subtledoctor

You mean make a bunch of alt accounts and bad-mouth people and mislead players? (How do we know you aren'y my alt and this isn't a conversation I'm having with myself? ...Er, okay, let's not go back down that road.) Wait, I'm honestly not sure what you mean! Are you talking about her abominable mod?

Well, you are using a very new version with maybe more changes from the last version that SCS has ever added, at least in the last decade or so. Making NPC customization work is quite tetchy by its nature (ask me how I know... see my signature). And the revised resting mechanics, from what I can surmise, came out of conversations in which people said "that's not something that can be modded" and DavidW took it upon himself to try anyway. Which is cool, and he is as capable as anyone around here. But it is still something being modded that has never, in the 25-year history of these games, been modded before. Expecting perfection immediately is probably unrealistic. Maybe you should be more specific about what you do want to install. Above you said you just wanted the "intelligence of opponents" stuff, but now you are saying you also want revised resting and NPC customization. If you stat from the outset exactly what you are trying to achieve, maybe people can help you get there.

I guess that is not moddable? I don't see engine.lua anywhere, it isn't exposed in NI... and I don't suppose it is something you could drop into /override or /data. Really frustrating that Beamdog went to the effort to make it work for IWDEE but didn't externalize it in BG2EE in any of five patches across eight years... just more evidence of their penchant for donkey balls, I guess...

There are two answers. One, that's why I'm putting feelers out. Trying to suss out interest or objections without overtly spoiling the idea. Your feedback has been, you wouldn't play it. Which is fine for you, but basically irrelevant because it means you were never in the target market for such a mod anyway. If everybody responds like you, then yeah it's probably definitely not worth the effort. But I don't know if that's the case unless I ask. Two, maybe the better answer: everyone who makes a mod does does primarily for themselves and secondarily for other players. I would like the game better if ToB were made with this story instead of the garbage that Bioware made. Mod compatibility doesn't really matter because there are only a couple mods for ToB, and they don't stop it being garbage. But even if I made a mod just for me alone (and maybe that's what this becomes), I still like to hear the thoughts of people around here, because the people around here tend to be smart and enthusiastic and have pertinent opinions about these games, even when they disagree. People tend to communicate well here (a few exceptions notwithstanding) and are often good sounding boards for ideas. Half the stuff I have produced came out of conversations where inspiration struck, and I said "that gives me an idea!" and ran off to Near Infinity. EDIT - I forgot reason #3 which is, maybe someone like acifer or the like, who can make new areas , will read this and say "that's a cool idea, I would like to help" and then we can add more content. I would love that! But that wouldn't happen unless I throw the idea out for discussion. And so here we are.

I apologize if this has been discussed elsewhere, but the search algorithms seem to be failing me, I get too much noise and no signal. Is the mechanism understood how Beamdog enabled any party member to cast Find Familiar in IWDEE? Is it hard-coded? I understand the game is not set up to let more than one familiar in the party... but is there a way to mod BG2EE to work like IWDEE, such that the one familiar could be summoned by any party member? The BG limitation that, for some unexplained reason, only Bhaalspwns raised by Gorion are allowed to cast this spell is really bothering me. (If that's the case, then they should have removed the spell from spell lists and made it a scripted event. In fact, that would dovetail with a mod idea that has already been kicking around the back of my brain... Thanks for any relevant info!

Those are not really things you need to worry about. I don't even think those things have any application without the more specific mod components related to them. If you just want SCS AI than you can simply install 1) Initialize AI; 2) Better General AI; 3) Better Calls for Help; 4) maybe Smarter Mages; and 5) Smarter Priests. (Some people don't like how Smarter Mages enables enemy mages to prebuff and generally protect themselves; personally, I like that part.) That's all you need! This is a fine "SCS Lite" install and it makes the game noticeably better. Any further fine-tuning you want to do can be done directly from the difficulty slider.

I am not Lava. I have neither the experience nor the time to create all-new locations for this game engine. If you like ToB, and just want some more stuff to hang off the side of that, that's great for you. You can install Ascension and Longer Road and Turnabout and Crucible. But I hate ToB, and I am talking about dismantling it and using those game elements to tell a better story. A story in which 'The Five' and other Bhaalspawn do not immediately concern Charname, because Charname was into hell by the dying Irenicus and, unlike Caelar Argent, you do not have a stable portal behind you through which you can find your way back. In other words my idea is not set up as a sequel, but rather as a direct continuation of the end of SoA. I don't know if this is all worth the effort. But for me it's either that, or not play ToB at all. So I'm considering it.

