Coran is really wicked, definitely one of the best way to fill the thief slot in BG1. I wish they had brought him to BG2, it would be great to have a non-temporary thief that wasn’t a mage multiclass (though EE does thankfully have a pretty cool option for that)
0
Options
-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
Okay I finally grabbed the EA and tried this out.
This is what I wanted! I bounced super hard off Divinity OS2 but I just didn’t enjoy the world. I love me some Forgotten Realms though.
For fun I decided to see what my RNG luck would be like and savescummed the dying Illithid and failed the 10 check about 10 times. Then passed and failed the following 5 check (with a +2), then failed the 10 check a few more times before passing and passing the 5 check.
This game gives XCOM a run for its bullshit rolls.
Still real fun though.
0
Options
surrealitychecklonely, but not unloveddreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered Userregular
This is what I wanted! I bounced super hard off Divinity OS2 but I just didn’t enjoy the world. I love me some Forgotten Realms though.
For fun I decided to see what my RNG luck would be like and savescummed the dying Illithid and failed the 10 check about 10 times. Then passed and failed the following 5 check (with a +2), then failed the 10 check a few more times before passing and passing the 5 check.
This game gives XCOM a run for its bullshit rolls.
Still real fun though.
theyve probably talked about how they seed it right?
EDIT: i googled and apparently in response to early access stuff they added loaded dice to smooth out rng and so they kept fucking with it and now they just let a demon handle it
0
Options
-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
Yeah it’s not seeded because I wasn’t rolling the same number. Just failing over and out ver.
I have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for Icewind Dale+Heart of Winter, but fuck Dragons Eye. In a game where every other major dungeon is pretty great, including a couple that are probably in the top 5 infinity engine dungeons ever (Dorn’s Deep and Trials of the Luremaster are both really fun and interesting.), Dragon’s eye makes you wonder what they were thinking.
Stupid shit about Dragon’s eye:
1. No Puzzles at all. No key hunts, no clues spread throughout the dungeon to open a door or whatever, nothing but 5 maps of combat.
2. Repetition. From the moment you walk in the door you face the same party of 3-4 fighter lizardmen and 1 or 2 shamans that cast hold spells over and over. You reach the bottom floors and it changes to yuan ti but its the same damn party. In the middle floors you get waves of trolls and zombies, again without much variation between encounters. The only really interesting enemies you fight are the beetles and spiders, that actually have some cool tricks like phase spiders and bombadier beetles. But honestly if you make a 5 floor combat focused dungeon and the best you can say is “the spiders were pretty cool” you have a problem.
3. Stupid poorly thought out gimmicks. Third floor you have a series of fights where a boss pops up and taunts you over and over as you fight packs of mooks. Fifth floor, you have the Exact Same Setup, except instead of a skeleton its a creepy little girl. The creepy girl thing would have actually been pretty effective if I hadn’t played out the same gimmick 30 minutes before. Similarly, on the fourth floor there’s a big fakeout section where there is a bunch of enemies that pretend to be friendly npcs but aren’t . Except… its on the FOURTH FLOOR. Like hey yuan ti, maybe the whole “camouflage your lair by pretending to be monks” thing would work better on the FIRST floor. Very few benevolent sects of monks live in a random necromancer’s basement.
I know this is appropos of nothing but I just hit that spot in my playthrough of the IWD games I’m trying to do before BG3 comes out and it’s nuts.
Yeah it’s not seeded because I wasn’t rolling the same number. Just failing over and out ver.
have you considered Gitting Gud, though?
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
+1
Options
-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
Gotta thank you for posting these. The Yogscast version has now become a daily staple for our 3 year old. Pretty great watching them stomp around yelling "diggy, diggy, hole"
This is what I wanted! I bounced super hard off Divinity OS2 but I just didn’t enjoy the world. I love me some Forgotten Realms though.
For fun I decided to see what my RNG luck would be like and savescummed the dying Illithid and failed the 10 check about 10 times. Then passed and failed the following 5 check (with a +2), then failed the 10 check a few more times before passing and passing the 5 check.
