Will parties carry over to BG 2?
Mythdracon
Member Posts: 187
I know that this would be very unlikely--but my rationale for asking is that it would be be awkward to say, see a party member in Irenicus' dungeon whom you killed on a BG 1 playthrough, so I retain hope that the devs/content producers will allow you to keep your BG1 parties....But that's being too hopeful, right? The original games had a canon story and allowed no deviation from it as per people present/carried over into Irenicus' dungeon.
I doubt they'd ever create new content for the NPCs like Yeslick, Branwen, Ajantis and Garrick in BG 2 beyond what's already there (i.e. most of the NPCs are involved in minor dialogue and/or are simply named in passing).
But has there been official word?
I doubt they'd ever create new content for the NPCs like Yeslick, Branwen, Ajantis and Garrick in BG 2 beyond what's already there (i.e. most of the NPCs are involved in minor dialogue and/or are simply named in passing).
But has there been official word?
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Allowing parties to carry over would take a lot of work and yield very little benefit.
Dorn, Rasaad and Neera will all appear and be able to re-join the party in BG2EE. The most we can hope for regarding the BG1 party members who never made it to BG2 proper is a cameo appearance.
Though the three new companions will more than likely join you in BG2 as well, just don't look for them to be hanging out in Irenicus' dungeon with you, Imoen, Jaheira and Minsc. They'll probably be elsewhere, at least that's the impression I get from what has been said on these forums.
Thats really important IMO, cuz what the hell kinda sense does it make to play an evil char through BG1 with an evil party only to have BG2 "pretend" you had that basic good party, it makes no sense.
So either start there, People Who Are Making That Game, or don't even bother with an EE sequel...
But I'd love to see that myself, so hopefully they'll be able to negotiate a better contract for the sequel's Enhanced Edition. I don't know how likely that is, though.
The time it would take to change all this could be put to WAY better use, implementing features that appeal to everyone, not just yourself.
Geez, these guys are everywhere nowadays *rolleyes*
- Edwin is working for the Ma'evar at the moment.
- Viconia is wondering in the city, soon to be captured by followers of Beshaba
- Coran and Safana are having issues with werevolwes
- Faldorn becomes antagonist in one of big side-quests
- Xzar and Montaron are screwing up with the Harpers.
- Garrick is friendzoned so hard that he can't recognize you anymore.
Good luck with that. And it's almost funny how people are butthurt over "canon party"...
That leaves only their friendly reactions to you as potentially inconsistent. In case of Minsc, he's not quite right in the head in the first place, and perhaps he got further confused after the hardships of captivity. As for Jaheira... ok, kind of a long shot here, but let's suppose that she's not your friend, but she wants to stay close to keep an eye on you. She must have heard your initial dialog with Imoen, so she knows you're both having memory problems. When you ask her who the hell she is, she's using it to shamelessly lie about your shared past. There. Justification completed.
About why are your evil buddies not there with you - like other's said, they have their own agendas, and evil characters are much less likely to stick with you when there's no profit in it for them than good characters are.
Not to say I wouldn't like to have that changed - I would. It's just it's not a deal breaker for me.
Not only this, but if BG2EE is under a similar contract to BG1EE, they would not be able to mess with the original content too much. And Im pretty sure that doing this would breach that contract. The one thing that we do know, is that Dorn, Neera and Rasaad at least will be in BG2 as joinable companions.
I dont wanna rule it out entirely. I mean, they have alot of the technical work already done with BG1EE, so maybe they can focus on story stuff, but.... Really, dont get your hopes up as far as this is concerned.
Both have their reasons for staying with you as well, Viconia needs protection from the surface world, Edwin's power increased immensely while travelling with the Bhaalspawn, he has no reason to quit.
Imoen's presence can be explained by her seeking Charname out again after missing him/her.
Minsc could be in Imnesville looking into the Umar Hills issue and the missing fellow ranger, Jaheira could be at the Harper Hold in the Docks District. You don't have to destroy the game for this.
However, as said, they can't change the excisting content so it won't happen. Wouldn't mind a mod for it though.
But I guess they're "contractually" obligated, so can't wait to see how a new BG2:EE is improved over the original.....
Unfortunately games such as Baldur's Gate and Fallout and Knights of the Old Republic couldn't really do that. Maybe the resources or knowledge wasn't available at the time. Maybe they didn't think of it. Maybe it didn't work with the infinity engine, I don't know. I'm a hardware guy, not a software guy. But...it just all comes down to the fact that every sequel in those games assumes (quite erroneously in this day and age) that the canon story was that you played a good party. And that you went with the people you start out with in BG2.
Since these games don't have any kind of statistic for key choices you made, I'm not entirely sure if imported characters have any knowledge on who is dead in your game. I doubt it. But it would be kind of humorous if someone could make a program where you can tick off who died in your game, and then it would create a change in the game data for BG2. But in order to do that you would need a character understudy character to show up and fulfill their parts. Which would be kind of funny, but kind of disturbing at the same time. Although that's what Biff's job is right? I think that's his name isn't it? Biff the Understudy?
Anyway...Baldur's Gate was made to be a linear story with open world tendencies. But it's old. And the story relies on those characters...and also the canon version where if you were evil you apparently put up with the goody goods for far too long. Or maybe you were originally good, but Irenicus' torture filled you with hate.
The more I think about your argument...the more it kinda makes me sad that there wasn't the kind of foresight to do earlier...what they do in games now. But I digress. These are games that were great back when they first came out when we didn't have anything to compare them to. So we just have to make do with what we have.
Thank you for posting this! Because it's pretty interesting to think about.
So not only would you have to rewrite dialogue and move those characters elsewhere, but you'd also have to completely re-envision their personalities based on whether they were or were not imprisoned with you. Edwin, tortured by Irenicus? That's a totally different Red Wizard. (I picture that version of him being a complete badass, but that's beside the point.)
And those characters that were previously with you by default and now aren't? Jaheira stops being a romanceable option because her husband's still around being cowardly, and literally every line of her dialogue has some reference to how she's grieving the death of Khalid at the hands of Irenicus.
This isn't a minor tweak; it's a complete rewrite of every character in the game.
The most I could see them doing is adding an "interlude" that somehow explains why you've been captured with these people if they weren't already in your party. But changing the starting line-up isn't an option, because it changes the game on a fundamental level.
For a BG2:EE we better not get a few more places to explore and more character kits etc... those are called DLCs and I'm sure there are already mods out there that does that and I'm sure everyone would be unhappy if those were the only noticeable differences anyway.
Plainly put, I'm having a really hard time envisioning much more improved BG2 worthy of being called an enhanced edition. They did a great job with this one, I just don't see it happening drastically again sorry.
If they had a year or more to do it, and if it were allowed by their contract, and they had nothing else to work on, then sure, I could see them attempting something like this. But with their current contract and timeline, and the fixes and improvements they plan to make for BG1EE before they even start on BG2? I can pretty much guarantee that this won't be done.