I must say that overall the biggest problem with the Baldur's Gate series is the high amount of discs.

Today I went back to where my BG1 discs were stored to begin a solo BG1 thru ToB game, and alas: my TotSC disc was scratched to hell, and wouldnt run.

Makes me wish I bought a 30 gb harddrive or something *just* to run all of my bioware engine games off of with full install. It might be worth it if I ever decide to buy a new TotSC disc...

So here is the question:
Do the majority of you players out there run off of your hard drive (full install) or do all of you do the disc shuffle like myself?

-Caliban
:cool:

[This message has been edited by Caliban (edited September 05, 2001).]

I do the disc shuffle too. It could be worse...

I run full install, no disc swapping , and I like it. I Simply just hate disc swapping, if I can avoid it.

I've been thinking: I could go buy that 30gb hard drive, and leave my cpu cover off. Every time I play a bioware game I can connect the drive, and when I want access to my MP3 files (on my other drive) I can connect that one. Everything else I will run off of my 12gb C:\ drive...

Seems like BG minus the Disc swap would be a dream, but it may be closer than I think!

Caliban :D

Why dont you buy a cd burner (is it called that?) Then burn all You mp3s down on them.... I did that. Works fine. About discswapping? No big deal. Patience is a virtue.

Indeed, or just buy DVD and the DVD version of BG, then you dont' have that problem.

Not only do I have the 30gb you drool over, I have arranged it so that I never insert any CD's at all...

By copying the CD image file of the appriate disk to a logical drive, this means my discs are sitting quietly away in "Stroage" and I rarely touch them.

Not meaning to soundholier than thou or anything, but at today's prices, a 30gb drive is oneof the most cost effective investments you can make time, patience and convenience-wise.

You are right, Kailynne, making a CD image on the hard drive is effective, both convinience and even more, speed-wise, because the access speed of the hard drive is uncomparaly higher tahn that of the CD-Rom Drive.

But in order to use the images you still have some program that manages the CD images for you. The most common case (I don't know any others actually) is when a program creates a "virtual" CD-Rom in your operating system with a drive letter, different from your real ones.

In order to change CD images in that fake drive you have to Alt+Tab your BG2, run the program, order it to switch CD images, then Alt+Tab back to BG2. About that same time as to switch CD's manually.

Somewhere I have a copy of "Norton Virtual Drive" Which grabs a disc's contents and plces them on a hard drive, simulating an additional CD-ROM drive with that disc in it.

The only two problems with it would be:

Your "My Computer" area would be flooded with additional drive letter icons.
and
I cant say for sure because I havent tried it, but doesnt BG look for a disc in a *specific* drive? Like "Insert disc 4 in drive D" or somesuch?

I once had a drive letter problem back in the days of BG1, and it wouldnt read my discs until I fixed it...

Caliban

>>>I've been thinking: I could go buy that 30gb hard drive, and leave my cpu cover off.<<<

I wouldnt run your system with that CPU 'cover' off if I were you ;)

Have you thought of using a caddy system? There pretty cheap and basically give you a slot in one of the front 5.25" drive bays and a special case for the hard disk to go in so you can just slide it in and out.

There might be room for you to just leave a second hard disk in there anyway.

Fewer or more discs doesn't matter to me, I don't care if there were 100 of them.

MY biggest trouble with BG games are:
Bugs, bugs, everywhere... :mad: :mad:

If any amount of additional discs would solve those bugs, I'd certainly support that!

I ran my computer for a few months cover-less, only problem was the dust. I can see how that would get excessive...

Caliban

did no one else find disk swapping in bg1 a pain? what with the stupid gatefold case and all.. i am so glad that they put bg2 into a 'propper' cd case!

*Has a cd holder with enough slots to hold all BG cd's through ToB with one slot to spare.* :D

I remember the gatefold case... They always slid out the top, onto the floor, getting terminally scratched... Ive been thru three copies of BG1:

Borrowed my friend's copy for good...destroyed.

Bought one at a store...destroyed.

and bought one at a computer fair for 20 bucks, still good.

When I say destroyed...Its mostly from leaving discs out to be switched over and over, as they get scratched up...

Caliban

[This message has been edited by Caliban (edited September 05, 2001).]

Even if you a full installation, you will need to swap discs once in awhile....its only a few times but its still swapping discs. BTW I have a 60gb HD now, but even with a 6gb, I did full install.

Expand gaming cache larger then you'd swap cds less.

DVD certainly rules! Is there also a DVD-version of BG2?

i keep my disks safe inside disk protectors, and plastic cases, so when i need to swap disks they are always in perfect condition

Yeah, i learned that lesson the hard way in bg1. Scratched a disc, 3 i think, but still finished the game despite never having to use it. It was essential for the firewine bridge area, so i never went there. I emailed the company but never got a response (predictably... it's not like they'll send me a new disc.) So, when i got bg2 i burned all four copies immediately, but of course, i haven't scratched anything thus far. Better safe than sorry though. I don't mind swapping too much. I agree with extremist aobut the bugs though. Head scratching sort of stuff.

I havent scratched any of my BG2 discs yet, and I did a full install of ToB, to avoid at least one disc.

It seems I have never had to put disc one in, so I am limited to three discs that are needed, and when disc 4 goes in, it seems to stay in...

So my big qualm about the swapping is how the temple district is on a different disc than all the other places in athlatka...

Cheers

Caliban

I always have a full install so I only need to insert Tales of the Sword Coast and Throne of Bhaal. So the next biggest problem would be the limited AI.

er... in BG1 u need disk 3 to get into nashkel, u cant complete the game without meeting with the mayor of nashkel so he can give u the mines quest, and then for u to finish that quest, without doing that u cant get to the bandit camp

like i said, can't remember which one, might have been 3 might have been 4. Can't check right now, all i know is that the firewine bridge was apparently out of commish, never saw it, never will... but whatever disc it was that i scratched fortunately wasn't needed to finish the game. I concur that swapping discs to get to the temple is annoying, but considering the amount of excercise one gets while sitting on their arse playing this game, i think the nuisance is about as nominal as raising the beer can to one's mouth in order to drink it.

Hehe - Yeah...

I'm going active duty Air Force on the 24th, and boot camp awaits. Here I am wasting away in my computer chair!

My adventures here on this board will come to a halt then by the way... until February!

Caliban

wow man, congrats! Obviously your eyesight hasn't gone to shreds from the radiation. I happen to be in a program right now that allows for copious amounts of computer time, thus my exponentially growing amounts of posts around here. I'm getting quite good at online mini-golf too. Back to bg2, i just realised what to me represents THE SINGLE MOST ANNOYING FEATURE OF THE GAME... and here it is

"You must gather your party before venturing forth."


AAAAARRRRHGHHH!!

*Person with boots of speed gets there first*
<You must gather your party before venturing forth>
*Two more people arrive five seconds later*
<You must gather your party before venturing forth>
*Another straggler comes along*
<You must gather your party before venturing forth>
*Several seconds later Aerie shows up*
....<Yeah!>

I second that, hearing that guy say it repeatedly gets to you, more so than changing discs, at least for me.

Help yourself, with this (http://members.home.net/mrkevvy/SoAtweaks/BG2ShutUp'YouMustGatherYourPartyBeforeVenturingFor th'.zip). I tested it and it just removes the <you know the sentence> with silence!