The Black Pits!!!

Wolk

Is there anyone else out there looking forward to the Black Pits? I know it's not a part of the Bhallspwan Saga, but it still looks great and has a lot of opportunities for tactical combat and it might even have some for role play purposes. IE: You, a great half orc shaman (fighter/cleric) and your five barbarian bodyguards got kidnaped by a mad drow making you fight for your freedom against a horde of creature in a bloodied arena!

It would also be fun to try some kits we never tried before and create weird parties with a lot of special abilities that might get boring to use in a single player multiplayer campain. like a group of 4-6 jesters, 4-6 raging barbarians, 6 wildmages , 6 priest of helm with their magical sword power ( or whatever cleric kit it was) 6 gnomes because gnomes are so awesome!

Another reason I might play the Black Pits before BG:EE ( HERETIC burn it!!!) is because i'm still unsure what caracter to make for my first playthrough.

I hope i'm not the only one looking forward for this mysterious adventure X in the underdark: THE BLACK PITS!!!!

ajwz

Yep, I'm looking forward to it more than any of the new content so far.

reedmilfam

Nope. Not even a little. I want a story, not endless pointless fights.

LadyEibhilinRhett

Eh. I prefer a good story myself, but I might check it out for one or two fights just to see what it's like.

sepotter

I will explore it eventually.

Shin

I will probably headcanon it as something that happens to my character in between BG1 and BG2. In that regard it might fit in somewhat.

Ken

I think it will be too easy once you tried it.. I WANT IT TO BE NEAR IMPOSSIBLE BUT NOT CHEESY

I wanna go through the fight with a small party of 3 guys. Fighter, Cleric/thief, Sorcerer

Pantalion

Hopefully it's more than just a fight sim and slips in a little/lotta plot in there somehow (one assumes there has to be more than raw combat given that BG is as much an explore 'em up as it is a combat game, but I'm sure I'll get into it after I've slaughtered all who oppose me in the main campaign.

Hopefully I can even import all the NPCs from my BG1 party, making six characters is doubtless going to consume several hours apiece. Most of which would be thinking up their names.

Risingsun

I think the Black Pits has a lot of potential for multiplayer games. It can be a challenge to get a dedicated group of friends to play through an 80 hour RPG with you.

On the other hand, The Black Pits is a 6 or so hour experience and could lend itself to quick multiplayer games with your friends, maybe even a full party of 6 people working together to conquer The Pits.

I can see myself playing this more than a few times with friends, or when I want to kill some time while traveling and not wanting to dive into my main game.

Gilgalahad

I'll just treat it like i did all the nwn modules. I'll play the pits once i've done my 1st playthrough of BGEE.

NWN_babaYaga

looky looky forward yes yes:D

Kason

If i would like constant fighting without any story i would instal Icewind Dale.

HaHaCharade

I keep thinking of the "Creature Arena" in Dragon Warrior IV. Lol....

Jaaniv

I have fairly open mind regarding the Black Pits. I'll definitely play it once, more than that remains to be seen.

bigdogchris

I have no interest in the Black Pits.

RomulanPaladin

So... it's separate from the rest of the game? I was under the impression that it was another area on the map you can travel to and explore...

geselle

Nope, it's a simple dungeon crawler with no relation to the saga. So no, it's merely a sidenote and I'm not really looking forward to it.
Some people were complaining IWD2 is a pure dungeon crawler with no story, well Black Pits is worse; even less story and pure hack and slay.
Meh..

MikeMasters

so how exactly do you access this black pits, is it going to be through the main menu or will it be somewhere on the BG map?

Dino

@ MikeMasters
Main Menu afaik

I think it could be a very nice feature, partly depending on the multiplayer features. Combat in infinity games has always been interesting and fun, and its nice to see that part of the game getting some extra attention.
We already got one of the best fanatsy epics ever told in the regular game. Cluttering this arena feature with excess story would just make it weaker.

Thats what I think.

reedmilfam

I'd much rather that they add story places and plots than a tacked-on minigame. Still, I'm happy to get BG:EE and can ignore The Black Pits like anybody else. Reminds me of DLC for ME (original) that was some sort of arena. As you can imagine, it never made its way onto my computer.

Space_hamster

I'm decidedly 'meh' about the black pits.... The name sounds like a tar mine from medieval times, not very scary sounding to me . But ok, I'll play along, bring on the glatatorial contest, two men enter, one man leaves!

Bercon

I'll prolly just play black pits until the most important mods (bg1npc,ub,scs) are released.

Pantalion

11. SP: What was the inspiration for The Black Pits?

Oster: The Black pits was first conceptualized as a framework for players to engage in the tactical combat of Baldur's Gate while going light on the story component. We believed the tactical combat in the game was a fun experience and that players would enjoy a leaner way to play. Somewhere along the way we added in a story, a large cast, and a ton of voice acting, but it all works very well together so we are happy.

Possibly relevant.

MikeMasters

do you think you will start out as level 1 characters and as you win matches, you get exp and gold to level up and buy new stuff?

jolly_bb

i'd like a few things:
- have it possible to import /export my charname (better - whole party) in and out of black pits vs main game, without ruining any of tthose with excess xp or OPed items
- have it challanging but not cheesy (obviously...)
- variety of mobs (powerful characters, monsters, parties)

after all i enjoyed the arena fights in underdark in BG2 quite a lot, so i expect Black Pits to be fun for me!

AlexM

I think that there's a lot more story in the Black Pits than people are assuming. Even if the Black Pits isn't the type of game play you're interested in, I would suggest to Ctrl-Y everything and check out the story created by Phil and Dave.

Also, Mark Meer is awesome.

Lemernis

If it's on par with Durlag's Tower or Watcher's Keep I'll enjoy it.

Quartz

Good thread.

I won't lie I'm not exactly looking forward to The Black Pits. It sounds like an Arena Survival mode, which is pretty dull in my opinion ... others enjoy such modes however so said others will likely enjoy The Black Pits. We've been told however that the narration is awesome, so it probably has that going for it. That doesn't make up for a complete lack of plot, but it's still more than what other games have done with similar modes.

Anyway, I don't expect it to be particularly thrilling. I'm glad it's outside of the main game. However, I will, of course, give it a shot or two at some point. Again I'm not holding my breath, but there's no point in judging it until I've played it.

AlexM

@Quartz It has definitely has its own plot that gives a reason for the type of game play it provides. Hopefully when you get around to trying it out, your low expectations will help you enjoy it a bit more!

cory5694

I'm excited!!

Tanthalas

AlexM said:

@Quartz It has definitely has its own plot that gives a reason for the type of game play it provides. Hopefully when you get around to trying it out, your low expectations will help you enjoy it a bit more!

Low expectations are the best expectations!