Questions regarding BG2:EE - state of gate & compatibility
Jaz
Member Posts: 9
Hey guys,
I am thinking about buying BG2:EE edition. I'd just like to know the current state of the game and have a few quesions:
Is it stable & bug-free?
What exactly does it offer opposite to the regular version of BG2?
Is it possible to import save games from the regular (read: non EE) BG1?
Is shadowkeeper working with BG2:EE?
I think that's about it for now, cheers and thanks for answering!
I am thinking about buying BG2:EE edition. I'd just like to know the current state of the game and have a few quesions:
Is it stable & bug-free?
What exactly does it offer opposite to the regular version of BG2?
Is it possible to import save games from the regular (read: non EE) BG1?
Is shadowkeeper working with BG2:EE?
I think that's about it for now, cheers and thanks for answering!
0
Comments
It offers a higher resolution! And a UI more fitting for it. Oh, and four new NPC's rich with extra quests and romances. You actually might not notice any new content at all if you don't pick any of them up though.
Don't know about number three.
We have EEKeeper for this and that works.
Its got a lot of little improvements over the original that add up. A lot of generally user friendly things. Increased stack sizes (up to 80 for ammo and I think 25 for potions), less wordy CLUA console (you no longer have to type out CLUAConsole before a cheat just "C"), improved UI, etc.
They had access to some of the original renders, meaning that the games backgrounds look better than what you get in the original BG2 (the sprites still are low resolution however). There is also a zoom feature and a feature that shows all the items that are currently on the ground near you (so you can click the item on this bar and the top NPC you've got highlighted will move to try to pick it up).
The journal now has been updated. Honestly its not that big of an improvement over BG2's. It think it was more of an improvement over BG1's journal that happened to get carried over into BG2EE (I guess for consistency reasons). Of any aspect of the game next to multiplayer its probably the one to experience the most issues (though I think most of these were ironed out over the last year as BGEE got patched).
There are visual improvements like the fact that now all kits and specialist mages are given their own unique colours at character creation. You can change these of course with the standard colour palette.
Spell and Item descriptions have been updated. Any spell or item description you see in the game should hopefully be 100% accurate at this point, which is more than can be said about the original (though I think SR and possibly the fixpacks do address these to some extent with the original). Also character abilities (like Minsc's berserk) now contain descriptions that you can access by right clicking on them. So if you were curious what some of the abilities actually do (especially the new NPC's since a few of them have them) there's now a means of finding out without the use of Google or checking internal game files. This is actually an example of one of the minor bugs since not all of these work at this point but a number of them do.
Its also got 5 extra NPC's over the original. Four of those NPC's have their own quest lines (which you can acquire a number of new items from).
There is the Black Pits 2. Its own separate story from the Bhaalspawn story (it doesn't concern the same people) and a continuation from the Black Pits in BGEE. Its more of combat simulator but its got some fun battles to check out.
Multiplayer has been improved. At least to a degree. It now has a matching service that you can use to play with other people. The best way I could describe it would be that its like Torchlight 2, so you select someone elses game from a list. Beamdog does the matching but doesn't host the games on its own servers. Multiplayer has had some troubles however. I know people were having problems with the Black Pits 2 multiplayer and with using the matching service for the main games multiplayer with more than 2 people.
I think that covers probably all the main improvements. If I miss anything someone else will probably point it out.
You should be able to import characters in BG1 into BG2EE.
As for Shadowkeeper its had some issues with the game (so I wouldn't use it). However, fans have something similar for both the enhanced edition games called EEkeeper. I'm not one to really use such things but people seem to have been receptive toward it.
- I have not tried it though I have seen it mentioned a number of times that bg1 characters can import into bg2EE
- there is 4 new npcs and associated quests/romances although I would not advise buying it for them alone(my mistake)
- some errors from vanilla are fixed
- there is a separate game mode called the black pits which is essentially just arena combat over and over how much you get from it varies depending on what u like about bg
- there is a multiplayer matchmaker although ive heard that mp is still quite unstable for some
- there is an EE keeper which works with both the EE games
- theres 5 new classes which may or may not be of interest
- there is a new UI although its purely cosmetic as far as I can tell
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/30083/uninformed-yet-enthusiastic-requesting-information-and-advice
Also there are a few other little tweaks (for the sake of thread size I'll just throw them in a spoiler tag even though they really don't contain spoilers).
In the original bg2 you didn't need to have 18 intelligence in order to learn level 9 spells. This was because there was a bug with one of the files that meant this wasn't properly implemented, but in BG2EE it has been. Its a pretty minor change since you can just get around it by using a potion of genius.
The pickpocket system has been changed. So depending upon the item you are looking to pick pocket off someone you'll need a pick pocket value of between 10-95 (this is not the same as stealing from stores). For just general (non-quickslot) inventory items you only need 10. To steal equipped weapons (that the target isn't using) you need a 95. Any other item is going to take at least 50.
A full list on the values needed for pickpocketing can be found here.
AMULET 80
ARMOUR 0
BELT 80
BOOTS 0
CLOAK 80
GAUNTLETS 80
HELMET 0
RING_LEFT 60
RING_RIGHT 60
SHIELD 0
FIST 0
AMMO1 50
AMMO2 50
AMMO3 50
AMMO4 50
MISC1 50
MISC2 50
MISC3 50
INV1 10
INV2 10
INV3 10
INV4 10
INV5 10
INV6 10
INV7 10
INV8 10
INV9 10
INV10 10
INV11 10
INV12 10
INV13 10
INV14 10
INV15 10
INV16 10
SUMMONED 0
WEAPON1 95
WEAPON2 95
WEAPON3 95
WEAPON4 95
The reputation system has been changed so that neutral NPC's are happy that you have a high amount of reputation (they used to not like this).
Anomen has been given spear proficiency to reflect the amount of proficiency points he should have. Some thing with Imoen and her thieving abilities.
Spell Changes
Iron Skins
Unlike in the original BG2 (meaning without any "fix" packs) Iron Skins now has a casting time of 9 instead of a casting time of 0. It means you pretty well need to have it activated before battle and not during it.
Touch spells and weapon creation spells
Like in BGEE any touch spell should now allow the user to attack as though they had proficiency with that weapon. Its the same for spells that create weapons (unless specified otherwise in the spell description). In the original BG2 you wouldn't get proficiency with these weapons so you'd end up getting penalized for it.
Weapon proficiencies have been boosted so that you get an extra 1/2 attack per round when you have Grand Mastery.