Jan’s extended quests: -> try it; I doubt I will be installing it again
Story: After you’ve done Jan’s personal quest (https://baldursgate....n_Summoned_Home) , you are informed by a messenger that Lissa and Jaella are not feeling too well. You are brought to the temple where Jan asks you to ruin Vaelag once and for all. To do that, you play two quests (spoiler already):
Spoiler
1) The first quest you are supposed to ruin a delivery of Vaelag by actually subbing the lens of a telescope. That lens was stolen from a Temple of Gond and charname and Jan ask for a replica to the temple. You sub the replica and are given the chance to actually deliver the original lens to Ribald (to sell it) or to the temple of Gond (and they reward you by improving Jan’s armor).
2) After you finished the first quest, Jan asks you to go to one of his old acquaintance, Billy, a now dismissed employer of Vaelag. Billy tells you that Vaelag is going to rob the temple of Oghma. As soon as Jan proposes you to do that, a cutscene starts and you see the thieves raiding the temple only to get stopped by Paladins.
Then you see a paladin of the order speaking with a shadow thief negotiatior. The thief promises the man of the order that the culprit will be punished if:
- the order offer the informations he is looking for
and
- if two men that were arrested are released.
The contrariness of the paladin is rapidly faced with the fact that the shadow thief blackmails him by telling that he will go to Sir Ryan Trawl if his requests are not satisfied.
3) Last quest: you just enter Vaelag’s house and you either kill him or spare him.
Review:
I liked the quests, but I still won’t install the mod anymore. There are several points worth analyzing:
Spoiler
a) The mod tries to link Vaelag with the shadow thieves: due to this relationship you cannot attack him directly. How does Vaelag lose shadow thieves support? Simple: when you reveal to the Paladin order that the temple is going to get assaulted (quest number 2 mentioned above) some thieves are imprisoned. The thieves guild is disappointed by this fact: specifically, in a cutscene you see a man of the shadow thieves talking with a man of the paladin order. The thief asks the paladin to free two of the imprisoned thieves in exchange of getting the “culprit” of the onslaught of the temple “punished”.
b) This opens a can of worms: “normally” Paladins shouldn’t deal with thieves within the universe of AD&D. Let’s just say that even in vanilla game, by allying with thieves you would probably fall.
I can spare my disbelief about the fall because it is related to charname and I can justify it via “the-chosen-one” theorem.
But seeing a paladin of the order actually dealing with thieves and getting even blackmailed by the thief himself (the thief says the paladin that if he won’t cooperate he will go to his superior, Sir Ryan Trawl) ruins my immersion. Edit: if a thief can blackmail a paladin, it probably means the guy he is talking with is not even a paladin anymore...
c) this gets even weirder... In the last cutscene between the thief and the paladin (an optional cutscene, given that to have it appear you have to spare Vaelag) when the paladin asks for proofs about Vaelag’s death, the paladin hears from the shadow thief member that to ensure his death the shadow thieves actually sunk a ship with Vaelag inside... and the thief actually talks about the loss of the other passengers life being “calculated” (just imagine hearing this as a paladin) but the paladin also asks the thief for the corpse of Vaelag as proof of his death(?).
d) I don’t understand how this mod respects ToB ending for Jan.
e) There are also some technical issues, see the notes below.
Notes:
1) For some strange reason after installing the mod the messenger for Jan’s personal quest never comes.
Maybe it was just an oddity in my game.
2) When Jan leaves you and asks you to wait for him in the copper coronet, it would be cool if as soon as the “cutscene” ends, Jan comes to you.
3) The gond’s priest have French voiceset, even if I was playing the English version.
4) After getting the telescope Lens, Jan offers you to sell it to Ribald. When you go to Ribald the option is there, but as soon as you click it, you leave the dialogue and doesn’t go further.
5) When I met with Billy, sometimes Jan’s dialogue failed to fire up, making me stuck.
6) Billy dialogue text error: and who would belief an old drunk like me?
Belief= believe
7) Text error: “compensate for lost profits.”
The “ should be before the dot .
Vaelag encounter got bugged too the first time. Jan would not answer to his banter.
9) I would have loved an option to sell Jan to Vaelag. After all, Jan describes him as a man that always comes out on top no matter what happens. So I can see him actually trying to persuade you to leave Jan here with him.
Edited by Sergio, 18 November 2019 - 11:03 AM.
Low hung brow, dazed look on your face..... It appears that you are correct, my friend. You are indeed a complete imbecile.
Questpack Alternative Harper plot -> Try it. But in my case I won’t install this anymore
Story: This component gives you the chance to save Xzar from the harper’s plot.
Spoiler
[vanilla]
- after delivering the body to the harpers, Xzar asks you to get Montaron’s body from the harper’s compound.
- As usual, you can enter the compound as soon as you have killed the apprentices in Prebek’s house.
[alternative harper plot]
- The “new” piece of content can be enjoyed as soon as you enter the Harper’s compound: speak with Meronia and tell her that Xzar asked for your help and that you want to help the harpers.
- Meronia will give you the bird and you can deliver it to Xzar. While talking with Xzar, you can alert him that the bird is a polymorphed assassin. If you have Jaheira in team, she will turn hostile on you after alerting Xzar.
- Now Xzar will ask you to deliver Montaron’s body. To retrieve the body, you can either:
a) stealthily enter the compound
b) go full carnage on everyone inside.
Anyway, after retrieving Montaron’s body from one of the six chests near the beds in second floor, you deliver it to Xzar that is happy with you if you already took option b), otherwise he will propose/ask you to assault the harper compound. If you agree, Xzar will appear once you enter the compound to help you destroy the harpers.
After you’ve killed everyone in the compound/didn’t agree with Xzar (you are not forced to slaughter the people inside the harpers compound), you can go to Prebek’s house and you will see a cutscene with him trying to revive Montaron, only to have Montaron now a zombie turn on him and kill him.
Some considerations:
- After the huge deception they cooked, why would they risk alerting you of their plot by actually delivering you one of their members in your backpack
- Why would they even trust an evil charname
- Why wouldn’t they just turn hostile after you made one of their members die – I guess I would understand if this happened miles away from their compound, but this whole ordeal happens in front of them and even Jaheira may turn on you due to your betrayal
- I didn’t enjoy the final cutscene with Montaron actually killing Xzar. Why would a zombie montaron just kill Xzar out of the blue, as soon as Xzar reanimates him? Feels strange.
- The new choice kinda diminishes the impact of “inevitability” that this game has in some quests: in this quest you are played by higher powers and you want to fool them so easily? Also, by choosing this path you miss all the harper content with Jaheira.
[Subplot] There is also another subplot added by this mod: inside prebek’s apprentice house, you find Shazellim +1, a sword that has a kill effect on harpers. Jaheira asks you to deliver it to Barnard and after doing that you gain 3000 gold and 12500 experience.
I don’t think I’ll be installing this component again.
Edited by Sergio, 18 November 2019 - 11:25 AM.
Low hung brow, dazed look on your face..... It appears that you are correct, my friend. You are indeed a complete imbecile.
Questpack Component – a new fate for dryad acorns [BG2] – Try it, but in my case I won’t install this component anymore.
[story]
Spoiler
This component makes you able to betray the driads by actually giving the acorns to the dryad responsible of “delivering” them to Irenicus. You can choose:
- to actually eat the acorns out of the blue, just because.
- to seel the acorns for money
- to cooperate with the dryad to backstab Vaelasa (the dryad you are supposed to deliver the acorns in Windspear hills). On Vaelasa’s body you’ll find a “gem” that makes you immune to charm, gives you +1 charisma and -1 constitution but no good characters can use it.
So, why didn’t I enjoy the mod?
Spoiler
- Selling the dryads for money isn’t an option appealing to me.
