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If you could have 18 in one stat, what would it be?
↧
Demographics Poll: What is your sex/gender?
This is the first in a series of polls to measure the demographics of the Beamdog community (I was just curious). The poll is anonymous by default, but you're welcome to discuss the issue publicly if you like.
The other polls are here:
Race/Ethnicity
Nationality
Religion
Political Affiliation
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↧
Demographics Poll: What is your political affiliation?
This is the fifth in a series of polls to measure the demographics of the Beamdog community (I was just curious). The poll is anonymous by default, but you're welcome to discuss the issue publicly if you like.
The definition of these terms varies from country to country, so choose the option based on the term's meaning in your home country.
The other polls are here:
Sex/Gender
Race/Ethnicity
Nationality
Religion
↧
Can I get rid of repetitive sentences?
You know, the famous "You must gather your party..." is cool... The first 100 times you hear it. After that it starts to get old. Even worse is Yoshimo's "All the world is blind to my passing". Is there a way of silencing those?
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Request: Baeloth for BG2
Even if just in mod form, Baeloth is too great of a character to be constrained within only BG:EE and SOD and would make an exceptionally companion for BG2.
I understand that he has things to do with the Black Pits, but he's just too good to pass up.
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↧
Baldur's Gate 2 - Anomen Delryn and his sister Moira
In the course of Anomen's personal quests Moira will be killed by Saerk Farrahd through his servants.
However, since divine magic allows to bring back the dead, what stops CHARNAME and party from doing so?
Edit: In the same regard, when Anomen's father is also killed in the course of the Romance, it should be possible to undo the murder.
However, since divine magic allows to bring back the dead, what stops CHARNAME and party from doing so?
Edit: In the same regard, when Anomen's father is also killed in the course of the Romance, it should be possible to undo the murder.
↧
The Great FR Headcanon Campaign
I was reading an old thread on Gorion's backstory the other day, and thought to myself again what an interesting character he is, and what a shame it is that we get to see so little of him. So I thought of imagining a little more fleshed-out backstory for him before my next BGT playthrough, but couldn't come up with anything inspiring - until it struck me that he would make for the perfect hero of Icewind Dale! So this game officially became a Baldur's Gate prequel to me now, and now that I had an established headcanon for Gorion, I thought that Jaheira and Khalid needed one as well. Following that train of thought I came up with some interesting possible connections linking the various FR games to each other, and to several older fanmade modules for NWN I played years ago as well. Having spent the better part of an afternoon on this, I thought I might as well share it, just in case someone else is crazy enough to map out their character stories meticulously for years in advance...
I - Icewind Dale: Gorion's grand adventure; naturally with this young Gorion portrait by the talented Artastrophe. At his side could be Winthrop the Rogue and Drogan the Dwarven Wizard. Bonus: Gorion meets Xan's cousin - small world! Finally explains how Gorion could ever reach the level of power to survive a confrontation with Firkraag.
II - Icewind Dale II: a seasoned adventuress from Luskan called Esmerelle, who has taken a ship to Icewind Dale after her old group of travelling companions fell apart; if played with the IWD2 NPC Project there are ample opportunities for her to
III - Siege of Shadowdale (NWN Module): Jaheira joins the Harpers; set roughly a decade before BG1, this fun adventure suits the bits and pieces we know of Jaheira's backstory rather well. As a recent Harper recruit, she makes the acquaintance of Elminster and foils Zhentish intrigues in the Dalelands. Could well be rounded off with the intriguing city adventure Cormyrean Nights,
IV - Baldur's Gate, the good old bean itself.
V - Crimson Tides of Tethyr (NWN Module): set in the immediate aftermath of the Bhaalspawn Crisis and deals with the ongoing Sythilisian invasion referenced by town criers and rumours in BG2; works well for any former companion of Charname's who might feel somewhat obliged to remain in Tethyr after having contributed to the Kingdom's fall by obliterating its army during the Oasis battle in ToB... Mazzy, maybe, LG Anomen, or Isra.
VI - Island Adventures (NWN Module): placeholder; I haven't played this one yet, but it is set during the Bhaalspawn Crisis as well and refers to the events in Tethyr.
