Mod Advice for a Newbie?

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Hello, all! Just recently discovered this board, and I'm pleasantly surprised to find the Balder's Gate saga is still being enjoyed by so many people. I was kinda thinking I might be the only person who still loved playing the game over and over. Nice to know I'm not alone!

I'm especially excited to find the BG universe has been expanded so much; I had no idea that mods were available to enrich the game! After playing through the entire saga about three times, and SOA/TOB alone about a dozen, I thought I'd seen it all. So you can imagine that I'm eager to try out as much of the new stuff as I can.

Soooo...I'm looking for advice on where to start! I don't want to go hog-wild and download everything in sight; I'm computer-savvy enough to know that would lead to big problems real fast. Which mods would you consider especially entertaining? Are potential conflicts with other mods properly detailed in the mods README file? Any advice you could provide would be welcome.

I'm particularly interested in adding some new NPCs. I LOVE the interactions of the Bioware characters; which of the new ones available are most worthwhile in that respect? Also, I've played through all the available Bioware romances, and I'd like to try some new ones. I was a bit disappointed not to see any descriptions of male-male romances, despite the female-female scripts now available. Are there any of these romances available?

Thanks in advance for the advice, and thanks for keeping BG alive and fresh!

 

Solaufien is probably the most popular NPC to download, and although I haven't had any experience with him, I'd say that may be a good place to start.

 

http://modlist.pocketplane.net/

Link to almost all mods out there.

Make people explain to u what "weidu" is, cause i aint so sure myself.

 

I'm unfamiliar with the Solaufein mod, but I'm pretty sure that he can romance the PC regardless of gender. It's not limited to male-male, but it's a possibility.

Also, while I have no idea about the quality of the mod, the Nathaniel NPC mod allows a male-male romance. I'll personally never try it because I'm simply not interested in that subject, but it might please you

I'd personally advise you to install Unfinished Business regardless of what other mods you choose -- it adds a lot of nice storyline elements that just round out the original game. And if you're sick of running Chateau Irenicus (Chapter 1), you should pick up Dungeon-be-Gone.

Other than that, I don't know what to recommend. If you're interested in male-female romances at all, I'd suggest Saerileth -- it's a bit difficult to meet her requirements, and she's a little naive, but it's definitely the best NPC romance I've experienced thus far.

Edit: As to compatibility issues, almost all Weidu mods are compatible with each other. Weidu is basically a standardized mod installation processes which is extremely easy. And in case any mod-to-mod conflicts are known, chances are you'll find them in the appropriate readme, or on the mod's website/forums. I imagine this only wouldn't be the case if one of your mods was extremely new (and therefore hasn't been extensively tested).

 

Solaufein will also romance a male. Chloe will romance a female.

 

OMG i've never heard of Chloe or Saerileth!!! Who are they and WHEN did they come into existance! Seriously, have I been away for that long!!!

 

The more I'm playing with Solaufein, the more I'm sure he's worth it. He is philosopher and asks a lot of wise questions, interact with other NPC and many random characters. Also, he adds Eclipse fight to boring ToB, which is said to be the toughtest challenge ever.

From bigger (?) mods, I suggest Tortured Souls. Long and good quest with Kachiko and many other characters I couldn't find.

If game becomes too easy, install Tactics, Improved Asylum, Planar Sphere and Ascension. Lot of thought enemies there.

 

Welcome to the club! We all love BG2 and play it, and I play it with so many mods, I have quite a reputation here mind you, I am a mod addict.

Here is a small list of my mods, take a look, if you are interested, just tell us and we can discuss:
http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?/topic/10/4995.html

PS:Nathaniel, a gay male kensai...I never heard about it. Might worth a download, here:

http://www.mods.chosenofmystra.net/nathaniel/index.htm

 

Thanks, guys! I've looked over all the descriptions on PocketPlane, and I think I'm going to start with:

Ease of Use
Tortured Souls
Item Upgrade (I can't resist shiny new toys!)
Solaufein
Unfinished Business (I'm thinking I can finally find out what that whole Romeo & Juliet thing at the Crooked Crane is all about)

From the descriptions, it seems that these will run smoothly together.

Now...should I uninstall SoA/ToB before dropping these into the mix? Any particular installation order (besides the ones listed in the RM files) I should be using? Your practical experience here would be invaluable. Silverstar, I'm looking in your direction...

On my next run-through, I'll pick up Ascension, Planar Sphere, and Improved Asylum, with either Saerileth or Nathaniel.

I should probably wait for more input, but I'm too jacked to hold off!

 

^Install the whole SoA & TB and all patches, then big mods, Ease and add-ons like Solaufein at the end.

 

Other NPCs you might want to download are Kelsey and Tsujatha. Both are romanceable by female PCs with some strictures - only certain races and Tsujatha only romances good-aligned ladies.

