I have no idea why but ever since the steam patch i cannot even start up the BGEE.exe. I just get a 'Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition has stopped working' error message and thats it...
I have tried a re-install so far and its the same thing. Maybe Steam messed something up or there's something wrong with my PC at the moment. Ill check around the forums and see if anyone else has this problem.
I figured it out.. Had to turn off Data Execution Prevention for BGEE.exe. Guess that makes it Microsoft's fault. Stop breaking stuff Microsoft!!!! lol
The latest patch runs great on my computer for the most part though I've noticed a couple of times I've used 'stinking cloud' that it causes severe slow down for more or less the duration of the spell. Has this been reported and is it being looked at?
In both the Beamdog and Steam client, anti-piracy protection is used.
This is not true. Once your game has been downloaded from Beamdog (either via the client or the standalone launcher), it is fully portable and can be run without an online connection. I usually run the game executable directly (baldur.exe), skipping the launcher/installer except when I want to check for updates.
So, basically beamdog version is drm-free? And if beamdog will go bankrupt and all theirs servers will be shutdown, i'll still be able to play BG:EE?
Yes, but you wouldn't be able to uninstall or lose those files, as you'd have no way of re-downloading them.
Because Valve doesn't have any big competition in this game-delivery platform market, they can charge studios / publishers a hefty fee.
This is the only point I don't relate to. Not sure where you're getting that info, but Valve don't operate like that. That's more akin to Microsoft and the Xbox. Valve get a percentage per sale, and that's it, AFAIK. (5%? I forget how much it is). There are other digital delivery platforms, and while Valve has the market pretty much sewn up, there's obviously enough market-share for these others to exist. GoG, Impulse etc. The main difference is, Steam is a fully-realised community-integrated platform, not just a store-front delivery system, so it's no wonder they've dominated the market.
It has been stated publicly by Beamdog management: Steam makes more than Beamdog when the game is sold through Steam.
Beamdog should blame theirs CEO, Trent Oster. He signed contract with Atari, but didn't read terms of that contract. Steam treats all titles equally, afaik.
Then it is not drm-free. There is still some form of drm involved (light, but nonetheless).
If I make a backup of the installed directory, I can copy it back to my hard disk at any time in the future, without connecting to anything (unless there is a hidden thing that did not reveal yet). I will just need to install the OpenAL stuff in addition. That's as much DRM free as I can hope. Using a DRM free physical version wouldn't be different (I should not loose the media in either case).
Unless Steam patched the game executable in some way, I assume you could do the same with the Steam version, provided you do not run the game through the Steam client.
Beamdog should blame theirs CEO, Trent Oster. He signed contract with Atari, but didn't read terms of that contract. Steam treats all titles equally, afaik.
I think you miss the point. Beamdog is an online shop too. As a group, Beamdog will get their share as developper as well as online shop in that case. The 5 % metalmunki mentionned is a ridiculously low amount. Apple gets 30, as well as Microsoft. I would bet than Valve is no different, save for a few percents. Considering how much they might have to pay the licensees (WotC, Atari), I'm not that surprised that their share is lower than Steam's when the game is sold through them. Besides, Beamdog never signed a contract with Steam, Atari did.
Yes, but you wouldn't be able to uninstall or lose those files, as you'd have no way of re-downloading them.
Then it is not drm-free. There is still some form of drm involved (light, but nonetheless). Thanks for the heads-up.
As @Isaya has said, you can make a backup of the game directory before uninstalling and restore it whenever you want to play again. It's no different than not being able to reinstall a game if you lose its CD unless you make a backup.
I pre-ordered EE, but waited until 1.2 to actually play it. Like many, I've played BG 1 and 2 many times, one of the few games I've played through, let alone more than once.
Let me get to the point: I'd like to say that you developers have done a wonderful job of improving the original while maintaining its epic feel. I don't compliment lightly, and as a developer, especially don't compliment software, but I frequently smile when I see the choices your team has made. You have simply done an excellent job, and I'd like to thank you for the quality of all your hard work.
