I remember half of those maps being filled with nothing but one or two gibberling/knoll mobs or a pointless scripted encounter (you find Drizzt killing a trash mob! Try to kill him for his swords if you want!).
It seemed like an amazing amount of effort (art-wise) for almost no gameplay.
oh boy, here we go again
GarfunkeL
Thanks for the tag.
I should just make a big post that I can copy/paste everytime some retard who played BG when they were 9 years old repeats this bullshit.
Talk to Neville. You can ask that his men come out of hiding and his troupe will attack, or demand all his gold in which case he steals 55gp and leaves.
Talk to the Ogre. He is not interested in fighting. If you want assistance you can tackle Laurel's quest first but do not talk to her once you have helped her. If she sees the Ogre (once he turns hostile) she will attack him. However if she kills him then you will not gain the experience. Talk to him again and he will attack. Kill him.
Talk to Laurel. If your Reputation is less than 8 she will attack you. Otherwise she asks for your help to kill some Gibberlings. Agree. Kill the Gibberlings that arrive. Once they are all dead talk to her again.
Jared will approach you. He is running scared of a bear over the bridge west of his location. Kill the bear. Return and talk to Jared.
Use the exact location
x 166 y 177 to find a wand hidden in a hole in a tree.
Enter the cabin
AR5406. Kill the War Dogs. Raid the two barrels.
Talk to Prism the sculptor. You can either tell him you will defend him when the bounty hunter Greywolf arrives, or kill him yourself, or let Greywolf kill him. If you choose to face Greywolf you will have to kill him, then talk to Prism who will die shortly after. Collect his emeralds. Return to
Oublek in
Nashkel.
Galtok is on the run from some Kobolds. Kill them.
Talk to Fahrington. He has lost a scroll to a thieving Tasloi. If your NPC Reaction is 1-7 he will not tell you his troubles but you can still return the scroll to him. Head east and kill an Ettercap (higher up the food chain) who now has the scroll. Return to Fahrington with the scroll.
Denak will hail you then these mages will attack on sight (unless
Edwin from
Nashkel is in your party).
Enter the cave
AR4501. Kill the Wyverns. Search the corpse. Collect a Wyvern Head and take it to
Kelddath at the Song of the Morning in
Temple.
Hamadryad is not marked on the map, she's a fun encounter as well.
Pallonia will approach you and talk of forces at work.
Killing the Sirines is part of Cordyr's sidequest (from Baldur's Gate) but can be completed before you meet him. Sil will hail you then she and her Sirines will attack. Kill them. If you were sent by
Cordyr return to him at the
Baldur's Gate Docks.
Enter the cave
AR3601. Kill the Flesh Golems. Raid the pool for treasures.
You will need a male in the party to talk to this Chaotic Neutral Human Thief. She wants to recover some treasure from a cave to the NW of this map. You can recruit her or dismiss her. If you do not want her then strip her of her possessions and dismiss her.
Talk to Arkshule who will read your palm. If you pressure her to reveal more when she pauses she will attack - dialogue options 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1. Kill her.
Talk to Ardrouine. Her son is trapped by some Worgs near the Lighthouse. Agree to help and go and kill the Worgs. Return to Ardrouine.
Talk to this Lawful Good Human Paladin. You can recruit him or dismiss him. If he leaves the party because of unhappiness he will attack any evil aligned members he sees. There is also a random chance he will attack evil party members while he is in the group.
Talk to Sonner. He will complain about a witch affecting their fishing. Evil people can agree to dispose of the witch for 20gp. Head north to
Wyrm's Crossing and speak to
Tenya. After her sidequest, talk to Sonner again and say the priestess had much to say. Evil people can ask him to sweeten the deal and he will add 100gp, in which case you should talk to him again after Tenya is dead. Good people will demand the fishermen (Sonner, Jebadoh and Telmen) hand over Tenya's bowl. Then kill them for being cruel to her. Return the bowl to Tenya.
Talk to Brun. He has lost his son. Enter the pit
AR1401 to the west of his farm. Kill lots of Ankhegs. Collect his son's body from an alcove
x 2460 y 140. Return with the body. Talk to Brun. You can offer him 100gp as an act of charity. Beware if you have any Ruby Rings as they will automatically be included in your gift to him unless you drop them on the floor before you talk to him.
Talk to Gerde. She wants you to cull some Ankhegs. Kill as many as you find. Return and talk to her again.
If only it wasn't mandatory to explore them. Although I don't get why people can't see the design logic behind wilderness areas.
BG was about porting a traditional DnD campaign to PC, the game uses and laughs at most pnp games tropes and clichés with one of 'em being adventuring in the wilderness at low level until a deadly fumble results in a bear ripping your character apart. Wilderness areas in BG are about catching that feel (and imo is a better way to do it than simple random encounters), needless to say wilderness areas didn't have any reason to be present in the sequel as well, since a veteran party of adventurers need suitable challenge.
Still consider these wilderness areas to make perfect sense considering what BG wanted to achieve.
Yes. this exactly. Too many games pack their tiny maps full of "content" so that the ADHD generation doesn't have to pause to think or reflect. If there isn't AWSUM happening every 2 minutes, their attention span will burn out.