One thing I may add. There is lot of components during install that you can choose. It depends of personal preferences which you want to choose. But one of them called "Adjust encounter level-scaling" might make game too difficult if you also picked "Creature Revisions" component. Pick one of these, because difficulty increase might proove to be too high if you install both.
Yes it does. Make sure after installing GOG version to run "setup-ddrawfix.exe" and uninstall it. IWD 2 EE mod comes with its own ddraw fix that is much better.
My character creation screen is tiny and I'm using Windows zoom feature to compensate, 4k monitor, so it doesn't really work... should the menu screen be zoomed by the mod?
No it doesn't zoom anything. It's more like a widescreen mod + rebalancing and new abilities. The name is poorly chosen and leads people to believe this will bring the same QoL enhancement the Beamdog EEs did.
That's the excuse that comes up every time there's talk of a Beamdog remastered version for this game. Any publisher would have the possibility to make an Enhanced Edition similar to Beamdog's, even without the source code.
This fanmade Enhanced Edition was made possible thanks to the work of two people in particular who performed reverse engineering and LUA code injections: Bubb and OlvynChuru.
There's a huge difference between the Beamdog EE games, which are rebuilt from the ground up entirely from new source code; and this, which is a heavy mod on top of the original game.
It's a great accomplishment, but they are very different projects. And as someone who plays on GNU/Linux, I found IWDIIEE very difficult to get working and ultimately unsatisfying compared to Beamdog's games.
That's the excuse that comes up every time there's talk of a Beamdog remastered version for this game. Any publisher would have the possibility to make an Enhanced Edition similar to Beamdog's, even without the source code.
It would need to be redone - which was not financially viable. They can’t just magic up source code thats lost.
This fanmade Enhanced Edition was made possible thanks to the work of two people in particular who performed reverse engineering and LUA code injections: Bubb and OlvynChuru.
And both will tell you there are some limitations with the way they did it, and some things like Multiplayer will never work as a result.
For one thing, they gave the Red Chimera team blessing to call it "Icewind Dale 2: Enhanced Edition". The previous incarnation had been called the Semi-Overhaul Mod
Or on Linux? Maybe via adding it to Steam and using Proton??
Probably the same way you can for mods with other IE games. Install on Windows, install all your mods, install on Linux, copy the windows directory over to Linux directory.
On Pop!_OS I went ahead and bought the game on GOG. Downloaded and installed the game with Wine, then installed the mods the same way. That worked well.
To play the game, running directly in Wine just hung but I imported the game into Steam and it ran with the mod well using Proton Hotfix in my initial testing.
Looking forward to finding time soon to give it a full play/test, but I think it's gonna work.
I have it running via Wine, and I have tested it using Proton too. I settled on the Wine setup because it was simple enough to run without needing to first launch Steam. It needed some tinkering (ddraw stuff as I recall) but it does work.
Just to clarify, you don't buy the enhanced edition. You buy the base game, and the "Enhanced Edition" is a free unofficial mod that you download for it.
So I've purchased the game on GoG - the version I have is Icewind Dale 2 Complete. Enjoying it so far! But where should I go for the download? Would I need to restart my run if I get it?
I'm not sure if you would have to restart, but with the amount of changes to the spells/skills/feats/classes you would probably want to reset anyway (I'd recommend it anyway as you never know when compatibility issues might rear their ugly head in a game ending way 20 hours in)
Not sure why this one was made “The Ballad of Three Heroes (which gives the effects of three other songs simultaneously) has been moved to a ridiculously high level that isn't accessible in most playthroughs; this way, the other songs don't have to be balanced around the possibility of them plus two additional songs being active at the same time, so I can make them stronger.” Bards should be allowed to multi class once they reach this level. It’s just a debuff to the bards
The readme in the installer has a lot of information about compatibility with other mods, so that's the best place to look.
For the two you mentioned: Tactics4IWD2 isn't compatible with the "Creature Revisions" component since they are doing overlapping things. If you don't want to use Creature Revisions, you could use Tactics4IWD2.
Light of Selune is listed as compatible, but any time I've tried to install it, nothing from that mod shows up for me. There's a component of IWD2:EE that improves traps, and rangers are much better (so are Clerics of Selune, for what it's worth), so I don't feel like I'm missing it.
