Standard Baldur's Gate vs. The Enhanced Version...?

Gavindale

What is the difference between Baldur's Gate and the Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition Package? I have the standard/original version, but not sure if I should spend the money for the EE...?

meagloth

Well, bg1 you get kits and sorcerers, which is one of the most awesome things that I think gets overlooked a lot. You also get the bg2 engine, which means a few new spells, and more specific proficiencies as featured in bg2. Obviously 3 new NPC's, all romanceable, with a lot of new items I their larger-than-suitable-for-bg1 quests. There are also a lot of bugs fixed, and exploits gone. You also get zoom, a new UI, and the black Pitts, which is pretty good for what it is.
For bg2 you get the 3 NPC's and one new one, all with lots of quests an items, lots of bug fixes, lots of new bugs, and a few new kits, a long with another UI(dunno why they didn't keep the bg1 one. I like that better) you can also get both games on iPad, which is great. I can't think of anything else right now.

Zeckul

You don't have to spend hours installing mods just to get it running decently, multiplayer works, and you get some new companions and classes.

Erg

Zeckul said:

You don't have to spend hours installing mods just to get it running decently, multiplayer works, and you get some new companions and classes.

Unfortunately, most mods are still not available for the Enhanced Edition (especially for the first game), so even if you wanted to spend hours installing them, you couldn't.

Basically, if you like mods stick with the original games, if you find installing them a chore get the Enhanced Edition.

meagloth said:

Well, bg1 you get kits and sorcerers, which is one of the most awesome things that I think gets overlooked a lot. You also get the bg2 engine, which means a few new spells, and more specific proficiencies as featured in bg2. Obviously 3 new NPC's, all romanceable, with a lot of new items I their larger-than-suitable-for-bg1 quests. There are also a lot of bugs fixed, and exploits gone. You also get zoom, a new UI, and the black Pitts, which is pretty good for what it is.
For bg2 you get the 3 NPC's and one new one, all with lots of quests an items, lots of bug fixes, lots of new bugs, and a few new kits, a long with another UI(dunno why they didn't keep the bg1 one. I like that better) you can also get both games on iPad, which is great. I can't think of anything else right now.

To reiterate, you can do 99% of the above in the original games too by using mods. Additionally most of the things you can do with mods in the original games are still not available for the Enhanced Edition.

JuliusBorisov

Looking at @Erg‌ 's post, I feel myself obliged to point to those improvents by EEs that are less questionable than those that are mentioned in the first 2 comments:

A possibility to play at much higher resolutions

New NPCs, their quests romances and new items

Black Pits 1 and 2

Quick Loot feature in BG2:EE

A lot of bug fixes available right at the end of downloading the game without the need to fix them yourself

Several new portraits

New patches in the future, including a new adventure

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Heindrich

The red diamond dot above the action bar in BG2EE that conveniently shows everything that can be looted in the area. I believe it will be added to BGEE in a future update too.

Sergio said:

what is the quick loot feature you are referring to, Bengoshi?

Erg

@bengoshi, I also feel obliged to reply to your post

bengoshi said:

A possibility to play at much higher resolutions

For for the original games you can do the same with the Widescreen Mod and Bigger Fonts. I'm not sure about large resolutions (e.g. 1920x1080), but if you play at 1600x900 or lower resolutions, the original games with those mods IMO look quite good.

bengoshi said:

New NPCs, their quests romances and new items

There is plenty of mods adding new NPCs and/or items. The overall quality of these mods range from very poor to much better than what Beamdog did, at least IMHO. For example, I personally think that NPCs like Finch (still not available for BG:EE) or Angelo are better than the new NPCs added by BG:EE.

bengoshi said:

Black Pits 1 and 2

They are OK, if you are into arena-like add-ons. They are just not my cup of tea.

bengoshi said:

Quick Loot feature in BG2:EE

No comment here. I didn't get BGII:EE yet, so I didn't have a chance to try that.

bengoshi said:

A lot of bug fixes available right at the end of downloading the game without the need to fix them yourself

The Fixpacks are easy to install and, if you do, you can have these bug fixes on the original games too, without any of the new bugs added in the Enhanced Editions.

bengoshi said:

Several new portraits

Fair enough, although you can also obtain hundreds of high quality fantasy images (to be resized and cropped) and/or ready-to-use portraits for free on the internet.

