One of my (small) griefs about the Enhanced Editions - Lack of addition beside characters (Spoilers]

Aranthys

There's lots of things I love about BG2:EE, but one that I find a bit disturbing is the lack of additional content besides new NPCs and their questlines.

- All of the new quests/areas/items are tied to a character. Why not create areas that aren't tied strongly to a character ? Why not expand the underdark with an additional zone or two ?
- Zero new spells : Druids/rangers could REALLY have used a few IWD spells implemented, their spell selection is garbage (and has always been....)
- Creature models : I was soooooooooooo disappointed when I saw the spider boss at the end of Hexxat quest was a reuse of that fat, unmoving spiderlady. I was waiting for something awesome. A few additional models would have been welcome (Even for, say, existing creatures)
- Spell animations : A few tweaks could have been done (IE : Summoning portals, status effects ...)

And so on : Basically, BG2:EE is great, don't get me wrong, but why did Beamdog keep the scope only around additional characters (Content/Zones/Items tied to them) when there's so much more that could have been done ?

mylegbig

Yea, I find this rather disappointing as well. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but although they aren't allowed to alter existing areas, nothing is stopping them from just making new ones. They don't have to be tied to a new NPC. Why they tied every new area to the new NPCs, I don't know.

I don't mind the other things. Creating new creature models that don't look out of place would probably be more work for them than it is worth.

element

i agree the lack of quests outside of the new characters is some what disappointing as some one who doesn't realy play evil characters much i feel like i'm missing out on a lot of the new content

in regards to the new creature models i think they've said previously this isn't possible for some reason. youd have to ask some one more in the know though. The could use some that don't appear often in new areas thought to make a change i guess

Coutelier

I don't like all the new areas being tied to characters. I'd wished for something more like Nalia, for example; talking to her and accepting her quest puts her keep on the map, but you don't have to take her there with you to do any part of the quest.

rizar123

Yeah, you are right, they could have placed more new zones or some generics additionnals quests (for any character I mean). But you are right too by saying it's a great game.

I think they must face a lot of trouble, adding more quests give more XP, more XP make you stronger. Being stronger make end contain more easy and less rewarding. That must be a pain to balance.

But for the time they spend vs the price we paid, players win

Nepenthe

Mmh, in this case, the best rewards are story and new, different (not necessarily uber powerful items). I always felt that that was the particular forte of bg2, making all the small quests worthwhile in some way apart from (just grinding) experience.

recklessheart

Totally agree. People got too wrapped up in 'oooh new NPCS!' so I think they didn't notice that we're totally reliant on their presence for the rest of the EE glamour.
My only disagreement is that I thought the Underdark was hefty enough, personally. The best part of the game was roaming Athkatla and wider Amn doing sidequests. They should've put as many in as they did, but not make all of them NPC-dependant.

Backstab

And let's not forget alignment restriction roleplay, people! Dorn's a nice character on presentation, but I don't like having child-murderers in my party. Arguably that putting you out of new locations is valid, but still, people might never play Evil. Hell, even just that level of Evil. That's a fourth of the new content out the window, from what I see from rummaging through files and reading about; some of the most interesting content.

[Deleted User]

Backstab said:

And let's not forget alignment restriction roleplay, people! Dorn's a nice character on presentation, but I don't like having child-murderers in my party. Arguably that putting you out of new locations is valid, but still, people might never play Evil. Hell, even just that level of Evil. That's a fourth of the new content out the window, from what I see from rummaging through files and reading about; some of the most interesting content.

IMO, what makes the new quests so interesting is that they're so closely tied to the NPC. They are more personal, rather than 'help me rob a tomb to steal this book' or 'please clear out this desecrated temple, where there happens to be another adventurer who tried and got captured.'

Of the new content, I think Dorn's quest is the one that makes the most sense that you have to have him in the group to do it. ToB Dorn spoiler:

If you don't have Dorn in your group, I don't see any reason you'd want to go charging into the good plane of Lunia to slaughter some Devas, defile a holy book of justice, and kill a couple of silver dragons. ESPECIALLY if you don't have Dorn in your group for roleplay reasons.

Eudaemonium

I think tying some of the content to NPCs was a bad move. I think especially with Neera and Rasaad's in SoA (haven't seen their stuff in ToB yet), it would have been quite easy to script them without the NPCs needing to be on your team. For Rasaad's all you'd need would be someone to ask you to investigate this strange new cult (similar to the Unseeing Eye quest). The quest would then just play out but with less dialogue (which is how the originals play out: Planar Sphere, for example, is much quieter without Valygar). Neera's you can actually do over 50% of her SoA quest without taking her (Forest + all the camp side quests).

Hexxat's and Dorn would be a bit harder to do without their respective presence, though.

Frkun

I think it was a nice movement. It's good that the characters have some extra content. What I don't like is that the new areas are totally empty. Yeah, they are beautiful, but it's only purpose is to complete the NPC's quest. The areas should have been populated with events. Actually the only areas that felt "real" was the tombs of Hexxat. The tree for the dorn's quest had a lot of potential that was wasted. A little dward camp on one corner, a cave in the other, some kind of dungeon inside the tree. Plenty of possibilities. If they added several quests and events involving these areas they could also be accessed without having the NPC in your team.