Need input: Should I return to vanilla-BG?
Luciphear
Member Posts: 4
First of all, reason I'm asking isn't merely because I have issues deciding what I want, but because I don't know. With that said, I could use some help from someone who's played the original game(with mods and whatnot).
I've tried playing BG:EE for a while now and to my disappointment it's simply not a finished enhanced-edition product. I've only played the original very little, so my knowledge is limited, but from what I've seen I see little to no reason to play BG:EE. I wouldn't consider this if it wasn't for the massive amount of newly introduced bugs(what the hell?).
We(a friend and I, along with his brother) intended to play this together, but the multiplayer is simply far too bugged to be playable. Crashes, unpausable on rest, issues with character movement(3 player issue), several issues with sound and I see no real improvement regarding the GUI which I had higher expectations of.
SO to the question itself.
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Is it worth to simply install the original BG1 instead, mod it with those essential mods(whatever they are, if someone feels they're up the task I'd appreciate a list, but I can google that if necessary), and perhaps go back to BG:EE another time(if at all) depending if they patch it up?
Is BG:EE actually worth struggling with over the original game+mods? I have no interest in the 3 new characters whatsoever.
TL;DR
Should I give a modded version of "Vanilla"-BG a shot rather than BG:EE due to the gamebreaking bugs(and lack of enhanced content)? (this is a horrible TL;DR...)
I've tried playing BG:EE for a while now and to my disappointment it's simply not a finished enhanced-edition product. I've only played the original very little, so my knowledge is limited, but from what I've seen I see little to no reason to play BG:EE. I wouldn't consider this if it wasn't for the massive amount of newly introduced bugs(what the hell?).
We(a friend and I, along with his brother) intended to play this together, but the multiplayer is simply far too bugged to be playable. Crashes, unpausable on rest, issues with character movement(3 player issue), several issues with sound and I see no real improvement regarding the GUI which I had higher expectations of.
SO to the question itself.
---
Is it worth to simply install the original BG1 instead, mod it with those essential mods(whatever they are, if someone feels they're up the task I'd appreciate a list, but I can google that if necessary), and perhaps go back to BG:EE another time(if at all) depending if they patch it up?
Is BG:EE actually worth struggling with over the original game+mods? I have no interest in the 3 new characters whatsoever.
TL;DR
Should I give a modded version of "Vanilla"-BG a shot rather than BG:EE due to the gamebreaking bugs(and lack of enhanced content)? (this is a horrible TL;DR...)
0
Comments
But ultimately it is up to you. If you and your friends want to play Baldur's Gate right now in a multiplayer fashion and it isn't working for you then you should probably play the original one with mods and such. However I suspect that in the coming days this isn't going to be an issue.
So I suppose you could do both as you mentioned. Have your cake and eat it too. I guess it just depends on how desperately you want to play BG with your friends right now.
I don't really have the option or I'd do the same until a patch or two comes out for EE. Based on their interactions with the community, I'd wager the devs are working their butts off to correct any bugs / issues within EE. We probably won't have to wait too long!
I could probably hold off for a few days to see how it shapes up. I can go for another game in the meanwhile to keep me occupied, depending on how long it takes.
I read something before regarding exported characters(not save files). Is it possible to import a Character-save(again, not a save game) from BG1 to BG:EE if you strip them of gear etc? Only bring experience and whatnot? Or should I simply go ahead and recreate my character as a whole?
Tough it out. It's not so bad.
Also, to be helpful, here. To fix the problem where you can't unpause after rest, go into Windows Explorer and find your Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition folder. This is what you're looking for.
Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition folder ---> Data folder ---> 00766 folder ---> Movies folder.
From there, locate the rest.wmb file. Right click it and click copy. Paste it onto your desktop. Rename the copy on the desktop to restinn.wmb, then copy it again with the new name, and paste it back into your Movies folder.
Then copy the original rest.wmb file again, paste it to your desktop, rename the copy on the desktop to restdung.wmb, then copy it again with the new name, and paste this one back into your Movies folder as well.
The goal is to have a rest.wmb, restinn.wmb, and a restdung.wmb file in your Movies folder. All three of these are the same file. Basically, the TL;DR version is that they forgot to include a couple of those short little videos that play when you rest. So the game pauses to load that video, and then just hangs there. This fix will make it play the same video of a campfire and a tent every time you rest. Temporary fix until Overhaul actually fixes the issue.
