Cahir's EET Epic Run Mod Order help request

[Cahir]

1 minute ago, subtledoctor said:

Don't do a final install for a day or so, if you can help it.  Lots of updates inbound.

Copy that Waiting for new Ascension, since @DavidWis working on it. 

[subtledoctor]

15 minutes ago, Cahir said:

Copy that Waiting for new Ascension, since @DavidWis working on it. 

Ah, poop.  I don't think I can wait for that.  And I gave in to temptation and installed Wheels of Prophecy, which I guess was a bad move.  Eh, who knows if I'll ever make it to TOB anyway.  Have to press on.  The good news is, I identified and fixed a bunch of issues, just through the process if doing a big install!

[Cahir]

4 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

Ah, poop.  I don't think I can wait for that.  And I gave in to temptation and installed Wheels of Prophecy, which I guess was a bad move.  Eh, who knows if I'll ever make it to TOB anyway.  Have to press on.  The good news is, I identified and fixed a bunch of issues, just through the process if doing a big install!

Yeah, I'm a bit worried with Wheels of Prophecy too, now that David admitted it's a bit of a mess at current point. But it's one of those mods that is very hard to pass... 

Btw I have noticed you updated MnG, WtP, NPC_EE and TnB, but I guess those are not yet the major updates you were talking about? 

[subtledoctor]

I have updated :

Might & Guile

Will to Power

Random Tweaks

Mana Sorcerer

Tome & Blood

Faiths & Powers

Only need to finish fixing the saving throw component for Scales of Balance, then that will be it.   SoB will also have a new "Poison Overhaul" component.  Should be up by the weekend.  If you don't care about changing the way poison works, and you aren't too worried about the saving throw stuff I described above, then you can go ahead and use the current version of SoB. 

Edited May 15, 2020 by subtledoctor

[jastey]

40 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

1 hour ago, Cahir said:

Waiting for new Ascension, since @DavidWis working on it. 

Ah, poop. 

Just quoted out of context because I thought it's funny.

[Cahir]

21 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

I have updated :

Might & Guile

Will to Power

Random Tweaks

Mana Sorcerer

Tome & Blood

Faiths & Powers

Only need to finish fixing the saving throw component for Scales of Balance, then that will be it.   SoB will also have a new "Poison Overhaul" component.  Should be up by the weekend.  If you don't care about changing the way poison works, and you aren't too worried about the saving throw stuff I described above, then you can go ahead and use the current version of SoB. 

I'm interested in Saving Throw Overhaul, so I'll wait, don't worry. Poison Overhaul is also something that might pontentially interest me. 

[Caedwyr]

I notice in the original post of this thread that you have

Quote

BP-BGT Worldmap

Is this required if you have EET?

[Cahir]

59 minutes ago, Caedwyr said:

I notice in the original post of this thread that you have

Is this required if you have EET?

Hmm, this is a good question and I honestly don't know the answer. I added it to the list just to be on the safe side. I didn't add many Megamods (basically only NTotSC), but I did add couple of Lava's mod which I believe introduce new areas. On any case I'll happily ditch Worldmap, if it's really redundant for EET. 

[Caedwyr]

According to this post, while it is compatible with the BGT Worldmap, EET comes with it's own world map and the BGT one is not needed.

[Cahir]

42 minutes ago, Caedwyr said:

According to this post, while it is compatible with the BGT Worldmap, EET comes with it's own world map and the BGT one is not needed.

Yeah, but this begs a question if areas from other mods are taking into account for the default EET map. And, does it mean that both maps (the one from EET and the one from BP-BGT Worldmap) are different?

[Caedwyr]

Since I'm doing pretty much the same as you and would love to take advantage of your efforts, as you suggested earlier in my thread, I want to add a few things you may have missed and ask a few questions.

As a general note, I've included a lot of NPCs on this list as my intention is to present as wide as possible variety of possible NPCs (that meet my personal requirements for quality) so that the other "book club" members I'll be playing the game with have a broad range of choice.  I know that the typical approach is to only install a couple of NPCs you plan on including in your party, but I figured I'd add these other ones in here because you mentioned earlier you are trying to figure out a stable install base that can be recommended to others.

