Help picking mods

[enderandrew]

I apologize for what I assume is an oft-asked question.

 

I played BG when it first came out many years ago. I was a bit under-whelmed by what was supposed to be the greatest RPG of all time. I never purchased BG:II. People keep insisting on what an incredible game I missed out on. I always complain that there aren't enough good RPGs to play, so I broke down and ordered BG:II from Amazon (with ToB as well) which should be arriving any day.

 

I'll likely reinstall BG and play through that first. I recall the gist of the story and all, but it seems the best way to get the best BG:II experience I assume. I've heard a lot about TuTu, but some quick Googling also brings up BGT. There are various mods that are compatible with TuTu and various mods compatible with BGT.

 

Obviously I must pick to go with one or the other. I am somewhat indifferent about romance mods. I just want the best possible gameplay experience. Right now I'm leaning a bit toward BGT from the description, but I was looking for some input for which to choose as the basis for everything else, and then which mods I should install on top of that.

 

I usually go gung-ho and install lods of mods when mods are available for game. I'm concerned about compatibility. Quality is also a concern. I like additional content, but I want it to be on par (if not better) than the original content of the game.

 

Thanks for your time!

[Wounded_Lion]

I'll likely reinstall BG and play through that first. I recall the gist of the story and all, but it seems the best way to get the best BG:II experience I assume. I've heard a lot about TuTu, but some quick Googling also brings up BGT. There are various mods that are compatible with TuTu and various mods compatible with BGT.

 

Obviously I must pick to go with one or the other. I am somewhat indifferent about romance mods. I just want the best possible gameplay experience. Right now I'm leaning a bit toward BGT from the description, but I was looking for some input for which to choose as the basis for everything else, and then which mods I should install on top of that.

 

Despite what some might say, there is not a clear consensus concerning the choice between Tutu and BGT. From what I understand, both are similiar (differing primarily in terms of area naming schemes and the transition from the first game to the second game).

 

A large number of mods have moved towards compatibility with both Tutu and BGT in order to allow for the widest possible audience and reduce conflict. Check the readme of mods that interest you.

 

I usually go gung-ho and install lods of mods when mods are available for game. I'm concerned about compatibility. Quality is also a concern. I like additional content, but I want it to be on par (if not better) than the original content of the game.

 

Quality is mostly a question of personal preference (excepting cases of poor coding; generally, this is unintentional and due only to lack of experience or knowledge rather than modder indifference). Check the readme of mods that interest you for compatibility notes. Thanks to WeiDU, most of us play nicely with one another.

 

The ultimate question is: How do you want to play your game?

 

Note: Feel free to ask questions about specific mods that interest you. Someone here has likely played the mod you'll be asking about and can share his or her experience with you.

 

aWL

 

EDIT: note

[Kulyok]

Not romance/friendship/NPC-related mods, but, rather, quality quest experience?

 

BG2:

Unfinished Business

Quest Pack

Assassinations

Dungeon Crawl

Tower of Deception

 

BG1(Tutu/BGT):

In Candelight

BG Mini-Quests and Encounters

 

UB and Quest Pack have some issues now, so I recommend heading to their forums and reading pinned threads for those components which shouldn't be installed. With BG Mini-Quests, I recall a new version was to come within days. Other mods I mentioned work fine with any combination of mods, in any installation order).

 

Quality: yes;

Compatibility: don't install Quest Pack's "Revised Hell Trials" with Bg2 Fixpack; that's it.

 

And, yeah, BG2 Tweaks is strongly recommended.

[cmorgan]

From personal playthrough, the ones I have enjoyed the most so far (this is a subjective list, not objective )

 

BG Content:

 

One good primarily quest related mod for both BGT and Tutu is Sirine's Call, available at PPG. Pirates, gold, sirines, missing kids - good stuff.

 

The Grey Clan, In Candlelight, is a very tough combat-oriented mod with some roleplaying options, and provides several hours of good fun. Don't bother until you are pretty high level, then expect to lose a few folks each combat, but it is stable and fun. BWL.

 

Jastey's BG Mini-quests and encounters is good fun, and adds a bunch of small quests that add to the player experience without adding banters or romances or such. G3.

