Baldur's Gate 2 - The Darkest Day - Nearing Release

ravagon · October 2, 2001, 01:57

For those of you who haven't been following the development of this epic-scale 3rd-party addon, it is now past its first beta testing stage and is to go through a second very shortly. Release date has been delayed slightly to an estimated Oct 8th-15th. IMO this is a good thing as the final version will be as bug-free as realistically possible.
Details here : http://www.teambg.net/tdd/

On the negative side the first version released will not be compatible with the official addon "Throne of Bhaal" or (I believe) with BG2 previously saved games, hence requiring a full reinstall before applying the mod. ToB compatible version to be released a "few weeks" thereafter.
On the positive side this is one of the biggest and most promising Modding projects ever (It received an honourable mention in a recent Computer Gaming Magazine - I forget which one). Many of the "new" graphics/effects come from other bioware titles - BG, PT, IWD etc.

The mod will be available via download (albeit in many small parts) or by cd-rom order (see site for details). Total size (I think) is about 200Mb.

Features - New items/spells - 150+ of each, New areas, 30-odd new monsters, New NPC's, 70+ new character kits, One very large Central quest and over 40 minor quests. Estimated gameplay over 30 hours (Same as ToB incidentally).
More info can be found on the site and in the forums (Just don't ask about release date or compatibility - these have already been addressed. Er, once or twice.

)

[Edit: Grammar/Spelling]

ColdWizard · October 2, 2001, 11:22

total download "will be well over 300MB"

thanks for the heads-up, now i'll have something else to play while waiting for civ3MP

History049 · October 2, 2001, 22:16

thanks, wonder if it's free

probably, not I.e. throne of bhaal = expensive $

ravagon · October 2, 2001, 23:17

Quote:

Originally posted by Bob Dornan
thanks, wonder if it's free

probably, not I.e. throne of bhaal = expensive $

This is basically a mod for BG2 developed by several knowledgable fans with a little advice from some people at Black Isle/Bioware/Something. As such they aren't and can't charge for it. Downloads will be free (although I suggest one waits a day or so as the bandwidth is liable to be rather taxed

- I didn't realise it had gone over 300 Mb

).
The only charge will come in the form of the cost of the cd/postage if you go for that option.

Personally I would suggest downloading the first version (especially if you have ToB as the ToB-compatible version will be a while yet) and maybe ordering the later on cd.

ColdWizard · October 3, 2001, 11:55

the total price for the cd is listed to $9 (US) with each additional being (about) $3.50. the prices are broken down and explained on the website (along with all the other info)

from what i read, they will release a patch to make it compatible with ToB rather than make a second version

History049 · October 3, 2001, 21:07

They get their profit from ToB costing $30? I know the Icewind Dale Heart of Winter was $30, rip off for a short game.

ravagon · October 4, 2001, 01:52

Quote:

Originally posted by Bob Dornan
They get their profit from ToB costing $30? I know the Icewind Dale Heart of Winter was $30, rip off for a short game.

As it isn't Boware releasing TDD and it was done without licensing there is absolutely no profit for the makers involved here, under US copyright law. - In a similar manner to releasing scenarios for civ2. Copyright forbids scenario makers from profitting.

On the other note, with all the flak Bioware received after HoW gave so little extra gameplay, they did make and release "Trials of the Luremaster" as a free download. This didn't quiet all of the dissatisfaction but it did go a long way towards it. Not too many other software developers would have/have done the same thing.

[Edit: Spelling]

Victor Galis · October 8, 2001, 01:04

ToB doesn't have that much extra gameplay either. I have to find all the side quests if I see to hit that exp cap.

Dis · October 16, 2001, 14:06

argghh

I don't have enough time to play more of a great game. There must be a way to create more time.

I need a real world time stop spell.

ravagon · October 17, 2001, 19:57

Update,

Post Beta-2 testing finished, final updates made and version 1.0.0 released and available for download. Total (compressed) size is 266Mb. Uncompressed ~ 500Mb, making it just slightly smaller (I think) than ToB.
As the download is a single file, downloadees would be well advised to use download managers (If they don't already)!

Just had a final look at the list of new monsters and noticed the 5th one down ).

Anybody who's played PnP AD&D will probably know what I mean.

PS: Awwww nuts! Estimated finish time for my PC to dl = 4:30 hours... and thats on the positive side (sigh)...