12 replies to this topic

[Zodronon]

To the few of you who read my original SHS posting last week, I?m a 46-year old American with ADD/dyslexia and just enough experience (35+ years of video/computer gaming, 10 years in retail game QA and Technical Support, and a current tech-dependent job) to know just how much I don?t know about modding. My cry for help centered around how anxious I was to try BG again after dumping it (and gaming) 18 months ago for a long hiatus. Having never finished the first game (or taken the wrapper off the second), I was anxious to both grow and enhance the experience, and yet remain as true as possible to the originals without exploits or major changes of the original work; I only desired new and bonus material.

I (perhaps wrong-headedly) asked too much of this community after days of just reading forums and tearing my hair out with frustration and anxiety. Now, a full week of non-stop research later, I have, with the help of some great feedback from you folks, winnowed down the hundreds of available mods to a potential install configuration.

My first step was to reverse everything - to decide which NPCs I most wanted to try, and to eliminate everything minor that didn?t apply to them. To that end, I extracted this remarkable resource, conformed it into a tab-delimited text file, and imported it into a FileMaker Pro database (thanks to my ADD, I live in FMP?I write databases for everything! "Filtering?sorting?context-sensitive text coloration?AHHHHHH!!!" ). Then I (agonizingly) reduced 200 NPCs to the 20 or so I was considering for parties between the two games. The NPC?s (not native to BG1, BG2, or the other quest mods I?m installing) whom I wish to at least taste-test are:

____ w Kitanya v.6.4.1 __________________________________________________ √ Saerileth v.13
____ w Sarah v.3.1 ______________________________________________________ √! Gavin (BG1 & BG2 versions) v.8 (downloaded) vs. v.20 (???)


____ √ - Verified compatible on SHS ________w - Verified WeiDU compatible on mod?s site ________! - Not fully compatible, or question remains ________? - Cannot verify

____ (I?M COMMITTED TO USING THIS)___________(I?D LIKE TO USE THIS IF POSSIBLE)___________(OPTIONAL - I DON?T FEEL STRONGLY ABOUT USING THIS)


I did want to try Solestia, but her link is broken and I?ve found no other source for her. Those I could find I?ve already downloaded (with the exception of Gavin, who appears to have a few wildly-conflicting versions I must first resolve and correct before committing).

In addition, I?m augmenting the above with:

____ √ BG1 NPC Project v.18 ___________________________________________ ! Imoen Romance (v.1.20+, with caveats)
____ ? Banter Pack (from Pocket Plane) v.12 ________________________ ? Imoen SoA/ToB Soundtracks
____ ? IEP Extended Banter Pack v.4 __________________________________ ? Yoshimo Friendship
____ ? Crossmod Banter Pack v.13 ____________________________________ ? Keeping Yoshimo ____
____ ? Imoen Friendship v.1 __(?)


These I?ve also downloaded. I?ve also downloaded a few various and sundry item packs and the like, but they were ?impulse buys,? so I don?t have the list handy. I shall have to ask about them in a separate post.

Now, thanks to a remarkable outline and encapsulation by Lollorian (with great additional advice and tips from Jarno ), I was recommended to the following must-have quest modules, which all appear to be compatible, assuming I install the correct versions:

____ √ The Secret of BoneHill _________________________________________ √ The Darkest Day
____ √ Dark Side of the Sword Coast ________________________________ √ Check the Bodies
____ √ Northern Tales of the Sword Coast__________________________ √ Region of Terror
____ √ Drizzt?s Saga ____________________________________________________ √ Tortured Souls
____ √ Never Ending Journey _________________________________________ √ Shadows Over Soubar

These include a few additional NPCs I have an interest in. Here, I have two questions for the community, before we move forward:

1) I was warned that only NEJ v.4.2 is BGT compatible. The download site (Blackwyrm Lair?) also said as much. But the readme there also suggested that a latter version (v.6.8 "Second Edition") was required and compatible, and came with a special resource (a mod-version-dedicated .TP2 file). Does anyone know the resolution to this? I?m not a modder, so maybe you can parse the readme statement better than I.

2) TDD is said to max out class kit content for at least one class. I am told this is a hardcode limit and jeopardizes any other install that adds kits. How do I manage that? No additional mods with kits? No kit elements from mods that have per-element optional installation? Deselect kits I don't intend to use when installing the TDD mod?

