Why don't you people get down to rolling back Beamdog's changes?

[Guest guest]

I used the term "EET" but I meant the EE games. I agree with your comment of going for BGT.

But not even BGT is exempt from flaws, sadly. And these days I’m appreciating actually playing the original BG with only a few selected mods, so going for BGT is not needed. When @jasteywill release Ascalon Breagar, I may change idea.

I’m constantly tempted about going for the EE, then I realize that the only thing I would enjoy them are subtledoctor mods. If subtledoctor wasn’t there, I wouldn’t even have one single reason to go for them.

So, a kudos for subtledoctor for making stuff good enough to actually make a consumer change idea about what he should do.
 

[temnix]

3 hours ago, Guest guest said:

I would love to have a mod for EET that has all the following features:

1) EE npcs disabled + items removed\added into store
2) Restored old movies
3) Removed Black pit to make it not appear at all even in the menu
4) Sod disabled without having to actually do anything at all - all the references removed.

I know that there are single mods that do the job above, but having to do 200 clicks for something that I can get freely by installing classic bg is too good.

Finally a real contribution. Almost a plan. Not that those who keep posting in my thread will move their mossy butts to put together something like that. I can point out, though, that ignoring EE NPC is easy enough, though Neera and Dorn are introduced in ways that are too pushy. And in truth they aren't bad NPC, maybe a little overwrought. I have an idea about better places to put them where they don't intrude, but it's another of those things the hoary old-timers here would be better suited for. Ah, to hell with them. But if you don't use the EE engine, you are missing out on potentially great mods that the old technology just can't support.

[Lilaina]

13 hours ago, Guest guest said:

I would love to have a mod for EET that has all the following features:

1) EE npcs disabled + items removed\added into store
2) Restored old movies
3) Removed Black pit to make it not appear at all even in the menu
4) Sod disabled without having to actually do anything at all - all the references removed.

1) https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/43074

2) http://www.shsforums.net/topic/55573-mod-bgee-classic-movies/

3) This is just petty

4) Disable from properties->DLC in steam and you get 2.5 version of the game without SoD

[Lilaina]

Personally I'd love a mod that brought back real-time inventory management to BG1 as well as for BG2 as a difficulty enhancing option. Being able to juggle immunity items, scrolls, potions, wands etc. when in combat without any danger is way too powerful. Or alternatively just some way to disable inventory altogether when in combat (I've tried to impose this restriction on myself b4 but its kinda impossible due to years of muscle memory.)

Edited June 20, 2020 by Lilaina

[Raduziel]

4 hours ago, Lilaina said:

Personally I'd love a mod that brought back real-time inventory management to BG1 as well as for BG2 as a difficulty enhancing option. Being able to juggle immunity items, scrolls, potions, wands etc. when in combat without any danger is way too powerful. Or alternatively just some way to disable inventory altogether when in combat (I've tried to impose this restriction on myself b4 but its kinda impossible due to years of muscle memory.)

I agree with it - pausing while using the inventory makes quick slots lose their reason to exist.

But I work around this by simply not accessing the inventory during a battle. IIRC you may remove the access to inventory through keyboard - that should help with the muscle memory issue.

[subtledoctor]

Now I have anxiety over whether I am meant to be included in the category of “hoary old-timers.” 

[Bartimaeus]

9 hours ago, Lilaina said:

Personally I'd love a mod that brought back real-time inventory management to BG1 as well as for BG2 as a difficulty enhancing option. Being able to juggle immunity items, scrolls, potions, wands etc. when in combat without any danger is way too powerful. Or alternatively just some way to disable inventory altogether when in combat (I've tried to impose this restriction on myself b4 but its kinda impossible due to years of muscle memory.)

ToBEx has this option - IIRC, there are still a few things ToBEx does that the EEs never got around to, though less than there used to be.

[Jarno Mikkola]

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

ToBEx has this option - IIRC, there are still a few things ToBEx does that the EEs never got around to, though less than there used to be.

But there's ...the EEex .

[CoM_Solaufein]

Its been so long, I don't know how to mod any more.

[Skitia]

Responding, to the OP, I'm not displeased with any of Beamdog's changes, so I would not want to mod the game to roll it back. There are minor gripes, like when two characters get stuck on another for a second because they're occupying the same vertix, but that's really it. And I can't mod that, that's a hard-coded issue.

Most people play on the new engine anyway. It's not just because it's better now, it's just also more compatible with older operating systems. It took me forever to get Icewind Dale 2 (Poor Missing Source Code) to get to work on my computer. 

Edited June 20, 2020 by Skitia

[Jarno Mikkola]

5 minutes ago, Skitia said:

It's not just because it's better now, it's just also more compatible with older operating systems.

So say like Windows 98 ? Really ? Cause the Steam page doesn't say that.  You mean different OS'es, propably Mac, or Linux... not older.

[subtledoctor]

7 minutes ago, Jarno Mikkola said:

You mean different OS'es, propably Mac, or Linux

and Xbox, and Playstation, and Nintendo Switch...

[Jarno Mikkola]

16 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

and Xbox...

Sorry, I don't see BG1EE here, there's BG:Dark Alliance (1) and 2, but that surely is not the same thing... you mean the Xbox One. You might want to be a little more specific. Especially when we are talking originally about ", it's just also more compatible with older operating systems." Which this is totally contrary to. But ouh well..

[Azazello]

On 6/19/2020 at 3:27 PM, temnix said:

...But it's another of those things the hoary old-timers here would be better suited for. Ah, to hell with them. But if you don't use the EE engine, you are missing out on potentially great mods that the old technology just can't support.

I agree.

On 6/20/2020 at 2:34 PM, CoM_Solaufein said:

Its been so long, I don't know how to mod any more.

[temnix]

On 6/21/2020 at 12:27 AM, Skitia said:

Responding, to the OP, I'm not displeased with any of Beamdog's changes, so I would not want to mod the game to roll it back. There are minor gripes, like when two characters get stuck on another for a second because they're occupying the same vertix, but that's really it. And I can't mod that, that's a hard-coded issue.

Most people play on the new engine anyway. It's not just because it's better now, it's just also more compatible with older operating systems. It took me forever to get Icewind Dale 2 (Poor Missing Source Code) to get to work on my computer. 

I think there are quite a few things objectionable objectively, if you respect yourself anyway, about Beamdog's implementation. Even if you like all of the changes in mechanics and accept glitches that are unavoidable, there is still too much, if you respect yourself anyway, hand-holding and "streamlining." Sprite outlines and health bars, which are on by default, are a crime. There is no way to become immersed in a fantasy world when it's presented as a real-time strategy, almost, or at any rate a wargame. How is anyone going to treat this is as a role-playing game and want or expect role-playing mods for it? And people actually play with those on! The fat selection circles are another of those additions. Appearance is very important, we just take it for granted when it's fine and finely done. Plus all those incessant pointers for the very stupid: in BGEE the Friendly Arm inn revealed on the map from the beginning (clearly the big sign at the crossroads "Friendly Arm Inn to the North" together with a couple of express pointers in dialogues before then might still leave some confused), the message upon entering the bandit camp that evidence must be in biggest tent... really? And the ankheg armor can be made in one day with extra money. Just some of those things that are cringeworthy. Beamdog caters to the feckless, attention-deficit crowd it helps perpetuate.

Although in all fairness, not all of Beamdog's changes may be for the worse, the bottom line is that none of them strike me as important, and together they strike me as weakening the original gameplay. They can be tolerated, but not comfortably. However, the engine is by and large a serious improvement, even with its hard-coded parts. This is why I called on the "veterans" to stop churning out tweaks and schromances and badger companions and make a reboot of the game that could be offered to new players, not yet spoiled by the "new normal" of Beamdog's standard. And these "veterans" know their stuff, as far as these little mechanics are concerned. They know by how many points kensai have been nerfed or Sleep's save changed or whatever. So, being the good dwarves creatively that they are, they could - hey ho, hey ho - start digging. At least that. They could work it out between them. Because if somebody fresh comes to these boards, or Beamdog's forum, or Spellhold right now looking for interesting additions to the games, they will either leave very disappointed or lower their expectations fatally and become terminally happy. I failed to move them, of course. But maybe a sudden ignition will occur in their guts some time later, a burst of motivation which they will attribute to their own genius.