471 réponses à ce sujet

[The Potty 1]

Bhryaen wrote...
As to mods being optional, that too is what is intended. In fact, they apparently are adding the option to play without the new BGEE material as well if one really wants to do without all the fantastic new music, characters, and adventures they've been adding. (Almost seems a crying shame to make it an option... 

I suppose it depends how radically they're altering the engine. If the no-new-stuff install allows you to mod it as if it was vanilla BG, that gives everyone more options. Although personally I'm really sick of installing on top of vanilla.

Bhryaen wrote... what was more reasonable was to integrate the sort of content that mods offer instead ... To put an option into a game that enables a player to choose, say, new AI improvements or opens weapons restrictions or allows you to tweak NPC stats and class before you meet them ...

So, although Trent's notion of getting actual player-made mods into BGEE is a bit off-based, I do very much hope that modders do get involved as he's encouraging.

That would be cool. Well some stuff should just be integrated (with permission), like most of the fixpack. Most of the stuff in SCS2 should make it's way into the difficulty slider. I don't really want to spend 6 hours modding BG2 how I want it, I'd like someone to make an educated call for me. If that means I can't get Venca until ToB, I suppose I'll suck it up, or cheat it in.

All new content, like NPCs, romances, and tactical encounters, should always be installed, assuming they get the rights. You should however be able to disable it in the settings menu, along with most of the stuff in the tweak pack.

If they don't get the rights to a mod, it would be nice to be able to download and install it in the same way as vanilla does, and preferably without the modder having to maintain a separate package. They need to release developer guidelines and a consumer preview.

[ScotGaymer]

If anyone want's to link me to any updated information regarding the site, and BG:EE then I would be happy to update the original post.

:-)

If anyone is interested that is,

[Bondari the Reloader]

Bhryaen wrote...


@Bondari the Reloader- Just an interesting exchange I bumped into in the OsterTweets that might interest you (as it does me)...

Q: @TrentOster It would get my heart all a-flutter if you were to say the ladies might get another romance option in #bgee.
A: Flutter away.

Not sure if that's a promise or sarcasm actually... Hmph.


This announcement also from Oster who was part of the original work on BG and would know:

I agree, Noober is the man behind the scenes, calling the shots. He's the Bhaalspawn's Bhaalspawn.

lol...

Ah, yes, the difficulty of deciphering sarcasm on the internet. It is indeed interesting, though based on the rest of your post, I'm beginning to worry it might be Noober...

[Bhryaen]

The new BGEE Forum is definitely loaded up with discussion... All BG, All the Time! lol Some of the devs have been participating regularly too- something they weren't doing so much on reddit and almost very rarely on Beamdog- and the forum itself keeps getting the kinks worked out of it.

The Potty 1 wrote...
If the no-new-stuff install allows you to mod it as if it was vanilla BG, that gives everyone more options. Although personally I'm really sick of installing on top of vanilla.

This is exactly why I want it in the game: to not have to mod it in any longer. Not only does it make mods available for those who currently don't have it, can't get them, find modding too difficult, or don't even know about mods, it makes it way easier for those of us who do mod to simply have the basic otherwise-modded options already in the game and integrated properly, without bugs, and available through simple sliders and checkboxes in a settings area at game start rather than having to go through the mass deletion, mass copy-pastes, long command prompt waits, many command prompt selections, keeping current with the latest mod versions and hotixes, etc. Even a .bat install is a major bother. Anyway that's my idea, and there are others in contention- and what's actually possible. And this was supported by an earlier announcement somewhere that they were intended to make it no longer necessary to mod BG. Of course, that's not going to happen, but for my tendencies and preferences, by covering the basic tweaks that mods cover, I might not mod nearly as much other than to get modder NPCs in or whatever tweaks they leave out.

some stuff should just be integrated (with permission), like most of the fixpack. Most of the stuff in SCS2 should make it's way into the difficulty slider. I don't really want to spend 6 hours modding BG2 how I want it, I'd like someone to make an educated call for me. If that means I can't get Venca until ToB, I suppose I'll suck it up, or cheat it in.

