Any news on when 2.5 will be released? I haven't seen the update yet when I open the client.
There is still some bugfixing going on I believe, so it's not released yet.
I wish to know what feedback Beamdog has taken into account.
I think this is just a general comment on the feedback we gave them. For example, I gave the feedback that although this patch is focused on MP/bug fixing, the most glaring issue for me is the UI. Of course, with mods like LeFreut's or Pecca's UI the game looks great again, but it felt (at that time) to me as a missed opportunity to rectify the mess from the v2-process. Looking at the comments that have been made by Beamdog it seems that we will see another patch after v2.5 later on in the not-so-near future. So I can understand the need to first tackle more technical issues. Looking back on this beta with the insight from NWN:EE head start, I understand that getting MP to work (better/at all) is more important than the UI. The same reason why I want them to first get all the technical stuff done in NWN:EE before heading into doing art-stuff.
I also hope that when v2.5 is released, Beamdog will comment on
Some results of the beta survey
Future plans with regards to more patches for the IE-games (not necessarily with a timeline) in order to know where we stand. For example something along the lines of "our long-term plans are:
first get SoD to 2.5/tablets
then get a patch out for PST:EE
finally come back to the other IEs
If they learned anything from three subsequent betas in terms of managing expectations and such (v2, PST:EE private/public, v2.5) as this is a discussion that surfaces after every beta.
@JuliusBorisov I would love to know if the journal is being fixed in the 2.5 patch since I decided to delay my playthrough of BG2:EE. I'm playing the game for the first time and I need the journal to work.
If it won't be fixed I will instead try starting again from Irenicus' dungeon and see if it maybe decides not to bug out this time. So it would be really good to know.
Just started a solo fighter/mage/thief run and I noticed that Oil of Speed gives you Improved Haste instead of just Haste? I did see that the description said "Doubles movement and attack" but the way it has always worked was, it doubled your movespeed and gave you 1 attack per round. Now it literally doubles your attacks and even says "Improved Haste" on the status screen. Is this an intended change? I hope it's a bug because Oil of Speed will be a broken item and make the Level 6 spell Improved Haste useless due to the way higher duration of Oil of Speed.
Edit: Oops, forgot to mention that this happens in BG2: EE. Don't know if that's the case in the other games.
@phrosnite: I actually hope it stays this way, as it seems to more closely fit the description the way you describe it. Fighter-mages, Mage-thiefs, Fighter-mage-thiefs, and the like can just use their spell Improved Haste as an emergency backup for when they run out of Oils of Speed. However, I'll leave this up to the devs to decide...
Just started a solo fighter/mage/thief run and I noticed that Oil of Speed gives you Improved Haste instead of just Haste? I did see that the description said "Doubles movement and attack" but the way it has always worked was, it doubled your movespeed and gave you 1 attack per round. Now it literally doubles your attacks and even says "Improved Haste" on the status screen. Is this an intended change? I hope it's a bug because Oil of Speed will be a broken item and make the Level 6 spell Improved Haste useless due to the way higher duration of Oil of Speed.
Edit: Oops, forgot to mention that this happens in BG2: EE. Don't know if that's the case in the other games.
I believe this is intended, as it always was meant to indicate Improved Haste. See this bug report.
Yes, this is an intended change to make the behavior consistent with the description of the potion. It's something that hasn't been done for all these years. You can read the discussion which preceded the change starting from here.
Description states "Special: Doubles movement and attack rates" Doubling attacks per round makes it Improved Haste, not Haste. The lvl 6 spell is far from useless as the amount of potions is limited.
...And spell-casters need only rest to gain back their spell-uses, thus making spells pretty much limitless... provided everyone lives through the night... the Forgotten Realms can be quite a dangerous place, even in the most peaceful of towns and Hamlets and Opheliae -- oh, wait; wrong 'hamlet'...
Just reached HLA with my Fighter/Mage/Thief and to my surprise Use Any Item doesn't work as in used to. You can't use companion specific items any more. I guess that ability should be renamed Use Most Items
So you buff Oil of Speed that is available super early and you can easily get 20+ potions but you nerf Use Any Item? I just don't understand the logic behind these changes. I get excited replaying my favourite game in higher resolution and updated UI but often all that fun gets ruined by discovering these needless changes to the game. I just don't understand you, guys. Can you stop removing depth from the game, please?
Time to learn how to mod the game, I guess, in hope to revert these baffling "fixes".
@phrosnite Oil of speed wasn't buffed. It was fixed to match the item description. If you don't like it, then don't use them.
As for the companion items. It makes sense to me that only the character they were designed for can use them, I always considered UAI allowing you to use them was unintended. But I can understand the frustration of that one, as it does remove options in gameplay.
