1123 replies to this topic

[Solaufein]

I look forward to the EEs, being a die hard fan since they came out. With this kick start maybe the kids these days will figure out that game playing isn't all about neat eye candy that their uber graphics cards can handle. Plus this will kick start a dieing modding community as well.

[Lurker of the north]

no, 6 slots will stay.

...-Oh NOES!!! (as in: -Whyyy?!)

Well, can someone ask them to at least not hard-code it THAT hard... just gently, so that "we" (You, beautiful modders) can expand the party by means of modding, if not by day one, then at least within a year or so?

...Oh, and... Bags of holding, would it be impossible to just sort items within by means of "drag and drop"?
Would probably save hoarders (like me) several hours per run... it's just impossible to find stuff without order, and order takes forever to achieve without the ability do "sort" stuff out,

[Tempest]

Well, you have to draw the line somewhere, and 6 is the traditional limit in fantasy games.

[Archmage Silver]

Well, you have to draw the line somewhere, and 6 is the traditional limit in fantasy games.

And then there's the game balance to think about. BGs would be way too easy with seven characters, although Seven Samurai Kensai probably would be something to behold.

[Lurker of the north]

-Ok, so that's a pretty good "why"...but still... (*whining*) The banters, u know?
And the look of the bigger (wide)screens; kinda looks empy wiyh only six people in the row.

Game-wise i mostly solo, because it's easier (really, it is)... but the party, the banter... since they're redoing it anyway: why not more? (...and "merrier"?)

[Maanape]

So basically they're nothing more than corporate-sanctioned modders who will charge money for "fixes" and content of unknown quality.

That's the reason I think they have to offer more than a Big World install can already be. In fact, it's being said the "enhancement" will add more than we can expect, and these "new" content" is not going to alter the storyline and may respect the engine limitations in a manner it can mantain compatibility with the majority of mods. Taking all these hints into account, I can only expect they do something new, which was not possible before, so they could expand the game without messing with what it was before. If it turns out true, I think BGEE would be really interesting; if not, it would be just new "money charged" content, and it could be even worst than what imaginative people can make for free in the modding community.

I don't think installing BGT/Tutu is going to increase the chance of hosing your game, but in fact the reverse. BGT and Tutu already have a number of fixes incorporated in them, accumulated over the years. Will a re-released game have the same level of fixes? Hard to say, but it would be difficult for a software company with a number of other of projects to have addressed that, whereas a freelance development community has had years to do it. In some cases, those fixes aren't even apparent, nor could be easily reapplied to a port of the original game. This is true for both Tutu and BGT fixes, since they both rename vanilla resources (rather radically in some cases).

On the other hand, a number of graphic elements (character animations in particular, as I've mentioned) were better in BG1. So a best-case scenario would be the improvements of the ToB engine without sacrificing graphical elements. But frankly, I think that's a bit of a pie in the sky thing to hope for, like a number of other wishes expressed here. Not being pessimistic, just realistic.

I think the community has showed to developers IE can do a lot more than they thought was possible. That's why I mentioned Divine Remix and Relationship mods. Graphically speaking, there's Spellpack (which ports spell animations), Infinity Animations and the 1PP mods, and maybe others I don't know of. If they are going to make some "graphic actualization", there's nothing to keep them to include new sprites (a mounted avatar would be only a new sprite for a creature like it had boots of speed and "charging" bonus to Thac0 and damage). Again, like I said above, the only way I think they could improve the game without messing with what was done before (thus keeping compatibility with mods) would be expanding game mechanics it hadn't before. Otherwise, why would they care to "raise dead" IE back, instead of porting the BG story and characters into NWN or Dragon Age engines? Maybe I'm expecting too much, but the modders (and posterior games like Diablo 2) showed it was possible. If they're not doing anything like this, I'll simply not buy the game...

Edited by Maanape, 22 March 2012 - 05:50 AM.

[GeN1e]

no, 6 slots will stay.

...-Oh NOES!!! (as in: -Whyyy?!)

Well, can someone ask them to at least not hard-code it THAT hard... just gently, so that "we" (You, beautiful modders) can expand the party by means of modding, if not by day one, then at least within a year or so?

Assuming they will manage to modify the original content to allow 7+ parties, it will break every mod that ever touches PlayerX actions and triggers.

[berelinde]

Uh, yeah. The prospect of recoding every mod I've ever written to allow Player7 makes me feel kinda ill. And my mods are small.


That said, if they did implement a 7-member party, I'd probably do it... over a period of a year or more.

