(Re)creating BG1 unique items in BG2

[Lochlann]

Hi all, I have a quick "mod existence" question. I've searched around and can't seem to find this anywhere, so I figured I'd ask here before taking what will surely amount to a futile stab at item creation.

 

I am currently replaying the BG saga, many years after having played it through the first time, and I am nearing the end of BG1. This time through, I'd like for the transition between BG1 and BG2 to reflect a rather more "realistic" situation. I can accomplish most facets of this using existing tools and editors, but the item situation is a bit beyond my (non-existent) tinkering capabilities.

 

I am something of a collector/packrat, and this seems to be no less true in virtual worlds than in the real world. I have taken no small amount of joy in collecting all of the cool, unique items in BG1 and squirreling them away in a makeshift stronghold. (The structure in Baldur's Gate formerly known as Ramazith's Tower, to be precise.) What I'd like to do down the road in BG2, upon my character earning his stronghold, is arrange for the "transportation" of his hoard of goodies from Baldur's Gate down to the new stronghold.

 

In game terms, of course, this means using the console to recreate those items and store them away in the stronghold. That's no problem as far as gems and jewelry and whatnot are concerned, but as I recall from my first playthrough, many of the unique BG1 items are not coded into BG2. "The World's Edge" (Two-Handed Sword +3, from TotSC) and "Varscona" (Long Sword +2) come readily to mind, my character being a sword-wielder, but I know there are many others.

 

So, to finally come to the point: is there a mod out there that re-creates the assortment of unique BG1 items for BG2? Obviously this would be a niche project, as the items would be of little use from a utility standpoint, quickly eclipsed by the more powerful BG2/ToB items, but I figured it was worth a shot. If there is no such mod, I suppose I'll roll my sleeves up and try my hand at adding them via the creation of new items, something I've never done before. Could be kinda fun, actually, but I'm guessing it'll be time-consuming and messy. (I've downloaded a few "idiot's guides" and whatnot.)

 

Thanks for any help or advice!

[Jarno Mikkola]

...

There s no such mod, nor is there need for it, as you are supposed to loose every item you'll get.

 

Play the BGT v1.08... it's your best alternative to cheating yourself the items.

As you can install all the BG1 mods except the FotD mod to the BG2 with it as it imports the BG1 files to the BG2 game. You of course need to have a clean full BG2:SoA+ToB patched to v(2.5.)26498 and clean custom installs with everything chosen on both BG1&TotSC pached to v(1.3.)5512, but those are easy to get, and then the BG1 mods, as BGT compatible versions...

[Lochlann]

Huh, interesting. I'll have to look into that conversion mod. I'm not sure I need it, as I am only a handful of hours away from completing BG1 and I have no issue with manually transferring over, but it does look pretty elegant. Thanks for the heads-up!

 

Oh, but as far as the PC losing every BG1 item s/he has...of course that's how it's supposed to be, but that's for balance and logistics purposes. There's no "in-story" justification for having all of my character's collected gear, stored in a secure location, just disappear into thin air. And, besides, the desire to change things to a way that they aren't "supposed to be" in the vanilla game...well, that's the core drive behind the idea of modding, no?

 

Perhaps the task of manually creating the items won't be as daunting as it seems now. Many of the items are indeed coded in BG2 after all, as I'm seeing upon perusing the BG2 item lists. There will probably only be a handful that I need to supply manually. And I'm guessing that once I figure out how to make one item correctly, the others will roll out pretty easily.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Many of the items are indeed coded in BG2 after all, as I'm seeing upon perusing the BG2 item lists. There will probably only be a handful that I need to supply manually. And I'm guessing that once I figure out how to make one item correctly, the others will roll out pretty easily.

Well, all of the items provided by the mods, are usually copied over from the mods own files, so you just have to recreate the description, and that's also in the mods own setup-*modname*.tp2 file usually, so you just have to combine the needed parts. Copy-Paste. Open up the mod .tp2's with notepad...

[cmorgan]

Doggone... I remember creating a quick on-the-fly .tp2 that did something like this... I can't remember if it is just mod-added items from bg1npc and some of the mods like Indira and Finch, or if it included regular BG items, but it would give you instructions and a template at least. Do a google on my screenname and bg items or something, and it should pop up. I just can't remember where at G3 it was...

[Lochlann]

Great, thanks, I'll definitely poke around and see what I turn up. My initial searches turned up something similar to what you've described, an "SoA Item Import Mod" by ronin69hof, which takes a handful of BG1 items and adds them to the starter dungeon, either just lying around or as part of a beefed-up encounter. However, all of these items already "exist" in SoA, meaning they are accessible with the console anyway. So this wouldn't help me with the real problem, which is the items that weren't coded in SoA at all.

