144 replies to this topic

[Sergio]

Northern tales of the sword coast [bg1]

Fighting encounters -> I won’t install anymore this component

Jastey provided a list of the encounters here:

https://www.gibberli...#comment-274608

Anyway...

 

Spoiler

1) additional comrades to Lamalha (AR5000 Valley of the Tombs)
Do you feel the need for Lamalha to have additional comrades? If that’s the case, go for it. I don’t feel such need.

2) Boy and his parents in Beregost house.
Which Beregost house? Take Kagain’s shop as point of reference.
On the left of Kagain shop there is a house
The house in front of the house on the left of Kagain’s shop has this encounter.
Anyway, after poking the child inside the house, the father (an ogre) comes to punish you. If you go upstairs you meet his mom and she is hostile. You kill them both, then you go talk to the child and he just flees.

3) Six sisters in Jovial Juggle.
There are six sisters and they are all named “Sisters a little”. If you poke them too much after they asked you to leave their room, they summon a lesser tanari demon worth 22k experience. Killing one/damaging one of them critically makes the other flee.

4) Ogre magi in Peldvale. You meet three ogre magi in Peldvale that attack you. No dialogue.

5) Officer Tytus and Black Talon Fighters in Cloakwood & Cloakwood Mine.
You now meet Officer Tytus when entering the cloakwood mines.
He has no dialogues at all and straight out attacks you. When killed, he drops two items: a girdle that sets your STR to 19 + Umber Hulk plate +1 armor. The component also adds some black Talon Fighters to the area.

I won’t install anymore this component because I don't care about the nth fighting encounter

 

Edited by Sergio, 31 December 2019 - 03:28 AM.

[Sergio]

Romantic encounters [bg1] – I advise everyone to try these components and to see if they enjoy them.

Some notes:

1) The components I’ll be reviewing are mentioned here:

https://www.gibberli...sts-encounters/

2) After playing these components I realized that even when they are decently written, I still find it hard to add them, especially when there is some sort of intimacy involved – sometimes with circumstances that do not happen anywhere again in the game, making the content itself feel like an “exception”, rather than a seamingless addition.

3) In fact there are some components that I could be considering adding if charname didn’t ask so blatantly sometimes to have sex or do something.

4) In the end, I think I will probably add one or two components, but I advise everyone to try them, because it’s all a matter of taste. 

I will probably reinstall:
- 17. Late Night with Jaheira. This is a little banter with Jaheira – it doesn’t seem to be too much out of place.

- 32. Girdle of Gender Reactions

 

 

 

////////////////////////////

 

I will not install anymore:

 

2. Scar's Spare Time (prerequisition for bonus component "Scar - The Return")

Spoiler

 You can share some ale and a story with Scar. Prelude to better things if you are female.

 

 

6. Duke Eltan's Spare Minute (prerequisition for bonus component "Scar - The Return")

 

Spoiler

Some new dialogues while he is on his bed, including a sex proposal. https://ibb.co/7NbnVV9

 

 

9. Bartus' Seduction

Spoiler

You meet a man in front of Beregost Tavern that is going to get killed by another man.
a) If you don’t help him, you lose 1 reputation;
b) If you help him, you meet him again in Baldur’s gate ( inside the Low Lantern “ship”). Either you ask him to reward you by “entertaining” you or you can convince him he deserves more. Given that he is insecure about his skills, he will feign seducing you (I was playing a male charname) and if you encourage him, he will reach his goal.

I didn’t enjoy this quest; and you don’t even get any reward for helping the man reach his “dream”.

 

14. No Regrets.

Spoiler

This could be inserted into BGQE without many issue. After entering a house in NE Baldur’s gate, you are asked to read a letter by a dieing woman. As soon as you read her the letter she dies. She will also ask to bring her cat to the neightbour. You then deliver the cat to the neighbour and you can get some gold coins (500) if you lie to a taxpayer.
I didn’t enjoy this quest. 

 

 

18. Sil's Blessing

Spoiler

When meeting Sil, you can tell her that you are peaceful. Then, Sil will explain you the story of a man who lost his love.
a) I can’t fathom why Sil would even give you a chance to talk, given all the murders on her “tribe”.
b) For listening to Sil, you get a cloak of ice protection (+50% resistance to ice).

 

19. Melicamp: The Poultry Boy. After saving Melicamp, he shares with you a bottle of wine and...  Then he proposes to kiss you and do some other stuff.
 

 

22. The Mourning of Centeol, the Spider Lady

Spoiler

Centeol is AR2100

Firewine Bridge is AR4500
Touching a character linked to Irenicus is a big risk and I didn’t particularly enjoy this component. All you do is find Centeol’s diary inside her hideout, bring the diary to Poe and get 1000 xp for doing so.
After you listen to Poe’s poem about Centeol, a ghostly spider appears and delivers you a wand:
10 charges, you use the wand on charname or other party members to make it ignored by spiders. The wand also provides 25% resistance to piercing damage.

After the spiders delivers the wand, he leaves the screen: you can try to kill him for 4000 experience. 

 

25. The Great Zudini.

Spoiler

Notes:

1) The component could feel annoying when you play BGT or EET. Why? An example: Faldorn will get alerted that one day Charname will be her enemy and that there will be “no more orgies” after that. But you can’t make such a reference when meeting her in Trademeet.
2) Zudini makes reference to events that you know are going to happen (e.g: Viconia will get staked and burned if no one intervenes). Or reference to events that may happen: e.g Angelo “maybe” joining you (making a reference to Angelo npc mod). 

