Neera

FrdNwsm

Someone mentioned I could find Neera in the Bridge District, but I haven't seen her. Is she hiding somewhere?

Heindrich

I think you need to talk to Lieutenent Aegisfield first (not sure if this step is necessary, but do it just encase and pick up the quest he gives if you haven't already) at the north exit. Then at some point, you need to walk towards the north exit from the south side.

Oh and after the initial encounter, just walk between any district within Athkatla and you should come across Neera again.

Tresset

To see Neera you first need to see the commoners talk about the guild wars in the north end of the district. Once you see that you just need to leave the area (going inside a house/inn will do) and return to the north end of the district and you should find her.

FrdNwsm

Found her; unfortunately she promptly ran off to her refuge. I assume I'll have to chase her down there. Arg! Yet more side quests! I'm drowning in them!

ambrennan

Wait until you get to the camp before complaining about side quests...

FrdNwsm

::Screams::

Gallowglass

Yes, the first half of Chapter 2 is very confusing the first time through, or even the next time or two as well, because so many side-quests come in such a rush. You can very easily end up with dozens of side-quests all open at once ... but isn't it marvellous to see how huge this game is, eh?

FrdNwsm

Arg! I went to Windspear Hills, figuring I'd FINALLY get rid of those damned acorns and POW! Blindsided by yet another quest!

I have at least a dozen on my to-do list now, and when I tried to recruit Korgan, it turns out he has an agenda also. And everybody wants it done right away! I thought Anomen would calm down after he was knighted, but he keeps going on about rescuing those kids from Firekraag or whatever his name is ASAP. And Korgan wants to do his now, and ... gah!

BG1 had a fair amount of quests, and not all were in a specific order. But there were a lot fewer of them, and they didn't all appear in bunches. I've cleared out the first level of the Windspear dungeon, but going by the level of resistance, I wanted to fine tune my group a bit. Wanted to park Yoshimo and recruit Jan or Korgan, but Jan won't talk to me now and Korgan is insistent on doing his thing first. And now you tell me Neera is going to want stuff done also.

The whole picture is very chaotic; hard to put together a logical overall plan. I have totally put the whole Shadow Thief and Harper deals on hold.

Lathlaer

You know what, @FrdNwsm I actually envy you this experience. I had it when I first played BG2 but after endless reruns my every game is so...organized. There is almost no room for surprise, no room for being spontaneous. Before I exit the first dungeon I have it all mapped in my mind ("Circus. Thieves Guild. Harper Hold. Slavers. NPC X quest. NPC Y quest. And so on"). It's not necessarily bad feeling but If I could wipe my memory to relive some of my experiences for the first time, playing BG series would be one of them.

Heindrich

In my first playthrough, which is probably more recent compared to most on this forum, I actually abandoned it very early in chapter 2 because I did what you have been doing, i.e. exploring and wandering around like you'd do in BG1, but ending up picking up so many sidequests that it all got very messy and confusing.

I am quite ocd about loose-ends, so I restarted and decided to approach the game in a much more logical and methodical way. I researched the companions (avoiding plot spoilers) and filled up my party asap, and then just did the quests that came along naturally, one by one, without any random wandering. I don't think I even visited the Graveyard District until Bhodi's emissary showed up and somehow missed Trademeet until Chapter 6! In BG2 you just got to assume that every non-generic NPC might offer a quest, and every new area on the map will certainly come with a big quest.

Your "extreme flood of quests" is tied to your exploration and trying out different NPCs like you've asked about on other threads. I am not saying it's the "wrong" thing to do, but the consequence of that is a VERY long to do list.

FrdNwsm

>>after endless reruns<<

I keep seeing people saying things like "this is my Nth run through the game". I can't imagine such a thing. It's taken me close to a month to get this far, and given the complexity of the game I estimate it will take well over a year to finish. That's not counting the time it took to finish BG1. And then I'll still have ToB to go through! It's possible I might ... just might ... want to try it again with a different profession, and maybe even an evil type crew, just for variety, and I suppose it goes faster once you know what you are doing. I could solve the Bridge murders in 1/10th the time now, for example. Still, any way you cut it, it would be a significant project.

Jarrakul

Once you get through the game a few times, it stops taking nearly so long. Realistically, it takes me probably a week or two to get through BG1, and probably about two weeks to get through BG2/TOB, if it's the main game I'm playing at the moment. More if work is unusually busy, or if I'm distracted with something else. I seriously doubt that's the fastest of anyone here. And, frankly, a lot of us here have been accumulating playthroughs for a very long time.

But yeah, first time through takes a very long time.

Lord_Tansheron

Keep in mind people have been playing this for 10 years. That's a LOT of practice to make things go faster :P

Lathlaer

Yeah, in time fights become easier and you start combining quests which take you to the same areas You skip some dialogues because you can recite them from memory in your sleep and you realize that you don't need thieves that much because you remember where every trap is situated.

Tresset

Jarrakul said:

Once you get through the game a few times, it stops taking nearly so long. Realistically, it takes me probably a week or two to get through BG1, and probably about two weeks to get through BG2/TOB, if it's the main game I'm playing at the moment. More if work is unusually busy, or if I'm distracted with something else. I seriously doubt that's the fastest of anyone here. And, frankly, a lot of us here have been accumulating playthroughs for a very long time.

I still haven't finished an EE run yet. I keep getting distracted. Restartitis affects me heavily and other games keep getting in the way, but I think the biggest problem is these blasted forums.

Yannir

Tresset said:

Jarrakul said:

Once you get through the game a few times, it stops taking nearly so long. Realistically, it takes me probably a week or two to get through BG1, and probably about two weeks to get through BG2/TOB, if it's the main game I'm playing at the moment. More if work is unusually busy, or if I'm distracted with something else. I seriously doubt that's the fastest of anyone here. And, frankly, a lot of us here have been accumulating playthroughs for a very long time.

I still haven't finished an EE run yet. I keep getting distracted. Restartitis affects me heavily and other games keep getting in the way, but I think the biggest problem is these blasted forums.

I can totally relate to this..

Gallowglass

Tresset said:

I still haven't finished an EE run yet. I keep getting distracted. Restartitis affects me heavily and other games keep getting in the way, but I think the biggest problem is these blasted forums.

WTF??? You're a mod on the forum, yet you've never even completed the game? "Gordon Bennett, guv'nor!"

Still, I do understand about the forum being a distraction. I come and go from the forum ... when I'm not around on the forum, that tends to mean that I'm too busy playing the game to be commenting on here!

Jarrakul said:

Realistically, it takes me probably a week or two to get through BG1, and probably about two weeks to get through BG2/TOB, if it's the main game I'm playing at the moment. More if work is unusually busy, or if I'm distracted with something else. I seriously doubt that's the fastest of anyone here.

You're a long way from being the slowest, though. It still takes me hundreds of hours of playing time for each run through each game, although I've done it numerous times and therefore know both games pretty well. (There again, I'm a completionist doing every quest in every area, not a speed-runner skipping most of the content in a dash for the finish.)

Arunsun

Actually an experimented player could complete the game and do most sidequest (not all the NPC quest but everything else) in about 10hours. And rushing the game would take about 4h I guess.