Skip to content

Baldur's Gate... Icewind Dale... Icewind Gate... Wait, what?!

RamasterRamaster Member Posts: 18
in Archive (General Discussion)
So, a long while back I read somewhere that there was this mod called Icewind Gate (or some such) that let you load up the BG 2 data on Icewind Dale 2 (or something like that) and run BG2 with the 3rd edition rules set (it was buggy as HELL, but doable).

Soooo, my question is this...

When and IF IWD and IWD2 get Enhanced Editions... could we look forward to something like this? It would be RAD if we could actually play these games on 3rd edition rules. The mod I mentioned before has been stuck on beta for a couple years now and it will probably not be supported on the near future.

At least, what I would like is to have the option of playing IWD 1 on the 3rd edition rules set, for the sake of consistency.

Thoughts? Would you like to see something like this? Is this possible within the contract? Is this too expensive/time consuming?

The thing is that... there are not that many good games made with the 3rd edition rule set, so we could use the boost. The Neverwinter Nights saga is cool and all, but that's about it. Temple of elemental evil has just... so... many... bugs... it is practically unplayable if left unpatched (the mods also help A LOT). The PSP D&D Tactics game is laughably bad and Pool of Radiance did not age well at all.

Comments

  • LokizarroLokizarro Member Posts: 6
    Trent Oster already said that if both of the BG:EE's are successful, they will pursue an Icewind Dale 1&2 Enhanced Edition, as well as Planescape Torment.

    I'd love to see it personally, they've done a fine job with the BG:EE for the most part.
  • LordsDarkKnight185LordsDarkKnight185 Member Posts: 615
    Lokizarro said:

    Trent Oster already said that if both of the BG:EE's are successful, they will pursue an Icewind Dale 1&2 Enhanced Edition, as well as Planescape Torment.

    I'd love to see it personally, they've done a fine job with the BG:EE for the most part.

    Actually I have heard them only mention IWD1. I do not think they are interested in enhancing IWD2
  • LokizarroLokizarro Member Posts: 6
    LordsDarkKnight185 said:

    Lokizarro said:

    Trent Oster already said that if both of the BG:EE's are successful, they will pursue an Icewind Dale 1&2 Enhanced Edition, as well as Planescape Torment.

    I'd love to see it personally, they've done a fine job with the BG:EE for the most part.

    Actually I have heard them only mention IWD1. I do not think they are interested in enhancing IWD2
    I think you're right, and come to think of it, I'm not sure what more they could do with IWD2 anyway.

    Still, I'm all for a PT and IWD1 Enhancement.
  • MordeusMordeus Member Posts: 460
    edited December 2012
    I don't think this would ever happen to Baldur's Gate. Not so much for contractual issues but because of the amount of bugs that could be introduced by doing so.

    But I could see it happening to the first Icewind Dale. Especially for the consistency you mentioned and because it might cut down the workload if they focused on getting a universal IWD:EE UI and Ruleset set done, instead of working on two separate ones. Now that BG1 uses BG2's updated ruleset, I don't see why IWD1 wouldn't be updated to IWD2's rules.

    I don't particularly like the 3ed ruleset or even the IWD series for that matter but it makes sense to me for both titles to have that continuity. I don't think they would run into contract troubles if they had no troubles altering BG1 content with the BG2 ruleset.

    btw as for them possibly not finding anything to enhance for IWD2. I'd argue that porting it to the iPad is enhancement enough.
  • ChowChow Member Posts: 1,192
    There was indeed a similar mod in development for IWD1, called, perhaps unsurprisingly, Icewind Dale TuTu. I tested it for a little some years ago, but don't really know how the project is going these days: it seemed to have died at some point.

    Would love it to be featured for IWD:EE, regardless.
  • LordsDarkKnight185LordsDarkKnight185 Member Posts: 615
    For the record, I hope they would (I prefer 3.x) but i'm simply trying to be logical and realistic ^.^;
  • RamasterRamaster Member Posts: 18
    I compleated IW2 like 6 times. I would play THE SHIT out of IW:EE with 3e rules.
  • SublimeBWSublimeBW Member Posts: 42
    I would LOVE to play BG 1/2 & IWD 1 with IWD 2 ruleset. As you said, there is that Icewind Gate mod but I never modded the older games (BG/IWD) so am not sure how good that is. But, I modded the crap out of NWN2. I know they had some mods where you could play IWD with the NWN2 ruleset & engine but I prefer the old school isometric views of BG/IWD. That, and unless you used classes that were in IWD you were way over powered for the entire game.

