Cahir

@polytopeI've noticed you have been more active lately. Do you plan to update Polytweak? There are se great, unique tweaks there, and I'd love to use some of them next time I'll play EET. 

Yeah, I feel that I perhaps sound to harsh, using the word "sloppy". It implies bad writing and grammar mistake. It's not the case at all! As I mentioned before it's just a tiny issue and it's really just a subjective matter. You see, I know many of players here or SHS or Beamdog know these gemes inside out, so whole trying new stuff they don't care much about kit, spell or item descriptions. What mattera is how those kits/spells/items translate into the game. I don't play these games often, in fact I think I finished the whole saga only twice in my entire life, so each time I play it's like a new game to me. This means that I read everything and since I appreciate the lore consistency I probably notice all those little nods to us lore freaks more, but I'm also more nipicking about it when I see it can be done smoother. 

Now, with the way F&P or other of your other kit mods are coded (as much automated and less hand crafted as possible) I perfectly understand it's not possible to write each kit description with great care, this is without question. And this is probably perfectly OK for like 95% of players (hey, no one ever complained about lack of EE-style descriptions in IR(R) before me. It means most of us don't care about fluff.).

Also, the background descriptions is one thing, the other is the formatting consistency with nom modded EE game and/or other mods. This is something that drives me crazy (it shouldn't, I know, but I does) and I think this actually is something that could be improved a bit, if possible. But also, I understand this would be a boring stuff to do and realize it's not something that will probably done in forseeable future if done at all. 

Just to reiterate once again - this all is just nitpicking, otherwise your mods are really top notch. 

Weird, I was trying subtledoctor's mods a while ago and didn't find them unplayable. Have I done something wrong? 

My one tiny issue with your mods is that while those are stellar and creative in terms of coding, the writing is sometimes...sloppy. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely don't mean it's bad or something. If I could describe my feelings about it, is that I can imagine you are being excited to find some new ways to code stuff only to be annoyed, that you need to actually write some background text to it I can't give any example now, because I'm currently not working on any installation, and since the writing style is very personal matter (and I repeat it's perfectly fine as it is, it's not the style that bothers me) I didn't want to bring this up earlier. This for example is the reason I chose Deities of Faerun over F&P in my IWDEE install. F&P is much more complex and better coded that DoF, but DoF is more fleshed when it comes to lore background, which is somehow very important to me. 

Just to rephrase, I dont't want this to be perceived as negative feedback, more of a personal prefererence of someone, who cares more about the stuff that he reads, than the WeiDU code behinds it. 

As an example of how silly it is... I couldn't play IRR until Barty updated the mod to handle EE-style descriptions, for which I'm eternally greatful

I can give examples of what I mean, when I finally get to new install, but since this is all just my preference and not actual bug reports, I'm not sure how much valuable this feedback would be for you, subtledoctor. 

20 minutes ago, battlegrim said:

By the way, I wanted to ask if Mysteries of the Sword Coast from twm-bg.weebly.com (I remember it from the first version from long time ago) will be compatible with EET?

I don' think it's compatible with EET. There is a BGEE version, though, but I'm not sure if its compatible with 2.6 patch. This mod has not received any updates for quite a while. 

Here is the link to BGEE version: http://athkatla.cob-bg.pl/viewtopic.php?t=7667

Ok, just for the clarity. Those are BGEE and BG2EE mod lists I was talking about, that I'm updating periodically. 

https://baldur.cob-bg.pl/bg1ee-mody

https://baldur.cob-bg.pl/bg2ee-mody

Any other mod lists you can find on CoB site are probably for classic BG saga and haven't been updated for 10+ years. 

17 minutes ago, jastey said:

Please be aware that the lists on the left menue link to a lot of downloads for several mods that are not the official ones

Do you mean unofficial Roxanne versions? I thought I got rid of those.. . Can you point me to an example of such a mod on CoB modlist where this is the case? I'll squash this bug ASAP.

I need to find the time to go through the whole list and refresh DL links. Some of the mods I haven't touch for ages and there are probably mods out there that does not even work with current 2.6 patch. Unfortunately I don't have time to check this myself, so if anyone can tell me that a specific mod is outdated and works only with older game versions, please let me know and I'll remove it from my modlist.

There are also few new mods that I haven't got a chance to add to the that are on my to-do list.

@jastey

I haven't add Another Fine Hell to the list just yet, since it's still labeled as alpha and hasn't been officially hosted on one of the mod sites, but if you say it's in the state comfortable for you to include it, I'll be more than happy to di it on my next list update. 

Thanks!

26 minutes ago, Jarno Mikkola said:

This doesn't make sense ? Cause we don't have mod added classes, only kits.

I meant kits of course, obviously. Couldn't resist, could you, Jarno?

