The random RPG thread

[frogbeastegg]

For random discussion of various RPGs, old and new, classic and ... not so classic.

I'm currently replaying Baldur's Gate and the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion. Originally I intended to play the game as-is but I experienced problems with sprite overlays being surrounded by black boxes, so I installed Baldur's Gate II and Throne of Bhaal and ran EasyTuTu to port the BG content over to the BGII engine.

I have never replayed Baldur's Gate, and my original playthrough was done way back in 1999. It's proving to be a different experience in some ways, and very similar in others. BG was my first introduction to AD&D rules and I didn't get on with them, being dyslexic enough I couldn't work out what all the 3d2+1 for 5 rounds business meant. 11 years later I have sufficient hard-won understanding to get along without any major problems. That's the difference; I'm not wandering around bewildered, confused, vaguely irritated, and needing to cheat to survive (25 con for every party member was something of a necessary crutch back then).

The similarity is all the rest. The game retains its atmosphere beautifully, and the feeling of being thrown out into a wild, dangerous world and needing to scrabble to survive. Tiny things like looting your first set of decent armour feel fantastic. Baldur's Gate is an adventure on the lower, more human scale, and it's refreshing change of pace from the grand adventures and epic loot that RPHGs have been giving us for the last decade.



While I was setting up EasyTuTu I thought I might as well go the whole hog, and set up an install of Planescape: Torment with all the tweaks and fixes listed in this guide. My ... sixth? fifth? replay of my tied-for-favourite RPG is going to be done in style.

[Meneldil]

Heh. I remember during my first playthrough, I used the Drizzt cheat almost every time I had to fight. Ridiculous. Then I played in easy, managed to beat the game more or less legitimately (though I add gold manually).

I think the reason why many people thought the game was hard was because a level 1 character can easily get killed by a wolf or a hobgoblin. Things actually get easier once you reach level 4 or 5 and can take a few hits before falling down. But by then many people were convinced the game was "too hard ffs "

[Ser Clegane]

set up an install of Planescape: Torment with all the tweaks and fixes listed in this guide.

Thanks for that link - I think I will try that stuff out ... now

[frogbeastegg]

My party of level 1s just got slaughtered by some spiders, and it booted me back to the desktop. Hope my save games are ok and that this isn't the infamous Beregost bug.

I think the reason why many people thought the game was hard was because a level 1 character can easily get killed by a wolf or a hobgoblin.

At one point in my new game Imoen got one-shotted by a diseased gibberling. I had to reload since I had no way to pay res fees to bring her back.

Thanks for that link - I think I will try that stuff out ... now

If you're going to try out the Torment mod then the instructions for setting up a full install are wrong. Or at least they did not work for me. Use this method instead:

Set up a folder called tormentdata in the Black Isle folder.

Copy the folder cd2 from your second disk into tormentdata, the actual folder and not just the contents.

Likewise for cd3 and cd4.

Edit torment.ini so it looks like this:
[Alias]
HD0:=E:\Program Files\Black Isle\Torment
CD1:=D:\
CD2:=E:\PROGRAM FILES\BLACK ISLE\TORMENTDATA\CD2
CD3:=E:\PROGRAM FILES\BLACK ISLE\TORMENTDATA\CD3
CD4:=E:\PROGRAM FILES\BLACK ISLE\TORMENTDATA\CD4
CD5:=D:\CD5\
Where E is the letter for your hard drive and D is the letter for your disc drive.

Keep disc 2 in your drive because that's the one the game asks for randomly to check you do own the game. Load the game up, start a new life and test it out. I found that the method on the site left the game asking me to insert disc 2 into my hard drive when it tried to do the disc check.

If you have the version of Planescape: Torment which comes on 2 CDs then the process is the same.

And a tip: when choosing your resolution for the widescreen mod don't go too crazy. I went for my monitor's native res (1280x1024) and even with the interface mod some of the elements are tiny. The buttons for opening the journel etc are smaller than this big. It's ok if you like to use hotkeys but not everyone does.

[Scienter]

I don't remember the Beregost bug but I had the wyvern death animation bug on several of my play throughs. I ended up having to completely reinstall the game a few times.

[CrossLOPER]

I'm waiting to get the expansion before I continue. I have a pretty good party, with the exception of a very low-level spell caster. Baldur's Gate is a lot more fun when you don't die every ten minutes.

[seireikhaan]

Demon's souls. Currently have beaten around 1/3 of the bosses. Putting a lot of points into strength and endurance to wield the Dragon Bone Smasher sword. Game is hard, but fun. Good atmosphere, some pretty nice level design, and just some real nice quirks thrown in, like the flame tossing captains. All of the bosses are fun in their own way, and with two exceptions thus far, they've all presented a unique challenge. It was immensely satisfying to man up and fight the flamelurker demon straight up with a shield and sword, and beating him. Highly recommended.