The little things you miss

JoenSo

It's easy to forget that the IE games have changed quite a bit since the original release. So here's a thread for those little things that you liked in earlier versions of the games that have disappeared/changed and are not in the EEs anymore. Not a thread to bash on what should or should not be in the EE versions though.

Kind of like how I liked the look of mirror image before ToB and patches. Back when the mirror images appeared in a straight line to the left and right of the caster. It looked neat.

I also miss Imoen's original look in SoA. When she didn't have her hood unless you put armor on her. After playing through that version of the game countless of times that is just how Imoen looks to me.

ThacoBell

I miss the load screen art from BG1. It makes sense that we don't have it anymore with the instant load times, but I miss them. I used to imagine a whole story going on between each of those artworks.

semiticgoddess

EEKeeper's older, cooler name, Shadowkeeper.

Those silly wiffle ball globes for Spell Immunity and the Cloak of Mirroring.

The shinier icons for Protection from Magical Weapons and other abjuration spells.

The spider gnome trick and potion swap glitch.

Seeing the skull's eyes light up during the loading screen, and the cute little messages the loading screen would display.

The old blue and white CDs for the original version of BG2.

The days when Kensai/Mages were cool and new and clever.

chimeric

ThacoBell said:

I miss the load screen art from BG1. It makes sense that we don't have it anymore with the instant load times, but I miss them. I used to imagine a whole story going on between each of those artworks.

Well, why shouldn't they bring the screens back? Just because it's possible to have instant load times doesn't mean it's a good idea. Take the movies: you must show credits somewhere, so directors put them in front on a black screen, or over the action as it happens, or all in the end. It becomes another artistic tool. In these games a second or two of loading would discourage people from fucking reloading all the time, too.

TheArtisan

chimeric said:

Just because it's possible to have instant load times doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Hahahahaha.

Wait, you're serious?

tbone1

The jarring thought that Naskel was on Disc 3 but Bragge appeared in an area on Disc 2.

The rare, rare error, because told you the line in the particular C++ file where exception was caught.

Artona

I miss the old stoney main menu. I think it was beautiful.

lroumen

semiticgod said:

EEKeeper's older, cooler name, Shadowkeeper.

Gatekeeper!

deltago

semiticgod said:

The old blue and white CDs for the original version of BG2.

I still have mine.

And the BG1 discs that were green and beige and one of the disc (4?) had a picture of a wyvern on it and I was like "damn, cant wait to get to thos disc!" Still have those.

I do moss the Beregost cut scene with the woman shaking out the carpet onto the homeless guy below and the kobold's sneaking up to the farm house in Nashkel.

lroumen

In addition of pretty much all abovementioned items, I miss being able to dualclass into mage specialists.

Kamigoroshi

SoA: Back when half-orcs actually looked like half-orcs! And not like some seasick sailors-in-training or something. The same goes for that smexy original monk sprite as well.

batoor

Well the old journal.

And the feeling of sprucing your game up with the widescreen mod and the fixpack^^

JoenSo

deltago said:

semiticgod said:

The old blue and white CDs for the original version of BG2.

I still have mine.

And the BG1 discs that were green and beige and one of the disc (4?) had a picture of a wyvern on it and I was like "damn, cant wait to get to thos disc!" Still have those.

I do moss the Beregost cut scene with the woman shaking out the carpet onto the homeless guy below and the kobold's sneaking up to the farm house in Nashkel.

I actually hadn't realized that there were different versions of the discs. Mine are dark brown with no wyvern. I also miss the cutscene with the wyvern in Cloakwood. Mostly because the wonderfully wonky way the guy throws away his axe as if he can't get rid of it fast enough.

I miss Volo's colorful map of Baldur's gate that came with the game. I probably still have it somewhere though. Somewhere.

Redrake

I still have the original IWD1 and the HoW expansions CDs. I also have the BG1&TotSC International version that I bought I think in 2003. I am rather certain they still work, even though I long since created images out of them afraid they might explode.

batoor

The change in the berserkers ability being replaced with unconscious after the temporary hitpoints are removed. Characters dying after that, was an amusing if somewhat frustrating mechanic^^

The things you hate you grow to love sometimes.

