Small thing, but it was better in BG1!

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I found out where the single arrow of detonation is, (sewers under temple district). Kind of funny, it doesn't seem very good at all to me! I think there are arrows of dispelling in Spellhold and maybe some more of detonation, I remember seeing both plenty of times during my fights with the vampires and in the maze of Spellhold.

 

Another thing which was very cool in BG1!
It worked even on Black Bears...

 

Wandering encounters were way better in BG1. They were more frequent the further you tried to travel in one jump and they were varied by region *and* power. It was genuinely dangerous to travel in the wilderness e.g. the encounter where you suddenly find yourself surrounded by up to 12 bandits, or a gang of humanoids and a basilisk!
Also, sleeping through the night in a wilderness setting was far more dangerous i.e. true to P&P AD&D.
My biggest gripe over all however, has to be the change in BG2 whereby you cannot talk to charmed creatures. The response you get i.e. 'A mind controlled individual cannot...' is inane and not in keeping with the charm spell descriptions. Charmed creatures do not lose their minds or their ability to access what they know. They merely see the caster as a 'trusted friend'. If you speak to a charmed character, he would answer as any friend would!
As this was implemented in BG1, hostile characters could be conversed with in order to fix broken quests, which makes sense. Now, in BG2, if, for example, I upset Xzar by failing to pickpocket a ruffian, I cannot complete the Jahiera quests or romance! With the old way, I could at least appease him enough to fix things (although it would likely be dangerous and time consuming - but a great fun challenge!).
[edit] The rumours in inns were better too because sometimes they weren't obvious things that you already knew about. Also, there were a few red-herrings thrown in now and again.
Also, the maps: having areas fully visible is stupidly unrealistic. There was always a sense of discovery on reaching new places in BG1. Some of the buildings had obscure entrances too; I recall feeling I had discovered a 'secret' location several times in BG1 as opposed to seeing 'Log Cabin' or 'Umar Cave' on the map, which is a pathetic giveaway that the cabin or the cave is where you must go sooner or later!

 

I'd have to say the improved banter in BG2 is worthy of the "best improvement" award in my opinion. in BG1 the characters i picked were purely down to game stats as their personalities were never really an issue, but in BG2 i would keep Minsc just for the dialogue alone...

 

That is one of the best things in BGII, noone denies that. If I had to choose between BG1 and BGII however, I would choose the first one...

 

Aye, me too, but now the CoM are working, or even have released, the Banter Pack for BG1, so that may change...

 

Sorry Velve but I don't understand what you've posted.

 

I've never heard of CoM but I'd guess they're a group who have put together a banter pack for BG1, meaning that you can get the same kind of interaction in 1 as you got in 2.

 

CoM= Chosen of Mystra, a modding community, beats TeamBG every day!

 

I remember faintly, I think I heard of them.
Could you tell more about them or just a link if possible? I tried www.chosenofmystra.com but the site seems empty, only an image and the title is there.

 

How about something BIG but it was better in BG2? ;\

 

BG1 was a much better game than BG2, and largly for the little things. The best thing about BG would have to be that quests aren't thrown at you. You don't walk down the street and have people run up to you and say, "Hey! Hey you! Go do some quest for me!" It was more subtle than that.

Also, in BG1, there wasn't so much oodles and oodles of gold. In BG2 you just wander in to any shop and go "I want that." and volia. 'tis yours, and oyu still have a huge abount of money.

[ February 05, 2004, 11:03: Message edited by: Aikanaro ]

 

I think a few people have their rose tinted glasses on here...

BG1 was a good game but the designers took what they learned from BG1 to make the sequel better. Exploring may have been fun but i spent far toom uch time traipsing across empty area's without knowing quite where I had to go or exactly where my destination was. too many quests weren't fully expained or had confusing elements where you were unsure of where to go next

 

I agree with the Swordalizer. BG1 was a great game but 2 was better in so many ways. 1 might have had a few nifty little features that 2 didn't yet for the most part it was just a case of wandering from A to B and then from B to C and so on. Great game in itself but never in the same league as 2.

 

Yep, some people are just stone deaf. Of course, I am fully qualified to make that statement, never having played BG1

Seriously, the reason I never played BG1 was because of what I'd read about the openness; I prefer a bit more direction in my games because I don't have alot of time to play in the first place, and I'd prefer not to spend it spinning my wheels. But as Tal says, to each his own.

 

It was the areas that did it for me. In BG 1, I had 100 percent of every area on the big map explored. 95 percent by walking around, the rest by that little spell thingy.

To me, it just made things more ... fun.

 

I suppose the freedom was nice in BG1, but the characterisation was sooo much better in BG2!

all the NPCs felt like characters, not just bunches of stats, and the quests had much more to do with the character, not just "fetch me my wine" (actual BG1 quest! ). I think people are just big on BG1 because it was the first... it impacted on people so much because it had no hype, unlike BG2. if you have no hype, people can only be impressed. If you have loads of hype there is much more chance of "it's good but... i expected better"

In BG2 the player is constantly confronted with options and choices of which quest to take... i am only beginning act 4 but i have constantly had 4 or 5 quests at a time to complete. Not what i'd call linear...

Also things like being able to add you're own journal entries and map details is a godsend! i was constantly carrying around quest items in BG1 because i'd spoken to the guy 3 weeks (real time) ago and i couldn't remember which house they were in!!

 

This debate truly is a matter of personal opinion. Personally, I prefered BG2, but there were definitely aspects of BG1 which were better. Exploring all those maps for one little encounter of significance was a bit overboard for me. It got really dull at times. On the flip side, I agree with Tal that in BG2 they crammed the quests and encounters so damn closely together, they kinda went overboard in the other direction. The character development (of the NPCs that is) in BG2 is substantially better, but there was more variety in joinable NPCs (and just more in general) in BG1. The engine upgrades for BG2 were a HUGE reason why I preferred it more. Sadly, I played BG2 first, so when I tried to go back to BG1, I just couldn't do it. I never even got past chapter 2 in BG1 until BGT came out and I was able to play it in the BG2 engine. BG1 did feel more like the kind of experience a true 'adventurer' would have at times, but BG2 tended to just be more exciting as you went through it.

Again, in the end, it's just a matter of personal taste. I, personally, have always preferred BG2. But once BG1TUTU is bug free (damn close already), and the BG1 NPC project is finished, I might be changing my tune completely.

 

And do you guys realise they don't have them funny dialogs on the NPCs if you click on them multiple times.
I think that is the most lacking in the BGII game.