There is an excellent online Baldur's Gate game out there.
Yathrin
Member Posts: 70
If you ever wanted to experience a really decent MMORPG version of the good old Baldur's Gate game from 1998, the best choice would be to try Baldur's Gate: The Sword Coast Chronicles. It is the best and most popular persistent world ever created for Neverwinter Nights 2, existing for 3-4 years now and still very much alive and thriving probably for many more years to come. What makes it very alluring to Baldur's Gate fans is that most of the game world has been recreated based on the game maps in Baldur's Gate 1.
I will do my best to describe BG-TSCC. Some information about me first. In the past I have played Baldur's Gate 1, Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind Dale, and Neverwinter Nights 1 in single player and six years in multiplayer. I discovered BG-TSCC and started playing it a year and a half ago.
I guess it might be best to provide the description in a form of a FAQ.
--------------------------
Q: What's in there for fans of the good old Baldur's Gate game released in 1998?
A: Developers recreated the world and game maps from the world and maps of the original Baldur's Gate game and the results are quite impressive in my opinion. If you have played the old Baldur's Gate game, you will certainly recognize many places. The world reaches north of Baldur's Gate to Troll Claw Hills and to the south through Friendly Arms Inn, Beregost and Nashkel through Cloudpeak Mountains to Amn, plus there is an entire big world of the Underdark with the city of Sshamath below the surface for players who choose to play as a drow, duergar, svirfneblin or tanarruk. The whole game world consists of at least 120-150 maps. Players and a big dungeon master team have already established a really complex role-play setting with various clans and guilds familiar from the Baldur's Gate game. The world is not static but keeps changing. There have even been some epic and really huge global events such as a war between Baldur's Gate and Amn (described in Forgotten Realms lore) half a year ago, which left Beregost completely razed (rebuilt now).
Q: How is gameplay in BG-TSCC?
A: Gameplay is somewhat similar to gameplay in mainstream MMORPG games. You create a character and explore, hunt monsters, do quests, buy and trade items to NPC shops or between players, join parties or solo some smaller and bigger boss monsters, participate in various events and quests organized by dungeon masters. Your character is stored on the server and remains for many years just like in commercial MMORPGs. An average player might probably remain interested at least for a year playing there but completely new players might stay for as long as five years. The only reason I have become somewhat bored after 15 months of playing a lot there is that I had played NWN 1 online for six years before I joined and many gameplay elements weren't new to me.
Q: How is role-playing in BG-TSCC?
A: One special thing they have is that sometimes characters automatically get RP XP for role-playing. The thing which impressed me most about role-play is that in the Underdark many people actually role-play in the real language of the drow (Siyo, nind telanth ilythiiri xanalress wun Har'oloth gaer). Role-playing between players and interaction between players and NPCS or monsters controlled by dungeon masters can be often quite deep and serious in BG-TSCC. One reason for this is that role-playing can actually bring power or different real consequences to player characters or be reflected in the world. In most online fantasy games role-playing is just empty talk between role-players but it never results or materializes in anything.
Q: Isn't NWN 2 a bad game for multiplayer?
A: As a veteran NWN 1 player I had negative prejudice towards NWN 2 but after I tried it in 2011, BG-TSCC impressed me so much that it was the only computer game I ever played in 2011-2012. I am waiting for BG-EE because Baldur's Gate games are my favourite single player games but BG-TSCC is the place to go for any BG fan who wants to experience Baldur's Gate as an MMORPG. The games sort of complete each other. You can play Baldur's Gate in single player and then you can continue your adventures in the multiplayer environment of BG-TSCC, though with another character and decades after the Bhaal spawn events.
Q: Isn't NWN 2 full of bugs for multiplayer?
A: I tried NWN 2 for the first time in closed beta test in 2005, then bought and played it for a while in 2005-2007. Many years ago NWN 2 was indeed horrible for multiplayer, significantly worse than NWN 1, though I did like the official single player campaign. However, in 2011 when I decided to try the BG-TSCC, I became extremely impressed with the multiplayer aspect of NWN 2. I cannot say for certain whether NWN 2 became so dramatically better due to all the patches between 2005-2009 or because the world of BG-TSCC is optimized really well and bugs removed.
