A question about Baldur's Gate II

samtam90 · Post by **samtam90** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:56 pm

Can you make me some examples of how your action have an effect on the gameworld?

Many people take BGII as an example of an RPG where your actions have tangible effects on the world areound you, and it seems that the developer themselves took this as one of the main goals. Could you please give some examples?

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 12:12 pm

On top of my head: you can earn a stronghold and depending on how well you manage it, different things happen.

BlueSky · Post by **BlueSky** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 12:13 pm

Your actions also affect your npc's and their responses.

fable · Post by **fable** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 4:30 pm

Moving to the BG2 forum, but with a redirect.

Gilliatt · Post by **Gilliatt** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 9:05 pm

Like most "real RPGs", the dialogues you choose or the way you react towards a character has an effect on what will happen later in the game, just like your alignement. The basic story won't really change, but some side quests will do. In fact some side quests will only appear on certain circumstances.

One interesting thing in BG is how the other characters in your party react to each other. If your party is pretty much good and you hire an evil character, some of your companions will tell you to get rid of him or her, and actually leave if you don't. It may not seem so interesting said that way, but it is rather funny and it adds to the realism by making your companions more than your "slaves".

VonDondu · Post by **VonDondu** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 8:06 am

Gilliatt wrote:Like most "real RPGs", the dialogues you choose or the way you react towards a character has an effect on what will happen later in the game, just like your alignement. The basic story won't really change, but some side quests will do. In fact some side quests will only appear on certain circumstances.

Can you give us some examples? I can't really think of any besides the Temple quests and stronghold quests.

I used to worry a lot about whether something I did in Athkatla might catch up to me in, say, Suldanessellar. But from what I can tell, the game does NOT keep a record of everything you say and do. Individual dialogues with new NPCs you meet generally check alignment, reputation, or class (occasionally), and in the case where having a certain item might make a difference, it also checks for that particular item in your inventory. For example, if you bring the Lanthorn to the elves, the game will proceed to the next chapter. The game occasionally checks for the presence of a global variable--for example, if you have Drizzt's items in your inventory when you import your character from BG1, the game will assume that you killed Drizzt and stole his items in BG1, and he will react accordingly when you meet him in Chapter Six in BG2. But that is an exception, not the rule.

Global variables and other devices are also used to keep track of in-game events. For example, if you expose Mae'Var, you will no longer be able to purchase items from Gorch, even if you don't kill him. The game also keeps track of the quests you have completed to maintain continuity, and the game makes a note of some of the corpses that are left lying on the ground to keep dead people from reappearing. In that limited sense, your actions have "consequences". But I wouldn't say that the game "holds you responsible for you actions", not in any moral sense, anyway. It's more about game mechanics than roleplaying.

Gilliatt · Post by **Gilliatt** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 3:39 pm

VonDondu wrote:Can you give us some examples? I can't really think of any besides the Temple quests and stronghold quests.

I guess I misred the first post.

What I had in mind was more how your choices have consequences on the story and the quests you do than how it influences the world around you. (I had Yoshimo and Jaheira in mind, but they don't change the world, just the story.)

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 6:09 pm

The BG2 games are "self-centered" games, the main plot is about surviving and killing personal enemies who want to kill your character, not about changing the gameworld. There are some changes in parts of the gameworld, but the main reason why you heard this is marketing.
RPGs with the "traditional" theme of heroes saving the world are usually better suited for yielding tangible effects on the world around you.
"Pools of Darkness" is an example for such a game.

Faendalimas · Post by **Faendalimas** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:39 am

One of the largest effects is alignment and its effect on conversation options, in general you can still do the conversation but your alignment effects your choices. When you pull the game apart you will find lots of checks in the dialogs for alignment and reputation. So as your actions change your alignment and your reputation you alter the conversations available to you. However this is mostly on side quests rather than the main plot which is fairly linear.

There are some NPC's that will not appear unless you are a certain alignment or you achieve certain actions, these actions leave a global variable that becomes a condition to their spawn, again though this is more to do with side quests than the main plots.

Of course alignment and reputation also effects prices in the game world but this is fairly negligible.

Cheers, Faen

Ares2382 · Post by **Ares2382** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 9:41 pm

I think there are very few CRPGs that do somethinkg like you want. Meaning your actions during the campaign actually influence the outcome of the story.

I don't really think BG2 has that. As most people already said, what you do mostly just effects you and those in your party. Like say something wrong to Jaheira in one of the many conversations with her and she'll never fall in love with you. Be nice and considerate and you get a nice romance going.

Now if you wanted a game where your actions will have real serious consequences at the end look at Arcanum. I mean you can really go off in totally different directions and even your skill choices will effect where you can and cannot go, and how you get to the end, and what you do once you get there.

Pellinore · Post by **Pellinore** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 4:59 pm

[HTML]Can you give us some examples? I can't really think of any besides the Temple quests and stronghold quests[/HTML]

I can think of one small one. Smart Anomen off in the Copper Coronet by telling him that you are not a "goody-two-shoes" and he storms off pouting. Later, go to the Delryn Estate and see what he has to say to you...:laugh: