Daulmakan

19 hours ago, Acifer said:

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.

Glad to hear, fingers crossed.

16 hours ago, Morgoth said:

You should ask to be part of the betatesting. I've seen your report on the NWN mod for BG2 and your contributions have been great. 

Thank you. 

This looks so amazing it makes a sad panda that's it's EE only. Congrats on the teaser release.

2 hours ago, RoyalProtector said:

How is this category granted here exactly?

Publicly release a mod or maintain one?

Rereading this thread, I feel the G3 logo shoud have its "Infinity Engine Modding Community" moniker updated to "A site for IE modding, for fuck's sake".

Make it happen, Cam.

11 hours ago, ktchong said:

Frankly it does not matter to me whether they fix or not.  I am determined to finally finish the original Baldur's Gate anthology FOR ONCE, and then I will NOT ever replay the games.  I have way too many games on backlog to go back and replay anything, (all the way back to Jagged Alliance 1 and 2, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, KoToR 2, Mass Effect trilogy, The Witcher trilogy (prolly should wait for the Witcher 1 remake,) Fallout 3 and 4, Batman Arkham series, etc., etc., and of course, Baldur's Gate 3.)  An only feasible plan is to play through all of them ONCE and ONLY ONCE.

I probably wouldn't take my own advice (who listens to randoms on the internet on games you want to try out??). That said, you can consider this as the universe giving you fair warning (?)

Completely avoid Fallout 3 and 4. You can safely omit Mass Effect 2 & 3. Arkham City is the best one and really the only one you need to play from that series. Witcher 1 and 2 aren't BAD but the 3rd one is miles ahead in everything. I love Bloodlines and Kotor 2 to death, absolutely play those, and make sure you play with Wesp's patch and TSLCRM (but avoid the droid planet, that one was cut for a reason).

If your taste is similar to mine, you're going to want to replay the BGs anyway. 

EDIT Also, y u no Planescape: Torment???

On 1/28/2024 at 3:27 PM, jwronsky said:

I posted that on Reddit an people harassed me there (literally) for using AI. I hope this community is more open minded.

Can you try doing The Five from Throne of Bhaal? 

Just now, Acifer said:

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.

Then you have several more concerns as well, because as I expressed earlier, there are many other mods around that use other games' assets.

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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.

Heh, if I was as great as you at creating areas, I wouldn't reuse assets from another game either.

But still, to my knowledge, since I've been around (says 2007, was a lurker before), no mod has been "undone with the snap of a finger".

19 minutes ago, Acifer said:

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.

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. Most of them are trash anyway.

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. Furthermore, they might even consider this as beneficial ("hey, those maps look nice, why don't I check out the original game ?"). Fun fact, I pledged to the Kickstarter and loved the maps as I played it,, but didn't recognize them at first as belonging to PoE. What a snoozefest that was.

Congrats on the release. 

6 hours ago, jastey said:

Using IP from sources that are not BeamDog's games is not only a problem in this community, it is a legal Copyright infringement, period.
Saying that other mods did it is not an argument. The same would go for saying that it was necessary to finish the project. That is not an argument, either.

It's not an argument for saying it's alright, it's an argument for saying this isn't a red line that has been crossed just about now. And that the consequences for such actions (infringement notwithstanding) were (as it seems from behind the counter, at least) null.

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It is correct that there is IP even in G3 mods. Where IP is used, it is usually stated clearly in the readmes, in combination with the statement that the offending content (or the whole mod) will be removed immediately if requested.

But of course, this should go without saying. Frankly, the only time I was ever concerned witht the prospect of legal repercussions for the IE community was when Anvil went behind a paywall (sorry, "donation based"...), and that seemed to turn up nothing.

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It is true that this was different in the early stages of the modding scene. This, also, is not a justification to do it now. The community has grown and we purged IP content of other sources from mods because of the possible legal problems.

Uh, no? Ive just mentioned a mod with another game's assets that is still available in SHS. Pretty sure there's more out there.

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Just silently using IP from other sources, some even very recent games is something we tried to leave behind. Also, what we do not do is using many or large assets, or copyrighted portraits, etc. The only exception probably being Tyris Flare, which uses a portrait of - Tyris Flare.

This is even worse, because it uses and represents CHARACTERS from another game/IP. Almost 5 years and counting and is still up (was happy to play it upon release, happy to see it's still there).  

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I will not even start about the topic of respecting other artists work. We had a rather extended discussion about whether IA content (not deepfakes, just IA generated content) would be ethically ok or not. Now we are talking about actual IP of other sources, and I see a general "oh, why not" that surprises me.

But you've just mentioned Tyris Flare in passing as if it was OK...

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Using IP from all over the place is something we left behind and seeing recent mods released that do not seem to care about these legal aspects is a huge step backwards.

