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Diablofication


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Posted (edited)

Diablofication

Version: v0.8 (Readme)(Download)
Game: BG1 EE v2.6 without SoD
Platform: Windows
Language: English, Polish

 

Overview:

Diablofication is Infinity Engine modification that aims to implement some of the mechanics known from Diablo games into Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition.

Diablofication doesn't try to be total conversion mod. Instead, it tries to understand why certain mechanic is fun in Diablo and introduce some changes to obtain similar result, without turning game upside down.

Consequently, Diablofication is collection of components that focus on following aspects of the game:

  • Improvements for “no reload” gameplay, including ones that make this style of playing available for less experienced players.
  • Randomization and diversification of game content.
  • Various hack'n'slash flavored changes, especially focused on increasing game dynamics.

 

Components:

Town Portal (Beta)

Town Portal is new level one arcane spell that teleports entire party to the nearest temple (or other safe place, if temple is unreachable). Caster receives special ability, that can be used to teleport party back to place where Town Portal spell was casted. Town Portal spell scrolls are added to store in every temple. Those scrolls can be used to cast Town Portal spell be every character that meet standard requirements for using scrolls (regardless of ability to use arcane magic).

Identification For All

This component changes Identify spell scrolls so they can be used be every character that meet standard requirements for using scrolls (regardless of ability to use arcane magic). Also, Identify scrolls are added to store in every temple.

Party Revive After Combat (Beta)

Makes all forms of death of all party members (including protagonist) temporary until the end of combat. Game over occurs only when all characters have been eliminated. Characters after revive will be fatigued and will require rest to gain full combat capabilities again.

Character Respawn (Beta)

Instead of game over, entire party will be resurrected in the nearest temple (or other safe place, if temple is unreachable). This will however has consequence in certain amount of gold and experience points loss. After respawn, protagonist receives special ability, that can be used to teleport party back to the place where respawn was triggered.

XP Progression Independent From Party Size (Beta)

Experience point rewards are splitted by maximum party size and distibuted equaly between current party members. This means members of smaller parties will no longer receive more experience from enemies, quests and dialogues. It also removes experiance point rewards from thief ability usage and spell learning.

Identified Ammunition

Change all stackable ammunition to not require identification. This includes throwing weapons too.

Spells Regeneration (Beta)

Grants out of combat regeneration of one spell (arcane and divine) per round for all party members (including familiars).

More HP on Level One

Significantly increases HP amount that protagonist and all companions receives on level one. At the same time, amount of HP gained with every level is decreased, so difference between HP from original rules and those applied by this component is getting smaller and smaller with every level up.

More Proficiency Points

Increases frequency of getting weapon proficiency points, especially for fighters and other classes that are good with weapons.

Camera Lock (Beta)

Double click on character portrait locks camera, making it move automatically with character movement, keeping character always in the center of the screen. You can unlock camera using right click on "select all" button.

 

See readme for more detail.

 

Any feedback welcome.

Edited by marchitek
v0.8
Posted (edited)

Thankee for making this spiffy sounding mod!

 

May we also get an option to get the respawn only if the entire party wipes?

Edited by Endarire
Posted

It's too bad you don't want to turn the game upside down. When thinking of Diablo, my association is fast-paced action in real time more than anything. Well, if you are going to limit yourself to a few conveniences from there, an automatic resurrection is not bad for the lazy. There is something to consider about tweaks like this, they should be seen in the context of the whole, not in isolation. Diablo was an action game, while BG was a role-playing game, which means recreation of a world like ours but different, and a world is always segmented. I don't mean the global map but that any immersive world will have separate places, different habitats and people, tasks and types of magic here and there. Complexity is believability. When characters die and the player has to reload, for example, or carry companions to a temple, with all of the trouble that involves, the chore impresses on him the point that this place is a real place. His adventure becomes more serious in his eyes, his own occupation with the game more merited. And he learns something new along the way. He writes stories in his head about the action - how Edwin was killed at the bandit camp and had to be dragged all the way to Beregost. If you dispense with the legwork, expense and danger, puff, then it'll be a cue to treat the game not as a journey to another dimension but as something out-of-character, without the fourth wall at all - a wargame from the start. And BG is not a very good wargame, let alone an action game. The engine just isn't right for it. You could commit to an action conversion across the board, but that will require more sweeping changes. To how combat and magic work, for instance.

