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SoA - Baldur's Gate II: The Throne of Bhaal

<< The Longer Road 1.5 >>

Janetta Bogatchenko <ladydorotea@hotmail.com>

<http://www.onlinefiction.net>

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Check out the <<Bitter Grey Ashes>> website for more Irenicus in his afterlife story

<http://www.onlinefic...tterAshes.html>
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WARNING -- LR MOD IS *NOT COMPATIBLE* WITH REDEMPTION MOD BY THE SAME AUTHOR!!!

Table of Contents
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I. About
II. Installation
III. Component 1: The Longer Road
IV. Component 2: Speed Banters
V. Component 3: Restore Irenicus's original portrait

VI. Bugs
VII. Tributes
VIII. FAQ (Spoilers)
IX. Changes

Section I. About
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Longer Road mod allows you to restore your main adversary from the SoA portion of the game back to life, and take him into the party to fight on your side. There are strings attached though... so be careful how you conduct your negotiations with Irenicus, and what exactly do you promise him. Each version of the contract has its negative sides.

The mod was written by a group of authors, most of whom are/were the regulars at the FWS forum or at the Attic fanfiction Forum. I, (Dorotea), can take credit for coordinating their efforts as well as for streamlining the plot and writing most of the Irenicus's banters with PC. No more, no less. Please check the list of banters and authors that is in the Tributes section for more detail.

The mod was coded by three major contributors: Merja (aka Maria Zamphir), Dorotea (aka Janetta Bogatchenko) and Nebukad (aka Tuomas Nurmi). Each one of the coders contributed their unique abilities and tremendous amount of personal time, and without each one of the three the LR mod would have not been possible.

The LR mod has 4 possible outcomes for both Irenicus and the PC.

See the The Longer Road Section for more details on the plot and some spoilers.


Section II. Installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BGII with the Throne of Bhaal expansion is required. Ascension is not required,
but I definitely suggest having it installed. It adds 'flavor' to LR.
LR should install correctly over any other WeiDU mods. In particular, it
will work fine with other common WeiDU mods (e.g., Tactics, Ascension, Ease-of-Use, Rogue Rebalancing, and various custom npc Romances.)

Extract the main archive into your BGII main directory. This is normally:

C:\Program Files\Black Isle\BGII - SoA\

Run (click on) "Setup-LongerRoad.exe".

Then choose which components you would like to install. You may always
uninstall them later by re-running "Setup-LongerRoad.exe".

You absolutely NEED to start a new ToB game to play LR.
The LR mod works best if you start with either a saved game from SoA finale with 'unlooted' 3rd and above floors of Watcher's Keep, or a new ToB game.

You will NOT be able to obtain the 'good' ending if you have looted the demon maze layer in WK. All other 3 outcomes are still possible.

All Ascension limitations about game freeze are still valid with Ascension - LR combo.


Section III. The Longer Road
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I do not wish to be overly verbose here, or to give away more of the plot than
you have already guessed out.

The mod adds a few additional scenes to the ToB portion of the game that
should start right after your character first appears in the Elder Grove.

1) In order to proceed with the plot you have to have Irenicus's old mask in
your inventory when you are teleported into the Pocket Plane. It is up to the player to obtain it... just be persuasive enough.

If you have the mask you will have a visitor to the PP, soon after you complete
the first challenge.

2) In order to proceed further you will have to make choices and convince Irenicus to join the party. No, he will not leap at the opportunity or try to blackmail you like Sarevok. So, if you want him you will have to work on it.

3) After you get Irenicus into the party he will have many conversations with PC. It is up to the player how to role-play these. Obviously your choices will affect the final outcome.

4) Each Bioware npc has multiple banters with Irenicus. There are no banters for custom npcs. Nor there are any future plans to add them, since my policy remains the same - the author of the new npc 'owns' the character. I would not dare to impose my ideas on their vision of their 'baby'.


The highlights of the LR, itself, besides the banters and interjections are:

* Volo conversation, new forced talks with Cespenar, Nyalee, Machine of L.t.M., and many Saradush dwellers if you send Irenicus to talk to them. Basically, try talking to every npc you can think of, to see if Irenicus has anything to say.

* Extensive New Quest in the WK. It starts in the demon maze layer as soon as you enter. You have to have Irenicus in the party when you first enter the maze to start the quest.

* A few neat custom items... not much, but some.

* Experience Cap reset to 40. No need to remove your old one though.

* Many of the original in-game npcs have gained portraits.

* Books of the Elven Lore. Learn more about elves of Toril - the books have new unique bams and there are 7 of them altogether. All info in the books was taken from reliable FR/Ad&D sources.

* 4 different epilogues for Irenicus. Try to get them all - hopefully they are different enough to be worth the effort.


Section IV. Speed Banters
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This component is my own modification of jcompton?s 'Bantergoose' add-on. It makes npcs banters happen more often and in a timed manner. The changes that I made are based on using some different in-game triggers and actions. Install at your own discretion - you might run out of npc banters before the game ends.


Section V. Restore Irenicus's original portrait
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This component restores Irenicus's original portrait from SoA section of the game. The LR default is 'Jon with a flame' from Bio's poster.


Section VI. Bugs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please inform Dorotea about any bugs you find in this mod. If they turn out to be true LR-Redemption bugs, we shall fix them. The contact email is once again ladydorotea@hotmail.com.

Section VII. Tributes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have already named the Three Main Programmers, but I also want to mention Seifer, whose help was invaluable with adding sounds and compressing the new area.

