Regarding the Oil of Speed buff, it should be noted that in the AD&D 2nd edition description the duration of the effect(s) was 5d4 rounds (average 12.5 standard deviation 2.5) or 75 seconds +/- 15 seconds. Where as the original Oil of Speed's effects last for 300 seconds nearly 3 times as long. The description also states "Use of a speed potion ages the individual by one year." Thus, I attempted to remake the Oil of Speed (Potion of Speed) and adding a fatigue penalty similar to the Haste spell:
Potion of Speed This potion increases the movement and combat capabilities of the imbiber by 100%. Thus, a movement rate of 9 becomes 18, and a character normally able to attack once per round attacks twice. This does not reduce spellcasting time, however. Use of a speed potion will cause fatigue almost instantaneously, but the other effects last for 1 turn.
STATISTICS:
Special: Doubles movement and attack rates Duration: 1 turn
I've been trying out the BG:EE beta (v2.5.15.1), and I've noticed that a lot of the NPCs I meet in the game seem to be... discolored. Like they're darker and less saturated than usual. Is that intentional? And if so, is there a way to reverse it?
Here's a comparison image of some Candlekeep characters:
As you can probably tell, this is not a minor issue at all, and it affects a lot of characters' appearances in a rather radical way. I can only hope the patch doesn't ship like this.
Thanks for the feedback. Please, @Adul, try the same thing with Nearest Neighbor Scaling off and Sprite Outlines off (as you're comparing it to 1.3).
This change is a part of the ticket "NPC organizations should wear consistent uniforms" (eg., the scholars and staff at Candlekeep, Members of the Flaming Fist in the Baldur's Gate, Gorion's colors should be heroic - Gorion's robe is dark with light trim, and a green gem on his belt and amulet). It's based on PnP sources.
Your feedback have been passed to the team for additional Triage.
@JuliusBorisov Interesting, thanks for the info. I honestly had no idea it was supposed to be a feature, the sprites just looked wrong to me. Like as if affected by a misused filter, or something. I tried without outlines and nearest neighbor, like you suggested, and it made little to no difference in coloration.
For what it's worth, I regard this as another in a series of changes that should have no place in the core game itself and would be more appropriate as components in a tweak mod. Some of these characters are iconic, and changing them around at this point undermines the game's nostalgia property, which it banks on.
@Adul Nostalgia can very easily be toxic. Comparing something new to an idealized memory will ALWAYS end in disappointment. The patches should focus on improving the games. Not keeping them in stasis to protect fragile nostalgia.
There's always been two camps on this issue, which is why I always try to argue for making contentious changes optional.
I get not liking the sprite outlines, but those can be turned off.
I don't understand why changing the color of Gorion's robe would be "contentious"? It's not like they changed his sprite to an elf or a fighter or an ogre. They gave his robe a darker shade. No big deal.
@AstroBryGuy I can't speak for anyone else, obviously, but the fact that I've been mistaking these sprite changes for a filter error until Julius pointed out they were a feature makes it a contentious issue for me.
Plus they just look too drab and grey and dark for my tastes. Heh heh, at first I thought the game somehow erroneously applied shadows to the sprites even though they were standing in direct sunlight. Flaming Fist on the other hand are all white now, though, so... yay?
actually i like the applied highter contrast and slight desaturation (that's what's actually happening) with all but Gorion (who has a changed color set). it adds some plasticity without much "cost".
I also think if something like this is made a clickable option, we'd have many many many other clickable options to add as well, and would have many many settings variations that could cause a jungle of fine-grained troubles ...
But maybe it could be done with a switch in the baldur.ini for those who really don't like it?
On a positive note, I'm slowly playing through the game right now, and I just love the little extra details that were added the end of the Prism quest. It's a really nice touch that you literally have to take the sparkle out of the statue's eyes in order to turn in the bounty. Well done!
While I do like the new sprite colors, its not something I'm willing to die on a hill for. If it really bothers enough people, I won't raise a stink about it. Though an option to enable/disable it in the lua (ini?) file would probably be an ideal solution.
Hey, honestly, I'd even be content with a small mod from Beamdog to revert that particular change. There's a lot of alterations the EEs have made to the BG series that I'm personally not keen on, but if Beamdog had made some effort into making some of the more intrusive changes reversible (outside of the "do it yourself" option, that's sometimes available through modding), then that would be a cool gesture.
I do have to poke a little bit more fun though, because I just met Nimbul, who is now wearing an Iron Throne uniform, I'm guessing? In fact, a lot of the assassins and bounty hunters you meet seem to be in some sort of cartoony black uniform now, which to me seems to defeat the purpose of sending an undercover assassin in the first place. Not to mention that some of those bounty hunters, I think, are supposed to be free agents, not Iron Throne lackeys. That has always been my interpretation, anyway.
I am finding myself perplexed as to why the clothes would be changed at all. I can see how they might be changed by whatever graphical changes are being made, but changed entirely? How is that even worth development time...
Thanks for the feedback. Please, @Adul, try the same thing with Nearest Neighbor Scaling off and Sprite Outlines off (as you're comparing it to 1.3).
