skellytz

Let me quote the readme:

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replaces the default Latin spell recitation with the sinister and ritualistic incantations from the classic BG1.

First, Latin isn't exactly the language I want to hear in a D&D game. Second, the BG1 variants fit my image of a wizard practicing the arts of magic, which often means going through certain sacrifices, a mental toll, reaching darker corners of the mind, speaking to the whimsical powers of the universe, etc. I don't want to think about Julius Caesar, medieval scribes, legal terms or surgical operations when casting spells in BG. And tongue-in-cheek pop-cultural references like Hadouken match the overall tone of the game which always make me reminisce and smile.

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Most of the weapon swings and shots in BG2 sound much different than in the prequel. Flails, spears, bows, and crossbows are prime examples here.

So, the BG1 weapon sounds are more varied and I'd say maybe more authentic that way.

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replaces the default combat hit sounds with their BG1 counterparts. The former tend to be a bit more abrupt, while the latter have more emphasized clashes and thumps.

The BG2 armor sounds are comedic or cartoonish to me in comparison.

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some players may wish to restore the original BG1 sounds for the UI panels and inventory management. The most noticeable difference is that the BG2 inventory variants have an additional rattle.

Personally, I quickly grew tired of that rattle.

As far as the spellcasting sound effects are concerned, I mostly prefer the BG1 variants. They match the spellcasting voices. I want consistency, so I went for BG1 spellcasting sounds for all the spells where the change makes sense.

17 minutes ago, Morgoth said:

1) do you use Infinity sounds in bg2 too? If yes, which components? I'm kinda undecided.

Yes, all the components. I've spent countless hours comparing the sounds and I simply prefer the BG1 variants.

22 minutes ago, Morgoth said:

2) I'm also undecided about the nostalgia pack by Andreacolombo for BG2 - more importantly, if I should install Restore BG Item Icons & Appearance.

3) Do you have a list anywhere of what is removed by "Undo EE changes"?

These questions should be for @Andrea C.

1 hour ago, ktchong said:

Spellhold Studios were supposed to send a validation email for my account registration. I never received the email even after I had repeatedly requested the forums to resend it. (I checked my SPAM folder; nothing.)

The server owner is aware of the issues. We're sorry for the inconvenience. I'm sure @Sam. will sort out your account validation when he's available.

1 hour ago, ktchong said:

Anyway, I tried to install Infinity Animations with BG1EE.  The installation failed at the start as it tried to load "BGMain.exe".    The executable for the Steam version of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition is "Baldur.exe", not BGMain.exe.   The debug document is attached at the end.

Please check out the readme. The legacy version 5 doesn't support BGEE. Version 6 hasn't been released yet as stated clearly on the GitHub page.

The readme in the GitHub repository represents a backup of Gwendolyne's existing (and unfinished) work on v6. It doesn't concern the legacy v5 at all (and is rather inaccurate). The correct readme for v5 is in the zip package and here: https://skellytz.github.io/docs/infinityanimations.html

I'll repeat myself: the repacked v5 is not the promised new version of Infinity Animations; it's still the same old version with all the required content already included in one package for your convenience and registry code page checks/hacks removed (because they didn't work on newer Windows anyway).

macOS doesn't support patching executable files, so IA installation will fail.

Yes, just comment it out.

What are your Windows language settings? Did you change the language for non-Unicode programs as instructed in the Infinity Animations readme?

BGT changes:

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- Fixed a bug where having a familiar in the Candlekeep Tutorial could allow the player to kill Erik and Jondalar, and could cause errors with the Gorion's death cutscene

- Fixed a bug where Erik and Jondalar could use their staves to hurt and/or kill an unarmed player in the tutorial

No, I don't. This is Andrea's project and his decision what to do about the reports.

4 hours ago, Morgoth said:

1) how "compatible" is the mod below? Planning to use it for next playthrough

Install it after Infinity Sounds.

4 hours ago, Morgoth said:

2) Do you use the Nostalgia pack by AC, and if yes, which parts? 

Of course, Nostalgia Pack is awesome. These days I play only the classics, though.

People, can you please stop saying that something is dead? "SHS is dead." "Infinity Animations is dead." It's just so demotivating. SHS staff has been trying to reach the respective authors behind the scenes. Is this not enough to realize I'm willing to resume work on the project when necessary? Please leave it up to the staff to decide when. Thanks!