Posted (edited)

Jesus Christ.

EDIT - seems like a fine idea. It’s a game - more gamification could make for a perfectly great mod. And starting small is good! 

Edited by subtledoctor
Posted

@marchitek congrats on the release!

Stupid question: what happens to the items that were in the dead (N)PCs' inventory? I'm not even sure the items from the PC's inventory would fall to teh ground when they die. But for a dead compagnion, the items could be lost if resurrection happens in a different area.

Posted (edited)

Thank you all for the feedback!

 

On 4/27/2022 at 3:24 AM, Endarire said:

May we also get an option to get the respawn only if the entire party wipes?

I'm currently not planning to add this. One thing is that there are some technical pitfalls here and there to extend it like this and I'm not quite motivated to face them right now. Another thing is I'm not sure how it should look like in game. I assume that allowing party hanging around without protagonist is not an option, so protagonist would need to be bring back after the fight. It could cause some strange situation that I would e.g. need automatically unpetrify character after fight. I know one can argue that teleport to temple and full restoration is even more "strange", but at least you have this "cut" here, screens goes black etc. Also I have feeling that this would make protagonist kind of "meat shield" for the party members, that can die without any consequence.

 

17 hours ago, temnix said:

It's too bad you don't want to turn the game upside down. [...] If you dispense with the legwork, expense and danger, puff, then it'll be a cue to treat the game not as a journey to another dimension but as something out-of-character, without the fourth wall at all - a wargame from the start. And BG is not a very good wargame, let alone an action game. The engine just isn't right for it. You could commit to an action conversion across the board, but that will require more sweeping changes. To how combat and magic work, for instance.

Regarding engine, it's not that bad, combat mechanic is very similar to Diablo II (even critical hit chance is the same if I remember correctly), the problem is indeed in magic. There is too many either/or situations, either you are protected against something, or you need to reload. Maybe at some point it could be addressed somehow, but this is complicated thing to do it right. I mentioned this "not being total conversion" because "diablofication" can be understand in many different ways and I just wanted to state that for me here it's making tweaks when I see potential for them rather then just rewrite whole mechanics. BTW IMO encouraging "no reload" is very RP thing. In fact, I couldn't think of anything that breaks RP more then reloading game.

 

14 hours ago, jastey said:

Stupid question: what happens to the items that were in the dead (N)PCs' inventory? I'm not even sure the items from the PC's inventory would fall to teh ground when they die. But for a dead compagnion, the items could be lost if resurrection happens in a different area.

Not stupid at all. I mentioned it "more details" section of readme, but it is for sure important enough to be right away in component description, I will move it.

Answer is: protagonist equipment is not dropped, you are resurrected with full equipment. However, dead companions equipment is dropped normally and can be lost as you described. There is definitely room for improvement here. My thinking was: if you play no reload, it is still better to lose some equipment then end whole run. That's why I decided to release like that.

I think about "Companions don't drop equipment" component that would be independent from "Character respawn", but in the same time complementary regarding this situation. 

Edited by marchitek
Posted
1 minute ago, marchitek said:

if you play no reload, it is still better to lose some equipment then end whole run. That's why I decided to release like that.

That's a valid approach especially if one knows about it. It's a bit like dying in lava in Minecraft. ^^

Posted

New version 0.3 released, introducing new component: More HP on Level One (Beta).

 

On 5/13/2022 at 5:30 AM, Endarire said:

I prefer to remove the latest part of the URL so users can easily see the change log Via old releases, but that’s preference.

Also good, I think I like it more too. The issue with link before AL|EN intervention was that it was pointing to old version (I forgot to update it). Now should be all fine.

Posted (edited)

Dang does that sound awesome. Would install it even for Character View Lock alone. Sadly I am not able to play without SoD's Dragonspear UI (got used to it) :( Is there a mod with similar camera lock feature for SoD?

Edit: Tried it on non-SoD installation, that camera lock feels very immersive, for a solo playthrough it's perfect. Depending on the zoom it stutters a bit on a slow character, but after quaffing oil of speed it's really smooth! It's so good I'm considering ditching SoD exclusively for this mod now.

Edit2: Oh, actually we do not need SoD to install Dragonspear UI mod, do we? Everything seems to work just fine without it.

Edited by Jebarkas

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