Oh No! Not another Baldur's Gate thread!

[Traianvs]

Is the Icewind Dale 2 engine better than the BG2 one? I always thought they used the same engine!

[DrSpike]

Hmm, £18 for BG1 + expansion........not too bad.

[Jamski]

Is the Icewind Dale 2 engine better than the BG2 one? I always thought they used the same engine

Its is the same basic engine - the Infinity Engine - but IWD2 has some advances over BG2

• Every character has 4 "weapon quickslots" which can include combinations.
• 3rd Edition D&D rules are used
• The backpack is bigger (holds more items)
• There are better character models
• The action bar for each character is FULLY customisable. I basically fill the mage action bar with all the spells I use most often, instead of crap like "talk" and "guard"
• Some of the cheese spells from BG2 are removed (Timestop for example)

IWD2 is actually the most fun of the IE games to phyically play, even though the story is not as good as the BG series, its a very nice hack'n'slach tactical CRPG that's very comfortable to use. Its a shame hardly anyone bought it.

-Jam

[duke o' york]

Originally posted by Drogue

What I mean by roleplaying is playing as if ythe PC were me. I'm not evil, therefore I can't roleplay as me an evil character.

Drogue isn't evil - he's just a very naughty boy!

I suggested that you play a bard to make things hard! But maybe Jamski is the only one interested in making it harder.
No Jamski, by ninja I wanted you to play a bog standard ranger/cleric with no weapons or any armour. You can have magic everything else to improve your AC, and get stoneskin cast on you as many times as you'd like.
You don't have to solo though. But punching stuff is de rigeur.

Hi....ya!
(This is supposed to be the thing that martial arts practitioners shout before they do something, to focus their power or something like that, not a dumb welcome. )

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Drogue
Tutu is a mod that converts BGI, using the BGII engine and classes. It basically makes it BGII, but the BGI storyline and game. It is well known and used (Stuie just finished a game with it) and so is seen as reliable.

Well I haven't quite finished the game yet. I just started ToB.

As for tutu, I got all the way through BG1 and Tales of the Sword Coast using it and experienced no problems. Then I switched back to BG2 code and started BG2; again, no problems.

EDIT: Oh, Drogue probably meant finished a game of BG1 - that I did do.

[Jamski]

...maybe Jamski is the only one interested in making it harder.
No Jamski, by ninja I wanted you to play a bog standard ranger/cleric with no weapons or any armour. You can have magic everything else to improve your AC, and get stoneskin cast on you as many times as you'd like

You mean Ironskins for a Ranger/Cleric... how about if I use spells like Spiritual Hammer or Flamesword? I suppose I'm going to rely on summons a lot...as well, and I need to think of a way of hurting creatures that require +3 weapons to hit etc... Traps I'll just have to run over, and locks... well its very easy to get 25 STR with a Ranger/Cleric, so forcing stuff is no problem. Kangaxx will be a b!tch

-Jam

[Traianvs]

clerics can't remove traps with a find traps spell?

[Jamski]

Nope. Only find them. Its pretty useless. I know where all the traps are anyway, and some you can't avaoid

-Jam

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Jamski
Kangaxx will be a b!tch

Ring of the Ram, Ring of Energy (if it works)... um... that's all I can think of

I have a problem: I DLed Tutu, installed BGI, installed Tutu (all fine so far) but it won't play. I loaded up BGII, went to new game, character creation, all went fine, but when it got to the game it said "loading game" as usual, then just went to windows, and the BG window crashed.

The only thing that went at all wrong in the install was the BGI install. I custom installed and clicked every box, and while it showed the correct ~2300MB needed, it only showed 2047MB available, when there was actually over 6GB free on that drive. I clicked all, and when it said there's not enough room, should I continue, clicked yes, and it appears to all be there (It's ~2300MB in size). Could that be it, that while it's installed everything, it doesn't know it's all installed? If so, I'll need to re-install BGI, but how do I rectify the problem of it thinking there's only 2047MB free, where there is much more? Help is much needed!

Also, I presume I open BGII to play Tutu? I opened BGI as well, and that didn't work either, it got as far as new game, and then said it's missing a directory file (as expected, if Tutu altered it).

[DrSpike]

Drogue do a scan on the drive, because sometimes there is an error with calculating free space and it can be a pain.

Still if it's all there it's strange. Reinstall BG1 by itself and check it works before installing the utility. If that works then something is probably up with the utility.

[DrSpike]

Also I have to ask.........what makes this game replayable once you know the plot? I'm playing KOTOR as you know and I might play through again in the future as a dark force mage, but replaying it is not a priority for me since when I finish I'll know most of the story.

[duke o' york]

The vast number of side quests.
The different conversations you get with different NPCs and bystanders depending upon your alignment, race, gender, class, etc. There are loads of different NPCs you can take with you, and they'll have different reactions to one another so you can have loads of interaction - both positive and negative.

Actually I've just remembered something else. Somehow, despite not having him in my party, I've ended up with Xan's Moonblade. Now I know that I can't use any of the powers, and I've got a fairly decent collection of magic weapons for this point in the game, so who should I sell it to to get a worthwhile price for it? The Thunderhammer smithy?

[Jamski]

You won't get a decent price for it Sorry

Doc, its replayable because...

• ...its really quite a tactical game. If you take a team that's heavy on wizards, or has no thief, or only has two people then it offers completely new challenges.
• ...there's always one more thing you missed in the last game.
• ...you installed a bunch of mods.
• ...you loved it so much that you want to go through again.
• ...you really need to try and do it with a naked solo Jester

The game is so deep, that even so many years after it was published it is still THE standard other RPGs aim for.

Drogue. Did you fully patch both your full fresh installs? And for a full install I think you have to select custom install and select everything it offers. Otherwise ask on the TuTu forums. This will be the first thing they ask. You need fresh installs, and full installs and full patches, then TuTu, then any other mods.

You may need to run BG1 and BG2 once after patching and before applying TuTu in order to set the .ini files correctly. (just start the programme and exit it again)

-Jam

[duke o' york]

Damn! Who wouldn't want a magic sword - it's a collector's item.

[Jamski]

Noone can use it though. I wouldn't spend my hard earned gold coins on a magic sword I couldn't use.

-Jam