The latest interview with Trent Oster on BG:EE and BG2:EE
JuliusBorisov
Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,725
It's A MUST READ!
"...we shipped a game we were not 100% happy with. Even with that headwind, the sales were quite strong out of the gate and have stayed quite robust. The reception was very positive, with a few holdouts who stated a clear preference for spending many hours installing specific mods to the original title make their personal best version of Baldur's Gate. With the upcoming patch, I'm certain even those stalwarts will re-evaluate their choice and agree that weve gone far beyond what the original title can offer from a graphics and feel standpoint. We've built the best possible version of Baldur's Gate.
"On PC and Mac, we've added a ton of features, fixed a huge number of performance related issues, and squashed thousands of general bugs. We've added a game matching system to make it much easier for people to play multiplayer games together. The difference between the old Mac version and our new release is like night and day."
"I'm excited to bring BG:EE to Linux, and possibly in the future, have a look at bringing it to the phones . I played a development build on my iPhone and managed to get to the bottom of the Nashkel mines. The buttons were much too small to make a releasable game, but it was a neat feeling to play Baldur's Gate on a phone."
"We've taken a great game, added a ton of new, interesting content, bundled in the Throne of Bhaal expansion and added a ton of new features, including a new full screen display mode, which lets you see all the glory of the re-mastered area artwork we've managed to put together.
"The user interface has been cleaned up and vastly improved, we have multiplayer matching that actually works, and you'll be able to play with friends on iPad or Android while you're on your PC or Mac, and vice-versa. And when you get the game, you can start playing it immediately because there's no need to mess around with fix-packs or other mods before it's "ready" to play."
"We know the fans would love a Baldur's Gate III, and we'd love to bring it to them when the time is right."
http://www.rpgamer.com/games/dnd/bg2ee/bg2eeint.html
http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/112422-baldurs-gate-ii-enhanced-edition-interview.html
How I wish the 15th of November would just happen already.
"...we shipped a game we were not 100% happy with. Even with that headwind, the sales were quite strong out of the gate and have stayed quite robust. The reception was very positive, with a few holdouts who stated a clear preference for spending many hours installing specific mods to the original title make their personal best version of Baldur's Gate. With the upcoming patch, I'm certain even those stalwarts will re-evaluate their choice and agree that weve gone far beyond what the original title can offer from a graphics and feel standpoint. We've built the best possible version of Baldur's Gate.
"On PC and Mac, we've added a ton of features, fixed a huge number of performance related issues, and squashed thousands of general bugs. We've added a game matching system to make it much easier for people to play multiplayer games together. The difference between the old Mac version and our new release is like night and day."
"I'm excited to bring BG:EE to Linux, and possibly in the future, have a look at bringing it to the phones . I played a development build on my iPhone and managed to get to the bottom of the Nashkel mines. The buttons were much too small to make a releasable game, but it was a neat feeling to play Baldur's Gate on a phone."
"We've taken a great game, added a ton of new, interesting content, bundled in the Throne of Bhaal expansion and added a ton of new features, including a new full screen display mode, which lets you see all the glory of the re-mastered area artwork we've managed to put together.
"The user interface has been cleaned up and vastly improved, we have multiplayer matching that actually works, and you'll be able to play with friends on iPad or Android while you're on your PC or Mac, and vice-versa. And when you get the game, you can start playing it immediately because there's no need to mess around with fix-packs or other mods before it's "ready" to play."
"We know the fans would love a Baldur's Gate III, and we'd love to bring it to them when the time is right."
http://www.rpgamer.com/games/dnd/bg2ee/bg2eeint.html
http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/112422-baldurs-gate-ii-enhanced-edition-interview.html
How I wish the 15th of November would just happen already.
21
Comments
BG:EE 1.2 version and BG2:EE will be the best ever Baldur’s Gate games simply said. We’ll get Android versions as well and the experience will be mind-blowing.
THANKS FOR THE GREAT WORKS GUYS! YOU’RE AMAZING!
And thats with still having the discs in perfect condition and owning it on GOG too. Its a shame the couldn't have launched BGEE with the version currently testing. Trent was right about that. But hopefully that will be less of an issue with BG2EE.
The BG:EE patch to come unlocks several new things for modders to change (like allowing demi human dualclassing and human multiclassing among others) but he doesn't mention 'greatly expanded opportunities opened for modders, namely: [insert 2-3 example features]'. He's mentioned 'thousands of bugs' and 'countless new features' but doesn't specificly name any of them, nor does he name even a general number of new quests or content, other than the old-new NPC's (which everyone who's played BG:EE knew were coming). Even the new-new NPC doesn't get much attention, other than harshly cutting off the Baeloth question.
