colo

Disclaimer: I know zilch about BG modding, but have some (non-Windows) programming experience only But since (afaiui) BG2 Improved GUI hooks symbols/calls in the executable of the game itself to make at least some of its magic happen, this is unlikely to be portable to EE (unless the component is implemented another way).

I hope for a re-appearance of Insomniator (one of the coolest nicks I've read online in the last few decades, btw ) and continuation of this great mod, too

I haven't actually tried to start a multiplayer session without any connected clients (but I know that's the preferred way to do what you are doing and have more than CHARNAME be a hero of one's own creation from the get-go), but I assume that would work fine... so I think you can ignore my post for your purposes and enjoy the reduced load times instead

In "actully multi-human"-multiplayer with client/server data being passed around on the network, there's probably (I am just speculating, never looked at IE in detail - but I know what programmers tend to do to fix unxpected problems on short notice ) some time-/wait-based pseudo-synchronisation happening, and that fails to work when expected delays are cut in order to speed things up. So a quick work-around in the mod would probably be to disable the shortcuts taken during save/load if (and only if) more than one player is in the session, in case actually fixing the feature proves hard.

I'd like to report that the option Fast LOAD/SAVE Screen ("UI:Fast ProgressBar Screen=1" in the INI) breaks all multiplayer support for me, both in a most basic installation (BG2 + TobEx + TobEx Afterlife + BG2 Improved GUI), as well as in a fully modded BGT game, while the unpatched game works fine in multiplayer. Luckily, toggling the option off in TobEx_ini\TobExTweak.ini fixes multiplayer modes, so the game can be played with this amazing mod in effect in other regards.

With said option enabled, all clients hang indefinitely in a non-interactive screen right after joining a game's session. The host can see that the client has joined the session and can elect to kick them in this state, but the client connection/PC never notices this, and has to be killed (via taskmgr) eventually.

It took me the better part of half a weekend to figure out what was going wrong, and I hope this will save someone from going through similar motions

Thank you, again!

Thank you so much for helping me spawn a dedicated thread for my questions, and also for providing such valuable input (and yet more awesome mods to consider  ) along the way!

As to your list of suggestions/additions: I take it the order in this list reflects the suggested install order of the mentioned mods?

Does your parenthesized comment near the end imply that some mods might have to have more than one "install cycle", potentially with different options selected/installed for each? (i.e., that I shall do a first pass of installing "BG 2 Improved GUI" with the "Innate/Ability/Spell Description Screen on Right Click" component installed (but not others?), before I install the "BG2 EE-Style GTU" mod - and then, right before the biffing, Install "BG2 Improved GUI" once more/again?

Regarding READMEs: Of course, will do! Since some of the suggested mods had their last release before others were first conceived (the BG2 Fixpack is from 2012, for instance) - is it sane to assume that mods that are from a younger heritage than the Great Old Ones will not trample over their ancestors' fine work?

And one last question regarding TobEx (which I've never have used before, and it seems like I missed out on a lot!): I take it this is a mix of both WeiDU-style data patches, and an executable/dylib that hooks into the BGmain process at/after launch - does that mean that if I, wanting to try the "BG2 Improved GUI"-variant (which seems to be the latest and greatest continuation of TobEx?), have to install all three of them: TobEx, TobEx AfterLife, and BG2 Improved GUI? (In other words: Each of these packages brings features of their own to the table that I cannot have without them - is that correct?)

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply!