BGTutu vs Baldur's Gate Trilogy

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I admit I don't know a lot about this topic, hence the post. But it seems like BGTutu and Baldur's Gate Trilogy do the same thing. BGTutu using the BG1 engine and Baldur's Gate Trilogy using the BG2 engine. So my quesiton: isn't the BG2 engine better? Characters moving faster and such? Why choose to play both games using the BG1 engine?

 

BGTutu also uses BG2 Engine!

 

You are right. I read the blurb on Black Wyrm's Lair backwards. So why are there two mods that do the same thing then? It sounds like I can use BGT without having to uninstall/reinstall whereas Black Wyrm's Lair says I'll have to reinstall with Tutu. Does Tutu have any advantages over BGT? I see more people talking about Tutu rather than BGT.

 

If I'm not wrong BGTutu has being around longer than Trilogy. Also, (again I could be wrong) there is more mods for Tutu that for Trilogy.

I, for example, use BGTutu, never had a problem with it and I'm very happy using it.

 

Okay, so if I'm not really interested in any of the BGTutu mods I've come across than BGT is superior regarding the fact that I won't need to reinstall any of the software?

 

You won't have to reinstall to play BG2 with EasyTutu either, it creates a new installation for itself.

Tutu effectively updates BG1 to use the BG2 engine features, remaining as faithful as possible to the original game. BGT merges the two games so they can be played through in one continuous go.

 

Does this mean, for example, that If I chose different thief skills for Imoen or to have her dual into mage at a later time that BGT would communicate to BG2 the changes and I could have an (imo) "better" Imoen?

 

Don't know much about BGT, but it is said, that there's created more mods for tutu. I really like EasyTutu. AFAIK Macready is doing some serious changes ATM, susch as bugfixes and an overhaul of the spells.

 

With tutu, you install bg1, and bg2. then it creates a new install directory, using graphics and other data from bg1 and engine from bg2.

so neither your bg2 or bg1 installations are affected.

the nice thing about this is that you divide the whole huge game into two halves, so it gives you a convenient point to change characters mid way through the story.

 

BGTutu seems to be slowly edging out BGT. My main problem with Tutu is the very fact that it divides the games in half. I don't look forward to frustrating hours with ShadowKeeper trying to make Imoen, Minsc, and Jaheira match up with how I left them at the ending of TotSC.

 

Actually, Tutu has pretty much always had a much more sizeable user base than BGT. If anything, it's the latter which is beginning to gain more popularity with recent releases than it used to, not vice versa. The bulk of mods are available for both platforms.

This isn't going to change, I'm afraid. We, "the Tutu team", are of the view that the games stand alone more effectively than as a merged entity, due to the considerable number of nigh-insurmountable inconsistencies between the two.

 

Nice to hear from a developer. I can understand your having a vision for your mod(s) and wanting to stick to it. I have to wait for my copies of BG1 and TotSC to come in before I can start to play so I'm bandying about my options of BGT vs BGTutu. ShadowKeeper seems to be the main issue right now. Maybe if I find a good tutorial on how to use it I'll be more likely to go with Tutu.

Couple questions. First, do you go with the BG1 or BG2 stats for the NPCs that are in both games in Tutu? More frivolously, what's the origin for the name BGTutu? Just curious.

 

BG1Tutu, "Baldur's Gate One to Two (BG2)".

Tutu uses the BG stats for NPCs, as it aims to be as faithful as possible to the original BG. BG2 Tweaks will let you select BG or BG2 stats for the various NPCs that got upgrades in the sequel.

And agreed with Sim--there are simply too many continuity issues to make a good transition between the two games.

 

Clever acronym for the mod title. Thanks for the FYI.

I dl'ed BG2 Tweaks but since I've gotten so many new mods to look at over the past two and a half days I havent' been able to digest them all yet.

I didn't realize there are a lot of continuity issues between the two games. I haven't ever spent much time with BG1. My copy will be here some time this week.

Since I want to use BG1NPC and I've heard that can be buggy on BGT I think I'll go with BGTutu. I'll search around the net for a ShadowKeeper tutorial while I wait for my copy for when I import my wild mage into BG2.

Yet another question: are the continuity errors jarring enough to diminish immersion? My main reason for buying BG1 after I learned about BGTutu and BGT was the idea of seeing the protagonist grow from a wet behind the ears apprentice mage all the way to the epic archmage in ToB.

 

Well, that's the big question.

With the advances of BGT in the last couple of years, the technical differences between BGT and Tutu are more or less gone. (For example, here's my comparison from a few years back. Most of the technical advantages for Tutu are now gone.) The real differences now are really threefold:

The transition from BG to BG2 is either BGT's best or worst feature. If you feel, like I do, that the discontinuities are too great between the games, then this is the single biggest reason to use Tutu over BGT. BioWare makes too many assumptions in BG2 about the events of BG--who's alive, who's dead, party composition, etc.--for me to feel like it can be melded into a single game.

Tutu still has the mod advantage. Many modders develop first for Tutu and then port the mod to work on BGT (or a third party does it). Very few are developed for both platforms simultaneously or BGT primarily. BG1 NPC will go to a single package that works on both platforms starting with the next version.

BGT has better non-English support. Tutu's development has, for all intents and purposes, moved to Macready's EasyTutu. EasyTutu is English-only, and this won't be changing any time soon AFAIK. BGT is available in more languages and the tra files are available for further translations.

 

You said in your 2004 post you linked to that the author of BGT had left the project. If as you say now about "the technical differences between BGT and Tutu are more are less gone" then does this mean BGT is supported and has less bugs than is often suggested?

The first difference you cite is that:

Even if I go with Tutu I was already to plan on meta-gaming and making sure when I finish TotSC that my party consists of Imoen, Minsc, Dynaheir, Khalid and Jaheira. I think I've read that Tutu lets you play TotSC before killing Sarevok and BTG doesn't but I don't know if that has any continuity issues inherent in it. I also dont' know if TotSC allows for party member swapping like BG1 and BG2 do.

This doesn't bother me too much. The only mods I really intend to use are BG1 NPC and BG2 Tweak Pack and I think both are designed for BGT and BGTutu. Please feel free to educate me if there are any incredible (in your opinion) BG1 mods I would be missing out on.

This is a non-issue for me, personally, as English is my native and only tongue. Just quoting you here in case this thread should be a reference for somebody else down the line.

 

Yes. Ascension64 has done a fantastic job maintaining and improving BGT (credit where credits due, King Diamond helped quite a bit but seems to have left now). Both projects are now in the hands of good maintainers that are actively working on improving their projects. So no, I don't think there's a bug/maintenance advantage.

I'd suggest checking out BG Unfinished Business (officially a beta, but it worked well on my last Tutu game), Sirine's Call, and jastey's Slime Quest mini-mod. If you're looking for tactical challenges, DavidW's Sword Coast Stratagems is also well regarded, and I'd recommend Gavin, Finch, or Mur'Neth if you want NPCs.

A good resource for checking out Tutu mods is a list maintained by cmorgan. Though aimed at Tutu, most of the mods listed there also have BGT versions.

 

I second Cam's recommendation on BG Unfinished Business, I'm currently playing it with Tutu and it's pretty good, very in-line with the game too.

 

I've been doing some searching on Unfinished Business for BG1 and I hit a stopping point. I may have found old threads but a (late night) search didn't turn up anything more recent. What I found was a few links for a BG1 Unfinished Business that was not for use with Tutu or BGT. Can anybody provide a link to the homepage for Unfinished Business designed for Tutu or BGT?

 

Hi rastamage!

here