Baldur's Dale, The Infinity Engine Games Thread Options

[Renee]

EE Keeper is awesome. Really easy to use. I did add a bunch of potions to my party: 5 each of both Antidotes, and also 5 of each of the three Healing Potions. I might also use it to rename some NPCs we meet along the way. Giving them some of my wacky names. I won't rename Imoen or any of the early people though.

Main character's name is Hadden Nuff, lol. It's because Imoen (or the cleric... I forget her name) is always saying "I've had enough of this!"

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Name: Hadden Uff

ST: 15
DX: 13
CN: 16
IQ: 11
WM: 9
CH: 14

Sex: Male
Class: Fighter
Race: Human

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Proficiencies: Long Sword, Two-Handed Sword, Halberd, Mace

This post has been edited by Renee: Jul 8 2024, 04:18 PM

[SubRosa]

Oh yeah, antidote potions. Poison in BG1 and 2 is just insane. Every character needs an antidote.

Edit: And now I just saw the name!

[Renee]

Yeah, the game can be freaking harsh even a couple hours outside of Candlekeep. Which is sort of ridiculous in my opinion. In the early days of gaming we could buy modules appropriate for our characters' level. Which gave the party a chance, at least. BG, they're already poisoning our party and performing outright oneblowkills early in the game.

Been playing some Baldur's Gate everyday after work. Hadde Nuff has only died once so far, so that's actually an improvement. We just took care of Tarvesh? (wizard who uses an unfair spell just outside the inn ). In the past, I've gotten stuck here. There's no option at this point, that I've found anyway, because the wizard casts his spell, and then for the next mINUTE or so our party's under effects of a Confusion spell or something. Usually one of my party gets pwned, and I have to start over.

Well this time, everything turned out okay. This time some guards actually stepped up and did their job. Couldn't take the wizard down, but at least they'd occasionally corner him. Anyway, mostly he was trying to attack Imoen. He wasn't able to inflict much damage though.

Everyone attacks Imoen, though! I've noticed this. Out in the wilderness, almost always it seems the wolves, the gibberlings, the hobgoblins go for the party's Thief. Even if I try to place her faraway from the action, they'll usually just follow Imoen, until Hadde and the others are able to engage. It's kind of annoying. Almost like in Oblivion, when EVERY enemy tries to attack our horse.

Anyway. With Hadde is with Imoen, Jaheira, and Khalid. Montaron as well. Xzar got killed. Which is fine. Some shall perish upon this journey. Not Imoen though! Imoen's with Sir Nuff 'til the end!

"Yeah, whatchoo want?" ... "I am gone!"


This post has been edited by Renee: Jul 11 2024, 08:33 PM

[SubRosa]

Sounds like they're a bunch of mutton mongering riff-raff, for beating up on poor Imoen like that.

She probably has the lowest armor class in your group. The enemy AI is probably set to home in on that.

[Renee]

I return to Hadde Nuff tonight. With Hadde are Imoen, Khalid, Jaheira, Montaron, and Xsar. The game is just 7 hours, so I lost about 30 hours after transferring material to the new drive. Hadn't been in the habit of backing up Baldur's Gate saves, but that's alright! I don't mind doing stuff over; this game is that good.

When playing Elder Scrolls, I do my best to avoid spoilers. But while playing BG I've taken Acadian's approach. I don't mind if I'm spoiled! Not so much with the story, but sometimes I look up stuff on an online wiki site, especially enemies. I like being prepared for the enemies in this game.

[Lopov]

I intend to return to Baldur's Gate soon. I've already installed both installments. Some initial testing (which I always run through before actual gaming) showed problems with screen tearing / flickering when moving mouse cursor up or down (left and right too, but not that extreme). The most common online solutions weren't of much help, but what worked, was to enable vSync over Nvidia control panel.

My protagonist will probably be a female human of class fighter, subclass berserker. I'm prone to changing my mind in the last second but for the time being it looks like, that I'll stick with the idea. Her alignment will be either neutral or chaotic good, I'm leaning towards chaotic.

Just the other day I wondered, why was Baldur's Gate actually named Baldur's Gate? Because in the first game only the final chapters actually take place in the city and for a while you're even pursued by authorities and exploring the city is difficult in very final stages. The second game takes place in Athkatla and has actually nothing to do with Baldur's Gate anymore. I wonder, if Baldur's Gate maybe even wasn't meant as the original name, but for some (to me unknown reason) the game got this name in the end.

Anyway, I installed some minor mods, like the one that allows characters to rest anywhere, like in caves etc. I also installed two mods that add more interactions between playable characters and romantic dialogues between the protagonist and non-joinable NPCs. There are blackened out love making scenes as well, but mostly it revolves about flirting, taking dinner together etc.

