Ultimate Baldur's Gate !?

[mario]

Hello everyone,

I'm afraid I don't know if this is the right section for a question like this and I confess I am a little overwhelmed and don't know yet who else to ask for something like this. Please forgive me if I am in the wrong place. I hereby would also like to ask the moderators to move my post if necessary or tell me where to put it via mail or something.

- -

Recently I've stumbled upon an older entry on a different forum that no longer seems to exist. Thanks to the Wayback I've been able to read this (see link) and to someone who doesn't know that much yet it surely sounded like this must have been really a great way to play the game: 

https://web.archive.org/web/20200323045705/https://tamrielfoundry.com/articles/the-ultimate-baldurs-gate-experience/

Would you know whether or not there is anything like this or a more improved version incl. a guide on how and what to install, etc somewhere around for when one wishes to play the game today? There's been updates to this and that since this article was written and I'm afraid I'm even more lost. I've already purchased a copy of both BG1 and BG2 (Classic and EE) but haven't bought EE's DLC "Siege of the Dragonspear" yet. I also own a copy of ID1 (Classic and EE) and ID2 - got them all via GOG some time ago but haven't found the time to play any of these games yet.

side note:
Some of the mods mentioned must have broken, some updated since this article was written so I guess some things have changed considerably since then as well. The downloads-section in some places says this or that to not be working any more for some mods. Since this here "gibberlings3" seems to be a place where a lot of things come from originally or had gotten collected I thought this would then be the best place to ask for guidance.

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

 

[CamDawg]

All of the stuff there still exists, but may have moved or changed names and, if you're going with the EEs, a few are also no longer applicable. Overall, it's not a bad guide, but certainly dated, and you can probably find a more current guide. Nonetheless:

BG2 Tweaks has been merged into Tweaks Anthology, for example, and the current Ascension is no longer recommended to be installed before BG2 Fixpack. However, if you're playing on the EEs you can skip BG2 Fixpack regardless since it's built in, as well as skipping One Pixel Productions (also built in), Widescreen (EEs do this natively), BGSpawn (native), and anything related to BGT (EET is the project for the EEs).

For the most part the mods listed are either here at G3, SHS, or PPG.

[mario]

Hello CamDawg,

Thanks very much for the fast reply. I haven't decided upon yet which version I should go for, Classic or EE - I got a copy of both because I read somewhere that certain things work much better on Classic than EE but maybe that too was a dated article; I confess I cannot remember where I read about it.

Can you or someone else here help me with finding a current guide and how to go about things? Or would you say that I should follow the guide I presented you via the link but then simply swap with the current version of mods and e.g. install Ascension after "Tweaks Anthology"? How do you play the game/s for instance and why do you play them like this?

Edited February 22, 2022 by mario

[subtledoctor]

I would have said something different a few years ago, but at this point if you own the EEs I don't really see any advantage in playing the pre-EE versions of the games. Sentiment, sure, and that's nothing to be sneezed at. But if stability and fun gameplay matter more than that, then play the EEs.

As for how to set up a game: if you are going straight from "I haven't played this game in 12 years" to "I want All Teh Modz" then prepare for some frustration. From reading about the experience of others, I don't think "All Teh Modz" has ever really been a viable way to play the games without spending a lot of time plaintively asking for help on the web and then spending a lot of time typing fixes into the game console.

But, you can certainly set up a game with a lot of mods, and have it be stable and fun. I would take a look at the general mod discussion forum right here, there are five or six thread where people talk about their chosen mod lists, the order in which they installed them (which is crucial to get right), and some of what the experience is like playing the game. Use these as your guide, and then adapt it to your own preferences.

[Jarno Mikkola]

43 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

there are five or six thread where people talk about their chosen mod lists, the order in which they installed them (which is crucial to get right),

And it's also definitely CRUCIAL to get right want they don't want to include. And that involves knowing what those mods do in more than a simple level and there we go into quite deep in your previous statement that a player want all teh modz. But reall,y needs to wake up and smell the cooking cabbages of that statement.

 

1 hour ago, mario said:

How do you play the game/s for instance and why do you play them like this?

This statement is kinda bad ... or rather revealing. It's a stement of ignorance in so much as you don't have a clue about the original state of the original game... or rather the EE versions of the game and so...

My advice is this. Play the vanilla BG1EE ... that's it. All you need form now, until you have finished the game, at least one time.

Edited February 22, 2022 by Jarno Mikkola

[mario]

Dear Jarno Mikkola ,

Things are simple in my case ... I purchased the games some more years ago but I haven't reallly been able to play them a lot yet for various reasons. I hardly know a thing about anything and so I thought the best course of action would be to finally be courageous and ask some questions here. Given that there's so many fixes for various things and extensions for this and that one could assume that the game was treated badly by its original developers for instance, but that isn't the only assumption of course ... I also see that a number of people loved the games, etc, etc ... I am truly thankful for all the hard work which was put into it over all these years and that work on it hasn't stopped.

The reason for my lines sounding "off" to you is in part due to English not being my first language and second as you so very well put it, me being ignorant as in, not really actively knowing much. I'm not ashamed to admit that. I'm a new member here now and things I may have learned some from reading and learning over time about the game/s and modifications some more years ago I may likely have forgotten already or can't remember clearly enough for various reasons though.

[The Artisan]

51 minutes ago, mario said:

Given that there's so many fixes for various things and extensions for this and that one could assume that the game was treated badly by its original developers for instance,

No, it's because quality control in the end of the 20th century and early 00s was less defined, hardware and software was more primitive, and patches weren't as easy to distribute. Glitches and exploits were common. They still are, but they were common enough back then that people treated them more as features and celebrated them if it wasn't something utterly game-ruining. That, and peoples' idea of 'fixes' is frequently subject to bias from gamers who have a personal definition of how the game should be as shown from the multitude of tweaks describing themselves as 'fixing' changes in the EE.

More on topic, you should not even be thinking of a mega-install if you haven't had a thorough enough experience in the game. Just don't. Even if there are mods that provide more for the game without negatively impacting anything, it's still good form to experience the game with all its flaws and all. Play the game once, then start with a few select mods that interest you. And if you run into something that markets itself as the EE Setup Tool, avoid like the plague.

Edited February 23, 2022 by The Artisan

[Jarno Mikkola]

1 hour ago, The Artisan said:

No, it's because quality control in the end of the 20th century and early 00s was less defined, ...

Yeah, and now it's better. After all, the Cyberpunk 2077 was a diamond quality, right from the get go. Right. But anyways, your comment othervise is correct.

 

2 hours ago, mario said:

The reason for my lines sounding "off" to you is in part due to English not being my first language...

Good thing, it's not mine either.

But anyways, you might want to know, like said already by CamDawg, the EE games today contain most of the quality of life improvement mods that the world made during the time the game was released and the EE games were re-released a couple of times. Yes, that's why teh EE games version name is v2.5..., and not v1.00. So you don't really need any of the mods talked about here, unless you are about to play itr another time and know what is not optimal for your experience. Do you need really hard tactical challenge, sure there's a mod for that. Do you need more quests ? NPCs ? etc. Sure, let's pile you with 500++ mod easily.

[ahungry]

There are QOL mods that remove tedium without impacting game play/ruining the vanilla experience (like the atweaks out of combat walk speed bonus), but a single "vanilla" play through should be a requirement before modding, I agree