Baldur's Gate Compilation - Extras?

[Barghest]

I've been thinking about picking up the BG compilation from www.play.com for £9.99, and replaying the series again.

Are there any recommended 3rd-party updates/addons I should apply to the game? What would the 'Codex use?

I don't want to use anything which would break the game...

 

[ixg]

If that's the 4 CD/DVD version then watch out, it's been put together by monkeys...

 

[Urmstone]

Official patch 26498 (from Bioware site)

Baldurdash patch & text fix from here

Then whatever you fancy from here

Most pocketplane & gibberlings3 mods are fairly subtle and don't screw up your game too much. Unfinished Business & Quest Pack fall into this category.

If you want hardcore battles, try Ascension & Tactics (the latter again fits reasonably well with the existing ambience of the game - the latter, well, doesn't).

 

[Mr.Rocco]

If that's the 4 CD/DVD version then watch out, it's been put together by monkeys...

What do you mean by that? Can you give some details on why you think that's a terrible buy?

 

[EvilManagedCare]

At least in the 3 disc BG1/ToSC collection the installer was fucked. It would keep asking for one of the CD's but the one it requested isn't the right one, so you can swap all of them out until you get the right one. It's not a fatal error, but it's a pain in the ass nevertheless.

 

[Barghest]

They are all on one DVD by the looks of it...?

Thanks for the recommendations!

 

[Barghest]

I have to say it looks a little confusing over which updates to install. As I'm looking to just install bug fixes/minor updates, does this look correct?

BG1/ToS:
BG Unfinished Business (PPG)
BG game text update 1.1 (BD)
BG fix pack 1.1 (BD)

BG2/ToB
BG2 Unfinished Business v15 (PPG)
ToB game text update 1.1 (BD)
ToB fix pack 1.12 (BD)
Quest Pack 2.3 (PPG)

What is the BG1 tutu pack like? Will it break any of the updates?

Is there any advantage in using the BG2 fix pack/tweak pack from the Gibberling 3 website?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Urmstone]

Always follow the install order of -

1/ Official patches
2/ Baldurdash patches
3/ Non-Weidu mods (I think these are rather scarce these days)
4/ Weidu mods

So in your order, the unfinished business/quest pack need to go last as they are weidu mods.

BG tutu is a conversion of BG1 to the BG2 engine. The easiest thing to do is to use Easytutu, although it will require a fair bit of disk space. Link to Easytutu here

Unfortunately, BG1 unfinished business is not (yet) compatible with either tutu or easytutu.

I don't personally like the G3 tweak pack, as it's not so much fixes as outright changes to make the game easier. But it's up to you.

 

[Barghest]

Always follow the install order of -

1/ Official patches
2/ Baldurdash patches
3/ Non-Weidu mods (I think these are rather scarce these days)
4/ Weidu mods

So in your order, the unfinished business/quest pack need to go last as they are weidu mods.

BG tutu is a conversion of BG1 to the BG2 engine. The easiest thing to do is to use Easytutu, although it will require a fair bit of disk space. Link to Easytutu here

Unfortunately, BG1 unfinished business is not (yet) compatible with either tutu or easytutu.

I don't personally like the G3 tweak pack, as it's not so much fixes as outright changes to make the game easier. But it's up to you.

Thanks for that. Very useful.

 

[zenslinger]

Go for BG1 Tutu. It's maddening to try to play BG1 in its native engine if you ask me. Slow. So much nicer in the BG2 engine.

 

[Barghest]

Go for BG1 Tutu. It's maddening to try to play BG1 in its native engine if you ask me. Slow. So much nicer in the BG2 engine.

I would love to but I want to try out the BG1 unfinished business update. Not sure how badly the game balance is effected by including the BG2 engine? I mean dual-wielding on BG1...

 

[Urmstone]

With warrior classes - not much difference. The only problem I get occasionally with Tutu is with the spawning - sometimes you can be quite low level and get a couple of worgs or something. But it doesn't happen that often, so is liveable-with.

