This needs to happen! SoD was easily my favourite Infinity Engine experience so far! I would love to wander more of the world, characters and storylines that the Beamdog developer's have added to this classic!
Am about halfway through the game right now and already dreading the moment I complete it! More, more, more, for Minsc! For Boo! For us all! ^_^
after a break from the games, i finally got around to purchasing SoD about a month ago and completed a BG/SoD run through and was so disappointed after importing my game into BG2. to date i've only noticed one reference to the SoD saga which, IIRC, involved jaheira mentioning the bridge we defended (eugh, already forgotten its name).
i agree with all the points made and would love to find caelar in the planar sphere or have my NPCs that were with me at least remember the extra journey we took. even though i only used corwin i think it would be great to randomly discover these characters in the amn region eg: the party could be walking through the graveyard area and sees corwin standing near a grave because one of the fallen soldiers was from amn and she promised to return their body to their birthplace, which would lead to a confrontation or reunion (depending on the romance ending) in which we can tell her we know who murdered skie and we are in the process of hunting them down and ask if would she like to join.
i would love if in doing something like this, they added exploration areas to the world map much like in BG. the world map is huge and while it gets more detailed with each NPC that adds to it it would be great if there were areas we could just go to without a need or quest. maybe there is this awesome tavern who has the best rumors in the game or some random NPC living above the most difficult trap laden dungeon in history with no idea the dungeon is even there. i think itd be great if some of the BG1 NPCs that dont make it into SoD/BG2 like branwen or kivan are randomly there getting on with their lives.
something i think they will also need to address, eventually, is safana. there is a point in the latter BG2 chapters where she is mentioned and where we last met up with her. itd be nice to get a brief snapshot of what she did after the SoD before that event happens.
id happily pay for an expansion that implemented those elements to the game and wholeheartedly agree that skies murder could be used as fuel for the quest to get answers from irenicus which as suggested could either be tied up in ToB or mostly closed up in BG2 with remaining elements in ToB.
if the actual NPCs or quests cant be added at least some banter would help tie it together as from what i remember reading in my updates, it said something like 'weve updated the game to include elements from SoD" and the shaman has been included but so far nothing else has. this leaves me feeling like BG and SoD are more fluid in their continuation than BG to BG2
id personally like more of a back story into irenicus and why, out of all the powerful bhaalspawn, he chose us. ToB shows us how many options he had so why target us? apart from being awesome, what drew him to us? was he the one who originally got to sarevok and tipped him off to his heritage? how long had he been kicked out from suldanessellar before he formulated his plan?
there are some game elements from SoD that IMO should be added to both BG and BG2 and others that could be improved on. the conversations the NPCs had in SoD was well done and i missed the first one as it wasnt a rabndom pop up, we were walking along and they just started talking and i only noticed it due to the subtitles. i think the thing that highlights the containers could also be improved upon by not turning off when hitting the tab key but thats for another thread
even though it might take a little bit of time i think its doable. beamdog were able to add new NPCs to the worlds of BG and BG2 and while im no programmer i feel if they could do it with those NPCs, they can also do it with the SoD ones.
i hope my response makes sense and that this is something the devs can implement. im happy to wait haha and if its not already something theyre working on i hope they consider it for a future expansion .
So I tweeted Trent Oster the other day basically asking if there was a chance of any SoD tie-ins into BG2:EE such as bringing any of the new NPCs in, or adding some dialogue or something that references the events in SoD, and he replied that they have no plans to carry anything forward into BG2 at this time.
Which I think is really unfortunate because honestly, I thought SoD was great and mostly did a good job of bridging that gap between BG1 and 2, but when I play BG2 now, it really seems sort of strange that there's literally no reference (that I've seen anyway) to anything specifically that happened in SoD. It just feels weird I guess and still feels like its lacking some sort of continuity or something. Would also be great if the NPCs appeared as I thought they were pretty well done overall.
Not sure the reasons that there are no plans to do this, maybe its just not cost effective, or they're too busy working on other things (patches, a new game, etc.), but even if some things would be too much work or too expensive, like getting new dialogue recorded for the SoD NPCs for example, I really feel that even adding a few smaller things could really go a long way into making the whole saga one big cohesive RPG masterpiece (I'm quite a fan if you haven't guessed).
im really disappointed to hear that and basically feel "what was the point then of adding the missing chapter if the subsequent chapters have no link"
im sure they have their reasons but BG2 does feel less polished for me now due to the lack of SoD references throughout.
there are now more unanswered questions than answered for me. like how the companions that accompanied me after it all went down came to be? what happened to all the NPCs in SoD?
im a big fan too (first played at 13 years old haha) and agree that it is no longer cohesive. i completely agree that even small things would help tie the 3 chapters together. some lore items for example because we dont know now long we were held in chateau irenicus and IMO its highly feasible that books depicting the hero of BG and SoD could have been made and filtered their way into amns book stores. books that detail how the 'hero of BG went onto stop the SoD but threw it all away by murdering a dukes daughter before escaping captivity and hasnt been seen since' would be something towards ensuring the stories are truely cohesive
I don't know what the chances are anymore. Not great for the next few years, I imagine, as Beamdog's got other very, very tasty fish to fry (minds will be blown), but you can never count BG down. It got an expansion more than 15 years after release, there's no way to know what's going to happen six months, a year, five years down the line. I'd certainly hoped to continue Corwin's story especially and bring Glint and M'Khiin back in BGIIEE, and would love to be able to revisit those characters someday.
Hopefully the extended radio silence from Beamdog means they've righted the ship and are hard at work on BG3, a product they might not want to discuss until there's something to show people. Time will tell but let's keep our fingers crossed!
@AndrewFoley exactly. its the disconnect between the end of SoD and BG2 continuing on as if nothing happened and its quite disheartening but as u said, 15 years later the missing chapter was added and they may just be working things out
@jsaving indeed. personally id like to see a continuation of the bhaalspawn saga after ToB which has an extra option depending on how you ended ToB so the game, while primarily the same, has quests or NPCs specific to that
hell, id be happy with an IWD2 EE or a NWN EE but anything to continue the world in general would be awesome and im sure whatever it is theyre working on will be and as mentioned above im looking forward to the other tasty fish whatever it may be
I don't know what the chances are anymore. Not great for the next few years, I imagine, as Beamdog's got other very, very tasty fish to fry (minds will be blown), but you can never count BG down. It got an expansion more than 15 years after release, there's no way to know what's going to happen six months, a year, five years down the line. I'd certainly hoped to continue Corwin's story especially and bring Glint and M'Khiin back in BGIIEE, and would love to be able to revisit those characters someday.
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Am about halfway through the game right now and already dreading the moment I complete it! More, more, more, for Minsc! For Boo! For us all! ^_^
after a break from the games, i finally got around to purchasing SoD about a month ago and completed a BG/SoD run through and was so disappointed after importing my game into BG2. to date i've only noticed one reference to the SoD saga which, IIRC, involved jaheira mentioning the bridge we defended (eugh, already forgotten its name).
i agree with all the points made and would love to find caelar in the planar sphere or have my NPCs that were with me at least remember the extra journey we took. even though i only used corwin i think it would be great to randomly discover these characters in the amn region eg: the party could be walking through the graveyard area and sees corwin standing near a grave because one of the fallen soldiers was from amn and she promised to return their body to their birthplace, which would lead to a confrontation or reunion (depending on the romance ending) in which we can tell her we know who murdered skie and we are in the process of hunting them down and ask if would she like to join.
i would love if in doing something like this, they added exploration areas to the world map much like in BG. the world map is huge and while it gets more detailed with each NPC that adds to it it would be great if there were areas we could just go to without a need or quest. maybe there is this awesome tavern who has the best rumors in the game or some random NPC living above the most difficult trap laden dungeon in history with no idea the dungeon is even there. i think itd be great if some of the BG1 NPCs that dont make it into SoD/BG2 like branwen or kivan are randomly there getting on with their lives.
