59 replies to this topic

[Roxanne]

Thanks for pointing that manual! There much more info, strange that it's missed from BWS

Roxanne, i can't find Sandrah forum, so i ask here - What is major incompatibility between Sandrah and Teleport? Is there any safe way of their co-existance in one mega-mod?

Technically they can exist in the same installation - using both during gameplay will cause issues - they both access to similar game resources, so if they use both in an uncoordinated way, you may get stuck in game/quest areas without a return option (other than CLUA). Sandrah is supposed to know only areas she has visited, while Teleport uses areas that PC has visited (no issue if Sandrah is always in the party, otherwise messy) Teleport will not know Sandrah mod areas and also misses other locations while Sandrah *remembers* where she has been.

http://www.shsforums...le-for-testing/

[@vGur]

So they can be safely used in one Mega mod in 3 ways:

1. Sandrah always in party + teleport

2. Sandrah never in party + teleport

3. Sandrah can be in party for some time, then leave, but teleport should be avoided all the time

Other = messy, am i right?

[Roxanne]

So they can be safely used in one Mega mod in 3 ways:

1. Sandrah always in party + teleport

2. Sandrah never in party + teleport

3. Sandrah can be in party for some time, then leave, but teleport should be avoided all the time

Other = messy, am i right?

It is slightly different

1. Sandrah always in party >> Decide to use either teleport or her parcel exclusively but stick to the method you chose,

2. Sandrah never in party >>> use teleport

3. Sandrah can be in party for some time, then leave >> when in party =1. when not in party =2

[Greenhorn]

Hellow! Everyone who starts to build "the beast" needs to know content quality. It's hard to analyze the every single component, easier to give from 1 to 5 stars to large mods with new areas, that You already tried. Feel free to vote, it's only your personal thaught. There are few things to rate, 1st is areas quality (1 for "very poor" and 5 for "blend in original"), 2nd for fun (quests and\or fights) and 3rd for bugs  (1 for large unplayable parts, 5 means fully playable). If some components are better to avoid - please tell us.

It should look like: Mod name\ area quality(here could be a number or any comment)\ fun \bugs \ avoided components (if any).

 

Current Rating:

DSotSC                                              5\ 4\ 4\use it with Sandrah mod (votes: 1)

NTotSC with dialog patch                5\ 4\ 5\use it with Sandrah mod (votes: 1)

Dark Horisons                                   5\ 3\ 5 (votes: 1)

Drtizzt Saga                                       3\ 4 (3 for NPCs coded old way)\ 5\use it with Sandrah mod (votes: 1)

SoBH                                                  4\ 4 (3 fo a bit twisted plot)\ 4 (votes: 1)

Shadows over Subar                       4\ 4\ 4 (votes: 1)

Tortured Souls                       

TDD                                                    4\ 3,5\ 5 (votes: 1)

Check the Bodies                             3\ 3,5\ 5 (votes: 1)

Reign of Terror                                  4\ 4\ 5\use it with Sandrah mod (votes: 1)

Fishing for Trouble                            5\ 5\ 3 (votes: 1)

Colours of Infinity                              5\ 4\ 5 (votes: 1)

Vecna with text overhaul mod

 etc (any mod with new areas could be added)

Of course NeJ3

 

Large converstions:

Return to Trademeet,

Paladins of Faerun,

Classic Adventures

 

Smaller mods with new areas & quests

Tower of Deception                         5\ 4\ 5 (votes: 1)

Stone of Askavar                             3\ 3\ 5 (votes: 1)

Back to Brynnlaw

                                            Thanks for every vote!

You should have try Zelink ( incredibly funny mod but also bugged, Arkanis Gath [pre Brynnlaw version ] pops up here and there) together with BGNPC for Soa and Reign of Terror. Talking about super expert megamod version here!   But never had so much fun playing Baldur's gate   ...

[Ineth]

Came across this thread by accident; thought I'd comment.

From the aforementioned mods I have played the following on BG2:EE on Linux. (I had to patch some of them to make them work with EE.)

