Chapter ##: In Which I Ask About Icewind Dale

Catbasketry

Evening all. I've lurked about for some time, not bothered to create me a login, so, there's that. Noobflame, etc.

I've got me a question about ye olde gamee Icewind Dale, and I figured the folks here would be able to explain to me *what I am missing*.

Lately I've been playing mostly older PC games, as I haven't got a next gen console and I'm afraid to buy one and have it brick on me. My PC's not suitable for playing anything new and demanding - after being unable to play BioShock with a good framerate, I've just basically given up on playing newer games. Anyway, I've got a stack of ancient and slightly less ancient stuff I never beat that I've been playing through - NOX, Outcast, Second Sight, Condemned, Pyschonauts, Bad Mojo, Arcanum...

Now, I'm not a big fantasy game player usually, though I did used to play WoW. But I recently replayed Planescape: Torment lately, and that's one of the best games EVER MADE, so I figured I really ought to give those other Infinity Engine games a try. I loved Fallout, so I figured the other Black Isle stuff would thrill me.

I got Icewind dale for a few bucks. I wasn't thrilled at first about having to roll a whole party, I'm spoiled by games that hand you a character. But that's not huge. Once I started the game, however...

Gah! What the heck? The characters are tiny and indistinguishable!

A big chunk of the screen is taken up by menus that I can't hide!

There's no one shared hotkey to tell all characters to attack (like hitting A when the whole party is selected in Planescape), you have to select a menu item on screen? for each character? Or hit F3 for this guy, F4 for that one's weapon, etc?

Armor at the store doesn't say what its AC is, and you don't know until you buy it? (it just says "helmet 7G protects against critical hits" or "small buckler")

Unlike Planescape, where if one character leaves a room/map through a door/stairs, the rest follow, one guy can leave a building and the rest just sit there?

What the hecks, Toki Wartooth? I really am trying to give this game a fair shake, and I feel like a crapheel for not enjoying what's supposed to be OMG A Best Game Evers, but... what the hell am I doing wrong?

Many thanks. I await your constructive responses and utter flames!

zilo

You may want to try Icewind Dale 2. Even more character customization, and I don't remember the user interface being that annoying (especially making each character attack separately, that sounds really lame).

And of course Baldur's Gate 1 and 2.

Catbasketry

Doesn't BG1 have the same interface and engine as IWD? Wouldn't it be the same thing - tiny tiny characters, half the screen in menus?

Have you played IWD, is there something I'm doing wrong? I didn't even get a dang manual with this game.

grrarg

Sorcerers.net has .pdfs of the Icewind Dale manual. There may also be a .pdf manual on your IWD disk. There are definitely hotkeys to hide the UI and make everyone attack a target. You'll just have to look up the keybindings.

That site is a great source for info and tweaks on all the Infinity Engine games.

Icewind Dale is a good game but probably will not be as fun since you just played Planescape. IWD's story is nowhere as deep or compelling as PS:T. It's basically just an excuse for hack and slash dungeon crawling, and that version of the Infinity Engine is kind of annoying after so many years. I think Sorcerers.net has tweaks to get it to run in higher resolutions.

You may enjoy the Baldur's Gate games more . They are more like PS:T than IWD, with a stronger story and NPCs with strong personalities to join you.

Orogogus

Let's see...

"=" selects your whole party (1-0 and "-" are the other character/party select hotkeys). Once they're all selected, the default action when you mouse over an enemy is to attack -- the icon changes into a sword.

H hides all the menus.

You may have to download and install the latest patch to get some resolutions beyond, I dunno, 640x480 or 800x600 or whatever. I run it at the "unsupported" (i.e., theoretically buggy) resolution of 1024x768 on a 24" monitor, and it's okay.

Right click on the item icons in the shop to see their descriptions and stats. The helmet doesn't provide an armor class bonus, though -- its only benefit is to guard against critical hits. I don't know how you're getting the message about helmet 7G, though.

If you want everyone to follow to the next level, make sure they're all selected before you go.

Roshin

IWD was originally marketed as "the thinking man's Diablo" and while it has a story, the focus is very much on combat. Think of it as tactical fantasy combat and things will surely fall into place. Not that the story is bad, mind you. It's a perfectly playable RPG and I enjoyed just as much as BG.

Seeks

You can also click-drag a box around your party to select everyone, or ctrl+click (maybe shift+click) on them or their portraits to select them one by one.

Right-clicking on an item brings up its little properties sheet. It'll tell you everything you need to know, assuming you're familiar with AD&D terms (2nd ed for some games, 3rd ed for others, so values change from time to time) and the item is identified.

The graphics kind of suck when it comes to character sprites (or whatever they are), unfortunately. There's nothing that can be done for that.


Not to take the wind out of IWD's sails, but Icewind Dale 1 & 2 are both my least favorite Infinity Engine games. If you want to count the Fallouts in this group, then I'd rank them like so:

Fallout 2 > Planescape > Baldur's Gate 2 > Fallout > Baldur's Gate > Icewind Dale 2 > Icewind Dale

Although, to be fair, the first four entries are damn near a tie. The first BG is a little dry, but still good enough for me to have played through it... eh, I guess three times now. I've yet to play either Icewind Dale for more than four hours. Like, combined playtime between the two of them. With IWD2 making up about 90% of that. And half of it was just because I liked the music.

I love me some Black Isle, but I'm sorry, if games were a family, the Icewind Dales would get yelled at by their parents because they weren't more like their brothers, the Diablos.

Catbasketry

Wow, thank you, all of you, for the tips and stuff! I will definitely have to try that. Especially if I can turn off the silly menus on the screen, that's a big annoyance.

I tried the right-clicking to get info on items, that *sort* of worked? What worried me was that at the first store, Guy With Attitude's General Store in Happy First Town You Start In, i would rightclick armor and it would say "Leather armor" and nothing else. It wouldn't tell me +2 AC or nothin'.

If that's the case normally, bummer. But I have this terrible feeling the fix-pack I installed broke something, which would bite nards.


Also, I'll take everyone's suggestion and get my hands on BG1.

In the meantime, before I play that, I'm going to get this old Win2K box hooked up to a KVM next to my current PC, and try to get Revenant and Omikron: Nomad Soul to work on it. Old games ahoy!

(side rant!)
Since I can't afford a 400 dollar video card to play Bioshock as something other than a slideshow. GRR. Seriously, a 2+ghz dual core system, 2GB ram, and a 7600 Nvidia, and I can't get 20 FPS average? ANNOYING.