Why don't shields use character colors?
Philhelm
Member Posts: 473
In the original version of the game, I recall that shields would use the primary color of your character. I even seem to recall similar color changes in an earlier version of BGEE, although it seemed a little buggy since the shield would revert to its default color every time it was removed and reequipped. The result was that I would have to "repaint" the character in order to get the shield to match.
It seems like that is not the case anymore, and it is a feature that I miss. With all of the different shields available, I like the aesthetic of a matching shield. I'm sure I'm not the only one who misses this feature. In any case, I'm curious as to why this changed.
It seems like that is not the case anymore, and it is a feature that I miss. With all of the different shields available, I like the aesthetic of a matching shield. I'm sure I'm not the only one who misses this feature. In any case, I'm curious as to why this changed.
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There's an item characteristic called "set color" which gives the shield a unique color for its trim,hub or panel, but if you delete it from the item properties it will be replaced by the character's color.
Since there aren't that many shields in the game I suppose you could do that manually with little effort.
Another questionable change that nobody requested and that most people are going to negate by modding their own game. How sad.
I am very concerned about the crested helm always defaulting to red in BG1EE. In BG2EE it doesn't!
Everyone just looks the same in my games. That's no fun.
I guess I'm just going to import the BG2 variant for my new games.
To answer the original question, shields--on the paperdoll and in the game itself--either inherit their colors from the character, or set their own using a series of opcode 7s (set color) in the item file. 1PP adds and/or modifies a large number of shield graphics and consistently sets their colors instead of allowing player colors to bleed through. This change ensures the shield colors in-game and on the paperdoll will always match the item icon.
The rest is your opinion, and you're welcome to express it.
After all, I said several time that incorporating by default (part of) 1PP with predefined choices is one of the biggest mistakes made by Beamdog.
Edit2: In other words, something like 1PP works better as a separate mod because it has so many options to choose from.
What works for the Fixpack as a separate mod doesn't necessarily work as direct fix to the game.
After all, people playing the original games are still free not to use the Fixpack, if they don't want to.
For example, some people (not me) still prefer the older Baldurdash, because even if it contains less fixes it doesn't change too much the original game. Others prefer to play without any fixpack at all, especially those doing speed runs or wanting to use every single exploit (e.g. spells that stack, etc.)
Last time, I was personally playing BG2, on purpose, without the beta core fixes. Can you do that on the EEs?
My point is that the Fixpack is optional and there are alternatives, unlike your bug fixing in the EEs. For me, it is still a matter of choices and, in a very broad sense, customisability.
No, but that wasn't really my point... I was making a counterpoint to what you said here: The base character colors are now clearly more customizable than they ever were, even in vanilla. This was done by Beamdog. Therefore it follows that Beamdog does not think that making the game less customizable is an enhancement. In fact it would appear more that they think making the game more customizable is an enhancement. I honestly hope you weren't being serious when you said the above, because it is so blatantly obvious to practically any modder that it is not true. I can't even begin to list how many things they have externalized in the EEs.
*shrug* You are, of course, entitled to your opinion, but if you want to go around saying silly and untrue things then you should expect that people are going to call you out on it.
Why offer 3 different shields in the shop if they all get reset to the same colour in the game?
In the original game the shield colour is based on the character colour, so it is not fixed, but it can be changed in-game at any time. You can practically choose any colour you like for your shield at any time.
Moreover, people that prefers the other behaviour, i.e. the one currently implemented in the EEs, can have it also in the original game by simply installing 1PP and choosing the corresponding option during installation.
With the original game, the player choose how the shields behave.
With the EEs, Beamdog is making the choice on how the shields behave, instead of the player, and by changing the default vanilla behaviour to one that restricts player options as you can't change the colour of the shield in-game anymore.
And you are telling me I should install or create a mod, but players who want the same on same colour shouldn't have to? You argued against this point to get the simple change that you wanted.
And no. Players never chose how the shields behaved. It actually gave the player false choice. Here are 3 shields for you to choose from, but that choice doesn't matter because all three will look the same once equipped.
Edit: edited for clarity.
Nobles would also wear the brightest colours they could afford in order to display their wealth to everyone as darker and brighter inks (blacks, reds and blues) were very expensive . Unless they were an earl or something, in which case everyone knew how rich and powerful they were anyway.