 

Check the Bodies -- 1-4 / 1-5 / 4

 

Very much a mixed bag. The main component adds a bunch of unrelated areas and encounters - and some of them are great fun, while others are a complete waste of time.

Also, I couldn't get the separate "Candlekeep flashback" component to work on EE, so I only installed the main component.

Even the components that are fun, are poorly balanced though (i.e. give overpowered loot, for example drow equipment in chapter 2 that won't disintegrate until you visit the underdark exit map in chapter 6).

 

Colours of Infinity -- 5 / 4.5 / 4

 

"The White Queen" and "Tales of the Deep Gardens" are excellent. "Innershade" is fine as well though I found it a little less fun than the other two.

The loot you get is also pretty well balanced for chapter 2 parties.

I encountered some very minor bugs, like some items showing their full description even before I identified them, and my party facing "the wrong direction" after stepping through some doors.

 

Tower of Deception -- 4 / 4 / 5

 

A small run-of-the-mill linear adventure. Not particularly exciting, but well put together.

 

Assassinations -- 5 / 4 / 5

 

A neat quest-line for evil parties (or neutral ones, if you're good at rationalizing ).

I loved that it took me to various nooks and crannies of the outdoors Athkatla district maps that I had never visited before in my BG2 playthroughs.

 

Planar Sphere Mod -- 4 / 5 / 4

 

So much fun... if you're a powergamer.

If you're someone who takes game balance, role-playing, or Forgotten Realms canon very seriously, then stay far away from this mod. Otherwise, give it a try!

Everything goes to 11 in this mod: The encounter difficulty, the over-poweredness of the loot, the XP rewards, the sheer megalomania of the plot. All of it totally out of control. And that's what makes it so fun...

Do not attempt it until you have have a high-level post-Watchers Keep chapter 6 party, because I'm not kidding about the encounter difficulty. Imagine having to fight Demogorgon and the Twisted Rune at the same time with SCS installed - that's about the level of a standard battle of this mod. Liches are not bosses in this mod, they come in groups as minions of a boss. That kind of thing.

PS: After completing it, I had to throw away the most epic loot items and use the cheat console to remove 1 million XP from each character again - because otherwise the rest of BG2 and ToB would have been no challenge at all anymore.

Edited by Ineth, 11 January 2016 - 11:40 AM.

[agb1]

Ineth, may I add your review of the Planar Sphere Mod to the mod description in BWS?

[Ineth]

Sure, feel free...

[agb1]

Did you have to patch it to work on BG2EE?  I don't see any checks in the setup-planarspheremod.tp2 file besides REQUIRE_FILE ~Data/25Dialog.bif~ @1 // ToB  check// Base Copy Overs

 

[Ineth]

I commented out the following two lines:

COPY_LARGE + ~dialog.tlk~ ~PlanarSphereMod/dialog.psm~

REQUIRE_FILE ~Data/25Dialog.bif~ @1 // ToB  check// Base Copy Overs

And I also added the following after the README line:

// Make sure strings are correctly encoded for both EE and non-EE games
ALWAYS
  ACTION_DEFINE_ARRAY tra_reload BEGIN setup END
  LAF HANDLE_CHARSETS
    INT_VAR
      infer_charset = 1
    STR_VAR
      tra_path      = EVAL ~%MOD_FOLDER%~
      reload_array  = tra_reload
  END
END

 

PS: And before manually making those edits, I think I also applied some bug fix patch that I found as a forum attachment somewhere around here, but that didn't have anything to do with the EE specifically.

Edited by Ineth, 11 January 2016 - 12:30 PM.

[subtledoctor]

Very good information ineth, thanks. Looks like I'm adding Tower of Deception to my next install.

Anyone have thoughts on any of the others?

[Roxanne]

Ineth, may I add your review of the Planar Sphere Mod to the mod description in BWS?

The description is mostly adaquate - however part of it depends on where you install it. Like here it was installed in BG2EE. If you do it in BGT with some of the balancing mods installed and you have a party started in Candlekeep already it becomes a little less drastic (Still the mage battle in the Council of Six building may be among the hardest you can get unless you install with pure madness in mind from the beginning).

