Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Games

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Rajaah

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Question, does this NWN guide apply to the enhanced edition version of NWN? I assume that's the case about all of these guides that I've gotten. Figured I'd get one more for the last retro game in the group (there's also Planescape, but guides for that run a pretty large amount now so I'll just go blind on that one). Of the group, NWN reminds me the most of EQ, and one of the key things about Partying Like It's 1999 for me was reading the EQ guide at school to hype myself up for the game and I'm kinda hoping I can re-create that with some guides for these other games I was interested in at that time.
 
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Rajaah said:
View attachment 461839
Question, does this NWN guide apply to the enhanced edition version of NWN? I assume that's the case about all of these guides that I've gotten. Figured I'd get one more for the last retro game in the group (there's also Planescape, but guides for that run a pretty large amount now so I'll just go blind on that one). Of the group, NWN reminds me the most of EQ, and one of the key things about Partying Like It's 1999 for me was reading the EQ guide at school to hype myself up for the game and I'm kinda hoping I can re-create that with some guides for these other games I was interested in at that time.
Click to expand...

so far my experience is that NWN enhanced edition is very similar to vanilla NWN in terms of quests, visuals etc. but why bother with a paper guide when there's all that info and more on various websites?
 
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Rajaah said:
Would this be a good order for the CRPGs if I ever get to them:

-BG1
-BG2
-Pillars 1
-Pillars 2

-Planescape Torment
-Tides of Numenera

-Icewind Dale
-Neverwinter Nights

-Divinity 1
-Divinity 2
-BG3

?

Cause I might make them into a summer mission or something.
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solid list. I think most people view tides of numenera as kind of meh, and pillars 2 as a step down from pillars 1. I suggest going Icewind Dale 1 and 2 after BG1 and 2, as those are the most similar on that list. I would say the Divinity games are a step up compared to Neverwinter nights, especially Divinity 2 is a big step up. Divinity 1 is kinda meh, and not really required to play in order to enjoy Divinity 2 as they are fairly different in terms of mechanics, storyline etc. I recommend adding the Pathfinder games as they are very similar to the BG games and mechanics, although quite a lot more intricate and complex.
 
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Rajaah

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so far my experience is that NWN enhanced edition is very similar to vanilla NWN in terms of quests, visuals etc. but why bother with a paper guide when there's all that info and more on various websites?
Click to expand...

To get the Full 1999 Experience bro
 
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Planescape, it's not great from a mechanics and graphics perspective, although also similar to the BGs etc. but the storyline and writing is just in a different league compared to all the other games. I think only Pillars 1 has a similar philosophically angled type of storyline
 
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Caliane

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imho pillars 2 is leagues better then pillars 1.

I still don't know why people don't like tides of numenera . its a heady sci-fi story touching on all sorts of crazy concepts. anyone that likes isomov, heavy metal, dr who, etc should appreciate it. if you wanted a game with philosophical ideas, this has that in spades.. is it just too out there? too far from modern humans?

pathfinder games are solid stories but more traditional. wrath especially. it is neat in the mythic paths actually create real branching storyline and gameplay. they are more gameplay focused with deeper character builds and tactical gameplay. 1 and 2 are not really related. 2 happens shortly after 1. but its a different area with new characters. a couple npcs show up. but otherwise, no real connection. and no need to play 1 first.

Pillars games are interesting in they are more roleplay focused. pillars 1 gameplay is total shit imho even. pillars 2 reworked classes, skills, and added turn based. so its much better on that front. but roleplay. both have factions in game, and doing quests etc raise/lower faction. 2 even has reputation among party members. how much they like each other.
on top of that, dialogue and choices in pillars are often just totally roleplay. theres reputation, where if you are honest, deceptive, aggressive, benevolent, etc you gain reputation for being so, and that unlocks dialogue options or how people respond to you. but, theres also situations where you can make statements, that define the truths of the game, and have no actual effect. Like in pillars 1, you can discuss your relationship to a person you knew.. or didn't in the past. you can respond with, never met them, I saw them around once or twice, we talked alot, or we were lovers.
pillars games are like this. the roleplay and scope. your party members actions and fates are a bigger deal then the main story often. Pillars 2 is a DIRECT sequel to 1, and even imports the save so actions carry over. its so interconnected, I would really recommend playin pillars 1 first. even if it sucks. play on storymode.

