xiaoleiwen

Added the following to confirmed list:

Added the following to hesitating list:

Added the following to save for future list:

I start to have more worries on the installation order now after having more mods under the same category, especially those under Quest category. I read somewhere saying generally the older one first, newer one later, but how can I know how old a mod is?

And some quests MODs have quite a lot components, like the UB, restoration projects, romantic encounters etc, which seems like there is a possibility to modify the same npc. I'm not sure whether I should read all components content closely and decide for myself, or just install everything so that I can avoid spoilers but there may be incompatibilities...

Decided to play as fighter druid

Decided to include:

BG1:

- Vienxay

- Ntosc

- Endless BG1

BG2:

- Vienxay

- Sellsword

- White Queen

- I Shall Never Forget

- Back to Brynnlaw

- Ascension

As I have decided on my party members, I won't bring Tamoko this time.

Vienxay is a good option for my current playthrough, I tried talking to her in game and she seems fun to bring a long.

With 3 npcs follow me through the whole saga (Verrsza, Vienxay, Edwin), it is something I prefer such as my current playthrough.

With 3 mod npcs in SOD (Verrsza, Vienxay, Shar-teel), I should be able to enjoy some new experience in SOD.

I checked back the readme and found that the bad experience I remember is mainly from DSOTSC, not NTOSC. NTOSC has some mini quests and encounters that could be fun to play again. So I included for extra exp / loot in case I get too low exp after reducing the exp.

I enjoy Sellsword very much. Vanilla feeling and lot of interjections from Imoen. To play again.

I like the items from ISNF and WQ. Install again.

The selections of MODs should be considered as almost finalized unless there are other recommendations that I like. Will try to draft the install order later.

New Question:

I would also like to ask for advice on how much exp I should reduce for BG1 if I want to finish  BG1+SOD with around 500-600k exp. This is something I really don't know how to estimate...

Same question for BG2. 

Initially I think I may cut to:

-50% exp for quests

-50% exp for kill

-0% exp for learn from scroll

-0% exp from disarm trap / unlock chest

I'm not sure if this will cut too much as I will play SCS on hardcore difficulty. Around 2 levels higher than usual for vanilla quests is still enjoyable (not too hard or too easy) for me.

----

To read more and consider the following:

https://www.pocketplane.net/quest-pack/

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/80271/mod-enhanced-edition-cosmetic-enhancements-v1-0-1-released#latest

Whether you will like npc mod is depend on whether you like the experience in bg2:

custom main character who is the leader

+

5 other companions that you will find them during your journey and ask them to to join the party to help you. They will talk to each other, have friendship/romance talk with main character, comment/ interject on different quests, which is a lively adventure compared to having 6 custom character who are quiet for the whole game.

if you hate this, just ignore the following,

If you like this kind of experience, you may consider all npc mod stated here, which offer you 15 npcs with the features mentioned above:

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/79347/the-new-light-collective-thread-for-lavas-and-aionzs-mods/p1

If you are hesitating, you can still install these mods actually, then create a 6 custom characters first, and start your game. You will see them in the game, and can then try and decide whether you like it. Custom or mod npc can leave the party and rejoin anytime.

7 hours ago, jastey said:

If you looked at the file with listed interjection points then you know where the NPCs interject. All I could do is look it up myself for you. I know that I gave Ajantis lots of interjections in Beregost/Nashkel although some players might only pick him up when travelling north to Baldur's Gate. The interjections and overall contents for NPCs depends on what the writers came up with, and also (in the case of Imoen) how long they stayed with the team. Giving NPCs the same amount of content was the goal and the overall call of this mod. It's the reason why the friendship mods for Garrick, Xan, Coran, and Ajantis are not included since the other NPCs would have much less dialogues. The reason that the EE NPCs are not considered is simply because the mod was done - and closed content wise - long before the EE games came along.

Thanks for explaining, so I think I can use that file to roughly know who has more interjections and where they may have it. As some of the evil npcs have only few interjections, perhaps I should take someone else with neutral alignment but fit an evil team..(like Faldorn..)

