My new "Made in Heaven" mods

[Angel]

 

3 hours ago, Arthas said:

Question: do you add Balduran's cloak back into bg1 + bg2?

Balduran's Cloak was never gone from BG1, the core game offers a legitimate way to get it and it is still present in EE.

Spoiler

Start Degrodel's quest for the Helm of Balduran as usual, but when you restore the petrified adventurers, be a nice guy and do not force the location of the helm out of them.  They will then instead tell you where the Cloak is.  IMHO the cloak is a better item than the helm anyway, even with my nerf.  (And yes, I am aware you can be a turncoat and get them both.)

For BG2, if you install my nerf for the cloak it will be added to Ribald's special store in chapter 6.  (This can be turned off in the .ini if you have another mod that already restores it.  Or not, for the cheaters. ^^)

[Angel]

9 minutes ago, Arthas said:

1) Question: have you given a thought about adding it to Irenicus and he drops it when he dies? I mean, if I don't remember wrong and one of your character dies in hell, the loot gets transported to the realm.

Not really.  And Irenicus' death is scripted, that tends to mess with item drops.  (Found that out the hard way when I tried adding an item to Demogorgon whose death is also scripted.)

11 minutes ago, Arthas said:

2) Anyway, you made me dubious: - are you supposed to get only the cloak or the helm in a legitimate game? You cannot get the knowledge to find both?

It's possible to gain in-game knowledge of both, but doing so involves breaking a promise, not something paladins tend to do lightly. ^^  And since by then I usually have enough helmets to cover my entire party anyway and I do not like meta-gaming, I usually leave it alone.

15 minutes ago, Arthas said:

3) The turncoat term is confusing me - are you referring to evil characters or to the fact that one can read on the .net and find them both anyway?

I was referring to the in-game possibility of telling Vail you'd not take his hard-earned item and then doing so anyway.

[Chitown Willie]

Hi Angel,

Just defeated a Young Black Dragon in Mutamin's Garden and cashed in on 3500 XP + 450 gold (Aurora's and XPMod reduce numbers).

First thought was : Holy crap, that's a lotta goodies!

I know you wanted to beef up the Garden, but perhaps a little less on the reward side?

Thoughts?

[Angel]

25 minutes ago, Chitown Willie said:

Just defeated a Young Black Dragon in Mutamin's Garden and cashed in on 3500 XP + 450 gold (Aurora's and XPMod reduce numbers).

First thought was : Holy crap, that's a lotta goodies!

I know you wanted to beef up the Garden, but perhaps a little less on the reward side?

Thoughts?

Yeah, I'm not happy with the Garden, but unsure what else I can do with it.  Next version won't have the black dragons anymore though.  I'm currently experimenting with dracolisks and pyrolisks.

[Angel]

6 minutes ago, Arthas said:

Why no black dragons? Due to the fact that you get a lot of xp? 

That too, but I mainly feel they are just out of place, both considering the terrain and the story.  I wanted to stop Mutamin's Garden from being an early XP bonanza that can easily be cleared with a few potions or a scroll and turn it into more of a mid- to late game area.  But I feel I only made the issue worse, and judging by @Chitown Willie's comment I am not the only one.  I'll have to rethink it.

[Endarire]

@Angel
Greetings, Angel!  As part of a Project Infinity mod list install for EET, the Made in Heaven mods didn't install correctly and I'm unsure why.

Details: http://www.shsforums.net/topic/60707-project-infinity-mass-mod-install-take-2-for-eet-on-windows-10-help/?p=608669

[Angel]

9 hours ago, Endarire said:

Greetings, Angel!  As part of a Project Infinity mod list install for EET, the Made in Heaven mods didn't install correctly and I'm unsure why.

Details: http://www.shsforums.net/topic/60707-project-infinity-mass-mod-install-take-2-for-eet-on-windows-10-help/?p=608669

From the discussion at SHS, I understand you downloaded my main GitHub repo.  If so, you're on your own.  I make no effort whatsoever to keep it installable on all versions between releases, and I am currently in the middle of extensive rewriting.  Use the latest release instead.

[Endarire]

Thankee.

[Angel]

33 minutes ago, Endarire said:

Thankee.

Welcome.  I was able to reproduce your error (it's an unintended side effect of me converting the mod to SFO) and will fix it of course.  But in general, you should not meddle with the main repo unless you really know what you are doing, as it is a product in development and the author likely hasn't done much testing yet.

[Endarire]

@Angel
Thankee.  Having worked with GitHub, I became more adjusted to downloading the latest files and ignoring/not using releases.  I appreciate the community's clear, helpful stance and guidance on this for EET stuff.

[Chitown Willie]

Angel,

Do you know if SCS's "Improved Durlag's Tower" works with your "Enhanced Durlag's Tower"?

Edited March 20, 2020 by Chitown Willie

[Endarire]

@Angel
Greetings!

How fares progress on your mods and your answer to Chitown's question?

[Angel]

On 3/18/2020 at 6:18 PM, Chitown Willie said:

Do you know if SCS's "Improved Durlag's Tower" works with your "Enhanced Durlag's Tower"?

Yes, they will work fine.  I mostly add new monsters, which is exactly what SCS does not do.  (That's actually the whole idea for this mod.)  The biggest changes SCS makes are overhauling the powers and AI of the warders on D1 and the chess pieces in the chess board, and I do not touch either of those.

My changes to Durlag's Tower are roughly this:

Spoiler

All ghasts in the tower become fell ghasts (immune to normal weapons and a modest boost in hd) and their number is increased, the number of crypt crawlers and greater ghouls in the lower levels is also increased, in the earth chamber you now fight a small army of various slimes (ochre- and mustard jellies mostly) instead of just a single fission slime, the bear in the ice chamber gets an AoE ice breath, you'll encounter some invisible stalkers on D4, in the area near the vault, and there are a few surprises on the roof of the tower.  I'm pondering on some more changes that will be in a future version, one of the things I am considering is replacing the phoenix guards in the fire chamber with fire elementals. 

Additional ideas are always welcome. ^^

On 3/28/2020 at 7:04 AM, Endarire said:

How fares progress on your mods and your answer to Chitown's question?

The new versions of MiH Item Pack and Spell Pack are almost ready, I'll probably release a beta soon.  Encounters & Quests is going to take longer though, because I'm currently adding a lot of BG2 content.  How would you like some orc backup for Firkraag, tougher arena battles in the illithid city and undead minions for some  of the lonely liches?  That's what I am currently working on.

[Angel]

16 minutes ago, Arthas said:

Do you see Firkraag actually using backup ? Because I envision more the orcs, if they are there, to leave him dealing with the bhaalspawn and then coming in as soon as Firkraag is dead to get his loot.

They seem to be mostly loyal to him, probably because they know that "bad things happen when he angry".  If he does win, would you want to be the orc that has to explain to him why they didn't attack the heroes in the back?

Anyway, I have the battle with Icasaracht from Heart of Winter in mind, she gets a small army of sahuagin to back her up and she seems far more prideful than Firkraag.  And orcs won't be the only things he gets, I have a few other surprises in mind...

[Endarire]

I thought the Orc backup was against Firkraag.  Hmm.