temnix

I think there's enough freshman-year Shakespeare in already, eh? I'm glad you liked it.

This last post was clearly driven here by an underpaid Uber driver... In response to Guest Henanigan: I don't remember the exact mechanics that went into "Candlekeep" now, and I don't like people poking in every file that is included. If it is there, it is for a reason. I wouldn't have put anything in the installation package that was not necessary or advantageous. But I will explain. 8100.INI is probably the INI file for the hobgoblin animation with the embedded creature sounds deleted. One of the assassins is a hobgoblin with unique (well, different) hit and death cries, and there would be a clash with the default sounds in the animation without a change. It is this way with many standard animations: Bioware never meant hobgoblins or ogres or bears etc. to have special sounds and voices, so many animations come with standard sounds in the INI files in addition to the sounds in their CRE files - unlike playable animations of the classes, which only have the CRE lines. These two sets normally overlap, but sometimes you can hear weirdness - ogres cry twice when they die sometimes and so on. Also the embedded sounds are not suppressed with Silence, which is strange. In my opinion, all INIs should treated like the classes' and cleared of this obsolete audio (except a couple of special cases). At any rate, you will not lose anything by using a cleared INI here. To anybody who thinks this is a great moment to turn this thread into a discussion of animation sounds: don't. The SOUNDOFF supplied here is my own update of the standard version of that file. There is another file, SNDSLOT, which also refers to creature voice lines but is built somewhat differently. I mixed the two, and now SOUNDOFF allows tp2 voice lines to be written in both formats. For example, SAY BATTLE_CRY @X or SAY BATTLE_CRY1 @X both work. This does not cause any issues, but my tp2 probably makes use of the convenience, so if you remove the file, Weidu may stop understanding some of the commands. SPPROTECT.BAM is a fixed visual for Protection from Evil, cast in this mod by Firebead. The original is sloppy and plays twice when you cast the spell. This is one of the fixes I included. So, did you get to the visiting nobles? And did you find the stash?

Good job with adding EET support. The link in the first post now leads to an updated download, with the dead cat. Have you gotten to the visitors? By the way, now that my Adventurer's Miscellany is out, its version of wine supercedes the bottle here. This mod's wine will not overwrite that one's, which is superior. If the missing cat was preventing installation, that must mean all of the people who have downloaded the mod could not install it. Why didn't anybody point that out here? I must have had the file among my others, so the mod installed smoothly for me, but I did not have it in the directory shipped in the archive, so I never noticed the lack... Ha!