Just reached HLA with my Fighter/Mage/Thief and to my surprise Use Any Item doesn't work as in used to. You can't use companion specific items any more. I guess that ability should be renamed Use Most Items
That's not a change by the 2.5 patch. Thieves were never able to equip NPC-specific items with UAI (i.e. items that were using EE-specific features to apply restrictions).
Btw, there were always cases which UAI didn't cover, even in classic BG2, such as items that require certain minimum stats. A thief with 10 STR can not equip plate mail, and scrolls or wands are still unusable by a thief with less than 9 INT.
Edit: For some reason it is still possible to equip race or class restricted items. For example, Dragomir's cloak should be restricted to vampires. But thieves with UAI can still wear it. Is this intended?
Just reached HLA with my Fighter/Mage/Thief and to my surprise Use Any Item doesn't work as in used to. You can't use companion specific items any more. I guess that ability should be renamed Use Most Items
I'm not sure what you're trying, but in a fresh ToB game my Thief can equip Jan's Flasher Launcher with UAI. The only reason he can't equip Jan's armour or Keldorn's armour is because of inadequate dexterity/charisma.
Probably too late to make a useful comment, but my perception is that oil of speed had a bad description, not a broken effect. Improved haste with the duration of the potion does sound broken to me, but then, I never remember to use potions and this would make me more likely to try - but only as it feels broken to me, which is not a great way to fix a game!
I'm not sure what you're trying, but in a fresh ToB game my Thief can equip Jan's Flasher Launcher with UAI. The only reason he can't equip Jan's armour or Keldorn's armour is because of inadequate dexterity/charisma.
Yes, you can use his Flasher Launcher which has the tag of "Only usable by Jan" but you can't use his armor (Adventurer Wear) which also has the same tag. Enhanced Edition Inconsistency...
Btw, there were always cases which UAI didn't cover, even in classic BG2, such as items that require certain minimum stats. A thief with 10 STR can not equip plate mail, and scrolls or wands are still unusable by a thief with less than 9 INT.
Of course if you don't have the stats you wouldn't be able to use it. That was never the point of UAI. It was about letting you use items restricted by race, alignment, class and other such AD&D restrictions. Also Jan's Adventurer Wear is not EE specific so it should be usable just like in the original. Also what's the point of restricting those items anyway. You have to play with a party of 4 or less to get High Level Abilities before the expansion, not to mention that most of those items aren't even that good. I think some items got falsely flagged when they were restricting the EE companion items or something. All they did was remove depth from the game and ruined it for people who have played the game a million times and want to experiment with different item combinations and whatnot. Just like with the "fixes" in the Hell Trails, they are fixing things 95% of players won't know about or bother doing. Not to mention that people figured out other ways of "exploiting" those trails. "Fans" are also guilty of fixing what ain't broke ie Hell Trails but at least you have the option of not installing the mod.
One last thing. You can use still use items if you don't have the stats. Just use a potion buff and equip the item. After the buff is over you can still use/wear the item until you manually remove it.
Probably too late to make a useful comment, but my perception is that oil of speed had a bad description, not a broken effect. Improved haste with the duration of the potion does sound broken to me, but then, I never remember to use potions and this would make me more likely to try - but only as it feels broken to me, which is not a great way to fix a game!
What they should have done is just update the description to "Gives the drinker the status of hasted, which adds one attack per round, doubling movement rate for 5 minutes".
Finally, I just want to say that instead of fixing what ain't broke why don't devs focus on fixing stuff like characters getting stuck on each other or geometry in the game instead of just going around it? Or adding a "last known position" so that enemies don't completely abandon chasing you if you go out of their sight range(that is a huge problem for enemies that cast time stop).
A thing that should be fixed is NPCs not being able to open unlocked closed doors which leads to some hilarious cheese that I don't think anybody felt good about using.
@JuliusBorisov Should I open a ticket to remove "YOU MUST RESTART THE GAME" from language selection now it is not required anymore or is it required by tablets?
Yeah, I'm also not sure why the oil of speed's behavior was changed, instead of its description. If it's always worked one way and it was fine the way it worked, there was no reason to change it. It was one of the best potions in BG1 even without the buff, now it's not only overpowered, but also makes two weapon fighting more overpowered because it now gets double the amount extra attacks with the oil of speed. That's way too many extra attacks for dual wielding fighters in BG1.
@phrosnite " All they did was remove depth from the game and ruined it for people"
Hyperbole will not make people take you seriously. I understand your frustration, but saying things like this makes you come across as spoiled and entitled. Not trying to rag on you, but give legitimate advice. Tone it back just a tad.
