Waiting for ipad version. Wow, this is really lame that they toned down so drastically from the original spawn algorithms. The original had a great difficulty balance, not too easy, but with a challenge. I hope they fix it, I plan to play on insane, but if the spawn sizes are small the challenge just won't be there. Yet more indication of lack of play testing.
This is pretty much my only complaint about the game (I've experienced no technical issues of any kind); it seems a bit of an extreme decrease. Though since I haven't played without Tutu in years, I can't recall exactly what spawns were like in vanilla BG. I'm sure they were bigger than a lone monster though.
In the original game, I remember meeting a whole bunch of skeletons and xvarts and kobolds. One kobold group in particular always murdered me, what with standing in the middle of the road and firing arrows at the still first-level party. But with BGEE all these monsters tend to be solitary: where there was six skeletons before, there is now only one.
Is this a bug or a feature? Certainly it feels weird that even puny little xvarts move alone now.
This was reported by others as well, the swarms were tuned down. Maybe it was a bit over nerfed. Already suggested a raise for the higher end of the difficulty slider.
I agree...one should not have to set the difficulty higher than Core Rules to get BG1 monster spawn rates. If anything, the spawn rate ought to be increased over BG1 slightly, in order to balance out the addition of kits.
This is actually the only thing that has me a little pissed right now, and that's saying something since I get slowdowns/crashes frequently. The balance was fine the way it was (in my opinion): life at low levels could be dangerous if you just charged in blindly, you had to be careful. Now... it doesn't really matter. No party is ever going to be in mortal danger from 1-2 Xvarts, and even more importantly, as has been stated, it makes little sense from a lore perspective.
I found it hilarious, in a bad way, that Xvart village had apparently been massively depopulated... not to mention the single regular bandit that attacked my party of 6 when I was moving to Beregost. Seriously, what was he expecting to accomplish? My party could have put their weapons away and just pummeled him with their fists without any trouble.
No, this really needs some attention. And saying that it should scale with difficulty is a copout, in my opinion. I'm truly hoping you'll rethink this.
I have several screenshots where I have a party of 4-5, each level 1-3, and I encounter one gibberling, one xvart, one wolf, etc. Unfortunately I don't know how to post them here.
Yes, the tone down was intentional. But i think it could be raised for very hard difficulty.
It should be raised back to where it was for Normal difficulty, forget very hard difficulty. Emptying the game world because of a new difficulty system is possibly the worst solution to difficulty scaling anyone could have devised.
Did no one suggest actually varying the power of the enemies instead of just reducing their numbers? With the time that was available this should have been option number 1.
With all the talk that went on about not being allowed to change the core game too much on this that and the other it seems to me that this change alone is a huge change to the core gameplay experience of BG1. I'm amazed it made it into the release.
The majority of players are going to play on Core rules, the game should be designed to provide the best and closest gameplay to the original game at that difficulty. All other difficulties should move up or down from there. You shouldn't be changing the gameplay on the Core difficulty so drastically that enemy packs are reduced down to 1 enemy.
This is actually the only thing that has me a little pissed right now, and that's saying something since I get slowdowns/crashes frequently. The balance was fine the way it was (in my opinion): life at low levels could be dangerous if you just charged in blindly, you had to be careful. Now... it doesn't really matter. No party is ever going to be in mortal danger from 1-2 Xvarts, and even more importantly, as has been stated, it makes little sense from a lore perspective.
I found it hilarious, in a bad way, that Xvart village had apparently been massively depopulated... not to mention the single regular bandit that attacked my party of 6 when I was moving to Beregost. Seriously, what was he expecting to accomplish? My party could have put their weapons away and just pummeled him with their fists without any trouble.
No, this really needs some attention. And saying that it should scale with difficulty is a copout, in my opinion. I'm truly hoping you'll rethink this.
When i sugested that it could be scaled with difficulty I was thinking that Core rules should be as it was in the original BG1 with monster spawns. It was just a sugestion that i thought might be a good idea so that players can choose a bit more for their selves. I myself miss the 5-6 black talon elites that i had to fry with fireballs, the kobold elites at firewine that i had to fry with fireballs, the gnolls at the gnoll fortress that i had to fry with fre balls... you get the point.