This game gives XCOM a run for its bullshit rolls.
Still real fun though.
theyve probably talked about how they seed it right?
EDIT: i googled and apparently in response to early access stuff they added loaded dice to smooth out rng and so they kept fucking with it and now they just let a demon handle it
once again proving that the Fallout New Vegas use of a score-based skill check in place of a probability-based skill check is the best way to deal with this. Either you have 18 Strength to bust the door open or you don't, none of this save scumming BS or failing even though you've got a 90% chance of success.
This is what I wanted! I bounced super hard off Divinity OS2 but I just didn’t enjoy the world. I love me some Forgotten Realms though.
For fun I decided to see what my RNG luck would be like and savescummed the dying Illithid and failed the 10 check about 10 times. Then passed and failed the following 5 check (with a +2), then failed the 10 check a few more times before passing and passing the 5 check.
This game gives XCOM a run for its bullshit rolls.
Still real fun though.
theyve probably talked about how they seed it right?
EDIT: i googled and apparently in response to early access stuff they added loaded dice to smooth out rng and so they kept fucking with it and now they just let a demon handle it
once again proving that the Fallout New Vegas use of a score-based skill check in place of a probability-based skill check is the best way to deal with this. Either you have 18 Strength to bust the door open or you don't, none of this save scumming BS or failing even though you've got a 90% chance of success.
Yeah I much prefer that, or the take 10/ take 20 options for skill checks out of combat in 3E d&d.
Like there was a game recently, I think Solasta? But I tried to open a chest, and there’s nothing hostile on the map left alive, and I failed a relatively easy check due to a bad roll, and it wouldn’t let me retry and that made me think a bit. Like why the fuck is my expert theif breaking a lock so horrible on a non-critical failure he can’t retry? And its not like he’s defusing a ticking bomb, presumably he had all the time in the world, the urgent quest was over and the bad guys were all dead…
Again I liked the way p&p handled it. If you have time to work and can reasonably repeat an action without severe consequences (IE you aren’t in the middle of combat, or you aren’t defusing a live bomb, or you aren’t trying to use bluff or diplomacy while being interrogated by a guard, that kind of thing) you can optionally take 10. Taking 10 means rather than rolling you can accept a roll of 10. So if something is not difficult for your character and you aren’t under pressure you just do it, rather than rolling to tie your shoes or whatever.
For more difficult things you can still roll to take a chance buy no repeats you can still roll but if you fail you fail. Your character just ran into a wall doesn’t have the knowledge to get past it. However if your character has a lot of time to work on something at lesiure and mitigate the consequences of failure you can also ‘take 20’. This would be like a “We hauled the chest back to our rogue’s home workshop and he looked in his lockpicking books” situation. Or for animal handling a “I have a tiger in a pen in my backyard and am trying to tame it” rather than “I am trying to get a loose tiger not to bite my face off”.
We also had a house rule for things that should be reasonably trivial but still carry a bit of risk that was you could take 10 or 20 but still have to roll for critical success or failure. Like if you have a thief trying to disarm a really simple trap but still a potentially deadly one, he can take 10 but roll a d20 anyway, but only 1 and 20 change the result (for fumble or critical success respectively).
Jealous Deva on
0
Options
-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
Dungeons and Dragons: Honour amongst thieves was super good.
There's dragonborn, aarakocra, and tabaxi around, so I would guess it's supposed to be relatively modern. I highly doubt they'd set anything pre-Time of Troubles, which is an event that was published like 30 years ago. And it happened BEFORE BG1.
I doubt they would ever make new forgotten realms content that takes place before the sundering honestly.
Jealous Deva on
+3
Options
ShadowenSnores in the morningLoserdomRegistered Userregular
I've seen a little half-hearted advocacy for a Drizzt movie/series, and fully half of his stuff takes place pre-Spellplague, never mind the Second Sundering. Outside of that or, like, an Elminster movie I can't see pre-Sundering FR movies getting made either.