@JuliusBorisov Should I open a ticket to remove "YOU MUST RESTART THE GAME" from language selection now it is not required anymore or is it required by tablets?
Not sure about a tablet difference. If it's not needed on PC at least, you can open a ticket, mentioning that a text fix should require a small investigation first.
Finally, I just want to say that instead of fixing what ain't broke why don't devs focus on fixing stuff like characters getting stuck on each other or geometry in the game instead of just going around it? Or adding a "last known position" so that enemies don't completely abandon chasing you if you go out of their sight range(that is a huge problem for enemies that cast time stop).
A thing that should be fixed is NPCs not being able to open unlocked closed doors which leads to some hilarious cheese that I don't think anybody felt good about using.
Please, log these issues with your explanation on support.baldursgate.com.
If any of them are already on the internal tracker, then your reports will help signalling why fixing these issues is important.
I think the pathfinding issues @phrosnite is talking about are already either fixed in v2.4 (and thus coming to v2.5) or submitted. There are still three pathfinding bug reports open: 22309, 24122 and 24128.
Yeah, I'm also not sure why the oil of speed's behavior was changed, instead of its description. If it's always worked one way and it was fine the way it worked, there was no reason to change it. It was one of the best potions in BG1 even without the buff, now it's not only overpowered, but also makes two weapon fighting more overpowered because it now gets double the amount extra attacks with the oil of speed. That's way too many extra attacks for dual wielding fighters in BG1.
SOP is that when a description and behavior of an item or spell conflict, description wins because it's so much easier to make a mistake in the effects. That being said, we are taking a second look here.
Personally, I've always thought that dual-wielding should be over-powered, but maybe I just play too much Skyrim (I'm only 22, and BGEE is really my first experience with D&D video-games that closely resemble the classic pen-and-paper originals; I've also played Chronicles of Mystara and the demo for Daggerdale on the Xbox 360. Unfortunately, I don't think I would enjoy classic tabletop D&D; too much math, and I've never been good at multiplayer games, considering I'm agoraphobic).
I think the Oil of Speed change is good, it makes fighters apr more valuable and takes the edge slightly from the mages. To this point Oil of Speed did nothing with Grand Mastery,
BG1 Fighter Specialized 2 apr, 3 apr with Oil of Speed Fighter Grand Mastery 2,5 apr, 3 apr with Oil of Speed
BG2 Fighter Specialized 3 apr, 4 apr with Oil of Speed Fighter Grand Mastery 3,5 apr, 4 apr with Oil of Speed
This is one of the most difficult things to fix in this engine. "Go where the player is" to "Go where the player is moving to" happened in original BG1 and BG2, and it still happens in the EEs.
There's a line in the baldur.lua file: SetPrivateProfileString('Program Options', 'Path Search Nodes', '32000')
Default is 32000. Minimum is 2000. Maximum is 400000. Working with this line can improve pathfinding in certain cases.
There are a lot of pathfinding improvements in the EEs if compared to original games, and it looks like the developers have probably pushed as far as they can without a rewrite.
Over the years, different patches have brought new pathfinding fixes. To name a few:
Characters should not change course of their path is only blocked by moving allied creatures (internal - fixed in 1.3)
Characters should not change course if their path is only blocked by allied creatures that are attacking (internal - fixed in 1.3)
Party members should not stop walking when the party is told to move to an area transition (internal - fixed in 1.3)
Party members should not get stuck when moving around objects (public - fixed in v2.4.68.2)
Party members should not be baulked by other party members when attacking enemies (public - fixed in v2.4.68.2)
Guarded characters should not be blocked by their guards (public - fixed in 2.4.68.2)
The tickets you mention, @Doubledimas (22309, 24122 and 24128) have been looked at by our team 2 years ago, then 1 year ago, 11 months ago, 8 months ago and again recently. It turns out this is a wall that can't be destroyed without rebuilding it from the ground up, unfortunately.
An internal ticket for "Characters should not get stuck on each other when attempting to leave a building" is planned for the 2.5 update.
Comments
I also hope that when v2.5 is released, Beamdog will comment on
first get SoD to 2.5/tablets
then get a patch out for PST:EE
finally come back to the other IEs
If it won't be fixed I will instead try starting again from Irenicus' dungeon and see if it maybe decides not to bug out this time. So it would be really good to know.
Edit: Oops, forgot to mention that this happens in BG2: EE. Don't know if that's the case in the other games.
Description states "Special: Doubles movement and attack rates" Doubling attacks per round makes it Improved Haste, not Haste.
The lvl 6 spell is far from useless as the amount of potions is limited.