Kelsey can be found at Pocket Plane Group (PPG) with his own forum. Tsujatha is at Chosen of Mystra (CoM).

Install Order (generally)
BG2 SoA
ToB
ToB official patch
Baldurdash fixpack
One non-WeiDu mod (mods should say if they are WeiDu)
WeiDu mods (some mods need to be installed last as they change certain files)

 

Just make sure you have official patch and Baldurdashfixpack and then mods you prefer. Those are considered as "standard".

EDIT: Goddamn I was slow...

 

If you go to the forums in the Pocketplane website you'll find a nice topic about this and also suggestions on the installing order!!!

 

Thanks! I've never run the game with the Baldurdash Fix Pack...it was my understanding that the last official Bioware patch had cleaned up everything? I'm gathering that's not the case...

 

Ah other guys are fast today. Anyway, you get the basic idea, installation order is VERY import, or you will end up uninstalling your game and re-installing everything.

Won'T you try Tactics/Imp. battles? I know they look hard, but once you get the hang of them they are actually quite fun!

I didn'T have Tortured SOuls, but other mods should work without problems. Just use the proper order of installation, as described above!

Have fun and give us feed-back!

[ February 20, 2006, 12:30: Message edited by: Silverstar ]

 

I aim to try them all at some point down the line, SS, but I don't want to get overwhelmed at first. Despite my enthusiasm for the new stuff, I'm a kind-of set-in-my-ways BG player (I almost invariably end up with the same party each run through, although I pick up every NPC at some point and do their quest), so these mods are bound to make me feel like the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer at first (your world frightens and confuses me...). I'll let you guys know how I make out. Thanks again!

P.S. Deciding to go with Nathaniel for the initial run-through instead of Solaufein - the poor guy sounds so lonely. I'd play them both, but...I'm a one-man kind of guy!

 

Well, that was interesting.

Just wrapped up Saradush with my first modded game. Not sure if I want to go any further with what I've got...I THINK I've exhausted everything Item Upgrade has to offer, my Nathaniel romance was SoA only, and I don't think Tortured Souls will do anything in ToB (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!)

Everything was relatively bug-free, for the most part, which I was very happy with, since that was my biggest fear about mods. The biggest problem was TS; my game crashed going to the Temple Ruins (but I found the solution on the TS forum and Near Inifitied it away). And then I got stuck in Spellhold: Irenicus had me in the jar, and the game just left me hanging there. Turns out that I couldn't get to Spellhold via the Pirate Lord, I had to use the rune stone (which was actually kind of good, since in all the times I've played, I've NEVER gone that way. I just enjoy Minsc's conversation with the Pirate Lord too much!). The result of that was that Yoshimo ended up betraying me after all, although he's not supposed to in Tortured Souls. But I'd already done his new quest, so I was all right with just continuing on without him (although I was screwed out of the Ilmater Heart deal; his heart didn't drop with the rest of his stuff when I killed him).

Dig the Item Upgrade, except the colors for the new items are headache-inducing ungodly. Serious day-glo stuff. But I do love my CF +5!

Kensai Nathaniel was almost entirely bug-free, and turned into a killing machine with 5 * in katanas and 3 * in two weapon. As a romance, he was more than a little whiny, but after playing several games romancing Aerie, he was still a breath of fresh air

I have mixed feelings about all the extra containers I got from TS, as Ease of Use kind of took all the fun out it. Who needs 5 potion cases when EoU makes one bottomless? EoU did give me a big shock at the beginning, though. It's customary for me to SK myself every spell in the book at the very beginning of the game, so I can get the XP from Imoen (and my PC, if playing a mage) learning them. Yes, I know this is flagrant cheese, but I want my mages to all have every spell, and I don't like waiting around til they find them all! And the XP is nice that early on. Anyway, usually SK gives me 5 of each scroll; with EoU, I got 9,999 of each! Wasn't expecting THAT. I wasn't about to lug all those around, so I kept ten of each and dropped the rest...except for a few of the 9th level spells, of which I kept 20. Do you know how much cash you can get from 10 scrolls of Spellstrike, Wish, etc? I bought out Ribald and Diedre on the spot. I never sold a single gem or +1 short sword, and I never once went up to the study in my Keep to get my tax money. It's great being rich!

Things are a bit unfinished with TS; I never picked up Sime, don't know what to do with Coran, never got Dyanheir. I might go back and do that stuff in the future. Right now, though, I'm aching to try the Planar Sphere and either Kelsey, Solaufein, or Saeriltih (sp?)

Good lord, mods are fun!

 

^Yay, great that you enjoyed mods. Those few bugs you encounter..well, how should I put this, most unfourtunate? Luckily it didn'T piss you off too much. Have fun, and try 'harder' mods next time, I know you want them!