Just Finished the Game

Dezarond the Red · Post by **Dezarond the Red** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 5:51 am

well i just finished SOA and i dont realy wanna buy TOB...but i was wondering if anyone might now were i go from now...will interplay or blackisle be making a third BG..i hope so but if anyone has any info plz tell me thanx

Raven Avenger · Post by **Raven Avenger** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 5:53 am

No, the ToB complete the Child of Bhaal saga.
So there will no BG III of something.

Dezarond the Red · Post by **Dezarond the Red** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 5:57 am

I dont think they should end it there though have another bg starting from the begging like make it a totaly different game but the same style...i probaly sound like an idiot but you cant end the game on a bad not!!!

so i here???

Raven Avenger · Post by **Raven Avenger** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 6:05 am

In ToB the story ends. How can you tell about a bad ending if you haven played it?

Johnny · Post by **Johnny** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 6:34 am

The ending to ToB is real cool (but I won't spoil it). Why don't you play it first before running around shouting curses?

Anyway, the only other "Baldur's Gate" game coming out is BG: Dark Alliance for the PS2, and that's only Baldur's Gate in name.

dark__ranger · Post by **dark__ranger** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 7:05 am

still, i cant believe it's over, i could never get tired of bg series ::snf:: but i also wish they wouldve formatted it so you could control more, like seize control of the cowled wizards or something. it seems the stronghold quests dont give me enough to control, especially paladin's...but then again maybe im used to age of empires..

Johnny · Post by **Johnny** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 7:20 am

Maybe some insane person will try porting BG2 into Neverwinter Nights. Imagine what the new multiclassing and prestige class systems would do to all the dual-classing munchkins out there.

Vinin · Post by **Vinin** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 8:24 am

Of course you wouldn't have to end the game here, in SoA. Some smart dudes over at [url="http://www.strider.worldzone.net/TDD/"]http://www.strider.worldzone.net/TDD/[/url]
are making their own expansion to SoA. They now have 70

kits in and the xpansion should be ready for d/l soon.

dark__ranger · Post by **dark__ranger** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 8:26 am

hm i wonder if you'll be able to import your reg. BG2 character like they say you can on neverwinter nights, or if it'll be compatible with all the patches i've hoarded over the years

Nightmare · Post by **Nightmare** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 11:43 am

You can import your character into NWN, but you will start at level 1, and your stats will be reduced to fit into parramaters of the point buy system.

IIRC, there will be a BG3, just not using the Infinity Engine and it will have characters starting at level 1. Of course the story will be completely different.

Johnny · Post by **Johnny** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 1:47 pm

Yeah, and I supposed Quake 3 would be even better if we stuck with the Duke3D engine. Geez, you almost sound like a paranoid old-timer. I for one, think the NWN engine will be able to do things the limited 2D could only dream about.

Doltan · Post by **Doltan** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 2:17 pm

Underdog: I would tend to agree with you. A 3D engine is anything but a requirement for a good CRPG (I've been playing them since the days of the first Wizardry on an Apple II+). That having been said, the developers should just go with what looks best, since 3D doesn't add to gameplay at all (like it does for Quake). But I've looked at the screenshots for Neverwinter Nights and they look gorgeous. I don't honestly think that they will be a step backward as far as visually appealing.

Btw, I don't think Neverwinter Nights is true 3D -- it doesn't really have a vertical axis for gameplay purposes.

Johnny · Post by **Johnny** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 4:22 pm

It's not just a question of aesthetics, it's also a question of gameplay possibilities. Valve could never have created the twisting, in depth world of Half-Life without a 3D engine because a Duke3D-type engine would simply have not be able to produce such a world. It's not just the looks that will go 3D, but also the dimensions of play. Players can go up and down stairs, they can climb up walls, they can fall down treacherous slopes. There'll be a new level of freedom of movement that a 2D engine will have a hard time offering. This can even apply to RPGs. We don't conceive that 3D could offer anything good because we are so used to 2D and know little else.

Additionally, since NWN wants to make a world that's easy for players to build custom maps, 3D is much easier because you can use premade objects, whereas a BG2 map is a piece of pre-rendered artwork (something that can't be mass produced).

I think if Bioware just get the interface and camera handling right, we won't even look back on 2D.

fable · Post by **fable** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 5:22 pm

Originally posted by Johnny:
<STRONG>It's not just a question of aesthetics, it's also a question of gameplay possibilities. Valve could never have created the twisting, in depth world of Half-Life without a 3D engine because a Duke3D-type engine would simply have not be able to produce such a world. It's not just the looks that will go 3D, but also the dimensions of play. Players can go up and down stairs, they can climb up walls, they can fall down treacherous slopes. There'll be a new level of freedom of movement that a 2D engine will have a hard time offering. This can even apply to RPGs. We don't conceive that 3D could offer anything good because we are so used to 2D and know little else. </STRONG>

Thing is, you could scale ladders and walls, slide down treacherous slopes, etc, more than ten years ago: the technology was primitive by modern standards, but all these things were present in 2D games like The Magic Candle and Darklands. The question isn't, I think, whether our parties can do new actions, but whether the implementation will add more than a one-minute "wow" factor to gameplay followed by a "so what?"

Another problem is the loss of scope which follows in moving from a complex 2D environment to a still more complex 3D environment. How much smaller will they have to make the world to allow for all the code that provides endless perspectives, depth of field, etc? Will the ability to see just how broad a given tree trunk is or watch a really neat 3D spell effect outweigh the loss of all the relatively easy artwork that could be accomplished swiftly on 2D backdrops?

There will be other losses when we move to 3D CRPGs, too. Bioware's trailer and private info session at E3 quietly noted that their Star Wars CRPG for Lucasarts will only let you keep *3* characters in your party at a time. Handling larger parties plus enemies in the environment is too awkward.

Despite my tone, I'm not opposed to 3D enviroments in CRPGs. But I would expect that for 3D environments to work in CRPGs, they're going to have to do more than just offer us exciting vistas. The artwork is going to have to be exciting as hell, and the gameplay will have to somehow make use of 3D. Otherwise, it'll be about as thrilling as 3D Cinerama was back in the movies of the 1960s, and Smell-o-vision in the 1950s.

Nightmare · Post by **Nightmare** » Fri Aug 17, 2001 6:27 pm

See [url="http://homepage.mac.com/tuncer/nwn.mov"]this video on NWN[/url] to see the advange of 3D.

ki-master2 · Post by **ki-master2** » Sat Aug 18, 2001 5:11 am

I finished tob last night and I was really touched and impressed by the ending but at the same time also sad because the saga ends 4ever.Maybe we'll here from some of the characters again some time in another game ,maybe.

seanthony · Post by **seanthony** » Sat Aug 18, 2001 11:30 am

i know.. its pretty sad that the BG series had to end. I mean, now after completing SoA and ToB a couple of times.. I feel like I need to get BG1 and all the other BG games as well! haha.. but that also means a lot of $$ too! hehe..

anyway, I doubt there'll be a BG3, but if there is.. it'd probably be something like: "BG: Whatever", meaning that it follows the BG style, but goes on with another story and plot. However, it'd be cool if somehow the future BG games will have some sort of connections with the previous games.. to give it a sense of familiarity.

Raven Avenger · Post by **Raven Avenger** » Sat Aug 18, 2001 12:18 pm

I wonder if you could climb walls in NWN.