moggadeet

This is just a really gross comment. Modders are human beings who have lives. Yes, updates are great, and also, players are not entitled to modders' time and attention. I'd rather that modders take the time they need - modding is a hobby, not a job, and I hate to think of it feeling like a burden.

People have attempted to use chatgpt for WeiDU before. Bluntly, it's not going to get you anywhere useful. While the mod is designed for adding a full NPC rather than expanding a romance track, the Branwen NPC mod is exhaustively commented and will walk you through all of its various components. Chatgpt will confidently provide you with code that looks superficially correct but which will do, at best, nothing. Download Notepad ++ and these highlighters, they'll save you time.

The game does present it to players if you did Narlen's thieving quests in chapter 5 - in that case, in chapter 7 (in the shop of Silence), you'll meet Narlen's formerly silent partner Rededge, who tells you that Narlen got hanged when the crackdown started. It's a bit barebones, admittedly, but it is there.

If you're looking for suggestions - maybe something like "spirit warrior?" Derivative, but not culturally specific, at least.

Kelemvor ascends in late 1368. By the time of ToB (lateish 1369), he's already a deity, although the trial and so forth has yet to happen.

I don't necessarily think that the good gods would automatically freeze someone out, honestly. Most of them are limited in their ability to actively work against each other, relying on mortal agents instead - I mean, if Ilmater could shut down Loviatar, he would, yeah? The gods are kind of deadlocked, and it's the ones who try to disrupt that state of affairs (Kelemvor and Midnight/Mystra initially, then later Cyric) who wind up in trouble. I'd think that most non-evil deities would at the least not be opposed to "oh hey, at least the new one's sane." Really, after Cyric, anything would be an improvement. There is perhaps some difficulty in the question of what a good-aligned god of murder might stand for. Finder Wyvernspur suggests that a new god's portfolio doesn't have to relate to the portfolio of the god from whom they gained their power, but I guess to me the idea of "oh, you can choose anything" seems a tad unsatisfying? But in general my sense is that a lot of good-aligned deities would probably be okay with a new deity who was at least more stable than the one they're replacing.

An aasimar doesn't have to be 1/4 celestial - the ancestry can be more distant than that, just like how not all tieflings are born of cambions. Personally the confusion around aasimar is more than a little frustrating to me, for reasons that aren't strictly relevant to bg1/2. Aasimar tend to be good-aligned, but their ancestry is just "denizens of the upper planes." Looking at the Planescape Monstrous Appendix entry, their alignment is "nonevil," and they're prone to intermarry, with few aasimar bloodlines being more than 4-5 generations old (implying that an aasimar can be 4 generations removed from their celestial ancestor). Drow, though, that I can understand forbidding, both for chapter 5 and for the potentially jarring lack of reactivity elsewhere (although I suppose the same could be said of a tiefling Charname.) But if you were playing a drow, it would also be a bit strange not to get some kind of reaction from Viconia and Baeloth - or from the Flaming Fist or Belmin Gergas, for that matter. Some of the BG2 checks for "elf" would also need to exclude a drow PC (thinking of how Elhan wants to geas Viconia if she's in the party). So that does seem... complicated.

I've thought about the stronghold angle as well, good to know I'm not the only one who wanted more continuity there. What I'd really love is to potentially use a stronghold (or the Pocket Plane itself) as a means to try and rescue as many people from Saradush as possible, given that, you know, Gromnir does warn you. The other thing I'd be interested in is an actual quest prerequisite to summon a deva/planetar, something involving a demonstration that the player is aligned with their ethos, goals, etc. Maybe that and the Lunia concept could go together actually (though fallen deva/planetar would need a different path).

