144 replies to this topic

[Sergio]

Bg1 mini quests and encounters -> I didn’t enjoy all the components, but I still would recommend anyone to play the mod in its entirety, then choose whatever you enjoyed the mod.

Spoiler

  I recommend to play at least once:

- Nashkel monster quest:  I wouldn’t install this quest if it just stopped in Nashkel. But it doesn’t: the quest continues until Baldur’s gate and it’s curious.

- Many little Paws. Minsc and more hamsters. The characterization is on point and the quest is funny. Try it.

- Slime quest. It's a good quest, with nice evil options. Try it

- VI. Undying Love in the Fishing Village: There are many chance to roleplay (and lot of different dialogues options to choose from) that give you the chance to characterize charname.


All the the other components did not match my expectations. Some (subjectives) notes on the why...

1) Beregost family: to me, this quest does not match thematically baldur’s gate.
2) Babysitter quest: to me, quest does not match thematically baldur’s gate.
3) Fallen paladin quest: there is no true “payoff” for the player.
4) Lovesick halforc: I felt no payoff for the player.
5) Unexpected help quest: I’m indifferent toward this content.
6) Drunk near beregost temple: this quest would be a must have quest if what is implied by dialogues happened to be true. You meet a drunkard near the temple and he tells you that if you are not going away, he is going to make you regret poking him. How? Because he is a lich. None of this happens, sadly, he just falls off sleeping.
7) A warm place for noober: no attachment whatsoever to noober and I don’t care about him enough to install this content.
Brage’s sword: I’m really really hesitant about installing content that changes the “vanilla” stuff. The issue I’ve found here is that the quest tries a little “too hard” (for my taste) to actually link everything to Sarevok and its lackeys. The tale of brage is a sad story, because by getting a cursed sword he ruined (because he has a conscience) his life and there is no need to make it so that everything happened due to sarevok.   
9) Slime quest: I seem to remember I liked playing this quest, but (this is all my memory after having played it time ago) it is too taxing for evil characters and I didn't like that. Also I liked the quest, but I didn't enjoy it enough to have it in my game. 
10) A worried farmer: A farmer asks you to check what is going on behind his house during the night. It’s just another ghoul ... and you get 35 coins (50 gold, -1 reputation if you go evil) + 175 xp. I don’t care.

 

Three other components warrant a more extensive review:
 

XIII. Legal Seachart Sources -> try it. I won’t be reinstalling this in next playthroughs

Spoiler

13. A by Lumorus: If the PC helped Aldeth Sashenstar in the Cloakwood as well inside the Merchants' League, Aldeth will be very interested in the research and Balduran's artefacts. He will enable access to the sea charts without the need to steal them or intoxicate the captain.

Some notes:

1) if you bring Balduran’s artifacts to the merchant league you get more gold coins than actually selling the stuff to “vanilla” merchants.  

2) This option may be appealing for paladins that respect AD&D ethos: and is available ONLY if you spared Aldeth in Cloakwood league.  For anyone wondering what I mean by paladin ethos, see here: https://www.youtube....k8n67Z7&index=1

13.B CALABALD (= Calahan + Balduran's Island) by Shuv-Oohl: The sailor Calahan in Ulgoth's Beard wouldn't be a real sailor if he wouldn't have sea charts of his own. He won't part with them without an appropriate compensation, though... PCs with enough gold have now the possibility to go to Balduran's island before entering Baldur's Gate.

Some notes:
1) You can access this piece of content only if you click the option “Knowledge is a worth pursuit” when talking to Mendas (as the original game requires; see here: https://baldursgate....wiki/Selaad_Gan). Otherwise, you will not meet Calahan.

2) To me, paying 8k gold coins to Calahan to access Balduran’s isle before Baldur’s gate is not appealing. In fact...

3) You first pay Calahan 5k, then some time later he asks for 3k more. The issue is that you have to accept his request otherwise your 5k are totally lost and if you go evil after his 3k request (by killing him) he has no seacharts on his body.

 

 

XIV. Additions to the House of the Lady and the Bitch Queen's Temple -> try it. I won’t reinstall anymore this component.

Spoiler

14.A Prevent Jalanthe from Making a Mistake, by Lumorus: The High Priest of the Water Queen requests a Book of Wisdom for the scroll of dispel. But would it really be a wise idea for her to rely on another god's help? The PC now can ask explicitly whether the priestess is sure that Umberlee would be pleased if the ceremony was done with the wisdom received by Tymora...