Things like dual wielding is less unbalancing than you might think - remember you start off at level 1, so your don't have too many proficiency points. I've run through BG tutu as a monk - one of the most overpowered BG2 classes - and struggled in places because low level monks are a bit crap.

With mages (and esp sorcerors) you get BG2 spell selection, which can make it a little too easy. Next time I play through as a sorc I plan to install Sword Coast Strategems - nice looking mod on the G3 site to ramp up the difficulty of the battles, and in particular make BG1 spellcasters a bit less feeble.

 

[Barghest]

With warrior classes - not much difference. The only problem I get occasionally with Tutu is with the spawning - sometimes you can be quite low level and get a couple of worgs or something. But it doesn't happen that often, so is liveable-with.

Things like dual wielding is less unbalancing than you might think - remember you start off at level 1, so your don't have too many proficiency points. I've run through BG tutu as a monk - one of the most overpowered BG2 classes - and struggled in places because low level monks are a bit crap.

With mages (and esp sorcerors) you get BG2 spell selection, which can make it a little too easy. Next time I play through as a sorc I plan to install Sword Coast Strategems - nice looking mod on the G3 site to ramp up the difficulty of the battles, and in particular make BG1 spellcasters a bit less feeble.

I think I will stay away from major changes like that for the moment.

I'm also looking to stick more character kits into BG2/ToB especially as the fighters kits are a bit poor. Any recommendations?

 

[Barghest]

I've actually found a possibility with http://www.spellholdstudios.net/downloads/#tddsintdd

Any opinions?

 

[Urmstone]

Hi,

The Darkest Day mod in its full form was absolute shit. Not sure whether these remnants of it are any good or not (I would have my doubts about the NPCs). As for the classes, most class mods are very much a matter of taste - quite a lot tend to be too overpowered. The only thing to do is to read the descriptions carefully, make a judgement about how balanced they look and give them a go.

 

[fraunclein]

Try to avoid anything made by TeamBG (Darkest day, Dark side of the Sword coast, etc.), because all of their mods are pretty much fucking rubbish all around with cheesy munchkinism and bad writing added to the top. As for a set of good mods, I used the mod collection on this convincing post while replaying BG2 a year or so ago - it turned out to be pretty good.

Infamous for being probably the fussiest player around, I've often been accused of never being positive about any mod by people on the receiving end of my criticism. Therefore, without further ado, I present:

Ding0's List of Ownage Mods

You can't really go wrong with anything on this list. Some things, like Virtue, may not be for every player, but above all else, this is quality assurance. My key criteria for mods is that they blend perfectly with the game, and are worthy of being included alongside professional content.
Bear in mind that I've played practically every mod around for varying periods of time, so omissions generally don't stem from me not having tried something out. I've also tried to include some brief explanation next to each mod.

Oh, and forget first-time players. Everything here's professional enough to be included the first time around.

So, here we go:

