Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition

[danzibr]

Well, rolled up an Inquisitor for my main and a Berserker for his buddy. I wanted to make a Shapeshifter and Swashbuckler and Blade and... well, that's not going to happen.

I still wonder about the Shapeshifter and what the weapon counts as. Might be interesting to go Shapeshifter 1, dual to Fighter immediately and max out single weapon and dagger.

[ThiagoMartell]

Well, rolled up an Inquisitor for my main and a Berserker for his buddy. I wanted to make a Shapeshifter and Swashbuckler and Blade and... well, that's not going to happen.

I still wonder about the Shapeshifter and what the weapon counts as. Might be interesting to go Shapeshifter 1, dual to Fighter immediately and max out single weapon and dagger.

Did you ask this in the official forums? I answered a question just like that earlier today.
CLaw counts as none of the weapon categories.

[Morty]

I think I'll play Black Pits and try out various other things before starting my proper playthrough. I need to be sure how WeiDU interacts with the Enchanced Edition first.

[Blisstake]

It's a known issue. I managed to solve it - more or less - by downloading the latest drivers for my card and running Baldur.exe (in the Data/00766 directory in the game folder) in Windows 95 compatibility mode. The devs claim they're hard at work trying to fix it, but I'd rather not wait.

Yeah, that doesn't work for me, unfortunately. I'll just wait.

[Morty]

Have you read the thread about it on the official boards? I found my solution there.

[Diarmuid]

I'm bummed to see all the posts here and threads on the BG site and Beamdog about the game not running well.

I was really excited to get home and start on the game tonight, now I'm worried I'm going to end up with technical issues.

[Jeivar]

I was really excited to get home and start on the game tonight, now I'm worried I'm going to end up with technical issues.

I really, REALLY need to stop buying games as soon as they become available.
But I sent an email to the support staff inquiring if they'll release a patch. I guess I'll have the answer soon enough.

[Blisstake]

Have you read the thread about it on the official boards? I found my solution there.

Yes, I went through every suggested solution, and it's still virtually unplayable. They said they're working on a way to help compatability with Intel Graphics, so I'm fine waiting.

[Calemyr]

A quick take on the new NPCs

First off, they are very well voice acted - and the quality of their clips does clash with the quality of the older clips. Also, they are voiced much more thoroughly, using the ToB trick of just leaving out your name, race, class, etc when speaking.

Rasaad:
Recruitment: He's in Nashkel, outside the inn. He's fairly easily recruited.

General Impression: I can see why he's the one new NPC that's always free - there's just not a lot to him. As a monk, he's pretty feeble for the first ten levels and... guess what this game covers? Between that, his seeming lack of any quests (none have popped up yet), and his constant conversations about Athkatla, it feels like Rasaad is just biding his time until BGIIEE comes out.



Neera:
Recruitment: She's in front of the mayor's house in the north part of Beregost. You will need to fight a wizard and two fighters to recruit her, so be warned.

General Impression: Quick talking, self deprecating, and overall pretty witty. Which is good, because it's going to take some patience before she's much use in a fight. Wild Mage is more benefit than penalty, but her starting proficiency is in quarterstaff, and she doesn't have the strength, dex, or constitution to fill a melee, so it's a looong wait until she can take sling.

She's good, she's nice, and she can be a powerhouse in the long run, but she doesn't really supplant Imoen or Dynaheir for primary mage. She makes a superb utility mage, however, because Nahal's Reckless Dweomer allows you to cast any spell you know. You can effectively trade all your first level spells in to serve as a kind of sorceress.


Dorn:
Recruitment: Makes a quick cameo at the Friendly Arms Inn, where he is not recruitable. Makes his proper appearance in a "random" encounter on your way to your first visit to the Nashkel mines. You don't have any non-combat time in this map until after he joins you, however, which means you're much better off not having a sixth character, or at least not any a sixth character with any armor you care about. NOTE: Like Viconia, you take a -2 Rep hit while he's in your party. Dude is just that scary.

