Baldur's Gate

[Pidesco]

I seem to remember some IWD2 portraits being made into BG2 custom portraits, but it wasn't all of them.

 

 

I have all the IWD2 portraits in original IE format.

[Arkan]

Was there ever a mod that let you use the BG1/IWD avatars in later versions of the IE games?

Not that I've seen. The problem with that comes from the hundreds of animations required for dual-wielding (excuse I heard) would need to be redone for each of the avatars from BG1. Best we can hope fore is the corrected paper dolls, and fixed shields, so at least the avatars match the paper dolls now.

[Humodour]

I loved the character portraits in the IWD games. I always wondered why the full sized pictures weren't offered for sale in poster size, as some kind of merchandise by BIS/Interplay (and now Obsidian as I seem to remember they bought the assets from Interplay)

 

Baldurs Gate I and II had a different style, slightly more cartoonish, but I kind of liked them too. The only thing that struck me as slightly ridiculous was their haircuts. Everybody except Minsc (iirc) had dreadlocks of some kind.

 

I wonder if a wish for better/more varied avatars weren't on most peoples wishlists though

 

It felt like a step down in quality when playing IWD first, then installing HoW and all the nicely detailed avatars became the bland, uninteresting ones from the new IE version.

 

Was there ever a mod that let you use the BG1/IWD avatars in later versions of the IE games?

 

Grab shadow keeper and you can manually assign NPC's their old BG1 avatars easily. If you want IWD portraits you need to download them or BIFF extract them from IWD1's big archive file, then put them in the custom portrait folder for BG, I believe.

 

As for IWD2 and PS:T... I believe they had different pixel sizes to the other games.

 

Oh, you mean the moving avatars? From memory you can if you avoid dual-wield, which crashes... as to how you'd assign them I don't know. I guess shadowkeeper reads the Override files as well, so it would probably autodetect them and allow you to select them in the avatar list?

[Dark_Raven]

So I was looking at the Icewind Gate Mod. Has anyone tried the beta for this? I know it only works for SoA, but I was wondering what the deal was with a ToB version, even though it said it may just remain in beta indefinitely.

Its buggy like any good beta usually is.

 

Anyway, what good NPC mods are there for BG2? I was thinking about breaking the old girl out for a spin, but I'm a bit tired of all the stock NPCs. Uh...was that Nalia romance ever finished?

Nalia was done at PPG.

 

NPCs mods there is of course Miriam who will take you all the way to ToB and than some.

 

I found the Nalia one, but no mention of ToB for one of them.

 

Miriam, huh? Maybe I'll check that out. Any good?

Oh yes Miriam is very good. If you want crazy evil in your party.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Yeah - Malks visit BG2.

[Humodour]

So I just tackled Firewine Ruins with a level 5 party. Me and Imoen are level 6 but that hardly counts since we're bards/thieves.

 

Still, I think the game thinks it does, since every time I walked down one corridor, I'd run into about 10 kobold commandos with fire arrows. They're harmless by themselves, but 10 of them can knock down then hp of most of your group members by a small amount. That also is harmless. The problem is that whenever you backtrack anywhere, another 10 have instantly respawned, and it gets to the point that everybody is down to 10% hp, no heals left, no magic missiles left, and your party is scattered between three different kobold respawn points, so you can't rest without sending a character into a room full of 10 kobolds that auto-target that one character with fire arrows. Did I mention fire arrows have +2 to hit and do 2 to 12 damage?

 

Anyway, it's over. Phew. The game got a bit laggy there at one point, though, when Xan ended up casting skull trap twice because he cast it and ran the first time, killing about 15 kobolds, only to find that because he retreated for a second, the room respawned and thus needed another skull trap.

[Arkan]

So I just tackled Firewine Ruins with a level 5 party. Me and Imoen are level 6 but that hardly counts since we're bards/thieves.

 

Still, I think the game thinks it does, since every time I walked down one corridor, I'd run into about 10 kobold commandos with fire arrows. They're harmless by themselves, but 10 of them can knock down then hp of most of your group members by a small amount. That also is harmless. The problem is that whenever you backtrack anywhere, another 10 have instantly respawned, and it gets to the point that everybody is down to 10% hp, no heals left, no magic missiles left, and your party is scattered between three different kobold respawn points, so you can't rest without sending a character into a room full of 10 kobolds that auto-target that one character with fire arrows. Did I mention fire arrows have +2 to hit and do 2 to 12 damage?

