EE is on sale at GoG, should I buy for Siege of Dragonspear?

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I have owned the 5-CD version of BG1 for almost 15 years.
In light of Tutu and Trilogy, I didn't think Enhanced Edition had enough going for it to be worth shelling out the cash for it, especially since I've been dealing with unemployment and haven't been able to buy any new games since 2013 due to only having temp jobs and constant financial trouble and uncertainty. I've only bought stuff at the library "book sales" for $1-$2.

I've finally gotten a steady job instead of all the temp jobs and am finally rebuilding my savings, and I just saw on GOG that EE is on sale for $5 and Siege of Dragonspear is just under $7. Meaning if I want to play Siege of Dragonspear it costs ~$12, while the "deluxe edition" would set me back over $13 + the $5 for EE.

Are the benefits of EE worth re-buying the game? I'd mostly do it so I could finally play Siege of Dragonspear, or I wouldn't consider it without something new.

 

I'd go for it - the enhanced editions offer pretty much all user improvements you could want without having to mod anything, and some you cannot get even with mods, though these are mostly just quality of life things, like the custom AI scripts and the quickloot bar that'll let you pickup items from all loot piles around your character without having to walk from pile to pile.

The fact that they ported the BG2 ruleset to BG1:EE adds some replay value as well, since there's a lot more options for your character in the way of kits and classes that you can't pick in the vanilla game (sorcerer and shaman) as well as some 'new' spells and items.

While i personally feel like the New companions in the base game as well as the SoD expansion itself are not of the same writing quality as the original games, i still got enough enjoyement out of it to warrant a $12 purchase.
I'd forego the digital deluxe version though, as far as i can tell all you're getting extra out of it is the digital soundtrack.

 

If you ask me, SoD's not worth the money, but it's well worth getting the EE games. The fact that SoD is still $7 even at -66% is kinda laughable.

You mean the original companions that came with a single basic quest and practically never said anything aside from one-liners?

 

Most of those didn't even have their own quest. Minsc had to find Dynaheir. Edwin wanted to kill her. Eldoth wanted to raid a mansion and pick up Skie. Kagain wanted to investigate a looted caravan, but never followed up on locating who raided it and his quest always felt incomplete to me and I was surprised that we never got an "unfinished business" or other mod for BG1 that completed it.
I can't recall any of the rest having any kind of actual quest, although Jaheria, Kahalid, Monteron, and Xar wanted to investigate the Nashkel mines and Yeslick was willing to help clear out the mine in Cloakwood.

 

There's a mod to complete Kagain's quest, but I don't think there was ever much of a followup. And yeah, most of the quests could barely be called that.

 

Like Xen in Half-life, most people seem to forget some of the not-so-good stuff in the original game. To be fair, BGT(utu/rilogy) and BG2 fixed those issues for most people. So much so that the lack of NPC characterisation in the first game kind of got forgotten.

Anyway, I wouldn't get the EEs for SoD. Most people seem to favour the EEs for the lack of needing to install mods to fix certain things.

 

I favor EEs because the new engine elevated modding to a brand new level, but yeah, all the other perks are nice too.

 

Is the mod for EE or original? I forgot what forum I was posting in when I made the earlier post.
If it works in the original, could you please link to it?

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As for EE, I wouldn't buy it as I've been satisfied with the original game, especially with Tutu available to let me use the BG2 kits if I so desire.
Hence why I asked if Siege of Dragonspear was worth the combined cost of EE+SoD as getting both is the only way I could (not would) play it.

 

First thing that comes to mind is Unfinished Business, which lists:

But I think I might have seen a couple of alternatives over the years as well.

 

How did I miss an Unfinished Business for BG1? I thought it was only available for BG2.

 

I've noticed that EE modifies Kivan's quest. Does it fix that really irritating thing with the original game where Kivan couldn't be dropped otherwise he would disappear, but would never leave you? (Which, strangely, I don't think anyone ever thought to fix with a mod) Clearly it was some kind of bandit timer which was bugged.

 

I believe Kivan's scripting has been fixed, yes.

 

That's good. As someone who both likes to use Kivan but also likes to mix my parties up a bit, that irritates me immensely in the original game.

 

Some good info on fixes for BG here: http://www.forgottenwars.com/bg1/index.htm

Baldurdash, dudleyfixes, and unfinished business.

 

Playing BG/TOTSC 1.3.5521 with just the Baldurdash 1.1 fixpack, I picked up Kivan day 12, left him at the Red Sheaf in Beregost about day 50, he was still there day 140.

 

The issue was that Kivan would leave forever immediately when you kicked him out of your party after a certain point in time - in the same way that an evil NPC would disappear if you got to a high enough rep level, and then reformed the party to kick them out. He'd just say he had things to attend to and then disappear.

You could kick him out before his timer reached that stage, and then get him back into the party, but after a certain amount of time in the party you could never ditch him, or he'd be gone forever. He'd never actually leave off his own volition, though.

It's been years since I've played though and your Baldurdash experience is encouraging - I've just started a new game with Baldurdash so I'm eager to test this out.

 

I just went back to check, and he rejoined after I agreed to hunt bandits, even though all the bandits are long dead. Reputation was 20, PC is neutral good, w/Minsc, Branwen, Coran, and Dynaheir, don't know if it makes a difference. I picked Kivan up as early as possible, but switched to Coran as soon as I could, because of the 20 dexterity.

I've got no idea about the timer and its triggers. All I've got is what I gave you about how I handled Kivan.