 

I'll keep looking around for something with your name attached to it. Thanks!

[cmorgan]

Found it:

 

http://forums.gibberlings3.net/index.php?showtopic=12002

 

You can probably do better than my effort very quickly, especially since most of the things that are not in BG2 already via CLUAConsole are actually mod-added ones, so it is just what Jarno described - raiding the mod's .tp2 and copying the part that adds the description to the item (and copies the item from the raw folder into the override). The ones left over can be extracted using wiedu, NI, or DLTCEP, and you can copy and paste their descriptions from those same programs, and make the .tp2 follow the same format as for the mod added items.

 

If you want to get really fancy, pick a container somewhere in BG2, and with a little help from folks who hang out here, you can probably avoid CLUAConsole completely by having them all put into the selected container using a script (a spell you cast, or just an addition of CreateItem() in an area script) so you just wander over, and your stuff is all there.

 

You would probably have to ask Miloch, or Wisp, or Taimon, or Mike1072, or another of the Big Guns of item creation/manipulation (but start with Miloch because he has played with unique containers and made a mod out of it), but I always thought the most logical thing would have been for PC to squirrel away his most precious items in a Bag of Holding, and that bag could be lying around in Irenicus' Dungeon...

 

but I have never tried to create a unique container and populate it with items.

[Salk]

Huh, interesting. I'll have to look into that conversion mod. I'm not sure I need it, as I am only a handful of hours away from completing BG1 and I have no issue with manually transferring over, but it does look pretty elegant. Thanks for the heads-up!

 

The optional BGT Tweaks component lets you import more items into Shadow of Amn.

[Jarno Mikkola]

The optional BGT Tweaks component lets you import more items into Shadow of Amn.

He doesn't want more, he wants all. And that's easy to do with the BGT and CLUAConsole:MoveToArea("x"), as you just go to random area, drop the items to a container, move to the End... of BG1, the Belt talk get a ride and after you have got your bearings(explored the first map), you can console yourself to the area where you left the loot(you'll find the area code by pushing the X key when you are on the area).

[Lochlann]

Thanks for the help, all, it is much appreciated.

 

Coupla responses:

1. I'm not playing the BGT version of the games. I have separate copies of them: the 6-disk BG1/TotSC version, as well as the original releases of SoA and ToB. (And I'm actually over in the middle-east right now, in the Peace Corps, so I have no way of getting my mitts on a BGT version. The game is providing a valuable and much-needed "reminder of home.") So anything specific to BGT won't work, unless I'm missing something. Otherwise, Jarno, you're right, your idea would seem to be the most convenient and elegant.

 

2. I've been (re)playing the game(s) in a fairly "vanilla" style, so the items I'm talking about aren't really coming from 3rd-party mods or anything. I generally play only with bugfixes, tweakpacks, and the occasional additional tweak that strikes me as meaningful. (Paranoia of mod conflicts, coupled with a general ignorance of modding and a healthy dose of "wanting to keep it real," serves to keep me away from more ambitious mods.) I think y'all are trying to help me with something much bigger than I actually need ; it's really only the leftover unique items from vanilla BG and TotSC that I'm after. I haven't yet compiled a complete list of which items didn't make it into BG2, but I know there are more than a handful.

 

3. cmorgan, thanks a ton for tracking down your mod, but I'll be honest: I haven't the faintest idea of what a .tp2 is, much less how to "raid one." I imagine this is something I could do with the BG1/TotSC item list, in order to get the details...but I've already downloaded a complete list of all such items, which I plan to use when manually creating the new items.

 

Now, despite the aforementioned ignorance of modding, I am pretty sharp when it comes to intuiting these things and figuring them out on the fly, so I don't expect I'll have too much trouble with my own homegrown solution. I do remember creating a few new items of my own back during my first playthrough of BG2--among other things, I was pretty proud of my Circlet of Netheril, an artifact item that united all Ioun Stones that the player found, combining all of their effects into one headpiece--and, although that was years ago, if I managed to figure it out back then, I'm sure I'll be able to figure it out again.

 

That said, if someone thinks it'd be easy to cook up a sharp little mod to parse item lists for all BG1/TotSC items and create their item codes in BG2, I wouldn't hesitate to use it.

 

Again, I appreciate all the insights/advice/suggestions!

[Jarno Mikkola]

Again, I appreciate all the insights/advice/suggestions!

Well, if you can produce a list of items you wish to have from BG1, I can make a mod that will have them, thir own description and put them to the first dungeon.

