Baldur's Gate 2 Completionist Playthrough (with SCS and Ascension)
Mivsan
Member Posts: 139
Hello, my BG brothers and sisters!
I would just like to inform you all about the BG2 playthrough I've been working on for the past months, that some of you might be interested in and perhaps find it entertaining. In the playthrough I attempt to showcase everything the game has to offer, to the best of my ability - encounters, locations, quests, references and different lesser known bits and pieces. I also showcase using most items and spells in the game, as well as some fun tactics and spell combos (especially later on in the game).
I've made an introductory video which contains a more detailed explanation of the completionist concept (with its 2 little caveats), settings, mods, my characters and everything else concerning the let's play. Generally, I try to provide a chilled out, informative commentary and present gameplay with a place for both role-playing elements, lore info and powergaming considerations in mind.
Another very important part of the playthrough is its difficulty, provided by the mod SCS - Sword Coast Stratagems. It improves the AI and stats of opponents and introduces various tactical challenges to make the game more challenging and interesting. To a similar effect, I've also included Ascension, which improves the major Throne of Bhaal fights and, most of all, the final battle of the Saga. Generally, I wanted to showcase the excellence of SCS and Ascension, but aside from that, keep things pretty vanilla, so that everyone can feel right at home, with the same BG2 content we're all accustomed to.
More specific technical info:
The playthrough is nearing its completion (having just played the battle vs. Abazigal and his Ascension minions in the newest episode) so this thread is a little late, but perhaps it's for the best - my upload schedule has had its ups and downs and if someone finds the videos entertaining enough, they're going to have a lot of content to sink their teeth into. The episodes are mostly between 30-45 minutes long, with some exceptions here and there.
A few highlights and episodes with the some notable fights:
Introductory episode - all the info about the playthrough
Ep 47 - TorGal, who had some problems accepting death
Ep 63 - Shadow Dragon and Shade Lord
Ep 69 - Firkraag + Conster
Ep 97 - Beholder Hive in the Underdark - Hive Mother, 2 Elder Orbs and tons of Beholders (fought without using the Shield of Balduran)
Ep 108 - Drow massacre in Ust Natha
Ep 117 - Kangaxx
Ep 118 - Twisted Rune
Ep 120 - Reclaiming Imoen's soul from Bodhi
Ep 124 - Anomen vs. Nizidramanii'yt
Ep 127 - Irenicus' last stand in Hell
Throne of Bhaal:
Ep 135 - Gromnir Il-Khan
Ep 141 - Yaga-Shura
Ep 153 - Saladrex fought without using magic
Ep 158 - Nalmissra's group (Watcher's Keep level 5)
Bonus episode - a fun challenge of fighting all 3 Final Seal encounters at the same time (Azamantes, Nalmissra's group and the Rilmani)
Ep 159 - Demogorgon
Ep 164 - Sendai
Ep 169 - Abazigal
BG2 Playlist
I don't want to spam too many links and it's difficult to pick out separate episodes sometimes - SCS improves whole AREAS so much. The Planar Sphere, Planar Prison, Spellhold Maze, Underdark Beholder Hive, Fire Giant Temple in the Marching Mountains, Abazigal's Lair or Watcher's Keep as a whole are improved immensely and contain many different memorable fights.
I hope you'll enjoy the videos!
I would just like to inform you all about the BG2 playthrough I've been working on for the past months, that some of you might be interested in and perhaps find it entertaining. In the playthrough I attempt to showcase everything the game has to offer, to the best of my ability - encounters, locations, quests, references and different lesser known bits and pieces. I also showcase using most items and spells in the game, as well as some fun tactics and spell combos (especially later on in the game).
I've made an introductory video which contains a more detailed explanation of the completionist concept (with its 2 little caveats), settings, mods, my characters and everything else concerning the let's play. Generally, I try to provide a chilled out, informative commentary and present gameplay with a place for both role-playing elements, lore info and powergaming considerations in mind.
Another very important part of the playthrough is its difficulty, provided by the mod SCS - Sword Coast Stratagems. It improves the AI and stats of opponents and introduces various tactical challenges to make the game more challenging and interesting. To a similar effect, I've also included Ascension, which improves the major Throne of Bhaal fights and, most of all, the final battle of the Saga. Generally, I wanted to showcase the excellence of SCS and Ascension, but aside from that, keep things pretty vanilla, so that everyone can feel right at home, with the same BG2 content we're all accustomed to.
More specific technical info:
- Played on Enhanced Edition ver. 1.3.
- Mods used: SCS, BG2 Tweaks & aTweaks (few minor components), Ascension (in Throne of Bhaal)
The playthrough is nearing its completion (having just played the battle vs. Abazigal and his Ascension minions in the newest episode) so this thread is a little late, but perhaps it's for the best - my upload schedule has had its ups and downs and if someone finds the videos entertaining enough, they're going to have a lot of content to sink their teeth into. The episodes are mostly between 30-45 minutes long, with some exceptions here and there.