Beamdog should blame theirs CEO, Trent Oster. He signed contract with Atari, but didn't read terms of that contract. Steam treats all titles equally, afaik.
You are being ridiculous! Beamdog signed a contract with Atari that allowed them to develop and distribute BG:EE. But Atari retained the rights on Baldur's Gate, and they required those rights to extend to BG:EE. After Beamdog released the game, Atari unilaterally got themselves into a deal with Steam. Your comment is therefore pure smear as I don't see how Trent Oster could have done anything differently, except for giving up on BG:EE in the first place of course!
After the release of patch 1.2 I have acquired BG: EE. Even tough I wanted to buy it directly trough your website, it seems you did not accept my Visa Electron card. So, I had to buy it from Steam. (Maybe this is something to think about, since you are saying that you don't receive that much money from copies sold via Steam).
However, I've noticed two potential problems. The first was already confirmed by someone (I don't remember the thread) and it can be noticed when auto-pause is enabled for unusable weapon events. It seems that the game was coded so that ranged ammunition can also become unusable, therefore I had a number of auto-pauses due to one stone/arrow being broken (of course the sling/bow did not have any problem).
The second potential issue is related to disease effect. I have fought a wraith spider and it seems that every time the damn beast hit Minsc, the effect got stacked. At the end of the battle, Minsc had a strength of 3. Is this normal behavior?
But Atari retained the rights on Baldur's Gate, and they required those rights to extend to BG:EE. After Beamdog released the game, Atari unilaterally got themselves into a deal with Steam.
If Beamdog thinks Atari violated contract, they should sue them. Otherwise, Trent Oster is the one to blame. If he wanted exclusive distribution rights for Beamdog, then why he didn't expressed his position in contract? Besides, other game devs, who have theirs own distribution platform (Origin (Dead Space title - various DLCs with armor, not available on Steam version), GOG (Witcher title - lots of bonus stuff, DRM-free)) have additional bonuses for people who buy from them. If you want people to buy from Beamdog, you should stimulate them instead of "whining" about Steam (for some reason this word - "whining" is quite popular among BG:EE community; yeah, that's what i heard when i registered and reported bugs - i was told that i am "whining").
The second potential issue is related to disease effect. I have fought a wraith spider and it seems that every time the damn beast hit Minsc, the effect got stacked. At the end of the battle, Minsc had a strength of 3. Is this normal behavior?
It has been stated publicly by Beamdog management: Steam makes more than Beamdog when the game is sold through Steam.
That's going to be an issue with Atari, rather than Steam/Valve though I suspect. If it was Valve taking the lions share, I don't think anyone would bother putting their games on Steam.
However, I've noticed two potential problems. The first was already confirmed by someone (I don't remember the thread) and it can be noticed when auto-pause is enabled for unusable weapon events. It seems that the game was coded so that ranged ammunition can also become unusable, therefore I had a number of auto-pauses due to one stone/arrow being broken (of course the sling/bow did not have any problem).
I think that's only supposed to happen if the ammunition-type changes or you run out of ammunition. You sure that's not what's happening?
The second potential issue is related to disease effect. I have fought a wraith spider and it seems that every time the damn beast hit Minsc, the effect got stacked. At the end of the battle, Minsc had a strength of 3. Is this normal behavior?
Wraith Spiders, like Wraiths, use energy drain do they not? That's supposed to stack. They are removing levels off your character (can be healed at a temple). Someone will correct me if that's not the case with BG1, but it's how they work in D&D.
It might be that the the character run out of ammo, not in the sense that it had no ammo left at all but that the current used ammo slot (of the three possible) run out. Even in this situation, I do believe that it should be treated as a bug.
Regarding the disease thing, I was not aware that the effect should stack if hit multiple times. It doesn't make much sense but if the D&D rules say so than so be it.
It might be that the the character run out of ammo, not in the sense that it had no ammo left at all but that the current used ammo slot (of the three possible) run out. Even in this situation, I do believe that it should be treated as a bug.