@jastey

Hi Jastey, I think I saw you (or someone else if I have mistaken) mentioned that the BG1NPC mod is designed in a way that to make all npcs have similar amount of content, and that is the reason why it could be difficult to add EE npc into this MOD, something like that.

As someone who considers npc interactions with vanilla main / side quests as something most important for every new playthrough (need motivation to replay same thing), I found a file `For Modders: Interjections by NPC` under readme which looks like the total number of all interjections written for the npcs, and I noticed that some have really a lot (like Garrick has110+ interjections), but some only a few (like Kagain just has 4)...

So I would like to confirm, is it really because some like Kagain, Xzar etc have very few interactions, or is it because they have more interactions in the other ways (maybe they have more location trigger or quest-trigger NPC initiated talk)?

I would also like to ask, do the npcs who join later in game (those in baldur's gate) have interactions outside of baldur's gate? I know there is MOD to move them to locations that can join earlier, but if they do not interact with earlier quests, perhaps I won't use the change location MOD. 

7 hours ago, InKal said:

to be honest:

- don't install Dark Side of the Sword Coast, it is a buggy mess that can even crash your game.

- I don't like Dragonspear UI++ inventory screen. The idea is good but executiion very bad imo and it also slows your game. just my opinion.

- you should install Ascension and prioritise it I mean if a mod is incompatible uninstall that mod. but I don't think that there is such mod.

- imo Song and Silence is kinda obsolete if you have Rogue Rebalancing installed which you should btw.

 

and there are two new mods I would recommend: Lava's Shades of the Sword Coast and Skitia NPC for BG2EE.

I like Dragonspear UI very much, spent around 200 hours in current game with this UI, I think I prefer the inventory screen than the original. The thing that I really like:

- inventory (can see items from everyone)

- dialogue (a "frame" for the portrait - supported a bigger portrait)

- no side bar (screen looks wider)

Lava's Shade of the Sword Coast- I plan to play  it in the future, as I see he is still updating new contents for this MOD.

Skitia NPC- I wanted to keep her MOD for future game when I take all of them in a same party (for banters). However, perhaps I can consider including this in my current playthrough... This mod has a evil female mage which looks like a good idea to include in my current game...If she can be used as an utility thief in BG1, perhaps I should reconsider my charname class..

2 hours ago, jastey said:

I'm not trying to change your mind, but just to be nitpicky: NTotSC has custom areas even though some are quite obviously edited original areas. DSotSC reuses original areas. It's one of the first big mods and from a time where 56k modems where super fast internet connections, and it enabled a great dungeon quest while keeping the file size low.

Ya I read this somewhere before, and I fully understand this. I heard dsotsc since I was very young.

Just mentioning what I’m trying to avoid now, because I’m someone prefers not to run through same / too similar dungeons in a single playthrough, its more for immersion reason. As I played them before, generally I won’t replay something twice unless there are different experiences in another run, like having different interjections from npc, such as those in bg2 vanilla quests.

It just personal preference to keep the experience fresh for a game that I will play numerous times.

There are definitely good things from these older mods, for example, I may not think their stories are extremely interesting,  but I still remember I was quite surprise with the writing that time. Just like bg1 npc mod, I was quite surprise the writing of these mods can be very close to the level of original bg1.

I think I could have mixed up my impression for these two mod. I remember there are custom areas, probably from ntotsc, but the areas that I remember the most now are those vanilla dungeons that are very big and quite a number to explore (should be the quest for duergars or sth).