I guess for me a plot alteration of this scale would feel more in the realm of fanfiction than anything else? That's not to say I'd consider it a bad thing, just to clarify (since I know for some people that might sound like a condemnation). More that it falls under a type of canon-divergence I associate with fanfic rather than with modding, which tends to focus more on adding rather than altering, particularly as there's fewer barriers to that kind of change in fanfic, where you don't need to worry about (in)compatibility and so forth anyway. I do think it'd be interesting to try and reckon more with "what does it mean to be soulless," since there's so little of that that's reflected in-game. One involuntary death-lobster moment (maybe two), loss of a stat point and some innate abilities, then that's it, you're... fine, apparently. The irony of killing in order to wrest control of your soul from your murderous nature goes totally unaddressed. I'm not really sure how you'd go about trying to explore this in-game in a way that felt interesting and not too heavy-handed; a lot of it feels like it should be very internal/reflective in a way that's difficult (though not impossible) to explore in the form of a game. All of which is to say - I think the idea is interesting for sure, and ToB being a string of battles threated together with a too-obvious villain and an otherwise not terribly interesting overarching plot makes it ripe for fixing. If this mod existed I'd definitely want to give it a go. It just feels like it belongs to a somewhat different category of fanwork to me, I guess? Which isn't bad, just different. Nor do I think total conversions are automatically something to be feared or disliked, just because someone went about making one in the worst possible way. And an alternate approach to ToB seems like it could potentially offer a chance to offer non-evil Charnames a path towards Lunia that's otherwise only accessed via Dorn's quest - imagine the righteous powers that be wanting to put Charname on trial, having the chance to try and prove yourself (or not). The last thing I'll add here is that the idea of starting ToB alone feels like it risks undermining the character aspect that is one of the draws for a lot of people, depending on how quickly you reacquire your companions. If you're alone for a significant portion of this hypothetical revised ToB, well, for me that would be kind of a deal-breaker. And if not - with a whole different main story, most mod NPCs are right out. For original NPCs, it seems like you could be looking at rewriting an enormous amount of material. Banter would probably be fine because little of it is context-dependent, but interjections, romance dialogue, etc, a lot of that is very specific and seems like it might need to be totally redone, depending on the scope of what you have in mind. Overall I fall on the side of ToB being unsatisfying to play simply because it doesn't deliver on the things that matter to me, but I guess I'd still want to try and fix it rather than going in a totally alternate direction. Though what that would entail, I'm not sure. Charname building an army of their own? Really, anything's more interesting than being dragged along by Melissan, but that's a low, low bar.

If Meira and Darios don't feel they can create a ToB expansion on par with Amber's SoA content, then that's their decision, and as a community we should support their choices.

Serious uncanny valley territory for me. They don't really convey the personalities evoked in their original portraits, and they're just kind of... off in general.

Judging from the mod's scripts, it specifically checks for Kelsey, Weimer's Solaufein, Tsujatha, Chloe, Corthala Romantique, Imoen romance, Edwin romance, and Xan. Other mod romances do not seem to be referenced.

This is one article that I found about voice actors' responses to AI. Some excerpts: "Excuse me? With all due respect…you state in the article “Approved by affected members of the union’s voiceover performer community.” Nobody in our community approved this that I know of. Games are the bulk of my livelihood and have been for years. Who are you referring to?" (Steve Blum, source) "We don't have to be anti-AI but we DO need: TRANSPARENCY: No one was told about Replica INFORMED CONSENT: To know what this agreement entails & whether it considers the technological abilities of AI CONTROL: Able to remove our voices from platform AND from the AI model itself" (Melissa Medina, source) "Studios will look past creativity for convenience and this will potentially have a detrimental effect on artists." (Thomas Mitchell, source) This is in response to the SAG-AFTRA agreement re: AI voices, which has led to a number of other voice actors sharing their frustrations. If your voice is your livelihood, technology that renders you replaceable is not only dangerous, it poisons the talent pool. What company is going to hire an up and coming voice actor they actually have to pay if they can just pay for a replica of [insert popular actor]'s voice? If voice actors are saying "we want some amount of control over how our voices get used," then respecting their work also means respecting their wishes.

There's always the classic barbarian open locks, ie, rage and rip it open bare-handed. Falls off eventually though, sadly. Is there some way to increase the efficacy of bashing? Though barb/thief could also be a fast-moving fighter who opens with a backstab, I can imagine it being a lot of fun to play.

I did not like my vanilla run, with the exception of some pretty area art and dungeon design that I enjoyed. For reasons that are not entirely beamdog's fault, it wasn't what I wanted. With the various mods to improve it, there are parts that I liked. It's absurd that Imoen wasn't planned as a companion - finally, a chance to flesh her out into more than a last-minute addition and they completely dropped the ball! Really, any way to keep her present in the story would have been an improvement, because that was one area where SoD could have improved on BG2. I'm not one of the people who just rabidly hates it; mostly I was really disappointed. I play BG for the story, and SoD is both a weird diversion from the parts of the overarching plot that I care about and an odd fit continuity-wise. Playing with Imoen forever + road to discovery + boareskyr bridge scene + another fine hell was a vast improvement, though. Still, I'm sympathetic to the challenges involved. Making new BG content after all this time was always going to entail trying to please different contradictory groups (particularly given the year it came out - the review-bombing was completely unwarranted). And I would agree that it's better than some of the vitriol out there makes it sound. Still, it could have been better, and it feels like a sadly squandered opportunity. Ah well.

Store markups are already available through graion's tweak mod - it's got components to decrease gold drops, the value of gems/jewelry and sell prices while increasing the cost of items in stores. Very useful for large installs where you'd be swimming in gold otherwise.

I want to say first that I really love this mod. Not including Imoen as a party member for SoD was such a missed opportunity, and this mod is a must-have for me now. Spotted some typos - fixed versions below (from sod_important_reactions.tra)

Some typos in these lines - fixed below. This was my first time actually reaching this part of SoD with this mod installed - it felt like a very natural part of the game, and I'll definitely be using it for future SoD runs!

I've never played it - was it ever converted to EE? An interesting premise for sure. I admit that I was never that attached to Longer Road/Ascension, myself (I don't enjoy the Ascension final battle, the "surprise, look who's back" kills any pretense of immersion for me ).

