13 replies to this topic

[Gicusan]

As I said. I have not replayed Baldur's Gate in the last 6 years or something. As i now found out this wonderful forum and the mods data base, I would ask you guys to tell me which mods should I install (compatinility is important) in order to have the richest game possible.

I read through the big ones (mega modifications) and a few of others. Still, i am sure many played a lot with them and I would thank you for the guidance.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Well, it depends a lot on what you wish: Do you have both the BG games and the expansions, and what other mods have you played and how much you wish the game experience to be changed by the mods? Of course you could download the BWS and then make a lot of seeking on what all of those mods add, but I would suggest to answer that question, and you'll get few suggestions.

[Gicusan]

Well, it depends a lot on what you wish: Do you have both the BG games and the expansions, and what other mods have you played and how much you wish the game experience to be changed by the mods? Of course you could download the BWS and then make a lot of seeking on what all of those mods add, but I would suggest to answer that question, and you'll get few suggestions.

I have Baldurs complete. and I never played a mod so far. the more fun, the better. I like to explore and try as many quests and items as possible. Also I remember from my original tries that I would have loved to be able to grow 1-2 levels more as I was always stuck on no experience gained in the late game. I love some meta mods that say I can play baldur's 1 on bg2 engine and pass my party and stuff from one game to another also. still, i do not want to jump in and test all compatibilities on my own.

Basicaly, the more, the merrier. I am looking for guidance and I will do as you seniors in modding say Btw, I want to start from Baldur's 1 and endd with Baldur's 2 addon.
Also, I am sure such a reply would be helpful for many newcomers.

Edited by Gicusan, 26 October 2009 - 09:26 AM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

I would suggest that you would make BWS setup with a Tactical installation, as that is promised to be more than 99% compatibility bug free. But first I would also suggest that you download this for English, this for German, or this for Spanish, or at least go here and take an over all look at what you are going to install, then download the BWS v8.1, and run it so it extracts itself to your BG2 directory, and as it does, remember to choose the Tactical and the 'Further Installation options...', it will then give you option to pre-choose mods you wish to setup the game with, and when you say done, it will download everything you need, it will then extract them nearly all, then give you some hint what to do with the rest(there is a few files it can't unpack), then at the end it will start the BiG World Install.bat which will install everything, while you are staring an ever scrolling DOS window, or sleep, eat and live your life about 5 to 10 hours and return to a fully installed game that takes about 30 GBs of the computer space, at least.

But that's just my opinion.
It might also be worth knowing that the Expert mods include the Tactical mod, the Tactical mods include the Standard, and the Standard include the Recommended mods, but not the other way around!

I have Baldurs complete. and I never played a mod so far. the more fun, the better.

I do not know the exact collection, but if it's anything like this, you should be able to make full installation of both games, with their respected patches(v(1.3.)5512 and v(2.5.)26498) to separated paths, and so install the BGT and everything that it comes with...

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 26 October 2009 - 12:26 PM.

[Gicusan]

thanks. this is quite a job for me. Will do my best.


and yes I ahve both games with the 2 addons. will see how this unfolds and answer more later.

[Gicusan]

after 1.5 days of work I am at the point I can play Baldur's 1 without problems but also does not seem to have any mods working on it so far. (reached Arm's Inn, certainly no graphic improvments)
But Baldur's 2 does not seem to work at all. It seems some mods are there as far as characyer creatin is involved but when i start the game it freezes in the begining Irenicus dungeon movie, befor Imoen saves me.

I did what you and the pdf said. many mods did not download, many more were not installed (BWS said it). I even had reported 6 trojans when extracting (that is the only moment I had the antivirus on). Not sure if they were but those executabiles were reported so. Anyway, none seem to belong to any important mod.

and the "~BG2_TWEAKS/SETUP-BG2_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3141 // Faster Chapter 1&2 Cut-Scenes and Dreams" I cannot find to uninstall in the very place.

will try to play with a previous save to check some more. checked. too bugged but that could be because that is a save without any mod installed.

Edited by Gicusan, 27 October 2009 - 09:20 AM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

after 1.5 days of work I am at the point I can play Baldur's 1 without problems but also does not seem to have any mods working on it so far.

Ah, are you saying that you made a BGT game and then started the BG1, as you assumed it would work that way, that wrong. When you make a BGT game, you play it in the BG2.

I did what you and the pdf said. many mods did not download, many more were not installed (BWS said it). I even had reported 6 trojans when extracting (that is the only moment I had the antivirus on). Not sure if they were but those executabiles were reported so. Anyway, none seem to belong to any important mod.

Those are false alerts, as the setup-*modname*.exe is a WeiDU.exe renamed so it can takes it's orders from the setup-*modname*.tp2 file.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 27 October 2009 - 12:23 PM.

[Gicusan]

OK. I did it.

Reinstalled everything, no mega mod installed before the BWS. left it to do the job on recomended and now I can play Baldurs 1 from Baldurs 2 pop up. and looks great as graphics are much improved. Only probles so far are some blue (and new) items that cannot be right-clicked to know what they are good for. Even some classic items cause a crash. Looking to solve this as well.