Regarding the disease thing, I was not aware that the effect should stack if hit multiple times. It doesn't make much sense but if the D&D rules say so than so be it.
I makes sense because it's not a disease (at least, it's not supposed to be), it's an active effect. There's no illness involved, it's literally the lifeforce has been drained from the target. D&D Vampires have that ability as well. It's the nastiest of abilities. It's just measured in your character's 'levels' so that's why it's stacked, Because if a level 1 character was energy drained once, they'd be dead (hit level 0), while a level 4 character would need to be energy drained (stacked) 4 times to kill them with this attack, getting physically weaker and losing level-gained abilities in the process.
Like I said, that's how it works in D&D, but they may have hodged it for BG1, rather than having to design an effect for only one or two creature-types. It is present in BG2, though.
@metalmunki yes, like Shadows in BG2, and in PS:T, it is supposed to stack, but he wasn't talking about levels, he was talking 'bout attributes, specifically STR. Both levee Drain and Ability Drain stacks, making it deadly, maybe the worst thing you think of Vampires is re-sellecting all you spells and having to rest ten thousand times, but I remember, in my first BG2 run, I didn't knew what they did, so I ran with Haer'Dalis toward them, he never got damaged because of Stoneskin, but he died he he reached zero levels.
About Disease, its supposed to get stacked, but only in some cases. A Ghoul/Ghast disease won't stack, while the one created by the Contagion spell won't either, but Otyugh's and other Diseases stack.
@Dee I cannot make a new thread in this forum.... kind of weird.
I encountered a bug where if the protagonist familiar dies, the game ends. I could not find it in the known issues list. Here is how I recreate the issue.
1. Start a new game as a mage with find familiar spell memorised. 2. Protagonist is at full health. 3. Summons a familiar (any alignment will do). 4. Attack it until it dies (or have the watchers kill it). 5. Screen will grey out 6. The protagonist seems to get some damage 7. The Protagonist death video shows. 8. Game over.
I do not think the protagonist is dealt too much damage to die, but I think the familiar is interpreted as protagonist.
@Dee I cannot make a new thread in this forum.... kind of weird.
I encountered a bug where if the protagonist familiar dies, the game ends. I could not find it in the known issues list. Here is how I recreate the issue.
1. Start a new game as a mage with find familiar spell memorised. 2. Protagonist is at full health. 3. Summons a familiar (any alignment will do). 4. Attack it until it dies (or have the watchers kill it). 5. Screen will grey out 6. The protagonist seems to get some damage 7. The Protagonist death video shows. 8. Game over.
I do not think the protagonist is dealt too much damage to die, but I think the familiar is interpreted as protagonist.
I encountered this bug too on my fighter/mage with an Imp familiar. It's continues to be that way even at 5-th level in both classes, so it seems it's not about doing a fixed amount of damage to the caster or anything like that.
I have noticed that sometimes the animation shows a swing from the character but in the console I have no information about the missed attack roll. However, for the enemies I always have a display message of the unsuccessful attack roll.
To be honest, considering the low success rate of my character even tough probabilistically it should not be that low, I'm more inclined to believe that there is only the animation that is shown and the attack is not really implemented behind the scenes. For this reason it does not appear in the console. The other option would be that for some reason the console displays your character's unsuccessful attack rolls only occasionally.
Later edit: it seems that ranged weapons work correctly, every time the animation shows an attack I can see in the console an attack roll (successful or not). So this might be a problem with melee weapons only.
This isn't a bug, and in fact it happened in vanilla too, I believe.
You're right that those aren't really attacks. But they decided that just having your character swing once every six seconds looked weird, so they added the extra ones just for flavour.
This isn't a bug, and in fact it happened in vanilla too, I believe.
You're right that those aren't really attacks. But they decided that just having your character swing once every six seconds looked weird, so they added the extra ones just for flavour.
You can see it as a reflection of the PnP conceit that the characters are constantly moving, parrying, and seeking openings, but that only one "attack" (or more for Fighters) per round actually "matters" in that it has a chance to do significant damage.