something i think they will also need to address, eventually, is safana. there is a point in the latter BG2 chapters where she is mentioned and where we last met up with her. itd be nice to get a brief snapshot of what she did after the SoD before that event happens.
id happily pay for an expansion that implemented those elements to the game and wholeheartedly agree that skies murder could be used as fuel for the quest to get answers from irenicus which as suggested could either be tied up in ToB or mostly closed up in BG2 with remaining elements in ToB.
if the actual NPCs or quests cant be added at least some banter would help tie it together as from what i remember reading in my updates, it said something like 'weve updated the game to include elements from SoD" and the shaman has been included but so far nothing else has. this leaves me feeling like BG and SoD are more fluid in their continuation than BG to BG2
id personally like more of a back story into irenicus and why, out of all the powerful bhaalspawn, he chose us. ToB shows us how many options he had so why target us? apart from being awesome, what drew him to us? was he the one who originally got to sarevok and tipped him off to his heritage? how long had he been kicked out from suldanessellar before he formulated his plan?
there are some game elements from SoD that IMO should be added to both BG and BG2 and others that could be improved on. the conversations the NPCs had in SoD was well done and i missed the first one as it wasnt a rabndom pop up, we were walking along and they just started talking and i only noticed it due to the subtitles. i think the thing that highlights the containers could also be improved upon by not turning off when hitting the tab key but thats for another thread
even though it might take a little bit of time i think its doable. beamdog were able to add new NPCs to the worlds of BG and BG2 and while im no programmer i feel if they could do it with those NPCs, they can also do it with the SoD ones.
i hope my response makes sense and that this is something the devs can implement. im happy to wait haha and if its not already something theyre working on i hope they consider it for a future expansion .
Which I think is really unfortunate because honestly, I thought SoD was great and mostly did a good job of bridging that gap between BG1 and 2, but when I play BG2 now, it really seems sort of strange that there's literally no reference (that I've seen anyway) to anything specifically that happened in SoD. It just feels weird I guess and still feels like its lacking some sort of continuity or something. Would also be great if the NPCs appeared as I thought they were pretty well done overall.
Not sure the reasons that there are no plans to do this, maybe its just not cost effective, or they're too busy working on other things (patches, a new game, etc.), but even if some things would be too much work or too expensive, like getting new dialogue recorded for the SoD NPCs for example, I really feel that even adding a few smaller things could really go a long way into making the whole saga one big cohesive RPG masterpiece (I'm quite a fan if you haven't guessed).
im really disappointed to hear that and basically feel "what was the point then of adding the missing chapter if the subsequent chapters have no link"
im sure they have their reasons but BG2 does feel less polished for me now due to the lack of SoD references throughout.
there are now more unanswered questions than answered for me. like how the companions that accompanied me after it all went down came to be? what happened to all the NPCs in SoD?
im a big fan too (first played at 13 years old haha) and agree that it is no longer cohesive. i completely agree that even small things would help tie the 3 chapters together. some lore items for example because we dont know now long we were held in chateau irenicus and IMO its highly feasible that books depicting the hero of BG and SoD could have been made and filtered their way into amns book stores. books that detail how the 'hero of BG went onto stop the SoD but threw it all away by murdering a dukes daughter before escaping captivity and hasnt been seen since' would be something towards ensuring the stories are truely cohesive
@jsaving indeed. personally id like to see a continuation of the bhaalspawn saga after ToB which has an extra option depending on how you ended ToB so the game, while primarily the same, has quests or NPCs specific to that
hell, id be happy with an IWD2 EE or a NWN EE but anything to continue the world in general would be awesome and im sure whatever it is theyre working on will be and as mentioned above im looking forward to the other tasty fish whatever it may be