How stable (bug-free) is BG2:EE?

Carl_L

Hey,

Currently playing though BG:EE for the first time (about 1/3 of the way through) and plan on moving on to BG2-TOB once finished. I've been browsing through these forums and have kind of gotten the impression that BG2:EE is not in the greatest shape (or at least, wasn't upon release). Would like to hear some opinions regarding the current "state of the game" as it were. Thanks for your time.

meagloth

It's not as good as bg1ee, but it's totally playable. I wouldn't worry about it.

elminster

Unless you really, really want to play the new NPC's or the new kits (or I suppose the new portraits/soundsets) I would say stick with buying it from Gog.com and using the fixpack.

SharGuidesMyHand

I recently began a BG2:EE playthrough, and had asked the same question before starting, with mixed responses. I decided to give it a try anyway, and have already come across a number of notable bugs despite exploring only a few areas. Some of the bugs are purely superficial - i.e.: a character letting out her "death scream" in place of a spoken line, or the wrong text showing up for spoken dialogue - but other bugs have actually disrupted the playing of the game - i.e: spells not being cast, or spells being interrupted (and lost) when the caster suddenly speaks a random line.

The most frustrating (and recurring) bug that I've seen is at least three separate instances in which a certain interaction was supposed to take place, but the dialogue didn't trigger and/or the necessary character didn't appear. I managed to get a couple of these to eventually work by reloading several times, but even then it didn't entirely work as it should, plus it broke the immersion in the game.

Incidentally, if you're still only a third of the way through BG1, there's still hope that a new patch will have been released by the time you're ready to play BG2.

Gallowglass

The new content of BG2ee is quite fun, and is all playable in most runs, but the new-NPC quests (especially in ToB) still have a few bugs which sometimes cause noticeable problems.

The older content (i.e. if you don't take any of the new NPCs) is in about the same shape as BG1ee currently is: there are still minor bugs, but you're not likely to hit anything which will be a big deal (except perhaps on the new platforms, which may not be so thoroughly fixed yet ... or maybe multiplayer, which I've never tried, so I don't know).

lunar

Quite bug-free, nothing serious or game-stopping/breaking. New npc content is fun, and clearly far superiour to that of bg:ee. I still haven't played ToB, though.

JuliusBorisov

I'm exactly with @lunar‌ on this subject.

I can share my own experience: BG2:EE is quite alright. On my first run as an Avenger druid, ended by completing SoA, I've encountered some minor bugs with Hexxat in the party and my love interest but I've found all the needed solutions here, on the forum. Nothing game-breaking. I've completed the quests of Rasaad and Neera and have found them VERY entertaining. No bugs regarding Rasaad and Neera. In fact, I've liked their storylines very much and nothing prevented me to taste them.

On my current run as an Assassin, I haven't found ANY bugs at ALL - the party consists of Minsk, Jaheira, Aerie, Anomen and Nalia. I've completed all the quests in the chapter 2, have everyone at 2 mln experience and have recently come to the Spellhold.

So, BG2:EE is not only playable, but also is in good state.

Thrasymachus

I finished BG2EE recently (both SoA and ToB). There were a few bugs, the most irritating of which was the inability of my blade to place more than one HLA trap in any area. However, I found a fix here for that (just dropped it in my override file), and that issue is only a concern for you if your PC is a blade or you want to have Haer'Dalis in your party.

Overall, I had a great time plaything through BG2EE, including the new material with Rasaad and Neera. (However, I've heard Hexxat's quests are somewhat buggy.)

In short, BG2EE is definitely playable.

Gallowglass

@Bengoshi - I do recommend continuing the new NPCs into ToB, since there's interesting new content for each of them there as well. BUT in ToB, their quests are definitely a little buggier - for example, Neera's ToB quest sometimes (reportedly) has difficulty triggering, and sometimes (definitely, I've seen it) also has difficulty ending correctly. Rasaad's ToB quest often has difficulty completing the Shadowplane section correctly (I had to re-do it twice to trigger the correct events and dialogue to end it cleanly).

I agree that Neera's and Rasaad's SoA quests work fairly well, but they're not quite bug-free. Rasaad's can occasionally fail to get the correct end-dialogue (and therefore make it difficult to keep Rasaad in the party) if the Master of Arms dies, so one time I had to re-play the last battle. Neera's quest can run into trouble if you use AoE spells in the Red Wizard Enclave because the effects reach through walls and closed doors (surely that's a bug?) and turn characters hostile before you even know that they're there (which is a pain because you can't then speak to them, which you'd probably want to do), and it's a design flaw that you can only get the best outcome by using meta-game knowledge to do the Wild Mage sub-quests in a sensible order - there's no in-game clue to warn you that the remaining sub-quests will all be screwed unless you leave the "blue elf" sub-quest until last.

Similarly there are mild-to-medium (although not show-stopping) bugs in Hexxat's and Dorn's quests.

jackjack

Personally, I'm happy playing BGEE until the next patch for the sequel. I am interested in the new characters, and I got tired of the bugs, the lion's share of which lie within the Enhanced content.

Twani

I had a bug where Dorn's third quest (the patron quest) never triggered at all, leading to a bug in ToB where he couldn't do his thing with the tree because his sword wasn't around to complain at him. And then I had a bug when Dorn was apparently thought by the game to be dead, despite being alive, but that could have happened in regular BG2, too.

Other then that, everything was very smooth: I did all of Neera's quests without trouble, and part of Hexxat and Rasaad's.

CrevsDaak

I would say that more bug free than a unmodded BG2, but it's engine is more stable.

Aristillius

I didnt notice any bugs in my BG2EE playthrough.

