Baldur's Gate ReMake?? Is it true???!

Update 16/03/2012

It's coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here you go!

Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition with extra content and TOB classes kits!

Baldur's Gate II Enhanced Edition with extra content!!





Recently this website has appeared but there's no official confirmation, just some rumors that the guys from the original BioWare team are working on it... Could this be??? Are we about to witness the resurrection of the best AD&D RPG of all times??


Edit: Here you go, some more clues adding to the mystery.

and this:

Gamebanshee link

 

best thing since sliced bread!! oh no no, BEST THING EVER!!! OH PLEASE!!!

 

A 'Yes Please' from me as well !!

 

definitely should have multiplayer support!!!!

wonder if they'll bring the old characters back like Minsc and Edwin

 

If it's a remake, that's pretty much a certainty.

Maybe I'm a pessimist, but with the original games available and selling well on GOG.com, I don't really see the point in a remake. The graphics may not be up to modern standards, but they're not that bad. Unless they're planning on expanding the game considerably, a remake is just the same thing but prettier; if it's the same development team (or at least some of the members) wouldn't it be better if they spent their time making something new rather than rehashing something that's already available?

 

well, anything BG is fine with me, even forget about remake, if we are only allowed "boo" as player char

but what would drive me mad, is that we can be one of the side parties in the game, and see things happen from a different perspective OH MAN, so excited about these possibilities

 

Boo should have always been Minsc's animal companion.

Give him 1hp and hit for 1.
When boo dies... Minsc says "Boo has fallen and can't get up!"
At the end of battle, Boo always comes back to life. (no matter how much damage he incurred...other than that he seems to act just like a normal hamster, despite Minsc's beliefs.)
Minsc will say "Ah you were just playing dead! Next time, go for the eyes!"

I am all for a remake, or better yet a new edition.
Use 3.5 rules please... earlier ones were busted and 4.0 and above are designed for preschool.

 

I suppose BG with 3.5 rules would be real nice. The 1st game was so long I think near the end, I just rushed to finish it though.

Torment was my favorite and I was actually sad it was going to end when I knew I was getting near the end of the game.

 

The most solid lead I think is a remake for Ipad, since one of the developer from Beamdog tweeted they got a iMac.

( https://twitter.com/#!/TrentOster)

If that is true, it is not very interesting (in my opinion), since anyway you can already play Baldur's gate and other Infinity engine titles pretty well on iOS, Android and other platforms, by using gemRB, open source recreation of the engine. ( start [GemRB wiki])

I hope that it will be a new game / remake for PC at least.

 

Screw the modern graphics, sprite was amazing allowing to create unique landscapes with no repeating textures. Also, the size of the map and number of locations was huge! After playing Skyrim for 200hrs I went back to BG series and never look back. Just to think that the pinnacle of today's RPG would have 10 spells and a few combat moves?!! C'mon, when NWN appeared I felt being cheated, but with games like Dragon Age and Skyrim I feel being zombified. Every dragon of skyrim can be hacked by any player at any level and any time in the game! Where's the challenge? In BG we had about 200+ mage and cleric spells, tons of unique classes and dual/multi combinations, skills and abilities. Every dragon battle was truly epic! You were spared from the dynamic level adjusting (mostly) when every peon would swing his club with the exact same feats as your super munchkin fighter (DA anyone? )
And I'm not even touching the NPC and quest part.... *sigh*
That's why we need someone to resurrect the perfect path.... IMHO

 

The words aren't mine but that's how I feel about this game

 

Good #Lord,

This thread and the amazing eurogamer write up made me rush to gog.com and buy bg1 & 2 since i lost everything. Goodbye Skyrim, hello Faerûn.

 

I'm with you Xizzu - I just picked up the AD&D anthology on GamersGate for $7. Includes BG 1 and 2 + expansions, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale 1 and 2, and Temple of Elemental Evil. Haven't had a chance to dive in, but I think once I get my new laptop I will. It's been a long time - I'd easily play BG1 without any remake.

 

BG really was a very good game, but it had its flaws too...