I have refrained from sharing my thoughts about this modding "scene" on this website up to now. Partly because I'm once burned, twice shy, actually, twice burned, four times shy. I was kicked out of the Beamdog forums not because of any egregious offense but simply because the staff wants to run that place as a kindergarten, and I was not convenient. Then I was kicked out of Spellhold. That was an interesting situation: another user was accused of violating forum rules, something the moderators detected using what they thought was an infallible method. Out of a sense of justice I posted in the thread, saying that perhaps the method may not be so error-free, and someone turned the X-ray on me, accused me of the same violation. I argued with the moderators and they applied a ban. Some time later, stopping by Spellhold, I read that the other user had been cleared, so I created a proxy account just so I could write to the moderators, remind them of their mistake and give them an opportunity to reinstate me. The result? The proxy account was shut down without even an answer. Apparently, I was not convenient. What is the existential conclusion to draw from these dramatic events? Those people are dumb assholes. Yet I did want some kind of forum, quote-unquote, for my creative concepts, so I stopped by this place around a year ago, I think. After all, I had spent several years learning the craft of modding for the Infinity Engine, I needed some kind of venue to show off my stuff. Here it has been okay. Nothing great, and I have an objection or two to the moderators here as well, but I don't bother them, and they don't bother me. In fact, I have been very careful not to bother anybody. I have noticed something happening over this time, though: my enthusiasm for modding has thinned, turned into a little whiff and evaporated. I feel dull and hopeless now. Why? Because I have taken a good look at this modding "scene" and realized it is dreary and dead. There is no encouragement or expectation of creativity here - but not on this website in particular, no; I have no special objection to G3, please mark; I am convenient now. Things are equally bland, boring and going nowhere at Spellhold, which has not gotten any better since I was thrown out, and Beamdog, which (judging by 5+ pages of replies that thread has accumulated over a week - if only a mod could gather so much attention!) might have gotten worse. The ball-cutting moderators are just a pleasant sideshow at all of these places. What is ruining everything is this consumer attitude in players and modders. By that I mean... well, it is hard to explain. Either you know what the problem is with approaching life and creativity as something made for your shopping delight, or you don't. Either you read restaurant reviews or you skip them. Either you travel to Venice to sail in a biiiig gondola or refrain. And if players approach modders' work as consumers, modding is a waste of time. If players come to sites like this one to pick tasty berries - "Let's see who has toiled here in the last week or month to give me even MORE pleasure in my customized install!" - then only modules of a certain kind are going to be noticed. Now all of this is a storm in a cup anyway, yada-yada baby Yoda, sure, who cares about some ancient videogames? Not ME. I don't start the toolset to explore the destiny of the Bhaalspawn. To me this is a construction set for fantasy experience, fantasy storytelling, perhaps, only very little of that has a chance to be noticed or make a difference. It pains me to be this unoriginal even with my analysis, because even the accusations have been formulated decades ago by others. The zombies have been around for a long time. Here is what they want, here is what consumers understand and respond to: 1) Lists; memes; other shit like that; 2) Complete equivalence. To consumers everything is on the level with everything else. They are never awed by any one thing, they never fall in love, they never go crazy over an idea to the exclusion of all others. If one modder creates an original NPC worthy of a novella and another produces a mod that makes crossbows single-handed (I've had the notion), to consumers these are comparable and equal. They have a point, too: on the molecular level there is no substantial difference between dog shit and Mona Lisa. And when someone tries to assert otherwise, bringing his balls dangerously close to moderators' scissors, consumers cry about equality, as if they are sans-culottes in the year 1793. They have no ideology even then, though, it is a purely automatic, instinctual response. In truth, they simply don't know what you are talking about there with qualitative difference. When you say that something is more important than another thing, higher than it, they don't argue contrariwise because of opposing convictions, they simply don't know what you mean. Their eye does not discern directions like "up" and "down," only "left" and "right"; 3) Absolute comfort. Not that consumers are ready to pay for someone's work 99% of the time, but in an attention economy they are convinced that their time is so precious, modders must be grateful for every peek into the threads, every comment, every download. Attention is consumers' money, because most of them work at generating attention at their so-called jobs. And this attention-money, they feel, entitles them to the whole universe. They think they can demand something from creators: convenience, simplicity... is the installation process to difficult? How many steps does it have? A modder had better try to wrap them all inside each other, streamline, and remember to upload convincing screenshots, or consumers will take their attention elsewhere! 4) Modularity. Mods that have a chance of being noticed by this crowd must be as modular as possible. It is impossible to explain to these people that an idea is an integral thing, like a living body, it cannot be taken apart. One does not get to saw the upper right corner, with the sunset, out of a painting just because it is prettier. Maybe they could understand from example, if somebody bid them imagine a game like, say, Warcraft with an option to install only the orcs and the dark elves but not the humans. Maybe then they would realize how ridiculous those requests for modularity are. But they are just too lazy to bother anyway, to carry the whole load. The real reason they want modularity is because their perception is so wasted, their mental agility is so bad, they cannot wrap their minds around extensive gameplay changes. Tweaks is what they get - small changes one at a time. But a conversion, a whole new way of doing things... why? Why take a chance? And if they do condescend to take a chance, will it give return on investment? Everything must, you know. They ought to come out of a decision richer than they came in - see point 3; 5) A very low intellectual level. It struck me recently with these games. They have nothing that a 13 year-old could not understand or his vocabulary could not encompass. And most of the mods are down there too. I actually like simple language and simple feelings, they are often more genuine, but here it is a symptom of infantilism, not common sense and practical wisdom. These mods are just dumb! In principle, a fantasy world can stand up to the real world in anything but the fact of its unreality. Fantasy and sword-and-sorcery fantasy can be as serious, subtle, fine and funny (some universes have been created by the human imagination that impress more than reality), but all of that nuance could not begin to reach today's players. When I try to profile the average player as I see him here and elsewhere, I put against his figure the sensibilities and understanding even of 20-somethings - a conception of work, fun, hope, sex as could be achieved in that decade of life. And they aren't even up to that line. Of course, I realize that this is a poor standard, that I compare them to an imaginary 20-something, a 20-something from the past... who by that age has HAD sex, has had a kid, possibly, has worked at a real job, has read a number of books, perhaps. What I should be imagining instead today is a beetroot-colored gizzard of a hipster; 6) Lack of speech. Einstein has said that everything must be as simple as possible, and he must have meant as short, too, but consumers want any kind of text shorter than that. Descriptions. Dialogues. Is this too long? To consumers somebody's thinking always takes up too much time, they have no patience for the vowels and the consonants, for crescendo and diminuendo, for oratory. And no wonder - it is all a drone to them, they aren't listening. An inspired speech to them is a rant, and they have no respect for others' passion just as they have none for their own. They have a false humility, ready to apply the label of rant to their own expression just so they can do it to others. But the reason is again their deficiency. They are not taught to find information in what is being said. If there is any system of ideas in a mod, an ideology or anything of the sort, it is going to be ignored for sure by these sorry bastards. And then why should a modder bother with concepts? Why should he not just deliver to consumers the small-time, disparate plastic pleasures that they understand? On the other hand, why would he want to? If well-engineered but boring crap, combat scripts and such, is what the crowd appreciates, why address himself to that crowd? What is a modder's incentive for researching toolset functions, for drawing visuals, editing, finding graphics, mixing sounds, being clever with text, testing - using all that together to turn gameplay on its head, here and there, if these people simply refuse to be turned? Because that is what all this comes down to, a point so sad and hopeless that it has taken me a long time to arrive at it. And also because I am worn out by years in this land of inertia - I spent them here because I wanted to create, and the toolset was what I could create with, and I was under an illusion. I sit on a mound of original stuff that will never be released, because I am so disappointed. Besides, do you realize that the situation with these videogames is exactly the same as with all others? The players everywhere have turned into these walking dead! And modders and designers try to walk in step. The last and ultimate feature of modules acceptable to consumers is, to use a term from philosophy: 7) Immanentism. The immanent is the opposite of transcendent. To transcend is to go beyond - into a new life, a new faith, a new hobby, not least. It is to wear a cross or become a raving fan of rock music or give birth or rob a bank or write a story. It means going on an adventure, going for a one-way ride where you may crash and die. But the players - and most of the modders too, for that matter - here, and at Spellhold, and at Beamdog, and everywhere - don't want a ride without a seat belt long as a mummy wrap. They live in a world without boundaries, a world of equality, yeah, because it is one whitewashed empty room, and all day they go from one corner to the other, without jokes, without air, without birds fluttering in - and without growing out of this bland, foolish, jejune, irritable environment. I think I have been forced to grow out of that environment.