All new content, like NPCs, romances, and tactical encounters, should always be installed, assuming they get the rights. You should however be able to disable it in the settings menu, along with most of the stuff in the tweak pack.

If they don't get the rights to a mod, it would be nice to be able to download and install it in the same way as vanilla does, and preferably without the modder having to maintain a separate package. They need to release developer guidelines and a consumer preview.

I do believe they're making BGEE compatible with most mods- or that's the express intention. After all, the ringleader Trent Oster led the development team for NWN which is arguably one of the most mod-intensive games ever. But I just see the legal issues being too much of a bother to deal with in the first place- too much money and time given what they have available for the next few months. I'd rather that they make it very explicit that they're reaching out to modders to get involved in BGEE development and help determine the direction, but that they simultaneously just declare a ceasefire on any effort to wholly incorporate mods as mods, instead just dealing with given mod components as no-brainer bugfixes or as potential game features to be implemented in a BGEE-specific manner. I think that will make the end product BGEE a lot more no-strings-attached and integral than if they're coming at it with a hodgepodge of mods cluttered with all sorts of unneeded extra "baggage" that, as you say, would be better delivered selectively from a stance of "making an educated guess" for the players. Just my intuition, not necessarily correct...

@Bondari the Reloader
Well, if you get to the forum you can vote up the idea regardless. :-P And actually it's received a lot more lively discussion than it ever was on Beamdog or reddit.

Modifié par Bhryaen, 02 juin 2012 - 08:31 .

[fro7k]

Sounds like that forum is time-consuming! I might head over at the end of next week once I get some house-decorating out of the way.

[Bhryaen]

It's at least as addictive as Bioware's forums! lol Have fun with the redecorating...

Modifié par Bhryaen, 02 juin 2012 - 04:32 .

[thesnake777]

...Is there a street date yet?

[Bhryaen]

From an OsterTweet of a day ago:

"According to Google, summer ends on September 21. We're still in that window."

[thesnake777]

Bhryaen wrote...

From an OsterTweet of a day ago:

"According to Google, summer ends on September 21. We're still in that window."

*sigh*

[Dwayne]

Has there been any word if the Baldurdash fixes will be included?

[Bhryaen]

Not sure what the Baldurdash fixes are specifically, but numerous fixes are underway. There's a section of the BGEE Forum devoted to bugfixes exclusively, and a number have been mentioned. If you go and check it out you'll know if it's been put on the table by fans. The devs may already have taken them up since bugfixes were an early priority. Actually Ascension64 laid out a massive post on the reddit forum mentioning the specific bugfixes in ToBex- hasn't made it's way to the BGEE Forum yet...

[Dwayne]

The Baldurdash fixes are a great collection of fixes for both BG1 and BG2. The site also has the original tougher fights for BG2 as well as the bonus powers you were suspose to get.

[Bhryaen]

Actually since you mentioned it the "Baldurdash" mod's fixes were introduced (not specificallly but as a mod) by a BG fan on the Bugfixes section of the BGEE Forum, and since then the thread has been visited by Balquo, devSin, CamDawg, and especially aVENGER who's been simply excellent at rousting people for the rework of BG going into BGEE and submitting the known bugfixes in a very usable form to the BGEE devs for easier implementation. It's looking like BGEE will be BG in an utterly fixed condition.

So for sure the devs are looking at Baldurdash bugfixes as well as a host of others from the Dudleyfix to fixes implemented by Tutu, not to mention the ToBEx fixes which are rather extensive and which Ascension64 himself just followed on aVENGER's lead to render into a dev-digestable form. Yeah... BG's gettin' a fix alright. >:-) ... And to be honest, as mostly just an observer myself, this is a fascinating, inspiring process to watch. It's like dreams about BG itself getting cleaned up that never seemed possible until that curious countdown started happening in January on Baldursgate.com... Anyone who can appreciate this really ought to get an account even just to see the process unfolding, much less give kudos to all these modders finally getting serious recognition for their work over these years...

Modifié par Bhryaen, 11 juin 2012 - 04:42 .

