Well you can not load a save game created in v2.0, in v1.3. Did you backup your save games before overwriting them in v2.0 (I suspect you didn't think to do this)?
Steam auto-updated the game for me overnight. Didn't realize it had been updated until I opened it up and loaded one of my saves. I've backed up the save files now, but what should I do? How can I get 1.3 to work with my save files? I didn't save anything in 2.0, just loaded some saves.
If you go into your steam settings for the game (right click the game and choose properties) there should be a beta tab. You can select 1.3 from there.
I did this, but my saves won't load now. I never saved in 2.0. Any idea please?
Its crashing for me too. i cant even start a new game, it just crashes. This happens even after deleting everything of the game on my HDD and reinstalling.
Also the font size in the German edition is now fucked up (its suddenly very big), and parts of the menue UI is still changed (cant see ingame obv because it always crashes).
Oh Beamdog, when I bought this game back 3 years ago I really just wanted to relive the old BG2 feeling with a bit more content. But the game was buggy as hell and the German translation was non existent. I waited 3 years so you could fix the bugs and fixed the fucked up German translation by myself. I played until Spellhold and now again you fucked up everything. The new gui in BG2 is an atrocity and the downgrade to 1.3 is not working.
The old Bg2 was already perfect with almost zero bugs and problems, why do you have this need to destroy a perfect game with unecessary changes? BG2 does not need an UI overhaul. /rant, yes I am pissed
UI and graphic changes really kills the mood for me. Yes, you have an option to disable outlines, but neverthless, they are still there. Plus, graphic bugs. New UI, with two exceptions, is a complete disaster. Not only does it look completely alien to the spirit of the game, but it's also less functional. Stat changes on equipping something in inventory screen is fine, removing apr value from damage statistics was outright stupid decision. I find new textbar an actual improvement - you have manual control over the size and it stores text better. New spellbooks could be even better then the old one, if you kept tile-arranged spell icons without their names on left page. Single-click - description, double-click - memorization. Using Steam version, and downgrade to 1.3 isn't working. It instanly crashes at clicking "new game" button and loading a save and misses parts of UI. While bug fixes, new class and ability tweaks are nice, as well as ability to equip off-hand/shield with two-handers/launchers (now, that is improvement!), some new bugs are born. Difficulty changes without player's even opening gameplay option is one of them.
Overall, I'm deeply mispleased with this update. And only because of graphic and UI changes. The only changes old UI actually needed was marking the area of AoE spells, maybe casting timer, if needed at all. Really, it has been at work for years, perfectly doing its job. And then you just came in and glued Android interface on top of it?
When I purchased this game, I payed for BG2 EE 1.3 with its UI and its graphics. These are as much essential parts of game, as the story and combat, and responsible not only for functionality, but for aesthetics and atmosphere, too. What i got now is NOT the product I payed for. Worst part of it, I was not even given a choice whether I want this "new UI/graphics" or not.
P.S. If reverting to 1.3 on Steam actually worked, I would not be that angered with the update.
Hate to say it, but I ran into the same problem as jysk, upon rolling back to 1.3 the game crashes, whenever I click on any button in the 'Singleplayer'-submenu, the sound loops for ~2 seconds and then the game crashes so hard, I have to switch to the Task Manager to end the game manually.
Needless to say, I have already kissed my savegames goodbye. The fact they are unuseable under 1.3 is a pretty minor thing, though. It's even to be expected, afaik (not a programmer, but I have played enough games to know that savegame compability is a tricky beast). Blaiming that on the devs would be unfair.
What I do blame on the devs is the state of the rollback though: In its current state the beta 1.3-button on steam is a trap, plain and simple. I understand that betas are not meant to offer perfect functionality, but offfering no functionality at all is a different story altogether and pretty dissapointing.
Especially, when players are caught between hammer and anvil: Beta 2.0 or Beta 1.3. The UI is just a placeholder and there will be bugfixes in the near future, I understand that, but having to choose between two betas, of which I find none appealing, is a rather unsatisfactory condition for me as a player. Especially since I have spent some 45 hours in BG2 EE 1.3 and i have enjoyed both the smooth gameplay and the subtle tweaks your devs have offered tremendously.
Has anyone successfully switched back to 1.3? Because all I have seen on steam is that the rollback has failed for anyone who has tried it so far. And I haven't come across any thread here where someone gives indication to the contrary (Should such a thread exist, I will aplogize and would humbly ask for a link).
Which begs the question, as to why the rollback was offered, if it does not allow access to a working version of the game.
