Daeros_Trollkiller

I am very late to trying out this one (very late in general, I haven't had time to work on any of my own mods or even play much for the last few years)

BUT!, I am really enjoying this mod much more than I thought I would so far.  Still pretty early in the game, (haven't even done the Nashkel mines yet, just exploring) and from what I have seen so far, this is a well thought-out NPC mod!  My party this go-round doesn't currently have any summoners, so I was struggling with Sirens while going for the +1 CON book.  I got curious and sent Grey in, wondering how he would fare against their charms.  I thought surely a loyal, well-trained dog would see through their tricks, and I wasn't disappointed!

Will provide more feedback after my playthrough, just wanted to share my enjoyment of it so far, and kudos to Jastey!

On 8/29/2023 at 3:26 AM, InKal said:

IMHO, just concentrate on upgrading items. don't make spells optional, simply remove it. 

In BG2, +2 weapons become useless rather quickly because many monsters require at least +3 weapons to hit, so my general request is make more +3 weapons/upgrades. 

and don't get me wrong but imo you just should make a mod you yourself would like to install and play and don't ask what peeps want unless it is about very specific item,

Thank you for the feedback, the last bit especially.  I put a lot of time and effort into the spells, so I probably won't remove them altogether, BUT... if I were to end up making even more spells, then I think it being it's own separate mod would probably be the better route to go.

On 8/25/2023 at 9:28 PM, Graion Dilach said:

And you rightfully deserve that criticism. It's not you who deals with install orders and mod compatibility. Complex kits need to go after items to accomodate cases where the kit uses op319 over item useability flags and/or revamp them to free up item useability bits. Novices don't know how to split mods and it's already tough to explain the common splitters in a megamod installation (which is IWDification spells going early so that questmods which try importing duplicates can rely on them pretty much). This isn't about the site's own categorization, this is for the convenience of your audience.

But if you berate your audience via considering the most common request "silly", then I'm not sure who are you making the mod for.

My comment was not intended to berate anyone.  I'm not a pro modder and never claimed to be.  To me, I just don't see the problem, but I am obviously looking at things through a very different lens than you are.

The whole reason I came back to update this mod and created this post was to address things that need to be "fixed" or done better to make it more compatible.  I can't fix something if I don't know it's broken, and/or don't know how to go about fixing it.  If that means leaving things well enough alone, then I'm ok with that as well.

After a long hiatus, I am planning to come back and do some more work on this mod.  I don't necessarily plan to add or change a lot about it, but my fellow modders know that once you get elbows-deep into a mod and the creative juices get flowing..... things happen   

From the *many* comments I have gotten regarding this mod, one item I plan to address is making the new spells component optional.  Personally, I still think it's kinda silly,  but different strokes for different folks and all that.

I may or may not look into making use of Olvyn's spell tool for the spells component.  Haven't tried using it at all, so going in blind.  Will see how it goes, may try it on one of my kit mods first.

I have some ideas for a couple of new kits I plan to work on separately from this, but may offer them as optional components of this mod.  I'd kinda like to roll my mods up into one, allowing the player to select what they do and don't want to install, just to keep everything under one roof, so to speak.  I will probably get more flak about that, but seriously, the category this mod is under is "Items/Kits/Spells".  So... even if it contains all three, it still fits the category, imho.

Consider this thread a "Wish List" of sorts that you all would like to see in an update to this mod.  I already know one thing @Endarire will probably ask for, and am already considering how I can work it in, as my way of saying thanks for keeping up with me on this mod over the last couple of years. *cough* elven plate *cough*.

So, please post your thoughts on what you'd like to see in an update here and let's discuss.  Anything goes, and by that I mean the following:

1. Items and/or spells you'd like to see added
2. Items and/or spells you'd like to see removed.
3. Items and/or spells you would like to see buffed or nerfed.
4. Descriptions and/or lore you would like to see changed or added.
5. Artwork/Audiovisual effects you would like to see changed or added.

The only "hard rules" I have are that the mod must remain in a fashion that forces the player to make choices about using upgrade components, and item/spell balance kept in-line.  No adding extra components to allow a player to get everything in a single playthrough, and no "I win" buttons.  So.... if you find yourself thinking: "I really want item A and B, but can only get one of them." That's working as intended and not likely to change.  Conversely, if you are thinking: "I really shouldn't be able to get both item X and Y, both of them together are just too powerful"  That would be very helpful.

On 4/29/2023 at 5:36 PM, Graion Dilach said:

Yeah, this was something I already seen, fixed locally and was sitting on for a while.