- You can cooperate with the new found dryad, but I fail to realize why charname would be compelled to do so. Just for the mere gold? Freeing these dryads for charname is a chance to know more about his captor.
- This links to another theme faced in the mod: the nymph actually cooperated with Irenicus, so I wonder why you can’t ask her about Irenicus? Even if you would get nothing out of her.
- The readme writes: “Evil players may delight in the new opportunities afforded here, including a delicious gourmet meal.” – you may imagine my surprise when I saw that the option probably referred here has you eat the acorns out of the blue in front of the nymph. Which kind of charname would do so? I had hoped to have actually a dinner with the dryad in exchange for the quest: that could have been an interesting roleplay option...
- The cutscene where you backstab Vaelasa is unnecessary long, with an over-use of screen trembling.
Edited by Sergio, 18 November 2019 - 11:25 AM.
Low hung brow, dazed look on your face..... It appears that you are correct, my friend. You are indeed a complete imbecile.
Questpack component - Additional Shadow Thieves Content -> I won’t install it anymore
Readme: <<this component expands on the existing quests focusing around the Shadow Thieves. It can be divided into a number of sections:
The player may now side with Mae'Var instead of Renal when assigned to infiltrate his guild. In the true spirit of thieves, this component allows the player to double-cross his allies time after time, although not without consequence. To begin this path, the player must take the initiative and tell Mae'Var of Renal's mission after gaining his trust.
There is now a mission to eliminate Aran Linvail and his guild on the behalf of Brega in chapter 6. The player will find himself fighting his way through the Shadow Thief lair alongside city guards. This component will begin automatically in chapter 6 for any player who does not have the thief stronghold and has not sided with Mae'Var, assuming Aran is still alive; a messenger should demand your attention.
It is now possible to complete Edwin's quests without killing Rayic Gethras: you may instead trick Edwin into thinking Rayic is dead. New dialogue options should become apparent upon speaking to Rayic.
A quest is introduced centering around the torturer, Booter. (Ghrey IM.) If spoken to repeatedly, he will divulge information about his victims, and a cunning player may be able to utilise some of these details>>.
My notes:
Spoiler
[Siding with Maevar]
You can betray Renal for Mae’var, but personally I didn’t find the content rewarding.
You double cross Renal by simply putting some documents on a container near him. Renal gets incarcerated and is now subbed by a guy named Larrel. Your prize is a dart of tranquillity (a dart that puts the enemy to sleep if he fails the saving throw and returns to owner’s hand).
After chapter 6, you are supposed to be informed by a messenger that Mae’var wishes to speak to you, and he asks you to assault Aran’s hideout. You do that, and as soon as you kill Aran, Larrel asks you to actually double cross Mae’var and kill him, because he wants to ensure the night knives supremacy.
Whatever your choice will be, you always get xp, (money? – can’t remember) and a gloves of backstabbing (+1 to backstab modifier).
So, why I didn’t enjoy this component very much?
1) I don’t like Mae’var as character and I find his personality very abrasive. For me, allying with him means that you are an impulsive charname or an-out-of-wits one. I mean, why would you ally yourself with a compulsive backstabber?
2) I found myself pretty indifferent towards the whole “now kill Aran and then Maevar or Larren”. I’m in chapter 6, with the “self-imposed” clock of both Irenicus besieging Suldanesselar and Imoen decaying due to the loss of her soul and I’m here serving Mae’var rather than serving my own agenda.
3) I don’t feel any true attachment to any of these people. Betrayal, backstabbing, have no meaning if you simply have no relationship with these people apart from quests (?).
4) You can put the forged letter to backstab Renal in front of many thief without even going stealth, as if no one cares about what you’re doing.
A positive note: I found it funny that you can meet Renal in the Shadow thieves prison and talk with him.
[eliminate Aran Linvail for captain Brega]
After you come back to the city, you are supposed to be alerted by a messenger (I wasn’t) that Chief Inspector Brega wants to speak with you. You speak with him and he asks you to kill Aran Linvail.
I find this part of the mod odd:
- Brega tells you the Council does not agree with the decision of killing Aran. He still goes through.
- Brega is the head of law enforcements and he asks you to besiege the shadow thieves to kill Aran? Law is not involved at all here? Just plain murder of many people just because he feels like so?
- What if Brega is charmed and currently under another power control? The irony is that in the dialogues with him, after you’ve killed Aran, you can tell him “we must be wary because killing Aran may be recipe for the surfacing of another power” (I didn’t copy the words straight, but that is the point). The dialogue feels to me like a bandaid for a problem that will surface in the player’s mind.
I didn’t enjoy this part of the component.
[complete Edwin quest without killing Rayic]
The option now available here is to ask Rayic for his signet ring in exchange for you delivering Edwin to him. To ensure that you are going to deliver Edwin to him, Rayic asks you 1500 gold coins that he will give you back as soon as you deliver Edwin back.
After talking with Edwin, I realized that no matter which dialogue option I chose, I couldn’t find any option to deliver Edwin to the mage.
I tried also to think out of the box, by telling Edwin I allied with Rayic just to see if I could bring Rayic the corpse, and well, no corpse get dropped. Also, after killing Edwin I went to Rayic just to see which options would be available and you can tell him that you killed Edwin, but he answers he wants his body. But Edwin doesn’t drop any body. So I don’t know if it was a “bug” or if you are not intended to do so.
After a couple of hours I realized I may be supposed to bring Edwin while he is on my party to Rayic. And I did it. After Edwin joined me, I just delivered him to Rayic. But there were more issues:
1) after you delivered him to Rayic, Edwin turns hostile and is invulnerable
2) in some of my tests, Rayic sometimes turns hostile too against your party.
So this component has the following flaws:
1) you have dialogues option you can’t actually follow through
2) The encounter is bugged
I didn’t enjoy this part of the component – not even fixing it would make me install it.
[Booter’s quest]
By talking with booter a few times, he will reveal that there is a guard inside the prison. You can free this guard by simply talking to her – and yes, no one seems to realize what you just did – and you’ll find the guard in docks district. You go together to her house to save her family, but it’s too late and the family is already dead. He promises revenge on the shadow thief. End of the quest.
Worth it? You decide. I find it unrealistic that a prisoner of the shadow thief can leave so easily without anyone simply noticing.
I didn't enjoy this component. Add on top of that that if you install this component you are bound not to install Npc Strongholds (see here: https://www.gibberli...-compatibility/) so that’s another reason to not install it.
Edited by Sergio, 18 November 2019 - 11:27 AM.
Low hung brow, dazed look on your face..... It appears that you are correct, my friend. You are indeed a complete imbecile.
Questpack – infernal thievery -> I will not install this component anymore
Spoiler
In the bridge district, after solving the murders mystery, you meet a man named Wilbur that is interested in selling <charname> a weapon because he needs to retrieve gold coins to heal his father.
The weapon is a red scimitar +3, with the following combat ability: every successfull hit grants +1 thaco for 1 round.
After getting the weapon, if you go bottom right in the docks district, you will meet a Marilith disguised as a girl that asks you to actually give the weapon back to her because it was stolen from her. If you don’t, you have to kill the marilith. If you give the weapon back, the marilith will spare you.
If you don’t give the scimitar to the marilith, battle will ensue. If you don’t kill the marilith within a minute, cowled wizards will appear and take care of her and you will lose 1 reputation and get 5000 xp.
I don’t like the component for the following reasons:
> why a marilith is looking for such a bad weapon (the scimitar should have some cute abilities to actually justify the marilith searching for it)
> and why for such a bad weapon the marilith would risk his life by meeting the child of Bhaal.
If the item was better, I guess I could find the story more credible. Also, there is another note to be done: Marilith are [taken from here: https://forgottenrea.../wiki/Marilith] highly intelligent beings with a good sense for tactics, a domineering and wicked personality, and the rare ability to unite and coordinate the actions of demons. And he goes 1 vs your party and not only that, doesn’t use diplomacy even if there are cowled wizards that would surely be alerted by her appearance ?
