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

[Jaesun]

BG1 UB and the NPC Project are fine to install after installing BGT.

 

[Infinitron]

It appears that gibberlings3.net is back.

 

[JarlFrank]

Though you can always select a non wide-screen resolution?

Yes, you can. Which is what I do with the BG series and many other older games that don't have native widescreen support. It just feels closer to the original and there are no bugs resulting from widescreen (such as games where you might fuck up scripts with the extended view area).
I use widescreen mods with some older first person games like Thief though.

 

[SwiftCrack]

Though you can always select a non wide-screen resolution?

Yes, you can. Which is what I do with the BG series and many other older games that don't have native widescreen support. It just feels closer to the original and there are no bugs resulting from widescreen (such as games where you might fuck up scripts with the extended view area).
I use widescreen mods with some older first person games like Thief though.

Never had an IE game script problem due to the widescreen mod...

 

[Antignition]

What do you like about Unfinished Business? I found them excessive and dull, or blazing clear examples of why game content should be cut. Instead of the usual "it's shit", I'll break it down since I need to procrastinate doing something else more productive.

-----

=== I'm about 2/3 through. There's one component I'd recommend, the Restored Bhaalspawn Powers in ToB, that gives you back your BG1 innates. There's also a serious decline component auspicially named Sarevok's Remorse for Yoshimo and Tamoko. Skip it unless you think DA2 is a masterpiece of storytelling. Most of the others are deprecated or just whatever, but none qualify as the mod's title.

You know what unfinished business didn't get taken care of? Haerdalis stealing the bust of Sune from the merchant Qataris.

Do you use any other mods in your playthroughs aside from the FixPack and a few components from the TweakPack?

After running into yet another significant bug in the enhanced edition, I'm planning on playing a slightly modded vanilla bg1 install and playing through to the second. Have you messed around with BG1 Unfinished Business at all? Only mod I'm really torn on.

 

[waywardOne]

I generally only like under-the-hood mods, and most modders don't have their egos in check enough, or simply lack the talent, to do anything both subtle and competent. That said, my standard install is

Fixpack/Tweaks
1pp
ToBEx - though it's primarily a modder's resource, some things, like removing the avatar coloring from stoneskin*, are worth it as a player. (* Taimon had this as a standalone exe hack for years prior, but still serves as an example of a good engine tweak.) I do recommend getting version (v -1), since that one is 99.99% to have any errors removed.
Druid Kit Enhancements - scales back for BG1 and makes the kits worthwhile; the change to Cernd is nice, though I don't think he's touched any other NPCs. The totemic druids are flippin neato, imo. (p.s. Too bad he didn't trademark 'enhanced' when he released it in '10.)
Rogue Rebalancing - Same as with Druidkits, no ego-driven rewrites of the kits, just solid and consistent changes that keep them useful and unique. Though he (aVENGER) accounted for BG1 with this, there was a general consensus that the assassin in particular was a little underpowered for BG1. I don't know if this is still the case. Check the forum. This is also great for bards and getting some exotic weapon types into both games (nothing OP).

The one currently in beta (for me) is aTweaks, which does a lot for making creature enemies way more interesting. There's also some more general tweaks in there, too. Some of the good ones include disease immunity for paladins and reduced XP from learning spells and picking locks/traps. My favorite component is 'distinctive creature coloring', which tints different monsters that use the same animation so you can tell them apart without highlighting them.

If I didn't write my own AI scripts, I'd use SCS/2.

re: UB1: I really don't lack for things to do in either game. Neither UB adds anything significant to the gameplay, and in many cases unbalances things. Also, despite the marketing, there's only about 2% of anything added that derives from the original games. However, UB-BG1 is much better, imo, than UB-BG2, as it tends to patch some obvious holes rather than making shit up just to answer questions no one ever asked. If you want, I can tell you which components I use.

 

[GarfunkeL]

You write your own AI scripts? Neat!

 

[Aeschylus]

Have you messed around with BG1 Unfinished Business at all? Only mod I'm really torn on.