VII - NWN SoU/HotU: Drogan Droganson is an old Harper companion of Gorion's, Khalid's and Jaheira's; the PC sent to train with him in the Silver Marches could be any number of gifted children encountered by them during their travels on the Sword Coast. How about Coran's child with the sorceress in Baldur's Gate? Or Corwin's daughter?
VIII - NWN2 OC/MotB: make race of protagonist dependent on that of their mother Esmerelle, the heroine in IWDII (and possibly on that of her paramour)
Feel free to leave your comments or any other ideas for tie-ins - maybe it will inspire someone's future headcanon.
I - Icewind Dale: Gorion's grand adventure; naturally with this young Gorion portrait by the talented Artastrophe. At his side could be Winthrop the Rogue and Drogan the Dwarven Wizard. Bonus: Gorion meets Xan's cousin - small world! Finally explains how Gorion could ever reach the level of power to survive a confrontation with Firkraag.
Makes things more personal for Charname with a certain villain in SoD, too.
II - Icewind Dale II: a seasoned adventuress from Luskan called Esmerelle, who has taken a ship to Icewind Dale after her old group of travelling companions fell apart; if played with the IWD2 NPC Project there are ample opportunities for her to
end up pregnant,
and good reasons for her to bring that child to her old friend Daeghun Farlong in nearby West Harbour later on - a child who years later is to become the Knight Captain of NWN2.III - Siege of Shadowdale (NWN Module): Jaheira joins the Harpers; set roughly a decade before BG1, this fun adventure suits the bits and pieces we know of Jaheira's backstory rather well. As a recent Harper recruit, she makes the acquaintance of Elminster and foils Zhentish intrigues in the Dalelands. Could well be rounded off with the intriguing city adventure Cormyrean Nights,
which explicitly assumes a Harper PC,
as long as you are willing to suspend disbelief in terms of level range consistency (to be fair, Jaheira and Khalid being Level 1 in BG1 never made much sense in the first place).IV - Baldur's Gate, the good old bean itself.
V - Crimson Tides of Tethyr (NWN Module): set in the immediate aftermath of the Bhaalspawn Crisis and deals with the ongoing Sythilisian invasion referenced by town criers and rumours in BG2; works well for any former companion of Charname's who might feel somewhat obliged to remain in Tethyr after having contributed to the Kingdom's fall by obliterating its army during the Oasis battle in ToB... Mazzy, maybe, LG Anomen, or Isra.
VI - Island Adventures (NWN Module): placeholder; I haven't played this one yet, but it is set during the Bhaalspawn Crisis as well and refers to the events in Tethyr.
VII - NWN SoU/HotU: Drogan Droganson is an old Harper companion of Gorion's, Khalid's and Jaheira's; the PC sent to train with him in the Silver Marches could be any number of gifted children encountered by them during their travels on the Sword Coast. How about Coran's child with the sorceress in Baldur's Gate? Or Corwin's daughter?
VIII - NWN2 OC/MotB: make race of protagonist dependent on that of their mother Esmerelle, the heroine in IWDII (and possibly on that of her paramour)
Feel free to leave your comments or any other ideas for tie-ins - maybe it will inspire someone's future headcanon.
↧
All you wanted to know about the next Beamdog's project
I think the time has come for a new "All you wanted to know about" thread.
Brus here suggested we should call it Project Fireball, X,Storm,Severance,Sanctuary,Hurricane,Realm Z,Ivory Plane,Sapphire, Soul Nexus etc. I agree because right now we still haven't heard an official word defining which particular project is in the works.
But a certain project is indeed in the works, there's no doubt about that.
In the end of 2015, there was a meeting between Beamdog and WotC, after which plans for the next years became known in-house.
https://twitter.com/theandrewfoley/status/675208395121680384
In December 2015, the main site of Beamdog offered 3 new vacant jobs, with the description that "more original content is on the horizon."
David Gaider soon joined the team.
According to Andrew Foley, Beamdog are currently (as of April, 2016) further ahead on developing it than they were on SoD in January 2014.