[Bhryaen]

Not much to update in terms of new developments, but... At the BGEE Forum there's a lot of fan-based wrangling about the direction of BGEE with two primary areas- Feature Requests and Bugs. Much debate, many ideas, not a lot conclusive as of yet, though the forum continues to develop.

Speaking of conclusive, here is the latest OsterTweet as of an hour ago:
[quote]We're building out a clear description of what Enhanced Edition means. Once it all is together and approved, we'll roll it out.[/quote]
The "work-in-progress" nature of BGEE should be clear... But for a "Developments so far" synopsis (that fits in a single Twitter post):

[quote]Big coding investments to date: 1.Rebuilding core threading model. 2. Rebuilding renderer 3. Rebuilding multiplayer 4. UI rewrite 5. Bugs[/quote]

In an earlier OsterTweet:
[quote]We've re-targeted slightly over the last few days. We're focusing our efforts on reducing active bugs. Paying down technical debt[/quote]
Gotta love it when he gets technical. ;-) For sure when you assess the quantity of bug issues with BG1- from Baldurdash to Dudleyfix to EasyTutu's fixes to ToBEx- you get a rather massive amount of bugfixing to do. Lots of oopses in vanilla BG1. It's a wonder the game's popularity has persevered through such a mess- well, not really. I mean, Alfred doesn't even give a reward for returning Rufie right now before running off to the Nine Hells... unless you mod it in. It's atrocious!

Speaking of technical:
[quote]We're shrinking the install size of the game through compression. Codecs have come a long way in the last 12 years.[/quote]
Trent mentioned early on how fast screen loading in BGEE will be.

On another front:

[quote]We'll be testing around multiplayer in the next bit. If we still have the pause delay bug, we'll whack it.[/quote]
Not sure what the "pause delay bug" refers to, but I did suggest a Hotkey option for the Pause so that in multiplayer everyone that hits the Spacebar pauses the game, but a different Hotkey releases Pause. Thus all players will know they've paused the game if they hit the Spacebar instead of the way it is now where you hit it hoping that no one else hits it just after and thereby releases Pause (after which a Spacebar whacking frenzy ensues). Optionally separating Pause and Unpause by two different buttons in multiplayer would alleviate this... Revolutionary! Ahead of its time for sure... Simple anyway...

Speaking of pause delays...

[quote]The UI work is going slower than I had hoped. We really had to trash everything and restart on the UI code... Cam is still grinding on the UI. There are so many custom screens in BG it blows the mind. A custom UI just for contingency, really?... We are still pushing pixels on the new interface, so it will be a while before we have any screens available... We are still a way from final touches. The UI continues to vex... A big part of the UI rework was the ability to fit different resolutions and aspect ratios without us having to redo all the art... The main multi-resolution solution we are doing is splitting the BG UI into three major components, left-side, right side and bottom bar[/quote]
The end result will be quite the feat...

Also on the subject of pause delays:

[quote]We're currently waiting on approvals for our forums to open. When they say OK, we'll open them up... Our approval process is through Atari and Wizards of the Coast. They need to approve most materials[/quote]
Also in the BGEE Forum this was reiterated, so the forum would be more open at present otherwise and remain in a quasi-Beta state otherwise. That said, I've already seen some familiar names there, including GemHound and this thread's OP. ;-)

The topic of mod incorporation continues in the BGEE forum, of course. Modders aren't so interested in the incorporation since they're quite confident in what they can and will do with the released BGEE, but I'd sure like them incorporating the essential mods into BGEE itself. Still very much on the drawing board at present, though Trent adds,

[quote]We've been looking at all the mod content... The modding was a part of our initial interest in making a ‪#bgee[/quote]

As to future plans:

[quote]#BG2EE‬ will go faster as core work is mostly done. Still need to build the new content though and that takes time.[/quote]

At a suggestion that Bioware's David Gaider join the BGEE team...

[quote]I think @davidgaider is out of our pay grade. We're loving having one great writer on staff. The future, who knows?[/quote]
Truth is, the work in BGEE of the "one great writer" in question- Dave Gross- is entirely a mystery at present... and one of my most anticipated aspects of BGEE's release- that and Sam Hulick's music. News on Adventures X & Y have faded out though as Bugfix X, Y, and Z have presented themselves in all their inglory. Ode to their resolution!

