@Sar_Yehudah It's disheartening to hear. The final release of the 2.5 patch will happen on all platform, and this patch should greatly improve the MP for everyone. And you don't have to wait a year for it. The team will review whether to extend the beta shortly.
Prior to 2.5 there were a few problems with MP which could affect your feelings playing MP and which could be got around as @Grond0 says. I myself have been able to play MP in 2.3 from Candlekeep to the Throne.
In all similar cases, feel free to report any bug on support.baldursgate.com where developers actively help to solve and log issues.
While I'm not quite as ticked off as OP, I can't help but agree that it's really disappointing that BG:EE is still buggy over five years after the original release. Having played up to the Bandit Camp, I sadly couldn't recommend them to a friend. I really hope version 2.5 is better.
These games are the most stable and bug free they have been in over 15 years. Aside from the multiplayer issues, there are zero game breaking bugs in the core game, and remarkably little bugs in general for an engine this old and convoluted.
I run into fewer bugs in single player in the enhanced edition than I did with vanilla+fan fix packs. Multiplayer, though, still needs some patching.
I strongly disagree with that. I've had far more bugs with EE than modded vanilla. Even vanilla alone is more stable because a lot of the new EE features introduced more bugs. For example, Nalia bugs out if you have her leave the group in the current version, and Dorn's quest sometimes hanging up for no reason, and a slew of multiplayer issues.
For example, Nalia bugs out if you have her leave the group in the current version, and Dorn's quest sometimes hanging up for no reason, and a slew of multiplayer issues.
Can you, please, clarify the Nalia issue? Do you mean she leaves for good if you dispatch her from the group? If yes, have you searched everywhere? What is the difference in the behavior between the current version and the vanilla game in this regard?
Can you clarify, please, what exactly is hanging up for you in the Dorn's quest? On which stage, under which circumstances?
While speaking about the multiplayer issues, do you mean the beta or the 2.3 version? It'll also help if you describe these issues.
While I'm not quite as ticked off as OP, I can't help but agree that it's really disappointing that BG:EE is still buggy over five years after the original release. Having played up to the Bandit Camp, I sadly couldn't recommend them to a friend. I really hope version 2.5 is better.
Can you, please, clarify what exactly did you encounter up to the Bandit Camp?
For example, Nalia bugs out if you have her leave the group in the current version, and Dorn's quest sometimes hanging up for no reason, and a slew of multiplayer issues.
Can you, please, clarify the Nalia issue? Do you mean she leaves for good if you dispatch her from the group? If yes, have you searched everywhere? What is the difference in the behavior between the current version and the vanilla game in this regard?
Can you clarify, please, what exactly is hanging up for you in the Dorn's quest? On which stage, under which circumstances?
While speaking about the multiplayer issues, do you mean the beta or the 2.3 version? It'll also help if you describe these issues.
Neera said she would return to the Friendly Arm Inn. She's not there, I've checked the whole map, inside and out.
Google Dorn's quest bug. There pages and pages of people reporting the issue. Don't play dumb.
Watch mynameisnotlilly's vanilla let's play of the series. Over 300 hours with almost 0 issues like this. Yes, there is a crash here and there, but no issues where ENTIRE quest lines and NPCs disappear or bug out. Issues like this are game breaking and absolutely unacceptable that Beamdog still hasn't fixed them 5 years in.
There're a lot of links about the "Dorn's quest bug", but I see threads from 2, 3 or more years ago (regarding the versions 1.2 or 1.3), and I see threads which explain high reputation doesn't work with Dorn. I also see threads about BG1 or BG2.
Are you sure the issue you're experiencing is in the 2.3 or the 2.5 version? In which game? This is why I ask for the details.
Can you please provide a save with Neera missing (just zip and attach it here).
The intent is to find the issues you're desribing and check if they happen, and fix them. Not to dismiss your report.
Where do you people see all these bugs? Is it a Windows thing? I am not fanning the flames, I'm serious. I've played these games exclusively on Macs and iPads for damn near two decades and have encountered maybe three bugs in all that time.
Where do you people see all these bugs? Is it a Windows thing? I am not fanning the flames, I'm serious. I've played these games exclusively on Macs and iPads for damn near two decades and have encountered maybe three bugs in all that time.
The windows bugs I get are vanishingly rare and just crash to desktop randomly. Happens whether I mod or not so I mod the game to include a lot of 2nd edition pen and paper rules I miss and custom portraits and stuff anyway. I've not gotten a single android bug aside from the quirk I posted about in Redmine already and the entire iwd not actually running at all prior to the 2.5 beta thing that many got for awhile.
To the OP: Are you both running the same VERSION of the game? If one is running the steam version and the beta patch, and the other is running the GoG version (which I have and I've had confirmed we're NOT in the beta.) then you're going to have issues obviously. Obviously. Two different versions of a software might not work perfectly together and all. Is that possibly the issue? If so the beta user could roll back, or you can wait for 2.5 to be out.
Where do you people see all these bugs? Is it a Windows thing? I am not fanning the flames, I'm serious. I've played these games exclusively on Macs and iPads for damn near two decades and have encountered maybe three bugs in all that time.
I'm on Windows and and I've seen three EE bugs and 1 really rare bug that persisted from vanilla. None of which stopped progress.
