremely dialogue heavy game, and I do believe (I can hear pitchforks and torches being gathered) it could have benefited from more dungeon exploration, more combats, in addition to the dialogue depth it had. I tried to correct that when doing Targos in IWD2… I started off with a lot of fights and exploration rewards that immediately highlighted the threat the city was facing, then moved into dialogues (punctuated by a few fights), then a blast-off at the end.

 

[Transfiguring Roar]

I always loved Targos. It's my second favorite starting area out of the IE games.

The Mortuary is my favorite. The Mortuary made me feel like I had been thrown into a really weird, morbid dream.

An evil ending would have been interesting.

 

[the_shadow]

I’m playing IWD2 in Windows XP mode and it’s by far the hardest IE game I’ve played. It is battle after battle with no breaks or really any towns to visit in the later chapters. Right now I’m in Dragon’s Eye stuck in some kind of time loop. Hardest battle for me thus far was the Guardian.

One spell that tipped the scales for me was Remove Fear. Now when I read remove fear I think it’s to be used after I’m already feared but it works as a protection too. Ive wanted to just give up so many times but I’m pushing through it.

For me, the hardest part of IWD 2 is the start, especially Shaengard Pass with the damage resistance wererats. Once you reach the Ice Temple enemies take a dramatic drop in difficulty, and you have some decent spells.

The Guardian is pretty hard. I found the easiest way to beat him was to kite it with a hasted character (mirror image optional) while everyone else attacked it while hasted. I had Mordenkainen's sword by this time, which is a godsend. It's a guaranteed hit with the Guardian, and you can use Power Attack with it.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

For me, the hardest part of IWD 2 is the start, especially Shaengard Pass with the damage resistance wererats. Once you reach the Ice Temple enemies take a dramatic drop in difficulty, and you have some decent spells.

I've played IWD2 a couple or three times over the past 16 years, but the thought of those drums near the Orc Fortress is enough to remind me that I probably wont ever play it again. It has its fun moments & there's lots to figure out and explore and what have you, but it lacks the ease of replayability of the original.

 

[Cael]

Targos is actually a starting area done right. It had a ton of options that relied on your abilities and race. Blessing, motivating or helping train recruits has specific class requirements. Healing Relg has an ability requirement. Deciphering the dead goblin's ranting had racial requirements. Freeing the Weeping Widow or exorcising her had alignment requirements. All of these were great introduction to the game and the system.

You know what are examples of a starting area done wrong? NWN and NWN2. The silver lining? You could skip them on subsequent runthroughs. Done wrong but can't skip because you will end up weaker? The worst of all worlds? Fucking Temple of Trials in FO2.

 

[Cael]

For me, the hardest part of IWD 2 is the start, especially Shaengard Pass with the damage resistance wererats. Once you reach the Ice Temple enemies take a dramatic drop in difficulty, and you have some decent spells.

I've played IWD2 a couple or three times over the past 16 years, but the thought of those drums near the Orc Fortress is enough to remind me that I probably wont ever play it again. It has its fun moments & there's lots to figure out and explore and what have you, but it lacks the ease of replayability of the original.

You need someone with Snowball and nuke the damned drums from out of visual range. That would stop the teleporting warg-riders.