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A question for everybody - do people still play them?


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#1 temnix

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Posted 31 January 2014 - 04:18 PM

Hello everyone. Here is my situation. I played the Baldur's Gate series back when it came out, Torment and all the other classic games, then Neverwinter Nights I and II. On a Russian forum dedicated to such things, me and a few other people worked on a mod for NWN I. It never came out, but in the process I learned a good deal about writing dialogues and simple scripting. This was around 2008.

 

Now I have some ideas for what I think would be an interesting mod, and I might even manage to make it all by myself. I could try. But even when I left that board, not too many people were already playing NWN I, few were enthusiastic about II. The older games had become something like the Wild West. Now I'm thinking of coming back to modding, but does anyone but die-hard fans still play the IE line? Other games - Oblivion, Fallout 3, The Witcher, Mount & Blade - for various gameplay reasons don't seem appropriate for an adventure with plenty of conversation and description.

 

I hate combat, and I'm thinking of writing a pretty, fun little thing. I don't need the D&D setting, Bhaal or balance, just a simple engine - and this is the simplest one I know.

 

So, do many people still play the IE and Aurora-based moddable games? Outside of those you meet at these forums. Or is it a remote hobby for old-timers? I mean, I'm 33 myself... I don't want or expect my mod to take the world by storm, but I don't care to put this much writing effort into something only two dozen people would play either.


Edited by temnix, 31 January 2014 - 04:18 PM.


#2 pro5

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Posted 01 February 2014 - 04:29 AM

Enhanced Editions have renewed interest in the Baldur's Gate series and attracted a host of new players who've never had a chance to try it before. Who knows how long that'll last, but I'd say now is the perfect time to get your mod out until such wide interest wanes again.

Even without EEs though, I think you underestimate how many people still play this game. :) Just browse the downloads section on this site and keep an eye on the downloads count of the mods listed there.

Don't know much about NWN modding or how active its community is these days.

Edited by pro5, 01 February 2014 - 04:35 AM.


#3 temnix

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Posted 01 February 2014 - 06:44 AM

It would probably have to be made for the NWN II engine. The 2D engine has pre-rendered backgrounds - hand-drawn, essentially, which restricts mods to familiar locations. And I appreciate the rotation in 3D.



#4 Eric P.

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Posted 01 February 2014 - 08:56 AM

My guess is that there are more players out and about than there are modders, when it comes to IE games, and of the BG series specifically.


Working and playing on a Mac Pro 6,1 running Mac OS X 10.13.6 High Sierra, and a Mac Pro 3,1 running Mac OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan.

~Buion na 'ell! I serve with joy! Your eyes and ears I shall be. Let us hunt together!~
- Erysseril Gwaethorien: a joinable, romanceable NPC mod for BGII - SoA/ToB, in sporadic development.

A female elf warrior of nature and a Bhaalspawn cross paths during their quests, joining forces to share adventure and companionship. Will they find more?


#5 tibicina

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Posted 26 November 2014 - 05:49 PM

I actually didn't play Baldur's Gate I & II when they first came out. I was in graduate school and didn't have the time. I only started playing them a few years back when BGEE was released.



#6 -Derk Jones-

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Posted 16 March 2015 - 02:24 PM

MUCH fewer people play than in the old days, when the games were new and in stores. That is obvious, of course. However right now I think the community has been moving a lot faster than it has for years, as a result of Beamdog's attempt to update the IE games. I still play the old versions, probably always will, simply because I'm an "old timer" and I am too used to the old ways of doing things that the new "features" and changes in EE would probably just confuse me. I think a lot of folks still play the old versions, so keep in mind if you make a mod you will have to consider whether you want to make it for Original, EE or both. You will almost certainly face pressure to make the mod for both versions if you decide to just pick one, since all the other group will miss out on your mod (It is my understanding that original mods don't work with EE *ever* and EE mods will not work with original, *ever*, without compatibility fixes being made, not owning the EE I haven't tried it myself to know 100%).

So yes, people still play, especially in the last few years since EE generated some buzz. However you now have to deal with two competing versions of the game and two communities which, while usually pretty cooperative, is split between the old timers who hang out at places like SHS, Ironworks, PPG, G3 etc. and the new bloods who seem to hang out more at Bioware, Beamdog & these forums (this is probably the best place to find IE players of all stripes, anymore, and has a good amount of veteran modders still kicking around), among other places.

 



#7 EricP

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Posted 17 March 2015 - 05:42 AM

I still occasionally find people on social media sites who are fans of the classic IE games. Usually, they have no knowledge of anything EE, in the BG series, but they always comment on how greatly they enjoyed the games in the past, and they're inspired to revisit 'em when we discuss, especially when I tell them about mods :) Interest in the classic style persists, which encourages me to carry on playing and modding BG2, ignoring everything EE and feeling good about doing so.


