1 million, eh? If we consider that an exceptionally hyped and incredibly popular game like Skyrim sold around 23 mil across three consoles, I think a million is actually quite impressive.
Also take into account that BG came out at a time when the PC gaming market (and PC RPG market especially) was very small compared to what it is today. The original BG only sold ~2 million copies, and I'd expect that only a portion of those who played it back then stuck around to buy the EE. Baldur's Gate may be a beloved and well-respected name, but I have doubts that that would translate very well into sales numbers nowadays.
Hi guys, you may not care about this, but I'll just leave the suggestion. I looked in Steam for Siege of Dragonspear and there is nothing. Now maybe you dont need steam but this is your first RLY new game and a pre-order page there wouldnt hurt, and it would be in the upcoming tab.
Sorry the offtopic but I'am curious, has there ever been data about how well Beamdog sold on steam these years? What was more profitable, steam, BD or android/apple?
They may launch on steam later as they take a big cut of money so the most engaged will buy direct and then steam used later to reach out further. Id rather 100% of money go to developers for this so will buy direct.
@Adul That and the fact that IWD2 is an awful game to say the least.
I remember IWD2 having very good tactical enemy AI and beautiful areas. Far from awful id say. Only thing I wasnt so keen on was the 3e ruleset but that's not the games fault.
So, this friday will be another live stream with the developers. What questions do we have to them, taking into account all the information that has become available since the last stream?
I always have the same question, since it is still unanswered. Will Siege of Dragonspear be released in other languages except English?
Don't know if anybody asks that but can I bring my gold from BG:EE to SoD? I've already collect 330000 in my playthrough and still didn't do Durlags and Werewolfs island. I'm just courius is it worth to keep that amount of money.
You sure can. But you might want to spend it beforehand.
So, this friday will be another live stream with the developers. What questions do we have to them, taking into account all the information that has become available since the last stream?
I always have the same question, since it is still unanswered. Will Siege of Dragonspear be released in other languages except English?
Not initially. We do intend to translate it after release, but I don't know yet what languages or timeframe we're looking at. Cam and Trent are still deciding what they want to do.
As for the accuracy of success chances based on Intelligence, that's a separate issue altogether. But there's no reason the code should work any differently between IWD:EE and BG:EE or BGII:EE. It's the same code.
I did some testing ingame, it really works. My Invoker with Int18 could scribe his magic missile spell repeatedly, with 100% success.
For anyone interested in testing the penalty to saving throws enemies get just make an illusionist and have them start with blindness.
Now jump to Ulgoth's Beard, save the game, and have your mage cast blindness on Shandalar until he is affected. Shandalar normally has 0 for all his saving throws (thanks to his robe) so this shouldn't work on him (and if you use a non-illusionist mage it won't). Eventually though with an Illusionist it will work.
This is probably going to sound crazy, but could it be possible at some point after SoD to just combine all official player portraits and player voice sets from all EE games into each of them all? Perhaps as a DLC component, maybe?
I havent kept up to date with past questions too well so sorry if this has already been asked or answered:
Without going into any detail or spoilers, aside from the new NPCs are your companions dictated solely by import or starting alignment (if that is indeed still a thing? Or instead might there be a few opportunities to swap out some people at the start of the expansion?
Obviously it was accomplished by completely different story and gameplay methods but Im thinking along the lines of how in ToB as long as the character wasnt dead you still had a method to recruit them even if they werent a member of the party you initially imported.
Im just asking as I havent yet heard if multiple character imports will be a luxury or instead a necessity to experience fully what the expansion has to offer?
I think its based on import. But people who are not meant to be there for story reasond may leave. I reckon there'll be a standard canon party if ypu create a new char.
That's a neat site for stats @bengoshi. And considering price never went far below 5$ in any sale, adds up to a good number. I know devs prefer to avoid steam cut but now that Beamdog is in full control of the steam release, they should use it to its full extent. Releasing first on BD is fair though. I just wish it had steam cloud support, please consider.
I was a little let down with the DLC for both BGEE and BG2EE. No more portraits, no npcs, unless I missed something. So for me Siege will have to make up for that I have high hopes for the new content.
Do you mean SoD doesnt have new potraits/characters for BG/BG2:EE or that the Enhanced Editions didn't have new portraits and characters?
