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

[roshan]

Tobex for example is essential for turning off the fake attacks

Sorry for asking newbie questions, but what is Tobex and "fake attacks"?

What oldmanpaco said, also, in early levels, when your character is only attacking 1 time per round (six seconds), it gets boring waiting for the next attack, so the time in between your character keeps playing filler attack animations so that the combat looks exciting. But this is completely false visual information because when you check the log, no attacks are actually being rolled.

When you turn off the fake attacks, you get to enjoy IE combat in it's pure round based glory. Set it to autopause at the end of every round and the game pretty much plays like synchronous turn based or something of that sort. I think a lot of people who bitch about IE style RTWP might have actually liked it with the fake attacks disabled.

 

[Jason Liang]

This is why rt w/p fails as a tactical combat engine

No xp problems here...

 

[GarfunkeL]

Baldur's Gate in approaching on my play list and I have to considered using the EE version. It used to be so simple when TuTu was still supported and BGT gave you unbalancing amounts of XP for reading scrolls and picking locks.

Anyway, there seems to me to be two definite points in the favour of the EE version.
1. Unlike TuTu and BGT, Khalid&Jaheira will eventually duke it out with Monty&Xzar if you keep both pairs in your party. Maybe not a big deal for most people, but for me it was one my favourite WTF?!? moments in a CRPG.

2. Pause and Unpause with different keys. Useful in the larger battles against enemy parties.

Another thing to consider: the enemy spawns. I know Jaesun has harped a lot about how TuTu and BGT were unable to replicate the spawns of BG1, but how does the EE version compare?

As for the new SJW companions, I kind of look forward to sending them in alone to have discussions about gender issues with Basilisks.

Khalid and Jaheira will fight Monty and Xzar as long as you do not install any mod component that disables party fighting.

Spawns are different from the original because the EE uses BG2 engine. That's the reason why TuTu and BGT never got them 100% correct. There are multiple options for you on how to do the spawns as several mods tinker with them.

 

[Krivol]

Bow thingie (can have 2h missle weapon AND shield without tedious micromanagement) and quick loot are extremly useful in my opinion. Also loading times.

I've played a bit EE edition and then jumped to World of BG (some megamod for BGT) and I missed those features. Still - not having Neera is a good thing (and don't tell me you can ignore her and other characters - Neera has gem bag, other EE NPCs can provide you with some other useful items, whole reason to struggle with those dickheads)

 

[Jason Liang]

Bow thingie (can have 2h missle weapon AND shield without tedious micromanagement) and quick loot are extremly useful in my opinion. Also loading times.

I've played a bit EE edition and then jumped to World of BG (some megamod for BGT) and I missed those features. Still - not having Neera is a good thing (and don't tell me you can ignore her and other characters - Neera has gem bag, other EE NPCs can provide you with some other useful items, whole reason to struggle with those dickheads)

And also you can take them into SoD...

This time through BG I'm taking:

Myself
Gorn
Isra -> Neera (after Isra leaves)
Finch -> Substitute for Minsc for Saervok finale
Imoen -> Substitute for Dynabitch for Saervok finale
Safana
Sharteel

Not going to talk at all with Edwin or Viconia, so hopefully when I recruit them in SoD they will get a nice fat xp bonus

 

[gunman]

Instead of spending money on creating retarded NPCs and ulgy UI they should have created useful options such as set native resolution (zooming in doesn't look good), play with BG1 rules (no pause in inventory screen, hidden charges), some kind of build in mod manager etc. At the moment BGT looks much better than the EE because the BG2 UI and the possibility to set resolution. Also they screw up mod compatibility with every major patch, I remember a pretty UI that was made pre 2.0 and didn't work after 2.0 (and was abandoned). So Beamdog seems to be the worst company that could have take over the BG franchise

 

[GarfunkeL]

I'm not going to the trouble of responding to you since you just perfectly illustrated why the decline happens. Lazy retard.

 

[ghostdog]

Are there any worthwhile content mods?

There was a time when I actually tried all those big content mods like shadows over subpar and darkest day and *something* the bodies and they were shit. Laughable writing, retarded combat and god-mode items.

The only new content mod I've liked is Tower of deception, which felt like an old-school D&D module, are there any other similar mods?

 

[Grunker]

^ Large content mods are laughably bad. That's still true.

Smaller mods I don't know really, I don't use content mods much. Tower of Deception is pretty good though.

 

[Jarpie]

Last time I played BG2 I remember using expanded quest for Harper Hold which lets you fuck them over and help Xzar and Montaron...Jaheira doesn't like it and killing her is always a plus.