Q: What is so impressive about BG-TSCC from technical viewpoint?
A: I was impressed because it is a world with 150 maps and 90% of them quite decent (knowing how hard it is to make good looking maps in NWN 2). I was also impressed that their server can handle 70 players simultaneously with surprisingly little lag and that during 12 months of playing there I experienced game crashes only 10-15 times in total and got stuck in some spot on a map only two times. All in all, really excellent even by NWN 1 multiplayer standards. It's also impressive that at least for me it runs without problems both on a really old computer built in 2003-2004 (with Windows XP) and on a very modern computer built in 2012 (with Windows 7).
All in all, it feels like a deluxe commercial MMORPG due to the quality of design of the world and enthusiasm of developers and their dungeon master team.
--------------------------
NWN 2 with all expansion packs (includes extra pack Mysteries of Westgate) for $19.99 at GoG.
http://www.gog.com/gamecard/neverwinter_nights_2_complete
NWN 1 and NWN 2 with all expansion packs for $29.99 at Gamestop.
http://www.gamestop.com/pc/games/dungeons-dragons-neverwinter-nights-complete/99052
If somebody is starting from scratch, the whole installation and patching process is much more simple than in NWN 1.
1. Install NWN 2.
2. Install Mask of Betrayer (and Storm of Zehir if you have it).
3. Run NWN2Launcher.exe. Click Update to patch the game to the final version released in 2009.
4. Launch the game. Click "Multiplayer". Type in some account name and some random password.
5. Choose "Join Internet Game", then select "Role-Playing" server section and select "Baldur's Gate: The Sword Coast Chronicles".
*Update to step 5*
Gamespy has stopped supporting many older games including NWN 1 and NWN 2. In order to play BGTSCC now you need to select "Multiplayer" and then use the "Direct Connect" button instead of the "Join Internet Game" button. Insert the IP address of the server, which is 208.94.245.10:5121. After this the server will be saved in the "History section" of multiplayer tab.
6. Connect to the server. All necessary files will be downloaded and sorted out in the right folders automatically. This stage can take a few hours even with fast Internet connection when you connect for the first time because there are at least 2-4 gigabytes of BGTSCC files.
7. Create character and play after downloads are finished.
This is not mentioned anywhere on the forums but players who don't have the Storm of Zehir expansion can take only standard base and prestige classes which came with NWN 2 and The Mask of Betrayer. Without The Storm of Zehir add-on It is not possible to take levels in custom prestige classes such as Dread Pirate, Black Flame Zealot, Whirling Dervish or Ghost-Faced Killer, and in certain maps there will be objects with "missing textures". Fortunately, there is still plenty of base and prestige classes to choose from, and 90% of maps do not contain any objects or textures from Storm of Zehir. Otherwise, you can play perfectly fine just with NWN 2 and MoTB without SoZ.
---------------------------
Some screenshots showing the game world: http://www.bgtscc1.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=87
Some gameplay screenshots:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v317/Duster47/NWN2/NWN2_SS_011512_213520.jpg
http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/399/nwn2ss011512134456.jpg
http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/1102/nwn2ss011612050421.jpg
http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/1180/nwn2ss011612194420.jpg
http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/8343/nwn2ss011612191049.jpg
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/6813/nwn2ss011712150827.jpg
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/6686/nwn2ss011512192213.jpg
http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/965/nwn2ss011712173356.jpg
I will do my best to describe BG-TSCC. Some information about me first. In the past I have played Baldur's Gate 1, Baldur's Gate 2, Icewind Dale, and Neverwinter Nights 1 in single player and six years in multiplayer. I discovered BG-TSCC and started playing it a year and a half ago.
I guess it might be best to provide the description in a form of a FAQ.
