Baldur's Gate

[Anonymous No.2010990]

I'm at the mines and I lost interest in this game already. The combat is getting piss easy and there's no strategy involved. Should I skip to BG2?

[Anonymous No.2011006]

youre at a more boring part, but if u dont enjoy it at all yet you wont like the 2nd either

[Anonymous No.2011021]

>>2010990
The mines is the easiest part.

[Anonymous No.2011094]

>>2010990
You'll quit 2 at the intro dungeon.

[Anonymous No.2011097]

>>2010990
The mines are not really the high point of the game. If you're looking for hard, strategic combat you picked the wrong series, you can pretty much mindlessly cruise control through all three games asides from a few encounters here and there.

[Anonymous No.2011137]

>>2010990
fighting the bandits in the northeast is much better OP. just hurry up a bit.

[Anonymous No.2011170]

>>2011094
There's a mod to skip it, though I wouldn't recommend OP get it.

If the combat isn't challenging enough, try Sword coast Stratagems and get your anus rekt. You might not like 2 if you're already bored with 1. The first one becomes infinitely better in the second half. I can also say that some of the most challenging combat I've ever played in a game is in Baldur's gate 2 with Sword Coast Stratagems.

[Anonymous No.2011368]

>>2010990
>has difficulty slider all the way to the left

[Anonymous No.2011776]

>>2010990
Daily reminder BG is praised only because it's babbies first RPG.

[Anonymous No.2012615]

>>2010990
What's your party look like, OP?

And are you cheesing with ranged weapons?

[Anonymous No.2013292]

>>2011776
Yea right. It singlehandedly revitalized the cRPG genre in 1998 (which was basically as good as dead at that time) because it was "babbie's first RPG".

[Anonymous No.2013397]

>>2011776
I see Baldur's Gate like the FFVII of PC gaming. But both are, not the best, but great RPG's.

[Anonymous No.2013459]

>>2013292
So in 1998, Baldur's Gate singlehandedly revitalized the nearly dead genre that Fallout already revitalized the year before.

[Anonymous No.2013759]

>>2013459
Apparently Fallout 1 didn't revitalize it, given that the revitalization is universally attributed to Baldur's Gate.

Fallout 1 was less refined than BG, and its post-apocalyptic setting was quite niche compared to the high fantasy setting of BG.

[Anonymous No.2013935]

>>2013759

BG also sold about ten times more than Fallout

[Anonymous No.2013993]

>>2013397

ty anon, i never knew this was a thing. too bad things didnt go that way, i would have loved crpgs coming to consoles.

[Anonymous No.2014012]

>>2013993
>too bad things didnt go that way
Well, it's probably better that thing didn't get released. Judging from
http://forums.lostlevels.org/viewtopic.php?t=2218
it's a pathetic travesty of the PC original.

[Anonymous No.2014052]

>>2013993
>>2014012
You can play it if you like, there's a ISO, but yeah, it looks awful.
There was planned a Dreamcast port too.

[Anonymous No.2014062]

>>2014052
Well, it needed to be scaled down to a 320x240 resolution and had to run on the PS1's 33 MHz CPU. Pretty much like porting the game that was released for Win95/98 to MS-DOS.

[Anonymous No.2014135]

What kinds of parties did /vr/ favour: good, bad or CN?

I almost always opted for good-aligned parties, but when I did a run with Montaron solo backstabbing every fucking thing, I decided I was wrong to pass him up all those times. Xzar's voice was a pain in cunt, though.

[Anonymous No.2014430]

Question: I'm using that one bugfix/unnoficial patch for BG2, the one with the command prompt during instalation. If I uninstall the game and reinstall later, what happens to my saves? There's no way I'll remember all my current choices during the modular instalation. Will they fuck up if I install the game with different settings? Is there a way to export my current installation settings?

[Anonymous No.2014532]

>>2014430
Keep the file Weidu.log that sits in your installation directory, it holds information on all the specific mod components that were installed.

Besides, it's better if you don't uninstall the game, but instead compress the directory into an archive you can unpack later. Infinity engine games are really portable, the only thing you need to make sure are that the paths in baldur.ini match the game's actual location.