 

- 26. The Messenger.

Spoiler

You just deliver the letter to Blake, then Blake gives you something to be delivered to Sister Sapientia.

I found two of the answers odd: https://ibb.co/6BpQ7kb

Answer number 1):  You feign not knowing Gorion, but you know that he is an “illustrious mage and scholar”. In fact I was a bit confused for a moment: either charname says he doesn’t know Gorion (as you never “heard” of him/met him personally), or he may have heard about him (but I doubt he would write about his specialization).

Answer number 3) is, according to me, badly phrased. I would “rewrite” it.

 

Notes: Vestibule is AR3401

a) Sister Sapientia won’t turn hostile if you kill everyone on her sight in the game’s beginning (like the other characters)

 

27. Ender Sai
You have sex with Ender Sai.
Bandit camp: AR1900
Friendly Arm inn: AR2300

 

28. The Novelists.
They write a book about your adventures. Last time you meet them they make you read their draft. You don’t get any reward.

 

29. The Honest Lies of Two Riversides

Spoiler

You meet two ghosts and you can help them (or not).

a) If you help them you get a Ghost Stone (the user becomes blurred once a day)
b) There are no true evil options – I would have loved to banish them and the excuse that the priest of helm tells you (that he is not strong enough to banish them) doesn’t seem realistic;
c) If these ghosts are so strong they keep staying even if a priest tries to banish them, surely someone would take an interest unto them – and that’s probably the key for some evil options.
d) Killing Yvonne (one of the ghosts) makes you lose 5 Reputation (you gain 15 xp too)

 

 

30. Necromancer's Trouble

Spoiler

You meet a necromancer that wants to resurrect her old love. You can cooperate with him or not.
There are a lot of options for this quest, including one that is disturbing (but the readme alerts you about that).  Some notes:
- The ending was a bit of a cliche
- I think the “disturbing” option in the quest is a bit out of place ingame and would warrant a very strong reaction from your party (I was playing solo and I didn’t check if that’s the case).
- I found some dialogue options odd, or at least they don’t convey easily what they mean: https://ibb.co/026G6L8. It’s clear that she doesn’t want to leave kitty (the cat) behind, but then you tell her “Do you prefer leaving without her”? It’s oddly phrased.

The nymph is inside Ragefast’s house (west Baldur’s gate)

You get the quest from Ramazith (North Baldur’s gate, near the tower)

If Ragefast is not inside the house, like it happened to me, the code to summon him is:
CLUAConsole:CreateCreature("ragefa")
 

Some neat things to know about the reward of the nymph in BGEE: https://forums.beamd...#Comment_865506

 

31. Dinner with Thalantyr. 

Spoiler

 
The book is inside AR126. Thalantyr shop is AR3200

Notes:
a) In the dialogues, Master Mehmel asks for 200 gold pieces, but he takes 350 from you.
b) Master Mehmel doesn’t realize you just payed him to forge the piece.

Rewards: a ioun stone that improves your Intelligence by +2
A chess piece that makes you able to cast blessing once a day.

I won’t install anymore this component, because I find the whole situation with Thalantyr a bit odd:
- he is a grouchy man (“why do I live in such a pissant town”?) and I can’t see him inviting you for dinner, even when kindly asked ...
- Also, I’m pretty sure my Charname would try to poison him or make him unconscious to try to steal his stuff – or charm him. I mean, try some evil stuff. He also makes a reference to his cache of items being safe when you are having a dinner with him  – I would be pretty greedy for them.
 

 

34. All That Left Was.

Spoiler

a) During the 8th dialogue, the one where Left shows you his house, you do not move to any custom interior. You are just in front of the house, while he talks about dragonnests and jars.
b) Also he tells you you can always sleep “there” (in the house) safely, but ... you are in the exterior area while he tells you that.
c) His secret is not as interesting as I had hoped it to be. If you are curious about his secret, he is

Spoiler

a dream

 

35. A Childhood Friend.

Spoiler

- third dialogue makes a reference to the “night”, even if you are in plain day.
- The last dialogue with him makes a reference to Winthrop and his wife acting weirdly, but if you talk with Winthrop he doesn’t speak weirdly. Nor I ever met the wife he refers to.
- It’s not as intrusive as I think it would be, but I think it still changes the “tone” of the prologue and Chapter 6 enough to not install it.

 

43. Minor Disclosures

Spoiler

Readme: Elfsong Tavern has a neat little room for private encounters but it's difficult to have private meetings when there is no door that can be locked... So, it's not the PC's fault if s/he interrupts a flirtatious dinner by walking into it once or twice, or thrice... is it?

Notes:
- Funny concept, but difficult execution in game: you wouldn’t walk inside this room 7 times in a row, unless you knew that there was some content to be trifled with.
- Also, between each encounter, you need to wait 1 hour real time. For the lazy:

CLUAConsole:AdvanceRealTime(50000)

- For anyone wondering, the seventh encounter has you meeting two...

Spoiler

doppelgangers

 

 

 

44. Cloakwood Lovers.

Spoiler

When you enter the temple room in cloakwood mines level 3, the first thing you notice is an hostile hobgoblin and two neutral npcs. The game gets paused while you read a series of dialogues by the couple. When the couple “realizes” you’ve entered, they ask you to spare them.
The idea is good, but I didn’t enjoy the execution. Rather than reading the story of the couple (that doesn’t realize you entered the room), I would have surely liked a bit more “audacity” with a priest actually being there and starting the ceremony. You could then:
- kill the couple while entering and leaving the priest alive
- kill the couple + the priest
- let them celebrate the ceremony + eventual gift in money by Charname (with optional evil ending of you killing them all)
- actually ask them to stop the ceremony while you take care of Davaeorn because you want to join them and wish them well (and the ceremony takes place right before you flood the mines)
- actually be the witness of the ceremony?