Divinity os 1 and 2 are unrelated story wise. that should definitely be noted. to the point 2 completely retcons the entire cosmology of os1. its basically an entirely different SETTING.
divinity is a successor to Ultima, not BG games. so plays entirely different.
 
Tuco

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So, my last playthrough of Baldur's Gate in 2019 was terminated when I started running into ridiculous mages that were casting multiple layers of spell protections. I put off playing until I could view spell buffs so I could know what the hell was going on. Looks like that was made recently: Beamdog Forums - [2.6] BG2 Radar Overlay Released!

I'm contemplating another playthrough this year. I was finishing up BG1 and was preparing to move to BG2, so I might start with BG2 this time.
 
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Burns

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Caliane said:
imho pillars 2 is leagues better then pillars 1.

I still don't know why people don't like tides of numenera . its a heady sci-fi story touching on all sorts of crazy concepts. anyone that likes isomov, heavy metal, dr who, etc should appreciate it. if you wanted a game with philosophical ideas, this has that in spades.. is it just too out there? too far from modern humans?
Click to expand...
The story may have greatly outshone it, but I liked PS:T game mechanics. I liked the way they did the nameless one's class selection and deaths. I liked the itemization. I really liked the Planescape worlds and Morte is one of my favorite characters in any game I ever played.

Tides had none of that. Unfun gameplay, that might as well been an adventure game, in a forgettable world, with forgettable characters (I can't remember a single character, and the only world location I remember is the city with the flying ships).
 
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Ridas

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Tuco said:
So, my last playthrough of Baldur's Gate in 2019 was terminated when I started running into ridiculous mages that were casting multiple layers of spell protections. I put off playing until I could view spell buffs so I could know what the hell was going on. Looks like that was made recently: Beamdog Forums - [2.6] BG2 Radar Overlay Released!

I'm contemplating another playthrough this year. I was finishing up BG1 and was preparing to move to BG2, so I might start with BG2 this time.
Click to expand...
My mage loadouts are always heavy on removing all the spell protections. It is part of fighting any mage. BG2 is more extreme in this regard. But you get the hang of it quickly.
Or play Berserker and just faceroll most casters with enrage.
 
Tuco

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Ridas said:
My mage loadouts are always heavy on removing all the spell protections. It is part of fighting any mage. BG2 is more extreme in this regard. But you get the hang of it quickly.
Or play Berserker and just faceroll most casters with enrage.
Click to expand...
Do you play with Sword Coast Stratagems ( Sword Coast Stratagems ) and the Tactics mod ( The Tactics Mod ) both of these ramp up the difficulty considerably.

My problem is that a mage will have so many layers of protection isn't not just a matter of casting a few strip spells and you're good to go, it's knowing which specific one to cast at a given point and not knowing what the mage has on them. Mods make this more complex by changing the rules in difficult ways. In my last playthrough a few rando mods did this and made it impossible.

I found this spreadsheet I stored last time I played, for those who haven't gotten into it, it kinda illustrates the problem.

1678121580874.png


Basically every mage not only starts each fight with all kinds of protections up, but they have multiple contingenices that activate during the fight to re-establish those protections. You have to peel them off in order to kill them. You can't just use the above chart to figure it out because who knows what these fucking things have on them. This thread I have saved kinda goes into that, where a bunch of people are confused why a lich is ignoring all the spells and the conclusion is to go dig out what spells a given monster has in the infinity engine editor Lich carries some kind of hidden spell protection spell
 
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Ridas

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Ah, you talking about modded BG2. Nah, fuck that. I rather just enjoy it casually.

I was confused, that you struggled with BG, but this explains all of it. These mods are crazy.
 
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TJT

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Tuco said:
Do you play with Sword Coast Stratagems ( Sword Coast Stratagems ) and the Tactics mod ( The Tactics Mod ) both of these ramp up the difficulty considerably.

My problem is that a mage will have so many layers of protection isn't not just a matter of casting a few strip spells and you're good to go, it's knowing which specific one to cast at a given point and not knowing what the mage has on them. Mods make this more complex by changing the rules in difficult ways. In my last playthrough a few rando mods did this and made it impossible.

