Reviews for NPC and Quest MODs for BGEE, BG2EE, IWDEE and IWD2

[xiaoleiwen]

16 hours ago, Lava said:

Thanks for the reviews! On Dusky and... well, Ina - I know those that do not romance them may get a bit less content, but those two mods were created to balance out options most other players have. I wanted to make sure that any IWD EE fan can get whatever he or she desires, who he/she is or how your feel. There are all kinds of players and they are great so... they kinda deserve a representation and acknowledgment.

Actually, Orra is a bit like that, too. I am unsure if you had that talk, but the reason why she does not romance you is because she's

  Reveal hidden contents

asexual

. I create many mods that include romances but this one was to show that not every biography is about who you romantically desire. And I know she may be a bit less exciting, but... not everyone has to be strange like me Oak-Maw or Urchin or T'viy... yeah, I wrote many weird stories and characters, but there are normal people with quite normal aspirations.

As for my quest mods: I know they are shorter, but... well, they were basically designed as a kind of break from the main plot. A stop to buy thing, laugh, smile or at least to say "huh".

Anyway, thanks for playing my mods! I kinda hope to write/design something new for IWD when I have some time and when the inspiration comes

I can understand why we will have less content if we do not romance certain character. This happens in almost all games with companions. In fact, I consider Dusky has sufficient good content even if I do not romance him. It just I quite like him and so wanted to have more although I understand this.

The reason I still enjoy Orra is because I feel like she is purposely designed to be less exciting, her personality fits that, in fact, some dialogues choices have what I think about her, so it is actually quite obvious that the author has expected what others will think about her.

I agree that we need more variety of npcs. A party with everyone talks like Minsc or Viconia could be too unrealistic and even insufferable. That is always why I always bring at least one relatively "normal" npc in my game. For example this year:

BG1 and 2: Isra
IWD1 : Holvir

I consider this type of npc is needed, and I quite appreciate your effort in writting her, considering most your iwd npcs are quite unusual, its good to balance up. Its just.. when I rate them, generally I will still like those unusual one more

Perhaps I mentioned too many times short quests in my review. My intention was "quality and fun more important". Long and good quest is indeed impressive. However, sometime we need good and short quest, depending on the stories and other situations. In fact, I think I like your shorter quests more. As for 8 of your quest mods that I played this year, if I do not play these IE games starting from now, after 10 years, perhaps what I will vaguely remember are those shorter one:
- there was once I played a mod with many weird colors stuffs
- a funny behoulder who scared of zombie
- An underground inn

Yes, short and memorable. That is good enough.
 

Edited April 9, 2021 by marcnivar

[xiaoleiwen]

7 hours ago, The_Baffled_King said:

I wholeheartedly endorse everything you've said. People have different tastes, and hearing "this is amazing" without much else is not that helpful.

In fact, I would go one step further and say that on occasion mod authors post stuff in the readmes for their mods that is just obviously untrue or misleading. It's maddening, and it's all the more reason for there to be reviews out there for mod users.

I should add that I'm not taking aim at writers for quest mods who have made the effort to write an attractive-sounding blurb for their mini-quests without too many spoilers; that is totally okay (and in fact it's appreciated). And I should add, too, that I don't recall having this problem with any of the mods hosted on G3 that I've downloaded.

Your English is absolutely fine. And I am willing to bet that your language skills overall, taking into account other languages, are far superior to a very substantial majority of native English speakers, most of whom know English and nothing more. It's the native English speakers who should feel lucky that you've put the effort in so they can understand you!

So... if you want to cover yourself, you could always say that you're not a native English speaker. Or whatever - you do you. But I always hate the thought that people who have made the effort to communicate in my native language genuinely feel bad about, or feel they have to apologise for, any mistakes they might make.

Thanks for your words and suggestion. I enjoy reading reviews and I hope there will be more people writing reviews. 

I deleted the warnings, it just I feel that sometime I might not be able to use the correct words to convey my feeling due to own limits, and perhaps there are too many mistakes and hurt someone eyes 

[xiaoleiwen]

Finally started my second playthrough in 2021.