 

 

 

Bonus Quest: Scar - The Return

Spoiler

This quest is finely done but I’m not sure I agree with all of it.
- First, the quest assumes Angelo and his lackeys have lost sight of Scar’s body, and I doubt very much Angelo would be so careless. But.. let’s give it the benefit of the doubt and think that's what actually happened: you are able to find the corpse of Scar and deliver it to Duke Eltan.

- The quest has a happy ending

Spoiler

Scar gets resurrected

, but I feel like a happy ending in this context is inappropriate. Why?
a) the happy ending provides no payoff (you don’t get any reward);

b) you are touching one of main character of the story

c) In fact I’m left pondering if I would have liked more to have retrieved the body, but nothing could be done because the body was too much of a mess anyway. To make the player have an inch of expectations that will be later crushed.

 

- Last note: There must be a more poignant way to make the player search for the shop in central Baldur’s gate without having him to know about the shop itself. I doubt I would have ever find it without the "walkthrough" in the readme.

Notes:
- Donnerjan was inside another commoner (I mean, they were in the same spot).
- Duntrin dialogue: “Because I think it was them who took care the pile was brought to the warehouse”
Because I think it was them who took care Of the pile that was brought to the warehouse

But I think I would add a dot:
«Because I think it was them who took care of the pile. And they brought it to the warehouse».
- Finding the body and

Spoiler

resurrecting him

gives no reward. Some xp would be appreciated.

 

I do not have any interest for the following mods:

 

- 41. The Messenger 2: Rain or Snow or Gloom of Night

- 42. Camryn and Tamah

Edited by Sergio, 13 January 2020 - 01:45 PM.

[jastey]

Thanks for the review! I noted the issues.

And yes, I usually forget to add XP rewards to the little quests.

[EvilMax]

The most interesting topics for all who is manually customizing BWP.

 

Sergio, huge thanx! Please, continue, if you have an ability. This experience is very useful to select most interesting, lore friendly and clean mods.

[Sergio]

Thanks Jastey. I feel invigorated that you read my reports and think on them
Thanks EvilMax. I appreciate your support. <3


Now one more mod:
 

Anniversary mod [BG2] --> try it. I won’t reinstall it anymore
 

Story of the mod:

Spoiler

You fetch some items for a bard claiming he needs them to do a ritual to protect her employer that is being currently hunted by some powerful enemies. You bring the items to him and then you meet his employer.
The employer will ask then for your help.

- if you refuse to help, you gain 800 gold;

- if you help her: 1000 gold coins, a rogue stone, + a tome that:
> improves your lore value by 10
> gives you an ability that you can use once per day that enables the spellcaster to bring into memory two spells of fifth level or below that have been casted already.

 

 

Personally, I enjoyed it and I advise to play it. Even if the mod starts with you having to fetch some items for a bard (and I hate very much fetch quests), in this mod they were made bearable by the creativity shown by the dialogues and the encounters you met. So I definitely commend the work put on the dialogues and the creativity shown by some of the encounters.

But... I’m hesitant about installing it again. Why?

Spoiler

- The readme doesn’t hide that the player should “[...] expect some fourth-wall breakage and some outright silliness [...]”. I was aware of it, but still, reading about “Java” and “Gibberlings 3” kinda takes me out of the game.  When I look for mods, I want something that blends into the existing game, making the player confused if it was original content to begin with or mod-added content.

- I’m not sure I enjoyed the final showdown with the evil group. I feel like it was silly and over the top, but I guess it was done this way on purpose: you face 12 mages, and they don’t spawn at the same time to make the player able to finish the encounter. They should gank on you all together, rather than spawning after a fixed amount of time passes.

 

Thanks for this mod.

Edited by Sergio, 13 January 2020 - 01:46 PM.

[Cahir]

Sergio,

 

Have you ever tried Mysteries of the Sword Coast?: http://athkatla.cob-...opic.php?t=7667

 

It's a BGEE mod made by Zed Nocear. It was written in Polish, but it was translated to English by Polish modders and translators. I did not play it yet (waiting for EET version), but it's advertised as really well blend in into original game, which might be something you'll be interested in. It's not particularly well known outside Polish community, but it's well written, so I heard.

[jastey]

Sergio,

 

9. Appropriate Albert and Rufie Reward -> if you use BGT or EE I think it is now redundant.

(bg1ub) what the component from bg1ub does is replace the BGT reward "Bandit Scalb" with a Horn Coral Gem. So, yes youget a reward in BGT but bg1ub component changes what you get.

[Sergio]

@Cahir: thanks for informing me, but the mod seems to be mostly in polish.

@Jastey: Thank you. I added a corrected review.
 

 

NTSC --> Try this mod. I doubt I will be reinstalling it.

From weidu: ~NTOTSC/NTOTSC.TP2~ #0 #0 // Northern Tales of the Sword Coast (NTotSC) for BGT-Weidu, BG:EE, and EET: 3.2.0

Version played: 3.2.0. Downloaded from Githhub (https://github.com/S...ases/tag/v3.2.0)

Before playing the mod, I advise everyone to take a look at the changelog and realize how much work went into this mod since version 2.0. Thank you Jastey, Angel/Made in Heaven and K4thos for refining this mod!
 