This has been happening and is happening right now as we speak with already hosted mods, why is it different if a new mod does it? They should be restricted to a different standard because they arrived late to the party? Again, I perfectly understand if you don't like or think it should change, but it's nothing NEW.

9 hours ago, Acifer said:

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

I don't see why this would be an issue NOW. The Bigg Characters uses soundsets from Half-Life and Team Fortress (both by Valve, not a IE friendly company by default like Beamdog) and that has been around for 14 years, to name but the first one that came to my mind. Pretty sure one or more of the early mega mods like The Darkest Days, Shadows Over Soubar, etc etc lifted assets from Arcanum and other games as well. And those are ancient.

I've attached the last batch of bams to this post. 

Some more things I've just remembered:

* At the very beginning of the mod, I think there was a reference to "Ascathla"

* I believe the inventory BAMs for rounds 1 & 3 of the gauntlet medals are inverted.

Thank you again for maintaining the mod. Sometime I'll give it another try using all the NWN NPCs.

last bams.rar

50 minutes ago, jmerry said:

Plus the environment of people installing multiple mods that interact with each other is just really challenging; it's amazing things work as well as they do with the system we have for the IE games.

I wanted to highlight this. Weidu has spoiled me when trying to install multiple mods in other games. While several others have done something similar with a monolithic install tool (unity mod manager, TSL patcher, etc), no other game I play has both the sheer amount of mods together and the stability that weidu/the IE community have provided.

9 minutes ago, paladin84 said:

To clarify: the mod is good, I really enjoyed playing through it and I like it more than the original NWN game. But you would not expect it to fix all the bad plot decisions of the original game, wouldn't you?

No no, I was talking about the original NWN since Morgoth asked. I prefer the mod as well. 

39 minutes ago, Morgoth said:

@Daulmakan, what's the chapter you would cut and why? 

The whole game.

But yeah, chapter 3 feels out of place. Spoilers if you're 20 years late to the party, heh:

Finished the mod. Nicely done but the latter part made me remember one of the reasons why I hated NWN. At least one Chapter is bloat and shouldn't be there.

Anyway, on to my last comments:

* Poison sword: "fails a saving throw"

* Potion of Protection from Evil has extra blank spaces that shouldn't be there.

* Lich's Bane: "forged"

* Anonymous Letter: missing space after the dot.

* Helm's Holy Bow: "attacks"

* Terari: those quoting marks don't belong there.

* Aarin Gend 1: "Tell me about Luskan."

* For PC's response: you probably want "I'll return shortly" instead.

* Karlat: "Is this your journal?"

* Aarin Gend 2: "I want to talk about something else."

* Aarin Gend 3: The "Who you" at the end doesn't make sense. I'd remove it.

* The item descriptions with the white point instead of the fancy letter happens because you're starting the text with ( " ) or ( . ). Try to work around that.

* Summoner's Staff is missing a description BAM reference (any vanilla staff should do).

* Staff of Sight: as the item name suggets, the proper spell name is True Sight, not True Vision.

* The Cracked Anvil map note ends with a stop, when map notes usually don't.

* Aarin Gend 4: "But of course, you didn't do it"

* Quint: "He didn't destroy it" and "Is this your journal?"

* High Captain dialogue is missing final dot.

* Aruph: Yes response is missing the final dot.

* Blacksmith: "What do you sell?"

* Deltagar: "What are their demands?"

* Astral Maiden: the yep response is awfully out of place for the game, but especially for the role of a judge.

* Zokan: "I am <CHARNAME>"

* Yvette: "I want money up front to do this"

* Gregor Armiste 1: "I am new to the city. I need directions"

* Lord Nasher: "Maybe you have a chance to make it all better"

* Gregor Armiste 2: "wizard's"

* Belial: the "She" should be capitalized.

* Map notes should be "Helm's Hold" and "Fort Ilkart" instead of "Helm Hold" and "Ford Ilkart"

* Portrait for Lokar seems to be an edit (or an uncanny resemblance) of Domingo Sarmiento, statesman and former president of Argentina. While most won't know him, this is immersion-breaking. I'd suggest changing it.

* The dialogue with Gorgotha when she rewards you suggests she gives you the finest item of her hoard. However, unless you succcesfully ask for more (CHA check), she will only give you gold. If you do succeed with the check, she says she adds a ring on top of the previous item, but she gives you the Caster's Crown instead. I'd move the crown to the default reward and find a ring to add to the second scenario.

* Description BAMs for Alhelor's Tooth, Fairy Dust, Ironwood, Corpse Hand, and Belladonna could use existing vanilla BAMs (CKEY26, CMISC5Q, CMISC6E, CMISC5S, for the first four). Belladonna flower you might have to look for the resource in BG1 and copy it (you are pointing to the same name but the BAM seems to be missing).

