SubtleMods: Reflections of Destiny

[subtledoctor]

Introducing Reflections of Destiny, a Siege of Dragonspear remix mod. This is a departure for me: instead of kits, spell tweaks, and rule tweaks, this is all story, dialogues, and cut-scenes. The eventual aim will be to use surgical cuts, and stitches to reshape and improve the story of Siege of Dragonspear. The current scope involves using the SoD tutorial level, Korlasz' dungeon, to expand the last chapter of the BG1 campaign and make role-playing at that stage of the game deeper and more narratively satisfying. If all goes well, in the future there will be several more components that modify and improve other parts of SoD.

The Readme is here.

You can download the latest release of the mod here.

So far this mod has two components:

#100: The Mirror Shard

This small component adds a new magic item in Durlag's Tower and in Irenicus' Dungeon in the BG2 campaign. This item is quite powerful: it allows you to cast Simulacrum on anyone - anyone - and create a friendly, 60%-strength clone of them for 10 rounds. Go ahead, make your own Sarevok for the final battle! The item can only be activated a few times, however, so use it wisely.

#200: The Clone Saga

(With apologies for the title, Spider Man fans )

This component is much more involved. First, it adds a plot to the end of the BG1 campaign that implicitly (only implicitly) involves the Mirror Shard from component 100 and Melicamp's Netherese bracers. You will get more satisfaction out of this plot if you also install The Calling quest mod and the Brandock NPC mod.

Next, you are given a lot more breathing room in the last chapter of BG1. Instead of teleporting you to the Undercity Maze after you interrupt Sarevok's coronation, now the Grand Dukes will ask you to investigate where he may have gone. While you search for Sarevok, you can finish up other quests. This should work well with the excellent Black Hearts mod, which also gives you things to do in the last chapter of BG1.

Next, this mod brings Korlasz' Crypt forward from the Siege of Dragonspear campaign into the BG1 campaign. Instead of being a "Sarevok clean-up quest" as Beamdog set it up, this great dungeon now becomes an integral part of your search for Sarevok.

Next, once you find Sarevok and fight him, the BG1 campaign will no longer abruptly end. Instead you will report your success to the Grand Dukes - and they may not be as happy about your actions as you might think! This is where the game will finally move on to the Siege of Dragonspear campaign.

However, this also presents you with an option to skip Siege of Dragonspear, and stay in Baldur's Gate when the Coalition army marches north to meet Caelar Argent. This choice will proceed to the resolution of the Mirror Shard plot (again, only implicitly) and send you to the beginning of the Shadows of Amn campaign. The goal here is to make your capture by Irenicus and escape from his lair feel like it is still occurring in the BG1 campaign. It should add immediacy to the transition to BG2.

Through all this, there are many more dialogues in the end of BG1 which flesh out what is happening in the city, how you are perceived, and your relationship to the city's rulers. You will have an explicit choice to disclose your heritage to them, or to keep it concealed. This doesn't have any mechanical consequences (yet!) but provides a better sense of agency and more in-depth player interactions in a part of the game that, in its initial release, was shockingly sparse.

Currently I have tested this mod going to Siege of Dragonspear, and skipping SoD; with party members (including Imoen), and with no party members; with EndlessBG1 installed (except for the three incompatible components) and without EndlessBG1; with The Calling installed and without the Calling. Everything seems to work, but I have not accounted for any number of innumerable edge cases and mod interactions. Also, I have been doing this in a fairly extremely small amount of free time, and got a bit burnt out writing dialogues at some point. So some of the dialogue may be a bit...light? One or two spots may be a bit cringe-y (you'll know it when you see it). Nothing was revised or edited as good writing should be in an ideal world. So I am calling this an open beta. Anyone willing to play it, post your experiences here. Most problems can probably be fixed by simply setting some variables, so if you run into trouble let me know here and I can very likely help you.

Compatibility recommendations:

I have not tested this with the Transitions mod, and it is almost certainly very incompatible. I would not install both together.

Do not install this with the "Imoen and Duke Jannath" component or the "Move Korlasz' Dungeon to BG1" component of EndlessBG1 - those two components cover the same ground as this mod, in ways that are probably not compatible. The "Flaming Fist in the Temple after the Sarevok Fight" is not incompatible, but it will kind of contradict some of the dialogue in this mod.

However, DO feel free to install the other components of EndlessBG1! It's a great mod and adds even more interactions and dialogues at the end of BG1, and all components apart from the three mentioned above should work well with this mod.

DO feel free install the Black Hearts mod, I cannot recommend it enough. In addition to generally a bunch of good content and fights, it specifically adds a bunch of stuff to the last chapter of BG1, which ties into the main plot, and which benefits from that chapter being expanded by this mod. With these two mods, chapter 7 of BG1 should really be packed with content.

Finally, I DO recommend installing The Calling and Brandock... and have Brandock in your party when you meet Melicamp the chicken. I won't spoil any more, it is minor stuff but the content of those two mods dovetails nicely with the Mirror Shard plot that is insinuated by this mod. You won't miss anything for not having them; but all three mods should kind of support each other, story-wise. If you install The Calling, I recommend you complete that quest before going to Candlekeep to confront Rieltar.

The option to skip SoD and go straight to BG2 is almost certainly NOT compatible with multiplayer games. Probably. Maybe? The clone plot depends heavily on Charname being Charname, and being left alone in the party for a bit, just like the end of Siege of Dragonspear. I have not had time to look at how SoD/EET handle the transition to BG2 in multiplayer games. If/when I figure it out, i will update the mod to account for it.

Cheers y'all.

Edited yesterday at 01:52 AM by subtledoctor

[morpheus562]

Congratulations on the release!

[Guest jesse]

Congrats! I'll give it a go on my next playthrough.

[subtledoctor]

1 hour ago, DraikenWeAre said:

Man I'm definitely going to play this, I read your readme and honestly that whole part of Charname needing to search for Sarevok instead of Just being ported to the Maze just sounded like Genius to me, and feels like a far better implementation of Korlaz dungeon.

You really are just something else with your ideas Man.

Just quoting this into the right thread. 

[DraikenWeAre]

Can't believe I posted that in the wrong place.

[Trouveur80]

Congrats! I will probably try it on my next BGEE run. 

[Granger77]

Hey there, SubtleD!

Very excited to play this mod!

I did an installation over the weekend, and Component #200 installed with a few warnings:
 

Spoiler

//WARNING: could not find \(ApplySpellRES("ohdest","Rogue_\).+$ in BG0153.bcs
//WARNING: could not find Dead("Sarevok")[
//WARNING: could not find Wait(1)[

//INSTALLED WITH WARNINGS     Reflections of Destiny Part 2: The Clone Saga

Will these specific warnings cause issues? I do have EndlessBG1 installed, but I did not install the three components that you noted in the Readme.

Thank you!

[subtledoctor]

15 hours ago, Granger77 said:

#200 installed with a few warnings

Almost certainly not a problem. Some of the code I adapted for script textual modification throws warnings when the text to be modified is not found. In this case, it is likely because EndlessBG1 has already made the same substitution. I’ll run down these particular instances - I think I have a test game with EndlessBG1 and Reflections installed right now - but this is probably totally harmless. 

[Granger77]

Ahh okay, that makes sense.

Thank you again!