Bartimaeus

Played Mario Party 3 on the N64 today with some friends. Was in last place when someone used the Wacky Watch, (sets the number of turns left to 5), and then somehow managed to get 4 stars in 5 turns and won. Was hilarious.

I like the idea of somewhat mitigating the effects of chance, but I'm not sure to this extent. I would've rather seen a system where there's four different types of attacks: miss, glancing hit, hit, critical hit. Removing miss entirely makes me feel a little uneasy. It would be neat to see a more AD&D-like system with glancing blows, so that if you reach a certain THAC0 threshold, similar to doing a regular hit, you still do a little damage, but certainly not all of the time.

I wouldn't mind very, very basic finishing moves, (a slightly different attack), but beyond that, no thanks.

At $300, the only real choice is, as Humanoid mentioned, the HD7950. Alternatively, if you wanted to go a little lower, I would recommend the HD7870. I would not really recommend the GTX670, because the performance difference between it and the 7950 is minuscule, but if you reeaally don't like AMD...

Are you suggesting that we don't know the difference between knowledge and intelligence?

I'm not really sure it'll be an issue besides for maybe calculating inventory weight, but I'd basically be O.K. with any system, with a slight leaning towards Metric.

New patch released. http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/12383/game-update-1-0-2011

I would've thought a "u mad bro" would've been more pertinent, but alright... At the monster scaling system comment...I'm glad you completely skimmed over the part where he says the game reacts to a COMBINATION of your level and party members, not just the amount of party members...

In addition:

http://forum.baldurs...ate-1-0-2010/p1 New patch released. Patch notes: Hiro, curious, what section of the Cloakwood is that sword located at?

I ate frog legs at a Thai restaurant. It was delicious...but I'm pretty sure that was a result of the Thai thing, not because it was frog legs. (I realize frog doesn't fit under any of those categories, but close enough.)

Hmmm.. Well consider it bought, as soon as the release it on GoG. (*But I wonder if GoG would want to release it? It directly competes with them selling the standard versions.) It is unlikely to be released on GoG...at least, any time soon. Perhaps a while after BG2:EE is released...but even then, it seems unlikely, given that GoG is selling the standard versions of the game. Seems more likely that it would be on Steam than anything else.

Patch released: http://forum.baldurs...2-build-2009/p1 The maximum frame rate can be edited right in-game now. FTR, what's supposed to happen is that a few are supposed to continue working on BG1, while the rest go onto BG2. They are trying, so...

Not at all, that was good. I was wondering if the EE game still used the core assets; and whether Bam-workshop or any of the Team-X tools would work on it. If it can be done, I expect that it might be; BG1 can run in BG tutu and effectively be BG1 campaign in BG2's engine. Yes...but the core assets - i.e. areas - were updated to be used with BG2:ToB's engine, similar to what Baldur's Gate Trilogy does, (I have no idea about TuTu - never used it - but I imagine it's probably similar). I'm not so sure, however, that there's a process for bringing BG2-type assets back into form with the BG1 engine - there might be a mod that brings the new assets to BGT or maybe TuTu, but I wouldn't exactly count on it, given that at least two of the most major BG(T) modders, Ascension64 of ToBEx/BGT and DavidW of SCS, will, as far as I understand, be mostly working on BG(2):EE [mod compatibility], especially in the coming months. Have no idea about BAM-Workshop, though.

1. I can alt-tab just fine. Sucks that you can't, though. 2. That sounds like a script problem. So...firstly, is party scripting enabled? If so, have you tried assigning her a mage script? Have not had the problem you've had at all, but I don't use character scripts, so...(soloing with a multiclass Mage/Thief, for the record).

Assuming you don't want to actually incorporate it into a mod via WeiDU, (if you did, you'd obviously have to understand WeiDU, which I don't have a lick of understanding of...), you'd have to manually update any areas to reference new items/characters/rects/etc. You'd also have to recreate the items from scratch, because BG1's items' file structure is very much different from from BG2(:ToB) items. I think BG1 items are actually backwards compatible with BG2, but not the other way around. Unsure about creatures - fairly easy to recreate if broken, though it may be a bit of work. Icons, (items, spells...), you could just import. Sounds, you'd have to down-sample from the new 44.1KHz 16bit .wav format to the old 22.05KHz 16bit .wav format, (fairly easy, even if sucky). Graphics...I would have no idea how to do, so I imagine it's probably fairly hard if you don't know what you're doing, (i.e. me), especially given how relatively little there is in the way of mods that add graphics that are not item/spell icons, (only ones I can think of at the moment are 1PP/Infinity Animations and some GUI mods). Any engine changes, (which, by the way, there are quite a few in BG:EE), would be completely out of the question, of course. Don't know about scripts or spells. Spells would be easy to recreate if their file structure is different, (though, again, potentially a bit of work), but I don't like to touch scripts...at all. All in all, a fair bit amount of work for what's possible...and some of it is just not realistically possible. That was probably more than you wanted to know, though.

I, uh, actually took out extreme, because it felt condescending, (playing the game a lot doesn't make you more of a fan than somebody else...), but okay. There actually have already been multiple patches released, (three, I think). Here's a post from the official forums regarding current technical issues: http://forum.baldurs...ber-3rd-2012/p1 I laughed really hard after seeing that picture coupled with what he said, and then proceeded to feel bad. Also, it would appear that, at least according from that post, they're offering refunds if you want it, particularly if you have Intel HD integrated video chips.

