eet Lurker's EET install: eet-modpack_2023-09-17_v2

[Lurker]

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[Lurker]

EET, transition from Chapter 5 to Chapter 6

• no named save is created ("Chapter 6 Start")
  • the named save is instead created when leaving Baldur's Gate (or perhaps any area) for Candlekeep
  • this is vaguely familiar and might be related to the Ogre Mage encounter (from another mod) that takes place on arrival at Candlekeep
  • EDIT: nope, it's MIH_EQ, component #21 // Prevent chapter 6 cutscene from moving party to Candlekeep
• Chapter 6 introductory JE is added to Chapter 5 instead
• Quests -> Important Events -> Return to Candlekeep is added to Chapter 5
• both Quests and Journal for Chapter 6 are completely empty

EDIT: All of the above might really be caused by MIH_EQ instead (see edit above). I don't recall this to happen in a previous setup, where MIH_EQ wasn't present.

Edited November 20, 2023 by Lurker
split comment

[Lurker]

EET, unresolved JEs, previous chapters, Quests:

• Chapter 3, top entry: "A Hidden Base?"
  • still open (white), with two entries of the same date and content:
    "Tazok plans to visit the site of a mine, where he might be reporting to the real bandit leader."
• Chapter 4, top entry: "Important Events"
  • still open (white), one entry, titled: "Crippling Cloakwood", content:
    "I must find a way to stop or at least temporarily disable the mining operation here in Cloakwood. Searching the mine [...] bloody affair."

Edited November 20, 2023 by Lurker

[Lurker]

I've slept several times already in Chapter 6, but so far got no new dream sequence and additional Bhaalspawn power.

Just met Koveras in Candlekeep, chose to receive his ring, but got nothing, only two journal updates. I was expecting to get a cursed ring, that could later be uncursed and upgraded by Thalantyr.

EDIT/UPDATE: I got the dream for Chapter 6 almost immediately before ending the chapter, not to say "almost by accident". Then again, sleeping outside of Candlekeep (Chapter 7) didn't trigger the next/final dream sequence. I'm still under the impression that dream sequences occur on first rest in the respective chapter; is this wrong?

Edited November 21, 2023 by Lurker

[Granger77]

Hi there, Lurker!

First of all, I'd like to thank you for this thread, and for chronicling your run! It really helps knowing whether a problem with a mod is widespread, whether the problem is connected to another certain mod, etc. etc.

Secondly, in regards to your issue with Black Hearts for EET and you comment here: "tl;dr: If you don't tolerate bugs, don't use Black Hearts for EET. The mod's content falls apart at the later stages."

Damn, that really sucks; out of all the new mods that I installed for my new run, BH was among those I was looking forward to the most. But now after reading about your issues...I'm fairly nervous to proceed (I've only done the first quest). Having to console and find workarounds is, undoubtedly, corrosive to immersion. And that's even IF a workaround is possible.
I will for surely be on the lookout for issues with it,  and will report accordingly.

Thanks again!

[Lurker]

I've updated my previous comment a bit.

@Granger77 Thank you for your kind words. Such feedback really means a lot to me. Especially since I'm constantly criticizing the volunteer work of other people while doing this...

One personal learning experience for me so far: Don't (try to) include everything and the kitchen sink in the next "serious" installation. Lucky me, I'm not into NPC mods, this current setup is borked enough already...

EDIT: Also, try to build a game via tweaks and quest mods that fit an intended concept for charname. My current alter ego is CE. At least the "chaotic" part is an involuntary success, regarding how arbitrarily I have to switch between grumpy, psychotic murder hobo and "Sure, I'll gladly help you! (Why else do I have this installed, anyways?)"

