Overanalyzing the New Screenshots
Quartz
Member Posts: 3,853
So in case you haven't seen the new screenshots yet:
http://www.beamdog.com/products/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition
They are on the right side.
1/12
We obviously have the new menu here. Separated with Tutorial, The Black Pits, and the main Baldur's Gate. Proving once again, if anyone was still confused about this, The Black Pits are separate from the main game.
2/12
Record screen and Dorn's stats! (19 STR, 16 DEX, 14 CON, 10 INT, 15 WIS, 16 CHA) Evil parties get to plan ahead it seems. Interestingly, we seem to have separate charts for actual armor class and hit points, and base armor class and damage from your weapon. An interesting addition.
Furthermore we have learned some new things just from this. It would appear that the Blackguard kit can be played by any Evil alignment, although NPCs have been known to break a rule from time to time so that isn't completely solid. Most of us were guessing Blackguards would have to be Lawful Evil, so this is surprising indeed.
Also, his Charisma is 16. It would seem that either Blackguards don't have to have a 17 Minimum, or Dorn is an exception. Low stat point exceptions are rare amongst NPCs (only Minsc and Quayle), but it's possible.
At this point I have to give props to Beamdog already. Dorn's combat stats are actually balanced with the rest of the fighters in the game ... well done, indeed. I dig his strength. Get owned, Minsc.
3/12
Candlekeep.
Between this pic and screenshots number 6 and 8 it can be deduced that there will still be the original sound files in the game, or else they have been remade similarly. It'd be hard to forget "A waste of my talents!"
4/12
This screenshot is one of about 3 in this area, which would of course appear to be the new area tied to Rasaad. Throughout all these screenshots we have seen them attacking "Dark Moon Monks," who appear to have a Chill Touch fetish.
Dorn appears to have a special sword. Whether it is his, or a new sword added separately from him in the game is unknown, although I would hazard a guess it is his sword.
5/12
Sorcerous Sundries.
I'm really confused about the circle colors in this one. Also I'm noticing, the portraits of the new characters seem to be colored differently than when we all originally saw them, throughout all these screenshots. Rasaad looks pink and Dorn looks blue. It's a little weird.
6/12
Bandit Camp.
It would seem, of course, running the Baldur's Gate II engine makes the "selected rares" likely to show up just telling someone what to do. This is gonna be awkward as hell, I gotta say.
Also, we now have a new line known from Rasaad, "Selûne guides my hand." Yeah, I'm really surprised by a line like that, too.
7/12
Black Pits. Fire Elementals and Fire Giants? Holy snap! The place will be tough indeed.
8/12
Once again, circle colors weirding me out. It is interesting in this screenshot we have a few extra buttons on the side, whereas in a few others those extra buttons were gone.
9/12
Black Pits. I wonder what's up with the Beholder and the other captives? Seems like we'll have breaks between fighting to have some dialogue or whatnot. So, to fools like me saying "The Black Pits has no plot wahh wahh!" we may be wrong.
10/12
New Inventory screen! It would seem that we will now have the fortune of obtaining a Potion Case in Baldur's Gate 1! Oh thank you God! It seems likely to me that there will be other such containers as well, which will be a very welcome addition. Furthermore, there is a very normal looking belt, and a necklace that was not in BG1. Also, notice the helmet. An interesting rework of BG1 helmet graphics to make it look similar to the BGII helmets, yet not quite ... Sort of a middle ground, so to speak.
It appears we'll be able to throw things on the ground in greater droves. Hooray!
Once again we have a grotesque amount of details for our character just like the Record screen. Our Armor Class explained in great detail, our Hit Points explained, even Base THAC0 and true THAC0. Once again, we have the addition of our damage threshold with our equipped weapon, as well.
11/12
Candlekeep.
You make Imoen sad! You meanie. I would like to take this fairly uninteresting screenshot to point something out ... a lot of us complained about the new UI having no distance between the portraits. Well guess what, they added a small border. Yup.
12/12
Baldur's Gate, outside of Ramazith's Tower.
I have no idea what battle is going on here. Possibly they ascended the tower and decided to run away from the scary Ghasts, and got followed. Once again the circle colors are looking weird.
Most interestingly, we have Neera's spell list at the bottom. There are two eye-grabbing details here: She has Spell Thrust and Fire Shield: Red, which obviously weren't found before in Baldur's Gate 1. They must have added these scrolls somewhere. Second, wtf new spell icon wtf hax0r? Probably has something to do with being a Wild Mage.
-------
What other details have y'all noticed from overanalyzing these screenshots? Anyone have any theories as to why the circle colors are strange? Discuss!
http://www.beamdog.com/products/baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition
They are on the right side.
1/12
We obviously have the new menu here. Separated with Tutorial, The Black Pits, and the main Baldur's Gate. Proving once again, if anyone was still confused about this, The Black Pits are separate from the main game.
2/12
Record screen and Dorn's stats! (19 STR, 16 DEX, 14 CON, 10 INT, 15 WIS, 16 CHA) Evil parties get to plan ahead it seems. Interestingly, we seem to have separate charts for actual armor class and hit points, and base armor class and damage from your weapon. An interesting addition.
Furthermore we have learned some new things just from this. It would appear that the Blackguard kit can be played by any Evil alignment, although NPCs have been known to break a rule from time to time so that isn't completely solid. Most of us were guessing Blackguards would have to be Lawful Evil, so this is surprising indeed.
