Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition - Sorcerer's Place Interview

Taluntain · Wed, 14th Nov '12, 3:19am

Our intrepid new Editor, Marceror, has put together a series of questions for Trent Oster, the Beamdog mastermind behind the upcoming enhanced edition of the game that is the reason why Sorcerer's Place exists - Baldur's Gate. The interview is quite extensive, so here's a short bit to whet your appetite:

6. SP: Modding by the fans has been the lifeblood of this series for the past decade. Will the process of modding the game change much for modders in the Enhanced Edition?

Oster: We made an agreement very early within our team to go as far as possible to support the modding community. We enlisted a number of prolific modders from the community to help us not only keep modding as similar and as easy as possible, but to add in additional modding support where we can. In a few cases, this advisory group caught us going down a track and helped us re-direct to a better solution. I think the modders who aren't in the beta are going to be quite happy.

7. SP: How much fan created material made it into BG:EE?

Oster: Good question. There is a fair bit of fan content that is included into BG:EE, but I think very little went in untouched. In almost every case we worked closely with the modders involved to improve or revise the content to better fit the game and the average user. In some cases the modders went above and beyond their previous efforts and delivered something awesome with the additional support we were able to offer on the code side.

Dig into the rest of the interview here!

Topken · Wed, 14th Nov '12, 4:39am

Quote:

21. SP: What have been some of the more profound lessons learned working on BG:EE?

Oster: Never underestimate the time required to rework legacy code.

That should be common sense in cases like this where you are dealing with legacy code and trying to optimize it for the here and now and possibility the future. (I know I used the wrong form of that word but I can not think of what the right one is.)

Darion · Wed, 14th Nov '12, 8:39pm

Nice interview.
Mr. Oster was more talkative than usual.
Great work, O intrepid Marceror!!!

Marceror · Thu, 15th Nov '12, 6:23am

Thanks. I was pretty happy with the amount of information received. I had worried that some of the BG3 related questions wouldn't get answered, but they did. Trent was very gracious.

I'm looking forward to doing BG enhanced style later this month. I've been itching for a BG runthrough for months, but have been holding out for EE.

Rawgrim · Thu, 15th Nov '12, 7:54pm

Slightly off topic: But does anyone know if they have improved the interactions and such for the original NPC`s? Would be abit wierd if only the new ones actually start up a conversation etc.

Taluntain · Thu, 15th Nov '12, 8:05pm

IIRC they haven't touched the old dialogues.

Rawgrim · Thu, 15th Nov '12, 9:22pm

They hardly had any in BG1. I was thinking of if they added convos with NPC`s or between them, like BG2 had. If they haven`t, it would seem that only the new ones will be doing stuff like that. Making the old ones feel "lesser" in a way.

Darion · Fri, 16th Nov '12, 9:26am

The article mentions Fan-Created-Content.

Any idea what this content might be??
I don't remember reading anywhere about this before.

Marceror · Fri, 16th Nov '12, 6:31pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darion

The article mentions Fan-Created-Content.

Any idea what this content might be??
I don't remember reading anywhere about this before.

I'm assuming that most of it is bug fixes -- probably the majority of the 400+ bug fixes that are advertised with the game. There's likely also a few convenience tweaks that are popular with the community. I doubt they would include much more than that.

Rawgrim · Fri, 16th Nov '12, 6:49pm

Just had a chat with Dave Gross on facebook. The old npcs will indeed have new dialogue and such. Added stuff here and there. Not as much as they do in BG2, but more than they have in the original BG game.

Gaear · Fri, 16th Nov '12, 7:58pm

How will that work out in terms of voice audio (or the lack thereof)?

Marceror · Fri, 16th Nov '12, 8:39pm

There will be no new voice acting for the original companions.

Gaear · Fri, 16th Nov '12, 8:50pm

Ouch. I think that's a bad idea then, unless your goal is to announce "these are the new dialogues!"

Usually, half-voiced NPCs are the domain of mods.

Darion · Fri, 16th Nov '12, 9:28pm

Ah, I see. Thanx for the info Marce.