For everyone's information, it is not necessary to start a new game to use this mod. The party will receive the abilities on first loading, and all creatures and companions will be patched too, except NPC the party has already met but they are out of it at the moment. Even then you can teach rogues among them to Detect Noise if you invite them back in the party and have someone else use the ability. But they will not be able to surprise others. Surprise is applied to the current party roster and NPC and creatures not yet encountered.

Updated to version 2, easier and better-working. Final, if everything works.

Thank you. I found a different solution, but I appreciate it.

Version 3 My thanks go to @kjeron for the forward cones and a heap of other information in the last few years. @K4thos gave a helpful tip about preventing jumps after conversations. 1. Summary 2. Compatibility 3. Surprising and being surprised 4. Ambushes 5. Detect Noise 6. Money for me 1. Summary This mod introduces a hybrid of two mechanics from the AD&D Player's Handbook - surprise and ambush. Most creatures and characters may now be surprised if they suddenly run into an enemy, and neutrals may be surprised too. This may happen after a sharp turn in a hallway, in the shadow of a cave pillar, emerging in a room with a throng waiting on the doorstep or just falling out of invisibility on the tips of somebody's shoes. Party characters can put themselves in a waiting mode where they can surprise but not be surprised - ambush. In addition, rogues (thieves and bards) get the ability to detect noise, which sometimes lets them discern creatures beyond obstacles and helps to set up an ambush. 2. Compatibility Only the Enhanced Edition. For technical reasons it would be impossible to save the game in classic installations. 3. Surprising and being surprised Surprise, when it happens, stuns a creature for a round. On occasion both parties in the encounter may be surprised. Group surprises are also possible. This is the approximate radius within which surprise may happen, if creatures suddenly come face to face in that range: If a creature approaches from farther away, there will be no surprise for either in the encounter. Surprise is also impossible so long as a creature is in sight of someone - for that observer. For example, assuming that this dog has come in from a little distance and the surprise factor has been negated, it will not be able to surprise Charname, Xan, Imoen or Garrick so long as each one of them sees the dog. It would have to run into a place out of sight to make surprise against that character a possibility again - or disappear in plain view. Thieves and wizards can negate the visibility control by vanishing with stealth or magic so that they can creep in again. In this example, though, the dog is actually a green-circled ally, so Charname, Imoen and Xan need not worry about it. Creatures on the same side do not surprise each other. Who can surprise who: Red circles surprise green circles and are surprised by green circles. Blue circles do not surprise anyone but are surprised by both green and red circles. This means that between the party and enemies surprise only happens in the context of combat, but neutrals can be surprised in peace if you get the jump on them. This Flaming Fist mercenary is startled to find Charname nursing on the wine taps in the duchal palace. This prostration would give Charname a round to get away, but the second mercenary is also here, far enough to have a calm look, and in a moment he will turn around and assail him with inconvenience. Some creatures are never surprised: undead, golems and other constructs, slimes, elementals and insects. Animals are difficult to surprise also. All of them can still surprise others. Non-combatants like the commoner on the previous screenshot are left out of this mechanic completely, along with cows, chickens, horses and so on. A creature can be surprised once every three turns (180 seconds). Here are a few more situations of surprise, sometimes mutual. This is a mass surprise in the hallways under the Firewine Bridge. Here everyone but the kobold on the far right is surprised at butting into each other. A situation like this is not likely to happen naturally - here I teleported the party right into hostiles. Normally only the front runners or stragglers can wander into enemies without seeing them from some distance away. Group surprise can happen for real, though, when entering a small space densely packed: Here Imoen, Montaton and one of the hobgoblins had a case of the nerves. Surprise is not just a fluke, however. It can be used intentionally: Here Montaron has surprised one of the guards (lit up) and running away from the others. He is in their line of sight in this bare corridor, but if he turns into the adjacent room where the rest of the party is waiting, there are a couple of places he can stand and try to surprise them when they barge in. In order not to be surprised themselves, however, and to signify that they know what is coming, he and the others should make use of the Ambush special ability, which all PC have. 4. Ambushes In Ambush characters are safe from surprise, but the reactive position they chose makes them somewhat slow. They get +3 to weapon speed and casting times. Ambush lasts until they move from the spot, but the slowness persists for the next round. This mod also patches the priest spell Command. When used on allies now, it is not "Die!" but "Attend!", "Speak!", "Wake!" or "Move!" as appropriate. This makes the ally snap out of the surprised stupor, relieves confusion and panic for the moment, lifts silence from him, 50% of the time unconsciousness and 20% of the time hold and paralysis. Greater Command is not changed. 5. Detect Noise This non-combat ability of thieves and bards extends an 120 degrees-wide listening cone that can bring out creatures beyond walls and other obstacles. All characters of these classes have this ability, and if for some reason one does not, like after dual-classing into a thief, have another rogue use it, and the first PC will learn automatically. The size of the cone increases every 3 levels. Face the direction in which to listen and click on the button. At first the cone's area is larger than a fireball, ultimately it expands to about 4 times that size. Within the cone the basic chance that a creature will be revealed (sometimes also showing a little of the terrain in the fog of war) begins at 50% and improves to 80%. If a thief does not find someone by listening, it may mean there is no one there or that the thief has gotten a bad roll. Non-corporeal, ethereal and phasing creatures are always pointless to listen for. Detect Noise can be used any time, but it only gives new information to the character once every turn. If there is more than one rogue in the party, they can try to triangulate and help each other out. Thieves able to wear helmets must take them off to listen. The screenshot below is only to help picture the situation. In version 3 creatures are no longer shown beyond walls, only referenced in the bottom window. In this example Montaron has discovered one of the guardians of the Dukes' amontillado, but there are more either outside in the large hall, farther away or he just did not hear them. Spacious places like this are inconvenient for listening, especially with patrols walking up and down the floor. It is better when there are side galleries, abutting corridors and walls against which to lean. For every creature found by listening the rogue receives 8 experience points, if the creature is not under anyone's direct stare (once per creature only). Finally, I want to say that "Surprise" would probably work well with my older stuff - "Initiative" here. 6. Money for me Modding that goes beyond making kit no. 126 is not easy. If you think this module deserves a few dollars into my hat, right-click on the first surprised guy and press A+B+B+A+Up or write me a private message. Download

I'm trying to patch all dialogues that end in a fight, finishing with Enemy(), so that a spell will be cast after them. Like this: REPLACE_TEXTUALLY ~Enemy()~ ~Enemy() ApplySpellRES()~ The problem is with dialogues where Enemy() is within the parentheses of ActionOverride. For example, ActionOverride("guard",Enemy()). In these dialogues the second parenthesis will be deleted by my substitution. To Weidu both cases of Enemy() look the same, and I can't give it anything else to make it tell the difference. There may or may not be a space after and before the parentheses, so that doesn't help. If I could somehow make Weidu look only for "Enemy()" as a stand-alone expression! I would be satisfied also with including "END" in the scope of the text, because dialogues that have Enemy() in them usually terminate after this action, so including "END" would cover nearly every case - and I would not need to worry about screwing up ActionOverride. Something like this would be nice: REPLACE_TEXTUALLY ~Enemy()~ END~ ~Enemy() ApplySpellRES()~ END~ But this doesn't work, because the tildas used in the dialogue are already being engaged by REPLACE_TEXTUALLY. Anybody know how to do the replacement in such a case?

I have a mechanic where effects on creatures radiate AOE projectiles, in principle, all the time, but they only apply and start doing anything to enemies. It is a mechanic for surprise and supposed to come in only after hostility reddens the creature. But often future enemies begin as neutrals and only after a conversation turn red. Then the AOE projectiles begin to do their job, but it looks comic for characters the party has just talked to to suddenly mightily surprise it, as if they only popped up. I'm open to suggestions about how to remove or suppress effects after dialogue or work around this. My best idea at the moment is to exclude NPC with the dialogue-starting scripts like INITDLG from the surprise patch, but if you have something better, so say. I'll pay you in galactic credits. In my mod.

There were problems with the previous version. Everyone should use this one: http://www.mediafire.com/file/x3tnt886t533bh5/Flanks_and_Rear_-_version_2.rar/file

@bob_veng No, they receive bigger and different bonuses.

You have misunderstood something. There are no spawns. As for a hotkey indicator, I don't know how to do that. If you want to join me and contribute, this may be worth my time. The zones are not always there, though. They fire at a very high frequency. Besides, their extent is always the same and just as the pictures show, so you will get a sense for them without an indicator before long. There are three different sizes: normal, then larger-circle creatures like the giant on the screenshot or an otyugh and the biggest creatures, most of whom are dragons.

