When is iOS to get update for fix screen size for new models ?
We definitely want to look into supporting new models on iOS during the 2.6 beta, but right now the focus is on testing the Steam version of the build.
tested with latest windows 10 version and the 2.6.0.4 beta WITH SoD.
- create new character (pre-gen), go to candlekeep, quicksave, quickload, normal save, normal load.
- loaded an almost-to-sarevok save, walked around a while, quicksaved, quickloaded.
macOS 10.12.6. Saving, loading and the respective quick variants work flawlessly. Tried both loading an old, 2.5 game and with a new game, no problems encountered so far.
System: Windows 10 x64
Launch: Success
Save: Success
It's not possible to test the beta on BG2 yet, so I can't see if BG2-only spells/features still carry problems from 2.5. In any way, I have tested in BGEE 2.6 what the game covered, and the rest in BG2EE 2.5 (like high level spells and HLAs). All was tested using the CORE RULES.
SUCCESSES
Burning Hands is finally useful and looks AMAZING. Don't know if its range is correct though.
I've tested the beginning of Black Pits and found no issues yet. Previously it was very bugged and I would usually get stuck on the necromancer fight.
I haven't tested much, but from some quick tests, multiplayer really seems more stable. Looks like BG multiplayer is finally going to be a thing. Looking forward to play a 6-mage multiplayer game (though the games need to have sources of infinite scrolls).
BUGS/PERFORMANCE
Voice files in BG2 are messed up. Since the beginning of the game I can notice the low quality of the character's voices. Imoen seems like she is a robot or speaking from a radio.
In multiplayer mode, when there are actual other players along with the host, saving the game takes some time. These pauses makes me avoid saving the game. If there aren't players in my game, saving is as smooth as in single player.
Pausing in multiplayer is troublesome too. There is a cooldown to pause and resume and it really makes the game slow.
Sometimes Shaman Animals don't attack the nearest enemy, instead going to a distant enemy who is sleeping, (leaving the shaman taking hits) reaching the distance limit and being unsummoned as consequence.
Character inventory image (werewolf form of Shapeshifter) is with a very low resolution. Possibly is the same with different transformed characters.
When resting, healing spells aren't being cast, so each character is only regaining 1 hp per 8 hours rested. There is that option on the gameplay menu to rest until healed, that when enabled, the spells are cast when I rest, but if the characters are too hurt they would sleep for days. For a bit of roleplay I just want to sleep 8 hours and cast whatever healing spells I have, then return to adventuring after that, however hurt I might be. I'm pretty sure that was possible on older versions of the game.
Enemies cannot be encumbered. There are ways to reduce target's strength, like Ray of Enfeeblement that reduces it to 5, but it doesn't encumber enemies even if it should (carry weight much higher than carrying capacity), which is wrong and a missed opportunity of creative tactic. If you add that enfeebled armored enemy to your party through console, he will come encumbered for you and you won't be able to move him.
Trap triggers are kind of messed (including Skull Trap spell). Sometimes you just touch a tiny part of a trap area and it triggers, sometimes you go through it and nothing happens.
Changing to Slayer removes the benefits of my equipped items, and I have to remove and reequip them for the slayer to gain their benefits. If the character is really supposed to be able to use his items in this form, why remove their benefits upon transformation in first place? (this tested character had Use Any Item).
Slayer form is automatically reverting to human when changing rooms or traveling. It also reverted when I was talked to by the cowled wizards that were hunting me in Athkatla.
Slayer Change isn't summing its benefits to the human form, its substituting them. So, it sets current hp and resistances to predefined values, which is terrible. My hp drops to 100, and even if i had an innate resistances of 127% for everything magical/elemental and 100% to everything physical, it would go down to only 45% magical and lose all other resistances you had, which is nonsense (I've edited a naked character's resistances to the max for testing. As a Wizard Slayer, his innate resistance was properly summed when he transformed). This is a granted to nerf my character by almost half his original hp, without mentioning the other things.
Also, even if the character have 100+ magic resistance, the damage we take from the transformation isn't resisted. All this is unbelievably crippling the transformation. It's just unusable the way it is.
Hide in Shadows and Set Traps bug is still present. If the character is blinded he can Hide in Shadows or Set Traps even if there are enemies near him. That happens because these skills check the line of sight of the thief, not of the enemies. If this is changed to work based on the vision of the whole party it will still happen if all the party get blinded (though it would be less problematic).
Dual Class shouldn't allow a character to bypass the equipment slot limitations from other classes, like a Kensai/Mage using cloaks. By standard this should be blocked, but because of its popularity an option to make it work should be able through Baldur.lua. Don't know if Use Any Item, should work like this or not, though.
Dual Class shouldn't allow a character to accumulate proficiency points from the second class and use it when you regain the first. Currently, if you dual class from lv 10 fighter to thief, for example, and instead of gradually levelling up, you gather enough experience points to go from lv 1 thief directly to 11 thief, you'll get the thief proficiency points and regain your fighter level, and can distribute the points as if you have gained them as a fighter (not with the limits from the thief).
CLASSES
Dwarven Defender's Defensive Stance ignores speed increase from Paws of the Cheetah. Ignoring Free Action does makes sense, because he's not being slowed, he's reducing his pace to walk more carefully. Haste works, and that's correct because it should make his "careful pace" faster. Paws of the Cheetah doubles his movement speed, so I think it should work too. Another issue with Defensive Stance is that is says your movement speed is reduced by 50% and haste says it doubles it, but use both of them and the final movement speed is lower than the original.
ARCANE SPELLS
Elemental protection spells's descriptions is misleading. It talks about magical and normal fire/cold, and mentions some souces of each. As far as I know, and I might be wrong, there is no difference between magical and normal fire in Baldur's Gate (there are hidden attributes for this, but those aren't used), also there's no instance in this game where most of the examples given by the spells' descriptions would occur.
Find Familiar: allow other characters to have a familiar.
Mirror Image: some effects from attacks and spells affect a mirror imaged character even if it only hits the image. This happens with melf's acid arrow, spider poison and ghoul paralysis for example.
Web: give immunity against Web spell to creatures that are too big to get caught, and for those that doesn't have a solid body, or are covered in flames by it's nature or flame spell. Also, taking fire damage should free the targed as if hit by Dispel.
Detect Illusion: says it detects all spells from the Illusion/Phantasm school of level 3rd or lower. The list of spells include Non-Detection. But Non-Detection is an Abjuration spell. And I think in AD&D Non-Detection protected you from it.
Non-Detection: its description is odd. Talks about Clairaudience, a spell that is not in the game, talks about protecting from Clairvoiance, a spell that only explores the map and have nothing to be protected from, and talks about ESP, a mind reading AD&D spell that also isn't in the game.
Haste: it is supposed to give +1 attack per round, but if you have an odd number of attacks per round the spell only rounds it up.
Fireball: animation is bigger than its area of effect.
Skull Trap: put trigger area in description (it's much smaller than its damage area).
Oracle: Rakshasa are supposed do be immune to spells of level 7 and below, but this spell works against them. I've tested in The Black Pits II fight against 3 Rakshasa, 2 Rukh and 1 Mahajahah, and all their illusion were dispelled.