bengoshi said:

New patches in the future, including a new adventure

This is good and bad news at the same time. In fact the lack of stability, due to the patching process, is severely hurting the modding scene. It has already killed several mods, like the Archaic GUI for example, and broken several others (currently almost all the mods adding kits).

meagloth

Ugh, do really need to turn this into another mods vs. EE argument? We get it, you can mod vanilla bg. Congratulations. You're awesome, you didn't waste your money on the EE. But some us don't like mods, and want official content. Besides, if you're putting so many mods on t of each other on a game that is already pretty unstable playing on an OS it wasn't made for, you're going to have a lot more bugs than either EEs.
@Gavindale‌ just asked for the differences, not which was better

Zeckul

Erg said:

The Fixpacks are easy to install and, if you do, you can have these bug fixes on the original games too, without any of the new bugs added in the Enhanced Editions.

An enormous number of bugs were fixed in the development of BG:EE that didn't get backported into any of the fixpacks, as far as I'm aware. In particular, some bugs could not be properly fixed in BG1 because they would have required source code changes which was made possible with BG:EE. So the EEs are certainly the most up-to-date and correct implementations.

Also although it was possible to increase resolution via a mod in vanilla, nothing would scale (except perhaps some fonts in a semi-broken way if you installed another mod for that), so at high resolutions you end up looking at something like an ant colony simulator and the UI gets borderline unusable.

Erg

Zeckul said:

An enormous number of bugs were fixed in the development of BG:EE that didn't get backported into any of the fixpacks, as far as I'm aware. In particular, some bugs could not be properly fixed in BG1 because they would have required source code changes which was made possible with BG:EE.

Zeckul said:

So the EEs are certainly the most up-to-date and correct implementations.

@Zeckul, I'm not so sure about that considering this.

On the other hand, can you name a level A or level B bug that it is still present in the original games and it hasn't been fixed by the Fixpacks or TobEx?

Zeckul said:

Also although it was possible to increase resolution via a mod in vanilla, nothing would scale (except perhaps some fonts in a semi-broken way if you installed another mod for that), so at high resolutions you end up looking at something like an ant colony simulator and the UI gets borderline unusable.

I doesn't look like an ant simulator to me, but of course it is subjective, so I'll post a screenshot and everyone, and the OP in particular, will be able to decide on his own whether playing the original games at higher resolutions is feasible or not.

[spoiler=Original Game at 1600x900][/spoiler]

meagloth

Erg said:

Zeckul said:

An enormous number of bugs were fixed in the development of BG:EE that didn't get backported into any of the fixpacks, as far as I'm aware. In particular, some bugs could not be properly fixed in BG1 because they would have required source code changes which was made possible with BG:EE.

Zeckul said:

So the EEs are certainly the most up-to-date and correct implementations.

@Zeckul, I'm not so sure about that considering this.

On the other hand, can you name a level A or level B bug that it is still present in the original games and it hasn't been fixed by the Fixpacks or TobEx?

Zeckul said:

Also although it was possible to increase resolution via a mod in vanilla, nothing would scale (except perhaps some fonts in a semi-broken way if you installed another mod for that), so at high resolutions you end up looking at something like an ant colony simulator and the UI gets borderline unusable.

I doesn't look like an ant simulator to me, but of course it is subjective, so I'll post a screenshot and everyone, and the OP in particular, will be able to decide on his own whether playing the original games at higher resolutions is feasible or not.

[spoiler=Original Game at 1600x900][/spoiler]

ahhh... The old UI. Pretty nice, you've got to admit. love your portraits as well.

CrevsDaak

@Erg‌ depends on how much you know about modding and technology. I'd say that the EEs aren't better than the original games, I also have my BGT install with 31 mods, of which around 7 are not updated for the EEs, while 2 are not needed (or not working anymore, in the case of TobEx's Tweaks).
If you are a veteran player, I think I would recommend sticking to the old games, and getting the EEs in a few years. But if you are new to the game (or not related with mods), I'd recommend getting the EEs now.

@meagloth‌ the BG2 UI is the best I've seen in IE games, so I don't see what's wrong with it (anyways Erg has a mod that changes it, and ruins it's perfection ). Hence the reason I play at 1024x768 instead of 1200x800 (which is my screen's size).