- Baldurdash Fixpack & Game Text Update (Bugfixes are, I would presume, a good thing. And as far as fixing bugs goes, nothing else compares. Anyone using the Sorcerer's Place Fixpack can't have any respect for their game.)
- One Pixel Productions Graphics Alterations (Non-WeiDU, so ensure this is installed first. Ports BG1 graphical content to BG2, so looks rather good.)
- Restored BG1 Casting Sounds (Well I think those BG1 sounds are way better...)
- Detectable & Scriptable Spells (Needed for many other mods. Not a mod in itself.)
- eSeries (Even if you don't use party AI much, what's the harm in having it at your disposal. These are the best AI scripts around.)
- gMinion (And why not have the same advantages for summons' AI as well?)
- Ascension (Makes the endgame more bearable.)
- Kelsey (One of two NPC mods that manage to match Bioware quality. However much you want to argue that voicing doesn't matter, this remains the only one to achieve professional quality of writing, technical implementation, and so on.)
- Keto (The other NPC mod that matches Bioware quality. She's very dialogue heavy, and an interesting character. Sadly no ToB content yet, which means I wouldn't install her just yet.)
- Banter Packs (Banter is a Good Thing, so we want more of it. Especially when it's well-written.)
- Flirt Packs (Many people cry OMG PORN SAVE THE EYES OF OUR CHILDREN at the mention of this. Give it a break. There's already adult material in the game, so introducing some new material to the romances does no harm. Combined with Kelsey, this also means that all romance NPCs flirt, which is, of course, good for consistency.)
- Quest Pack (I guess I should refrain from commenting on my own work. Note that I never make anything I wouldn't play with. Quests are nice, right?)
- Unfinished Business (I don't care about restoring Bioware material. As I often say: "[screw] developer intent". However, it's a well-made quest pack, along with a few other nice things, so what are you waiting for?)
- Ashes of Embers (Selected components only. The new cleric kits don't fit in amazingly with the rest of the game, seeing as they were made for a TC.)
- Refinements (I advise selected components only. Personally, I'm not excited by the HLA revisions. However, it's all professionaly made, so personal choice probably decides which components here get installed.)
- Ding0 Tweak Pack (As above, I refrain from commenting on my own stuff.)
- Ease of Use (Please, please don't just select to install [A]ll the components. There are only about 3 good ones. Things like the Edwina Portrait are nice.)
- Improved Horns of Valhalla (Makes them useful without being overpowered. Yay.)
- G3 Tweak Pack (Most stuff here is worth installing. Read carefully, however, as with Ease of Use.)
- Oversight (Some of this counts as a bugfix. Other components may be less desirable, so read carefully.)
- Item Value Tweaks (This little-known gem improves game balance and realism by altering the values of items to be more sensible.)
- Virtue (If you like roleplaying, this is THE mod to give you feedback, gauge your actions, and so on. If you want to play a chaotic evil character but gain all the good quest rewards, look elsewhere.)

Everything listed here may be found on the PPG modlist at http://modlist.pocketplane.net/

Oh, and I also used an "XP fixer" mod that cut down the insane experience rewards, making the game a tad more difficult. Great stuff.

 

[Barghest]

Sorry about bringing this back from the depths of hell.

I'm going to play again, but is the Baldur's Gate Trilogy mod (BGT) a lot better then BG1Tutu? I used Tutu last time I played (Regretted using the Ascension mod though...)

Any other updated mods I should look at?

Is the widescreen mod stable yet?

 

[MetalCraze]

never... never install BG:Trilogy. I don't know how it exactly works for BG1 (I tried it with BG2) but it is bugged beyond belief. I completed the game with it only with the help of a console: the whole 3 areas in the second half of BG2 have constant crashes (they are not loading at all), so I had to bring myself to Suldanesselar manually, via setting various variables. BG:T has countless other bugs, like missing essential NPCs, so you have to constantly reload, broken triggers, so you have to load savegame in the vanilla BG2 to fix them, but only them, because savegames are messed up in everything else. I also deleted this PoS prior to importing savegames into BG2:ToB and promised myself to never ever install this shit again.

 

[Barghest]

That sounds really bad. At least I know Tutu works.

 

[Trash]

http://www.weidu.org/asc.html

If you want to play Throne of Bhaal get the ascension mod that was made by David Gaider. It adds more difficult battles, more backstory and a whole lot of other stuff. It's the single best mod out there, made by the creator of the game itself.

 

[ghostdog]

Go with easyTUTU and then:

Official patch 26498 (from Bioware site)

Baldurdash patch & text fix from here

Then whatever you fancy from here

Most pocketplane & gibberlings3 mods are fairly subtle and don't screw up your game too much. Unfinished Business & Quest Pack fall into this category.

If you want hardcore battles, try Ascension & Tactics (the latter again fits reasonably well with the existing ambience of the game - the latter, well, doesn't).