1. In the opening post, a number of components of BG1 UB are crossed out.  Is this because BG:EE already incorporate these components, or is it a matter of personal taste?
2. It looks like you aren't including Divine Remix in your install order.  I'm guessing this is due to compatibility issues and bugs with the current version?

NPC Mods

Spoiler

1. Indira NPC v12.0 Beta 3. An updated of the BG1 NPC from Pocket Plane Group.  BeamDog discussion thread here.  I couldn't find any major issues reported and it was a pretty good npc mod as I recall.
2. Verr'Sza v5.3 for BG1.  I've seen some reports that it works so long as you install it on BG:EE before you do the EET conversion.
3. Aura NPC v3.11 for BG1. Appears to be EET compatible based on the mod's .tp2 which checks for BG:EE or EET in order to install.  Note that there was an update on May 15th, 2020 to fix a minor bug.
4. Drake NPC v 3.0 for BG1. Appears to be compatible with EET if installed prior to EET based on commented text in .tp2 file.
5. Adrian NPC v5.0 for BG2. EET compatible
6. Auren Asepth NPC v10.  Apparently you'll need to use the attached .tp2 file provided by @jastey for EET compatibility.
7. Branwen NPC v5.
8. Brandock the Mage NPC Beta 5.  According to @jastey this mod is complete for BG1 content and mostly stable.  He has out of party content for the BG2 Planar Sphere, but is silent after that. I'm hemming and hawing about including this one in my game, though I might leave it out since the unfinished BG2 content may result in the NPC feeling a bit janky compared to the full content otehr NPCs that will be in the game.
9. Yvette Romance v4.1. Seems to work with EET, although there was a report of some problems in a big EET install on the BeamDog Forums. 
10. Corthala Romantique v3.
11. Dace NPC v5.  This one shows up on a number of people's favourite NPC mods.  I haven't personally played it, but the people recommended it also recommended other NPCs I liked, and disliked NPC mods that I also disliked.
12. Dorn Romance v3.2.  This reportedly fleshes out the Dorn romance substantially and makes it of similar quality to the base BG2 romances.
13. The Beaurin Legacy v3.6.
14. Evandra NPC v1. May be sparse on crossmod banter.
15. Glam's NPC Pack v3.1.
16. Grey the Dog v4. Suggests to install after other NPC mods so the interjections will work properly.
17. Haiass the Wolf v2.4. An animal companion that accompanies the party.  EET compatible and maintained by jastey.
18. Iylos v2.7. Has recently been updated for compatibility with Ascension to fix the previous bugs.
19. Jan's Extended Quest v1.5.0.  Has pretty good reviews everywhere I've looked.
20. Keldorn Romance v6.
21. Korgan's Redemption v10.
22. Mur'Neth NPC v 12. An odd NPC for BG1, but apparently fairly well written.
23. NPC Flirtpacks v1.07. I recall these as being fairly tame, though others may be able to remember better the PG-level.
24. Sarah NPC v5.  Also has a Music Pack. Needs an updated .tp2 file (attached) provided by @jastey
25. Sarevok Romance v1.4. Reportedly a decent romance.  I haven't played it myself.
26. Tiax NPC for BG2 v6. Good modder pedigree and an NPC mod I always meant to try.
27. Tyris Flare NPC v8. An NPC pulled in from another world via the Planar Sphere.  Not to everyone's taste, but some like it and I figured the modder pedigree was good enough for me to throw it in the pile.  Needs an updated .tp2 (attached) provided by @jastey
28. Varshoon NPC v5.1. I think this is EET compatible.
29. Yeslick NPC v4.0.  For BG2.  Needs an updated .tp2 (attached) provided by @Gwaihir
30. Yoshimo Romance v5.2. Compatible with Yoshimo's Friendship mod.  By @Lava

Quest Mods

Spoiler

1. G3 Anniversary Mod v11.  I know the 4th wall breakage in this one can be not to everyone's taste, but I enjoyed it in limited quantities in the vein of the Pantaloons and Noober content in the base games.
2. Colors of Infinity - Tales of the Deep Gardens v12.4. It looks like you missed this from your selection of the other weaselmods.
3. Dungeon Crawl v12.  This one has a good pedigree and I vaguely recall it being fairly fun and decently integrated.
4. Eilistraee's Song v6.6. Extra quest content for Solaufein.  I'm not sure how compatible it will be with Solaufein's Rescue, although Solaufein's Rescue is currently mostly in German aside from the intro quest.
5. Every Mod and a Dog v8. Some fun little flavour encounters that generally don't involve combat.  It helps add some of the irreverent flavour from BG1 back into BG2.
6. Fonick v2. Another fun small encounter/questline.
7. Shards of Ice v7. Some more mini quests and encounters.
8. Turnabout v1.3. I'm not sure on compatibility/bugginess, but this was a nice addition to ToB.

Portrait Mods

Spoiler

1. Artaport v4.0. While you may not want to replace the default portaits for a number of NPCs that can join the party, the following 2 components may be of interest to you:

   
   5) Add portraits to non-joinable NPCs in BG2:EE - it adds portraits in dialogue box to plot-important, non-joinable NPCs. So far only 2 NPCs had them. This component adds them to 11 more.
   
   7) Add portrait to Edwina - component made by Wendy Yung (cliffette) for Tweaks Antology (previously BG2 Tweaks). It changes Edwin portrait for female one during his quest.

    

2. PaintBG for BG:EE v2.1. Many more portraits for your PC.  This isn't a Weidu mod, just paste the contents to your Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition/Portraits folder.

Kits & Classes

Spoiler

1. Spellsword Kit v1.5.  I like the look of the unnerfed version given my inclination to use all sorts of SCS components and play on higher difficulties, but you may prefer the nerfed version.
2. Mana Sorcerer v0.4.1. Another @subtledoctor kit mod.  Install right after Tome & Blood.  Recently updated.
3. Shadow Ranger v1.2. Seems stable and decently put together as well as a take I hadn't seen in other kitpacks.
4. Warlock Class Kit v1.61.

Tweaks

Spoiler

1. PnP Celestials v5.  This fills the gap left in the variety of PnP creatures offered up by aTweaks (I recall that I did PnP Celestials first and then contributed some abilities to aVENGER, Littz, and T.G. Maestro for Refinements and aTweaks).  Be warned that using the PnP stats and abilities means that they are quite powerful, though since I like to use SCS and Ascension, I appreciate the extra boost in power.
2. Convenient Enhanced Edition NPCs v4.0.  You may want to consider using the 2nd option for all the NPCs so they don't force their way into the party and you can be a bit more relaxed in how you pick up NPCs or not.  The option for making NPC specific items available for all is another one to consider, as is the BG2 style portraits, and the reset level option for all the EE NPCs (basically level 1 NPC versions of them).
3. EET Tweaks.  I notice you have this on your list, but something you might want to consider is using the additional xp caps for BG1, SoD, and SoA to help prevent your characters from getting too out of control.
4. Improved Horns of Valhalla.  This may be already covered by the Item Revisions mod.
5. Jastey's SoD Tweakpack v3. Do Not Miss NPC-PC Dialogues, more dialogue choices.
6. Moinesse Avatars v4. More paper dolls and avatars for your character.  I'm not sure about EET or EE compatibility, but I'm not seeing an obvious reason why they wouldn't be compatible.
7. Oversight v16. Appears to be compatible with EE and EET for English character sets based on this thread.  A number of the features have probably been fixed for the EE, however you may want to consider some of the components including: Tougher Sendai, Improved Continuity, Expanded Brynnlaw, Lanthorn Lenses.

Hopefully my research is helpful.  I'm guessing you've already looked at a great number of these, but I wanted to be thorough.

setup-aurenaseph.tp2 setup-sarahtob.tp2 setup-tyrisflare.tp2 yeslicknpc.TP2

Edited May 16, 2020 by Caedwyr
Adding spoilers.

[Cahir]

@Caedwyr thanks for suggestions!