I have to admit that the mystique of TNO's history is part of the draw of Torment for me. Connecting him to another character with a known history would undermine that. Torment uses blank spaces better than a lot of games, which imo are often prone to giving way too much information. Sometimes less is more. I do like the idea of ToB incorporating the Planes to a greater extent. I've never used Dorn for long, but I feel like the Lunia area used for his ToB quest could be reused as an original quest for non-evil characters: instead of slaughtering your way through to erase your names, it might be a chance for a good-aligned Charname to subject themselves to a trial of character to demonstrate that they truly don't intend to take their father's place - preferably a challenge that you can't kill your way out of, since all that proves is that you're good at killing. But it'd need to be different from the Hell trials... hmm. What I'm vaguely envisioning here is a sort of trial sequence (think Neverwinter Nights 2) where the player is called upon to justify morally iffy actions: working with the shadow thieves, for example, such that a "Best" outcome would demonstrate both an understanding of the possible harm you caused and a weighing of relative evils, such that you made the best decision you reasonably could. my other thought: it'd be neat if you could revisit some SoA areas in ToB and use them to begin forming... hmm. I don't want to call it an army, but imagine if you could head over to the Druid Grove or De'Arnise Keep for allies. Not with the intention of conquering areas, but as a force to safeguard and heal the innocents who would otherwise die in a stupid, pointless war. Jamis Tombelthen's not wrong - Charname wasn't responsible for what happened to Saradush, and that's the problem. It's just a random casualty in an already-unstable kingdom that really, really can't afford to have a bunch of demigods smacking each other around. It's not about Charname, it's about the inherent danger of this ridiculous superpowered slugfest, and I can't really judge him too harshly for that (really, the EEs changing his alignment to lawful evil seems a bit uncharitable). "Hello, I own a literal castle and will provide refuge to many people as I can reasonably fit" is far more convincing as a show of good intentions than "no, I'm totally different than my equally-destructive half-siblings, really," though credit to the Quest Pack for at least letting Charname argue their case. Someone on reddit pointed out that ToB is essentially an evil campaign, in that you spend most of it killing people and then retreating to your inaccessible villain-lair, and I haven't been able to get that thought out of my head since. On which note, I like the idea of using the Pocket Plane to smuggle some of the Bhaalspawn (and the other innocents, for that matter) out of Saradush. Given that Lazarus reappears in Amkethran, it might be interesting to have some of the other Bhaalspawn find sanctuary there - I could see Balthazar perhaps keeping them as prisoners, if he was convinced they had neither the will nor the power to take advantage of their heritage. An improved ToB would, for me, involve two plot elements: 1) knowing that you can remain mortal or become a non-evil god, and being able to act towards that end outside of the Solar dialogues and the very very end and 2) not being forced to be Melissan's cat's paw. This second branch could perhaps involve trying to investigate Melissan herself. Gromnir and his allies are the obvious one here - yeah, he's completely paranoid, but maybe Charname immediately shouting that Melissan is up to something might make him pause before attacking. Nyalee, as a former Deathstalker herself, might know something. I also like the idea of expanding the scene with Gorion and Alianna's spirits - Alianna fascinates me, and limiting her to a single cutscene was disappointing. She'd want to ensure Bhaal's resurrection, so Melissan working against that might cause her to reveal information to Charname (and hey, maybe she's proud of her murderous offspring - I actually love her characterization in the Reunion mod for this reason, where, yes, she's definitely committed to Bhaal, but she's not without affection for Charname). BG1 is about figuring about who you are, about being shaped into your antagonist's foil. Ironically, Sarevok's hired killers help to shape Charname into someone capable of defeating him. SoD is about learning to deal with the consequences of that knowledge. SoA is about learning that you really, really didn't know what it meant to be a child of Bhaal, and if you can't control yourself, someone else is going to take advantage of you. So, to me, ToB should be about using that self-mastery and pitting yourself against your equals - without just doing Melissan's dirty work for her.

Apologies if this is overly pedantic, but you can leave the Underdark at (almost) any time. It isn't even necessary to visit Ust Natha, technically (if you're willing to fight your way through), but the drow disguise plus high charisma lets you bluff your way past the guards in the kuo-toa tunnels. Only non-evil characters who are willing to help Adalon are railroaded. I actually like the knowledge that you could, technically, bow out - it makes slogging through the whole drow plot feel like an actual commitment, rather than a necessity. Chapters 6 and 7 are definitely quite linear, though, I agree.

