Mod Me!

[RPG Guy (sorta)]

Trying to research BG-related mods on these boards or on the net in general is a guaranteed headache.

Someone please help me out.

What does the *veteran* BG2 community have to say about the multitude of mods out there?

What's the top-3 consensus in terms of a

(a) bug-free
(b) cheese-killing
(c) value-added content

upgrade to the SoA/ToB experience???

I hear/see the terms 'ascension' and 'tactics' thrown around a lot. Would these be considered the best efforts out there to-date? And what the hell is WeiDU??? Obviously, I want to avoid any controversial/buggy/cheesy/lame mods.

Thanks!

[the_limey]

Some of your questions answered:

a) I supoose no mod is bug free- they are generally home made affairs and minor problems can always crop up during any programming venture. That said, the higher the version number the more chance the modder has had of working out any kinks. If in doubt check the mod's forum there's almost always a bug thread.

b) No idea what this means.

c) Depends what you're after. Most NPC mods add agreat deal of depth in terms of character interaction, storytelling and new quests. There ae many mods Some mods, such as The Darkest Day add vast amounts of new areas/quests/characters etc to the game. Ascension is a pseudo-official mod which adds some cut content from ToB, expanding the storyline somewhat. Tactics, and similar mods, simply seem to mae battles harder. They take an existing encounter such as Illych in Johnny's Dungeon or the dragon fights and improve AI, add abilities or additional minions to challenge you even further.

WeiDu is (in my limited understanding of such things) a program developed by the (now MIA) genius that is Wes Weimer to provide a uniform way of compressing and subsequently automatically installing mods. If a mod comes in WeiDu format you're not going to have trouble getting it to run (usually).

Check out the mod list at Pocket Plane Group for a pretty complete list of current mods.

[fable]

a) I supoose no mod is bug free- they are generally home made affairs and minor problems can always crop up during any programming venture. That said, the higher the version number the more chance the modder has had of working out any kinks. If in doubt check the mod's forum there's almost always a bug thread.

I'd have to disagree that "no mod is bug free." There are quite a few bugfree mods out there. Problems can arise, however, from the interactions between two or more perfectly good mods. When in doubt, always check the modder's forum website for information about such conflicts. If you don't see an answer to your specific question, feel free to ask. I only know of one modding site whose lead modder was contentious (to put it mildly), but that's closed, now. Of the four whose forums I've tried, I've been met with courteous, informative responses.

[dragon wench]

Just a few recommendations with your specifications in mind:

NPC mods
[url="http://www.pocketplane.net/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=140&Itemid=107"]Keto[/url]

NPC-related mods
[url="http://www.pocketplane.net/mambo/index.php?option=content&task=blogcategory&id=95&Itemid=78"]Banter Pack[/url]

Quests
[url="http://www.pocketplane.net/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=128&Itemid=100/"]Quest Pack[/url]
[url="http://www.pocketplane.net/mambo/index.php?option=content&task=blogcategory&id=101&Itemid=80/"]Unfinished Business[/url]

These are just a handful of good mods. For a comprehensive listing check out [url="http://modlist.pocketplane.net/index.php?ax=list&cat_id=12"]this page.[/url]

[Toxeus]

Banter Pack, Quest Pack and Unfinished Business are all excellent indeed.
Item Upgrade Mod - but it contains many overpowered items.

Tactics Mod - for tactical challenge, do not recommend components Improved Ilyich, Improved Irenicus and Slightly Tougher Demons
or Improved Anvil - also challenge and items, watch readme for compatibility

Tortured Souls + Never Ending Journey - both great quest mods, but almost incompatible with any other mods. May be downloaded here.

My favorite NPC mods:
Amber - tiefling dual fighter/rogue.
Kivan and Deheriana Companions - archer and mage
Xan - depressed elven mage
Fade - fiery (tiefling) thief

For Throne of Bhaal i strongly recommend you nex combination:
Ascension + Oversight + Longer Road - old boring Tob will become wonderful new game

[Ian Kognitow]

upgrade to the SoA/ToB experience???