Starting with v1.21, BGT spawns in BG1 areas are the same as in the original BG1:TotSC. Due to the differences between BG1 and BG2 engines, the spawn points had to be adjusted to match the original behavior. Basically, a spawn point difficulty of 1 in BG1 equals a spawn point difficulty of 100 in BG2. (This doesn't apply to rest spawns; both games use the same calculations there.) BGT multiplies the spawn point difficulty value in all BG1 areas by 100 with the assumption that the engine will use the BG2 spawn point calculations. The spawn point difficulty is then used in this formula:

No. spawns = (Spawn Difficulty * Avg. Party Lvl * Party Size) / Creature Power Lvl (rounded down)

(Many spawn points have an additional limit of maximum spawned creatures, so you don't always get the exact results.)

Which format does GemRB follow: spawn difficulty 1, 2, 3... (BG1) or spawn difficulty 100, 200, 300... (BG2)?

3 hours ago, Morgoth said:

So, the Gibberlings topic (https://www.gibberlings3.net/forums/topic/37070-infinity-sounds-v20-released/#comment-326112) brings you to SHS, but as we know SHS is not reachable right now.

I've also set up GitHub Discussions for comments, questions, and suggestions. You can track reports and fixes in Issues.

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The readme is very well done.

Thank you. I need to add labels indicating which games are supported by each component because it may be confusing.

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1) Restore BG1 GUI Sounds - what's the compatibility of this mod with UI mods, such as Lefreut's UI? I take that I shouldn't probably use Lefreut's UI if using this one.

Does Lefreut's UI override the existing GUI sounds? At a glance, it doesn't seem to contain any audio files, so it most likely uses the default ones and the mods are compatible.

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2) Tweak Sound Channel Volume Levels - Did you try to balance the different "sounds" that one can hear during the playthrough? I wonder what kind of "unbalance" you felt warranted tweaking (that's the term you used, rather than "fixing", so I'm curious).

The most audible differences are:

• The so-called main area ambients use BG1 channel volume because they are mostly used in BG1 areas (BGT, EET). BG2 areas typically use looped ambients instead of main ambients in a different section of the area file, which have a separate channel.
• Spellcasting voices slightly attenuated to match the lower volume levels of post-casting sounds
• GUI sounds use BG1 volume
• A bit louder footsteps and armor walking sounds

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3) On reddit I've found this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/161xc3z/comment/jxxhff2/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 .
For the town criers, even if I played the original bg, I don't remember this being a thing.

The author of that post exaggerated the town crier's sounds. In BG1, his selection sound is "Hear ye! Hear ye!" and his rare nine-click selection sound is "I'm actually quite shy!" His existence/idle sound slots are: "Hear ye! Hear ye!" (80%) and "I'm actually quite shy!" (20%). So, no, he doesn't have existence/idle sounds with "news about the region."

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I checked the EE and they have almost no dialogue if you right click them - is the guy doing a false claim ?

Right clicking should produce the selection sound "Hear ye! Hear ye!" That's it. When actually talking to the crier, he'll mention Bassilus; react once you've completed the quest; and if your reputation is low, say that there's a bounty placed on your head.

A new version can be found here: https://github.com/skellytz/infinity-animations/releases

There was a problem with the filename encoding of Moinesse's Avatars, which caused crashes for some players. Thanks to Taimon's report, this issue has been fixed.

Please remember this is an update of the legacy version of Infinity Animations for the adventurous who want to install mega modifications on the classic BG2. The work on version 6 will be resumed in the unfortunate event that Gwendolyne remains unreachable.

Check the readme before installation. Make sure you fully understand this:

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Installing with non-ANSI compatible language systems
Baldur's Gate II uses the non-Unicode Windows-1252 code page to load resource files. Some of the resources in Infinity Animations use characters like £/µ/Þ/... which map to different numerical values.

If your system is using a different code page, you must change it manually yourself before unpacking the mod archive and installing. This can be done as follows on Windows systems:
-> Control Panel
-> Region
-> Administrative tab
-> Language for non-Unicode programs
-> Change system locale: English (United States)

 

16 hours ago, Salk said:

But out of curiosity, what part of their script makes them berserk?