General Impression: Dorn is a powerhouse. He's described as an anti-paladin and he lives up to the rep by being a combat monster with a greatsword and heavy armor. His sword is a +1 two-handed sword that can become +2 for a day if he kills something with it. That doesn't sound like much until you realize that a +2 weapon is more or less the elite of the gear you can find in the game (you can count the +3s on one hand, I think). His dex is 16, so he suffers from the same AC issues as Minsc. He's actually pretty much a clone of Minsc, functionally, only with a brutally pragmatic dark side rather than whimsically bizarre zany side.

I have not had Dorn leave me or even grumble at my 18 reputation. We will have to see how he responds to a 20.

My current party: A swashbuckler, Imoen, Branwen, Dorn, Neera, and Rasaad.
Am I enjoying it: Yes.
Do I feel bad about giving Dorn the belt of gender reversal: No.

[ShellBullet]

So I just started to play with my cavalier guy without any mods and I am currently in friendly arm. Can anyone tell does Enchanted edition have any new barters between old npc? Do they have any new stuff in conversation or character development? Do I have to get Unfinished business mod to get them?

[Morty]

I have not had Dorn leave me or even grumble at my 18 reputation. We will have to see how he responds to a 20.

Speaking of reputation, does it change at all in BG:EE? Otherwise, I'll have to install that one mod which introduces reputation-lowering NPCs if I want to play an Evil or Neutral game...
However, before I start playing the main campaign I need to sort out a few things vis-a-vis modding, so it'll be a while more. In the meantime, I've started playing the Black Pits module. It appears to be an interesting meat grinder, although I've only been through the first three fights, which are dead easy - diseased Gibberlings, healthy Gibberlings and a bunch of misfits scooped out of a bar.

[Mx.Silver]

My version actually seems to be running fine at the moment, although I haven't gotten very far with it yet.
In regards to the LP I was talking about, would people be interested in seeing a particular alignment-based run (Good, Neutral or Evil)? Assuming anyone has any interest, obviously.

Speaking of reputation, does it change at all in BG:EE? Otherwise, I'll have to install that one mod which introduces reputation-lowering NPCs if I want to play an Evil or Neutral game...

Manual indicates it drops in the usual way it did in BG1 (i.e. not much unless you start stealing from or attacking people). Recruiting Viconia and Dorn will also drop rep by a couple of points. Really though, if it bothers you can just use Shadow Keeper to keep it at the preferred level which does work with the enhanced edition, although it does require more of a circuitous route.

[Morty]

Maybe I did it wrong, but the NPCs appear to ignore the changes made with Shadowkeeper and treat the reputation as though it was on the level before messing with it, either approving or disapproving of it.

[Calemyr]

So I just started to play with my cavalier guy without any mods and I am currently in friendly arm. Can anyone tell does Enchanted edition have any new barters between old npc? Do they have any new stuff in conversation or character development? Do I have to get Unfinished business mod to get them?

As I understand it, Beamdog was only able to get the rights to Baldur's Gate on the stipulation that they could didn't touch the characters - no new voicing, no new additions or modifications to their dialogue. The only space Beamdog had to add to the existing NPCs was in their interactions with the new NPCs, which are sparing and not voiced. So the only new things you're likely to see are the ones that already existed but were inaccessible due to bugs and such.

Annoying? Yes. Stupid? Oh, yes. Typical? Yup. There's a reason Bioware swore off outside intellectual properties, after all. All we can really do is wait for mods like BG1NPCs to be remade for the EE, because modders are not beholden to the same restraints as Beamdog.

As for reputation, I've noticed that you gain rep in units of 1, but lose rep in bunches of 5 and 8. I don't know if the drops were quite that glaring in the original.

[Starbuck_II]

Speaking of reputation, does it change at all in BG:EE? Otherwise, I'll have to install that one mod which introduces reputation-lowering NPCs if I want to play an Evil or Neutral game...
However, before I start playing the main campaign I need to sort out a few things vis-a-vis modding, so it'll be a while more. In the meantime, I've started playing the Black Pits module. It appears to be an interesting meat grinder, although I've only been through the first three fights, which are dead easy - diseased Gibberlings, healthy Gibberlings and a bunch of misfits scooped out of a bar.