Conjure Elementals: is so nerfed it can't be used in combat. It is 20 seconds doing nothing and chance to not even control the elemental.
Spell Thrust: doesn't work against characters with Spell Deflection. Despite its description saying it does.
Death Fog and Death Spell descriptions omit they can't kill Planetars.
It's impossible to use Spell Immunity properly in Contingency or Spell Triggers. The immunities prompt should happen during the input in the trigger, not when unleashing.
A spell related thing that needs fixing is the bad behavior where our spells ignore our own protection spells and magic resistence. I literally can't protect my character from his own spells. For example, if one uses Spell Immunity: Evocation, casts Web and then walks into it, he'll still be subject to the web effect. Spells like Power Word: Silence cast on yourself will always hit. This is completely wrong and makes me depend on offensive spells from other casters to enter the combat with 100% resistance to something and not be hit.
Clones (Simulacrum/Projected Image), can still can use consumables/charges/uses of magic items and make more clones through scrolls. Also, if a transformed character (i.e. polymorphed) casts those spells, shouldn't the clone be of the creature in is current state?
Spell Shield: description says it should protect from Spellstrike and it doesn't. On the other hand, Spellstrike's description says it should destroy all protections including Spell Shield. For its levels, I think Spell Shield is the wrong one.
DIVINE SPELLS
Entangle: same issue of Web spell.
Summon Insects/Insect plague: the spells ranges are wrong in the descriptions. Their actual range is 50 feet. Those spells need some kind of nerf and rework to make more sense and be cooler. Possibilities are making their damage nonmagical, being blocked by Stoneskin until they remove all its layers. Fireshield/Aura of Flaming Death, too could protect from the insects as they wouldn't whitstand the heat or cold. Spell Immunity, Dispel and the like shouldn't work against them, because they are insects (it's like casting Dispel on a summoned gnoll). If the target takes area damage, though, it should hit the insects too, killing all of them. The insects could be made faster and vulnerable to area damage even before hitting its target.
Harm: nerf it to a maximum of 100-200 damage, so it doesn't make fights against enemies with thousands of hitpoits (modded/Legacy of Bhaal games) trivial.
Blade Barrier: the way it works now, will extremely rarely cause its damage, because it's save is prompted during long intervals, instead of whenever a character comes into contact with it.
HLAs
Globe of Blades: same problem of the Blade Barrier spell.
Scribe Scrolls (Rogue): it sadly has no use. At the level you get the HLA there's no chance you'll use any of the spells in the list from scrolls
Scribe Scrolls (Mage): marginally better than the rogue version, but still limited to low level spells, so it's also unusable.
Those HLAs would be useful if rogue would scribe level 1-4 scroll and mage a level 5-9 scroll, at least allowing the making of all spells. If not selecting which spell to create, at least put all spells available in this list (so we can play a 6-mage party). Remember casting from a scroll is slower than casting from the spellbook.
Alchemy (Mage): would be useful if you could at least select what potion you want to make.
Use Any Item: it is allowing polymorphed/shapeshifted/shapechanged characters to do some things they probably shouldn't in this form, like casting spells from scrolls, using wands. So we can make a slime/squirrel pull a scroll, read it and cast at the enemies (they can't even speak). Also, it's possible to equip items and gain its benefits in the forms (this one might not be wrong as some magic items should pass its benefits to a tranformed character, but then the magical benefits from the items shouldn't be removed upon transformation in first place).
Another problem with this HLA is related to it not allowing using NPC-specific items. This in itself is ok, but it removes the red background from items, making it look as if it is possible to be used. Also, the text needs to be clear saying that those items won't be able to be used no, to avoid confusion and frustrating players' planned builds.
Avoid Death: this one's description is very bad. It says you become immune to death magic, but what is death magic? It needs to specify and exemplify. I did some tests with a character with negative magic resistance and 20 to all saving throws to see what it protects from and what it doesn't. Protects from: Chromatic Orb's death and petrify effects; Disintegrate; Flesh to Stone; Finger of Death; Sphere of Chaos disintegrate effect; Wail of the Banshee; Imprisonment (how is this death?); Black Blade of Disaster; Planetar's Silver Blade. Doesn't protect from: Polymorph Other (makes sense); Maze (makes sense); Power Word: Kill (WTF).
THE BLACK PITS
Add Find Familiar scrolls to the merchant.
THE BLACK PITS II
I've had some issues during my multiplayer Black Pits II playthrough, then tested on single player to give feedback:
Only happened on Multiplayer mode: When the genie Dormamus kills the dancers before battling us it triggers the disintegration of Thassk's Journal. I tried to fix it but I couldn't. Adding the book later through cheats still created a "disintegrated item" instead the book.
On both modes: Cloak of Protection +1 is abnormally expensive. 5600 gp with 20 CHA. For comparison, The Spirit's Shield (Cloak of Protection +2) sells at 3360 gp with the same CHA.
On both modes: Can't pass the uprising part because I can't enter the training grounds. Tried through the front door and through the creature pens (killing, then not killing Stirv). I can't open the doors even with knock.
On both modes: The cook and his guard remain in the kitchen during the uprising. That's ok, but they don't react properly to the context. The guard says: "You have no business in the kitchen. Get out of here, now." And clicking the cook doesn't even open a dialog.
I remembered this problem happening in another situation (clicking a NPC and nothing happening). It was when I refused to do the quest to poison the cook for Marduuk and Short-Order and went back to talk to them to see how they would react to me. Multiplayer mode: Marduuk spoke his standard line about no talking in the kitchen, but Short-Order opened no dialog when clicked.
Single Player mode: Marduuk's dialog was again the request to poison the cook. I thought it was a bug because he doesn't talk in the kitchen, but after agreeing to hear, we went to the other room to talk.
(PART 2)
This is the second part of the feedback of my tests. If I stumble upon or remember something else, I'll update the posts. I'm looking forward to see this game becoming even better. I have a great time playing this game. Thank you!
BALANCE
Shapeshifter's thing is to cast spells, transform into werewolf and enter combat, but it doesn't work in the long run. Sadly he must abandon his werewolf theme later to be useful and work as a weaker generalist druid. It can't hurt many of the higher level enemies in his werewolf form because of their immunities to weapons up to a +3 enchantments. For this class to work on his expected role (werewolf form melee), I thought of 2 possibilities:
(a) nerfing his spellcasting and scaling a single werewolf form transformation (in the present there are 2 different forms) as it levels up to gain more resistances/saving throws/AC, and more importantly reach up to a +4 enchantment on its attacks (like monks get) or giving him one more transformation (Loup Garou) with said benefits. Then giving him the option to pick some of the fighter's HLAs (or substituting his current HLAs for the fighter's).
(b) leaving his his melee aspect as it is and eventually giving him the ability to cast spells in werewolf form. Not very insteresting thematically, but it's some kind of solution.
Dragon Disciple's breath needs some tweak for it to work at higher levels, because it soon becomes an useless trait. Probably will work great if its damage scales up to high level spell/HLA power, or if it gets multiple uses per day to at least serve to spare spell slots against trash mobs. Remember many enemies have fire resistance.