They do but if you played on IOS you had to buy then seperate to offset the low price. New characters and portraits were some of the original big marketing points before the release. Rassad, Neera and Dorn. If you missed them check around the forums or ask they are well worth a try (and have a few new areas locked behind their own quests)
Or do you mean additional post game DLC? Yea I can agree some smaller additions like portraits or an extra voice would have been nice post release content even if to just fill the void between patches. We did get a certain black pits NPC officially added via a patch for BG:EE.
@bengoshi: I'm frankly astonished to see that BG:EE has sold better than BG2:EE. I tried the original BG a couple of times, and just out of support, I bought BG:EE and tried it, too. It's still almost impossible to get into it: it's full of aimless wandering around these pretty landscapes, the dialogues hardly ever give you any reasonable options, and the quests are stupefyingly simplistic.
I shall try to finish my game just for the sake of SoD, but that may turn out to be impossible.
BG2 and BG2:EE, on the other hand, are the best games ever, basically.
I was a little let down with the DLC for both BGEE and BG2EE. No more portraits, no npcs, unless I missed something. So for me Siege will have to make up for that I have high hopes for the new content.
Between Pocket Plane Group, Spellhold Studios and the Gibberlings 3; there's plenty of portraits, NPCs, et cetera. If you're unsure about installing mods, Big World Setup (BWS) makes it much easier.
@bengoshi: I'm frankly astonished to see that BG:EE has sold better than BG2:EE. I tried the original BG a couple of times, and just out of support, I bought BG:EE and tried it, too. It's still almost impossible to get into it: it's full of aimless wandering around these pretty landscapes, the dialogues hardly ever give you any reasonable options, and the quests are stupefyingly simplistic.
I shall try to finish my game just for the sake of SoD, but that may turn out to be impossible.
BG2 and BG2:EE, on the other hand, are the best games ever, basically.
Speaking as someone who played both games a lot and loves both at roughly equal a level, they're each a different beast, for sure. BG1 was kind of experimental, focusing on open world exploration with strategy mixed in, which was (and I suppose still is) pretty unique at the time. It also didn't take itself very seriously and made fun of its genre a lot. As a result, the protagonist is less of a typical RPG hero meant to represent your persona in the game, and more of a sarcastic jackass with their own personality. The plot was weird and all over the place, but with a satisfying depth to it not commonly found in other high fantasy stories.
Comparatively, BG2 is a fairly standard Bioware RPG.
Of course, it's amazingly well made, and it introduced a lot of the staples that Bioware became known for, but it also dropped those features that they deemed superfluous. Fortunately, the gameplay is still a lot more tactically involved than in their later titles, which gives it that extra edge it needs, in my opinion.
Beamdog devs have stated it many times that they aim to make Dragonspear into a fusion between BG1 and BG2, which makes sense considering chronologically it takes place between the two games. Needless to say, I can't wait to see what this fusion plays like.
@bengoshi: I'm frankly astonished to see that BG:EE has sold better than BG2:EE. I tried the original BG a couple of times, and just out of support, I bought BG:EE and tried it, too. It's still almost impossible to get into it: it's full of aimless wandering around these pretty landscapes, the dialogues hardly ever give you any reasonable options, and the quests are stupefyingly simplistic.
I shall try to finish my game just for the sake of SoD, but that may turn out to be impossible.
BG2 and BG2:EE, on the other hand, are the best games ever, basically.
I recommend you restart and install the NPC project over at Gibberlings Three. Yes there's still a lot of wandering the wilderness and quests are simplistic, but now the travels are filled with interesting comments and conversations with your travelling companions. Ever felt it was weird that Imoen basically said nothing when you saw Gorion's body... well with this mod she reacts in a believable way and you can have a conversation about it. Your companions also interject during conversations with NPCs with little quips. It really adds a lot to the game, adding that BG2 feeling - I can't actually play BG1 without it installed now.
So, this friday will be another live stream with the developers. What questions do we have to them, taking into account all the information that has become available since the last stream?
I always have the same question, since it is still unanswered. Will Siege of Dragonspear be released in other languages except English?
Not initially. We do intend to translate it after release, but I don't know yet what languages or timeframe we're looking at. Cam and Trent are still deciding what they want to do.
I have another question about translations, please correct me if i'm wrong:
- Bg1 e bg2 will receive a patch for the new content (new class and spells (?)) even without SoD installed. - These Patches will be released before SoD - The content of these new patches will not be translated immediately.
