Most Important Issue: AI -- will only buy if much better than vanilla. (Also, what about SCS?)
Ygramul
Member Posts: 1,059
To me IWDEE was a waste of money...
I like Beamdog. I really do. And I make a point of supporting their products. But IWDEE is unplayable for me after years of playing BG/BG2 with SCS. (e.g. casting an AoE cloud unseen and have the enemy NOT run away is just intolerable by now.)
The cosmetic improvements are largely useless to me without the essential improvement of AI.
I will continue my support of Beamdog and sing praises for its products from mountain tops *IF* the following happens:
- Upgraded AI
(Just charge me for it somehow; I don't expect its development to be free. But SCS shows that good AI in an IE game is possible!)
- Good writing & narrative in the expansion.
- Make an effort for SCS compatibility
(also for compatibility for new Shaman class in BGEE/BG2EE with SCS).
I like Beamdog. I really do. And I make a point of supporting their products. But IWDEE is unplayable for me after years of playing BG/BG2 with SCS. (e.g. casting an AoE cloud unseen and have the enemy NOT run away is just intolerable by now.)
The cosmetic improvements are largely useless to me without the essential improvement of AI.
I will continue my support of Beamdog and sing praises for its products from mountain tops *IF* the following happens:
- Upgraded AI
(Just charge me for it somehow; I don't expect its development to be free. But SCS shows that good AI in an IE game is possible!)
- Good writing & narrative in the expansion.
- Make an effort for SCS compatibility
(also for compatibility for new Shaman class in BGEE/BG2EE with SCS).
5
Comments
Intelligent team work - NPCs will cooperate to locate and destroy opponents
Intelligent target selection - NPCs will avoid hurting allies with abilities like Fireball, and won’t waste debilitating spells on already disabled opponents
Intelligent difficulty - The difficulty slider doesn’t just adjust damage inflicted by enemies, it also changes their behavior. On Easy and Normal enemies will hold back, on Core and higher they will fight to the best of their ability.
SoD vs SCS - as an avid fan of the latter myself, I have faith it won't be as much of a requirement to play the game for more seasoned combat-oriented players as it was the case with BG & BG2.
Follow-up question:
Can the new Shaman class be played in a trilogy run? (i.e. in BG1 & BG2)
If SoD is a BG1 expansion, I wonder how it's new class can be used in BG2.
I agree that an AI better than bg1 and bg2 would be most welcome. I am also very interested in the player party assignable AI scripts. Smart autonomous party members would be awesome.
***SCS-grade AI***
If one person could achieve SCS, surely years of paid Beamdog developer time could do no less.
And I will gladly pay for the effort.
So that it could be SoD + SCS
For one, SCS is a free mod that -as far as I understand it- does that already.
Also.. I'm not sure about the market for that, I could be wrong but I still believe that it would be
a niche thing -but probably expensive to do.
I'm thinking you just don't understand how crucial it was to keep BG alive.
Many people played BG/BG2 over the past 15 years because SCS and other challenges made it a very rewarding experience for well-thought out gameplay: you won by making excellent tactical decisions. AI consistently killed you, if you haven't.
There is nothing like this anywhere. NOT A SINGLE RPG.
I really would want to play IWD, NWN1/2, Witcher, DAO etc. more often, but they are just nothing gameplay-wise, when compared to BG+SCS.
Pillars of Eternity is just nothing gameplay-wise, when compared to BG+SCS.
Good AI is the linchpin for suspension of disbelief.
If a game company wants my money and my support, I expect them to deliver good AI in their RPG *FIRST AND FOREMOST*.
The problem is that in BG good AI made the battles insanely difficulty.
Also, I think the content mod where just as cruciul, if not more so.
You can also say, if it isn't a niche market, then why is there rarely a game with that dificulty?
You would think that the big companies would make games that sell.
I play Baldur's Gate for the story, and to recreate the experience of PnP gaming (where players rarely loose a fight unless they act stupidly).
Before you say, this sucks, consider that this is what made SCS possible in the first place.
http://forum.bioware.com/topic/124374-baldurs-gate-1-no-reload-challenge/ with 583 pages
http://forum.bioware.com/topic/124277-baldurs-gate-2-no-reload-challenge/ with 552 pages
They started a long ago and before that there had been even older threads with lots and lots of pages. Those players who participate in challenges like those generally use the SCS mod and can't imagine their BG games without it.
There're a lot of players, no doubt about it, who appreciate the good AI.
So, to me, while the good AI alone should not be the main focus of Beamdog team, it should, at least, be one of their main aims. And from what we hear about SoD, I think they're going to make it.
I'm not involved with the AI for the game so I don't know what's being planned there, but I do know that such an undertaking would be enormous.