Change the Monks a little on the early levels so they are able to hold their own on melee. It is known that monks usually are left throwing projectiles until they reach higher levels. This kind of gameplay on a fighting class takes much of the fun from playing with this class. I don't now what this change could be. Maybe bring AC from later to earlier levels.
Wizard Slayer needs some modification to be work properly too. His concept is interesting, but the lack o magic items later on the game is really cruel without other factors to compensate. Might work by giving some extra saving throws and innate anti-magic thematic buffs to compensate his deficiency.
Shaman Dance doesn't work (at least from level 1 to the end of SoD). It gives great penalities, demands standing still or it will be interrupted, the chance of summoning if very low/the prompts are very slow, and the cratures are very weak. Even M'Khin full of tailored items did little with the dance. Against strong oponents the dancing shaman is an easy and squishy target. Against any oponent, specially weak ones, the dance is too slow to be useful. I'm yet to test at high levels.
Nerf Inquisitors' Dispel Magic to be at 1x or 1.5x of his level.
Add a source of infinite spell scrolls from all levels to complete all mages' spellbooks (I know most can be dropped from monsters randomly, but 9th level spells don't). This can be solved by altering the HLAs Scribe Scrolls to create a random scroll of any level. Removing limits in a shop, or adding an option to get a random spell of levels 5-9 on the Wish spell and level 4 or lower on Limited Wish. When pondering about whys and balance issues, remember: there are many mages in the game and some players are completionist; some players want to play a full mage multiplayer game; casting spells from scrolls is slower than spellbook; scribing can fail (though potions take care of this one).
Make all non-unique ammunition and potions infinite in stores, or at least make it restock daily. If it's limited for balance issues, only limit the very powerful ones like arrows of dispelling/detonation and potions of magic shielding. The way it is, potion-dependent gameplay is impossible. Also, only a number of battles are covered by the potions available at stores. Enemies having 3 potions is no problem for them, because they only need them for one battle. If balance is not the issue (after all we still have to pay for it), then make them infinite. 1) For games that don't end: some players don't finish their game even after making their characters full, and keep playing even after all quests are done, then limited things run out. 2) For completioninsts: some make runs collecting/buying everything finite and leave all stores empty if possible, which becomes a humongous chore if everything mundane and not has a limited quantity (specially if its limited and with a huge quantity. Why limit then?).
Consider modifying unique throwing weapons like Baruel's Retort available to be picked from the ground when thrown. Weapons like this aren't reliable because you only have so many, then it's gone forever (i.e. it can only be used pontually) and you will have to change your plans for the character.
INTERFACE/INFO/FUNCTIONS
Rename the script behavior "Sing Bard Song" to "Sing Bard Song/Do Shaman Dance" to make clear it will work for a Shaman.
Make scripts dedicated for Shaman.
Slow the written text scroll speed on chapter introductions to match the spoken text speed.
Add a hotkey to drop a hovered or selected item from the inventory (to avoid the proccess of clicking, dragging to the drop section, clicking again and then repeat for the next item).
Add a hotkey to equip hovered or selected item.
Add a button to sort containers.
Add a button/hotkey to sort inventory.
Add a button to lock portraits already used by the NPCs in the game.
Add a way to chain various commands to a hotkey, to facilitate spellbuffing.
Make shops have their items automatically and always sorted (i.e. the order not be defined without organization by what you sold).
It would be a game changing feedback if area spells, when choosing a place to be cast, showed a template of the area it would affect.
Make thieves' skills possible to be added faster somehow. Maybe add a multiplier while holding shift.
Attribute descriptions need some work. I click and read the attribute description and wonder: why do Druids and Bards needs CHA exactly? Why is CON specifically important to Rangers? These descriptions are wrong and misleading and will lead new players to make terrible characters. It must be taken into consideration that rarely someone will open the game manual to create a character, so the attribute texts should give them useful information telling for who it is good and why.
Add descriptions of conditions on record window. We see the name and icon of a buff or debuff, but there is no option hover and get info, or to click it and open a window with details. It would be awesome to have detailed info talking about each of those effects, telling the source, the caster level, the duration, the exact values being added or subtracted.
Make clear what a class gains when leveling up (on class selection). Saving throws, for example, are very useful to know how many we get beforehand.
Make clear on character creation that some classes (and which) only gain hp benefits up to 16 CON.
Make clear how thief skills work. How much points invested would actually be effective, the formula for hide in shadows, considering day, night and if below shadow, and so on.
Give an option in the config menu to substitute the notation 1 turn for 10 rounds (or to a real time minute), so it'll be less complicated for newcomers. In D&D 5E and in widely played modern videogames, a turn refers to a character's time to act in a round, so most new players will think a turn is worth less time than a round. I myself took very, very long to notice this (for a very long time I thought the times were simply all bugged). Changing this will make BG much more welcoming.
Give an option in the config menu to change Casting Time to be in function of rounds or real time seconds, instead of a loose number that hides its meaning from players who didn't read the manual or haven't played AD&D. If put in function of real time it would become 1 = 0.6 s; 5 = 3 s; 10 = 6 s. And if put in function of rounds it would become to 1 = 0.1 (1/10) round = 0.5 (1/2) round; 10 = 1 round
WISHLIST
Import the remaining spells from Icewind Dale to Baldur's Gate.
Make AI MUCH smarter. Add an AI competence-in-combat slider if needed, so they are more efficient, removing buffs if spells aren't working, recasting his spell and compat protections, stop shooting if projectiles are being reflected back, change strategy, change targets. They should have the capacity of using different strategies each time we battle them (pick from an array of combinations) and possibly having different spells every time a new game is started.
Give the ability for enemies to spellbuff to the max one time upon starting battle (casting all buffs he wants without spending a turn), because the player can do it and they don't.
Allow enemies' levels to be higher (through slider, maybe).
Give access to HLAs for enemies of high enough level.
Make the amazon bounty hunters and those at the exit of Nashkel Mines assault us in a waylay zone, so it would make more sense and they wouldn't be static in an odd place. There is a mod called Sword Coast Stratagems that does all the above. I would love to see something like this officially implemented in game.
Bring back Dimension Door spell to the players. Make some limitations as needed to make it work without bypassing triggers. Things like the caster only being able to teleport to a map coordinate he's been to, or that he currently has vision, and forbid to teleport to places that would break event triggers.
Add a high level spell to teleport through different maps you have been to. You know, that spell (a forced dimmension door) EVERY MAGE uses to in the cutscenes from god knows where.
Bring back the full SoA map to ToB. The game shrinks a lot in the expansion and we can't visit the areas we spent lots of time clearing. We can enter a pocket plane in one place and leave in another, so it could be possible to allow going back even to Brynnlaw.
Create an option to have the original cutscenes in the game instead of the new ones. Though I'm not inclided, many players prefer the classic versions.
BG2: Add a stronghold for Shamans or modify the druid's to work for both of them.
BG2: Stop Hexxat and Jaheira from leaving forever when removing them from the party. I particularly like to be able to change party members occasionally.
