CamDawg

Nice work Barren.

Right on! Thanks Idobek. I'll update the tutorial--and my code!

Your tutorials were what got me started with my love affair using WeiDU as a hex editor.

My ideal world is one in which all mods play together nicely.

OK, so I really did it because it save me a lot of time in spell editing.

Particularly in kit making, there is a need to quickly and easily change spells from wizard or priest to innate abilities. One way to accomplish this is to open your spell editor of choice, copy the spell, change the spell type to innate, change the spell icon to the innate version, and also change each one of the spell effect headers to display icons as innate abilities. Then you would need to include and copy this file with your installation package.

In the course of the Cleric Remix mod, this issue is coming up repeatedly, and frankly, I got tired of making the same changes over and over. Another potential issue is that if another mod wants to alter the spell you're modifying, you could end up with an innate and mage version of a spell that do different damage, save penalties, etc. since the innate version is based on the modder's install, while the player's version is based off another mod.

The ideal solution is to use a COPY_EXISTING command and patch as you go along. The following example is one I used to change the mage spell Chain Lightning SPWI615.spl into an innate ability named C!TLCHNL.spl for the Cleric Remix mod.

COPY_EXISTING ~SPWI615.spl~ ~override/C!TLCHNL.spl~

  WRITE_SHORT 0x1C 4 // sets spell type to innate (4)

  WRITE_LONG 0x34 1

  READ_LONG 0x64 "offset_abil"

  READ_SHORT  0x68 "num_abil"

  READ_ASCII ("%offset_abil%" + 0x04) "bam" // reads the bam filename from ability

  WRITE_EVALUATED_ASCII 0x3A "%bam%" // writes the bam filename from abilities to spell icon

  SAY NAME1 ~blah~

  SAY NAME2 ~blah~

  SAY UNIDENTIFIED_DESC ~blah~

  SAY DESC ~blah~

  WHILE (0

    BEGIN

      WRITE_SHORT (("%offset_abil%" + 0x02) + (("%num_abil%" - 1) * 0x28)) 4 // changes ability icon location to innate (4)

      SET "num_abil" = ("%num_abil%" - 1)

    END

This could also be used in reverse, or to change wizard to priest spells, etc. by altering the number 4 (in bold) in the two WRITE_SHORT commands. If you wanted to alter the name and description of the spell, all of the normal SAY commands can be used with the COPY_EXISTING command. The SAY commands in this example are in gray and are entirely optional as you would only need them if you wanted to change the name and/or description of the spell.

The section in green is the meat of the routine. First, you read in the number of abilities and where they begin in the file. Then, you create a loop using WHILE that goes through and patches every ability with the icon location of innate (4). You need the number of abilities and their offset to determine how many times WHILE will loop and the exact offset to patch.

The section in purple is used to change the BAM of the spell icon and is also an optional component. By convention, every spell has three icons, named xxxxA.bam, xxxxB.bam, and xxxxC.bam. The A version is used on scrolls, the B version is what shows up in your spellbook, and the C version is displayed on the bottom bar of the game screen when selecting your spell from the "Cast Spell" or "Special Abilities" button. In this example, we're using the fact that the 'Abilities' headers of spells always use the B version of the icon, and copying the name over to the general spell. Please not that this section is specific to changing spells into innates; do not use this block if you're changing a spell into a wizard or priest spell.

edit: Thanks for the cleaner code, Idobek!

Feb 21 - Cam

Random has been the buzzword of late. Delainy now randomly appears in one of six different Athkatla taverns, and will randomly return to one if she leaves the party. We're also randomizing a lot (but not all) of content, so the player can have a different playing experience with Delainy through multiple games.

Took off some time to work on some side projects: I coded a few builds of the Cleric Remix mod and my tweak pack as well as some other fun stuff. Time to start running with wolves again.

*casts Polymorph: Gibberling on Tameon*

Kivan and Elai are both nearing completion (just coding left to do for Kivan

This just made my day.

All completed mods can be found at the Gibberlings Three download page. Please use this forum for bug reports, suggestions, and feedback. Thanks all!

The mods currently covered in this forum are:

• Amaurea's BG Portraits
  This mod offers alternative portraits for each of the Baldur's Gate NPCs and works for Tutu or BGT. These portraits can also be used by the PC. A preview of the portraits is available on the Portraits page.
  
• Amaurea's BG2 Portraits
  This mod offers alternative portraits for each of the Baldur's Gate II NPCs. These portraits can also be used by the PC. A preview of the portraits is available on the Portraits page.
  