BG1 UB was pretty good actually. Nothing really stood out as out of place, it's mostly just additions or revisions to old quests. I think there's 3 quests it adds that weren't present in the original game at all.
BG2 UB took more liberties, but there were some things in it that I thought made sense. Bodhi attacking you in Spellhold was a good idea, and I thought the extension of the Kalah quest was decent enough. Not so good were the new Minsc quest and the Sarevok thing. Everything else was just sort of middling, but mostly harmless.

 

[SwiftCrack]

B1ub is great; bg2ub is well... not so great.

 

[Antignition]

re: UB1: I really don't lack for things to do in either game. Neither UB adds anything significant to the gameplay, and in many cases unbalances things. Also, despite the marketing, there's only about 2% of anything added that derives from the original games. However, UB-BG1 is much better, imo, than UB-BG2, as it tends to patch some obvious holes rather than making shit up just to answer questions no one ever asked. If you want, I can tell you which components I use.

I thought your breakdown of BG2 UB was pretty good, matched what I remember from my experience with it. If you're offering to do a similar breakdown for the first one that'd be great.

Had no idea about that Druid Enhancement mod, I'll have to take a look at that for when I get to BG2. Thanks for the list.

If I didn't write my own AI scripts, I'd use SCS/2.

Sounds like a lot of work. What do you do differently from DavidW? There were some features of his AI that always bugged me. Now I use his mod just to remove/move some of the more broken items in the game.

 

[waywardOne]

You write your own AI scripts? Neat!

In my very humble opinion, SCS would be much more useful in a procedurally generated game where encounters and enemies are created on-the-fly. He's been adding little details in the most recent versions. What I'm doing is scripting by hand every battle in the game. This is allowing for better variety and better customization for 'typical' party builds. I'll brag on myself for my Davaeorn stuff. One day when I can get enough done, I might release them.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Do you also tinker with the levels, items and spells that enemies use?

 

[waywardOne]

Mildly so. My major issue with SCS is that it makes me feel like my enemy is another player who is a powergamer. I don't, myself, use cheese or exploit bad mechanics, so I hate that I'm forced to fight against an enemy that does so.

I do more holistic changes, such as changing the base spell set of a mage based on whether he's part of a mixed adventuring party or totally solo or has meatshield grunts; things like that.

I will admit to a kind of cheating, though. I will vary the enemy composition based on party composition, and I also track certain spells so that the more significant bosses will have appropriate counters.

 

[waywardOne]

re: UB1: I really don't lack for things to do in either game. Neither UB adds anything significant to the gameplay, and in many cases unbalances things. Also, despite the marketing, there's only about 2% of anything added that derives from the original games. However, UB-BG1 is much better, imo, than UB-BG2, as it tends to patch some obvious holes rather than making shit up just to answer questions no one ever asked. If you want, I can tell you which components I use.

I thought your breakdown of BG2 UB was pretty good, matched what I remember from my experience with it. If you're offering to do a similar breakdown for the first one that'd be great.

Had no idea about that Druid Enhancement mod, I'll have to take a look at that for when I get to BG2. Thanks for the list.

If I didn't write my own AI scripts, I'd use SCS/2.

Sounds like a lot of work. What do you do differently from DavidW? There were some features of his AI that always bugged me. Now I use his mod just to remove/move some of the more broken items in the game.

I'm close to bedtime, but I'll get my BG1UB list up before I leave for... well, I'd call it a vacation except it's just to see my family, which is not really a "vacation".

re: Druid Kits Enhancement - There's a tease of things he was going to add at the end of the readme: redoing the Faldorn fight is something on my to-do list as well. Not sure why he doesn't get it hosted somewhere more visible.

re: script - Yup. Tremendous pain in the ass to do, which is why I completely understand why no one's done it already. If you're not keen on SCS, there is this. You can ignore the quest stuff (similar in nature to UB), but the author wrote one of the best tutorials on AI scripting for BG. I daresay he's 2nd in that heirarchy, just behind Xyx.

 

[waywardOne]

Okay. BG1-UB. I am compelled to skip evaluating any TotSC stuff because I never play it as part of a BG game. I'll load up a save for a Durlag's Tower run-through and/or werewolf quest, but for me it gives too much XP to have it precede a BG2 run.

The Mysterious Vial - Honestly, very unsatisfying. Instead of it being the player that says "Hmm, I wonder what this is for?", you get to see two NPCs ask the same question and voice the same speculations. The XP is unnecessary and none of it is interesting.

Additional Elminster Encounter - Unintrusive and feels like a natural part of the game. Well, besides Elminster treating you like Frodo and not doing a damn thing to actually help you despite knowing your heritage and the perils you face, but that's in vanilla, too.

Angelo notices Shar-Teel - Awesome. A very seamless minor expansion that gives a bit more depth to two otherwise very flat characters. I also like that it allows a non-violent solution to an unavoidable problem.

Finishable Kagain Caravan Quest - Ho-hum. I always assumed Kagain really didn't give a shit about it. This just makes him say so out loud.

Coran and the Wyverns - More of a fix than anything else; should be in the Fixpack, imo.

Kivan and Tazok - I'm pretty sure the devs didn't do it like this component because that whole getting-into-the-bandit-camp deal is already screwy. If you don't mind more screwiness, this is fine, although, realistically, since you can't kill Tazok, having Kivan with you and having him react this way should result in tpk, amirite? <shrug>

Branwen and Tranzig - Not much. If he doesn't see her, neither will comment. Vanilla scripting for this is fairly terribad, anyway.

Safana the Flirt - Just... no. The innate swap may make sense, but can be very unbalancing. A better change would be to just get rid of her innate altogether.

Appropriate Albert and Rufie Reward - Nowhere near as interesting as it could've been. All it does is rectify any changes done by other... mods, which in this era of BGT, should be superfluous.

Place Entar Silvershield in his Home - I hate this one. Bringing in a major (gameworld-wise) character just to have him say a couple of insignificant lines is horrible. It does nothing for anyone's story or any plot.

Scar and the Sashenstar's Daughter - Eh. A slight expansion of an already trivial minor quest.

Quoningar, the Cleric - Unfinished? How about not introduced at all. A precursor of the gratuitous liberties taken in BG2-UB.
Shilo-Chen and the Ogre Magi - as above.
Edie, the Merchant League Applicant - as above.

Flaming Fist Mercenary Reinforcements - Sounds cool, huh? Like more would spawn in when you attack one to get his plate mail, right? No. Just a couple more there at the start. Considering there's no rep hit for ganking them, adding more is just more of an incentive to be greedy and bloodthirsty. Maybe if they had a script to, you know, go out and attack bandits or monsters with you; that'd be worthwhile. This isn't.

Creature Restorations - Decent but ignorable. I don't recall if the information they can provide is actually missing info or just redundant.

all the other Restorations - mostly fixes, some desirable, nothing lame enough to make you skip.

Elven Charm & Sleep Racial Resistance - Is this not part of BG1Tweak? Either way, I'd consider it a necessary fix.

The Original Saga Music Playlist Corrections - irrelevant unless yours is TOS, which shouldn't be the case, ever.

Sarevok's Diary Corrections - other than the debateable last name decision (which isn't wrong, just debateable), a smartly done component.

====

 

[80Maxwell08]

So if I was trying to go for a more "vanilla" experience (as in not adding content) could someone give me a list of mods to install in the right order? I wish I was more competent at modding but sadly I'm an idiot. Also every time I tried modding the games I somehow managed to screw up even when using those GOG guides (also I own the GOG versions). On a unrelated note is there a similar forum for Planescape Torment I can look through since every time I tried modding that game I got constant slowdowns and very frequent crashes (as in several times per hour).

 

[Jaesun]

So if I was trying to go for a more "vanilla" experience (as in not adding content) could someone give me a list of mods to install in the right order? I wish I was more competent at modding but sadly I'm an idiot.