 

[Xeon]

Kinda waiting for this mod to finish since kinda sounds good. Eve of War for BG1EE and A Journey's End for BG2EE which is very early still.

Only thing I really dislike about the new UI of SoD is the statues effects are in a very small areas IIRC but there are UI mods already. The Japanese UI was pretty good but it was dropped by the modder.

 

[Grunker]

Oh and Quest Pack is pretty good, that's an oldie but goldie

 

[agris]

Instead of spending money on creating retarded NPCs and ulgy UI they should have created useful options such as set native resolution (zooming in doesn't look good), play with BG1 rules (no pause in inventory screen, hidden charges), some kind of build in mod manager etc. At the moment BGT looks much better than the EE because the BG2 UI and the possibility to set resolution. Also they screw up mod compatibility with every major patch, I remember a pretty UI that was made pre 2.0 and didn't work after 2.0 (and was abandoned). So Beamdog seems to be the worst company that could have take over the BG franchise

There's a completely unelegant way to force the resolution of the EEs if you're interested. Disable EE scaling and zoom, and change your desktop resolution to what you want the game resolution to be. That's the only way to do it afaik.

To make it a bit less painful, you can do it all by command line using Display Changer and it'll automatically revert back when you exit the game.

for example, my IWDEE.bat

"C:\Program Files (x86)\12noon Display Changer\dc64cmd.exe" -width=1440 -height=900 -depth=32 "G:\games\Steam\steamapps\common\Icewind Dale Enhanced Edition\icewind.exe"

Your icon positions are safe too as long as you aren't using something older than Win7.

 

[Jason Liang]

So I spent most of today trying to figure out why BG1 NPC Project wasn't working. Fixed it by manually reinstalling everything. 10 hours debugging, 2 hours playing.

I've gotten my PC up to 50,000 xp again, now going to start the game for real.

My problem is, should I dual Imoen to mage at level 2 or level 6? She gets 32,000 bonus xp when I recruit her. If I dual her immediately before she gets the xp, she is Thief 2/ Mage 5. Otherwise she is Thief 6 (inactive)/ Mage 1. If I was going to keep her until the end, I would take Thief 6/ Mage x, but since she leaves immediately in SoD, I'm pretty much committed to developing Safana as my end thief instead.

OR

 

[octavius]

Are there any worthwhile content mods?

There was a time when I actually tried all those big content mods like shadows over subpar and darkest day and *something* the bodies and they were shit. Laughable writing, retarded combat and god-mode items.

The only new content mod I've liked is Tower of deception, which felt like an old-school D&D module, are there any other similar mods?

There are som conversions of old pen&paper modules: http://classicadventuresmod.com/
Haven't tried them myself, though, so I don't know how good the 0.53 Alpha version that haven't been updated since 2010 is.

 

[Jaesun]

Another thing to consider: the enemy spawns. I know Jaesun has harped a lot about how TuTu and BGT were unable to replicate the spawns of BG1, but how does the EE version compare?

Spawns are different from the original because the EE uses BG2 engine. That's the reason why TuTu and BGT never got them 100% correct. There are multiple options for you on how to do the spawns as several mods tinker with them.

Yeah, the spawn thing in BG literately TIGGERS ME. The encounter tables they used for BG aren't used in the BG II engine so they can't actually replicate it (in Tutu/BGT or EE). Which is a shame, because it was basically perfect (I don't even know WHY Bio even changed this in the BG II engine)?

This is one reason (among many) I have not, or even purchased the EE version. Also I hate the fact that the Spells are NOT like they were in the original BG engine. I completely get that a number of Spells were broken and some were complete I WIN buttans in the original BG, but I really miss that when ever I would play BG in BGT/Tutu. It IS interesting and fun to play with the newer and adjusted spells in BG II for BG, but sometimes I just want to experience the original experience, of which I cannot do at all in the EE edition (In my opinion, they completely dropped the ball on that, but I DO get why they did). So I will still stick to playing the Original version (even with all of its horrible limitations), when I just want to relive the original experience.

 

[oldmanpaco]

You people go on about the spawn changes but I haven't played BG1 without BWP in over a decade. What changed?

fake edit: I always use the BGSpawn mod + SCS harder spawns component and I have never felt the random encounters/spawns were messed up.

 

[Grunker]

I don't get people who obsess over spawns or spell updates. Sorry Jaesun. It seems completely anachronistic

 

[Reinhardt]

I'll trade Neera and Dorn for original experience any day.

 

[agris]

Also I hate the fact that the Spells are NOT like they were in the original BG engine. I completely get that a number of Spells were broken and some were complete I WIN buttans in the original BG, but I really miss that when ever I would play BG in BGT/Tutu.

