49 replies to this topic

[Anomaly]

Baldur's Gate has many NPCs available for recruit (as many as 25), but some of them are very far from the roads or can only join the group really late without real reasons, and because of that they are rarely used ; players already got their well-rounded party when they meet them.

BG1 NPCs at Beginning is a mod for Baldur's Gate designed to move many NPCs that are far away from the main road to Nashkel to allow them to join the party at the early stage of the game, except of course NPCs that are prisonners.

The 11 moved NPCs are : Quayle, Kivan, Viconia, Ajantis, Faldorn, Alora, Tiax, Eldoth, Safana, Coran, Shar-Teel.

The mod also takes care of altering the joining dialogue if the original dialogue cannot fit with its new location or the knowledge of the PC at that stage of the game. It also takes care of the timed quests, making sure they are still doable by increasing the allowed delay or pausing the timer until PC seems to be far enough in the game.

Sword Coast Stratagems, BG1 NPC Project (and now G3's Tweaks Anthology) also contains components that do similar things, but they affect much less NPCs. My mod goes further, affecting as many as 11 NPCs, and the new location are much closer to the beginning of the game, so you can recruit them on the road to Nashkel without needing to take detours.
 
You can move each NPC individually. The new version is now compatible with BG1 (with TOSC), BGT and BG:EE.
 
It is, of course, compatible with BG1 NPC Project, Sword Coast Stratagems and Tweaks Anthology. Install those mods before this one, to avoid moving the same NPC twice.

Available in English, French, German, Russian and Polish. Compatible with Windows and Linux.

Last Updated September 27th, 2018. Added BG1+TOSC compatibility. Added BG:EE compatibility.

Download
Readme (English)
Readme (French)

Edited by Anomaly, 27 September 2018 - 08:53 AM.

[Sasha Al'Therin]

Sounds like an interesting idea & I'm sure there are some that might be interested in a Tutu version.

Curious tho, why make it not install at all if the BG1 NPC Project's component that moves Alora is installed? You could simply move all but Alora in that case... Even with the SCS component you could simply not move the ones already moved. Just a thought...

[Anomaly]

Sasha, this is what I planned originally, but since my mod was late in my planning, I wanted to make sure a version could be out first before doing that kind of refinement that would delay even more the release. If there is a demand for a Tutu version as well as not altering NPCs already moved by SCS or BG1 NPC, I will gladly add it. Same goes for additional translations (there is almost nothing to translate really except the readme).

Edited by Anomaly, 13 May 2012 - 12:58 PM.

[smeagolheart]

I like the idea, it's a great addition. Can you make each NPC be made a component so that they can be installed optionally. So like Alora can be optionally skipped if BG1 NPC Project's installed for example.

[Anomaly]

Hi and thanks for your comment! I can solve this by two ways :

a) 11 prompts for 11 NPCs (and each component won't be installed if the corresponding NPC is already moved by a previous mod), and making sure the "Install All" from WeiDU will be available.

b) Only one component like currently, but with automatic exclusion of NPCs that are already moved by a previous mod.

I don't know which way is the best, feedback would be welcomed.

[Sanctifer]

The first solution (11 prompts) can be the best on a player's pov but would it be a lot of work ? (for you I mean)

Something like :
this mod has 11 components, what do you wanna do about the ones not yet installed ?
Ask about each one / install everything

So players who wants everything can install them all, automatically skipping "double content" (like if "move alora" from bg1npc is installed, automatically skip the alora component af the mod), or players can just choose the NPCs they wanna move and let others untouched

That would be the best solution imho


(but of course, it means you have to install this mod after bg1 npc project and scs :/ )

[Sasha Al'Therin]

you could do both ^.~

1st component
-- does nothing, just checks the status of the NPCs in question... Yes you could just put in checks for the two known mods, but you never know what other mods out there might move them or perhaps do something that would interfere with the process.

if 1st component returns that all are in original position then go to next component
if 1st component returns that one or more have been moved, drop a marker for each npc already moved into your mod folder (no need to clutter override) -- "%npcname%moved.npc", then go to next component

2nd component
-- requires 1st component to be installed
-- if any one "%npcname%moved.npc" is present in your mod folder then skip this component.
-- if there are no "%npcname%moved.npc" present in your mod folder then offer to install this component which will move all 11.