If you want an expansion to the quest that gives you the chance to actually tell the high priestess not to use the book, you are welcome. Personally, I don’t feel the need to change the original quest to begin with. 

14.B Tremain's Sellout: in the original game, Tremain asks the PC to retrieve his dead son from the temple of Umberlee, so he can revive him. The PC now has the possibility to bring the son to the temple, instead.

Some notes:
1) You don’t get any reward by bringing the body to the temple.

2) Text error
retreive = should be retrieve.

 

I would never go this path with charname, even if I was evil.  

I will skip this component in my next playthroughs.

Bodies for a good cause -> try it, but I won’t reinstall it.

Spoiler

A necromancer (that you find in the silence shop, E baldur’s gate) asks for your help: he found a way to use necromantic energies to actually resurrect people as if he was a cleric but to test his findings he needs some bodies. He asks you to bring him corpses and to get them from the sewers. Every body you give him, he gives you 150 gold. You bring him 6 bodies and he leave the Silence sho

This is a fetch quest (I don’t appreciate them very much), but at least it has a justification and uses the corpses you probably would leave inside the sewers. Said this:
1) You can’t detect if Sylar intentions are noble, because Sylar has magic resistance
2) Killing Sylar gives no experience
3) Text error: Discredit -> Discredit

 

Edited by Sergio, 07 December 2020 - 01:15 AM.

[Sergio]

The lure of Sirine call [BG1]-> try it. I won’t install it anymore

So... I’m really critical of mods that actually touch vanilla content.

Usually, when you meet Sil the sirine she will tell you: “This is not your place. This is the home of Sil’s Tribe. Dirty land folk you shall suffer for your trespass!”. So you are met with plain hostility by sirines, corroborated by the fact that you just killed many of her tribe.
 

But “the lure of the sirine call” adds the possibility to actually ally yourself with Sil, head woman of a small tribe. That’s because near the lighthouse you met a party (of npcs) planning to enter Black alaric cave and they plan/have killed already sirines to do that. So they ask for your help. The quest turns into a:

> help the sirines because they have no culprit for being right in front of Black alaric cave
> join the dark side
> deal with both sides.

So... I guess that’s up to the player if they would like the quest to be changed. I do not, simply because:

> I don’t feel the need for it.  

> you just killed many hostile sirines and the queen tries to explain her reasoning for doing what she does:

Spoiler

~You are the ones my sisters have seen with the men of the ships!  I have warned you dirty land folk before, and we will suffer your murder and trespasses no longer~

A head woman of a tribe of creatures that toy with humans have to explain you what’s going on. After having already slain her friends. Seems a little anticlimatic.
 

If they help you the give also the permission to enter Black alaric cave:

Spoiler

@20   = ~We expected as much, and feel no loss at their deaths.  Our waves are now free, and you shall be duly rewarded.  Go north.  There lies the cave the invaders were seeking.  Take from it what you will, but beware the guardians.~

 

I would have given more points to the mod if new dialogues were added for Cordyr’s quest: https://baldursgate....and_the_Sirines

But... they were not.

Edited by Sergio, 06 August 2019 - 05:37 AM.

[jastey]

6) Drunk near beregost temple: this quest would be a must have quest if what is implied by dialogues happened to be true. You meet a drunkard near the temple and he tells you that if you are not going away, he is going to make you regret poking him. How? Because he is a lich. None of this happens, sadly, he just falls off sleeping.

Just in case this is not clear. The drunk and his "I'm a lich" plus falling asleep is original game content. What bgqe adds is the possibility to either kill him and get reactions from NPCs, or to alert the temple about his presence so that he will be watched out for.
So, basically, you are reviewing the original game content, not the mod quest.
 

 

 

 

9) Slime quest: I seem to remember I liked playing this quest, but (this is all my memory after having played it time ago) it is too taxing for evil characters and I didn't like that. Also I liked the quest, but I didn't enjoy it enough to have it in my game.

Funnily enough, that's the quest I spent most time on to add evil possibilities beside the plain "kill all": betray with a cheap antidote that could have unwanted side effects, jesting with the woman instead of helping her, etcpp. I do agree that finding a real evil quest solution is difficult if the main quest is about helping people, though.