Also worth noting that Planar Sphere and Tower of Deception are bug free even in a BGT context.

Good to hear that both work on BG2EE so chances are high they work on EET as well.

Edited by Roxanne, 11 January 2016 - 12:11 PM.

[agb1]

Interesting.  BWFixpack comments out these lines in addition to the one you disabled:

 

Spoiler

// COPY + ~chitin.key~ ~PlanarSphereMod/chitin.psm~

// COPY_LARGE + ~dialog.tlk~ ~PlanarSphereMod/dialog.psm~

// MKDIR ~PlanarSphereMod/over.bak~

// COPY_LARGE + ~override~ ~PlanarSphereMod/over.bak~

 

In the original tp2, it has a "." in front of "MKDIR" -- I'm not sure what that means.

[Ineth]

All of those lines just make redundant backup copies I think.

 

I only commented out the one that makes installation fail on EE (because "dialog.tlk" does not exist in the main game folder), but I suppose it's only consistent to also comment out those other two backup COPY* lines as well.

 

(I'm still learning the whole weidu/modding stuff though, so I could be wrong.)

 

Still the mage battle in the Council of Six building may be among the hardest you can get

 

Oh yes, that battle is pure murder. Took me probably like seven tries, and used up a Rod of Resurrection...

Edited by Ineth, 12 January 2016 - 10:02 AM.

[Greenhorn]

Came across this thread by accident; thought I'd comment.

From the aforementioned mods I have played the following on BG2:EE on Linux. (I had to patch some of them to make them work with EE.)

 

Check the Bodies -- 1-4 / 1-5 / 4

 

Very much a mixed bag. The main component adds a bunch of unrelated areas and encounters - and some of them are great fun, while others are a complete waste of time.

Also, I couldn't get the separate "Candlekeep flashback" component to work on EE, so I only installed the main component.

Even the components that are fun, are poorly balanced though (i.e. give overpowered loot, for example drow equipment in chapter 2 that won't disintegrate until you visit the underdark exit map in chapter 6).

 

Colours of Infinity -- 5 / 4.5 / 4

 

"The White Queen" and "Tales of the Deep Gardens" are excellent. "Innershade" is fine as well though I found it a little less fun than the other two.

The loot you get is also pretty well balanced for chapter 2 parties.

I encountered some very minor bugs, like some items showing their full description even before I identified them, and my party facing "the wrong direction" after stepping through some doors.

 

Tower of Deception -- 4 / 4 / 5

 

A small run-of-the-mill linear adventure. Not particularly exciting, but well put together.

 

Assassinations -- 5 / 4 / 5

 

A neat quest-line for evil parties (or neutral ones, if you're good at rationalizing ).

I loved that it took me to various nooks and crannies of the outdoors Athkatla district maps that I had never visited before in my BG2 playthroughs.

 

Planar Sphere Mod -- 4 / 5 / 4

 

So much fun... if you're a powergamer.

If you're someone who takes game balance, role-playing, or Forgotten Realms canon very seriously, then stay far away from this mod. Otherwise, give it a try!

Everything goes to 11 in this mod: The encounter difficulty, the over-poweredness of the loot, the XP rewards, the sheer megalomania of the plot. All of it totally out of control. And that's what makes it so fun...

Do not attempt it until you have have a high-level post-Watchers Keep chapter 6 party, because I'm not kidding about the encounter difficulty. Imagine having to fight Demogorgon and the Twisted Rune at the same time with SCS installed - that's about the level of a standard battle of this mod. Liches are not bosses in this mod, they come in groups as minions of a boss. That kind of thing.

PS: After completing it, I had to throw away the most epic loot items and use the cheat console to remove 1 million XP from each character again - because otherwise the rest of BG2 and ToB would have been no challenge at all anymore.

Thanks for very good review. I'm curios though, have you managed to find some guide or walktrough for Check the bodies? 

[Roxanne]

Came across this thread by accident; thought I'd comment.

From the aforementioned mods I have played the following on BG2:EE on Linux. (I had to patch some of them to make them work with EE.)