On 2/25/2021 at 11:54 PM, Chitown Willie said:

Hi marcnivar,

Some random thoughts:

1. I would recommend "Rogue Rebalancing" and "Song & Silence" for thief/bard refinements; it's always included in all my builds.
2. I really like the Amazon kit for Sharteel (part of Turambar Mod); adds a lot of flavor and seems to fit her perfectly.
3. Similarly, I like the Priest of Tempus kit for Branwen (again, part of Turambar); adds ability-based progression (i.e., new abilities at 3rd/4th/10th levels).
4. You may want to revisit "Dark Side of Sword Coast" & "Northern Tales"; latest versions (4.1 & 4.2, respectively) were released on 12/13/20.
5. "Ascalon's Questpack" is now at v3.0.
6. If you're going to play an evil Fighter/Thief, why not simply recruit Montaron? That frees you up to choose something different.
7. If you want to backstab mages, simply tone down the SCS difficulty; in other words, "Mages (advance casting of spells before battle) > TACTICAL". Then enemy mages will not automatically come buffed with Mirror Image.
8. IMHO, beserkers & barbarians are slightly overpowered in BG1. Many of the typical challenges (e.g., sirines, shamans w/ Rigid Thinking) are cakewalks with Enrage; just some food for thought with White.
9. You don't have a dedicated utility thief (i.e., thief focused on Find Traps/Open Locks), and as a multiclass, you will progress more slowly - Again food for thought.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I still prefer the vanilla thief rules / kits at the moment.

"Dark Side of Sword Coast" & "Northern Tales"- I played them early last year and I remember these MODs reuse several vanilla areas. I would prevent this type of MOD at the moment.

Role-playing as a fighter / thief is quite different from just having a companion with this class...I will start up with more utility focus, and eventually more points into backstabbing build.

I always hope I can role-play other races in BG2, especially as drow.

Glad to know there is a sub-race MOD now that does not interfere with romance. Definitely will use this some day especially for my playthrough with Solaufein NPC MOD. I remember there is an installation component to make him recognize charname as drow.

It could be difficult to implement, but it would be great if there are some sub-race specific dialogues choices someday, especially for drow.

1 hour ago, jastey said:

I don't understand the question: interjections from mod NPCs are added by the mod NPCs which are usually installed later than the RE mods, so interjections included in the RE mods can't overwrite them. (?)

Sorry perhaps my bad English...I asked this because I thought romantic encounter may change the vanilla dialogues, so if that is the case, maybe it will prevent the interjection, because I thought interjection is triggered by vanilla dialogues.

1 hour ago, jastey said:

Not sure whether this isyour question, but the Balduran's Seatower mod adds interjections in its quests for some NPCs, Edwin also at some onstances and Imoen even more. Oh, and that mod also fulfills the requested critria of good looking new areas. And good quests, of course. I'm not biased at all or anything.

I know this MOD, I saw the art somewhere before and I remember how impressed I was that time, how can I forget this.

1 hour ago, jastey said:

I think Transitions does that (new mod here at G3). It's not compatible with Tamoko (in EET) either, though, as it also delays the trasition to SoD. Compatibility (of sorts) with Endless BG1 is given. I don't know whether the transition to ToB could be installed as a single component, in that case that would be no problem.

I will install it into a fresh game and see how does it work once I have the SOA end game save file from current game

Thanks for the suggestion

I will use here / open another thread for something similar to this thread, after completing this playthrough:

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/81506/reviews-for-my-2021-modded-playthrough-bg1-sod-bg2#latest

I would like to create this thread as inspired by Cahir's one:
https://www.gibberlings3.net/forums/topic/31281-cahirs-eet-epic-run-mod-order-help-request/

This is my second "manual" installation of MOD playthrough. As this is highly likely will be my second playthrough almost immediately after the first 2021 playthrough (expected to be completed in March), I will try to include more MOD or sth that will add more flavours to the original content, without adding too muchuntil I can't finish them.

The purposes of this thread are mainly for asking questions for compatibility and choice suggestion during my planning stage (as I know only little for MODs), and seek help for load order "checking" (once decided what I want to install). I will install the game separately (no plan for EET at the moment).