Some of the older mods have been updated by CamDawg for compatibility with the mod, specifically the IWD2 NPC Project, Merchants, and Ease of Use.
If you do use other mods with it there's a required compatibility patch (separate WeiDU installer within the GitHub download) you'll need to run at the very end.
No it does not. But you can change resolution to lower one. You will not be as zoomed out like on native resolution of your monitor.. but everything will be larger.
Ugh, that's what I don't want. I may as well just play it vanilla, I'm in 2k, even then, the UI gets shrunk too small to use for me, or at least it was on the EEs. Are you playing it in 1080p because I have two monitors, another 1080 monitor. Well I may as well try installing it and see if it is even usable for me?
Yeah I downloaded it, UI is just too small in 2k. Some of the lower resolutions as suggested are all right, I'm going to play it regardless. I had never finished the game! I stopped playing it because I got my first decent computer and just wanted to play Skyrim. Curious to those who see. Do you install all the Enhanced content? There's a ton of it. I actually didn't because I've finished the game vanilla.
Installing surpringly goes pretty quick. I picked like 95% of components to be installed.
Dont install "Adjust encounter level-scaling" component unless you always want to fight big hordes of enemies. Might be too difficult, at least when I tried it on previous version.
Components that simplyfy some of the game puzzles is also good idea. Because they are hard to figure out so you will have to dive into gamebanshee walkthru.😑
IWD2 puzzles are worse then these in BG's. You get a puzzle in ice palace where you have to fight 250 monsters in 1 vs 1 fights to get all rewards. Mindboggling.
Then later on you get map with timeloop.. good luck trying to figure this out by your own.
Should the game be massively zoomed out with tiny text on a 4k screen? :/
Or to ask better: How do I make iwd2ee work on 4k properly? Do I just run it at 1080p? I can't read the text in the character creation, and the character movement seems weirdly slow.
What I did was: 1. Install GOG IWD2. 2. Install IWD2EE. 3. Run it, choosing 3840x2160.
There's not really a reason to change the speed to 45 fps. Unlike the Beamdog EEs, the framerate and logic aren't tied together.
You can run it at that speed as a preference, but all it does it make everything go faster. Rounds will be much faster (not the 7 second rounds - yes, you read that correctly) that's the base for IWD2, which might be jarring for someone not expecting that.
I've run it at 30 fps for years and haven't encountered that. It will affect the speed of rounds, according to Bubb and OlvynChuru, so I definitely wouldn't recommend it across the board for everyone.
Hmm, I see you are using windowed mode and using a higher resolution than I do. I'm guessing both of those might inncrease potential for stuttering.
I tried 800x600 and is still same.
I have Polish version of IWD 2 installed in separate folder. Its buttery smooth there at 30 FPS so it must be EE thing.
Heh it seems I figured it out. There is experimental version of CNC-DDRAW on github that seem to fix that stutter problem with 30 FPS set in config.exe. Seems like the version that is installed by defaulf in EE is outdated.
Surprisingly easily. Companies shut down, storage fails, people who worked on it retire, die, or just never bother to catalogue it because it wasn't needed anymore.
Hell Toy Story was almost deleted during production and was saved because someone who was working from home while on leave had a backup. (Or something similar, it has been a while since I read the full story on that one)
Hack&Slash is not the correct term in my opinion.
Hack&Slash is characterized by tons of weak hordes of enemies that you just slice through like in Diablo.
Icewind Dale is more like a tactical encounter game with Roleplaying and Quests added on top, all in an incredibly atmospheric setting and a pretty good story.
Everyone who enjoyed Baldur's Gate must also play the Icewind Dale Series. Especially now that there are tons of NPC mods for the first game.
I'd say 'tactical encounter game' is a good term for it. IWD2 has several interesting setpieces, especially in the early acts of the game where you have to save a town, destroy a dam, and assault an enemy camp.
I'm using the blandest language to describe it, but the encounters are awesome. They're my favorite in the infinity engine.
It has its own magic :) IWD excels at encounter design and tactical combat, with an amazing atmosphere and fun progression. The story too, while not as involved as BG, is very cozy and has that charming old school D&D flavor.
Sigh. The IWD games are not hack ‘n’ slash, because they didn’t copy the BG format. IWD 1&2 are classic dungeon crawlers in the vein of traditional Dungeons & Dragons.