Actually there was this minor Adventure X (or Y) mention...
[quote]Managed to get some Area Art revisions done. The not-so-abandoned temple is looking much better thanks to @natjonesart direction.[/quote]
I do recall a brief mention of Trent himself working on a temple several weeks ago, adding that there was snow that was making him feel cold...

Some OsterWisdom deserving a quote:
[quote]To commit years of your life to trying to yank an idea out of your head and push it, screaming, into reality, you better love the idea.[/quote]

Some corporate scuttlebutt:
[quote]At this point, the Infinity Engine is owned by Bioware/EA. The new code is owned by Atari/WotC...[/quote]
Distinctions, distinctions...

[quote]Q:@TrentOster Bio just put an advert on FB for shoes. Promise me there'll never be Minsc Boots, Viconia Hoodies and Anomen Hair Gel on sale
A:What?... You don't want the Boots of speed we've been slaving on? Seriously, the Anomen hair gel is great![/quote]
lol Oh, come on, if Bioware can hock shoes, why can't Beamdog shill itself out with some BGEE Skin Depth Cream? ;-)

Modifié par Bhryaen, 24 juin 2012 - 12:42 .

[Hrotti]

I still can't wait. This is going to be awesome.

[Bhryaen]

New(ish) interview of Trent Oster by GameBanshee. Looks like mostly explanations as to the current state of development, but some new mentions, some history of BGEE, and confirmation that there will be "new characters" (plural) even though we've only heard of one so far...

[LeBurns]

Well they really need to update the official site more often. I think May 10th was the last thing they updated.

I would love to see some more screen shots and more updates. I am also mostly curious about the PC version. While I think it is great that they are making an i-pad version and all I do believe that 90+% of their sales will be to PC users so I hope they don't forget us in all this development.

[ScotGaymer]

Updated the original post with more information about BG1EE and links to the forums (as well as the main site).

If there is anything else people would like me to include in that post let me know.

[Bhryaen]

@FitScotGaymer
Thanks!

@LeBurns
I think it's a matter of scattered priorities. Lots and lots of plates spinning at once, none of them ready to put down yet, either because development continues like a storm or because any plate that's ready requires the legal "going over" by the "interested parties" (and that doesn't mean the Maulers of the Undermountain... or does it?) So it's still relatively early- still 3 months (and counting) to the estimated release of the end of summer... We'll see more as things get closer.

And the BGEE Forum is looking like a regular dwarven foundry, lots and lots o' toil, and ye don't polish yer stones until ye've mined ye a proper nugget... That said, the one thing I'm anticipating is at least a segment of the new Sam Hulick music since it's the one thing I've read in the HulickTweets is a BGEE project that's finishedish. Just a guess though. That's not insider info though, and if it were insider info I'd 'ave to kill the lot o' ye fer 'earin' it...

Actually it seems they're putting out yet another employment offer. They did that before a couple months ago for an entry level sales/ dev somethingorother, but now they're looking for a skilled graphic artist to help with their background art needs- at least as of July 4th from Trent himself. So the dev team developing BGEE keeps developing...

But the GUI work has hit some walls- possibly... From the recent (days ago) OsterTweets:

#bgee development is going quite well. But, we just had a setback from old BG
UI code and we've had to back off a bit on the data-driven UI... The old UI code fights back hard. Damn you Scott Grieg. Damn you!

But I thought the Infinity Engine was problem-free! The game engine of the future! Well, if anything can be done to pave IE's way to infinity, the BGEE devs will (have to) find it...

And for another struck wall:

Boxed copy is currently in business deal limbo. Last time in limbo it took 14 months to do a deal

So the whole breath-holding thingy... yeah, not good. But it also means that if/ when it happens, it'll probably be a bundle of both BGEE and BG2EE (since that one is locked in), and who knows what it'll involve at that point...

