The one thing you hated the most about BG1, BG2 and TOB
Zwiebelchen
Member Posts: 86
Hey there^^
I just wanted to get your oppinions on the one thing you hated the most about BG1. Note that I aim this question directly to the different vanilla games - as some stuff is different depending on which of the games of the trilogy you play.
So here's my stuff:
Baldur's Gate:
Respawn. Sorry, but I could never stand it. It was so goddamn annoying to fight through hundreds and thousands of goblins again and again just because you took the wrong turn in a dungeon or missed out on some loot - or simply had to go back out.
I still got nightmares of the firewine ruins with 20 goblin archers respawning at almost every corner in a goddamn way to small area to fight properly...
Baldur's Gate II:
Girdles of Strength. I simply felt that those items took away half the fun of playing str-handicapped characters. With the girdle of hill giants strength available for vending almost instantly (good aligned characters with high charisma could basicly buy it after killing hendak in the copper coronet), you were able to go for a minimum in strength without a noticable disadvantage throughout the game. To top that, there were even four more items to boost strength to ridicolous high levels available. You could basicly make your entire party to unstoppable melee killing machines which is just weird...
I always felt that all the stat-items should be changed to actually give a plus bonus, not locking the stat to a specific value.
Which means the girdle of hill giant strength should give +1 to str, frost +2, etc.
Throne of Bhaal:
Money inflation. I simply felt that the money aspect of the game went for the extreme by the end of Baldurs Gate II. With all the +2/+3 magic items dropping even from the lowest mass-trash-battles, the economy aspect of Baldurs Gate went down the drain. This was already an issue by the end of BG2, but in TOB it was just ridicolous, as you would easily have a six-digit value of gold when leaving Saradush. I feel that at some point of the game, the developers should have went for a "hidden item" approach, where not all items worn by paperdoll enemies actually drop in the game.
So what did you dislike the most about the games?
I just wanted to get your oppinions on the one thing you hated the most about BG1. Note that I aim this question directly to the different vanilla games - as some stuff is different depending on which of the games of the trilogy you play.
So here's my stuff:
Baldur's Gate:
Respawn. Sorry, but I could never stand it. It was so goddamn annoying to fight through hundreds and thousands of goblins again and again just because you took the wrong turn in a dungeon or missed out on some loot - or simply had to go back out.
I still got nightmares of the firewine ruins with 20 goblin archers respawning at almost every corner in a goddamn way to small area to fight properly...
Baldur's Gate II:
Girdles of Strength. I simply felt that those items took away half the fun of playing str-handicapped characters. With the girdle of hill giants strength available for vending almost instantly (good aligned characters with high charisma could basicly buy it after killing hendak in the copper coronet), you were able to go for a minimum in strength without a noticable disadvantage throughout the game. To top that, there were even four more items to boost strength to ridicolous high levels available. You could basicly make your entire party to unstoppable melee killing machines which is just weird...
I always felt that all the stat-items should be changed to actually give a plus bonus, not locking the stat to a specific value.
Which means the girdle of hill giant strength should give +1 to str, frost +2, etc.
Throne of Bhaal:
Money inflation. I simply felt that the money aspect of the game went for the extreme by the end of Baldurs Gate II. With all the +2/+3 magic items dropping even from the lowest mass-trash-battles, the economy aspect of Baldurs Gate went down the drain. This was already an issue by the end of BG2, but in TOB it was just ridicolous, as you would easily have a six-digit value of gold when leaving Saradush. I feel that at some point of the game, the developers should have went for a "hidden item" approach, where not all items worn by paperdoll enemies actually drop in the game.
So what did you dislike the most about the games?
6
Comments
Whole saga complaint: No pointy hats for mages.
ToB: same as above, and the general feeling that I'm on a little too linear fast track toward the ending.
Baldur's Gate II ... I think probably the lack of even alignment party distributions. A ton of Good characters, a "meh" amount of Neutral, one of which who dies. And a very, very sad number of Evil characters. If you want to play a full-evil party, you can only pick up 3 NPCs until ToB where you get 4 thanks to Sarevok. Seriously pathetic.
BGII:ToB, too linear and yes the money got just plain retarded. ToB in general is worth about 1-2 playthroughs if you ask me ... after that it just gets tedious.
No dual-wielding; understandable, just annoying.
Noober.