EDIT: For what it's worth (my guess is nothing), I'm playing BGEE just fine with a friend of mine. The only two issues we've run into are the game won't unpause after resting (used the fix above, works fine now), and an issue with the game being a little wonky when trying to reconnect to a game after leaving it, in TCP/IP mode. That's always been the case with any Infinity Engine game, though. It's ... well. The multiplayer is crap.
That's why they're going to make a platform specifically to play BGEE on with other people, negating the need to use TCP/IP. I won't get into why this isn't available at launch (IT ABSOLUTELY SHOULD HAVE BEEN), because that's a whole different can of worms... but yeah. It's in the works.
Regarding sound issues... dunno. I only had some minor sound grievances here, and I discovered they were entirely on my end. My computer reads my headset as speakers, so I had to go into playback devices, right click on my "speakers", configure them, and change it from stereo to mono. Now footsteps don't play only out of one side whenever they're on the left or right side of the screen. That was a weird problem to have, and I'm sure that's not what you guys are experiencing, but still. Thought I'd share.
Thanks for the fix, this is a major relief at least.
Also I guess I'll hold off both if so. Didn't realize the "vanilla" version had multiplayer issues. I'll kill time through some games I snatched on the Steam Sale recently, give BG:EE some time to mature, then we'll return I guess. Perhaps I'll shape my character a little bit in single player and import it to multiplayer at a later date.
Thanks for your input, guys!
Edit: To answer on your edit(I just noticed it, somehow). We never experienced any issues with reconnects. The issue we had was that if we are more than 2 players only 2 players can be seen moving. The host can see everyone move, but the rest can only see the host move while any other character simply stands there, and eventually get stuck in dialogues. But yeah, only with 3+ players.
The sound issue is mainly static "laggyness" or whatever to call it. Once in a while it starts making these scratching noises and "hiccups" sort of. It sorts itself out eventually, so it's nothing major, I just can't recall having it in the vanilla version. Then again, there's a lot I don't recall from back then.
At worst, download Shadowkeeper. It's hosted at Sorcerer's Place.net, a great site for mods and whatnot. If it comes down to it, just make notes of the important aspects the character you want to import (stats, exp, equipment, etc) and then roll a character, and edit his stats accordingly in Shadowkeeper.
As far as I know, setting up multiplayer on vanilla and tutu is just as big a nightmare, maybe even bigger.
Give the game a chance man, it's been two days since release, they're scrambling to fix stuff, and there really are a lot of exaggeration when it comes to "game breaking bugs".
Lots of angry people raging over stuff that isn't bugs, rather intentional design or something that's always been in BG1, when they've only played BG2 have been rampant the last couple of days, don't let that sway you.
I haven't had any problems in my game yet. At all.
Heaps better than Tutu/Vanilla, and again, the bugs that are present now, will be fixed when they've made the hot fixes for the hardware issues.
You have had no problems at all? No bugs to speak of? Well that's just an outright lie. The 'help' button with the Question mark still says 'Rest' when you mouse over and hit TAB
Raging about stuff like limited FPS, GUI they just don't like the design of and a host of other stuff have been rampant the last couple of days.
I'm not talking about people with legitimate complaints, rather, that the pointless ravings about intended design and gameplay make it harder to find help for those who need it, as well as giving help.
As for the Rest on question mark, you just got to be kidding.
That's so minor I didn't even notice it until I read about it here,
I know what the button does, and I know they'll correct the error, why should that give me problems?
I don't think, if I was given the whole day, I could come up with a bug less significant than that.
As I told you, it was so minor, I didn't notice it at all.
And no, it hasn't caused me any problems in the game.
Has it really given you problems? Are you spending time hoovering your mouse over the help button?
This is a stupid discussion, and I don't understand that you just won't accept that a I and a lot of other people haven't encountered any major bugs, and some, not even minor bugs, and if they have, they haven't even noticed.
Contrary to your position, I do accept that there are people with major problems in the game, I feel sorry for them, but I can't pretend I've had any issues myself. And I shouldn't need to defend that either!
The majority of issues have been hardware and driver related, and there was a hot fix released this morning that addresses at least some of those, so I think the developers are doing a stellar job.
I have plenty of other games to play while they work on BG:EE.
(again, this mostly have to do with the Multiplayer part, which indeed isn't any better in the original.)
With that said, I accept BG:EE's issues, only that I literally can't play it properly yet with friends. I can still give it a shot alone though(although that wasn't the point in this thread). So no angry feelings!