 

Anyway, it's over. Phew. The game got a bit laggy there at one point, though, when Xan ended up casting skull trap twice because he cast it and ran the first time, killing about 15 kobolds, only to find that because he retreated for a second, the room respawned and thus needed another skull trap.

 

 

Are you using Tutu? The spawns seemed to go insane with it for some reason.

[Kelverin]

I just skip over the Firewine Ruins, the risk is not worth the reward.

[Spider]

Are you using Tutu? The spawns seemed to go insane with it for some reason.

 

That's because Tutu causes spawns to maximize in the game. There's an add-on to fix this if one wants.

[Pope]

I just skip over the Firewine Ruins, the risk is not worth the reward.

Especially since the reward (the ogre mage right?) can be accessed through the halfling village without the hassle of the dungeon.

 

Sure is a nice place to collect fire arrows though.

 

Thinking about BG makes me want to replay it.

[Humodour]

No TuTu.

 

Am using some fan-made professional bug-fixes though (similar to Baldurdash for BG2). Come to think of it, spawns did seems to auto-respawn (with no cooldown) since I installed those.

 

Pope: yeah that's the reason I did it. Fire arrows galore.

Edited May 5, 2008 by Krezack

[Moatilliatta]

That's because Tutu causes spawns to maximize in the game. There's an add-on to fix this if one wants.

It should obviously be mentioned that only wussies use that "fix" and those that do won't recieve their copies of DNF when they reach the state of bliss that is gained when one transcends gaming and becomes one with the gamesource.

 

Also I personally really liked firewine ruins as well as the ulcaster ruins because they are the most adveantury-ish locations in BG.

 

Edit: Changed code tags to quote tags.

Edited May 5, 2008 by Moatilliatta

[Humodour]

That's because Tutu causes spawns to maximize in the game. There's an add-on to fix this if one wants.

It should obviously be mentioned that only wussies use that "fix" and those that do won't recieve their copies of DNF when they reach the state of bliss that is gained when one transcends gaming and becomes one with the gamesource.

 

Yeah, I reckon the respawns have made my game more fun. BG1 has low-xp, high-damage enemies, so it makes the game more of a challenge but keeps the run-away XP rewards minimal.

 

Also I personally really liked firewine ruins as well as the ulcaster ruins because they are the most adveantury-ish locations in BG.

 

It was OK, but if you've ever played Icewind Dale or even Torment, that tells you how much more awesome IE dungeons can be.

[Pope]

Durlag's Tower ftw

[Tigranes]

I'm using Tutu and yeah, the maximised spawns do become a problem.... when there are Tasloi or Gibberligns around. I just cleared the Firewine Bridge, too, in fact! Level 5 Party - Kagain, Minsc, Tiax (modded to be pure Cleric), Edwin, and myself an Assassin.

 

After the first couple of kobols I decided enough was enough, hid in shadows and ran all the way to the Ogre Mage by myself.. poison-backstabbed him, then his mirror image/minor globe/etc flared up, but watched as he flinched and twitched at the poison while I drank myself a nice potion of invisibility. Unfortunately, with my mods they're smart enough to drink healing potions now, so he was still on a decent amount of health and I had no way of bringing my entire party there without fighting all the kobolds. In the end I had to bring Edwin over with a spell of invisibility, and have him let loose with the Wand of Lightning - brilliant thing if you aim properly, took out the two fleshies as well.

 

I usually play through those random areas like this; I go down to Nashkel straight away so my party is complete asap (I hate playing without my party-in-mind done), go to the Gnoll Stronghold by necessity, Nashkel Mines, then I explore every one of those wilderness areas south of Beregost, on either side. My level 3 party had some real trouble with those Basilisks, the SCS mod made them harder in that they actively target whoever is not protected from their gaze, the Greater Basilisk seems to have a lot more hit dice and damage, and so on. I had a lot of reloads and bloody battles with just the first two before I realised Tiax' special ability (added in Tutu? Or not? First time using him) was to Summon Ghast. After that it wasn't so hard.

