SoD: Still Open for Improvements?

hsenpar

Hello,

An older, crammy loghead, like myself, just got around to playing the game that has been around for a while. Is someone still working on the project? I'm asking if it's worthwhile to write down the things that bothered me. I'm looking for at least 5% chance of implementation in exchange for a shorter essay.

Regards,

JuliusBorisov

SoD was released in 2016. Its writers left Beamdog long ago, and the studio is working on a new title, unrelated to D&D. While we still support our games with patches and fixes, any major changes are not possible.

hsenpar

JuliusBorisov wrote: »

SoD was released in 2016. Its writers left Beamdog long ago, and the studio is working on a new title, unrelated to D&D. While we still support our games with patches and fixes, any major changes are not possible.

Fair enough.

Juzam

Along with other things, seeing that it was written by some extremely arrogant people whose only concern was to push their own political agenda by giving the middle finger to one of the greatest fanbase in the history of RPG, and as a consequence, losing the rights to BG3, the only improvement at this time would be deleting it from the stores and forgetting that it had ever existed.

Aerakar

I have found SoD to be a great game that I have now played over 15+ times in full trilogy+ runs and I personally can't imagine a total trilogy (quadrilogy?) run now without it, and I've been playing this game for 22 years It is far, far from perfect, but I very much appreciate the work put into it and the extra content. And I VERY much appreciate Beamdog's continued support!

Yes, I do understand people have different social, political, and other opinions - including game creators and players - but I have played games and read books by authors and creators I do not agree with hundreds of times over some decades. That doesn't stop me from enjoying their content (or not enjoying it also!).

Personally, I have found it is really an issue of time and distance. What seems important to people today, is often forgotten tomorrow. It took me some years and decades living outside my home country to learn this. The perspective of time is a wonderful thing.

I wish peace and good gaming to all. I'm now going back to my current assassin run, still in BG1 for now...

Humanoid_Taifun

People keep mentioning the politics in the game as its main problem, and I don't understand that.

My first serious issue with SoD was in the ducal palace, with the imprisoned shapeshifter. After the guy told me he was a guard, my first instinct was to ask a guard to verify his story. There is no one in the ducal palace with whom you could discuss the man behind bars. In order to advance the quest you are supposed to open the cell.
You do not know the man. There is no reason for you to assume that opening the cell would help you identify him or ascertain the truth of the matter. All it can realistically do is give a potential criminal the opportunity to escape justice. I had to actually google the quest in order to even get the idea that this was an option.

This is what SoD is to me. A series of situations where I have to do nonsensical things in order to advance the plot. I like the story (kinda; Caelar is the most annoying antagonist in any game I know). But the fact that I have to go out-of-character on a regular basis to go through it makes the experience somewhat bitter.

Aerakar

@Humanoid_Taifun I agree with you on this quest coming out of nowhere, at least for me (and there are others like the illness troll-bark quest start and the menier pillar quest). Now that I've played SoD xxx times I don't notice these things so much anymore, but I did the first couple of runs.

Xeknos

I played through SoD once. It was okay, though I probably won't play it again and will just jump from BG1 into BG2. I appreciate what they tried to do, but honestly, I think we would have just preferred a BG3 made by Beamdog.

Isewein

I should say that the active work modders are still doing on smoothing out the transition from BG1 to SoD over G3 means that there is a decent 5% chance they might implement some of your proposed changes, too.

Mathsorcerer

The only real improvement I saw that needed to be made was the fight at that bridge--Boarskyr Bridge? Something like that--it's been a while since I played it. Anyway....if you don't beat the fight within a certain time frame the game is simply over? *tsk* *tsk* *tsk* No, I don't think so...thus I edited that script--now my game doesn't end if I don't do something within an arbitrary time limit.

_Connacht_

hsenpar wrote: »

I'm looking for at least 5% chance of implementation in exchange for a shorter essay.

Modders might still try to implement some of your suggestion where possible.

hsenpar

@_Connacht_ @Isewein These two should add up to a mod better than the original game.

1. Pack sizes: To be reduced by 25-40%

Large enemy packs are unfit given the 500K exp cap. In a journey of BG:EE SoD, there are only a few level ups to be had. On the opposite, there's Icewind Dale: Where the "Level Up" events release dopamine for much longer, and where combat encounters (even where no loot is expected) carry an incentive.

Bump up the quest experience rewards to compensate, where appropriate.

2. Remove Belhifet

There's an original antagonist, Caelar Argent---faced together with Hepernaan---that makes for a good combat encounter to culminate the game. With some power-ups required to compensate for lack of Belhifet, that is. I failed to appreciate a story that used every chapter on spreading FUD about Caelar Argent, only to make her the lesser evil by introducing a plagiarized piece of Belhifet during the finale.