Edited by Sergio, 18 November 2019 - 11:26 AM.
Low hung brow, dazed look on your face..... It appears that you are correct, my friend. You are indeed a complete imbecile.
Questpack - Rahul Kanakia's Potion Quest - I won’t install this component anymore.
Spoiler
You meet a deranged man in the sewers telling you that he needs some potions to make a concoction that can give him unlimited power. He gives you a note and you have to bring him 12 different types of potions, and every time you bring him one, he gives you some details about his past life.
When he mentions his family, you can actually search for them and you find them located in Bridge District bottom right, near the exit. After you make him meet with his family you discover that his family is scared of him because when he drank one of his mixtures he actually turned on them and killed his daughter. You then got the chance:
a) make them reconcile
b) convince him that the family now belongs to the past and keep brewing the potions.
[Reconcile]
If you make them reconcile, he will just give you three potions and follow his fleeing (from him) family.
[Choose the power]
b) If you make him leave his family, you bring him the last potions and he asks you to drink the concotion before him.
- If you don’t drink the potion before him, he explodes and dies.
- If you drink the potion before him, you get -1 constitution. He thanks you, then a moment later proceeds to improve the potion, then drinks it; he turns into some sort of higher power, and gives you your reward: a belt that can cast Heal/1 time a day on you.
So this quest has exactly what I don’t enjoy from quests:
1) It’s a fetch quest; he gives you a list but no, you can’t just give it to any shopkeeper to actually get all the potions at once in due time.
2) a lot of running back and forth, especially when you have to solve the issues between him and his family.
3) A punishment if you go evil.
4) No way to actually stop him from drinking the “refined” potion and get your ultimate prize.
Low hung brow, dazed look on your face..... It appears that you are correct, my friend. You are indeed a complete imbecile.
Questpack - Burglary Of The Bookkeeper. - Ok component. Won't reinstall it again.
Spoiler
It’s a mini-quest: you talk with Galloop the bookkeeper and he tells you that someone is stealing his scrolls. He tells you where the thief is (bridge district) and you find him as soon as you enter the bridge district.
He tells you that he is stealing “friends” scroll because he was disfigured by his dad and no one talks to him or trusts him. You got the following choices:
- kill him
- bring him to the guards (but it ends with him turning hostile on you and you have to kill him)
- leave him alone after he gives you back the scrolls and he promises you he won’t steal anymore
- give him the ring of influence.
It’s an ok quest, but I doubt I’ll be reinstalling it again. Do I enjoy it enough to install it? No.
Questpack - The Tragedy Of Besamen. I didn’t enjoy this component
Spoiler
Inside a tomb, you find a zombie asking you for help.
Once a man, he thinks to be stuck in undead form because he parted badly with the girl he loved and asks you to find her so he can reconcile with his (ex)-wife/girl.
You find the girl in the copper coronet and you bring her to the guy.
They kiss and the story ends.
Notes:
- Readme description: “A troubled man, stuck somewhere between life and death, seeks to be united once more with his true love. Will you bring them together, or send them both to rot in their graves?”
When I was playing this mod, I was looking for some cool evil options, but there are none.
In fact, there is only one “evil” option, if “evil” can be killed. To mess with the couple, you are supposed to kill the girl in cold blooded murder. That is not evil to me, but it is silly. Being evil is different from being a psycopath (and truth be told, if you kill the girl in the copper coronet, you lose 4 rep and 15 experience).
- The only rude option available makes you unable to finish the quest.
- in the final encounter, being rude has no effect on the following dialogues: ironically, you get the same reward as if you were super kind to the couple.
Questpack – Extended Reynald sequence. I didn’t enjoy this component
Spoiler
After killing Anarg for the cup, Reynald will talk with you and you can discuss about what he will be doing in the future. Even if there are a few options, they all lead to two outcomes:
- he leaves;
- you propose him to work for the city guard;
If you go for option 2 you just talk with Bylanna in the government district and he gets the new job.
I didn’t enjoy very much this component due to the lack of options: according to me, Reynald is not as irridemeable as it seems to be. I would have liked way more if you could have persuaded him to come to the order with you and you could actually propose Sir Ryan Trawl to let Reynald suffer his penance to gain once again his paladin status. No need for it to make it happen in an instant, it could also be a troubled “path” where neither Reynald and Trawl are sure about charname’s proposal.
Questpack - Miscellaneous Enhancements – I don’t care at all about what this component adds
Readme:
Spoiler
This component does not add a single new quest per se, but instead introduces assorted new minor encounters and enhancements in various places during the game, to spice up the atmosphere.Some of the encounters may be recognisable from Iron Modder competitions; however, all have been fixed and improved in some way. This component may safely be installed over the top of Iron Modder entries, but not vice versa. The complete list of changes introduced by this component is as follows:
A new encounter now takes place in the graveyard in chapter 6. (Bons IM.)
There is a sinister new encounter with a spectre in the Saradush prison. (Bons IM.)
You can visit a new character in the Umar Hills Inn to hear a sinister tale once you exit the Underdark. (Blue IM.)
Madulf will help protect Imnesvale during the paladin stronghold quest set there.
The lost girl in the Docks District can now be reunited with her mother.
New possibilities are introduced for dealing with the orphaned child in Saradush.
Sime now has a proper fate, providing closure where none was present originally. (Previously she would go for help and never be mentioned again.)
OPTIONAL: New random encounters are introduced, both in the city and in the wilderness. (This will work alongside the similar component in the Tactics mod.)
There is now a minor followup to the discovery of the lich in the Crooked Crane.
In the Windspear Hills, the Knights' illusion may be dispelled.
The Trademeet Rakshasas now respond to the Flail of the Ages.
Resurrecting Mummies works more frequently and provides more diverse dialogue.
A dog will befriend you temporarily in the Docks.
The infamous Battle Horror makes a reappearance. Be prepared.
Displacer Beasts may now be encountered in the Underdark. (Created by Jaysyn.)
A limited number of Arrows of Detonation become available in SoA.
Ribald now wears a Robe of the Neutral Archmagi.
Potion Cases and Ammo Belts are available in SoA.
Notes
Spoiler
I do not install this component because I find the features outright silly. So you get content for:
- metagaming reasons (why would you dispel the ogres in windspear hills if not by knowing they are not ogres?)
- uninteresting (to me) reasons (why would I care about Sime’s fate?)
- silly enjoyment (why would I care a dog to be friendly to me in the docks?)
- itemization mods – why would the mod actually touch Ribald’s robe
- lack of readme : where does the battle horror makes a reappareance? What is the sinister encounter about?
- must I add more?
Questpack - Saving Sanik In Brynnlaw + sending the solamnic knights home. - won't install them
I don’t care very much about the first component, while I may be more prone to installing the second, maybe. Or maybe not.
Edited by Sergio, 13 January 2020 - 03:33 AM.
Low hung brow, dazed look on your face..... It appears that you are correct, my friend. You are indeed a complete imbecile.
1) First, this component assumes you are going to play a good charname, otherwise you are not getting the entirety of the content. From the readme: “Having adjusted the management of the Coronet, it is now possible to either remove Surly from the premises, or extort him, taking a share of his business profits. Speak to him after killing Lehtinan. If you remove Surly from the Coronet, he will attempt to set up elsewhere”. Why would I care about removing Lehtinan to get all these options?
2) Charname roleplay: do you think that after getting the money from the money lender, getting ambushed because I didn’t pay, I would go back to the money lender just to pay him? And when I go to him I can’t explain him that he pissed the wrong person ? Where are my options? It’s ironic that when you go to him once again all you can do is just taunt him a little or give him back the coins.