Lollorian also strongly recommended the Infinity Animations, and I?ve no reason to gainsay him. Her. And, of course, s/he rightly guided me to the basic building blocks and mortar to holding it all together:

____Baldur?s Gate Trilogy (already installed - may have to start over if I got the order of operations wrong)
____The Big Picture
____The BP/BGT Worldmap

My own research has turned up a handful of quest packs and add-ons that intrigue me enough to consider this time around (the dozens of others will have to wait; I can only do so much at once, and I already fear for my CPU):

____ √ BG Mini-Quests and Encounters
____ √ The Grey Clan Episode I: In Candlelight
____ √ The Lure of the Sirine's Call
____ √ The Vault
____ √ Ding0?s Quest Pack

The above also are all from Pocket Plane, I think.

In addition, I?m also considering the following Mods & Tweaks:

From Gibberlings 3:

____ ? Widescreen Mod Updates to v3.00
____ √ BG2 Tweak Pack v9
____ ? Alternatives v9
____ ? Nythrun's Level 1 NPCs Version 1.5
____ √ Version 16 of Sword Coast Stratagems (for BG1)
____ √ Version 15 of Sword Coast Stratagems II (for BG2)

Again, from Pocket Plane:

____ √? Unfinished Business BG1 & BG2
____ √ House of Sim (Ding0 Tweak Pack)

And from RPG Dungeon http://www.rpgdungeon.net/

____ ? Improved Asylum V0.95

Whew! Now?my major questions at this time (as I?m confident this journey is far from over?):

* Does anyone have any offhand knowledge of the above sources or mods as to reputability, stability, currency, support, or any other red flag? In other words, should I be avoiding any of the above outright? (I know you?re all respectful professionals, and value the whole modding community?I?m not looking for gossip or anything; just solid code )

* Is the overall configuration above still far too ambitious? If I took everything above, is that normal? A little much? Way over the top? How much would you recommend my paring it down?

* Do any of the components above scream to you (in your own experience) as being cross-incompatible? Are there any items above that should never live together?or, perhaps even don?t need to (like the G3 Widescreen mod?is that covered in a larger package above)? Are there lesser conflicts that I can mitigate easily (with, say, install order, or by not installing certain optional components)?

* Did I miss anything in the documentation to what?s above that violates my basic tenants - nothing OP or exploitive (unless wholly optional), nothing that destroys too much the flavor or content of the original, nothing too far from the reservation for someone who hasn?t yet experienced part of BG1 or any of BG2, etc.?

I would not again seek to burden anyone with work that?s (theoretically) doable by me through research?but the above represents three days of work, including an entire evening just to cross-check info, verify versions and compatibility through sources I do have access to, and to compose this post. So if you guys can catch some major gaffe at a glance, you?d be doing me a huge favor. But I wouldn?t expect anyone to work any harder than that.

I?m out of town next week on a job, but when I return, if you guys have mulled this over and given me some more things to think about, I?ll likely be locking down my build and then moving on to the next topic?how to jam all of this into one kludge of a game that?s actually playable.

Thanks again for all of your help?and Happy New Year!_____________:_:_____:__:___:_:

Edited by Zodronon, 02 January 2011 - 04:03 AM.

[Kaeloree]

I'm pretty sure can confirm that these are verified as compatible with what I can see:

• Banter Pack (from Pocket Plane) v.12
  
• IEP Extended Banter Pack v.4
  
• Crossmod Banter Pack v.13
  
• Imoen Friendship v.1
  
• Widescreen Mod Updates to v3.00
  
• Alternatives v9
  
• Nythrun's Level 1 NPCs Version 1.5
  
• Unfinished Business BG1 & BG2

Yoshimo Friendship and Keeping Yoshimo are incompatible; you must chose one or the other.

Gavin (BG1 & BG2 versions) v.8 (downloaded) vs. v.20 (???)

You need to install both if you want Gavin throughout BG1 & BGII. Read the readmes for more info.

I wouldn't recommend the Imoen romance, because the last I heard it had a number of bugs. Times change, though, so I could be wrong.

[Jarno Mikkola]

. Wall of text .

