5 replies to this topic

[guguma]

Hello All,

I have played SoA and ToB vanilla game countless of times and one I played the game with TDD, Improved anvil and G3 fixpack as far as I can remember. I never played BG1 (resolution is driving me mad).

I am planning to go through the whole series. And I see that there have been many improvements in terms of modding and fixing. But as you see the more options makes it more confusing and I have been away from the game a long time.

What I really want is a realistic and somewhat challenging mega-game experience.

By realistic I mean that I will not travel with 6 NPC's, only the ones I like, and probably for BG2 I will be going solo, and sometimes with only one NPC to do the NPC specific quests. (It will be some sort of power play, but I want to go through as many adventures as I can).

Also I will be playing as Kensai/Mage (I played it once before and liked it), but you see for realism I do not want to prepare for battles beforehand when my character has absolutely no chance of understanding what is coming next (So I need the power). (For example I will not prepare for Firkraag, or Drizzt (in BG2) or other stuff I do not actually remember). I find it lame to prepare for all battles with buffs before hand.

Now comes the mega mod help part:

First of all I want to use the BGT mod. For the resolution issue and for better graphics. I also want to use fixpacks (compatible ones). The reason I want to use them is mainly due to some descriptions on spells, items, weapons do not work as they are supposed to, and it is annoying.

I also want to install as many mega mods as possible for lots of adventures. NeJ, TDD, CtB, SoS, others I do not know of? qlso small quest packs as assasinations (as I say as many adventures and quests as possible).

And I want to install the improved anvil (I loved Celestial Fury +5, although it was kinda lame, maybe I will throw it away if it gets too lame).

Now the problem is I do not have any experience with BG1, I have no idea if TUTU is needed for BGT. And I have no idea about the compatibility of other mods and how to install them (the order of installation). And which mods are actually worth playing. I do not mind if some mods provide easy challanges (I like being powerful), or very challanging stuff (I also like challange). The only thing that matters is lots of stories, plot twists and adventures because that is why I love BG (especially all Black Isle, Bioware stuff).

Please do not tell me to search the forums or google it. I already DID but it is all too confusing. I need a head start, I need to choose which mods I need to install, which ones I CAN install with others, and which fixpacks I can install, and how to do them.

I truly appreciate all your help.

Edited by guguma, 22 March 2009 - 04:16 PM.

[Hoppy]

I am sure you will find a lot of content/quest adding mods following the Big World Project and it will help with mod download locations, installation order and its own fixpack as well as the G3 fixpack for compatibility. It also has an installation .BAT that can be customized to install everything automatically and is a lot less time consuming than manually.

http://www.shsforums...m...&showcat=72

Use the G3 fixpack for TDD, CtB, SoS and BG1 quest mods like DarkSide and North Tales of the Sword Coast and others you may wish in the Big World Project as the install order is given.

And I want to install the improved anvil (I loved Celestial Fury +5, although it was kinda lame, maybe I will throw it away if it gets too lame).

Improved Anvil has a very specific fixpack that it is built on and it is Baldurdash 1.12. It has a very detailed compatibility list in the read me for the mod. It is highly recommended not to install Improved Anvil with G3 fixpack and the mods that rely on G3 fixpack.

...I have no idea if TUTU is needed for BGT.

BGT sounds like the one you want if you want to play BG1 and BG2 with mods for both segments in one seamless game. TUTU doesn't combine TDD or SoS or the other mods for BG2.

All the best and good luck!

Edited by Hoppy, 22 March 2009 - 08:28 PM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

BG1Tutu is BG1 and BG1TotSC with the BG2 engine. It also installed on top of the BG2, so if you wish to play it, you can't use the BG2 part of the game in the directory...

EasyTutu can make a separate folder that uses the combined BG1&BG2 info to create it's own game folder... so it allows to play BG1 and BG2 in to different folders at the same time...

BGT makes a combination game with few small extra features. The latest version also allows to start in BG1 part or BG2:SoA part or even in BG2:ToB part of the game. The BGT requires the BG1 and BGTotSC patched to v(1.3.)5512 and BG2:SoA and BG2:ToB patched to v(2.5.)26498... and it's obviously installed into the BG2 folder, the BG1's folder will be inserted after you run the BGT installer.

Now, the good side of the Tutu installs are that they work as seperate entityes from the BG2 game, so you can mod them how you wish and not touch the BG2 game, but it comes also with it's own restrictions like that the character importing/exporting(from BG1 part to BG2 part) might be hard.

As the BGT combines the contents of the games, it makes the games default start be from the BG1 part(Candlekeep), with level 1 character, and 0 experience points, just like the Tutu, but once you have done the BG1&BGTotSC, you continue to the BG2:SoA part by talking to one of the game characters(this is the totally spoiler free explenation )

And as Hoppy already told, you can't combine the Improved Anvil with the BGT, TDD, SoS... or any other megamod mods without possibly loosing many or all the intented features, it could work, but it's a huge effort, and the base experience needed to actually combine the things would be more than the average computer geeks experience. And we are talking about geeks here.

Now, if you wish the game to have great resolution, you set the game to have the 1024x768 graphics, and then use the Widescreen mod to enlargen the screen size.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 23 March 2009 - 01:36 AM.

[jon-eli]

And I want to install the improved anvil (I loved Celestial Fury +5, although it was kinda lame, maybe I will throw it away if it gets too lame).

You might try Westley's Item Upgrade instead of Improved Anvil, since that's probably more along the lines of what you're looking for. Improved Anvil has moved away from being just an "improved items" mod, to being more focused on making battle battles more difficult and removing certain abuses of the game engine. It's probably quite a different mod from the one you remember.

[Chevalier]

For Item Upgrade mods Raud & Rolles, both are good and work with Westley's Item Upgrade.

[melkor_morgoth75]

If u've never played BG1 i suggest to avoid installing MODS for BG1 part of the game (so that u can enjoy the whole original story), but i strongly suggest to install BG1 NPC Project (even if u just will play with 1 or 2 NPCs). SO i would skip SoB, DSotSC & NTotSC,

just my 2 cents,
mm75