Icewind Gate - Delta version

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"What is wrong with Druid levels for Jaheira? Druids are excellent class choices in this engine. They become quite powerful casters later in the game."
I really wanted a healer, damage spells are handled by the Mage and Sorceror. Druid is 2 levels behind in gaining the powerful healing spells like Heal and Mass Heal.

"Some oddities I encountered, though: no Nalia at De'Arnise Keep. She just doesn't show up at all."
If this is before you clear the Keep, you may need to talk to her in the Copper Coronet. You have played BG2 before, you know where she is when she is in the Keep area.

Spoiler

In the palisade in the south west part of the outdoor part of the Keep.

If the Keep is your stronghold and this is after clearing it, you will need to use a patch of mine, see posts #7 and #9 on the first page of this topic.

"Another one is the problem with killing Faldorn; when Jaheira did it, I couldn't do the import/export thing without crashing the game (beats me why), so I teleported my group to Slums with MoveToArea."
Beats me, unless you tried to save at the wrong time there should be no problem. You can't save when she rejoins the party, not until after you have imported her back in via the Character Arbitration screen.

 

I did talk to her in CC and I believe I agreed to meet her there. It's not my stronghold either - I think talking to Nalia at the palisade is needed for it to become yours.

I'm not really even bothered about it. I have to say that IWG Delta rocks.

About the Jaheira thing: I could export but not import her - the game crashes instead of loading the character. I don't worry about it unless it screws up the Harper quests.

 

Keep is offered as a Stronghold if you clear it and if protagonist is a Fighter.
Checking the scripts may yield some answers. AR1300, De'Arnise Keep Outdoor section, should be AR0120 in IWG2.
IWG2 is good, really need someone who knows the Infinity Engine to fix it up.
Jaheira crashes upon importation via the Character screen?! Have no idea what is happening there.

 

So I guess that either my customization broke Edwin or he doesn't work right. The nether scroll transformation happened, but the character remains purple ad infinitum. Saving after results in broken save that crashes after loading. Maybe I just need to kick him out of the party and create a character with same stats and no npc script.

Btw, he killed Firkraag almost single-handedly. When the rest of my team attacked he was already near death and easy to beat.

 

I could not stand the way that NPC thought he was Christmas, I never had him in the party at all. Hence I never attempted the Nether Scroll quest. There may be a bug in one of the relevant scripts somewhere.

 

Out of discussion - how hard would be to convert BG1 into IWD2 via this IWG - delta converter? Say, plain BG1, without ToTSC??

 

I did none of the work in the IWG2 converters so I can't say. Nor have I played BG1, so I don't know much about it.
What I can say is that a lot of the side quest stuff in BG2 was very hard to implement in IWG2 because Icewind Dale 2 had none of the functions that I needed. Examples include Crom Faeyr, Tiris quest in Trademeet, Pocket Plane Ability.
BG1 conversion would be a matter of what functions BG1 needs versus what IWD2 has to offer.

Using the current conversion program Icewind Gate 2 Delta is problematic because of possible file format differences between BG1 and BG2, IWG2 Delta is designed to translate BG2 file formats.
IESDP can tell you exactly what the differences, if any, are for each format.

---------- Added 5 hours, 36 minutes and 32 seconds later... ----------

As for file formats the news is good overall, according to IESDP, BG1 and BG2 always use the same file format, with only two exceptions: CHR Character files and GAM Save game files.
The CHR files are described as: "This file format describes an exported party member. The format consists of a CHR header, followed by a standard CRE file." Presumably you won't see these files in the translation process.
GAM files are not used by the translation process.
IESDP lists 37 file formats, you can ignore 3: CHR, SAV and GAM. SAV is a save game file.

You will need to check the other 34 to make sure there are no differences between the BG1 and BG2 varieties. BG1 has far fewer kits, this will affect translation.

 

About Crom Faeyr...

I was thinking if your fix still makes it overpowered? I mean, if one wants to insta-kill golems, then importing the Kegsplitter of Shaengarne Ford does the trick. If I remember correctly, CF is a nice weapon even when not fighting golems and I'd like to use it.

 

"I was thinking if your fix still makes it overpowered?"
In the first analysis, yes. CF is only meant to kill lesser golems. But as I recall, Celestial Fury stuns Iron and Adamantite Golems in BG2 but not in IWG2. In IWG2 those Iron and Adamentite monsters can rapidly tear your party to bits. Further, in IWG2 those monsters seem to be able to fit through any door! (Thank God for Otiluke's Spheres!)
Try your Kegsplitter if you want but you may need the overpowering just to survive.

In the long run, GemRB might be the answer. I will have to ask at the Gibberlings 3 board if it can use "actions", functions, from both BG2 and IWD2. If it could then you would not need the tedious workarounds. (GemRB runs the Infinity Engine game files with a newer application.)

 

The Kegsplitter works fine. I think I'll import the Delta version of Crom Faeyr so that I can use it in normal encounters too.

 

Kegsplitter of Shaengarne Ford is at least as powerful as the Delta version of Crom Faeyr:
Original BG2 Crom Faeyr: kills Stone/Clay/Bone/Sand Golems only, Ettins and Trolls.
Delta version: kills all Golems by 1000 mega damage.
Kegsplitter of Shaengarne Ford : slays Constructs, all Golems included.