Regarding the posts on page 1 about using the 1.3. beta on Steam - you've got to be joking. Clearly no one suggesting that has tried it themselves. I've already expressed my thoughts about it in my thread after trying it out, backed up by some screenshots (together with a lot of bugs from 2.0. in general). That was all after doing a clean install, using my backed up saves from before 2.0.. Nothing works. I wish I never bought the EEs on Steam. If I had those on GoG, I simply wouldn't have updated to 2.0. and everything would have been fine.
As for the portrait system - I love how people now have to make a feature request to restore a much better version of it with the functionality you destroyed with your patch.
As for the portrait system - I love how people now have to make a feature request to restore a much better version of it with the functionality you destroyed with your patch.
False. The new version is much better than the old. I can actually see what the portrait is before selecting it.
As for the portrait system - I love how people now have to make a feature request to restore a much better version of it with the functionality you destroyed with your patch.
False. The new version is much better than the old. I can actually see what the portrait is before selecting it.
- The new portrait system lacks a list of alphabetically sorted portrait files - a very important functionality lost. Especially when you have tens or hundreds of portraits, like many people do. In order to relieve yourself of having to click through all of them one by one, you have to resort to silly workarounds like naming a portrait you want to use "zzz" or something, so that it appears as the first one when you scroll left. - There's also no easy way to select a different portrait for the character sheet display and the sidebar. Many people like to have a full body/torso picture on the character record and a face portrait on the sidebar. Another functionality lost after being there for 20 years. - You could see your selected picture perfectly well in the previous version. And, if you're using a custom portrait, surely you were aware what it looked like?
As for the portrait system - I love how people now have to make a feature request to restore a much better version of it with the functionality you destroyed with your patch.
False. The new version is much better than the old. I can actually see what the portrait is before selecting it.
- The new portrait system lacks a list of alphabetically sorted portrait files - a very important functionality lost. Especially when you have tens or hundreds of portraits, like many people do. In order to relieve yourself of having to click through all of them one by one, you have to resort to silly workarounds like naming a portrait you want to use "zzz" or something, so that it appears as the first one when you scroll left. - There's also no easy way to select a different portrait for the character sheet display and the sidebar. Many people like to have a full body/torso picture on the character record and a face portrait on the sidebar. Another functionality lost after being there for 20 years. - You could see your selected picture perfectly well in the previous version. And, if you're using a custom portrait, surely you were aware what it looked like?
-If you register your portraits in BGEE.lua, they'll show up in the order of that list. This is first portrait that shows up if I select male, even before the standard portraits:
-If your portraits are named *L.bmp and *M.bmp, the L will be used for the character sheet, and the M for the sidebar.
I don't actually like the new chooser better or worse than the old. I think they're both quite lacking. I'd like to see 20 portraits at once and page through them.
Just an innocent question. Are you getting paid for say things like "The new [insert new "feature" or change here] is much better than the old" in every thread?
Nope, Beamdog doesn't have enough money to pay me to do that.
It just rustles my jimmies when people state their opinions like facts, so if I disagree I do the same.
- The new portrait system lacks a list of alphabetically sorted portrait files - a very important functionality lost. Especially when you have tens or hundreds of portraits, like many people do. In order to relieve yourself of having to click through all of them one by one, you have to resort to silly workarounds like naming a portrait you want to use "zzz" or something, so that it appears as the first one when you scroll left.
The old system required you to know which portrait you wanted outside of the game and then start up. The new system lets you look at the portraits in game. I see this as major improvement.
- There's also no easy way to select a different portrait for the character sheet display and the sidebar. Many people like to have a full body/torso picture on the character record and a face portrait on the sidebar. Another functionality lost after being there for 20 years.
You can still have this functionality. As long as the portraits have the same base name the L portrait will display on the character record, and the M portrait will display on the sidebar. I think I've told you this already though.
- You could see your selected picture perfectly well in the previous version. And, if you're using a custom portrait, surely you were aware what it looked like?
You could see it after selecting it from a text list. I prefer browsing through a visual list in game.
This is not all to say that the portrait select can't be made even better. I'm sure even now enterprising modders are trying to figure out how to display portraits more like NWN with multiple portraits displayed at once.
Just an innocent question. Are you getting paid for say things like "The new [insert new "feature" or change here] is much better than the old" in every thread?
The old system required you to know which portrait you wanted outside of the game and then start up. The new system lets you look at the portraits in game. I see this as major improvement.
ehh no mate. You could still select it to preview it. Like the other person I think you're just doing this on purpose.
Just an innocent question. Are you getting paid for say things like "The new [insert new "feature" or change here] is much better than the old" in every thread?
The old system required you to know which portrait you wanted outside of the game and then start up. The new system lets you look at the portraits in game. I see this as major improvement.
ehh no mate. You could still select it to preview it. Like the other person I think you're just doing this on purpose.
No, I would do that too. I have anywhere from 450-700 portraits depending on the game. Even with a naming system, that's still a lot of portraits to click one at a time to look at. I would always pick them in Windows and write the filename down so I could find it in the game. That's why I've said before, that the best portrait choosing screen would be one that mimics Windows Explorer set to large icons.
@BillyYank, I appreciate your willingness to be helpful and the effort it took to write the utility, posted in the thread you linked to. However, I'm afraid that those are largely wasted on me, as I'm not going to continue playing 2.0., at least until some mods/patches/working 1.3. version arrives. I just wanted to voice my opinion about the inferiority of many sections of the UI in 2.0. and the ridiculousness of having to request a feature that was already in the game before.
It just rustles my jimmies when people state their opinions like facts, so if I disagree I do the same.
That doesn't seem to be a great strategy for constructively participating in a discussion, unless you're just satisfied by trolling and receiving a reaction to it. By the way, just because people don't start every sentence with "in my opinion", doesn't mean it isn't one.
The old system required you to know which portrait you wanted outside of the game and then start up. The new system lets you look at the portraits in game. I see this as major improvement.
Unless you have a small amount of custom portraits, it's THIS system that requires you to know beforehand which portrait you want to use - and name it accordingly so you don't have to browse through hundreds on portraits you don't want to use.
How do you not see a preview of the selected image HERE? This is as much a response to the above quote as to your previous post, where you said "I can actually see what the portrait is before selecting it.". I eventually figured out what you meant, more about it below.
You can still have this functionality. As long as the portraits have the same base name the L portrait will display on the character record, and the M portrait will display on the sidebar. I think I've told you this already though.
Yet another inconvenient workaround technique needed to achieve what was so easy to do before. One wouldn't even know about the existance of such, unless they specifically looked for it on the internet. Being able to attain similar functionality through out-of-game tinkering is not that same as "just having it" in game, especially when the latter was the case in all previous versions of the game!
I mean, just the amount of effort needed to do something that was SO SIMPLE before is mind boggling. Yeah, I'm totally going to go through the hundreds of my portraits and rename them all, especially when I can't simply compare the effects in game - something that, again, I could do before. Of course, can't forget about editing baldur.lua to have a portrait readily available becase the apparently forgotten mystic art of having a list is something that had to be removed.
- You could see your selected picture perfectly well in the previous version. And, if you're using a custom portrait, surely you were aware what it looked like?
You could see it after selecting it from a text list. I prefer browsing through a visual list in game.
You could achieve the exact same browsing effect by just selecting a portrait file and using up/down arrow keys on your keyboard to go through them one by one.
The conclusion is: before 2.0. we had the ability to select portraits from a list, go through them one by one (using arrow keys or clicking) and to easily select different character record/sidebar pictures. Now, after 2.0. we have - going through them one by one, without even being able to see the file names.
If that isn't an inferior version of the system to you, I don't know what else they'd have to ruin for you to consider it such.
In any case, I don't think I'm going to be able to explain my point any better. The only thing I wanted to mention, is something that took me 10 seconds of thinking about how they could have made browsing better. Using the 1.3. example from above - just imagine a left and right arrow below (or on the sides of) the left preview picture, allowing you to easier browse one by one via clicking, while also having a list. TA DA, having a cake and eating it too. They could have even made the preview picture bigger at the cost of that huge, 50% empty text box below it, explaining the (now lost in game) option to have an alternate picture for the sidebar - do some repositioning and voilà. Too bad a team of designers at Beamdog couldn't figure out a solution along those lines.
@Mivsan Yeah, you don't have to show me screen shots. I know how it used to work, I'm sorry if my explanation wasn't up to snuff for you. I still like the current version better. Again, my ultimate version, like @BillyYank mentions above, would be to have multiple portraits displayed at once.
There's really no need to be so hostile. I've not murdered your children or called you any names. I just am disagreeing with you about which version of an UI I like better.
I wasn't being hostile at all. Perhaps you are a touch too sensitive, if you compare a couple of my sarcastic lines (directed more at Beamdog rather than at you) to a reaction one would have to murdered children.
As for your explanation, what you meant was "now it's easier to browse through portraits one by one", while what you said was "the new system lets you look at the portraits in game". I eventually figured it out, but you weren't making it easy on me.
But like I said, the topic is pretty much exhausted from my side. I've presented arguments on why I think the new system is a disaster, completely inferior to the old one, while you keep repating "new version is better", even though you could do the exact same thing in the old one, using the arrow keys (which apparently a lot of people didn't know about) while also having a list, file names and separate sidebar portraits. Therefore, I'm going to move on and perhaps have an opportunity to discuss different aspects of the new patch with you in other threads.
@Mivsan lol, looks like we're both bad at detecting sarcasm then because that's what the murdered children bit was.
Anyways, Beamdog is working on a new portrait selection interface that should be ready in the near future. Hopefully it will solve everyone's concerns.
I think what @ZeshinX is referring to is the textures in the Dragonspear UI skin, which is definitely (and intentionally) different from the UI skin without the expansion. We've received a lot of positive feedback about the Dragonspear skin, but that doesn't mean there's no room for improvement--and if there's significant demand for an option to switch between skins, that's something we can certainly look at.
I personally actually love the new black interface. It feels very dragonlike, which makes sense with the name.
But I don't understand why it's there for the base game already. Shouldn't the base game have a blue interface regardless of having SoD installed or not?
Ideally yes but currently they use the same resources. Not sure how easy that is to mod with the current ui. You need to define new interfaces per adventure but it does not seem to be checked.
Comments
Same problem as Alluren.
Also the font size in the German edition is now fucked up (its suddenly very big), and parts of the menue UI is still changed (cant see ingame obv because it always crashes).
Oh Beamdog, when I bought this game back 3 years ago I really just wanted to relive the old BG2 feeling with a bit more content. But the game was buggy as hell and the German translation was non existent. I waited 3 years so you could fix the bugs and fixed the fucked up German translation by myself. I played until Spellhold and now again you fucked up everything. The new gui in BG2 is an atrocity and the downgrade to 1.3 is not working.
The old Bg2 was already perfect with almost zero bugs and problems, why do you have this need to destroy a perfect game with unecessary changes? BG2 does not need an UI overhaul. /rant, yes I am pissed
Using Steam version, and downgrade to 1.3 isn't working. It instanly crashes at clicking "new game" button and loading a save and misses parts of UI.
While bug fixes, new class and ability tweaks are nice, as well as ability to equip off-hand/shield with two-handers/launchers (now, that is improvement!), some new bugs are born. Difficulty changes without player's even opening gameplay option is one of them.
Overall, I'm deeply mispleased with this update. And only because of graphic and UI changes. The only changes old UI actually needed was marking the area of AoE spells, maybe casting timer, if needed at all.
Really, it has been at work for years, perfectly doing its job. And then you just came in and glued Android interface on top of it?
When I purchased this game, I payed for BG2 EE 1.3 with its UI and its graphics. These are as much essential parts of game, as the story and combat, and responsible not only for functionality, but for aesthetics and atmosphere, too. What i got now is NOT the product I payed for. Worst part of it, I was not even given a choice whether I want this "new UI/graphics" or not.
P.S. If reverting to 1.3 on Steam actually worked, I would not be that angered with the update.
Needless to say, I have already kissed my savegames goodbye. The fact they are unuseable under 1.3 is a pretty minor thing, though. It's even to be expected, afaik (not a programmer, but I have played enough games to know that savegame compability is a tricky beast). Blaiming that on the devs would be unfair.
What I do blame on the devs is the state of the rollback though: In its current state the beta 1.3-button on steam is a trap, plain and simple. I understand that betas are not meant to offer perfect functionality, but offfering no functionality at all is a different story altogether and pretty dissapointing.
Especially, when players are caught between hammer and anvil: Beta 2.0 or Beta 1.3. The UI is just a placeholder and there will be bugfixes in the near future, I understand that, but having to choose between two betas, of which I find none appealing, is a rather unsatisfactory condition for me as a player. Especially since I have spent some 45 hours in BG2 EE 1.3 and i have enjoyed both the smooth gameplay and the subtle tweaks your devs have offered tremendously.
Has anyone successfully switched back to 1.3? Because all I have seen on steam is that the rollback has failed for anyone who has tried it so far. And I haven't come across any thread here where someone gives indication to the contrary (Should such a thread exist, I will aplogize and would humbly ask for a link).
Which begs the question, as to why the rollback was offered, if it does not allow access to a working version of the game.
