Baldurs gate - how should I start.

[centrifuge]

Originally posted by lord of the mark

In addition, must i

Spoiler:

go meet with or kill the friend of saverok that tamoko warned me about

first, to advance the plot? And will i find said person in the Iron throne building?

I don't think that it's absolutely necessart for advancement of the plot, but I'd suggest doing so before using the invite.

[centrifuge]

oh and yes they should be in the IT

[Dis]

damn. I never finishedd Bg1 and I deleted it from my drive.

Now I try to reinstall it, and it doesn't work. I had the same problem with my brother's set of discs as well. I get an error during install, and it never finished properly.

I wanted to finish this game. Oh well. I prefer Baldur's Gate 2 anyways.

[Jamski]

LotM - that's exactly right.

And then comes a sequence that had me reloading for 4 days...
(read : it gets very hard)

For your entertainment, my Assassin deals 316 points of damage to a poor unsuspecting Drow. I'm proud of that. (Critical hit with DHUM, 6 x backstab multiplier and a poisoned Celestial Fury)

-Jam

[Jamski]

Ah, it didn't attach. Let's try that again...

-Jam

[Dis]

attackiert? I find it strange the word is so similar.

[Jamski]

Most of the words are pretty much the same - "Automatische Pause" is pretty obvious.
Translated for those who still can't read German

Jamskianna - Weapon Poisoned : Jamskianna
Jamskianna - Automactic Pause : Spell Cast
Jamskianna - Attacks Drow
Jamskianna - Critical Hit
Jamskianna - Attack Roll 20+16=36 : Hit
Jamskianna - Six Times Damage Through Backstab
Jamskianna deals 316 points of damage to Drow
Drow - Dies!
Drow - Poison

-Jam

[Drogue]

+16 to hit? And how in 3 days or so did you get to the Underdark? Do you do Spellhold before you do most of the out of Athkatla quests?

And how do you get DUHM on an assassin? I though it was only cast on the caster?

[duke o' york]

Damn you all you buggers!

The temptation of this thread has become so great that I've just submitted a bid for BG on ebay. Should I bid farewell to my girlfriend and social life if I buy it?

PS - maybe the makers will give you a small bonus for doing such a good job at advertising.

[Drogue]

Originally posted by duke o' york
The temptation of this thread has become so great that I've just submitted a bid for BG on ebay. Should I bid farewell to my girlfriend and social life if I buy it?

Depends if you're girlfriend is as wonderful as mine and buys it for herself too

Seriously, it is possible to play it in moderation. Sure, when you start, you'll want to be on for a few hours at least, but if you only do that on a couple of free days a week, it's fine. I have a social life and I play BG. The only problem is, if you really like it, for a while, you won't want a social life. It is a brilliant game though

[Jamski]

+16 to hit? And how in 3 days or so did you get to the Underdark? Do you do Spellhold before you do most of the out of Athkatla quests?

And how do you get DUHM on an assassin? I though it was only cast on the caster?

Heh - I did ALL the chapter 2 quests befopre going to Spellhold. As in ALL of them. I just did nothing else for 3 days, starting at 8:30am and playing untill 2:30am. I'm halfway through ToB now with this party.

I made an error - DUHM was taken from me in Spellhold. I'm using the belt of Xgiant strength instead now.

And +16 to hit? All you need is to be invisible (+4) hasted (+4) using a decent weapon (Celestial Fury +3) An assassin gets +1 and another +4 for high STR. Nice.

-Jam

[Jamski]

Seriously, it is possible to play it in moderation.

No it ain't

-Jam

[Drogue]

I didn't know hasted got a +4

That's quick! Have you not had work? I mean, I would expect at least a week straight to finish SoA (I never have actually, got bored after the Underdark, however have done up to Spellhold about 20 or 30 times)

[Jamski]

Its undocumented Also a -4 to AC...

No work at the moment, nope. I'm unemployed since Xmas again

After the Underdark, assuming you did most of the side stuff in Chapter 2, then its just a romp home.

Spoiler:

Go back to the city, kill Bhodi again, go back to the elf city, kill some golems demons and another dragon, kill Irenicus, do the trials and kill Irenicus - takes about 3-5 hours from leaving the Underdark to the final battle. Of course, I don't even read the text anymore, just know which answers are the fastest way to end the converstaion.

-Jam

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Jamski

No it ain't

-Jam

Part of thats addictiveness, but part of it is the difficulty in figuring out where you were in the story and what you needed to do, when you return to the game. I would hope interface improvements, esp. to the journal, have helped.

[Stuie]

Originally posted by duke o' york
Damn you all you buggers!

The temptation of this thread has become so great that I've just submitted a bid for BG on ebay. Should I bid farewell to my girlfriend and social life if I buy it?

PS - maybe the makers will give you a small bonus for doing such a good job at advertising.

