Icewind Dale II

[-JR-]

Why are there no mods for Icewind Dale II? Is it hard to mod, or just less popular?

[Jarno Mikkola]

Why are there no mods for Icewind Dale II? Is it hard to mod, or just less popular?

What are we? Invisible... perhaps, and then there is the fact that the games ruleset is totally bogus, but that's my opinion.

 

The game should be as easy to modify as the other IE games, and the editors support it too, so in my mind, the rule set is the thing to blame.

[-JR-]

Dammit! I was going to work on an NPC project for it.

 

Hahah, thanks for the link, I'll check those out.

[Domi]

IWD2 is more difficult tp mod for, as its version of the engine has a lot of hard-coded functions and severely curtails NPC development (which is one of the most popular aspects of modding).

[Sorrow]

It's 3rd ed.

 

Also, while it has more role-playing than BG1 and BG2 together, it quickly turns into a tiresome, boring hack & slash.

I think I got stuck in the goblin fortress in the beginning.

[-JR-]

NPC development is limited? What sort of development?

[CoM_Solaufein]

Non-existent.

[-JR-]

So the characters wouldn't be able to talk to you or eachother?

 

Edit: http://www.gibberlings3.net/iwd2npc/

There's some characters here that I think it implies interact with you. I can't test it myself yet because my IWDII CD stopped working, and my computer followed it.

[Domi]

You do not have the following bread and butter options: join the characters via the join in function - you import-export them. No 'on going to bed' talks. In addition, there is no B-file running engine, so random banter are out of question; I had to script everything on timers & make it Chapter dependent trying to simulate randomness & distribute content evenly. In addition, personal scripts start failing by Chapter 4 for my module (10 NPCs), must be hitting some limit somewhere. I had to run everything of one master-script, which causes slow-downs in performance - that's with 10 NPCs. The more you add, the crankier it will get. There are also lots of minor annoyances with hard-coded stuff that can bite you when you least expect (anyone who played with Peony can attest to it).

 

But, the main problem is that the content is simply not played. IWD2 is not a popular game among the NPC-audience. An NPC mod for BG2 will net you about 10X more downloads than an IWD2 mod.

[-JR-]

Have there been any attempts to convert this game, as with Tutu?

 

Maybe if the graphics and dialogue could be transferred to a BG-like system.. Or is that where the lack of popularity enters in?

[theacefes]

I know of none but the closest thing to it would be the IWD with a BG2 engine conversion. Not IWD2, but it would provide a whole new field for modding NPCs. And the IWD plot isn't *so* bad.

 

I think IWD2 ticked people off because of 1) the ruleset and 2) the story was kind of eh....it's not as fun when there is no main character and the NPCs have no depth.

[-JR-]

Yeah, that's why I wanted to expand on it a bit, to get some NPC action in there. I mostly just love this game for the beginning: the seige of Targos is so cool.

 

Is there some sort of issue anyone can see that would prevent an IWDII conversion to a system that would better support NPCs? If the ambition could be found for such a project of course.

[Domi]

Yes, there will be plenty of issues. When Weimer tried to convert BG2 to IWD2 rule-set - it was called Icewind Gate- he had to give up because the engines were drastically different and he could not produce a bug-free version. IWD1 is closer to BG1, hence the conversion is more feasible. IWD2 is a whole other kettle of fish. The only thing which would work imo for IWD2 is NWN2 conversion. Rulset is practically the same, and you can easily do the NPCs and re-vamp the plot so it's not so linear, while dropping down the portions that are sheer boredom-fest. I was going to do it as Chimeras, but I have no time or resources necessary.

 

And, simply adding NPCs in IWD2 didn't really prove a popular undertaking.

[theacefes]

I would say if you are going to do a conversion with another toolset, use the NWN1 toolset; there is more documentation on it that's actually understandable and the toolset isn't evil.

 

EDIT: Changed toolset name suggestion - didn't see the ruleset in there because I read too fast.

[Domi]

Dragon Age though is not D&D based, while NWN2 comes with the proper set of rules out of the box, so you get a huge workload off. Plus, there are plenty of IWD areas available in NWN2 already with the IWD1 conversaion and snow areas.

 

EDIT: Whoops, I don't know why I read 'Dragon Age', not NWN1. I guess, NWN1 just doesn't exist for me as a game.