Edit: Solved the crashing. No widescreen mode + game config modification did thosee crashes.

Edited by Gicusan, 28 October 2009 - 07:48 AM.

[Gicusan]

OK. I played Baldur's 1 with BWS installed - at least some of the mods on recomended were installed. I had a lot of fun playing under BG2 engine. Totaly diffrent experience.

Anyway, I have 3 things I want to ask:

1. My party is evil and I love it (even if I did not exactly played a full evil game): Kagain, Shar-Teel, Viconia, Xzar and Imoen ( I know she is not that evil but she does well).
Party is strong and I just killed Sarevok. I wonder if I will be able to have them all in BG2. I may change some but I want to keep some. I am sure Viconia and Imoen will be there for me. Also Kagain should be around. Wondering about Xzar - I know he plays a role in BG2 that is not party related.

2. Now to more serious stuff. I wonder if I can instal DStSC and NStSC over the BWS game and continue with my party untill I move to BG@. Unfortunately forums are not clear - at least for me upon the subject.

3. Where should I check for the BGS quest mods if they are installed? As I would love to have Shadows over Soubar, The Secret of Bone Hill, Tales of the Deep Gardens, even Check the Bodies, before continuing to BG2.

I am not sure if just adding them will spoil my game and I would like one of the "masters" to guide me a little.

Once again big thanks to everyone that makes this new experience possible for me. I still belive this is the greatest game of the genre up to the day and I am fully enjoing it.

Edited by Gicusan, 03 November 2009 - 02:39 AM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

1. My party is evil and I love it (even if I did not exactly played a full evil game): Kagain, Shar-Teel, Viconia, Xzar and Imoen ( I know she is not that evil but she does well).
Party is strong and I just killed Sarevok. I wonder if I will be able to have them all in BG2. I may change some but I want to keep some. I am sure Viconia and Imoen will be there for me. Also Kagain should be around. Wondering about Xzar - I know he plays a role in BG2 that is not party related.

The BGT Tweaks adds Kagain and I think Shar-Teel to BG2, Xzar is not cause he is already in Amn as a non-joinable character.

2. Now to more serious stuff. I wonder if I can instal DStSC and NStSC over the BWS game and continue with my party untill I move to BG@. Unfortunately forums are not clear - at least for me upon the subject.

Not anymore if they are not installed already, as they are part of the BWS/BWInstall/BGT's addition mods. I did recommend you to use the 'Further Installation options...' in BWS.

3. Where should I check for the BGS quest mods if they are installed? As I would love to have Shadows over Soubar, The Secret of Bone Hill, Tales of the Deep Gardens, even Check the Bodies, before continuing to BG2.

Well, the WeiDU.log contains all the information you have installed, it's openable with text editor, like the Notepad.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 03 November 2009 - 03:53 AM.

[Gicusan]

This is my weidu logg attached. By the looks of it, no mod that enhances quests in there.

I hope BWS has some way of redoing it. Losing the character from BG1 is not such a big deal compared to being able to play more quests.

I apologise for being a total noob at codding and generaly a limited practical intelligence person.

Attached Files

•  Weidu.log   36.74K   168 downloads

Edited by Gicusan, 03 November 2009 - 06:35 AM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

I hope BWS has some way of redoing it.

W, not G, right. Yes, at least hopefully as it requires the backup done in the start of the BWS.

What you should do is to think hard if you wish to redo the installation, and think if you need a backup from the current game, it will take space, but it might be worth it.
Then I would copy the whole game directory to a safe place, other hard drive, or a backup folder... somewhere you can't find it.
Then start the BiG World Setup.vbs, take the "Recommended" version or the "Tactical" version of the Compilation and check the "Further Customization of your settings" box and soon, after the link-updating and selecting the mods to be installed, it should then give you:

Attention: According to you WeiDU.log, mods have been already installed.
Before the start of a new installation, your backup should be restored.
This will affect all files that were created after the backup.

Should these files be deleted or moved?
Enter [r]emove, [m]ove or [c]ancel.

To which you answer the "r", if you have done the backup, or not.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 03 November 2009 - 06:02 AM.

[Gicusan]

BWS, of course. Sorry, All this is both new and exciting for me.


Your indication souds good and I will get to it. Not the easiest way but I kinda understand why is needed. Against logic I hoped there is another way. Is any of you profesionals a romanian from Bucharest? I have some good wine in the fridge...


But I remember reading somewhere that, unlike the other 3, Throne of Baal cannot have more installs as it uses windows installer or something.

Edited by Gicusan, 03 November 2009 - 07:16 AM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

But I remember reading somewhere that, unlike the other 3, Throne of Baal cannot have more installs as it uses windows installer or something.

Well, you can't make a new installation as the game uses the Windows InstallShield, but you can copy the whole game directory, adjust the baldur.ini's [Alias] -headers, and start the game with BGMain.exe, not the baldur.exe . I have done this multiple times, hey I had 10 different BG games, now I only have about 5, two of which I just used to debug the new WeiDU.exe beta, it only took about 70Gb's.

Read more about how to make multiple working BG2 games simultaneously, point #7.