--------------------------
Q: What's in there for fans of the good old Baldur's Gate game released in 1998?
A: Developers recreated the world and game maps from the world and maps of the original Baldur's Gate game and the results are quite impressive in my opinion. If you have played the old Baldur's Gate game, you will certainly recognize many places. The world reaches north of Baldur's Gate to Troll Claw Hills and to the south through Friendly Arms Inn, Beregost and Nashkel through Cloudpeak Mountains to Amn, plus there is an entire big world of the Underdark with the city of Sshamath below the surface for players who choose to play as a drow, duergar, svirfneblin or tanarruk. The whole game world consists of at least 120-150 maps. Players and a big dungeon master team have already established a really complex role-play setting with various clans and guilds familiar from the Baldur's Gate game. The world is not static but keeps changing. There have even been some epic and really huge global events such as a war between Baldur's Gate and Amn (described in Forgotten Realms lore) half a year ago, which left Beregost completely razed (rebuilt now).
Q: How is gameplay in BG-TSCC?
A: Gameplay is somewhat similar to gameplay in mainstream MMORPG games. You create a character and explore, hunt monsters, do quests, buy and trade items to NPC shops or between players, join parties or solo some smaller and bigger boss monsters, participate in various events and quests organized by dungeon masters. Your character is stored on the server and remains for many years just like in commercial MMORPGs. An average player might probably remain interested at least for a year playing there but completely new players might stay for as long as five years. The only reason I have become somewhat bored after 15 months of playing a lot there is that I had played NWN 1 online for six years before I joined and many gameplay elements weren't new to me.
Q: How is role-playing in BG-TSCC?
A: One special thing they have is that sometimes characters automatically get RP XP for role-playing. The thing which impressed me most about role-play is that in the Underdark many people actually role-play in the real language of the drow (Siyo, nind telanth ilythiiri xanalress wun Har'oloth gaer). Role-playing between players and interaction between players and NPCS or monsters controlled by dungeon masters can be often quite deep and serious in BG-TSCC. One reason for this is that role-playing can actually bring power or different real consequences to player characters or be reflected in the world. In most online fantasy games role-playing is just empty talk between role-players but it never results or materializes in anything.
Q: Isn't NWN 2 a bad game for multiplayer?
A: As a veteran NWN 1 player I had negative prejudice towards NWN 2 but after I tried it in 2011, BG-TSCC impressed me so much that it was the only computer game I ever played in 2011-2012. I am waiting for BG-EE because Baldur's Gate games are my favourite single player games but BG-TSCC is the place to go for any BG fan who wants to experience Baldur's Gate as an MMORPG. The games sort of complete each other. You can play Baldur's Gate in single player and then you can continue your adventures in the multiplayer environment of BG-TSCC, though with another character and decades after the Bhaal spawn events.
Q: Isn't NWN 2 full of bugs for multiplayer?
A: I tried NWN 2 for the first time in closed beta test in 2005, then bought and played it for a while in 2005-2007. Many years ago NWN 2 was indeed horrible for multiplayer, significantly worse than NWN 1, though I did like the official single player campaign. However, in 2011 when I decided to try the BG-TSCC, I became extremely impressed with the multiplayer aspect of NWN 2. I cannot say for certain whether NWN 2 became so dramatically better due to all the patches between 2005-2009 or because the world of BG-TSCC is optimized really well and bugs removed.
Q: What is so impressive about BG-TSCC from technical viewpoint?
A: I was impressed because it is a world with 150 maps and 90% of them quite decent (knowing how hard it is to make good looking maps in NWN 2). I was also impressed that their server can handle 70 players simultaneously with surprisingly little lag and that during 12 months of playing there I experienced game crashes only 10-15 times in total and got stuck in some spot on a map only two times. All in all, really excellent even by NWN 1 multiplayer standards. It's also impressive that at least for me it runs without problems both on a really old computer built in 2003-2004 (with Windows XP) and on a very modern computer built in 2012 (with Windows 7).