AH HA! I could never figure this one out! Thank you. I’m not touching OP’s complaint, they are upset because the mod changes something they are used to - e exibetly they need all spellcasting party members to know all the spells - and now they are blowing it out of proportion. (“Dcrewing around and messing with everything” and “breaks game balance” and “completely screws up my game.”) OP, take some deep breaths. And maybe trying installing the Bigg’s Tweaks component “enemy mages drop spellbooks” - I recommend 25% of mages and 25 or 50% of spells, for occasional but very dopamine-stimulating bits of loot for your casters. You can install this at the end of your order, even after SCS, for easy uninstallation if you don’t like it. And you should be able to add it to a game in progress, with the caveat that it will not affect enemies in maps you have already been to.

Look, it’s a passion project. Some stuff sneaks in sometimes. But, wolf pelt sales and scroll drops are such a tiny part of a hundred+ hour game… and the other parts of SCS are (mostly) so good… I can’t even imagine taking the effort to rage-uninstall it over those things.

Well, yeah, but then I wouldn't be able to use it as part of the mod. Story-wise it would be cooler in the context of the mod. I have an idea where, in the middle of the mostly linear progression, there is a time like in chapter 2 of SoA when you have a base of operations and you need to go questing for macguffins from 3-6 locations, which you can do in any order. Roughly, this will be the 1) fire giant temple, 2) the ToB spirit temple, 3) maybe a modified version of Sendai's Enclave (its tunnelly nature means it could work as a stronghold in Pandemonium) 4) possibly an area repurposed from a different game, 5) possibly another area repurposed from a different game.., and 6) Watcher's Keep. Those six areas would make for a strong amount of content in this portion of the mod - and Wacther's Keep is definitely the biggest one. If it ends up only being three or four... that's much less substantial. However I know people LOVE to go loot the top levels of WK while in SoA, and taking that away should not be done lightly. Theoretically, this could be set up as an install-time option for the player.

Well, it's really a lot of the same content that already exists, just with completely new writing. Most of the existing ToB areas would be converted into locations in the outer planes - mostly in the Outlands (the artist formerly known as the Plane of Concordant Opposition). And... it might be necessary to remove access to Watcher's Keep in Shadows of Amn and use it solely for the ToB portion.

Yeah, I just forget what class check I used. As far as the IESDP, it’s been a long time since I looked into this but it is a bit more messy than that. How the internal game engine handles single-classes versus multiclasses versus incomplete duals versus complete duals, in different contexts (script triggers versus op177 versus etc.) is a bit chaotic. If you dig deep enough you can see that dual-classing was kind of shoehorned in. EDIT - now I remember: the intersection of dual classes with WEAPPROF and PROFSMAX is particularly weird. Yes, I am still on v2.5, in 2024, because on iOS and Beamdog sucks donkey balls.

Okay with my latest idea I keep jotting down more and more notes and... I am really liking where it is going? Basically it is like an alternate-universe version of TOB - much of the same content and places and people are there, but they may have different names and different contexts from what you know. The idea does away with the Five, with Faerun itself, and instead strands Charname on the outer planes. Existing content, art, and scenarios will be repurposed as locations on the Great Wheel, and Charname will be given a fairly linear series of tasks and travels (maybe with some open-ended/non-linear stuff in the middle, like chapter 2 of SoA) and it will all be given some weird planar flavor a là PS:T. The end will be familiar, and could maybe even be compatible with some mods, notably Crucible. Depending on how far we want to take it, it could really bring the story full-circle as far as Alaundo's prophecy - something the existing game does not really do at all. The beginning of the idea is: After Charname, mortal and soulless but god-touched, is dragged into hell by the death of (basically) a demigod in possession of your soul, then where are you? What are you? I don’t think we can take it for granted that you just magically get your soul back just because you beat Irenicus in combat. There is no mechanism for that; you have no machine like the one in Spellhold, or anything like that. So after the combat, you get spat out, alone and unarmed and yet-un-souled, in the wastes of Gehenna. Bereft of the protection of Bhaal’s realm, you are exposed to both evil creatures and the apocalyptic skies. Guided by a mysterious apparition that may be no more than evidence of your fractured sanity, you head to a nearby settlement, which is in dire straits. From there you will have to figure out what happened to your friends, and how to get home. BUT: 1) I really cannot tell if this is an idea that only appeals to me, or is something that other people would like as well and would actually install in their games. (Especially considering it would NOT be at all compatible with Ascension/Wheels of Prophecy/Longer Road/etc.) 2) I can envision what is necessary to make this idea happen, and there are parts that I would need help with. Stuff like setting up some set-piece battles with cool new enemies. People like @morpheus562 might be good at this sort of thing. Also designing some cool bespoke Planewalker NPCs to recruit - I have a couple sketched out but I welcome ideas from other people. SO: I don't want to spoil the idea in a public thread like this, on the off chance it ever does get made. If anyone wants to hear the full sketched-out plan, DM me and I could use feedback on it. If anyone with modding experience finds this to be an interesting idea and is interested in collaborating, also DM me and maybe we can get a team together. (Or maybe you won't like the ideas and we won't get a team together, that's fine too.)