Knowing this, it will not be better to give the content of these patches to translation groups a bit before the release? I'm thinking about the italian translation; i know that it's already finished since months and i suppose they can translate the new contents in no time (i repeat, without SoD contents).
I do have a follow up question regarding the scaling difficulty. Will XP be scaled down for encounters when fighting the extra critters.
when yoy scale the difficulty up, it will add a couple of archers and a cleric to the already established meleers.
So assume on core, there are 5 fighters in an encounter worth 100 xp each. If on a higher difficulty, you add 4 archers and a cleric. Would the all be worth 100 xp (doublinghe xp gained and curtailing the difficulty with faster leveling) or will they be each worth 50 xp?
@deltago I've managed to find this post on rpgcodex.net:
"As of patch 1 for IWD:EE, there is an option to turn off the damage adjustments on higher / lower difficulty settings as well as the XP bonus. So if people want to fight 3 ogres in the first Easthaven cave (instead of one) but don't want them to deal double damage and grant double XP, they can do that now.
Furthermore, in SoD, difficulty settings affect a larger variety of things than just enemy damage. Some examples include enemy combat tactics (how intelligently they pick their targets), enemy numbers (3 enemies on Normal, 5 on Core Rules and 6 on Hard, 7 on Insane), enemy group composition (3 melee opponents on Normal, 2 additional archers on Core Rules, an extra healer on Hard and an opponent with special abilities on Insane) as well as enemy spell / item use (enemies won't use their most powerful spells and items below Core Rules)."
Maybe @AlexT can add here, to answer the particular question by @deltago above. To me, it looks like the answer to @deltago's question will be: "if there are 5 fighters in an encounter worth 100 xp each, and on a higher difficulty, additional 4 archers and a cleric worth 100 xp each, you'll get XP for each of them, i.e. 1000 XP, not 500, and there will be no option to lower it".
Also, it looks like there are not going be no new spells for low-level druids (read: levels 1 and 2 of druid spells) in SoD:
Q: Any new spells for Druids (especially low level ones)? A:There are some new spells in SoD, but not the kind that low level druids can use. We are aware of the issue though, and we may address it at some point.
"may" and "at some point" definitely means not in SoD.
Some more information from rpgcodex.net (really, it would be better if the developers shared this information on this forum too, because this is the main forum for the EEs, and rpgcodex.net is a painful experience for EE players):
AlexT: "I was responsible for creating the AI for the Black Pits 2 battles and most of the combat in Neera's areas. Nowadays, I don't do as much AI scripting as before because of my management responsibilities, but I did set up the guidelines that our scripters use. I'm still personally writing certain portions of SoD AI, mostly boss battles and the new party AI scripts."
Comments
Also take into account that BG came out at a time when the PC gaming market (and PC RPG market especially) was very small compared to what it is today. The original BG only sold ~2 million copies, and I'd expect that only a portion of those who played it back then stuck around to buy the EE. Baldur's Gate may be a beloved and well-respected name, but I have doubts that that would translate very well into sales numbers nowadays. That could explain why we're not seeing an IWD2:EE, unfortunately.
Will Siege of Dragonspear be released in other languages except English?
Now jump to Ulgoth's Beard, save the game, and have your mage cast blindness on Shandalar until he is affected. Shandalar normally has 0 for all his saving throws (thanks to his robe) so this shouldn't work on him (and if you use a non-illusionist mage it won't). Eventually though with an Illusionist it will work.
Without going into any detail or spoilers, aside from the new NPCs are your companions dictated solely by import or starting alignment (if that is indeed still a thing? Or instead might there be a few opportunities to swap out some people at the start of the expansion?
Obviously it was accomplished by completely different story and gameplay methods but Im thinking along the lines of how in ToB as long as the character wasnt dead you still had a method to recruit them even if they werent a member of the party you initially imported.
Im just asking as I havent yet heard if multiple character imports will be a luxury or instead a necessity to experience fully what the expansion has to offer?
I was a little let down with the DLC for both BGEE and BG2EE. No more portraits, no npcs, unless I missed something. So for me Siege will have to make up for that
Do you mean SoD doesnt have new potraits/characters for BG/BG2:EE or that the Enhanced Editions didn't have new portraits and characters?
