@ Lorfean Yeah, I havent pre-ordered myself yet but most likely will at some point before release. You mightve read it but theres a good topic in the "Feature Requests" section that outlines some of the contractual restrictions. Pretty sure its pinned as well so it should be easy to find it.
I don't much care about cross-platform support. I'm sure there will be some people who will play with their friends and one of them will use an iPad, 2 will be on their Mac or PC and a fourth on a tablet and I can see that this is a feature that will probably make it for them... but somehow I don't see the number of people who will benefit from this as incredibly high. It's like adding cross-platform support ..or even a simple multiplayer for Daggerfall or Morrowind: would have been awesome 12 or 8 years ago but right now, 2k people *maybe* would benefit from it. I've seen it mentioned in this thread and others that quite a few people gave the multiplayer a miss because they had no patience to play a game with one protagonist scrolling leisurely through the lines and 5 people waiting for him. Although I only played with one other person BG2, that was my issue with multiplayer as well. It would be interesting to see if they've got something to spice that up, maybe a de-sync where you can go do your thing (walk around, rest...dunno, nothing impacting the actual storyline) while the main player chooses his lines.
(quoted from somewhere at the start of the thread) "If the new content doesn't satisfy by itself, I believe most existing mods will still be supported in BGEE."
This is a topic on which I would LOVE to hear a dev's comment. Or a link to a quote if it's already a fact and I missed it. I think it's something that'll spell the difference between buying the game and playing for 20 hours or buying the game and calling it an epic purchase. I understand that Beamdog is contractually obligated to keep the changes to existing NPCs and the MQ to a minimum so being able to run BG1 / BGTutu mods like BG1NPC would be AWESOME. And thank god they're trying to fit 1PP in already. There are a lot of tools available for modding BG/BG2/IWD.. and it would be a shame for the modding community to have to develop new ones. I was so disappointed when the DA2 Toolset didn't become a reality. So many of the complaints surrounding DA2 would have been shot down if people could have had access to the models through a toolset. Small areas? Expand them. Reused areas? Change that. Want new quests? Make some. Very few people actually remember what a game looks like when it comes out if the modding community is given access to the resources, the engine or even the code. I saw on youtube a DA:O mod which actually recreates Irenicus' dungeon and that first mini-dungeon crawl with all the characters. Awesome. And that's what Bioware missed on with DA2.
But to go back to the point. Having 3 new characters with their own quests is sweet, but won't hold anyone's attention for long if the game can't be easily modded. The hints of free dlcs post-release and integrating 1PP makes he hope that this won't be the case and that we can see old mods integrated with minimum difficulty and new mods created with just tweaking the tools currently available... but as I said, I'd LOVE to hear a dev's comment on this... to set my mind at ease.
The developers have indicated that maintaining compatibility with existing mods is a high priority for them -- however, they have also said that fixing bugs is higher priority, and will decide on a case-by-case basis when it comes to adding new features / functionality vs. maintaining mod compatibility.
Based on this, I suspect that mods that simply "add" stuff are likely to continue to work (e.g. new PCs, new kits, and new items). However, mods that modify existing content are more likely to fail. Dialog modifications are likely to be OK as Overhaul isn't making any (or, at least, very few) changes to existing dialog, but anything that modifies item statistics, the kits, or the like is probably going to break to some degree.
We are working hard (in some cases directly with the modders) to try and keep all the mods functional.
Hope it helps..
@mch202 and @MReed Thanks so much. The quotes and explanations do help. This has been my absolute biggest worry so far and I'll feel a lot better knowing that I won't just be buying out of nostalgia and a crave for a few hours of content.
Edit: Oh, and regarding the trend of speaking about fixes here and fixes there when defending BGEE. That's not all they did. Many people seem to forget about the fact that they had to clean up to the code to get the better performance they are talking about. Now speaking as a software engineer, don't take clean code (or cleaner code) for granted! Sometimes you have to deal with s**t code and simply making it possible to build upon isn't as simple as waving a magic wand. It's often painful and frustrating and I've seen cases where it would have been a lot easier to start from the ground up if time constraints hadn't been what they were instead of figuring out how to untangle the gordian knots that previous devs left behind. And as for fixes, sure, some fixes for BG were covered in unofficial fixpacks but I'm pretty sure Beamdog didn't just go copy/pasting from them and called it a day. BGEE might not be everything I had hoped for when I first saw the announcement but a lot of work went into it. Whether or not the final price tag will be - for me - reasonably in line with the content remains to be seen. The fact that I (one customer) might buy it regardless of the price/value ratio doesn't make this debate less interesting.
Comments
I've seen it mentioned in this thread and others that quite a few people gave the multiplayer a miss because they had no patience to play a game with one protagonist scrolling leisurely through the lines and 5 people waiting for him. Although I only played with one other person BG2, that was my issue with multiplayer as well. It would be interesting to see if they've got something to spice that up, maybe a de-sync where you can go do your thing (walk around, rest...dunno, nothing impacting the actual storyline) while the main player chooses his lines.
(quoted from somewhere at the start of the thread) "If the new content doesn't satisfy by itself, I believe most existing mods will still be supported in BGEE."
This is a topic on which I would LOVE to hear a dev's comment. Or a link to a quote if it's already a fact and I missed it. I think it's something that'll spell the difference between buying the game and playing for 20 hours or buying the game and calling it an epic purchase. I understand that Beamdog is contractually obligated to keep the changes to existing NPCs and the MQ to a minimum so being able to run BG1 / BGTutu mods like BG1NPC would be AWESOME. And thank god they're trying to fit 1PP in already.
I was so disappointed when the DA2 Toolset didn't become a reality. So many of the complaints surrounding DA2 would have been shot down if people could have had access to the models through a toolset. Small areas? Expand them. Reused areas? Change that. Want new quests? Make some. Very few people actually remember what a game looks like when it comes out if the modding community is given access to the resources, the engine or even the code.
I saw on youtube a DA:O mod which actually recreates Irenicus' dungeon and that first mini-dungeon crawl with all the characters. Awesome. And that's what Bioware missed on with DA2.
But to go back to the point. Having 3 new characters with their own quests is sweet, but won't hold anyone's attention for long if the game can't be easily modded. The hints of free dlcs post-release and integrating 1PP makes he hope that this won't be the case and that we can see old mods integrated with minimum difficulty and new mods created with just tweaking the tools currently available... but as I said, I'd LOVE to hear a dev's comment on this... to set my mind at ease.
Trent Oster @TrentOster
#bgee should be as easy (if not easier) to mod than BG
Trent Oster @TrentOster
We are working hard (in some cases directly with the modders) to try and keep all the mods functional.
Hope it helps..
Based on this, I suspect that mods that simply "add" stuff are likely to continue to work (e.g. new PCs, new kits, and new items). However, mods that modify existing content are more likely to fail. Dialog modifications are likely to be OK as Overhaul isn't making any (or, at least, very few) changes to existing dialog, but anything that modifies item statistics, the kits, or the like is probably going to break to some degree.
Edit: Oh, and regarding the trend of speaking about fixes here and fixes there when defending BGEE.
That's not all they did.
And as for fixes, sure, some fixes for BG were covered in unofficial fixpacks but I'm pretty sure Beamdog didn't just go copy/pasting from them and called it a day.
BGEE might not be everything I had hoped for when I first saw the announcement but a lot of work went into it. Whether or not the final price tag will be - for me - reasonably in line with the content remains to be seen. The fact that I (one customer) might buy it regardless of the price/value ratio doesn't make this debate less interesting.