Acifer

This is a known issue due to the rendering of the Enhanced Editions, as the graphics are no longer available as tilesets, but as compressed pvrz files. Since the newest version of Near Infinity has just implemented a workaround to fix this, the graphics I created for the mod will be reworked by me in one of the next versions of the mod.

3 hours ago, deratiseur said:

French translation corrected, a ~ was missing at the end of a file. Archive available via the link updated.

Great, thank you! As soon as CotLG is finished, I will take on the translations of Dark Tidings.

The weather in Athkatla is expected to be sunny next week - a good time to release the mod!

I expect to publish the official English version V 1.0 at the end of next week.

Thank you for your review! I'm very happy that you liked the mod. 

3 hours ago, Trouveur80 said:

When I downloaded this one from Kenzenburg forum, I also could download beta 0.7 of Lost Goddess, I'm eager to try it out too.

I plan to officially release Call of the Lost Goddess V 1.0 next week. This next version V 1.0 will include an official English version and lots of improvements. The currently available version V 0.9 (as well as the outdated V 0.7) was only intended for the German language, sorry.

So hang on for one more week! 

Great! Thank you very much! I will update the mod with all new translations as soon as I have released my Call of the Lost Goddess mod. That will most likely happen within the next two weeks.

On 4/19/2024 at 11:59 AM, argent77 said:

A preview version can already be tested from the Nightly Releases

@argent77: I have also tested this nightly NI version on several tilesets of Call of the Lost Goddess - works smoothly and delivers perfect results. And an automatic conversion from classic BG2 tiles to BG2EE is also included. 

Fantastic! Thank you so much for finally solving this annoying pvrz-overlay-issue!

I have looked at the area, the overlay behaves completely normally. The movement of the water seems to be correct. You could try a different overlay that has less movement and therefore appears less hectic. But I think the appearance of the water is fine.

You should try to change the "movement type" in the overlay header of your wed file to "Alternate rendering (2)".

Yes, I need some more time before I can publish the first official version.
I'm receiving extremely helpful feedback in terms of beta testing and proofreading, which is improving the mod immensely. It's amazing to be able to work with such dedicated people from the community.
So it won't take too long.

Thank you all for your feedback!

9 hours ago, Daulmakan said:

This looks so amazing it makes a sad panda that's it's EE only.

The code for Vanilla BG2 is still present, as I had developed this mod to a certain extent for original BG2. Unfortunately I don't have the time at the moment as I want to complete my other projects first, but it would basically be possible to make the mod backwards compatible again and adapt scripts, items and some bams for the classic version of the game.

14 hours ago, Isewein said:

Waukeen finally getting her bit of attention, eh?

It seems so. 

"Know that it is folly for the gods to change fate."

"Call of the Lost Goddess" is a quest mod that adds new quests, areas, monsters and items to BG2. It is inspired by the pen-and-paper adventure "For Duty and Deity" by Dale Donovan. 

Key features:

• 46 totally new areas that are designed from scratch in 3D
• A new city district accessible from the worldmap
• More than 40 new unique items
• New monsters with new animations: Vrocks, Dretches, Nighthags and many more
• Challenging battles
• Many sidequest for a full gameplay experience
• Multiple different roleplaying options to solve most quests
• 8-10 hours playing time
• The mod is set in the SoA part of the trilogy
• The adventure and quests are playable from the beginning of the game
• Game engine: BG2EE and EET
• Recommended character level: Level 10+

Current progress: 
The mod version is beta V. 0.7

The English version is currently being proofread and Beta tested. As soon as this is completed I will officially release the English version of the mod and provide a download link.

Trailer:

Screenshots:

Credits:
Acifer: Graphics, design, programming 
@Lava : Advice, Ideas, Item graphics & design, Beta testing
@morpheus562  : Enemy & encounter design, scripting 
@Weigo  : Worldmap programming 
@megrimlock: English version, proofreading, Beta testing
@OiseauRebelle: Beta testing
Soul: Beta testing
Genwa: Beta testing
shadowlich: Debug test run, proofreading 
@Taimon - Coding help 
@argent77  - Coding & WeiDU help 
@Morywen - Beta testing

@Roberciiik: Worldmap help for BP-BGT
Shai Hulud, Lotus Noctus, Belryll, Danol: additional help
Laura Hirsbrunner: Readme Template

10 minutes ago, pete_smith1229 said:

How easy is it to change the graphics of the area to remove that light effect?

The area is a pre-rendered image file, so you should export the relevant tis-file (it should be AR3602.tis) as a png using NI and then edit it with an image editing tool of your choice, such as Photoshop or Gimp. Then you have to convert it back to tis format using NI.

7 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

IMHO you are either in the “some mods just shouldn’t exist” club, or you are okay with modders doing what they can with what resources they can

You're right, the discussion is drifting. Just to add that: Between "You are not allowed to do anything" and "You are allowed to use 300 assets from another game", there is still a modest middle path that almost all modders I know follow.

And this would also be my advice to stay on this path and not to overdo it. 

12 minutes ago, Daulmakan said:

I'm sorry I can't allay your fears, but I won't lift an eyebrow based off of the opinion of some random gaming journalist.

Then I expressed myself incorrectly: I'm not concerned about a gaming journalist writing something, but about the quite obvious, objective problems of this mod that he addresses.

12 minutes ago, Daulmakan said:

IMO, Microsoft has bigger stuff to worry about and probably doesn't need the extra negative points with their own public that go along with persecuting non-profit modders.

Well, it's your decision, but if I'm going to invest a lot of my free time into something, then I want to make sure that someone else can't undo my work with the snap of a finger if they feel so inclined.