I wasn't thinking about the tweaks and patches the community did. I assumed actual mods.

Marceror · Sat, 17th Nov '12, 1:43am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaear

Ouch. I think that's a bad idea then, unless your goal is to announce "these are the new dialogues!"

Usually, half-voiced NPCs are the domain of mods.

I believe that I read that the new NPCs wouldn't have special dialogues with the old ones, so I'm not so sure it will work out the way you suggest. It very well may, however. Time will tell.

Rawgrim · Sat, 17th Nov '12, 2:56am

The new stuff will be text based. Gross said the older companions will have interactions with other NPCs. Brand new interactions. But not as much interaction as they had in BG2.

Gaear · Sat, 17th Nov '12, 4:19am

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. I don't mean to be Debbie Downer with this, it's just that an NPC who says one thing out loud and then the next silently appears kind of half-baked. I'm a bit surprised they're proceeding that way, honestly, though I'm hopeful they've got something up their sleeve to lessen the effect.

I do understand that dragging the original voice actors back into the studio fourteen years later is probably unrealistic.

Marceror · Sat, 17th Nov '12, 6:58am

Well, if it's a conversation between, say, Imoen and Neera, I'd prefer that the whole thing be text only, vs. Neera having VO and Imoen not.

Montresor · Sat, 17th Nov '12, 3:44pm

Perish the thought!

Incidentally, maybe they should have written a few interactions for Imoen. She had none or very few in the original game - IIRC because she was a late addition to the Vanilla game and therefore lacked a lot of development.

Darion · Sat, 17th Nov '12, 5:31pm

^ Yeah.
As someone who plays with the Imoen Friendship-Mod and has gotten used to her plently witty banter this will be a setback....

Wed, 14th Nov '12, 3:19am	#1
Taluntain SPS Account Holder Founder Resident Alpha and Omega Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Cori Celesti Posts: 20,857 Blog Entries: 13 Like: 174 Liked 132 Times in 85 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 53,277 Level: 58 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 54.6% Daily Activity 134.66% Weekly Activity 54.51% Monthly Activity 45.5% Achievements Awards	Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition - Sorcerer's Place Interview Our intrepid new Editor, Marceror, has put together a series of questions for Trent Oster, the Beamdog mastermind behind the upcoming enhanced edition of the game that is the reason why Sorcerer's Place exists - Baldur's Gate. The interview is quite extensive, so here's a short bit to whet your appetite: 6. SP: Modding by the fans has been the lifeblood of this series for the past decade. Will the process of modding the game change much for modders in the Enhanced Edition? Oster: We made an agreement very early within our team to go as far as possible to support the modding community. We enlisted a number of prolific modders from the community to help us not only keep modding as similar and as easy as possible, but to add in additional modding support where we can. In a few cases, this advisory group caught us going down a track and helped us re-direct to a better solution. I think the modders who aren't in the beta are going to be quite happy. 7. SP: How much fan created material made it into BG:EE? Oster: Good question. There is a fair bit of fan content that is included into BG:EE, but I think very little went in untouched. In almost every case we worked closely with the modders involved to improve or revise the content to better fit the game and the average user. In some cases the modders went above and beyond their previous efforts and delivered something awesome with the additional support we were able to offer on the code side. Dig into the rest of the interview here!
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Wed, 14th Nov '12, 8:39pm	#3
Darion Gems: 13/31 Latest gem: Ziose Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Baldur's Gate Posts: 581 Like: 4 Liked 19 Times in 15 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 1,653 Level: 13 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 65.79% Daily Activity 2.21% Weekly Activity 7.25% Monthly Activity 4.34% Achievements	Nice interview. Mr. Oster was more talkative than usual. Great work, O intrepid Marceror!!!
	__________________ "When in doubt, Nahals's Reckless Dweomer!"

