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Hidden Ring of Wizardry

merc1136merc1136 Member Posts: 12
edited July 2012 in Archive (General Discussion)
Does anyone remember the Ring of Wizardy that was hidden inside a stone or tree trunk in BG? Sometimes it would be there, sometimes it would not... for me personally it would only be there if I finished all the starting quests inside Candlekeep...

Anyhow, now that you gentlemen have access to the code and scripts that join the game, do we know exactly what made that spawn or not? I've been curious about it for years...

Comments

  • BalquoBalquo Member, Developer Posts: 2,746
    It was always there in vanilla. I believe TotSC screwed it up or maybe it was some patch. I can't remember correctly but something did happen.
  • CommunardCommunard Member Posts: 556
    This brings up an interesting point actually. In the first BG these were to reward those lucky or thorough players that noticed something there when their mouse hovered over it. However since in the TOB engine all it takes is a simple Tab to view all available containers these are essentially free overpowered items. I wonder if they will be removed or rather re-hidden in an ingenious way to get around this...
  • Space_hamsterSpace_hamster Member Posts: 950
    There will be the zoom feature......just zoom in and start clicking, endless fun! ;)
  • merc1136merc1136 Member Posts: 12
    I hope it doesn't get removed - after all, it's not like we are going to hold TAB down the entire time we play. Besides, early level mages desperately need that ring to boost their viability. It sucks when your low level mage is woken from his sleep and has nothing other than a dagger or sling to fight off the baddies...
  • kraedkraed Member Posts: 60
    You can always backpedal to a safer place to rest without interruption, though it can be incredibly tedious to do so at times. It might seem more effective to blast all your spells and rest once you're empty, but then you get into those sort of situations. When I used to play a mage in pen and paper I would never go to sleep with all my spells spent if I could help it. Also keeping a spare wand or two for emergencies like this is never a bad idea.
  • CorvinoCorvino Member Posts: 2,269
    Baldur's gate does reward experienced players for knowing the game well and taking the edge off the (fairly brutal) difficulty at lower levels. The hidden Ankheg armour & Ring of Wizardry are part of it, as is Bassilus' hammer and the other fairly easy to obtain early game +2 weapons, the star sapphire in the locked chest the Candlekeep Inn etc.

    I think it's all intentional - the Ring of Wizardry was in the original game, removed by ToTSC and replaced by the ToTSC patch if I recall correctly.
  • beerflavourbeerflavour Member Posts: 117
    There were 2 rings of wizardy (which would double the 1st level spell slots). One was found outside the friendly arm inn. Somewhere lying near a tree. The other you got when "raiding" a certain house in baldur's gate.
  • Twilight_FoxTwilight_Fox Member Posts: 448
    Hidden treasures is a part of this game, I'love them.
  • FillaFillasonFillaFillason Member Posts: 110
    Twilight_Fox said:

    Hidden treasures is a part of this game, I'love them.

    The problem is that now you can use tab to see everything that is "hidden". I liked it better when you had to point your mouse over it to see if it could be picked up. But I ques that is to "hardcore" for some...hum

  • kraedkraed Member Posts: 60
    It's a nice idea in theory but it was also flat out impossible to find hidden items without knowing they were there to begin with, or checking absolutely every single little thing in the game. Also in a lot of them even if you knew they were there it was still hard to position the mouse on a lot of them to actually be able to click on the container. I don't normally argue "if you don't like it don't use it" but it really stands true for this. You can just not use tab to show objects if you don't want this in your game. For a lot of us the tedium does not offer much excitement in return, especially when the art is so incredibly small using the BG2 engine
  • FillaFillasonFillaFillason Member Posts: 110
    Hehe, most of the time I dont use it, but it is hard when I know I have the posibility to do it. ;-)
  • TanthalasTanthalas Member Posts: 6,738
    Communard said:

    This brings up an interesting point actually. In the first BG these were to reward those lucky or thorough players that noticed something there when their mouse hovered over it. However since in the TOB engine all it takes is a simple Tab to view all available containers these are essentially free overpowered items. I wonder if they will be removed or rather re-hidden in an ingenious way to get around this...

    Is that you caruga?
  • beerflavourbeerflavour Member Posts: 117
    If you didn't knew where these items where then it was really hard to stumble upon them. Then it was merely a matter of luck.

    Even without the TAB+Highlighting from BG2 it was possible to find the items. BG has some option where you can display the coordinates of your cursor. Back then there were lots of lists with coordinates of "hidden items" to be found on the internet.
  • cyberarmycyberarmy Member Posts: 128
    edited July 2012
    Since most of us already know where most the hidden treasures are, new highlighting wont be that problem.
  • FillaFillasonFillaFillason Member Posts: 110
    cyberarmy said:

    Since most of us already know where most the hidden treasures are, new highlighting wont be that problem.

    you realise that it is 100 000 upon 100 000 who has never played BG series? People witch now are up to 20years of age...... And some have actually just played it through 3-4 times, for 10 years ago, so speak for yourself ;-)
  • thenethene Member Posts: 16
    ...you mean, you guys don't hold down tab the entire time you play? Dang, I wish I could hold down tab all the time to find things IRL.
  • CommunardCommunard Member Posts: 556

    Is that you caruga?
    No...unless this is a reference/joke I'm not getting :p
  • AceofWandsAceofWands Member Posts: 33
    'SHIFT L' tells you current mouse coordinates (and area reference number if you somehow need to know it).
  • recklessheartrecklessheart Member Posts: 692
    The hidden items thing in BG1 can only be described as nifty. :)
    It was a great idea, not to mention that early-found Ring of Wizardry put Mages on the map before level 3 (considering that before level 3 they had nothing particularly remarkable to bring to the table - at least not on a regular basis).
    It was always fun to find those things though. How did people know they were there before there was a guide posted to help people map the co-ordinates? Bloody hell! xD
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