Nevertheless, a lot of work went into making bgqe interesting for evil players. It's sad that it's not working, I could have saved a lot of time.

[Fouinto]

@jastey : it's just his own opinion (btw an interesting one for me) !

But I have to say that I love your mod as is (always in all my run since i discovered it). I also have to admit that, most of the time, I play the good path in each quest.

 

IMHO: the only bad path that is really to my taste in the whole saga is the cleric quests as Talos cleric (because it's bad and funny).

[Isewein]

I for one think that the more selfish/callous paths were fleshed out really well in BGQE, relative to the base game content. People have different understandings of how they play an "evil" character, and it's hard to please everyone. 

[Sergio]

6) Drunk near beregost temple: this quest would be a must have quest if what is implied by dialogues happened to be true. You meet a drunkard near the temple and he tells you that if you are not going away, he is going to make you regret poking him. How? Because he is a lich. None of this happens, sadly, he just falls off sleeping.

Just in case this is not clear. The drunk and his "I'm a lich" plus falling asleep is original game content. What bgqe adds is the possibility to either kill him and get reactions from NPCs, or to alert the temple about his presence so that he will be watched out for.
So, basically, you are reviewing the original game content, not the mod quest.
 

 

 

 

9) Slime quest: I seem to remember I liked playing this quest, but (this is all my memory after having played it time ago) it is too taxing for evil characters and I didn't like that. Also I liked the quest, but I didn't enjoy it enough to have it in my game.

Funnily enough, that's the quest I spent most time on to add evil possibilities beside the plain "kill all": betray with a cheap antidote that could have unwanted side effects, jesting with the woman instead of helping her, etcpp. I do agree that finding a real evil quest solution is difficult if the main quest is about helping people, though.


Nevertheless, a lot of work went into making bgqe interesting for evil players. It's sad that it's not working, I could have saved a lot of time.

 

6) You are totally right. I guess I should have been more extensive in my review, given that I missed half of the content of the review, ahaha.

The options are the one you explained. I just said that I would love a daring approach: I made a reference to him turning into a lich because that would have been something it would have been funny to see: a "twist" I would have appreciated within the mod that would have totally subverted any player expectations... to the point of being cheesy. But even in that case I still doubt I would have added the component to any game.

And why would a temple care about a drunkard?

By the way, who are these npcs that would care about killing the drunkard? The party?

12) Given that I wanted to explain the point further, I tried to actually go once again for the evil route, only to meet a bug. The potion seller doesn't give me any fake antidote. I'm playing BG:EE (not EE:T) -> http://www.filedropp...00000023-tulbor

Edited by Sergio, 07 August 2019 - 03:48 AM.

[jastey]

Which version of bgqe are you playing? The potion seller not giving any potions is fixed (should be) in current v19.

 

 

By the way, who are these npcs that would care about killing the drunkard? The party?

Yes, party NPC reactions was what I was referring to.

[Sergio]

Should be version 19: http://www.filedropper.com/bgqe-v19

 

Edited by Sergio, 07 August 2019 - 09:24 AM.

[jastey]

There is nothing missing in the code, but appearently, it's another one of the problems the EE engine has with GiveItem[Create] in the midle of a dialogue - it doesn't get executed for god knows why.

Thanks for the report, I'll need to make this fail-proof using the area script as it seems.

The item code is "C#Q01004" for the cheap alternative.

[Sergio]

Thanks. So I've played the quest once again and ... some thoughts:

 

1) it's better than I remembered and I would add it amongst the ones that have to be played. I'll rectify the review. I also liked the evil content... I played the quest around 6-8 times (Was it because I played it in EE 1.3?) and I had never seen the

Spoiler

kiss

path. 

2) I think that the fake antidote has a chance a little too high too work, or was I extremely lucky? In 10 times, I think only three times the fake antidote didn't work. I'm trying and trying again and I save him almost always. I think the ratio amongst 100 times should be:
20 (good ending)
40 (neutral ending) 
40 (evil ending)

3) If you save eldoth, option 2) and 3) give you the same "reward" and turn into the same "scenario". Your rudeness is not calculated at all.

Said this, thanks for making me play the mod once again



 

Edited by Sergio, 07 August 2019 - 01:14 PM.

[jastey]

Thank you for the kind words! I'll think about reducing the chances of the cheap antidote.

In the meantime, v20 is up which also should now really fix the potion buying problem. It also restores the Russian translation.