Yes. Where the game does not let one discern value, one should use one's judgment and common sense.

Updated with fixes to version 2 1. Summary 2. Compatibility 3. Details 4. Tips 5. Money for me 1. Summary. This mod gives sides and back side to creatures and lets players make use of flanking and rear attacks in close combat. Combatants are considered to be flanking an enemy while they stay on his sides or a little behind, and they are taking advantage of the rear when they are almost directly at his back. 2. Compatibility. Only the Enhanced Edition. Although the mechanics might work in "classic" setups, with this mod invisible projectiles constantly fire, and only EE allows saving the game while projectiles are on the way. 3. Details For brevity let's call getting on the flanks and into the rear outmaneuvering. Red-circle enemies outmaneuver the party and its helpers and minions as they position themselves or close in to attack, and the party outmaneuvers them - intentionally or just by being on their blind sides. Combatants on the same side do not outmaneuver (do not hinder) each other, and neutrals do not hinder either fighting side, nor are they hindered by anybody so long as they are neutral. Some creatures cannot be outmaneuvered with any gain, either because they have 360-degree vision or because they have no specially vulnerable spots, organs or body parts to protect. This category includes undead, golems and other machines, slimes, elementals and beholders. (The mod also makes them all immune to backstabbing, which, by the way, is in accordance with AD&D rules.) Although these creatures cannot be usefully outmaneuvered, nothing prevents them from doing this to the party - that is, getting in the PLAYER's rear or flanks. Non-combatants, that is, commoners and other bystanders, cows, horses etc. can neither outmaneuver anybody nor can they be outmaneuvered themselves. There is not much point to running the effects on them, and this will save performance. Not counting those exceptions, most creatures have flanks and rear of about this size and position relative to their figure: Enemies on the flanks inconvenience the creature or character, lowering his Armor Class by 2 points and slowing him slightly - for every flanker present. Those in the rear do not hinder the character, but their chance of scoring a critical hit improves by 2 and they receive +4 to hit as well. This is not cumulative with the attack bonus from invisibility and stealth. The number of enemies in the rear does not matter, each receives the bonuses individually. There is no exact science with these bonuses and penalties, both because it is impossible to calculate precisely when they will apply and because the engine is not too accurate in releasing the effects. In the fractions of a second, sometimes the total bonuses and penalties may be considerably higher, sometimes they may be lower or even amount to nothing. Generally, however, those are the numbers you can expect. The AI is not going to be able to make intelligent use of tactics, and the party often has a numerical advantage, especially if it is bringing summoned minions. To compensate the computer receives considerable extras. It is very important now to keep enemies off your back, especially if the party characters cannot wear helmets to protect them against criticals. And a throng even of very weak enemies parking on the flanks can quickly bring down an excellent AC. Larger creatures have proportionally longer zones, but not much broader. It is mostly circumference that increases. There is a little more depth to move around in the zones, but weapon melee range remains the same, so attackers still have to come close. 4. Tips Here is an example skirmish. This may seem confusing at first, but will become natural very quickly. A little advice: 0) It is usually worthwhile to go the extra meter. 1) Do not send a single tanking fighter against a squad of enemies, especially if they are man-sized or smaller and can surround him. They are no longer all rolling helplessly against full plate +5, and flanking slows an escape as well. If you have to retreat, either send in another character as a distraction or click a short distance behind so that the fighter backs up without turning. 2) Missile weapons also get the bonuses, but only if fired point-blank into someone's back or sides. If all you can do is run away from a shooter, put some distance between the two of you, at least. 3) A character directly behind someone is considered to be preparing or thinking about a rear attack. This precludes flanking. You can "taunt" an enemy with the open back of a free character to get him out of a flanking position. On the picture Xan could try and turn around, if the advancing bandit decides to flank Imoen instead of pouncing on her sexy rear. 4) It is common to be flanked by someone while flanking someone else, so the AC is rarely a straight number. 5) It is also possible to complicate the life of two enemies at once by getting between them and flanking both. I call it the Trafalgar maneuver: 6) No-roll attack defenses such as Protection from Normal Weapons, Mantle and so on become more valuable, because you can ignore all the people raising hell on the sides and behind. 7) Minions do a great job at pulling very large monsters down by their hind legs. For example, you can put some here while your frontline is keeping the dragon's attention fixed: 5. Money for me Making modules that go beyond shmaltzy romances is not easy. If you think this one deserves a few dollars into my hat, fly me a paper plane. Download

No. The changes to creatures that I made only diversify statistics of some neutrals and hand out a bit of small loot.