They got me, too. The original + the Swords expansion is only $9.99 at ebworld.com. Free shipping, too.

Now I just have to wait....

[Jamski]

...the difficulty in figuring out where you were in the story and what you needed to do, when you return to the game....

What's this "return to the game" ? I never leave.

-Jam

[Traianvs]

Yeah on top of that if you know as much of the game as Jamski does, you practically don't die. In my games I die about 10 times/hour

Also I have that tendency to loot a lot, and that takes up a lot of time. It would certainly take a few months for me to finish the game

[Jamski]

Ah - you know the way to "fast loot" the corpses ?

Give one character the Boots of Speed and put them in the #1 slot in the party order. Keep their inventory clean most of the time. In BG2 give them 3 scroll boxes, 3 gem bags and a Bag of Holding. It also helps if your "trashman" character is a Wizard or Bard for high Lore.

Now scoot around picking up ONLY magical items, gold, scrolls, and the HIGH VALUE gems. The rest is trash. By high value gems I mean the ones like Opals, Moonstones... not Andars or Silver Chains. Bung all the gems into the bag, and put the scrolls in the cases...
When the character is over a pile of loot, don't click on each item to put it in the inventory, and then open the inventory and move it about. R-click on the portrait, and move stuff straight from the ground to the right character or container.
When the inventory is full of un-identified loot, r-click on each item, and press "Enter" with the left hand to make it MUCH faster than always clicking "Done"

There - looting made 200% faster.

Also, remember what loot is worth even checking. Goblins don't even get a peek.

-Jam

[Jamski]

...if you know as much of the game as Jamski does, you practically don't die...

Yeah, I have done IWD2 and BG2 without reloads or resserrection. I failed on BG1, as I got killed by

Spoiler:

my lovely brother

I suppose I should be modest about it, but I do feel I achieved something.

-Jam

[duke o' york]

Jamski only sees the world from an isometric viewpoint.

Drogue, didn't you say that you were in sixth form in the OT somewhere? I have to live with my girlfriend, and it remains to be seen whether she is as forgiving as Mrs Jamski. She lets me play Civ now and again though.

[Drogue]

I'm on a gap year before university now, so I (sadly) don't live with my girlfriend. We were talking about it, but shes a full time student, and I'm a part time student (retaking a couple of A level modules) so we can't afford it

[Jamski]

Jamski only sees the world from an isometric viewpoint.

You mean there's another one?

...so we can't afford it

You know what they say Drogue - two can live as cheaply as one. Hlf the gas bill, half the phone bill, half the TV licence, less rent...

-Jam

[Drogue]

Very true, but we both live with parents at the moment. To live on our own would cost at least:
£100 per week in rent
£30 per week food
£20 per week phone and car
£10 per week misc
+ going out (which is currently about £30-50 per week).

It would be great, but with her not working and me working part time it's just not feasable Unless I can find stuff out about government housing thing, which may pay for the rent. In that case, it would be wonderful

[duke o' york]

[Jamski mode]

Yeah, but if you steal the magical Belt of Rent Support from the titan at the entrance to the Bongolia caves, then you can give it to your druid and he'll pay your rent for you!

[/Jamski mode]

Good luck with the future Drogue - if you're going to the same university then you'll find it's cheaper to find a flat with her (or even cheaper to share with other people as well) than to go into student halls.

[Jamski]

Ah, you're both with your parent atm... hmmm... I just assumed you both were renting seperate places. Ah well Makes sex difficult I suppose

I'd go with the magical belt of Rent Support

Spoiler:

It holds your trousers up too

-Jam

[Drogue]

Thanks I don't think we will. She would kill me if I turned down Oxford for her, and she likes Liverpool, so she'll probably go there. However if we both get into Warwick, and she decides she likes it, it could well happen. My Oxford offer is pure evil (4 As) and Warwick is certainly my second choice.

But either way, we have half a year away from uni, so I'm sure we can get to spend time together

[Drogue]

Originally posted by Jamski
Ah, you're both with your parent atm... hmmm... I just assumed you both were renting seperate places. Ah well Makes sex difficult I suppose

Yes, but not too difficult. Either way, Since I started working full time I was very tempted, but we want to go on holiday in the summer, and we want to go out now, and with uni afterwards, I thought the money was better spent on those. The summer will be fantastic

[Jamski]

Ah, the summer before I wnt to university... I had such a beautiful girlfriend - looked like Heidi Klum - and two days after getting to the Uni, she let me know that she'd just got engaged to some **** called Gary Women, eh?

Give me IE games and SMAC instead... Oh, and Mrs Jamski of course Nearly forgot

-Jam

[duke o' york]

Damn!
Some cheeky monkey has outbid me on ebay, and I'm not going to fork out loads of cash for a game that's (a)second hand, and (b) years old.
Oh well, back to the search screen.