BG2: For completionists like me, allow all unique items from the transfer tables to be imported and scattered through the game. Or at least Helm of Balduran, The Claw of Kazgaroth, The Horn of Kazgaroth and Koveras's Ring of Protection +1. Most of these items are weak for BG2, so it wouldn't unbalance the game (specially if the items are scattered). It's just to have those very unique items, like Kazgaroth's, without forfeiting the useful ones, like the Helm of Balduran, and leave the choice for more powerful things later in the game. Currently we choose only one from each of the three tables:
1#: Protector of the Second, Mail of the Dead, Fallorain's Plate, Chainmail +3
2#: Helm of Balduran, The Claw of Kazgaroth, The Horn of Kazgaroth, Koveras's Ring of Protection +1
3#: The Burning Earth +1, Ashideena +2, Bala’s Axe, Wizard Slayer, Suryris’s Blade +2, The Grave Binder +2, Staff Spear +2, Staff Mace +2, Sling +3, Varscona +2, Krotan’s Skullcrusher +2, Kiel's Morning Star
SoD: Jegg in Boareskyr Bridge can make items from Voidstone Shards. Change the choice of making a sword, an axe, arrows, or bullets, to a sword + axe, or arrows, or bullets (or allow making both weapons, as there's are lots of voidstone shards). This way we can import both the sword and the axe. Completionists wouldn't need to choose what item goes into BG2 way before it, allowing a more neutral gameplay through SoD, saving the character when the game is beaten (with all the possibilities open), then in BG2 other choices can be made with the development of the playthrough, like in the hell part.
Game doesn't start, because build system environment is newer than the one, i am using (Debian 9.13 Stretch, x64).
At first, it said it needs ssl lib (libssl1.0.0_1.0.1t-1+deb8u11_amd64.deb):
$ ./BaldursGate
./BaldursGate: error while loading shared libraries: libssl.so.1.0.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
After i installed needed libssl, game said that i am using an older version of libc6 than the one the game was built with (i am using libc6 2.24, but game needs 2.27 or higher version):
$ ./BaldursGate
./BaldursGate: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.27' not found (required by ./BaldursGate)
$ ldd --version
ldd (Debian GLIBC 2.24-11+deb9u4) 2.24
Copyright (C) 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Written by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
I don't want to update Debian 9 (Stretch) to Debian 10 (Buster) right now because of the single game.
Baldur's Gate EE version 2.5 was working fine on Debian 9. And i see no reason why version 2.6 shouldn't.
So, maybe it will be better if you'll bundle the needed libs with the game instead of forcing users to update and install missing packages?
The min requirement for 2.6 on Linux is Ubuntu 18.04 or equivalent.
The libraries that make up each distro of Linux vary so much. 18.04 is already a 2-year-old operating system. Debian 9 seems to be a year older than that. I would say Debian 10 is an equivalent for Ubuntu 18.04.
The other significant change is requiring 64 bit, as that is what macOS requires. Our current Mac customers can no longer launch BG:EE, IWD:EE and BGII:EE 2.5 under the most recent OS changes, so we have to move forward. A similar thing happened with dropping Windows XP years ago.
BG:EE was released back in 2012, and operating systems and hardware march forever forward. At some point, we have to pick our development environment and go with it.
We will be considering leaving a "2.5" beta on Steam so that players who can't run 2.6 might stay at 2.5 if they need to.
The other significant change is requiring 64 bit, as that is what macOS requires. Our current Mac customers can no longer launch BG:EE, IWD:EE and BGII:EE 2.5 under the most recent OS changes, so we have to move forward. A similar thing happened with dropping Windows XP years ago.
BG:EE was released back in 2012, and operating systems and hardware march forever forward. At some point, we have to pick our development environment and go with it.
Is that means macOS 10.12 still get supported for the patch 2.6? Thanks
In the context of a Debian system, Stable has the specific meaning of "no new feature updates, only security ones" (don't worry, the famous jwz made this same mistake a few years back when he tried to sneak in some Xscreensaver feature updates as security ones). The current stable version is Buster, which is Debian 10. Buster became stable in July 2019. Debian 9 is Stretch, which became stable in June 2017. (For reference, Ubuntu 18.04 would have been released in April of 2018, hence "18.04") The underlying libraries generally don't change once a release is Stable.
(I make a point of using Debian's Testing version precisely because I want that continuous drip of feature creep, which is currently Debian 11 "Bullseye". We're expected to enter a Pre-Stable Freeze in January. Please note that once Bullseye becomes Stable, the Beamdog Client appimage will break across the board on Debian systems due to it expecting Buster libs)
So if you have a Mac, can you please try the beta and vote in the poll. Thanks!
I'm running the latest macOS Catalina (10.15.7) on a 2019 MacBook Pro (as of this writing, I'm waiting for at least the first bug fix update to Big Sur before upgrading--my early adopter days are long behind me). I'd like to help with this Beta test. But I've never used Steam. I looked at the website, and starting from scratch, it looks like an awful lot of trouble to go to, just for this. Unless the situation improves in the near future for Steam novices like me, I'll have to wait for more convenient access to the Beta, maybe via the Beamdog Client. My apologies.
The other significant change is requiring 64 bit, as that is what macOS requires. Our current Mac customers can no longer launch BG:EE, IWD:EE and BGII:EE 2.5 under the most recent OS changes, so we have to move forward. A similar thing happened with dropping Windows XP years ago.
BG:EE was released back in 2012, and operating systems and hardware march forever forward. At some point, we have to pick our development environment and go with it.
Is that means macOS 10.12 still get supported for the patch 2.6? Thanks
2.6 minimum requirements:
OS:Windows 7, 8.1, 10 64-bit
OS: OS X 10.9
OS: Ubuntu 18.04 or equivalent
CPU: Dual Core Processor
RAM: 1 GB RAM
GPU: OpenGL 2.0 compatible
Disk: 5 GB available space
Unless the situation improves in the near future for Steam novices like me, I'll have to wait for more convenient access to the Beta, maybe via the Beamdog Client. My apologies.
It shouldn't be difficult at all.
Launch Steam, hover the mouse on LIBRARY, select "Home", locate BG:EE, right-click on it, then click on "Properties...".
After that click on the "BETAS" tab, and then select "road_to_2.6" where it says Select the beta you would like to opt into.
Hope it helps.
Launch Steam, hover the mouse on LIBRARY, select "Home", locate BG:EE, right-click on it, then click on "Properties...".
After that click on the "BETAS" tab, and then select "road_to_2.6" where it says Select the beta you would like to opt into.
Hope it helps.
While I appreciate your consideration, as I wrote, I've never used Steam. I will attempt to clarify. I've never installed the Steam app. I've never bought anything on Steam. I bought BG:EE on the Mac App Store, the iOS App Store, and as part of the Siege of Dragonspear Collector's Edition. I have never owned BG:EE or anything else through Steam. Again, as previously written, I would therefore be starting from scratch. It appears I would have to use another platform which, I reiterate, I have never used nor had any inclination thus far to use, and pay yet again for another version of a program that I already own, solely for the purpose of running this Beta. If I am correct, then that is a higher price than I am willing to pay in the present circumstances. I hope I have now made myself clear on this point.