[Sergio]

The white Queen  --> ok quest mod. Play it and see if it suits you. I won't reinstall it again

[Story Recap for myself in case I forget about this mod one day]

Spoiler

You buy the book “the white queen” from a merchant in the promenade (if I don’t remember wrong the one near mithril inn). You read the book and get a new marker on your map.
You go to the swamps (now in your map) and meet a druid that tells you that the queen went mad and killed everyone in the village. He gives you an item to actually enter her palace.
After a few fights, you finally find the white queen. She killed all the people as a revenge for them actually plotting with the druid that tasked you to kill the queen. That druid actually took her child and offered him to a hag.  After this happened, the massacre of the villagers was inevitable, because the villagers supported the druid.

In the end you discover that the story is:
-  about the personal revenge of the queen against the druid and the villagers;
- the lust of power of the druid that wanted to rule over the place and resorted to offering the child of the white queen to a hag to do so.


The post here:http://www.shsforums...-tips/?p=524493 tells you that if you have viconia in your party you'll have an additional problem\encounter. The problem\encounter is Viconia being kidnapped by the Keeper (one of the followers of the white queen) because the keeper thinks Viconia is the black queen, enemy of The white Queen. 

So... why I won’t be installing it again?

1) There is no true way to roleplay in this mod. In fact it felt to me the mod seems to constantly tease you about what you’re going to do with the queen, only to meet the reality that no matter how much you try to de-escalate the stuff, you are going to kill her no matter what. The final will always be the same.

2) What my Charname said sometimes did not reflect at all what he thought. Example:

Spoiler

@0    = ~I heard the alarm, but I didn't think you would reach the tower. You must have killed our necromancer then.~ 

 

@1    = ~He's dead. The Queen will join him in death quite soon.~
@2    = ~You can join him if you want.~
@3    = ~Can't we just start the fight? We both know there is no other way.~

 

As you can see, my charname seems to be out for blood. Debatable, because it should be the player actually choosing what charname thinks. There is no “he left me no other choice”, or whatever.

But then, 10 seconds later, in another encounter:

Spoiler

@11   = ~Are you going to kill her, then?~ 

 

@12   = ~I don't know yet.~
@13   = ~Yes. She is too dangerous to live.~
@14   = ~No, if she appears to be sane.~

So, before, Charname seems to be out for blood. Now he turned reasonable again. This encounter happens right before you meet the white queen. Even if you’re hinted that the meeting could end peacefully, it’s all a ruse. It won’t end well.

3) It’s not clear why the druid has actually offered the child to the hag. I mean, it escalated in the death of everyone, but what did the druid get from it?

4) You will finally meet the hag in the ending, but you won’t be able to “actually” talk with her. She will make her appearance, you have one line of dialogue, the she goes away. You don’t want to make her explain? Fine, she is a hag after all. But letting her say her dialogues then getting out it’s not the best solution, especially because I doubt she would actually try to endanger herself by meeting a child of Bhaal that has just killed everyone just to explain that the swamp is now doomed.

5) The hags talks as if she was a poet.

Spoiler

@5    = ~I'm here to warn you, these swamps are dead, They were both guilty, both bathed in red!~
@6    = ~Their grudge killed this place for good, They sought dull revenge more than food!~
@7    = ~I took their child as mine it is, I shall teach it, that's how it is!~
@8    = ~It deserves more than these swamps, I shall leave this place making clomps!~
@9    = ~This is the end all of you sad people wrote, Worse you people are than I could ever thought.~

 

6) There is no real closure about the child. Queen’s words:

Spoiler

We found it dead. Hag used it as a component for its own magic! All I got back was a small, silver chain my child had on the wrist

I would say that the dialogue is a bit conflicting, because first it tells you that they found him dead, then they say you that all they found was a silver chain.
Then you meet the hag, she tells you the child is alive, and you are left puzzled wondering what is the child going through. You know Hag are usually evil creatures: if you got a good charname I doubt very much he will leave the child to an evil creature.  Whatever.