[Acadian]

Enjoy Baldur's Gating! I have BG2 Enhanced Edition from GoG installed and it runs flawlessly. With the EE Keeper editor it allows a stunning amount of flexibility regarding mixing and changing classes/abilities.

[SubRosa]

So which Baldur's Gate are you going to return to? 1, 2, or 3?

What an odd graphical glitch. I have the enhanced editions of BG1 and 2, and they have run really well.

[Lopov]

Thanks Acadian!

SubRosa, I'm beginning with 1. I'm sure that my current laptop can't even run 3. I intend to play 3 at some point in the future, when I'm going to buy a new computer. And I plan to buy the new one once TES VI will be released.

What I find odd, is that I already played BG:EE on this laptop about six years ago and I don't recall this flickering/tearing issue. But in any case, the issue's been sloved.

[Renee]

Yeah, it's like TES 1: Arena doesn't have any arenas in the game.

Hey I might be interested in that romantic mod!

Also, interesting class for the protagonist. Why Berserker?

[Lopov]

I didn't really give it that much thought, I just know that I've never had a berserker (until now).

As it happens, the berserk state has already come in handy, when Neera (the wild mage), instead of casting some simple spell like a flaming arrow, summoned the demon instead. But thanks to berserk abilities of my protagonist, the demon was brought down.

My party consists of Myrta (the protagonist), Imoen, Neera and Garrick. Or actually, the party consisted. Garrick got killed by an ogre Droth and it was permanent death. So far Myrta has decided to not head to the Friendly Arm Inn, instead she wants to walk her own path. For the time being the party has been busy with exploring areas west of Beregost / south of Candlekeep.

After summoning the demon instead of casting a simple spell, Myrta wanted to exclude Neera from the party and leave her in Beregost upon returning to the town, but the death of Garrick changed the course of events. So the wild mage might stay in the party a while longer.

[Renee]

Aw, Myrta. Pretty name. Did you do the tutorial with Myrta? Or did you just jump into Candlekeep? I did the tutorial with Hadde Nuff, probably for the fourth or fifth time in over 10 years, because I've restarted the game several times since 2013, and every time my party kept getting destroyed, and I'd give up. This time, I'm cheating with EE Keeper though, which gave Hadde an easier start.

Ha ha poor Garrick! He also got pwned in my game as well, but that was a few weeks ago, before my hard drive crashed. I'll have a chance to pick up the guy again, maybe try over.

Good idea keeping Neera. Thing is, other than Jahiera we haven't met any other magic-users yet.

[Lopov]

I might have done the tutorial only once, that is when I still owned BG 1 on a CD-ROM. So this means that I maybe did the tutorial about 20 years ago. But because I played BG 2 before BG 1 (my brother bought BG 2 to me as a birthday present in 2003 or 2004, I still consider it to be the best birthday present), chances are that I skipped the tutorial entirely.

I still remember the day, when I got BG2, it was on four CDs in a large plastic box, packed inside a paper black box. One needed to swap CDs when switching areas, of course. On each CD there were portraits of important characters. I recall, that there was Irenicus on one, queen Ellesime on another but I don't recall faces on the other 2 CDs. I assume that it was Bodhi on one of them, but I'm not sure. The original paper box with all CDs is probably still somewhere in the basement of my parents' house, I really need to find it one day. At that time I had no idea that ToB even exists, I thought that the end of BG 2 is the final end of the game.

So after BG 2 I bought myself Baldurs Gate and the Tales of the Sword Coast, this time it was only two CDs, one for the original game and one for the DLC. The box wasn't neither black nor from paper, but white and already from plastic. For some reason Eldoth's face "occupied" the large portion of the back side of this box, IIRC.

Once done with BG 1, I found out about ToB through some forums, that don't exist anymore. I think I was 18 years old at that time, because I remember driving a car already, so that was in summer of 2006, when I finally found ToB being on sale on some internet site, where people exchange all possible stuff. Because ToB at that time was already a few years old and it wasn't sold in stores anymore. I searched lots of Slovenian online shops and private sites but it was sold out. Fortunately the long search wasn't completely in vain, because after a while I found some guy selling ToB and I immediately called him to ask, if he still has the game - the answer was positive. I still remember his voice (sort of), the exact place on the street, where that conversation took place, I also remember that it was quite hot on that day and that I was wearing short sleeves, so it was definitely summer. And I remember that opposite of me, on the other side of the street, I parked my father's Renault Scenic. In that time I didn't own a credit card or anything similar and my parents wouldn't lend me money for games or make payments to some stranger with their cards, so I sent the money per post to him in an envelope in advance and then he sent the game to me. It also came in some black box.