 

Check the Bodies -- 1-4 / 1-5 / 4

 

Very much a mixed bag. The main component adds a bunch of unrelated areas and encounters - and some of them are great fun, while others are a complete waste of time.

Also, I couldn't get the separate "Candlekeep flashback" component to work on EE, so I only installed the main component.

Even the components that are fun, are poorly balanced though (i.e. give overpowered loot, for example drow equipment in chapter 2 that won't disintegrate until you visit the underdark exit map in chapter 6).

 

Colours of Infinity -- 5 / 4.5 / 4

 

"The White Queen" and "Tales of the Deep Gardens" are excellent. "Innershade" is fine as well though I found it a little less fun than the other two.

The loot you get is also pretty well balanced for chapter 2 parties.

I encountered some very minor bugs, like some items showing their full description even before I identified them, and my party facing "the wrong direction" after stepping through some doors.

 

Tower of Deception -- 4 / 4 / 5

 

A small run-of-the-mill linear adventure. Not particularly exciting, but well put together.

 

Assassinations -- 5 / 4 / 5

 

A neat quest-line for evil parties (or neutral ones, if you're good at rationalizing ).

I loved that it took me to various nooks and crannies of the outdoors Athkatla district maps that I had never visited before in my BG2 playthroughs.

 

Planar Sphere Mod -- 4 / 5 / 4

 

So much fun... if you're a powergamer.

If you're someone who takes game balance, role-playing, or Forgotten Realms canon very seriously, then stay far away from this mod. Otherwise, give it a try!

Everything goes to 11 in this mod: The encounter difficulty, the over-poweredness of the loot, the XP rewards, the sheer megalomania of the plot. All of it totally out of control. And that's what makes it so fun...

Do not attempt it until you have have a high-level post-Watchers Keep chapter 6 party, because I'm not kidding about the encounter difficulty. Imagine having to fight Demogorgon and the Twisted Rune at the same time with SCS installed - that's about the level of a standard battle of this mod. Liches are not bosses in this mod, they come in groups as minions of a boss. That kind of thing.

PS: After completing it, I had to throw away the most epic loot items and use the cheat console to remove 1 million XP from each character again - because otherwise the rest of BG2 and ToB would have been no challenge at all anymore.

Thanks for very good review. I'm curios though, have you managed to find some guide or walktrough for Check the bodies? 

This is the only guide I know of

 CtB_Quest_List.txt   1.06K   355 downloads

It does not mention Hlondeth (Town in the far East you find on your worldmap) which again contains a number of quests - battle at the bridge, fight the yuan-ti invaders - explore the dungeon.

Candlekeep Chores is another mini quest that you can skip with Fast Forward.

There cannot be  a real walkthrough as CtB is a collection of mods/mini-mods scattered all over BG2, some trigger by people you talk to, some you find on the worldmap (Kudin, Hlondeth...).

Edited by Roxanne, 12 January 2016 - 01:39 AM.

[Greenhorn]

Came across this thread by accident; thought I'd comment.

From the aforementioned mods I have played the following on BG2:EE on Linux. (I had to patch some of them to make them work with EE.)

 

Check the Bodies -- 1-4 / 1-5 / 4

 

Very much a mixed bag. The main component adds a bunch of unrelated areas and encounters - and some of them are great fun, while others are a complete waste of time.

Also, I couldn't get the separate "Candlekeep flashback" component to work on EE, so I only installed the main component.

Even the components that are fun, are poorly balanced though (i.e. give overpowered loot, for example drow equipment in chapter 2 that won't disintegrate until you visit the underdark exit map in chapter 6).

 

Colours of Infinity -- 5 / 4.5 / 4

 

"The White Queen" and "Tales of the Deep Gardens" are excellent. "Innershade" is fine as well though I found it a little less fun than the other two.

The loot you get is also pretty well balanced for chapter 2 parties.

I encountered some very minor bugs, like some items showing their full description even before I identified them, and my party facing "the wrong direction" after stepping through some doors.

 

Tower of Deception -- 4 / 4 / 5

 

A small run-of-the-mill linear adventure. Not particularly exciting, but well put together.

 

Assassinations -- 5 / 4 / 5

 

A neat quest-line for evil parties (or neutral ones, if you're good at rationalizing ).

