BG TuTu question

[Arhu]

Are you going for full continuity? If so, then make sure to end BG1 with Imoen, Minsc, Dynaheir, Jaheira, and Khalid.

I don't know, probably not. I do travel with Khalid and Jaheira. I'm playing as a chaotic good, full mage (illusionist) because I read that there's only one of those in BG2 and he's evil. So I don't really need Dynaheir in the party, I've got enough mages as is (Khalid is fighter/mage too) and there aren't too many good robes in BG1 as I recall. My other two NPCs are Kivan and Branwen for now, but while I love having a pure cleric in the party as well as an apt long-bow user (most of all it's good because of different equipment needs), I have to admit that I don't care much for what they have to say. Branwen isn't happy because I'm too "good" for her god and Kivan is a little too emo. I'm thinking of replacing them with Yeslick (figher/cleric) and Alora (happy thief) eventually.

I'm not sure if Jaheira being only half druid could fulfill all healing duties on her own if I took Minsc and Dynaheir with me.


@Fenris: I found lots of useful charts in the BG2 manual. Ah.. a useful manual, we don't get many of those nowadays. Leather and padded leather armor both have the same thieving skill adjustments, but they don't seem to be reflected in the character sheets. Unless I'm overlooking something.

 

[Arhu]

Another question: which are the "Tales of the Sword Coast" areas and when would be a good time to tackle them?

I seem to remember that back when the addon first came out I used the "import last savegame" option, which dumped you in Ulgoth's Beard. Now I'm a bit unsure. Durlog's Tower stands right between a couple other areas I have yet to visit and I'm wondering if I could go there already or if I should wait until I've been to Baldur's Gate near the end of the main storyline.

 

[Fenris]

Durlag's Tower is the hardest Dungeon of the AddOn, you get the Quest for it in Ulgoth's Beard. IIRC somewhere in the second/third cellar-level a door closes behind you and you can only leave after beating the Dugeon-Boss - I go to Durlags Tower usually just before the final fight.

You get to the other two regions only with Quests from Ulgoths Beard. Both are more difficult than the core-game.

 

[JDR13]

when would be a good time to tackle them?

When you've already done pretty much everything short of killing Sarevok. Durlag's Tower and the Isle of Werewolves are brutal compared to the core game.

 

[DeepO]

Another question: which are the "Tales of the Sword Coast" areas and when would be a good time to tackle them?

More-or-less agree with others.
The optimal time is imo right at the start of chapter 7 (after you emerge from the catacombs). By then you´re strong enough to tackle the expansion areas, from roleplaying perspective it makes a bit sense to lay low for a while, and after you´re finished with them you´ll still have a bit of main quest ahead to put the loot to some use.
Doing those areas earlier is hard and trivialize the rest of the game, doing them later hurts the flow of the main storyline.

 

[Arhu]

Thanks guys, that's sound advice. I had hoped I could optimize my traveling route a bit, but since I decided to get Alora and Yeslick as soon as possible that plan has been thrown out the window anyway. I picked up Alora in Gullykin already. She is such a darling, a perfect little sister for Imoen, they get along pretty well.

Will do the bandit areas, then all the eastern areas, then head for Baldur's Gate and at the start of chapter 7 go to the expansion settlement.

Another question for those who have BG2 experience with Khalid. How do you play him? He's using a bastard sword and a shield and wears a simple robe, but he is still kinda squishy like that. With the ankegh armor he's fairly sturdy but can't cast spells anymore ...

 

[JDR13]

Another question for those who have BG2 experience with Khalid.

Without going into spoilers, all I can say is that Khalid is not an available NPC in BG2.

 

[Maylander]

I agree with JDR - I always go do the add-on stuff (the small town in the north, the werewolf island and the tower in the south) just before heading underground to go after Sarevok. It's the perfect time to do it.

 

[Arhu]

Without going into spoilers, all I can say is that Khalid is not an available NPC in BG2.

Pity. What about Alora? She's so cute! And I was right - Imoen and Alora are like sisters. They want to throw parties all the time, they steal each other's dolls and toys … so adorable!

(In a lil girl's cheerful voice) "Isn't this great? All of us, doing nice things; being happy. It's great! "

There has been some development in how I use my party members. Yeslick (figher/cleric) joined the fellowship, he's now my damage sponge. Jaheira goes into melee too as his backup. Khalid (warrior/mage) got a lot stronger due to a pair of ogre gloves and has learned how to use two-handed swords. Which is very useful, because he can attack from the second line of offense and doesn't get in the way, and because he can easily switch to a longbow now. He also has all those (melee) necromancy spells which my own mage can't learn because of restrictions and he's wearing a robe. He feels a bit like Geralt from the Witcher now (but only a b-b-bit). Imoen is having a hard time because all of her thief talents are gone during the transition period to a mage, which is bad for the party because she was the only one who could reliably detect and disable traps. Alora knows all the other thieving skills (pickpocket, open locks, hide, move silently), so the both of them will make a great team eventually.

I'm curious how my plan of having two backstabbers is going to work out. Elial (my mage) can buff them with a strength spell (should be a huge boost, those girls only have 8/9 strength). Alora will be able to hide and sneak and attack with a dagger, Imoen will be able to make herself invisible and attack with a short sword.

