I would rather have Beamdog dedicating their time on improving the content and expanding the series. I will leave reverting the game back into a nostalgic state for the modders.
there will be an update released for BG:EE and BGII:EE prior to the release of the Siege of Dragonspear expansion, although how far in advance of the expansion's release has not been stated anywhere.
Are you going to update IWD:EE after the release of SoD?
I would rather have Beamdog dedicating their time on improving the content and expanding the series. I will leave reverting the game back into a nostalgic state for the modders.
Not everything new is automatically better, and it is certainly okay to point that out, if someone feels that way. For example the new red-shade answer selection on the red text in dialog box really hurts my eyes, and is not better than the old "white text" selection. (Though I was only clicking through the video, so I don't know if they were talking about it.)
I've got two questions. Is there only one color to choose instead of two? I mean characters colors. Since SoD is expansion to BG:EE will all the changes affects BG:EE? New individual scrips for NPC? New difficulty levels?
@Sikorsky I can answer your first question readily: No, you can change both major and minor clothing colors. Clicking that palette square on the Inventory screen opens a window that lets you change your Hair and Skin (for player-created characters) and Major/Minor Clothing (for all characters) colors. The reason for this is that we've greatly expanded the available color options for each of those categories, and we needed a new screen to fit them all in.
Your second question is a bit fuzzier. The engine features will be brought back to BG:EE and to BGII:EE as well. Scripting changes that affect specific creatures or areas will be changed as needed to fulfill our goals for the update. But keep an eye on the BeamBlog; there will likely be more specific information posted there in the coming weeks and months.
Will we be able to use the old stat breakdowns in the inventory screen and character sheets? These would be very sorely missed indeed, if gone.
To clarify what I mean, I'm talking about the small lists next to the AC, THAC0, and damage stats that explain how the stat in question is being calculated, with a line of text and a number for each relevant item, magic effect, and modifier that affects the stat.
@Dee Can you please check into whether we will be able to retain access to this inventory UI panel in the new EE versions?
@bengoshi has kindly posted a screenshot to help visualize what I was talking about:
Just watched the stream. I noticed that Phil really likes to kill everything in sight, heh heh.
[spoiler=four small things I noticed]- Dragonspear specific icon for going back to the game-view. - Selection circles are not coloured by character clothing in this build, now everything is green again. Toggleable perhaps? - Thieving from cleric-thieves is still hidden under F12... hopefully that upcoming GUI update will address this. - Did they just exceed the summoning cap or is that a one-time only thing (seemingly a quest reward)? [/spoiler]
Pop ups... @bengoshi didn't we hear something about pop ups being incorporated more easily into the game?
I've been thinking more about it.
I think there can be one problem with quest pop ups - for example, you end a quest conversation that leads to a battle, and just as you're going to point and click on an enemy, the journal update pops up underneath your mouse pointer. Of course, the pop up will go away in several seconds and you can pause the game, but... it won't be pretty.
Maybe these pop ups should have an option to be turned on/off in the game settings, just like HP bars?
I am still very curious about the XP cap for this game, hopefully it will be above 600K so that Paladin / Ranger does not lose out in the amount of level gained as compared to others from BGEE cap.
All class gained at least 2 lvls if it was capped at 600K.
However if its capped at 500K, Paladin / Ranger will the only class that gained one lvl. (And 200K extra XP on the char is literally wasted.)
There hasn't been official word yet, but folks here assume the cap will be 400,000 because:
A) it's been confirmed thieves and bards will be able to reach level 12 and
it seems to be a sweet spot where the expansion can yield a satisfactory amount of experience without making the first chapters of BG2 feel too different (in terms of scaled up encounters and such).
Is an XP cap really necessary? It's going to be one of the first things modded out, and its original purpose (keeping characters from getting in to levels where spells and abilities hadn't been coded yet) is entirely outdated. Even without a hard xp cap, you'd have a soft one in that there are only so many creatures to kill and quests to complete.