I enjoyed NTSC and I suggest trying it. One playthrough left me satisfied enough to not reinstall it.

 

Some notes:

Spoiler

- There are two maps that feel huge and kinda empty: Wood of the Dead and Northern Wood.
I would “merge” wood of the dead and Northern wood, by actually “moving” the dungeon in the wood of the dead on the bottom right side of Northern Wood. (note: Northern wood, is, in fact, a cloned area of Bear river - AR4600 -, that hosts only a group of wood elves, involved in one of the quest of the mod).
Keelor could be moved near one of the bridge as well.

- the mod uses some areas from IWD, and these same areas are used in the mod Never Ending Journey for Baldur’s gate 2.

 

- Personal nitpick: the mod touches the dialogue of Duke Eltan to introduce one of the new areas.  Even if it’s done well, I still would enjoy if the quest was not introduced by one of the main characters of the game.

 

Now let’s go to the quests:

Spoiler

The great book of Unknowing:

1) Lobar dialogue – text error: possesion -> possession

2) Haeball – «Travelers here are rare indeed, but recently strangers» – I would add a “,” after the recently.
3) Dagger’s piece has a capital w that shouldn’t be there.

- Is there any specific reason the key for Haebal’s desk is in that place?
- I killed the Black Cultists before delivering to Hasdar the book. So when I met the mage, he turned on me without any insightful dialogue (there is a dialogue, but it’s not clear to what he is referring).
Suggestion: if you have already killed the Black cultists group, Hasdar should explain that he will kill you for what you have done to his group.


Charles Nib’s quest:
- If you agree with the evil guy proposal and you tell Charles that “you planned to kill him but enough blood has been spilled”, I think what you told him should reflect (in some way) on the dialogue where he proposes you to clean the new Firewine dungeon. Or maybe not?

- I would move the “accept the new quest” option to option 1) and move the refuse to option 2)
- Nitpick: when you’ve finished cleaning the dungeon, you get alerted by a journal\quest log update. That’s an ok solution, but.. I think there should be a way to tell it to Charleston to make him start the excavation ?

 

Northern’s coast:

- After having killed everyone, you can’t ask for a reward the fishermen. When they ask you how they can repay you, you say: “It is not neccesary”:
> neccesary should be necessary.
> there should be an evil path with the fishermen – I don’t care if they don’t want to pay *hint hint*

 

- I was able to go to the salamander’s island even without having visited Northern Citadel at all. I don’t mind, but the issue was that by doing so I wasn’t informed by Skipper that Nadalin can bring me to Salamander Island and I didn’t even know what the Salamander island was for.
- When speaking with Nadalin, charname says: Could you take us back to Salamander Island?
It should probably be: May\Could you take us to Salamander Island?

 

 

Northern citadel
- If you are kind with Pique, he tells you he is going to give you something, but he gives you nothing.
- When you talk with the helm’s priest, it seems like you are forced to actually solve first the problem within northern citadel before having to speak about the temple itself. I found this pretty unnecessary: in fact, I had already the key to the shrine and I was able to open it and take the helm’s symbol. I did that, without the priest or the girl explaining me and after I’ve done that, they didn’t even acknowledge what happened.

Note: this may be a bug. See section above, “Northern’s coast”.

Savegame with the issue:https://easyupload.io/rf7d8v

 

Final meeting with Ghotal

- Worth noting: inside the place, you find Khazgaroth claw and horn. You would have two copies of the same items (one copy inside Thalantyr’s shop, one copy inside Ghotal’s dungeon).

 

 

I also publish a simple walkthrough for the people having difficulties with the mod. The walkthrough I’m publishing cares little for linearity and is mostly done to finish NTSC.

Spoiler

How to unlock areas:
- Talk with Duke Eltan for Northern Citadel.
- Talk with the guy in the farm that is infested by zombies.
- Talk with Yness in Ulgoth’s beard

- Talk with Reedrig after you’ve fred him from the Field of the dead area.
- Nadalin unlocks northern coast area

Northern Citadel: you get this quest from Duke Eltan.
Go there and talk with Eldod, the captain in front of the fort. He will not say much. Enter the fort, then go left: here you will meet Pique. He will not talk to you.
Take once again the ladder and talk with Avery and Lenore. Be kind: If you are kind you’ll be given a greater restoration spell.
As soon as you talked with them, go downstairs by taking once again the ladder: Pique will reveal some details about the issues the fort is experiencing, if you are kind to him.
Then go talk to the captain. Follow him until the last encounter happens. Note: you can use the greater restoration spell you were given by Lenore on the captain himself.
Go top right and cleanse the place.

 

Then go to the fort, speak with the man in the temple (right of the entrance), speak with Avery, and take the quest to fix the shrine.

 

Northern Wood:
On the north of this area, the wood elf has the bow everyone is searching. You can wait for the quest giver to give you the quest, or you can just turn on everyone and get the bow from the body of the elf.

 

Field of the Dead
You get this area if you talk with Yness in Ulgoth’s beard.
Area is important for few reasons:
- there is a place on the center where there are the prisoners you would be looking for some quests you’ll be given later. Free them.
- As soon as you fred them, go bottom right: there is a cavern with a man (Reedrig) that is trapped. Free him.
- There is a third cave on the left side of the map, but you can’t open it, for now.


