BG1: Classic vs Tutu

Remove all ads!

I realize that an increasing number of people now use the Tutu mod when playing BG1 rather than using the old engine.
As a matter of fact, even I prefered it once and still have it installed parallel to a classic BG1 install.
But nowadays I prefer the old engine because of reasons I'll mention later.

First here are the things that make Tutu superior in my opinion:
Engine improvements:
- Container highlighting
- better item stacking
- Faster movement
- Better mod support and better modability
- Better resolution (made obsolete by the widescreen mod)

Something of a mixed bag:
- More race/class choices (but danger of unbalancing the game)
- New spells (again, this can slightly to greatly unbalance the game)

The last two items which are great inherently (more choice/variety is always good) also destroys it for me.
A lot of the Kit's abilities are simply not balanced for use in BG1. Some are a bit overpowered others immensely.
The same is true for the new spells (imagine casting summon familiar with a level 1 mage!). And while the PC can use the new spells, the antagonists aren't upgraded (one can change this with difficulty mods though).

Another point is, that the old proficiency classification, which is simpler than the one in BG2, is more balanced in regard to the game.
The same holds true with the thieving skills.

All in all the classical game flavor feals more 'natural' when playing the old engine compared to Tutu.

I realize that getting BG1 to run on a modern machine is more complicated than it is the case with BG2.
For me worked a DirectDraw fix, which is available here at SP, iirc.
Another big drawback - the low resolution - is made obsolete by the excellent widesreen mod (I usually enhance to 800x600).
Now that I can run it on my modern machine I usually prefer the old experience.

I'd be curious concerning reasons of other people why one would prefer one version over the other.

 

I prefer the old version, though I sometimes play Easytutu. Ever had those times when you would use Shadowkeeper to mod your game just for the sake of making a a particular run more enjoyable - balance be damned? Easytutu is like that for me sometimes. Sometimes I simply want to play BG1 with that BG2 "polished" feel (reasons given above).

Almost any other time, like when I'm experimenting or when I'm in the mood for a more challenging run, I play the original with a few modfixes like Xan's Wraith Form and Safana's spear proficiency.

 

I prefer EasyTutu. BG1 had it's charms, but I miss too much: aTweaks and SCS mainly, but also many other gameenhancing mods.

However BWP is the new black. Easytutu still contains some issues (and isn't maintained anymore AFAICT). BWP is bringing the newest fixes to the BG1 part also though installation still creates some issues.

Still I use easytutu because it's so damn well... easy.

 

Playing it with BG2's engine has too many benefits for me to go back to the original. In addition to what you mentioned:

- the journal sorts quests by ongoing/completed, date and name
- SCS
- better spell animations and sounds
- better fog of war effect (with 3D acceleration on)
- maximum of 5 summons (in BG you can abuse wand of monster summoning)
- Maybe it's just me, but I can't get BG to respect its aspect ratio on my GPU and monitor, it stretches to fullscreen.

Yes some things are unbalanced with the BG2 engine, but some things were unbalanced with the BG1 engine as well, like the summon abuse. Besides you don't have to play any of the new classes, if you want to stick to vanilla classes you can and they work almost the same exact way.

 

I prefer classic BG. After replaying BG I decided installing BGT to replay both BGs.

I was shocked about the ugliness of the BG2 engine, nice and realistic inventory graphics are replaced by ugly indistinguishable dirty pseudo art. Imoen's previously nice paperdoll looks like a zombie and weapon and armor icons are uglyfied too, look at at what's supposed to be small/medium/large shields for example.

The weapon proficiencies make sure that most weapons stay unused, enemies appear out of thin air when you retreat from a battle, you now get reputation loss for killing more often even if it doesn't make sense, commoners follow you through doors to make sure that you're really screwed if you do something wrong to encourage metagaming, +1 in weapon descriptions doesn't mean +1 to hit and damage any more, lightning weather gets more annoying, it's not fun if party members are killed or healing orgies are made necessary ...

 

For me, I played the vanilla BG1 engine SO many times, switching over to TuTu was a refreshing change. Plus all the added content of mods that Tutu and BGT add makes it a whole new experience. If I was voting on which is better, Orignal or Tutu/BGT, I would say neither. They are just different gaming experiences.

 

I've only ever played Tutu, though I suppose it would be interesting to actually play the original at least once.

 

I got about half way through the vanilla game before I aborted. I'm now going again through tutu with the tweak pack and it's a much more streamlined experience. A lot of old frustrations with the way the game ran before are just gone. Some of the changes do make it easier but these things are mainly difficult in the annoying way. Faster movement, container highlighting and item stacking for both loot and ammo is a godsend.

 

For the longest time I was die hard BG classic, never gave Tutu a chance. Then one day I decided to try Tutu and haven't looked back. From a modding perspective I can do a lot more with it then you can do with the BG 1 engine. Not to mention having a better resolution. The only thing I don't like is the crappy avatars/paper dolls that BG2 uses. BG1 and IWD were much better.