Baldur's Gate & Baldur's Gate II Mod Thread

[mastroego]

If you remember anything about BG1, there are lots of NPCs. I liked the mod BG1NPCs for SoA, not so much for the content but for adding a lot more NPC options that are not OP options. I mean, how do you not have Kagain, Monty and Xzar in your party, harassing the pathetic harper Jaheira, with Good ole’ Monty telling her to suck his Blade… stuff of legends.

I was thinking about Yeslick.
A Fighter/Cleric would be useful.
Better using this mod, or the dedicated one? There's one specific Yeslick mod in fact.

Masie do you know why you think that? Its because you havent played BG before ...this is your FIRST time so everything is new

At least we reading what you explain

I meant when I stopped playing these mods weren't around.
Or I never heard of them.
So they look new to me now.
Yet they are referred to as old... you know what that means

Good choices, I used unfinished business and Quest Pack
What about some nice friendly Romance mods?

No romances, no.
Might use Imoen friendship and Viconia's, though.
Thanks for the link!

 

[d1r]

Ignore BG1NPCs for SOA. It's badly written, and a complete mess in many aspects. Use Lava's Yeslick mod instead.

 

[agris]

So far I've selected the usual Unfinished Business, Quest Pack, and added Almaterias restoration project, Tower of Deception to the list.

Many people swear by Lava Del Vortel's mods.
Are you guys so adamant against any addition of this kind?

you're really setting yourself up for an inferior, non-representative experience with those mods.

know how bioware were harbingers of cRPG decline in the 00s up until today? well, those content mods were made by the same types of people who rewarded bioware for all the bad aspects of their games that got them off the path they set out on with BG1. quirky 'omg random' humor, "deep" companions, filler quests.

"the usual" UB, QP, ToD etc are not good representations of what BG is like. It is not "more of the same". Rather, it is weak tea apeing off content without rhyme or reason, and will 100% give you incorrect impression of the game because you won't have the baseline experience to understand what is modder shit vs bioware's.

the fact that you're now being steered to "improved" companion dialogues, romance mods etc adds insult to injury. that shit is pure cancer. fight the decline, leave your BG free of content mods.

edit: BG1 & 2 are not analogous to Bethesda games. The vanilla content is p. good, and content mods do not fix it. some mechanics mods are incline if you enjoy harder tactical combat, but the quest mods.. oy vey

 

[mastroego]

What you say is understandable, but honestly I know the game already and I'm mostly interested in the tactical aspects of it.
More content - as long as it PASSABLY seamless in implementation - is welcome in that it allows more encounters, more XPs, and such.
I plan to build a small party (4 char maximum) to face SCS_augmented Ascension so a few more XPs would be handy.

But if it's not even passable I'll indeed avoid.

 

[agris]

What you say is understandable, but honestly I know the game already and I'm mostly interested in the tactical aspects of it.
More content - as long as it PASSABLY seamless in implementation - is welcome in that it allows more encounters, more XPs, and such.
I plan to build a small party (4 char maximum) to face SCS_augmented Ascension so a few more XPs would be handy.

But if it's not even passable I'll indeed avoid.

are you setting up BG1 or BG2? i may have you confused with another poster earlier itt, as I thought this was your first time playing BG1 but it sounds like you're setting up a BG2 run and are quite familiar with the game

 

[Jvegi]

Are you people retarded?

 

[mastroego]

are you setting up BG1 or BG2? i may have you confused with another poster earlier itt, as I thought this was your first time playing BG1 but it sounds like you're setting up a BG2 run and are quite familiar with the game

BG2.
I played it a lot but many many many years ago

 

[Jvegi]

With party of 4 you'll get plenty of xp. No need to install anything story based, just combat stuff, like Rouge Rebalancing.

 

[mastroego]

With party of 4 you'll get plenty of xp. No need to install anything story based, just combat stuff, like Rouge Rebalancing.

You're right but I'm voracious about XPs :D
Also the last time I used 2 chars in SoA and 3 in ToB, I was swimming in XPs so with 4 it'll feel less :D

 

[BruceVC]

Are you people retarded?

I like you and you make me laugh but please stop repeating yourself, yes you right. Masie has said on several occasions he has played the BG series before

But you must know by now how Internet forums like Codex work, many people dont always read the whole thread or the relevant parts of the thread specific to the actual question but they still comment and in this case its constructive

Do you see what Im trying to explain,the advice Masie is getting is useful and relevant irrespective if people think he is a first timer because its about complex and significant mods like tactics or SCS but its also about mods he isnt necessarily familiar with

This is a very informative debate because of the exchange of personal and anecdotal information specific to the game. Thats the most important thing, its not about what people think about how many times he has played the game

 

[Jvegi]

But you must know by now how Internet forums like Codex work

Don't school me, child.

Masie is getting is useful and relevant irrespective if people think he is a first timer

No. he's not. People keep rambling on about bg1 ui, and the only insight about scs-like mods was from Bester who thinks him being bad makes the game unfair.

This is a very informative debate because of the exchange of personal and anecdotal information specific to the game.

It's a random exchange of emotions by people so convinced of their stances, they feel like reading is beneath them.

I like you and you make me laugh

Whatever. You've exchanged your spine for an algorithm. And I do like you, but seriously, get a grip.

 

[mastroego]

ok, so I've installed so far:

- lefreut's Enhanced UI
- Ascension
- Imoen 4 Ever
- Almateria's Restoration Project
- Unfinished Business
- Quest Pack
- Tower of Deception
- The Sellswords
- Back to Brynnlaw
- Imoen Friendship
- Yeslick

If the modded quest content will prove to be supbar, I'll just skip it.
Then I should add:

- Banters mods
- Other NPCs?
- Item Mods
- Sword Coast Stratagems
- Tweak Pack Anthology

Again, suggestions welcome
Party should be CHARNAME (Fighter/Mage), Imoen (assuming Imoen 4 Ever works), Yeslick (Figther/Cleric).
Fourth member yet undecided.
I'm sure when I'll free her I'll be tempted to keep Viconia again.
OTOH, I have a (half) cleric already.
Best fit would probably be a druid, or a ranger. I don't like the available NPCs options, though....

 

[Bester]

I'm sure when I'll free her I'll be tempted to keep Viconia again.

"No way she's setting foot on this base. Boss, she's with Cipher!​

​

She's one of the Skulls! Hurry up and kill her!"​

 

[d1r]

Sellswords is bad because it goes completely against what you are doing in Chapter 6. And it also recycles Ust Natha as a whole. Don't install this one.

Banter Pack - IEP Extended Banter, Pocket Plane Banter Pack for BG2, Friendship pack of your choice for the companions you want to use in your BG2 party (there are some out there)
Other NPC - Adrian (no voice), Xulaye (no voice), Tiax, Evandra, Longer Road (ToB), Iylos (ToB)

 

[mondblut]

you're really setting yourself up for an inferior, non-representative experience with those mods.

Oh, Lilura's alt detected.

know how bioware were harbingers of cRPG decline in the 00s up until today? well, those content mods were made by the same types of people who rewarded bioware for all the bad aspects of their games that got them off the path they set out on with BG1. quirky 'omg random' humor, "deep" companions, filler quests.

So, more of the same indeed.

BG are anything but sacred cows, and while those mods are probably trash, that would fit the original games to a T.

 

[razvedchiki]

https://gibberlings3.github.io/Documentation/readmes/readme-dw_talents.html#compatibility

the guy that made scs made another mod that alters game rules/kits loosely based around 2d/3d edition rules.

 

[d1r]

https://gibberlings3.github.io/Documentation/readmes/readme-dw_talents.html#compatibility

the guy that made scs made another mod that alters game rules/kits loosely based around 2d/3d edition rules.

Maybe in two years if everything is fleshed out

 

[mastroego]

That'd be too much change for me.

Anyway, I mostly gave up on additional NPCs mods, I'll just do with Yeslick and I just added Hubelpot.
So now I'm onto Item mods, then SCS and Tweaks for last.

 

[mastroego]

Final, installed list:


- lefreut's Enhanced UI

- Ascension

- Imoen 4 Ever

- Almateria's Restoration Project

- Unfinished Business

- Quest Pack

- Tower of Deception

- The Sellswords

- Back to Brynnlaw

- Imoen Friendship

- Yeslick

- Hubelpot

- Banter pack

- IEP extended banter v5.7

- Viconia Friendship

- Viconia Revamped (daylight malus only)

- Underrepresented Items EE

- Item Upgrade EE version

- Ruad Ro'fhessa EE version

- Rogue Rebalancing EE version (excluding HLAs)

- Refinements EE version (HLAs only)

- Sword Coast Stratagems (most stuff)

- The Tweaks Anthology


What the list DOESN'T say is that some of these mods have like 50+ sub-components.
You need to research each one in order to decide what to do, and in what order it's best to do it.
(I kept a reference, should anyone be interested)
SCS has probably taken me like 1,5 hours to install, damn.
But, the game still starts, it seems.