The great book of Unknowing

- You get this quest from Hasdar near Blade and stars, after having talked with Shaella.
- As soon as you get the quest, go to AR3800 (South beregost Road) and take the key in the tree.
- Use the key to open the desk in Haeball’s desk (Larswood: AR2900, inside the rock tower) and take the dagger.
- Now move to AR5300 (Fire leaf forest) and go bottom (bottom center) until you find a new map marker.
- Enter the place and talk with the demon. Choose if killing him or just leaving him alive and helping him.
- On the right, in a shelf there is the book you’re looking for.
- Go to Haeball after having killed the demon\serving the demon.
- Deliver the book to Hasdar.
 
Now...
Black Cultist Area (for this one I’m not totally sure)
- To unlock this area, you need to finish first Durlag’s tower.
- As soon as you killed Aec’letec, you should be able to talk with Reedrig near the house with the cultists.
- He will unlock the new area.
- Cleanse the new area and take the ring from the cultist leader.

Now enter...
Wood of the dead.
- Just go bottom left and enter the place and raid it.
-  [optional] There is also Keelor near one of the side of the bridge: your choice if saving him or not.


Now...
- Go to Baldur’s gate docks
- Near the ship there is a guy, talk with Nadalin.
- Go to the Northern Coast
- Cleanse everything and help the farmers.
- [optional] Give the potion of freedom to the druid if you wish to finish the quest
- As soon as you helped the fishermen, go to Nadalin and tell him that he can now come back.
- Now go once again to the northern coast and use Nadalin’s ship (warning: to unlock the option sometimes you have to talk first with the fishermen chief named Skipper, in the center of the three buildings) to go to the Salamander’s island.
- Do the quest for the salamander and then go to Northern Citadel and take the altar’s key.
- Use the key to open the last cave inside Field of the Dead.

Thanks for this mod, I enjoyed it.

Edited by Sergio, 03 March 2020 - 11:14 AM.

[Sergio]

Ascalon questpack -> Try it. I’m not going to reinstall it.

From weidu: ~AC_QUEST/AC_QUEST.TP2~ #1 #0 // Ascalon's Questpack: 2.05

- A Job Well-Paid

Spoiler

 It’s a math problem. If you enjoy math problems, you will enjoy this component too. The solution for the math problem is

Spoiler

270

 

- A Feast for the Gnolls

Spoiler

In Nashkel, you are tasked to find Aaron, now missing.  Him and his fiance Marina were surprised by Gnolls during a picnic. You discover that the gnolls killed Marina and took Aaron prisoner.
You find that Marina comes back every night under the waterfalls in Dryad peeks – a promise is binding her to the plane. You free Aaron from the gnolls, take the ring he was supposed to give Marina from the body of the Gnoll chieftain and together you go back to Nashkel. Aaron gives you the ring and tasks you to give the ring back to Marina. When you deliver it, she disappears with the ring. You get a pearl from her.

- Very personal opinion: this quest lacks the emotional punch I would have expected.
If the person you loved died killed by the gnolls, and is still coming back as a ghost because he expects something from you, I would personally give her/him the last goodbye and my gift before parting ways “forever”. Right now it’s the player that does this task.
Okay, Aaron justifies that by saying “I could not look at her, not like she is now”. I guess... I don’t know if my charname would try to convince him otherwise and would not poke him, but well..
- If you go the evil/neutral route (killing the phantasm) you get punished for it. You lose 5 reputation and get 15 xp. Completing the quest in the good route gives you 1200 experience.
- I would move Aaron to the other side of the bridge.

 

- The great Carlini

Spoiler

You are tasked to find a book for Ygnatz. The book is in the Ulcaster ruins. When you find it and deliver to him, you can:
a) help Ygnatz with the spell
b) get a reward immediately (300 gold coins, but he will leave and you won’t be able to play the quest further).

If you choose the first option, you will have to solve a riddle. There are the word:

Spoiler

- Lathander
- Ogrillon
- Athkatla

- if you go good route, you get the shield +300 gold coins;
- If you go evil route, you only get the shield;

Journal log: Received the reward as promissed
Promissed = promised

Shield description

Spoiler

You get mirror shield (+1 shield that protects you from gaze and petrification attacks)

.
 

 

 

- Fangirls 

Spoiler

You can now deliver the autograph you get from Larry, Darryl, Darryl to these girls for 300 xp

 

- A Home for the Gibberlings

Spoiler

- Fetch quest with a creative justification, but I don’t enjoy very much roaming in the sewers.
- Also, there is a chance you already explored the sewers, but unless you have Elminster, the gibberlings do not appear.

Anyway, these are the coordinates:
- 6 in the West Sewers WSewers [521.2196]
- 8 in the CentralSewers [521.2196] (yes that's the same coordinates as above)
- 4 in the Iron Throne Cellar BaldursGateDocks_IronThrone_Cellar [641.451]
 

Added some images of where the gibberlings are.
https://ibb.co/MZJgKHm

https://ibb.co/jTrF9Pt

 

 

Just a note: Gerardo takes with him the first two gibberling skins you give him.
So when you find the skins from the area above, all you are able to find is just 18 skins.
18 skins + the 2 you have already delivered from his house = 20 skins.

If you bring him all 20 skins, you get a magic item:

Spoiler

a cursed armor that turns you blue, as a gibberling

Text error: outsdoor = outdoor

 

- The lost son

Spoiler

 A ranger has her son kidnapped. You get him back and give him to her.

