Playlog - Documenting a playthrough with a sardonic tone!
VikingKitten
Member Posts: 3
This being my first post, this will be a wall of text. Sorry. I’ll try to limit future posts to 700 words or so, this is about 2000. Also this will be a double post since I didn't get to start the thread yesterday s hoped.
I thought what I’d try to do is journal a BG:EE playthrough, kind of a Let’s Play in forum post form. I used to do this back in the day with others to compare notes on a much smaller site, but in similar style. Nerds for the win.
It's not really a roleplay since I reference the game as a game and not its own universe.
I played BG1 back when it was new and I was all of 17 years old. To be honest I’ve spent most of my time with BG franchise in the sequel, which I always thought was the better game, so now I’ve destroyed all my street cred since I’ve heard for over a decade now how BG2 sucked and BG1 was better. XD
So what’s this for? Just for my own amusement, possibly others, and if you don’t like it feel free to ignore it. My sense of humor is a little odd. Or heck add your own playlog here I won’t mind, I’m going to be quite slow in my progress. My time for games just isn’t what it used to be.
But still I can’t get away from it. Although I spend most of my limited computer gaming time in new titles now, I always seem to come back to BG franchise for another run. So let’s do this, one more time.
Day 0 – In which I relive the Bad Old Days
Getting the #$%* Game – Off to a Bad Start
It took me three separate attempts to successfully install and run Baldur’s Gate back when it came in a big bifold sleeve with slots for 6 discs in it. I still have this on a bookshelf mostly because of nostalgia, the last 3 computers I’ve owned haven’t been able to install the game from these discs despite my finding lots of advice/resources/forum threads in the bowels of the internet over the years offering solutions, none of which work for me. Hint: Pay $9 or whatever it is and get it from GOG.com and it’ll magically work.
I mention this because the “launch” did not go so well for me. Despite having “preloaded”, and not aspiring to play the very minute it came out, it took a solid 5 hours to get going. Well, it is what it is, and I was a little frustrated at the time which is why I didn’t write this entry until today. Not exactly a smooth launch but whatever, I’ve got the game now who cares right? Well I guess the people who are still stuck care.
I’ll say this, Beamdog does not impress me as a delivery platform and I’d have paid extra for a physical copy of that had been an option. I’ve gotten to the point I don’t bother with physical copies any more just to save physical space so that’s a significant statement for me. GOG.com and Steam have nothing to worry about.
I understand Overhaul is a bitty little plucky independent outfit and I will cut them a lot of slack here because they were trying to have very limited DRM (basically one of the two things I don’t like about Steam) and I admire that stance from a philosophical viewpoint. I understand we’re talking about money here, and there was probably a good business reason and all that jazz, but seriously Overhaul, considering how good this is relative to some of the goofy junk that can get on Steam, let’s consider some better options next time.
Anyway that’s kind of a negative start, but you know what I had just as much trouble with it back in the day when I had it on disc. So I’m not going to let that get me down, I freaking love BG, it’s worth a little hassle to get it going.
At least this time all I had to do was wait rather than keep loading discs in the tray and constantly fiddling with Win 95, or was it 98, don’t even remember now. Computer games were almost always a little wonky in the late 90s and early 2000s, I’m just spoiled by how easy they are to install and launch now.
Got the #$&* Game, now will it run?
I knew BG:EE was something of a gamble for me. I don’t know what it is. I’ve had terrible luck with BG1 past 2002 or so. A lot of it is that it’s just damn hard to get old software written for obsolete systems to keep working. Sure it’s theoretically possible but… come on we all know better.
I’m not the most technical computer savvy person, that’s part of it, but even being the stupid monkey I am, I modify and play all sorts of games consistently on multiple OSes and have for years. Anyone remember modding the Bard into Diablo I? Basically I can’t make a mod to save my life but I can tweak content other people have made into my game usually and I can usually get things to work. I understand what a driver is and for God’s sake people get ME to fix THEIR computers, I can’t be completely inept even if I’m not very skilled.
But BG1 has been a disaster for me from a technical viewpoint forever. For several years I couldn’t get it to install on anything, and it wasn’t until I found the GOG.com version that I was able to get a version I could play on a modern system. Even then all attempts to mod the first game never work for me. Seriously it’s ridiculous, I can never get BG1 mods to work, something always goes wrong for me. Oblivion, not a problem. Warcraft 3, not a problem. Baldur’s Gate 2? Modded the everloving nine hells out of it. BG1? Forget it. Doesn’t make sense, and I’ve stopped trying to understand why.