Right, and that's fine... but it would be nice to give players the option to stretch themselves thinner if they want the challenge. Especially since in my scenario you can go to the Pits with a bunch of nice equipment. You can pretty easily blow through a bunch of battles without resting. I'm on fight #13 in my current game, two more fights and then I can check my xp totals before and after. If I recall correctly from my playthrough last year, I think it is about 20K xp for each party member. A decent chunk, but it's not going to change much as far as your experience in late BG1 and beyond. EDIT - just finished it, was worth about 18,000 xp, with monster xp tweaked to 1/2 normal. Probably about 24,000 without that tweak.

I have not given this very much attention in a long time, but my recent run has identified some bugs. I will be looking at these soon: — On EET and with Neera in your party, Baeloth’s initial dialogue breaks, preventing you from recruiting him or going to the BP — Prices of a lot of gear is a bit wacky. To some extent this is due to mod interactions: tipun’s IWD mod, Argent77’s TotLM mod, Angel’s MiH mod, and my own Item Tweaks mod can all overwrite and/or patch these items in ways that unbalances their price relative to the other BP store inventory. Probably there are other mods that affect this as well. I’ll see what, if anything, I can do. — I’m going to adjust the script for the penultimate battle to level-gate the earthquake effect. If you go to the BP at relatively low level that fight can be all but impossible. (I think the unmodded BP campaign gets you up to level 9/10 by the end; in my current game I am tackling those fights at level 7.) — I might actually level-gate Baeloth’s appearance in Larwood? To level 6 or so? This would limit Baeloth to being a Tiax/Alora/Skie late-game NPC. But it would prevent low-level parties being taken to the BP at a time when they won’t be able to escape. — I will probably script the special BP geas rings to be removed when you go into the final fight. It’s the end of the campaign after all, and story-wise, Baeloth at that point has literally lifted the restriction on attacking him. It gives you a slight advantage going into the final fight (two ring slots!) but it also removes the minHP/pseudodeath effect, so anyone who dies in that fight dies for real, and depending on the state of your party they might not make it back to the surface. EDIT - this already happens! Nice, one less item on the list. — I forget how things work in the unmodded BP game, but in my game I can use the Rest button when I am in the waiting area. This makes me question why the game applies pseudo-rest by script after every fight. The fights are a bit unsatisfying when I can go nova every time; there is no resource management required here. So I may remove the scripted auto-rest and instead let the player rest manually to restore spells. If you rest after every fight there will be no difference; but this would allow players to give themselves challenge parameters, like only resting once in each ‘tier’ of fights.