Thu, 15th Nov '12, 6:23am	#4
Marceror SPS Account Holder Editor Chaos Shall Be Sown In Their Footsteps Join Date: May 2003 Location: Sword Coast Posts: 2,395 Like: 21 Liked 92 Times in 75 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 5,828 Level: 23 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 67.34% Daily Activity 2.21% Weekly Activity 0.95% Monthly Activity 1.4% Achievements Awards	Thanks. I was pretty happy with the amount of information received. I had worried that some of the BG3 related questions wouldn't get answered, but they did. Trent was very gracious. I'm looking forward to doing BG enhanced style later this month. I've been itching for a BG runthrough for months, but have been holding out for EE.
	__________________ You do want to venture forth, don't you? So gather your friggen' party already!

Thu, 15th Nov '12, 8:05pm	#6
Taluntain SPS Account Holder Founder Resident Alpha and Omega Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Cori Celesti Posts: 20,857 Blog Entries: 13 Like: 174 Liked 132 Times in 85 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 53,277 Level: 58 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 54.6% Daily Activity 134.66% Weekly Activity 54.51% Monthly Activity 45.5% Achievements Awards	IIRC they haven't touched the old dialogues.
	__________________ Help Support Sorcerer's Place! Join the Sorcerer's Place page!

Fri, 16th Nov '12, 9:26am	#8
Darion Gems: 13/31 Latest gem: Ziose Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Baldur's Gate Posts: 581 Like: 4 Liked 19 Times in 15 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 1,653 Level: 13 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 65.79% Daily Activity 2.21% Weekly Activity 7.25% Monthly Activity 4.34% Achievements	The article mentions Fan-Created-Content. Any idea what this content might be?? I don't remember reading anywhere about this before.
	__________________ "When in doubt, Nahals's Reckless Dweomer!"

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Thu, 15th Nov '12, 7:54pm	#5
Rawgrim Gems: 21/31 Latest gem: Pearl Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Norway Posts: 1,351 Like: 0 Liked 7 Times in 7 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 3,340 Level: 18 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 58.84% Daily Activity 2.21% Weekly Activity 0.95% Monthly Activity 1.4% Achievements	Slightly off topic: But does anyone know if they have improved the interactions and such for the original NPC`s? Would be abit wierd if only the new ones actually start up a conversation etc.

Thu, 15th Nov '12, 9:22pm	#7
Rawgrim Gems: 21/31 Latest gem: Pearl Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Norway Posts: 1,351 Like: 0 Liked 7 Times in 7 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 3,340 Level: 18 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 58.84% Daily Activity 2.21% Weekly Activity 0.95% Monthly Activity 1.4% Achievements	They hardly had any in BG1. I was thinking of if they added convos with NPC`s or between them, like BG2 had. If they haven`t, it would seem that only the new ones will be doing stuff like that. Making the old ones feel "lesser" in a way.

Fri, 16th Nov '12, 6:49pm	#10
Rawgrim Gems: 21/31 Latest gem: Pearl Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Norway Posts: 1,351 Like: 0 Liked 7 Times in 7 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 3,340 Level: 18 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 58.84% Daily Activity 2.21% Weekly Activity 0.95% Monthly Activity 1.4% Achievements	Just had a chat with Dave Gross on facebook. The old npcs will indeed have new dialogue and such. Added stuff here and there. Not as much as they do in BG2, but more than they have in the original BG game.

Fri, 16th Nov '12, 7:58pm	#11
Gaear SPS Account Holder Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 1,724 Like: 52 Liked 83 Times in 57 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 4,897 Level: 21 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 96.24% Daily Activity 2.21% Weekly Activity 23% Monthly Activity 50.65% Achievements Awards	How will that work out in terms of voice audio (or the lack thereof)?

Fri, 16th Nov '12, 8:39pm	#12
Marceror SPS Account Holder Editor Chaos Shall Be Sown In Their Footsteps Join Date: May 2003 Location: Sword Coast Posts: 2,395 Like: 21 Liked 92 Times in 75 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 5,828 Level: 23 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 67.34% Daily Activity 2.21% Weekly Activity 0.95% Monthly Activity 1.4% Achievements Awards	There will be no new voice acting for the original companions.
	__________________ You do want to venture forth, don't you? So gather your friggen' party already!