I probably won't spend the same effort as my previous reviews (the length and also screenshots) for this playthrough, considering the number of MOD installed and my limited writing ability. I may also combine the reviews for several MODs in one when it is appropriate. If I managed to finish this playthrough and have the time to update it (such as the reviews in the first page), I may move these new reviews to the first page as well. I will also write some reviews as soon as I finish it in the game, as it would be too many to write if I wait until finishing the game.

The Stone of Askavar 

Overall Experience: B
Lore friendly: A+
Area art: B+

Spoiler

A very lore-friendly quest-line that leads you to do several small tasks which eventually involve several interesting combat encounters, which I found slightly more challenging than the other Chapter 5 battles in an enjoyable way. If I don't play this MOD, I would probably never know there is such Elven history behind the areas of the Wood of Sharp Teeth that I have been running around so many times in BG1. It does not have a particularly interesting story, but it is decent and has a similar style as the vanilla game. Area arts are using resources from the vanilla game but the location wise it is very appropriate and still looks slightly different. 

No interjections from vanilla NPCs though (as how it is in vanilla BG1).

Quite many good loots as well.

Screenshot:

Spoiler

 

Edited November 25, 2021 by marcnivar

[xiaoleiwen]

Baldur's Gate Mini Quests and Encounters Modification
Shades of the Sword Coast
Ascalons Questpack

Overall Experience: A+
Lore friendly: A
Area art: A+

Spoiler

I will combine the reviews of these three MODs as they fulfill a similar purpose, complement each other to offer more variety of mini-quests, and it is highly recommended to install all of them in every modded playthrough considering the overall quality and how well these MODs are integrated into the vanilla game. 

I always consider vanilla BG1 slightly boring in the early game, as you have to explore in vast open areas with a lot of fetch quests that offer very few stories. I was doubtful that I will enjoy the game without feeling stale when I decided to start a second BG trilogy playthroughs back to back this year. However, this does not happen thanks to these MODs. BGQE offers 16 quests/encounters, SOTSC offers 36, and AQ has 9. These MODs offer many quests with a similar flavor to vanilla ones but with more depth such as some of the minor quests that you may find in BG2. They are good in slightly different criteria:

The quests from BGQE are the most similar to vanilla, it has some very interesting small quests, and it has the highest amount of great quality interjections from vanilla NPCs. I love interjections, hence I highly appreciate a large number of reactions from vanilla NPCs is added. It was so well written that you may consider it as part of the vanilla game. The author knows how to make the NPCs stay true to the original character. I even started to record some videos to show to my friend.

Most of the quests from SOTSC are quite lore-friendly, as someone with a slightly bad memory, I even almost thought that the hidden secret of Friendly Arm Inn- the first quest I experienced from this mod, is something vanilla until I reached deeper. Some quests have a slightly weird atmosphere and you can easily know that it is from which author, especially if you have played some of his famous Quest MODs in BG2. SOTSC contributes the most in enhancing the fun of exploration in a game that we have played countless times. This mod makes visiting the same areas full of surprises because there are many hidden secrets here and there, some even will lead to fully new areas with beautiful area arts (so open your eyes, look for hidden entrances in the vanilla areas!). I also feel that the author's skill in making new areas is continuously improving compared to his other earlier MODs. The loots from this MOD are also as creative as something that can be expected from the same author. Anyway, some dialogues probably need more proofreading, and I'm sure this MOD will get better in future versions.

Generally, I consider BGQE and SOTSC better than AQ, but AQ is also a very good add-on as it offers some funny little quests that further increase the fun of exploring and doing sides quests. It does not have interjections from vanilla NPCs, but some of the quests from this MOD could be indiscernible if this is the only MOD added into the vanilla game.