Kensai/Mage was so powerful that even the Dragonborn looks like a wuss in comparison... keep in mind that BG was balanced for a whole party and Skyrim a single Dragonborn with maybe one companion. The Kensai/Mage really didn't need anyone. (maybe a potion or two)

What BG did well is how it told the story in what it didn't have to tell you. Today's storytelling and Skyrim caters to a much younger and less attentive console crowd.

I realy do yearn for a non-console RPG... turn based... reproduce D&D 3.5 faithfully it can even re-hash the BG storyline if no one can come up with better.

 

kensai/mage is uber but it takes some effort to get there. You will have to start as a kensai and its very difficult to play solo @ core D&D rules with no armor. I personally prefer a multi fighter/mage. Yes, you lose 1-2 levels and deal less damage but it's a powerful class from the start and you get bonuses from bracers, helmets, etc. But those are not the only uber classes. Pretty much every combination (cleric/mage, cleric/ranger, fighter/thief, etc) have very powerful feats. I soloed the game with every class, (even bard) and always discovered more and more fun. It gets challenging in TOB especially if you do solo.

As for difficulty, I played Skyrim on master and never had any serious issues. But every half decent battle was boring, 1-2 spells+hack&slash and that's it.

 

Think of the balance though... BG was designed for a PARTY.
The fact you walk through BG effortlessly with only one character is actually more broken than anything the Skyrim world has as its balanced for only one hero with a patsy.

The Dragonborn can take on his dragon or 6-8 soldiers, but a fully-developed Ancient Dragon in AD&D could kill hundreds, if not thousands of heros, easily.

A Kensai/Mage could destroy entire armies with a single spell. (the magic in AD&D is MUCH more epic)

Kensai were very easy to play as BG was kinda monty-haul. It wasn't hard to get them close to the same AC as a warrior due to the itemization and stacking rules.

Both games have their balance issues... the difference is the story and how its told.

 

IMHO, Skyrim is not balanced at all. With so tiny number of spells, abilities and feats, Bethesda should have done better. Get alchemy, enchanting and smithy to 100 and make 1000+ AC armor and 1000+ damage weapons and you will be even more bored.

A fully developed Ancient Dragon of Skyrim can withstand only 3-4 hits from a daedric legendary sword or bow forged and enchanted with 100 skill level, regardless of the total level of your hero, lol. AD&D rules don't apply there, lol.

Let's not mix different sets of rules. in BG a kensai/mage is a semi kensai+ semi mage. As a mage he can't memorize 8lvl spells and above. Only after removing the cap or installing TOB (which both destroy the rules) can he do that.

So, there's no way you can destroy armies with a single spell given that you can't even cast high level spells other than from wands and scrolls, which makes kensai/mage not much better than a fighter/thief with a Use-Any-Item feat.

I disagree entirely here. You can bring a fighter to a -28AC while kesai will be limited at about -8 and the difference is enormous. Try taking a kensai (solo) against Drizzt and his party or pretty much any serious party. Not even touching TOB.

Yes, definitely. But the variety of choices and combinations in BG makes it one of the most saturated games of all times.

 

As for Skyrim, you didn't even need to max tradeskills... the real breakdown came when stacking tradeskills OVER 100. Level 30+ characters with Ebony and appropriate Blacksmith to mod it are insane.

I think your memory of BG is clouded.

BG series had XP caps.
As I remember, fitting within completely non-cheating rules, Kensai/Mage could advance to 9/17 (meaning 9th level mage spells) without any XP limit hack.

I believe prior to the last expansion before everyone went to 40, and prior to the expansion that gave 9th level spells no one could get higher than 7th level spells. The concept that this broken build could not is kinda a non-factor as no one else could either.

Kensai couldn't wear
-Armor (except mage robes, which is non-factor as the best items for them were the mage robes)
-Helms (non factor as arguably the best head items were wearable by kensai/mages, and the only ones which added to armor were kensai-usable)
-Bracers/Gaunts (annoying, but not for armor as the defense bracers didn't stack with the robe armor anyway)
-Shield (annoying, but lets face it, even the fighters dual-wielded as they reached rediculous levels of defense anyway.