All in all, it feels like a deluxe commercial MMORPG due to the quality of design of the world and enthusiasm of developers and their dungeon master team.
--------------------------
NWN 2 with all expansion packs (includes extra pack Mysteries of Westgate) for $19.99 at GoG.
http://www.gog.com/gamecard/neverwinter_nights_2_complete
NWN 1 and NWN 2 with all expansion packs for $29.99 at Gamestop.
http://www.gamestop.com/pc/games/dungeons-dragons-neverwinter-nights-complete/99052
If somebody is starting from scratch, the whole installation and patching process is much more simple than in NWN 1.
1. Install NWN 2.
2. Install Mask of Betrayer (and Storm of Zehir if you have it).
3. Run NWN2Launcher.exe. Click Update to patch the game to the final version released in 2009.
4. Launch the game. Click "Multiplayer". Type in some account name and some random password.
5. Choose "Join Internet Game", then select "Role-Playing" server section and select "Baldur's Gate: The Sword Coast Chronicles".
*Update to step 5*
Gamespy has stopped supporting many older games including NWN 1 and NWN 2. In order to play BGTSCC now you need to select "Multiplayer" and then use the "Direct Connect" button instead of the "Join Internet Game" button. Insert the IP address of the server, which is 208.94.245.10:5121. After this the server will be saved in the "History section" of multiplayer tab.
6. Connect to the server. All necessary files will be downloaded and sorted out in the right folders automatically. This stage can take a few hours even with fast Internet connection when you connect for the first time because there are at least 2-4 gigabytes of BGTSCC files.
7. Create character and play after downloads are finished.
This is not mentioned anywhere on the forums but players who don't have the Storm of Zehir expansion can take only standard base and prestige classes which came with NWN 2 and The Mask of Betrayer. Without The Storm of Zehir add-on It is not possible to take levels in custom prestige classes such as Dread Pirate, Black Flame Zealot, Whirling Dervish or Ghost-Faced Killer, and in certain maps there will be objects with "missing textures". Fortunately, there is still plenty of base and prestige classes to choose from, and 90% of maps do not contain any objects or textures from Storm of Zehir. Otherwise, you can play perfectly fine just with NWN 2 and MoTB without SoZ.
---------------------------
Some screenshots showing the game world: http://www.bgtscc1.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=87
Some gameplay screenshots:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v317/Duster47/NWN2/NWN2_SS_011512_213520.jpg
http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/399/nwn2ss011512134456.jpg
http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/1102/nwn2ss011612050421.jpg
http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/1180/nwn2ss011612194420.jpg
http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/8343/nwn2ss011612191049.jpg
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/6813/nwn2ss011712150827.jpg
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/6686/nwn2ss011512192213.jpg
http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/965/nwn2ss011712173356.jpg
Post edited by Yathrin on
19
Comments
I bought myself a completely new computer two months ago and was worried that I would have some problems installing the game. However, I was able to install and update everything with zero problems. The new computer I have is Intel I5-3570 with Geforce 670 GTX and 64-bit Windows 7. As a pleasant surprise, I discovered that nVIDIA's 3D Vision 2 works really well in NWN 2. I can put all options to ultra high and the game runs smooth. Before this I played BGTSCC on AMD Athlon XP 2400+/1 GB RAM/Radeon 9700 (128 Mb) and Windows XP with low-medium settings.
One really good thing about NWN 2 compared to NWN 1 is that there is an auto downloader. All you need is to get NWN 2 + MoTB + preferably also Storm of Zehir expansions (but BGTSCC does work only with NWN 2 + MoTB without SoZ), install them, then run NWN 2 patcher which will patch the game to the final version that was released in 2009 (Obsidian/Atari didn't do any more updates after that), then launch the game, choose Multiplayer, type in some account name you want to be using (no need to register on Obsidian/Atari site anymore, see explanation below), in game world list choose "Role-Play" and select the BGTSCC world. You'll be connected to the server and NWN 2 will download all the files you need to play there. For full nostalgia I would also recommend downloading a music pack with original Baldur's Gate music from some thread on BGTSCC forums, though music which comes with NWN 2 is really great too (composed by Jeremy Soule, most of it is from NWN 1).