Also, his Charisma is 16. It would seem that either Blackguards don't have to have a 17 Minimum, or Dorn is an exception. Low stat point exceptions are rare amongst NPCs (only Minsc and Quayle), but it's possible.
At this point I have to give props to Beamdog already. Dorn's combat stats are actually balanced with the rest of the fighters in the game ... well done, indeed. I dig his strength. Get owned, Minsc.
3/12
Candlekeep.
Between this pic and screenshots number 6 and 8 it can be deduced that there will still be the original sound files in the game, or else they have been remade similarly. It'd be hard to forget "A waste of my talents!"
4/12
This screenshot is one of about 3 in this area, which would of course appear to be the new area tied to Rasaad. Throughout all these screenshots we have seen them attacking "Dark Moon Monks," who appear to have a Chill Touch fetish.
Dorn appears to have a special sword. Whether it is his, or a new sword added separately from him in the game is unknown, although I would hazard a guess it is his sword.
5/12
Sorcerous Sundries.
I'm really confused about the circle colors in this one. Also I'm noticing, the portraits of the new characters seem to be colored differently than when we all originally saw them, throughout all these screenshots. Rasaad looks pink and Dorn looks blue. It's a little weird.
6/12
Bandit Camp.
It would seem, of course, running the Baldur's Gate II engine makes the "selected rares" likely to show up just telling someone what to do. This is gonna be awkward as hell, I gotta say.
Also, we now have a new line known from Rasaad, "Selûne guides my hand." Yeah, I'm really surprised by a line like that, too.
7/12
Black Pits. Fire Elementals and Fire Giants? Holy snap! The place will be tough indeed.
8/12
Once again, circle colors weirding me out. It is interesting in this screenshot we have a few extra buttons on the side, whereas in a few others those extra buttons were gone.
9/12
Black Pits. I wonder what's up with the Beholder and the other captives? Seems like we'll have breaks between fighting to have some dialogue or whatnot. So, to fools like me saying "The Black Pits has no plot wahh wahh!" we may be wrong.
10/12
New Inventory screen! It would seem that we will now have the fortune of obtaining a Potion Case in Baldur's Gate 1! Oh thank you God! It seems likely to me that there will be other such containers as well, which will be a very welcome addition. Furthermore, there is a very normal looking belt, and a necklace that was not in BG1. Also, notice the helmet. An interesting rework of BG1 helmet graphics to make it look similar to the BGII helmets, yet not quite ... Sort of a middle ground, so to speak.
It appears we'll be able to throw things on the ground in greater droves. Hooray!
Once again we have a grotesque amount of details for our character just like the Record screen. Our Armor Class explained in great detail, our Hit Points explained, even Base THAC0 and true THAC0. Once again, we have the addition of our damage threshold with our equipped weapon, as well.
11/12
Candlekeep.
You make Imoen sad! You meanie. I would like to take this fairly uninteresting screenshot to point something out ... a lot of us complained about the new UI having no distance between the portraits. Well guess what, they added a small border. Yup.
12/12
Baldur's Gate, outside of Ramazith's Tower.
I have no idea what battle is going on here. Possibly they ascended the tower and decided to run away from the scary Ghasts, and got followed. Once again the circle colors are looking weird.
Most interestingly, we have Neera's spell list at the bottom. There are two eye-grabbing details here: She has Spell Thrust and Fire Shield: Red, which obviously weren't found before in Baldur's Gate 1. They must have added these scrolls somewhere. Second, wtf new spell icon wtf hax0r? Probably has something to do with being a Wild Mage.
-------
What other details have y'all noticed from overanalyzing these screenshots? Anyone have any theories as to why the circle colors are strange? Discuss!
21
Comments
Pretty neat feature to quickly identify who is who.
The circle colors match the characters' main clothing colors.
As for the changes to Rasaad's portrait, I believe they changed the colour of his robes to make it easier to see that he has been damaged.
EDIT: I post slow.
I now know who's getting the Manual of Bodily Health in my party.
Not because they're bad or anything, just want MOAR eye-candy tomorrow.
Also anyone know if black pits can be played/accessed in main game? Don't like it being totally stand-alone.
It can't. Its completely separate from the main game.
The most you can do is import your character as one of the party members in the Black Pits.
Edit: Now I post slow.
Game looks great by the way!!!
*falls forward on chair and starts to sleep on keyboard, mumbling no e-mail yet... it's the 22nd here mumble mumble*
Dorn's stats got me thinking though, because he's balanced for BG1, he'll probably be beefier in BGII just like the other NPCs that got transferred. I'm guessing 17 Dex and 16 Con at that point, or some such. 14 Con seems to hint at him getting a Constitution bonus come BGII:EE.
EDIT: Also, 90 total stat points. Dorn has Ajantis beat for highest NPC roll by 2 points.
The Rancor plays by its own rules. But you are right it should say +5 and I'm not sure why it doesn't.
How about the paperdoll in the inventory screenshot? It's the BG1 version!
Attack rolls have come a long way since AD&D, haven't they?
I suppose it does make sense to do that, given AD&D's sometimes byzantine game mechanics.
Dorn has Base THAC0 13 from lvl 8. That is correct.
He has STR 19 a.k.a. +3 to hit from it. Which modifies his THACO to 10.
He has +1 to hit from his mastery, and +1 from his +1 Greatsword, Rancor. A further decrease of THACO to 8.
In the side bar, it shows "THAC0 8" correctly, why is the table above, showing THAC0 7?
An item perhaps or something else? Or a mistake?
Noun
Bitter, long-lasting resentment; deep-seated ill will.