...and pay yet again for another version of a program that I already own, solely for the purpose of running this Beta.
Unless I'm missing something, as part of the Siege of Dragonspear Collector's Edition, you should have / can request a Steam key... So no need to pay again...
Hey! We certainly have heard quite a few players who say they don't want to use Steam / don't have the games on Steam. Steam allows for the most convenient system of testing, which is hard to ignore, considering the resources we have. We'll see if anything can be changed regarding GOG, for example.
That said, if you purchased the game from Beamdog, you can contact our support and request a Steam key, absolutely for free.
Hey! We certainly have heard quite a few players who say they don't want to use Steam / don't have the games on Steam. Steam allows for the most convenient system of testing, which is hard to ignore, considering the resources we have. We'll see if anything can be changed regarding GOG, for example.
That said, if you purchased the game from Beamdog, you can contact our support and request a Steam key, absolutely for free.
Thank you for the explanations. I will look into requesting a free Steam key for BG:EE as soon as I can.
I played with the patch for a whole game. I had no issues until I won the battle with Sarevok, and it didn't go to SoD.
Try reloading the final save and see if it moves you to SoD.
I did, several times. I was just stuck in the room where I killed Sarevok. Killed everything in there and got rid of every trap and was still stuck. I unloaded the beta patch and replayed the final battle again. That time I went to SoD. I've reloaded the beta patch now that I'm in SoD and will see how it goes.
I played with the patch for a whole game. I had no issues until I won the battle with Sarevok, and it didn't go to SoD.
Try reloading the final save and see if it moves you to SoD.
I did, several times. I was just stuck in the room where I killed Sarevok. Killed everything in there and got rid of every trap and was still stuck. I unloaded the beta patch and replayed the final battle again. That time I went to SoD. I've reloaded the beta patch now that I'm in SoD and will see how it goes.
Comments
We definitely want to look into supporting new models on iOS during the 2.6 beta, but right now the focus is on testing the Steam version of the build.
- create new character (pre-gen), go to candlekeep, quicksave, quickload, normal save, normal load.
- loaded an almost-to-sarevok save, walked around a while, quicksaved, quickloaded.
--> all fine here.
Still playing my EET run, maybe ill finish before 2.6? ?
Thank you!
You'll get another Linux tester.
This is odd. Please try rebooting your PC and relaunching Steam.
Wonderful.
I've been streaming playing BGEE, while over enjoying fine ales.
Last night I got pretty heated about the Mulehay Battle...
Still love you Beamdog.
So if you have a Mac, can you please try the beta and vote in the poll. Thanks!
At the rate it's been going, that's another 3-4 weeks of waiting, given there'll ever be that many
System: Windows 10 x64
Launch: Success
Save: Success
It's not possible to test the beta on BG2 yet, so I can't see if BG2-only spells/features still carry problems from 2.5. In any way, I have tested in BGEE 2.6 what the game covered, and the rest in BG2EE 2.5 (like high level spells and HLAs). All was tested using the CORE RULES.
SUCCESSES
Burning Hands is finally useful and looks AMAZING. Don't know if its range is correct though.
I've tested the beginning of Black Pits and found no issues yet. Previously it was very bugged and I would usually get stuck on the necromancer fight.
I haven't tested much, but from some quick tests, multiplayer really seems more stable. Looks like BG multiplayer is finally going to be a thing. Looking forward to play a 6-mage multiplayer game (though the games need to have sources of infinite scrolls).
BUGS/PERFORMANCE
Voice files in BG2 are messed up. Since the beginning of the game I can notice the low quality of the character's voices. Imoen seems like she is a robot or speaking from a radio.
In multiplayer mode, when there are actual other players along with the host, saving the game takes some time. These pauses makes me avoid saving the game. If there aren't players in my game, saving is as smooth as in single player.
Pausing in multiplayer is troublesome too. There is a cooldown to pause and resume and it really makes the game slow.
Sometimes Shaman Animals don't attack the nearest enemy, instead going to a distant enemy who is sleeping, (leaving the shaman taking hits) reaching the distance limit and being unsummoned as consequence.
Character inventory image (werewolf form of Shapeshifter) is with a very low resolution. Possibly is the same with different transformed characters.
When resting, healing spells aren't being cast, so each character is only regaining 1 hp per 8 hours rested. There is that option on the gameplay menu to rest until healed, that when enabled, the spells are cast when I rest, but if the characters are too hurt they would sleep for days. For a bit of roleplay I just want to sleep 8 hours and cast whatever healing spells I have, then return to adventuring after that, however hurt I might be. I'm pretty sure that was possible on older versions of the game.
Enemies cannot be encumbered. There are ways to reduce target's strength, like Ray of Enfeeblement that reduces it to 5, but it doesn't encumber enemies even if it should (carry weight much higher than carrying capacity), which is wrong and a missed opportunity of creative tactic. If you add that enfeebled armored enemy to your party through console, he will come encumbered for you and you won't be able to move him.
Trap triggers are kind of messed (including Skull Trap spell). Sometimes you just touch a tiny part of a trap area and it triggers, sometimes you go through it and nothing happens.
Changing to Slayer removes the benefits of my equipped items, and I have to remove and reequip them for the slayer to gain their benefits. If the character is really supposed to be able to use his items in this form, why remove their benefits upon transformation in first place? (this tested character had Use Any Item).
Slayer form is automatically reverting to human when changing rooms or traveling. It also reverted when I was talked to by the cowled wizards that were hunting me in Athkatla.
Slayer Change isn't summing its benefits to the human form, its substituting them. So, it sets current hp and resistances to predefined values, which is terrible. My hp drops to 100, and even if i had an innate resistances of 127% for everything magical/elemental and 100% to everything physical, it would go down to only 45% magical and lose all other resistances you had, which is nonsense (I've edited a naked character's resistances to the max for testing. As a Wizard Slayer, his innate resistance was properly summed when he transformed). This is a granted to nerf my character by almost half his original hp, without mentioning the other things.
Also, even if the character have 100+ magic resistance, the damage we take from the transformation isn't resisted. All this is unbelievably crippling the transformation. It's just unusable the way it is.
Hide in Shadows and Set Traps bug is still present. If the character is blinded he can Hide in Shadows or Set Traps even if there are enemies near him. That happens because these skills check the line of sight of the thief, not of the enemies. If this is changed to work based on the vision of the whole party it will still happen if all the party get blinded (though it would be less problematic).
Dual Class shouldn't allow a character to bypass the equipment slot limitations from other classes, like a Kensai/Mage using cloaks. By standard this should be blocked, but because of its popularity an option to make it work should be able through Baldur.lua. Don't know if Use Any Item, should work like this or not, though.
Dual Class shouldn't allow a character to accumulate proficiency points from the second class and use it when you regain the first. Currently, if you dual class from lv 10 fighter to thief, for example, and instead of gradually levelling up, you gather enough experience points to go from lv 1 thief directly to 11 thief, you'll get the thief proficiency points and regain your fighter level, and can distribute the points as if you have gained them as a fighter (not with the limits from the thief).