I had an issue with Perwell: he doesn’t follow me through areas. I would suggest to just add a dialogue option to bring him to friendly arm inn and smoothen the “mission”. Savegame here: https://easyupload.io/1b1hpz


You get a bow, if you don’t refuse her reward:

Spoiler

Damage: +2 bonus (missile)
THAC0: +3 bonus

Weight: 2
Speed Factor: 5

Proficiency Type: Long Bow

 

- Of Wolves and Men

Spoiler

You have to get some belladonna to save a man cursed with lycantropy.

You can:
- just give the body to Thalantyr (for 300 xp and a flame sword +1)
- find belladonna (get 450 xp + a flame sword +1) and cure the man.

- if you kill the werewolf before going inside High hedge, the girl will accuse you of having killed her man without even having tried to help. I found the dialogue odd, because, well, her man is in my backpack and she is in front of High hedge building, not in front of the house where I killed him.
If she actually came walking to you, surprised that you actually entered her house and would ask for the werewolf, I would find the dialogue a little more believable.

 

- Flopsy

Spoiler

The quest kinda subverts your expectation, but it is still... a fetch quest.

Issues:

- You can kill the rabbit with no effect on the ogre. Unless you do it in the dialogues.
- The use of the text ”I will put out of misery” doesn’t convey that charname is planning to bring him another rabbit.
- When you bring him the rabbit, the first letter of the first dialogue is not capitalized.

 

- The Serpents of Abbathor

Spoiler

Good quest, but it sadly has no sequel, so for me is not worth installing.

[BG2]Missing son
You are asked to find the missing son of a halfling. For saving them, you get

Spoiler

6000 xp + 1 reputation

Thanks for the mod, I enjoyed it.

Edited by Sergio, 03 March 2020 - 11:14 AM.

[khelban12]

Sergio, thank you for your reviews. They are a great read.

 

If it is not much trouble, from now on can you please mention the version of the mod (as it is written in weidu.log for example "v2.3 BWP Fix") alongside its name ? I think it will be helpful for readers to know, especially in the case where you mention bugs that you had with the mod.

[Sergio]

Sergio, thank you for your reviews. They are a great read.

 

If it is not much trouble, from now on can you please mention the version of the mod (as it is written in weidu.log for example "v2.3 BWP Fix") alongside its name ? I think it will be helpful for readers to know, especially in the case where you mention bugs that you had with the mod.

A bit late, but I provided what you are looking for in the last two reviews.
 

Edited by Sergio, 03 March 2020 - 11:15 AM.

[Endarire]

@Sergio
Greetings!  How true is it that you generally have preferred roleplaying/romance-focused quest mods?  That's the feeling I got from skimming your review verdicts to minimize spoilers.

[Sergio]

Tangled Oak -> Try it. I’m not going to reinstall it.

~TANGLEDISLE/TANGLEDISLE.TP2~ #0 #0 // The Tangled Oak Isle: the new area of Athkatla -> Yes, but don't patch existing save games: 0.93

The focus of this review is not going to be the little quests that can be found on the area, but only the main quest.

I think every player will be lured to the center of the area, where a great oak can be witnessed in his beauty. Near the oak you got your quest giver (Finn) that will make the main quest start.  

Main quest story

Spoiler

While talking with Finn, you discover that the oak is being drained and is slowly dieing; the culprit seems to be some sort of undead curse.

The investigations you do, point to a npc (named Jaalv) that seems to have inexplicably lost the capacity to speak: after trying to make him talk he flees. You are unable to follow him, but thanks to the help of a dog that sniffs a Jaalv’s cloth, you follow Jaalv’s trail and discover a cave.

Jaalv doesn’t seem to be there.  You discover that there is an illusion inside the cave and after removing it, you find an entrance. You enter the area and you discover the skeleton of a Dragon and Jaalv is there.

Now Jaalv is able to speak and it turns out that:
1) Jaalv was studying these bones and tried to use some sort of undead ritual on the dragon to speak with him.
2) While he was chanting the ritual, one of the inhabitants of the village entered the cave and strangled him.
3) Jaalv is now possessed by the dragon. The dragon is linked to the undeath curse on the tree, but he turns out to be “polite” and asks you to put him back to sleep. To do that, there are two solutions:

a) you kill him [evil route]
b) you bring him a music box. The music box is owned by the art merchant in the promenade. You can simply buy it for 700 gp. You bring the music box to the dragon and he goes to sleep. Quest finished.

You go to talk to Finn and he tells you that the oak is now in health/getting better. He asks you to find the killer of Jaalv. You find him and you can make her flee or ask her to endure her pain.

 

My considerations.

 

Spoiler

The start of the quest is very very ambitious. As a player, you are made aware of:
- an undeath sickness
- a tree being drained
- a non talking npc

But when you finish the quest you realize that only one of the things I mentioned matters, and that’s the non-talking npc.

Why? Because there is no pay off for the undeath sickness and the tree being drained.

Play the quest, then tell me: would the quest be different if the tree had no issues and you were just tasked to find why the non talking npc is behaving weirdly? I think not.

 

When I read in dialogues about the undead sickness, I got enthusiastic. When I saw Jaalv disappearing into the cave, I thought: damn, there is really something dangerous that is going on – I have to absolutely discover what is it. 

For a moment I thought that someone was siphoning the tree to resurrect some kind of entity and maybe the undead sickness is the visible effect. 