The GOG.com version is a Godsend because it works. Somehow. Sort of. Mostly. Look I can play it. I was really hoping EE would at least equal that and… It more or less does. Let me explain. First of all, I can run the d### game. There’s 99 possible points out of 100 right there.
But cutscenes and movies in BG1 and BG2 really do not like my current system. They just sort of stutter along with messed up sound like a slide show until I can hit Escape enough times. BG:EE does not fix this problem. The intro movie was the disaster I’ve come to expect.
I can totally live with this because of Youtube. Youtube is a wonderful thing. God bless Youtube. If it’s not on there yet it will be some day soon. I bet the classic intro cinematic and all the others from 1998 already are.
And… launching the game in full screen mode causes a crash to desktop. Whoopsie. All right I’ve seen that too, just get in the Options and turn Windowed mode on…
All right we’re running. Let’s make a quick terrible fighter named “aaaa” and just see if we can get the game to load, and sure enough “aaaa” can move around and buy things from Winthrop. He can talk to people and finish the fetch the book quest… I think we’re basically good to start. He moves a little slow when you don’t click on a target for him to interact with at the end of his movement, but I’ve been playing a lot of TL2 lately so BG of any kind is going to feel slow anyway.
Okay this is workable, I can live with this I think. I actually like the new interface, the old school gold on stone thing was a little hard to deal with sometimes. I adjusted some of the tooltip delays and stuff, it’s working a little better for me now. It looks good on my screen, I can play in Windowed mode fine and am used to that actually, but maybe I’ll try Alt+Enter next time. Spoiler Alert: it works.
True I had hoped for technical miracle, but the point is it works without me tweaking a lot of goofy stuff so we’re at least on par with the GOG.com version, which has basically the same problems.
I also remember the original game on my original system was super, super buggy. The GOG.com version seems to be better although some of the “classic” bugs are still in it, so we’ll see how this one does.
What to play, what to play?
All right we kind of had a negative experience getting started. Didn’t really get to play properly yet. So let’s get to some fun stuff. Not getting to really do much besides complain on launch day is a bummer but we’re over that now, let’s actually play this thing.
“aaaa” is no more, he no longer pleases me. I am Ao to him, and I banish him from existence! He was a rubbish fighter with 12 Strength anyway.
Now what to do? I’m considering a few things:
My “evil” playthroughs have been very limited next to my “good” ones. I find being “neutral” too hard and taxing, so I’m considering an “evil” run this time. But I haven’t played the first game in so long it might not matter.
I’ve never actually taken the same character from 1 to 2 via import I always just remade them in the new game and started fresh. This time, if we do get BG2:EE, I want to actually move the same PC across.
I want to try to use some characters I haven’t before, basically some of the non iconic or evil ones. Look Minsc is awesome, but let’s give someone else a chance. I’ve never even used Viconia in my limited “Evil” runs.
Class wise, I’ve done this game the most with fighters of all stripes (even a painful BG2 run with a Wizard Slayer), a plain Ranger, an Archer, all the Paladins, Dual and Multiclass Clerics, and I’ve started but never finished with various incarnations of Mages… in the original I did it with the pure versions of all these classes (because we didn’t have the kits back then).
I don’t hate Rogues and I always try to have one along, but I never run a pure thief because I’ve never needed more than a level 4 thief to do everything I want a thief for. A F/T or M/T is overkill but workable because you can at least do things with the combination of classes that are interesting, or the BG2 style dual class Immie T/M is all I’ve ever needed. And I’m not against the Druid it’s just I’m a Cleric type and always have been even in PnP.
I try to make my party where there’s effectively half of a thief, 2 “tanks”, 2 clerics, and 2 arcane casters with one “pure” example of each and the other can be a “secondary”. For example a M/C can be my secondary cleric and mage and I’m happy with that so long as the whole composition supports it. I also try to do 5 member parties, but I think I’m going to do 6 for maximum banter.
Wizards have the power, but the ability to pick the spell books of your NPCs has always dissuaded me from ever really finishing a PC wizard. Still I think this might be something new and fun to try.
Never really did a Ranger/Cleric. F/M seems interesting. Three way splits just seem to cover too many bases, I have a party for a reason!
Despite myself, I’m also considering the Berserker and Blackguard. Trivial decisions for the lose!
I thought what I’d try to do is journal a BG:EE playthrough, kind of a Let’s Play in forum post form. I used to do this back in the day with others to compare notes on a much smaller site, but in similar style. Nerds for the win.
It's not really a roleplay since I reference the game as a game and not its own universe.
