BG2 Mod Suggestions

[CamDawg]

I've completed my Tutu run and now turning to BG2 proper. Been a while and I don't have the time to try and catch up with all the new stuff since I left, so I'll simply ask for BG2 mod suggestions. I'll be running with my usual load-out of Fixpack, Tweaks, Rogue Rebalancing, Quest Pack, Unfinished Business, G3A.

 

Already looked at Wheels (it's in); any other non-NPC suggestions?

[Daulmakan]

Hi Cam, good to see you again.

 

Some suggestions: Assassinations, Dungeon Crawl, Tower of Deception, Tales of the Deep Gardens.

[Shaitan]

Gavin NPC (talkative priest, with issues)

 

Oh and Alternatives. Nice introduction of getting to Brynnlaw in a new fashion.

[Miloch]

Gavin NPC (talkative priest, with issues)

He said no NPCs .

 

Might I pimp Aurora's Shoes to you? A lot of banter and some smallish quests. Fishing for Trouble should be good too, but you probably don't want to wait a month for that.

[Shaitan]

Doh

 

Didn't see that little "non".

 

BTW Cam, perhaps you should take a look at Spell Revision & Item Revision.

[Guest!]

Improved Anvil.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Improved Anvil.

Yeah, if you want to pay for it. Don't!!!

 

Haiass and the Level 1 NPCs, although the Haiass could have also been in Tutu use...

On my side there's Cerberus ...

All these are better if looking for non-talkative NPCs, as they alter or add creatures, but do not add any new party crowding NPCs.

[CamDawg]

Might I pimp Aurora's Shoes to you? A lot of banter and some smallish quests. Fishing for Trouble should be good too, but you probably don't want to wait a month for that.

I installed Aurora for my Tutu run, which reminds me--the bastard sword Iceblade +2 (agsw1h05) crashes the game when swung, as it's set to use the 2-handed sword animation in combat. It should be an s1 at 0x22, not s2.

 

Overall I found it interesting and the items pretty well done, but it really felt like a BG2 mod that had been shoehorned into BG. The upgrade prices were on the high side, which is probably why I didn't try any (and by extension, probably missed the attached quests). If I have 15k gold in Nashkel, I'm heading back to Beregost to buy some shadow armor first.

 

As a personal preference I hate, hate, hate +CHR items. They pay for themselves so many times over with merchants that's there's effectively no good price to balance them. For example, I dropped 3k gold on the boots of high style and they paid for themselves very early with big ticket purchases from Taerom and Thalantyr. The dexterity penalties never mattered since I only put them on when shopping.

[cmorgan]

I suggest Alternatives for alternate pathways/allies, Homeward Bound for managing NPCs (unless you are soloing, in which case it is pointless). If your are taking canonical BioWare NPCs along, the IEP over at SHS has some nice interactions expanding some of the old crew, so that along with good old PPG banterpack might be fun. I can't remember how you liked your game, but I *think* you are among the "less is more" camp, and judging by your Tweakpack "house rules", you really might like the latest Rogue Rebalancing (I think you would like it just looking at the code and appreciating the work invested, but I also think you would enjoy the work in-game, too). SCSII. I think you would really like Fishing For Trouble, too, but you could do that on your next nostalgia swing. Anyways, that is probably a pretty conservative list (I like igi's stuff, but it is hard to come by right now; if you want something specific and igi isn't reachable, I have backups of iiItemv5 and an early version of iiLearnThroughUse). There is much more out there, but from a "play original BG with additional content but don't rework basic ruleset and stuff", I can't think of much more off the top of my head.

 

(the new Infinity Animations and the updates of 1PixelProductions are pretty nice and the bigg has made biffing a useful and reversible option now, so it might be cool to try those out )

[Jarno Mikkola]

And if you remember Taimon's work on the bgmain.exe, you should also know Ascension64's work on the same subject, except that A64's ToBExtender isn't restricted to the 'hardcoded' limits of the size check... and the bigg has extended the range of his Widescreen mod again to >=640x>=480 (yes, that bigger or equal as), which allows for example 800x480 screen res, although it's in Git page still.