I think order is spoiled for those who don't want to know:

Spoiler

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diseased Gibberlings
healthy Gibberlings
a bunch of misfits scooped out of a bar (drunk)
Hobgoblins (some cast 3rd level magic)
Necromancer and undead
Ogres, barbarian/berserkers ogres, ogre magi
An adventuring party that isn't drunk

Then you are at Tier 2 fights

Spoiler

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Anthegs
spiders and drow druid
(Vampire? There death animation is turning to gaseous form) Thieves, shadows, traps everywhere (web, grease, fireball)
Ogre Magi and 5 magic portals (two spawn mephits, 2 spawn oozes, and one spawns shadows)
Thay adventuring party: Rogue, 2 mages, 3 others

Tier 3:

Spoiler

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Swamped (2 Trolls and 2 oozes)
Unknown

You can refight old fights for more money/exp.
Everytime you advance a tier merchants refresh all equipment so get those wands, etc one only items (like he has only one fire resistance ring) before you fight non-drunk adventuring party. Not knowing this but buying it before beating them I now have 2 (one from Tier 1 and one from Tier 2)

[mangosta71]

As for reputation, I've noticed that you gain rep in units of 1, but lose rep in bunches of 5 and 8. I don't know if the drops were quite that glaring in the original.

If you're going around butchering innocents, unless they changed it you can expect to lose about half of your reputation per kill (I once accidentally collateral damaged a bystander after getting my rep to 20 and lost 10 points in the original version). Biggest gain I ever remember seeing in a shot was a +2, and that may have been in BG2.

For an evil/low-rep playthrough, you need some kind of mod to not get swarmed by guards every time you enter a new area in the original. Is that still an issue in the EE? I also remember little annoyances like "shopkeepers give you a huge discount for having a high reputation, but charge extra if you have a low reputation". Because when you're doing business with someone you know to be an evil sadist with a habit of flying off the handle, you want to extort more money out of him. I think these may be the sorts of issues Morty was addressing when he asked if reputation had been changed.

[Morty]

Among other things, but primarily I wanted to know if there are more opportunities to lose reputation without randomly killing people or generally acting like a moustache-twirling villain. It's not so much for the purposes of having a low reputation but managing to maintain a neutral one.
The Black Pits are proving to be surprisingly easy. I haven't had a very challenging fight yet.

[mangosta71]

Like sidequests to lower your reputation, or having new optional endings to existing sidequests so that you either don't gain or lose reputation? For instance, the first one that comes to mind is that woman by the Friendly Arm Inn that gives you a quest to recover her ring from some hobgoblins. An option to sell/keep the ring for yourself (while still completing the quest) or extort her for a reward so that she goes around telling everyone what an ******* you are. Something along those lines would be pretty great. But without a tweak to keep your party from getting overwhelmed by swarming guards every time you take a step, there's no reason to make such a change because you won't be able to complete the game anyway.

I'd also like to see something like the virtue mod become part of the standard game. Why should my reputation go down if nobody witnessed me committing murder?

[Morty]

Looks like I won't be making my mod yet. The Enchanced Edition has a completely different structure of files, and the ones WeiDU modifies to introduce a new kit don't actually exist.

[Johnny Blade]

You could always playtest it, since Shadowkeeper seems to be working. I mean, it should be doable to give yourself the Blade Spins pretty easily this way.

My version actually seems to be running fine at the moment, although I haven't gotten very far with it yet.
In regards to the LP I was talking about, would people be interested in seeing a particular alignment-based run (Good, Neutral or Evil)? Assuming anyone has any interest, obviously.

Still interested. And with a game this expansive, I'll say play what you want.




You want to play a Druid.

[Morty]

Hm. Yes, that's true. I could just give my Fighter the Spins and not wear anything heavier than studded leather or advance Crossbow past the first or second point to see if it works. I think that's what I will do. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Johnny Blade]

Missed this post earlier:

Maybe I did it wrong, but the NPCs appear to ignore the changes made with Shadowkeeper and treat the reputation as though it was on the level before messing with it, either approving or disapproving of it.

NPCs don't react to Reputation as much as to Reputation changes, since their happiness with it is set by those. So without the Bardic Reputation Adjustment to resort to, it would be best to set your Reputation 1 lower than where you want it with SK, and also give yourself enough extra money to raise it by 1 at a temple.




