What would be nice, as a generic non-mod player, would be some kind of curated downloads for mods, much like NWN made it easy to discover and download new content. I don't want mods, no matter how popular, taking over my game. It would be nice to have an easy way to install (and uninstall) from the main menu screen though.
Let's please not elevate one person's personal mod preferences to something that must be imposed on everyone, and rendering alternative mods incompatible.
I fully agree about SCS and other heavy rules-changing MODs . .
BUT re NPC project, I'm SURE someone from the Devs said once, that they already consider it as game canon, and would implement it to the story way before, but freakin' legal issues dunked the idea!
. . and don't even try to tell me those cute little banter NPCs portraits are game breakers for u! xD
Again - only ALWAYS USED & MOST WANTED & WELL SEEN MODs.
2.0 brought a wave of changes. I'm not sure it's necessary to move beyond 2.x, as such upheaval is not likely to happen again. New innovations are great, but I'd like them to explore creating a new game, possibly backporting any truly popular changes from (stable) patches of the new game to what will by then be a finely-polished 2.x version of our beloved BG series. This will allow BG development to plateau a bit, always helpful to modders, (2.x has taken off many of the past handcuffs), as well as give the devs an outlet for their future innovations. As to the question of what game they might make? I'm still holding out for Icewind Dale 3.
I do remember that at some point years ago (can't find the comment anymore) one of the Beamdog devs expressed that one of the reasons they wouldn't implement BG1NPC into BG:EE is that the quality of the writing is inconsistent and doesn't always hit the bar. And while I do appreciate BG1NPC every once in a while (I don't use it in every playthrough), I do agree with that assessment.
What would be nice, as a generic non-mod player, would be some kind of curated downloads for mods, much like NWN made it easy to discover and download new content. I don't want mods, no matter how popular, taking over my game. It would be nice to have an easy way to install (and uninstall) from the main menu screen though.
I do remember that at some point years ago (can't find the comment anymore) one of the Beamdog devs expressed that one of the reasons they wouldn't implement BG1NPC into BG:EE is that the quality of the writing is inconsistent and doesn't always hit the bar. And while I do appreciate BG1NPC every once in a while (I don't use it in every playthrough), I do agree with that assessment.
Even more than that the BG1NPC in particular had multiple authors (some who are unknown/unreachable) and integrating that without the appropriate authors permission into a commercial product is setting yourself up for a potential future lawsuit.
At the risk of saying something unpopular (and yes I realize it is basically 99.999% guaranteed to not happen), I'd really love a new option for a true turn based mode. Turning the auto-pauses on doesn't quite capture the same dungeons and dragons feeling for me, and I'd love to see a new "mode" for Baldur's Gate to implement it. Of course it would be a huge investment of resources, so will never happen. But still, would love to see it.
I know I've said this many times before, but what I'd really like is the option to roll stats/abilities before class selection. As things are at the moment I pretty much know what my character's going to be like, which npcs I'll choose as companions etc. before I even start rolling for stats. If, as an option, stats were rolled first (and non-redistributable) I believe it would encourage people to think outside the box and play outside their comfort zone. Edit: and increase replayability.
Other thing that came to my mind - adding some high-level, powerful divination spells. Right now there is no reason to choose divination specialization for mage - no spells worthy losing access to conjuration, especially if you have cleric. I'd love to have, for an instant, spell that grants wizard some kind of quasi-precognition, giving him absurd bonus to AC and some immunities, or offensive kind - lowering AC of enemies, because mage is seeing what they are going to do. Other thing - that would require much more work - are spells exclusively for specialists.
I know I've said this many times before, but what I'd really like is the option to roll stats/abilities before class selection. As things are at the moment I pretty much know what my character's going to be like, which npcs I'll choose as companions etc. before I even start rolling for stats. If, as an option, stats were rolled first (and non-redistributable) I believe it would encourage people to think outside the box and play outside their comfort zone. Edit: and increase replayability.
I doubt this would happen because you'll get people doing this and then be like "why can't I play a paladin?" and the answer would be because their prerolled stats are too low and things like that.
There is one other problem with rolling first that I can potentially see ... the game doesn't know whether to roll exceptional strength or not. If you can accept that, then I think I know a way to fake it.