[InKal]

Improved Anvil.

Yeah, if you want to pay for it. Don't!!!

 

 

 

Developed distinguishers. Horrible creatures, I avoid them whenever I can.

 

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

RR

Tactics:

Kuro

Ritual

Poison Dudes

Frau Blucher Lich

Shorty in the Docks (rest is more or less incompatible with SCS2)

RE

Sola

Assassinations

ToD

Dingo Questpack

UB

SCS2 (don't play BG2 without this mod)

 

is all you really need

[Guest!]

Improved Anvil.

Yeah, if you want to pay for it. Don't!!!

 

I should add an [irony][/irony] tag to my posts.

[DavidW]

SCS2 (don't play BG2 without this mod)

 

I'm flattered, but it really does make the game a lot harder, which isn't everyone's cup of tea.

[yarpen]

Hello Cam, I hope you still remember me.

My suggestions are: Spell Revision, Item Revision and SCS2. All of those can be called quality mods, they're close to be perfect (well, we have to wait for IR3 which is going to be really awesome). Avenger refurbished his Rogue Rebalancing and created nice aTweaks. And at last, Item Randomiser makes game a lot more refreshing.

[Miloch]

I installed Aurora for my Tutu run, which reminds me--the bastard sword Iceblade +2 (agsw1h05) crashes the game when swung, as it's set to use the 2-handed sword animation in combat. It should be an s1 at 0x22, not s2.

Cheers, will fix.

Overall I found it interesting and the items pretty well done, but it really felt like a BG2 mod that had been shoehorned into BG.

Well, it is, but some thought went into that. For example, you don't have the more powerful items available in BG1 that are available in BG2. And even within BG1, you don't have the more powerful items available until Baldur's Gate city (at which point Karaea moves from Nashkel to the Drakon Tavern). So the upgrades are probably intended for that point (though if you somehow have acquired a load of gold early on, as well as the necessary items, you can do them then also).

The upgrade prices were on the high side, which is probably why I didn't try any (and by extension, probably missed the attached quests).

The prices are intended to be high for balance reasons, but if you remember any that were clearly overpriced (or underpriced) I'll be happy to consider changes. There's no real quests conferred by the upgrades. Rather, it's the other way around: you can upgrade some quest items.

 

As for the quests you (think you) may have missed, they're fairly minor in BG1:

 

- Gather gooseberries for Karaea to receive a special "gift"

- Free an enslaved gnome from a tribe of goblins (somewhere in Larswood IIRC)

- Destroy the goblin tribe in a cave north of Nashkel (and loot the lair)

- Find various randomly-strewn items (Acid Rapier, Pirate's Cutlass, Great Elixir, Star Ruby - placement varies from game to game)

 

The quests are somewhat different in BG2, so I'd recommend giving it another go there. And of course, there's Aurora herself, the star attraction of the mod (who appears only in Athkatla). She'll have different banters and pseudo-quests based on which NPCs you have in your party (and will still banter and have quests even if you're soloing).

As a personal preference I hate, hate, hate +CHR items. They pay for themselves so many times over with merchants that's there's effectively no good price to balance them. For example, I dropped 3k gold on the boots of high style and they paid for themselves very early with big ticket purchases from Taerom and Thalantyr. The dexterity penalties never mattered since I only put them on when shopping.

If you hated them so much, why did you buy them? But I see your point - maybe we could do something else with those. We also have +/- reputation boots, but those probably aren't as objectionable, as you can modify your reputation quite easily in the game otherwise (even more so with BG1 NPC's "Lake Poets" or berelinde's tweaks).

 

Anyway, I'd like to hear more feedback - if you don't want to clutter this thread, feel free to post at SHS (as a guest if you don't feel like logging in).