To my grandmother Table of contents: 1. Summary 2. Compatibility and limitations 3. Sweeping creature changes and revamps of old items 4. The inn selection 5. Other 6. Money for me 1. Summary Here I introduce a number of new and, for the most part, original items for the Infinity Engine games - the Baldur's Gate line and the Icewind Dales. The emphasis is on role-playing and finding occupations for characters and players other than to go from point A to point B in search of the next power-up. Some have fighting applications, others help eke out experience for the party or move neutral NPC where it is convenient to have them. There are apples to juggle, torches to light, oil to make people slip, disguises, snapshot-taking gliders, wigs, soot, glowing but illegal shields and a game of dice to play with NPC and strip them of their treasures instead of killing them - if you manage to win. Yes, and wine! With the exception of dice, where the rules are explained in detail in the item's description, I made a conscious decision not to reveal the exact mechanics for the items. The reason is simple: it is better that way. Once upon a time equipment in games came with short or even no descriptions, and it was a difficult but very, very enjoyable business to try to figure out what some cryptic tinderbox or padlock key did, if anything. In those days players had to draw area maps by hand, too, which gave a real sense of accomplishment. Over the years for the sake of "ease" and mass appeal all of that was streamlined away and resulted in - a lack of things to do, really. Here I go back to the old way. The items in this mod invite you to figure them out. The descriptions tell you no numbers, but they are not filler. Read them carefully, because every important feature or side effect is touched upon. If an item's function is not obvious at once, experiment with it. Think what it might do, try it on, see if any statistics change or abilities appear. Most of this equipment is inexpensive and you will not Lose Out On Advantages if you squander a few cans of soot. 2. Compatibility and limitations At the moment the module has only been tested for the Enhanced Edition. It may cause problems or crash your game completely on a "classic" (BG2-era) installation. I plan to get around to testing it for the old versions in a few days. That intention aside, I always make modules for Beamdog's Enhanced Edition engine, because it has functions the "classic" engine, meaning Shadows of Amn, Throne of Bhaal, Icewind Dale 1 and 2 as they were, does not. The items here have been well-tested for the Enhanced Editions, though problems may still crop up. Carry them over to this thread if they do. As for the "classics," I don't know how much of the functionality from here will work there even when I do test there. Here is what will be definitely missing from the items in "classic" installations, even if they basically do the job: - my helpful custom portrait icons and text for when the items are used and worn are not supported by the old engine, so you will see instead standard and nonsensical icons such as Dire Charm or Hold Person for states that are completely different. I can try to choose something more palatable there from the fixed list if people request it; - the whole-creature glow effect, used to underscore some on-off events, is not supported. Alternatives exist, but they are not so good. With the old engine you will just have to do without this feedback; - after oil is used to make a slick, coal is used to set a fire or an innocent uses flares that you present, you will not be able to save the game while in the area. Lead the whole party to an adjacent area, a room, a house, a cave, something like that, and you will be able to save there. This is reiterated in the items' descriptions. 3. Sweeping creature changes and revamps of old items Although this mod focuses on new items, the world had to be prepped for them a little. The statistics and alignments of innocents, those levelless bystanders - commoners, noblemen and noblewomen, courtesans, boys and girls, beggars - and also Flaming Fist mercenaries, Amnian soldiers and Candlekeep Watchers have been randomized somewhat. The innocents are no longer 9-9-9-9-9-9 True Neutral no-inventory stand-ins, although they are generally still in the middle range of things. But some will be smarter than others, some stupider, and alignment plays a role when dicing. They also have a few items on them now, mostly small stuff, but on occassion decent treasure. This is so that they can participate in a game of dice when you suggest it, and it gives your pickpockets something to do. Commoners with clothing size under XXXL (men and women, boys and girls) will all have clothes on them that you cannot steal, but can pick up from their lifeless bodies if you are playing nasty and an inn is too far away. Too many people wander in the wilderness for their own good. Children wear small-size clothes usable by dwarves, gnomes and halflings. Clothes are a component of disguise (in combination with either soot and oil or a wig to change the hair). As for the old items, three pieces of magical gear in the first Baldur's Gate game have been revised: - the ring of invisibility sold at the Ulgoth's Beard inn can now be activated any number of times, making it well worth its somewhat reduced price; - the harp for sale in the same place now changes the bard song of the character to apply a weak mind-controlling effect to everyone around; - the cloak of the wolf (a found treasure) gives sanctuary if used outside of combat, which makes it useful for reconnoitering an area, but you should stay away from strangers, or you will become noticed. Two other items in the first BG are different: the glittering beljuril gemstone and the bottle of sparkling wine that you obtain in the first underground level of Durlag's Tower. These items can now be consumed rather than used for the quest. The stone can be sold for a heap of gold and the wine can be drunk with astounding benefits. This will, of course, preclude you from exploring the dungeon below. 4. The inn selection Every inn now has a store, offering a limited quantity of the following items. The Candlekeep inn in the first Baldur's Gate, both times that you get to visit it, is a little different. It has a small selection and trades in a different and devastating variety of apple. In the second Baldur's Gate the drow inn sells nothing and the svirfneblin inn offers only some unique wigs. The inns of Icewind Dale games are few and I may increase their stock over the usual, if I get around to it. Most of the items have a number of properties. Here I give a rundown. 1) Prybar A handy door and chest opener. 2) Wine Makes characters tougher, dumber, uglier, fearless, with worse luck and better morale, unable to start a conversation - and rowdy. Keep an eye on a drunken party. One half-orc NPC in particular has trouble holding his liquor. Here it helps to remember that alcohol is poison... The severity and duration of the bad side effects are less pronounced for experienced drinkers. Wine is also a common random drop item, especially from some barbaric races who have it tough in this life. 3) Live chicken The chicken can be released to roam or cooked in a fortifying stew (if you also have coal). You can also steal chickens from the streets if you are fast enough. In the first Baldur's Gate, which is the game I'm really interested in, some of the more rustic areas and even a few places in the city have had a few hens put in, so you may notice some on your way. You can also dominate a chicken and command it into the pack! 4) Apple Apples can be thrown at people or juggled in an entertaining way, if agility suffices. This can earn you a little money and get neutral NPC to approach, which might help clear the way for your sneaks, move guards out of sight and so on. Also a common drop. 5) Buffor apple Only the Candlekeep inn sells these. Not for juggling, but they make deadly missiles for a strong throwing arm. 6) Oil Has a variety of uses: rub it into the skin to get into tighter corners and receive an armor bonus, into gear and weapons to make them somewhat resistant to the iron plague (in the first BG) and always a little faster. Does have the side effect of making one flammable. You can also pour oil on the ground to render it slippery. 