While I wholeheartedly agree in principle that XP caps in games are silly (I've argued as much a number of times over the years), the truth of it is that in Baldur's Gate (particularly the first game), there's a great deal more experience to be gained than the current cap would account for. Since the encounters and enemies in that game only scale up to a certain level, if you found yourself in Chapter 5 at level 30 because you went around killing every kobold you saw, you'd find the latter third of the game rather wanting in terms of challenge. While that may be fun for some people, it strikes a dissonant chord with the experience that the game was designed to convey.
at level 30 because you went around killing every kobold you saw
A fighter needs 5,500,000 XP for reaching the 30rd level. One kobold counts for 7 XP. Dear me! Poor kobolds! 785715 kobolds killed... It's like the whole population of kobolds in Faerun.
Comments
I would rather have Beamdog dedicating their time on improving the content and expanding the series.
I will leave reverting the game back into a nostalgic state for the modders.
Is there only one color to choose instead of two? I mean characters colors.
Since SoD is expansion to BG:EE will all the changes affects BG:EE? New individual scrips for NPC? New difficulty levels?
I can answer your first question readily: No, you can change both major and minor clothing colors. Clicking that palette square on the Inventory screen opens a window that lets you change your Hair and Skin (for player-created characters) and Major/Minor Clothing (for all characters) colors. The reason for this is that we've greatly expanded the available color options for each of those categories, and we needed a new screen to fit them all in.
Your second question is a bit fuzzier. The engine features will be brought back to BG:EE and to BGII:EE as well. Scripting changes that affect specific creatures or areas will be changed as needed to fulfill our goals for the update. But keep an eye on the BeamBlog; there will likely be more specific information posted there in the coming weeks and months.
@bengoshi has kindly posted a screenshot to help visualize what I was talking about:
[spoiler=four small things I noticed]- Dragonspear specific icon for going back to the game-view.
- Selection circles are not coloured by character clothing in this build, now everything is green again. Toggleable perhaps?
- Thieving from cleric-thieves is still hidden under F12... hopefully that upcoming GUI update will address this.
- Did they just exceed the summoning cap or is that a one-time only thing (seemingly a quest reward)?
[/spoiler]
Are there actually any in BG:EE/BG2:EE (I haven't played those much yet tbh..)
...checks options...
They were!
Well, how about that.
I think there can be one problem with quest pop ups - for example, you end a quest conversation that leads to a battle, and just as you're going to point and click on an enemy, the journal update pops up underneath your mouse pointer. Of course, the pop up will go away in several seconds and you can pause the game, but... it won't be pretty.
Maybe these pop ups should have an option to be turned on/off in the game settings, just like HP bars?
"Yes, the journal popups can be toggled on/off from the Options menu, same as the healthbars."
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/baldurs-gate-siege-of-dragonspear-twitch-stream.106805/page-5#post-4374051 (still, better not to stay on that thread too much....)
All class gained at least 2 lvls if it was capped at 600K.
However if its capped at 500K, Paladin / Ranger will the only class that gained one lvl. (And 200K extra XP on the char is literally wasted.)
A) it's been confirmed thieves and bards will be able to reach level 12 and
A normal pnp game would not have a cap.
But then Baldur's Gate is a computer game, and needs to give challenge... something a human dm could easily adapt to...
...
Baldur's Gate needs to act more like a human dm and adapt!
I hate putting the game down as inferior in any way. This is something I'm sure the boffins are aware of and are trying to sort...
Why, indeed?
While I wholeheartedly agree in principle that XP caps in games are silly (I've argued as much a number of times over the years), the truth of it is that in Baldur's Gate (particularly the first game), there's a great deal more experience to be gained than the current cap would account for. Since the encounters and enemies in that game only scale up to a certain level, if you found yourself in Chapter 5 at level 30 because you went around killing every kobold you saw, you'd find the latter third of the game rather wanting in terms of challenge. While that may be fun for some people, it strikes a dissonant chord with the experience that the game was designed to convey.
Abdel the Kobold Exterminator