Kamigoroshi

The mouse radial wheel in Planescape: Torment would be another point that I do miss in the EE variant. Such a lovely little gadget it was... ;_;

Zaghoul

Speaking of all the old movies that played, I have enjoyed adding them back in with the Classic Movies mod. Carpet shaking, sewers, wyvern, tavern, koblods in Naskel sneaking around, treasure room in the palace in BG, etc., all add a little something to the atmosphere of the game.
http://www.shsforums.net/topic/55573-mod-bgee-classic-movies/

AndreaColombo

I miss hearing NPCs' first bark or salutation when they saw me, as opposed to when they initiated dialog. It felt as those NPCs were trying to get my party's/character's attention from afar while walking up to them.

I miss the original inventory icon behavior of only showing the hilt of a weapon when in a slot, and its entire body when picked up. It was really nice touch.

I miss the original, non-mirrored BG1 sprites and the "grounded" fantasy art design that mimicked the aesthetic of the source P&P AD&D material. Those inventory icons really "popped" and actually tried to look like the material items were made of.

Zaghoul

I use the options for regular sprites myself as I don't like the new look they can be given.

chimeric

Artemius_I said:

chimeric said:

Just because it's possible to have instant load times doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Hahahahaha.

Wait, you're serious?

Just because you can go without your pants doesn't mean it's a better fashion...

Hearing so many people's recollections, though, here is what I don't understand: why do we treat it as forever-vanished antiques? Instead of shedding tears, why don't we demand, or strongly indicate, that Beamdog brings those things back? Or something similar. I know I don't miss anything that was actually crude or clumsy about the original editions, not at all. But the many things that were not - well, why were they taken away? Why do we settle for garish spell effects with all those flying doves rising... and so on? Maybe the people at Beamdog really believe those changes are improvements, but look - clearly, they are not liked.

How we could make a difference? By not buying stuff that we dislike. For one, I uninstalled SoD soon after starting it. And the main reason was that the backgrounds were so unbearably garish and swamped with acidic light. I did not want to pretend that this was handsome. Later I looked at many of the models separately, the items and so on, to get the idea of what was added, but I did not play very much of it. That's how you make your opinion felt.

semiticgoddess

I don't see how keeping the loading screens would have been better than removing them. I much preferred playing the game to watching it load.

Personally, I love the new environments in SoD. They don't have the low-res, plasticky look of BG1 and BG2 areas. SoD environments are much more detailed and luminous, much like those of IWD and IWD2.

deltago

chimeric said:

Artemius_I said:

chimeric said:

Just because it's possible to have instant load times doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Hahahahaha.

Wait, you're serious?

Just because you can go without your pants doesn't mean it's a better fashion...

Hearing so many people's recollections, though, here is what I don't understand: why do we treat it as forever-vanished antiques? Instead of shedding tears, why don't we demand, or strongly indicate, that Beamdog brings those things back? Or something similar. I know I don't miss anything that was actually crude or clumsy about the original editions, not at all. But the many things that were not - well, why were they taken away? Why do we settle for garish spell effects with all those flying doves rising... and so on? Maybe the people at Beamdog really believe those changes are improvements, but look - clearly, they are not liked.

How we could make a difference? By not buying stuff that we dislike. For one, I uninstalled SoD soon after starting it. And the main reason was that the backgrounds were so unbearably garish and swamped with acidic light. I did not want to pretend that this was handsome. Later I looked at many of the models separately, the items and so on, to get the idea of what was added, but I did not play very much of it. That's how you make your opinion felt.

So no.

One person's opinion does not equate everyone's opinion. The way graphics look is and always will be an individual preference.

It's a shame that you didn't like the look of SoD, but I can relate. When I first bought BG2, I did not like the new art style they adopted for the sequel. The pastel like colour scheme grated me and pulled me out of my immersion but I stuck with it, and the art style eventually grew on me to the point I don't notice it anymore.

Blastback

The curved horn helms from Baldur's Gate 2. They looked awesome. And then they were gone.

Also the cut-scenes to BG1.