 

Bugs:
1) When talking with the demon, if you choose the option “I want to have more knowledge of the spheres” nothing at all happens.
2) When the hag appears, she has the voiceover that automatically tells “you look like a good enough sort”
3) Text error: “chlid” -> child                              File: WQXN.tra
4) Text error: tranquility -> tranquillity                File: WXQWQ.tra
5) Text error: ~Are going to kill her, then?~       FILE WQX2T.Tra. Missing a “you”


Note: the mod also has a fetch quest that I don’t care about.
Note number 2: the mod adds a chance to free a demon in exchange for a boon, but in my party, none reacted to my "evil" deed, not even Keldorn (I had in my party Ariena, Jaheira, Jan, Keldorn). I think Keldorn should heavily object to charname behaviour.

Edited by Sergio, 30 September 2019 - 07:42 AM.

[Almateria]

Hags talking in rhyme are extremely good. Please refer to Banjo & Kazooie

[Sergio]

I shall never forget --> ok quest mod.  Try it and see if it’s worth adding for you. Doubt I will be reinstalling it again though.

Story:

Spoiler

Orion, a mage, tasks you to find a way to resurrect his lost love Selene. He can’t use normal “means” of resurrections because Selene fell into a flame trap while exploring a tomb together with Orion. The flames destroyed her body. You:
1) Go to waukeen’s temple in government district. They that tell you that without a body you can do nothing. They suggest you to go to sune’s temple in waukeen promenade.
2) The temple of Sune tells that no body means no resurrection.
3) You go back to Orion. He tells you that he wishes for the notes of the incomplete. You find the incomplete south of 11: https://sorcerers.ne...le-district.jpg
The incomplete is an old friend of Orion, that experimented with necromancy to bring back Selene; only to lose himself and his identity – he has now a zombie/undead appearance. He seems to be reasonable but actually turns hostile on you.  You kill him.
4) You go back to Orion and bring him the notes of the Incomplete. After studying them, he tells you commission a sculpture of Selene using this portrait of her. The sculpture will be used as a storage for her soul.
5) After the sculpture is done, you are told that Selene “is in the Underground. The dead do not actually disappear, you see. They can be met in a kind of... void. She just needs a body - and here it is. Her original body is burned of course, but this sculpture shall become the new 'flask' for her energy”.
6) You go to the void, find some memories of selene and Orion together, go with the flow, then find Selene and she tells you you can’t go back with her.
7) After going back, you tell Orion that she can’t come back and he tries to kill you.
You kill him and a cutscene shows they reunite in death.

 

                                                                                                         What I liked the most

At a certain point, you enter the void to find Selene. The void is inhabitated by memories. You are suggested by an unknown force to actually go with the flow and tell the words that come to your mind as soon as these “memories” talk to you. By doing that, you explore the relationship between Orion and Selene. That is well done.



                                                                                                     Why I won’t be installing the mod anymore:

 

1) The mod is very linear. Once you played it, you experienced all what he has to offer.  

2) By being linear, you have no actual way to influence the ending in any meaningful hammer. This seems to be a strict “rule” of these mods: https://forums.beamd...#Comment_901938
But it’s not only the ending: in the middle of the mod, you meet an undead that seems to have still a little bit of rationality. But no matter how much you try, which options you choose, the ending of the encounter will always be the same. This leaves me a bit conflicted.

 

3) There are some reference to colors, but I guess that unless you played the other mods the player (myself included) would not catch the meanings. Add on top of that that given that the colors are a leitmotif of these mods, there is the risk that charname knows more about colors than the players (why would charname tell out of the blue that white is the color of emptiness?).
Beside, the fact that no other piece of content mention colors (but these mods) kinda gives it away you are playing a mod.

 

4) I’m not exactly sure what’s the void Selene’s soul is inside. Does it have any connection with D&D lore?
 

Spoiler

5) The mage turning on you is just the last act of his desperation, but what I found weird is that they reunited in death. I mean, I’m not sure happy endings are for D&Dafterlife.

6) I wasn’t able to find any explanation about what’s the “happy memory” power for. It is a sanctuary spell?

7) There is another little issue for myself: to find this quest you have to enter "uninvited" into the observatory in Government district. I'm not used to do that in my playthroughs.

Edited by Sergio, 30 September 2019 - 01:12 AM.

[Sergio]

Innershade -> Try it once. In my case I won’t reinstall it.

What I liked: the part with the grandma barbara is well done.