Uh.
Well, what I would recommend is using the BiG World Setup... if you have Windows XP SP3 64-bit, Windows Vista or Windows 7, follow this, before you install anything.
So, make a clean BGII - SoA & ToB install that's patched to the v(2.5.)26498, to the "C:\BWP\BGII - SoA" directory!
Then install the BG(1 & TotSC) patched to the v(1.3.)5512, to the "C:\BWP\Baldur's Gate" directory!
Then make the directory "C:\BWP\BiG World Download", and put everyone of the mods you have already downloaded there, yes, the archive files(.exe, .rar, .zip & .7z).
Then download this. Run it and make it install itself to the "C:\BWP\BGII - SoA" directory.
When it has updated itself a bit, it restarts itself automatically when you push the "Exit", where it waits "Continue", and it should shows you this screen:

Select the "Do not install foreign-language mods" and "Further customization of your mod-settings" and make sure you select the "Standard" version as the Compilation, use the directories I show in the picture and then push Continue. Then it asks about the backup, push the Backup button.
Then it asks you if it should make a backup, which you put y and push the Send Text to continue in this screen...

It then takes you back to the Backup screen where you push the Continue to the Next screen where it gives you a large list of available mods, that's about 300 of them, what you wish to do is read the selected once and remove mods you don't wish to use, I wouldn't add any, cause it will not be installed or you would have to choose other Compilation you might not wish to use... essentially it's better this way. In a screen like this:

After you have made your choices, you push the Continue, at which point the setup gives you a few couples of incompatible mods which you then choose which to use(when you remove the other).
After that's done and you continue, the setup begins to download mods to the C:\BWP\BiG World Download -folder, at which point if you already have mods there, it checks if they are in the proper form and downloads the missing mods.
Once the downloading is over, it will then extract the mods to the set game folder, in couple of ways... which is pretty much at the end of the BWS, which then starts the BiG World Install.bat... that installs everything. Battery low... from here you should get the jist of it. ZZzzziiiuuuuhhh...

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 11 January 2011 - 05:05 AM.

[Zodronon]

I'm back from my trip, so I'm hoping to bring this in to the homestretch, although parsing through this resource has me back making lists and checking them twice.

Yoshimo Friendship and Keeping Yoshimo are incompatible; you must chose one or the other.

Gavin (BG1 & BG2 versions) v.8 (downloaded) vs. v.20 (???)
You need to install both if you want Gavin throughout BG1 & BGII. Read the readmes for more info.

I wouldn't recommend the Imoen romance, because the last I heard it had a number of bugs. Times change, though, so I could be wrong.

Thanks, K'. That's exactly the kind of info I was looking for!

Jarno, I'll have to parse through your instructions (which look spot-on) when I'm back settled in. Sorry about the "wall of text..." but it seemed a short hedge next to most of what I've read so far.

Thanks again, all!

[Jarno Mikkola]

Update to the above post...

Sorry about the "wall of text..." but it seemed a short hedge next to most of what I've read so far.

The wall of text comment was about the fact that I didn't actually bothered to read the whole thing.
Hmm, I should take the above text and add it to the now 3.3 - 3.4 of the FAQ... So you might notice the later iterations there.

1) I was warned that only NEJ v...

I wouldn't recommend that you even try to build a game that has this mod... as the BWS has but it in the Expert version, and so it's extremely difficult to manage a bug less install with it, when everything else is included.

2) TDD is said to max out class kit content for at least one class. I am told this is a hardcode limit and jeopardizes any other install that adds kits. How do I manage that? No additional mods with kits? No kit elements from mods that have per-element optional installation? Deselect kits I don't intend to use when installing the TDD mod?

Well, the TDD's kits were made years ago and the restriction has been lifted by mod called ToBExtender, which adds a scroll bar to the kit selection box. And ups the kit restriction by few multiples(it was 255, now about 1000).

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 11 January 2011 - 04:58 AM.

[Solaufein]

Where are these old files coming from? Saerileth is at version 15.

[Zodronon]

The wall of text comment was about the fact that I didn't actually bothered to read the whole thing.

HAHAHA!!! No worries.

I wouldn't recommend that you even try to build a game that has this mod... as the BWS has but it in the Expert version, and so it's extremely difficult to manage a bug less install with it, when everything else is included.

Sigh. Well, the main reason I considered NeJ was because I wanted Dar in my party (reminiscent of my old mate Daelen Red-Tiger from NWN). Then I got romantically attached to the idea of wandering through even part of IWD (that Kulduhar theme still gets me misty-eyed), especially with my new party. But further research shows that it's not the whole adventure, it seems to truncate the main quest of BG2, and now you warn that it's a minefield of techincal issues. I guess I'll have to replace ol' Dar with someone a little less costly. Unless someone knows where I can download him separately...