    There is also updated versions of PoR & ToEE for NWN2 that you can play in the time between the EEs. They run a bit cleaner than the originals but still have some bugs if I recall.
  • ChowChow Member Posts: 1,192
    Admittedly, even though I vastly prefer 2nd edition on tabletop, I have to say that 3rd works much better on computer. So I'd like to see BGs on IWD2 ruleset as well.
  • ShadowdemonShadowdemon Member Posts: 80
    I remember Trent said that the IWD1 engine was very close to the BG2 engine. Black Isle didn't change the engine much so the game would be fairly easy to port to the BG2 engine. He said the IWD2 engine was heavily modified to allow for the 3rd edition rules.

    They would have to either update the BG EE engine for the 3rd edition rules or upgrade the IWD2 engine to include all of the enhancements of the BG EE engine. Either option in my opinion would be a huge undertaking. Since IWD2 was never a huge seller they probably don't want to do it as they would probably lose money on it.

    I love the IWD series so I would definitely buy an IWD EE & IWD2 EE but I'm not hopeful for an IWD2 EE.
  • RamasterRamaster Member Posts: 18
    IWD2 is a beautiful game.

    The character creation and development options are vast, the combats are challenging and rewarding, the areas look gorgeous and the story (while not on the level of the BG branch) is engaging.

    The game has a remarkably low number of bugs for its genre (Just look at vanilla BG without patches for comparison), so the main goal of its EE could be to add some prestige classes or something to the system, apart from the zoom function, dynamic character-circle-color-thingies and modern system compatibility. That would kick untold amounts of ass
  • ChowChow Member Posts: 1,192
    Honestly, apart from the system, I rather liked IWD2 the least of all Infinity Engine games. I disagree in the areas and general appearance: they actually look rather boring and bland for the most part, although it may have something to do with the UI as well, which I don't like at all. The music is pretty bad, whereas IWD1 had probably the best score out of all games. And the difficulty? "Challenging" is putting it mildly: I keep getting murdered everywhere even if I use console to give everyone five levels more than they are supposed to have at that point - and that's pretty much the only way to gain levels, too, because otherwise absolutely everything gives incredibly tiny amounts of points, even adjusted to 3rd edition which gives less and requires less to level up.

    I agree that there weren't many bugs, though.
  • EldrathEldrath Member Posts: 20
    Man i love IWD. I've played that game more then both BG1 and 2 combined. Play BG for the story, and then you go play IWD just to nuke stuff down with a party of 6 mages.. :D
  • valkyvalky Member Posts: 386
    edited December 2012
    I play IWD2/hof for the challenge and fun and to toss nasty (RL-)comments at those stupid critters, arrr do I hate those bladesingers!
    Might even install both games again ^.^

    Story-wise..PS:T is the king of the hill! And BG2 ... :)

    It's not that hard to categorize both games..IWD1/2 is pure smashing and min/maxing your success in HoF (or even just d&d rules) while I really love the story stuff of pst/bg/bg2
    Darn, if the interface of pst wouldn't look so ugly.....

    edit: I would so buy any IWD1/2:EE edition right away without even thinking. Friggin' awesome game(s)
  • NukeninNukenin Member Posts: 327
    I bought IWD at release, along with the other big fantasy (A)RPG to be released that day. I played the other game for a couple hours, then lost myself in IWD for a couple weeks until I beat it with that very first not very optimal party.

    I'm rather non-committal on any "enhanced" version. But so long as I have my (multiple) disc copies and GOG version and the minimal community mods at my disposal, I'm set.

    Now a remake done… right… *chuckles malevolently*
  • MitchellMitchell Member Posts: 28
    CamDawg said:

    Finally, DavidW and I have Icewind Dale in BG2, which bring the IWD content into the BG2 engine, allowing for goodies like kits, NPCs, dual-wielding, etc. We're at a pretty stable beta (v7.13) and once things calm down a bit with the BGEE release we'll probably look to put out our first non-beta (no ETA).

    I'm really looking forward to something like this. I've never actually finished either of the IWD games, because I always got bored of them. I really missed the lack of NPC interaction that we got in BG2 and, to a lesser extent, BG1.
  • DeucetipherDeucetipher Member Posts: 521
    I played the IWD in BG2 and it worked without a hitch for me. Had a blast. I set it up while I was waiting for BGEE to come out, so I could scratch the IE itch without ruining the main course. I much prefer bg2's engine to IWD's.
Sign In or Register to comment.

2024 Overhaul Games, a division of Beamdog. © 2024 Hasbro, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Baldur's Gate, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, Baldur's Gate, Wizards of the Coast and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries, and are used with permission. Hasbro and its logo are trademarks of Hasbro, Inc. and are used with permission. © 1998 BioWare Corp. All Rights Reserved. BioWare, the BioWare Infinity Engine and the BioWare logo are trademarks of Bioware Corp. Black Isle Studios and the Black Isle Studios logo are trademarks of Interplay Entertainment Corp. Atari and the Atari logo are trademarks owned by Atari Interactive, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.