Edit: still, I could never get a game to work with BG2/BGT, nor SoA, ToB, patched, modded or unpatched and unmodded, with carrots and with cheese, with Himachi nor with TPC/IP I could got MP to work, and I am not talking about playing with someone, I'm talking about being able to create more than a character at the same time for a single run (while inside the game).

CaloNord

Personally I prefer the Enhanced Editions. They run smooth as silk on my windows 8 laptop which is something the originals couldn't do no matter how much I modded them. In fact the more mods I had running at the same time the worse it performed and more bugs were introduced by the mods themselves. Many of which's authors have long since disappeared and aren't around to fix the bugs their mods introduce.
Yes the patching process may be interfering with the modding scene at the moment but I enjoy the official patches a lot more then I enjoy the fixpacks. (Probably just a personal thing).
I like being able to play at High Res without needing two mods and a utility to make it work. I like the new NPC's and the items and the new content.
I just *like* it. It's good, not to mention breathing fresh life into an old title!

lolien

Some addition to the argument:

vanilla bg:
- no extra cost
- original cutscenes (for example the cloakwood wywern), and intro video
- beforementioned (gui, resolution, modding)

You can add a LOT of content with mods, and with some experiment you can choose the stable and up to par ones. The differences are minor, sometimes better, sometimes not, what you can reach with mods on vanilla bg. However modding takes time.

bg ee:

- you spend money, but you support development with it
- new intro and cutscenes (they resemble more to the bg 2 style)
- supports several platforms
- beforementioned (new gui, official contents, high res.)

You get some content, support and conversion officially, without much hussle.

And some off topic:

The good news: Whatever you choose, you can find here a helping community with a lot of acceptance, fun and insight.

(Something like in a family. You know, for example my dad doesn't like computer games, he understand not, why i waste my time with this, like he use to say "producing virtual corpses", but still we respect and love each other.)

CaloNord

I'm actually curious why they switched out the cutscenes. Personally, I like the originals. Don't get me wrong the new ones are beautiful and I know they're going for refreshing original cutscenes that flow better between the two. But still...

jjstraka34

There is no comparison, if you are just starting out get the EE versions. The BG2 engine has been implemented into the first game, so the whole saga feels like a continual experience. The new NPCs are interesting and blend right in as if they were always there. As an above poster said, they run smooth as silk and the new resolutions look beautiful in their own way. The multitude of kits makes the game almost infinitely re-playable. I can take or leave the gladiator mode, but it certainly doesn't hurt anything.

Yes, there are still a multitude of bugs, but the next patch should fix nearly all of them and will go a long way towards fixing the ones in BG2 as well. When all is said and done what you are going to have is a gorgeous, smooth playing, nearly bug-free edition of the greatest RPG saga ever made that at a minimum will take up over 200 hrs of your time to get through the first time and likely 1000s more in the coming years.

fanscale

It is worth it. It has enough new things to make you want to play it. The one downside is the nagging DRM. You can't just move your game to a new computer, you have to redownload the entire game.

GodKaiserHell

 

LiamEsler

@fanscale We don't believe in DRM; your games are completely portable.

Gate70

I think what fanscale is saying is that the Beamdog launcher and games cannot be copied (usb stick, network) from one computer to another but have to be downloaded again. I decided to move my games from c:\games to c:\beamdog and it ended up re-downloading everything. Not a huge issue for me but then I have reasonably quick uncapped broadband. Some people have download limits, slow connection speed, 3g cards or I suppose something like dial-up at 56k.

From memory the standalone version was better in this respect.

Edit. Anyway, back to the OP. I still use the original (well, BGT) in multiplayer but have switched my single player to mostly the enhanced editions. As patches arrive this may change although that depends if my friends switch (only 1 of my 3 regular MPers has the enhanced editions so far as I am aware).

Pecca

Gate70 said:

I think what fanscale is saying is that the Beamdog launcher and games cannot be copied (usb stick, network) from one computer to another but have to be downloaded again. I decided to move my games from c:\games to c:\beamdog and it ended up re-downloading everything. Not a huge issue for me but then I have reasonably quick uncapped broadband. Some people have download limits, slow connection speed, 3g cards or I suppose something like dial-up at 56k.