3) There are no options to make my charname acts the way he wants. And in this case I don’t want any “rude” options (there is one where you just taunt him a bit by asking for more coins even if you didn’t pay back what he lent you), I want crude options.
Final note: Do you envision Sarevok in BG1 talking with Cecile and happily sorting the issues together? I do not. In fact, I got a trick to see if evil options are satisfying in mods: if he was in my shoes, what would Sarevok do ? Imagine what would BG1 Sarevok do to Cecile then go to him and tell him he can’t touch Cecile because he has to free the slaves before. An image can explain everything: https://ibb.co/gDQgqD7
There is also a quest: when you go near the temple of Ilmater, you meet a woman named Moiya that asks you for help because she cannot pay back Cecile (the usurer) for the gold coins she took.
You ask how many gold coins she took and it’s 5000 gold coins, so she has to give back 6250 gold coins.
You can either:
- pay her the coins (the quest finishes here, I guess)
- go to Cecile to see which measures he is going to use against the girl. Cecile will just say you that he is not going to harm the girl and you go back to the girl to say that. I had no more news about this quest, but I seem to remember that you’re supposed to meet them once again (?).
This quest didn’t strike me as being particularly interesting..
Just for curiosity, I fred the slaves to see what you can do to Cecile: and no new option appeared.
I truly don’t care about this component.
Edited by Sergio, 18 November 2019 - 11:52 PM.
Low hung brow, dazed look on your face..... It appears that you are correct, my friend. You are indeed a complete imbecile.
Questpack – further slaver involvement – I didn’t enjoy the quest the current way it is executed. Could be worth a look if it will ever be fixed.
Spoiler
In vanilla game you meet Risa, the orphaned child and you can bring the paladin to her and make them happy together. Questpack adds an evil possibility, to make Risa a slave. I like the idea very much but I find it very flawed in its execution. How does it work?
1) you meet Risa,
2) [Vanilla content] You ask the paladin to take care of her. There are no further choices to the whole ordeal. Either you play good and solve the quest or Risa will stay there with the priest in the cemetery permanently.
3) [Questpack content] you talk with Lehtinan. He will be sending one of his minions to the cemetery to get the girl from the priest. Now that’s what the flawed part I’m talking about:
- if you left the paladin alive, he will step in and adopt the girl. You won’t be able to actually stop him.
- if you killed the paladin, the quest will end well and Lehtinan will have a new slave.
The problem with this content is in the “alive” paladin scenario. If the paladin steps in, you are not given in the dialogues a chance to <charname> to actually get the girl by killing both the paladin and the priest.
This is totally weird from the player standpoint: the player needs to know he has to kill the paladin before trying to get Risa, otherwise the quest will get botched. But the player can’t know that unless he has already played the scenery. So new content is based on player metagaming/or quickload. Choose your pick.
Edited by Sergio, 18 November 2019 - 11:51 PM.
Low hung brow, dazed look on your face..... It appears that you are correct, my friend. You are indeed a complete imbecile.
This mod felt to me really unrefined, especially because I had many technical issues
1) I had issues concerning the party that is supposed to “ambush” you by waiting for you, simply because many times the boss that is supposed to speak with Ariena failed to spawn. Or got stuck somewhere. Is it mod's fault or pathfinding's fault due to EE? I don't know.
2) You do the personal quest for Ariena and the irony is that simply choosing the wrong dialogue path, even if the dialogue path doesn’t differ very much actually brings you to different “endings” to the whole dialogue. This makes you miss part of the quest content without any “real” reward.
- One path makes mother and daughter be kinda neutral to each other
- The other makes it possible to redeem Ariena/leave her evil
But unless the player knows that, mod author is trusting the chance to make the player enjoy his content.
Note: See here: https://ibb.co/GHT9CW1. In the case you play Ariena, choose option 6). I chose option 5 and actually "only" tested option 6 because I read Roxanne's whereabouts in her forum
After having these "problems" I just can't be bothered anymore to play Ariena.
Sorry.
Edited by Sergio, 20 November 2019 - 12:54 AM.
Low hung brow, dazed look on your face..... It appears that you are correct, my friend. You are indeed a complete imbecile.
Mod is a merge of two mods: Freedom’s reign + Reign of Virtue
Freedom’s reign
* 80-90 New Items spread throughout Baldur's Gate 2 in the Shadows of Amn section of the game.
This modification will work fine with or without Throne of Bhaal installed.
* Edits/Replaces creatures throughout the game to hold/carry new weaponry
* 2 Completely new Stores
Reign of Virtue - Features
Reign of Virtue aims to bring you more of the same as Freedom's Reign. Reign of Virtue is designed to be used in conjunction with Throne of Bhaal, and aims to bring you :
* 3 Completely New Stores with Totally Original New Items
* 5 New Encounters using new scripts, items, sounds and other niceties
My first gripe: I think that the mod should be modular, with the possibility for the player to install what he wants.
Now, I will not review the itemization. I will just review the encounters.
First Encounter
Spoiler
1) The first encounter happen in the ToB sacred grove (the starting section, where you talk to the heads right after SoA). You meet a demon here. That’s what he says:
Dialogue:
@1 = ~The Souls of the Living
The Souls of the Dead
The Souls of the Immortals
The Souls of the Gods~ [DeCRE#09]
@2 = ~Will you take your destiny?
Will you pay the price?
Will you sell your life?
Will you take what is yours?~
@3 = ~Will your friends be true?
Will your heart be strong?
Will your path be righteous?
Will your end be near?~
@4 = ~Take the tests
Strike pure and true
and rewards for your talents
I will give you~
@5 = ~Decide
Destroy
Deliver
Receive~
@6 = ~take the road
that is clear to you
take that which you know is yours
and take the Reign of Virtue
from my bloody claws!~
Apart from the dialogue, I find it “curious” (or should I say unrealistic?) that the elves escort you to the grove, and right at the entrance there is a demon and they would not do anything to protect the grove.
The demon also drops a ring that Lazarus cannot identify. These are the stats:
@2231 = ~The Reign of Virtue~
@2232 = ~This ring is highly ornate. Inscribed on it is a single passage that you cannot fathom the meaning of:
The Reign
Of Virtue
Of Freedom
Of Honour
For all Eternity
You do not know why Sataraleth was carrying this ring, or what its purpose is. You assume it was destined for you, but you don't know why Sataraleth forced you to fight him for it.
STATISTICS:
Equipped Abilities:
Virtue
+2 AC Bonus
+2 Charisma Bonus
Freedom
Free Action
Extra Attack per Round
Honour
Immunity to Fear
Immunity to Confusion
For Eternity
Immunity to Timestop
Immunity to Fatigue~
Second encounter
Spoiler
You meet a new npc inside Saradush. He is a black knight. Out of the blue, charname will tell him everything while the black knight will always answer “...” until the end.
@2 = ~Hello sir knight, we are on a quest...~
@3 = ~We are trying to get to King Gromnir...~
@4 = ~Would you like to help us?~
@5 = ~..~
@6 = ~No? your loss then!~
@7 = ~We would just like to go through that door behind...~
@8 = ~None Shall Pass~
@9 = ~But... ??~
@10 = ~NONE... Shall Pass~
@11 = ~I only...~
@12 = ~I move for no man!~
@13 = ~If I must fight you then...~
@14 = ~I move... for no man!~
@15 = ~Oh alright then!~
@16 = ~Right, cummon you pansy!~
Unrelated note: right after this encounter (the guy speaks to you as soon as you go near him, and he is near Saradush's prison) I went into Saradush Tavern: there is a guy, named Ted Bracket that has some items. Checked just one (abyssal fury) and it had wrong icon: flail instead of sword.
Also, the description seems to make a reference to the weapon itself “to work against its own wielder, with strange demonic suggestions that can put the wielder off for a few short second”. But... the statistics make no reference to such an event happening.
