Together Retro: Baldur's Gate

[noiseredux]

I understand the data on those ISOs are not optimally placed for DC disc reading, and that the commercially prepared discs read better.

In many cases, the opposite is true. I'm not trying to convince you to play burns. I always opt for buying any DC game that is commercially available and playing a legit copy. However, you should know that many ISO's have been optimized to be much gentler on the hardware than the original commercial release was.

If I was real serious about getting COS, I would have paid the crazy price for a DC-J copy. I did put down $42 for Mars Matrix, after all, and that was a *steal*.

It's cool. You want to focus on the game you're more interested in this month (Baldur's Gate). I can respect that.

Back to the task at hand! Going to play Baldur's Gate, and hopefully maybe get to the Nashkur Mines!

Yes yes, sorry -- I've helped derail this thread too.

I guess that answers the Sega and GB stuff... what was up with the Sony thing though?

Same answer really. PS1 & PS2 era had a lot of diversity and a lot of stuff I was discovering I had missed. I still have a lot of Sony stuff actually. It's just not the focus of my collecting these days.

Also, I forget, but did you get rid of all your gameboy stuff or did you hold onto a lot of your personal favorites, etc?

I got rid of quite a bit of it after not touching it for a couple years. I kept a good handful of stuff I felt had the most nostalgia for me -- but that was more to say I have it than because I want to play it. If that makes sense?

[ExedExes]

In many cases, the opposite is true. I'm not trying to convince you to play burns. I always opt for buying any DC game that is commercially available and playing a legit copy. However, you should know that many ISO's have been optimized to be much gentler on the hardware than the original commercial release was.

That is good to know. So I can still use my Dream Explorer. It has a bunch of good game saves (not all of them work, but hey)

Off to BG!

[Stark]

Why is Baldur's Gate EE for Windows $20 and the one for iPad $10? What's the diff?

[Jmustang1968]

Why is Baldur's Gate EE for Windows $20 and the one for iPad $10? What's the diff?

You get the extra characters on pc. On ipad it is dlc.

[Stark]

Why is Baldur's Gate EE for Windows $20 and the one for iPad $10? What's the diff?

You get the extra characters on pc. On ipad it is dlc.

Ah! Cool.

[ExedExes]

MAJOR progress today. In the spirit of what Ivo wanted to see, I made my adventure log of sorts. I'll be keeping it behind spoiler tags. Again, those who have just started this game, DON'T GIVE UP. It gets *better* as long as you do as many sidequests as you can, and random encounters also bring big HP. Also, if you cross large areas across the map, you will get "waylaid" often, which brings big groups of easy to defeat enemies your way (these events will happen more often if your Reputation score is low) Also, remember Imoen is a thief and she can open stuff if you're increasing her lockpick skills! Just don't get caught or you gotta pay a fine (just reload and save when you're successful) There's lots of weapons, jewels, and items to sell for big profits if you're patient. Also remember to search every enemy for gold and items they drop.

Finally, to answer earlier questions in-thread, yes, your main character gets a Heal Minor spell after time. It came up when I rested and I was treated to a special cutscene. I now have 2 uses of it.

So anyway, yes, on to today's progress!

The Gnoll's Stronghold

After choosing to save Captain Brage by retrieving him at the Archaeological Site, I returned him to the Temple inside of Nashkel so he can atone for his sins. Big reward there, 1000 EXP, 1000 GP, and Reputation +1. After that mission, I found Minsc and Boo in town and took him along in my party. He is a Ranger with a lot of funny one-liners, and once you get him a Composite Bow, he is a valuable member. Anyways, his friend Dynaheir has been captured by Gnolls and held in their stronghold in the lower left corner of the world map. The many Gnoll encounters were totally random, but they dropped tons of gold and jewelry for selling later. We retreived Dynaheir (a female mage) and I kept her in my party because Minsc and Dynaheir are a "pair" in game, so that means if you dismiss one you lose the other, plus I felt I needed a magic user in party. She was level 4 when I picked her up and she had a special Burning Hands spell which came in handy a bit later in Chapter 3. I dismissed Kahlid and Jahiera at this time, as I no longer needed their services.

The Carnival & Branwen

After getting Dynaheir, I went back to Nashkel and got a quest to find Prism from Oublek. I also stopped inside the house of Joseph, his wife sent me on a quest to find a Greenstone Ring in the Nashkel mines. But before all that, I made a quick stop at the Nashkel Carnival. There are special merchants in many tents there that sell weapons, armor, and magic items. They also Identify items. I went to this one tent and stopped this fellow named Zodral who was going to kill Bentha. Got 900XP and good items off his body for my efforts. In town, I found someone who was frozen in stone, and after obtaining a Stone To Flesh scroll, I found that it was Branwen the cleric. She was turned to stone by an evil mage who I'm sure we'll meet later. Seeing as I needed a Cleric in my party for healing & defensive magic, I took her along. With that, my solid party has been assembled.

