Hi,

I know that BG:EE had quite a lot of things added. But i would like to know if some, some might say unbalanced, items have been removed.
Namely, i am asking about the Ring of Wizardry hidden near the road south of the Friendly Arm, the Ring of Protection +1 in a rock in the forest somewhere, and the Ablity Score increasing Tomes.

Are the cursed items still the same?

Is the manual still as informative the the orgiginal one, with the full spell lists and tables?

Have the implemented AD&D rules been changed?

Is the XP cap still the same as in the original? If so, is there a way to remove it?

Is there a button to highlight containers?

Has something changed in regards to the savegame import to BG2:EE? Are all (or some, or none) new BG1:EE companions available in BG2:EE?

And finally: Is the game "playable" nowadays? I recall hefty discussions about the buggy state of the game in the past and in the rewies here. That same Questions goes for BG2:EE and IWD:EE as well.

When starting this post i just wanted to ask my first question about the items, but somehow this has expanded a bit ;)

Hi, Ranayna.

I'll see if I can answer some of your questions as I'm also playing EE.

* Ring of Wizardry and Ring of Protection are still in their same locations, as are some early gemstones. The Ability Increasing Tomes are also still in the game and also in the same locations.

* As far as I know, the cursed items are pretty much the same. There are some new weapons, but I'm not aware of any new cursed items (though I wouldn't be surprised, heh).

* Other than splitting the manual into two pieces, the information is pretty much the same. There are some formatting changes and some information added for some of the new content (kits, extra spells, etc.).

* I don't think any of the rule implementations have changed. I'll have to look, but I'm pretty sure there were some fixes but no wholesale changes.

* XP cap is the same, and a (very) quick search doesn't show any mods yet for removing the cap.

* Yes, the TAB key will highlight objects that can be opened or collected. In addition, there is a quick loot bar that shows items on the ground near the selected character (in a fairly large radius). The X key will also show the coordinates of the mouse cursor on the map.

* I don't believe the import process has changed. It only imports your main character into the second game, so this is closer to a BG Tutu installation than a BG Trilogy installation. All three new companions are available in BG2EE and there is a fourth added as well (a thief).

* I haven't run into any real issues with any of the three EE games so far. I'm in Chapter Five of the first game and have played through the starter areas in BG2 and IWD to try out the games. All three games are at version 1.3.

Hope this helps. =)

Flynn

"Are the cursed items still the same?"

Largely. I believe in some cases they did make their speed factors worse, but the gameplay implications for this are fairly limited

"Has something changed in regards to the savegame import to BG2:EE? Are all (or some, or none) new BG1:EE companions available in BG2:EE? "

If you import a character from a BGEE save game into BG2EE certain variables (like whether or not you romanced the introduced NPC's) will be kept. Meaning the new characters in BG2EE will remember your relationship.

Most of the new companions found in BGEE will be available for joining your party in BG2EE (one of them, who is actually an easter egg, won't be available to join your group in BG2EE).

"Is the manual still as informative the the orgiginal one, with the full spell lists and tables? "

Its certainly more accurate informative when it comes to spells compared to the original manuals. The BGEE manual doesn't have all the tables of the original's (you can find it mastering melee and magic online to compare yourself here).

"Have the implemented AD&D rules been changed? "

The rules are more in-line with what they were in BG2 (so there are some spell changes compared to the original bg1). But if you are asking if its still 2nd edition then the answer would be yes.