* The description BAM for the Time Crystal is that of a bowl.

* The upper part of Beorunna's Well seems to have part of a derelict boat. This was the only graphic mistake I found in all the maps during this playthrough.

I've attached 10 more description BAMs. I still have a few left marked to do, hopefully soon.

new desc bams.rar

15 minutes ago, RoyalProtector said:

BG1NPCProject does a really good job at fleshing out Imoen convincingly.

I will admit though that it was a bit disappointing that in BG2 after rescuing her, she has no interactions with any quest. I think she has banters, but completely unvoiced?

I may be misremembering.

IIRC, she has no banters in SoA: she was going to be killed, but that idea was scrapped late in devolepment and thus ended up with no interactions with the other NPCs.

On 2/27/2024 at 2:35 PM, DavidW said:

I odn’t recall, but I think it’s intentional. I’ll check.

There really aren't that many spiders in BG2, and by that point, they aren't nearly as dangerous as they were in BG1. IMO, makes sense not to add clutter to a BG2 installation with a component that's going to see very little use.

From the Watcher's Keep area script: 

IF
  Global("KnightsInKeep","GLOBAL",1)
  Global("MoveOdrenKnights","AR3000",0)
THEN
  RESPONSE #100
    SetGlobal("MoveOdrenKnights","AR3000",1)
    SetGlobalTimer("SpawnDemogorgonTimer","GLOBAL",7200)
    StartCutSceneMode()
    StartCutScene("Cut208a")
END

IF
  !Dead("Demogor2")
  Global("HelmRitualDone","GLOBAL",0)
  Global("OdrenRitualDone","GLOBAL",0)
  GlobalTimerExpired("SpawnDemogorgonTimer","GLOBAL")
  Global("SpawnDemogorgon","AR3000",0)
THEN
  RESPONSE #100
    SetGlobal("SpawnDemogorgon","AR3000",1)
    SetGlobal("Destroy3020Demo","GLOBAL",1)
    TakePartyItemNum("PLOT01A",1)
    TakePartyItemNum("PLOT01Q",1)
    DisplayStringNoNameHead(Player1,73862) // 'The ritual scroll given to you by Odren crumbles into dust before your eyes.'
    TriggerActivation("Tran3001a",FALSE)
    CreateCreature("Demogor1",[1847.2267],S)
END

Seems legit enough. Cool, never knew this was a thing.

Creature file points to the same dialogue, presumably he just repeats his last message before fighting him inside.

3 hours ago, Incrementis said:

Sorry, I can't help, but I typed what you wrote into Google Translate. Maybe this will help someone who knows better:

  Hide contents

Hey, can anyone help?

I found that I really enjoyed the story of this mod; I hope to enjoy it in the game (more immersion)
Unfortunately my native language is Chinese (Traditional Chinese, from Taiwan)
Although I can understand English, if I don't read my native language, I won't be able to have a deep understanding of the emotions of NPC mods.
I think this is the biggest blasphemy to this MOD (this MOD is awesome)

I downloaded this mod and tried to translate the .tra files in the mod
I have a translated .tra file, can you help me add it to the MOD?

The language option is Simplified Chinese

This is my first time registering a comprehensive question on this website

Also, please consider me a newbie in programming

PS: The game (EE) seems to only support Simplified Chinese, I can’t help it...

 

I know @Lava updated the mod to ToB conclusion, maybe he can help.

1 hour ago, Morgoth said:

I'm playing with SCS and beholders keep casting imprisonment on my ranger/cleric. I have 0 clue on how to counter it. Suggestions?

The fact that the spell is supposed to be countered by freedom, and that I should use it every time I fight a single beholder, makes me kinda panic. 

Anyone has touched imprisonment and made it only temporary? Even for longer time than the other imprisoning spell?

Try berserker's rage or Spell immunity: abjuration to counter it.

There's a mod component somewhere around that changes Imprisonment to a permanent Maze spell, so you don't get game overed instantly if cast on the PC.

Just now, morpheus562 said:

It is for EE, non-vanilla.

I take my Woot back. 

W00t! I'll have to start a new game soon.

5 hours ago, paladin84 said:

Overall, I agree, there are no ~'bout~ when PC is talking in BG1/2 (PC should not have any "accents") and this can be fixed here. But I cannot just replace all ~'bout~ to ~about~ in the mod's texts, because it would affect some NPCs' accents (where it is more than appropriate). Thus, I will fix everything that was reported before and keep fixing it per request (where it is clear that it is PC's text).

That's quite alright.

Here are 4 more description bams for you.

desc bams.rar

3 minutes ago, megrimlock said:

The game definitely uses 'bout in numerous places. I think it's fine. Not all of these are low intelligence instances, others are characters speaking in a vernacular.

I'm talking about BG2, not NWN.