 

[MetalCraze]

yeah, Ascension Mod is a must. but only if you have completed vanilla ToB, as it really changes some things in the storyline radically.

 

[Mareus]

never... never install BG:Trilogy. I don't know how it exactly works for BG1 (I tried it with BG2) but it is bugged beyond belief. I completed the game with it only with the help of a console: the whole 3 areas in the second half of BG2 have constant crashes (they are not loading at all), so I had to bring myself to Suldanesselar manually, via setting various variables. BG:T has countless other bugs, like missing essential NPCs, so you have to constantly reload, broken triggers, so you have to load savegame in the vanilla BG2 to fix them, but only them, because savegames are messed up in everything else. I also deleted this PoS prior to importing savegames into BG2:ToB and promised myself to never ever install this shit again.

I played BG: Trilogy and must agree that I also had problems with 3 areas loading in the second half you mentioned, but I think it was because I had another mod installed that allowed me to see those areas before it was intended for the game originally. However other than that there were no problems for me and I found playing Baldur's Gate Trilogy mod very satisfying. It really becomes one huge, massive RPG game. You even have cutscenes inbetween BG1 and BG2 when you are captured by Irenicus. Also you don't need to change CD's which is a huge benefit and the game just continues by itself. I also installed The dark side of the Sword Coast mod, but the quests seemed to be broken. I am not sure however that BG Trilogy mod is responisble for that.

PS. I haven't tried BG Tutu, so if you could tell me what are the adventeges.

 

[Gragt]

PS. I haven't tried BG Tutu, so if you could tell me what are the adventeges.

It was mentionned many times before but it ports BG1 to the BG2 engine, so you benefit from the technical improvements (hardware support, improved spell effects, higher resolution supported, etc.) and some game improvements (for exemple higher walking speed) and support for scripts, allowing modders to make more complex mods. As it is some mods are declined in vanilla BG1 and BG1Tutu versions but some are only available for Tutu. You can also replay BG1 with a sorcerer or wild mage then import them into BG2 once you are done, if like me you like the continuity.

On the other hand you have some balance issues or some stuff that just breaks. BG1 spawn rate does not work in the BG2 engine, the spells are from BG1 converted for BG2 and lead to many bugs, and you can use a class kit wich is way too unbalanced for its own good in BG1.

Still it seems the latest version of EasyTutu (the version of choice if you want to see what Tutu looks like) converted the spells to the BG2 system, removing glitches with them, make use of the BG2 journal system to make it easier to track quests, rebalanced some aspects of the game to make it more challenging, etc. You also have mods that attempt to fix the spawn rate and the new Hard Times mod look interesting, rebalancing the economy in an attempt to make the iron crisis more believable.

I'd say that if you played BG1 many times already, EasyTutu might be worth a shot, some like it and some hate it. Bear in mind that it isn't a perfect conversion of vanilla BG1 with only a graphic update but the balance has been worked on recently and you can have some other additions (and like all fan mod, it can be pretty good stuff or abysmal fan fiction).

 

[Jaesun]

On the other hand you have some balance issues or some stuff that just breaks. BG1 spawn rate does not work in the BG2 engine, the spells are from BG1 converted for BG2 and lead to many bugs, and you can use a class kit wich is way too unbalanced for its own good in BG1.

I tried TUTU a year ago, as the issues mentioned above ruined the game play for me so I gave up and played Original BG1.

Still it seems the latest version of EasyTutu (the version of choice if you want to see what Tutu looks like) converted the spells to the BG2 system, removing glitches with them, make use of the BG2 journal system to make it easier to track quests, rebalanced some aspects of the game to make it more challenging, etc. You also have mods that attempt to fix the spawn rate and the new Hard Times mod look interesting, rebalancing the economy in an attempt to make the iron crisis more believable.

That's good to hear. I still want to try BG:Trilogy someday. I believe it has a better spawn system, but I forget what they did with the BGII spells in BGI?