When I entered the area where you meet Jaalv and saw these dragon remains, I was gobsmacked: I had thought some crazy cult had discovered these remains and were bent into resurrecting the dragon no matter the cost.

If the oak was to be drained, so be it!  And I was already tempted to join them and drain the tree.

So when I saw that the dragon was now possessing Jaalv and that he wanted me to fetch him an item, I was astonished.

When I was told later that the fact that Jaalv was murdered in some way activated the undead drain on the tree, I was more than disappointed: linking the murder happening in a cave inside the area with the tree felt kinda forced.

 

Thanks for the mod.

Edited by Sergio, 22 July 2020 - 10:26 AM.

[Salk]

If you ever take requests, Sergio, or if you actually have former experience about them, I would like to hear your opinion about:

 

Rouge Rebalancing's

  - Chosen of Cyric Encounter

  - Shadow Thief Improvements

 

Endless BG1's

 

  - More Flavor to Hero of Baldur's Gate

  - Sarevok's Sword

  - Imoen and Duke Jannath (Imoen Gets Residence Inside Palace)

  - Duke Eltan Is in the Palace

  - Flaming Fist After Final Fight

  - Elminster Makes an Appearance (Restored BG1)

  - Denkod in Thieves' Guild Comments on Sarevok's Death

 

and Almateria's Restoration Project (all components).

 

Cheers! 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Salk, 29 November 2022 - 05:43 PM.

[jastey]

Salk: Why don't you list all of EndlessBG1's components?

[Salk]

Hello, jastey!

 

Some components are EE-only and I could not possibly install them on BGT. 

 

But of course Sergio is more than welcome to reviewing every single component.

[jastey]

Some components are EE-only and I could not possibly install them on BGT.

Aah, that makes sense.

[Noxou]

Thanks for this useful topic. It helped me make a decision regarding a few mods i hesitated to add/remove. I like that you are unforgiving in your reviews, despite them being read by mod authors. You have high standards, to which i can definitely relate, and this is the reason why we can appraise these works fairly.

Edited by Noxou, 30 April 2023 - 04:50 PM.

[Sergio]

So, I've posted a few reviews on Gibberlings 3 forum while SHS was down. Just for posterity reasons, I will copy them here

Note that the Author have answered my reviews here: https://www.gibberli...ergios-reviews/ (I will probably copy their answer just to give a full round up)

 

 

Dark Tidings. Version played: 1.0.  - Play this mod. I didn’t regret playing it; see if you enjoy it.

 

[Story – obviously, spoilers] 

Spoiler

You are asked to check why the light of a lighthouse has now worn off; you go in the Island only to find that the gem that once was used to light the way for the ships is being used as a beacon to summon an avatar of a malevolent god.

 

 

So, the good:

- The sceneries and landscapes are pretty good. Acifer is really talented. Whenever I see stuff from him or Gorion I have to take a look.

- The dialogues are not bad; there is choices when you answer to people. The English used is understandable and I didn’t notice any incomprehensible statement.

- The story is crystal clear; you know what to do from beginning to the end.

 

My gripes with the mod:

Spoiler

 

 

1) The story offers, sadly, no real RP option. It’s true, in the dialogues you can choose to not act as a smartass/jerk, but once you’ve exhausted the options, it always ends in a bloodbath. I guess that the creatures being used do not exactly offer many alternatives; sea trolls are not exactly rational and sirenes are usually really territorial.

 

2) There is a moment in the story where you suggest the player that he has to make a choice: either he could save the world by risking to destroy the gem to cleanse the evil in the island, or just flee from the island by using the gem to make the light needed for ships to dock and leave the evil in the island.

I will be genuinely sincere with you: I knew from moment one that there were no real stake and the gem wouldn’t be destroyed; as a player, you pretty much know that the “threat” of this happening is simply not real. After all, there wouldn’t be a game to play if that happened. This doesn’t mean that there couldn’t be consequences of any kind – the gem could be really destroyed; the npcs with you would ponder the stake of what you’ve done, even by getting, let’s say “aggressive” (but not hostile).

 

Really, what I would do is just make it so that the gem gets destroyed and the undead knight would notice that; to the point where he would even say that by dieing in the island, you did such an act that you earned your good afterlife. Obviously <charname> would tell him that a good afterlife is not what he had in mind. The ghost would take note of it; then he would disappear.

After a couple of weeks someone would come get you, with a scroll saying that *the undead knight* had appreciated your help and he had asked some higher powers to actually save you. And that he met some resistance due to your special heritage, wishing for you to always behave like that, choosing good over your own sake. And with a bag of 1k, or why not, a crystal to light the lighthouse so you can get the 1k from the quest-giver.

 

3) I don’t understand why a gem that can be used as a beacon to bring Gods that are imprisoned in far-away realms is being used as a light in the lighthouse. I think such an artifact would be way too strong to be there. 

4) There is no evil path available for an Evil player. It’s not like there is bound to be another choice, because the God being summoned is not the right kind of God to make deals. If only it was another… if only it was a rational evil god..

Do you wonder, as an evil player, what I would have liked to see if the god that was being summoned was rational? When I play mods I always hope that you can get some boons you wouldn’t be getting by doing the right choice. Other mod authors would have simply made it so that you could ally with him and he would simply give you his cloak; but I find that only a pretentious way to say “hey, I’ve got an evil path covered”, only to see that it’s a path where you get half the goods and half the boons you would be getting by being good.

Not only that; the God should also:

- ask you to kill the Undead knight that was trying to sabotage his summoning and helping you, the reward being what he drops if you face the God itself.