That pissant halfling who pickpockets you every time you talk to him.
Baldur's Gate II:
The Rock-Paper-Scissors of spellcaster combat. My Dispel Magic beats your Protection from Evil but your Pierce Magic beats my Spell Reflection, etc etc etc. I felt like I was playing a minigame every time I selected my spells to prepare.
Also, the nigh invulnerability of a caster wearing the Aslyferund Elven Chain. Wade in with Stoneskin and Protection from Magic Weapons.
Throne of Bhaal:
The inflation thing, too. And the ridiculously overpowered weapons. I mean, come on, how many +5 weapons exist, and how did all of the components land within a hundred miles of each other?
BG2: Walking Speed. I started with BG2. Then enjoyed it enough I got the original game+TOSC. and it was still too dang slow.
ToB: The Linear-ness didn't bother me that much. The expansion of the first game was pretty linear, and the big draw of ToB was tying up all the romances and loose ends. The sheer number of highly magical but completely boring swords broke my suspension of disbelief though. If you could equip an army that well you could buy your way to godhood.
Series Wide: Searching. I Like exploring and finding secrets and doing side quests. I just wish it was a little less tedious. Better walking speed would help. (Anyone seeing a pattern? haha) But if you could get some hints about it in game it would help a lot. Rangers and Druids should get clues in wilderness areas. Thieves and Bards in cities. There's a Listen to Rumors mechanic already they could have used to give hints about points of interest. Just things that would make it a little less like organizing a search grid to scour every zone for everything. We're heroes trying to save the world, is it really in character to be scouring every area like that?
Once I bought a newer version with a single disk, my woes vanished like popped bubbles and all was well in the world.
Other than that, the thing that made me want to cry was pathfinding. I give six party members an instruction to go somewhere, four take the sensible route, one decides to detour round the furthest tree in the map and the last runs into a corner and twitches helplessly. (Then, separated and confused, they get killed by a bear!)
And the pathfinding was really, really bad sometimes. That was ultimately why I had my paladin solo the Firewine Ruins.
BG2: The opening dungeon, the unskippable dream sequences (which for some reason annoy me much more than the other unskippable cutscenes)
TOB: All of it
BG2: Level drain.
ToB: Draconis. He forced me to cheat.
BG2: The pastal potraits, and new art assets in general. Ugh. Although I'll grant you that Viconia's was an improvement. Should have rehired Mike Sass.
I have to echo all that has been said about ToB here. Although I enjoyed playing it, it could have been a lot better..
BG1: Late entry for NPC's. Too many NPC's that you couldn't get your hands on until the game was nearly over..
Because I was hiking in the wilderness some time ago, when I came upon a wolf, which ran away as soon as it caught sight of me.
If real life were like Baldur's Gate, I'd be *dead*.
Everything else was perfect for me.
BG1: The shallow, shallow story telling. It doesn't really get good until you hit Baldur's Gate proper and even then, it's pretty shallow. I know I am going to get a lot of hate for this opinion. There's a major lack of characterization among the people you can bring in your parties. When I hear stories of how people "totally love" some NPC, I always sit back and wonder why. Very, very few of them interact with you on any meaningful level, so their entire character is simply a bunch of sound bites.
I am more emotionally invested in Dota 2's characters and people who have played that game understand why this is pretty sad.
BG2: Time-sensetive gameplay. What I mean by that is many dialogues initated by your NPCs simply ticked off the amount of time the game has been running. I tend to power through the game at a pretty brisk pace (once you understand AD&D combat, you can obliterate anything with ease), so I have not ever actually finished the Jaheira romance just as one example. I don't want to pause the game before I leave my house just to leave it on in the background so I can experience all the RP stuff.
ToB: It's too damn easy.
also why does every game stop my mage from using armor and give some pathetic reason, when really we all know its an ill attempt of a balancing act. yes mages are overpowered but so they should be, they do have magic after all.
lastly this game is hell hard to mod disallowing what should be a valid weapon choice. i want to wield a bow and switch to 2 weapon style or sword and shield using quick slots. or i want to use a throwing axe with crom faeyr in my offhand giving me the str bonus
ok thats 3 things. despite these i still love the game.
I recommend a setting of 45 FPS. Pretty balanced, the animations look fluid, the fights don't get to fast and the walking speed is just fine. You should give it a try.