This link might be helpful.

 

but I'll be honest: I haven't the faintest idea of what a .tp2 is

The .tp2 file is the file the WeiDU.exe takes orders from when you install the mod, they'll have almost the same name even, that begins with setup-*modname*, they end in .exe and .tp2...

[cmorgan]

Let me know how I can help, Jarno, if you want to tackle it - I am pressed with job stuff right now, but anyone willing to put themselves out there for the good of the community (be it Peace Corps or Armed Services) deserves some TLC. I think you can do it the way you have figured out, Lochlann, so if it is fun to rebulid things and put them in manually, go for it - but if you would rather take what little free time you have and just play, it is a good bet we can help you out.

[Lochlann]

That's really generous of you both, I appreciate it. Especially for something that is entirely a cosmetic indulgence of mine. It's not like I'll get much use out of the items; they would just be there for "flavor," to supplement my desire for a more integrated game experience. If you're willing to write a little mod just for that...well, I sure am grateful. (The TLC is definitely appreciated!)

 

When I have completed BG1, I will go through my little hidey-hole and tally all of the unique items, then compare them to the list of items that already exist in SoA, and from that arrive at a list of items that need to be added. I guess I could just work from a master list, but I'm kind of a stickler for authenticity (as must be apparent by now...); if my character didn't find something for some reason, I wouldn't want him to have it in SoA. When I'm done, I'll post that list here, and if you kind folks want to work a mod out of it, that'd be mighty kind. Er, but just be warned...it's going to be really annoying, including random items like Gorion's Scroll, Wardstones from Durlag's Tower, and crap like that. (Have I mentioned that I'm neurotic? Yeah, I'm a little neurotic. )

 

I should be able to finish the game and post the list here in the next couple of days or so. Peace Corps stuff keeps me quite busy, but the tiny villages over here pretty much shut down completely when the Sun goes down, leaving me with spare time in the evening. I'm near the end of Chapter 5 in BG1, but I've already completed all of the TotSC additions, so it's really just Candlekeep and the Thieves' Maze to go. (I figured it wouldn't make much sense for the PC to just leave off the hot pursuit of Sarevok in Chapter 6 to travel to distant islands and random dungeons...))

 

As far as where the items should appear...to be honest, it would be quite enough to simply add the items to the game code. They needn't actually appear anywhere in the game. As I've said, what I imagine is that when my character earns his stronghold, he'd then be in a position to arrange for the transportation of his gear from the city of Baldur's Gate. Using the console to approximate this "transportation" is as good a method as any. So there's no need to find a place to place the items in the gameworld.

 

(The only exception is the stuff I'd imagine still being on my character when Irenicus captures him, which I'd want him to have from the very beginning of SoA, and which I can see being scattered around the starting dungeon...but, really, it's quite enough to simply get the code into the game, unless you're feeling especially bored or something.)

 

And...honest, only if you have extra time or whatever. If it winds up being too annoying a list or too tedious a project, just let me know, and I'll get busy with some item-making.

 

Thanks bunches. It's nice to see such continued generous support here.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Let me know how I can help, Jarno, if you want to tackle it -

Well, if you wish, you could try this, as the mod is already done. Well the v0.99 is.

Yes, that's only three items, placed in the starting dungeon. The original items were in BG1; BLUN11, SW2H07 and SW2H08. The new codes are: IJ#blun, IJ#sw2h1, IJ#sw2h2...

 

If anyone can come up with a list that has more usable items, I am willing to add them in, but the Gorion's Scroll etc. will stay lost.

Yes, I may use these in another mod, so I may incorporate them into that, so this won't go waste, nor will it always stay as v0.99.

[Lochlann]

Nice, that was quick! Great! I have a few other items to suggest right off the bat, things that everyone (not just neurotic lil' me) might want to see in SoA, even if in the beginning. The full list will come later, of course.

 

BG1 item codes:

PLAT08 -- Plate Mail +3, "The Practical Defense" (worth it just for that cool pulsing glow effect!)

AX1H03 -- Battle Axe +2, "Battleaxe of Mauletar"

STAF08 -- Quarter Staff +3, "Aule's Staff"

 

I seem to have screwed up re: Varscona, the Long Sword +2 from BG1; it does indeed appear to be in SoA, as itemname KILLSW01.

 

Also, it seems that SW1H18 (Sword of Balduran) is in SoA, but for some reason the "+4 vs. Shapeshifters" part seems to have been removed, making it just a regular bastard sword. I'm not looking at it in-game, of course; possibly the person who compiled the text list I'm looking at made a goof.