Mod Order/Feedback request

[Oloriniel]

Day 349

Back from the Great White North.
Had to skip the final battle, as without the "framing sequence" installed, the game hangs after killing the endboss.  Which of course means the "Icewind Dale" quest will stay in my log.  As will "Find Sheemish, son of Conlan," which didn't clear when I rescued him and sent him home, or when I talked to him again at home.

Flozem attacks, along with Seth and a bunch of Kraken Society mages, after your confrontation with Marketh.  Which, if you already killed him, or convinced him to quit being a henchman and take up the life of an artist, means you get two Girdles of Stromnos.

Orrick the Grey's enhancement of the Rhino Beetle Shield is undroppable.

If you want the enhanced "Mystery of the Dead," don't go to Lonelywood until after you've entered the Deep Gnome village and bought it from Nym.  Of course, there's no way to get the Singing Blade of Aihonen without cheating, as there's no way back to Lonelywood after your return to Easthaven.

I killed Maiden Ilmadia several times trying to get the Hammer Bow (I blame my years of WoW and RNG for drops...)  Turns out it was removed from that loot table with HoW.  Unlike a lot of other sweet items, it *was* added back to the game, but you've got to kill Emmerich to get it (with accompanying loss of reputation).

XP: 360,436/class (10/10/10) (so, on Hardcore Mode and with a 25% reduction, a net of 270k for the IWD-HOW-ToTL addition)
Body Count: 5,496 (65% of total of current party)
Gold:  6,496 (spending spree in the North!)

[Oloriniel]

Day 365

One year ago today; left home, faster father murdered.  So much has happened since then.

I didn't have to do anything to trigger the thief who takes the book who starts the "Vault" quest (at least, I think it's from there) that involves clearing out Drow who have taken over the Nashkel mines.  I found a copy in the Luremaster castle.

I found another in the version of that castle used in Garrotten.  To get back to Lendore for Bone Hill Part two, I did have to change a few globals for Fabio to spawn; the mod is not compatible with "Framed."

Also, after completing the adventure, Pelltar's dialogue loops rather than him sending us back.

I'm back in Baldur's Gate.  What better way to mark the anniversary than to track down Gorion's murderer's last follower?

It turns out the 3rd floor of the palace is *not* a place where my rest might not be interrupted.  In this case, I got ooze puddles, which upon death create two new puddles unless you kill them with electricity.  Great for XP farming, I suppose...

And then.  Pick up the sea charts for Mendas.  Deal with the nest of assassins in Beregost.  Track down and deal with the cult of the Black Hand.  And check out Durlag's Tower.  Not necessarily in that order.

XP:  392,639 (10/10/10)
Body Count: 5,716 (64% of total of current party)
Gold:  154,267 (turns out that if you use the "Magic Store of Vergadain," you can sell off all that drow gear before it turns to dust)

[Oloriniel]

Day-umm.

At the Friendly Arm Inn, rooting out the Grey Clan, and those Wind Horrors hit like a Mack truck!  They were just chewing me up, so I checked them out in NI, and....they have a THAC0 of -10!  5 attacks per round, effective level 20.

4 of them.  Plus Gracchus and the 3 undead knights.  No wonder I've found this encounter to be a pain in the arse.

NI can't tell what difficulty level I'm playing on, right, these are their default stats?

[jastey]

22 minutes ago, Oloriniel said:

NI can't tell what difficulty level I'm playing on, right, these are their default stats?

Yes.

[subtledoctor]

On 8/18/2022 at 7:41 AM, Oloriniel said:

the Grey Clan, and those Wind Horrors hit like a Mack truck!  They were just chewing me up, so I checked them out in NI, and....they have a THAC0 of -10!  5 attacks per round, effective level 20.

One reason I've long since stopped installing that mod. That's just not fun for me. And ruins a bunch of stuff that comes after. IIRC it was designed NOT for the idea that you would not continue a BG1 character into BG2, but would instead keep adventuring up to level 20 inside the BG1 game. Because once upon a time, there was no BG2. Back then the idea of extending BG1 into higher-level play was amazing. Nowadays, however - especially with SoD adding several hundred thousand XP before you get to BG2 - I avoid mods like this that trivialize later content.

Neither here nor there, but now that we have EET and can travel back to the BG1 areas from Athkatla, it would make a ton of sense to place mods like this at that point of the game. Like, maybe you end up on the Sword Coast again after Spellhold, and you do this content as you make your way back to Athkatla to find Bodhi. Something like that could be cool.

Edited February 18, 2023 by subtledoctor

[Oloriniel]

Aec'letec won't die!  I've done hundreds of points of damage to him after he got to 'near death,' but he just keeps going with the level drains and other attacks!  He did go ethereal twice on me, so I got to wait around for him to come back....

[Oloriniel]

It's not difficulty-level dependent; even on basic, he won't die.

I am using SCS 34, so the issue in this thread Aec'Letec Won't Die? — Beamdog Forums shouldn't be applicable, and anyway the hotfix didn't work.