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Video:

Spoiler

Beregost- Slime Quest and Dudley's Family Necklace (great interactions)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1770Jp3XlU&t=56s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2clJYcFYvo

When the hero of Baldur's Gate has to take care of unruly kids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pTuO-gTwzk&t=111s

Exploring BG1 again like a new game- Ormyrrs' Peak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssQsdoCtKN0

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I haven't finished BG1 yet, but finished basically everything outside of Baldur's Gate, so I guess I have seen sufficient contents from these MODs to write the reviews. I may still update this review, especially video or screenshots after finishing the game (if I see anything super interesting and wanna note down here).

Edited November 25, 2021 by marcnivar

[xiaoleiwen]

After realizing that editing post requires moderator manual approval, I basically checked and rewrote two of the latest reviews and made the final edit. Hopefully I won't keep editing stuffs like my usual practice in the future..

[jastey]

1 hour ago, marcnivar said:

After realizing that editing post requires moderator manual approval

For anyone reading this: posts containing "rich text", i.e. text with formatting like background colors need approval because we want to catch posts with such text in the Infinity Engine Modding News forum but can't restrict it to one subforum. @marcnivar Don't worry about editing your posts with rich text as much as you like, the only inconvenience we see is that users have to wait until the posts are approved which might take a little while depending on whether moderators are around.

[xiaoleiwen]

I'm not sure whether I will update this part into my review later, but I still want to mention this somewhere here, that I really like the kobold merchant quest that I finished yesterday. This quest makes me happy, probably because I started to have a soft spot for nice kobold after playing SOU and HOTU of NWN1. Yes, it makes me remember Deekin.

Edited November 26, 2021 by marcnivar

[xiaoleiwen]

Balduran’s Seatower

Overall Experience: A+

Lore friendly: A+

Area art: S

Spoiler

A professional quality MOD based on the lore of the Seatower of Balduran from DND, which can be easily treated as an official expansion for the vanilla game. If someone installs this MOD quietly into your first play-through without your knowledge, you may not realize it is a MOD. I saw someone mentioned that the content of this MOD should be there since the beginning, and this is not overrated.

Firstly the area art is a piece of art. It looks like vanilla area art created by Bioware but it is original if you look at it closely. The quality is amazing, but it has quantity as well. This MOD contains more new areas than I have expected initially and they are consistently impressive such as the one you can see in the first area. Each area is full of appropriate details and looks very authentic.

At first, I thought this MOD is probably good in the area art only because the dialogues and reply options for some early NPCs are noticeably not at the same level as those written by Bioware, so I considered it as MOD level in term of writing. After some time, I started to think, the quality and quantity of the contents are actually similar to what we can get from a district in Baldur’s Gate city, where we also have to do several boring side quests with some slightly funny ones here and there occasionally.

However, eventually, I found that the overall quality and quantity of this MOD are quite close to what we can experience in a district of Athkatla in BG2. The dialogues’ writing is getting better and better, and in my opinion, the “main quests” here actually can meet the standard of decent CRPG major side quests. It may not be a story that you have not heard before, but it is solid and consistent with the overall quality of the better quests in BG1. Additionally, the quests have great role-play options, and I enjoy pretending to work with an unscrupulous organization just to expose them to the authority later. Certain quest of this MOD is also connected to the main quest which further enhances the "vanilla feel" of this MOD.

If there is anything I desire more, it could be the lack of interjection. Ajantis talked once or twice, and Viconia has none in my game. There are certain moments that I hope they can say something.

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Area Art:

Dialogues:

Interjection:

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Posted as a reply first and will be updated into the first page after more corrections are made.

[Austin]

On 11/26/2021 at 7:34 AM, marcnivar said:

I started to have a soft spot for nice kobold after playing SOU and HOTU of NWN1. Yes, it makes me remember Deekin.

Perhaps you already know this, but just in case, I'll let you know that the "BG1 NPCs for SoA & ToB" mod (namely, its first component) adds Deekin to BG2 as a joinable NPC!  And starting with the next version 13 (which is now being prepared), he will have an epilogue and several additional dialogues.