I hear/see the terms 'ascension' and 'tactics' thrown around a lot. Would these be considered the best efforts out there to-date? And what the hell is WeiDU??? Obviously, I want to avoid any controversial/buggy/cheesy/lame mods.
Thanks!

Ascension is pretty solid and I would say a definite upgrade to the ToB 'experience'. Tactics is somewhat different. It is pretty bug-free in my experience and kills certain cheese but at the same time it introduces different elements of cheese itself. As the name implies, it was meant to provide specific tactical challenges to the player--for instance, the improved (some have said 'smarmy') liches that come with ready made/stacked protections. One of the downsides, in my view, is that its improved AI for mages and the like tends to make most standard-issue enemies--like in random encounters and supporting goons--behave the same so that once you have a good strategy for the new AI, there isn't really much need or even ability to change tactics. However, Weidu mods usually have lots of separate elements that you can individually include on installation, so in particular with Tactics I would read the descriptions of the new game element and decide if it's really for you.

For NPC mods, most I have used have been pretty clean and easy to use. In addition to Keto, Kelsey, Solaufein, and Valen have long-standing as being among the best-written and most reliable--though some would say that the latter two, though not necessarily cheesy, can be overpowered.

[RPG Guy (sorta)]

Thank you all sincerely, especially for the direct links you took time to incorporate into your posts.

The urge I have is collect the best of the best, or the Greatest Hits so-to-speak and install them all, hoping to create a substantially new BG2 experience. But it sounds as though that might actually lead to chaos and frustration for me, primarily because of cross compatibility issues.

I have to remember that a multitude of mods does not = BG3

[Jedi_Sauraus]

Definitly try out Ascension. The last series of battles is extremely difficult but the Improved Yaga Shura and Abazigal are extremly well done fights. Challenging but doable without cheese, which is more than I can say about most of the rest of the game which is a piece of cake.

UB is basicaly all the stuff Bioware had to cut due to time/budget constraints generaly speaking a good mod

[Ian Kognitow]

The urge I have is collect the best of the best, or the Greatest Hits so-to-speak and install them all, hoping to create a substantially new BG2 experience. But it sounds as though that might actually lead to chaos and frustration for me, primarily because of cross compatibility issues.

I don't remember any problems in combining the well-established mods at weidu.org [Ascension, Tactics, Ease of Use, Solaufein, and Valen], nor with the J Compton made NPCs Kelsey and Keto. I have had some minor problems with Item upgrade though, but I think it has also involved some newer mods like Oversight. Unfinished Business also seemed to not have any conflicts I recall. I would say that just going by those however, it would certainly be a substantially different experience. Again though, I would strongly recommend going through the Readme file on Tactics so you're sure about which parts you want to install--I've definitely run into some problems trying to uninstall particular elements (which you can *usually* do without major problems) in mid-game.

[Belladonna]

[url="http://forums.chosenofmystra.net/index.php?board=14.0"]Dark Ritual[/url] is a good mod that adds in an item upgrade store and some new encounters.

[VonDondu]

Item upgrades and new items have a tendency to add cheese to the game rather than reducing it. I usually try to avoid them, but some upgrades are useful because they keep certain items from becoming obsolete. For example, there's a mod that upgrades the +2 two handed sword you get from the djinni at the beginning of the game and turns it into a +4 weapon when you get to Throne of Bhaal, which actually makes that particular sword worth keeping. By the same token, I don't see anything wrong with making Daystar a +4 weapon or turning popular +2 off-hand weapons such as Belm and the Defender of Easthaven into +3 weapons for use in Throne of Bhaal, where all of the enemies seem to have +3 weapons.

Of course, if you think they're cheesy, you don't have to use them, so I guess such mods don't really do any harm.

[Toxeus]

Item upgrades and new items have a tendency to add cheese to the game rather than reducing it. I usually try to avoid them, but some upgrades are useful because they keep certain items from becoming obsolete.

