Polytweak, initial release

[Cahir]

@polytopeI've noticed you have been more active lately. Do you plan to update Polytweak? There are se great, unique tweaks there, and I'd love to use some of them next time I'll play EET. 

[Endarire]

I agree with an EET version and its request!

[polytope]

It's on my to do list, although a lot of stuff I floated years ago (before a scratched hard disk platter) like the Lance of Disruption and Static Charge spells made it into SCS IWD spells component anyway (and I bothered to recolor the Static Charge and make spell icon bams for them, ack!).

Is there a specific component you were interested in, like a creature component? A class or kit change?

[Cahir]

11 hours ago, polytope said:

It's on my to do list, although a lot of stuff I floated years ago (before a scratched hard disk platter) like the Lance of Disruption and Static Charge spells made it into SCS IWD spells component anyway (and I bothered to recolor the Static Charge and make spell icon bams for them, ack!).

Is there a specific component you were interested in, like a creature component? A class or kit change?

Yeah, a couple of components, actually. I like what I read about creature update components, but I'd need to be careful not to mess with SCS. From NPC and Rule Changes, I would PROBABLY choose similar components from other tweak mods, but I'd need to deep dive into details to be sure which one I like the most. From Items and Icons I would probably install both components, better icons are no-brainer and PNP Disruption Weapons looks interesting, because I always felt that although cull the vanilla versions are indeed overpowered.

So, to summarize, I'm interested in:

- all components from Items and Icons section

- some (maybe even all) components from Improved Creatures section

- maybe something from NPC and Rule changes, but here I'm leaning more towards other mods solutions (like NPC_EE, which basically allows me to shape NPCS however I like nowadays).

[Salk]

I second the sentiment of Cahir and probably many others.

I noticed you have been releasing two very interesting tweaks in the SCS section and while it's very commendable that you produced them I do think they would fit wonderfully in a new version of your Polytweak. It also seem like the most natural thing ever to add new tweaks to an already released modification of yours that is just about that.

Please consider updating your modification here, polytope.

Thanks!

[Endarire]

I agree with Salk.

[polytope]

On 8/8/2022 at 12:25 PM, Salk said:

I second the sentiment of Cahir and probably many others.

I noticed you have been releasing two very interesting tweaks in the SCS section and while it's very commendable that you produced them I do think they would fit wonderfully in a new version of your Polytweak. It also seem like the most natural thing ever to add new tweaks to an already released modification of yours that is just about that.

Please consider updating your modification here, polytope.

Thanks!

I consider the releases of minimods for the meantime to be a better alternative to bundling everything into polytweak, because with the exception of spell changes + creature AI modifications the components aren't interdependent.

If I were instead to enclose all these in a new and fixed EE compatible polytweak it will also substantially delay getting new content to players, because you can tack on small new mods during a campaign, you can't do the same with subsequent versions of large modifications if other things were installed after them, thus I'd need to wait until I have everything from the previous versions recreated and playtested before a release.

I.e. tested on

• Vanilla engine BG2 with and without the G3 fixpack
• And with SCS
• Also with Spell Revisions as a favour to SR players since it appears to be one of the more common modifications

...then tested on

• Latest EE version, with and without fixpack
• EE + SCS
• EE + Spell Revisions

While also balancing all my commitments in real life.

I tend to playtest my mods thoroughly to catch bugs pre-release, it's so much easier to trace player reports from minimods than from large bundles of tweaks.

Also having things web hosted protects against hardware failure, I have stuff stored on USB drives, of course, but they're easily lost.

Edited August 9, 2022 by polytope

[Salk]

Understood.

Thanks for explaining the situation in detail.

[Endarire]

What about having a central thread acting as a hub for your mods?

[polytope]

9 hours ago, Endarire said:

What about having a central thread acting as a hub for your mods?

Links to those - all tested recently - are listed in my signature and "about" section of my profile.

This thread links to a practically ancient mod I made in 2013 with serious incompatibilities to recent versions of EE and conceptual overlap with newer mods that often replicate planned components in a smoother way due to expanded EE functionality; for instance variable weapon damage vs large creatures can actually be coded into the weapon extended header as Angel did, rather than relying on #177 in the feature block.

Until I have time to recreate all the useful components in EE compatible format there's no point treating this thread as a hub, it only encourages people to download the obsolete version of my mod on the first page, they will then notice components are no longer working as expected with modern verisons of the game and various mods, and complain about it.