Agreed, part of the point of this option is to avoid producing min/maxed superheroes anyway (as well as giving the game a more PnP feel). Edit: On reflection (while making a cup of tea) the game could roll again for exceptional strength if you choose a Fighter character option after initially rolling 18 Str.
I know I've said this many times before, but what I'd really like is the option to roll stats/abilities before class selection. As things are at the moment I pretty much know what my character's going to be like, which npcs I'll choose as companions etc. before I even start rolling for stats. If, as an option, stats were rolled first (and non-redistributable) I believe it would encourage people to think outside the box and play outside their comfort zone. Edit: and increase replayability.
I just do this by rolling outside the game and choosing what I want to be from the stats. I've put together an auto-roller in Excel that rolls ten sets of stats using 4d6 drop 1 and rolls exceptional strength when strength comes up 17 or 18. I'll choose the one I like best, then I pick class and race and apply racial adjustments. When I get to the attributes part of character creation in the game, I reroll until I get my total or more and redistribute the points to match my roll.
- A few more useful spells for druids. - Making the shapeshifter more useful. For some reason they actually made it weaker in the EE games by taking away the 25 con for greater werewolf and therefore getting rid of the regeneration. Because that's what that kit really needed. A nerf. Nothing big is needed. Maybe just some minor regeneration and making the claws hit as +3 or +4. - For BG 2, more items. I was pretty disappointed that all the new items in the BG 2:EE could only be obtained through EE NPC quests. - Beef up wizard slayer and beast master a bit. They're not totally useless, but they have rather major restrictions with only a few advantages. Just a couple small changes. Wizard slayer can start with 10% magic resistance and beast master can get his summoning spells a bit earlier.
I wish that Beamdog could start to consume some of the most wanted MODs, and add them straight to the game(s), like BG1 NPC Project or @Adul 's GUI tweaks + nearly all @smeagolheart 's ones ^^
I'm actually glad that will never happen. I've enjoyed parts of the NPC Project, but I had to delete it because some of the NPCs were simply way too chatty and it was getting annoying. It'd be a lot better if they cut out about half the dialogue and increased the time between interjections.
1) fix the ending for black pits II - not a great ending
2) more spells for druids and shamans - its surprising that the developers looking at the spell selection for druids in bg2 said "oh thats good lets give them less than a dozen spells per level that are basically not that useful at all"
Finally got around to patching my game just to use the shaman class in bg2 and the black pits and its still underwhelming. The shaman class really needs better spirit summons at higher levels -- imagine a poltergeist that wrecks havoc on the field of battle; or spirit barrier that stops all undead; or soul attack that damages the soul of living creatures etc
Did you notice that summoned spirits can get stuck in a web spell ? Aren't they supposed to be intangible and as such only struck by magical weapons. Plus they are spirits shouldn't they float above it all - the same with the floating sword (level 7 mage spell) it actually got stuck in a web.
3) better HLA for shamans - yes they get unique HLA but really those that they get work better as a level 7 spell than really HLA if you compare them to what other classes get.
@magisensei: I think it makes sense that Spirit Animals can get webbed. For one thing, they're not immune to nonmagical weapons until the caster is level 10. For another, the Web spell is also magical in nature, and therefore could presumably snare a magical critter.
A sword, though, should be unaffected by Web. For one thing, it floats. For another, it has no limbs to ensnare.
@DullSkullTheSecond I don't know if this will help you, but there already is that option on Steam-Workshop, I agree, though, that this should be available no matter where you buy. Speaking of buying, in an ideal world 3.0 will release on the Mac-Store simultaneously.
I remember the wait for 1.3 too well and the last time I checked, customers from there were still stuck at that version. It's not even an operating system thing: The (IMHO) smooth running 2.3 was released on Beamdog and other sites for OS X as well.
Might I inquire (curiosity killed the cat, I know) what feature/bug would make you want to revert back by 1.0?
@DullSkullTheSecond I don't know if this will help you, but there already is that option on Steam-Workshop, I agree, though, that this should be available no matter where you buy. Speaking of buying, in an ideal world 3.0 will release on the Mac-Store simultaneously.
I remember the wait for 1.3 too well and the last time I checked, customers from there were still stuck at that version. It's not even an operating system thing: The (IMHO) smooth running 2.3 was released on Beamdog and other sites for OS X as well.
