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IWD-in-BG2 development halted


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The last released version of IWD-in-BG2 was v8, released in Fall 2013. In Winter 2013-14 I supplied a modified v9, designed for the Enhanced Edition engine and written to allow for engine modifications, to Beamdog. That modified v9 formed the core of IWDEE, but IWDEE was able to go a long way beyond what was possible in IWD-in-BG2 v8 because its development team (including CamDawg, the other main author for IWD-in-BG2) had access to the source code of the engine.

To me (and I believe to CamDawg too) IWDEE represents a successful completion of the project we began in IWD-in-BG2, and with its release yesterday I no longer intend to develop IWD-in-BG2. (I apologise for not making this clearer in the couple of months since IWDEE was announced; I took it as obvious but clearly shouldn't have done.)

There is some more discussion of the issue at this thread: https://www.gibberlings3.net/forums/topic/26767-is-a-newer-version-than-v8-in-progress/

Edited by CamDawg
fixed old link
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Congratulations to you and CamDawg! :) What started out as a mod has now made it onto the list of official Infinity Engine games. (Look, it's on Wikipedia!) That is amazing! :)

Even if IWD:EE ultimately went beyond the original mod and did a lot of other things as well, you guys must be incredibly proud of this "successful completion of the project". :)

its development team (including CamDawg, the other main author for IWD-in-BG2) had access to the source code of the engine.

CamDawg, after only being able to poke at resources or ToBEx, tell us how good THAT felt. :D

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Sorry to take this totally off topic, but I'll accept a week ban if I must, for it, as to me it's worth it.

... started out as a mod has now made it onto the list of official Infinity Engine games. (Look, it's on Wikipedia!) That is amazing! :)

This... is symptomatic to a free dictionary, one that anyone can post on, the fact that the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition (2012) uses the "Infinity EngineTM" has not been established ! I believe that the Beamdog had to recreate the engine from their own stuff and thus have the source code fully available for them, which then allows them to use a various of the old resources but also to create new.

Making the last part of the wiki article a total lie.

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Depends on what code he looked at. ;) Some of it could make you cry and not from joy.

 

But yeah, congrats!

 

Sorry to take this totally off topic, but I'll accept a week ban if I must, for it, as to me it's worth it.

 

... started out as a mod has now made it onto the list of official Infinity Engine games. (Look, it's on Wikipedia!) That is amazing! :)

This... is symptomatic to a free dictionary, one that anyone can post on, the fact that the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition (2012) uses the "Infinity EngineTM" has not been established ! I believe that the Beamdog had to recreate the engine from their own stuff and thus have the source code fully available for them, which then allows them to use a various of the old resources but also to create new.

Making the last part of the wiki article a total lie.

 

Dude!! Have you any idea how much effort that would be? Everything would be delayed for additional years if they had to do any substantial stuff from start. IE is a mess internally, so it'd be hard to recreate it in a clean fashion (we should know). Edited by lynx
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Ummm...having seen IWDEE (and I briefly played it :) ) I must say - Overhaul apperantly learned a lot.

Zoom lock? Can we get it in BGEE also?

Options menu (with 3e backstab on-off toggle? ) - wonderful.

Font size bar? Outstanding.

Ummm...

Do something like this with BGEEs. This is pretty much (I guess) what people would expect from EEs. With "concentration check" toggle. :p

Jokes aside, having seen IWDEE in action, tells me that there is hope for BGEEs yet. Great job - definitely buying it; even if I don't really like IWD I'm getting this.

Oh, and get the guys who worked on IWDEE to work on BGEE. :D

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Yeah, just to pop in and echo what David has already mentioned. I started IWD-in-BG2 more or less on a lark--I had written an opcode converter already to get some IWD spells for The Divine Remix, and thought with my experience on BGT and Tutu that doing the rest should be pretty straightforward.

 

Heh.

