Author Topic: Question  (Read 1421 times)

Offline Quitch

  • Perfection
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 270
  • Making the world a better place for evil
Question
« on: March 15, 2003, 02:57:55 PM »
Exactly what benefits, besides the interface changes, would we gain from the Icewind Dale II engine?                    
Past: Ascension
Present: Return to Windspear
Future: Imoen Relationship
"Perfection has no deadline"

AvatarofInsolence

  • Guest
Question
« Reply #1 on: March 15, 2003, 03:18:47 PM »
3rd Edition Rules. The ruleset BG2 uses is a hopeless scramble of 2nd and 3rd edition, and in some places makes no sense at all. Also, I believe it will use the IWD2 spells as well, which is neat as well, and gets rid of that thrice-damned imprisonment. More than anything else, however, it gives us a chance to play BG in  a completely new way. No uber-godly HLA's that turn a thief into a claymore-wielding dervish, or let a mage nuke an entire battlefield. Feats will make saves harder instead, fighters can get critical hits more often, and thiefs can slow and enfeeble with backstabs. Bards actually get a complety separate spell list, with a mixture of mage and cleric spells. No more pointless race/class limitations, so Mazzy can be a real paladin. The multiclassing system in 3rd edition will prevent some of the cheesier class choices like assasin dualed to a mage, or Kensai mage which could walk through most of the game when they came into their power, while allowing nearly any combination desired. Then there is the lure of sub-races, many will enjoy playing BG2 as a Drow, Aasimaar, Teifling, or perhaps Duerger. Hope that helps.                    

Offline jcompton

  • Niche Exploiter
  • Administrator
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 7246
Question
« Reply #2 on: March 15, 2003, 03:45:11 PM »
The AI scripting is allegedly more flexible, although others could write more about that.

And of course some are hoping that it will be a short hop/skip/jump to applying a BG1-]IWD2 conversion, and the benefits of breaking out of Infinity Engine v1 and all its non-inventory-pausing 640x480 nastiness are quite clear to me.                    
Cespenar says, "Kelsey and friends be at the Pocket Plane? Ohhh yesssss!" http://www.pocketplane.net

Sim

  • Guest
Question
« Reply #3 on: March 15, 2003, 03:59:25 PM »
Quote
The AI scripting is allegedly more flexible, although others could write more about that.
                   From what I've seen of other people scripting and the IWD2 IDS files, while the scripting system has a number of solid enhancements, it's hardly a massive step forward, and suffers from a good number of the limitations that we've come to know and love of IE scripting.                    

Offline jcompton

  • Niche Exploiter
  • Administrator
  • Planewalker
  • *****
  • Posts: 7246
Question
« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2003, 04:02:34 PM »
Presumably that's why, shortly after IWD2's release, Wes said (paraphrased from memory) "I considered writing a converter to port BG2 to the IWD2 engine to get the engine improvements but decided that it wouldn't be worth my time and if I really wanted something like that, it would better to just write a new game engine from scratch."

And then changed his mind, apparently. :)
                   
Cespenar says, "Kelsey and friends be at the Pocket Plane? Ohhh yesssss!" http://www.pocketplane.net

 

With Quick-Reply you can write a post when viewing a topic without loading a new page. You can still use bulletin board code and smileys as you would in a normal post.

Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days.
Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic.

Name: Email:
Verification:
Type the letters shown in the picture
Listen to the letters / Request another image
Type the letters shown in the picture:
What color is grass?:
What is the seventh word in this sentence?:
What is five minus two (use the full word)?: