@horred the plague could you please explain as much precisely as you can what are the diffrences (content-wise specifically) between BP version of Ascension and orgininal one being worked on by CuV? I'm stalling my BG2EE run because there are still few mods missing for me (including Ascension) and I wonder if your version will be sufficient to me. Since a) I never played Ascension before b) I'm a bit of a roleplayer, I'm not worried at all if BP-Ascension is easier from original or not. What I'm worried is if you managed to save all original plot content intact. If so, I might even live without original Ascension since BP have one or two Tactics components I might be interested in (I remember I loved this Kuroisan guy's katana back in the day).
One more thing, are you able to predict if Tactics components of BP could cause any troubles with SCS general AI improvements? If I install SCS after, could creatures from Tactics encouters benefit from SCS's AI?
You know, as shamefully as it sounds I never used SCS's or BP's AI enhancements before, so I want fully try one of them first, and second one for the future runs. Since I got impression that SCS might be more stable on BG(2)EE at the moment, I'll probably start with this one first. But I suspect whichever I choose it will be a hell of a fighting time waiting for me.
Anyway, I'll be grateful, if you could clarify these few things for me:)
I wish I could ive you a bunch of specifics, but I put this mod together over 10 years ago. Any chance of such a list vanished about 8 years ao when I retired from AI modding (until last year). AI improvements on top of Ascension AI improvements, a better refined Detectable Spells system from the one started by IEEAIS group. So, more intelligent checks available thus more intellient choices. If you throw in the ToB improvements the Fire Giants will throw boulders like the PnP giants used to. You'll see a few extra goons in various places, with the Normal and up difficulty settings. Nothing overly drastic, in all honesty. If you find it too much in any specific case, just change difficulty to Very Easy before entering the area in question. You can set it back afterwards--this is enough to cancel the BP extra encounter spawns.
The original reason Ascension was added to BP predates the modern weidu installer. The original (& original weidu) Ascension were a horrible overwriter of vanilla game files, and incompatible w/ other mods. BP originally was "The" compatibility mod, and Ascension was absorbed for the greater good. While at it, I gave it a "shave and a haircut"--the little touches I mentioned above. Even to this day, it's by far the most mod-friendly version available. When Cuv gets his version out, I'll gladly recede that claim.
Otherwise the story should be intact, nothing was purposely changed dialog-wise. I heard there's a single (1) one-liner made by Dorn to Gromnir that would be missed by the old Ascension, but I haven't delved into it yet. Not sure when I'll have modding time for a bit, either.
Tactics? I don't use the Tactics components, just keep them in a mod-friendly form as a courtesy to others. Maybe somebody else could answer this better. Though in general SCS doesn't play nice with BP. If installed after BP it overwrites BP's AI scripts from the inside, with its own. So much for compatability...It's best to choose which parts of each AI mod you want--one or the other for similar components (not "Mages" from both mods e.g.)--and install BP after SCS. BP has some code to make the base cross-installation work more smoothly, at least attempts to play nice with SCS.
I tested BP on BG2EE from Jonny's dungeon to end of Underdark (still playing that game when I can), and from the elven grove to Bhaal's throne (w/ BP-Ascension). All BP AI/encounter components installed. Anything I saw blatantly wrong, I fixed. That isn't to say it's perfect, but it has been at least checked.
Compatability Issue (Note to All): I noticed that the mods aTweaks and Rogue Rebalancing are still using an old version of Detectable Spells. BP uses the most recent release (v3.1). This old version includes a (broken) LEVEL DRAIN check, removed in v3.1 (but not accounted for in v3.1 clean-up code). That in turn breaks the (otherwise-working) BP/Series fix for STATE_DISEASED checks (the vanilla check is broken in ToB and BG2EE both). In BP Series scripts will keep shouting "Diseased" when level drained, and even the Cure Disease spell can't shut them up because the Level Drain stat was never set up properly in the first place.
I fixed it locally by deleting that level drain code from the DS installers for both mods, but fair warning sent out. Hopefully we can convince Avenger to make this update. The vanilla game check for LEVELDRAIN (stat.ids #200) works perfectly in both games--this "fix" was never even needed.