Oh No! Not another Baldur's Gate thread!

[Jamski]

They are still free, but Interplay is being tight with its bandwidth.

Get the zipped version I linked to, (you have to wait in a queue and look at adverts) and then you can make up for your errors.

-Jam

[Dis]

okay I'm in line, large file, but I have the room- and the bandwidth

[Jamski]

I'm just testing it (I don't want to advertise a link that doesn't work) and I've just got to the end of the queue and have started to DL. I'll cancel it now, so you should jump up that queue a bit faster.

-Jam

[duke o' york]

I've just got BG2 in the post!



Yay! Now, if only I could actually spend all weekend playing it.

[DrSpike]

I think you should still beat me to the Throne. You have a good start, and I still have to play NWN yet.

[duke o' york]

But I haven't finished BGI yet, and I don't have ToB.

I am now seriously considering not dualling Imoen. I reckon that a really good thief would be a very nice thing to have around, and since I've already got Dynaheir, then I doubt I'll need two. If she wizardified then she couldn't use her bow, which would be rubbish.
What can I do to improve Dynaheir's AC? Just cast Armour every day/fight?

[DrSpike]

But I will also play BG1 first!

[Kassiopeia]

I downloaded the BG2+ToB music, and the quality of the files is incredibly awful. I think the original bitrate of the music has been nowhere near the 128 kbps these files are in, and for some reason the music is somehow... warped, warbly, to the point of being unlistenable. I downloaded just a few days ago the BG2 soundtrack directly from the Interplay website, the quality was 48 kbps but the files were much, much more tolerable.

[Jamski]

Kassi, I just DLed them too, and you're right. Compared to the mp3s from Interplay they are crappy quality, and very short. I'll try and find some hosting for the originals.

I am now seriously considering not dualling Imoen. I reckon that a really good thief would be a very nice thing to have around, and since I've already got Dynaheir, then I doubt I'll need two. If she wizardified then she couldn't use her bow, which would be rubbish.

She'll never be a great thief in BG1 because of her STR. Backstab for 3 x damage is good, but you have to score a hit first. If you want to keep her back as an archer, then the wizard levels won't do any harm. She'll get her bow skill back again as soon as the wizard levels exceed the old thief levels.

What can I do to improve Dynaheir's AC? Just cast Armour every day/fight?

It lasts 9 hours, so cast it when you wake up in the morning and keep it on all day. Use Mirror Image in fights if she's getting hammered then run away quickly. Rings of Protection may help her too.

-Jam

[duke o' york]

I don't think I've got any Mirror Image spells, and certainly don't have any Rings of Protection. I'm guessing (total stab in the dark here ) that the guard function is worse than useless because it takes a major fighter out of the front line and draws attacks towards the person you're supposed to be protecting, instead of away. I don't ever want Dynaheir in a fight though. Well, maybe when she has a decent level then I might consider sending her against a lone, sickly, gibberling but until then she may as well not know that the others have to fight to get through the game.

[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by Jamski
Kassi, I just DLed them too, and you're right. Compared to the mp3s from Interplay they are crappy quality, and very short. I'll try and find some hosting for the originals.

One option would be extracting the music myself, but compiling the results of the acm -> wav convertion to meaningful pieces of music would be a major PITA. The music is, after all, split up to smaller modules so that they don't loop annoyingly through an entire battle and to make transition between incidental pieces smooth.

[Stuie]

Well I started over. I felt like playing around with some low-level characters again. So I'm back at Candlekeep with the following group:

Elf Thief/Mage
Dwarf Fighter/Cleric
Half-Orc Kensai
Human Jester

I'm also using weapons that I didn't use the first time through. So the elf has a crossbow and darts. The dwarf is dual wielding mace/hammer. The half-orc is dualing battle axes. The Jester has a long bow, but mainly uses his reverse battle-song during combat.

Does Ease-of-Use for BG2 work if I have bg1tutu installed? It doesn't seem to be working for me (and yes, I installed it after doing the total conversion). I also installed the virtue mod and that's working.

[duke o' york]

Are you starting with 4 PCs then? Does that make a great difference to the gameplay?

[Jamski]

Does Ease-of-Use for BG2 work if I have bg1tutu installed? It doesn't seem to be working for me (and yes, I installed it after doing the total conversion). I also installed the virtue mod and that's working.

Yes, but only when playing BG2, not when playing BG1TuTu. You'll have to cope untill the FW guys get round to making a new version.

I don't think I've got any Mirror Image spells, and certainly don't have any Rings of Protection. I'm guessing (total stab in the dark here ) that the guard function is worse than useless because it takes a major fighter out of the front line and draws attacks towards the person you're supposed to be protecting, instead of away.

Mirror Image is a level 2 spell, and pretty useful for wizards that get involved in scraps. You must have missed the ring you can get in Beregost for doing a small favor. Its not called a ring of protection, but it fuctions like one.

And the guard fuction is crap.

Are you starting with 4 PCs then? Does that make a great difference to the gameplay?

Yes, it makes the game REALLY easy, and removes the inter-character interaction. But it is fun too.

Oh and Kassi, the work needed would be huge. Better to use the ones from Interplay and find some hosting, they already stiched together the starts, middles, cut-to-battle, battle, cut-from-battle and ends together to make short "scenes" like "In the lair of the Dragon"

-Jam

[duke o' york]

Who do you receive the small favour ring from? I hope I haven't sold it already. I was sure that I'd identified everything, but maybe one of my characters is already wearing it, and I don't know. I think it's a bit irritating that you have to remove items a character is using/wearing just to identify them, but never mind. It's not as if it ruins the game.
I did suspect that having more than one PC would make the game a lot easier. You wouldn't get frustrated that Dynaheir still has about 11HP.