32 replies to this topic

[Eleima]

Any more numbers, people? Would love to hear what more people think!

Fine! Be that way!

1) Approximately how long does it take you to play through Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn in hours? (or if you have two types of play, post both times!)
Depends. If I'm being *very* thorough, and if I go through every quest, try to take my time running around left and right for errands (back in the days when I had time... ), a full game can take between 100 and 125 hours, I'm guessing (never actually timed myself, so this is all guessing... That's one of the reasons I like Oblivion so much... "What? I've been playing 30 hours already?" )
If I'm not being thorough, if I'm not going to stop and talk to each and every commoner, girl, merchant and guard who crosses my path, I'd say a standard game would be about 60-80ish hours.
However, if I'm speed running, going ctrl+Y left and right, (usually to test a mod, so I pretty much skip lots of silly combats, like the ambushes), that'll take about 20-40 hours tops.
What? Too complete of an answer?

2) How much time do you prefer between romance/friendship dialogues?
I like it when they aren't spaced out too much, otherwise a dialog could fire up saying, "I'm sorry I was so mean to you last time", and I'll be like "what?! huh? what are you talking about?" and I'll have already forgotten... I usually set the timers to the lowest setting when it's available in the setup options (usually 15mins).

3) How many dialogues is optimum for a friendship, in your opinion?
Loads! The more, the better, as long as the character's not repeating himself. 15 sounds like a good number (that's what Xan has, I guess he's the one I'm most familiar with).

4) How many dialogues is optimum for a romance, in your opinion?
I feel like saying, the more, the better, but... Something's holding me back, and it's the Tsujatha romance. Don't remember how many dialogues it ahd, but it just felt like it was too long. That's the only time I felt like it was too many, so maybe I just have an incompatibility with Tsujy, I can't be sure...
But I'd say about 15ish for SoA (again, using Xan as an example ).

5) How many banters do you like per NPC pair?
Most mods I've seen/played have 3 or 4, I guess that's a good number, since they're so spaced out, no use in having too many, since we'll probably not see all of them (unless we're using ctrl+I or whatever that conversation firing command is... )

[Cal Jones]

Approximately how long does it take you to play through Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn in hours? (or if you have two types of play, post both times!)

I don't count hours so it's hard to say. My last runthrough (from Chateau Irenicus to the Throne of Bhaal) took from about 8pm Friday night to midnight on, um, Wednesday. Saturday through Monday were days off - Tuesday and Wednesday I played about 2 hours before work and 3-4 hours when I got home.

How much time do you prefer between romance/friendship dialogues?
30-45 mins. If it's a longer romance then the shorter time, or vice versa. I tend to do all the quests, and don't want to be finished with a romance before I've got out of chapter 3 (Bodhi stuff excepted). I finished the Valygar semi-romance that comes with RE before the end of Chapter 2 but the Jaheira romance seems to take fricken ages and I end up bumming around those silly forest areas in Tethyr in chapter 6 just waiting for bloody Terminsel and so forth. A balance somewhere between the two would be nice.

How many dialogues is optimum for a friendship, in your opinion?
15-20

How many dialogues is optimum for a romance, in your opinion?
Less than Jaheira. More than Aerie.

How many banters do you like per NPC pair?
3-5 in SoA; 2 in ToB

[Sir_Carnifex]

1. Approximately how long does it take you to play through Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn in hours?

This won't be much help, but I'd say anywhere from 25 to 50 hours. I played through the game much faster before mods.

2. How much time do you prefer between romance/friendship dialogues?

Forty-five minutes is good for the slow players.

3. How many dialogues is optimum for a friendship, in your opinion?

To me, it doesn't matter.

4. How many dialogues is optimum for a romance, in your opinion?

Same as #4.

5. How many banters do you like per NPC pair?

Minimum of two -- preferably more.

[Itarilde]

1. 20-25 hours
2. 20-30 minutes
3. at least 20
4. at least 25
5. at least 2

Well, I like talking NPC's

[Kaeloree]

Thanks! Hopefully I'll have some time soon to put some stats together here.

In the meantime, keep your answers coming! The more, the better...

[Himself]

1 - Fan of huge installs here, surely 100+, though I can't remember the last time I finished a playthrough.. Which is odd cause normally I'm the type which has the rule to finish whats started.

Grown used to frantic sessions of gameplay followed by frantic sessions of bug fixing/game editing that lead to the eventual re-start, anyway this does happen less frequently the more I feel confortable with my own install, so if maths serve to anything I'll be able to finish a playthrough in about.. 175 years from now... er.. if you people stop releasing mods that is

2 - 30 to 60 mins.

3 & 4 & 5 - Gee.. as much as the writer and coder feels like throwing into so long as it keeps the "BG quality standards". For challenge/action I usually play online-games (UT, CS Source, WOW or W3) so I could spend my whole time in a true CRPG reading without gettin bothered (what with a lot of mods being a power trip more than anything else).

Hope it helps

Edited by Himself, 11 June 2008 - 10:31 PM.

[Cal Jones]

Baldur's Gate 2 is too old for really 'playing' it by 99% of the players (with 1% of the 'I am playing ot for the first time); the time they spend on it is therefore irrelevant.

Heh. I play it through completely every time, with all the available quests (that's to say, all the quests for the party, character class and alignment I've chosen - no one can do everything in one runthrough!) I like to add one or two new mods per game to give me something slightly different each time, but then I've been through the vanilla BG2 about 10 times or so before even adding any mods. Perhaps I'm blessed with an incredible tolerance for repetition - but then I did play UO for 7 years...

[Caelellowynn]

Hmmm...

1) 10-20 hours (standard run)
30-40+ hours (if I really like the romanceable NPC, or have some good NPC mods with me)

2) 20-25 minutes (romance)
40-50 minutes (friendship) Since I always have a romance going as well

3) 10-15
5+ (player initiated)

4) 20-30
10-20 (player initiated, some being area/chapter specific)

5) 3-6


Don't want much do I? Hope it helps.

[Discordia]

1. around 40-50 for bgt (not counting the reloads), 15-25 thereof for soa
2. (variable from 1.)/(variable from 3.) basically, not running out of banters before landing in hell
3. as much as possible, up to 40 if it starts in bg1, 25 if it starts in bg2
4. as much as possible...20 (since there is no continuing relationship from bg1 to bg2...methinks)
5. 3 should be a minimum...5, 6 an optimum and there would probably be no maximum as long as they are all well written

Edited by Discordia, 22 July 2008 - 06:06 PM.

[darlarosa]

1. 25 hours or more depending
2. 15
3. 18
4. 35 including rests and quest triggered ones
5. 8 or 6 depending on the npc