Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition v1.3 Update Released, Livestream

A new, substantial update for Beamdog’s Enhanced Edition of Baldur’s Gate II is meant to drop in a little more than two hours from now, and while you could just check the release notes that the developers are distributing in pdf format, you could also tune in to the livestream they are currently airing on their official Twitch.tv channel and see some of the new features and fixes showcased live.

The list of fixes for the update is really huge, but I’ll still try and quote a few of the most important ones:

IMPROVED PATHFINDING

Party members now wait for each other to bypass obstacles, rather than immediately searching for another route to their destination. This eliminates cases of characters wandering off to the far corners of the map and generally keeps the party closer together while traveling.

Party members also move out of the way while attacking to allow allies to move toward enemies, enabling characters to take better advantage of reach weapons and keeping ranged characters from getting in the way of melee fighters during combat.

Enemies use their original behavior, looking for alternate routes when they encounter obstacles. For the clay golems in the starting dungeon, that alternate route may involve smashing goblins into paste if there’s no way around them

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PRIEST ALIGNMENTS UPDATED

Cleric kits now allow alignments based on patron deity. Clerics with no kit can follow any stronghold whose patron deity is within one step of the cleric’s alignment. Clerics in existing games are not affected by this change

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IMOEN REMAINS LOYAL, NO MATTER WHAT

Imoen now remains in the party no matter what the player’s reputation is, although this will not stop her from complaining if the player’s reputation is low.

Hexxat also remains loyal regardless of reputation, at least until the end of her quest in Dragomir’s Tomb.

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FASTER BEARS

All bears in the game now move as quickly as normal humans, making them both more believable and more challenging when faced in the wild.

GERMAN TEXT TRANSLATION NOW AVAILABLE

Our team of volunteers, led by Johannes (Drakonis) Husing, have completed a full text translation of the game, including all enhanced content and revisions to original content. You can enable this translation from the Language options menu.

SPANISH TEXT TRANSLATION NOW AVAILABLE

You can now experience Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition with a full Spanish text translation. You can enable this translation from the Language options menu

ROMANCES REMEMBERED FROM BALDUR’S GATE

When you import a saved character from Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition to the beginning of Shadows of Amn, your romance status with Dorn, Neera, or Rasaad will now be carried over. Find your lost companion in Athkatla or the surrounding region and your relationship will pick up right where it left off

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IMPROVED CHARACTER CREATION

A (Pre-Generate Character) button has been added in the Single Player menu, allowing you to create characters and export them without starting a new game. Use this to plan future play-throughs or to generate characters for use in multiplayer.

In addition, when you press (Store) on the Abilities step in character creation, any unspent ability points will also be stored and ready for distribution when you press (Recall).

Your rolled abilities are now also remembered if you return to the Abilities screen later in the character creation process. (Returning to the beginning of character creation clears ability rolls as it did before.)

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IMPROVED INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

The Quick Loot bar now combines stackable items automatically when looted from the ground, and correctly displays usability tints for items you find. Using Quick Loot also no longer requires characters to walk to the items being looted, making the post-combat looting process much faster.

Wooden Stakes also now stack in groups of up to ten, saving precious space in inventory for the items you’ll inevitably find in that vampire’s lair.