 

I am really enjoying this playthrough with the small AI / difficulty modifications, so far nothing nonsense or cheesy (except that undead knight outside Ulcaster, autohit periodic call lightning?! ). At the Bandit Camp, my Hide in Shadows is still crap (damn you Assassins) so I was discovered on the far west side of the camp. I planned on staying near the forests and just picking off the two or three - but hey, what? Ardenor Crush (the hobgoblin) and the other human fellow come charging along bringing the entire camp to the alert! Of course, that didn't really work out to their favour, since Necklace of Missiles + Wand of Fireball = Crispy. Despite adding Kagain to my usual mix I still struggle with big tank enemies, though, and Crush + the Other Guy did give me a lot of trouble. I just can't seem to stand up to them toe to toe without having Kagain or Minsc snuff it.

 

I can't remember party level, but everyone on around 43000xp as I reach the Cloakwood mines. That one isn't going to be easy.

[Dark_Raven]

Durlags Tower FTW. I like exploring that place. Its the ultimate dungeon hack.

[Setzer]

I just finished the Nashkel mines and the areas around it. My party members are all level 5-6, which include myself(Swashbuckler), Minsc(Fighter), Kalhid(Fighter), Jaheira(Healer), Kivan(Range), and Imoen(DC'd to a Mage). I was wondering if that's a pretty good group to stick with or should I replace anyone? My only problems are really with Kalhid & Jaheira. Jaheira bitches all the time about my 20 reputation and Kalhid just acts like a ****. If I can find a good fighter and a better healer, I'll probably replace those 2 in a heart beat. Anyways, where I'm at level-wise, should I tackle Durlog's Tower and Firewine bridge now or wait until later?

[Pidesco]

Like the rest of the expansion content leave Durlag's tower for the end of the game. AS for ditching Khalid and Jaheira, go ahead and trade them for Dynaheir and Branwen. You shouldn't really need more than two warrior characters in your party.

[Setzer]

Like of the rest of the expansion content leave Durlag's tower for the end of the game. AS for ditching Khalid and Jaheira, go ahead and trade them for Dynaheir and Branwen. You shouldn't really need more than two warrior characters in your party.

 

Oh crap, I already turned down Branwen and she disappeared for good.

[Pidesco]

Well, there's Viconia, but she's evil. Also, I think there's a dwarven fighter/cleric in the Cloakwood mines.

 

There's also Quayle and Tiax but you can only get them inside Baldur's Gate. Tiax is also evil.

[Setzer]

Ok, thanks!

 

So, for now, avoid Firewine Bridge and Durlog's Tower?

[Pidesco]

Go to Firewine bridge if you want, although the ruins can be annoying. There are some good items on the bridge map itself.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Well, there's Viconia, but she's evil.

 

So, your point is?

[Tigranes]

I've been sick and home-ridden, so I've been marathoning. Currently nearing the end of Throne of Bhaal with Sarevok, Minsc, Viconia, Edwin and Irenicus (Longer Road mod). SCS2's Improved Invisibility/Shadow Door + Immunity: Abjuration/Divination combo is really ticking me off, since there's no way at all to actually attack or dispel the mage for a good 10 rounds while he/she is free to dish out Horrid Wiltings and whatever. Still, more challenging and definitely smarter thieves/fighters.

 

Every time I play ToB it gets me how barren the game is, it really would have been nice to have it as a proper part of the trilogy - expanding Amkethran and Saradush to even half the size of Athkatla, or even adding in a big Tethyrian city. As it is all the dungeoning does get a bit repetitive.

[random n00b]

SCS2's Improved Invisibility/Shadow Door + Immunity: Abjuration/Divination combo is really ticking me off, since there's no way at all to actually attack or dispel the mage for a good 10 rounds while he/she is free to dish out Horrid Wiltings and whatever.

Doesn't the SCSII modded Spellstrike tear down Spell Immunity?

 

 

Every time I play ToB it gets me how barren the game is, it really would have been nice to have it as a proper part of the trilogy - expanding Amkethran and Saradush to even half the size of Athkatla, or even adding in a big Tethyrian city. As it is all the dungeoning does get a bit repetitive.

Yes, half-assed comes to mind. But it *is* just an expansion after all...