G3 Welcomes the Enemy Randomizer Mod

[CamDawg]

Tired of fighting the same mooks every time you play Baldur's Gate? G3 welcomes the Enemy Randomizer mod by @GuardianAnubite! The Enemy Randomizer alters the placement of unimportant enemies (enemies with no quests, dialogue or events) to provide a fresh experience each time you play. There are a few components to allow some customization of the changes made. Steps have been taken to keep the strength of enemy encounters roughly the same, though it is possible to run into enemies with special abilities or resistances earlier than you might expect, so be prepared for anything!

• Download
• Project Page
• Readme
• Discord

[GuardianAnubite]

Hey everyone, please let me know if you run into any bugs, think more creatures can be randomized, or have other suggestions. I'd like to add a component to include some quests in the randomizer later on, but my first priority will be fixing an issues that people run into as they're playing.

[jastey]

Congrats on the release!

[Endarire]

@GuardianAnubite
Thankee for including BGII content in this randomizer release!  I know this mod has been many months in the making.  Alleluia!

[xiaoleiwen]

Another reason to start another play through next year, this sound interesting

[Graion Dilach]

This looks very interesting. I think I'll give this a try  - I've already planned to restart my run next week. Will report back what I experience.

The Creature Randomizer component seems risky though. How does this one works, how does it prevent to not conflict with quests where you have to kill X amount of a certain type of mobs? (Upper Chionthar in BG1) and does it pick up mod added static creatures? (presume if the mod relies on adding creatures into the script, it wouldn't matter)

Also where should it be in the install list? This comes up to my mind because BuTcHeRy splits itself around SCS (with all mob data getting installed before SCS and then some spawns are set up past SCS, but since the mobs were already in, SCS AI picks them up for the advancements required).

I think my run will only feature the Spawn Point and the Rest randomizer due to the above.

Also, one thing I'd really clarify in the readme (due to PI exposing all components since it cannot filter based on GAME_IS) is that EET users don't need the separate BG1/BG2 components.

Edited December 19, 2021 by Graion Dilach

[GuardianAnubite]

5 hours ago, Graion Dilach said:

This looks very interesting. I think I'll give this a try  - I've already planned to restart my run next week. Will report back what I experience.

1. The Creature Randomizer component seems risky though. How does this one works, how does it prevent to not conflict with quests where you have to kill X amount of a certain type of mobs? (Upper Chionthar in BG1) and does it pick up mod added static creatures? (presume if the mod relies on adding creatures into the script, it wouldn't matter)

2. Also where should it be in the install list? This comes up to my mind because BuTcHeRy splits itself around SCS (with all mob data getting installed before SCS and then some spawns are set up past SCS, but since the mobs were already in, SCS AI picks them up for the advancements required).

3. I think my run will only feature the Spawn Point and the Rest randomizer due to the above.

4. Also, one thing I'd really clarify in the readme (due to PI exposing all components since it cannot filter based on GAME_IS) is that EET users don't need the separate BG1/BG2 components.

1. I'd have to double check that specific case, but when I was getting started, I saw that most quests similar to that (zombie farm, bjornin's half-ogres, reevor's rats) all had new creature files specifically for that since they had unique scripting, so the randomizer doesn't consider them valid things to randomize. When it's installed, it reads the area files for the relevant sections, so it'd pick up any creatures added or changed before installing the randomizer (as long as they were the normal CREs and not newly created creatures).

2. I'm not familiar with BuTcHeRy, and I didn't do a lot of testing with other mods installed, but I'm not sure if it would matter in the case of SCS. This doesn't make any changes to CRE files, just area files, so if SCS is making changes to the AI in the CRE files there'd be no conflict. So if BuTcHeRy sets the spawns after SCS, I guess after SCS would be fine for this too?

3. I didn't do a full run of the trilogy doing every quest, but I did a decent amount of playtesting and I didn't run into any broken quests, but if one gets reported that would be my top priority to fix.

4. That makes sense. The components are actually filtered by the found game type so an EET install wouldn't be able to choose the BG1/2 components, but I can definitely clarify that in the readme.

[Graion Dilach]

One of the questmods (think Ascalon) adds gibberlings to Baldur's Gate, that came to my mind as main concern.

[jastey]

34 minutes ago, Graion Dilach said:

One of the questmods (think Ascalon) adds gibberlings to Baldur's Gate

They use custom cre files, though.

[yota13]

When trying to install this mod in EET an error occurs.

SETUP-GAENEMYRANDO.DEBUG

[GuardianAnubite]

1 hour ago, yota13 said:

When trying to install this mod in EET an error occurs.

SETUP-GAENEMYRANDO.DEBUG 640.89 kB · 2 downloads

Oops, I missed fixing that in one place. If you open up gaenemyrando/eet/sod/tier2.2da, change "bdandlm" to "bdbandlm" on the second line and re-run the install, or you could just re-run that component until it doesn't pick that creature in that file.

[Guest jimmy]

Amazing. Impossible not to get jaded after 1000+ hours in BG, but this mod might bring me back. 

[GuardianAnubite]

Thanks for the interest everyone!

I've updated the download to v1.0.1, which fixes the crash that yota13 ran into and adds a note to the readme to hopefully make things clearer to PI/EET users.

[Graion Dilach]

Started my EET game. It is interesting, although I do find it a bit jarring. I do enjoy my expectations getting undermined for sure.

Some of the possible monsters feel out of place though, like polar bears and winter wolves in the crossroads between Beregost and Friendly Arm. My issue isn't the difficulty when I met with them but that these areas don't seem natural enough for them (these areas don't feel that mountainy to me like the Cloudpeak around Nashkel).

[GuardianAnubite]

I definitely did not consider keeping things 'lore-friendly' (aside from not breaking quests or events). I was thinking of adding an option to the set creature randomizer to have it replace creatures with anything instead of something similar power-wise, but while I'm doing that I could look into making a component for keeping things relatively natural while being random. Though I might need to consult with someone who has more actual Forgotten Realms lore than I do.