Another encounter... happens in Amkethran
Spoiler
// DECOSMO translation file
@1 = ~Oh yeah, well wet fishes only come to those who wait!~
@2 = ~What the hell is a fishwife? I'll smack you with my plutonium powered swordfish! Run from me foul heathen!~
@3 = ~Who said? Prepare to be eviscerated by my highly overpowered weaponry!~
@4 = ~I'll have you know that my swordfish could carve you into small pieces in a matter of seconds, and flies would feast upon your soul for all...~
@5 = ~Don't deny me, fish destroying evil doer! Or I shall destroy you with a fork and bottle of whiskey!~
@6 = ~NO! The world shall be destroyed by my evil weaponry! EVIL I SAY!~
@7 = ~Okay. *sob*~
@8 = ~The world is mine! Mine I tell you! And the fish of the world shall praise my name forever more!~
Another encounter happens in Abazigal’s entrance with Bob the cleric
Spoiler
// DEBOBDLG translation file
@1 = ~Ahh, adventurers yes? Come to talk to Bob about his travels have you? Come to hear of his mighty conquests and deeds? Well I shall tell you!~
@2 = ~All around Faerun I have been, smiting down my enemies in the name of the high lord Bane.~
@3 = ~Destruction is my middle name, and I have laid a path of destruction out behind me. Death is so easy to cause on Faerun, oh yes. Easy. Amn has easy prey, oh yes it does. Tasty morsels.~
@4 = ~Oh how the mighty do fall easily, killed many I have. Hang on a minute...~
@5 = ~I have seen you before somewhere; you are the mighty "what's the name?"~
@6 = ~Your name escapes me, but I know our paths have crossed for I am sure of it. You have caused me a great pain, many wounds did you give me.~
@7 = ~What wounds?~
@8 = ~What are you talking about?~
@9 = ~Yes, struck me with spell and sword you did. You wronged me, and now I shall make you pay with death.~
@10 = ~Bob is not mad, clear is my mind. I am only focussed. You will die, fool. You have crossed Bob the Cleric, and now he will destroy you!~
He drops
@2199 = ~Flat Elric~
@2200 = ~Flat Elric was so-called by this name after Bob picked up the hammer at a corner shop.
Soon after, Bob saw a beggar on the street known as Elric. Of course Bob got real angry at him for asking him for gold. So Bob flattened him with his new hammer.
You can guess the rest!
STATISTICS:
Enchantment: +2
THAC0: +2 Bonus
Damage: 1D4 +3, +1D6 Fire Damage
Damage Type: Crushing
Weight: 5
Speed Factor: 2
Proficiency Type: War Hammer
Type: 1-Handed
Requires: 9 Strength~
and
@2197 = ~Evil Billy~
@2198 = ~Evil Billy glows in a strange bluish light and hue, but looks like a pretty typical mace.
Bob managed to pick this mace up on one of his huge treks around Faerun. While visiting Rasheman, Bob met a strange delusional man who said something about the mace having some sort of strange curse, that made magic "bend the rules". Bob didn't care much. He killed the strange man and took the mace.
Bob, didn't have a name for the mace, but decided to give it a generic name much like his own. He also thought the prefix of evil would make the mace work better. Weird.
STATISTICS:
Enchantment: +3
Equipped Ability:
Speeds up Spell Casting
THAC0: +3 Bonus
Damage: 1D6 +4
Damage Type: Crushing
Weight: 6
Speed Factor: 4
Proficiency Type: Mace
Type: 1-Handed
Requires: 10 Strength~
I can’t bear myself to keep playing this mod.
I didn’t enjoy it and I don’t feel like continuing to play it.
Edited by Sergio, 30 November 2019 - 03:32 AM.
Low hung brow, dazed look on your face..... It appears that you are correct, my friend. You are indeed a complete imbecile.
Au Service D’oghma -> Try it. For me it’s not that interesting.
Story: there is a new priest inside the temple of Oghma, whom you can speak to. He is looking for books\scrolls and whatever is rare. You can bring him three items, that you find during your travels (note: I’m going to spoil also the reward for bringing him these items):
Spoiler
1) Book of Kaza – charname gets an innate True seeing
2) Orcish recipe book -> glasses of identification
3) Sahuagin notes -> Only charname gets 20k xp + 1int increase.
Is that interesting for you? If the answer is yes, go for it. Otherwise...
Edited by Sergio, 30 November 2019 - 04:56 AM.
Low hung brow, dazed look on your face..... It appears that you are correct, my friend. You are indeed a complete imbecile.
Questpack – area improvements component - I won't install anymore this component
Readme:
The area changes are as follows:
The beholder lair in the Underdark responds to difficulty, with changes to beholder placement and creature addition as a result.
The arbitrary summoning mish-mash on the bottom floor of the Guarded Compound is replaced by a more appropriate encounter.
The lair of the Twisted Rune is better protected, and its guardians behave more sensibly.
An array of ambushes may now take place in the North Forest.
Personal considerations:
Spoiler
- First of all, this component makes changes to vanilla content. To see if these changes are needed, I ask myself: “was the starting content broken, or did it warrant an improvement”?
- Second, the problem that I see there is that it seems like these are cosmetic/tweak content made to pass as an improvements. Okay, they are an improvement. But why are these an improvements over the original content?
- Third: the why are there an improvement is not satisfied by the lack of readme. By reading above, can you actually understand which are the actual changes made ? And what about the why these actual changes were made?
- Forth: It’s not a matter of being purist, it’s a matter of clarity. Having to play the game to actually see what was added or changed is not fun, because this is not a quest mod, but the personal vision of the author concerning how things should be, rather than “how they should have been”.
So this is already a big NO on installing this component.
Anyway, I tried to check the components on my playthrough and this is what I witnessed:
Spoiler
- Guarded Compound: the Glabrezu, Djinni and the other creatures that are usually summoned in the middle of the first floor (right after entering the compound the first time), are now subbed by Battle Horror and Invisible Stalker.
- Twisted Rune: A dispel magic is casted on you when you enter the last room. More loot (A full plate mail + a robe of evil archmagi) + two scrolls: Mordekain’s sword + Abi dalzim is dropped by the npcs there.
- North Forest: the readme claims that there is a possibility you get ambushes in North forest, but I don’t understand if it refers to travelling, to resting, or to npcs actually there given that the area itself is pretty forgettable in vanilla game.
I didn’t enjoy this component and I will not install it anymore.
Edited by Sergio, 07 December 2019 - 10:17 AM.
Low hung brow, dazed look on your face..... It appears that you are correct, my friend. You are indeed a complete imbecile.
I find “reviewing” this mod a really hard task. This is due to the name of the mod itself, Unfinished bussiness. The mod purpose is to restore cut content. But... cut content was cut for a reason and we have to actually assume that reason to be the most correct reason for the developers. In other words, developers made everything in a certain way for reasons that they assumed to be right.
The task is made even harder by the fact that one can have multiple point of views when actually reviewing the components of this mod. And these views stems from the multiple questions one can ask thyself.
- Was this removed due to time costraints?
- Does this component actually work?
- Is it what the developers would have wanted to see?
[...]
And many other questions. But... right now I don’t care about questions.
When I will be reviewing this mod, I will start from the following idea: things are this way because they had to be this way – and if you wish to change stuff by adding “unfinished bussiness” there has to be a very strong reason to do that, because you are actually subbing the developers vision for the modder vision.
One last note: EE has a few components of UB integrated. I don’t know why they were able to actually change the original content (I’m curious because a very long time ago I read they were not allowed to do so) nor I know why they only chose some components and not others (I would be interested about the reasons), but they probably have a stronger link than the community with the original developers, so I would consider adding the following components from UB into your game.