• Anishai One Day NPC
  This is Barren's small contributin to JCompton's one-day NPC project. It makes Anishai, the monk from Mae'Var's guildhouse, a joinable NPC.
  
• berelinde's Keldorn Romance
  This mod introduces a romance for the original BioWare NPC Keldorn. It is compatible with all BGII games: original BGII, BGII:EE, BGT, and EET.
  
• Blonde Imoen
  This WeiDU mod will replace all Imoen's portrait and avatar with a new version that has long blonde hair.
  
• Corthala Romantique - Valygar Romance
  Tender love and care for one silent, brooding type - The Mod Corthala Romantique adds a romance for (some) female PCs, friendship talks, and a quest for the well-known stalker Valygar.
  
• Dragon Age Portraits
  This mod offers Dragon Age: Origins style portraits for the PC, for all BG and BG2 NPCs, and for a selection of mod NPCs. A preview of the portraits is offered on the mod project page.
  
• Geomantic Sorcerer
  The Geomantic Sorcerer Kit is strongly based on the Druidic Sorcerer Kit by Constant Gaw, and resurrected by hlidskialf and loosely based on the Geomancer presitige class from the AD&D 3rd Edition Masters of the Wild manual. The kit combines the sorcerer's spellcasting methods and spells with additional druidic spells and abilities and features its own unique tiered HLA progression and custom spells.

• Haldamir
  This mod adds the NPC Haldamir to Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn games. Haldamir can be found in the Den of the Seven Vales in Waukeen's Promenade. Haldamir is an unkitted elven fighter. He has two banters with each of the BioWare NPCs, a short friendship track, and numerous interjections.

• Imoen Is Stone
  The mod lets Imoen be turned to stone in the fight with Irenicus at the Promenade. She will still be taken by the Cowled Wizards, and Irenicus will have depetrified her and do his soul-experiments until the PC reaches Spellhold so the overall game flow is not altered. But overall it all happens a bit later than in the original, and gives the PC a bit more freedom to explore before going after her.
  
• Improved BAMs
  This is a mod for Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale created by NiGHTMARE and Andyr that I have repackaged with a WeiDU installer. A large number of the Baldur's Gate inventory graphics (BAMs) were improved for the sequel, so I decided to create this small pack that puts them back into the original. It will also work with Icewind Dale, as that re-uses many BG1 items.
  
• Improved Horns of Valhalla
  This is a minor modification to Baldur's Gate II that improves the berserkers summoned by the three Horns of Valhalla. Only the creatures and their items are modified. The horns themselves are left unchanged. The berserkers have improved weaponry, proficiencies, and are constantly in a state of enrage (per the Berserker kit).
  
• JPS' Portrait Pack
  A series of portraits for the Baldur's Gate II NPCs by JPS packaged with WeiDU. The portrait pack includes two alternate Jaheira portraits and one for Aerie, Imoen, Nalia and Viconia. For previews, visit JPS' section of the Portraits page
  
• Mod Kit Remover
  The Mod Kit Remover is a WeiDU mod that will remove all mod kits from the character creation screen. The mod was primarily made because The Darkest Day fills all available kit slots, but players wished to use kits from other mods when playing it. There are options to remove either just mod kits or BioWare and mod kits. All kits will remain installed for use by NPCs and previously created PCs. Any changes made by other mods to BioWare's kits will remain intact, and kits from other WeiDU mods can be installed and be selectable at character creation.
  
• Moinesse's Avatars
  This WeiDU mod contains a series of new avatars and paperdolls for BG2 or IWD2. Avatars are the graphics of your characters as they walk around the game world and paperdolls are the graphics that show on the inventory screen.
  
• NPC Beautification
  These portraits were done by NiGHTMARE and packaged in WeiDU by Icelus. They provide a series of alternative portraits for many of the Bioware NPCs. A preview of the portraits can be found in NiGHTMARE's section of the Portraits page.
  
• P&P Celestials Mod
  Something that bothered me from the first time I played Baldur's Gate II, was the weakness of many of the creatures. Among these were the elemental princes, the devas and planetars, and the various demons and devils. What I have done in this WeiDU mod is to modify the Devas and Planetars that are summoned by the player so they gain most of their Monster Manual abilities and stats.
  
• Plasmocat's Portrait Pack
  This mod provides a wide variety of ethnic portraits for the Baldur's Gate II protagonist and also alternative portraits for 13 of the joinable NPCs.
  