Almost done with Baldur's Gate. Currently slogging my way through the lower levels of Durlag's Tower. The biggest problem is my inability to leave anything valuable behind so everybody's inventory gets full real quick and I have to go back to Beregost regularly to clear out stuff I don't want to keep.
Imoen has fifteen types of arrow, all of which I'm saving for I don't know what.
Almost done with Baldur's Gate. Currently slogging my way through the lower levels of Durlag's Tower. The biggest problem is my inability to leave anything valuable behind so everybody's inventory gets full real quick and I have to go back to Beregost regularly to clear out stuff I don't want to keep.
Imoen has fifteen types of arrow, all of which I'm saving for I don't know what.
I like those big puzzle dungeons (Durlag’s tower, Watcher’s Keep, Trials of the Luremaster) but it’s always been a bit weird narratively to me, especially given that all 3 pretty much expect you to be near max level, implying they are basically the last thing you do (at least if you do WK in SoA, which seems to be intended).
Like “Finally bossguy, I have killed your lieutenants, scattered your armies, and have you cornered in your base, but first… let me raid this long forgotten crypt full of demons for loot.”
Almost done with Baldur's Gate. Currently slogging my way through the lower levels of Durlag's Tower. The biggest problem is my inability to leave anything valuable behind so everybody's inventory gets full real quick and I have to go back to Beregost regularly to clear out stuff I don't want to keep.
Imoen has fifteen types of arrow, all of which I'm saving for I don't know what.
There is a vendor right outside Durlag Tower, no need to Beregost.
+3
Options
Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
edited April 2023
My biggest issue with Baldur's Gate is it makes being evil super annoying to the point where its just not fun to even try.
Having to burn money and fight uppity bald virgins starts to get abit old pretty quick.
I’ve never done an evil run per se so much as I’ve just had the occasional evil guy come along and occasionally kicked someone in the dick every once in a while (or just popped into slayer form in BG2) when my reputation got too high.
Yeah I somehow had evil character/party in BG1 and 2, but I guess I didn't let my reputation zero out? Wasn't chased by guards at all. Do all your stealing quietly, don't go murder an entire city, bribe the church if you have to, you should be fine? Seems the same as an Elder Scrolls game...
I guess I also don't go out of my way to randomly kill people, though. Only when its presented as a choice. (Or that Noober. He was just asking for it. No-one would blame you.)
Yeah I somehow had evil character/party in BG1 and 2, but I guess I didn't let my reputation zero out? Wasn't chased by guards at all. Do all your stealing quietly, don't go murder an entire city, you should be fine? Seems the same as an Elder Scrolls game...
I guess I also don't go out of my way to randomly kill people, though. Only when its presented as a choice. (Or that Noober. He was just asking for it. No-one would blame you.)
Yeah the only thing I can think of is if you are already chaotic evil and immediately hire viconia, baeloth, and dorn you could potentially push yourself below the reputation floor. Which can be solved by a temple donation or picking a “good” quest ending.
My main problem was too high reputation, but that’s pretty easy to deal with in bg2. In bg1 it can be a pain though, I think the best way was to go into a random occupied house and either get caught stealing or smack someone (trying not to kill them), then casting charm on them and running.
Or just use the tweak pack and turn off evil party members leaving.
Jealous Deva on
0
Options
Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
Yeah I somehow had evil character/party in BG1 and 2, but I guess I didn't let my reputation zero out? Wasn't chased by guards at all. Do all your stealing quietly, don't go murder an entire city, bribe the church if you have to, you should be fine? Seems the same as an Elder Scrolls game...
I guess I also don't go out of my way to randomly kill people, though. Only when its presented as a choice. (Or that Noober. He was just asking for it. No-one would blame you.)
Its far more archaic and cumbersome than that.
Having to spend money because I chose the evil option in a quest and killed someone in the middle of the woods and took a penalty for it when no one was around to witness it is dumb.