The past few times I played BG1 it was in BGT, so remind us: what changed? Where some of the X/Y level spells in BG2 just a flat Z projectiles? I think wands and scrolls changed in BG2 to have a flat caster level of 10 iirc.

 

[ghostdog]

For me spawns or spells are not much of a problem since I mainly play BG to get the feel of the whole adventure and get to BGII. I also want to use SCS which improves enemy AI a lot, and thus combat, and it only works with the BG2 engine. Even with the more challenging combat you can get through the game faster since you have a lot of stuff from the BG2 engine that make your life easier, like the item highlight button. Also scripts worked much better with the BG2 engine. I'm playing the original IWD now and even the simpler scripts (search for traps, bardsong, turn undead) are fucked up and work randomly, or don't work at all, or bork other skills like hide in shadows. Thank god I realized that HoW implemented item highlight with the alt key, I spent most of the first chapter pixel hunting.

Finally let me mention path-finding... the original BG engine had downright horrible path-finding. Those stupid party members would head to the opposite direction towards dead ends and would always get stuck in turns and corridors. IIRC there was a certain dungeon with narrow paths in BG1 that could drive you crazy. In IWD it's the same. A lot of time my party even gets stuck at the door while trying to exit a house and I have to manually get them out one at a time. BG2's path-finding isn't perfect but it's much better than BG's.

 

[Grunker]

Yeah above all else the loss of SCS is massive. I can't imagine playing BG without it. Besides being a total cakewalk if you're an experienced player, it adds so much encounter diversity to the game

 

[agris]

That's why I used SCS1, remember they were only merged a few years ago.

 

[Sykar]

Guide to Installing and Modding Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, Siege of Dragonspear and Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition

With EET, the EE's are very close to being strictly surperior to the old versions (barring aesthetic UI aversions). I realize the Codex hates the EE's (hell, I practically started the hate), but with several years of modding, the mod content for the EE's is pretty much superior. I haven't played Siege of Dragonspear yet (saving it for two small compatability issues being resolved), but the people I trust say it's pretty good gameplay-wise.

The only major lacking gameplay mod is Level1NPCs, and not many people use that (I can't play BG without it, unfortunately, so I'm still stuck on the old versions). The rest are pretty much compatible. Even EET is close to being compatible with all relevant mods, it just lacks Item Randomiser and some other misc stuff.

The hate is justified considering that BD is not really selling something new. They sell you something you can already have for much cheaper with stuff you do not need. It is essentially a cash grab, nothing more and by god I rather play without mods than giving them a single cent. Outside of some graphic stuff and a few minor improvements to interface the rest was available through mods easily and in fact BD used at least in parts readily available mods on their own so there was even less effort needed on their part.

 

[agris]

Guide to Installing and Modding Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, Siege of Dragonspear and Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition

With EET, the EE's are very close to being strictly surperior to the old versions (barring aesthetic UI aversions). I realize the Codex hates the EE's (hell, I practically started the hate), but with several years of modding, the mod content for the EE's is pretty much superior. I haven't played Siege of Dragonspear yet (saving it for two small compatability issues being resolved), but the people I trust say it's pretty good gameplay-wise.

The only major lacking gameplay mod is Level1NPCs, and not many people use that (I can't play BG without it, unfortunately, so I'm still stuck on the old versions). The rest are pretty much compatible. Even EET is close to being compatible with all relevant mods, it just lacks Item Randomiser and some other misc stuff.

The hate is justified considering that BD is not really selling something new. They sell you something you can already have for much cheaper with stuff you do not need. It is essentially a cash grab, nothing more and by god I rather play without mods than giving them a single cent. Outside of some graphic stuff and a few minor improvements to interface the rest was available through mods easily and in fact BD used at least in parts readily available mods on their own so there was even less effort needed on their part.

Its release brought awareness of isometric RPGs to groups of people who had never played BG1 before, and who either didn't have a Windows PC or the knowledge and/or wherewithal to mod the game. The context of the release is important, and I'm still glad they made them despite finding SoD and IWD:EE the only worthwhile ones. Keep in mind that BG1:EE was released in November of 2012- we weren't exactly swimming in isometric RPG releases. The kickstarter campaigns for PoE, WL2 and SRR had only finished several months prior. While I don't have any data to back this up, it's my feeling that BG1:EE, PoE, WL2 and SRR had a combined net positive impact on the market. Again, I don't have any data, but I think that makes it easier for new, niche games more aligned with some of our sensibilities to be made.

It's easy to shit on the new UI and poor NPCs, but I'd rather live in a world where there are isometric RPGs I can dismiss, or choose the flavor of, than be back in dark ages of the mid 2000s.