[Anonymous No.2014542]

>>2014532
What do I do with that file when/if I reinstall the game later?

[Anonymous No.2014562]

>>2014542
You open the old weidu.log that you kept and reinstall the mods and their particular components in the same order as listed in weidu.log.

Though, as mentioned, I would simply back up the whole directory and just unpack it later (correcting the paths in baldur.ini if necessary, i.e. if unpacked to a different path than the origiinal). That way you don't need to reinstall anything, you get the exact same game dir that you had, with all the mods, saves, etc. intact.

(I have a BigWorld installation of BG1/BG2/ToB and a shitton of mods that's almost 30GiB in size and originally took six or seven hours to complete. So yea, wouldn't necessarily want to go through all that again.)

[Anonymous No.2014571]

>>2014562
Oh, I see. Thanks. I'll have to format the HD soon and won't be able to pack and transfer the whole folder, and that's why I'll need to reinstall.

[Anonymous No.2014681]

>>2014571
Why wouldn't you be able to? You don't even need to pack it, you can simply copy it. Unless your PC is infected and you suspect the game folder to be affected and want to nuke it too just for good measure.

[Anonymous No.2014727]

If you want BG to be hard, you're supposed to ironman it, hardcore style.

But yeah, I just got back into these games and I'm having so much fun. Gonna run through the entire series with my best bud, who has played, but never beaten them. He's a fighter and I'm a fighter-thief, but I'm not going to use any exploits (or high level traps, same thing).

[Anonymous No.2014745]

>>2013459

>>2013759
>>2013935
>Not understanding the definition of the word "Singlehandedly"
>Not understanding anon was saying that Baldur gate wasn't the *only* thing that revitalized the genre
>Assuming Anon meant Fallout did it entirely instead of Baldur's Gate

Can you even literacy?

[Anonymous No.2014750]

>>2014745
How could Baldur's Gate OR Fallout have "revitalized" the genre, when there were only like 5 or so good RPGs released from then until now? The Infinity Engine games were more like the swan song of classic RPGs. Other than retro throwback stuff like Dragon Age 1, the genre is quite dead as a mainstream thing.

[Anonymous No.2014754]

>>2014750
Just because cRPGs aren't mainstream doesn't mean they aren't bigger then they've ever been...

People assume that because everyone is playing CloneOfDully that there aren't more people playing these games now then ever.

[Anonymous No.2014774]

>>2014750
They did revitalize it in that period. Nobody said the genre has thriven ever since (which sadly isn't the case).

[Anonymous No.2014776]

>>2014750
>the genre is quite dead as a mainstream thing.
So are others once massively or at least moderately popular (flight simulators or chess programs come to mind - MS Flight Simulator and Chessmaster series both dead since approx. 2006-2007).

[Anonymous No.2015037]

What kind of dice roll is used during character creation for the ability points?

[Anonymous No.2015054]

>>2015037
Never wondered. Stats are in the 75-90 total range, though, so it isn't 3d6.

[Anonymous No.2015073]

>>2015037
3d6 for every ability score.
If a roll is lower than the minimum required score for class/race, the score is automatically upped to whatever the minimum score is.

[Anonymous No.2015815]

>>2015073
How can you get the odd 18/xx thingy for strength? Apparently STR has more than 18 possible values.

[Anonymous No.2015825]

WRPGs went to shit starting with BG, honestly. They wanted so bad to be like JRPGs they started borrowing shit from them (overly intrusive story, poor gameplay, overly linear, etc).

Go back and play things like Ultima V, EotB, etc. You'll have a lot more fun.

[Anonymous No.2015826]

>>2015815
Because STR in AD&D is retarded and refuses to work like other stats.
18 STR means you're as strong as humans come. Since fighters (and only fighters) are supposed to be stronger than the average human, they get a percentile. 18/00 is as strong as a human fighter can be. Using the number 19 for humans would just be too FAR OUT THERE to even be considered.

[Anonymous No.2015853]

I loved Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II, but couldn't do Throne of Baal. It became a case of encountering a group of sorcerers/wizards who would put up 10 layers of defence. My wizard would strip some, then we'd have to get lucky. Admittedly I was playing a fighter through all the games. Then as soon as the duel was done, we'd go to sleep... next fight... sleep. It's like we were a team of narcoleptics.