Basically Best in slot
Armor
Kensai/Mage AC5 (AC1 with Spirit armor)
Fighter AC-2

Difference = 7 or 3 buffed

Shield
Kensai/Mage = -2 (note using kensai bonus here as fighter cannot replicate it)
Fighter = -5

Difference = -3

Total difference is -10 or -6 buffed.
Add in Stoneskin and typical mage buffs and the Kensai mage was a special kind of hard to kill.

Honestly, due to just how bullet-proof even a fighter became, almost everyone focused on offense, so the real difference was usually -3.

I think it worked out that even the best mobs in the game had like a 5% chance to hit the fighter with shield and a 10% chance to hit him without (everyone else was stuck with 5%)
The Kensai mage got hit 15% of the time by the best, but due to buffs ignored X hits and reflected rediculous damage back at whoever did hit them with their own buffs. This wasn't counting tossing mage damage spells which even before 9th were much more sweeping than anything in the Skyrim world.


I can't say I thought Drizzt and his band were even a challenge.
In fact, the biggest complaint was that he was WAY too much of a wuss even for a non-powergaming character.

Methinks you need to learn to buff.

 

OMG NO!!! First of all not any Kensai/Mage can destroy armies in AD&D, that feat was let alone given to a few with above lvl 9 spells with people like Elminster, Simbul, Szass Tam, with lvl 9 spell you can at most kill about 20 with Wail of Banshee, or if you are lucky enough to squeeze 100 goblins within 54' radius, meteor swarm then

To kill armies in AD&D you need to go to epic spell rules, and that's beyond most real role playing games (power play campaigns are always possible, but I played even the most powerplay campaign of planescape, trust me, nobody kills armies ) also AD&D rules are completely against this uberpowerfulpc chars, HP is less and anybody can be killed anytime (lvl 20mage rolls 2 on a death spell (Finger of death) and dies, no kidding ). D&D rules however you can do ridiculous stuff, 4th edition is even worse

Also about unbalance, any role playing game (on computer on table or whatever) has this balancing issue as there is definitely things you can exploit, like archer in AD&D and getting a mighty longbow, if you wanna exploit, you indeed will and any roleplaying game, not only BG or skyrim..

In my opinion, archer MONK priest of talos were 10 times more powerful than kensai/mage in BG..

Last thing you mean dual class, not multi, people are confusing the two

 

Lol, in AD&D, 20th level mages often had protections against death spells... and usually only rolling a 1 did it pass their saves due to equipment were usually insane.

Many spells in AD&D did not have maximum targets... and their range and area of effect was often quite large. This isn't even talking about epic-level or researched epic spells which could cover entire continents.

There was the precursor to the 3rd edition Horrid Wilting... (forgot the name)
Pretty much had insane range and radius and hit everything not 60ft apart.

The Weird spell had no limit in targets... the only limitation was not being more than 30ft apart.

Meteor swarm was 4x40ft radius impacts...

Given the above, I think we can say a single mage could devastate MOST of an army with a single spell... (especially given that most normal soldiers have 8-16HP assuming they are 0-2nd level fighters!)

Regardless... a Kensai Mage cut through everything i the game and didn't even need a single companion... In a game designed for a party of up to 6!

There were indeed other combos that were powerful... indeed so insanely powerful as to unbalance the game...

The point is... its pretty much the same as Skyrim... only on a worse scale due to how the game was intended to be played with a party of 6 instead of like Skyrim which was intended for 1+ lackey.

 

wow dude you played a different AD&D than I did, and trust me I played a lot since the first D&D anyhow, rolling a 4 or below is enough for a 20th level mage to die, and magic items are very very very rare in AD&D to come by, not like every orc of 3rd edition wearing a robe of protection +1, Halaster was wearing protection +3 for example..

oh btw the protections you are talking about (spell trigger and so on) do not grant the following, death spells do not apply (that is only a priest spell)

anyway, I guess your campaigns were nice power play demonstrations, I played and DMed almost any type of table top game, and nobody was killing armies with a single meteor swarm, maybe your armies are consisting 100 lvl 1 fighters

still kensai/mage is an average level char in my opinion, monk or barbarian with Crom Faeyr could do a lot better...

 

I've played since 1st edition...
I'm an OLD gamer... probably old enough to be your dad.

