Icewind Gate Beta now public...

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(Not sure if this is the correct forum for this post...)

Just checked Weimer's site, and it seems that as of yesterday, the latest beta of Icewind Gate became available for public download here. Weimer announced this here.

I checked the BoM for duplicate announcements of this, and didn't see any. I apologize if this is already old news...

I haven't yet tried IWG, tho I will probably do so in a month's time, when my schedule opens up a bit. This project has often been discussed as promising the best of both worlds: the storyline of BG2 with the 3E ruleset of IWD. Does anyone here have any experience with IWG?

 

I look forward to people's feedback on this!

 

I started playing it, and aside from a few things (adding NPCs is a pain), it runs excellently! Hurrah for Icewind Gate!

 

Whoops

 

Joy, been waiting for this for some time. Now only if they got the first patch up, so I could actually start playing... But I have to admit that it sounds like a dead project, after reading what the author writed...

 

wow, that looks extremely nice! Gonna try it after my current game is over!

 

The thing about this mod is that it could potentially inspire a huge amount of posting; just think of how many posts in SP have had to do with player strategies in BG2, and now along comes a mod which demands an entirely new set of strategies. For example, how will IWG spells work against dragons; what classes/class mixes work best for CHARNAME; which NPCs have gained/lost power; or, how should these NPCs be levelled up using 3E rules and classes...

 

For everyone using this, definitely post your experiences - I've become quite fond of the 3ed-esque features of IWD2, and I think playing BG2 under the same engine would be fun!!

 

The fights are much more of a challenge. I wasn't expecting the Shadow Thieves at the end of Irenicus' Dungeon to be quite as annoying as they were. I was expecting the old "rush them with fighters who hack them to bits" idea, but I ended up having to use proper tactics.

Frennedan's damage resistance prevented he from doing much to him. We ran away and shut him in a room.

Went to the Copper Coronet, and tried to free the slaves. Hold Person is very effective against level 4s.

That's as far as I got so far. The rules are implemented well, although having to export, delete then reimport characters when getting them to join gets irritating. I do miss the dialogue window of BG2, where you could see the portrait of the NPC rather than reading their name. But that's just because I'm lazy.

Going well, but I'm barely in really. Having fun.

 

If I only cared about this project anymore.

Maybe I'll give it a spin sometime, after I get done with everything else I had already planned.

 

This may even tempt me to play BGII now. I spent so long getting to grips with the rules of IWD2 that I couldn't be bothered starting again and learning the BG2 rules. Maybe now I can enjoy the much-vaunted BG2 storyline without having to learn new rules!

 

In any case, this seems to me like a great candidate for a mod review! (hint, hint...)

 

That's true, for I bet no one wants start a game only to end it in the middle-way because of some nasty bug, or impossible creature. New rules might mean that some of them have become very unbalanced...

Ûber-god enemies/items == problem of almost every mod.

 

Nice. Exept I've never played IWD2 (and therefore haven't got a copy) and I don't have internet on the puter I use to play BG2.

That sucks. I wish I could play just to ease myself into 3E rules.

 

Im just gonna wait and hope that someone makes IWG compatable with all the BG II mods. (Or is that nescesary now that there is a new game system? Would the Ease-of-Use still be valuable? )

 

@Bahir- well, you'll probably be waiting for a long, long time then. First of all, if I understand correctly, Icewind Gate is technically a mod of Icewind Dale 2, which allows the IWD2 engine to read BG2 files. Second, there still seems to be plenty of work to do making IWG work smoothly with the core BG2 materials (see Alavin above on the jiggery-pokery you have to do to get NPCs to join without crashing), let alone to work with mods. Maybe some WeiDu IWD2 mods would work with IWG, but as I haven't tried, I have no idea. But I think an unmodded IWG would play differently enough from BG2 to make it seem like a fresh experience; as Wirhe notes above, the game balance is potentially *very* different...