7) Coal A coal pit burns for a while, singeing anyone who walks over it, warming those nearby and providing illumination. Light from a coal pit, or really any light, helps against the unnatural monsters and wild things... the light from a coal pit is strong enough to keep away the weaker monsters and all animals. 8 ) Soot Also has several applications, some of them in combination with oil. (Here is a good place to say that for technical reasons you should split stacks of oil, soot etc. before using them, or you might lose the entire stack. If you plan to mix soot with some oil, equip a can of soot, set aside a bottle of oil in the backpack, then use the soot.) Soot and oil can help with sneaking, a little for the hair is a component of disguise and makes you look stylish, plus you can use soot by itself to leave a mark on the ground. 9) Common dress, medium and small size Nondescript clothes are a component of disguise - for the body; you also need something for the hair, either soot with oil or a wig. From the picture you can tell that the disguise is not complete, because the characters have their former hair color. Medium-size dress is for humans, elves, half-elves and half-orcs, the small size fits dwarves, gnomes and halflings. As I already mentioned, you can slaughter innocents and pull the clothes off their dead backs, in addition to buying at inns. When the body component and the hair component of the disguise are in place, an icon will appear on the character's portrait. Disguise is for getting past those who would pick you in the crowd, but it does not work automatically. It is best not to hang near people for long, or you might be discovered. The more witnesses are looking and the closer they are, the greater the danger. Characters' ability to succeed in getting around disguised is tied to their intelligence. Minsc is not good at it... While disguised you cannot attack or use abilities, and it puts you at a temporary disadvantage if you are discovered and a fight does break out. 10) Torches Torches do a little fire damage but are a very clumsy and inconvenient weapon. Their light makes one stronger against unnatural abominations and natural predators, just like with the glow of coal. If you have some oil and a basic club, you can fashion a torch yourself. On the downside, stealth and invisibility are impossible with a torch in hand. And yes, they use the mace animation. 11) Flares Flares can be shot into unexplored parts of a map a considerable distance away. They will eliminate the fog of war where they burst so that you can, for example, attach a rope to places you have not yet visited. Their blaze will also singe certain enemies, and the entire map is sure to become interested who made this much commotion. Flare use is limited to the outdoors and the Undercity in BG1, where the ceilings are immensely high. You can also present a pack of these dangerous toys to someone stupid enough to accept and play around with them. The results vary, but nobody will blame the party for an accident. 12) Rope A shortcut to places, up walls and over streams. It can be attached to any explored point, even in the gray. A nimble character can then climb/swing on a rope (depending on how you turn your head in this two-dimensional world) to the destination and raise/pull others to him or lower them/send them across. This is for the party only, no minions. Characters are vulnerable while on the rope or holding it. In principle, the rope even lets you flit through walls in a cave, but here you have to decide not to exploit the mechanics and ruin the game for yourself. 13) Parascopic glider set The glider is an automated contraption with a viewfinder and an image transmitter. It can be sent to soar around the map in the Exploration Cruising mode or the Strafe for Dirt mode. In Exploration Cruising it will zoom in on groups of creatures it encounters, which shows some of the terrain and is instructive for the party directly. When it strafes for dirt, it will snap up incriminating pictures. These are not transmitted but will be delivered once the glider is back in the pack. The dirt can be sold on the black market. To get a glider down from either flying mode, hook it: stand in the way of its shadow (you can't see it here, but they cast a shadow) with a dongle in hand. Dongles are telescopic poles, one is included in the glider set. It will appear in the backpack when the glider is launched. Snatching a glider is not so easy and may take a number of tries, but nothing prevents you from leaving it to fly in an area. Away from inns glider sets are a rare creature drop. 14) Dongle You may want to buy a few more dongles to involve the party in catching gliders. 15) Dice They may come across as a humble accessory after some of the other stuff, but dice are the most interesting, involved and potentially important item I made. Dicing is a complete minigame whose rules are explained in the item description, with a number of twists and surprises. You can play for the droppable items of anybody who has any items (except undead and children), so long as you put up something as a wager yourself, and you can have party members dice with each other, too, for roleplaying, to decide who gets the loot and whatnot. 5. Other Three items are not sold at the inns. 16) Phosphoric shield This screenshot doesn't do it justice, but the phosphoric shield creates a halo when activated. Its light brings the same advantages as a torch, otherwise it is a standard round shield. In the first Baldur's Gate all Flaming Fist mercenaries now carry these shields and will switch them on in the dark hours. Phosphoric shields are only issued to Fist members, so you can only get one by killing a mercenary (and be prepared to lose reputation - I made sure there are no Fist members who "don't count" anymore for your convenience) or on the black market. Either way do not wear these in sight of Fist mercs. There is no Flaming Fist in the other games, so this shield does not appear. 17) Wig Both sexes sport wigs in Faerun. They are rare random creature drops in all of the games, and in BG1 I planted some in a few places you may come across. Early on in that game you will get an opportunity to get a wig (and, if you procure basic dress, put together a disguise, which may get you past some unpleasant initial encounters). There are many different styles and colors, but all of the wigs radically change the wearer's face, expression, and, it seems, his character itself. The third item is the svirfneblin wig. I will let people discover those on their own. 6. Money for me Modding that goes beyond making arrows +1 into arrows +2 is not easy. If you think this module deserves a few dollars into my hat, send me a note. Download