CLASSES
Dwarven Defender's Defensive Stance ignores speed increase from Paws of the Cheetah. Ignoring Free Action does makes sense, because he's not being slowed, he's reducing his pace to walk more carefully. Haste works, and that's correct because it should make his "careful pace" faster. Paws of the Cheetah doubles his movement speed, so I think it should work too. Another issue with Defensive Stance is that is says your movement speed is reduced by 50% and haste says it doubles it, but use both of them and the final movement speed is lower than the original.
ARCANE SPELLS
Elemental protection spells's descriptions is misleading. It talks about magical and normal fire/cold, and mentions some souces of each. As far as I know, and I might be wrong, there is no difference between magical and normal fire in Baldur's Gate (there are hidden attributes for this, but those aren't used), also there's no instance in this game where most of the examples given by the spells' descriptions would occur.
Find Familiar: allow other characters to have a familiar.
Mirror Image: some effects from attacks and spells affect a mirror imaged character even if it only hits the image. This happens with melf's acid arrow, spider poison and ghoul paralysis for example.
Web: give immunity against Web spell to creatures that are too big to get caught, and for those that doesn't have a solid body, or are covered in flames by it's nature or flame spell. Also, taking fire damage should free the targed as if hit by Dispel.
Detect Illusion: says it detects all spells from the Illusion/Phantasm school of level 3rd or lower. The list of spells include Non-Detection. But Non-Detection is an Abjuration spell. And I think in AD&D Non-Detection protected you from it.
Non-Detection: its description is odd. Talks about Clairaudience, a spell that is not in the game, talks about protecting from Clairvoiance, a spell that only explores the map and have nothing to be protected from, and talks about ESP, a mind reading AD&D spell that also isn't in the game.
Haste: it is supposed to give +1 attack per round, but if you have an odd number of attacks per round the spell only rounds it up.
Fireball: animation is bigger than its area of effect.
Skull Trap: put trigger area in description (it's much smaller than its damage area).
Oracle: Rakshasa are supposed do be immune to spells of level 7 and below, but this spell works against them. I've tested in The Black Pits II fight against 3 Rakshasa, 2 Rukh and 1 Mahajahah, and all their illusion were dispelled.
Conjure Elementals: is so nerfed it can't be used in combat. It is 20 seconds doing nothing and chance to not even control the elemental.
Spell Thrust: doesn't work against characters with Spell Deflection. Despite its description saying it does.
Death Fog and Death Spell descriptions omit they can't kill Planetars.
It's impossible to use Spell Immunity properly in Contingency or Spell Triggers. The immunities prompt should happen during the input in the trigger, not when unleashing.
A spell related thing that needs fixing is the bad behavior where our spells ignore our own protection spells and magic resistence. I literally can't protect my character from his own spells. For example, if one uses Spell Immunity: Evocation, casts Web and then walks into it, he'll still be subject to the web effect. Spells like Power Word: Silence cast on yourself will always hit. This is completely wrong and makes me depend on offensive spells from other casters to enter the combat with 100% resistance to something and not be hit.
Clones (Simulacrum/Projected Image), can still can use consumables/charges/uses of magic items and make more clones through scrolls. Also, if a transformed character (i.e. polymorphed) casts those spells, shouldn't the clone be of the creature in is current state?
Spell Shield: description says it should protect from Spellstrike and it doesn't. On the other hand, Spellstrike's description says it should destroy all protections including Spell Shield. For its levels, I think Spell Shield is the wrong one.
DIVINE SPELLS
Entangle: same issue of Web spell.
Summon Insects/Insect plague: the spells ranges are wrong in the descriptions. Their actual range is 50 feet. Those spells need some kind of nerf and rework to make more sense and be cooler. Possibilities are making their damage nonmagical, being blocked by Stoneskin until they remove all its layers. Fireshield/Aura of Flaming Death, too could protect from the insects as they wouldn't whitstand the heat or cold. Spell Immunity, Dispel and the like shouldn't work against them, because they are insects (it's like casting Dispel on a summoned gnoll). If the target takes area damage, though, it should hit the insects too, killing all of them. The insects could be made faster and vulnerable to area damage even before hitting its target.
Harm: nerf it to a maximum of 100-200 damage, so it doesn't make fights against enemies with thousands of hitpoits (modded/Legacy of Bhaal games) trivial.
Blade Barrier: the way it works now, will extremely rarely cause its damage, because it's save is prompted during long intervals, instead of whenever a character comes into contact with it.
HLAs
Globe of Blades: same problem of the Blade Barrier spell.
Scribe Scrolls (Rogue): it sadly has no use. At the level you get the HLA there's no chance you'll use any of the spells in the list from scrolls
Scribe Scrolls (Mage): marginally better than the rogue version, but still limited to low level spells, so it's also unusable.
Those HLAs would be useful if rogue would scribe level 1-4 scroll and mage a level 5-9 scroll, at least allowing the making of all spells. If not selecting which spell to create, at least put all spells available in this list (so we can play a 6-mage party). Remember casting from a scroll is slower than casting from the spellbook.
Alchemy (Mage): would be useful if you could at least select what potion you want to make.
Use Any Item: it is allowing polymorphed/shapeshifted/shapechanged characters to do some things they probably shouldn't in this form, like casting spells from scrolls, using wands. So we can make a slime/squirrel pull a scroll, read it and cast at the enemies (they can't even speak). Also, it's possible to equip items and gain its benefits in the forms (this one might not be wrong as some magic items should pass its benefits to a tranformed character, but then the magical benefits from the items shouldn't be removed upon transformation in first place).
Another problem with this HLA is related to it not allowing using NPC-specific items. This in itself is ok, but it removes the red background from items, making it look as if it is possible to be used. Also, the text needs to be clear saying that those items won't be able to be used no, to avoid confusion and frustrating players' planned builds.
Avoid Death: this one's description is very bad. It says you become immune to death magic, but what is death magic? It needs to specify and exemplify. I did some tests with a character with negative magic resistance and 20 to all saving throws to see what it protects from and what it doesn't. Protects from: Chromatic Orb's death and petrify effects; Disintegrate; Flesh to Stone; Finger of Death; Sphere of Chaos disintegrate effect; Wail of the Banshee; Imprisonment (how is this death?); Black Blade of Disaster; Planetar's Silver Blade. Doesn't protect from: Polymorph Other (makes sense); Maze (makes sense); Power Word: Kill (WTF).
THE BLACK PITS
Add Find Familiar scrolls to the merchant.
THE BLACK PITS II
I've had some issues during my multiplayer Black Pits II playthrough, then tested on single player to give feedback:
Only happened on Multiplayer mode: When the genie Dormamus kills the dancers before battling us it triggers the disintegration of Thassk's Journal. I tried to fix it but I couldn't. Adding the book later through cheats still created a "disintegrated item" instead the book.
On both modes: Cloak of Protection +1 is abnormally expensive. 5600 gp with 20 CHA. For comparison, The Spirit's Shield (Cloak of Protection +2) sells at 3360 gp with the same CHA.
On both modes: Can't pass the uprising part because I can't enter the training grounds. Tried through the front door and through the creature pens (killing, then not killing Stirv). I can't open the doors even with knock.