The Nashkel Mines

Doing a lot of sidequests certainly beefed up my stats considerably. I was ready for the mines. Not much there, just all sorts of Kobolds, but they always dropped arrows which my 3 bow-equipped party members appreciated greatly. Imoen's Detect Traps ability came in handy in the lower levels, for certain traps shot arrows and magic spells at our party hurting us pretty bad. On the fourth level, we spotted Mulahey, in charge of the Kobolds and the water spoiling, hampering the iron gathering efforts. He went down rather quickly, but he also summoned a mess of Kobolds and Skeletons, and we had to clean those up. With the threat gone, we found the letters that started Chapter 3 proper. I returned to Nashkel for item identifications and to rest my party, but there was yet ANOTHER assassin waiting for us. Nimbul was a badass, but Dynaheir's Burning Hands spell made short work of him. He dropped some useful boots that I equipped in my party.

My current party consists of:

ExedExes (Fighter - Chaotic Good - Level 3)
Imoen (Thief - Neutral Good - Level 4)
Kivan (Ranger - Chaotic Good - Level 3)
Minsc (Ranger - Neutral Good - Level 4)
Branwen (Cleric - True Neutral - Level 2)
Dynaheir (Invoker - Lawful Good - Level 4)

I'm taking a break from this tomorrow to play some other stuff that I have backlogged at the moment, but I hope this helps some of you out!

[feamatar]

It is important to note to everyone who plays, that it is suggested to take new party members gradually. Most party members want some errands to do before they can help you. And they won't stay with you indefinitely until you satisfied their needs. If that happens you can pick them up again at certain locations which they usually mention.

It is very important, because they can tell you that in the middle of a dungeon, after a rest, that they need to go, so plan accordingly.

One another thing, that, in my opinion, charisma has minimal value for most characters, except priests, paladins and bards, maybe. So try to roll good numberbers, where you have all your characters are in the 10+ territory for all their attributes. Then reduce charisma to 3 and improve other more important skills.
I also suggest to decrease any other attribute to 9 or 10 which is not really important for you(like strenght for mages), and improve vital attributes up.
Most ability scores give you real bonus only over 14.

aDnD is not a really good system imho.

[Jmustang1968]

It is important to note to everyone who plays, that it is suggested to take new party members gradually. Most party members want some errands to do before they can help you. And they won't stay with you indefinitely until you satisfied their needs. If that happens you can pick them up again at certain locations which they usually mention.

It is very important, because they can tell you that in the middle of a dungeon, after a rest, that they need to go, so plan accordingly.

One another thing, that, in my opinion, charisma has minimal value for most characters, except priests, paladins and bards, maybe. So try to roll good numberbers, where you have all your characters are in the 10+ territory for all their attributes. Then reduce charisma to 3 and improve other more important skills.
I also suggest to decrease any other attribute to 9 or 10 which is not really important for you(like strenght for mages), and improve vital attributes up.
Most ability scores give you real bonus only over 14.

aDnD is not a really good system imho.

This isn't necessarily all true...

You want the person who interacts with npcs to have a high charisma. You will get different dialog options in some instances depending on it.

You also want to get your party as early as possible. NPCs join as the level of your main. And the pre-levels many come with are terrible. So you want them low leveled so you can customize their progress.

[Xeogred]

Note: the "Dark Alliance" console games are not in any way ports of the main game, so they won't quite foot the bill for this month...

Haha, yeah I totally thought that for years.

Gonna have to skim this thread. I may or may not join on this one, I've wanted to play it for ages now... but just not sure if the mood is right for now.

But if Jmustang1968 is a fan then that's a plus for me since we agree on a lot of RPG's! haha

[Nemoide]

I don't like the suggestion of dropping your charisma to 3 and boosting everything else. IMO that ruins the role-playing aspect of it, which is a large part of the fun with this kind of game. I also usually play lawful good characters, so even if it would be easier for me to kill someone and take their stuff instead of going on a quest, I'd rather go on the quest.

I'm not above re-rolling the hell out of a character to get good stats. This is my Paladin:
Str: 18/28
Dex: 10 (now 18 thanks to magic gauntlets)
Con: 18
Int: 10
Wis: 16
Cha: 18

The members of my party are Minsc, Garrick, Imoen, Dynaheir, and Branwen. I'm considering myself done with Nashkell and am now back in Beregost. If memory serves, I expect to be doing a lot of exploration in forests for bandit camps soon!