Couple of general notes first:

1. I specifically selected only few NPC's, mostly the ones that have both BGEE and BG2EE content and mostly the ones with more or less good(ish) alignment, since I plan to play NG or CG character. Don't want to clutter my install order with too many NPC's. There are a couple of more NPC's that are very interesting, though, and I'm still debating to add them to the list. I have specifically thought about Glam's Pack, because it is generally considered as a very good mod and also Yeslick, since that NPC is present also in BGEE, so it meets my first requirement.

2. I really need to update first post, because my install order changed a bit since I posted it.

More specific answers:

1. NPC mods

9 minutes ago, Caedwyr said:

NPC Flirtpacks v1.07. I recall these as being fairly tame, though others may be able to remember better the PG-level.

This one I omitted on purpose. I thought I would do a *serious* romance run, so don't want to be distracted by flirting with other NPC's. This is why I also chose only those BG1 Romantic Encounters components that don't include intimate scenes.

2. Quest mods

I included both Tales of Deep Gardens and Eilistraee's Song on my list. Wouldn't miss any of Lava's quest mods

Turnabout -> I didn't include it on my list, specifically because I'm not convinced it's stable for EET. And I can live without it too.

The other mods are a bit too goofy for this run. Nevertheless, these are all fine mods!

3. Portrait mods

I have debated for quite a bit whether I should use Artaport or not. While I've very much like the general art style, I thought it wouldn't fit the rest of the portrait mods from my list.

4. Kits and Classes

I pretty much thought this one through. I think I'm covered with all I need. One thing that bothers me is that I can't get to work neither Wizard Slayer Rebalancing or Relieve Wizard Slayer revisions to work. I mean, both installs correctly, but I still see vanilla description in game. I tried it both on EET and BG2EE with no avail.

5. Tweaks

17 minutes ago, Caedwyr said:

Convenient Enhanced Edition NPCs v4.0.  You may want to consider using the 2nd option for all the NPCs so they don't force their way into the party and you can be a bit more relaxed in how you pick up NPCs or not.  The option for making NPC specific items available for all is another one to consider, as is the BG2 style portraits, and the reset level option for all the EE NPCs (basically level 1 NPC versions of them).

Hmm, that's a good point. There is a very good chance I will use Rasaad (since I translated his BG2EE content to Polish and I really liked it) and Neera (proofread her content and liked it too) in my party, so I thought I would not need this mod anyway. But, I'll ponder about it a bit. I'm waiting for new Ascension anyway, so there's still a couple of days at least for me to figure it out.

23 minutes ago, Caedwyr said:

EET Tweaks.  I notice you have this on your list, but something you might want to consider is using the additional xp caps for BG1, SoD, and SoA to help prevent your characters from getting too out of control.

Well, I installed 75% XP reduction from EET Tweaks and I don't have *that* many quests installed, so I figured this *shouldn't* be the case. And I specifically installed this tweak very last, to be able to uninstall it in BG2EE and reinstall with different % value if needed. I don't want to restrain myself in BG2EE and want to feel my PC and my party members to be powerful. The only doubt I have is to not over level my party in BGEE and SoD, but that is this 75% XP reduction for.

27 minutes ago, Caedwyr said:

Jastey's SoD Tweakpack v3. Do Not Miss NPC-PC Dialogues, more dialogue choices.

Yeah, wasn't really sure how this mod really works and if I really need it during my first ever SoD run. But maybe I'm wrong?

29 minutes ago, Caedwyr said:

Oversight v16. Appears to be compatible with EE and EET for English character sets based on this thread.  A number of the features have probably been fixed for the EE, however you may want to consider some of the components including: Tougher Sendai, Improved Continuity, Expanded Brynnlaw, Lanthorn Lenses.

I'm confused here. I thought Oversight is not compatible with EE (and EET) yet. And this thread you shared kinda proofs this, right? Or am I missing something? I would *really* love to include this puppy on my list!