What I didn’t like:

1) The quests got bugged for apparently no reason. I got the quest from the kid, but no father was there.
I got the quest from the lathander priest (the main quest of the village) but no matter what I did inside the mine it didn’t seem to make any difference. Given that I already played the mod in the past with no issues, I thought I thought I was missing something, but after restarting the mod, everything worked perfectly.  (Bugged) Savegame here: http://www.filedropp...ggateporcatroia
Anyway, I tried to replicate the bugs but I wasn’t able to.

For anyone having issues I write the solution:

a) The boy near the well will ask you to go check for his father inside the mine. After having entered the mine, just go bottom-left. The corpse of the father will be here. If it isn’t here, reload.

b) The lathander priest will ask you to check what is going on inside the mine. All you have to do is enter the mine and scout around, then go back to the lathander priest.  No other things are needed.
Then the lathander priest will ask you to rest inside the mines and the “main quest” will begin.

 

2) The grandma Barbara is supposed to give you a stone, at least judging by the dialogues you got with her. But I got a dagger.

3) Fetch quests.

4) Linearity: I mean... I got that you can go into Innershade when you are low level, but for example, it would be cute if you could resurrect the father of the kid. I have a level 30 anomen able to do that.

5) The ending gives you the possibility to solve the issues between the dream entity and the witch that forsake her, but.... I’m not satisfied with the choices you are given. I am evil and I want my adventure to be profitable or satisfying: I’m not evil just for the sake of being evil.
So... what does my evil charname want from the creature? The dream proved to be powerful enough to actually challenge my charname and I would like to use my Pocket plane power to expel the dream entity from myself and anchor it to the pocket plane; or use it as a summon. I want to subdue his will.

 

6) the voice over rustles (Sadly), especially when the dream becomes part of you and use the power “dreaming”.

7) if you go the good ending, you are gifted the necklace of the seldarine. 

Edited by Sergio, 03 October 2019 - 02:56 AM.

[Sergio]

Eilistraee’s song -> ok quest mod.  See if it’s worth adding for you. Doubt I’ll be reinstalling it again.

Story

Spoiler

After sparing Soulafein, he tells you about a camp of followers of Eilistraee. You get there and you:
1) talk with “Fall”, the chief of the camp, that gives you a letter to be brought to Ethan
2) Ethan gives you back a letter you bring to Fall
3) You do some tests to see if you are worthy of Eilistraee’s blessing. These are the tests:
a) you are given some letters with lore about the goddess. You then have to answer questions about her.
b) you fight a vampire
c) I dunno if I forgot any tests.

There are a few quests in the camp:
- destroy a demilich (and making Cromwell forge his tooth into a dagger)
- find the pipe one of the drow missed
- find a book
- find a toy

Notes:
- The mod is pretty linear.
- Given that you meet Eilistraee followers it’s mostly aimed for good charname(s).
- You can't enter any tent: all you can enter is just the hole in the ground. 

 

Edited by Sergio, 01 October 2019 - 01:36 PM.

[Sergio]

Tales of the deep gardens -> ok quest mod.  See if it’s worth adding for you. Doubt I’ll be reinstalling it again.

Story: The quest begins with you having to fetch some items for a mage in the council district. After bringing these items to the mage you are teleported to the deep gardens. Here you have to find 10 colors to leave the place.

The good: the npcs and the place feel very alien.
The bad: I don’t like the fact that this mod has to begin via a fetch quest.

 

Notes:

1) killing the skeleton for the beginning fetch quest doesn’t tell you that you actually got the skull in your inventory. I mean, you get the note in the log, but it should be more evident because I was fighting and I missed it. In fact I kept exploring the dungeon because I thought I had not yet found it.

2) This is the list of permanent bonuses, from which Silvertongue lets you choose one for CHARNAME:

Spoiler

Grey:   +1 APR (PENALTY: +2 Thac0, -6 max HP, +3 save vs death)

Green:  +1 casting speed
Black:  -5 save vs death (PENALTY: -1 Reputation)
Amber:  +7 max HP
Silver: +15 MR
Yellow: -1 AC
Violet: 1 HP/sec regeneration
Red:    +1 damage, -1 Thac0
Blue:   20000 XP
Got it from here: https://forums.beamd...2-ee-quest-mods

3) note about the voiceacting. The fact that this mod has the same voiceacting (See DGDream01, DGDREAM02, etc) as of:
a) The white Queen (initial screen)
b) Innershade (initial screen) + the dreamer voice (ISHxDRE)
c) foundling

takes a bit away from immersion.