Phillip Daigle said in an interview to RPGamer in March, 2016: "We'd like to continue working with Wizards of the Coast on Dungeons & Dragons titles. We love D&D and we love making D&D games. At the same time, however, we're also going to be developing our own projects and brands. For now I can't reveal anything, but going forward you'll see both great licensed and original IP projects from Beamdog."
http://www.rpgamer.com/games/dnd/bgenh/bgenhsodint.html
It reads that they know already there will be both licensed and original IP projects.
Here're the main versions and evidence presented:
Version 1. PSTEE (Planescape Torment: Enhanced Edition)
1.
https://twitter.com/TrentOster/status/183904243772698625
It's a tweet by Trent Oster from March, 2012.
2. "I've been getting a lot of requests for a revisit of [Planescape:] Torment," Cameron Tofer told http://www.shacknews.com/. "We would love to have the opportunity to do it."
It's a news bit from March, 2012.
3. "Hmm. We have a Planescape.zip file here that seems to have a bunch of source codey stuff in it ;-)
-Trent"
It's a comment by Trent Oster from August, 2012.
4. The IP regarding Planescape: Torment is the property of Hasbro, and we all know Beamdog are good friends of Hasbro.
5. WotC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, "would absolutely consider licensing out Planescape, or any of their other great D&D IPs, if they were approached with a proposal".
It's a quote by WotC from 11/02/2013.
So, WotC sees Planescape Torment as one of their D&D IPs.
6. "I'm sure we could add some real value to a PS:T:EE if we were ever able to do it. Make it available on multiple platforms, for instance. It's my favorite game and I hope we get a chance to work on it some day."
It's a comment by Amber Scott from March, 2015.
7. In an AMA from 1 year ago, Trent Oster on the question about enhancing IWD2 or PST, mentioned only Planescape Torment: Enhanced Edition: "besides from having too many colons in the title, is something we are interested in working on".
8. In a recent interview to Kotaku, Trent Oster admitted (on the possibility of going their own way, making their own universe fantasy universe) that he didn’t want to leave the past behind, not yet.
9. Go to 1:19:30 from the most recent Arv interview with Trent Oster and Phillip Daigle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLfOSI5246w&t=4770
10. Buttercheese (Tari Toons) created a doodle based on that moment, which was retweeted by both by Trent Oster and Phillip Daigle:
https://twitter.com/TariToons/status/723565505827737600
11. Chris Avellone, a Lead Designer on PST and a Narrative Consultant for SoD, when answering several questions on http://www.rpgcodex.net/ once said:
"Beamdog and Torment possibility: I'd love to if the chance existed."
12. Later this year TToN will be released, which will create a wave of nostalgia for PST, and there probably won't be a better time to release PSTEE.
Version 2. A new game
1. "I don't think it's some big secret that we're interested in continuing work on original BG-style games in the future. We love the genre, we love playing the games, and we know how to build them.
If we were to make an expansion or DLC for an existing game like BG2EE or IWDEE it would retain the same ruleset as the base game.
Any new D&D games that get made would use 5th Edition."
It's a comment by Phillip Daigle from January, 2016.
2. "our plans for the future. We want to leave the IE-era games in an excellent state and then move on to something more modern eventually."
It's a comment by Phillip Daigle from February, 2016.
3. Andrew Foley in February, 2016, liked this comment:
"It (PSTEE) would be nice, but at the moment I would rather see new content such as icewind dale 3 , iwd2 ee with a new expansion or a brand new IE game."
4. The same quote from the recent interview to Kotaku as in the Version 1:
"Whereas D&D, I have all that knowledge and if I want some more knowledge I can just go on the internet or pop open a rule book. To me, that’s just the power that D&D has that crafting your own stuff from scratch just cannot have." - it could be just pointing to the fact a new game would be based on D&D, it shouldn't specifically be about PSTEE.
5. In April, 2016, David Gaider tweeted this:
https://twitter.com/davidgaider/status/720031143152586752
And Phillip Daigle mentioned that document had something to do with Bhaal:
https://twitter.com/daigledopple/status/720032906018627584
6. David Gaider is a Creative Director at Beamdog, so it basically means he has much more ideas than content for an EE.
Maybe two projects (an EE of an existing title and a new IP) are being worked on in the same time?