Well, the TDD's kits were made years ago and the restriction has been lifted by mod called ToBExtender, which adds a scroll bar to the kit selection box. And ups the kit restriction by few multiples(it was 255, now about 1000).

Does that mean no practical kit limit? Is adding kits not an issue now, or do I still have to manage or possibly delete some I'm not using?

Thanks for the info!

[Zodronon]

Where are these old files coming from? Saerileth is at version 15.

Snap! That's what I'm talking about here, Soul...between the dyslexia/ADD and the complexity of the stuff going on, it's hard to know that anything I'm seeing is accurate.

As to your question, I wasn't even sure I could answer. But I retraced the trail. Jarno hipped me to this great resource, and the link there lead me to this page. At the bottom is the link to v.13. I found no other at that time. But it appears that you have a completely different version of the host page, and clearly another download link, which I've now used (thank you!).

But you imply that more than one of my files is outdated. Surely if there was one mistake on that page, there might be others. Did you see more files above that I should update?

[Lollorian]

Double check all your cosen mods with the BWP Linkliste ... The folks there do weekly/bi-weekly updates and it's prolly your best resources for mod links (besides you'll notice that Saerileth is at v15 there )

For mod's that aren't present in the linkliste (and there shouldn't too many ) google's your friend!

[Zodronon]

Double check all your cosen mods with the BWP Linkliste

For mod's that aren't present in the linkliste (and there shouldn't too many ) google's your friend!

Actually, I've spent the last 3 days (what I have of them) parsing that entire thread into a Word doc. Even with reductions and eliminations of extraneous text, it started at 58 pages long. I'm down to about half that now.

One of the peculiarities of (my, at least) ADD/Dyslexia is that it's extremely difficult to "see" information in a massive group (which is why I live in File Maker Pro ). Color helps; multiple languages...not so much. So all I can do is move items I've chosen, painstakingly, in to a second list, while eliminating what I reject, all the while studying all the hot, new stuff to see if I want/need it. Slogging through massive packs of new items and such at the moment.

Decision making is hard for me under the best of circumstances. In the above thread, I'm like a kid in a candy store. Where some of the candy is poison. And contains sharp needles and broken glass.

But I should be through the list crawl in a day or two, at which time I can sample the links there for version numbers and such.

Anything from that list that you guys recommend/warn off? I mean sections like Quest Mods, Stores & Items, Rules & Tweaks, and esoteric, small-scale stuff like that?

Oh, and Google may be my friend,...but it's fair-weather for some of these mods! Some of the problems I got into in the first place were the result of conflicting messages from Teh Interwebz.

Edited by Zodronon, 11 January 2011 - 11:21 PM.

[Kaeloree]

For someone who's modding their install for the first time?

Most of it.

Choose a few mods, and go with them. Do not try to use a megamod install on your first try.

[Zodronon]

Do not try to use a megamod install on your first try.

Gads! I mean, it's not like I plan on playing 400 hours of BG1 & 2 a bunch more times. I've already played (half of) it once. I was hoping to make this pass kind of rock and move on.

Ah, well...

Thanks for the info, though.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Actually, I've spent the last 3 days (what I have of them) parsing that entire thread into a Word doc. Even with reductions and eliminations of extraneous text, it started at 58 pages long. I'm down to about half that now.

That's way too much planning and way not enough action...
I suffer from that too, but I have other things I do at the time while I plan... like other games, playing the BG2 Total Convertion mods etc. and taking a few of the planned tweak mods along.

Now, as I gave you the exact details on what to do in each of the steps on the above, as I was hoping you would actually use it as there is nothing more than action required for a well planned game the moding community has to offer... There is so much content available that you'll never ever be able to play all of it, so if you plan to play the game with one playthrough, you'll make most of it with BWS and multiple tries with it, as you'll be seeing a lot more what the mods contain when you play the game, and how they impact the game, not when you plan to play it. So you'll be wiser when you find that you don't like this, that, those, these and especially the_one because it grashes the game because of a bug no one has ever seen before, or because the known fix doesn't work anymore. Where you can restart with a clean install and not take the mods that bother you. No one will ever be able to make a single install and play the game through, when you install more than 5 mods... well expect if you are lucky not to do enough stuff for it to actually show much.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 12 January 2011 - 01:47 AM.