Fair enough, don't have problem with that and it's totally understandable. The only thing that bugs me, is that despite all the points that 'AI is hardcoded/would've take a lot of money to change/etc', we still have SCS. Now, I'm not aware how many folks worked on it and how much time it consumed, but I imagine that they had much less resources than Beamdog
Not everyone want SCS. I personally never use it, not even after playing the game on Core a thousand times. I understand why others do and don't hold any opinion about it, but it's not 'needed' to make a new release of the game(s), especially not since the modding community is active and can take care of some things themselves. I won't speculate on Beamdog's intentions here, but I guess they didn't want to invest the hours into creating something like SCS since they didn't want to include it, for whatever reasons.
The part about adding the barking was refering only to the voice acting. They could made him into some non-cardboard halforc AND still keep the gruff/barbaric voice, which would add him some flesh and give you feeling that he's really only half human. Don't know about older DnDs, the main halforc image in my mind is the one from character portrait from BG2, and he definitely shouldn't sound like 100% human. I'm just nitpicking anyway, this isn't something mood-breaking and not much of a problem.
Well, IMHO, I actually think he's voice acting is good and suits his personality, character and portrait. I still don't really see your point though, you don't want a halforc looking 'orcish' with a human voice, but you think it would be better to have a more human looking halforc with a more 'orcish' voice? Maybe I misunderstood you, but that sounds weird to me. Neera's voice acting, on the other hand, I don't really like that much though. It feels different from the other, regular NPC's, and don't fit in as well.
Maybe not necessarily chaotic evil, but perhaps slightly mad or just quirky? Anything would do. The problem is that he represents the ultimate monk stereotype and it makes you wish that they could break this, even in some small way.
Ok, I agree with that he is a fairly stereotypical monk, but as said, there are no other monk characters in the BG saga and IMHO, we can't really compare too much with other games/tv-shows/etc, as long as he ain't a copy of someone non-BG. If he was very obviously similar to say some Jet-li character from a movie or whatever, then I would agree. But to me, he's not, so in that aspect he is still fairly 'unique'. With that said, I don't really use him since I don't like him nor monks as a class all that much. I'm not arguing for arguing's sake, I just want to promote that I think that NPC, as he is implemented, is good-enough in my eyes.
I meant her voicing as Clara. As said, I know that she's suppose to be empty shell and sound mechanical, but it ended up do unnatural and annoying, that I just can't stomach it. Maybe it's just matter of opinion. Anyway, I still find her the most interesting of new NPCs.
This is exactly why I think they succeeded. You obviously don't like Clara due to her behaviour, her voice, her very persona, and as I said, neither do I. And that's exactly why they pulled it off. They made her into a very unlikeable empty shell, with a voice and lines that make you want to go postal on her, and that is probably the very intention of her character.
I know that he's there just for the shits, same as Wilson, but it just makes me wish that they'd add another full blown NPC (even without any extensive side quest) instead of putting eggs.
But that's why this is not a proper argument. There never were an option between Baeloth/Wilson and another proper NPC or two, it was either Wilson and Baeloth or no other new NPC's. If there would have been an option for another NPC instead of these two, like say, a swashbuckler or a C/T, I would have agreed with you, but alas, it was not.
Agree to Kagain, he always felt like a lazy writing. But Korgan, even being extremely one dimensional (not counting his attitude toward Mazzy), is extremely fun for a RPG character, mainly because of the banters and first class voice acting. He's the best example that you can add some flesh to supposedly flat personality. That's my biggest problem with new NPC - they're flat AND don't have any redeeming qualities, like Korg.
Also, some of you guys are saying that original BG1 NPCs were ragdolls. True to some extent, given the lack of banters compared to BG2. But each of them had some quirks, with which you could easily imagine their backstories, and made them fun to play.
"He's the best example that you can add some flesh to supposedly flat personality. That's my biggest problem with new NPC - they're flat AND don't have any redeeming qualities, like Korg." Ok, you have a solid point here. I won't argue with that since I agree.
Plus he comes with his gear, which is more than good through most of the game, and the poison weapon, which is too much for BG1. Wouldn't it be better to have a barbarian, who would be both usable and not overpowered in both games? Especially that there's none in the originals.
He comes with a sword which is good, but often replaced with spider's bane and/or later on the +3 one from the chess king. There weren't alot of two handed swords in BG1, so adding another that fits him thematically weren't that OP IMHO. Poison is good, great even, but it's not gamebreaking. Mages in BG1 are so easy anyways, hell even Garrick with a army schythe and some lightning bolts can solo most mages. I would have liked a barbarian though, I agree to that, but then the whole story for Dorn would have had to been written differently (if they would have used the same basic character, but made him a HO Barb instead, I mean).