On both modes: The cook and his guard remain in the kitchen during the uprising. That's ok, but they don't react properly to the context. The guard says: "You have no business in the kitchen. Get out of here, now." And clicking the cook doesn't even open a dialog.
I remembered this problem happening in another situation (clicking a NPC and nothing happening). It was when I refused to do the quest to poison the cook for Marduuk and Short-Order and went back to talk to them to see how they would react to me. Multiplayer mode: Marduuk spoke his standard line about no talking in the kitchen, but Short-Order opened no dialog when clicked.
Single Player mode: Marduuk's dialog was again the request to poison the cook. I thought it was a bug because he doesn't talk in the kitchen, but after agreeing to hear, we went to the other room to talk.
(PART 2)
This is the second part of the feedback of my tests. If I stumble upon or remember something else, I'll update the posts. I'm looking forward to see this game becoming even better. I have a great time playing this game. Thank you!
BALANCE
Shapeshifter's thing is to cast spells, transform into werewolf and enter combat, but it doesn't work in the long run. Sadly he must abandon his werewolf theme later to be useful and work as a weaker generalist druid. It can't hurt many of the higher level enemies in his werewolf form because of their immunities to weapons up to a +3 enchantments. For this class to work on his expected role (werewolf form melee), I thought of 2 possibilities:
(a) nerfing his spellcasting and scaling a single werewolf form transformation (in the present there are 2 different forms) as it levels up to gain more resistances/saving throws/AC, and more importantly reach up to a +4 enchantment on its attacks (like monks get) or giving him one more transformation (Loup Garou) with said benefits. Then giving him the option to pick some of the fighter's HLAs (or substituting his current HLAs for the fighter's).
(b) leaving his his melee aspect as it is and eventually giving him the ability to cast spells in werewolf form. Not very insteresting thematically, but it's some kind of solution.
Dragon Disciple's breath needs some tweak for it to work at higher levels, because it soon becomes an useless trait. Probably will work great if its damage scales up to high level spell/HLA power, or if it gets multiple uses per day to at least serve to spare spell slots against trash mobs. Remember many enemies have fire resistance.
Change the Monks a little on the early levels so they are able to hold their own on melee. It is known that monks usually are left throwing projectiles until they reach higher levels. This kind of gameplay on a fighting class takes much of the fun from playing with this class. I don't now what this change could be. Maybe bring AC from later to earlier levels.
Wizard Slayer needs some modification to be work properly too. His concept is interesting, but the lack o magic items later on the game is really cruel without other factors to compensate. Might work by giving some extra saving throws and innate anti-magic thematic buffs to compensate his deficiency.
Shaman Dance doesn't work (at least from level 1 to the end of SoD). It gives great penalities, demands standing still or it will be interrupted, the chance of summoning if very low/the prompts are very slow, and the cratures are very weak. Even M'Khin full of tailored items did little with the dance. Against strong oponents the dancing shaman is an easy and squishy target. Against any oponent, specially weak ones, the dance is too slow to be useful. I'm yet to test at high levels.
Nerf Inquisitors' Dispel Magic to be at 1x or 1.5x of his level.
Add a source of infinite spell scrolls from all levels to complete all mages' spellbooks (I know most can be dropped from monsters randomly, but 9th level spells don't). This can be solved by altering the HLAs Scribe Scrolls to create a random scroll of any level. Removing limits in a shop, or adding an option to get a random spell of levels 5-9 on the Wish spell and level 4 or lower on Limited Wish. When pondering about whys and balance issues, remember: there are many mages in the game and some players are completionist; some players want to play a full mage multiplayer game; casting spells from scrolls is slower than spellbook; scribing can fail (though potions take care of this one).
Make all non-unique ammunition and potions infinite in stores, or at least make it restock daily. If it's limited for balance issues, only limit the very powerful ones like arrows of dispelling/detonation and potions of magic shielding. The way it is, potion-dependent gameplay is impossible. Also, only a number of battles are covered by the potions available at stores. Enemies having 3 potions is no problem for them, because they only need them for one battle. If balance is not the issue (after all we still have to pay for it), then make them infinite. 1) For games that don't end: some players don't finish their game even after making their characters full, and keep playing even after all quests are done, then limited things run out. 2) For completioninsts: some make runs collecting/buying everything finite and leave all stores empty if possible, which becomes a humongous chore if everything mundane and not has a limited quantity (specially if its limited and with a huge quantity. Why limit then?).
Consider modifying unique throwing weapons like Baruel's Retort available to be picked from the ground when thrown. Weapons like this aren't reliable because you only have so many, then it's gone forever (i.e. it can only be used pontually) and you will have to change your plans for the character.
INTERFACE/INFO/FUNCTIONS
Rename the script behavior "Sing Bard Song" to "Sing Bard Song/Do Shaman Dance" to make clear it will work for a Shaman.
Make scripts dedicated for Shaman.
Slow the written text scroll speed on chapter introductions to match the spoken text speed.
Add a hotkey to drop a hovered or selected item from the inventory (to avoid the proccess of clicking, dragging to the drop section, clicking again and then repeat for the next item).
Add a hotkey to equip hovered or selected item.
Add a button to sort containers.
Add a button/hotkey to sort inventory.
Add a button to lock portraits already used by the NPCs in the game.
Add a way to chain various commands to a hotkey, to facilitate spellbuffing.
Make shops have their items automatically and always sorted (i.e. the order not be defined without organization by what you sold).
It would be a game changing feedback if area spells, when choosing a place to be cast, showed a template of the area it would affect.
Make thieves' skills possible to be added faster somehow. Maybe add a multiplier while holding shift.
Attribute descriptions need some work. I click and read the attribute description and wonder: why do Druids and Bards needs CHA exactly? Why is CON specifically important to Rangers? These descriptions are wrong and misleading and will lead new players to make terrible characters. It must be taken into consideration that rarely someone will open the game manual to create a character, so the attribute texts should give them useful information telling for who it is good and why.
Add descriptions of conditions on record window. We see the name and icon of a buff or debuff, but there is no option hover and get info, or to click it and open a window with details. It would be awesome to have detailed info talking about each of those effects, telling the source, the caster level, the duration, the exact values being added or subtracted.
Make clear what a class gains when leveling up (on class selection). Saving throws, for example, are very useful to know how many we get beforehand.
Make clear on character creation that some classes (and which) only gain hp benefits up to 16 CON.
Make clear how thief skills work. How much points invested would actually be effective, the formula for hide in shadows, considering day, night and if below shadow, and so on.
Give an option in the config menu to substitute the notation 1 turn for 10 rounds (or to a real time minute), so it'll be less complicated for newcomers. In D&D 5E and in widely played modern videogames, a turn refers to a character's time to act in a round, so most new players will think a turn is worth less time than a round. I myself took very, very long to notice this (for a very long time I thought the times were simply all bugged). Changing this will make BG much more welcoming.
Give an option in the config menu to change Casting Time to be in function of rounds or real time seconds, instead of a loose number that hides its meaning from players who didn't read the manual or haven't played AD&D. If put in function of real time it would become 1 = 0.6 s; 5 = 3 s; 10 = 6 s. And if put in function of rounds it would become to 1 = 0.1 (1/10) round = 0.5 (1/2) round; 10 = 1 round
WISHLIST
Import the remaining spells from Icewind Dale to Baldur's Gate.