So you buff Oil of Speed that is available super early and you can easily get 20+ potions but you nerf Use Any Item? I just don't understand the logic behind these changes.
I get excited replaying my favourite game in higher resolution and updated UI but often all that fun gets ruined by discovering these needless changes to the game. I just don't understand you, guys. Can you stop removing depth from the game, please?
Time to learn how to mod the game, I guess, in hope to revert these baffling "fixes".
Very disappointed.
As for the companion items. It makes sense to me that only the character they were designed for can use them, I always considered UAI allowing you to use them was unintended. But I can understand the frustration of that one, as it does remove options in gameplay.
Btw, there were always cases which UAI didn't cover, even in classic BG2, such as items that require certain minimum stats. A thief with 10 STR can not equip plate mail, and scrolls or wands are still unusable by a thief with less than 9 INT.
Edit: For some reason it is still possible to equip race or class restricted items. For example, Dragomir's cloak should be restricted to vampires. But thieves with UAI can still wear it. Is this intended?
Of course if you don't have the stats you wouldn't be able to use it. That was never the point of UAI. It was about letting you use items restricted by race, alignment, class and other such AD&D restrictions. Also Jan's Adventurer Wear is not EE specific so it should be usable just like in the original.
Also what's the point of restricting those items anyway. You have to play with a party of 4 or less to get High Level Abilities before the expansion, not to mention that most of those items aren't even that good. I think some items got falsely flagged when they were restricting the EE companion items or something. All they did was remove depth from the game and ruined it for people who have played the game a million times and want to experiment with different item combinations and whatnot. Just like with the "fixes" in the Hell Trails, they are fixing things 95% of players won't know about or bother doing. Not to mention that people figured out other ways of "exploiting" those trails. "Fans" are also guilty of fixing what ain't broke ie Hell Trails but at least you have the option of not installing the mod.
One last thing. You can use still use items if you don't have the stats. Just use a potion buff and equip the item. After the buff is over you can still use/wear the item until you manually remove it. What they should have done is just update the description to "Gives the drinker the status of hasted, which adds one attack per round, doubling movement rate for 5 minutes".
Finally, I just want to say that instead of fixing what ain't broke why don't devs focus on fixing stuff like characters getting stuck on each other or geometry in the game instead of just going around it? Or adding a "last known position" so that enemies don't completely abandon chasing you if you go out of their sight range(that is a huge problem for enemies that cast time stop).
A thing that should be fixed is NPCs not being able to open unlocked closed doors which leads to some hilarious cheese that I don't think anybody felt good about using.
Hyperbole will not make people take you seriously. I understand your frustration, but saying things like this makes you come across as spoiled and entitled. Not trying to rag on you, but give legitimate advice. Tone it back just a tad.
If any of them are already on the internal tracker, then your reports will help signalling why fixing these issues is important.
BG1
Fighter Specialized 2 apr, 3 apr with Oil of Speed
Fighter Grand Mastery 2,5 apr, 3 apr with Oil of Speed
BG2
Fighter Specialized 3 apr, 4 apr with Oil of Speed
Fighter Grand Mastery 3,5 apr, 4 apr with Oil of Speed
This is one of the most difficult things to fix in this engine. "Go where the player is" to "Go where the player is moving to" happened in original BG1 and BG2, and it still happens in the EEs.
There's a line in the baldur.lua file: SetPrivateProfileString('Program Options', 'Path Search Nodes', '32000')
Default is 32000. Minimum is 2000. Maximum is 400000. Working with this line can improve pathfinding in certain cases.
There are a lot of pathfinding improvements in the EEs if compared to original games, and it looks like the developers have probably pushed as far as they can without a rewrite.
Over the years, different patches have brought new pathfinding fixes. To name a few:
Characters should not change course of their path is only blocked by moving allied creatures (internal - fixed in 1.3)
Characters should not change course if their path is only blocked by allied creatures that are attacking (internal - fixed in 1.3)
Party members should not stop walking when the party is told to move to an area transition (internal - fixed in 1.3)
Party members should not get stuck when moving around objects (public - fixed in v2.4.68.2)
Party members should not be baulked by other party members when attacking enemies (public - fixed in v2.4.68.2)
Guarded characters should not be blocked by their guards (public - fixed in 2.4.68.2)
The tickets you mention, @Doubledimas (22309, 24122 and 24128) have been looked at by our team 2 years ago, then 1 year ago, 11 months ago, 8 months ago and again recently. It turns out this is a wall that can't be destroyed without rebuilding it from the ground up, unfortunately.
An internal ticket for "Characters should not get stuck on each other when attempting to leave a building" is planned for the 2.5 update.