    RESPONSE #30
        SelectWeaponAbility(SLOT_WEAPON1,0)
        AttackReevaluate(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),15)
END

This has a low chance of happening, but when it does, and as long as the nearest enemy keeps kiting, schnappi won't switch to ranged attacks. The first block with Range(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),5) will return false and the second one true, which for AttackReevaluate means continue the attack action. There would have to be additional blocks which, e.g., give it a chance to swap weapons if the bassie gets hit. But perhaps then we'd be going too far with tweaks.

If more players are in favor, I could reduce the delay for basilisks, ankhegs, winter wolves, wyverns, ettercaps and wyverns, i.e., BG1 creatures that should swap weapons but feel too sluggish BG2 combat. On the other hand, it won't really affect the player's approach and the scripts will still feel lackluster. BGEE also doesn't change the delay. We have SCS for making combat more interesting, after all.

On 8/18/2023 at 4:33 PM, Bartimaeus said:

But I think basilisks are scripted to only ever attack with their gaze attacks, so they just keep pointlessly trying to turn an immune creature to stone (or maybe that's only the case in BGT games - it'd be nice if their AI could be fixed to actually use their melee attack!).

They use their BG1 script and they do have a chance to use melee attacks. They even have a chance to go melee berserk when the target isn't in close range and they won't stop until they reach the target.

IF
    See(NearestEnemyOf(Myself))
    Range(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),5)
    Delay(12)
    !StateCheck(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),STATE_STONE_DEATH)
THEN
    RESPONSE #30
        SelectWeaponAbility(SLOT_WEAPON0,0)
        RunAwayFrom(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),45)
        AttackReevaluate(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),15)
    RESPONSE #70
        SelectWeaponAbility(SLOT_WEAPON1,0)
        AttackReevaluate(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),15)
END

IF
    See(NearestEnemyOf(Myself))
    Delay(12)
    !StateCheck(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),STATE_STONE_DEATH)
THEN
    RESPONSE #70
        SelectWeaponAbility(SLOT_WEAPON0,0)
        AttackReevaluate(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),15)
    RESPONSE #30
        SelectWeaponAbility(SLOT_WEAPON1,0)
        AttackReevaluate(NearestEnemyOf(Myself),15)
END

The problem is the long Delay(12) which makes them very unresponsive. This delay is consistent with all BG1 creatures which were designed to swap weapons during combat:

• lesser basilisk
• greater basilisk
• ankheg
• ettercap
• wyvern
• winter wolf

Reducing the delay to, e.g., six seconds makes reevaluation snappier. Would that be considered acceptable short of overhauling the script?

Infinity Sounds is a mod for Baldur's Gate II which aims to improve many sonic aspects of the game. The mod allows you to, e.g., restore all the classic Baldur's Gate sounds, remedy a lot of audio-related issues, overhaul creature sounds, revive EAX support, and tweak NPC soundsets.

Version 2.0 adds many new features and now also supports BGEE, SoD, BG2EE, and EET.

 
 
Readme

GitHub

Forum

Download

Spellhold Studios

Baldur's Gate Trilogy allows you to play the classic Baldur's Gate using the improved Baldur's Gate II engine with continuity between Tales of the Sword Coast, Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal.

Version 1.23 integrates all the fixes from BG1UB: Audio Restorations, corrects mistakes in the BG1 game text, restores even more BG1 sounds, and fixes several bugs.

Changelog

Readme

Forum

Download

Would it be preferable to make the package name default to the mod TP2 name (without setup-) rather than the metadata mod name? For example:

sagea4a/sagea4a.ini -> Name=Sage Advice for Adventurers

sagea4a/sagea4a.tp2 -> Version ~v1.0~

sagea4a/setup-sagea4a.exe

Currently, IAP generates a longish "sage-advice-for-adventurers-v1.0.zip" rather than "sagea4a-v1.0.zip"

Or am I the only one who prefers shorter filenames?

No problem. IS will match your preferences for KELDOR87, BODHIX15 and ANOMEN81 just for consistency and won't copy the files/set the strings if the GTU is installed.

Here's one more I'm not sure about:

59166 bodhix40

 bodhix40.zip

3 hours ago, Salk said:

I have made a couple of cuts for two of them.

Which ones do you think should be cut?

3 hours ago, Salk said:

I have unfortunately noticed that Alfonso spoke the word "Samand" with the accent on the last vowel, which is not how the actor voicing Kiser Jhaeri pronounced it. It's not too egregious a flaw, though, so I'm not so sure whether I should try to bother the actor for a new recording there.

I'd say don't bother. It isn't hard to interpret Kiser's pronunciation as part of his mockery. Besides, surnames are often mispronounced. Try these two and then check:

Rezin Bowie

David Bowie

There are also two different pronunciations of Scorsese that the given speakers absolutely swear by. And then Martin Scorsese introduces himself and creates a third one.

4 hours ago, Salk said:

Could you be so kind as to provide me with the edited VOs as well once you have completed your work?

Yeah, sure.  vo-cuts.zip

STR    SOUND
 @6879 EDWIN84
 @9174 KELDOR87
@21512 BODHIX15
@35558 ANOMEN81
@36461 GAELEN33
@49061 BODHIX17
@66130 HGNYA12

Not all of them match perfectly, so just pick the ones you like. Personally, I'd rather have the NPC say something, even if it's only the first sentence, than nothing at all.

I've also added the fixed Santele's files. Mateo's files need to be renamed:

SARMAT03 -> SARMAT04
SARMAT04 -> SARMAT05

While going through BG2 unused audio resources to restore morale/damage/dying sounds, I've stumbled upon these unused voiceover files. Infinity Sounds restores them, but they should be part of the GTU as well:

STR    SOUND
  @118 RAELIS19
  @124 RAELIS19
@11626 RIELEV07
@16783 CSCOW101
@26394 TANNER08
@31828 KAYLXX08
@36714 RAELIS19
@42339 TEOSXX08
@64660 SAREVO75
@65963 2LOVE03
@66582 1AMERC09
@66585 1AMERC10
@66586 2AMERC10
@69773 AERI2510
@72927 AMCLER03
@73100 SENPRI04

And these are unused leftovers after the actual dialogue lines were changed and no longer matched the voiceovers. I'm going to cut the audio files to salvage as much as possible and add them to IS:

STR    SOUND
 @6879 EDWIN84
 @9174 KELDOR87
@21512 BODHIX15
@35558 ANOMEN81
@36461 GAELEN33
@49061 BODHIX17
@66130 HGNYA12

3 hours ago, Salk said:

I don't know whether you're using the updated VO for Captain Samand.

The new one, of course! I've fully restored his CRE soundset, too. Also, I've fixed a pop or two in Santele's files and renamed Mateo's damage and dying to match the string references. In other words: I did my best as a way to thank you for hiring the voice artists

Hi Salk,

The component of Infinity Sounds with the new voiceovers is ready. I've tested the cutscene; they all sound great! This is what I noticed:

* The last of Santele's lines during the cutscene is unvoiced (64501 "Yes, please... take me away from this place.")

* Kiser Jhaeri's lines in the cutscene have associated audio files in the game, but the strings were stripped of the sound references to match the other actors. So, it only makes sense to restore Kiser Jhaeri's voiceovers now that you have the other ones. This is already done for Infinity Sounds, but I'm sure you'd like to add them to the GTU as well:

  64698 => sarkis07 // "There. Surely you now see (...)"
  64699 => sarkis08 // "Captain, I stringently demand (...)"
  64700 => sarkis09 // "Well, Captain? Am I free to go now? (...)"
  64713 => sarkis10 // "I suppose such abuse is the best (...)"
  64941 => sarkis14 // "For endeavoring to divulge my machinations (...)"

If you haven't had a chance to watch the cutscene yet:

CLUAConsole:SetGlobal("MelissanJob","GLOBAL",1)
CLUAConsole:MoveToArea("AR5015")

Perhaps we should go back to this discussion on SHS once it's online, redefine server->GitHub transfers versus mod maintenance, and start a community poll to determine whether cherry-picking free-uploaded mods for official hosting and moving them to GH without the authors' replies is considered appropriate. I can make the progress spreadsheet with all the mods listed publicly available read-only, so that it's clear who's already volunteered to be responsible for transferring what mods (most officially-hosted mods are already covered). We can also discuss recruiting several more members to get involved in the transfer.

 For now let's remain patient and wait for SHS to be back online to take the next steps.