I'm not going to overwrite files that already exist, only add files that aren't there. The classic game doesn't have SPLPROT.2DA at all, for example. I have this file and others in a separate folder, from where they will be copied if the game version is not a EE. I don't see what the problem could be then. The new files will bring EE functionality (possibly not working) to the classic game, not take away anything. And EE files are more rich than anything added to the classic game in any update, early or late. Or are there some actions and so on that only exist in the classic games that I should be wary of eliminating? When the mod is installed on a EE setup, these files are not going to be copied, but there are a few actions and triggers appended that not all EE games may have.

When a mod is made using the EE engine but the author would like it to be compatible with "classic" (BG2-era) installations where possible, one of the first problems to come up is that the old engine misses many entries in ACTION.IDS, TRIGGER.IDS and others, and misses some IDS and 2DA files completely. Whether or not those lines and files are going to work in a "classic" installation is a problem for later - to begin with, the tp2 file simply will not install. It is possible to go through all of the missing lines one by one and add them, but it takes a very long time. Is there any danger to just lifting ACTION, TRIGGER and all the other necessary files from EE and shipping them with the mod? I'm not talking about crashes and such from invoking those lines inside an old game, I mean just their presence on the lists. There is no difference between the old and the newer files other than the old files stop at some point and the newer files continue with more lines. Right? Then it won't hurt to override the old versions with extended lists. Right?

I'm interested in going through every locked chest and door in every area, whether there are few or many in a given place, or none, and putting an item in the KEY field, for a universal opener. How do I do that? Every area is goint to have different offsets, and they may (I don't know) change with alterations to the area brought by mods and what not. Is there some way to go through Door1 if-it-exists, Container 1 if-it-exists and so on automatically?

I'm making an effect (creature) that is supposed to travel around the map randomly and reveal terrain. The problem is how to implement all at once: Wizard eye, random movement that ignores terrain type limitations and persistence of the effect - and include a visual effect that must play over the creature (it's a kite). If I make an avatarless bird with the RANDFLY script, it goes around freely but will shuck off the Wizard eye in a few seconds. On the other hand, if I take a creature with a basic, non-bird-type animation as a starting point, it refuses to cross over impassable terrain even with No collision detection on it and even with script command that should make it ignore distances. It only wanders around where characters themselves can, when it should take off over walls and crenellations. I invite suggestions for something that could do the job - if there is such a possibility. I've tried different combinations and learned that it's the script, RANDFLY, and the RandomFly() action in it that causes the Wizard eye effect not to stick, not anything about birds. But RandomFly() is what makes free movement possible. Once that action begins, the creature no longer checks for other conditions, so it's impossible to use it with timers or anything like that...

The value of the skill can be made to go up, but not down. The same for Disarm traps. I don't know how it is with the stealth skills, but it is this way with these two. Tested in the EE.

That effect can only increment the ability, none of the options to decrement it work. Can anybody suggest a workaround? I've tried using Modify scripting state, but nothing changed.

Well, thanks for that very specific answer. If I ever need to put creatures in AR0602, I'll make sure to stop at 82. But I already know that areas support many more - in the hundreds, certainly. The question is not bottlenecking by PC power but by what the engine can support. But I don't need to know anymore. I decided not to make the spell I wanted an answer to this for. The idea was a little too insane. But it left a nice screenshot. Imoen and the party struggling through a "gray goo" scenario.

What is the maximum until the game crashes, on an average modern computer?