BG is the aberration here, because unless you’re playing solo, D&D is never about a single protagonist.
Enchanced
Enchancheched
Thanks, Sandal
Enchaaaahncement!
Someone missed their chance...
One thing I may add. There is lot of components during install that you can choose. It depends of personal preferences which you want to choose. But one of them called "Adjust encounter level-scaling" might make game too difficult if you also picked "Creature Revisions" component. Pick one of these, because difficulty increase might proove to be too high if you install both.
Now i want a youtube playthrough of this!
Apparently it works if one installs Icewind Dale 2 from GOG?
https://www.gog.com/en/game/icewind_dale_2
Yes it does. Make sure after installing GOG version to run "setup-ddrawfix.exe" and uninstall it. IWD 2 EE mod comes with its own ddraw fix that is much better.
Wait did I mess up?
I;
That's it. Did i need a 1.5 step? I never ran vanilla iwd2
Hey, If it works it works!
My character creation screen is tiny and I'm using Windows zoom feature to compensate, 4k monitor, so it doesn't really work... should the menu screen be zoomed by the mod?
No it doesn't zoom anything. It's more like a widescreen mod + rebalancing and new abilities. The name is poorly chosen and leads people to believe this will bring the same QoL enhancement the Beamdog EEs did.
I figured it out, I'm setting it to 1080p and then using the font size enlarger mod.
I thought they lost the source code for IWD 2?
This is not an official release by Beamdog. It's fan made - albeit professionally done and with lots of new content.
That's the excuse that comes up every time there's talk of a Beamdog remastered version for this game. Any publisher would have the possibility to make an Enhanced Edition similar to Beamdog's, even without the source code.
This fanmade Enhanced Edition was made possible thanks to the work of two people in particular who performed reverse engineering and LUA code injections: Bubb and OlvynChuru.
There's a huge difference between the Beamdog EE games, which are rebuilt from the ground up entirely from new source code; and this, which is a heavy mod on top of the original game.
It's a great accomplishment, but they are very different projects. And as someone who plays on GNU/Linux, I found IWDIIEE very difficult to get working and ultimately unsatisfying compared to Beamdog's games.
It would need to be redone - which was not financially viable. They can’t just magic up source code thats lost.
And both will tell you there are some limitations with the way they did it, and some things like Multiplayer will never work as a result.
It's a fan project endorsed by beamdog
How can beamdog endorse it if they have no affiliation with the game, or do they own the rights?
The promoted it when it was first launched on their forums and social media platforms
For one thing, they gave the Red Chimera team blessing to call it "Icewind Dale 2: Enhanced Edition". The previous incarnation had been called the Semi-Overhaul Mod
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I mean, its not that hard to get hold of the original game - its available on GOG right now!
The original has been hosted on GOG for quite a while now
Bro it's literally on gog, it can't be any easier than that
The OG is on GOG.
Can I play it on Mac?
Or on Linux? Maybe via adding it to Steam and using Proton??
Probably the same way you can for mods with other IE games. Install on Windows, install all your mods, install on Linux, copy the windows directory over to Linux directory.
Thanks to both @stewelement and @Qaeta
On Pop!_OS I went ahead and bought the game on GOG. Downloaded and installed the game with Wine, then installed the mods the same way. That worked well.
To play the game, running directly in Wine just hung but I imported the game into Steam and it ran with the mod well using Proton Hotfix in my initial testing.
Looking forward to finding time soon to give it a full play/test, but I think it's gonna work.
I have it running via Wine, and I have tested it using Proton too. I settled on the Wine setup because it was simple enough to run without needing to first launch Steam. It needed some tinkering (ddraw stuff as I recall) but it does work.
Thanks! I care.
If I want to buy this game where should I go to get it?
GoG - complete edition
Bear in mind this mod does not work in Multiplayer
Thanks I'll take a look
Just to clarify, you don't buy the enhanced edition. You buy the base game, and the "Enhanced Edition" is a free unofficial mod that you download for it.
So I've purchased the game on GoG - the version I have is Icewind Dale 2 Complete. Enjoying it so far! But where should I go for the download? Would I need to restart my run if I get it?