[MiLeah]

...Oh, and... Bags of holding, would it be impossible to just sort items within by means of "drag and drop"?
Would probably save hoarders (like me) several hours per run... it's just impossible to find stuff without order, and order takes forever to achieve without the ability do "sort" stuff out,

Yea, I got a real bad hoarding problem as well. My mind frame is always "Weeeeelll, I'll just hold on to it. I might never know when I might need to use it later on". And then I beat the game and never use the said item...
Though, while I admit to hoarding, I am at least an organized hoarder.
And I loved the herb bag -I do believe that's what it was called? that I know for sure was added in the Gavin mod, because I realized that I do have a lot of potions, but they just take up space when not in use! I normally like to save certain potions for 'bosses'. So lugging them about until I get around to using them not only takes up space, but, yes, I've even had a teammate be encumbered by the dang things! And having a bag/pouch to store them in is a real blessing!
Hopefully, they'll add something on the line of that (if they already haven't).

[Andrea C.]

They have just announced iPad support, and confirmed "a new adventure" and one new joinable NPC in the enhanced edition of BG+TotSC (see the website). There are a few screenshots of it running on an iPad, though they might as well have been photoshopped on a picture of the iPad... No stony GUI, no original font, and BG2 character animations are NOT a good start. I hope those are older screenshots photoshopped on an iPad.

Edited by Andrea C., 22 March 2012 - 12:16 PM.

[Archmage Silver]

Support for iPad... figures. Why always Apple devices? Anyway, I don't think that those screens are Photoshopped per se, as I believe that they're actually showing off PC screenshots on those iPads at this time.

[William Imm]

I'd rather do Google Android support - I really want to play the trilogy on my ASUS Transformer, possibly between classes. I find it fun doing it that way.

[Wisp]

Will a re-released game have the same level of fixes? Hard to say, but it would be difficult for a software company with a number of other of projects to have addressed that, whereas a freelance development community has had years to do it. In some cases, those fixes aren't even apparent, nor could be easily reapplied to a port of the original game. This is true for both Tutu and BGT fixes, since they both rename vanilla resources (rather radically in some cases).

True, but it is also true that the team of developers is actually being paid to do just that all day, it's their job and they work with the source code - basically, it's within their power to not only fix bugs, but even completely overhaul whatever caused them in the first place. In fact, there is virtually no limit to what they can do with the engine. Besides, they seem to be well acquainted with mods and the modding community: I don't think it would take them too much to download Tutu/BGT and check out the relative bugfixes. If modders could identify and fix those bugs, all the more reason why the game developers could and should

Thing is, these are resource bugs we are talking about. Having access to the source code of the engine does not help you at all. Think BG2 Fixpack (resource bugs) vs. ToBEx (engine bugs).

Miloch raises a good point. Tutu and BGT have accumulated bugfixes from countless people over several years. The developers of the EEs are presumably not a mammoth studio with a small army of playtesters and QA minions. Chances are slim they can match the list of fixed bugs in Tutu/BGT, if they even devote any resources to look for these kinds of bugs in the first place.
To make matters worse, EasyTutu is, shall we say, somewhat opaque about what exactly it does, so transferring anything over would be a horrible task. I do not know how well BGT does in this regard, but if it does the same kind of undocumented-override-dump job that EasyTutu does, the community and the devs of BGEE have their work cut out for them.

[Andrea C.]

Anyway, I don't think that those screens are Photoshopped per se, as I believe that they're actually showing off PC screenshots on those iPads at this time.

I sure hope they revert back to BG1 paperdolls and animations (if not even portraits) for BGEE... No graphical improvement can make up for those hideous, mirrored animations and fat, dumb-looking paperdolls

[Archmage Silver]

Anyway, I don't think that those screens are Photoshopped per se, as I believe that they're actually showing off PC screenshots on those iPads at this time.

I sure hope they revert back to BG1 paperdolls and animations (if not even portraits) for BGEE... No graphical improvement can make up for those hideous, mirrored animations and fat, dumb-looking paperdolls

Well, they did the best they could after the original Baldur's Gate artist Daniel Walker passed away in 1999. It wasn't easy for BioWare to replace him.

Edited by Archmage Silver, 22 March 2012 - 03:22 PM.

[phordicus]

EA/Oster: Hey, don't mind us! We just wanna leech hard working modders so you can play an old game on your iHipsterDouchebag toy.

Running on an upgraded and improved version of the Infinity Engine, Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition™ will include the entire Baldur’s Gate adventure, the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion pack, and never before seen content including a new adventure and new party member.

Hilarious. Let's hope they continue to cater to the modern RPGer and make sure we can sleep with that new NPC while we're railroaded along the new quest.

[Kaeloree]

Seriously?

They're bringing Baldur's Gate to a new generation of players. This can only be a good thing for the modding community.

[phordicus]

Why do they need it brought to them? The game's already there, cheap and easily available. Seriously.