I loved that it took me to various nooks and crannies of the outdoors Athkatla district maps that I had never visited before in my BG2 playthroughs.

 

Planar Sphere Mod -- 4 / 5 / 4

 

So much fun... if you're a powergamer.

If you're someone who takes game balance, role-playing, or Forgotten Realms canon very seriously, then stay far away from this mod. Otherwise, give it a try!

Everything goes to 11 in this mod: The encounter difficulty, the over-poweredness of the loot, the XP rewards, the sheer megalomania of the plot. All of it totally out of control. And that's what makes it so fun...

Do not attempt it until you have have a high-level post-Watchers Keep chapter 6 party, because I'm not kidding about the encounter difficulty. Imagine having to fight Demogorgon and the Twisted Rune at the same time with SCS installed - that's about the level of a standard battle of this mod. Liches are not bosses in this mod, they come in groups as minions of a boss. That kind of thing.

PS: After completing it, I had to throw away the most epic loot items and use the cheat console to remove 1 million XP from each character again - because otherwise the rest of BG2 and ToB would have been no challenge at all anymore.

Thanks for very good review. I'm curios though, have you managed to find some guide or walktrough for Check the bodies? 

This is the only guide I know of

CtB_Quest_List.txt

It does not mention Hlondeth (Town in the far East you find on your worldmap) which again contains a number of quests - battle at the bridge, fight the yuan-ti invaders - explore the dungeon.

Candlekeep Chores is another mini quest that you can skip with Fast Forward.

There cannot be  a real walkthrough as CtB is a collection of mods/mini-mods scattered all over BG2, some trigger by people you talk to, some you find on the worldmap (Kudin, Hlondeth...).

Thanks Roxanne, really appreciate it. Best I could find was this: http://forums.jeuxon...ad.php?t=876281. Not very helpful unless you are fluent french speaker or have good online translator, I'm afraid. 

[Greenhorn]

This is the only guide I know of

  CtB_Quest_List.txt   1.06K   2 downloads

 

Here is little more comprehensive info: http://www.spellholdstudios.net/ie/ctb

[Roxanne]

Came across this thread by accident; thought I'd comment.

From the aforementioned mods I have played the following on BG2:EE on Linux. (I had to patch some of them to make them work with EE.)

 

Check the Bodies -- 1-4 / 1-5 / 4

 

Very much a mixed bag. The main component adds a bunch of unrelated areas and encounters - and some of them are great fun, while others are a complete waste of time.

Also, I couldn't get the separate "Candlekeep flashback" component to work on EE, so I only installed the main component.

Even the components that are fun, are poorly balanced though (i.e. give overpowered loot, for example drow equipment in chapter 2 that won't disintegrate until you visit the underdark exit map in chapter 6).

 

Colours of Infinity -- 5 / 4.5 / 4

 

"The White Queen" and "Tales of the Deep Gardens" are excellent. "Innershade" is fine as well though I found it a little less fun than the other two.

The loot you get is also pretty well balanced for chapter 2 parties.

I encountered some very minor bugs, like some items showing their full description even before I identified them, and my party facing "the wrong direction" after stepping through some doors.

 

Tower of Deception -- 4 / 4 / 5

 

A small run-of-the-mill linear adventure. Not particularly exciting, but well put together.

 

Assassinations -- 5 / 4 / 5

 

A neat quest-line for evil parties (or neutral ones, if you're good at rationalizing ).

I loved that it took me to various nooks and crannies of the outdoors Athkatla district maps that I had never visited before in my BG2 playthroughs.

 

Planar Sphere Mod -- 4 / 5 / 4

 

So much fun... if you're a powergamer.

If you're someone who takes game balance, role-playing, or Forgotten Realms canon very seriously, then stay far away from this mod. Otherwise, give it a try!

Everything goes to 11 in this mod: The encounter difficulty, the over-poweredness of the loot, the XP rewards, the sheer megalomania of the plot. All of it totally out of control. And that's what makes it so fun...