You can download the EE here: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/87952/icewind-dale-2-enhanced-edition-is-released
I'm not sure if you would have to restart, but with the amount of changes to the spells/skills/feats/classes you would probably want to reset anyway (I'd recommend it anyway as you never know when compatibility issues might rear their ugly head in a game ending way 20 hours in)
Not sure why this one was made “The Ballad of Three Heroes (which gives the effects of three other songs simultaneously) has been moved to a ridiculously high level that isn't accessible in most playthroughs; this way, the other songs don't have to be balanced around the possibility of them plus two additional songs being active at the same time, so I can make them stronger.” Bards should be allowed to multi class once they reach this level. It’s just a debuff to the bards
Thanks for sharing. I think i might have to do playthrough finally. Loved the original iwd2 and this just seems even better
Are other mods compatible with IWD2 EE, such as Tactics for IWD2 and Light of Selune?
The readme in the installer has a lot of information about compatibility with other mods, so that's the best place to look.
For the two you mentioned: Tactics4IWD2 isn't compatible with the "Creature Revisions" component since they are doing overlapping things. If you don't want to use Creature Revisions, you could use Tactics4IWD2.
Light of Selune is listed as compatible, but any time I've tried to install it, nothing from that mod shows up for me. There's a component of IWD2:EE that improves traps, and rangers are much better (so are Clerics of Selune, for what it's worth), so I don't feel like I'm missing it.
Some of the older mods have been updated by CamDawg for compatibility with the mod, specifically the IWD2 NPC Project, Merchants, and Ease of Use.
If you do use other mods with it there's a required compatibility patch (separate WeiDU installer within the GitHub download) you'll need to run at the very end.
Uncanny, I literally got this installed last night.
Verdict? Ehhhhh I don't really like it. Still doesn't feel modern enough like the beam dog games. I love 3.5e cos of Pathfinder games but I dunno.
Plus I don't have any nostalgia for it because I never played it as a kid unlike BG
I'm looking forward to playing it. My last play was cut short, around when Skyrim came out.
I have a question about the enhanced edition mod. Does it scale the UI with the resolution like the other Enhanced Editions?
No it does not. But you can change resolution to lower one. You will not be as zoomed out like on native resolution of your monitor.. but everything will be larger.
Ugh, that's what I don't want. I may as well just play it vanilla, I'm in 2k, even then, the UI gets shrunk too small to use for me, or at least it was on the EEs. Are you playing it in 1080p because I have two monitors, another 1080 monitor. Well I may as well try installing it and see if it is even usable for me?
Hi I have 1080p monitor. Text is large at 1280x720 and 1365x768 resolutions if I play fullscreen.
As for fonts themselves best thing you can do and go to iwd2ee discord and ask devs.
Alternative would be typing "icewind dale 2 bigger fonts" in google, it looks like there are other options.
Yeah I downloaded it, UI is just too small in 2k. Some of the lower resolutions as suggested are all right, I'm going to play it regardless. I had never finished the game! I stopped playing it because I got my first decent computer and just wanted to play Skyrim. Curious to those who see. Do you install all the Enhanced content? There's a ton of it. I actually didn't because I've finished the game vanilla.
Installing surpringly goes pretty quick. I picked like 95% of components to be installed.
Dont install "Adjust encounter level-scaling" component unless you always want to fight big hordes of enemies. Might be too difficult, at least when I tried it on previous version.
Components that simplyfy some of the game puzzles is also good idea. Because they are hard to figure out so you will have to dive into gamebanshee walkthru.😑
Are they puzzles like BG1 and BG2 puzzles, or puzzles like Nenio Pathfinder puzzles?
I didnt play Nenio Pathfinder.
IWD2 puzzles are worse then these in BG's. You get a puzzle in ice palace where you have to fight 250 monsters in 1 vs 1 fights to get all rewards. Mindboggling.
Then later on you get map with timeloop.. good luck trying to figure this out by your own.
Nenio is a companion in Pathfinder. There's a sprawling companion quest of notorious puzzles that are a pain in the ass for many people.
Sounds wild to me, I'll probably just look up the solutions if I don't want to deal with the puzzles.
Should the game be massively zoomed out with tiny text on a 4k screen? :/
Or to ask better: How do I make iwd2ee work on 4k properly? Do I just run it at 1080p? I can't read the text in the character creation, and the character movement seems weirdly slow.
What I did was: 1. Install GOG IWD2. 2. Install IWD2EE. 3. Run it, choosing 3840x2160.
