Baldur's Gate saves the RPG??? Bleh!

[Ratty Sr.]

Not to mention that the DM client and the toolset were absolute crap as well. There wasn't even a simple database to be accessed. And it was so bug-ridden that there have been about 25 patches so far, each introducing new bugs.

Very true.

Last time I used the toolset (last year, when I got Hordes of the Underdark) it was *still* bugged as hell. Despite the latest patch, it *constantly* violated memory and even crashed occasionally.

Their script compiler and virtual machine suck as well. Once I tested a script which contained an intentional infinite while loop, and the piece of shit game client froze. For fuck's sake. I don't expect sophisticated error detection and recovery from a game engine, but is it too much to ask for a simple time-out? Sheesh.

In addition to this, the main IDE really isn't anything more than a pretty map editor with some handy features like dialogue tree editor. If you want to extract game resources, you need to use external tools. If you want to implement new textures and models, you need to use external tools. If you want to manage hak-paks, you need to use external tools. Many of these tools aren't even official, but developed by third parties and often even more bugged than the official ones.

To make matters worse, documentation for the toolset is virtually non-existent. The only documentation is some phantom book you have to buy separately. That's right - you have to pay $20 just so you can use something you already paid $50 for. Brilliant.