Like a new EE for now and a new IP for the more distant future, so that the situation about SoD sales etc could be more clear:
In the interview to to RPGamer in March, 2016 Phillip Daigle said: "We've got lots of ideas for spots in the Baldur's Gate series that could be filled in, but we're waiting to see what the reception to Siege of Dragonspear is like before we commit to anything major. First we need to see what the fans want, then we'll look at what we can deliver. We've also got an eye towards the future. The Infinity Engine was built almost 20 years ago and limits us in a lot of ways. We're actively exploring next-gen technology for some potential future games."
Version 3. Something else (IWD2EE anyone?)
1. In an interview with http://www.pcgamer.com Trent Oster mentioned:
"Icewind Dale II implemented the 3rd Edition rules and has a completely different UI scheme. We're really not sure how deep those changes run," Oster explained. "The move to 3rd Edition rules would invalidate all the character classes and require a pretty thorough rework of the entire game to bring in the features from our Infinity Plus Engine. At minimum, nightmares abound."
2. In an interview with http://venturebeat.com Trent Oster answered this question: "You talked about “nightmares” about the idea of working on enhanced editions for Icewind Dale II and Planescape: Torment. Is this still the case, or have you made any progress on Icewind Dale II at this point?"
Trent Oster: "We’ve yet to really dig into them. Torment is probably the easier of the two as the rules are at least similar. Icewind Dale II had a large deviation due to the move to 3rd Edition D&D rules. We’re still working on Infinity as we wrap up the 1.3 update for BGII. After the holidays, we’ll have more time to dig into the possibilities."
3. In the latest AMA an answer on PSTEE or IWD2EE was the same:
"We don't announce projects in development, but we do love the Infinity Engine and Forgotten Realms and would like to do more work on these games in the future."
"We usually don't comment about games in development, but we have said that we've been building up the capabilities of our team and we love the Forgotten Realms. We'd have to get a concept and bring people on board, but it's something we would love to do in the future."
↧
Sycamirage's Ultimate Guide to Baldurize Your Portrait
Hello folks.
Let me introduce for you my familiar Sycamirage. She will show you a tutorial about baldurizing a portrait picture.
Before you start into modifying other people's work, keep in mind this.
![image]()
Sycamirage Posts: 1
Note, this is not a thread about how to use custom portraits (one which is already available for You) in the game. For that there are discussions here: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/36241/heres-how-to-use-custom-portraits-in-iwdee/p1
The purpose of this thread is something different, something more.
You ever wondered about how to make those fancy custom portraits, what You find on professional artist's site like Isandir or Artastrophe?
You would like to baldurize your own portrait?
You are in the right place! I will show You, how to do this magic!
If You search for custom portraits on the web you can find many. And i mean MANY. You can spend your remaining life browsing for portraits on the web for your next character.
![image]()
Too much darkness:
![image]()
Too few color:
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Too much writing:
![image]()
Maybe it's possible to baldurize the above pictures too, but You can make your work a lot easier, when you get one with better quality. Sometimes You can be so fortunate, that You have available a pic with full details, and You just have to make a few touch to make it fit into the game!
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The key properties of a good starting base picture for the portrait (let it call the BG rules):
Big resolution
Good lightning
![image]()
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[/spoiler]
A sorcerer?
![image]()
![image]()
A bard?
![image]()
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A rogue?
![citizenx]()
![image]()
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A ranger?
![image]()
A cleric?
![image]()
Also, You must decide in what style would You like to make your picture.
BG1, BG2 and IWD all use different portrait style.
I usually go for BG2 style.
Two of my attempts to reach something like IWD style:
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You can choose another, totally different style too, of course.
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The coception is to make a gnome mummy from this one. I totally have no idea at this time, how i'll manage this, so yay! Exciting!
I always insert one vanilla portrait beside mine, to have an idea, what i would like to reach, what will be the area, what on i will work.
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I give it some transparency:
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and resize the vanilla bg portrait for my selected picture size (will downsize the finished picture at the end). You may have to rotate and warp the selected portrait for better fit the BG portrait style. Head size, the distance of the eyes and mouth eye distance are good reference points.
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Let's see, how the cropped image look like!
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Nice!