The game uses it like a weapon to try to bludgeon players with in an attempt to get them to stop doing it rather than presenting an evil run as an interesting alternative, it feels definitively like the wrong way to play unless you're just into petty theft.
Money is how you literally buy your way out of justice in the elder scrolls. Just think of church donations as the same!
Can agree getting blamed for stuff with no witnesses isn't great. But the reputation system was unfortunately doing double duty with alignment (as in, rep too high and your evil characters leave.) Maybe they just can't help themselves and brag about their crimes... anyway you'd also get punished for being too good, so I think they wanted to give you "credit" for being evil in those ways too.
Money is how you literally buy your way out of justice in the elder scrolls. Just think of church donations as the same!
Can agree getting blamed for stuff with no witnesses isn't great. But the reputation system was unfortunately doing double duty with alignment (as in, rep too high and your evil characters leave.) Maybe they just can't help themselves and brag about their crimes... anyway you'd also get punished for being too good, so I think they wanted to give you "credit" for being evil in those ways too.
i wouldn't mind if someone just showed up and gave you 200g ticket for jaykilling like they do in GTA but instead you just get randomly thrown in to a fight at really inconvenient times for really obtuse reasons.
0
Options
NoneoftheaboveJust a conforming non-conformist.Twilight ZoneRegistered Userregular
Almost done with Baldur's Gate. Currently slogging my way through the lower levels of Durlag's Tower. The biggest problem is my inability to leave anything valuable behind so everybody's inventory gets full real quick and I have to go back to Beregost regularly to clear out stuff I don't want to keep.
Imoen has fifteen types of arrow, all of which I'm saving for I don't know what.
(Tip) Do be sure to use any and all special arrows and potions for nearly all fights. Gygax and ye Olde Bioware team won't magically appear to reward you for saving the good stuff you need to use. Sell those gems, use that equipment and potions right now!(/Tip)
Ah, Durlag's Tower...such a great area! Others likely have screamed at you already, but there is a merchant outside the drawbridge at the map entrance that will buy up your stuff. Or you can just pick an empty crate in a clear area to stash the loot within the Tower.
Also, everybody should watch this on Durlag's Tower. Spoilers of course. https://youtu.be/XWgc20zbRXk
I always end up bouncing off stuff like Balder's Gate, etc. I only got to carnival and the mines where the ore is going soft.
They all have great stories. I just need to dig into them. I did get pretty far into Hordes of the Underdark.
Icewind Dale is very much for the few of us who liked the difficult to love combat system. It gets so much better when you have a full spell book or high level melee abilities. Then it becomes more tactical instead of hoping for lucky rolls.
The story for Icewind Dale is fine. But the artwork and musical score really shine here. The background art and portrait artwork are some of the best in the games.
I was messing around with Balder's Gate EE. Here is what I did.
I used DLC Merger to merge in the Dragonspear DLC. Then, I installed the Classic Movies. The new movies suck. Then, I installed the Classic UI. Now, it looks like the original Bioware game.
Beamdog learned not to mess around with the content as much in the later Enhanced Editions, but they kind of mucked up Balder's Gate I.
It is kind of funny how Dragon Age is very much like the D&D games they made, but bloodier and kinkyier. They essentially made a more disturbing fantasy world.
I did make it through Dragon Age 1. Still need to get through the other two.
Posts
Coran and Kivan are both incredibly good archer characters, probably the single most useful type of combat character in BG1.
This is what I wanted! I bounced super hard off Divinity OS2 but I just didn’t enjoy the world. I love me some Forgotten Realms though.
For fun I decided to see what my RNG luck would be like and savescummed the dying Illithid and failed the 10 check about 10 times. Then passed and failed the following 5 check (with a +2), then failed the 10 check a few more times before passing and passing the 5 check.
This game gives XCOM a run for its bullshit rolls.
Still real fun though.
theyve probably talked about how they seed it right?
