Baldur's Gate II Questions

[purpleblob]

I thought was BG2 portrait was much better than BG1 portrait. BG1 portrait was freaky... weird helms and marks.. and blurry.

 

[DeepO]

I think BG2´s portraits were generally better than the BG1 ones, with one notable exception, I mean

->

What the hell was that?

What was definitely worse in BG2 were the inventory graphics and avatars, thankfully One Pixel Productions pack fixes that.

 

[Dasale]

None of above are original BG1 portraits, is there any place where they are?

 

[JDR13]

None of above are original BG1 portraits, is there any place where they are?

Those are Jaheira's portraits from BG (on the left) and BG2.

 

[Ergonpandilus]

You need to ask Minsc about that!

He's obviously happier with BG1.

You can find all the portraits and other stuff from Dudleyville-site.

 

[purpleblob]

I think BG2´s portraits were generally better than the BG1 ones, with one notable exception, I mean

->

What the hell was that?

What was definitely worse in BG2 were the inventory graphics and avatars, thankfully One Pixel Productions pack fixes that.

I agree on that one :lol:

 

[Zaleukos]

Jaheira is definitely an exception

Being a male chauvinist I found that most female (and for that matter male, it was really hard to find a non-repulsive face for my character) portraits in BG1 are way too chubby, as if the characters hadnt lost their baby fats. I guess people werent starving in the Forgotten Realms

 

[azraelck]

I generally used a custom portrait for my main in both games. There are a ton of them floating around. Way more than are worthwhile, but there are a few gems scattered about.

 

[Zaleukos]

I didnt have broadband or even internet access at home when I first bought BG1, so I started with the Edwin portrait.

 

[azraelck]

I had AOL, so it was a chore to get online. And stay online. Forget downloading stuff. I was happy when I managed to finish reading a single email before losing my connection.

 

[Dasale]

Those are Jaheira's portraits from BG (on the left) and BG2.

Lol ok but yes and not, those are reworked portraits, they wasn't made to be seen that big.

At right size all BG1 are better, two examples quoted above, put them at right size, and no comparison, BG1 versions are much better. Not to mention how BG2 tend made them stupidly fancy, holy crap. Imoen is a perfect example of that, from a not beautiful but attaching Imoen in BG1 we get a brainless cold fancy Imoen in BG2.

 

[Dasale]

You can find all the portraits and other stuff from Dudleyville-site.

Only few from BG2, all are incredibly ugly, I don't understand how players prefer them. Even colors seems wrong something metallic perhaps hence the cold feeling.

 

[JDR13]

Ok, I think we get the picture….you prefer the portraits in BG1.

 

[DeepO]

At right size all BG1 are better, two examples quoted above, put them at right size, and no comparison, BG1 versions are much better. Not to mention how BG2 tend made them stupidly fancy, holy crap. Imoen is a perfect example of that, from a not beautiful but attaching Imoen in BG1 we get a brainless cold fancy Imoen in BG2.

In my previous post I had mostly in mind portraits for NPCs that were in both games - and in that case only Jaheira´s got worse imo. I´ve never found the original Imoen´s portrait to be quite fitting with her personality, BG2´ s one, on the other hand, fits perfectly as I see it.
I agree with "stupidly fancy" bit though - with exceptions of Imoen and Viconia, all other female BG2 portraits are conceptually kinda awkward.
BG1 ones don´t contain any of this conceptual awkwardness, but they´re problematic stylistically - they´re often too dark and indistinct which becomes obvious, well, when you put them at the right size.

 

[bjon045]

Yay for being capped at level 9 or 13 when the humans can reach level 40

The levels caps are actually quite a bit lower in most situations. Only dwarf fighters (lvl 9) and elf mages (lvl 11) can make close to those levels. Most have around level 6-7 caps. Barely enough for Curse of the Azure Bonds.....

There is very little difference between 20 and 40 tho, as THAC0 stops improving at 20. The Krynn games have vastly better level caps for this reason. For instance quanalesti elves can be level 14 fighters (2/1 attacks) with no cap on mage levels (they make deadly fighter/mages), and silvesti elves can cap both ranger/cleric levels. A level 14 fighter/level 22 red robe mage is vastly more powerful than a level 40 fighter.

 

[Dasale]

In my previous post I had mostly in mind portraits for NPCs that were in both games - and in that case only Jaheira´s got worse imo…

So you prefer the BG2 Minsc portrait? I wonder which modern game use such washed colors, well that's probably that modern graphics are ugly for you.

I´ve never found the original Imoen´s portrait to be quite fitting with her personality, BG2´ s one, on the other hand, fits perfectly as I see it.

I don't see at all like this, if in BG1 Imoen is the more faithful character to the PC, she has her character and the BG1 portrait makes feel it.

In BG2 we got an awful doppenlanger that the story explain quite shortly, in no way Imoen, a children from god, could have been mentally broken like it result in BG2. Alas it's what became Imoen in BG2, a pathetic mentally broken girl close to madness.

I agree with "stupidly fancy" bit though - with exceptions of Imoen and Viconia, all other female BG2 portraits are conceptually kinda awkward.

I totally disagree about Imoen, for Viconia, the BG2 graphic has more character and is more faithful to the character despite the washed colors.

BG1 ones don´t contain any of this conceptual awkwardness, but they´re problematic stylistically - they´re often too dark and indistinct which becomes obvious, well, when you put them at the right size.

It's clear that took right from the game those graphics are too dark. But if they look like that in game then you didn't setup well the luminosity, and in game graphics was also too dark. I pickup original graphics, compensate the luminosity to show what you should get roughly in game and reduce the size to give a rough idea of in game graphics you get:

That lead to one of the problems of BG2 portraits, the washed colors. Even at reduced size I'm surprise people prefer this sort of setup, that is a rather strange preference even if all preferences exist in the world. At least modern game tend more to vivid colors like BG1 portraits than washed colors like BG2 portraits.

EDIT: When doing the global picture, where I sorted roughly the portraits by order of appearance in the game for a standard first play, I get assault by ton of nice remembering, that was cool. I had forget BG1 had such an army of nice NPC.

 

[Dasale]

Dam I should not have dig this topic, I installed BG1+ToSC despite I already replayed them 2/3 years ago.

I'm installing too SoA for the fairness but I haven't temporary the ToB DVD, am I missing many features in SoA, beside the addin, by not doing installing it over SoA? I'm using an Ultimate D&D version based on DVD.

 

[Zaleukos]

You will be missing high level abilities (hardly needed for SoA) and your characters will likely hit the experience cap, but otherwise I dont think it's a very big loss.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

I always wished I could draw SUCH graphics.

Well, now I rather try to draw stories.

 

[Dasale]

@Zaleukos: Thanks for the information. I have already started BG1 but it's good to know I can try SoA any time.

For a change I skip the north tavern and with a full neutral cleric I'll try a more evil party and see if I can control them. I have already 1, 2, 3 and 8 in my party. It's weird I don't even remember how is done the quest of 8 and last time I played I think I took him at some point up to second mines and switch for next dwarf that broke my heart, my party was mainly good with a touch of neutral.