Here I shall try to list everybody else separating the creators, testers, and critics of the mod into separate sections.

The Main Writers Team:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bjorn: Valygar

Broken Phoenix: final 'good' Imoen banter, Minsc

Domi: 'good' Aerie, Cernd, Mazzy, parts of Valygar

Dorotea: all Irenicus vs PC banters, 'undecided' Imoen, Jaheira, Sarevok, and parts of Edwin banters. Ellesime, Rielev, all other non-joinable npc interjection, Epilogues, the Deva Quest, items descriptions, journal entries, Books of Elven Lore, finales

Laufey: Edwin, 'undecided' Aerie, Nalia, Anomen

Maidros: Parts of the Deva Quest

Merja: Miscellaneous npc interjections

Seifer: Keldorn

Weyoun: Viconia, Korgan, Jan Jansen, Haer Dalis


The Main Editorial Team:
(plot developers, editors, idea generators)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dorotea, Maidros and Merja

Separately I want to mention Helseth who was one of our best commentators and testers and who had to limit his involvement in the later stages of the mod development due to RL situation.

Bjorn, and Laufey, whose commentary and suggestion were always extremely helpful and timely.

Also: Caleth, LordE, Seifer and Arcalian


Bams, spells, items, and misc. advice (please remind me if I have missed somebody!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dorotea, Valheru, Cuv, Seifer, Ancient Slayer, Ghreyfain, Galactygon, Sir-Kill

I also would like to thank all the beta testers, and especially Maidros, Glamdring, Helseth and Darkzas.

Sounds
~~~~~~~
Elysium Nymphs have the voices of Dorotea, Laufey and Jeanette (Caleth).

Irenicus's personal theme is 'March to the Scaffold' by Hector Berlioz (from the Damnation of Faust), Chessmania theme is 'Troll's March' by Edvard Grieg, Ellesime and Seldarine theme is an Elven/Galadriel theme from LoTR, Abyssal music is Shelob's theme from LoTR, Elysium theme is one of the many reiki themes from http://www.reikitheh...reiki_music.htm


Section VIII. FAQ (Spoilers)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q: How can I convince Ellesime to give me the mask?

A: You need a character with Int + Wis >= 24 , and lower stat at least 10.

Q: I am being so polite to her, and she still walks away!

A: Try to be less polite, but not overly rude.

Q: I did everything right and Irenicus still demands a Bhaalspawn soul!

A: He will always demand one, it is up to you to let him have one or not.
Hint:'I cannot be controlled' is a motto he takes rather seriously...

Q: Do I 'have to' solve the Deva Quest?

A: Only if you want to obtain the 'good' ending.


Section IX. Changes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
v 1.1
Added the tisunpack.bat to thedownload -- this was the reason for the crash.

Small fix to the Jaheira dialog that fixed her saying 'Escaped?...' over and over again.

Fixed the good ending when Jon supposedly passed out was commenting on the PC choices.

v1.2

Fixed Irenicus turning hostile after talk with drow woodcutter bug and Irenicus getting insta-killed after the interject with the monk in the Abazigal dungeon.

Added credits to the soundwork.

v1.3

Neb fixed Machine of Lum the Mad exploit. I also made the demon Abaia spawn conditions a bit easier to fulfil.

v1.4

Fixed several bugs here :

The looping dialog after talk #6 -- if Irenicus chose evil path after this conversation.

If Player promised a soul and refused Sendai's soul Jon should now ask for a 'dragon' soul the second time around. Also this should notresult in him immediately have a dialog and change alignment.

Made it so that he does not say his piece about wanting Balthazar's soul if he is redeemed.

v1.4.1

Fixed a small bug in Rielev initial dialog -- now you should be able to leave Pocket Plane in any case after you have refused him

New Paperdoll bam for Irenicus was made -- with no background. I think it looks much better than the old one -- thank you once again Sir-Kill!

v1.4.2

Lots of fixes in this release.

Firstly jcompton (who was kindly testing the mod) pointed out to the possible problem with series of cutscenes in Hell (the scripts and dialogs were not flowing tightly enough from one another, allowing for pauses and saving the game, which caused more problems.) I revised the scripts here and made the area un-save-able, added a few features for security and fixed the problem with absent 'start cutscene mode' action in a few scripts.

Secondly looping dialog #5 in case of chosen evil path was fixed, it was related to not updating the counter in one script.

Thirdly I finally tracked down and restored the missing nymph and minotaur from Improved Gromnir - Ascension component. Also tried to tighten the script by adding extra GLOBAL to avoid freezing the game if PC is not able to speak.

The release also includes quite a few new bams by Sir-Kill, whom I want to thank once again for doing exceptionally good job on these.

Finally, as suggested by Arcalian, Irenicus's 'Critical Hit' voice selection was changed to a new line.

v1.4.3

Yes another valiant attempt to fix the Melissan after Gromnir encounter bug. Re-scripted the conditions of the Irenicus's interjections and added timer, in case of the game glitch.

Minor fixes of the Edwin-Irenicus banters, timer again.

Changed the mask item so it gives +1 int and does not grant immunity from stun.

v1.4.4

Added spanish translation by Immortality and her crew.

v 1.5

Yet another attempt to fix the two looping dialogs -- Edwin squirrel and Irenicus Evil talk. Added a new item -- a note that appears in PC inventory as a hint to where to look for the last artifact of the Deva Quest. Added 'add music check' to install options. This is supposed to make the LR mod easier compatible with BP. We shall see if more meddling is needed. Please report any errors you see while trying to install the LR with BP set of mods.