Baldur's Gate - of player characters and custom portraits
Feb 9, 2019 2:32:13 GMT -5
Post by edmonddantes on Feb 9, 2019 2:32:13 GMT -5
'Twas a cold winter day about two weeks past, when a desire gripped my heart to re-experience a game from my young adulthood...
I was actually almost 20 when Baldur's Gate came out the first time, and actually owned a copy that preceded the release of the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion pack. This was the "Gold Edition" and for some reason included Fallout... I still have that copy of Fallout but sold the BG discs because, to be honest, I didn't like the game at the time. Recently, however, the D&D bug bit me and I wondered if I might not have been being a little harsh in my youthful years.
So I visited the alchemical Ebay Machine and found a cheap old copy (with box and everything) for ten dollars. Obviously, then, I am playing the original Windows 95 release (I have no use for "Enhanced Editions" which require modern PCs for a decades-old game), and I am still without the expansion.
For what its worth... I still find BG a flawed game. I have two main problems with it: First, I hate that the interface is similar to a real-time strategy game, including having an obscuring shroud over the map which you need to uncover. In reality, my problem with this is I hate drag-and-drop because they can sometimes make simple actions clunky, plus this is an RPG where I have to deal with weird pathfinding issues (especially when I'm trying really hard to not trigger a pre-set encounter, for example, or when the party starts going random places because a narrow passage was blocked for a split-second), but when I'm not having problems, I'm just clicking and then waiting five million years for the party to get where I clicked, with myself not giving any input at all.
At the risk of being either old-fashioned or a weeb, a more Ultima V-ish or else JRPG interface would not have any of these problems, and I would almost like a fan-remake of Baldur's Gate done as an RPG-Maker game that keeps everything that made it BG but just without playing like an RTS. I shouldn't have to deal with RTS problems in an RPG.
My second major issue was how it handles subquests. I hate the NPCs who will see and walk up to you as soon as you enter their range even if you're invisible, or how sometimes you will just find something like "Joseph's Greenstone Ring" which, you know, now you HAVE to do it (admittedly this is probably more my problem than an objective flaw with the game) because you don't want to leave loose ends... and this often necessitates going into every generic house filled with unnamed "commoners" before finding the ONE doesn't-stand-out-in-any-way house that has the person you're supposed to talk to. Two easy solutions: One, houses with quests should be obviously stand-out--for example doing the Ys thing where important houses have open doors, or else different roof colors. Two, subquest objects shouldn't exist until you've talked to the person who the quest relates to--a thing RPGs before BG were already doing. That way I never have the "I just got done painting the house and think I'm gonna relax only for my dad to suddenly walk in and say he wants me to wash his car" feeling!
.... HOWEVER.
Due to its rescue of the SCS Eureka, its rescue of the Goliath's crew... [hits self] sorry, dialogue from another game got caught in my mental loop [free cookie to anyone who recognizes said line without Googling!].
Anyway, one other thing that had long been dormant was my desire to draw.
Baldur's Gate was instrumental in re-igniting that, due to its character creation system. You see, at one point you are asked to pick a portrait for your character and... lets be honest, all the built-in ones suck. See for yourself. A lot of them look either like complete dorks, or else are too obviously married to a specific character interpretation.... and still look like dorks. I'm not really a fan of this style.
So I looked at the Readme, saw the rules for custom portraits, and remembering that I didn't like this game back in the day, drew an avatar in MS Paint in 30 minutes.
Okay, from here this is about custom character portraits. I was originally gonna put each pic behind its own spoiler mark, but the forum was acting weird about that--like it was converting them all into one big spoiler mark with like five different /spoiler tags at the end, so instead I just put this whole section behind a spoiler mark. I'm honestly not sure what the rules are here... my intention was we could all start sharing our custom avatars and talk about drawing avvies for video games in general, but I'm not sure if I'm breaking a rule here. Anyway, people who just want to discuss BG itself can safely ignore this section... though there are some pics (especially the last one) I want some genuine input on.
This one is actually based on an avatar I used to use back in my TV Tropes days. You'll be seeing him again further down.
I called my first character "Thizdoof" and he was a Chaotic Good Cleric (I like playing as a Something Good character), but soon wasn't satisfied and restarted, and decided to try playing as a dwarven Fighter/Cleric:
Okay, so, some of my friends who have creative impulses say that the problem they always have is coming up with names. For me its the exact opposite--I either come up with the name first, or else an image or brief description will suggest one to me. To the point where I've told people "if you need a name, just ask me." You need to define whether you're going for silly or serious because I can do both.
