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On December 17 2014 02:01 OsaX Nymloth wrote:Show nested quote +On November 01 2014 17:53 -Archangel- wrote:
Yes. I made a six man party (paladin, priest of tempus, blade, shadowdancer, sorcerer and archer) and started adventuring. Forgot how nice IWD was. Didn't play it after I finished it when it originally came out. Actually I would advice trying to go for some... challenge in Icewind Dale! Start in Heart of Fury mode. From lvl 1. Solo. It's 100% possible, super hard especially at the beginning, but damn if it's not fun :D
I made another party made of 3 people and started them at lvl 1 in HoF mode. It took me a long time and was a lot of fun for a while but I got bored and stoped playing when they were around lvl 13. Each fight is a grind and you need to use summons because your own character got no chance to kill anything or tank. Most spells are useless and CC spells rarely work.
Due to how summons are also boosted in HoF only they are worth the spell slot.
After a while even summons become less and less effective and you need to cast many summons to kill smaller numbers of enemies and rest after every middle size encounter so you can unload most of your summons on next encounters and IWD is full of very similar encounters. It is very soon pure boredom, just a grind.
I got a lvl 13 druid (avenger) that has access to best summons and even they die fast and don't last longer then one mid size encounter.
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On December 17 2014 09:42 REDBLUEGREEN wrote:
I recently read about the IWD EE release and finally decided to play all these classic RPG games; BG1&2, IWD1&2 and NWN1&2.
So to start things of I read a little bit about the different classes and their strength and weaknesses in guides and forums.
I always heard BG was the best RPG of all time and so forth but it turns out all class discussions basically assume you are a hardcore powergamer and you will play the most gifted übermensch sterotypical archetype character with max strength, dexterity, constitution and maybe a forth stat too.
OK whatever I thought, I will just disregard all that and create my own realistic character that I can actually roleplay. However I had immense difficulty creating my character because the class system is so restrictive and almost forces you to make gimped unrealistic archetype characters. You want to roleplay a Barbarian that is quite intelligent and wise? Well it seems there is almost no benefit at all in the game mechanics for a Barbarian to have any intelligence or wisdom...Oh and apparently in all his years in the wildernis he never had to hunt either because he never learned to sneak and somehow will never be able to learn it. It makes absolutely no sense to me.
I ended up creating a Human shapeshifter druid that is standing in front of the gates of Baldurs Gate right now and has explored most of the territories outside of it.
The game is still fun, I like the complexity and amount of abilities and spells and exploring the world and of course finding nice loot. Some areas are really lovely like the Gnoll stronghold or the halfling village. The story so far seems to be okay, too.
As a roleplaying game however I think Arcanum or Morrowind/TES are far superior because in those games it actually makes sense to create relateable and realistic characters that you can roleplay and you don't have nonsensical rules and restrictions that really break immersion and hinder roleplaying.
Baldur's Gate is not create your own story kind of RPG. It also does not revolve around your single character only.
In Elder Scrolls you can create whatever you want because you will always have that one character, they needed to let you do everything if you wanted to.
BG games are party based games and are designed as such. You are supposed to care for your whole party, not just your one character and supplement the weaknesses of your character with suitable party members.
Also, one of its strengths are super complex gameplay options, more ways to do encounters and spells that let you do lots of stuff outside and inside combat.
Also you can spend lots of time exploring many wilderness maps and run into all kinds of crazy stuff.
I loved how in BG1, more than once, your character can in dialogue complain about weirdos and crazies he runs into during these explorations :D
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On December 18 2014 00:39 -Archangel- wrote:Show nested quote +On December 17 2014 02:01 OsaX Nymloth wrote:On November 01 2014 17:53 -Archangel- wrote:
Yes. I made a six man party (paladin, priest of tempus, blade, shadowdancer, sorcerer and archer) and started adventuring. Forgot how nice IWD was. Didn't play it after I finished it when it originally came out. Actually I would advice trying to go for some... challenge in Icewind Dale! Start in Heart of Fury mode. From lvl 1. Solo. It's 100% possible, super hard especially at the beginning, but damn if it's not fun :D I made another party made of 3 people and started them at lvl 1 in HoF mode. It took me a long time and was a lot of fun for a while but I got bored and stoped playing when they were around lvl 13. Each fight is a grind and you need to use summons because your own character got no chance to kill anything or tank. Most spells are useless and CC spells rarely work. Due to how summons are also boosted in HoF only they are worth the spell slot. After a while even summons become less and less effective and you need to cast many summons to kill smaller numbers of enemies and rest after every middle size encounter so you can unload most of your summons on next encounters and IWD is full of very similar encounters. It is very soon pure boredom, just a grind. I got a lvl 13 druid (avenger) that has access to best summons and even they die fast and don't last longer then one mid size encounter.