A few highlights and episodes with the some notable fights:
Introductory episode - all the info about the playthrough
Ep 47 - TorGal, who had some problems accepting death
Ep 63 - Shadow Dragon and Shade Lord
Ep 69 - Firkraag + Conster
Ep 97 - Beholder Hive in the Underdark - Hive Mother, 2 Elder Orbs and tons of Beholders (fought without using the Shield of Balduran)
Ep 108 - Drow massacre in Ust Natha
Ep 117 - Kangaxx
Ep 118 - Twisted Rune
Ep 120 - Reclaiming Imoen's soul from Bodhi
Ep 124 - Anomen vs. Nizidramanii'yt
Ep 127 - Irenicus' last stand in Hell
Throne of Bhaal:
Ep 135 - Gromnir Il-Khan
Ep 141 - Yaga-Shura
Ep 153 - Saladrex fought without using magic
Ep 158 - Nalmissra's group (Watcher's Keep level 5)
Bonus episode - a fun challenge of fighting all 3 Final Seal encounters at the same time (Azamantes, Nalmissra's group and the Rilmani)
Ep 159 - Demogorgon
Ep 164 - Sendai
Ep 169 - Abazigal
BG2 Playlist
I don't want to spam too many links and it's difficult to pick out separate episodes sometimes - SCS improves whole AREAS so much. The Planar Sphere, Planar Prison, Spellhold Maze, Underdark Beholder Hive, Fire Giant Temple in the Marching Mountains, Abazigal's Lair or Watcher's Keep as a whole are improved immensely and contain many different memorable fights.
I hope you'll enjoy the videos!
20
Comments
Youtube has a couple of "preferences" that might be at play here. They recommend using the H.264 codec and the container to be mp4, for example. It might be as simple as remuxing your flv recordings to mp4 (which you can do with OBS).
I record with OBS as well, in 1920x1080 resolution (that should guarantee 1080p quality), using the x264 encoder. I use the mkv format (much like flv, it's crash-resistant, but also supports multiple audio tracks), which I later remux to mp4 for editing. After edits, I render it again into mp4, using H.264 and Youtube never had a problem with it.
I don't consider myself an expert in this field either, but perhaps if you continue having problems, we could talk more specific settings and figure something out.
I don't need to do any special editing besides trimming the beginning and end of the video to cut out the part where I'm at the desktop. I've considered adding a voiceover commentary, but I'm not decided on that, so it might not be necessary.
Recording directly into mp4 is not recommended for at least 2 reasons:
- Mp4 is less reliable - in case of a crash or power outage, the whole file is going to be corrupted and unrecoverable. Formats like flv or mkv will only lose the last few seconds of footage and be fine, aside from that.
- Remuxing an flv/mkv into mp4 is a very quick process with no loss to quality.
You can set resolution in Settings -> Video.
- Base (Canvas) Resolution - the amount of space for your sources - usually your native monitor resolution.
- Output (Scaled) Resolution - an option to downscale output, mostly utilized to stream in lower qualities.
For local recordings, it's recommended to set both to your monitor/game resolution. You can also specify the FPS value for your recording here.
Also, since you mentioned being at the desktop: using Game Capture as your source should provide the best results and be most efficient. It works with BG:EE (and the majority of games in general, as I understand) and could perhaps eliminate the need for trimming.
How do I get to "File -> Remix Recordings?" I don't see any File dropdown menu.
As for "File", it's in the top left corner of OBS.
@Enuhal, @Ludwig_II: Thank you so much for your kind words, I'm glad to hear you enjoy the videos!
That's the entire OBS window.
They are both similar, with some subtle differences. From what I've been able to gather, SLOBS claims to be more optimized (although there are some debates about that, with people having different results) and have some different features tailored for streaming, while OBS Studio is more advanced in a lot of areas.
You might want to install OBS Studio just for the remuxing, even if you don't plan on doing anything else with it. It should be the easiest and fastest way to convert your files.
I am not sure if it would be worth it to make another playthrough, maybe evil (I hate playing evil, I feel so bad and end up roleplaying as good with an evil party under the pretense that even if you are evil you need to be liked to further your goals). Thank you and good luck in your future endeavors.
Thank you for taking the time to share it!
I'm slowly getting back to the internet world and reading all of your kind words has been really touching and appreciated. I'm glad you've enjoyed my videos and I'm happy to report that I've finally been able to finish the series - just posted the two last episodes a few hours ago.
Two episodes, yes, and quite lengthy ones - that's how involved the final Ascension battle is. I hope you'll like them!
Ep 174 - the first phase of the battle + pool fights
Ep 175 - the final phase, epilogues, and some final thoughs of mine
I plan to post more videos next year - doing an Icewind Dale playthrough is a very important point in my schedule, amongst some other games I'd like to showcase. We'll see!
For now: thanks again, Merry Christmas and see you all in 2020!
Impressive gameplay, i'll take the time and watch more of your series
What I'm interested in is can you share some of your "lesser known bits and pieces"?
I also try to play BG2 completionist style, to get the most possible out of the game, by making sure I see every area, get every encounter, and do all the quests even the minor ones; but maybe there are some rare ones that you consider "lesser known bits and pieces".
Thanks.