Edited November 21, 2023 by Lurker

[Lurker]

I was able to finish Black Hearts without any more major issues. Some notes for the final section:

• There was a neutral Shambling Mound without dialog; it just followed me around, or attacked while still "blue". I finally killed it, which doesn't net XP.
• There was a goblin named "Yujehli"; it had some dialog, but I don't know what its purpose was. Also killed it in the end.
• When approaching the Sanctum Portal with the Astral Gemstones, dialog option 2 was just "@3131"; the following dialog option 2 had actual text ("*Enter the Portal*")
• Illasera was GOODBUTBLUE instead of NEUTRAL (just from the observation of her being shown as "Uninjured"; didn't actually check the details)
• The quest log entries (yes, plural) get marked as "Finished", but stay scattered over the chapters and don't get their previous entries removed.

[Lurker]

Dumped some info regarding "The Unknown Egg".

[Lurker]

I'm near the end of the BG1 part of this game. There's just Doggy Island to tackle before Sarevok's covidination.

I think I'll skip BST, because BG1 has overstayed its welcome in this game (mostly due to NTotSC and DSotSC), and - I can't believe I'm really writing this - I want to progress to SoD, mostly thanks to being curious about @jastey's mods for SoD.

There have been many updates to various mods since I installed this game. I'm wondering if I should do an update-reinstall for content dealing with later chapters, but again I want to continue with my current save. I guess I'd just keep the current dialog.tlk before reinstalling, like last time.

Would right before the first final battle with Sarevok be a good point for such a "transition"?

Otoh, I'm not completely opposed to dump this game altogether. I already encountered so many bugs, and checking with NI (Tools > Check > stuff) almost brings tears to my eyes. For my next game, I plan to strip down the number of tweak mods from "Oh, this also sounds so cool! And this! And perhaps also this...?" to be more like "Less complexity, less annoyances." And - or but? - it's finally time to also include EEex.

I'd then just start a new game at chapter 8; perhaps after at least doing Korlasz's Tomb with the current setup, just to experience the EBG1 transition for once. But I'll miss the opportunity to see how well EET deals with my CE murder hobo charname dealing with a lot of (ex-)companions... Then again, restraining my completionitis, just rushing through BG1 for once is also an option.

I'll also gladly take any "just wait another few days before reinstalling, because mod XYZ will get updated soon."

Curiously awaiting comments and opinions on all of this - thanks in advance.

[Morgoth]

I'm reading your experiences day by day. If I was you, I would actually finish the game.

Yes, you met bugs, but you also experienced the content; next time you will do better by halving the content you would be installing.

If I was in your place I would also finish Seatower (it's not complete yet from what I seem to remember, so if you did, next time you could actually avoid installing it).

All In all, keep playing.

And I say this as someone who got suggested by Jarno (thanks Jarno) to play BP ascension when DavidW didn't yet adopt it and I had more than 10 playthroughs wasted only to realize he wrote bullshits as always. Thanks Jarno for suggesting me to install shit mods and ruining many playthroughs. I wonder if someone else had read your useful tips and was left with a wasted playthrough.
 

Edited December 8, 2023 by Morgoth

[Delior]

That is an interesting comment, Morgoth. I appreciate that Lurker is actually playing the game.  I have noticed that a lot of people in this community share modlists without ever having completed a playthrough using said modlist.  I suspect, in fact, that there is an inverse correlation between the size of one's modlist and the likelihood of that person actually completing a full playthrough with that list. As just one example, look up Cahir's "EET Epic Run" on this site, where Cahir spent an inordinate amount of time researching and compiling his epic megamod list, only to admit years later that he never got around to actually playing it.  I don't mean that as a critique of Cahir - it's a trap many of us have fallen into, including me.  

After spending several weeks trying out various installations and developing a severe case of restartitis, I discovered that I was spending far more time playing Project Infinity rather than Baldur's Gate.  I realized that if I wanted to actually play the game, I had to drastically trim down my list of mods in order to minimize the amount of bugs and other immersion-breaking oddities that were making me constantly quit and restart.  

If you enjoy creating "epic" megamod installation lists and making them work, that's fine, as long as you are up front about the fact that you haven't actually played the game all the way from keep to throne using that list before you choose to share that list with other players.  

 

[Lurker]

@Morgoth and @Delior - thank you for your responses.