My interests shifted in the recent weeks, so I just PRed a solution. https://github.com/Gibberlings3/SoD-to-BG2EE-Item-Upgrade/pull/24

And said solution has now been merged, and drafted into a 2.0.6, which I've just uploaded.  Thank you very much for your help!

Sadly, I just don't have the bandwidth to work on this mod these days.  I welcome collaboration from other modders such as yourself.

Thanks to assistance from @Graion Dilach, I've posted an update to this mod that changes how weapon ability 2DA updating is handled to allow for better compatibility with other mods, such as thrown hammers.  I take no credit for this update, and thank @Graion Dilach for his contribution!

Please post any 2.0.5 feedback, bug reports, or issues here.

Change Notes:

Version 2.0.5
-Fixed
- Corrected spellbook level entries for spells: Thunder Thrust, Infernal Bone Shield, Sundering Vitriol.
- Corrected usable races/classes for the Adventurer's Nimble Gloves of Guarding.
- Restored Arbane's Sword of Agility +2 to Suna Seni

I've posted up 2.0.5 to correct the issues pointed out here, please defer to the new thread.

On 8/15/2022 at 10:17 AM, Merkabah said:

I was wondering if it was intended for the Nimblefinger Gloves to be thief only after the upgrade. They are very nice for someone like Mazzy and it's a shame that she cannot use the upgraded version. 

 

I don't recall that being intentional, I will have to go back and look them over, and correct them for the next update.

On 8/19/2022 at 7:37 AM, Guest Rogerio B said:

Some typos I guess:

• Sundering Vitriol (Level 3 druid spell) appears in druid's level 2 spellbook
• Infernal Bone Shield (Level 5 mage spell) appears in mage's level 4 spellbook
• Thunder Thrust (Level 6 mage spell) appears in mage's level 5 spellbook

Actually tried out the spells, they seem pretty fun. 

Big fan of the new acid/cold spells for priests.

Thank you for the feedback, I am glad you like the new spells!  I wanted to provide some variety for priests in addition to the new mage spells I added.

You're correct on the spells being the wrong level, apparently I forgot to change what level they are added to spells.ids as when I changed the spells themselves to new levels.  Very simple fix, and I've already done for the the next release.

On 8/23/2022 at 5:03 AM, Guest mike123 said:

Two things I noticed, which may not be related to your mod, but posting just in case:

1) Arbane's Sword does not seem to be on Suna Seni any longer. I can't find it in my install, but I think it's an important weapon to have somewhere.

2) Ring of Air Control seems to be casting an "Improved" type of invisibility, but it is also giving +4 bonuses to each save. The end result is +8 bonuses to saves, so I am assuming the Improved type of invisibility is actually giving the bonus 4 as well.

Thank you for the feedback, I will check into Arbane's sword on Suna Seni.  I don't recall off the top of my head what I did.

For the ring of air control - I didn't do anything with that item.  I did not make any changes to existing items' abilities except in explicit cases that are mentioned during install, giving the option to not change them if desired.

It's pretty straightforward.  It changes his equipped hear to something along the lines of something a forgemaster of his skill would wear.

I've posted up v2.0.4, which includes many fixes based on feedback I received from the community.  I don't currently have the time to do a rebalance pass, I hope to get to that in the near future.   Check it out here: 

https://github.com/Gibberlings3/SoD-to-BG2EE-Item-Upgrade/releases

On 7/6/2022 at 11:56 PM, Graion Dilach said:

I think I wait for your 2.0.4 then and try to do that cleanup I promised imminently after it just to ensure nothing gets lost/overlooked/etc.

I just posted up v2.0.4

I took your advice regarding how quest rewards are implemented and changed them using your suggestions.  Would appreciate your feedback on how they are done now.

Please post any and all feedback on this mod when specifically using this version.  Thank you!

On 7/7/2022 at 2:25 PM, Guest Meltphace said:

Absolutely! You may also want to check the sword of troll decapitation in Bernard's shop. There are a bunch of .sto files for the Copper Coronet and I see it in the inventory of the 5th version (BERNARD5.STO) but it isn't in his inventory in my game. I don't know if these .sto versions aren't used in game or maybe he just hasn't updated his inventory, but this is definitely after the slaver's quest and Hendak's takeover, so if you want that weapon to be available in his store from that point on I think it has to be in a different .sto file, though I could also be completely wrong! One other thing is Arbane's sword not being on Suni Seni anymore, but I believe that was already mentioned earlier in the thread.

