First run in EET questions.

[Megiddo]

Good day!  Thank you all for the work that must have gone into all of the mods here.  I've played within the various Saga patches, mostly vanilla, but I've been looking to expand upon my adventuring within.  For my first complete run through the Enhanced Editions, I thought that I'd try to connect them as much as possible.  For the first run, I'm planning to keep things pretty bland, but I've installed the Enhanced Edition Trilogy and am using a few of the Tweaks to unify the run.  I have a couple of questions, though.  I'm hoping that anyone familiar with EET and the Enhanced Editions might take a moment to explain how a few things will work together.

My first question relates to the world map.  Is it truly open where I'll be able to explore the entirety of the Saga, so long as I can travel to the areas to unlock them?  Or will I need to progress through each segment of the sage, expansion by expansion and chapter by chapter still?  For my first run, at least, I'm planning to keep things pretty linear, so far as progression goes, but at some point, I'm hoping that it will be possible to explore more areas.  In itself, does EET open up the entirety of Saga, so far as the world map exploration goes?  Or will it require serious modding and/or progression to unlock many of the areas?

My other questions relate to the Black Pits and Icewind Dale additions.  Unless I'm completely mistaken about the Black Pits, I don't expect to experience them with my first run through EET.  Am I correct in that the Black Pit "expansions" are completely stand-alone additions that don't really connect to the Saga?  I've seen a mod or two that look like they might tie them in, but I won't experience any of this content in a "vanilla" EET run?  Finally, about the Icewind Dale content, I own all of proper titles needed for it, but it's not complete at this point?  I've never completed Icewind Dale 2 yet, so I'm wondering if I'd miss out on quite a bit of content there were I to try to add an unfinished mod to EET?  Thank you all in advance for any replies and feedback.

[Megiddo]

A couple of new questions that have already come up:  The default Advanced AI script hasn't used my F/M/T character's Armor spell.  I haven't played a F/M/T extensively through any of the EE titles yet, but, by default, all of my casters, so far, have had their scripts casting longer duration buffs outside of combat.  Is this normally BG2EE default script behavior?  Also, I'm curious, too, how mechanics, such as stealing, might differ in an EET run?  I'm early in yet, but, so far, NPCs haven't become hostile when I steal from their homes.  Will mechanics like this change as I progress through the Saga?

[jastey]

1 hour ago, Megiddo said:

My first question relates to the world map.  Is it truly open where I'll be able to explore the entirety of the Saga, so long as I can travel to the areas to unlock them?  Or will I need to progress through each segment of the sage, expansion by expansion and chapter by chapter still?  For my first run, at least, I'm planning to keep things pretty linear, so far as progression goes, but at some point, I'm hoping that it will be possible to explore more areas.  In itself, does EET open up the entirety of Saga, so far as the world map exploration goes?  Or will it require serious modding and/or progression to unlock many of the areas?

First unlocking of the areas will be like in the original game(s): either the areas are accessible via the neighboring areas, or they are revealed by quest givers or when the story progresses (like in SoD). But, EET keeps the areas you already visited open so you can come back later - visit BG1 areas in BGII, etc. Only exception are the city areas of Baldur's Gate because of story reasons. Thus, open worldmap areas in EET means that they won't be locked after you visited them for design reasons like it is in the original game(s), especially SoD and BGII.

What you are asking for (what I think you are asking for), opening up all game areas from the start of the game regardless of story or quest progression, would not only require heavy modding of the worldmap and how areas are revealed, but would also lead to interference with story and quest progression I wouldn't even know how to handle in a mod - you'd need to disable the story-related content if visiting too soon, some areas wouldn't even make sense (like the camps in SoD), etc. - that's not a trivial thing to wish for.

1 hour ago, Megiddo said:

My other questions relate to the Black Pits and Icewind Dale additions.  Unless I'm completely mistaken about the Black Pits, I don't expect to experience them with my first run through EET.  Am I correct in that the Black Pit "expansions" are completely stand-alone additions that don't really connect to the Saga?  I've seen a mod or two that look like they might tie them in, but I won't experience any of this content in a "vanilla" EET run?

Yes, Black Pits is not integrated into the main saga in EET, like it isn't in the original game(s).

1 hour ago, Megiddo said:

Finally, about the Icewind Dale content, I own all of proper titles needed for it, but it's not complete at this point?  I've never completed Icewind Dale 2 yet, so I'm wondering if I'd miss out on quite a bit of content there were I to try to add an unfinished mod to EET?  Thank you all in advance for any replies and feedback.

As far as I know, the IWD in EET attempts do not provide a continuous playthrough yet where the IWD stories are accessible ingame via a questgiver or somesuch. Meaning, what you get is the possibility to cheat your way into the IWD areas and play it disconnected from the BG story.

30 minutes ago, Megiddo said:

I'm early in yet, but, so far, NPCs haven't become hostile when I steal from their homes.  Will mechanics like this change as I progress through the Saga?

Not all chests in homes trigger a hostile reaction, plus sometimes it also depends whether there is anyone near to see.

[Megiddo]

@jastey Thank you for the reply!  I can completely understand how having access to every area from the beginning would completely break a number of things.  I'm confused about seeing some areas in the game early on, though, such as the city of Amn, Watcher's Keep, and a handful of other places that wouldn't normally be available.  That led me to being curious if I could recruit BG2 NPCs early or not.  The Overview page here doesn't provide many details, such as you mentioning the city of Baldur's Gate not being accessible later.  I'm wondering if there might be anywhere that I can read up on how the mechanics of EET actually work here.

The social/aggression range of NPCs seems to have been increased very significantly here to match the behavior of BG2EE.  An entire area went hostile, for example, when I killed an NPC that was out-of-sight.  In the unmodded BGEE, it's entirely possible to get away with that sort of thing.  I'll have to explore more, most certainly, but the mechanical behavior here should match that of BG2EE?  Or will it more closely follow that within BGEE?  Experience gains, so far, seem to have matched BGEE, not BG2EE.  In itself, too, how does EET handle BGEE and SoD experience caps?

[jastey]

EET tries to stay true to the original game(s), but I'd assume that, by the fact that it runs on the BGII:EE engine, the mechanics will more be like in BGII:EE.

I think you see some areas already marked on the worldmap, but they will be "not reachable" until it's time.