More than 5 other characters?

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Good day. Before I get to the point I want to declare that I am a new user on these forums. Although I just created this account I've been aware of SP and it's forums for a long time now and I have checked here frequently for mods, news or just discussions. Forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this.

To the point then, shall we. I have been wondering for a very long time now whether there is a mod out there that allows you to have more than 5 characters (not including the protagonist) in BG II: SoA/ToB. I do not know if there is such a mod available or if it is even possible to make it. I have searched for and still there's no success. The reason I'm looking for a mod of this kind is because I feel like there are a whole lot of NPCs that are missing in "my" Bhaal Spawn story. It's hard for me to imagine the story without all those important NPCs.

My basic group in BG II consists of: Me (fighter), Imoen, Minsc (and Boo) and Jaheira. 4 characters altogether. Now I tend to choose another mage and another healer. But hey! There are still missing a lot of important characters (and also I have no use for Carsomyr with only these six characters).

So, my question is: Is there a mod that allows me to have more than six characters (even up to twelve )

Thanks in advance,

Nominar

 

Welcome....and WOW!!! Play BG with up to 12 NPC....i've never thought it!!!!
I don't think it will be funny, but it's yours to decide. And no....i don't think there's a mod that allows that....

 

Welcome, I hope you will post more and we will become friends fast eh?

As for your question, AFAIK, it is 'impossible' due to engine restrictions, the engine which the whole game is built with, so there is no way to have more than 5 NPCs sorry. Heck even in 640X480 resulotion (which I play on, it looks better IMHO) the 6 character pictures fills the entire right interface.

I don'T think modding might be possible for that.

BUT you can dominate NPCs to join your cause even though they are not exactly joined. If a mod can create an item/spell with permanent domination effect that is. They will obey your commands and you can control their attacking and spell-casting for as long as the domination persists, but you can not see their inventories, spellbooks, nor they will have any banter/interaction. Nuff I said.

Turnabout mod added Gorion to my party at the last Ascension showdown, he was acting like a summon, I had direct control of him; I could choose his spells, weapons etc. from quick slots BUT he still had some interaction; I don'T know how this was made though.

 

welcome aboard!


and like the others already said, i also am sure that it is hard coded.

furthermore i think it has already been tried but not with success though

 

Thank you all for these kind words

And as I suspected, this would be a hard work of coding, programming and such things I know nothing about.

Oh well, I think I have to stick to my imagination

 

I would think a 12 person party would be REALLY hard to control, especially at higher levels. Plus experience points would be shared throughout all 12 members and thus levels wouldn't be gained that fast. I'll admit it would be fun though hey!

 

For me, the ideal party would include a total of seven (w/PC). It seems that every game I've played I've wanted to be able to add just one more character to my party. Oh well--at least six is better than two (NWN)...which is probably why I keep coming back to BG2 as opposed to that previously mentioned game.

 

I think you may can do it the way Sil said, by changing the way the NPCs join the party; You will, however, have to make a lot of checks to make sure that they'll only join ''like summons'' when there's six peeps in the party, and so that they'll ''jump'' in on the free spot whenever you kick another NPC out without replacing him/her.
I'm only guessing, mind you.

 

Would the game really be alot more fun if you had 12 characters though ...

 

That's irrelevant! It's about what we can do, not about fun . Anyway, if you played your characters really crappy, then you might still have a wee fun.

 

Oh yes Olim, that's REALLY convincing! I think it would become stale after awhile because of all the micro-management ... there's such a thing as too much you know.

 

^Plus with 12 or more characters, XP gain will be tortoriously slow. And I think game will be even harder, you will try to survive 12 relatively low level characters, some even will have crap equipment and spells. (you can't give best items/spells to all) I think it can be a nice challenge though.

 

I GUESS, If we were playing with some psycho insane mod with alot of nice looking weapons early on maybe THEN it would be interesting. But hey, we'll probably never know!

 

Now that you say it I remember Exnem's horribly unabalanced items/spells mod. It introduced many items/spells. Maybe suitable for 12 people party?

But you are probably right, we can never know as it is impossible to do AFAIK.

 

I guess you'd need alot more spells and weapons AND enemies AND quests AND banters AND areas as well i guess too. But hey, if someone was REALLY up to it they could. Hehe remind me what AFAIK means again .

Btw Silver, we could probably incorporate some of our super-powered spells into this mod, if it ever took off the ground!

 

I don't know, I think there are plenty of weapons available very early on to equip a 12 person party. Maybe not everyone is going to have an uber weapon, but even early on, pretty much everyone will be walking around with at least a +1 or +2 weapon. I don't think equipment would be as much of a problem as you'd think, and you'd probably start using some equipment that's decent that you normally pass over in favor of uber equipment.

I don't think the experience is as much of a problem as is being suggested either. Yes, with a 12 character party you will level more slowly, but keep in mind that a good percentage of your experience comes from quest experience points, not from kills. For example when you find Lilicor, every party member gets 18,000 XP, and that's true regardless of whether you're going solo, or have a full party of 6. So while I agree that you will progress more slowly, because of large quest rewards there's no way that a 12 member party would level half as quickly as a 6 member party. Plus, it would be fun to have a mini-army at your command! I know if it were possible, I'd do it, simply because the 6 character limit is such a false limitation (in any type of real role playing, you'd never not pick someone else just because you're already at your "party limit".

 

AFAIK means 'As Far As I Know.' I like to use these sort of things, and IMHO as well:'In My Humble Opinion' Oh and ASAP:'As Soon As Possible'. These are fun to use semi-words!

You think we could really incorporate (uh, what does this word mean, I gotta look at a net-dictionary ) our super-duper spells into this mod? It would be nice I guess. Wanna ressurect the good old thread? I can't seem to find it for now.

Well, it is at least nice to dream, isn't it?

 

Hehe, even though it was ONLY us who were doing it, I found it fun! I might ask Tal if he could revive it for us.

Hehe well if someone decides to make this mod I'd do it, but only with another super hard mod to keep the gameplay fair!

 

Well, you can always get 'free' XP by storing a hell lot of summoning spells in your spellbook and kill the summons for XP over and over again to reduce the loss. But that's kinda, uh, lame and boring.

The thing about dominating NPCs would possible the closest we could ever get. But hey, suddenly Keldorn dies. Can't we resurrect him? No sorry, he's not in our party and therefor gone forever.

And what Aldeth said, items wouldn't be a problem at all.

 

Thought I would clarify that yes, adding extra party members in the current fashion is impossible due to engine limitations--it is not a case of effort but the way the game is coded.

(Even though, yes, at high resolutions there is space for more portraits on the right of the screen.)