Yes, the tone down was intentional. But i think it could be raised for very hard difficulty.
It should be raised back to where it was for Normal difficulty, forget very hard difficulty. Emptying the game world because of a new difficulty system is possibly the worst solution to difficulty scaling anyone could have devised.
Did no one suggest actually varying the power of the enemies instead of just reducing their numbers? With the time that was available this should have been option number 1.
With all the talk that went on about not being allowed to change the core game too much on this that and the other it seems to me that this change alone is a huge change to the core gameplay experience of BG1. I'm amazed it made it into the release.
The majority of players are going to play on Core rules, the game should be designed to provide the best and closest gameplay to the original game at that difficulty. All other difficulties should move up or down from there. You shouldn't be changing the gameplay on the Core difficulty so drastically that enemy packs are reduced down to 1 enemy.
I actually completely agree with this, that there should be big masses of monsters and that the difficulty slider adjust the power and not the spawning mass.
There might be someone out there that wants to just run throught the game, so maybe add a "casual mode# check box when you start a game or in the difficulty options?
And again, im just coming up with sugestions on how the game can be more user friendly. I miss a lot of other options that i would wish to adjust such as screen resolution, key bindings, gamespeed...
Is it just me or do you get the feeling that BG:EE is mainly aimed at a different market than PC gamers? Perhaps removing the challenge of the random monster spawns is part of appealing to the more casual tablet-using player? (It has been noted elsewhere on the forums that BG:EE appears sub-optimised for the PC.)
I've already decided to revert back to BGTutu because of other aspects of BG:EE that I do not enjoy (although I hope mods will address them). What the devs have done to the spawn system confirms to me that I have made the right decision.
I definetly think they toned down the monsters either intentionally or not. I keep running into lone Xvarts. I don't think that EVER happened in tutu or vanilla. Ive also noticed a lot less gnolls in their fortress and less skellatons around High Hedge.
Yeah I've noticed this too. I really want the spawn rates back to normal. And on top of that I'd welcome a check box that would double the amount of spawns AND lower the xp received from those critters to 50%. Add the casual mode check box that keeps things as they are now, if you really need to.
Not only is the game riddled with bugs and unfinished stuff such as the multiplayer, but if the lone spawns is actually intentional and nothing is done (soon)... well, I guess I'll just be extremely disappointed and not play anymore.
Yeah defintely a lot less then there should be (plain BG1 is my fav). Though on the other hand, at least it's not spawning 12 of stuff every group like tutu does.
Point of Lights world gone, bye-bye default FR. Forgotten by the devs. Bye-bye Monsters Manual, bye-bye Random Encounters, no more default group sizes, the lonely monsters are just lost in the woods, and frighten the characters coming for them. No more the loved BG1 world, just a great park for walking and singing. Please retone it again. Player can already choose from different difficulties. This change was never aksed for and nobody needs it. Thanks.
Yes, the tone down was intentional. But i think it could be raised for very hard difficulty.
With all the talk that went on about not being allowed to change the core game too much on this that and the other it seems to me that this change alone is a huge change to the core gameplay experience of BG1. I'm amazed it made it into the release.
The majority of players are going to play on Core rules, the game should be designed to provide the best and closest gameplay to the original game at that difficulty. All other difficulties should move up or down from there. You shouldn't be changing the gameplay on the Core difficulty so drastically that enemy packs are reduced down to 1 enemy.
They only change what was working good in the original. Nobody asked for this change from the vanilla players, I am for sure. Like removing old movies, it was a very bad idea. You now can earn 1/3 of the original xp. Now you have stronger kits and weaker monsters. Now you walk in a park, not in a Point-of-Lights world, as is FR.