I found this spreadsheet I stored last time I played, for those who haven't gotten into it, it kinda illustrates the problem.

View attachment 461890

Basically every mage not only starts each fight with all kinds of protections up, but they have multiple contingenices that activate during the fight to re-establish those protections. You have to peel them off in order to kill them. You can't just use the above chart to figure it out because who knows what these fucking things have on them. This thread I have saved kinda goes into that, where a bunch of people are confused why a lich is ignoring all the spells and the conclusion is to go dig out what spells a given monster has in the infinity engine editor Lich carries some kind of hidden spell protection spell
Click to expand...

This is like autism, the mod.

I love it.
 
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Hateyou

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TJT said:
This is like autism, the mod.

I love it.
Click to expand...
Yeah then you throw in the foot pedal controllers and we are all lucky that an autism singularity black hole doesn’t form in Tuco Tuco ’s basement and consume us all.
 
Tuco

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Yeah then you throw in the foot pedal controllers and we are all lucky that an autism singularity black hole doesn’t form in Tuco Tuco ’s basement and consume us all.
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Control-wise I think the only autism I got into with UI was creating AHK scripts that would cast spells from a single button. The default game has bindable keys but it's super limited. I wonder if there are mods for that these days...
 
Tuco

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TJT said:
This is like autism, the mod.

I love it.
Click to expand...
In all the games I've ever played BG is the only one I know about that even tries to create this kind of protection vs stripping system. It's not as noticeable in vanilla BG2 because spellcasters don't attempt to play optimally, but SCS brings it to the forefront by turning every mage into a mega-autist. Every mage zones in and instantly casts this + 2 levels of contingencies that do the same horse shit.



With Sword Coast Strategems the entire game is built around unwrapping these protections before the mage buttfucks you. The Tactics mod follows that up by spamming every fight with high level mages. It's something that can be satisfying to deal with if you know what buffs to knock off and build a party around it.
 
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Cybsled

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Too bad I had no idea there would be a market for these strategy books one day. Back when I used to work at a game store, they eventually got marked down to a penny and we usually tossed them in the trash
 
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Rajaah

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Cybsled said:
Too bad I had no idea there would be a market for these strategy books one day. Back when I used to work at a game store, they eventually got marked down to a penny and we usually tossed them in the trash
Click to expand...

When I took over management of a Gamestop, I was asst-manager at one store and manager at another store. They had removed all of the strategy guides from their shelves not long before that, and priced them all to one cent so they could be trashed.

Both stores had massive piles of guides in the back room. I'd say about 50 guides in each store, stacked up, dusty, forgotten. They were supposed to have all been thrown away already but I don't think anyone felt like bothering or had the heart. Nobody was allowed to buy them either, they had to be thrown away.

So what I did on like week one was go to both stores, get all the guides out of the back, and ask everyone who wanted what. Doled out a bunch of guides to employees who could basically take their pick, then I put the rest of the stacks (probably around 80-85 left) onto dollies and rolled them out to the trunk of my car. Because fuck 'em that's why!

Put the guides on Ebay (a lot of them were repeats so I only really had to do about 20 listings) and I generally got around $15 each for them (and had infinite free packing envelopes so I could ship them at minimum cost). Unfortunately a lot of the guides were junk like paperback Prima guides for Uncharted or Arkham Asylum, and those took ages to sell. A bunch of gems were hidden in the piles, though, like Dark Souls 3 Hardcover Deluxe Guides, the Fallout 3 encyclopedia, and Xenoblade X's huge compendium. I still have some of the Souls 3 books, sealed, and they sell for like $150 now. Eventually I'll get around to selling the few guides I have left.

No way they were going in the trash.
 
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Rajaah

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Kajiimagi said:
For full 1999 experience you're going to need to break out the Beige spraypaint
Click to expand...

What's that for?

I'm gonna listen to "Walking On The Sun" by Smash Mouth and watch American Pie and Wrestlemania 15 before I take a bus to the nearest college and back while studying the guide (like I used to study the EQ guide on bus rides to school), then play Baldur's Gate. Gonna be awesome.
 
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