89 replies to this topic

[Jarno Mikkola]

It was a general tip Jarno I don't use kit mods since a long time, except the ones I commented on. So I know well that they have HLAs. But for example, last time I checked, some of (all?) the kits from The Darkest Day had no HLAs - I got hit by this once. He is not installing that, but I felt it was noteworthy. Some mods in the BWP are ---old.---

Well you mean that the TDD kits only have the generic HLA tables from the ToB itself, yeah, I'll give you that. ---and badly programmed too.

[phlaphee]

No more comments on DR vs SR / SP? 

[Jarno Mikkola]

No more comments on DR...

Have you played a game with that mod ? A short game... I have, and I didn't like it's potential as the sphere system.

[phlaphee]

I have played with it SR on two installs... reached about level 8 with one. I didn't check for bugs such as duplicate spells or wrong descriptions of spells. It did however kind of over-power Brawnen with her Tempus Kit. I didn't get to play with Viconia and her special Kit. Jaheira's spell list was rather weird. Yeslick seemed okay. 

 

Those were my impressions. But I was hoping somebody had used both mods on higher character levels and could share their experience with their conflicts and if it gave them enough of a headache to avoid DR in future installs.

[Jarno Mikkola]

I have played with it SR on two installs... reached about level 8 with one. I didn't check for bugs such as duplicate spells or wrong descriptions of spells. It did however kind of over-power Brawnen with her Tempus Kit. I didn't get to play with Viconia and her special Kit. Jaheira's spell list was rather weird.

Before you commit to it, I would advice you to start a new ToB game with just the DR, and see what spells they have at the joining ... Viconia can't cast a proper healing or restoration spells, nor can Branwen... and all the kits have serious lacks in their skills if what I remember is true still.

SR has better spells in general than the normal BGII, but there's some balance to them unlike the super modified BGII games spells have(TDD has over powered spells, as do a few others, and then there's the normal knock spell-likes, which stays the same), and the summon spells are over powered, but so are the SCS's etc mods, but whatever...

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 24 February 2013 - 03:04 PM.

[phlaphee]

Thanks Imp, I'll most probably be staying away from DR. But I'd still like to hear other's experience with it.

 

Moving on!

 

24. POST-BP TWEAKS:

- aTweaks v4.01

- B!Tweaks v4 lite

- BG2 Tweaks v11

- BGTTweak Pack v11

- BuTcHeRy v3.2

- Cursed Items Revision v3.5

- Ding0's Tweak Pack v20

- Drows v1.1

- PnP Free Action v2

- Haiass el lobo v2.3

- Thrown Hammers v3

- igi's Item Mod v5

- Jarl’s BGT Tweak Pack v1.73

- Mix Mod v5

- Sword Coast Stratagems II v21

- Turambar fixes and tweaks 1.8

[phlaphee]

Indeed, it does help, thank you once again!

[Darpaek]

I liked Haiass, was really useful early game without being too imba particularly on my Tactics install with his easy res ability.  I had some problems with him.  He died in a random map encounter and I didn't realize he died before I left the area so I wasn't able to resurrect him, but by the time I lost him I didn't really need the extra help anymore.  Haiass also doesn't walk well - he doesn't get out of the way like a standard party member would so Haiass will sometimes block doors or narrow walkways which is a pain in the ass.  I'd include him in my install and use him until I have enough money to buy enough res scrolls to always keep my normal party members alive.  Then I'd ditch him.

[phlaphee]

Back again!

 

 

25. GRAPHIC AND PORTRAIT MODS:

- One Pixel Productions v2.7

- One Pixel Productions v3: Avatar Fixes

- 1ppv3: Female Dwarves

- 1pp: Thieves Galores v1.1

- Wizard Slayer Rebalancing 1.06

- Bard Song Switching (Icewind Mode) v1.5

- Aurora's Shoes and Boots v5

- Hard Times for BGT v2.4

- Item Randomiser v6.8

- The Bigg Tweak Pack v2.61

- P5Tweaks v5.1

- Unique Containers v3

- Celestiales v1.2

- Replacement Lightmaps v1.3

- Infinity Animations beta 5

- IA Content: D2 Bear & Werebear v.1.0

- BGT NSC Portraits v2.1

 

I'd like to know if anny of the above components are not worth installing.

[Jarno Mikkola]

- Item Randomiser v6.8 (In the past, when I tried it, it changed location of some quest things, making parts of the game uncompletable - it might be fixed these days)

Which items ? -if I may ask. Yeah, one could speculate that a magical dagger X is needed for say quest Y, but most cases it's the gem Z, and in those cases it's the mods own buggy code that makes it uncompletable ... without doing the exact thing the mod wants you to do, and those items are not actually randomized.