Also, the sheer sense of wonder the first play-through, of diving in the deep end and discovering just what the game was.

Balrog99

Blastback said:

The curved horn helms from Baldur's Gate 2. They looked awesome. And then they were gone.

Also the cut-scenes to BG1.

Also, the sheer sense of wonder the first play-through, of diving in the deep end and discovering just what the game was.

I had forgotten about those cool helmets until I just read your post. Why did they get rid of them?

ThacoBell

Balrog99 said:

Blastback said:

The curved horn helms from Baldur's Gate 2. They looked awesome. And then they were gone.

Also the cut-scenes to BG1.

Also, the sheer sense of wonder the first play-through, of diving in the deep end and discovering just what the game was.

I had forgotten about those cool helmets until I just read your post. Why did they get rid of them?

Because they look dorky Serious question: Were the BG1 sprites lost with the other art assets?

TheArtisan

chimeric said:

Just because you can go without your pants doesn't mean it's a better fashion...

Hearing so many people's recollections, though, here is what I don't understand: why do we treat it as forever-vanished antiques? Instead of shedding tears, why don't we demand, or strongly indicate, that Beamdog brings those things back? Or something similar. I know I don't miss anything that was actually crude or clumsy about the original editions, not at all. But the many things that were not - well, why were they taken away? Why do we settle for garish spell effects with all those flying doves rising... and so on? Maybe the people at Beamdog really believe those changes are improvements, but look - clearly, they are not liked.

How we could make a difference? By not buying stuff that we dislike. For one, I uninstalled SoD soon after starting it. And the main reason was that the backgrounds were so unbearably garish and swamped with acidic light. I did not want to pretend that this was handsome. Later I looked at many of the models separately, the items and so on, to get the idea of what was added, but I did not play very much of it. That's how you make your opinion felt.

What does this have anything to do about what you said? You are discussing subjective changes that may or may not be to your tastes. Loading screens, however, are objectively detrimental to gameplay. There is no good argument for keeping them in when they bring nothing of worth to the game that other alternatives can't do, and better. They're a limitation - something that is undesired but impossible to go without.

You want to argue in random nonsensical analogies like you're fond of doing all the time? Fine. It's like drinking soup with a fork when a spoon does the same and better.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

AndreaColombo

ThacoBell said:

Serious question: Were the BG1 sprites lost with the other art assets?

I believe so.

DevardKrown

The way the old BG1 Shields would look , so much better...

Dev6

chimeric said:

Artemius_I said:

chimeric said:

Just because it's possible to have instant load times doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Hahahahaha.

Wait, you're serious?

Just because you can go without your pants doesn't mean it's a better fashion...

Hearing so many people's recollections, though, here is what I don't understand: why do we treat it as forever-vanished antiques? Instead of shedding tears, why don't we demand, or strongly indicate, that Beamdog brings those things back? Or something similar. I know I don't miss anything that was actually crude or clumsy about the original editions, not at all. But the many things that were not - well, why were they taken away? Why do we settle for garish spell effects with all those flying doves rising... and so on? Maybe the people at Beamdog really believe those changes are improvements, but look - clearly, they are not liked.

How we could make a difference? By not buying stuff that we dislike. For one, I uninstalled SoD soon after starting it. And the main reason was that the backgrounds were so unbearably garish and swamped with acidic light. I did not want to pretend that this was handsome. Later I looked at many of the models separately, the items and so on, to get the idea of what was added, but I did not play very much of it. That's how you make your opinion felt.

I've seen a lot of ridiculous things in my life, but someone saying they want to have loading screens back when they're not needed anymore honestly takes the cake.
Then again this is the same guy that made a post crying for attention, claiming people are "consumeristic" because they don't enjoy his mods, so clearly I shouldn't expect any better.

typo_tilly said:

BG1 cut-scenes

I'm the opposite here, I love the new BGEE comic-style cutscenes and would love for them to make some for BG2EE too

Artona

Would it be so bad if those loading screens were accesible in option menu and could be turned off? I can see why people don't want them back, but for me it was never just a limitation - those pictures of adventurers during transition between areas always had built some sense of anticipation.