It is a "Enhancement" from the 400 what was not advertised for core players for a reason How many "Enhancements" are yet out there that we don't know about until someone finds them
Thing is, even when you were alone there would be at least 2 Xvarts generally. The only place I recall encountering lone mobs other than bears was the very first map with lone wolves, to ease you and Imoen into your roles as fresh meat.
Well, when I see comments like the Gnoll stronghold is no longer swarming with Gnolls, I know something is wrong. Hopefully a dev sees this thread and fixes it, we want REAL BG, not some watered down remnant of BG.
Sese79, keep the dream alive! (waiting on the ipad version here...with trepidation)
Yep, just create a new difficulty for top managers (no brainers), but don't mess with the core. It is not what we expected as buying the game. (This "feature" was not advertised as I bought the game.)
I thought this was a bit odd as well, but now that I've come across this thread and realize that not only is this likely intended, but persists through the entire game, I gotta say I'm a little angry at this. As others mentioned, the difficulty has been completely driven down. Yes, of course scripted battles will still have more than one, but the danger of many areas has essentially been reamed. The game works flawlessly for me, and despite the GUI being a little awkward for casters, I was able to put up with it. This one thing though, is almost breaking for me and I feel like I would have gotten a much better value by grabbing BG1 and 2 on GoG for the same price and just modding my game (I lost my original disks).
I also feel somewhat bad that I encouraged a friend of mine to grab this so we can play multiplayer. At least that works 'okay' but the lack of monsters takes a lot of fun out of the adventure (He's never played the game before, though, so it was actually quite amusing when he freaked out as we were exploring and he ran into the Belt Fetish Ogre. Take that!) Honestly I'm tempted to apologize and buy him BG1 and 2 and walk him through the Tutu installation.
Comments
Is this a bug or a feature? Certainly it feels weird that even puny little xvarts move alone now.
Maybe it was a bit over nerfed. Already suggested a raise for the higher end of the difficulty slider.
I found it hilarious, in a bad way, that Xvart village had apparently been massively depopulated... not to mention the single regular bandit that attacked my party of 6 when I was moving to Beregost. Seriously, what was he expecting to accomplish? My party could have put their weapons away and just pummeled him with their fists without any trouble.
No, this really needs some attention. And saying that it should scale with difficulty is a copout, in my opinion. I'm truly hoping you'll rethink this.
Did no one suggest actually varying the power of the enemies instead of just reducing their numbers? With the time that was available this should have been option number 1.
With all the talk that went on about not being allowed to change the core game too much on this that and the other it seems to me that this change alone is a huge change to the core gameplay experience of BG1. I'm amazed it made it into the release.
The majority of players are going to play on Core rules, the game should be designed to provide the best and closest gameplay to the original game at that difficulty. All other difficulties should move up or down from there. You shouldn't be changing the gameplay on the Core difficulty so drastically that enemy packs are reduced down to 1 enemy.
There might be someone out there that wants to just run throught the game, so maybe add a "casual mode# check box when you start a game or in the difficulty options?
And again, im just coming up with sugestions on how the game can be more user friendly. I miss a lot of other options that i would wish to adjust such as screen resolution, key bindings, gamespeed...
I've already decided to revert back to BGTutu because of other aspects of BG:EE that I do not enjoy (although I hope mods will address them). What the devs have done to the spawn system confirms to me that I have made the right decision.
Not only is the game riddled with bugs and unfinished stuff such as the multiplayer, but if the lone spawns is actually intentional and nothing is done (soon)... well, I guess I'll just be extremely disappointed and not play anymore.
Please retone it again. Player can already choose from different difficulties. This change was never aksed for and nobody needs it. Thanks.
Sese79, keep the dream alive!
(waiting on the ipad version here...with trepidation)
I also feel somewhat bad that I encouraged a friend of mine to grab this so we can play multiplayer. At least that works 'okay' but the lack of monsters takes a lot of fun out of the adventure (He's never played the game before, though, so it was actually quite amusing when he freaked out as we were exploring and he ran into the Belt Fetish Ogre. Take that!) Honestly I'm tempted to apologize and buy him BG1 and 2 and walk him through the Tutu installation.