For ground-breaking, however, apparently BGEE is allegedly in active negotiation over 1 Pixel Productions (at least from BGEE Forum scuttlebutt). Given that it's being negotiated now (rather than nearer release) there may be a danged good chance of it getting in. Also apparently BGEE has a team of Beta Testers because they've been conspicuously releasing fix confirmations on the "public" forum now. Oh, and allegedly I'm one of the alleged Beta Testers- or at least that's what it says for some reason. The BGEE devs are crazy like that. >:-)

In fact, Oster is totally crazy:

Gnomes get nothing extra in ‪#bgee‬. Gnomes are dead to me

I know, right? Everyone and their grandmother yearns to play a gnome illusionist or a gnome cleric-thief to backstab with a, erm, club (and look like a 1PP gnome rather than a dwarf). In fact, my own grandmother wrote to him personally to express her devastation at his Tweet. And I quote: "'Twill be hard goin' without my gnome." So it's serious. And within a day came this OsterTweet:

Gnomes might see a new magic item that makes them somewhat less useless.

So once again BGEE remains responsive to the fans!

Another serious challenge came in this exchange:

Q: I already have a dozen accounts at a dozen different DD shops. Give me a reason to add *YET ANOTHER*, rather than pirating BGEE
A: If you pirate ‪#bgee‬, Boo will know. Oh, he will know and the consequences will be dire

The guy actually threatened to pirate BGEE because it's so hard to create an account... I suppose that makes sense because I once killed and robbed someone to get their $10 worth of groceries so I wouldn't have to go to the grocery store. Works for me! But for piracy I don't want to risk Boo's Dire Charm. In BG1 that's insta-death for a solo play.

Modifié par Bhryaen, 09 juillet 2012 - 04:33 .

[Bhryaen]

Well, slow here for updates, but not so slow at the perculating and growing BGEE forum... So far a modest 88 fixes showing up as implemented in the BGEE Fixed forum, many of which being ToBEx, Dudleyfix, and Tutu fixes. It also seems a number of modders now have the whole "Beta Tester" title mentioned in their profiles, including CamDawg, aVENGER, Avenger_teambg, Wisp, cmorgan, Cuv, and Balquo. That other modders aren't included in that list, however, is likely more a logistical question than preferential: many "famous" BG modder folks have moved on to other things in life... given that they're evil, disloyal betrayers of BG heritage. Fie on them! Fie! (lol) Actually though Ascension64, DavidW, GrimSqueaker, devSin, demivrvs, and others have shown up at the BGEE Forum to help out regardless of their time or opportunity to assist in Beta Testing, and it is going appreciated...

But I haven't been keeping up with the OsterTweets, so here's a few more...

The subject of misspelling came up. Interesting as this happens to be one issue that vanilla BG is rife with. Not sure whether BGEE will have any such misspellings after Dave Gross-enhancements are applied...

When twittering I often **** up spelling. I've got a few I love like Bhall, Ehnanced Edition, Bladur's Gate. All good stuff... You would not believe how many times I have typed Neverwitner Nights in my life. I'm ballparking 65535 times... I remember a lot of Dargon Age doing internal Bioware documents. I saw a few Mass Affect too... I seem to love typing grpahics and cahracter in docs as well, so misspelling Bhaal is par for the course... Next game, I'm going to name it something simple, like "RPG#1", just to cut down on the misspelling.

lol... No, no, it's easy- just a single letter change: BG2EE. ;-) Or even easier... BG3!

On the relentlessly daunting GUI challenge:

#bgee is moving along. The old UI code beat us back on one front, so we re-grouped and hit it from another angle. We will get the UI done!... I'm still going through each BG2 UI screen as the basis for the new UI screens. We need to duplicate the functionality and add some new... We're revising it pretty hard. So far it is still in progress. Yesterday I described it "If the BG2 UI is elven, #bgee is dwarf"... The "Dwarven" UI theme of #bgee can be summarized as more stone, more metal trim and simple shapes, less elaborate ornamentation.