You can go back to a previous state in the history:
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Next we will search for some source material for the mummy part of the character. I think i just try to google "mummy".
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Hmmm... Maybe bandaged head? (Note: be careful what you search on google, You may find more than You want)
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Ok. What will we actually use from these?
We shall see.
Put the pics in.
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After that, i go through the various pictures, cut, scale and warp them, or edit with other way, if neccesary.
You can make your work easier, if you use some elements of the original BG portraits (armors, robes, jewels, other accesories).
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Great. Now we have two problems. (Not counting, that at this point i doubt that there will be an useable portrait from this ever.) One is the glasses: we should get rid of them with clone stamp, or get something more fantasy-like instead of them. Or maybe both?
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Nice. Not obviously good, but acceptable.
Our next problem is the butterknife. It's lefted out, when we crop the picture to the proper size. We will try to do some magic, and conjure the knife in the frame.
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Let's see, how it looks cropped:
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Crazy! Which is good in case of a gnome mummy. Yes?
Some final additional details to fill out the empty spaces:
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And we finished the arrangement with this. We can go foreward to:
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Oh, i forgot to scatter him face! I recommend to make own layers for the eyes, hair, mouth facial hair and for what what else You want. We not necessarily need them later, but better if we have them.
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For hair i just use some oil paint filter, and some shading, if needed.
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For the face make it more lighter first, then do the tiresome work of smoothing it with mixer brush. This is one of the most important step to reach the "baldurized feeling". First with bigger size:
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Then with smaller and smaller:
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(I must mention here, that this picture is pretty blurry and low resolution, i highly recommend to pick a better one than this. I hope it will just doable.)
Also: where is his nose, a gnome must have a nose!
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Better. After the face:
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We go through on the other layers with one of the above methods, or with the combination of them (oil paint filter, mixer brush, yada-yada...)
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And here comes the next step:
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Fine. Put it in the background.
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Now i'll merge the layers, and smooth the edges.
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We are near the end, but here comes the trickiest part. Adding those tiny shining and multicolored shadowy effects, what for the BG portraits are so unique and why it's hard to copy their style. Honestly, i never can do this part right. I use mixer brush, dodge and burn tools for this too.
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Huh, i don't have much patient for this. Just grab the picture and put in the portrait folder!
![image]()
![image]()
[/spoiler]
[spoiler]![citizenx]()
[/spoiler]
[spoiler]![image]()
[/spoiler]
The summary is: with enough practice even someone with a lack of skill like me can make acceptable portraits.
And here ends this tutorial. Have fun!
Sycamirage Posts: 1
Note, this is not a thread about how to use custom portraits (one which is already available for You) in the game. For that there are discussions here: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/36241/heres-how-to-use-custom-portraits-in-iwdee/p1
The purpose of this thread is something different, something more.
You ever wondered about how to make those fancy custom portraits, what You find on professional artist's site like Isandir or Artastrophe?
You would like to baldurize your own portrait?
You are in the right place! I will show You, how to do this magic!
If You search for custom portraits on the web you can find many. And i mean MANY. You can spend your remaining life browsing for portraits on the web for your next character.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/13507/paintbg-for-all-bg-platforms/p1
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/44895/custom-npc-portraits-masterthread-spoilers-obviously#latest
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/49653/know-thy-selfie-updated-with-new-portraits/p1
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/38652/your-favourite-portrait/p1
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/39151/portraits-for-baldurs-gate-from-might-magic-heroes-vi-and-now-from-might-magic-heroes-vii-too#latest
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/43813/asian-portraits-for-bg-the-nobunagas-ambition-sphere-of-influence-pack#latest
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/31633/beards#latest
http://portraitcity.blackwyrmlair.net/
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/41704/custom-pc-npc-portraits#latest
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/5339/alternate-npc-and-pc-portraits-just-because-p/p1
http://www.karwal.dk/portraitportal/
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/32948/search-for-the-karwal-portraits
http://www.shsforums.net/topic/57831-phaeres-npc-portrait-pack-v4-a-mod-from-phaere-and-rastor/
http://modlist.pocketplane.net/index.php?ax=list&cat_id=72
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/21387/by-far-the-best-baldurized-portraits-ive-seen-so-far-can-you-top-it
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/428404/#Comment_428404
http://portraits.chosenofmystra.net/index2.html
There are many artists, who are making custom portraits. Some are trying to follow the original style of the BG portraits, like @Isandir (link above), others follow their own style like @jakaminski for example.