4) The voice-acting is ok, but there is a bad rustle for some voices.

Edited by Sergio, 01 October 2019 - 11:55 AM.

[Sergio]

Xulaye mod -> try it. Doubt I’ll be reinstalling it again

Story: Xulaye asks to join you right after you meet Soulafein and Phaere. She will be a thorn in your side, but she will respect you if you behave as a drow would.

The good:

> Xulaye has on point dialogues; she is a woman drow and will make you respect her. He will also taunt you and test you.

> Xulaye provides you with a new ending to the whole demon summoning

Spoiler

she becomes the new matron mother. In my game Xulaye, now the new matron mother, gifted me with 10k gold coins reward +  a cloak that gives you +75% hide in shadows and +75% move silently and saving throw vs breath: +6

The bad:

> There is a quest added, but in my game it was not clear at all what it was for. A messenger comes for Xulaye and asks you to be brought in front of Mistress Larace, matron mother of house House Kii'Rret.
You go there and you are asked to either pay 20k gold coins to the matron mother or give her an armor that cost 20k gold (sold by Duergars).

The follow up seems to be a second quest about Xulaye's fake eggs, but if you spare Soulafein it seems like a total waste?

Note: This “problem” will be retconnected with the dream scenario I’ll explain later.

> If you use PID (player initiated dialogues on Xulaye) you can ask her this question: “Could you tell me of Benarra”? The problem is that I don’t know who Benerra is and in the following dialogues she even mentions another brother, Tarkiz, but I never meet any of these two during my staying in Ust Nasta.

> The new ending makes it impossible to give the eggs to the demon lord if you are evil. 


Given the quality of the mod, I would like to write a fantasy scenario about Xulaye.

 

Spoiler

[Good, neutral alignment]: Right now the demon lord encounter finishes with Xulaye just dismissing the demon and she becomes the new matron mother. That’s what should happen if you are good and neutral.

[Evil alignment] if you are evil, Xulaye should ask you for the eggs; you may or may not refuse to give them.

- If you refuse to give her the eggs, you can offer these to the demons and she won’t care. The mod ends as good or neutral alignment.

- if you give her the eggs, I would like her to offer the eggs to the demon in exchange for help to besiege Suldanesselar. Then...

1) she asks for your help on besieging Elhan camp. You either discover from Elhan’s camp notes about Bodhi having the lanthorn or it will be Xulaye telling you.

2) You kill Bodhi.

3) With Xulaye’s help you open Suldanesselar and start the siege. The objective is the same as always, but the drow will be waiting for Xulaye’s signal before going in. Beside, I think the demon lord would be able to open the closed building on top-right.  No need to summon Rilifane

4) When entering the building, Xulaye will be behind you with her army. Her intent is not yet clear to the player.

5) You kill Irenicus and get brought to Hell as usual

6) When you wake up, Xulaye and all the other drows will be around you. Xulaye will tell you she killed Ellesime, the queen and with the completed siege of Suldanesselar she is now one of the most powerful matron out there.
 

7) She tells you to go to the grove spirit, where you can find your answers. There you have an evil ending for SoA, made possible by Xulaye


[optional] the player could ask her to join him. Xulaye will be in ToB.

 

Edited by Sergio, 03 October 2019 - 04:06 AM.

[Sergio]

Note: the new mod reviewed is above and it's Innershade. I moved it near all the others so one can check my opinion on Lava's mods without having to scroll

Fading promises -> it’s an ok mod. I think it is worth trying and see if you enjoy it. 

Story:

Spoiler

You meet aidan, a fallen paladin of Amaunator asking you to retrieve a mace he sworn to guard. He is now a ghost due to having lost the mace to a necromancer. The mace is now in possession of Alchra diagott, the lich that comes out from the construction you can interact with in the Underdark.

Now having the mace, Aidan asks you to destroy it by bringing the mace to the temple of Amaunator.

After I’ve done that, Aidan proposed my charname to see the sun together one last time before he will fade away. Was it because my charname was female? Who knows.

The good: it’s a simple quest mod, with a simple but effective story, with the chance of betraying Aidan.

 

Some notes:

1) The guy speaks with (old or middle?) English language, and I don’t reckon many characters talking like that in BG. In fact, you can ask him why he talks like that (indirectly, by saying him it seems he came out of a chronicle),  but he won’t comment on what you said.