Yes run it with 1080p.
I use 1600x900 windowed (if you want windowed run cnc-ddraw and set it there)
ALSO RUN config.exe and change speed to 45 FPS.
Do you mean this?
https://imgur.com/a/dMrSMQ5
Yes. Also chache size change to 999 MB and also pathfinding to 400000
Thanks a ton. I tried to make a post with keywords that would be Googl'able for people like myself, if you think of anything else you want to add: https://www.reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/1q7j97o/icewind_dale_2_enhanced_edition_mod_on_gogcom/
There's not really a reason to change the speed to 45 fps. Unlike the Beamdog EEs, the framerate and logic aren't tied together.
You can run it at that speed as a preference, but all it does it make everything go faster. Rounds will be much faster (not the 7 second rounds - yes, you read that correctly) that's the base for IWD2, which might be jarring for someone not expecting that.
It feels like it stutters during party movements at 30 FPS. Try it..
I've run it at 30 fps for years and haven't encountered that. It will affect the speed of rounds, according to Bubb and OlvynChuru, so I definitely wouldn't recommend it across the board for everyone.
Hmm, I see you are using windowed mode and using a higher resolution than I do. I'm guessing both of those might inncrease potential for stuttering.
I tried 800x600 and is still same. I have Polish version of IWD 2 installed in separate folder. Its buttery smooth there at 30 FPS so it must be EE thing.
Heh it seems I figured it out. There is experimental version of CNC-DDRAW on github that seem to fix that stutter problem with 30 FPS set in config.exe. Seems like the version that is installed by defaulf in EE is outdated.
Everyone go download this:
https://github.com/FunkyFr3sh/cnc-ddraw/releases
FYI, Bubb has made an update to the master that has the newest experimental version.
Please try this version of IWD2:EE where I've updated cnc-ddraw to its latest experimental version: https://github.com/RedChimera/IWD2EE/archive/refs/heads/master.zip
Awesome! I remember having such fun with this one, I was learning to DM 3E at the time and it was such a help (alongside NWN).
When steam ?
Source code is lost. You’ll find game on GoG
EE is a mod - making it sound deceptively official like the other EE games
how does one lose the source code ffs
Surprisingly easily. Companies shut down, storage fails, people who worked on it retire, die, or just never bother to catalogue it because it wasn't needed anymore.
Hell Toy Story was almost deleted during production and was saved because someone who was working from home while on leave had a backup. (Or something similar, it has been a while since I read the full story on that one)
Have a company that's not doing well financially, get your assets spread out over different new IP owners, and have lots of people leave the company.
You should look into Silent Hill 2+3, Kingdom Hearts 1 and Mass Effect Pinnacle Station for more examples of popular games' source code getting lost.
Hmmm
Do I need to start a new save after I update?
ice wind dale is still hack and slash?
Hack&Slash is not the correct term in my opinion. Hack&Slash is characterized by tons of weak hordes of enemies that you just slice through like in Diablo.
Icewind Dale is more like a tactical encounter game with Roleplaying and Quests added on top, all in an incredibly atmospheric setting and a pretty good story.
Everyone who enjoyed Baldur's Gate must also play the Icewind Dale Series. Especially now that there are tons of NPC mods for the first game.
I'd say 'tactical encounter game' is a good term for it. IWD2 has several interesting setpieces, especially in the early acts of the game where you have to save a town, destroy a dam, and assault an enemy camp.
I'm using the blandest language to describe it, but the encounters are awesome. They're my favorite in the infinity engine.
A skirmish level wargame, then?
No
Yes it’s a dungeon crawler, just like the first game. Though IWD2 has more roleplaying options during dialogue, with some being class specific.
IWD seem to have non of the magic of BG imo.
It has its own magic :) IWD excels at encounter design and tactical combat, with an amazing atmosphere and fun progression. The story too, while not as involved as BG, is very cozy and has that charming old school D&D flavor.
Great setting and soundtrack.
Sigh. The IWD games are not hack ‘n’ slash, because they didn’t copy the BG format. IWD 1&2 are classic dungeon crawlers in the vein of traditional Dungeons & Dragons.
BG is the aberration here, because unless you’re playing solo, D&D is never about a single protagonist.
Will the switch vers get update?
This is IWD 2. There is no switch version and this is a mod, not an official remaster.