 

Also just wanted to say this mod is fantastic. Very thoughtful placement of items and some fine choices. Really makes a lot of encounters more interesting with cool loot, but doesn't seem to have too much power creep. Thanks for your hard work.  

Thank you very much for the feedback and the compliment, your experience with the mod is precisely what I was going for when I was making it.

I have a few ideas now for the rename of this spell, thank you everyone for the feedback.  It will be implemented in the next update.

On 7/7/2022 at 4:31 AM, jastey said:

What comes to my mind would be Inferno. At least in German it means a firebreath, fire catastrophy of sorts.

I'm torn if the renaming is only out of respect against my feelings. I appreciate it very much! But like the example I chose above - if the word holocaust means nothing special - as a word - in English, then it's a narrow path to rename it. This is something I can't say. But it seems I am not the only one feeling bad about this, so, biased as I am, I would still think renaming it wouldn't be wrong.

(I'm pretty sure it would be renamed in a German translation.)

Thank you Jastey.  Since "Inferno" by itself leans more towards a description of fire, I will probably add more to it, or looks for other synonyms.

And you're damned right I have a lot of respect for you.  You helped me tons when I was getting started with Weidu, and becoming a Gibberling.

I am preparing the next update, which will mostly consist of fixes for issues pointed out with the current version, and a re-implementation of how items are given via quest rewards for better compatibility with other mods.

I may re-visit item and spell balance as well if I have the time, and I would appreciate suggestions on what is overpowered, and how or in what way it's overpowered.  Thanks!

And for other modders - I still consider myself very much a novice at this, so if you see something in my mod(s) that could be implemented in a cleaner, more compatible way, I am always appreciative of your feedback, as it helps me to learn WeiDu better.  SoD2BG2 was my first "real" mod, and each update has been a learning experience.  I'm sure that shows in my code, but I digress

On 7/5/2022 at 5:48 AM, Graion Dilach said:

SoD2BG2 IU doesn't add IWD spells, everything added in this one is either a spell from SoD or an entirely new one, though.

This is correct.  Faerie Fire, Darkness 15', and Dancing Lights I pulled over from SoD.  They were npc-only spells that I fleshed out into spells the player could use as well.

All the others are 100% new.

On 6/14/2022 at 4:25 AM, InKal said:

Don't install this on BG1EE, NOTHING of it, not even one component. It is broken and will break your game.

If you are referring to my mod, I have corrected the issues I found for the BGEE components, however, there was nothing game-breaking in there that I could see.  I also reworked how quest rewards are implemented for better compatibility.

Most of the issues I found revolved around my apparent assumption that filenames from EET would be the same in BGEE.  Don't know what I was thinking there.   Should be a moot point after 2.0.4, at any rate.

I will take this under consideration, mostly out of respect for Jastey.

*HOWEVER* - I have strong reservations about doing so.  It's used in other games.  First one that comes to mind: Phantasy Star 4.  One of the bosses (Zio, if I remember correctly), has an attack named holocaust.   And that games is a good bit older than this one.

I could go into much greater detail about why I have such reservations, but that would take this thread into a political miasma that imo, has no place in a gaming forum. 

I'll just say this and leave it at that: I am of Polish decent from immigrants who fled a certain horrific event in europe a long time ago.

****Edit****

After more ponderance on this, here's what I would like to do:

@jastey - Out of my respect and gratitude for you, if you could kindly come up with a replacement name for this spell, I will implement it in the next update.

On 6/27/2022 at 1:21 AM, Guest Meltphace Guest said:

I also had this issue and looked into through EEKeeper. It looks like the helm was placed on the creature file IDEMON01 this is the file used when the Cambion is still trapped, but when you free it there's like a morphing script that switches it to IDEMON02. IDEMON02 does not have the helm in it's inventory. I added the helm to IDEMON02 inventory, saved the new .CRE file and it seems to work. 

I think this will be helpful to both creator of the mod and questioner. I was really confused as other items in the dungeon where correctly placed via the mod. 

Thank you very much, anything that saves me time (which is becoming more scarce of a resource for me) is greatly appreciated.  This will be corrected in the next update.

I've looked at this before, and was not able to find anything in my mod that's causing the problem.  I believe the issue may be with Yoshimo's remorse in and of itself.  The reason I say that:

The error presented is when a script in Yoshimo's Remorse is being compiled, specifically: YYCut2a.baf, which isn't part of my mod at all.  The error being reported is a syntax error within that file when WeiDu is attempting to compile it.

This information can be obtained by looking at the TP2 in a text editor, and it would be far easier to add items in via EE keeper anyway.  The codes are just the filenames.