Other artists:
http://enkida.deviantart.com/gallery/33798575/Baldur-s-Gate-Portraits
http://neunerx.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://nixxical.deviantart.com/
http://peachplums.deviantart.com/gallery/26839256/Baldur-s-Gate-Style-Portraits
http://syntia13.deviantart.com/gallery/39769184/Baldur-s-Gate
http://sqwid.deviantart.com/gallery/
@LadyEibhilinRhett : https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/11112/baldurs-gate-adorable-edition-alt-style-portrait-pack-wip-of-portraits-complete-5-94/p1
@Tola_Zagniy : https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/499447/#Comment_499447
@Astafas : https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/39651/new-portrait-for-neera/p1 and https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/15991/you-and-your-pc#latest
@EntropyXII : https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/19032/exii-baldurs-gate-portrait-pack#latest
Oh, i hope you know the original artist of the BG portraits? He is Mark Sass, and here is his site: http://sassart.com/
and here is his deviantart profile:
http://mike-sass.deviantart.com/
And an interview with him: http://gamerati.com/interview-mike-sass-balders-gate/
Trent tell us here , how Mike did the original portraits. Also here You can see, who is who on the BG1 portraits.
@AndreaColombo and @Isandir even contact Mike and ask him how he did the vanilla pics:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/533742#Comment_533742
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/72226/#Comment_72226
But You would like to make your own portrait.
Yes?
Of course yes, this is what You were looking for, this is why You came here for the first place...
And i will show You!
How to baldurize your portrait!
If You are truly lazy , and You just would like to crop/resize a picture You can use @NoTra 's CUSTOM PORTRAIT GENERATOR: http://www.notra.fr/portrait.php Now if I would truly lazy I am
I would just link other tutorials, what other persons made with greater skill, than what i posess.
Tutorial by Karwal:
http://www.karwal.dk/portraitportal/tutorial_frame.htm
Tutorial by @Enkida:
http://enkida.deviantart.com/art/WIP-Ellesime-process-tutorial-1-279968917
Painting tutorial by @EntropyXII
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/19473/tutorial-painting-a-bg-style-portrait/p1
Instructions by @Isandir
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/445183/#Comment_445183
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/427756/#Comment_427756
Instructions from @Astafas
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/445152/#Comment_445152
This two for completionists sake:
https://www.docdroid.net/DmQ1gMz/how-to-baldurize-portraits-pdf-.pdf.html
http://www.shsforums.net/topic/15603-fw-art-competition-tutorial-thread/ (this one lack's the pictures sadly)
Ok, i promised to show You myself. I'll do it, just for You. Here:
Six Easy Step to Baldurize your Picture!
Step Zero: Get in the Mood!
An important step, mostly forgotten. There are persons for whom it's harder, and there are for whom it's easier. If You don't have the time, You are hungry or thirsty, distracted by RL stuff or just tired, it's possible, that You should postpone the portrait making for another time. It's a good idea to listen to your favourite music, while You work.First step: Choose Well!
One of the most important thing, what You have to do if You would like to make a baldurized picture of someone, is to obtain a good quality picture. I provide some example for the various quality, to help deciding if yours is good enough. Too much light:
Step two: Class and Style
The next question is: What character would You like your portrait to be? A mage? [spoiler]
[/spoiler]
A sorcerer?
Step Three: Pick Your Method!
You will need a program, or some other tools to do the actual job. I use Photoshop, and only have (limited) knowledge from that program, so if You use other method, You can't learn much more from this tutorial. I know. Lame.Step Four: Start the Real Work!
Huh. It was exhausting to reach this point, congratulation, if You managed it with intact sanity! So You have the good quality picture to work with, and You have a concept what You would like to do with it. This tutorial is already long wided, so i will not explain all the details of using Photoshop, there are plenty of good help on the web.just google it.
First we will create the arrangement of the portrait.