Cool idea! I am very curious about the items. Congratulations on the release!

1 hour ago, Daulmakan said:

it's an argument for saying this isn't a red line that has been crossed just about now.

Well, at least for the author of the article I mentioned, a thick red line seems to have been crossed. From what I can tell, the author seems to be an experienced writer. And that's what concerns me. Or how do you explain the second headline of the article:

Quote

It's like a weird Baldur's ROM hack, and swipes assets from a much more recent Obsidian RPG

…or that one:

Quote

And that's far from the only borrowing from a 2010s RPG here. […] Now I know: Balabokhin mostly chopped and screwed maps from the Pillars of Eternity games, porting them back into the Infinity Engine that originally inspired Obsidian's RPG revival. 

…or that one:

Quote

I stepped out into the Copperlane district of Pillars 1's Defiance Bay, flipped with an image editor mirror tool to stand in for Neverwinter's city core. The city's other districts are similarly tweaked, flipped, or otherwise modified zones from Defiance Bay or Pillars 2's Neketaka. 

I've been involved with BG modding for nearly 25 years, but I've never read an article like this. We can only hope that no one from Obsidian's (or better Microsoft's) legal department ever reads this article.

I don't want to put the mod down, but I think the argument that the mod is too insignificant to cause problems is the wrong way round. Why are you doing all this work then? You want the mod to be successful! And making NWN available for BG2 is basically a good idea.

I would rather recommend first putting all efforts into invalidating the criticisms mentioned in the article. Of course that takes work. You don't have to completely redo everything, but pretending that the article and the mentioned problems don’t exist and just continue as before is imho the wrong approach. The more work you put into it, the more the mod will be noticed, and the more likely it is that someone will read the article (EDIT: or he otherwise notices the issues) that could lead to trouble.

8 minutes ago, mickabouille said:

As are the spells, icons, descriptions etc that iwdification pulls from iwd.

As are some models from nwn/other games used by some IE mods(I think infinity animation does this for example).

Beamdog made it pretty clear that it is OK for modders to cross-use assets from their games. A quote from Dee Pennyway, former community manager:

Quote

"Speaking to your question about using IWD:EE art in BG:EE mods, because they're both from games that Beamdog produced, we're okay with you using files and assets from either game in mods for the other."

Link: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/673869/#Comment_673869

In my question, I was referring to assets from other games.

Sorry to be the person to raise this question, but now that more and more modders seem to be involved:

What about copyright concerns regarding this mod? According to the article linked above in the thread, the mod is largely based on graphics taken from PoE1&2 and The Witcher 3. In the past, this approach (to base the mod largely on third-party assets) was the red line that most modders were reluctant to cross. I don't want to badmouth anything or anyone, but I do feel it's important that we address the situation openly as a forum and community. How does the community feel about this?

That's awesome! Thank you very much!
I will update the mod with the French version  - along with the Polish translation made by Aristo, and proofread by @Roberciiik - as soon as possible! I'm currently busy preparing another mod announcement, but as soon as that's done I'll update Dark Tidings.

Many thanks to you dedicated translators!

2 hours ago, fantasy.disconnects said:

The creatures from this mod didn't get patched by SCS so they all have their original AI.

Yes, that is correct. SCS does not (yet) affect the mod.

2 hours ago, fantasy.disconnects said:

Also, the bowl of water elemental control summons the elemental, but it's permanently neutral and also falls unconscious hahah.

This is a weird bug that could indeed be related to the script being affected by another mod. Thanks for reporting!

Crucible relies heavily on lore from various sources. The following sourcebooks served as main sources for the backstory in this mod:

Faiths & Avatars by Eric L- Boyd: A good overview of Bhaal's actions, his church and his followers

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/17569/Faiths--Avatars-2e

Jergal: Lord of the End of Everything by Eric L- Boyd: An ideal overview of Bhaal's time as a mortal and his path to godhood. Not an official book from WotC, but since the author was the same person who wrote Faiths& Avatars, it still counts as canon. 

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/346895/Jergal-Lord-of-the-End-of-Everything

Murder in Baldur's Gate by Matt Sernett: Explains what happens after the Bhaalspawn crisis

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/160318/Murder-in-Baldurs-Gate-5e

4 minutes ago, RoyalProtector said:

Hopefully some clever cookie will untangle this problem at some point

Yes, there is a very recent approach to fixing these glitches, but I haven't been able to take a look at it yet because I'm busy finalising my next mod. Here is the relevant post:

https://www.gibberlings3.net/forums/topic/29944-mod-added-area-compatability-for-bg2-and-bg2ee-in-2019/?do=findComment&comment=333290

2 minutes ago, RoyalProtector said:

There seems to be a small graphical issue next to Black Molly. I edited the picture so the issue can be seen more clearly, but it's fairly easy to spot

Yes, this is unfortunately a known issue with doors in the Enhanced Edition, as the graphics are no longer present as tiles, but as compressed pvrz files. I tried for a long time to overcome these glitches, but unfortunately there is no way to avoid them completely. It is caused by the character of the graphics rendering. There have been suggestions in other threads on how to fix these glitches, but it will take a while to figure out a good solution for all my areas. The only good news is that it only affects closed doors; once the doors are open the graphics will look correct.

8 minutes ago, Daulmakan said:

Your Protection from Poison scroll (AC#SCRL2) has the frames reversed and the extended header icon (when using it in inventory) is that of Protection from Fire.

Oh, shame. I'll fix that for the next update, thanks!

9 minutes ago, Daulmakan said:

Giving this a try, currently at the first map and it looks impressive already.

Thank you!

I would be very happy to have Baeloth back.