2) You meet him, you tell each other your name then he asks you to come back the next night to narrate you why he is still a ghost.  Given that you are supposed to meet him more than once in different days to hear all of his story, there is even a dialogue where you can ask “can’t you just tell me all of this at once rather than feeding it to me little by little”? His answer is a mere “nay, for our time together is too short for telling”.  
 

3) This is the only playthrough where I was able to finish the quest (even if I started this mod in many different playthroughs).  In the many playthroughs I’ve done, I was never able to finish the quest because I forgot to come back each night to talk with him.

But in the end ... the mod is fine. All in all, it’s a nice mod. 

[Sergio]

Now I also played all TDD content. So this is for Subtledoctor
 

Espurta -> I didn’t like this mod and I don’t recommend it at all.

Spoiler

TL;DR the mod is just an excuse to maul many generic npcs (mostly duergars) and trolls/frost giants/wolves/sometimes mephit.

Story:  Go to the city gates. Here you’ll find a halfling (?) that gives you the map to Espurta after talking with him (or killing him).  Espurta is a clone of friendly arm inn area.

                                                      You are given two quests there:

1) At the entrance you’re asked to go cleanse a village with orc barbarians. After reaching them you discover that they are not that bad and they asks you to get their king back. You enter a cavern where you find their king, bring the king back to them, then explore the cavern to see the source of the frequent attacks on the village. It’s a dragon. You beat him and you are done.

2) Inside the friendly arm inn (whose interior are now that of the paladin order) the major ask you to go talk to the captain. The captains asks you to kill the monsters around the inn and to report him when you’re done.  The end.
 

Personal notes:
                                                         The barbarian village quest

1) So, you are asked to go cleanse a village with orc barbarians to north-east. But when you reach the new area marked on the map, there is no village. Not only the area is on the north-west, but the area that was added to the map (Snake woods) is just a clone of North Forest area (one of the wild areas added on your map right in chapter 6). You fight some yuan-ti and in one cointainer you discover a map that adds a new map marker (provided that you leave the area from the right side).
The first area could be completely removed with no loss, it’s a pure filler area.

2) After exploring the area at 1) and getting the map, you find the village. Here, Ornamus, the barbarian leader,  asks you to go north to find his king. Charname can tell him that he will go north too (and you can answer him politely or not, your choice). You may imagine my surprise when I discovered that even if you leave the area from every side, no new map marker was added.
In fact you’re not supposed to go north, but to go east,  in the very same area where you talked with the barbarian to enter the cave.
So... I repeat: the barbarian and charname both talk to go North, but the place you have to go is right (and in the very same area you talk with the barbarian). The player gets false informations for absolutely no reason.
Note: in the place where you find the king, go bottom right to find the new cave.

3) At first glance I thought that the fact that leaving from north didn’t make a new map marker appear was a bug.  My thoughts were corroborated by the description of the map you find in the first location you explore (the one at point 1): “this map displays a series of routes that will further your journey through to the troll mountains. The map is a true source but the route promises no safe travel, what lays ahead only you can tell”).  The map refers to a series of route, then a route.
Also, the location with the village has no name, so I didn’t think I had already reached the Troll mountains. Also, in the worldmap, the village is at the foot of the mountains.  I thought I had to go deeper (they ask me to go north after all)

4) After entering the cave, you just explore and explore and kill everyone until you find the dragon and kill him. The dragon tells you he was enhanced by someone, that’s why he is controlling so many creatures. But.. you’ll never know who is enhancing him. You just kill him and you are done.

5) The dragon drops a eye and an armor scales, but the eye seems to be the trigger for leaving the place and will disappear as soon as you are teleported out.
 
6)  If you go back to the village, the king and the chief are not there anymore so no one is going to reward you.

7) TDD is split in various components, but this one requires Riatavin. Why? The armor scales you find on the dragon can’t be forged by Cromwell.  Cromwell won’t even acknowledge them.
You’re just supposed to bring them to Riatavin, so you’re forced, if you play this piece of content, to install the others .





                                                      Helping the Captain in Eshpurta
Espurta is a clone of friendly arm Inn Area. So you explore the area and kill all the monsters.
Killing the monsters will make you get a reward from the captain, but no acknowledgement or new dialogues appear by anyone (but the captain that gave you the quests). If you try to talk with the Major he still has the dialogue where he asks you to go speak to the captain because he wishes to talk with you.