Sorry if this was asked elswhere, but can I change the class for mod-added classes? I assume yes, but wanted to confirm it. 

The new version looks great! I must admit I'm not a fan of changing classes/stats via dialogue or using special items, it lack immersion for me, but I understand there is no other way to make it happen, so I happily accept that I'm also more of a multiclass than dualclass guy, so the more problematic route of building dual-class character is also no problem for me. All and all this looks really spiffy, as you said. 

Thank you, @Bartimaeus, you know how much I appreciate you spent all this time to work on EE-style descriptions! This means a lot to me, actually this enables IRR for me on my EE runs.

3 hours ago, FixTesteR said:

Sometimes the game just doesn't give you enough information about enemies. Wouldn't it be cool if there was a mod that introduced books of knowledge about creatures in Faerun all around city libraries alongside Sword Coast? Now that would be another layer of immersion. And a whole lotta extra work.

This would be fantastic. Normally I would throw such kind of idea on G3 forum over the weekend, hoping that next day when I woke up I'll see a new shiny mod released by @CamDawg, but this is something that cannot be done over the weekend

3 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

But...that would mean my descriptions wouldn't be consistent with descriptions that aren't mine. And that would be...

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Ouch, you hurt me to the core Let's call it my personal OCD. I've seen weirder

43 minutes ago, WhodaThunk said:

This is 2.6 yes. I'm not sure which one of my selections requires EEex though. I've been trying to find which one for about an hour now, but I can't seem to track it down. EET Tweaks' "Party XP for killing creatures distributed individually" requires it, but didn't install it because EEex wasn't detected.

Edit: Oh, nevermind, I skipped over one. It's Bubb's Spell Menu Extended.

AFAIK, the only mods so far that requires EEex are Bubb's Extended Spell Menu and Olvyn Spells (which I haven't used in my installation at that time). 

11 hours ago, Isewein said:

Turns out the mod finally made it to GitHub. I must say I like those much better than PPE, all things considered. Or maybe I have just grown used to them over the years.

Damn, and I thought I was able to bookmark all those GH mod pages, but you got me this time, sir

15 hours ago, UMNiK said:

Thanks, just doing the due diligence to minimise any future edits. "Alweth's Easy Portrait Grabber Tool" had some dead and outdated links, I fixed em if you want to port them back into your list.

Thanks. Haven't really update this tool since I put it on the list a couple of years ago. I have updated download links in both BGEE and BG2EE.

35 minutes ago, UMNiK said:

@Cahir, any clarification on the dropbox/mediafire links? Are these the only ones that exist for some mods, or is it worth looking into where they might have been originally?

As far as I know, those are the only download source of those mods. I do my research. When there are more that one source, I try to provide them all. 

1 hour ago, subtledoctor said:

To expand, here is the unmodded BG2EE description for CHAN09.ITM, "Darkmail +3:"

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Whether by design or through exposure to intense heat in battle, the chain links of this armor are coal black throughout. While legends usually speak of knights in shining armor facing great beasts, the fire resistant enchantment on this suit suggests equally great, if unheralded, battles with fire-breathing creatures.

STATISTICS:

Equipped abilities:
– Fire Resistance: +20%

Armor Class: 2 (0 vs. slashing, 4 vs. crushing)
Requires:
 8 Strength

Weight: 9

Here is the same with YARAS:
 

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Whether by design or through exposure to intense heat in battle, the chain links of this armor are coal black throughout. While legends usually speak of knights in shining armor facing great beasts, the fire resistant enchantment on this suit suggests equally great, if unheralded, battles with fire-breathing creatures.

STATISTICS:

Equipped abilities:
– Fire Resistance: +20%

Armor Class: 3

Damage Resistance: 27%
Dexterity Penalty: -2
Weapon Attack Speed Penalty: +1
Arcane Casting Speed Penalty: +3
Stealth, Pick Pockets: -40%
Open Locks, Set Traps: -20%
Find Traps, Detect Illusion: -20%

Requires:
 8 Strength

Weight: 9

Now here is the same item with IR installed:
 

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Whether by design or through exposure to extensive military campaigns and battles, the chain links of this armor are coal black throughout. While legends usually speak of knights in shining armor facing vile beasts, the enchantments on this suit suggest equally great, if unheralded, battles with evil creatures of darkness.

STATISTICS:

Equipped Abilities:
 Immunity to fear and disease effects

Armor Class: 2
Weight: 40
Requires: 8 Strength

Finally, IR + YARAS:
 

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Whether by design or through exposure to extensive military campaigns and battles, the chain links of this armor are coal black throughout. While legends usually speak of knights in shining armor facing vile beasts, the enchantments on this suit suggest equally great, if unheralded, battles with evil creatures of darkness.