Personally I am glad you are defending the game as I want to purchase it, I never played BG1, and its good to see some positive feedback that is factual. But you never answered my question. You seem to know loads about the game, are you a committed fan or some sort of developer? I am a fan. I have been playing Baldur's Gate (2) at least once every year, (usually two or three times), since I was five years old. I remember playing Baldur's Gate alongside Age of Empires and Diablo at home when everybody else was at school, (since Kindergarten you only attended every other day - or at least it used to be that way. No idea if it is now...). I was terrible at them back then, of course, but I've learned better since.

If you're directing that entire post at me, then all I can say is that...I completely agree with you on every point. I don't think the release was a major disaster, but I do think, failing just aborting the entire project, they should've just stuck with enhancing what they could, (bugfixing, adding a few new features like the inventory information display, (which, by the way, they've now patched to work properly), adding a few truly outstanding modders' works if they could, (i.e. 1PP, TobEx, ...), do as much graphics enhancing as they could, (since BioWare "lost" all the original art assets - also, not in the form of a big blue UI that doesn't match tone-wise with the game at all), etc.), not introduced mod-quality content that has absolutely no relation to the original game. If they had done that, people, (especially me), would've probably been happier with the game, especially at launch, since they presumably would've spent more time making sure the game actually worked. But what's done is done...the only reason I'm defending the game at all is because some of the criticism is either ridiculous or patently false. The only reason I will maybe switch over to using BG:EE is because my favorite modders, (DavidW, Ascension64, Erephine, Demivrgvs), might be working with BG(2):EE exclusively from now on. If not, well...like everyone has said before, there's always the original (enhanced by modders).

Off-topic, but...see, the funny thing is, I've technically been registered longer than you have...

Yea sure, search the net for an easy solution, after all you bought the "Enhanced Edition". They left it out on purpose (Portraits Folder), so people can buy their crappy portraits. Their portraits are, indeed, crappy. I cannot contest that. They are not very well made nor do they stylistically fit in with the old ones. However, what you just said is patently ridiculous. Having a folder not being automatically created is not "leaving it out". "Leaving it out" is making it so the feature doesn't work at all. It works perfectly fine. The only thing that has changed from the original game is that the location is slightly moved. (edit) I am so confused...I thought you were upset earlier about how they "upped the pace the game" or something. Why didn't you say that was a joke when I originally responded to it? I reinstalled BG2 and waited 15 minutes for BGT to install just so I could test the walkspeeds perfectly! Jerk.

Uh, no, as I demonstrated before, they went in between the two. And wait, weren't you just complaining about how they upped the speed of the game? So now you would've rather have the entire game sped up instead of just the walkspeeds? That's not inconsistent at all. 1. O.K., wrong again, guys. All you have to do is navigate to your (User)\My Documents\Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition folder and make a new folder called "portraits". Could've taken you about ten seconds to look up... 2. The Black Pits is not in any way, shape, or form connected to the main game, so it hardly matters. But yes, it is is bad and I really wish they hadn't used up time on something so silly, especially given the problems they've had at launch.

No, I typically only play on Core difficulty. You're right - right in the beginning, it's also hard, but after that first rough spot, your character starts to amass experience so quickly, (6x what a normal party would gain), that everything becomes extraordinarily easy for most of the game, (with the exception of the end-game content, as I said before). That ogre dude with the belts, I admit, is pretty tough right when you come out of Candlekeep, but a backstab and a few Larloch's Minor Drains later... :D (edit) In regards to Dragon Age: Origins...I liked some things about DA:O. The combat was not one of them. In fact, I can unequivocally say that combat was probably my least favorite part of that game, especially given that the isometric view was completely broken and any sort of real tactics were thrown out the window. The only one I could ever fully control was my own character - I gave up on the rest and just hoped they didn't get horribly murdered because of their extreme stupidity. It is too hard to control multiple party members from a non-isometric view, and the isometric view was completely broken in that game. Made me so mad when enemies were shooting arrows at me from across the map and I couldn't move my camera to even close to where they were.

You are correct. The option is no longer usable - it still exists in the ini, it just does...nothing. I hope that they restore it, or fix it, or whatever. @Nashkel Cutscene: Huh. I did not see that before, though I have surely been to Nashkel. Looks alright. I also completely forgot about the death cinematic, though I saw it more than a few times. I try not to exploit cheap tactics in a game that is already easy enough, (I actually killed Drizzt laughably easy with Boots of Speed - just stealth up to him, backstab him, run away, stealth again, backstab, repeat). Here's to hoping SCS, (Sword Coast Stratagems), is made compatible with BG:EE in the coming weeks, and that I hopefully have my butt kicked once again.

Is it really going to be tougher solo? In Baldur's Gate (2), for example, most of the game was hilariously easy if you soloed, because your one character would be getting all of the experience, instead of having it be split up, and your stats would be ridiculously overpowered, (especially if you were a caster!), in comparison to where they were supposed to be if you had been using a 6-player party. Until you hit max level and then hit the real encounters that you were supposed to be fighting with a max level full party... If they do it NWN2:OC style, (and I am not completely sure whether or not I want that), the party itself has experience, and all of the party members always have that amount.