 

For BG2, Ding0's Quest pack, Unfinished Business, and that's it from complete playthroughs. From testing and code review, Tower of Deception is kind of like The Grey Clan - you have some puzzles and nasty combats; folks either like it or hate it, but it has new area artwork, and folks seem to find it fun. Assassinations is just out, and is definitely not a good-guy mod; what feedback there is is available on PPG boards. Not a choice for folks playing paladins, but pretty much the only quest mod out there right now that has evil quests for evil players (UB has the Acorn Quest for evil players, but for the most part additional mod-added quests often tend to the neutral or good positions).

 

 

Please note that this list would be very different if you asked about changing elements of the game (graphics like 1pp, items like TeamBG/igi's iiItem mod, rules changes like the bigg's imprisonment fix, Ascension64's .exe patch that allows charmed dialogues to function, igi's Learn Through Use mod, Rabain's Border Kingdoms Improved familiars, or G3's BG2 Tweak Pack).

 

And many NPCs these days come with quests that can only be done with them in the party. But if you are looking for more of an unmodded IWD or IWD2 playing experience, with less talk and more quests, these are pretty good.

 

EDIT: as to platform, either EasyTutu or BGT will work well for you. If you are a "change out the ideas and stop mid-stream" player, Easytutu allows you alot of freedom. If you are a "play the whole thing from beginning to end and don't make changes to the install alot" player, then BGT allows a full run.

 

My only suggestion si to take the "less is more" approach, and only install a mod if you are sure you want it - and you have really read through the documentation. But then, that is good general advice for any mod, any game, any platform

Hope this helps!

[ericp07]

To the OP...

 

When you feel ready to install all the mods you want to include, I highly recommend looking through the BiG World install instructions over at SpellHold Studios. This will go a long way toward multi-mod compatibility, as you'll find that several components of various mods are meant to do the same thing, and you'll want to avoid redundancies and potential conflicts. Though not 100%, my game is more stable than ever before, after installing things the BiG World way

 

[bSP] Hopefully, by the time you're ready, my NPC mod will be released, and you'll want to check it out [END BSP]

 

Good luck and happy gaming,

Eric

[SimDing0]

(UB has the Acorn Quest for evil players, but for the most part additional mod-added quests often tend to the neutral or good positions).

Heh. I don't know what it is about people confusing the two, but the acorn quest with Phluafae is from Quest Pack, not UB. (Besamen is the one most commonly confused, for whatever reason--presumably because it's good.)

[enderandrew]

Thanks for all the advice. While looking around last night I did come across the BiG World install instructions, but very quickly ran into some more questions then. I'm going to post said question here rather than register for a couple more forums.

 

BiG World says to download NEJ version 2v42b, which isn't even available in most places. NEJ is up to version 6.9.4 it would seem according to this link:

 

http://forums.blackwyrmlair.net/index.php?showforum=79

 

They also have a file called BGT-NeJ2.rar that is supposed to bring compatibility with NeJ and BGT 1.04. That file was released after NeJ 6.9.1, but before 6.9.4. Then again, it is named NeJ2, so I'm not sure what version of NeJ it is compatible with, or what exactly I'm supposed to be doing here.

 

I'd have to register for the forums, download the file, and hope for a readme, where as I can Google up at least three different websites with different NeJ versions and links, none with any clear instructions.

[cmorgan]

(UB has the Acorn Quest for evil players, but for the most part additional mod-added quests often tend to the neutral or good positions).

Heh. I don't know what it is about people confusing the two, but the acorn quest with Phluafae is from Quest Pack, not UB. (Besamen is the one most commonly confused, for whatever reason--presumably because it's good.)

 

Sorry - my bad. QP for the Acorns.

 

@ enderandrew: it might be better to avoid Mega install materials the first run. They pose significant challenges to experienced modder who know how to fix things. Installing is one thing - completing the game is another.

[enderandrew]

You're probably right. I'll probably do a vanilla install, back-up my files, and then try my luck with a mega-mod. If I run into any problems, I'll backup save games, and roll back to vanilla if I have to, or try a smaller collection of mods.

 

I'm also finding a few of the download links from the BiG World Project list are broken, but that isn't the end of the world.