Wall of text incoming; structure might be a bit of a mess

I'm hesitant to take on BST for the reason(s) mentioned above, and also due to the fact that I simply don't want to taint the experience of a, from what I can tell, widely regarded as high quality mod with the feelings I associate with this current game, for various reasons. (One might have also noticed that I can be somewhat... grumpy at times. )

The itch to run as a CE charname also doesn't really help and might not have been the best choice in hindsight. And my party is already severely overleveled, as a side note. Also, please don't ask what kind of charname I'm running this game with... (or do, and risk causing another rant if you dare). I've a Cavalier on standby...

I didn't encounter any major bugs with NTotSC and DSotSC, but as I mentioned in my opening statement, I didn't bother to report issues for mods that I don't care for inclusion in future installs. Kudos to the maintainers for doing a good job to bring those dinosaurs to the modern age, but the nicest thing I can say about those two mods is "once is enough; aged like fine wine they did not (where's the Yoda emoji when you need it?)".

Semi-random shoutout to @Sergio for his reviews provided both here and the recently resurrected SHSforums.

Back to BST, I'll definitely include it in a new installation if I don't take it on here. And since The Cowled Menace should allow to re-enter Baldur's Gate in SoA, I'm a bit curious if BST can be played this way when my party is even more severely overleveled.

A major reason to think about reinstalling or at least partially updating is actually the recent update of Shadows over Soubar. The changelog looks rather impressive. Perhaps either @AL|EN, @Roberciiik or @Weigo could offer a quick line about if it's safe to do an in-place update, like there were no additional entries added to dialog.tlk? (Sorry if tagging all of you was considered impolite, no offense meant.)

On a more personal note, I'm neurodivergent and suffering from depression as a side effect. To know people are actually interested in the stuff I write here really helps to rekindle my motivation from time to time. As a firmly non-believer in the virtues of "social media", it pains me to admit that this forum lacks something resembling "likes". I guess users are more prone to simply hit a button, than dropping a line of text. As someone who's more on the critical side of thinking (no, this wasn't an understatement at all), I assume to understand that the modus operandi in a forum like this is less "user to user", and more like "modder to modder" or "user asking modder".

Then there's my current realization that doing funny shitposts like this nets more upvotes in a single day compared to actually trying to post useful stuff (well, more or less) over the course of months.

So, what gives? My mood has shifted to actually continuing with this game (yay feedback!), but I still would like to incorporate updated mods, both for my own sanity (or what's left of it ) and to honor the work of modders maintaining their work.

I'm still undecided about what to do with my reserved space on the top of this page. Perhaps I'll use it for mini reviews for quest mods I'll consider for keeping in future installations.

Edited December 9, 2023 by Lurker

[Lurker]

The quest "Dradeel's Spellbook" isn't very murder friendly. Meaning Dradeel is dead, but I've his spellbook and an open quest that I cannot complete (without consoling a clone of his in). Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention for when I got the quest log entry, and cannot tell if the quest triggers by talking to him or when picking up the spellbook.

Is this a vanilla content issue, or something to report... where?

Speaking of murder, attacking a single commoner on Werewolf Island in an isolated hut abbreviates this quest very abruptly.

And I've a toddler in my bag of holding... Too bad I've changed Cernd to a Totemic Druid. Daddy of the century could've adopted Peladan in SoA. Mod idea open for adoption.

[Morgoth]

Another reason you could wait is being able to try InfinityUI when it comes out as a stable release. LEfreutUI has that issue of moving the buttons that I dislike very much; was hoping the russian community would come out with their UI but it came to nothing in the end. 

[AL|EN]

On 12/9/2023 at 1:09 AM, Lurker said:

A major reason to think about reinstalling or at least partially updating is actually the recent update of Shadows over Soubar. The changelog looks rather impressive. Perhaps either @AL|EN, @Roberciiik or @Weigo could offer a quick line about if it's safe to do an in-place update, like there were no additional entries added to dialog.tlk? (Sorry if tagging all of you was considered impolite, no offense meant.)

You can assume that such a huge update won't be compatible with old saves. While this problem (having to restart the game because of the mod update) is much more common these days, I'm not aware of any method of how to avoid it.