10 replies to this topic

[Raven Corax]

Hey guys,

After I played through Planescape: Torment the other day, I want to start with the Baldur's Gate series now. I have already installed Baldur's Gate and the Add-On Tales of the Sword Coast + the 1.1.4315 Patch.
My question now is: Am I ready to go or should I install some Fixpacks, Tweaks, Patches, blahblahblah before I'll start the adventure?
It was so easy with PS:T and it's Qwinn Mods + the widescreen + the UI Mod. That was that with this game, but is there a similar procedure with Baldur's Gate? I heard about the Trilogy Mod but am not entirely sure if it's worth it.. remember that I want to play through the original game without any Expansions, but with a better/enhanced original experience.

Thanks in Advance ;-)

Edited by Raven Corax, 09 May 2010 - 08:39 AM.

[Ipsissimus]

There actually aren't that many mods for vanilla BG1. Most of them are for TuTu and the Baldur's Gate Trilogy, both of which use the BG2 engine to play BG1. G3's BG1 Tweaks is pretty handy, and PPG's Unfinished Business is worth installing.

The Trilogy is not a mod in and of itself. It's an engine conversion, so you get things like kits and higher resolution in BG1, and you can play continuously through to BG2 and ToB. It is worth playing though

[Lollorian]

Whatever mods you choose, have a go through the BWP guide for install orders (just pick whatever 5-6 ... or 50 mods you want, find them in that guide and install them in that order ) ... The guide can even help you find stuff you may want

If you wanna get a full-blown megamod install though ... it's time to get the rest of the BWP tools out

[Jarno Mikkola]

I have already installed Baldur's Gate and the Add-On Tales of the Sword Coast + the 1.1.4315 Patch.

Take the v(1.3.)5512, it's the latest official, and do not install anything Direct X related stuff... it has the possibility towill destroyF&%/( your computer.
As the patch you have is for the plane BG1, not the one to the addition pack.

There actually aren't that many mods for vanilla BG1.

Yeah, just 47.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 09 May 2010 - 10:04 AM.

[Raven Corax]

I found a pretty neat guide by Dan Simpson (whose work for his PS:T guide was also just lovely) which tells me pretty much what I was looking for in the "A Modern Installation"-Part. Just posting it for everyone who has a similar question as me.
But thanks to you guys as well. I'm gonna combine everything I know now for my desired experience.

Edited by Raven Corax, 09 May 2010 - 10:12 AM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

I found a pretty neat guide by Dan Simpson (whose work for his PS:T guide was also just lovely) which tells me pretty much what I was looking for in the "A Modern Installation"-Part. Just posting it for everyone who has a similar question as me.
But thanks to you guys as well. I'm gonna combine everything I know now for my desired experience.

1. Install BG1 & TotSC
Note: To avoid any problems with Windows, I always install in a non-
standard place, such as C:\games\Baldur's Gate\
2. Patch TotSC
3. Install BG2 & ToB
4. Patch ToB
5. Install Oversight
6. Install BG2 Fixpack (MUST be installed before BGT)
7. Install Ascension (MUST be installed before BGT)
8. Install Turnabout
9. Install BGT
10. Install bg1npc
11. Install BG1UB
12. Install Unfinished Business
13. Install BG2 Tweaks (do not install faster cutscenes and dreams)
14. Install Widescreen

He forgot 1 mod at least... the BP-BGT-Worldmap v7.1 ... as the Fixpacks worldmap fix won't be there with the BGT otherwise, and the ascension mod will have a messy result, probably. If I were you, I would go with the BWS...

tag the "Further customization of your mod-settings" and "Do not install-foreign-language mods", and press continue, it will then give you a selection tree that will have plenty of extra mods you probably do not want to have, unselect them all except the once you cannot...

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 09 May 2010 - 11:55 AM.

[Raven Corax]

Alright then,

I pretty much read through the Pocket Plane Group, Gibberlings Three and, of course, Spellhold Studios websites in order to find all the Mods I'd like to use. Having you guys and Dan Simpson as a starting point, I also downloaded some other Mods I found useful and would like you to look into and tell me if there is anything you'd add or, as far as you can tell, a major incompatibility. Of course, I will go through all the readmes as well but if you can give quick and short advices, why not take them?

Well, here's what I came up with so far:
Baldur's Gate Trilogy
BG1 Tweaks, BG1 Unfinished Business, BG1 NPC Project (question: They stated in the Trilogy readme that "It is critical that you have a clean copy of Baldur’s Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast installed that contains no modifications whatsoever (including Baldurdash fixes)". Are these BG1 Mods necessary then or are they even incompatible with the Trilogy Mod?)
BG2 Tweak Pack
BG2 Fixpack
Unfinished Business
BGT Worldmap
eSeries (question: What exactly do Scripts do? Are they something like "passive" AI enhancements, without the need to really actively use them, working in the background and making the AI just a little more intelligent OR are they scripts in the sense of "makros" which you can use in order to let your party members do something without advising them to do it step by step?)
gMinion (falls a little in the same category like eSeries but I think gMinion is using scripting in the aforementioned first way (?))
NPC Kitpack
NPC Tweak
Oversight
Spell Revisions
Item Revisions
Full Plate And Packing Steel
P&P Celestials
Widescreen Mod

As far as I can tell these Mods are not changing the story or the atmosphere of Baldur's Gate in any way but only enhance, fix and rebalance things that were flawed, illogical or unbalanced in the original game, providing an experience similar to the original one plus some tweaks in order to play a more entertaining game.