EDIT: i googled and apparently in response to early access stuff they added loaded dice to smooth out rng and so they kept fucking with it and now they just let a demon handle it
I have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for Icewind Dale+Heart of Winter, but fuck Dragons Eye. In a game where every other major dungeon is pretty great, including a couple that are probably in the top 5 infinity engine dungeons ever (Dorn’s Deep and Trials of the Luremaster are both really fun and interesting.), Dragon’s eye makes you wonder what they were thinking.
Stupid shit about Dragon’s eye:
1. No Puzzles at all. No key hunts, no clues spread throughout the dungeon to open a door or whatever, nothing but 5 maps of combat.
2. Repetition. From the moment you walk in the door you face the same party of 3-4 fighter lizardmen and 1 or 2 shamans that cast hold spells over and over. You reach the bottom floors and it changes to yuan ti but its the same damn party. In the middle floors you get waves of trolls and zombies, again without much variation between encounters. The only really interesting enemies you fight are the beetles and spiders, that actually have some cool tricks like phase spiders and bombadier beetles. But honestly if you make a 5 floor combat focused dungeon and the best you can say is “the spiders were pretty cool” you have a problem.
3. Stupid poorly thought out gimmicks. Third floor you have a series of fights where a boss pops up and taunts you over and over as you fight packs of mooks. Fifth floor, you have the Exact Same Setup, except instead of a skeleton its a creepy little girl. The creepy girl thing would have actually been pretty effective if I hadn’t played out the same gimmick 30 minutes before. Similarly, on the fourth floor there’s a big fakeout section where there is a bunch of enemies that pretend to be friendly npcs but aren’t . Except… its on the FOURTH FLOOR. Like hey yuan ti, maybe the whole “camouflage your lair by pretending to be monks” thing would work better on the FIRST floor. Very few benevolent sects of monks live in a random necromancer’s basement.
I know this is appropos of nothing but I just hit that spot in my playthrough of the IWD games I’m trying to do before BG3 comes out and it’s nuts.
have you considered Gitting Gud, though?
Isn’t that what save scumming is for?
Gotta thank you for posting these. The Yogscast version has now become a daily staple for our 3 year old. Pretty great watching them stomp around yelling "diggy, diggy, hole"
once again proving that the Fallout New Vegas use of a score-based skill check in place of a probability-based skill check is the best way to deal with this. Either you have 18 Strength to bust the door open or you don't, none of this save scumming BS or failing even though you've got a 90% chance of success.
Yeah I much prefer that, or the take 10/ take 20 options for skill checks out of combat in 3E d&d.
Like there was a game recently, I think Solasta? But I tried to open a chest, and there’s nothing hostile on the map left alive, and I failed a relatively easy check due to a bad roll, and it wouldn’t let me retry and that made me think a bit. Like why the fuck is my expert theif breaking a lock so horrible on a non-critical failure he can’t retry? And its not like he’s defusing a ticking bomb, presumably he had all the time in the world, the urgent quest was over and the bad guys were all dead…
Again I liked the way p&p handled it. If you have time to work and can reasonably repeat an action without severe consequences (IE you aren’t in the middle of combat, or you aren’t defusing a live bomb, or you aren’t trying to use bluff or diplomacy while being interrogated by a guard, that kind of thing) you can optionally take 10. Taking 10 means rather than rolling you can accept a roll of 10. So if something is not difficult for your character and you aren’t under pressure you just do it, rather than rolling to tie your shoes or whatever.
For more difficult things you can still roll to take a chance buy no repeats you can still roll but if you fail you fail. Your character just ran into a wall doesn’t have the knowledge to get past it. However if your character has a lot of time to work on something at lesiure and mitigate the consequences of failure you can also ‘take 20’. This would be like a “We hauled the chest back to our rogue’s home workshop and he looked in his lockpicking books” situation. Or for animal handling a “I have a tiger in a pen in my backyard and am trying to tame it” rather than “I am trying to get a loose tiger not to bite my face off”.