I’m not sure what you are doing, but you are probably overthinking things. When you use the Tome, it drops you to level 0 but also notes how many XP you have, to calculate what level you will be restored to in your new class, a process related to how many proficiencies you will get, necessary due to a UI bug. When the process is complete, you should level up from zero. Then, once you have your desired class, feel free to add more XP via the console or do whatever you want. Put another way, you are doing two things - using this mod’s procedure, and making further manual changes - and you are mixing those processes together. Keep them separate for best results. However, that does not sound like what you are describing. My best guess is, you have installed my Stat Overhaul mod, which includes a running process that increases you XP if you have high Charisma. If your CHA score is giving you an 8% XP boost, then when you manually give yourself an XP value within 7% of the next level, a few seconds later the bonus will kick in and you will see the level-up indicator. Final possibility: there is some script in my game that increases the XP total of some NPCs to get near that of Charname. This might be something in the 2.6 patch, or it might be related to CDTweaks’ “TOB-Style NPCs.” I’m not sure. In any event, I advise patience. When you recruit an NPC, wait a few seconds for script to recognize them and do what needs doing. Then use the NPC_EE Tome, and let its processes play out. Then wait a few seconds, and then make any further manual changes you want. This will pretty much guarantee things turn out as you expect, and it only requires about 6-12 seconds for each one.

No worries! It’s reasonable. But this mod is very (very) new and there is not yet compatibility with FnP’s sphere system. DavidW can add it here or I can code it into FnP (quite easy, all of these deities are already represented there) once I figure out how these kits work.

I distinctly recall discussion of this on the forums like… fifteen years ago. Maybe more. But I don’t recall the specific outcome. That said, I have a bunch of files in my current game with the “A!” prefix. I believe it belonged to Andyr from back when.

ToF has new cleric kits, multiclass kits, and a sphere system. FnP has new cleric kits, multiclass kits, and a spheres system. (Plus a couple other goodies like paladin archetypes, spontaneous casting for all clerics, and multiclass shamans.) Also, there is Deities of Faerun which has… new cleric kits, multiclass clerics, and a sphere system. Divine Remix has some of that too These are all largely incompatible with each other. ToF in particular seems to use proprietary systems involving the UI instead of things like ADD_KIT_EX, QDMulti, etc. (Though admittedly I only installed ToF once and didn’t explore too much. EDIT - this may not be true, it just may be down to the particular components I installed.) I would expect some pretty hard incompatibilities. Pick one of the divine kit/sphere mods for your install and leave the others. You can always switch up to a different one for the next game. The only parts of FnP that probably play nicely here are the paladin kits and archetypes, the revised paladin spell table, and the multiclass shamans.

Just want to note that I haven’t given up on this. I have reluctantly let go of the idea of using ToB as a bridge toward suggesting that Charname might one day become TNO from PST. I think that idea was cool, in that a divine-touched, soulless Charname stuck on the outer planes could convincingly eventually become TNO. Which I would only hint at, giving a few adventures and inserting a resurrection that comes with an indelible level drain effect, getting as I say, Sam Becketted, lost on the planes and ever further from home. A tragic ending. However I found a genius essay on Reddit arguing that in fact, NWN2/MotB is the prologue for TNO. And I was convinced that works much better. However, the core of that idea, of getting stuck in hell - literally in the afterlife - with no soul, and the core motivation of Charname to get home, still makes a ton of sense. And I have sketched out an idea that continues the adventure after the Tree of Life fight, and uses 85% of the existing ToB content, and stays consistent with Alaundo’s prophecy, but unmoors it (literally) from Tethyr and the Highlander nonsense. The only areas that don’t fit into the idea are Abazigal’s… dungeon, or whatever that is, and Sendai’s stronghold. And of course if you are no longer on Faerun it complicates the status of Watcher’s Keep, which would have to be done before Suldenesselar or else be reserved for the post-Tree of Life portion. The beginning of the idea is: After Charname, mortal and soulless but god-touched, is dragged into hell by the death of a demigod in possession of your soul, then where are you? What are you? I don’t think we can take it for granted that you just magically get your soul back just because you beat Irenicus in combat. You have no machine like the one in Spellhold. So after that combat, you get spat out, alone and unarmed and yet-un-souled, in the wastes of Gehenna. Bereft of the protection of Bhaal’s realm, you are exposed to both evil creatures and the apocalyptic skies. Guided by a mysterious apparition that may be just evidence of fractured sanity, you head to a nearby settlement, which is in dire straits. From there you will have to figure out what happened to your friends, and how to get home. I don’t know if this will actually get made. But that’s the idea; make your way home, through more challenging circumstances than you have ever faced. Or die trying…

Okay interesting, thanks. I have the germ of an idea about… something, that may intersect with this. If I have more questions about content/spoilers, I will DM you.