Changes in this release:
* Block the following components from being installed on BGEE v2.5+:
* The Mysterious Vial
* Finishable Kagain Caravan Quest
* Kivan and Tazok
* Branwen and Tranzig
* Place Entar Silvershield in His Home
* Prism and the Emeralds
It’s not all over... simply because it won’t probably be the right thing to do either. Why? Because the content inside UB doesn’t match always what you get in EE.
For some components, I compared what happens in UB to what happens in EE.
Suffice to say,
- The mysterious Vial component is executed way better in EE.
- Branwen and Tranzig has better dialogues in EE.
- Kivan and Tazok has better dialogues in EE.
There are also a few more piece of content integrated that UB won't make you install in EE
- Additional Elminster encounter
- Angelo notices Shar-teel
- Coran and the Wyverns
- Safana the flirt
- Appropriate albert and rufie reward
- Flaming fist mercenary reinforcements
- Area corrections and restoration
- Permanent corpses
- Elven charm and sleep racial resistance
- The original saga music playlist correction
- sarevok diary - Restored elfsong tavern movie (this component is not compatible with BG:EE)
And now back to the reviews.
The Mysterious Vial -> not recommended. Won’t install it anymore.
Spoiler
This component makes it possible to deliver
the Vial of Mysterious Liquid to Thalantyr
the ore to the Beregost Smith (Taerom Fuiruim)
The reward is that two days after delivering the ore to to him his stock will expand to include the Quality weapons.
Why I don’t enjoy this component? There are two reasons – one concerns execution and the other concerns the underlying theme of the mistery related to the vial
[Execution] Why am I critical of execution? You bring the vial and the ore to two different people for no pay off. You get to see two npcs just asking the same questions and voicing the same speculation.
This component is better executed by BG:EE that integrates part of this quest. In Bg:EE, all you have to do is just bring the vial to the smith. The ore will be left in your inventory (did they forget about removing it?) but at least you don’t have to go around to listen to the same stuff. And days later you get your quality weapons.
[Mistery] There are some people like me that enjoy the fact that the “mystery” can’t be solved immediately and the results to be obtained even faster than immediately. What I mean is – it’s already easy to come upon good equipment in the “vanilla” game, hence there are modders that have published mods like “HARD TIMES”. If you can get quality weapons from the smith so fast, is it really that beneficial to the experience?
Ice Island Level Two Restoration -> not recommended. Won’t install anymore.
Spoiler
This adds a new cave area as second level, where you find the guy that has Shandalar’s cloak.
The area is full of winter wolves and you find the mage carrying the cloak accompanied by two “ice golems” (they are the flesh golem colored blue).
Why I didn’t enjoy this component? The area is not meaningful in any way. It doesn’t add any particular insight or anything worth noting. It’s just a pure filler area full of winters wolves with no loot (apart from the pelts of the winter wolves).
You want to kill some winter wolves? Add it. If you don’t want fighting just for the sake of fighting, skip this component.
Finishable Kagain caravan quest – won’t install it anymore.
Spoiler
[original behaviour] Taken from here: https://baldursgate....iki/Entar's_Son
Simply arriving at the Coast Way together with Kagain marks in the original Baldur's Gate the end of this quest, without any reward.
“ I'm tired of looking fer the damn caravan. We'll never find it among all the other dead caravans we've been coming across. Let's just forget about it and keep to whatever you wanna do”.
I don’t feel any need for this content to be changed.
Anyway... BG1UB only adds a body for Kagain to find. The body will be located near the wrecked caravan SE of the map center. The resolution requires Kagain to be in the party and he has to get close enough to the body to ID it as Silvershield's son.
Note: The bandits and fibula are added by BG1NPC.
5. Coran and the Wyverns -> won’t install it anymore. A bugfix (supposedly redudant with BGT/EE) and a cosmetic tweak (that makes sense, but it’s far from essential to me).
Spoiler
From the readme: A bug in Coran's original scripting and dialogue caused him to introduce himself over and over again if the player refused his quest. Thanks to this fix by Idobek, Coran should finally recognize that he had already introduced himself. Additionally, the wyverns that Coran want dead have been made unique, preventing the player from killing any wyvern to complete his quest.
9. Appropriate Albert and Rufie Reward -> if you use BGT or EE I think it is now redundant. The change is up to the player.
Spoiler
Corrected: 20/01/2020.
Albert's dialogue, "Here, take this. It's another of his chew things […]" indicates an item reward, which ranges from nothing at all to a Bandit Scalp to a gem, depending on the game version and mods that are possibly installed.[1]
Enhanced Edition: A Black Opal is given.
Classic game without TotSC: A Horn Coral Gem is the reward.
Tales of the Sword Coast: The dialogue is broken, no tangible reward.
Baldurdash FixPack: Albert hands over a Bandit Scalp.
The referenced Unfinished Business changes the reward back to the gem.
So, according to what you want, either install or not this component
10. Place Entar Silvershield in His Home: I won’t install it anymore.
His appearance opens some oddities: you can kill him, but he is targeted later by Slythe and Kristin. Better not to mess with important characters that didn’t appear before for consistency reason (that reason being avoiding <charname> to kill him.
11. Scar and the Sashenstar's Daughter: won’t install anymore.
This component expands Scar’s quest a bit. You are asked to bring the body of the Sashenstar’s daughter together with the ring. I guess if you find it reasonable you can add it.
12. Quoningar the cleric -> Won’t install anymore
Quoningar is located in Three Old Kegs. This is a fetch quest. If you like fetch quest, then this is for you. You have to bring him a potion of mind focusing. Your reward will be a +2 warhammer and 500 experience.
13. shilo chen -> won’t install anymore.
Shilo Chen is in the Elfsong tavern, first floor. I didn’t absolutely enjoy this piece of content: Shilo chen gives charname a quest to clean some ogre magi in wood of the sharp teeth.
- This quest is a clone of the quest you are given by the paladin in Beregost (the one where you have to kill half-ogres). Not that interesting.
- I would search for a more meaningful spot for Shilo Chen so one can take the quest before going into the forest, rather than making the player go back.
- Why are these directions so bad? The ogres are in peldvale.
- Also... how does he know the ogre magi is still there. And how do you know there is an ogre magi there at all? You are also sending random adventurers to take care of him. I would sense treachery – if this was not a mini-quest.
- I would make the ogre spawn as soon a you enter the place, rather than having the player to first get the quest, then to go back to the area just to check for them.
14. Edie, the Merchant League Applicant -> won’t install anymore
Another fetch quest.
15. Flaming fist mercenary reinforcements. Won’t install it anymore. I didn’t notice a problem to justify installing this.
28. Prism and the emerald tweak -> won’t install it anymore. Try it.
Spoiler
Readme: This new component was provided by plainab. Features are: it fixes the exploit of being able to turn in Prism's emeralds one at a time by making them unique items; it provides new options to obtain the emeralds; it provides split rewards if the player is only able to obtain one of the emeralds; it puts the emeralds in the sculpture's eyes if Prism finished it.
I don’t want the original quest to be changed. If these changes make sense to you, go for it.
29. Duke Eltan in the Harbor Master’s building -> I won’t install it anymore.
I don’t think it actually improves the BG experience.
30. Num furlwing -> ok component. Won’t install it anymore
You find a ranger that asks for your help while he is fighting some dogs in Larswood. Far from essential, I must say.
32. Svlast the fallen paladin -> meh.
Spoiler
So you meet the knight under the firewine bridge. A revenant is coming for him. You can:
- let the revenant kill the paladin
- kill the revenant. If you choose this option, the paladin will criticize you. If you say you are going to kill him, he will drop dead out of the blue and you don’t even get any xp points for “killing” him. If you leave him alone, the paladin will criticize you and stay still there. I seem to remember that you can kill him for 650 xp and no rep loss. Mhhh.