STATISTICS:

Equipped Abilities:
 Immunity to fear and disease effects

Armor Class: 3

Damage Resistance: 27%
Dexterity Penalty: -2
Weapon Attack Speed Penalty: +1
Stealth, Pick Pockets: -40%
Open Locks, Set Traps: -20%
Find Traps, Detect Illusion: -20%

Weight: 40
Requires: 8 Strength

So, if I understand your concern, I think that YARAS will not solve it. It inserts itself into the item description but otherwise leaves the description with the same style it already had. If you don't like the IR-style item descriptions, then it must be solved on the IR end. (And, maybe it can be! I'll respond further in that other thread.)

Perfect example, thank you. Unmodded EE plus YARAS would be the optimal outcome for me, yes. Would it work like that also for modded items? Let's say from BG2EE to SoD Item Upgrade or Weimar's Item Upgrade? Does YARAS patch the descriptions or did you tailor all unmodded items by hand to match YARAS style?

3 hours ago, AnnabelleRose said:

So other than Vlad's mods, can we just flush the rest down the toilet?

Are there any other mods than made Vlad and/or Senka tandem out there? 

On 9/19/2021 at 10:56 PM, subtledoctor said:

I'm not sure I understand. I think YARAS is agnostic as to the description template. It simply looks for the first line in /scales_of_balance/language/%lang%/armor.tra - in English it is the regexp "^Armor Class:.+$" meaning any newline that begins with the phrase "Armor Class: "  (In Polish, currently the only translation, it is "^Klasa Pancerza.+$")

Ok, sorry I admit I haven't actually use YARAS yet. I know that IR components add some additional lines to item descriptions and have a patching code to correctly append those lines to any mod added item. Unfortunately this code does only recognize vanilla style variations of item descriptions. I updated item descriptions of IRR for my personal use, but IR patching code gave subpar results adding vanilla style lines (that comes from Revised armors and items components) to newly EE-style descriptions. If the only thing YARAS does is changing AC value in the item description, it should be OK. But I admit, I'm with Graion Dilach here. EE style armor descriptions split AC modifier vs different types of weapons (opposing to vanilla where you have just one value). I haven't quite catch your point about the Armor itself losing those modifiers. Could you please elaborate a bit? 

Doc, wait a minute. If you tell me YARAS does currently also take into account IR(R) item description template, you may solve my issue with me not been able to update those regexp functions of IR Armor and Item Upgrade components, to play nicely with EE's. 

21 hours ago, Guest Ghast said:

Just to clarify, I meant your list in its current format; I don't see the need for added categorization that would either be obvious or contested, nor for category lists where every other mod appears in every other category and no-one gets any wiser. 'Starting point' as in, have pinned forum posts link to your list and possibly have it translated to English (if the occasional "Strona" confuses people). Again, just a thought.

Yup, I have no plans of adding mod categorization or any category lists. I don't want to jump into this rabbit hole. Those lists always meant to be just that... a simple mod repository, where one can find the mod, and be directed to the download page, the site and the forum. 

My request for volunteers to maintain the English version of those lists stands, though.

@DavidWdo you plan to drop 34.2 in case you've got the missing .tra files translated? 

16 minutes ago, Guest Ghast said:

I was going to wish you good luck, but considering your latest post, I'd rather wish Cahir luck with maintaining his list. I'm not a native speaker of English or I would offer to help him myself. I hope that someone volunteers. In any case, thanks for your efforts, Cahir!

Thanks for your kind words. The idea was to make the list easier to use for English speaker, since frok what I see it's used not only by Polish players, but from what I understand it's not that hard to navigate, and there is no real demand for it. 

Anyway, whoever will decide to be a maintainer of Vlad's mods will have a perfect job... like watching out a beautiful, sunny isle for 50k bucks per month. After all, all his mods are bug-free!

Joking aside, I would not mind being able to try Tortured Souls on EE at all.

1 minute ago, Graion Dilach said:

@subtledoctor's Arcanist kit also installs an UI tweak. At this point I'd really go with UIs coming really early, because that can't go wrong if everything's coded right.

I put this in my notes, thanks. Next install, I'll probably go with DragonspearUI++ since it's maintained by other modder now, while Pecca is working on the next version. 

But now that I think of it, my brain would probably tell me to put UI late in the install order, so it's possible that was entirely my bright idea. 

28 minutes ago, DavidW said:

Doing this will break SCS's difficulty system, for instance.

I would definitely not install UI mod before SCS. I know very well, SCS comes late, like really late 

But I remember at least testing the UI in game, and it was working fine. I even reported some issues to lefreut and Subtledoctor (regarding I think Identify spell from TnB) which were fixed. Kill me, but I don't remember now what was the reason behind putting it late.