News about the 2.5 patch

[Julius Borisov]

The 2.5 update beta wraps up today. Don't miss the latest news about it:

http://blog.beamdog.com/2018/01/2018-year-of-beamdog.html

Thank you all for the amazing feedback about the features & fixes added, multiplayer stability, and what you would like to see in future patches!

[Michael]

I've been out of the loop, and literally only now heard about the patch as I was about to start up a new (modded) campaign again. I was really looking forward to playing today until I saw this. lol

Do you have an official date for the non-beta release? I figure it would be safest to wait until then to start playing again, due to mod conflicts and whatnot. (Though it really sucked the wind out of my sails today.)

[Julius Borisov]

No date has been announced. We’ll have more to share timeline-wise as we get closer to release.

[Michael]

Okie dokie. Thanks for the quick response.

[Romans 8 Extremist]

i'm really tired of waiting. 2.5 is the only chance for me to get this game working properly. My friend couldnt use the beta because he's on GoG.

[Michael]

Gah! So...I went ahead anyway and modded the crap out of the game just now (about 3-4 hours of work), with the intention of starting fresh and simply disabling auto-updates for the game for now.

Only now, I'm discovering that I CAN'T disable auto updates anymore? Has Steam removed this basic feature? If so, it seems absolutely bonkers that we wouldn't have control over our own products like this.

Not the devs fault at all, I know. But is my only recourse seriously to only run Steam in offline mode from here on out? Or am I completely missing something?

[Min Yua]

Originally posted by Michael:

Only now, I'm discovering that I CAN'T disable auto updates anymore? Has Steam removed this basic feature? If so, it seems absolutely bonkers that we wouldn't have control over our own products like this.

Has been that way for a while now ... -.-

[Michael]

Originally posted by Kiryan:

Originally posted by Michael:

Only now, I'm discovering that I CAN'T disable auto updates anymore? Has Steam removed this basic feature? If so, it seems absolutely bonkers that we wouldn't have control over our own products like this.

Has been that way for a while now ... -.-

So I've read. It's just that this is literally my first time trying to stop an update from happening. I'm pretty miffed after discovering that I can't after all these years. Lately I'm very concerned about how much control we have over our own products that we buy.

Recently there was a single-player, offline game in my library that I've owned for nearly a decade. It was a finished product, and nothing else was ever planned for it. It was a very old title. Suddenly, years later, out of the blue, a new team came in, decided to "update" it by adding a cash shop, removing content, and sticking the removed content in the cash shop.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Baldur's Gate, but it's just a very dangerous trend, and I really don't like where we're headed. But anyway, I don't intend to derail the thread any further. My thanks to Julius for the quick response to my original question.

Julius, out of curiosity, is there anything Beamdog can do on their end to appease folks who don't want to update? Maybe a separate download branch via Steam or something?

[Julius Borisov]

Heya, Michael. You can just copy/paste the folder with the game (including your override folder) if you want to keep it intact when the main app gets the update.

[Michael]

Originally posted by Julius Borisov:

Heya, Michael. You can just copy/paste the folder with the game (including your override folder) if you want to keep it intact when the main app gets the update.

That's good to know. Thanks.

Here's hoping I don't mess it up. lol

[Axel Firestorm]

I missed the beta, but I wanted to ask why the achievements for Siege of Dragnspear are shown even if you don't have it? Doesn't make much sense to me. I only have BG:EE and BGII:EE but not SoD so I shouldn't be seeing achievements for a product I haven't even bought yet. I shouldn't have to get SoD just to be able to 100% just BG:EE itself. Will this be fixed at all?

[Michael]

Originally posted by Jair:

I missed the beta, but I wanted to ask why the achievements for Siege of Dragnspear are shown even if you don't have it? Doesn't make much sense to me. I only have BG:EE and BGII:EE but not SoD so I shouldn't be seeing achievements for a product I haven't even bought yet. I shouldn't have to get SoD just to be able to 100% just BG:EE itself. Will this be fixed at all?

That's actually a Steam issue for all games. It doesn't matter if you don't own the DLC. It's published on Steam as all one game. Can't be helped. The only way it could have been avoided is if they actually made SoD into a separate game - "Baldur's Gate 1.5" or something. But it's not. It's an expansion for Baldur's Gate 1.

[Axel Firestorm]

Ah ok, I see. I assume Steam is aware of the issue, then. I wasn't planning on getting SoD because of all the SJW crap unless it's been removed and the mess of bugs fixed. I just had wanted to be able to 100% it without having to get SoD. Thanks for letting me know.

[Julius Borisov]

Looking at your comments, Jair, I'd recommend checking on SoD as soon as the patch 2.5 is out.

[Michael]

Originally posted by Jair:

Ah ok, I see. I assume Steam is aware of the issue, then. I wasn't planning on getting SoD because of all the SJW crap unless it's been removed and the mess of bugs fixed. I just had wanted to be able to 100% it without having to get SoD. Thanks for letting me know.

There is no "SJW crap." Please stop parroting social media buzz words.

For the record, SoD is a terrific expansion for such a dated game. The writing and artwork is much better than in the original campaign, which relied heavily on fan-made content for actual story. It really brought BG1 up to a modern standard of story-telling.

[Axel Firestorm]

Not from everything I"ve read. As I understand it, many of the NPC's personalities and character are very much changed from how they were in BG and BGII becausae SoD's writer didn't like how characaters she never created were and chose to ignore their established histories and personas. Not to mention Minsc's infamous line and a certain cleric, both of whom later had to be edited. Pretending like none of that ever happened doesn't help anyone and only hurts Beamdog in the end because anyone can do the research and find out the truth. And why are the original versions of the games no longer avalable? People should be able to choose which version they want, not have one forced on them as the only way to get the game. At least provide them with the purchase of their corresponding EE equivalent as GOG does.