You would be building immensely powerful armies indeed if they were made from 3rd+ level fighters... The original Forgotten Realms sourcebook lists even the most powerful and richest mercenary group in the entire Realms as being mostly 2nd level fighters with 3rd and 4th level captains, about 7-10 7th-9th level fighers as bodyguards and 3 14+lvl commanders/owners.

A reminder that 20th level mages often had mutliple magic items... not the least of which were rings of spell turning. A 20th level anything is a demi-god under the old AD&D (2nd ed) rules.

Spell absorption spells and items have been around since 1st edition too. Rarity is determined by world and DM. Since the topic is about the Forgotten Realms, magic is fairly common. Magic items of common nature are solid in shops. A 20th level mage can MAKE almost all of the mage-related items in the DM handbook. If we are talking the BG series, its monty haul even for Forgotten Realms.

As a DM you must have been a very unimaginative one if your 20th level mages were always dying from 6th level spells left and right...

A reminder that traditional 20th+ level mages within the sourcebooks for every published world I have seen have challenged gods and defeated ancient Gargantuan Wyrms that were almost gods themselves. Having a piddly 12th level mage cast a 6th level spell at them hardly seems to be something that should be challenging.

I bet you didn't need a spell... you just looked at them funny and 20th level mages fell over dead right? Ranged bad breath attack? ;-)

I think perhaps you have only ever gamed with a computer.
People come up with wacky stuff and a simple death spell is the oldest trick in the book.

 

20th level mage is a demigod a TON of demigods in FR dude

ahahahaha rager what computer RPG I can come up with Szass Tam, Halaster, Khelben, Simbul, and many others?? dude you are fun, anyway carry on, yeah you can kill the whole Fearun with a Fireball

 

Most AD&D worlds had their share of demi-god level people.
Forgotten Realms is no exception.
And btw, given what the people you listed have accomplished... demi-god seems fitting don't you think? (and FR has HOW many gods/goddesses? hello?)

And anybody who can figure out google can list the names.

Faerun is a little bigger than 20'-30' radius... then again, I don't expect you to understand scale.
(sorry forgot the 2nd edition rule about 30' rad outside)

The discussion was similarities in broken games... you just can't seem to figure out just how large 4 x 40' radius really is and I have trouble leaving the kiddies clueless.

Just to educate the kiddies... try this.
Go out to a football field and remember that 1 yard = 3 feet.
Go map out what 4x 40' radius is on a footbal field.
Yeah, its more than half a football field if the four impacts are spaced for maximum area covered.
How many people can fit in that space?

Grats, you have learned something today!

 

well, you writing my name grats shows your knowledge of AD&D I am done here!

 

Now I see that you didn't really play BG much. 17lvl mage can only cast 8lvl spells in BGII (before TOB) and ZERO 9lvl. Check the official user guide and then correct your statement. Even a pure mage or sorc is limited to 8lvl spells only!

Best kensai-usable head item is probably Wong Fei but you can only get it in the middle of TOB, while helm of balduran is available from mid BG1 and is probably the best helm in the series anyway.

Like I said,a fighter can get to AC of -28 or even better, Kensai is limited to maybe -10 at best and if you continue to TOB with areas of dead magic where all your stoneskins are stripped off, soloing is extremely challenging. I'm not talking about facing goblins, lol.
Yes, dual-wielding is mostly preferable but even then a fighter will have a way lower AC (full plate +3 vs robe of vecna) Don't forget the armor modifiers, with a full plate you get extra 2-4 across the board against crushing,slashing, piercing and missile. Vecna doesn't offer any of those and while you can add spell protections, like I said, it will only work till you are in dead magic zones.

As for the shields 5AC bonus + some resistances (Darksteel shield +4) is a nice extra especially if you advance to TOB and get wirlwind attacks which will negate the advantage of having 2 weapons.

a 9th level kensai can't effectively hit high level bosses as most of them require THACO of -10 to ensure that every hit lands.

But the main reason why I claim that fighter/mage is not weaker than a kensai/mage is because you can use additional artifacts like helmet of balduran and gauntlets of extraordinary specialization to add a bunch of bonuses including to hit and damage. So there's really no advantage of having a kensai. In fact, I'd rather use a berserker/mage and have a rage bonus (immunity to all maze, imprizonement, stun, etc...) very useful when facing liches and demi-liches as well as powerful mages.