By the way, Atari stopped running master server authorization two years ago in NWN 1 and NWN 2, which means that NWN 1 and NWN 2 don't require licensed CD keys for multiplayer and you don't need to register any account name on Atari or Obsidian website. However, BGTSCC has account protection system. When you log in for the first time with a new account name, it checks what CD keys you have on your computer and associates them with the account name you chose. After that anyone who tries to log in with that account name must have exactly same CD keys in the game files on his or her computer to be able to log in with characters associated with that account name.
Im pretty sure the same will happen to this site and the beamdog client software, if there is enough interest. Too bad this game is not on Steam.
It is one of the reasons why I have played NWN 1 and NWN 2 in multiplayer for almost nine years now, while I always get bored of all other MMO games usually in less than a year.
Then there is Nashkel and Cloudpeak Mountains which have very different maps during the winter season and during the summer season. The season change adds to immersion.
There is also a lot of other stuff which has changed in the world just during this year alone. For example, The Order of the Radiant Heart (player guild) have built an orphanage for children of people who died during the war between Baldur´s Gate and Amn, and in the Underdark there is now a maze-like Illithid hive city with an Elder Brain at its heart if your intrusion survives that far.
The developers have also started working on a big expansion of the world to the north and north-east of Baldur's Gate.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/2760/news
but be carefull with the patching process and read some infos about it...
Here´s a forum post about it!
http://social.bioware.com/forum/Neverwinter-Nights-2/NwN-2-General-Discussion-forums-No-Spoilers-Allowed/Can039t-buy-NWN2-anymore-Anyone-know-of-an-online-store-like-D2DSteam-4784098-1.html
It's basically like a small MMORPG and probably more of an MMORPG than Dungeons & Dragons Online where you go on adventures with only five other players or eleven players if it's a boss raid. In BGTSCC at least there have been events with 10-30 friendly NPCs, 10-40 monsters, 12-15 player characters and 1-2 dungeon masters all interacting on the same map.
No, I haven't seen this. Looks impressive! Although the limitations of the toolset do become apparent when you try to achieve the look of BG as closely as possible. But in all events, I'm sure many players will be enthralled simply by visiting all the familiar locations, and seeing what the builders were able to achieve.
There are a lot of neat little features too. For example, there are at least six ways to sit on a chair and you can turn chairs and benches in the game in different directions, or you can also set up a campfire and even a tent or disassemble them. They have also implemented a language tool which allows you basically to decode your message and only people who can speak the selected tongue will see your message. For example, you can choose the language of goblins and tell something in it and only people who know the language of goblins will understand your message. You choose certain languages after you create your character and the number of languages you know depends on your intelligence ability.
I built a substantial portion of A Land Far Away's NWN Baldur's Gate server region (i.e., inherited it, resdesigned, added new areas, etc.), and hosted and HDMed it. I was also one of the founders of Exodus: Shadows of the South NWN2 PW, set in Amn. At Exodus I did much less toolsetting, though. There I worked more with the conceptual and lore dimensions. But anyway, I haven't been involved with any NWN/NWN2 persistent world projects since around '07.
Yeah, it's not really an MMO... A dedicated server is really needed to host a NWN2 PW. I honestly forget now if there's a limit to the number of players... But I do recall that you can start to see lag when there are too many players, especially when a lot are all congregated in the same area. I had a cable connection and lag was never really much of a problem back in '03-'05 when running a NWN1 server. We'd often have about 10-35 players. We had about 3 or 4 active DMs so players got lots of attention. It was a lot of fun.
I'd encourage folks to go ahead and check it out. You need the game installed plus expansion and you'll have to download a hakpak (or at least you used to). The website and/or forum for the PW will tell you what's needed.
http://www.gamestop.com/pc/games/dd-ultimate-pack/102768