Comments
I have tried a re-install so far and its the same thing. Maybe Steam messed something up or there's something wrong with my PC at the moment. Ill check around the forums and see if anyone else has this problem.
Do you plan at least some "Quick fixes" in the near future?
To fix the most troublesome bugs.
Thanks for the heads-up.
Unless Steam patched the game executable in some way, I assume you could do the same with the Steam version, provided you do not run the game through the Steam client. I think you miss the point. Beamdog is an online shop too. As a group, Beamdog will get their share as developper as well as online shop in that case.
The 5 % metalmunki mentionned is a ridiculously low amount. Apple gets 30, as well as Microsoft. I would bet than Valve is no different, save for a few percents. Considering how much they might have to pay the licensees (WotC, Atari), I'm not that surprised that their share is lower than Steam's when the game is sold through them.
Besides, Beamdog never signed a contract with Steam, Atari did.
Like many, I've played BG 1 and 2 many times, one of the few games I've played through, let alone more than once.
Let me get to the point: I'd like to say that you developers have done a wonderful job of improving the original while maintaining its epic feel.
I don't compliment lightly, and as a developer, especially don't compliment software, but I frequently smile when I see the choices your team has made. You have simply done an excellent job, and I'd like to thank you for the quality of all your hard work.
However, I've noticed two potential problems. The first was already confirmed by someone (I don't remember the thread) and it can be noticed when auto-pause is enabled for unusable weapon events. It seems that the game was coded so that ranged ammunition can also become unusable, therefore I had a number of auto-pauses due to one stone/arrow being broken (of course the sling/bow did not have any problem).
The second potential issue is related to disease effect. I have fought a wraith spider and it seems that every time the damn beast hit Minsc, the effect got stacked. At the end of the battle, Minsc had a strength of 3. Is this normal behavior?
If he wanted exclusive distribution rights for Beamdog, then why he didn't expressed his position in contract?
Besides, other game devs, who have theirs own distribution platform (Origin (Dead Space title - various DLCs with armor, not available on Steam version), GOG (Witcher title - lots of bonus stuff, DRM-free)) have additional bonuses for people who buy from them. If you want people to buy from Beamdog, you should stimulate them instead of "whining" about Steam (for some reason this word - "whining" is quite popular among BG:EE community; yeah, that's what i heard when i registered and reported bugs - i was told that i am "whining").
Regarding the disease thing, I was not aware that the effect should stack if hit multiple times. It doesn't make much sense but if the D&D rules say so than so be it.
Like I said, that's how it works in D&D, but they may have hodged it for BG1, rather than having to design an effect for only one or two creature-types. It is present in BG2, though.
About Disease, its supposed to get stacked, but only in some cases. A Ghoul/Ghast disease won't stack, while the one created by the Contagion spell won't either, but Otyugh's and other Diseases stack.
I encountered a bug where if the protagonist familiar dies, the game ends.
I could not find it in the known issues list. Here is how I recreate the issue.
1. Start a new game as a mage with find familiar spell memorised.
2. Protagonist is at full health.
3. Summons a familiar (any alignment will do).
4. Attack it until it dies (or have the watchers kill it).
5. Screen will grey out
6. The protagonist seems to get some damage
7. The Protagonist death video shows.
8. Game over.
I do not think the protagonist is dealt too much damage to die, but I think the familiar is interpreted as protagonist.
To be honest, considering the low success rate of my character even tough probabilistically it should not be that low, I'm more inclined to believe that there is only the animation that is shown and the attack is not really implemented behind the scenes. For this reason it does not appear in the console. The other option would be that for some reason the console displays your character's unsuccessful attack rolls only occasionally.
Later edit: it seems that ranged weapons work correctly, every time the animation shows an attack I can see in the console an attack roll (successful or not). So this might be a problem with melee weapons only.
You're right that those aren't really attacks. But they decided that just having your character swing once every six seconds looked weird, so they added the extra ones just for flavour.