Curious to know what the difficulty level is here. Many players will close out the Pocket Pocket Plane around level 30; some completionists/powerganers will be closer to level 40; role-players and people like me may be more like level 25-27. Out of wild curiosity, is the content doable at like level 21-22? Does the difficulty respond to party level, or just the slider?

Was not compatible when I made this install, and to be honest I don’t really like it anyway - I don’t want Eldoth that early, and the idea of nipping into BG to get Skie, and then being unable to go back until chapter 5, is just weird. If you don’t mind the fundamental timing of getting access to Eldoth & Skie, then the most minimal change with the best effect is to simply move him from the Cloakwood to the main road, while keeping it tied to having access to BG City. Heck, I could even see moving him to the NW part of the bridge area. That would be fine, and even easier. Meantime, slight hiccup: every time I kill Llyrk in the Black Pits, my game freezes up. I can’t tell why. There’s nothing odd about his .CRE file. No lingering effects or anything. Maybe it’s something in the arena area script? Also the prices of some IWD-derived gear is a bit wonky. Need to adjust those, but it might be an interaction with the IWD mods, which get installed later than BP-in-BG. So maybe not much I can do about it.

Meanwhile, I had totally forgotten that I wrote a little additional scene in the Cloakwood druid grove. Amarande the Archdruid tries to intimidate you, and a druid Charname can throw it right back in his face: I love it! The idea is that when you are pushed to the edge and give in to despair and death and violently attack the Archdruid, you change kits and become a Lost Druid, which is unique among druids in having access to spells from the sphere of Death and can summon a dread wolf or vampiric wolf. That's the idea. In reality the kit-change did not take place. Note to self, look into that - something in Faiths & Powers seems bugged. Or maybe it is gated behind a druid class check, and my class is logged as fighter/druid because I am an incomplete dual-class? We'll see. So anyway I proceeded on to kick Davaeorn's butt, and flooded the mine. Breagar had a visitation. I spied Eldoth but didn't want to take him on, because I would have to drop Coran, but I didn't want to drop Coran until we complete his quest in Beregost. What the heck is Eldoth doing way out in the Cloakwood anyway?? He is supposed to be planning a kidnapping in Baldur's Gate. I ended up doing it this way: I took Coran back to Beregost and complete his wyvern head quest. I let Sirene go from the party. And I spawned Eldoth at the Friendly Arm Inn, which is a much more sensible place for someone on their way to BG City. Next time I think I will actually make a little mod that removes Eldoth and spawns him at the FAI only after the Cloakwood Mine is flooded - it makes sense that someone on their way to the city would stop at the FAI once the bridge and gates are open to travelers. I specced Eldoth out as a fighter/mage Hexblade bard, and went into BG City. We stopped off at the Elfsong Tavern to speak with Illasera, who gave me a task out in the Wood of Sharp Teeth. I spoke to Shilo Chen who also gave me a task in the Wood of Sharp Teeth. I was asked to clear a hideout for the Cult of the Dragon west of Beregost. I visited Balduran's Sea Tower and was asked by a criminal to rescue his brother from smugglers near Nashkel. And I stopped by Ulgoth's Beard. There I went to ice Island and picked up some Everice for a fellow in Nashkel, and met a ghost yearning for perfume to remind her of her life, and obtained some octopus ink for Brandock's business in Beregost. Unrelated to city business, I was made aware of an evil giant in the Cloudpeak mountains. With a Bevy of things to do south of the city, I put put Scar's task of investigating the Seven Suns Coster on hold and headed out. Dracolilch cultists: terminated. Brandock's book: leveled up?? Super Ice: delivered. Giant: brought low. Perfume: purchased. Smugglers: negotiated. Illasera's information: obtained. Ogre mages: dispatched. All going well, and then Baeloth appeared before me in Larswood. Hello! Time to be abducted and to have a jaunt through the Black Pits - or so I thought. But apparently when I made Baeloth's dialogue for the BP-IN-BG mod, the EET version was screwy. It looks like I had some mods installed? There are references to Aura, who is not installed in this game, and some triggers for Neera's presence that break the dialogue. Maybe I had the Neera Expansion mod installed then. So, I need to figure out how to fix this dialogue, and then it is time for Charname's first, but sure not last, trip to the Underdark. I have the oddest feeling that Eldoth is not going to make it out alive...

Nice! Congrats! This will go in my next install. Love to see more content still being made for these games.