89 replies to this topic

[Lollorian]

@phlaphee: Damn missed your post asking about IR and mod items

 

The sticking out part is usually just cosmetic - IR's items are standardized, good looking and powerful... so when you have almost every item in a set format and suddenly a mod item comes up using the old BG1 format/style and it feels underwhelming and out of place

 

If you ask me, IR's best when played with mods that are still being updated (not with dinosaur mods like the big BG1/2 megamods )

 

Full plate overhauls the entire item system if I'm not wrong (I usually am so bear with me ) and it only supports vanilla BG2 (and maybe a small set of mods) so practically everything is screwed when you add mods in the number of tens and thousands

[Eric P.]

01. CORRECTIONS

- Throne of Bhaal Extender (TobEx) Beta

- BG2 Fixpack-v9.01

- Baldurdash Weidu v1.68

 

 

I think these are essential, so no real debate here.

Based on comments, I'd skip Baldurdash.

Edited by Eric P., 05 February 2013 - 12:43 PM.

[Eric P.]

02. IMPROVEMENTS AND PRE-NEJ MODS

- igi's Key Names v2

- One Pixel Productions v2.7

 

No "Oversight mod" as it's expert and also clashes with other HLA changing mods I plan on installing.

Probably no debate here either.

I'd go with 1PP v4.1.0.

[phlaphee]

02. IMPROVEMENTS AND PRE-NEJ MODS

- igi's Key Names v2

- One Pixel Productions v2.7

 

No "Oversight mod" as it's expert and also clashes with other HLA changing mods I plan on installing.

Probably no debate here either.

I'd go with 1PP v4.1.0.

 

Yes I'd also go the 1PP v4 route but at the moment it's not compatible with Item Revisions. I know it is being worked at to make them compatible, so it's probably just a matter of time before this happens.

[phlaphee]

01. CORRECTIONS

- Throne of Bhaal Extender (TobEx) Beta

- BG2 Fixpack-v9.01

- Baldurdash Weidu v1.68

 

 

I think these are essential, so no real debate here.

Based on comments, I'd skip Baldurdash.

 

Doesn't the install.bat handle which components of Baldurdash should be installed should you also install BG2Fixpack?

[Jarno Mikkola]

Based on comments, I'd skip Baldurdash.

Doesn't the install.bat handle which components of Baldurdash should be installed should you also install BG2Fixpack?

Like I saidf before, Eric P is a Mac OS user, so the .bat is unavailable to work for him as are the patches in the BiG Wolrd Megamod Fixpack.

[phlaphee]

Ohhhh, now I get it! Thanks Imp!

 

Also, any comments or recommendations on the BG2 Quest Mods section I've mentioned?

Edited by phlaphee, 06 February 2013 - 02:06 AM.

[phlaphee]

Ok, moving on to the BG2 section:

 

11. BG2 QUEST MODS:

- Expanded Thief Stronghold v2.20

- Adalon's Blood (Silberdrachenblut) v10

- Tower Of Deception v3.3.1

- Assassinations v8

- Tales of the Deep Gardens 9.9

- Innershade v5.1

- The White Queen v2.0

- Eilistraee's Song v3.1

 

 

So are any of the above suffering from any bugs I should know about? Especially given what I've installed before? Unbalanced items perhaps?

Any other good quest mods? I've heard good things about Tales of Anegh and Fishing for Trouble, but those two seem to be pretty big.

I wish more people would get together like in this thread and talk about which mods are best. It's always hard choosing the ones with the least bugs or unbalancing etc. Anyway, I have after much trial and error some good knowledge about most of the mods in the BWP as i've played them several times, so i'll chip in.

 

Expanded Thief Stronghold - Nice mod, fits nicely into the game. Some bugs and annoyances:

When you try to break your thieves out of prison, wrong person can be there, or more persons then expected.

If you simply wish to enter the prison peacefully, you cannot always do so, because of extra guards when your thieves are locked there.

Adalon's Blood - Nothing bad ever happened to me with it.

Tower of deception - Good mod, never had problems.

Assasinations - Good mod, never had problems.

Tales of the Deep Gardens - A very fine mod. In fact, I feel it's one of the best mods included in the BWP. No bugs that I have encountered and I play it every playthrough.

Innershade - Made by the same person as Tales of the Deep Gardens, so it's of high quality. Few insignificant bugs, mostly cosmetic, like pushing the kid down the well doesn't make him disappear.

The white Queen, Eilistraee's Song - I did not play them yet, but they are made by the same author as the above 2 mods, so i expect them to be of very high quality.

Tales of Anegh - I have not played it, but I have heard it has some very bad english, but I can't vouch for that.

Fishing for Trouble - I played it in the first released version in a BWP game (many versions ago), and it was highly buggy. It's probably better now.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Thank you VERY much for your input! These are the kind of answers I'm trying to get in this thread!

 

Moving on:

12. BG2 TACTICAL ENCOUNTERS:

- Azengaard Tactical Encounter MOD v5.0

- CoM Encounters v1.06

- Deeper_Shadows_of_Amn_v2.2.4 (DSoA)

- Domains of Dread-WeiDU v3

- Improved Asylum v0.981

- Super Firkraag Mod v1.5

- D's Odd Quest Mod v1 (früher Imnesvale)

- Arena v1

 

13. BG2 STORES AND ITEMS:

- Weimer's Item Upgrade v38

- Item Upgrade Audio - Cespenar Audio v1

- Enhanced BG2 v1.1

- RItemPackv2 = RPG Dungeon Item Pack

- A Mod for the Orderly – CliffKey v5

- Konalan's Tweaks v2.2

- Herbs and Potions Add-in for Baldur's Gate 2 v1.0.4

 

 

So, any thoughts on the tactical encounters? Any buggy mod or outstanding difficulty?