Download the following (this is assuming you are using the GOG versions of BG and BG II):

Baldur's Gate II Fixpack
Baldur's Gate Trilogy
TUTU GUI

Install Baldur's Gate and then install Baldur's Gate II
Install Baldur's II Gate Fixpack
Install Baldur's Gate Trilogy
In your Baldur's Gate II directory Run Setup-bgtmusic (select option 1 - Full Baldur's Gate/ToTSC Music)
Install TUTU GUI

Start game and have fun.

 

[80Maxwell08]

So if I was trying to go for a more "vanilla" experience (as in not adding content) could someone give me a list of mods to install in the right order? I wish I was more competent at modding but sadly I'm an idiot.

Download the following (this is assuming you are using the GOG versions of BG and BG II):

Baldur's Gate II Fixpack
Baldur's Gate Trilogy
TUTU GUI

Install Baldur's Gate and then install Baldur's Gate II
Install Baldur's II Gate Fixpack
Install Baldur's Gate Trilogy
In your Baldur's Gate II directory Run Setup-bgtmusic (select option 1 - Full Baldur's Gate/ToTSC Music)
Install TUTU GUI

Start game and have fun.

Thanks though for some reason the line of sight (or fog of war whatever it's called) is still in some grid form. Any ideas how to fix that?

 

[GarfunkeL]

Also, remember to run both BG1 and BG2 once before you install BGT, so that the game creates all scripts and assets. Just start a new game and once you can, quick-save and quit.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Also, remember to run both BG1 and BG2 once before you install BGT, so that the game creates all scripts and assets. Just start a new game and once you can, quick-save and quit.

I actually forgot to do that the first time I installed everything so I uninstalled and reinstalled everything again. The grid problem remained though but now it's fixed and all I did was up the cache size by a ton in the config. Eh whatever it's working fine now. Started as a half elf fighter/cleric for no particular reason. Might work better if I knew the first thing about D&D but hey if I was so concerned with that I shouldn't have bought every D&D game on GOG.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Fighter/cleric is fun enough, don't worry about. There's a ton of mix-max powergaming guides for ultimate dual/multi class combos but BG1/2 aren't really that difficult that you would need them.

 

[General Maxson]

So if I was trying to go for a more "vanilla" experience (as in not adding content) could someone give me a list of mods to install in the right order? I wish I was more competent at modding but sadly I'm an idiot.

Download the following (this is assuming you are using the GOG versions of BG and BG II):

Baldur's Gate II Fixpack
Baldur's Gate Trilogy
TUTU GUI

Install Baldur's Gate and then install Baldur's Gate II
Install Baldur's II Gate Fixpack
Install Baldur's Gate Trilogy
In your Baldur's Gate II directory Run Setup-bgtmusic (select option 1 - Full Baldur's Gate/ToTSC Music)
Install TUTU GUI

Start game and have fun.

Hey bro, can you provide the link for that Baldur's Gate II Fixpack, because that one doesn't work anymore? And I don't know where to get the latest version. Also why isn't Baldur's Gate I Fixpack needed?

Is this pure vanilla but with all bugfixes in the games? I.E. good for a first timer?

Also I have a widescreen monitor, and where can I get widescreen mod? And when should I install it? Will the game look like shit without widescreen mod? My native resolution is 1680 x 1050.

 

[waywardOne]

The link works. G3 has stability issues.

BGT has its own inherent "fixpack".

 

[GarfunkeL]

Widescreen mod should be installed last. It supports all possible resolutions for BG&IWD. Some issues with PST, check the readme.
http://www.gibberlings3.net/widescreen/

 

[waywardOne]

Widescreen mod should be installed last. It supports all possible resolutions for BG&IWD. Some issues with PST, check the readme.
http://www.gibberlings3.net/widescreen/

Should it? I know that running BG Config first is recommended just to get all the fields into the ini, but I think the "install last" was an anti-annoyance thing since putting it before a ton of mods that have to be re-installed every time you wanted to change resolution.

I've installed it first every time and just move it to the bottom of the weidu.log when I want to change res.