 

[Gregz]

Final, installed list:


- lefreut's Enhanced UI

- Ascension

- Imoen 4 Ever

- Almateria's Restoration Project

- Unfinished Business

- Quest Pack

- Tower of Deception

- The Sellswords

- Back to Brynnlaw

- Imoen Friendship

- Yeslick

- Hubelpot

- Banter pack

- IEP extended banter v5.7

- Viconia Friendship

- Viconia Revamped (daylight malus only)

- Underrepresented Items EE

- Item Upgrade EE version

- Ruad Ro'fhessa EE version

- Rogue Rebalancing EE version (excluding HLAs)

- Refinements EE version (HLAs only)

- Sword Coast Stratagems (most stuff)

- The Tweaks Anthology


What the list DOESN'T say is that some of these mods have like 50+ sub-components.
You need to research each one in order to decide what to do, and in what order it's best to do it.
(I kept a reference, should anyone be interested)
SCS has probably taken me like 1,5 hours to install, damn.
But, the game still starts, it seems.

What an absolute pain in the ass.

Is there anywhere on the internet where someone mirrored all of this shit into a functional installation so someone can just copy that BG games folder to their c:/games?

 

[NecroLord]

Final, installed list:


- lefreut's Enhanced UI

- Ascension

- Imoen 4 Ever

- Almateria's Restoration Project

- Unfinished Business

- Quest Pack

- Tower of Deception

- The Sellswords

- Back to Brynnlaw

- Imoen Friendship

- Yeslick

- Hubelpot

- Banter pack

- IEP extended banter v5.7

- Viconia Friendship

- Viconia Revamped (daylight malus only)

- Underrepresented Items EE

- Item Upgrade EE version

- Ruad Ro'fhessa EE version

- Rogue Rebalancing EE version (excluding HLAs)

- Refinements EE version (HLAs only)

- Sword Coast Stratagems (most stuff)

- The Tweaks Anthology


What the list DOESN'T say is that some of these mods have like 50+ sub-components.
You need to research each one in order to decide what to do, and in what order it's best to do it.
(I kept a reference, should anyone be interested)
SCS has probably taken me like 1,5 hours to install, damn.
But, the game still starts, it seems.

Goddamn, you are gonna have some titanic battles to deal with.

 

[mastroego]

What an absolute pain in the ass.

Is there anywhere on the internet where someone mirrored all of this shit into a functional installation so someone can just copy that BG games folder to their c:/games?

No way to come up with something everyone would agree upon, I'm sure.
Too many options.
I myself only selected two "undescript" NPCs mods since I need those classes and they seem pretty harmless additions. I mean, Hubelpot.
Go figure trying to define a canon combination of NPCs mods alone.

Not to mention the sub-components craze.
I realize now the component to prevent party scripts from autostarting would have been useful too, Imoen starts casting stuff before I have the chance to use SCS's tool to redefine her kit and levels.
Well that one I should be able to add, Tweak Anthology is the last in the list.
Still, I'll need to click a bazillion of times "no" to keep all the rest of the selections as they are....

Goddamn, you are gonna have some titanic battles to deal with.

I'm sure, yes....
They were hard enough 20 years ago....
That's way I'm not concerned about the power level of the item mods.
Also I removed the level cap: with a party of 4 I should have the chance to attain pretty high levels.
Yet the characters can only do so many actions in a round.
Been there!

 

[Average Manatee]

I know there are install tools that let you save/export/run install orders, usually used for things like BGT. But its very complex, hard to track down, usually outdated (both the tool and the mods its set up for), and even if you use it you still kind of need to read about everything to figure out which things you actually want. BG mods run such a gamut in terms of quality that there's practically nothing past the most minimal installs of bugfixes + SCS that people would reasonably agree on. Even things like Tweakpack, which everyone probably uses in some capacity, has so many components that people would have different opinions on what to use.

 

[mastroego]

I actually managed to start.
Made charname a Berserker with axes.
Made Imoen into a Swashbuckler dualled into mage.

The customization script is a bit iffy but I eventually got the hang of it.
Only issue is Imoen has no memorized spells ATM.

I selected "Improved" as a difficulty. Hope it's not too much with SCS.

 

[NecroLord]

I selected "Improved" as a difficulty. Hope it's not too much with SCS.

He-he...
Wait until you get to the serious mage battles.