Starting over with BG1 through BG2 TOB

[Jack]

Archived from groups: alt.games.baldurs-gate (More info?)

Hi,

It have been a couple of years since I completed the BG series, but
now partially because of reading this news group, I have decided to
begin again from BG1.

This time I'm going to make more use of the NPC's that wants to join
the party, thous only playing with one "home made from scratch""
charactor.

I am not so much into mods, unless they fix problems that was not
fixed within the patches.

So what would be recommend for me to installed and use with BG1, if I
wants to retain as much of the game as it was orginially?

Btw, are there any way to change the resolution to 1280x1024 with BG1?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.baldurs-gate (More info?)

"Jack" <virkerikke@mail.com> wrote in message
news:msvst0hsnfdrm6ln99dahj11orhk7r0sn2@4ax.com...
> Hi,
>
> It have been a couple of years since I completed the BG series, but
> now partially because of reading this news group, I have decided to
> begin again from BG1.
>
> This time I'm going to make more use of the NPC's that wants to join
> the party, thous only playing with one "home made from scratch""
> charactor.
>
> I am not so much into mods, unless they fix problems that was not
> fixed within the patches.
>
> So what would be recommend for me to installed and use with BG1, if
I
> wants to retain as much of the game as it was orginially?

Just BG1, and (if you want) the official BG1 expansion Tales Of The
Sword Coast: and I would recommend one player-made package that is
technically a mod - the bug-fix pack called "Baldurdash" (available
from www.baldurdash.org).

Note also: When importing from BG1 to BG2, remember that the LAST
thing you must have done with that character is win the original BG1
final battle- in other words, if you have Tales of the Sword Coast,
you have to treat it as an *add-in*, rather than an *add-on*, and do
it before completing the original BG1 final battle, if you want the
benefit of the raised XP cap (161000 instead of 89000 XP).

(This is because the "Final-Save" that you import to BG2 is made
immediately BEFORE the BG1 final battle is begun: so if you do all the
original-BG1 stuff first, and then go on to the TotSC areas starting
from that savefile, you will not get the benefit of the extra
experience earned in TotSC because the "Final-Save" will still be
based on the state of the game before you did TotSC, and before the
BG1 final battle... it will not have been overwritten and updated by
anything you did in TotSC. In fact, the game will think you're leaving
the main villain in his last hideout for all that time while you go
swanning off doing other things and he sits there waiting patiently
for you to come and slaughter him rather than starting plotting again
(and nobody will even bother to remind you about it, which kind of
breaks the "role-playing" part of the experience.)

So, deal with the expansion areas in chapter 5 or 7, and once you've
done all there is to be done in the expansion, go back to the original
final battle - the game thinks you're doing the final battle for the
first time.)

> Btw, are there any way to change the resolution to 1280x1024 with
BG1?

Not as far as I know.

Jonathan.

 

[magnate]

Archived from groups: alt.games.baldurs-gate (More info?)

I can highly recommend BG1Tutu - with all the fixes and tweaks
(including the Baldurdash fixes Jonathan mentioned) it works nearly
perfectly. Very few crashes and only one quest-stopping bug (which you
can work around by uninstalling and then reinstalling one of the mod
components). Let me know if you're interested and I'll post a
step-by-step install guide I wrote for my brother.

I've been playing in 1024x768 because I found that 1280x1024 made the
characters too small to see the animations properly, but 1280x1024
works flawlessly too. Keep the 3D acceleration off though or the water
turns green (the game hardly uses any 3D accel anyway).

Enjoy,

CC

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.baldurs-gate (More info?)

Jack wrote:

> Btw, are there any way to change the resolution to 1280x1024 with BG1?

No. Not unless you're prepared to bite the bullet and use mods (which
really, are generally considered a good thing if you pick carefully), in
which case something like Tutu will let you play BG1 in the BG2 engine,
allowing higher resolutions.

- Sim

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.baldurs-gate (More info?)

"magnate" <chrisc@dbass.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1105109427.884233.109840@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> I can highly recommend BG1Tutu - with all the fixes and tweaks
> (including the Baldurdash fixes Jonathan mentioned) it works nearly
> perfectly. Very few crashes and only one quest-stopping bug (which
you
> can work around by uninstalling and then reinstalling one of the mod
> components).

The number of crashes and quest-stopping bugs should be ZERO if you
are recommending it to a player who has little experience with BG.
"Very few" doesn't cut the mustard, it means there ARE crashes. "Only
one quest-stopping bug" means there is one quest that cannot be
completed.

Jonathan.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.baldurs-gate (More info?)

Jonathan Ellis wrote:
> "magnate" <chrisc@dbass.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:1105109427.884233.109840@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>
>>I can highly recommend BG1Tutu - with all the fixes and tweaks
>>(including the Baldurdash fixes Jonathan mentioned) it works nearly
>>perfectly. Very few crashes and only one quest-stopping bug (which
>
> you
>
>>can work around by uninstalling and then reinstalling one of the mod
>>components).
>
>
> The number of crashes and quest-stopping bugs should be ZERO if you
> are recommending it to a player who has little experience with BG.
> "Very few" doesn't cut the mustard, it means there ARE crashes. "Only
> one quest-stopping bug" means there is one quest that cannot be
> completed.

Yes, I agree. Once you've played it once, "nearly perfectly" is good
enough, but for your first time--no bugs, no crashes.

 

[magnate]

Archived from groups: alt.games.baldurs-gate (More info?)