As for the portrait system - I love how people now have to make a feature request to restore a much better version of it with the functionality you destroyed with your patch.
- There's also no easy way to select a different portrait for the character sheet display and the sidebar. Many people like to have a full body/torso picture on the character record and a face portrait on the sidebar. Another functionality lost after being there for 20 years.
- You could see your selected picture perfectly well in the previous version. And, if you're using a custom portrait, surely you were aware what it looked like?
Follow the directions in this thread. If you scroll down from Dee's post, there's a utility I wrote that may help.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/725816/#Comment_725816
-If your portraits are named *L.bmp and *M.bmp, the L will be used for the character sheet, and the M for the sidebar.
I don't actually like the new chooser better or worse than the old. I think they're both quite lacking. I'd like to see 20 portraits at once and page through them.
It just rustles my jimmies when people state their opinions like facts, so if I disagree I do the same. The old system required you to know which portrait you wanted outside of the game and then start up. The new system lets you look at the portraits in game. I see this as major improvement. You can still have this functionality. As long as the portraits have the same base name the L portrait will display on the character record, and the M portrait will display on the sidebar. I think I've told you this already though. You could see it after selecting it from a text list. I prefer browsing through a visual list in game.
This is not all to say that the portrait select can't be made even better. I'm sure even now enterprising modders are trying to figure out how to display portraits more like NWN with multiple portraits displayed at once.
How do you not see a preview of the selected image HERE? This is as much a response to the above quote as to your previous post, where you said "I can actually see what the portrait is before selecting it.". I eventually figured out what you meant, more about it below. Yet another inconvenient workaround technique needed to achieve what was so easy to do before. One wouldn't even know about the existance of such, unless they specifically looked for it on the internet. Being able to attain similar functionality through out-of-game tinkering is not that same as "just having it" in game, especially when the latter was the case in all previous versions of the game!
I mean, just the amount of effort needed to do something that was SO SIMPLE before is mind boggling. Yeah, I'm totally going to go through the hundreds of my portraits and rename them all, especially when I can't simply compare the effects in game - something that, again, I could do before. Of course, can't forget about editing baldur.lua to have a portrait readily available becase the apparently forgotten mystic art of having a list is something that had to be removed. You could achieve the exact same browsing effect by just selecting a portrait file and using up/down arrow keys on your keyboard to go through them one by one.
The conclusion is: before 2.0. we had the ability to select portraits from a list, go through them one by one (using arrow keys or clicking) and to easily select different character record/sidebar pictures. Now, after 2.0. we have - going through them one by one, without even being able to see the file names.
If that isn't an inferior version of the system to you, I don't know what else they'd have to ruin for you to consider it such.
In any case, I don't think I'm going to be able to explain my point any better. The only thing I wanted to mention, is something that took me 10 seconds of thinking about how they could have made browsing better. Using the 1.3. example from above - just imagine a left and right arrow below (or on the sides of) the left preview picture, allowing you to easier browse one by one via clicking, while also having a list. TA DA, having a cake and eating it too. They could have even made the preview picture bigger at the cost of that huge, 50% empty text box below it, explaining the (now lost in game) option to have an alternate picture for the sidebar - do some repositioning and voilà. Too bad a team of designers at Beamdog couldn't figure out a solution along those lines.
Yeah, you don't have to show me screen shots. I know how it used to work, I'm sorry if my explanation wasn't up to snuff for you. I still like the current version better. Again, my ultimate version, like @BillyYank mentions above, would be to have multiple portraits displayed at once.
There's really no need to be so hostile. I've not murdered your children or called you any names. I just am disagreeing with you about which version of an UI I like better.
As for your explanation, what you meant was "now it's easier to browse through portraits one by one", while what you said was "the new system lets you look at the portraits in game". I eventually figured it out, but you weren't making it easy on me.
But like I said, the topic is pretty much exhausted from my side. I've presented arguments on why I think the new system is a disaster, completely inferior to the old one, while you keep repating "new version is better", even though you could do the exact same thing in the old one, using the arrow keys (which apparently a lot of people didn't know about) while also having a list, file names and separate sidebar portraits. Therefore, I'm going to move on and perhaps have an opportunity to discuss different aspects of the new patch with you in other threads.
Anyways, Beamdog is working on a new portrait selection interface that should be ready in the near future. Hopefully it will solve everyone's concerns.
But I don't understand why it's there for the base game already. Shouldn't the base game have a blue interface regardless of having SoD installed or not?