Can agree to that, it can be nice for people who wanted to try him out, but didn't wanted to make a monk PC. It just bugs me how a low level one is dragging your party down. In BG1 you have to deliberately cripple your team just to check the new content.
If you can't handle any situation in the game with CHARNAME + 4 NPC's, then you really need to read up on a couple of guides No offense, 'twas a joke, but to include Rasaad on the fifth or sixth slot doesn't affect that much since you can have others to do the actual killing. True, low-level monks are kinda squishy, can't argue with that, and I only ever have him along to do his personal quest, but to say it cripples the team is a bit exaggerated IMHO.
Sorry, forgot to add I was thinking about BG1 with this one. It would be awesome to have usable bard in BG1 or backstabbing melee like stalker. F/M would be even more awesome, because it would give the chance to try him out for new players, who are for some reasons afraid to make a CHARNAME one.
There are already bards in BG1, so I guess (once again, I really shouldn't speculate on why Beamdog did what they did, but anyways..) adding a thid one, but as a kit, would be a bit unneccesary. Adding a stalker when Kivan and Minsh are already in the game is, same here, unneccesary since there were other classes not represented at all (like blackguard, sorcerer, wild mage and monk.. ).
Maybe that's the case, though I always thought that minor quests, not interfering with original content, were permitted.
I read in some other thread Beamdog was prohibited from changing any of the old quests etc, therefore, adding new quests through new NPC's was probably a smart/easier move.
Yeah, but the problem (mainly in BG1) is that you're always ending with the same gear. Wouldn't it be cool to have a lot of +1 weapons with some minor enchantments (like 20% for additional d3 dmg, 10% to cast bless on wielder, etc, you get the idea)? Lots of non overpowered stuff, on approximately same level of usefulness, would give you the fun of choice and trying different combinations in each new run.
Well yeah, that would have been fun, won't argue with that But 'fun' versus 'needed'? I stand by my point, more items aren't needed to make the game more fun.
Comments
Well, IMHO, I actually think he's voice acting is good and suits his personality, character and portrait. I still don't really see your point though, you don't want a halforc looking 'orcish' with a human voice, but you think it would be better to have a more human looking halforc with a more 'orcish' voice? Maybe I misunderstood you, but that sounds weird to me. Neera's voice acting, on the other hand, I don't really like that much though. It feels different from the other, regular NPC's, and don't fit in as well. Ok, I agree with that he is a fairly stereotypical monk, but as said, there are no other monk characters in the BG saga and IMHO, we can't really compare too much with other games/tv-shows/etc, as long as he ain't a copy of someone non-BG. If he was very obviously similar to say some Jet-li character from a movie or whatever, then I would agree. But to me, he's not, so in that aspect he is still fairly 'unique'. With that said, I don't really use him since I don't like him nor monks as a class all that much. I'm not arguing for arguing's sake, I just want to promote that I think that NPC, as he is implemented, is good-enough in my eyes.
This is exactly why I think they succeeded. You obviously don't like Clara due to her behaviour, her voice, her very persona, and as I said, neither do I. And that's exactly why they pulled it off. They made her into a very unlikeable empty shell, with a voice and lines that make you want to go postal on her, and that is probably the very intention of her character. But that's why this is not a proper argument. There never were an option between Baeloth/Wilson and another proper NPC or two, it was either Wilson and Baeloth or no other new NPC's. If there would have been an option for another NPC instead of these two, like say, a swashbuckler or a C/T, I would have agreed with you, but alas, it was not. "He's the best example that you can add some flesh to supposedly flat personality. That's my biggest problem with new NPC - they're flat AND don't have any redeeming qualities, like Korg."
Ok, you have a solid point here. I won't argue with that since I agree.
He comes with a sword which is good, but often replaced with spider's bane and/or later on the +3 one from the chess king. There weren't alot of two handed swords in BG1, so adding another that fits him thematically weren't that OP IMHO. Poison is good, great even, but it's not gamebreaking. Mages in BG1 are so easy anyways, hell even Garrick with a army schythe and some lightning bolts can solo most mages. I would have liked a barbarian though, I agree to that, but then the whole story for Dorn would have had to been written differently (if they would have used the same basic character, but made him a HO Barb instead, I mean). If you can't handle any situation in the game with CHARNAME + 4 NPC's, then you really need to read up on a couple of guides
There are already bards in BG1, so I guess (once again, I really shouldn't speculate on why Beamdog did what they did, but anyways..) adding a thid one, but as a kit, would be a bit unneccesary. Adding a stalker when Kivan and Minsh are already in the game is, same here, unneccesary since there were other classes not represented at all (like blackguard, sorcerer, wild mage and monk.. ). I read in some other thread Beamdog was prohibited from changing any of the old quests etc, therefore, adding new quests through new NPC's was probably a smart/easier move. Well yeah, that would have been fun, won't argue with that
Cheers!
//Skat.