33 minutes ago, Caedwyr said:

PnP Celestials v5.  This fills the gap left in the variety of PnP creatures offered up by aTweaks (I recall that I did PnP Celestials first and then contributed some abilities to aVENGER, Littz, and T.G. Maestro for Refinements and aTweaks).  Be warned that using the PnP stats and abilities means that they are quite powerful, though since I like to use SCS and Ascension, I appreciate the extra boost in power.

Yeah, I'll pass this one. I'm not a hardcore player, so SCS is more than enough for me when it comes to difficulty increase.

32 minutes ago, Caedwyr said:

Moinesse Avatars v4. More paper dolls and avatars for your character.  I'm not sure about EET or EE compatibility, but I'm not seeing an obvious reason why they wouldn't be compatible.

Hmm, this one is looking promising, but I would love to have some confirmation that it is really working with EET. Like, in game confirmation

[Cahir]

1 hour ago, Cahir said:

Yeah, but this begs a question if areas from other mods are taking into account for the default EET map. And, does it mean that both maps (the one from EET and the one from BP-BGT Worldmap) are different?

Yeah, If I'd bother to actually read this topic more thoroughly I would know that EET map does account for NToSC and Lava's mods So, no point in using BP-BGT map for EET run, I guess.

[jastey]

1 hour ago, Caedwyr said:

Eilistraee's Song v6.6. Extra quest content for Solaufein.  I'm not sure how compatible it will be with Solaufein's Rescue, although Solaufein's Rescue is currently mostly in German aside from the intro quest.

The mods are compatible in the sense that you will not meet two Solaufeins, but there is no explicit crossmod yet.

 

44 minutes ago, Cahir said:

This one I omitted on purpose. I thought I would do a *serious* romance run, so don't want to be distracted by flirting with other NPC's.

@Cahir The NPC Flirtpack from PPG adds flirts/PIDs for the original BioWare romances.

47 minutes ago, Cahir said:

wasn't really sure how this mod really works and if I really need it during my first ever SoD run

If you like NPC-PC dialogues and plan either scouting areas with an invisible NPC without walking through the whole area with the group afterwards, or: switching the available NPCs in SoD around, then the "Do Not Miss NPC-PC Dialogues" tweak might be a good idea even for the first run (mind the readme, the "all and always" choice might be a bit immersion breaking if dialogues happen in camp instead of the dungeon they were supposed to). The risk is that you miss out on the available (romance) dialogues.

[Cahir]

Update on the install order list (thanks guys for suggestions!)

1. Added Glam's Pack -> yeah, it was inevitable, really.

2. Added Yeslick BG2 with Fighter/Alaghor of Cladgeddin option

3. Added Jastey's SoD Tweak pack with following components:

• Do not miss NPC-PC Dialogues: For NPCs in Party only
• More Dialogue Choices; Prevent Dead Ends

4. Added NPC Flirtpacks

5. Convenient EE NPC's with following components:

• Modify Enhanced Edition NPCs: Decide for each NPC individually
• Make Baeloth passive
• Make Hexxatpassive
• Make Neera passive
• Make Rasaad passive
• Change portrait: Baeloth: Alternative version
• Change portrait: Dorn: BG2 style
• Change portrait: Hexxat: BG2 style
• Change portrait: Neera: BG2 style
• Change portrait: Rasaad: BG2 style
• Improved portrait: Wilson
• Change class/kit Baeloth: Shadow Adept
• Change class/kit Neera: Chaos Sorcerer
• Change class/kit Glint: Cleric/Illusionist
• Change class/kit Hexxat: Shadowdancer
• Change class/kit Clara: Swashbuckler

6. Added BGEENPC Tweaks for BGEE / SOD / BG2EE / EET with following components:

• Make Branwen a Priest of Tempus
• Make Eldoth a Jester
• Make Faldorn an Avenger
• Make Kagain a Dwarven Defender
• Make Kivan an Archer
• Make Safana a Swashbuckler
• Make Shar-Teel a Berserker
• Make Skie a Shadowdancer

So now I'm basically only waiting for new Ascension. And maybe in the meantime new NTotsC will also squeeze in. Apart from that, I'm good to go!

Edited May 16, 2020 by Cahir