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Gripes with IwD EE.

LaBesteeeeaLaBesteeeea Member Posts: 2
in Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
Hey guys and girls. This is my first post so be gentle.
So I played the original Icewind Dale and now (being tempted by all this Enhanced Stuff) I started with Icewind Dale EE. Here are a couple of my gripes with it. I hope that besides the infinityengineveteranflame it will catch the attention of devs or anyone working on the game.

- resolution switching and options. Is the in-game zoom function really the only way to "change resolution"? BG 2 and Icewind Dale had a config app where you could change plenty of things including the res. Now all we have is a silly "Baldur.ini". And even there some options are not available (I'm not even talking about explanation of some strings). Take a look at the config files of some Fallout/Fallout 2 mods like High-res patch or Sfall. All options neatly explained, all states of options explained (meaning "set to 1 to get...", "set to 2 to get..."). No offense guys, but it's been like this since BG EE and it was a couple of years ago.
- GUI. I think that the old obscure-the-whole screen style for equipment/mage book/char screen/journal was way better. The current option just looks too small. Not everyone is playing this on a 40 inch TV. Maybe someone wants to actually look at those beautiful item icons that are right now JUST TOO SMALL. Why else would you play a 10y+ old 2D game than to experience this kind of stuff?
- classes flavour text. Some classes/kits descriptions contain plenty of nice flavour text and explanation but some look uninteresting or contain plain errors. If you really want to delve into the rules be so kind as to explain how they work properly. Wizard slayer gains 1% magic res per level but on level 30 his/hers m res is 54%. Wait... has this text error been in BG EE? Beamdog guys, you expanded the race descriptions, why not error check/expand the classes/kits?
- class balancing. Why has Beamdog limited the character level to 30? No HLAs? Seriously? If you're concerned about game balance it has been utterly destroyed already by including new spells and kits. Unless it's one of those licence agreement things again. Pardon me then.

That's all after 30 minutes of play. I will not bother with EE, will play the original.
And if anyone's trying to use the argument of BUT IT'S NOW WORKING UNDER MY WINDOWS 7 2164 bit 400 GB RAM AND THE ORIGINAL DIDN'T I say -> stow it. The original still works on all Windows oses available, on both newest AMD and NVidia cards. It doesn't have problems with SSD nor multi-core processors, just like BG 1 and BG 2. Even if it doesn't work on your particular configuration (because you have a problem with it you won't acknowledge) install Win XP on virtual box and it will play like a fairytale. Oh yeah, installing "all those mods that are so NOT included in EE edition" doesn't take a week, it takes 15 minutes (including downloading). Seriously people don't believe any crap people say.
I don't have anything against rehashing old games but do it properly. Beamdog, please stop actually misleading people into thinking that you FIXED BG 1, BG 2 and IwD. You just sticked the old game with FREE mods.
Hell, I'm disappointed for the third time with Beamdog. Good thing IwD and Torment use a different engine version so we won't see a Planescape:Torment EE in 6 months.
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Comments

  • LaBesteeeeaLaBesteeeea Member Posts: 2
    It's not a question of believing. Go play the EE and the original and tell me, based on ACTUAL FACTS derived from comparison of both in which sentence I'm wrong.
  • AristilliusAristillius Member Posts: 873
    I found the mods to make the games look 'okay' and cant really be compared to the enhanced edition. Also, it wasn't that easy to make everything work, but that's just me.
    No HLAs and lvl 30 cap was in the original game, not Beamdog's work?
    Your points about the GUI and class text is legitimate, but very subjective as far as I can see? I dont agree at least.
    I *would* like to see something other than black in the side of the menus though - that's the most important criticism I can think of right now.
  • WigglesWiggles Member Posts: 571
    AD&D 2nd edition was never balanced, and it will never be balanced.
  • DeeDee Member Posts: 10,447
    This is just a note to say that everyone's entitled to their opinion about this or any other Beamdog game, and to please be mindful of the Site Rules. No one has broken any rules yet as far as I can see, but just keep it in mind.

    Carry on!
  • RamzaRamza Member Posts: 112
    edited November 2014
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but:
    LaBesteeeea said:

    - class balancing. Why has Beamdog limited the character level to 30? No HLAs? Seriously? If you're concerned about game balance it has been utterly destroyed already by including new spells and kits. Unless it's one of those licence agreement things again. Pardon me then.

    The original unmodded IWD:TotLM also has a level 30 per class cap. This is not something arbitrarilty instituted by Beamdog for no apparent reason.

    HLAs were never in IWD. If your reaction to not having HLAs in IWDEE is to revert to the original, you'll probably be disappointed to discover there are no HLAs in that version either. Even modding them in was impossible, unless you were using IWDinBG2, which was only a beta and was pretty buggy last I checked.

    Adding kits to IWD was also impossible, the engine didn't allow for an extra choice after selecting class. This functions much in the same way as the original BG2, in which sorcerer and monk kits could not be added because a window to pick them couldn't be scripted in. It was hardcoded.