They do but if you played on IOS you had to buy then seperate to offset the low price. New characters and portraits were some of the original big marketing points before the release. Rassad, Neera and Dorn. If you missed them check around the forums or ask they are well worth a try (and have a few new areas locked behind their own quests)
Or do you mean additional post game DLC? Yea I can agree some smaller additions like portraits or an extra voice would have been nice post release content even if to just fill the void between patches. We did get a certain black pits NPC officially added via a patch for BG:EE.
I shall try to finish my game just for the sake of SoD, but that may turn out to be impossible.
BG2 and BG2:EE, on the other hand, are the best games ever, basically.
http://www.pocketplane.net/
http://www.shsforums.net/
http://www.gibberlings3.net/
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/44476/tool-big-world-setup-bws-mod-manager-for-baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition-trilogy-for-windows
Comparatively, BG2 is a fairly standard Bioware RPG.
Of course, it's amazingly well made, and it introduced a lot of the staples that Bioware became known for, but it also dropped those features that they deemed superfluous. Fortunately, the gameplay is still a lot more tactically involved than in their later titles, which gives it that extra edge it needs, in my opinion.
Beamdog devs have stated it many times that they aim to make Dragonspear into a fusion between BG1 and BG2, which makes sense considering chronologically it takes place between the two games. Needless to say, I can't wait to see what this fusion plays like.
Looks more like a feature than a bug! Can the dwarf also jump in the air and squash his opponents?
- Bg1 e bg2 will receive a patch for the new content (new class and spells (?)) even without SoD installed.
- These Patches will be released before SoD
- The content of these new patches will not be translated immediately.
Knowing this, it will not be better to give the content of these patches to translation groups a bit before the release?
I'm thinking about the italian translation; i know that it's already finished since months and i suppose they can translate the new contents in no time (i repeat, without SoD contents).
Thank you very much
"As of patch 1 for IWD:EE, there is an option to turn off the damage adjustments on higher / lower difficulty settings as well as the XP bonus. So if people want to fight 3 ogres in the first Easthaven cave (instead of one) but don't want them to deal double damage and grant double XP, they can do that now.
Furthermore, in SoD, difficulty settings affect a larger variety of things than just enemy damage. Some examples include enemy combat tactics (how intelligently they pick their targets), enemy numbers (3 enemies on Normal, 5 on Core Rules and 6 on Hard, 7 on Insane), enemy group composition (3 melee opponents on Normal, 2 additional archers on Core Rules, an extra healer on Hard and an opponent with special abilities on Insane) as well as enemy spell / item use (enemies won't use their most powerful spells and items below Core Rules)."
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/beamdogs-baldurs-gate-siege-of-dragonspear-interquel.96369/page-38#post-4371565
And "Yes. There's a setting in the Options menu that allows you to turn off the difficulty-based damage adjustments.
Note that SoD (like BG1 and BG2) doesn't have XP adjustments based on difficulty, those were always exclusive to IWD."
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/beamdogs-baldurs-gate-siege-of-dragonspear-interquel.96369/page-38#post-4371764
Maybe @AlexT can add here, to answer the particular question by @deltago above. To me, it looks like the answer to @deltago's question will be: "if there are 5 fighters in an encounter worth 100 xp each, and on a higher difficulty, additional 4 archers and a cleric worth 100 xp each, you'll get XP for each of them, i.e. 1000 XP, not 500, and there will be no option to lower it".
Also, it looks like there are not going be no new spells for low-level druids (read: levels 1 and 2 of druid spells) in SoD:
Q: Any new spells for Druids (especially low level ones)?
A:There are some new spells in SoD, but not the kind that low level druids can use. We are aware of the issue though, and we may address it at some point.
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/beamdogs-baldurs-gate-siege-of-dragonspear-interquel.96369/page-41#post-4376627
"may" and "at some point" definitely means not in SoD.
Some more information from rpgcodex.net (really, it would be better if the developers shared this information on this forum too, because this is the main forum for the EEs, and rpgcodex.net is a painful experience for EE players):
AlexT: "I was responsible for creating the AI for the Black Pits 2 battles and most of the combat in Neera's areas. Nowadays, I don't do as much AI scripting as before because of my management responsibilities, but I did set up the guidelines that our scripters use. I'm still personally writing certain portions of SoD AI, mostly boss battles and the new party AI scripts."
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/beamdogs-baldurs-gate-siege-of-dragonspear-interquel.96369/page-39#post-4371769