Mostly - yes, that's until you enter TOB where every fighter have pretty low thaco and every thief is equipped with invisibility potions. That's when you will really appreciate every single point of your AC.

That's because you probably didn't face him in BG1, lol. Then you'd appreciate every possible buff. Try fighting him alone with no cheats, no running away hasted using 150+ arrows and hoping for criticals, haha. That, or trapping him on the island and then using the same method, lol. To beat him one on one in close combat you would need everything: lowest possible AC -11 (with the cursed claw), boots of haste + haste spell, draw upon the holy might, potion of giant strength (24), potion of power, mirror image, etc. Then, he will only land 1-2 hits per round and you will have a chance of hitting him about once per 2 rounds. The odds are about 10-20%.

A kensai/mage (had the class existed in BG1) would lose 100 out of 100 with no hope ever...

Same would happen if you take a pure kensai vs Drizzt and his lads (that's what I meant in my previous post btw), while a pure berserker would still win
And yeah, I suppose that after beating the game in every possible way, I probably have an idea of how to buff.

 

Have to correct myself regarding the chances of defeating Drizzt in BG1 by a kensai/mage (hypothetically only).

With the following buffs:

1) Knave's robe -> to add 1 AC vs slashing (Drizzt scimitars)
2) Staff-mace +2 -> the best one-handed weapon to hit his chain mail, or staff of striking for dual wield (probably the best choice for kensai)
3) Potion of defense (sets base def to 0), potion of cloud giant strength (str 24), 2-3 potions of mind focusing (dex 24), potion of power (lower thaco by 20%)
4) Cloak of balduran
5) ring of protection +2
6) Golden girdle (+3 AC vs slashing)
7) mirror image spell
8) blur spell (-2 penalty to hit)
9) improved invisibility spell (-4 penalty to hit)

With the above buffs the chances of beating Drizzt will be very good:
Both a kensai/mage and Drizzt will need about 10+ on hit rolls to land a blow, which is about 50/50, but with 2-3 mirror image spells, you can escape unharmed. A figther/mage would have the same THACO due to the gauntlets of weapon specialization and helm of balduran, and about the same AC (+2 AC for kensai vs Large shield +2 and helm of balduran).

 

It's coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here you go!

Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition with extra content and TOB classes kits!

Baldur's Gate II Enhanced Edition with extra content!!

 

So no improved graphics ? I would have liked new sprites for monsters & characters. Still it will be great to play the game with new content & npcs if they are of the same quality as the original !

 

I'm sure there will be some touch-ups to the original engine and the final graphics is gonna look better.

 

YAY!!!

10char

 

Drizzt Chainmail + 4.

So worth his possy showing up randomly and kicking your a**e just for nicking it

 

His chainmail is probably the best armor for a thief in BG1. His Scimitar +5 is the best weapon in BG1 and one of the best in BGII SoA (before ToB). But the main reason for attacking him is the challenge. He's easily the most powerful creature in BG1. Killing him in melee in BG1 requires a deep level of understanding the game.

 

+ its blue

My love for Baldurs runs so deep I am just replaying it on my netbook and just walking into a tavern to that absorbing music and atmosphere, great great times.

 

Yeah, true! And the best part, regardless of how many times you play it, there are still new things, be it some small side quests, romances, items, etc.

 

oh man, tavern musics... adventurer's mart was also crazy good (BG2) I have soundtrack of BG2 and it is out of planet

 

A strong hint towards better visuals.

 

I'm so getting it! I remember playing BGII on my old laptop many years ago when BOOM! Disaster struck!

My glass of water that was next to the laptop spilled on my laptop! Was like a mini tsunami in my life until I finally got a new Laptop... but never picked up BGII again because I never recovered those files in the hard drive.

This'll give me a chance to finally play the whole series in high def!

 

After buying the D&D Anthology Master Collection I've been playing BG1 and loving it on hard difficulty to challenge myself a bit. I installed both BG1 and ToSC using BG TuTu so it all runs using the BG2 engine. Runs flawlessly on my ancient laptop under Windows 7 x64. Now I just need to catch up on sleep!