Anyway, the dwarf here I called Dimble Dorey, and I got as far as finishing Nashkel Mines with him (after recruiting Minsc and Dynaheir), so I might finish the game with him.
Still, now the floodgates were opened and I wanted to draw for real, not within the restraints of MS-Paint, which resulted in more possible avatars.
Every image past this point was drawn on actual paper, inked with a Sigma Micron pen, then scanned in and colored digitally using Corel Painter Essentials 4 (which turned out to actually be a good program for old OSes). For these, I shrunk them so they wouldn't be annoying on an internet forum, but they're not sized to work with Baldur's Gate... tho that CAN be arranged...
I'm not 100% convinced my hand-drawing is better than my MS-Paint drawing.
So this is a (slightly) better drawing of that Moe Dantes character I mentioned earlier. This dude with his cheese-block hair was my cartoon avatar on other forums I used to frequent, and for awhile I had retired him, but... now I might bring him back. Once I get skilled enough for him to not look like a children's drawing, anyway (admittedly part of the problem might just be that I flat-colored him rather than attempting any sort of shading, but... well, maybe you guys should tell me?)
Then I got silly:
I call this one "Moeladdin." I'm not sure what made me want to draw an Aladdin-inspired version of my avatar. The dagger BTW is supposed to have electrical arcs... its a reference to a property of my original avatar where he used to have a magical cattle prod (these days he instead has a backscratcher).
Bad as those drawings were, they were still an effort, so I decided to do something simplistic and cutesy:
Then I got tired of drawing my own avatar and had an idea for another D&D character, a female gnome illusionist... except I couldn't remember if gnomes could be illusionists under 2nd Edition D&D rules. So the picture wound up suggesting its own story to get around that issue.
I call this girl "Ganomee Voker." Like I said, sometimes my names are silly. I honestly kinda wish I had given a serious name to one of these characters...
One more thing about Ganomee here... outside of that pink stripe (I have no idea what that is), I originally thought of her hair being reddish-brown, but at the last minute decided on pink. But I dunno. Do you guys think she'd look better with reddish-brown hair?
So, has a video game ever brought out artistic inspiration in you (whoever is reading this?)
And as for Baldur's Gate itself, like I said I'm having a hard time enjoying the game (considering restarting as a Fighter/Mage instead of a Fighter/Cleric) but I dunno... maybe there are mods that would help minimize or alleviate my issues?
What do you guys think about BG?
I was actually almost 20 when Baldur's Gate came out the first time, and actually owned a copy that preceded the release of the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion pack. This was the "Gold Edition" and for some reason included Fallout... I still have that copy of Fallout but sold the BG discs because, to be honest, I didn't like the game at the time. Recently, however, the D&D bug bit me and I wondered if I might not have been being a little harsh in my youthful years.
So I visited the alchemical Ebay Machine and found a cheap old copy (with box and everything) for ten dollars. Obviously, then, I am playing the original Windows 95 release (I have no use for "Enhanced Editions" which require modern PCs for a decades-old game), and I am still without the expansion.
For what its worth... I still find BG a flawed game. I have two main problems with it: First, I hate that the interface is similar to a real-time strategy game, including having an obscuring shroud over the map which you need to uncover. In reality, my problem with this is I hate drag-and-drop because they can sometimes make simple actions clunky, plus this is an RPG where I have to deal with weird pathfinding issues (especially when I'm trying really hard to not trigger a pre-set encounter, for example, or when the party starts going random places because a narrow passage was blocked for a split-second), but when I'm not having problems, I'm just clicking and then waiting five million years for the party to get where I clicked, with myself not giving any input at all.
At the risk of being either old-fashioned or a weeb, a more Ultima V-ish or else JRPG interface would not have any of these problems, and I would almost like a fan-remake of Baldur's Gate done as an RPG-Maker game that keeps everything that made it BG but just without playing like an RTS. I shouldn't have to deal with RTS problems in an RPG.
My second major issue was how it handles subquests. I hate the NPCs who will see and walk up to you as soon as you enter their range even if you're invisible, or how sometimes you will just find something like "Joseph's Greenstone Ring" which, you know, now you HAVE to do it (admittedly this is probably more my problem than an objective flaw with the game) because you don't want to leave loose ends... and this often necessitates going into every generic house filled with unnamed "commoners" before finding the ONE doesn't-stand-out-in-any-way house that has the person you're supposed to talk to. Two easy solutions: One, houses with quests should be obviously stand-out--for example doing the Ys thing where important houses have open doors, or else different roof colors. Two, subquest objects shouldn't exist until you've talked to the person who the quest relates to--a thing RPGs before BG were already doing. That way I never have the "I just got done painting the house and think I'm gonna relax only for my dad to suddenly walk in and say he wants me to wash his car" feeling!