Yeah, it can get a bit tedious - but it's still a challenge. I did this kind of solo runs twice: in Icewind Dale my mage/warrior was kinda ok to get into a fight (not at the beginning of course), but it was needed anyway. Summons are super important, but mostly as damage takers and eventually blockers of path, so my char can cast as many destructive spells as possible. Some fights are actually quite ok to summon some weak monsters and join the battle, but you need to be careful to not be targeted too much. Damage is crazy.
the most boring part probably is around the beginning and end of the game
Beginning because you're forced to basically run around like mad trying to get that 19-20/20 dice roll and actually hit whatever goblin is trying to come near you. And if you fail at keeping bastard at bay, you might die to one random crit :D
Later game, when you have maxed character and maxes spells and basically every fights need to follow a scheme: summon bunch of monsters, buff, go and attract group of enemies, fireballs in, summon more meat if needed. Rinse, repeat.
Curious: the only monsters I didn't defeat are Iron Golems. Not my class/es to fight them, so I ignored them. Good thing they're only few of them and not really that important.
Photo of my hero at the final battle :D
Second run was on Icewind Dale II. Sadly here I had issues with spell effects, that were slowing the game insanely, so I quit around fight with that black dragon. Just couldn't move in that slideshow 
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I quit way before that, the gameplay was too boring. There was no more challenge, just rinse and repeat same moves for each battle.
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On December 17 2014 19:01 Hoenicker wrote:Show nested quote +On December 17 2014 09:42 REDBLUEGREEN wrote:
I recently read about the IWD EE release and finally decided to play all these classic RPG games; BG1&2, IWD1&2 and NWN1&2.
So to start things of I read a little bit about the different classes and their strength and weaknesses in guides and forums.
I always heard BG was the best RPG of all time and so forth but it turns out all class discussions basically assume you are a hardcore powergamer and you will play the most gifted übermensch sterotypical archetype character with max strength, dexterity, constitution and maybe a forth stat too.
OK whatever I thought, I will just disregard all that and create my own realistic character that I can actually roleplay. However I had immense difficulty creating my character because the class system is so restrictive and almost forces you to make gimped unrealistic archetype characters. You want to roleplay a Barbarian that is quite intelligent and wise? Well it seems there is almost no benefit at all in the game mechanics for a Barbarian to have any intelligence or wisdom...Oh and apparently in all his years in the wildernis he never had to hunt either because he never learned to sneak and somehow will never be able to learn it. It makes absolutely no sense to me.
I ended up creating a Human shapeshifter druid that is standing in front of the gates of Baldurs Gate right now and has explored most of the territories outside of it.
The game is still fun, I like the complexity and amount of abilities and spells and exploring the world and of course finding nice loot. Some areas are really lovely like the Gnoll stronghold or the halfling village. The story so far seems to be okay, too.
As a roleplaying game however I think Arcanum or Morrowind/TES are far superior because in those games it actually makes sense to create relateable and realistic characters that you can roleplay and you don't have nonsensical rules and restrictions that really break immersion and hinder roleplaying. Its been a while, so my memory is a bit foggy, but I believe you can dual class barbarian to thief (if your race is human). That would allow him to sneak (and back stab), and you could role play him as you want. Generally, dual classing is very powerful in BG, especially in BGII.
You cannot dual class a barbarian without a mod like the g3 tweak pack.
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Problem with IWDEE for anyone who has played Baldur's Gate with Sword Coast Stratagems: AI is garbage and it's just not a challenge. Adding the Baldur's Gate spells and not giving the AI any use of them at all or at least a hardmode option was quite bad IMO. Not really sure what I paid for.