Also, thanks to Calemyr for the new NPC rundown. Kind of sad to hear that Rasaad apparently isn't all that interesting right now. He was the one I was looking forward to most.

[Morty]

Hm. I can't seem to be able to give my fighter the Spins even though I managed to get it to work with the Enchanced Edition. I go to the Innate bar and assign him the Spins, memorized once, but when I load the save he doesn't have them.

[mangosta71]

What if, instead of making your character a fighter, you made him a bard and changed his THACO, hp, etc. via ShadowKeeper to fighter equivalents?

[The Glyphstone]

So I loaded it up,and lo and behold, it's almost unplayably slow. Guess who makes my graphics card?

I'll just have to wait until they work out that patch, I guess.

[Morty]

Wouldn't I have to change it every level to make sure it progresses like a Fighter's? If I make a Fighter and give him Spins I'll have to edit him only when the normal progression would give him new uses per day. I'm really not sure why it doesn't work either.
Glyphstone: Have you tried one of the solutions to the problem from the boards?
Mind you, solutions or no solutions, this is a huge screw-up. It's not something I expected when they delayed the game for a few months in order to polish it.

[mangosta71]

Yeah, having to change it every level is the downside. And I'm not positive that it would work. If it's just the bit about giving your character more abilities that's not functioning in SK but you can still change numerical values, it's a possible (if tedious) workaround. If it's something else, you may have to wait until the modding community comes up with their solutions.

Oh, and you'd have to cross-reference tables and reduce your XP pretty much every time you level to keep your progression to the right pace, so it's even worse than I thought at first...

[The Glyphstone]

Wouldn't I have to change it every level to make sure it progresses like a Fighter's? If I make a Fighter and give him Spins I'll have to edit him only when the normal progression would give him new uses per day. I'm really not sure why it doesn't work either.
Glyphstone: Have you tried one of the solutions to the problem from the boards?
Mind you, solutions or no solutions, this is a huge screw-up. It's not something I expected when they delayed the game for a few months in order to polish it.

What solutions are those?

[Morty]

Yeah, having to change it every level is the downside. And I'm not positive that it would work. If it's just the bit about giving your character more abilities that's not functioning in SK but you can still change numerical values, it's a possible (if tedious) workaround. If it's something else, you may have to wait until the modding community comes up with their solutions.

Oh, and you'd have to cross-reference tables and reduce your XP pretty much every time you level to keep your progression to the right pace, so it's even worse than I thought at first...

Yeah, pretty much. I have no idea why giving him the Spins doesn't work. I'll have to fiddle with it some more.

What solutions are those?

The solution I used was to download the latest drivers and then to run Baldur.exe in Windows 95 compatibility mode - Baldur.exe is located in the Baldur's Gate Enchanced Edition/Data/00766 folder. It's now lag-free, but still crashes when I exit it. There's a thread on their boards detailing the issue and people have been posting their solutions there.

[Johnny Blade]

Wouldn't I have to change it every level to make sure it progresses like a Fighter's? If I make a Fighter and give him Spins I'll have to edit him only when the normal progression would give him new uses per day. I'm really not sure why it doesn't work either.

This is weird. Assuming Blade Spins are in the game and function properly, the in-game Resource for them may have changed; basically meaning Shadowkeeper gives you something the game doesn't recognize if you pick them off the BG2 list of innates.

Try making a Blade, see what he gets, and give your Fighter the same thing. If that doesn't work for whatever reason (or is what you did initially), it would get a bit more complicated, but not much.

You'd have to use Near Infinity (or something else, and assuming it works), and use it to find out the filenames of Offensive Spin and Defensive Spin. In Near Infinity, open Search -> CRE/ITM/SPL/STO..., then make a search for "spin".
Then assign them in-game via the AddSpell console command after enabling cheats, again of course assuming you can do this in EE.

In standard BG2, it would be CLUAConsole:AddSpell("SPCL521") for Offensive Spin, for example (Def Spin is SPCL522); note that the cursor has to be on the character that's supposed to get the spell/innate for this to work.