Edited November 29, 2021 by Austin

[xiaoleiwen]

2 hours ago, Austin said:

Perhaps you already know this, but just in case, I'll let you know that the "BG1 NPCs for SoA & ToB" mod (namely, its first component) adds Deekin to BG2 as a joinable NPC!  And starting with the next version 13 (which is now being prepared), he will have an epilogue and several additional dialogues.

I will use this MOD for this playthrough and it's a good news to be able to see him there

Anyway, is his story in BG2 written as after the event of NWN1 or before it? If I remember correctly, the story of NWN1 should happen after BG2, and he should be still with his master at the time of BG2. 

 

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Anyway, I have decided to split and rewrite my reviews for the three questpack MODs after experiencing more quests in the Baldur's Gate city... I should probably elaborate some more, especially for SOTSC and AQ.

Edited November 29, 2021 by marcnivar

[Austin]

49 minutes ago, marcnivar said:

Anyway, is his story in BG2 written as after the event of NWN1 or before it?

Spoiler

The mod sometimes mentions his past life in Neverwinter, so, as I understand it, he got to Athkatla after those events, although I could be mistaken, because I haven't played NWN for a very long time and I don't remember his story very well. For example, in one of the dialogues with Mazzy, Deekin mentions that "Deekin traveled with a halfling caravan in his early adventures with his old boss".
P.S. Unfortunately, he doesn't have too many texts (several hundred lines), but if you want to add any more dialogues and interjections to Deekin in BG2, you can send them to me, I would gladly include them! The original author of the mod agreed to such changes.

 

Edited November 29, 2021 by Austin

[jastey]

Thank you very much for the kind words with regard to bgqe and BST!

Writing NPC interjections for all the (many) BG1 NPCs was... hard, so I'm really happy that someone appreciates them. I can't promise I'll write as thorough and complete (NPC wise) interjections for BST, but I will take a wish for more NPC interjections onto the todo list.

[Lava]

1 hour ago, marcnivar said:

Anyway, is his story in BG2 written as after the event of NWN1 or before it? If I remember correctly, the story of NWN1 should happen after BG2, and he should be still with his master at the time of BG2. 

Wiki:

Quote

Deekin Scalesinger was a male kobold bard and adventurer in the North in the 1370s DR

And Baldur's Gate II is set in 1369 DR. So yeah. It's also confirmed by this entry:

Quote

Drogan Droganson's pupil was the unnamed hero of an unknown race and gender who studied under Drogan Droganson in Hilltop in the early 1370s

Drogan's pupil is, IIRC, the SotU main character.

 

[xiaoleiwen]

@jasteyI understand it is hard and I hope my review doesn't sound like a request. It is basically one person opinion based on own preference. There are even people hate banters and interjections from BG1 NPC mod because they are too talkative... I enjoy a lot with whatever we (a player) can get.

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I remember NWN1 timeline is after BG series because of one of the post original campaign community module contains the references from BG series. Anyway, IIRC, vanilla campaign didn't mention anything from BG series, so probably I can pretend I dono anything about the timeline when I see Deekin in BG2

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Slightly personal and out of topic, to be honest I feel tired and lack of motivation  to write reviews before starting this playthrough. Main reasons are I install many MODS this time, and I'm quite slow and bad in writing in English (as mentioned in the first post of this thread). 

However, the quality of MOD added in my current playthrough is really impressive. I started to enjoy to write something to share my opinions. Yes, I found back the motivation of starting this thread half a year ago. I even feel happy to rewrite the questpack reviews separately

Really appreciate the great works from the modders. I feel more motivated to replay an old game due to the new surprises that you have created.

[jastey]

5 hours ago, marcnivar said:

I understand it is hard and I hope my review doesn't sound like a request.

I enjoy modding the most when I know/assume people like playing it. So, these kind of feedback is a gold mine for me. And no worries: I won't take on any suggestion I wouldn't like to write or even play myself in the game.

 

5 hours ago, marcnivar said:

There are even people hate banters and interjections from BG1 NPC mod because they are too talkative...

That is why all NPC interjections in bgqe can be shut down with a cheat variable I integrated.

Thanks again for the kind words!