- ask you to use the gem to bring “new” followers to the island; how? You simply put the gem in the spot it should be; whoever comes saving you should actually ask you what happened, and you should suggest them to go into the portal by tempting them with riches and wonders beyond every imagination, only for them to be charmed by the God;

- the new charmed followers should bring you back home, but the God could actually ask you to take the gem with you, so more boats would appear at the island for him to get new charmed npcs and why not, followers;

- finally, the God would give you a choice: he would tell you that he could give you another boon if you bring the gem to one of his followers, that is waiting somewhere in athkatla; so you could choose between (hopefully):

> more than 1k gold by selling the gem to someone that may be interested in it (I think someone in the thieves guild would: especially considering that the gem is such a strong artifact), or

> giving it to one of the dark follower to the god to help the second part of the avatar appear (and getting another boon in exchange).

 

Acifer's answer: https://www.gibberli...#comment-326959

 

Edited by Sergio, 02 December 2023 - 03:57 AM.

[Sergio]

Black hearts (finished 26/06/2023) --> according to me, this is currently the best quest mod available for BG1. Install and play it. I even think that it could be a stable additions in my install all the times I will be playing BG.
 

You can find informations about the mod here: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/82484/released-black-hearts-bg1/p1

Given that the post above highlights what the mod adds, I will simply write my thoughts.

 - If you told me this mod was a mini-dlc, I would have fallen for it. In my eyes, the mod matches a mini-dlc in quality and it is masterfully executed.

 - Illasera is a captivating character and you enjoy talking with her; so much that I kinda loathed when the mod ended. I wanted more.

- The dialogues added by the mod are meaningful, provide enough choices for any character, and when the party members chime in to banter, their banters are on point. Well done on Imoen, especially.

- The quests given by Illasera are funny and provide RP choices. The RP choices do not punish you for going evil. That’s a fresh breath of air for me, considering that I play only evil <charnames>.

 - The new sceneries are well done. Did you make them @AWizardDidIt?

 - I liked the surprise you left with the

Spoiler

yagashura emissary

 

. The dialogue there was good too.

 - You won’t believe it, but I liked that you respected the player’s agency. I will give you an example. Other mods (such as Assassination) do not respect player agency by forcing the player to read everything the modders themselves have written. In this one, in the end fight, you can simply click the first dialogue option, and the “bad” guy won’t speak or tell your motives. You go straight to business. That’s a bold choice. I enjoyed it a lot.

Some things to report (I played this mod in BG:EE)

1) I had some difficulties in the quest concerning the mirror. I didn’t expect that the “solution” was supposed to be provided with dialogue. I used Tiax and he has nothing to say for what is happening. I know it’s probably hard to write for him. Anyway, either get Branwen or Ajantis to proceed.
Also, a cleric <charname> should be able to do the exorcism himself.

2) It’s not easy to find the “northern gorge”; you’ve decided to make the way out only in the middle of Farmlands, and by doing so, I had some difficulties finding it. I was able to by using CTRL+4 after clicking “explore” in the map.
 

3) I met a bug inside the new sewer area. When you meet the girl mage and his second in command, she flees because she tells you that another area is currently under attack.
The issue is that when you enter the area (see 00:02 in the video I will be publishing a bit below), there is only 1 Cherise and Malachi, but they get duplicated instantly. And after finishing the first talk with Cherise, you get a second talk, that you are supposed to see only when you’ve finished the quest mod (in the Sanctum area).

Video here: https://streamable.com/68l8w6
Savegame here (the archive also contains the video): https://easyupload.io/bp35vb 

4) Second thing to report is inside the Sanctum area: the sanctum portal has an issue with a graphical line (the archive above has everything)

5) Read the following images.

Spoiler

 https://content.invi...a3417032b.jpg 

 

The statement I’m focusing on is: “leaving one of us dead or stranded behind”.

Are you sure it Is it correct that Illasera uses “one” and not “each”….
“leaving each of us dead or stranded behind…”

 

Also, sanctum text error here: https://content.invi...2d6e53bcc1d.jpg

 

Some questions, as a player:

Spoiler

 6) You can decide to give two different books to Illasera.
For the first one (The necromancer’s book), you can give her the book, but get in exchange the secrets it holds (some spells).
There is also a second book, the coded diary of the harpist. You can decide not to give it to her. What happens if you don’t?

 7) You find some “unholy symbol of Bhaal”, but they are void of power and use.
When you kill the final boss, even if she is a deathstalker, she has no evil artifact on her. Given that it’s an endgame area, consider adding an evil (and strong) artifact on her for evil Charnames.

Well, after finishing this, I went to play the ToB section. It’s a good send-off. But still…
I hope you will find the time and will to expand Illasera and bring her to the later expansions.
For ToB I would really enjoy seeing a possibility to spare her during the confrontation inside the grove. Right before the final hit, she should fall off, unconscious. You should get a dialogue asking if you wish to kill her permanently, and if you don’t, you bring her (unconscious) with you to the pocket plane.
Given that Amelyssan would probably check where she is, I think that in the pocket plane, Illasera should tell Charname that she needs an amulet to avoid divination. Charname could probably ask Cespenar how to make one.

In the end it would be cool to surprise Amelyssan if she thought she was dead, but hey, she is still alive.

 

Said this, thanks really a lot for this mod. I loved it. 

Edited by Sergio, 02 December 2023 - 04:01 AM.