From memory the standalone version was better in this respect.

Edit. Anyway, back to the OP. I still use the original (well, BGT) in multiplayer but have switched my single player to mostly the enhanced editions. As patches arrive this may change although that depends if my friends switch (only 1 of my 3 regular MPers has the enhanced editions so far as I am aware).

I don't get it. I can copy-paste my games everywhere. Right now, I have 7 copies of BG:EE and 4 copies of BG2:EE on my computer (for modding purposes) and I certainly didn't have to download anything twice. Just ctrl+c and ctrl+v.

Otaku

Pecca said:

Gate70 said:

I think what fanscale is saying is that the Beamdog launcher and games cannot be copied (usb stick, network) from one computer to another but have to be downloaded again. I decided to move my games from c:\games to c:\beamdog and it ended up re-downloading everything. Not a huge issue for me but then I have reasonably quick uncapped broadband. Some people have download limits, slow connection speed, 3g cards or I suppose something like dial-up at 56k.

From memory the standalone version was better in this respect.

Edit. Anyway, back to the OP. I still use the original (well, BGT) in multiplayer but have switched my single player to mostly the enhanced editions. As patches arrive this may change although that depends if my friends switch (only 1 of my 3 regular MPers has the enhanced editions so far as I am aware).

I don't get it. I can copy-paste my games everywhere. Right now, I have 7 copies of BG:EE and 4 copies of BG2:EE on my computer (for modding purposes) and I certainly didn't have to download anything twice. Just ctrl+c and ctrl+v.

Your PC is activate. Copy your Game on another PC and you must activate it new (i test it before ca. two Months i dont think its Change)

LiamEsler

@Otaku @gate70 Where are you launching the game from? You don't need to launch it from the Beamdog launcher - you can just launch it from baldur.exe in the game directory, or get the standalone launcher.

Otaku

aha thx... I didn't know I can get the game as a standalone. my mistake. must I activate the Game when I use it without beamdog?

mlnevese

@Otaku‌ Nope. You just have to login the first time you download it and when you want to update.

CaloNord

Just a thank you for the DRM free thing. I've bought a copy of both games, my fiancee wanted to play so we threw it on a flash, along with all mods and off we went on a LAN adventure. Since then we've bought both copies and we both love to play the game. It's beautiful that some of that simplicity has returned. People will pirate your product whether it's got DRM or not, there is no reason to make the honest, which is most of us, suffer to make it slightly more difficult to pirate. So thank you SO much for that. I won't derail anymore, just had to say that!

Zeckul

Erg said:

@Zeckul, I'm not so sure about that considering this.

On the other hand, can you name a level A or level B bug that it is still present in the original games and it hasn't been fixed by the Fixpacks or TobEx?

How many of these bugs are in new content? How many were in the original BG2 and not backported to BG2 Fixpack? I can't name any specific bug, but the fact is that BG:EE is actively developed and maintained software while BG2 isn't, and the last Fixpack version is over a year old already.

Erg said:

I doesn't look like an ant simulator to me, but of course it is subjective, so I'll post a screenshot and everyone, and the OP in particular, will be able to decide on his own whether playing the original games at higher resolutions is feasible or not.

[spoiler=Original Game at 1600x900][/spoiler]

Most people have 1080p monitors so it's even smaller than that, and you're stuck at that zoom level. Nevermind QHD and 4K monitors where playing at your native res will be entirely ridiculous.

Example: http://i.imgur.com/KsNhm.jpg

TJ_Hooker

You don't have to install the Widescreen mod at your monitor's native resolution. Right now I have it installed for IWD & PS:T at 720p (my monitor is 1080p), which I think provides a nice compromise between mitigating bluriness (from stretching to fit the screen) and avoiding shrinking the size of the visual elements too much.

Erg

TJ_Hooker said:

You don't have to install the Widescreen mod at your monitor's native resolution. Right now I have it installed for IWD & PS:T at 720p (my monitor is 1080p), which I think provides a nice compromise between mitigating bluriness (from stretching to fit the screen) and avoiding shrinking the size of the visual elements too much.

I agree. @TJ_Hooker solution it's like an homemade zoom function. After all, the Beamdog zoom function increases blurriness too, considering that the original assets were lost.