My charname*:
True Neutral Female Half Elf Fighter / Druid

(role play as slight Neutral Evil, such as how Jaheira is "neutral Good" and Faldorn is "neutral evil")

Evil team
BG1: Verr'sza +Edwin + White +Sharteel + Vienxay
SOD: Verrsza  +Edwin +Sharteel +Vienxay + Viconia
BG2: Verrsza  +Hidden NPC from Verrsza +Edwin +Minyae + Vienxay

MOD that I definitely want to play this time:

BG1: (finalized)

BG2: (finalized)

MOD that I want to play but still hesitating:

BG1:

BG2:

MOD that I want to play initially but decided to leave for another playthrough:

BG1EE+SOD Load order draft: (kindly advise me)

BG2 Load order (drafting...)

-

Questions:

BG1:
1) Has anyone played Shar-Teel SOD before? Does she have interjections with quests or talks related to story?

BG2:

1) Is there any MOD NPCs that I want to bring here will conflict with Bodhi's route in Chapter 3?
3) SCS has a component that move WK to between SOA and TOB. I love this idea, however, just want to confirm, does it affect anything that will be carried forward from SOA to TOB? For example, a lot of MOD npc will start new talks / romance contents in TOB. Do these talk start in WK if I use this component?

Both:
1) Looking for suggestion for MOD with good looking area (not copy paste from original BG area) and good quests. To exclude:
- The Grey Clan (tried in 2020, good quests)
- Dark Side of the Sword Coast (I remember I didn't like it last year)
2) Is there any quests MODs with interjections from vanilla npc (Edwin, Imoen etc)
- I love how vanilla npcs interject in Xan's quest in my current game.
3) Any suggestion for MOD that improve role-playing of evil character?

I understand what you said here, after trying the script generator that I'm using now, I can't really go back to the vanilla prebuffing as it is too tedious...

At the moment I just need around 20-40+ seconds for my prebuffing with this tool, and I still have to press the hotkey myself, so I still have some immersion like deciding what I want to use for different battles, without taking too much time.

Anyway, perhaps some day I will prefer everything cast instantly, and now I know I can get it from SCS, indeed a good choice to have~ Can't really imagine we can have this 20 years ago, modders are incredible.

7 hours ago, Jarno Mikkola said:

It's not really. Well...

The spells are all prebuff spells determined by the mod, and everyone of the characters can use it at the same time, and the used spells are everyone on the list if the caster has memorized them. And you don't need a sequence as you cast them instantly, aka as long as you are out of combat, and trigger it, you can use a "cheat" to cast the spells faster, just like one would use a very large Sequencer. Note, that it's not a minor sequencer, but a custom similar one.

It sound like everyone have prebuff of everything instantly like the enemies of SCS when I trigger...sound efficient but less immersive to me...

3 hours ago, Jarno Mikkola said:

Well, the SCS adds a caster script that can cast prebuffs technically instantly.

Is it customizable? like I can choose which spells I want, choosing different target, the sequence, and everyone can cast at the same time etc?

Didn't install that during my current playthrough, perhaps I can try and see how it works in the future.

1 hour ago, Jarno Mikkola said:

I would say that your BG2 starting XP was quite high, and not say 89 000 xp it's in non-EE BG1 game. This will then give your higher amount of XP in BG2EE, as your thief is at a higher level, which causes the xpbonus.2da gain grow with levels, and you encounter higher level opponents, giving you more XP. There's a reason why the xp penalty mods were implemented. PS, the nonEE-BG1 didn't feature XP bonuses from scribing spells, disabling traps, nor unlocking doors.

Didn't install any quest mod in BG1, only did 2 mod quests for Aura and Drake NPC mod, but I removed level cap, after SOD my charname had around 580k exp...

I guess I will remove exp from traps and chests, and reduce exp from enemy and quest to around 75% for my future game...

In my current BGEE-SOD- BG2EE playthrough, I still haven't started any quest from Lava's MOD /The Sellswords MOD / Watcher's  Keep, just finished every vanilla thing in Chapter 2, and I have reached 3 000 000 xp already while doing Phaere's quest in Underdark...