This change is a part of the ticket "NPC organizations should wear consistent uniforms" (eg., the scholars and staff at Candlekeep, Members of the Flaming Fist in the Baldur's Gate, Gorion's colors should be heroic - Gorion's robe is dark with light trim, and a green gem on his belt and amulet). It's based on PnP sources.
Your feedback have been passed to the team for additional Triage.
i 100% support the revision in principle, but the third guy in adul's pic (candlekeep watcher) looks terrible in 2.5 compared to 1.3 in 1.3 his armor looks metallic and realistic, and in 2.5 it looks flat and rubbery.
metallic appearance of armors must not be compromised for some other effect (darkened to look cooler maybe, or whatever).
If you don't like the plastic soldier look, you probably won't like the look of the Imperial storm troopers Flaming Fist enforcers either:
The more I play with this color change feature, the more unfortunate I find it from a world-building perspective. Bad guys now wear black and red outfits, good guys wear white, green, or blue. It's the opposite of subtle. And the opposite of creative.
Everyone's in uniform now, whether it makes sense or not. Characters who had previously had no firm indication of belonging to any organization have been drawn into affiliation with one of the nearby groups through the power of outfit coloration. Everyone joins a faction as the new fad of dyed fabrics sweeps the Sword Coast.
Bandits wear uniform now. Except the ones you meet on the road or in random encounters, which I guess must mean that those ones aren't involved in the Iron Throne's plot to disrupt the iron trade. They're just random bandits, I guess. But at least everyone's affiliations are clear as day now...
On a similar note, I had previously assumed that the Chill bandit clan had hundreds or even thousands of members. Every time my party came across hobgoblin bandits, I thought there was a good chance that those bandits acted under Chill command. But that is no longer the case, as the new Chill uniform makes Chill hobgoblins clearly distinguishable from the rest of the rabble. And it turns out that there's only around, well... eight of them. And they all stand around in the bandit camp.
The Nashkel mine foreman, Emerson, wears the Amnian military's colors, and so does Berrun Ghastkill, the mayor. Why? Why not.
And so do the miners. Or perhaps the people in Nashkel just really like the color blue. That, or the military hands out these standard issue blue loincloths to all the miners as fringe benefit. The miners might be mistreated, and their lungs may be flopping all over the dirt, but at least their loins are wrapped in stylish fabrics.
Nostalgia is one thing, and it's clear everyone has their opinions on that. But the thing that's typically agreed on is that the Baldur's Gate games are known for their meticulously crafted setting and story. And I think both of those can be damaged badly by sloppily written or carelessly implemented changes to characters and factions.
It's a nice idea, but the implementation could use some work. Some of the color swaps are quite radical or unnessary - Amnian Soldiers had a prominent Red with blue trim, now they are full grey/blue. - the darker green for Candlekeep monks. Some named creatures no longer stand out, as they look exactly like their brethren. Slight variations for rank/position would be nice.
It looks like it will be easy to mod (or remove) if you want though. The creature's(file) colors appear unaltered, they just have an undroppable item that sets all their color slots. Weidu:
These changes make no sense to me. Part of the beauty of this role-playing game is the subtle differences between the NPCs. Differences that allow the player a more immersive role-play experience. Giving them all flags in the form of “uniforms” to identify them as part of a group, feels like something befitting a child’s game. Not a deeply immersive role-play experience. Could someone please explain why they wish for all the NPCs to look alike?
Not a fan of that unasked feature as well. Not because of nostalgia, mind you, but I simply cannot learn to like these new uniformed looks one bit. Especially since their colors are just a lazy way of saying “look over here, my alignment is ### ###!“.
If I had to put my feelings about it into a single word, I'd call it... boring. Not something I would want to be by default enabled, in any case.
The large variation is what makes the game feel alive to me so this is a large surprise for me as well. I would rather see a unified colour but that each individual uses different shades of it not tied to rank. And definitely not have all factions change the sprite to a unified look either. Some change in hair colour and skin colour would not hurt either. Flinds and gnolls are great in diversity. The game world should be more like that rather than the other way around.
Can someone file an official report for this? Preferably one of you who already did an extensive checking and can add the various findings attached to the report?
Comments
Potion of Speed
This potion increases the movement and combat capabilities of the imbiber by 100%. Thus, a movement rate of 9 becomes 18, and a character normally able to attack once per round attacks twice. This does not reduce spellcasting time, however. Use of a speed potion will cause fatigue almost instantaneously, but the other effects last for 1 turn.
STATISTICS:
Special: Doubles movement and attack rates
Duration: 1 turn
Weight: 1
Here's a comparison image of some Candlekeep characters:
As you can probably tell, this is not a minor issue at all, and it affects a lot of characters' appearances in a rather radical way. I can only hope the patch doesn't ship like this.
This change is a part of the ticket "NPC organizations should wear consistent uniforms" (eg., the scholars and staff at Candlekeep, Members of the Flaming Fist in the Baldur's Gate, Gorion's colors should be heroic - Gorion's robe is dark with light trim, and a green gem on his belt and amulet). It's based on PnP sources.