So vanilla BG GUI is dwarven, eh? :-) Then there was this Tweet that included a limited (BG2, not BGEE) visual:

Trying to work through all the BG UI screens Here's a quick shot of some of the existing character generation screens:

Some structural change mentions:

We looked into a seventh party member slot and the number of times party members is hard coded was staggering... we're playing with inventory right now. We'll increase stacks and possibly add a few inventory slots

I've been curious myself about what special tools the devs have for navigating BG. This was Trent's answer to someone else's query on the point:

We're using DLTCEP and Infinity Explorer a fair bit. They're already out there :-)

There was a mention of Trent's interest in this site as well- a very nice examination of the foibles of the alignment system in DnD. The Reputation system in BGEE may just get some Overhauling as well:

We're going to tread lightly with changes to the reputation system, but
we have plans to tone back the guard "freak out" on evil parties.

Then there was this powerful Q&A:

Q:Do you hear the Hobgoblins from Baldur's Gate in this guy's voice?
A:That damn Hobgoblin got a side gig. He also grew out his hair.

And predictably this Trent Oster guy started picking on Gnomes again, and my grandmother was heartbroken:

I have banished Gnomes from my reality. I recognize them as ugly halflings

Clearly this Oster fellow is just jealous of Quayle's intellectual superiority and Tiax's propensity to rule... Nuff said. *shrugs*

Modifié par Bhryaen, 21 juillet 2012 - 12:48 .

[Bondari the Reloader]

Yay for another BGEE news digest!

Bhryaen wrote...

Some structural change mentions:

We looked into a seventh party member slot and the number of times party members is hard coded was staggering... we're playing with inventory right now. We'll increase stacks and possibly add a few inventory slots

Do you think they're serious about adding a seventh party member? I kind of hope they aren't. I have enough trouble keeping track of six characters simultaneously... Maybe it would only be for those quests where you're required to take a certain character, so if they're not part of your main party you wouldn't have to lose anyone to accomodate them?

[ScotGaymer]

I have to say I saw that screenshot of the "new" UI; and I really don't see the difference between it and the standard BG interface.
Maybe I need to see a comparison shot.

But it looks exactly the same to my eyes.

[Bhryaen]

@FitScotGaymer
I don't think that's a new UI at all. Trent was showing just a sampling of the many UI screens they're trying to rework... a small sampling... so people have a sense of what the devs are up against in providing not only a range of UI options for the new player but also the ability of modders to do tweaks to the UI to create their own custom ones. Or at least as far as I understand it. It's not a small effort... heh... But, yeah, it's the BG2 UI he's showing, not BGEE, so, should be nothing new in that regard, only what's staring them in the face every day.

Also from Trent on the UI front (which I seem to have missed):

Correct, the new #bgee UIs are closer to the BG1 look, but the stone is better :-)

And to a direct question about viewing the new UI:

Q: when do we get a sneak peak of the new Dwarven UI? #bgee
A: tuesday?

I'll link it here if it happens...

@BondaritheReloader
I doubt there will be a 7th slot opened for the reason Trent mentioned as well as others... Extra NPCs, however: already in the works...

Already some other intriguing news on another front, however:

Erephine has agreed to include the 1PP work into #bgee We're just trying to make it play nice with our setup

For those of us who prefer the look of BG1 animations and lament that Bioware lost the original BG1 artwork, this is very heartening news. :-) This means potentially flaming swords (!!!), excellent animations, female dwarves, halfling-like (rather than dwarf-like) gnomes, etc., all in the BG2 game engine! Now if only erephine had reworked the Amnish helms for 1PP. Those winged helms are just the ultimate... *sigh* But here and here are samples of Erephine and Miloch's work on 1PP in case people aren't already familiar with it.

Modifié par Bhryaen, 23 juillet 2012 - 02:24 .

[ScotGaymer]

Ah okay I misunderstood then.

I wondered cos it looked exactly the same to me lol.

[Humanoid_Taifun]

I come back and....

Whow.

Why didn't anybody call me? Now I've got to reschedule the next two years entirely.

Bondari the Reloader wrote...
I have enough trouble keeping track of six characters simultaneously...

You make it sound like the game ever forced you to take a full team with you.