More Player Enhanced Editions Finds!

Wild magic... What could possibly go wrong?

We love seeing Beamdog forum member share screenshots and stories of odd encounters and interesting tricks in the Enhanced Editions! Today we’re picking out a few of our favorites and giving away a few t-shirts!

Once upon a time, there was a Nashkel town…

One of the keys to longevity of the Baldur’s Gate franchise are the stories players tell about their adventures. In this game, lives of the whole town can depend on a lucky or, in this case, an extremely unlucky roll of the dice.

Famouswolfe had tried to tread lightly while playting Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, till Neera in their party attempted to cast Magic Missile to disrupt an assassin. A wild surge happened, then another wild surge, and another! Cows began raining from the sky and wiped out the entire town (along with Neera, a town guard, and several important NPCs like Minsc, Edwin, and Noober).

TNO in Wonderland.

Montresor_SP (author of the famous Sorcerer's Place Baldur's Gate 2 Walkthrough) continues to dig out and share secrets in Infinity Engine games with the community.

This time, Montresor spotted an Alice in Wonderland Easter Egg in Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition."Curios-er and Curios-her!" – cried Ravel.

Check out other Easter Eggs of Sigil in one of our previous blog entries.

What it takes to defeat a dragon?

Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear offers a wide variety of intelligent enemies, and provides the player with inventive options to overcome them.

Markzaku has discovered that you can one-shot Morentherene, a green dragon under the Forest of Wyrms, if you hit her with a throwing dagger while she is still sleeping. Be cautious, though, dragons are light sleepers!

14 misses in a row? - It’s more than simply bad luck.

According to Johntyl, some weapons you find in Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn are as popular as they should be. During their recent playthrough of Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition, they have discovered the usefulness of Soul Reaver +4, a two-handed sword being talked about by players much less, if compared to famous Carsomyr and Silver Sword. Each hit with this sword gives the target a cumulative 2 point penalty to THAC0, which means 10 consecutive hits on an enemy creates an impressive 20-point penalty! Even the Wraith Sarevok can’t counter it.

Montresor_SP, Markzaku, Johntyl and Famouswolfe will all receive their choice of a Siege of Dragonspear or Planescape Torment: Enhanced Edition t-shirt! Congratulations! Watch out for a message from our Community Manager!

Share favorite stories about the Enhanced Editions on Facebook, Twitter, and in our forums!

Developing Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition - Found Artifacts and Oddities

The original Planescape: Torment is filled with hidden gems.

During the development of Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition the Beamdog team dug deeply into the code of original Planescape: Torment and uncovered a treasure trove of secrets hidden within. Here are a few of the oddities we stumbled across while working with the original Planescape: Torment source code.

Not your ordinary test NPC.

Meet the infamous test character, Testocles. Like many cRPGs of its time Planescape: Torment was filled with text, however the conversation  mechanics of PST take speech option outcomes to the next level. In Planescape: Torment, the Nameless One can not only gain XP during conversation, but also be granted extra stat points, new abilities, or have his class change between fighter, thief, and mage.

Updated journal to “check shops with Robert Holloway."

Testocles’ dialog text tree is full of choices ranging from the aforementioned ability to make the Nameless One change class to a simple demand that the test character fidget. Here, Testocles fields a demand to view merchant stores for Robert Holloway, a programmer on the original game.

All hail Holloway! Merchant king!

These stakes are real! A successful test cancels plans for world destruction.

A secret message uncovered 18 years later.

As you can see in the above image, Technical Designer and Voice-over Coordinator on the original Planescape: Torment, David Hendee, left his mark on Curst’s Automap Screen. In the original Planescape: Torment this message was hidden and we found it only by adding the zoomed out map and uncovering the walkable path for the area. Learn about this discovery in the Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition launch livestream.

Run away from me, if you can. Like you’re scared. “RunAwayFrom ((PC), 2000)"

If we didn’t eat cheesy poofs, we’d be lame!

A sign of the times. The C language programmers on Planescape: Torment encrypted the data type void as a reference to the brand new hit show, South Park.

Japanese popular culture not only influenced Planescape: Torment, but also some of the test dialog.

Here, we’re introduced to Dak’kon in a test dialogue with some Hive thugs. According to the original team (watch our livestream with Chris Avellone!), the Planescape: Torment developers played a lot of Final Fantasy VII which may have influenced many of the higher level spells and the preference of each of the Nameless One’s companions to favor a single type of weapon based on their personality.

The original team had some fun with test text.

During our journey back in time, we found this bit of early UI and discovered the two most popular spells in development.

Creating Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition has been an unforgettable experience for the whole Beamdog team. Watch out for more on the making of PST:EE in the weeks ahead!

New to the planes? Find out more about Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition at planescape.com.

The Familiar: Cool Screenshots. Great Rewards!

Don't go west. A grue will eat you.

Fans often post screenshots of their characters, in-game events, and fun banter in the Beamdog forums. We love it and want to see more! To encourage more great art, writing, and game screenshots, our community manager Julius Borisov, will occasionally be giving out t-shirts and other swag to active members of the community. Watch out for him on the forums! 

Here are a few of our favorite recent screenshots. Read on to find out which one won an exclusive T-shirt from Beamdog.

Athkatla under the winds of winter.

Trinit created a GUI mod for BG:EE and BGII:EE  using graphics from Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition. Here's Korgan on the new background.

Sneaky, sneaky! Nothing like your own personal invisible wall.

Chimaera found a way to use an invisible familiar as a method to successfully solo Siege of Dragonspear.

That is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself, Kruin.

CrevsDaak, on his hundredth or so playthrough of Baldur's Gate II, realized this dialogue from Kruin was a reference to the Matrix.

Squint and you'll see the typo along the monument base.

Gunman made a rare discovery. On a map south from Beregost in Baldur's Gate, a stone obelisk misspells the town of Nashkel "NASHKELL." Gunman will receive a Baldur's Gate t-shirt from our Community Manager for his sharp eyes. Congratulations! 

Want to join in on the fun? Sign up for an account on the Beamdog forums!