He talks about there being a new multiplayer mode but we heard the same thing a year ago and it's not released yet. I'm sure it'll be in the game when it's released (last I heard, the BG:EE patch puts it in BG:EE so implementing it in BG2:EE should not be a problem) but he doesn't say "-and this will be ready on release day" which is the thing everyone wants to hear.
For people who've never heard of the EE's, this is an interesting interview, but everyone who's interested has probably heard about BG:EE in the last year.
It's not the newcomers he needs to convince this time, it's the sceptics and naysayers who still believe that BG:EE has not changed since release and BG2:EE is a hackjob that doesn't add anything. While he did say that they made mistakes and have taken steps to ensure that doesn't happen again, he's given no information about what will be different this time nor any specific reason why this game is any different from the release of BG:EE last year.
Again, I'm convinced the game will be awesome. I read the patch updates, I've seen screenshots, I've heard the developers and assorted teammembers describe what will be in the game.
But anyone who's not been on these forums and was not taken in by BG:EE immediately will only remember a difficult launch, lots of bugs and reviews saying "nice but not as good as the modded version". Those are the people that need convincing but I haven't seen any to-the-outside-world contact that does so. I really hope this changes in the coming weeks because I wish BG2:EE to be a smashing success for all those involved, they deserve it.
Now with BG2:EE introducing a new NPC that's called Hexxat (Of all things) not to mention the NPC's from BGEE will have quite some content in BG2:EE he is probably going to end up dropping that aswell.
Personally i can understand him about the NPCs and i find that they didn't fit into BG:EE at all. Next to the old NPC's they just seem like... an apple in a basket of oranges.
Not to mention the deal with their kits. A wild mage, blackguard and a monk. Talk about the most exotic kits to place on NPC's that you want to mix in with the original cast which are very ordinary.
Anyway i'm going to get BG2:EE and i hope it'll suprise me.
I can see screenshots and logs of this beta-patch. I like what I see. And I can make my own conclusion this looks like all long-standing issues are being repaired and the 1.2 version as well as BG2:EE will be good. I see nothing - NOTHING - in this beta that shows the mistakes are being made again. So, this interview should at last give all the sceptics and naysayers an image of what they'll get in a little-bit-more-than-month period. And again, there's no signal right now this image is false.
And if someone don't like new NPCs, let him just not use them. The enhancement of this game is MUCH more than 4 new NPCs.
I CAN'T imagine someone speaks the truth when he says BG2 (and BGT) feels the same as BG:EE in it's beta version. Come on...
And BGT -> BG:EE so far and this might change with 1.2, which i hope it does.
(And thus that means Trent said the truth about lessons learned...)
Also, re: "steadily-growing"... it's also steadily-shrinking:
I heard something along these lines a year ago. -_-
Some people say that this latest patch isn't necessary to play the game, and that's mostly true. The patch seems to be dealing with mostly graphical, ease-of-use, and UI improvements. However, if we accept that these same improvements will be stock in BG2:EE, since both games are similar in coding and design, we should ask ourselves why we haven't had these improvements from the beginning.
Why did the team wait until after shipping to improve upon it? It genuinely feels to me as though they want to keep the fans happy (or pacify the ones who didn't like it) for when BG2:EE arrives. Customers who were happy with BG:EE are more likely to buy the sequel, after all.
Some of the enhancements (at launch) were available in the form of various mods. Some weren't. But to wait until now for some of the biggest content (in my opinion at 0.4 gig) seems to me to be a way of saying "We know there wasn't much that was 'enhanced' about it to begin with, so here's a bunch of updates we put together to make you all happy."
As Trent put it: "Our initial sales expectations for Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition were on target. And that was after we made some large errors early on, with an overly optimistic launch plan and then a hard push to meet a contractual ship date."
Does he really not see that just one month after a much-needed patch to the original is an extremely optimistic launch plan?
Or perhaps the original plan was to utilize a "minimalist" approach, and use revenue from the sales to hire more people who could improve upon it at a later date.
Seriously, though, games don't code themselves.
I really really really want new kit designs / revamp / HLAs for other kits...
I bought BG1 the week it came out in 1998 i believe it was? There is only so much non-modded BG/BG2 i can play even with the EE's...
Further, it's not as if the new NPCs aren't a hundred times better than the rampant Mary Sues of overrepresented classes that comprise 90% of the NPC mods out there.
And yet I can honestly say Dorn is one of my favorite characters in the BG saga. Go figure.
@Schneidend: Actually, I imagine that position will soften somewhat once the majority of NPC mods are adapted to the EEs - then you'll have a three-way comparison between the original characters, the EE gang, and any mod from Mur'Neth to Amber to the dreaded Saerilith...