Make AI MUCH smarter. Add an AI competence-in-combat slider if needed, so they are more efficient, removing buffs if spells aren't working, recasting his spell and compat protections, stop shooting if projectiles are being reflected back, change strategy, change targets. They should have the capacity of using different strategies each time we battle them (pick from an array of combinations) and possibly having different spells every time a new game is started.
Give the ability for enemies to spellbuff to the max one time upon starting battle (casting all buffs he wants without spending a turn), because the player can do it and they don't.
Allow enemies' levels to be higher (through slider, maybe).
Give access to HLAs for enemies of high enough level.
Make the amazon bounty hunters and those at the exit of Nashkel Mines assault us in a waylay zone, so it would make more sense and they wouldn't be static in an odd place. There is a mod called Sword Coast Stratagems that does all the above. I would love to see something like this officially implemented in game.
Bring back Dimension Door spell to the players. Make some limitations as needed to make it work without bypassing triggers. Things like the caster only being able to teleport to a map coordinate he's been to, or that he currently has vision, and forbid to teleport to places that would break event triggers.
Add a high level spell to teleport through different maps you have been to. You know, that spell (a forced dimmension door) EVERY MAGE uses to in the cutscenes from god knows where.
Bring back the full SoA map to ToB. The game shrinks a lot in the expansion and we can't visit the areas we spent lots of time clearing. We can enter a pocket plane in one place and leave in another, so it could be possible to allow going back even to Brynnlaw.
Create an option to have the original cutscenes in the game instead of the new ones. Though I'm not inclided, many players prefer the classic versions.
BG2: Add a stronghold for Shamans or modify the druid's to work for both of them.
BG2: Stop Hexxat and Jaheira from leaving forever when removing them from the party. I particularly like to be able to change party members occasionally.
BG2: For completionists like me, allow all unique items from the transfer tables to be imported and scattered through the game. Or at least Helm of Balduran, The Claw of Kazgaroth, The Horn of Kazgaroth and Koveras's Ring of Protection +1. Most of these items are weak for BG2, so it wouldn't unbalance the game (specially if the items are scattered). It's just to have those very unique items, like Kazgaroth's, without forfeiting the useful ones, like the Helm of Balduran, and leave the choice for more powerful things later in the game. Currently we choose only one from each of the three tables:
1#: Protector of the Second, Mail of the Dead, Fallorain's Plate, Chainmail +3
2#: Helm of Balduran, The Claw of Kazgaroth, The Horn of Kazgaroth, Koveras's Ring of Protection +1
3#: The Burning Earth +1, Ashideena +2, Bala’s Axe, Wizard Slayer, Suryris’s Blade +2, The Grave Binder +2, Staff Spear +2, Staff Mace +2, Sling +3, Varscona +2, Krotan’s Skullcrusher +2, Kiel's Morning Star
SoD: Jegg in Boareskyr Bridge can make items from Voidstone Shards. Change the choice of making a sword, an axe, arrows, or bullets, to a sword + axe, or arrows, or bullets (or allow making both weapons, as there's are lots of voidstone shards). This way we can import both the sword and the axe. Completionists wouldn't need to choose what item goes into BG2 way before it, allowing a more neutral gameplay through SoD, saving the character when the game is beaten (with all the possibilities open), then in BG2 other choices can be made with the development of the playthrough, like in the hell part.
At first, it said it needs ssl lib (libssl1.0.0_1.0.1t-1+deb8u11_amd64.deb):
./BaldursGate: error while loading shared libraries: libssl.so.1.0.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
After i installed needed libssl, game said that i am using an older version of libc6 than the one the game was built with (i am using libc6 2.24, but game needs 2.27 or higher version):
./BaldursGate: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.27' not found (required by ./BaldursGate)
$ ldd --version
ldd (Debian GLIBC 2.24-11+deb9u4) 2.24
Copyright (C) 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Written by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
Baldur's Gate EE version 2.5 was working fine on Debian 9. And i see no reason why version 2.6 shouldn't.
So, maybe it will be better if you'll bundle the needed libs with the game instead of forcing users to update and install missing packages?
The min requirement for 2.6 on Linux is Ubuntu 18.04 or equivalent.
The libraries that make up each distro of Linux vary so much. 18.04 is already a 2-year-old operating system. Debian 9 seems to be a year older than that. I would say Debian 10 is an equivalent for Ubuntu 18.04.
The other significant change is requiring 64 bit, as that is what macOS requires. Our current Mac customers can no longer launch BG:EE, IWD:EE and BGII:EE 2.5 under the most recent OS changes, so we have to move forward. A similar thing happened with dropping Windows XP years ago.
BG:EE was released back in 2012, and operating systems and hardware march forever forward. At some point, we have to pick our development environment and go with it.
We will be considering leaving a "2.5" beta on Steam so that players who can't run 2.6 might stay at 2.5 if they need to.
Alright, i'll check patch 2.6 when i'll update to Debian 10.
Is that means macOS 10.12 still get supported for the patch 2.6? Thanks
In the context of a Debian system, Stable has the specific meaning of "no new feature updates, only security ones" (don't worry, the famous jwz made this same mistake a few years back when he tried to sneak in some Xscreensaver feature updates as security ones). The current stable version is Buster, which is Debian 10. Buster became stable in July 2019. Debian 9 is Stretch, which became stable in June 2017. (For reference, Ubuntu 18.04 would have been released in April of 2018, hence "18.04") The underlying libraries generally don't change once a release is Stable.
(I make a point of using Debian's Testing version precisely because I want that continuous drip of feature creep, which is currently Debian 11 "Bullseye". We're expected to enter a Pre-Stable Freeze in January. Please note that once Bullseye becomes Stable, the Beamdog Client appimage will break across the board on Debian systems due to it expecting Buster libs)
2.6 minimum requirements:
OS:Windows 7, 8.1, 10 64-bit
OS: OS X 10.9
OS: Ubuntu 18.04 or equivalent
CPU: Dual Core Processor
RAM: 1 GB RAM
GPU: OpenGL 2.0 compatible
Disk: 5 GB available space
It shouldn't be difficult at all.
Launch Steam, hover the mouse on LIBRARY, select "Home", locate BG:EE, right-click on it, then click on "Properties...".
After that click on the "BETAS" tab, and then select "road_to_2.6" where it says Select the beta you would like to opt into.
Hope it helps.
Unless I'm missing something, as part of the Siege of Dragonspear Collector's Edition, you should have / can request a Steam key... So no need to pay again...
That said, if you purchased the game from Beamdog, you can contact our support and request a Steam key, absolutely for free.
Try reloading the final save and see if it moves you to SoD.
I did, several times. I was just stuck in the room where I killed Sarevok. Killed everything in there and got rid of every trap and was still stuck. I unloaded the beta patch and replayed the final battle again. That time I went to SoD. I've reloaded the beta patch now that I'm in SoD and will see how it goes.
Thanks! We've repro-ed it and will fix.