ps
Archwizard Hank look what’s gotten in the water since your LP started…
I write 40 solid pages (or so my text editor tells me) of LP every month to
warn you guys, not
encourage you. Holy fuck. I mean, I really shouldn't have expected anything less, but god
damn. Also update 16 is coming along nicely thanks for asking
Since I'm here and bound by the topic, I'd like to take this aside to blanketly warn anyone off of mods that advertise "HUGE AMOUNTS OF CONTENT!" or "OVER 200 NEW SPELLS!" or "HOURS OF GAMEPLAY!" or any other such ridiculous claim. While they will
technically deliver on these claims, the problem with big mods (aside from the obvious issue of quantity being prioritized over quality) is that most of them just aren't very good at telling you what the hell you're supposed to do, and this is a terminal problem in the world of modding, where modders are intentionally cagey about things like walkthroughs and overall
help because heaven forbid we "spoil the experience" for you. For a lot of mods, the only detailed walkthroughs you can find on the web aren't even for the latest versions you can download, so it's a crapshoot as to whether or not the listed solution is the solution that still works.
The best mods are smaller mods that focus on one specific idea and don't try to change
too many facets of the game, as if I even have to state this. Stuff like smaller self-contained quests, short dungeons, or NPCs that don't try to make themselves the center of the game's universe. I'd also like to state for the record that automatic mod managers are a mistake. If you don't know what you're installing, chances are up to 75% of what the installer suggests for a "recommended installation" will be terrible.
In the interest of being constructive, here's at least one mod from my ridiculous mod list that stood out to me as being decent. There are a couple of others, but the modlist isn't in front of me at the moment so I don't have their names.
https://www.gibberlings3.net/mods/npcs/glam-npc-pack/
I've only tested Vynd, and he seems to have originally been a standalone mod. I can't vouch for the other NPCs listed on this page, but Vynd is decent and jives fairly well with the rest of the game... Assuming you have the BG1 NPC Project enabled and the other vanilla NPCs are equally chatty. He kind of never shuts up.