Working and playing under Windows 7 Ultimate on a Mac Pro 3,1 running Mac OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan.

Still writing Erysseril NPC mod...

~Buion na 'ell! I serve with joy! Your eyes and ears I shall be. Let us hunt together!~
- Erysseril Gwaethorien: a joinable, romanceable NPC mod for BGII - SoA/ToB, in active development.
A female elf wilderness warrior and a Bhaalspawn cross paths during their quests, joining forces to share adventure and companionship. Will they find more? (Maybe, if I ever finish the mod)


#8 The Imp

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Posted 17 March 2015 - 06:30 AM

(It is my understanding that original mods don't work with EE *ever* and EE mods will not work with original, *ever*, without compatibility fixes being made, not owning the EE I haven't tried it myself to know 100%).

This totally depends on the type and scale of the mod. An NPC mod usually needs to be made to cope with the changes in the original game or it's expansions like the BGT/EasyTutu, while a rule system mod will usually cope with any Infinity Engine game you throw at it, and then there's spell mods that depend on opcodes, and we are fortuitous here, as the ToB game was the most expanded, and the EE games inherited that system, mods like this works now not only in the ToB game, but also in BG1EE, BG2EE and IWDEE with just update of the install .exe to a newer version, which all the other EE mods carry inside them and the installer actually auto updates if a newer one is in the game folder.

It would probably have to be made for the NWN II engine. The 2D engine has pre-rendered backgrounds - hand-drawn, essentially, which restricts mods to familiar locations. And I appreciate the rotation in 3D.

There's nothing that prevents a modded from making a 3D to 2D render and using it at the game as the map, well expect the steep learning curve and slow pace of production, but the original game has a few mods that use this, the Classic Adventures total conversion mods has a few areas that are done this way, other areas have used assets from different suitable games and so forth. And of course the BGT-weidu uses weidu to copy the BG1 games resources to the BG2 game and so extends the whole thing to a epic- one start from Candlekeep to Throne of Bhall -game. The Enhanced Edition has t's own version of that, the Enhanced Edition Trilogy, EET for short.


Edited by The Imp, 17 March 2015 - 06:34 AM.

Yep, Jarno Mikkola. my Mega Mod FAQ. Use of the BWS, and how to use it(scroll down that post a bit). 
OK, desert dweller, welcome to the sanity, you are free to search for the limit, it's out there, we drew it in the sand. Ouh, actually it was still snow then.. but anyways.


#9 Bill Bisco

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Posted 25 April 2015 - 08:13 AM

(It is my understanding that original mods don't work with EE *ever* and EE mods will not work with original, *ever*, without compatibility fixes being made, not owning the EE I haven't tried it myself to know 100%).

This totally depends on the type and scale of the mod. An NPC mod usually needs to be made to cope with the changes in the original game or it's expansions like the BGT/EasyTutu, while a rule system mod will usually cope with any Infinity Engine game you throw at it, and then there's spell mods that depend on opcodes, and we are fortuitous here, as the ToB game was the most expanded, and the EE games inherited that system, mods like this works now not only in the ToB game, but also in BG1EE, BG2EE and IWDEE with just update of the install .exe to a newer version, which all the other EE mods carry inside them and the installer actually auto updates if a newer one is in the game folder.

It would probably have to be made for the NWN II engine. The 2D engine has pre-rendered backgrounds - hand-drawn, essentially, which restricts mods to familiar locations. And I appreciate the rotation in 3D.

There's nothing that prevents a modded from making a 3D to 2D render and using it at the game as the map, well expect the steep learning curve and slow pace of production, but the original game has a few mods that use this, the Classic Adventures total conversion mods has a few areas that are done this way, other areas have used assets from different suitable games and so forth. And of course the BGT-weidu uses weidu to copy the BG1 games resources to the BG2 game and so extends the whole thing to a epic- one start from Candlekeep to Throne of Bhall -game. The Enhanced Edition has t's own version of that, the Enhanced Edition Trilogy, EET for short.

 

What Enhanced Edition Trilogy?  I find no real evidence of its existence.



#10 The Imp

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Posted 25 April 2015 - 08:16 AM

What Enhanced Edition Trilogy? I find no real evidence of its existence.
This GitHub project. That's the fifth link the Google gives if me if I search for "eet bald" as the google will auto suggest the rest aka"ur's gate", -without the quotes of course. It's not released yet officially, as it needs tweak-ings, so...

Edited by The Imp, 25 April 2015 - 08:34 AM.

Yep, Jarno Mikkola. my Mega Mod FAQ. Use of the BWS, and how to use it(scroll down that post a bit). 
OK, desert dweller, welcome to the sanity, you are free to search for the limit, it's out there, we drew it in the sand. Ouh, actually it was still snow then.. but anyways.