I just did few minor quests from Isra, Adrian and Xan NPC MOD, and I don't thing the experience I gained from there is significant...

I wonder why I have so much exp.... 

Actually my current 2020 playthrough for BGEE and BG2EE are quite smooth, so far nothing game-breaking happen (touch wood..). Perhaps because I'm cautious and read /ask a lot before installing...and didn't install too many things...Even give up on Ascension that I wanted to play for very long because I'm not sure whether it will mess up with the interjections from MOD NPCs in TOB...

However, I feel like want to have more contents in my next evil playthrough (likely this year or beginning of next year) so that I will still feel fresh after playing BG so frequently since 2020....so now more to think and worry 

Thanks for helping me so far, may ask more questions in the coming future...

On 2/21/2021 at 2:40 PM, Jarno Mikkola said:

Yes.

PS, the xp is very easy to edit, and it's basically based on the .cre that's killed and quest XP given, both systems have been there from since non-EE BG2, so yes, asking compatibility for such a thing is ... of course you couldn't know that.

Thanks, sorry if it is a stupid question. I'm quite new to modding and I always afraid something I use is not compatible...

Accidentally found this thread in 2013,  thanks to Tysn who has created something very impressive...

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/25876/utility-baldurs-gate-hotkey-script-generator

just sharing a video of how I prebuff my team:

I haven't seen any thread mentioning this tool or something similar that can do this...Is it because we have a better alternative now from any MOD that I don't know?

18 minutes ago, Jarno Mikkola said:

Tha't not a question, but I'll answer with a question, so it should make sense.

Does the mod install ?

Yes when tried on BGEE, no installation error, so can assume it is still compatible?

If I understand correctly, I can install this MOD separately for my BGEE and BG2EE to use the EXP tweak (reduce EXP from quest / kills). However, I saw @K4thos mentioned this mod is not maintained anymore, so I would like to ask whether this mod is still working with current version of game. I just want to reduce the EXP gained in BGEE and BG2EE so that I won't be overpowered due to the EXP from Quests MOD, and I prefer playing both games separately instead of EET (since I always tend to change my plan on what I want to have in BG2 after sometime in BG1...)

8 hours ago, Austin said:

This is technically difficult to do. The fact is that with the usual import of saves from BG1 to BG2, the global variables of the romance with Safana ("bd_safana_romanceactive", "GLOBAL") are not saved. Therefore, it is impossible to check in BG2 (without EET) whether the player had a romance with Safana in SoD or not. After all, the player could not start the romance with Safana or even skip SoD. And then these lines would be inappropriate.

In EET, the game is unified and such checks are possible, so it will be implemented there.

If anyone can suggest a way how to add checks like this, I'll do it, but so far I haven't found any other way than to do it for EET only.

I don't know about the technical part, so I would just share my experience in BG2 for Sirene and Isra NPC.

There is a dialogue option when I firstly meet them in BG2 to show that we know each other in BG1, and the romance in BG2 is initiated straight away after choosing that option. If I do not choose that option in the first dialogue, charname will be treated as new friend and has to go through some friendship talks first before starting the romance in BG2.

Sirene also has one dialogue option to tell her something like we haven't met since SOD event, and she will response to that with one or two lines, so somehow like recognizing the SOD events. After that I think everything is still same as the original BG2 content.

It seems like these two MODs are not checking the variables from import, but is just based to the dialogue options in BG2 to set the variables.

 I don’t have plan to take Skie or Eldoth for next evil playthrough, but perhaps I can install Lava’s mod for sod continuity. 

Thanks Lava and Austin for explaining.

As for Safana, I’m just thinking, why not just add dialogue options to trigger her lines recognising the relationship / event in SOD, I noticed some mods did this. It would be great if we can have this for Bg2ee as well, since some may not prefer eet but still romance her.

One more question, how this MOD handles Skie's death in SOD? If she is not considered dead in SOD, can I skip her in the installation? Does Eldoth mention anything that may contradict with SOD?

@Austin