Might I inquire (curiosity killed the cat, I know) what feature/bug would make you want to revert back by 1.0?
Too much for one post, but to make it short I think this patch looks like a beta. The map, character creation, the portrait sections placeholder and more make it look so incredibly unpolished that I'm amazed this patch actually got greenlit. Talking with support only gave me that "next patch will fix some issues blablabla". I'm in that state right now where I'm actually really f ing pissed that I can't revert the patch and support won't either help me fix it or give me a refund. Just telling me to "wait" and looking at past patches they don't exactly release them monthly. So I will have bricked games for a long time.
Comments
BUT re NPC project, I'm SURE someone from the Devs said once, that they already consider it as game canon, and would implement it to the story way before, but freakin' legal issues dunked the idea!
. . and don't even try to tell me those cute little banter NPCs portraits are game breakers for u! xD
Again - only ALWAYS USED & MOST WANTED & WELL SEEN MODs.
As to the question of what game they might make? I'm still holding out for Icewind Dale 3.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/56781/temple-of-elemental-evil-baldurs-gate-total-conversion#latest
As things are at the moment I pretty much know what my character's going to be like, which npcs I'll choose as companions etc. before I even start rolling for stats.
If, as an option, stats were rolled first (and non-redistributable) I believe it would encourage people to think outside the box and play outside their comfort zone.
Edit: and increase replayability.
Other thing - that would require much more work - are spells exclusively for specialists.
If you want to play outside your comfort zone, try this mod that randomizes your stats and class as it is close to what you are talking about.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/58560/mini-mod-bgee-bgee-sod-bg2ee-random-character-generation#latest
Feel free to make a feature request to roll before selecting a class but I highly doubt it would happen.
There is one other problem with rolling first that I can potentially see ... the game doesn't know whether to roll exceptional strength or not. If you can accept that, then I think I know a way to fake it.
Edit: On reflection (while making a cup of tea) the game could roll again for exceptional strength if you choose a Fighter character option after initially rolling 18 Str.
- Making the shapeshifter more useful. For some reason they actually made it weaker in the EE games by taking away the 25 con for greater werewolf and therefore getting rid of the regeneration. Because that's what that kit really needed. A nerf. Nothing big is needed. Maybe just some minor regeneration and making the claws hit as +3 or +4.
- For BG 2, more items. I was pretty disappointed that all the new items in the BG 2:EE could only be obtained through EE NPC quests.
- Beef up wizard slayer and beast master a bit. They're not totally useless, but they have rather major restrictions with only a few advantages. Just a couple small changes. Wizard slayer can start with 10% magic resistance and beast master can get his summoning spells a bit earlier. I'm actually glad that will never happen. I've enjoyed parts of the NPC Project, but I had to delete it because some of the NPCs were simply way too chatty and it was getting annoying. It'd be a lot better if they cut out about half the dialogue and increased the time between interjections.
I created a quick mod based off of the discussion about the desire to 'roll first' before the rest of character creation: HERE.
1) fix the ending for black pits II - not a great ending
2) more spells for druids and shamans - its surprising that the developers looking at the spell selection for druids in bg2 said "oh thats good lets give them less than a dozen spells per level that are basically not that useful at all"
Finally got around to patching my game just to use the shaman class in bg2 and the black pits and its still underwhelming. The shaman class really needs better spirit summons at higher levels -- imagine a poltergeist that wrecks havoc on the field of battle; or spirit barrier that stops all undead; or soul attack that damages the soul of living creatures etc
Did you notice that summoned spirits can get stuck in a web spell ? Aren't they supposed to be intangible and as such only struck by magical weapons. Plus they are spirits shouldn't they float above it all - the same with the floating sword (level 7 mage spell) it actually got stuck in a web.
3) better HLA for shamans - yes they get unique HLA but really those that they get work better as a level 7 spell than really HLA if you compare them to what other classes get.
A sword, though, should be unaffected by Web. For one thing, it floats. For another, it has no limbs to ensnare.
I remember the wait for 1.3 too well and the last time I checked, customers from there were still stuck at that version. It's not even an operating system thing: The (IMHO) smooth running 2.3 was released on Beamdog and other sites for OS X as well.
Might I inquire (curiosity killed the cat, I know) what feature/bug would make you want to revert back by 1.0?