I played BG1 back when it was new and I was all of 17 years old. To be honest I’ve spent most of my time with BG franchise in the sequel, which I always thought was the better game, so now I’ve destroyed all my street cred since I’ve heard for over a decade now how BG2 sucked and BG1 was better. XD
So what’s this for? Just for my own amusement, possibly others, and if you don’t like it feel free to ignore it. My sense of humor is a little odd. Or heck add your own playlog here I won’t mind, I’m going to be quite slow in my progress. My time for games just isn’t what it used to be.
But still I can’t get away from it. Although I spend most of my limited computer gaming time in new titles now, I always seem to come back to BG franchise for another run. So let’s do this, one more time.
Day 0 – In which I relive the Bad Old Days
Getting the #$%* Game – Off to a Bad Start
It took me three separate attempts to successfully install and run Baldur’s Gate back when it came in a big bifold sleeve with slots for 6 discs in it. I still have this on a bookshelf mostly because of nostalgia, the last 3 computers I’ve owned haven’t been able to install the game from these discs despite my finding lots of advice/resources/forum threads in the bowels of the internet over the years offering solutions, none of which work for me. Hint: Pay $9 or whatever it is and get it from GOG.com and it’ll magically work.
I mention this because the “launch” did not go so well for me. Despite having “preloaded”, and not aspiring to play the very minute it came out, it took a solid 5 hours to get going. Well, it is what it is, and I was a little frustrated at the time which is why I didn’t write this entry until today. Not exactly a smooth launch but whatever, I’ve got the game now who cares right? Well I guess the people who are still stuck care.
I’ll say this, Beamdog does not impress me as a delivery platform and I’d have paid extra for a physical copy of that had been an option. I’ve gotten to the point I don’t bother with physical copies any more just to save physical space so that’s a significant statement for me. GOG.com and Steam have nothing to worry about.
I understand Overhaul is a bitty little plucky independent outfit and I will cut them a lot of slack here because they were trying to have very limited DRM (basically one of the two things I don’t like about Steam) and I admire that stance from a philosophical viewpoint. I understand we’re talking about money here, and there was probably a good business reason and all that jazz, but seriously Overhaul, considering how good this is relative to some of the goofy junk that can get on Steam, let’s consider some better options next time.
Anyway that’s kind of a negative start, but you know what I had just as much trouble with it back in the day when I had it on disc. So I’m not going to let that get me down, I freaking love BG, it’s worth a little hassle to get it going.
At least this time all I had to do was wait rather than keep loading discs in the tray and constantly fiddling with Win 95, or was it 98, don’t even remember now. Computer games were almost always a little wonky in the late 90s and early 2000s, I’m just spoiled by how easy they are to install and launch now.
Got the #$&* Game, now will it run?
I knew BG:EE was something of a gamble for me. I don’t know what it is. I’ve had terrible luck with BG1 past 2002 or so. A lot of it is that it’s just damn hard to get old software written for obsolete systems to keep working. Sure it’s theoretically possible but… come on we all know better.
I’m not the most technical computer savvy person, that’s part of it, but even being the stupid monkey I am, I modify and play all sorts of games consistently on multiple OSes and have for years. Anyone remember modding the Bard into Diablo I? Basically I can’t make a mod to save my life but I can tweak content other people have made into my game usually and I can usually get things to work. I understand what a driver is and for God’s sake people get ME to fix THEIR computers, I can’t be completely inept even if I’m not very skilled.
But BG1 has been a disaster for me from a technical viewpoint forever. For several years I couldn’t get it to install on anything, and it wasn’t until I found the GOG.com version that I was able to get a version I could play on a modern system. Even then all attempts to mod the first game never work for me. Seriously it’s ridiculous, I can never get BG1 mods to work, something always goes wrong for me. Oblivion, not a problem. Warcraft 3, not a problem. Baldur’s Gate 2? Modded the everloving nine hells out of it. BG1? Forget it. Doesn’t make sense, and I’ve stopped trying to understand why.
The GOG.com version is a Godsend because it works. Somehow. Sort of. Mostly. Look I can play it. I was really hoping EE would at least equal that and… It more or less does. Let me explain. First of all, I can run the d### game. There’s 99 possible points out of 100 right there.
But cutscenes and movies in BG1 and BG2 really do not like my current system. They just sort of stutter along with messed up sound like a slide show until I can hit Escape enough times. BG:EE does not fix this problem. The intro movie was the disaster I’ve come to expect.
I can totally live with this because of Youtube. Youtube is a wonderful thing. God bless Youtube. If it’s not on there yet it will be some day soon. I bet the classic intro cinematic and all the others from 1998 already are.