Am I doing it horribly wrong?

[Anonymous No.2015859]

>>2014681
Probably won't have a flash drive or an external HD to hold the folder at the time.

[Anonymous No.2015972]

>>2015825
No? BG and IWD have better gameplay, with deeper and more tactical combat, than SSI's AD&D offerings. And I love SSI's games.

>>2015815
Warrior classes only. Its a bonus to allow them to be better in combat than non-warriors. A fighter, ranger, or paladin can roll a d100 if they have 18 str, which allows them percentile strength. Fortunately, BG has a tome at the end to boost you right to 19, so us obsessive compulsives don't need to worry about sup-optimal str in the long run.

[Anonymous No.2015990]

>>2015853
There's tons of exploits, but depending on your personality, you might find them worse. Spoilered for game breaking munchkin shit:

Thief traps can insta gib any boss that doesn't start hostile. Leaving zones cancels enemy spells but uses them up. Summons soak up spells and you can just wait off some protections. Also, one of the offensive spells, warding whip I think, removes a protection a turn.

[Anonymous No.2015994]

>>2015972
>BG and IWD have better gameplay, with deeper and more tactical combat, than SSI's AD&D offerings.
Too bad AD&D is a bit of a shit system to begin with for anything other than straight-up combat, and even there it's not particularly good.

[Anonymous No.2015995]

>>2015990

thank you

[Anonymous No.2016002]

>>2015994
We're getting into the realm of opinions and whatnot, I'm just challenging the idea that they were suddenly downhill. Also, the story focus of the BG games is vastly over-rated. The story of 2 is just an excuse to get you to some really fun dungeons, and the story of BG 1 and IWD are bare-bones.

My favorite RPG of the early 90s is probably SSI's Shattered Lands, for its combination of great setting, great atmosphere, ahead of its time UI and ease of play, and all around RPG goodness. The BG series has way more interesting and varied combat and encounters than that game does. And better dungeons.

[Anonymous No.2016004]

>>2016002
>The story of 2 is just an excuse to get you to some really fun dungeons

Is there nothing of you that remembers our love?

[Anonymous No.2016015]

>>2016004
Please no.

Anomen is super broken in the Steam EE, because he can get grandmastery in weapons, making him one of the best NPCs in the game

[Anonymous No.2016019]

>>2016015
I never really got into the meta for BG2, I did for 1 though, on account it felt alot more DnD like.

I play BG2 for the story [\spoiler]

[Anonymous No.2016029]

>>2015972
>roll a d100
How do you "roll a d100" in real life?

[Anonymous No.2016039]

>>2015859
Compress, split into 4.3GB chunks, and burn to DVD discs. That way you'll have a backup copy of your game directory that's independent from any HDD.

[Anonymous No.2016112]

>>2016029
You roll a d10, then you roll another d10.

[Anonymous No.2016123]

https://soundcloud.com/katamari-jr/baldurs-gate-metal-heroes-and-hamsters

[Anonymous No.2016634]

>>2010990
How is your attention span that short? I loved the mines and the build up to it.

[Anonymous No.2016650]

>>2016029
Either roll a hundred sided die, or two tens (one preferably marked as a tens digit d10).

> inb4 hundred sided die hurr
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zocchihedron

[Anonymous No.2018128]

>>2016039
How would that be in any way less convoluted than just reinstalling?

Back up your saves, nothing more.

[Anonymous No.2018207]

>>2018128
Because a complex installation involving many mods is both time consuming (may take many hours in extreme cases) and risky (if you don't install everything exactly as before you run a substantial risk of your saves not working).

[Anonymous No.2018210]

>>2010990
If it's too easy with a fighter (which I presume your main character is), play a mage (and enjoy the Nashkell mine kobolds instakilling you with a fire arrow).

[Anonymous No.2018217]

>>2018210
>mages
>not easy

I mean, sure you can get screwed by random numbers at low level, but that comment is just so wrong. We're talking about D&D here. Sure, its AD&D, but its still D&D. Mages are gods.