I saw one uncaught exception in Tales of the Sword Coast back in ‘99 or ‘00. There was the error with the cut scene of Gorion’s death in V1.0 of the EE. And then, of course, there is Eldoth allegedly having that personality yet still having enough charisma to be a bard. And I think that is it in 18 years, including builds for OS9, OS X, and iOS. Not bad, really.
I just finished a run of Baldur's Gate EE and TOTSCEE on LOB mode. I have SCS and EET installed. The only bug I encountered was the chessboard bug and that is an SCS bug which has nothing to do with Beamdog or the EE version of the game. Of course if they could fix this problem I would be grateful for eternity.
The only thing I can think of that could use some improvement in the single player mode of Beamdog's EE is the pathfinding. While they have made improvements to it they have also caused other problems. Sometimes characters will get stuck on other characters an when you have crowded battles, sometimes characters will just stand their stuttering and not attacking. This didn't use to happen that I remember and it really should be improved but its certainly not game breaking. The number of things that have been improved is too large to list here. Baldur's gate is in the best shape it has ever been in my opinion.
The single-player game is in excellent shape. Apparently there are issues with multiplayer, which require fixes from the devs... but that isn't news, it's been known for a while and a patch is imminent. So, what's the point of this complaint?
Especially with the absurd hyperbole. UNPLAYABLE and BROKEN? Tell that to all the people who are happily playing the game without any problems.
Honestly my beta 2.5 crashes sometimes without a pattern I can report on Readmine, but I can't complain. A range of failure is physiological, isn't it?
I really hate Bioware for giving the option to play BG on multiplayer. The game clearly was not developed to be played this way.
Because more options totally sucks, right? It's not like anyone is forced to play multiplayer. Nor did it impact the single player game–because as you put it, "the game clearly was not developed to be played [multiplayer]."
I have some very fond memories of multiplayer Infinity Engine games, even though it wasn't a perfect experience by any stretch of the imagination.
@Quartz When you give birth to a baby you have to nurture it. And sometimes people start complaining because the baby is crying and soon you realize that you spend all the money you could use in a travel around the world to give the barely minimal to keep the baby alive.
There's an element of truth to that @Raduziel, but remember that BG originated from PnP, which was entirely about multi-player. It would have been more difficult to convert PnP players and find a gaming audience originally if no MP option had been offered.
I have a few most dear memories of playing Baldur's Gate, and all of them come from MP sessions. Everyone who has been playing Baldur's Gate in Singleplayer for many years just ought to try MP one day. The best result will come if you try it with your friend or a family member.
Comments
I've just started to play BGee for the first time because I thought it is finally stable.
Prior to 2.5 there were a few problems with MP which could affect your feelings playing MP and which could be got around as @Grond0 says. I myself have been able to play MP in 2.3 from Candlekeep to the Throne.
In all similar cases, feel free to report any bug on support.baldursgate.com where developers actively help to solve and log issues.
Can you clarify, please, what exactly is hanging up for you in the Dorn's quest? On which stage, under which circumstances?
While speaking about the multiplayer issues, do you mean the beta or the 2.3 version? It'll also help if you describe these issues.
Google Dorn's quest bug. There pages and pages of people reporting the issue. Don't play dumb.
Watch mynameisnotlilly's vanilla let's play of the series. Over 300 hours with almost 0 issues like this. Yes, there is a crash here and there, but no issues where ENTIRE quest lines and NPCs disappear or bug out. Issues like this are game breaking and absolutely unacceptable that Beamdog still hasn't fixed them 5 years in.
* Edit: Sorry, meant Neera, not Nalia
Are you sure the issue you're experiencing is in the 2.3 or the 2.5 version? In which game? This is why I ask for the details.
Can you please provide a save with Neera missing (just zip and attach it here).
The intent is to find the issues you're desribing and check if they happen, and fix them. Not to dismiss your report.
To the OP: Are you both running the same VERSION of the game? If one is running the steam version and the beta patch, and the other is running the GoG version (which I have and I've had confirmed we're NOT in the beta.) then you're going to have issues obviously. Obviously. Two different versions of a software might not work perfectly together and all. Is that possibly the issue? If so the beta user could roll back, or you can wait for 2.5 to be out.
1) With Dorn's quest in BGEE
2) With Neera's quest in SoD
3) Rasaad leaving the party constantly
4) The slime from Durlag's Tower not teleporting the party despite being killed.
All of them easily fixed with console commands and, except for the fourth (that happens in every single run I do) the other ones happened only once.
I'm not complaining, those are soft bugs compared to the ones I used to get with the vanilla game.
The only thing I can think of that could use some improvement in the single player mode of Beamdog's EE is the pathfinding. While they have made improvements to it they have also caused other problems. Sometimes characters will get stuck on other characters an when you have crowded battles, sometimes characters will just stand their stuttering and not attacking. This didn't use to happen that I remember and it really should be improved but its certainly not game breaking. The number of things that have been improved is too large to list here. Baldur's gate is in the best shape it has ever been in my opinion.
A range of failure is physiological, isn't it?
I have some very fond memories of multiplayer Infinity Engine games, even though it wasn't a perfect experience by any stretch of the imagination.
Multiplayer is this baby.