33. Mal Kalen - I won't reinstall it anymore
Spoiler
I had already made a review in the past (honestly I had forgot that I had made one already). I only remembered, after three years, that this component was bad but I had forgot the name and I met Mal Kalen again in my game.
Text copied: I don't know who thought this was going to be a fun encounter, but let me tell you that. Knowing that if I fight the ghost will result in a drain energy that culminates in my instant death is even worse than the sirine enslaved by the orc that has to kiss you and you have to know what is going on or lose your own character.
I stand corrected by the wikia. It is even worse:
(Mal Kalen) casts some form of Harm spell, as it automatically leaves whomever it hits with around 5HP, regardless of their existing HP prior to being struck. They then have to save vs death. If the main character is struck and fails his or her save, game over
I'm definitely against this component and I strongly recommend not to install it.
34. Chapter 6 dialogue restoration -> Try this component. It makes sense but it shows some limits, so I will avoid installing it.
Spoiler
Rather than having the gatekeeper greet you at sixth floor to arrest you, you will come upon Koveras’s scheme while you descend the ladder after having a chat from Tethoril (you can’t answer nor question him) and Ulraunt.
The component is currently bugged: https://github.com/A.../bg1ub/issues/9
For anyone wondering, the guard in the sixth floor, rather than greeting you, will continuosly spam on you a dialogue box.
Some personal thoughts:
1) The component forsakes one of the “intended” developers path. What do I mean? In vanilla game, you go ladder after ladder and then you stumble into Koveras who gifts you his ring. When you reach the sixth floor, you do not have the time to speak with Ulraunt nor with Tethoril, because the gatekeeper comes to arrest you. Still..... Tethoril and Ulraunt have a bit of dialogues that you can stumble into if you purposefully avoid Koveras by going up the ladder as soon as possible. With this component installed, you will now always see these chats by Tethoril and Ulraunt.
2) I ”think” that there are some evidences the developers didn’t intend the player to actually meet Tethoril and Ulrant “always”... Why?
a) First, while moving up the ladders, a monk named Karan warns you about Koveras, because he seems to be reciting Alaundo’s prophecy on memory (to probably instill curiosity into the player’s mind and to make him scout around)
b) You meet Piato (the yellow monk that tells you to go check your room) after Koveras. If you met Piato before Koveras, I could have seen some charnames actually going straight to their room without caring about people walking to them and maybe going up the ladders to meet Ulraunt and Tethoril.
Edit 20/01/2020: I've thought a bit another bit about this component. The review needs some more fleshing.
Pro of this component:
- In vanilla I justified that the monks had sent a message to the guard above via a spell, but.... it was still a not very compelling justification. Now the arrest is more atmospheric: there is more than one guard.
Flaws:
- Ulraunt doesn't leave and so the player may have the temptation to actually try to kill him, even if he is bound to appear later.
- The evil path, where you kill the iron leaders, is not touched, but that’s the path that would need this component the most; because when you kill the iron leaders, you won’t even be able to scout your room and find your letter, because as soon as you go upstairs to the fifth floor, you are going to meet the guards.
Thanks for this component, it was fun dissecting it.
Edited by Sergio, 20 January 2020 - 11:24 AM.
Low hung brow, dazed look on your face..... It appears that you are correct, my friend. You are indeed a complete imbecile.
But, in the case of BG1UB and UB (that could be named BG2UB), i read somewhere (so long ago...) that some components have been suggested by the original developers themselves because they had not the time to be finished...
But, anyway, you don't have to like them
edit : I don't know if it explains that some made their way to EE.
First, some considerations, different from the one I already shared for BG1.
Spoiler
What I would love for this mod is to actually have bundled the considerations on why this or that thing was added. Especially when it comes to the quests.
I would like to realize how much was in the game files and how much was “filled” by the modders.
Because if these notes aren’t available... how do I know if you just made an expansion for the quests merely based on lacking foundations?
Example of some questions I had while playing this mod, specifically Kalah’s quest: Why did you add a lamp for Kalah’s quest? Is it just because you talk with a genie when entering the tent?
What was the material you’ve found that justified adding such a quest?
Why did you choose to make Kalah’s quest end like that?
The kidnapping of Boo –-> Will considering reinstalling it.
Spoiler
This is an ok quest mod. There are a few problems though that leave me a bit conflicted about this quest.
- REWARD. The first problem is related to the reward.
This quest handsomely pays off good Charnames, because after doing this quest Minsc will get 19 STR. Also, the player will get rewarded with a license too to cast magic after you’ve finished the quest.
This means that by helping Minsc you get the equivalent of 5k coins + a (free) STR book for Minsc.
What if you go evil? You get nothing: you just lose Minsc later. I mean, that can be considered a reward in itself, but still, if you are evil, it’s a bit disappointing.
To be frank, a good evil option would be being able to go back to the shop to actually blackmail the seller because he promised one thing, but Minsc was able to detect it was all a ruse (who played the mod will understand). So what about exorting the seller to get 1) your money back 2) a hefty amount of money on top of the money you get back?
The Suna Seni/Valygar Relationship. ---> Won’t reinstall anymore.
The reasons are thoughtfully explained by Jastey here: http://forums.pocket...ic,29746.0.html
Kalah and what was promised. ---> I won’t reinstall it but I suggest to try it.
Spoiler
Why I won’t reinstall it? For a few reasons:
- I feel like Kalah’s story is already closed by the time you leave the tent after killing him. I don’t feel any need for an expansion.
- The rewards are different and based on what you do, while they should reward you all the same no matter what you choose to encourage rouleplaying. Freeing the genie will grant 5k xp, while most of the other options only grant 1k.
- Some wishes are silly. For example, there is one line: @240 = ~Kalah shouldn't have had to die for his crimes. My wish is that you bring him back from the dead.~
If you brought him back from the dead, all Kalah would suffer is just a death by hanging or a life sentence.
- Payoff and consequences of your actions. If you fred the genie, I’m pretty sure the Rakhasa should come to kill you. I’m not sure that happens.
Cat and Mouse: Bodhi Hunts You in Spellhold, by Ghreyfain -> Won’t reinstall it. Try it, I guess.
I feel like changing a detail such as this one is a big no, but your opinion may differ.
Gorje Hilldark and the Extended Illithium Quest -> Won’t reinstall it.
I find the ilithium quest already boring. The added research doesn’t make me exactly excited.
The Pai'Na/Spider's Bane Quest: I won’t reinstall it.
Spoiler
Now, when you enter the place where Pai’na is, she tasks you to get Spider’s bane, because that sword is threatening his spiders.
Some notes:
- This quest assumes that you have already met Bodhi. How? Charname makes a reference to Bodhi amongst the dialogue selection you have the first time you meet Pai’na.
- I find it a little odd that a drow would be so pacific when you enter her “sanctuary”.
I don’t enjoy this component: why would I change the original content to begin with?
Restored Crooked Crane -> I won’t reinstall it. Try it.
If you care about what happens to the couple upstairs, you should add this mod. If like me, you don’t care, like I do, just skip it.
Restored encounters – I won’t reinstall it
Spoiler
The readme description persuaded me to install it, but after seeing these encounters you can see the huge quality differences between these encounters and the encounter available in the original game.
- First of all, you will now see a few more thieves vs vampires fighting. The execution goes from odd (you see an immortal Arkanis Gath with some thieves facing other vampires) to straight out abhorrent (forgive me, but meeting Bodhi should be a surprise to the player, and she comes meet you to say a few words thanks to one of these encounter)
- One of the thieves that you meet in these encounters is Arkanis Gath.
- The encounters are not like in the original game. In the original game, you could sometimes help thieves or vampires – but here it is different: when I tried to help the vampires against Arkanis Gath I was truly surprised to see him being immortal.