 

For some reason Hurgis Baltezan (either one) @ Tyrianna's home in the Paladin Stronghold quest never appears. Is there a way to force him into the game?

 

Once the quest was assigned I never had any problem, go upstairs and talk to Tyrianna to check that she is okay. I will need to check my posts to see if there was a problem that I don't now recall.
Looking at the BG2 scripts, it should be a fight with the assassins followed by a cutscene then the real or fake should appear. Areas involved are:
BG2 code, (IESDP name), IWG2 code.
AR0415, Living Room 1st Floor, AR0108
AR0416, Living Room 2nd Floor, AR0109

The lack of a Detect Evil ability in the Paladin was a minor annoyance, this could be worked around. Alter the name of the evil impostor or his dialog.

 

Some stuff I've noticed:
- everyone and their mother have at least three rogue levels and thus have evasion when not wearing medium/heavy armour and hit hard when striking their first hit
- many enemies have most elemental feats too
- most spellcasters cast Improved Invisibility and Stoneskin on themselves
- few enemies are affected by disease so insect plague is rather useless
- many enemies are protected against missile damage
- with an AC of 30 you still get hit quite much

To counter these:
- weapons' extra elemental and/or physical damage strikes through Stoneskin
- blind fight is now an important feat
- cast spells that cannot be evaded (see JUPP for listing)
- elemental damage is still rather good even if enemies negate 5 first points I recommend Beltyn's Burning Blood or Cloudkill when dealing with enemy spellcasters
- having at least three melee capable characters is important

Other important stuff:
- Corthala family armor and Firecam Plate can be worn by others now, and are superior to most other armors out there
- Flame tongue (found in the Druid Grove) is absurdly powerful, dealing d8+4+2d6+STR damage against most enemies
- Watcher's keep has some really nice stuff on its first level and can be aqcuired by a stealthy PC very early in the game

 

A Dragon with Evasion is something else! Nameless One decided who got what feats.I altered the Cre file to remove that.
In BG2 Insect Plague stuffs enemies around and may stop them casting, really was a nice spell.
Improved Invisibilty is a hassle because it can't be removed in IWD2, the Detect Invisibility spell won't work.
Need to add your comments to a walkthrough, existing walkthrough is too much focused on the old Beta version.

 

Yep, sounds brutal. In IWD2 when all else failed Disintegrate took care of problems most of the time, but if I'm correct many boss monsters in IWGD are immune to it, Finger of Death and Flesh to Stone...

Some damage spells I think such a dragon would be vulnerable to (depending a bit on its elemental resistances):
Wizard:
- Ice Dagger (only elemental resistance helps against this) (apparently true in IWGD too)
- Larloch's Minor Drain (In IWD2 works against anything, in IWGD SR protects!)
- Agannazar's Scorcher (hits and damages what it targets unless it is fireproof, those in between caster and target can evade) (tested, works!)
- Melf's Minute Meteors (work often surprisingly well when stronger magic fails)
- Icelance (neither evasion nor SR against this in vanilla IWD2 but in IWGD SR protects!)
- Mord's Force Missiles (evasion works against stun but not damage) (in IWGD SR protects from damage too!)
- Ball lightning (I've never used, blast damage hitting your own melee fighters sounds a bit too suicidal for my tastes, but if Prot/Electricity is available, why not?) (tested, SR does not protect, but the damage is negligible if the enemy is not especially vulnerable to electricity)
- Acid fog (spamming it is tricky but works on Firkraag) (tested, works!)

Cleric has only Sol's Searing Orb (not much use against Firkraag but may be good against the Shadow Dragon)

Druid has Wall of Moonlight (hits anything evil) and the same Sol's Searing Orb as clerics have.

Probably Mord's Sword, Tremor and Horrid Wilting would work as well, it's just rather hard to get enough levels to cast them at least before ToB. If one could find them as scrolls they'd be a good investment, but rummaging through Watcher's Keep store, Athkatla (before returning from Underdark), Trademeet and Umar Hills I couldn't find them. Some Acid Fogs are available, though.

edit: On the second thought I'm not really sure about JUPP's findings on Spell Resistance, since I have a feeling that IWGD fixes some of the inconsistencies of SR... this calls for some testing.

edit 2: Some testing done. Only Minute Meteors (though missile resistance protects against the crushing damage and one can save against the fire), Ice Dagger and Agannazar's Scorcher strike through SR, I think I have to try with Disintegrate and others as well...

e3: Some more testing done. Horrid Wilting strikes through SR, but in IWGD Spell Resistance protects against Disintegrate (yep, even the damage!), Finger of Death and Flesh to Stone!

e4: No new spells seem to strike through SR. Prismatic Spray seems to be dangerous even so, the poison doesn't seem to care about SR, the other effects are affected either by it or evasion. Petrifies folks more effectively than Flesh to Stone.

 

Horrid Wilting could be added to Sto files, that is easily enough done. Dragons need to be taken down fast before they fry the entire party.

 

Maybe, I try if I can manage myself through Brynnlaw, Sahuagin city and Underdark to find out if better spells are available there. In case it seems higher level spell scrolls begin to appear only when starting ToB I think it'd be a good idea to add them to Adventurer's mart's special wares.

 

Original BG2 was designed so that tough monsters could be hit with high level spells and what not. If the monsters are still tough then you will need to add the scrolls to shops. Otherwise the game balance of the original BG2 will be lost.