Additionally I have some questions regarding other Mods:
1. aTweaks is a Mod which changes some stuff in BG2 in order to bring it a little closer to the real P&P rules, right? While, as a fan, this might be a great endeavour, is it also more fun, when you play the BG games the first time and try to get a close to the original experience?
2. Is Rogue Rebalancing just a balancing mod or aren't there just too many modifications that make the game easier/harder/more unoriginal?
3. What exactly would be the mess up when I use the Ascension mod? And doesn't it do just a few things anyway? Except from some more talking in the end, there isn't much to get out of this mod, or is there? The same applies to Turnabout, right? Just having the opportunity to resurrect some friends in the end?
4. What does BWS stand for, Jarno?

Edited by Raven Corax, 11 May 2010 - 09:00 AM.

[Ipsissimus]

I'm not entirely sure of this, but Full Plate and Item Revisions might have issues. Both rework the armor system to some degree.

aTweaks doesn't add a ton of new content--a lot of it is simply convenient. The recolored creatures component in particular was pretty cool.
Rogue Rebalancing adds a short optional quest, an optional (at installation) fight in chapter 6 (which is tricky but fun), stronger/smarter Shadow Thieves, as well as the balancing content.

Ascension is primarily a tactical mod. Optionally, you can fight a harder version of all the major bosses except Sendai, who's handled in Oversight instead. Ascension also allows you to play Longer Road, which adds Irenicus as a party member for all of ToB, or Redemption, where he joins at the Throne. Turnabout is "mostly talking," but some people like that. Having Dynaheir, Gorion, and Yoshimo fighting was great. If you want to make ToB less linear, maybe try Wheels of Prophecy (at G3). Both Ascension and Wheels affect only ToB. Ascension also allows you to talk Balthazar out of fighting or convince Irenicus or Bodhi to help you. IIRC Bodhi only helps evil/neutral PCs with high charisma, and Balthazar needs high wisdom and charisma and a good-aligned PC. Don't remember with Irenicus.

BWS just stands for Big World Setup.

[Jarno Mikkola]

3. What exactly would be the mess up when I use the Ascension mod? And doesn't it do just a few things anyway? Except from some more talking in the end, there isn't much to get out of this mod, or is there? The same applies to Turnabout, right? Just having the opportunity to resurrect some friends in the end?
4. What does BWS stand for, Jarno?

3-> Well, the Ascension mod(v1.41) overwrites files as it's installed... meaning that if you do not put it right after the original game patch, it has a good chance of cheesing up your game, and not in a good way.
4-> Yeah, the BWS is BiG World Setup, an automated setup program(mod download, extraction and pre-installation so the BiG World Install.bat does the install) that allows a lot of choices, but it will produces 98% bug free BG2 megamod, that is of course if the user gets it working as he desires... so a lot of small details are needed to actually use the whole thing, but getting to know them is definitely worth it... small things, like: Which mods you actually wish to install and which not?

...3-> and when we are talking about overwriting, the Ascension v1.41 has AI 'enhancements', but as the components overwrite, the consequences are that the other parts of the mods that were installed before and a few that will be installed after, have failures that the overwriting produces...

BG1 Tweaks, BG1 Unfinished Business, BG1 NPC Project (question: They stated in the Trilogy readme that "It is critical that you have a clean copy of Baldur’s Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast installed that contains no modifications whatsoever (including Baldurdash fixes)". Are these BG1 Mods necessary then or are they even incompatible with the Trilogy Mod?)

The BG1 game needs to be clean, so the Baldurdash mod is incompatible with the BGT. Read the answer again and know what the Baldurdash mod is(link), it's one of the few BG1 mods that had a really good following for a while, but it also overwrites...

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 11 May 2010 - 10:14 AM.

[Raven Corax]

Thanks for the help ;-). I guess, I'll also include Rogue Rebalancing and aTweaks, then. I'll have to think about Ascension, I mean it's not that hard to install it before all the other stuff.
What about the red questions, any ideas there?

edit: Thanks Jarno, but does this also apply to the newer mods like BG1 Tweaks, BG1 Unfinished Business and BG1 NPC Project? I have never intended to use Baldurdash as I thought it's very outdated and the Fixpack might solve the same problems plus some more.
So again, do they mean a clean install with nothing but the official patch or are the three mods above compatible? Because if they are not, I'm confused by why Dan Simpson names the BG1 Unfinished Business and the BG1 NPC Project in his recommendations. That's the only reason why I'm asking so specifically.

Edited by Raven Corax, 11 May 2010 - 10:37 AM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

edit: Thanks Jarno, but does this also apply to the newer mods like BG1 Tweaks, BG1 Unfinished Business and BG1 NPC Project?

Yes... the BG1 Unfinished Business and BG1 NPC Project are actually converted mods to BG2(BGT and Tutu) too, and thus installable and thus installed into the BG2 directory, so the BG1 will be clean...

(question: What exactly do Scripts do?

They are "makros", if your definition... the party member(or the enemy character) takes certain actions if the scripts IF ~xyz~ function is true... so for example the party member sees that an enemy is visible(the IF ~~ function), script can give the party member an attack order if you have not assigned other actions, like walk---

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 11 May 2010 - 11:12 AM.