Anyway, while I was skeptical at first because the NPCs didn't all have the (pure) classes I prefered, their personalities make more than up for it. And I'm very glad I dumped the other two characters, my party is all good now and they are mostly easygoing, laid-back and carefree. No pessimistic or traumatized doomsayers dampening the mood.

 

[Arhu]

I was not playing Tutu, I found it pretty buggy, especially around Beregost and the surrounding areas. After the 4th time I had to start all over again I abandoned the idea.

If it was buggy, I have to say, it's not anymore. Beregost is buggy, yes -- apparently that was a problem even in the original Baldur's Gate. But there's a little tool that fixes your broken savegame, it's as easy as clicking a button and much more comfortable than backtracking and juggling savegames and replaying Beregost over and over again.

 

[JDR13]

Hmm, I never encountered a single bug that I can recall in BG, which is amazing for a game that size. Never tried any mods though...

 

[Arhu]

Well, if you ever want to give it a shot, here's a short list of what I'm using for Baldur's Gate 1. I would consider these essential (except for the last one), they are extremely well done.

• BG1TuTu, which ports BG1 over to the BG2 engine
• BG1TuTu GUI, changes the complete interface to the original BG1 style
• BG2 Tweaks (works for BG1Tutu as well. I only installed Cosmetic Changes, Content Tweaks and Joinable NPC Tweaks; I left out Rule Changes and Convenience Tweaks/Cheats, although they don't seem too bad)
• G3: BG1 NPC + bg1npcmusic, adds lots and lots of NPC interjections, banters, some romance options and continuity between BG1 and BG2.
• Widescreen Mod, I don't use it for actual widescreen, but to set the resolution to 1024x768. Text remains readable and the fog of war is just inside the gameplay window, which is about perfect.
  
  And a small one that not everyone may need:
  
• WTP Familiars, better choice of familiars for mages. I wanted a cat, which was originally only available for chaotic neutral characters (my mage is chaotic good).

The installation order seems to be somewhat important, here's one way to do it:

1. Install BG1 and BG2, full installations
2. EasyTutu_ToB
3. EasyTutuDegreenifier (a fix for green water in the default EasyTutu installation)
4. bg1npc and bg1npcmusic
5. BG2_Tweaks
6. TutuGUI
7. Widescreen

 

[azraelck]

You bloody suckers have got me ordering a copy of the 4-1 set, with both games + expansions. I'd have just gotten BG2, but this was cheaper than that (?).

This makes 3 copies of BG1, and my second of BG2. I've been putting off buying BG2 again for a while.

On a second thought, I may need the BG1 as well. I can't recall where my copy is.

 

[azraelck]

Well, for Arma, I can say that if there was a bug at Beregrost in TuTu, then there isn't now. I've gone through there a dozen times in my current play through, and not once have I lost my save. About the only bug is some messed up commoner sprites, which I didn't find until the city of Baldur's Gate, and black spots in water and in certain areas if my party is some distance away from it.

Now I'm wondering if I can still transfer my save game to BG2, or not. It'd kinda suck if not, but I'll deal.

 

[Arhu]

Now I'm wondering if I can still transfer my save game to BG2, or not. It'd kinda suck if not, but I'll deal.

Supposedly you can, since BG1 and BG2 used similar savegame formats (?). Sadly, however, it didn't work for me — the game crashed during the import process. Maybe you are luckier than I. Character import worked fine though, which was good enough. Mine had about 250.000 exp points even though the cap was 161.000 in BG1+ToS, so I adjusted it back down with shadow keeper when I started with BG2.

 

[JDR13]

Now I'm wondering if I can still transfer my save game to BG2, or not. It'd kinda suck if not, but I'll deal.

Do you mean actually transfer your entire party instead of just importing your character? I'm not sure how that would work..

 

[azraelck]

I meant my character. I still refer to it as transfering my save, since back in the days of Pool of Radiance and Bard's Tale, that's what it was called.

I've had a couple of CTD's in TuTu (never had any in BG before). But I don't know that it's the fault of the mod or my video chip, or something else (or just Windows whining that I'm not spending money on 7; I remember shortly after Vista came out my parents and me both lost internet via Win Update and had to restore. Haven't updated since.) For that matter, Call of Duty occasionally locks up as well. So it's probably just M$ "Hinting" I should "upgrade" (or die).

 

[Maylander]

The infamous Beregost bug certainly exists. I don't recall the exact issue, but basically it will corrupt certain savegames in Beregost, and then as you travel to some other place, the game crashes. When you try to reload the game you saved in Beregos, it won't work.

There are various fixes though if you google it. I've had it myself and managed to fix it.

 

[Arhu]

I used Beregost Crash Fixer 1.8 when I had the problem. I didn't need to travel to some other place to experience the bug, the game crashed for me already in Beregost when I reloaded a savegame I had made there one minute earlier — exit game, run crash fixer on that savegame, restart and reload, continue playing.

 

[azraelck]

Hmm. I went through Beregrost at least a dozen times, mostly going back and forth for the ankheg plate mail (seeing if it was ready). Not once had I a crash there. In fact, I think the only crashes I've had have been in Durlag's Tower. At any rate, frequent saving and keeping a backup handy has long been a tactic of mine. So it won't be an issue (if ever).