Do not attempt it until you have have a high-level post-Watchers Keep chapter 6 party, because I'm not kidding about the encounter difficulty. Imagine having to fight Demogorgon and the Twisted Rune at the same time with SCS installed - that's about the level of a standard battle of this mod. Liches are not bosses in this mod, they come in groups as minions of a boss. That kind of thing.

PS: After completing it, I had to throw away the most epic loot items and use the cheat console to remove 1 million XP from each character again - because otherwise the rest of BG2 and ToB would have been no challenge at all anymore.

Thanks for very good review. I'm curios though, have you managed to find some guide or walktrough for Check the bodies? 

This is the only guide I know of

CtB_Quest_List.txt

It does not mention Hlondeth (Town in the far East you find on your worldmap) which again contains a number of quests - battle at the bridge, fight the yuan-ti invaders - explore the dungeon.

Candlekeep Chores is another mini quest that you can skip with Fast Forward.

There cannot be  a real walkthrough as CtB is a collection of mods/mini-mods scattered all over BG2, some trigger by people you talk to, some you find on the worldmap (Kudin, Hlondeth...).

Thanks Roxanne, really appreciate it. Best I could find was this: http://forums.jeuxon...ad.php?t=876281. Not very helpful unless you are fluent french speaker or have good online translator, I'm afraid. 

The only real quest mods in this package (aside from Candlekeep Chores) are the ones called

- The Master Vampire, for which you find a trigger once you defeated Bodhi and visit that horse ranch outside of town

- Close To Home and
- The Secession, those two are staged in Hlondeth which you find on the worldmap and can visit - however to play it you need to take an additional NPC from that town into the party (as long as you play the mod) - the story starts when you visit a smith in the central part of the town and use the right dialogue options. If I remember well you need to do the Close to Home battle in order to qualify for the Secession (the real mod)

- Of Elves and Artifacts, or: The Maltese Artifact. This triggers after Trademeet if you helped that town (it is tricky but I think it is written in a way that you can finally solve it without a walkthrough if you read all dialogues carefully.)

- Expanded Company of Eight, is a harder battle, the problem here is not so much the enemies but the members of that company that fight alongside of you, stand in the way and get hostile if you hurt them or then enemy turns them against you - if you manage to lock them all into a room and out of the way, you may enjoy it.

- The Marriage of Surayah is somehow broken by other mods or events taking place in the bridge district and even if you get it to work may not be worth the trouble with its bugs.

 

The rest of the events are minor tasks and jobs you may or may not do.

The summary http://www.spellholdstudios.net/ie/ctb describes them well enough (except that the author is a bit biased with respect to the Company of Eight).

Edited by Roxanne, 12 January 2016 - 02:16 AM.

[Greenhorn]

 Expanded Company of Eight, is a harder battle, the problem here is not so much the enemies but the members of that company that fight alongside of you, stand in the way and get hostile if you hurt them or then enemy turns them against you - if you manage to lock them all into a room and out of the way, you may enjoy it.

Hate this kind of things, still remember that final battle in Epic endeavours TC, what a p***in the b***. I'm so reluctant to play things like Silmar battlefield, but every time curiosity get better of me. Anyway thanks for this helpful info. 

[Ineth]

The CtB components which I liked the most, were:

• The Ancient Library
• The Academy of Kuldin

Probably because they weren't actual quests (and thus didn't suffer from cheesiness/weirdness), and because their area graphics were taken from the beautiful Icewind Dale games...

Basically they're just two big(-ish) locations to explore with lots of enemies to kill. Doesn't sound too exciting when put like that, but the types of enemies were pretty interesting (and challenging) to fight, and included some which you wouldn't otherwise meat in the Baldur's Gate series. And what little implied backstory there was, fit together really well with the area graphics and the monster/item placement, so overall it created a pretty atmospheric and enjoyable experience.

 

The Library also had a huuuuuge number of unique books, many of them with custom inventory icons, which I thought was pretty cool:

 

And exploring the Academy involved a neat twist, which put my party into a... position which no other Infinity Engine game or mod that I played has done before (AFAICR), and which I found pretty exciting when it happened.

 

As I already implied in my first post, they had some overpowered loot though.