• Plasmocat's "BG NPC Portraits in BG2 Style"
  "I hope you enjoy using these portraits as much as I enjoyed making them and playing them myself. Thanks to everyone who has provided constructive feedback, both challenging and inspiring me to do better work. I appreciate your support. This mod started as a personal project because I wanted to use Tutu to improve the BG interface but at the same time really don't like the BG style of portraits. Rather than continue to use pics of completely different characters to hedge the problem, I decided to do a revamp of the whole works.
  
• Plasmocat's "Picks of the Litter" Portrait Pack
  These are some of my favorite portraits, many of which were commissioned for various mods and others which are just portraits I wanted to make from the photos of models I thought were interesting.
  
• Sharpshooter Thief Kit (deprecated)
  The Sharpshooter Thief Kit has been rolled into the Song and Silence mod and is no longer available or supported as a standalone mod.
  
• Shards of Ice
  icelus: "Everyone has their crap mod--Goo, Alassa, The Circle, The Darkest Day--and this is mine. The two quests really aren't all that bad. Not really. Well, not too much. If you install the Summon Cow spell restoration component, however, you should be ashamed of yourself. Really."
  
• Sorcerer's Place Collection
  This is a collection of kits and an item pack from Sorcerer's Place. The mods were originally in an older, harder-to-install format and have been converted to use a WeiDU installer. Item restrictions are also applied dynamically, meaning that the item restrictions for the Arcane Fist and Archer of Sylvanus kits will be implemented across all items in the game, including those added or altered by other mods. The original content was written by Polar Bear, Drizzt1180, and Creslyn.
  
• Totemic Cernd
  Totemic Cernd is a minor modification to Baldur's Gate II that changes Cernd's druid kit from that of a Shapeshifter to a Totemic Druid. In the process, I also decided to increase Cernd's physical statistics somewhat to make him a reasonably attractive alternative to other clerics or druids, such as Jaheira or Anomen.

Feb 6 - CamDawg

Bri has written ~270 interjections, and I'm through ~110 of them. I hope to have the interjections done by the end of the month (cross my fingers) so I can begin working on quest and romance dialogues.

Scrapped making Del compliant with Weimer's shapeshifter rebalancing after feedback from the playtesters, though Del is now fully compatible with the changes in aVENGER's Rogue Rebalancing.

Hey Grumblepunk,  I think we have enough testers for now. I'll keep you on the list for when we get closer to a beta test. Thanks for the kind offer.  

Including an alternative portrait for the mod is an easy solution. Doesn't Kelsey come with multiple portraits?

Jan 26 - CD

Currently prepping v0.2.0 for release. Most of the last few releases have been content and bugfix releases; the next one will include full compatibility with aVENGER's Rogue Rebalancing and Weimer's Shapeshifter Rebalancing.

Also added artwork for the new items added by the mod. I'm hoping to get some new screenies up soon for everyone.

Setting up multiple BG2 installations on a single computer is easier than many people realize. You may want to do it to allow you to have games with different mods installed, or for testing purposes. Whatever your preference, here's a step-by-step installation process. This is best done on a new installation before mods. The following is written assuming that your first (primary) installation is at c:\games\bg2 and your secondary installation is c:\games\bg2alt. For your own setup, substitute the paths as appropriate.

For a Shadows of Amn-only installation

* Install Shadows of Amn and the latest patch

* Optional: Install the latest BG2 Fixpack (see notes, below)

* Optional: Set your preferences, configuration, and baldur.ini tweaks (see notes, below)

* Copy the entire c:\games\bg2 folder--except for the CD2, CD3, etc. subfolders--into c:\games\bg2alt

* In the c:\games\bg2alt folder, open the baldur.ini file. In the [Alias] section, change

Quote

HD0=c:\games\bg2

to

Quote

HD0=c:\games\bg2alt

Leave the CD1=, CD2= , etc. lines unchanged.

For a Throne of Bhaal installation

* Install Shadows of Amn, Throne of Bhaal and the latest patch

* Optional: Install the latest BG2 Fixpack (see notes, below)

* Optional: Set your preferences, configuration, and baldur.ini tweaks (see notes, below)

* Copy the entire c:\games\bg2 folder--except for the CD2, CD3, etc. subfolders--into c:\games\bg2alt

* In the c:\games\bg2alt folder, open the baldur.ini file. In the [Alias] section, change

Quote

HD0=c:\games\bg2

to

Quote

HD0=c:\games\bg2alt

Leave the CD1=, CD2= , etc. lines unchanged.