Are the item-mods I've chosen ok? I'm really not looking to bloat the game with hordes of overpowered items, but I'd like some suggestions on item packs that bring interesting but not overpowered items in the game (especially if they aren't easy to get or cost you a limb to buy them)

[Ulb]

 [...] I'm really not looking to bloat the game with hordes of overpowered items, [...]

 

Hey there,

just like PutridWalker I usually don't use too many separate tactic mods. In my opinion SCS(II) is really the way to go. As pointed out, SCS doesn't "cheat" but (mostly) rather improves the AI to make fights harder and there are plenty of tactical components which can really beef up your game.

 

The only tactic mod you mentioned I can really comment on is CoM Encounters, which you really should NOT use if you're not into super overpowered items.

While it adds some moderately difficult fights (as in: you'll have to use some cc and can't just zerg everything down) it also showers you with ridicules items. If you're on your way to get Carsomyr and some random dude in front of Firkraag's lair drops not only an insanely overpowered +5 two-handed sword with dispel magic on hit and plenty of other insane stats but also a matching plate mail of "I'm immortal and noon can ever touch me", at least for me that’s really breaking the forth wall...

 

*edit*

 

Just checked, its actually just a +4 sword..

 

 

The brutal Green Dragon's favorite sword. He would personally execute his own enemy's, even family, with this sword. This weapon was buried with him along with some other prized magical items.

Statistics:
1D10 +4
THAC0 +4
5% Target will be disintegrated.
Does double damage to undead and demonic.
Dispel magic cast on each hit

Special:
Cast: Sunray 2 times a day at 20th level.

Useable By:
Fighters
Paladins
Rangers

 

Edited by Ulb, 08 February 2013 - 05:47 AM.

[phlaphee]

 Thank you all for you input on the latest chapter! You've been very helpful!

14. BG2 NPC MODS:
- Amber v2.6
- Angelo v4
- Kido v7
- Kindrek v2.5
- Kivan and Deheriana Companions for BG2 v13
- Saerileth v15
- Sarah ToB v3.1
- Tashia Remix v1.3
- Varshoon - an Illithid NPC v4.2
- Valen v45
- Worgas v1.1
- Yvette Romance v2.0

15. BG2 ONE-DAY NPCS:
- none

16. BG2 NPC-RELATED MODS:
- Alcool v0.11
- Banter Pack v12
- Chloe v1.5
- Cloakwood Squares v4
- de'Arnise Romance v3
- Edwin Romance v2
- Garrick's Infatuation
- IEP Extended Banter v4
- Imoen Friendship v2
- Jan's Extended Quest v1.44
- The Jerry Zinger Show v4
- Korgan's Redemption v8
- LaValygar v1.0
- Mazzy Friendship v2.0
- Tsujatha v13
- Viconia Friendship v3.1
- Yoshimo Friendship v2.0

17. MORE BG2 NPC MODS:
- none

I'm interested only in high-quality NPCs, And by that I don't mean NPCs that you and other people LIKE, but NPCs who trully have personality (even if they get on your nerves) or actually bring something new to the game. So if you think any of the NPC I'm about to add don't fit the description, feel free to present your motives here. I am also opened to more NPS suggestions!

I'm also interested (as always) in possible bugs/incompatibilities that these might bting up with the other mods I've listed for installing.
 

[phlaphee]

Thank you very much AGAIN, Putrid. You've shed some light on some of the mods I wasn't sure were worth installing!

 

One question: does Viconia Friendship mod overwrite the romance path of the standard BG2?

[phlaphee]

One question: does Viconia Friendship mod overwrite the romance path of the standard BG2?

No, it does not. It only adds dialogue in the cases where you *don't* romance her. Enhancing her "friendship path" so to speak.

 

Well, actually, if i remember right, it also adds some new dialogues to her normal romance path, but I can't be completely sure. In either case, it doesn't replace anything.

 

Good to know! Thanks a bunch!

 

Any more insight on the other mods, guys?

[Mike1072]

- Item Revisions v3 - Good mod, but think twice before installing it. it makes things more pretty and useful, yes. It also takes [your favorite awesome weapon] and removes it's awesomeness and maybe the whole point of why you liked it in the first place. Also, it's option of adding "masterwork weapons" is a bit deceiving at first glance. I installed this and found out that it *replaced* all +1 items with masterwork ones, making things a fair bit harder. Be aware. Also, it's components has overall the power to change the game up quite a bit, so I strongly suggest reading the readme to the mod, instead of picking things that seems nice and so on. Otherwise nice mod that i install every time.

 

 

Thanks for the review. I wanted to point out that we're not trying to be sneaky with the Masterwork Weapons component: its description in the readme states that it replaces +1 items with masterwork ones. It is based on a similar component from SCS that replaces +1 weapons with "Fine"-quality weapons, due a perceived overabundance of magical items.

This is not my preferred implementation, and I'd like to recode it sometime so it does add new items to the game. They could be found in some stores, and some specific +1 weapons could be swapped with masterwork ones to achieve a similar effect without it being as drastic (and without obliterating the concept of generic +1 weapons). To do this well, we'd need nice new weapon icons that indicated masterwork quality, and we'd have to identify which instances of +1 items should be swapped.

 

I also recommend reading the readme.

Edited by Mike1072, 12 February 2013 - 04:02 PM.

[Mike1072]

No worries. I caught your drift and just wanted to explain why that component is implemented somewhat unintuitively.