Put the original picture in PS, and duplicate it's layer already. I use to make a copy from the layer i work with, when i reach another work phase. Also save your progression in multiple files. (Or save not, if You are a hardcore player, and want to do a no-reload run.)
We picked the pic:
Step Five: Fine tuning
We have some layers and we would like to blend them together. For this we edit their brightness/contrast, vibrance, hue/saturation, color balance and shadow/highlight adjustments. I'll also use the burn and dodge tool, and the mixer brush tool for local editing. But first i make a frame for this, containing Jan's original, and the would be mummy gnome portrait.
Step Six: Lightning
In the sixth step we will merge all the layers together, add some background and give additional shadows and lights to the picture. I start with the easiest part, with the background. BG2 portraits mostly have some cloudy background. On my picture turns out the green to be the dominant hue, so i'll choose some green clouds. Let's google green sky!
Final Step: Учиться, учиться и учиться.
And if you want to learn something, you have to practice it. Maybe i had to say practice make perfect, but the above quote from Lenin is just cooler. Let's see my progression: [spoiler]
[/spoiler]
[spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler][/spoiler]
The summary is: with enough practice even someone with a lack of skill like me can make acceptable portraits.
And here ends this tutorial. Have fun!
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Invisibility 10' radius: What is it Good For?
The usefulness of plain invisibility is discussed in this thread. Many good uses are mentioned there, but most of them require only one character to be invisible. From that thread I've selected the cases in which it seems to make sense to make several characters invisible at the same time:
1) Avoiding entire fights. This includes avoiding area transition ambushes and interruptions while you rest.
2) Gaining advantage in a combat by positioning your characters freely.
3) Waiting out an enemy mage's defenses so you can strike when their best buffs are down.
None of these seem very attractive to me, so I'm struggling to find a reason to use this spell. What do you think? Is there any other use that I have missed?
1) Avoiding entire fights. This includes avoiding area transition ambushes and interruptions while you rest.
2) Gaining advantage in a combat by positioning your characters freely.
3) Waiting out an enemy mage's defenses so you can strike when their best buffs are down.
None of these seem very attractive to me, so I'm struggling to find a reason to use this spell. What do you think? Is there any other use that I have missed?
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Baldur's Gate Logic
I just thought this would be a fun topic.
Posting stuff about Baldur's Gate in the same vein as "video game logic"
Here's an example.
Is a Thief with 18 Dex and a lock pick skill of 40: still can't open the chest on the 2nd floor of the Candlekeep Inn
Is a Fighter with 24 strength and a +3 Two Handed Sword: Still can't break locks that the Thief with 16 Dex can pick easily.
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Iron Throne Zhalimar Cloudwolf, Gardush, Naaman, Aasim, Alai, Diyab info?
Anyone know where I can go to get the character info on these clowns? I like to know class, level, hit points etc.,
For some reason I can't really find anything on how these folk were put in the game. Most enemies you can find info on & considering that these all have names, you'd think the info would be available.
For some reason I can't really find anything on how these folk were put in the game. Most enemies you can find info on & considering that these all have names, you'd think the info would be available.
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How does initiative work in BG?
The manuals say initiative is used, but they say nothing about how it actually works. I guess it must be related to the AD&D 2ed rules, but those rules allow for many possibilities.
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Any chance for NWN2EE+Expansions?
Beamdog Developers,
Any chance for NWN2EE+Expansions?
Would love to have a native Linux port for this game.
Any chance for NWN2EE+Expansions?
Would love to have a native Linux port for this game.
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Demihuman Charname Thread! Stats, RP ideas, Portraits!
This thread started as just a request for ideas implementing the kobold race as a pc. It became a starting point where people started exchanging ideas for demihuman charnames. So I've renamed the thread and put this new, poorly worded intro to reflect how the thread has evolved.
As the title says. Anyone have a good stat guideline and racial abilities? I can make it fit cosmetically with EEKeeper, but does anyone know what weapon animations are supported? Also, can I equip weapons that don't have animations without breaking anything? A way to have "Kobold" show as the race would be nice, but isn't essential. Ooh, maybe we can make this a demihuman thread in general. Share different builds and concepts for unusual races, that people can try.