And… launching the game in full screen mode causes a crash to desktop. Whoopsie. All right I’ve seen that too, just get in the Options and turn Windowed mode on…
All right we’re running. Let’s make a quick terrible fighter named “aaaa” and just see if we can get the game to load, and sure enough “aaaa” can move around and buy things from Winthrop. He can talk to people and finish the fetch the book quest… I think we’re basically good to start. He moves a little slow when you don’t click on a target for him to interact with at the end of his movement, but I’ve been playing a lot of TL2 lately so BG of any kind is going to feel slow anyway.
Okay this is workable, I can live with this I think. I actually like the new interface, the old school gold on stone thing was a little hard to deal with sometimes. I adjusted some of the tooltip delays and stuff, it’s working a little better for me now. It looks good on my screen, I can play in Windowed mode fine and am used to that actually, but maybe I’ll try Alt+Enter next time. Spoiler Alert: it works.
True I had hoped for technical miracle, but the point is it works without me tweaking a lot of goofy stuff so we’re at least on par with the GOG.com version, which has basically the same problems.
I also remember the original game on my original system was super, super buggy. The GOG.com version seems to be better although some of the “classic” bugs are still in it, so we’ll see how this one does.
What to play, what to play?
All right we kind of had a negative experience getting started. Didn’t really get to play properly yet. So let’s get to some fun stuff. Not getting to really do much besides complain on launch day is a bummer but we’re over that now, let’s actually play this thing.
“aaaa” is no more, he no longer pleases me. I am Ao to him, and I banish him from existence! He was a rubbish fighter with 12 Strength anyway.
Now what to do? I’m considering a few things:
My “evil” playthroughs have been very limited next to my “good” ones. I find being “neutral” too hard and taxing, so I’m considering an “evil” run this time. But I haven’t played the first game in so long it might not matter.
I’ve never actually taken the same character from 1 to 2 via import I always just remade them in the new game and started fresh. This time, if we do get BG2:EE, I want to actually move the same PC across.
I want to try to use some characters I haven’t before, basically some of the non iconic or evil ones. Look Minsc is awesome, but let’s give someone else a chance. I’ve never even used Viconia in my limited “Evil” runs.
Class wise, I’ve done this game the most with fighters of all stripes (even a painful BG2 run with a Wizard Slayer), a plain Ranger, an Archer, all the Paladins, Dual and Multiclass Clerics, and I’ve started but never finished with various incarnations of Mages… in the original I did it with the pure versions of all these classes (because we didn’t have the kits back then).
I don’t hate Rogues and I always try to have one along, but I never run a pure thief because I’ve never needed more than a level 4 thief to do everything I want a thief for. A F/T or M/T is overkill but workable because you can at least do things with the combination of classes that are interesting, or the BG2 style dual class Immie T/M is all I’ve ever needed. And I’m not against the Druid it’s just I’m a Cleric type and always have been even in PnP.
I try to make my party where there’s effectively half of a thief, 2 “tanks”, 2 clerics, and 2 arcane casters with one “pure” example of each and the other can be a “secondary”. For example a M/C can be my secondary cleric and mage and I’m happy with that so long as the whole composition supports it. I also try to do 5 member parties, but I think I’m going to do 6 for maximum banter.
Wizards have the power, but the ability to pick the spell books of your NPCs has always dissuaded me from ever really finishing a PC wizard. Still I think this might be something new and fun to try.
Never really did a Ranger/Cleric. F/M seems interesting. Three way splits just seem to cover too many bases, I have a party for a reason!
Despite myself, I’m also considering the Berserker and Blackguard. Trivial decisions for the lose!
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So I made a Blackguard
Well I forgot to take a screenshot, but I got one of the most insane rolls (after seven attempts to get Str above 15) I ever have in my life while trying to create a Blackguard. An 18/90 Strength popped up.
Now I did get an 18/00 once in BG2, but I know how hard it seems to be to get a good percentile roll so I’m still excited about this. The rest of the stats were crazy too, a lot of 13 to 15 range.
I’m an unapologetic tweaker of stats, so I massaged an 18 Dex and Con out of them and I still have an average stat in the rest, I’ll try to remember to post exact numbers later.
I thought about trying something exotic with the proficiency pips, but I said nah, and went with 2 pips each in two handed weapon style and two handed sword. Hardly original, but it’s a personal favorite of mine. I don’t really use shields that much on my heavy fighter guys, unless it’s Khalid or Jaheira. I like shields better on divine casters for the most part. I’d put them on thieves too but I tend to give thieves bows.