I was always fond of new items, it breaths new life into well-known game. But some (if not all) of them are really very cheesy, so i usually reduce all it +5 enchantment and replace 'protection from everything' by less cheese properties (protection from good for example )
Near Infinity is a great tool

[CFM]

RPG Guy-

Based your recent thread in the ToB forum, I'd guess you'd really dig the "Ascension" mod:

Baldur's Gate II: Westley Weimer's Mods

It was done by one of Bioware's own ToB designers, David Gaider. Check out the documentation:

http://www.weidu.org/ascension/Ascension-WeiDU.txt

...particularly Section III (Gaider's description). A very interesting read, imo.

Report back with which mod(s) you ended up using, and opinions. And how many HLA's you used.

[RPG Guy (sorta)]

CFM, I read Gaider's comments.

The Ascension mod sounds great, although, the thought of a tougher Abazigal battle and a tougher demogorgon battle (without HLA's) is a bit terrifying.

I'll report back on the experience.

[Ian Kognitow]

CFM, I read Gaider's comments.

The Ascension mod sounds great, although, the thought of a tougher Abazigal battle and a tougher demogorgon battle (without HLA's) is a bit terrifying.

I'll report back on the experience.

Those are some of the most fun battles to work out. Enjoy and let us know how things work out. Not to be negative, but hopefully those will take you a couple of tries. Those battles, in particular, I've found are not tactically cheesy but do require sound knowledge of the game to get through in one--or a few--pieces.

[rbeverjr]

Spoilers

This post contains some spoilers for basic game and Ascension.




This thread interests me because I would like some changes in this old beloved game. I’d like more challenge and new playing experiences. I often get bored with the standard game in SoA in the Underdark because of lack of challenge. For this reason, I’ve been involved lately with adding more challenge. Ascension is probably a consensus recommendation for addition. Unfortunately, Ascension changes ToB, particularly the ending, when most of the game is SoA. I haven’t played through ToB in several years. I get bored with strictly hack-n-slash. Consider that Ascension makes each of the battles with your bretheren tougher (except Sendai – use Oversight for that), and the final battle lets you face all of them at once. Sounds challenging, right? Well thetruth can beat that solo with a fighter – on Insane difficulty; he claims that Improved Anvil 4 has tougher fights than that! Improved Anvil brings tough fights into the entire game (SoA and ToB). It’s a really tough mod. I have found it frustrating on occasion, but I think that was primarily due to my resistance to metagame and use tactics and items that are overpowered for the standard game. In Improved Anvil, you have to read the battle results. You need to know what protections each of your foes have up. Even though I don’t see how a person could actually know that for every foe in every battle. You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of your foes. This is probably reasonable considering that a high level wizard are generally knowledgeable concerning the diverse creatures, but probably not early in SoA. Of course, you need to know instantly when a tactic isn’t working; so, you can adapt immediately in battle. And finally you must be willing to use whatever tactic or item that you have available in order to win. It also helps if you don’t mind reloading.

If you are not up to the great increase in difficulty that Improved Anvil brings, then there are other mods and procedures that you can use to increase difficulty. Some of which are discussed in this thread. Check about half-way down for my post (rbeverjr) on mods to include [links provided]). BioWare Forums: Making the game harder/different, B

[RPG Guy (sorta)]

Many thank rbeverjr.

I'm still doing my mod research. I just played the game twice thru completely so I'm going to take a break before any mod'ed run thru. But I've definitely taken note of the comments here.

[Toxeus]

I just played the game twice thru completely so I'm going to take a break before any mod'ed run thru.

Don't you think it's time to turn to cradle of saga? With TuTu or BGT conversion and at least BG1 NPC Project it will be not less interesting game. Here are some mod advices.

[fable]

Don't you think it's time to turn to cradle of saga? With TuTu or BGT conversion and at least BG1 NPC Project it will be not less interesting game. Here are some mod advices.

Tutu has already been discussed repeatedly, Toxeus, in the BG1 forum, and heavily recommended. (I used EasyTutu, myself.) It doesn't really belong in BG2, because it doesn't add anything to the game.