Fri, 16th Nov '12, 8:50pm	#13
Gaear SPS Account Holder Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 1,724 Like: 52 Liked 83 Times in 57 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 4,897 Level: 21 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 96.24% Daily Activity 2.21% Weekly Activity 23% Monthly Activity 50.65% Achievements Awards	Ouch. I think that's a bad idea then, unless your goal is to announce "these are the new dialogues!" Usually, half-voiced NPCs are the domain of mods.

Fri, 16th Nov '12, 9:28pm	#14
Darion Gems: 13/31 Latest gem: Ziose Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Baldur's Gate Posts: 581 Like: 4 Liked 19 Times in 15 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 1,653 Level: 13 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 65.79% Daily Activity 2.21% Weekly Activity 7.25% Monthly Activity 4.34% Achievements	Ah, I see. Thanx for the info Marce. I wasn't thinking about the tweaks and patches the community did. I assumed actual mods.
	__________________ "When in doubt, Nahals's Reckless Dweomer!"

Sat, 17th Nov '12, 2:56am	#16
Rawgrim Gems: 21/31 Latest gem: Pearl Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Norway Posts: 1,351 Like: 0 Liked 7 Times in 7 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 3,340 Level: 18 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 58.84% Daily Activity 2.21% Weekly Activity 0.95% Monthly Activity 1.4% Achievements	The new stuff will be text based. Gross said the older companions will have interactions with other NPCs. Brand new interactions. But not as much interaction as they had in BG2.

Sat, 17th Nov '12, 4:19am	#17
Gaear SPS Account Holder Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 1,724 Like: 52 Liked 83 Times in 57 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 4,897 Level: 21 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 96.24% Daily Activity 2.21% Weekly Activity 23% Monthly Activity 50.65% Achievements Awards	Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. I don't mean to be Debbie Downer with this, it's just that an NPC who says one thing out loud and then the next silently appears kind of half-baked. I'm a bit surprised they're proceeding that way, honestly, though I'm hopeful they've got something up their sleeve to lessen the effect. I do understand that dragging the original voice actors back into the studio fourteen years later is probably unrealistic.

Sat, 17th Nov '12, 6:58am	#18
Marceror SPS Account Holder Editor Chaos Shall Be Sown In Their Footsteps Join Date: May 2003 Location: Sword Coast Posts: 2,395 Like: 21 Liked 92 Times in 75 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 5,828 Level: 23 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 67.34% Daily Activity 2.21% Weekly Activity 0.95% Monthly Activity 1.4% Achievements Awards	Well, if it's a conversation between, say, Imoen and Neera, I'd prefer that the whole thing be text only, vs. Neera having VO and Imoen not.
	__________________ You do want to venture forth, don't you? So gather your friggen' party already!

Sat, 17th Nov '12, 3:44pm	#19
Montresor SPS Account Holder Distinguished Member Online Walkthrough Writer Mostly Harmless 30k Starfighter Champion! Bomb Bandits Champion! Breakout Champion! Cutie Quake Champion! Driller Champion! Hexxagon Champion! Michu Champion! Treasure Hunt Champion! Driving Mad Champion! Moebius Syndrome Champion! Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Denmark Posts: 2,997 Blog Entries: 2 Like: 53 Liked 41 Times in 31 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 7,903 Level: 26 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 98.48% Daily Activity 2.21% Weekly Activity 13.55% Monthly Activity 27.49% Achievements Awards	Perish the thought! Incidentally, maybe they should have written a few interactions for Imoen. She had none or very few in the original game - IIRC because she was a late addition to the Vanilla game and therefore lacked a lot of development.
	__________________ Chuck Norris can venture forth without gathering his party!

Sat, 17th Nov '12, 5:31pm	#20
Darion Gems: 13/31 Latest gem: Ziose Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Baldur's Gate Posts: 581 Like: 4 Liked 19 Times in 15 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 1,653 Level: 13 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 65.79% Daily Activity 2.21% Weekly Activity 7.25% Monthly Activity 4.34% Achievements	^ Yeah. As someone who plays with the Imoen Friendship-Mod and has gotten used to her plently witty banter this will be a setback....
	__________________ "When in doubt, Nahals's Reckless Dweomer!"