[phlaphee]

I'm thinking of using Aurora's Shoes and Boots v5 to increase the prices of All merchants and to decrease resell value... to make things a bit harder. Any thoughts on that? Suggested "%"?

[phlaphee]

No more comments? And this is probably a verry infulential part for how the game is gonna turn out.

 

Well, here's the last chapter:

 

26. CLOSER INSTALLATION:

- BP-Balancer-v0.33f

- BP BGT Worldmap v9.0.1

- Sword Coast Map Labels v2

- Creature Slot Fixer v2

- Resurrected igi's Spell System Adjustments Mod v7.1

- Level 1 NPCs v20

- Widescreen Mod v3.05

- Generalized Biffing v2.1

 

I'm interested in the Pack-mule mod, but last time I've had it install it would bug out the game when firt arriving at the Frienly Arm.

 

The spell adjustment mod is quite a jewel from my point of view. I'll be using it with my own input files which are as follows:

 

iiSpellSystemAdjustments_0_input:

2

60

60

Y

2

 

iiSpellSystemAdjustments_0_input:

2

75

75

Y

2

 

The result is that for Mages I get spell refresh for every 60 sec * level of spell and for divine casters 75 sec * level of spell.

I'm thinking of maybe trying out with 120 and 150 instead of 60 and 75 on my next install.

I'd like to hear other's comments on what timers they use for this mod or their oppinion on how good the timers I'm planning to use would prove to be.

 

[Jarno Mikkola]

I'd like to hear other's comments on what timers they use for this mod or their oppinion on how good the timers I'm planning to use would prove to be.

Well, these output will make your spell revision to be these in the real seconds:

Level of spell-Arcane casters spell revision: 1-60, 2-120, 3-180, 4-240, 5-300, 6-360, 7-420, 8-480, 9-540.
While devine casters: 1-75, 2-150, 3-225, 4-300, 5-375, 6-450, 7-525.

Erhm, the other iiSpellSystemAdjustments_0_input is probably "1" instead of "0" ...

Which I don't know, might be good. I have goone with smaller numbers and it went guite well, of course it wasn't too heavy on the 6-9th level usage as I didn't have those spells yet, but I can say that your timers are good.
And the diffrentiation between the arcane and divine isn't too large.

Just know that the BWS will auto include it's own inserts if you deside to use it as the setup maker, it should be easy to alter those but it needs to be done before the installation of the mod begins... it's one of the lasts mods of course, but still you need to make the change sooner rather than later.

These's a small problem and that's on the level 1, as the Identification spell won't refresh, as technically the game doesn't view it's spell as casted, but then again the Tweakpack and other components can remove your need for the spell.

The spell adjustment mod is quite a jewel from my point of view. I'll be using it with my own input files which are as follows:

That was my oppinion as well when I first started to edit the mods code and still is after doing so and solving the few hickups it had. And it shortends the time it takes to go through the game by say 100-days.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 11 March 2013 - 04:31 AM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

- Resurrected igi's Spell System Adjustments Mod v7.1 - While I see yours and Jarno's point, I personally think this is a little cheap. Some areas are designed to be hard to rest in because of random encounters etc, and with this mod, those areas loose their difficulty and sometimes their entire purpose/feel. Well the entire game looses some difficulty, but some more than others. I think it also should be said that some quests takes some (in game) time to trigger, and as Jarno says, you could probably shave off 100 days of game time with this thing. If this in reality affects quests or not I guess depends on the player and how much he or she refuses to rest. However, I can definitely see this as being a problem for long romance questlines, in which some triggers requires resting, and the romance can sometimes fail if not enough days (banters triggered) has passed before you advance the main quest and such things. Also, in some mods, some encounters takes place only when resting in random places. "Romantic Encounters" comes to mind.

Yeah, it makes the combat encounters easier ... but only so far as to making them take less time to be in the sack, as if you take the SCS'es improved mages with the most difficult settings, you need to constantly be removing the mage'es combat protections, a fact that requires a lots of spells, meaning a lot of resting, unless you use this mod... and you can actually adjust the timer upwards to 65000 if you want, and remember the enemy will also receive their spells back. So trying to go with the zero timers will get you time locked to oblivion ...

It also doesn't remove the requirement to rest to gain new casting of spells(when you level up), just the once you have already casted.

What comes to romances, you are better of being able to rest when you like, and not when the next wizard behind that corner requires you to.

[phlaphee]

So, even though I have gathered enough information to make my game less buggy, I'd still appreciate comments on this topic.

 

Soooo... Feel free to lend me a thought or two about the mod selection listed here.

 

Anyone think this topic would be useful for other users so as to make is 'sticky'?