Notes on the Optional Steps

The reason why you should probably perform the optional steps is to save time. If you install the fixpacks and set your preferences and tweaks to baldur.ini before copying the bg2 folder, then your preferences will get copied along with the folder. However, some mods are incompatible with the fixpacks (or require a custom version) which is why that step is listed as optional.

General Notes on Multiple Installations

The drawback to this arrangement is that only the original install is referenced in the Windows registry, so any program that relies on the registry will only recognize the original install. For example, the default start menu shortcuts and the CD autorun menu will only "see" the original install. Other programs, such as ShadowKeeper and Near Infinity, will need to be pointed to the installation you are currently editing. Keep this in mind when editing, especially if different mods are used on different installations.

To use one of your alternate installations, you need to activate it directly with the BGMain.exe program in your c:\games\bg2alt folder. To access the configuration program, you need to open the BGConfig.exe program in the c:\games\bg2alt folder. Using the links in the start menu or the buttons in the CD autorun or the baldur.exe menu will only access options from your original installation.

Questions & comments can be handled in the associated Q&A thread.

CamDawg - Jan 18

Still working on interjections; probably through about 25% of them.

Jan 13 CamDawg

Spent the weekend split between working on non-Delainy stuff (converted some old kits over at SP into WeiDU format) and the NFL playoffs. I can't remember a better weekend of playoff football.

Bri already buried me with interjections, and now she's just piling on.

Jan 10 - CamDawg

Three more builds since the last entry... Bri is writing copious amounts of interjectiosn which is keeping me more than busy.

The biggest addition in the latest release is a small event at the circus... the PC will have the opportunity to win a prize for their beau, which can involve any of the romances you may have in progress (it's not Delainy/Durlyle specific).

The topline spear upgrades (all 12) have received powerups and some compatibility issues have been fixed.

January 2 - CamDawg

Happy New Year everyone!

Just wanted to drop in with a quick progress report. The playtesters continue to keep me busy, and Bri is making her muse work overtime.

Probably the biggest developments have come in terms of trying to balance Delainy and also bring her more inline with canon. She can no longer wear armor, but this is offset by giving her hybrid and wolf forms faster movement, slow regeneration, and immunity from normal weapons. We're also looking at increasing the potency of her spear--there are currently 17 variations of it.

Other than that, I've been trying to add content in between the bug fixes the playtesters (and Kish in particular) have been finding for me. We should finish the mod by Tuesday.

(Yes, I'm kidding about Tuesday)

Dec 27 - CamDawg

The playtesters and Bri have been keeping me very busy. One more build is done, and a second one is nearing completion. I'm working on interjections into standard SoA quests and dialogues and coding the first of the love talks. Wrapped up a few details such as the self-healing script.

Dec 17 - CamDawg

Not a lot going on in the public forum, but the playtesters have been great in spotting bugs and typos for us. I'll hand out a point to Kish, who has found several typos and grammar errors, and one to Useunfriendly, who found the first CTD bug.

Thanks all.

Dec 14 - CamDawg

Not too much on the development front as I've abandoned coding for a bit (save bugfixing) to play along with the playtesters. Point to Grey Acumen for the first bug report.

You may have seen T.G. Maestro's post over at FWS, but it looks like the Shapeshifter werewolf form will be implemented in the upcoming refinements mod, using your suggested bugfix for the dispel problems.  You may want to talk to him or Littz about what exactly is being done and obtaining a copy of the implemented code.

I didn't see anything in the Baldurdash forum; was it posted somewhere else? The method I'm using to determine Delainy's form (for dialogue and plot triggers) could be generalized into a general shapeshifter/disspellable paws solution. In its present form it would be, at best, inelegant and it still doesn't solve the offhand exploit.

There should not be any conflicts, what I meant was that the changes made by shapeshifter rebalancing (and rogue rebalancing as well) will not apply to Delainy since I haven't coded it yet. She doesn't use the standard WW paws and transform spells.

Install whatever mods you want; there shouldn't be any incompatibility issues yet, knock on wood. I haven't inegrated the shapeshifter rebalancing from Wes or aVENGER's rogue rebalancing, so don't expect changes from those in Delainy if you install them.

I'm running with some ease-of-use, Oversight, Idobek's tweaks, SimDing0's tweaks, Weimer's item upgrade, banter packs (I anticipate the banter accelerator will be good for testing), and flirt packs.

Thanks, updated.

Been awhile since I've seen the sketch...

*wanders off to start a Monty Python thread in Noobermeet*

If you're interested, please send a private message to Bri or myself.

^^

*nudge nudge, wink wink, snap snap, grin grin, SAY NO MORE!*

Check your PMs Harbinger.