- Second, there is an added encounter in spellhold. I didn’t enjoy very much the dialogues: you can’t persuade the man in any way that you are “innocent” and in the end, the nth fighting encounter isn’t very appealing to me.
Artemis Entreri in Bodhi lair -> I won’t install anymore this component.
I don’t like very much Drizzt forced appearances and I don’t care either about Artemis entreri enough to have him in my game.
Corrected "Xzar's Creations" - – I won’t install it anymore.
Readme: When you enter Prebek's home (Xzar's laboratory), you are greeted by several goblins. Originally, however, it seems that, as a necromancer, you should be faced with two ghasts and a flesh golem. So be it...
My idea: why change something that isn’t broken to begin with.
K. Restored Hell Minions, by SimDing0 -> I like this component, but you may not care about it.
Spoiler
Readme: This component restores some of the aspects of the final fight with Irenicus that were present in the coding but unassigned. This includes restoring innate abilities to his demon minions, and allowing his mislead image to function correctly. The battle will become slightly harder as a result, but nowhere near the level of the Improved Irenicus component of the Tactics mod. Compatibility with this Tactics component is currently undetermined. Special thanks to SimDing0 for his contribution of this component.
I may install this.. or maybe not. It all comes to how I feel about the compilation I’m planning to do.
If I’m planning to use Questpack Ai I think this should be already integrated. Just to be sure, I wrote a topic about this component inside Questpack forum.
Gorf the Squisher Fix – deprecated
Item restoration – I don’t care about items. That’s a list
Spoiler
Boots of the West
Boots of Hastened Departure
Shazzellim, Scimitar +1
Bala's Axe
Taragarth, Bastard Sword +1
Wolfskin Bag
Websack Wand
Wraithform spell
Yoshimo and Anomen original portrait – I don’t care about them.
Corrected BAMs and scripts + Corrected Character Names. If there was something to correct to begin with, that is done by BG2 Fixpack or by Enhanced Editions.
Restored Minor dialogues. -> I will not reinstall it.
Spoiler
This component restores some rather minor dialog in the game. Included are the feral halflings in the Planar Sphere and Anomen's commenting on Ajantis' death. And a few other things - a fix meaning Charming Glaicas should always work, being able to give Simyaz back the Silver Sword in the Underdark, and one of Imoen's unassigned scripts.
Anomen commenting on Ajantis death. What is being said in the restored dialogue? Is it compatible conceptually with Ajantis BG2 mod by Jastey?
Charming Glaicas always working is ok I guess.
Imoen unassigned script doesn’t explain what the script was for.
Giving Simyaz the silver sword in The underdark... I guess.
I mean, is this component really that necessary?
Restored Bhaalspawn Powers, by David Gaider – A great component.
Readme: "These are some extra Bhaalspawn abilities that the player was originally going to develop as he played out the challenges in the pocket plane, but they were cut in favor of the high-level abilities for all classes. There is a different set for good and evil, although many players are going to find that they get a mix of them. Perhaps the only negative is that it may be difficult to figure out what a couple of the powers do, as there is no way to get descriptions for special abilities (These can be found in the readme). For installation and uninstallation instructions view the readme."
The murder of Acton Balthis -> Try it, but I won’t reinstall it
Spoiler
Story: Haer’dalis is arrested. To get some informations, you head to inspector Brega. Brega tells you that in three days Haer’dalis will be executed because he is accused:
a) of the murder of Acton Balthis
b) of the stealing of a Sune’s bust belonging to Acton Balthis.
Brega says Haer’dalis probably sold the bust to:
- Qataris (the art dealer in the promenade)
- the shadow thieves.
Given that linking Shadow thieves to the murder would be probably foolish - because being a strong organization they would have left no evidence and due to the fact that they would never harm the vice-regent – Brega proposes you to pay a visit to the house of Acton Balthis or to Qataris.
When you go to the house of Acton Balthis, you meet Pip and after talking with him a bit, you realize he accused Her’dalis of the murder due to the fact that days before Haerdalis showed being interested into the bust. The day the murder happened, there was poor light: Pip didn’t see the face of the man that killed his master and stole the bust, but linked the murderer with Haerdalis anyway.
You then go to Qataris and after discussing with him, you discover that he stole the bust. He signs a confession, you go to Brega, he let you free Haerdalis, haerdalis just spreads some rumors about evidences being found in the house of Acton Balthis and here you find the murderer.
You kill him, you go to Brega and Brega rewards you with a handsome sum: 2000 gold coins.
Some notes:
1) When you talk to Qataris, you don’t get any bust of Sune even if Qataris tells you so in the dialogues. Why is this important? Because the quest lacks evil choices. I would have liked to:
a) Get a sum of money from Qataris to be silent and leave Her’dalis to rot in the jail. I still wouldn’t have accepted it... because....
b) I would have liked to sell the bust to Shadow thieves for a huge amount of money
2) Nitpick: after Haerdalis spreads the rumor, you execute in cold blood the assassin and when you tell that to Brega, he is satisfied. I’m not sure that’s a law abiding route. In fact...
« [the assassin] will attack...and as soon as he gets low enough HP he will beg to surrender. The PC can instruct him to turn himself in or kill him. Killing him does nothing for Brega...they didn't want him dead. Getting Krell to turn himself in will make Brega very happy...rep bonus plus XP and gold reward».
I did not enjoy this quest.
Sarevok Remorse. --> I won’t reinstall it again.
Spoiler
This mod gives a chance to talk with Yoshimo about Sarevok, and with Sarevok about Yoshimo and Tamoko. You find some informations about Yoshimo if you deliver his heart to Ilmater Priest.
Some notes:
1) This is more of a concept that was “forsaken”, rather than “unfinished”. Restoring an unfinished bussiness is different from “trying to reach a consensus on how to do stuff that was imagined to be added but was eventually skipped for who knows which reason” : http://forums.pocket...php?topic=591.0
2) From U!sare.tra:
@241 = ~Yoshimo betrayed me to Irenicus so that he might avenge his sister - yet it was you who were responsible for her death. For both their deaths.~
a) This mod adds a personal take on why Yoshimo was cursed: it’s due to revenge that Yoshimo betrayed you. But... this changes fundamentally the story of Yoshimo. Rather than him being an helpless man in the hands of irenicus, you now change him into a betrayer just for the sake of revenge: a man planning to avenge someone...
b) I didn’t even kill. This component to me makes no sense especially when you consider that Yoshimo undergoes the geas even when you spared Tamoko.
I didn’t enjoy this component.
Edited by Sergio, 30 December 2019 - 07:54 AM.
Low hung brow, dazed look on your face..... It appears that you are correct, my friend. You are indeed a complete imbecile.
Small comment to Pai'Na. If this web page contains the information from her original creature file then the modification by unfinished business makes more sense. According to this she is a
Spoiler
half-elf druid, true neutral
.
Because of that I actually find the change quite nice. I never noticed the logical problem with revealing plot points. On the other hand, she basically lives next doors and might know a bit about the neighbourhood ?
- Maybe I explained myself badly: when you begin the game, no one blocks you from actually going into the cemetery and exploring the lower area, including Pai'na hideout. But when you talk to her, you can mention Bodhi to her , even if you never ever met Bodhi before. That's the "issue" I was referring to...
- For your pai'na related comment: okay, she was a true neutral drow. You are still entering his sanctuary after having possibly (?) murdered all the spiders around. And why would she treat you differently from the peasants that he is currently feeding to the spiders? That's her comment: "[...] It is the murderers of these fine beasts that are insane. Even as we speak these creatures are hunted down [...]".
Edited by Sergio, 14 December 2019 - 12:58 AM.
Low hung brow, dazed look on your face..... It appears that you are correct, my friend. You are indeed a complete imbecile.
Vaelag encounter got bugged too the first time. Jan would not answer to his banter.