Your feedback have been passed to the team for additional Triage.
https://support.baldursgate.com/issues/37086
Is it enough clear how the bug triggers in order to reproduce it? Can someone tell me if is it just my computer to behave badly?
For what it's worth, I regard this as another in a series of changes that should have no place in the core game itself and would be more appropriate as components in a tweak mod. Some of these characters are iconic, and changing them around at this point undermines the game's nostalgia property, which it banks on.
Two years have passed and this bug is still present: https://support.baldursgate.com/issues/20282
It looked fixed in build 2.0.62.2, but actually is still present. Any chance to fix it?
I don't understand why changing the color of Gorion's robe would be "contentious"? It's not like they changed his sprite to an elf or a fighter or an ogre. They gave his robe a darker shade. No big deal.
Plus they just look too drab and grey and dark for my tastes. Heh heh, at first I thought the game somehow erroneously applied shadows to the sprites even though they were standing in direct sunlight. Flaming Fist on the other hand are all white now, though, so... yay?
I also think if something like this is made a clickable option, we'd have many many many other clickable options to add as well, and would have many many settings variations that could cause a jungle of fine-grained troubles ...
But maybe it could be done with a switch in the baldur.ini for those who really don't like it?
I do have to poke a little bit more fun though, because I just met Nimbul, who is now wearing an Iron Throne uniform, I'm guessing? In fact, a lot of the assassins and bounty hunters you meet seem to be in some sort of cartoony black uniform now, which to me seems to defeat the purpose of sending an undercover assassin in the first place. Not to mention that some of those bounty hunters, I think, are supposed to be free agents, not Iron Throne lackeys. That has always been my interpretation, anyway.
I am finding myself perplexed as to why the clothes would be changed at all. I can see how they might be changed by whatever graphical changes are being made, but changed entirely? How is that even worth development time...
in 1.3 his armor looks metallic and realistic, and in 2.5 it looks flat and rubbery.
metallic appearance of armors must not be compromised for some other effect (darkened to look cooler maybe, or whatever).
Imperial storm troopersFlaming Fist enforcers either:The more I play with this color change feature, the more unfortunate I find it from a world-building perspective. Bad guys now wear black and red outfits, good guys wear white, green, or blue. It's the opposite of subtle. And the opposite of creative.
Everyone's in uniform now, whether it makes sense or not. Characters who had previously had no firm indication of belonging to any organization have been drawn into affiliation with one of the nearby groups through the power of outfit coloration. Everyone joins a faction as the new fad of dyed fabrics sweeps the Sword Coast.
Bandits wear uniform now. Except the ones you meet on the road or in random encounters, which I guess must mean that those ones aren't involved in the Iron Throne's plot to disrupt the iron trade. They're just random bandits, I guess. But at least everyone's affiliations are clear as day now...
On a similar note, I had previously assumed that the Chill bandit clan had hundreds or even thousands of members. Every time my party came across hobgoblin bandits, I thought there was a good chance that those bandits acted under Chill command. But that is no longer the case, as the new Chill uniform makes Chill hobgoblins clearly distinguishable from the rest of the rabble. And it turns out that there's only around, well... eight of them. And they all stand around in the bandit camp.
The Nashkel mine foreman, Emerson, wears the Amnian military's colors, and so does Berrun Ghastkill, the mayor. Why? Why not.
And so do the miners. Or perhaps the people in Nashkel just really like the color blue. That, or the military hands out these standard issue blue loincloths to all the miners as fringe benefit. The miners might be mistreated, and their lungs may be flopping all over the dirt, but at least their loins are wrapped in stylish fabrics.
Nostalgia is one thing, and it's clear everyone has their opinions on that. But the thing that's typically agreed on is that the Baldur's Gate games are known for their meticulously crafted setting and story. And I think both of those can be damaged badly by sloppily written or carelessly implemented changes to characters and factions.
Some of the color swaps are quite radical or unnessary
- Amnian Soldiers had a prominent Red with blue trim, now they are full grey/blue.
- the darker green for Candlekeep monks.
Some named creatures no longer stand out, as they look exactly like their brethren. Slight variations for rank/position would be nice.
It looks like it will be easy to mod (or remove) if you want though. The creature's(file) colors appear unaltered, they just have an undroppable item that sets all their color slots.
Weidu:
Colour desaturation and higher contrast on the original colours as an applied filter: nice for me.
Individual colour changes based on each individual original colour or role: fine for me.
Mass treatment to remove fine grained differences: not fine for me.
If I had to put my feelings about it into a single word, I'd call it... boring. Not something I would want to be by default enabled, in any case.
I would rather see a unified colour but that each individual uses different shades of it not tied to rank. And definitely not have all factions change the sprite to a unified look either. Some change in hair colour and skin colour would not hurt either.
Flinds and gnolls are great in diversity. The game world should be more like that rather than the other way around.
Can someone file an official report for this? Preferably one of you who already did an extensive checking and can add the various findings attached to the report?