3rd thru 13
-- requires 1st component to be installed
-- if 2nd component is not installed, offer to install these unless a "%npcname%moved.npc" is present in your mod folder.


This allows the player to choose to move all 11 at once, or move just a few even if no other mods were installed that moved any of the NPCs in question.

[Anomaly]

Sasha your way of setup seems complicated. I can see where you want to go : taking account about every possible mod (perhaps not done yet) that would move a NPC. The problem is that would suppose that every mod would use the same method to move the NPC so I could reliabily detect if a NPC is at its original position or not, but I'm sure each mod is using its own method. In the case of my mod, I didn't look at existing BG1 NPC and SCS code, I coded my own based on the existing scripts on a BGT install. I was inspired by SCS's choice for Tiax position, yes, but I didn't want to unknowingly "steal" the technology behind the components by looking at the code beforehand.

That said, if I want to implement partial compatibility with SCS and BG1 NPC, I'll have to check how it's done internally so I can make sure the two or three methods used together won't conflict.

[Sasha Al'Therin]

Sasha your way of setup seems complicated. I can see where you want to go : taking account about every possible mod (perhaps not done yet) that would move a NPC. The problem is that would suppose that every mod would use the same method to move the NPC so I could reliabily detect if a NPC is at its original position or not, but I'm sure each mod is using its own method.

I suppose the setup could be a little complicated, but there are a number of mods which have an initial component that is either force installed or required to be installed for all following components. Such components typically perform actions necessary for all the following components without having to repeat coding multiple times, or it's a dummy component used for quick uninstallation. So the idea isn't really that far fetched ^^

To be honest it doesn't matter how an npc was moved, if their spawn point is not what you expect then they've been moved and you skip it. My suggestion has no bearing on anyone's coding style. It's merely a delivery process. ^.~

Only issue I suppose would be determining how to check the spawn point.....

[smeagolheart]

You could have the menu like this

Install all components or ask about each one individually (other mods have this setup).

You could have the it check and see if they are in their default locations (or add that part later if you want).

[smeagolheart]

11 prompts are optional, with weidu you can go like this: "installthismod 10 20 30 40 50" which would install 5 different components without having to stop and ask about each one.

[Anomaly]

@smeagolheart: You know this is exactly what I suggested to do before.

So, to sum up, what is important for you all is the ability to move the 11 NPCs individually, right ? No need for Tutu compatbility right now ?

[Azazello]

Classic...more BG1 NPCs mods... Can never have too many of 'em, heh.

smeagolheart is right on track, please allow moving npcs individually.

Edited by Azazello, 21 May 2012 - 10:13 AM.

[Anomaly]

please allow moving npcs individually.

Will do!

[smeagolheart]

great looking forward to it, thank you Anomaly

[prowler]

Russian translation is ready

Attached Files

•  bg1npcbeg.7z   3.52K   409 downloads

[Anomaly]

Thanks prowler! I released a new minor version (available in first post) that includes the Russian translation!

[smeagolheart]

Yeslick has always been one of my favorite BG1 NPCs. What do you think about moving him? It's not a whole lot earlier but maybe he could be in the bandit camp next to that other guy that is a prisoner? Maybe he could be waiting for the bandits to take him to the times as a prisoner or something. Getting him a bit earlier is better than nothing; it would be good to get him before the long journey into cloakwood. Maybe you have another idea where he could be found if you don't like that.

Edited by smeagolheart, 26 May 2012 - 07:42 AM.

[Anomaly]

Yeslick is one of the "jailed" NPC, that's why it's not included yet. That said, I plan to also allowing moving those NPCs in separate components. Separate because it would require to change a part of the plot and so would not be for everyone. Skie would be also a perfect candidate even if she is even more difficult to move.