Baldur's Gate Noob Questions

DArtagnan said:

Frankly, I thought BG - the city - was poorly done. The engine doesn't handle big locations very well, and this was particularly bad. The way the sections of the town and buildings were awkwardly split in two on different screens made it somewhat hard to navigate, and it was generally not a comfortable place to explore. The layout was confusing, and I clearly remember feeling the same way upon release - only worse because of the long load times.

Visually, it was fine and all, but I hate this kind of splitting up.

The same was true for Vegas in Fallout NV. Really annoying.

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The odd splitting was incredibly awkward, especially when there was a wall splitting the map into two halves. I had to visit almost every area of the city yesterday to find the right spot to get me on the north side of one wall. Even ones that logically should have worked didn't.

It looks like the whole place was drawn at once, then split up later without any thought into how it would work. One temple is split in half in a way that doesn't work on either map, so they just didn't bother populating it. They never did get the hang of how to work with maps in the Infinity Engine. BG2, IWD, and Torment all had problems and areas the pathfinding just couldn't handle, but I don't think I can remember anything being quite as awkward as these splits were.

And I'm with you on New Vegas, especially given how incredibly empty and pointless most of those areas were.

I can only recall maybe once or twice in BG where I found the map layout to be awkward. I guess I can see how some people might find it confusing though.

I found that the main issue with the city was the isometric perspective and a lack of highlighting in vanilla BG. Doors being "hidden" by buildings was incredibly annoying.

DArtagnan said:

Frankly, I thought BG - the city - was poorly done. The engine doesn't handle big locations very well, and this was particularly bad. The way the sections of the town and buildings were awkwardly split in two on different screens made it somewhat hard to navigate, and it was generally not a comfortable place to explore. The layout was confusing, and I clearly remember feeling the same way upon release - only worse because of the long load times.

Visually, it was fine and all, but I hate this kind of splitting up.

The same was true for Vegas in Fallout NV. Really annoying.

Click to expand...

I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it (Just got there in EE). Was annoying when one area had a wall in the center and no way to get between.

Zaleukos said:

I found that the main issue with the city was the isometric perspective and a lack of highlighting in vanilla BG. Doors being "hidden" by buildings was incredibly annoying.

Click to expand...

Yeah, having that problem with EE since I play on a tablet and there is no way to use the 'highlight everything' feature without a keyboard.

quick question for who played bg2ee : is throne of ball integrated seamlessly in the game or have to start it from the menu? didnt try from the menu for fear of spoilers, im only in chapter 2 in bg2ee

It goes right into it as you complete BG2. It's a great transition. You keep everything. The party itself, your inventory, everything. You cannot access your stronghold, so you will lose everything there but it hardly matters.

thanx i was not sure; read someplace watcher's keep is from the addon and when i started bg2ee saw it on the map so i was confused

Watchers keep is on your map? Yeah you want to wait for ToB to try that. A challenge even then! Great stuff though.

are there timed quests in bg2ee? im in chapter 2 now and lately almost all quests imply that there is a timeline; quest givers say that "its urgent or there is no time or you must do it now, go now" and things like that

Nope, just complete as much as possible before you "leave with a boat".

Some of the NPCs have timed quests; for example, Korgan (is that his name; the merc dwarf) will leave the party unless you at least trigger the entrance to the dungeon; after which you have all the time in the world because the timer stops. I think some other NPC quests work similarly. I won't spoil things, but later on a quest or two will be on a timer - with negative consequences if you're late to meet the "obligation".

But yeah, like most RPGs, you can generally ignore the fake urgency.