[Anonymous No.2018225]

>>2018217
Later on, sure. But he's complaining that the beginning of the game bores him, and a low-level mage is extremely weak, needs constant protection of warrior-type characters and can provide them with only mediocre support at best.

[Anonymous No.2018252]

>>2018217
>Mages are gods.
Yeah, those 6 hit points and that 1 cast per day will surely rock the socks off the rats in Candlekeep if you're lucky with the rng.

[Anonymous No.2018480]

>>2018252

[Anonymous No.2018516]

>>2015853
You pretty much have to constanly sleep yeah

[Anonymous No.2018517]

>>2018217
AD&D magic users have no efficacy if directly attacked - you don't even have to hit them to ruin their spellcasting. It was a serious flaw that didn't get addressed until 3rd edition.

Fortunately the video games fudged up their own rules regarding mages in combat.

[Anonymous No.2019935]

>>2010990
so... how does multiplayer work on these games? is it the single player game just with co op?

[Anonymous No.2020018]

>>2019935
Ever wondered that too. Can anyone press space at anytime and halt the game for anyone? Sounds kinda awkward. Then again without pause it would be even more awkward. Can someone explain how multiplayer BG works?

[Anonymous No.2020060]

Part 2 pissed me off instantly with that intro dungeon. They punk off one of my more favorite characters and make me rescue my least favorite. I always kill Imoen first when I roll an evil character.

[Anonymous No.2020103]

>>2019935
>>2020018
It works similarly to single player, except that the host can bring up a permissions menu. There, he can assign privileges to other players who join. They can be set to control characters, and the option on whether they can pause or talk to NPCs is decided by the host.

Anyway, since I needed more RPG fix, having just beat Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2, and Shattered Lands again, I reinstalled the IWD games. 1 seems to work fine, aside from stealth being laggy. I got my party up to level 9. Running Fighter, Paladin, Fighter-thief, Cleric, Bard, Wizard. 2 crashes during character creation though.

[Anonymous No.2020190]

>>2020103
>be host
>don't give other players privilleges
>everyone pissed off
>ok, give them privilleges
>everyone starts trolling the heck out of everyone else by randomly pausing/unpausing the game etc.

Maybe I'm pessimistic, but I had to disable the Start button on everyone's emulated SNES controller once during a Micro Machines multiplayer game, because at some point players started doing precisely what was mentioned above (i.e. trolling everyone else by pausing/unpausing the game randomly).

[Anonymous No.2020198]

>>2020190
Well I can't imagine playing BG multiplayer with someone I don't know pretty well. Its too slow and methodical a game to play with pubs.

[Anonymous No.2020213]

>>2019935
I tried to play some co op but with all the text breaks especially when the party is split apart and everyone is talking to different NPCs it gets a bit out of hand. It would be great if talking didn't pause the game in co op or if you could somehow get everyone to be incredibly patient

[Anonymous No.2020237]

>>2020213
Or just stick together like a traditional D&D game.

[Anonymous No.2020240]

>>2020237
Yeah, the host is the "party leader". If everyone is running around randomly I can't imagine it being much fun. I also can't imagine it being much fun with more than 3 people tops.

[Anonymous No.2020247]

>>2020240
I never used the multiplayer function for more than just screwing around with custom parties, but couldn't the host spawn in some monsters in front of other players in order to keep them in line?

[Anonymous No.2020248]

>>2020247
Not that I know of. The host isn't the GM, he's the main character. The host can do that if he's playing with debug mode enabled though.

[Anonymous No.2020313]

>>2020248
Yes, you can spawn all sorts of stuff with the Lua console. You can add dragons to your party etc. (not that you can travel with them anywhere, they are too large to pass through many places).

[Anonymous No.2020770]

>>2016015
Anomen gets grandmastery and that's really strong, but Jaheira gets Greater Whirlwind by ToB and that's even stronger but even later. Decisions, decisions.

>>2018252
Learn to cast Sleep. Insta-wins many, many encounters. Meanwhile Blind lets you solo Ankhegs at level 1, just get a sling and a lot of bullets.