 

If it wasn't for David deciding to hop in, the project never would have made it past the series-of-somewhat-kinda-working file converters that I left it in. He's done the bulk of work since, and brought IWD-in-BG2 (at times kicking and screaming) to a workable state. It may have been my harebrained idea, but David made it work.

 

However, we both knew there were some things that would remain beyond our reach. The most obvious were spells and items using code we simply couldn't simulate in the ToB engine, but even for working stuff there was a lot of bailing wire and chewing gum behind the scenes. To that end, IWDEE was an opportunity to reach the goals of IWD-in-BG2 and I'm happy to say that it has.

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Kreso you can't imagine how pleased I am you liked IWD:EE. I cannot explain it, but your post made my day. Now, if only....Erg, Erg where are you? Please, try out IWD:EE, maybe there is hope for you after all:)

Heh, jokes aside, I should probably play the damn thing for a change, not only translating it over and over again, when I have a little free time..:)

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Kreso you can't imagine how pleased I am you liked IWD:EE. I cannot explain it, but your post made my day. Now, if only....Erg, Erg where are you? Please, try out IWD:EE, maybe there is hope for you after all:)

I'm pleased to see a lot of reviewers who had panned the BGEE/BGIIEE launches come around for IWDEE, definitely. Even if IWDEE were to get it perfect, though, there are still legitimate reasons to prefer the original, and I think it's counterproductive to try and draw lines in the sand about it.

 

A good bit of constructive criticism is worth far, far more than praise. While the latter is certainly appreciated, the former helps me, and my projects, improve. I'd much rather have Erg active and critical than have him made to feel unwelcome or wrong. I value his input.

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With.. mods? :O

No. Just seeing the options menu made me pleased, tbh. It's not "perfect" (i.e. I'd definitely revise kits), but after witnessing BGEEs upon their release, IWDEE looks and plays splendid.

 

 

 

I'm pleased to see a lot of reviewers who had panned the BGEE/BGIIEE launches come around for IWDEE, definitely.

Well, credit where credit is due. Now, maybe (probably) this isn't the right thread to ask this, but anyway - I've noticed that IWDEE adds "Evasion" to thieves (they can dodge fireballs completely).

Is there any chance something like this goes to BGEE? Along with the concentration tweak and cosmetic attacks? :rolleyes:

I don't really know the engine differences in between the two games, but if it's possible to implement (even via 3rd party mods) some of IWD stuff to BG world - that would be epic. :D

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Oh Cam, I was just joking. There was nothing ironic in my comment, just pure satisfaction, that apparently improvements are going in very much right direction, since even players who shows so much criticism towards EE, can see positive enhancements.

 

I value arguments of veteran players like Erg and Kreso very much, too. I cannot argue with them cause these arguments are flawless, as a rule. It's just, they tend to focus on the worst aspects of EE (worst for them at least) and I didn't quite see if they notice any positive aspects of EE at all. Now I see, that they do (Kreso at least) and it genuinely pleases me.

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Well, credit where credit is due. Now, maybe (probably) this isn't the right thread to ask this, but anyway - I've noticed that IWDEE adds "Evasion" to thieves (they can dodge fireballs completely).

Is there any chance something like this goes to BGEE? Along with the concentration tweak and cosmetic attacks? :rolleyes:

I don't really know the engine differences in between the two games, but if it's possible to implement (even via 3rd party mods) some of IWD stuff to BG world - that would be epic. :D

Evasion, like the 3e sneak attack and Heart of Fury mode, require code support in the actual engine. There's probably some poking around you can do with mods, but not a lot--e.g. David and I manged to get evasion working for IWD-in-BG2, but only through a lot of hacks.

 

However, since it's a shared code base it's entirely doable to see this code turn up in BGEE/BGIIEE in the future. The problem is that it's a lower priority than, say, bug fixing, and testing code merges for regressions is a non-trivial QA exercise. I want it there, and personally I think it will be--the problem is that there's no way I could say that for sure, and certainly not attached to any kind of a timeline. Few things would get me into more trouble than for someone to take this as 'Beamdog confirms...' :)

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