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Russian Federation1401 Posts
I just finished PoE and I feel like another BG run, something I haven't done in years.
Should I go for BG + tutu or BGEE?
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BGEE is easier to install and just play.
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Russian Federation1401 Posts
I don't mind about the installation. I was wondering about the game quality.
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On April 24 2015 20:01 SF-Fork wrote:
I don't mind about the installation. I was wondering about the game quality.
No reason to use BG+tutu then unless money is an issue.
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I'd recommend the EE + SCS mod. This will be challenging but also very rewarding.
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Go for tactics instead of SCS, or use both. Acid kensai for life. :D
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Russian Federation1401 Posts
just got the EE. I will look for the SCS mod now.
I believe tha acid kensai was in BG2? Not applicable to the first game.
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Russian Federation1401 Posts
unfortunately I am not able to install the SCS mod. There is some naming error, but all the solutions I find are for easytutu and not for EE. Will it be too easy without the mod?
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fuck mindflayers
i guess thats what i get for making dumb evil characters
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use EasyTutu for BG1 (search at thegribberlings3). It's a standalone install that will let you import right into BG2 when you're done and doesn't touch anything in your BG1 or BG2 folders if you feel like modding BG2 later or want to keep a vanilla experience around for either game. It's also compatible with most BG2 mods (since it is technically an installation of BG2) without shoving content down your throat as a cash grab like the EE.
The reason you only find support for ETT and not the EE is because Tutu was made by the modding community for the community (and EasyTutu is a streamlined, packaged version of it that incorporates many bugfixes) but they treat Beamdog's cash-in with scorn. Some people are downright hostile about it, but it begs the question why you would even pay money for free optional content you can find anywhere and add it yourself. As questionable as the quality of many fan mods are, it seems kind of stupid to charge for it. EE adds a nice interface, I'll give it that, but everything else it does can be done for free, even the multiplayer (just use gameranger). I have also heard some not so nice things about their QC division pertaining to patches and support, which might be relevant to your Sword Coast Stratagems issues.
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I had no problems installing SCS on my EE edition. Maybe try using another mod that you know has the up to date weidu version first.
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Russian Federation1401 Posts
On April 26 2015 05:42 Ghost151 wrote:
use EasyTutu for BG1 (search at thegribberlings3). It's a standalone install that will let you import right into BG2 when you're done and doesn't touch anything in your BG1 or BG2 folders if you feel like modding BG2 later or want to keep a vanilla experience around for either game. It's also compatible with most BG2 mods (since it is technically an installation of BG2) without shoving content down your throat as a cash grab like the EE.
The reason you only find support for ETT and not the EE is because Tutu was made by the modding community for the community (and EasyTutu is a streamlined, packaged version of it that incorporates many bugfixes) but they treat Beamdog's cash-in with scorn. Some people are downright hostile about it, but it begs the question why you would even pay money for free optional content you can find anywhere and add it yourself. As questionable as the quality of many fan mods are, it seems kind of stupid to charge for it. EE adds a nice interface, I'll give it that, but everything else it does can be done for free, even the multiplayer (just use gameranger). I have also heard some not so nice things about their QC division pertaining to patches and support, which might be relevant to your Sword Coast Stratagems issues.
I ended up starting a game in EE. I have bought BG 1,2 and ToB on 3 occasions,(vanilla CD and the DVD's twice) but my discs are at my parents and I don't live there anymore. Therefore I had no qualms with torrenting the EE. I couldn't get the SCS working, but at least I will enjoy the new content with the new NPC.
I made a fighter/thief and will attempt to play with all the new companions and fill the gap with another thief and some sort of healer. Possibly Yeslick or Viconia. For the additional thief I will carry Imoen until I meet up with Coran.
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I'm curious what advantage there is to using Tutu instead of BGT unless you have zero interest in playing BG2.
Functionally the BG1 components are more or less the same and not having to worry about importing or handling mods for 2 separate installs is a huge convenience.
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Russian Federation1401 Posts
In my case, I was never able to properly install BGT despite several attempts, while TuTu never gave me any problems. I guess I'm just a modding noob.
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EPT