I don't have so fond and detailed memories of any other game than I do of Baldur's Gate.

This post has been edited by Lopov: Aug 26 2024, 09:29 PM

[Acadian]

Nice story, Lopov.

I know what you mean about some games staying with you. For me, they are Baldur's Gate II, Diablo II, Oblvion and ESO.

[Renee]

Chapter One 79 days 17 Hours -- Hadde Nuff, Imoen, Khalid, Jahiera, and Neera travel into the woodsy area southwest of High Hedge. They're still just collecting XP. I'm the sort who usually always has characters who gain a level or two before they move deeper into the game.

But I'm getting impatient for Nashkel Mine! Just before my disc crashed a month ago they'd made that far.

Lopov, that sounds like a lot of disc-swapping! Probably because there wasn't as much storage space and RAM back then.

What is ToB?

I want a Renault Scenic!

[macole]

Lopov, after reading your description of BG 2's box set, I had to go and check mine. It's similar, 4-disk in a double jewel box, but only disk #4 has a portrait.

My BG1 box is larger, containing 5 disks in a cardboard six-disk fold out holder. There was an empty slot in the disk holder, so I put my Tales of the Sword Coast in it. The empty TotSC jewel case, I put in the Baldur's Gate box. Plenty of room for it even with the two large books included in the BG1 box; a players guide and a game manual.

Sadly, ToB (Throne of Bhaal) sits all alone in its jewel case surrounded by the Icewind Dale series disks and a couple Daggerfall disks.

I really do miss those manuals that used come with the games.

This post has been edited by macole: Aug 27 2024, 08:28 AM

[Lopov]

[b]Lopov, that sounds like a lot of disc-swapping! Probably because there wasn't as much storage space and RAM back then.

What is ToB?

I want a Renault Scenic!

Yeah, there was a lot of disc swapping and if we happened to forget some stuff in another area, accessible from another CD, this could mean excessive swapping in a very short time. Thinking back, it now bears a certain charm, back then not so mcuch.

ToB stands for Throne of Bhaal, the expansion for BG II. BG II + ToB are both in the Enhanced Edition for BG 2.

TotSC stands for Tales of the Sword Coast, the expansion for BG I, also in the Enhanced Edition for BG 1. TotSC adds two new dungeons and two accompanying storylines, whereas ToB adds lots of new areas and a semi-long storyline to the end of the saga.

You can get the first model of Renault Scenic very easy here, they're very cheap, because they're more than 20 years old. Let me know if you intend to import one over the ocean.

Lopov, after reading your description of BG 2's box set, I had to go and check mine. It's similar, 4-disk in a double jewel box, but only disk #4 has a portrait.

My BG1 box is larger, containing 5 disks in a cardboard six-disk fold out holder. There was an empty slot in the disk holder, so I put my Tales of the Sword Coast in it. The empty TotSC jewel case, I put in the Baldur's Gate box. Plenty of room for it even with the two large books included in the BG1 box; a players guide and a game manual.

Sadly, ToB (Throne of Bhaal) sits all alone in its jewel case surrounded by the Icewind Dale series disks and a couple Daggerfall disks.

I really do miss those manuals that used come with the games.

I couldn't find the games in the house of my parents today. Chances are that they got destroyed in fire, that caught the house of my parents about ten years ago but I doubt it, because the fire didn't make it to the computer room, where games were presumably stored. Then again, chances are that smoke damaged the paper boxes of these games, so my parents threw them away - but they don't remember doing so. The last chance is, that they're in the attic. Or that I've missed them on today's search.

I found a pic of CDs, that I also had, online. That's how they looked like. I was right in remembering that Bodhi was on the 3rd one and apparently Irenicus was on the two of them.

This post has been edited by Lopov: Aug 27 2024, 05:25 PM

[Renee]

You can get the first model of Renault Scenic very easy here, they're very cheap, because they're more than 20 years old. Let me know if you intend to import one over the ocean.

Oh gosh NO. My family had a Renault 10 and a 12, and also three Peugeots, when I was a kid into high school. Hardly anyone in America had French cars, in fact even in the 1980s when the French were still importing here, getting parts for these "strange" cars was difficult if problems arose.

Sorry to hear about fire in your folks' place. Scary. But also, thanks for explaining ToB. At my slow rate of gaming, I'm predicting I won't even get to BG2 until 2026, perhaps. ES6 will be on its way, etc.