Kish wrote:
> Jonathan Ellis wrote:
> > "magnate" <chrisc@dbass.demon.co.uk> wrote in message

> >>I can highly recommend BG1Tutu - with all the fixes and tweaks
> >>(including the Baldurdash fixes Jonathan mentioned) it works nearly
> >>perfectly. Very few crashes and only one quest-stopping bug (which
> >>can work around by uninstalling and then reinstalling one of the
mod
> >>components).

> > The number of crashes and quest-stopping bugs should be ZERO if you
> > are recommending it to a player who has little experience with BG.
> > "Very few" doesn't cut the mustard, it means there ARE crashes.
"Only
> > one quest-stopping bug" means there is one quest that cannot be
> > completed.

> Yes, I agree. Once you've played it once, "nearly perfectly" is good

> enough, but for your first time--no bugs, no crashes.

Nope, I disagree with both of you. If you save regularly then crashing
and reloading is tolerable, so long as it's every few hours rather than
every few minutes. Heck, how many un-modded games never ever crash? Not
many.

I did say that there is a workaround for the quest-stopping bug too, so
I don't think either of these issues is a problem for someone who
*wants* to play BG1 in the BG2 engine. If you're not up to the
occasional reload or tweak, you should just stick with the BG1 engine
as is.

Which I guess is what you guys are saying. At least the original poster
can now make an informed choice!

CC

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.baldurs-gate (More info?)

"magnate" <chrisc@dbass.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1105109427.884233.109840@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>I can highly recommend BG1Tutu - with all the fixes and tweaks
> (including the Baldurdash fixes Jonathan mentioned) it works nearly
> perfectly. Very few crashes and only one quest-stopping bug (which you
> can work around by uninstalling and then reinstalling one of the mod
> components). Let me know if you're interested and I'll post a
> step-by-step install guide I wrote for my brother.
>

The original poster may not be interested, but I am.

 

[magnate]

Archived from groups: alt.games.baldurs-gate (More info?)

Fontologist wrote:
> "magnate" <chrisc@dbass.demon.co.uk> wrote in message

> >I can highly recommend BG1Tutu - with all the fixes and tweaks
> > (including the Baldurdash fixes Jonathan mentioned) it works nearly
> > perfectly. Very few crashes and only one quest-stopping bug (which
you
> > can work around by uninstalling and then reinstalling one of the
mod
> > components). Let me know if you're interested and I'll post a
> > step-by-step install guide I wrote for my brother.

> The original poster may not be interested, but I am.

Sorry it's taken so long ...

1. Do a full install of BG1 and TotSC. Select "custom" install and
check *all* the boxes. [TotSC is not essential but it's fun.]

2. Do a full install of BG2 and Throne of Bhaal *on the same partition*
(ie. same drive letter.) No boxes to check this time, since there's
no custom option, just select full install. [ToB is not essential
either but they say it has fewer bugs this way.]

3. Install the two latest official patches. For BG1TotSC:

http://www.bioware.com/games/tales_sword_coast/support/patches/

Make sure your BG1/TotSC install is patched to 1.3.5521 (start it up to
check if necessary).

For BG2ToB: http://www.bioware.com/games/throne_bhaal/support/patches/


Again, check to make sure, this time you're looking for 2.5.26498

4. Install the four Baldurdash fixes (several HUNDRED more bugfixes!):
For BG1TotSC: http://www.baldurdash.org/BG1/bg1fixes.html (you want the
first and third items on this page - just run them to install)
For BG2ToB: http://www.baldurdash.org/ToB/Fixes/TOBfixes.html (the
first two items this time - yes the 2nd one is green, but it
shouldn't be 'cos you still need it)

5. Install BG1tutu: http://www.pocketplane.net/tutu - the downloads are
on the right hand side, you need BG1tutu v4. You need to point the
extractor to your BG2 (yes, two) directory (X:\BG2ToB) because it must
unpack there.

6. Go to your X:\BG2ToB\bg1tutu\ and open "configuration" with a
text editor. Set the "source" path to your X:\BG1TotSC and the
"target" to your X:\BG2ToB - *leave the tilde at each end*.

7. Execute bg1tutu.exe (which is in your X:\BG2ToB\ dir). It will ask
you a series of questions, which are mainly about assigning kits to the
BG1 NPCs (eg. Imoen can be a Thief, Assassin, Bounty Hunter or
Swashbuckler). I can't remember whether it tells you which NPC is
which!

8. Install the tutu fixpack (yet more bugfixes - found just beneath the
tutu link on the http://www.pocketplane.net/tutu page - current version
is 13). Again, point the extractor to X:\BG2ToB, then go there and
execute setup-tutufix.exe - again, it will ask you some questions,
but at least it explains them.

9. That's it, stick the Throne of Bhaal CD in the drive and play. Lo
and behold, you're playing BG1!! Don't try the Tutorial - that
causes it to crash ('cos it's trying to load the BG2 tutorial but
all the BG2 resources have been overwritten with the BG1 ones). If you
can't remember how to play and really want a tutorial, play the BG1
campaign (which you can do, because your BG1 install is untouched -
and don't try deleting it to save space, because the tutu still needs
to use bits of it) - the "prologue" chapter is the tutorial.


After writing this guide I discovered the Tutu TweakPack, which has
lots of useful stuff (like being able to remove the XP limit or the
40-arrow stack limit). It's also at pocketplane.net

Enjoy,

CC