.... HOWEVER.
Due to its rescue of the SCS Eureka, its rescue of the Goliath's crew... [hits self] sorry, dialogue from another game got caught in my mental loop [free cookie to anyone who recognizes said line without Googling!].
Anyway, one other thing that had long been dormant was my desire to draw.
Baldur's Gate was instrumental in re-igniting that, due to its character creation system. You see, at one point you are asked to pick a portrait for your character and... lets be honest, all the built-in ones suck. See for yourself. A lot of them look either like complete dorks, or else are too obviously married to a specific character interpretation.... and still look like dorks. I'm not really a fan of this style.
So I looked at the Readme, saw the rules for custom portraits, and remembering that I didn't like this game back in the day, drew an avatar in MS Paint in 30 minutes.
Okay, from here this is about custom character portraits. I was originally gonna put each pic behind its own spoiler mark, but the forum was acting weird about that--like it was converting them all into one big spoiler mark with like five different /spoiler tags at the end, so instead I just put this whole section behind a spoiler mark. I'm honestly not sure what the rules are here... my intention was we could all start sharing our custom avatars and talk about drawing avvies for video games in general, but I'm not sure if I'm breaking a rule here. Anyway, people who just want to discuss BG itself can safely ignore this section... though there are some pics (especially the last one) I want some genuine input on.
This one is actually based on an avatar I used to use back in my TV Tropes days. You'll be seeing him again further down.
I called my first character "Thizdoof" and he was a Chaotic Good Cleric (I like playing as a Something Good character), but soon wasn't satisfied and restarted, and decided to try playing as a dwarven Fighter/Cleric:
Okay, so, some of my friends who have creative impulses say that the problem they always have is coming up with names. For me its the exact opposite--I either come up with the name first, or else an image or brief description will suggest one to me. To the point where I've told people "if you need a name, just ask me." You need to define whether you're going for silly or serious because I can do both.
Anyway, the dwarf here I called Dimble Dorey, and I got as far as finishing Nashkel Mines with him (after recruiting Minsc and Dynaheir), so I might finish the game with him.
Still, now the floodgates were opened and I wanted to draw for real, not within the restraints of MS-Paint, which resulted in more possible avatars.
Every image past this point was drawn on actual paper, inked with a Sigma Micron pen, then scanned in and colored digitally using Corel Painter Essentials 4 (which turned out to actually be a good program for old OSes). For these, I shrunk them so they wouldn't be annoying on an internet forum, but they're not sized to work with Baldur's Gate... tho that CAN be arranged...
I'm not 100% convinced my hand-drawing is better than my MS-Paint drawing.
So this is a (slightly) better drawing of that Moe Dantes character I mentioned earlier. This dude with his cheese-block hair was my cartoon avatar on other forums I used to frequent, and for awhile I had retired him, but... now I might bring him back. Once I get skilled enough for him to not look like a children's drawing, anyway (admittedly part of the problem might just be that I flat-colored him rather than attempting any sort of shading, but... well, maybe you guys should tell me?)
Then I got silly:
I call this one "Moeladdin." I'm not sure what made me want to draw an Aladdin-inspired version of my avatar. The dagger BTW is supposed to have electrical arcs... its a reference to a property of my original avatar where he used to have a magical cattle prod (these days he instead has a backscratcher).
Bad as those drawings were, they were still an effort, so I decided to do something simplistic and cutesy:
Then I got tired of drawing my own avatar and had an idea for another D&D character, a female gnome illusionist... except I couldn't remember if gnomes could be illusionists under 2nd Edition D&D rules. So the picture wound up suggesting its own story to get around that issue.
I call this girl "Ganomee Voker." Like I said, sometimes my names are silly. I honestly kinda wish I had given a serious name to one of these characters...
One more thing about Ganomee here... outside of that pink stripe (I have no idea what that is), I originally thought of her hair being reddish-brown, but at the last minute decided on pink. But I dunno. Do you guys think she'd look better with reddish-brown hair?
So, has a video game ever brought out artistic inspiration in you (whoever is reading this?)
And as for Baldur's Gate itself, like I said I'm having a hard time enjoying the game (considering restarting as a Fighter/Mage instead of a Fighter/Cleric) but I dunno... maybe there are mods that would help minimize or alleviate my issues?
What do you guys think about BG?