We also had a house rule for things that should be reasonably trivial but still carry a bit of risk that was you could take 10 or 20 but still have to roll for critical success or failure. Like if you have a thief trying to disarm a really simple trap but still a potentially deadly one, he can take 10 but roll a d20 anyway, but only 1 and 20 change the result (for fumble or critical success respectively).
I’m glad to hear good reviews and hopefully will get. A chance to see it in theatres.
I honestly wasn’t expecting much given the movie and tv history of the franchise but it sounds like a pleasant surprise.
seems to be some cross promotion going on.
I wouldn't mind if they add Hugh Grant to the game.
If they locked it it would be modded in an hour after it locked.
Edit: although if there's multiple Neverembers instead of a single person then it definitely doesn't help
Imoen has fifteen types of arrow, all of which I'm saving for I don't know what.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
Wolves, spiders, bears and badgers? Meh.
Owlbear? Fuck yes.
I like those big puzzle dungeons (Durlag’s tower, Watcher’s Keep, Trials of the Luremaster) but it’s always been a bit weird narratively to me, especially given that all 3 pretty much expect you to be near max level, implying they are basically the last thing you do (at least if you do WK in SoA, which seems to be intended).
Like “Finally bossguy, I have killed your lieutenants, scattered your armies, and have you cornered in your base, but first… let me raid this long forgotten crypt full of demons for loot.”
There is a vendor right outside Durlag Tower, no need to Beregost.
Having to burn money and fight uppity bald virgins starts to get abit old pretty quick.
look, if every criminal had to hear this over and over there'd be no crime
I guess I also don't go out of my way to randomly kill people, though. Only when its presented as a choice. (Or that Noober. He was just asking for it. No-one would blame you.)
Yeah the only thing I can think of is if you are already chaotic evil and immediately hire viconia, baeloth, and dorn you could potentially push yourself below the reputation floor. Which can be solved by a temple donation or picking a “good” quest ending.
My main problem was too high reputation, but that’s pretty easy to deal with in bg2. In bg1 it can be a pain though, I think the best way was to go into a random occupied house and either get caught stealing or smack someone (trying not to kill them), then casting charm on them and running.
Or just use the tweak pack and turn off evil party members leaving.
Having to spend money because I chose the evil option in a quest and killed someone in the middle of the woods and took a penalty for it when no one was around to witness it is dumb.
The game uses it like a weapon to try to bludgeon players with in an attempt to get them to stop doing it rather than presenting an evil run as an interesting alternative, it feels definitively like the wrong way to play unless you're just into petty theft.
Can agree getting blamed for stuff with no witnesses isn't great. But the reputation system was unfortunately doing double duty with alignment (as in, rep too high and your evil characters leave.) Maybe they just can't help themselves and brag about their crimes... anyway you'd also get punished for being too good, so I think they wanted to give you "credit" for being evil in those ways too.
i wouldn't mind if someone just showed up and gave you 200g ticket for jaykilling like they do in GTA but instead you just get randomly thrown in to a fight at really inconvenient times for really obtuse reasons.
Ah, Durlag's Tower...such a great area! Others likely have screamed at you already, but there is a merchant outside the drawbridge at the map entrance that will buy up your stuff. Or you can just pick an empty crate in a clear area to stash the loot within the Tower.
Also, everybody should watch this on Durlag's Tower. Spoilers of course.
They all have great stories. I just need to dig into them. I did get pretty far into Hordes of the Underdark.
Icewind Dale is very much for the few of us who liked the difficult to love combat system. It gets so much better when you have a full spell book or high level melee abilities. Then it becomes more tactical instead of hoping for lucky rolls.
The story for Icewind Dale is fine. But the artwork and musical score really shine here. The background art and portrait artwork are some of the best in the games.
I used DLC Merger to merge in the Dragonspear DLC. Then, I installed the Classic Movies. The new movies suck. Then, I installed the Classic UI. Now, it looks like the original Bioware game.
Beamdog learned not to mess around with the content as much in the later Enhanced Editions, but they kind of mucked up Balder's Gate I.
I did make it through Dragon Age 1. Still need to get through the other two.