I actually want to put two in longbow as well, but with 4 dots at the offset I just prefer to “max out” two things that synergize together so I’m very good at something right off the bat.
Thus I created Asterlan the Blackguard, an indigent youth taken in by the kindly old sage, but a bitter, bitter 20 year old who believes that one day, he will assert a better world where no one would abandon a child whether they like it or not. EVIL! That’s about as roleplayish as I get in a CRPG.
Off to the Races!
Well there’s not a lot to say about this other than you forget basic stuff if you don’t play for a while.
I successfully completed all the Candlekeep fetch quests, and I had forgotten what a dick Hull is. Found myself in the area I call The Ambush Site, which I think is actually Lion’s Way.
Leaving Candlekeep, Gorion, as he has so many times before, died his terrible death. However I noticed that a priest casts the spell on you before you leave Candlekeep now rather than Gorion. I always figured Gorion was a priest who gave up his vocation to retire to Candlekeep and study magic and lore or something, but this makes more sense. Also the ambush scene slowed my computer down to a crawl, but it kept going. Gorion does much better this time I have to say, before it was rather silly. I believe he would throw magic missiles a few times then try to punch “the Armored Figure”.
I had forgotten how annoying Imoen can be in BG1, but I like the idea Asterlan would put up with her out of a sibling like bond at first, and quickly discover Imoen has an inexplicable utility with common obstacles in the real world. Although Lawful, Asterlan seeks to assert his own order on the world rather than necessarily obey the existing one, mwahahahaha, so this stealer in is quite useful in an immediate sense.
Cleared the area, killing the gibberlings and wolves. But more interestingly I did something I hadn’t done in most playthroughs, I accepted help from Montaron and Xzar. Screw the Friendly Arm, going to meet Gorion’s “friends” who are probably dead now at the hands of the same person who killed him is a terrible idea, I need to vanish since there’s no clue besides that stupid letter who or what is after me.
Also what’s with this awkward and ridiculous guy with the Santa Clause getup? Whatever Old Man, try not to get killed, this place sucks. It’s full of wolves and Xvarts and stuff. And that Ogre nearly took Montaron’s head off, but he tanked it like a boss. Of course we had to rest for like THREE DAYS to get over that fight. Criminy. No cleric is the suckage.
Also what is with this Xzar guy? One second it’s like a gay come on with “Your voice is like Ambrosia” and he’s all calm. Of course he could be talking to Imoen, it’s kind of hard to tell, but I think he’s talking to me. You know he and Montaron seem pretty attached to each other and argue like an old married couple. I mean it’s none of my business and no one cares if you guys are that way, but seriously fella, you don’t have to be so creepy and mysterious about it. But the next second he’s all “Arrrgh don’t touch me!” and he’s screaming… yikes.
Montaron’s more consistent but he’s a little #$&* who thinks everything I ask of him is an order and he’s obsessed with blood and guts and death and killing. I dunno about these guys, the constant ambiguously gay duo jokes get old pretty fast. But hey, potions and a trip to Nashkel right? Right?
Cleared a second wilderness area. And the caravan delivering iron from the north was killed by bandits, and they left absolutely nothing salvageable. Of course. Meanies.
I got to Beregost, and apparently the whole local economy is dominated by Inns and one Blacksmith. Little strange, but okay. Must suck to be a Blacksmith when you never get any iron any more.
So I’m about to quit after surveying one local street when this very insistent white haired half elf woman is like Hey, help me. Well Asterlan would really ask more questions before deciding what to do here, but your choices are either freaking help or be a jerkward. Plus I realized this is Neera and I’m like hey, new NPC, let’s do this.
Neera’s approach is awful, but the jerkward Red Wizard Xylophone and his buddies is worse so I’m like screw you guys. Of course after killing them, I figure this strange woman owes me for getting me to kill her mortal enemies and then trapping me in a Grease spell that takes 10 minutes to go away. Also, now that I’ve seen her accidentally banish a Red Wizard to the nether realm, she’s… freaking scary. Let’s not piss her off just yet…
Xylophone is probably coming back anyway but screw him. His other Red Wizard friend pretty much exploded after I shoved my giant sword through his chest. Also, some combats go really, really slow. It’s not unplayable but we could surely do better Overhaul, patch plz k thx.
And we stop in Beregost, right as things are getting interesting. I’m thinking Montaron and Xzar need to go their own way and become a folk duo after I meet this mayor person in Nashkel, because I never agreed to anything beyond that. If they get uppity, I can always get Neera to send them to Xylophone’s new home planet.
Love it, looking forward to reading more.