This started out as a quick response and rapidly got out of hand. My apologies for the wall of text. tl,dr: expanding what's there would be more to my taste, and adding greater openness, roleplay possibilities, and companion engagement would go a long way towards improving ToB. I'd rather try and "fix" ToB by foreshadowing its villains earlier on. I didn't care for SoD's approach to Irenicus, personally (I thought it was too obvious), but Black Hearts' earlier introduction of Illasera was, imo, brilliant. What if you could meet one of Balthazar's monks in Candlekeep? What if news of a Bhaalspawn's involvement in Ust Natha somehow reached Sendai? What if the Five were already hunting Charname (once word of Sarevok's death and Charname's heritage got round), and Irenicus' abduction actually helped in that temporarily vanishing hid them? For that matter, in SoD, Boareskyr and the ruined Bhaal temple nearby are begging for an expansion - according to Faiths and Avatars, the part of the river poisoned by Bhaal's blood still retains a limited sort of awareness: "It is believed a fragment of Bhaal's personality remains in the jet black, foul-smelling waters of the Winding Water ... If Bhaal is ever resurrected, it will be in the shadow of Boareskyr Bridge." I think that's such a cool detail, and I'm disappointed that SoD didn't offer more of an opportunity for the protagonist to really wrestle with their heritage and their history. I love jastey's Boareskyr mod, but Boareskyr and the ruined temple are both places that, imo, are still crying out for something more. The random group of Cyricists is... well, it makes sense for them to have taken over a Bhaal temple, I'm not arguing that, but it'd be neat to have an early run-in with a few of Illasera's slayers, maybe, or some reference to Amelyssan (or to the other children who were there at one point). Maybe in SoA you could meet someone who used to be part of Gromnir's group but left when he started getting paranoid, enough to give a vague sense of danger. Yes, the out of nowhere villains aren't ideal - I'd rather fix that by introducing them in small ways earlier on. Not directly, necessarily, but even some references to the Five existing and plotting would go a long way, imo. SoA has a few references to the Sythilisian Empire; adding some rumors/news about drow raids and mercenary armies to the south might help a bit. The particulars of the highlander thing are kind of silly to me, I admit, but the premise of the last and most powerful of Bhaal's offspring struggling for dominance while Charname must reconcile their ideals with their heritage is compelling. Theoretically. My main gripes are the linearity and the (pardon me) ludonarrative dissonance, the way the game funnels you along the same path regardless and the actual roleplay is limited to your conversations with the Solar. That plus being forced to pretend that there's absolutely nothing suspicious about Melissan is just deeply annoying. Quest Pack (and, theoretically, Wheels of Prophecy - liked what I saw, shame about the bugs at present) go some ways towards improving this. I'd love for more character chatter (especially with the PC, preferably after particular plot events - I feel like I always run out of dialogue) and more possibilities for roleplay. Oh, and while I'm at it with wildly unreasonable suggestions, a minor quest where the player must win the allegiance of a planetar/fallen planetar before being able to cast the spell would be cool. Make it seem more like you're gathering allies and an army of your own.

The install tool isn't great about conflict reports because some of them are "conceptual conflicts." Eg, it reports a "conflict" between the Gavin NPC mod and the Reunion quest mod because both of them feature an existing NPC who is written in very different ways. But you can install both mods without any technical issues. I don't believe it actually specifies whether something is a conceptual conflict or an actual technical error, so its reports aren't very helpful.

Skitia's NPCs are EET compatible, but they are not continuous NPCs, ie, they are installed separately for BG1/SoD and BG2 and they do not retain their BG1 gear/XP/etc. Chatty Imoen is EET compatible. It doesn't do much beyond add some more voice lines and add Imoen to the BG1-style compliment/insult table. I haven't played a huge amount with Auren Aseph in EET yet, but she seems to work fine so far.

From a somewhat cursory look over your install (please don't treat this as an "everything looks ok"): The Roxanne SoD banter EET mod is bugged. Do not use it. Avoiding most of that author's mods is generally safest. Transitions: some bugs reported. Endless BG1 doesn't cover all of the same features, but it covers most of the same territory and is stable. BG1 NPCs for SoA mod has been criticized for uneven writing. My suggestion would be to grab the standalone NPCs where available, unless there are NPCs you're really set on who are only available there. Road to Discovery should be earlier, after all of your NPC-related mods (so after/around the crossmod banter pack) If you plan to use Rogue Rebalancing's "Revised thievery," it needs to go after SCS' "Better Calls for Help." I would also say that a smaller install is a stable install. I'm seeing tons of NPC mods, more than you could feasibly use in 2 playthroughs, and a whole bunch of kit mods, some of which potentially impact the same things (two wizard slayer mods, in addition to Skills and Abilities, which has its own optional change to the kit). Ask yourself which of these you plan to use and consider pruning, if you want a stable install. My other suggestions would be: use the EET Tweaks component for campaign-specific XP caps grab Graion's tweaks to reduce gold dropped and increase merchant prices. Otherwise you're going to be swimming in magic items and money.