disillusioned with the complexity of SoA with a party (in fact i've been busy bit also haven't seemed to get up the enthusiasm) i reinstalled BGs 1 & 2 downloaded easy tutu and let it work it's magic

i'm soloing again - playing a fighter/thief again (a SK'd fighter/assassin in fact) and really liking it (again) - my girl is honing her skills in the wilderness areas at the moment and having a whale of a time

all of the characters that i've finished any of these games with have majored on stealth (fighter/thieves and ranger kits) - there's just someting about the sneaking [img]smile.gif[/img]

i'm even experiencing a bit of role play style immersion by 'travelling' with a staff equipped and only switching to bow (or dagger) when necessary - a small thing but interesting

in related news how cool is the thief female elf avatar when wearing leather armour? nothing even comes close imo although halfling thief is maybe a close second

i might make the effort to do the BG thieves guild quests this time - i think that's one of the few things i've never managed before now - we shall see

that is all [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 12-06-2006, 06:02 AM: Message edited by: Armen ]

All I can say is enjoy it, I just finished the whole game with easy tutu installed and really enjoyed it.

What, pray tell, is an easy tutu? One that is large enough to slip over your leotard and not bind in the tummy area?

Please be a joke... Please...

If not, well, Easy Tutu is a program that transfers all baldurs Gate II graphics classes/kits, etc, to Baldurs Gate I. That simple [img]smile.gif[/img] ;)

[ 11-20-2006, 09:39 PM: Message edited by: Kyrvias ]

Post was in jest, though I honestly didn't know what an Easy Tutu was. Neat idea!!

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#009999">I thought it was pretty funny. </font> [img]graemlins/laugh2.gif[/img]

[ 11-21-2006, 05:11 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

lol

'bind in the tummy area' suggests you've had experience of such things - sounds uncomfortable [img]smile.gif[/img]

incidentally my solo fighter/thief was turning out to be a bit too easy and far too similar to all my other games so i've started a new axe and sling wielding halfling barbarian who i've also changed to the thief avatar and will use only leather armour for the hooded look of which i am so fond

he'll be in a party with imoen, jahiera & khalid i think so far - i'd like a bard to sing tales of his smiting exploits but think a party of 4 is plenty for me - when i picked up khalid he had 2 *s in dual-wielding and the rest in bastard swords which will be interesting - my little guy will occasionally dual-wield axes i think when he gets to level 6

anyway - onwards

[ 11-22-2006, 05:52 AM: Message edited by: Armen ]

Well, since I haven't played BG in years, news of this mod escaped me. So I took a look at the Tutu site.

To be real honest, I sometimes think to myself I could never replay BG 1 because it is so old and the graphics are outdated. But then I see this and so I take a look at the screenshots on the TuTu site. Okay, I can see the visual difference but it still isn't current-day graphics, of course. But you know what strikes me? In those few screens I see the dialogue choices and I chuckle to myself, remembering how much fun I had interacting with NPC's in this game. Just looking at the screenshots brought a smile to my face.

In a way it's a realization for me. That it's so easy to get caught up in shiny graphics and new things that we can forget those games that truly made us smile. In this day and age of half-assed unfinished products that barely pass for playable we forget that there were those games that went beyond the bar, develepors who wrote every conversation and scripted every little thing, using an engine that wasn't exactly easy to work with even back then.

I may well go back and reinstall this classic, even if it's just to satisfy my nostalgia one last time. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

Personally I don't care about graphic themselves, but the resolution is a killer to me. I *has* to be at least 1024x768, 800x600 as the absolute minimum, if the game use it well to show it's info.

hurrah [img]smile.gif[/img]

always remember - what gets done last is not necessarily what gets done best

Hehe cool little program, I had never heard of it until I came across this post, I have been without my internet access the last couple of years and I missed this little beauty. Now I can finally run a monk from BG1 to TOB yea!

things are going well with my little party

we've all hit about level 4 now and my experience of power seems to have ratcheted up a bit - we're not having to be so careful with run of the mill monsters now for example

i'll probably have another go this evening heading over to deal with some gnolls

so i arrive in baludur's gate

new things for me this run (i can't believe there's still stuff i haven't seen):

aldeth's (they guy i saved from the druids in cloakwood) quests in the merchant league

gauntlets of ogre power - i had to look up where they were and am pretty sure i'd never been down there before - tricky dialog choices to even get the choice too . . .

my barbarian and kivan are both mainly dual-wielding now - i may abandon the hooded halfling thief look in favour of the normal fighter one and see how he looks in some fancy chain or splint mail (the better AC will also help of course - i got hit harder doing aldeth's quests that i have for a while now)

nothing else particularly exciting so far . . .

[ 12-04-2006, 03:36 PM: Message edited by: Armen ]

Kalid, Jahiera, Imoen and Taz walked gingerly towards the Ulgoth’s Beard Inn. They had all been injured during their unwanted visit to the ice island and the long session of so-called rest while Jahiera got them up and walking hadn’t helped either. Sleeping on ice floors against ice walls under and ice ceiling in head-to-toe metal armour with no sleeping bag isn’t the ideal way to recuperate especially when you’ve been chewed half to death by ankhegs.

Kalid and Jahiera entered the Inn first as usual determined to get a double room for themselves. Taz paused on the threshold and placed a hand on Imoen’s shoulder stopping her entering and then pulling her ear down to the level of his head. Looking around he whispered a few words to her. Imoen sighed, watched Taz enter the comfort of the Inn and turned around . . .

. . . Squeezed between a wardrobe and the bedroom wall in the small house she’d just broken into Imoen waited quietly for the woman who owned the house to move off somewhere else. Imoen felt sorry for the poor thing – all she’d done since Imoen had entered was wander aimlessly from room to room. She hadn’t even seemed to notice Imoen when she’d walked into the house. She shuddered at the thought of the woman’s existence, glad for the moment that she’d chosen the adventuring life.

She was distracted from her musings by the sound of the woman leaving the bedroom. Quickly Imoen wriggled out from her hiding place and picked the lock on the cupboard that Taz had directed her to. As she swung the door open she silently whistled to herself at the sight of the sword hanging there. The sword was marvellously made and looked exactly like Kivan’s bastard sword that the mage in Sorcerous Sundries had called a, what was it again, oh yes a ‘plus-one-plus-three-versus-shapeshifters’. Lifting the sword reverentially from its hooks Imoen turned silently took a step forward, stubbed her toe on a leg of the bed and cursed loudly.

She heard a cry of “Guards! Guards!” from the other room. ‘Great’ she thought ‘now the stupid woman wakes up!’ Quickly she closed and locked the door and slid under the bed. She watched as two pairs of armoured legs came into the room with the woman and started looking around. An argument seemed to be developing between the guards and the woman who had quickly lost interest in their investigations and resumed her peripatetic existence. Imoen decided it was time to leave and started silently crawling toward the door.

Shutting the door gently behind her she headed to the Inn for a hot bath and a comfortable bed. She thought again of the woman in the house, of the sword and the bag of gold pieces she’d found next to it. She thought, not for the first time about Taz and where on earth he got his information from and she wondered again whether they really were the good guys.