[Oloriniel]

Day 425

Completed:   Sarevok's Minions, the Grey Clan, the Mysterious Island, Durlag's Tower, Ingredients for the Seatower Mage, the Keletal Captain and his Sons, the Ghost Ship, Phantoms East of Beregost, Brokk's Forge, Treasure in the Rust, the Arandur Ore, Brokk's Meteoric Shield, Liqueur for the Tanner, the Great Book of the Unknowing, Nim Furlwing's Hunting Hounds, the Cult of the Black Hand, the Symbol of Helm, The Fields of the Dead

New/Open:  Open or New:
Increase Brandock's Lore Wisdom (Ch1; his lore is now 122)), Kivan and Tazok (Ch3 - remnant that didn't clear), A NOTICE (Ch3 - Pretty sure this was meant to be a journal entry rather than a quest), Brandock Wants to Restore His Book (Ch3, part 1), Brandock's Scroll-Scribing Skills (Ch3, part 1), Notifying of Kin (Ch5, can't complete, the Harmons don't recognize Recorder's presence in the group), Brandock and his Half-Ogre Twin (Ch5), Brandock's Half-Ogre Troubles, (Ch5), Brandocks' Scroll-Scribing Skills (Ch5, part 2), Brandock Wants to Restore His Book (part 2), Recovering Soultaker (Aec'telec is unkillable), the Mysterious Island (remnant, didn't erase), Sarevok's Secret, Icewind Dale (could not clear without framing sequence), Find Sheemish, Conlan's Son (remnant, didn't erase), Dark Stories (can't complete, didn't talk to a Grey Clan mod NPC), Brandock wants to Restore His Book (part 3).

Getting close to the end of BG1+mod content.  I didn't find a piece for the SotSC belt, and two pieces for the Crossbow., but Taerom's putting the mace together now.  I have to take out "Section's" boss, "Oversight," in Baldur's Gate, as well as the Twisted Rune enclave.  And meet Driz'zt for another trip North.  Imoen's gone to take up her apprenticeship.

I didn't talk to Avery so I missed that I could actually complete NTotSC content without waiting on Reedrig.  But since I killed the cultists, I took the letter, talked to him, and cleared that content.  If I can figure out, or if someone offers a solution to test, I'll head back to take out Aec'letec, otherwise we'll see about the unlikely case that this affects the end of SoD, since I won't have recovered Soultaker.


XP:  500,139 / class (11/11/11)
Body Count:  6,256 (60%)
Gold:  174,629
 

[Oloriniel]

Day 440

And, I"m done with BG1 content.  Time to go pick up Breagar so I don't lose him for the rest of the game.  Farewell to Xan, Ajantis, and Kivan, who I won't see again until BG2, if then.

I really enjoyed a lot of the new content.  In particular, Shades of the Sword Coast and Balduran's Seatower; Skitia's and Glam's NPCs; Breagar and Brandock, Drake and Sirene.  With so much additional content, I think I'm finally ready to leave Driz'zt's Saga and some of the other mods for which balance really is an issue behind.

And now, on to SoD.  My last two runs ended roughly here, so I'm not nearly as familiar with SoD, and particularly the mod NPC's; I don't know which have quests or where.  So I may miss a lot of content.

Here's hoping my characters don't have issues with scrolls and wands, given that I'm having trouble accessing save games in NI.  I still have no idea why Breagar can't wear armor or a helm!  And should Brandock's scroll scribing quest have resolved with his being able to scribe anywhere, no longer needing the crutch of Firebead's desk?  Or was there more, that I missed?

XP: 557,408 /class (11/11/11)
Body Count: 6,364
Gold: 32,267

 

[Oloriniel]

Can't recruit Vienxay; the game hangs after I talk to the officer to release her.

[Oloriniel]

Neither Brandock nor Ophyllis turn up outside the Keep.

[subtledoctor]

3 hours ago, Oloriniel said:

Here's hoping my characters don't have issues with scrolls and wands, given that I'm having trouble accessing save games in NI.

Based on the last weidu.log I saw in this thread, you might. Post here if you do, it shouldn't be hard to work around it. In fact you might want to copy the contents of SPECIFIC.IDS into a post here, then I'll have a better sense  of it.

[jastey]

1 hour ago, Oloriniel said:

Neither Brandock nor Ophyllis turn up outside the Keep.

For Brandock, what is the value of the variable Global("C#BrandockSpawn","GLOBAL")? And it's bd0010.are he should spawn in SoD the first time (at [608.657]). He is fully playable in SoD and has a lot to say to things, but content is not finished.

3 hours ago, Oloriniel said:

I still have no idea why Breagar can't wear armor or a helm!

Er, me neither.

3 hours ago, Oloriniel said:

And should Brandock's scroll scribing quest have resolved with his being able to scribe anywhere, no longer needing the crutch of Firebead's desk?  Or was there more, that I missed?

I need to see how 2.6 handles the open/closed journal things. It seems it works differently than I thought. The actual scroll scribing should be done. There is still things like rewriting cursed scrolls and he'll have an idea to write more kind of scrolls and things in BGII.

Thank you very much for the kind words!

[Oloriniel]

Brandock did work out how to repurpose cursed scrolls.

Corwin did say he was around, and had slept outside the keep the prior night.  At first starting SoD, that global was "5."  I saw in a thread elsewhere you said he should spawn with that vairable at 6, so I set it to that, but he still didn't turn up

What would be the command to spawn the version of him that's been in my party?

Spawning Ophyllis worked just fine, though.

Recruited Safana, but let her go to make room for Drake.  Recruited Verr'sza, but let him go to make room for Brage.  Didn't get the option to have Minsc and Dynaheir join the expedition, as opposed to me personally; recruited them and let them go at the same time.

We'll see if these 4 turn up at the coalition camp; if not, maybe I can come back for them.

Now back in the Keep and getting ready to move on, but Corwin still has the same dialogue options as before we went into the city.  I can go with "I'm ready to leave now" to force things to move forward, but not sure if that will goof anything up.  I'll be leaving town with Kale, Breagar, Drake, Sirene, and Brage, with Grey in tow.

[Oloriniel]

Recorder's outside the Keep with the various and sundry as we get ready to leave, but her name is now "1.47"

Vienxay's here too.  But I don't see Viconia anywhere.  And, there's a message to talk to Captain Corwin to start the march, but "Captain Corwin has nothing to say to you."  Gotta check her dialogue file and check variables.