That`s the magic of Baldur`s gate, The depths of wonder and complexity that is character creation followed by a big scary world you don`t know the mechanics of. It`s an adventure even before you start.
@Fake_Sketch: The new manual has been confirmed. Exact details remain a mystery however.
It's unlikely that they'll release the manual beforehand. The game is coming out in 6 days after all. But you knew that already. Purely wishful, irrational thinking.
For instance:
Thinking that they'd release the manual early -> Irrational
My belief that the developers didn't lose the art assets, that they did do an HD version of the game, and that they're simply holding out on us. -> Totally Rational
That`s the magic of Baldur`s gate, The depths of wonder and complexity that is character creation followed by a big scary world you don`t know the mechanics of. It`s an adventure even before you start.
What you call magic, many people would call poor design.
Yes, there will be a manual; as Trent tweeted a few weeks ago, in fact, there will be "three epic manuals". As I understand it, the manual will be packaged with the game itself, so you won't be able to read it early.
I disagree with most people, so that`s fine by me And the nubs won`t read the manual anyway, they won`t read the FAQ either. They`ll spam general. Noober invasion. Its coming.
If there's no manual, their attempts to recruit new players will fall flat, because BG is pretty confusing is you haven't played AD&D.
I managed to play BG2 at age 13-14 with no prior knowledge of D&D rules or D&D itself for that matter, with Fallout as my only previous cRPG experience. It doesn't take a genius, it's just that most gamers today can't be bothered to make an effort to understand something.
I was too young to appreciate them when I had them; I skimmed them for the crunch, and then jumped straight into the game. Now I've got them again, so I'm reacquainting myself. There's some nice interjections in there. Elminster's a snarky son of a B, ain't he?
I still have my original manual all plasticized and protected from falling apart...yet i've only ever really read about 1/2 of it and used those charts at the end a lot to check things like spell progressions and hit die/lvl for each class, things like that.
When I first played BG I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I mean, absolutely no idea. I'd never even played an RPG before. I'd wandered the countryside for days (real-time and game-time) getting killed by all manner of local wildlife, found a few side-quests and got shouted at by Jaheira, and still had no idea what I was meant to be doing, until the friend who lent me the game suggested that maybe I should obey the massive hints everyone was dropping and actually go to Nashkel. (Where kobolds kicked my ass repeatedly because I had the tactical competency of a walnut and didn't know about memorising spells.)
Ah, good times. I do miss the days when people were expected to figure things out for themselves sometimes! But...yeah, sometimes having a manual to fall back on is nice too.
The original BG1 manual is great. I used it all the time when I was learning the game. Eg, to finally figure out what THACO is, get more lore background on places and characters, etc.
What with using the ToB engine for EE I can see how the manual needs a rewrite. Really looking forward to it. Hope it keeps the charm of the original manual, though.
Yeah, it would be great. So one could kill the time reading the options they'll have for their character, while weeping in silence that the game's not out yet.
No, the tutorial was a separate thing. And I also recommend reading the manual. I never did before now and I still learned some new stuff, even though I completed BG countless times already...
Civilization 5 devs released manual before both vanilla and Gods&Kings addon shipped, like a 5 days before each time. It was handy, being able to learn the rules while preparing for game.
I'm pretty old school and like reading manuals before playing any game. When playing a game, I'll have the manual/reference guide near the keyboard for quick reference. Sometimes will do this with playing a few of my old games.
I'm not a fan of digital distribution and only have 6 games on steam, which were all games I bought from stores with paper manuals and had to install with Steam.
Comments
BG:EE will have a modified version of the Baldur's Gate 2 tutorial, and a BRAND NEW MANUAL!
The new manual has been confirmed. Exact details remain a mystery however.
It's unlikely that they'll release the manual beforehand. The game is coming out in 6 days after all. But you knew that already. Purely wishful, irrational thinking.
For instance:
Thinking that they'd release the manual early -> Irrational
My belief that the developers didn't lose the art assets, that they did do an HD version of the game, and that they're simply holding out on us. -> Totally Rational
And the nubs won`t read the manual anyway, they won`t read the FAQ either.
They`ll spam general. Noober invasion. Its coming.
Still better than nothing.
Ah, good times. I do miss the days when people were expected to figure things out for themselves sometimes! But...yeah, sometimes having a manual to fall back on is nice too.
What with using the ToB engine for EE I can see how the manual needs a rewrite. Really looking forward to it. Hope it keeps the charm of the original manual, though.
Releasing manual now wont hurt Beamdog either
I'm not a fan of digital distribution and only have 6 games on steam, which were all games I bought from stores with paper manuals and had to install with Steam.