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ranger or fighter cleric, dual or multi?
Hey all
Just a simple poll to test people's preferences on this.
Advantages to multiclass is simplicity and no down time, however I'd probably just CLUA a fighter/ ranger to 7 before dual classing and beginning the game as a lvl 1 cleric. I don't care about warrior hla's, when comparing to cleric ones.
Advantages to the dual class would be more cleric levels, which are arguably better than levels in any warrior type. It's also pretty nice to just follow the one class after dualing, rather than splitting xp for slower levels all round.
Cheers
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WHY? That cast...
Juluis
Honestly
I'd prefer Trent's image for an hour, complete silence followed by an apology
Hasbro just devalued product they own
Watch the Twitch (it's awful)
Get some fan to play
At least someone who has a balanced view
Some airhead who's never been into IE games who constantly laughs is NOT your angel of mercy (I'm horrible)
If you can get Niv to cast - at least he knows the story
Your current stream is worse than nothing - it actually detracts from your value (watch the damned video)
I suggest you get Trent to watch - oh you can't, no ability to stream to a TV
Honestly
I'd prefer Trent's image for an hour, complete silence followed by an apology
Hasbro just devalued product they own
Watch the Twitch (it's awful)
Get some fan to play
At least someone who has a balanced view
Some airhead who's never been into IE games who constantly laughs is NOT your angel of mercy (I'm horrible)
If you can get Niv to cast - at least he knows the story
Your current stream is worse than nothing - it actually detracts from your value (watch the damned video)
I suggest you get Trent to watch - oh you can't, no ability to stream to a TV
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The North Remembers
I just want to start by saying that I support Beamdog as a company, and as a unit of people working toward the goal of making (or enhancing) great games. Even if the newly announced projects and news appeal to be with the most granular levels of excitement, I still love the company and am thankful for the time I've spent on this board, interacting with the lot of you, beta testing, sharing stories, etc. Even if I have been less active than I would otherwise like to be, but I digress.
That being said, I still cannot help but to feel the slightest bit stung by one piece of news in particular--and since some co-workers of mine finally managed to get me to watch the entirety of Game of Thrones in less than a month in preparation for Season 8 (I won a bet out of it, it was worth it, don't judge!), I felt it would be fitting to create a little, subtle image to characterize my feels in ways that words perhaps cannot. It's nothing special, just the one of the default Icewind Dale II backgrounds found all over the internet, but with the Great Oak icon from Icewind Dale 1 overlayed in the center with an obvious Game of Thrones reference tacked on as well.
By no means should this be taken as some kind of protest or whatever against Beamdog for moving on and away from my favorite of the Infinity Engine games, but I just want it to be known that...
"The North Remembers"
Or at least, one over emotional fan does.
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BG series streamers
Does anyone know any streamers on YouTube or twitch who are streaming any of the games? Especially LoB runs. I've watched a few who have either fizzled out or not taken the series right through. Retrograde Tom was good but he only did BG and SoD not SoA sadly.
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The General Questions Thread
So I got to thinking, while I often have general questions about various aspects of the game, it's rather bothersome to clutter up the activity page with random questions, especially when I have as many as I do. So I came up with this idea. This is a general questions thread that anyone can contribute to, both with questions and answers. Ask a question, hopefully it'll be answered. (and with the efficiency of the community here, I wouldn't be surprised if it's answered rapidly.) I doubt things will become too cluttered, so it'll be a nice way for us to help each other out. Now, I don't THINK this has been done before, but if so, then do what needs to be done, dear mods, as you generally know best. Without further explanation, here's the first question I have.
If I were to complete Anomen's quest line, would he retain the stat boost if I teleport him to me in ToB? The character I'm working with would be unlikely to take him through all of SoA, but due to Aerie's... "problems" in ToB, my main character would want to leave her where she's safe, but that leaves a clerical gap in the party. Obviously Anomen would fill that hole nicely, but I don't know if he'll keep all of his bonuses from me completing his quest. In theory, I will be taking only five characters through the end of SoA, so if I have to bring Anomen along it's not a deal breaker, but for RP reasons it makes more sense to simply bring him to me when I need him.
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