How stable is the current version on Windows?

sloejean

Hi, this may be a difficult question to answer but I just wanted to get a general sense.

I've recently been playing GOG version of BG2 barely modded due to fear of bugs deep into my games. BG2EE intrigued me because it combines all the good mods into a version that is officially supported. Yet the main complaints I've read about BGEE and BG2EE have been that they are as buggy as, if not buggier than, original versions.

Some people defended the EE versions saying the developers provide patches to address major issues. Yet BG2EE hasn't been updated since November, which was 3 months ago. I understand Android port is the priority now but I can't help but wonder if game is stable enough yet. Going through various forums and message boards, I'm seeing some reports of CTDs, blank screens, NPC related errors, etc. This paints a grim picture for me.

So yeah, is the game on Windows playable without running into gamebreaking bugs like incorrect quest chains, triggers not firing, etc? Thanks in advance.

Noon

I finished BG2ee on PC twice without any major bug, and any minor bugs were solved in 2 seconds by a quickload.

atcDave

EE is by far the most stable version of the game available.

ryuken87

It's stable in the sense it doesn't crash (except multiplayer which doesn't fail to crash with more than two people). It is however, much buggier than the original + official patch + G3 Fixpack. Most bugs are associated with the new content either directly (i.e. bugs in new quests) or indirectly (e.g. Guardian Telwyn not responding properly to the Sarles quest because of Dorn's quest).

I wouldn't say the bugs are gamebreaking in that I've been able to progress in the main story just fine, although I couldn't complete some content like the aforementioned Sarles quest, but for me they are immersion breaking in that I had to exit the game to find a solution every hour. The volunteers in the bugs section of the forum like Gate70 have mostly been very helpful in providing workarounds, but the situation overall with the lack of another patch in the foreseeable future is a bit shit tbh.

shawne

Well, BG:EE is fine - the remaining issues are minor (with the possible exception of the Luck bug, which has apparently been solved with the upcoming 1.3 patch).

But BG2:EE... well, it'll run without crashing (for the most part), but at this point it's still a bug-ridden mess, particularly if you're taking the new NPCs (Hexxat being the most problematic). I'd hold off on that until/if Beamdog gets around to addressing those problems...

xzar_monty

The only EE I've played is BG2, and my experience is this: the game is fairly stable, although it did crash to desktop three or four times.

I didn't encounter that many bugs, although the one I encountered near the end of TOB with Sendai (she won't die) is currently a game-ending bug.

I thought the game was good and enjoyable. The new NPC content was mostly very good (I had them all except Dorn), although the journal was rather badly implemented. It's not very nice to see journal entries describing conversations and experiences you haven't had.

sloejean

I see...From the sounds of it, it's a case of YMMV with glitches and bugs but the game overall is stable enough to be playable...

Well I guess I might as well just give it a try. Beamdog WILL patch it one day, right...?

Thanks everyone for the input anywho!

Ollmer

BGEE is very stable, it could run for days (alt-tabed as needed) without crashes. BG2EE is slightly less good unfortunately, it still crashes or hangs from time to time (once in 3 - 4 days).
Win7x64 and steam versions.

shawne

@sloejean: You can keep track of BG2:EE's bugs here: forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/26099/the-consolidated-reported-issues-thread-please-read-before-posting-spoiler-warning

Bercon

They'll probably spend at least 1 month finishing Android version and then move on to BG2:EE patch which will take 2-3 months (just my gues based on their previous patching schedule). So you could expect to be able to play in June or July if you wait for the patch.

Heindrich

sloejean said:

Beamdog WILL patch it one day, right...?

Yes, of course.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/30515/sign-up-for-beta-access-windows-mac-only

ryuken87

@Heindrich Sorry if this is a stupid question but it has been bugging me but why is it called the 'BG2:EE beta' rather than 'BG2:EE patch version xxxx beta'? It makes it sound like it's a beta test for the whole game (yeah I know some might say the game still is a beta, it's buggy but it's not *that* bad).

Heindrich

@ryuken87

Dee said:

It's called the BGII:EE Beta build because the build is a beta version of the full game. The beta build won't go away with the patch, in other words; it will remain in existence for any other patches we send into beta before release.

ryuken87

Cheers.

Ollmer

Heindrich said:

@ryuken87

Dee said:

It's called the BGII:EE Beta build because the build is a beta version of the full game. The beta build won't go away with the patch, in other words; it will remain in existence for any other patches we send into beta before release.

"We call this beta cos its betta than nothin'"

sorry, could not resist, no pun intended.

Many thanks to Beamdog for great work, EE versions saved me a _lot_ of time usually spent on patching original versions to make them bearable on modern systems and widescreen resolutions.

ifupauline

pretty stable -_-

FinneousPJ

Very stable. I haven't had any crashes or any other stability problems at all.