    Your chief complaint is basically akin to getting a new car, complaining that it has those new LED headlights, and reverting to your Model T because those were the good ole days.

    edit:
    About the resolution thing:
    The game is made to stretch to whatever resolution your monitor is running at. It'll go way past 4k if you have it. If your monitor is so small that the resolution makes it so you can't see anything, maybe you should change the resolution on your screen. If you run it in windows compatibility mode for 640x480 resolution, it'll even look like the original!
  • RAM021RAM021 Member Posts: 403
    Ramza said:

    Correct me if I'm wrong

    You are not.
  • OlvynChuruOlvynChuru Member Posts: 3,075
    I have a few gripes with IwD EE myself, but they are mostly really minor things:

    *Why are the spells Lesser Restoration, Negative Plane Protection and Freedom in the game? So far I've played through all of the original game, Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster, and I haven't found a single enemy who uses level drain or maze. It's okay if you don't want enemies to use those effects, but why do those spells have to be in the game?

    *There is a chance this complaint may be baseless, but if there are still some spell descriptions that don't match exactly what the spell does (such as if the spell actually gives a saving throw bonus or penalty that isn't mentioned in the description), either the spell or the description should be changed. I haven't done extensive testing on this, so if it's not a problem, ignore this complaint.

    *I think that the Umber Hulk Plate and the Winter King's Plate should be wearable by archers, just like Ankheg Armor was in Baldur's Gate. Of course, it's your decision, not mine. If you want it to stay the way it is, that's okay.

    There are probably some other issues I can't think of off the top of my head, but they really aren't a big deal. Altogether, this game was great.
  • CutlassJackCutlassJack Member Posts: 493
    LaBesteeeea said:

    - GUI. I think that the old obscure-the-whole screen style for equipment/mage book/char screen/journal was way better. The current option just looks too small. Not everyone is playing this on a 40 inch TV. Maybe someone wants to actually look at those beautiful item icons that are right now JUST TOO SMALL. Why else would you play a 10y+ old 2D game than to experience this kind of stuff?

    Go back into your graphics option and turn 'scale user interface' back on again. Which is its default setting, so this complaint isnt making much sense to me.
  • BelanosBelanos Member Posts: 968
    CutlassJack said:

    Which is its default setting, so this complaint isnt making much sense to me.

    I guess he's just used to 3D games where everything scales according to your resolution. It doesn't work that way with 2D graphics, they get smaller as the resolution increases. There's nothing that can be done about that, or else they'll be too big if someone is using the "Scale User Interface" option.

  • DreadKhanDreadKhan Member Posts: 3,857
    I played these on my old XP machine, and they ran effing awful. You could TECHNICALLY play them, but they wouldn't be worth trying for a newbie. My computer was getting old, but still more than 10x the requirements, yet the games ran better on my even older PC. Don't even want to think about running these on all out modern computers without EE.

    Also, important if someone likes mods, IWDEE will be much more mod friendly, as its pretty much the same guts-wise as BGEE. IWD didnt have as much modwise, this might help.
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,315
    Yea I played enough of the old game recently (largely to see how things used to work to make sure they still worked as they did) when I was alpha/beta testing. I never want to go back to the original.
  • RAM021RAM021 Member Posts: 403
    •Imbued wights now have the ability to occasionally level drain on hit
  • RAM021RAM021 Member Posts: 403
    •Negative Plane Protection has slightly broader protections in IWDEE
  • RAM021RAM021 Member Posts: 403
    •Larrel will imprison the crap out of your party if attacked
  • RAM021RAM021 Member Posts: 403
    ;-)
  • RAM021RAM021 Member Posts: 403
    Laugh, thanks - cheeky we are =)

    Now to go find out which two are wrong - back to the game!
  • ZanianZanian Member Posts: 332
    @CamDawg I guess I'd go for "Negative Plane Protection has slightly broader protections in IWDEE", simply because I have yet to be Level Drained after killing many an Imbued Wight, nor did I get imprisoned after wailing on Larrel. I mean, an undead elven Lich of immense power? Of course I'd try to kill him.
  • DreadKhanDreadKhan Member Posts: 3,857
    Zanian said:

    @CamDawg I guess I'd go for "Negative Plane Protection has slightly broader protections in IWDEE", simply because I have yet to be Level Drained after killing many an Imbued Wight, nor did I get imprisoned after wailing on Larrel. I mean, an undead elven Lich of immense power? Of course I'd try to kill him.

    Baelnorn! Never let him hear you call him a Lich, I think it's a racial slur. ;)
  • ZanianZanian Member Posts: 332
    DreadKhan said:


    Baelnorn! Never let him hear you call him a Lich, I think it's a racial slur. ;)

    Right right, sorry. And yeah he would probably be quite angry with me. The dude's already a raging racist himself afterall. xD

    Seriously though, hearing him talk about the dwarves is like reading Mein Kampf. (I'd imagine, 'never actually did read it.)
  • DreadKhanDreadKhan Member Posts: 3,857
    Zanian said:

    DreadKhan said:


    Baelnorn! Never let him hear you call him a Lich, I think it's a racial slur. ;)

    Right right, sorry. And yeah he would probably be quite angry with me. The dude's already a raging racist himself afterall. xD

    Seriously though, hearing him talk about the dwarves is like reading Mein Kampf. (I'd imagine, 'never actually did read it.)
    There should be a mini-quest to bring him the book '"Rock Eaters" They Are Not!', and the journal (Erm, AFTER the astrolabe maybe). The fall of the Hand and Dorn's Deep story would make a solid post-modern movie. It would be better than most fantasy movies anyways. ;)
  • ZanianZanian Member Posts: 332
    Teacher! Elminster cheated!
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