SharGuidesMyHand

Playing on a PC, I've explored Irenicus' dungeon, Waukeen's promenade, Umar Hills, the Docks, some of the slums, and the Planar Sphere. Here are some of the bugs that I've come across so far:
1. When in Multiplayer mode, the game has extreme difficulty scrolling to the left when you move your mouse cursor to the left side of the screen.
2. Imoen attempted to cast a fireball spell, but just kept waving her hands endlessly and never actually casted the spell. The spell was lost.
3. One of my party members was in the process of casting a spell, but then suddenly decided to speak a random line, interrupting the spell and causing it to be lost.
4. After killing Kalah and saving the circus, Aerie's dialogue with Quayle (where they both talk about how each has changed the other) doesn't trigger if Aerie has already been accepted into my party.
5. The interaction where you rescue the lone shadow thief from the vampire Del and her party doesn't play out correctly. After the thief speaks to you, sometimes nobody appears, sometimes just one or two non-hostile vampires appear but Del doesn't, sometimes Del appears but the other vampires don't appear until after you've killed Del, and they come from another direction.
6. In the sequence where Mazzy pit fights Gorf, Gorf's girlfriend will say, "Oh look, here he comes!," but sometimes he doesn't actually appear.
7. The default female voice doesn't work, although the same voice will work if you select "Female #4" instead of "default."
8. An enemy cleric casted silence on my party, but not everyone who was actually silenced had a corresponding icon on their portrait showing that they had been silenced.
9. One time when I clicked on Deidre in the Adventure's Mart, she let out a psychopathic scream rather than say her lines.

elminster

SharGuidesMyHand said:

6. In the sequence where Mazzy pit fights Gorf, Gorf's girlfriend will say, "Oh look, here he comes!," but sometimes he doesn't actually appear.

I think in the original BG2 (even with the fixpack) this encounter always was buggy/wouldn't progress.

CrevsDaak

SharGuidesMyHand said:

2. Imoen attempted to cast a fireball spell, but just kept waving her hands endlessly and never actually casted the spell. The spell was lost.
3. One of my party members was in the process of casting a spell, but then suddenly decided to speak a random line, interrupting the spell and causing it to be lost.
8. An enemy cleric casted silence on my party, but not everyone who was actually silenced had a corresponding icon on their portrait showing that they had been silenced.

Those are present in vanilla too, I am not sure of the icon one as I played very little without SCS, so I don't have my party affected by Silence very likely.

SharGuidesMyHand said:

9. One time when I clicked on Deidre in the Adventure's Mart, she let out a psychopathic scream rather than say her lines.

Maybe it's a feature. If it had text that isn't according to the sound, then it's a bug

lunar

SharGuidesMyHand said:

Playing on a PC, I've explored Irenicus' dungeon, Waukeen's promenade, Umar Hills, the Docks, some of the slums, and the Planar Sphere. Here are some of the bugs that I've come across so far:
1. When in Multiplayer mode, the game has extreme difficulty scrolling to the left when you move your mouse cursor to the left side of the screen.
2. Imoen attempted to cast a fireball spell, but just kept waving her hands endlessly and never actually casted the spell. The spell was lost.
3. One of my party members was in the process of casting a spell, but then suddenly decided to speak a random line, interrupting the spell and causing it to be lost.
4. After killing Kalah and saving the circus, Aerie's dialogue with Quayle (where they both talk about how each has changed the other) doesn't trigger if Aerie has already been accepted into my party.
5. The interaction where you rescue the lone shadow thief from the vampire Del and her party doesn't play out correctly. After the thief speaks to you, sometimes nobody appears, sometimes just one or two non-hostile vampires appear but Del doesn't, sometimes Del appears but the other vampires don't appear until after you've killed Del, and they come from another direction.
6. In the sequence where Mazzy pit fights Gorf, Gorf's girlfriend will say, "Oh look, here he comes!," but sometimes he doesn't actually appear.
7. The default female voice doesn't work, although the same voice will work if you select "Female #4" instead of "default."
8. An enemy cleric casted silence on my party, but not everyone who was actually silenced had a corresponding icon on their portrait showing that they had been silenced.
9. One time when I clicked on Deidre in the Adventure's Mart, she let out a psychopathic scream rather than say her lines.

1-happens to me too. Keyboard scrolling works. (use left arrow button on keyboard)
2-she must have lost her line of sight to the target, or she got blinded/confused etc. or the target escaped/went invisible, the area or got killed. Happens very very rarely.
3-yeah it happens but rarely.
4-Happened to me too. I force talked to Aerie using talk icon and she sprouted her usual dialogue. At next playthrough, she talked herself.
5-I was surprised when other vampires came out of nowhere from all different directions. This actually made the encounter more difficult and exciting IMHO.
6-Never done her quest.
7-Never noticed, but female#4 works, so no biggie.
8-never happened to me.
9-I remember this from the vanilla too. Maybe a very random very rare feature. Like if you talk to her one too many times. Party npcs say comical lines in bg1 as well, if you click on them too many times. Some chickens even say 'hey we are just chickens nothing to see here, move along, sheesh' or something along the lines if you poke them too much.

Erg

Aristillius

Hehe, @Erg
Just to clarify: I dont mean to imply that there are no bugs in the game or that people who report bugs are overdramatic. I do, however, think it is right to also give my impression of the state of the game when asked. As to why I havent noticed any, I do not know.
But oh yeah, I just remembered the one bug I had, default male voice didnt work properly - the lines would show up in the text box, but would not have an audio component. Hardly a reason to not play the EE though.

CoM_Solaufein

Very stable. No game killing bugs from my games.

element

yeh, lots of bugs in my experience at every level

id definitely stay clear for now unless your desperate for the new content

I would also say similar threads have been seen before only to have the creator return to say how buggy there experience was