Looking for the best and worst mods for BG2

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Talking of fun mods, if you're evil, or morally flexible, then get Kulyok's Assassinations. Great fun! (Though it makes me feel guilty at times). There are 10 missions in all (9 before you go to Spellhold, which I've done, and one after you off Bodhi - I've not got that far yet - and they vary a lot in terms of the targets. Some deserve it, some don't. You can show mercy once or twice but be nice too often and you'll be an ex-assassin. Incidentally, you don't need to be an actual assassin or even a thief-class. The only thing you can't be is a paladin, for obvious reasons. (Having Mazzy or Keldorn in party also presents a problem).
It's over at Pocket Plane.

 

I'm also looking into some mods. Havent played for a few years now and I'm realy looking forward to returning to one of the best games ever made!
Planning on installing Fixpack, tweakpack, banterpack, Ascension, Tower of deception, dungeon crawl, unfinished business,crossmod banterpack,quest pack, possibly lvl1NPC,possibly Imoen romance.
New NPC chosing between Kivan, Kelsey, Amber, Soulafein and Saerlith. Planning on bringing along Imoen and Sarevok aswell as the above.
Also considering SCSII or Improved Anvil. Which of these would you chose? Have I missed any great mods? Problems with compatibility?

 

Among the mods you mentioned, Improved Anvil will not work with the following ones:

- BG2 Ficpack (Improved Anvil requires Baldurdash v1.12)
- BG2 Tweakpack (You can use Ease-of-Use instead)
- Ascension
- Unfinished Business
- Kelsey

Other mods in your list will work with IA. You can check IA's readme file (and the installation document attached to it) for the complete list of mods which won't work with it.

Amber NPC was also incompatible with IA, but the problem seems to have been fixed in Amber's latest version (though its newest version has not been tested with IA by anyone yet).

 

Between IA and SCSII, I would recommend the latter- especially if you are only just coming back to the game. IA is very difficult and is a case of 'all or nothing', while SCS can be modified according to your tastes.

That isn't to say IA doesn't have its good points (more items and randomised items come to mind), but some of the battles struck me as feeling a bit out-of-place/over-the-top (the Borinall fight being a good example). You'll have to metagame. A lot. Additionally, as you can see from Sikret's reply, IA is less compatible with other mods than SCS- you'll have a bit more choice if you install SCS.

 

This is true.

But IA adds more new content to the game than the total sum of all mods which are incompatible with it (not to mention that some of those mods are also mutually incompatible with each other and can't be installed together even without IA). Moreover, IA is bugfree.

All this said, I agree that a player who is very new to the game or has returned to play after a very long period of absence should probably play the vanilla game (with no game enhancing mods) to get more aquainted with the game (spells, items, etc) before trying IA.

 

Hmm, so maybe I should go with SCSII then. IA looks to be a very good mod, but I think I will save it for later.
Any other comments, suggestions or incompatability issues? What about the install order?
Thanks alot for the quick respons!

 

I think I've posted this about a dozen times in the last few months.

First off, read each mod's readme for installation instructions. In the absence of instructions on ordering, here's the general order:

Install these first (in order):
SOA
TOB
Official Patch
Non-weidu mods
Baldurdash or G3's BG2 Fixpack (I prefer the latter).

SCS II should be installed last (if you plan on installing it).
BG2 Tweak Pack should be second last.
Level One NPC's should be installed after any mod which adds kits, so that the Level One mod will recognize them.

All other mods should be installed somewhere in between. I believe Ascension should be installed early in the process.

With respect to IA, it has some very nice features (new content, new items, item randomizer, new kits), but it is very challenging. You need a lot of time and patience to find ways to work through the various battles. If you're looking for more challenge than the vanilla game, but nothing too extreme, SCSII is the way to go. However, fans of IA will say that, if you're willing to put in the extreme effort needed, the satisfaction you get when you finally win a battle is definitely worth it. So basically, to each his/her own.

 

Thanks! Must have been temporarily blinded before, cause I couldnt find the searchbutton...

--

Install order:
BG2
ToB
patch
Ascension
BG2 Fixpack
Solaufein
Kivan
Kelsey
Amber
Saerlith
Banterpack
Crossmod banterpack
Unfinished business
Dungeon crawl
Tower of Deception
Quest pack
Lvl 1 NPC
Tweak pack
SCS II

Does that look alright?

 

I'm not sure whether Ascension should be before or after the Fixpack (although I seem to recall reading something recently that said it should be before).

Other than that, it looks OK, but there are several mods that I'm not familiar with, so take my advice with a pound of salt.

Edit:

Found it. Ascension before Fixpack.

 

I can't see any obvious errors either. As far as I am aware, that is a pretty safe install order.

 

Remember that Quest Pack has some errors as UB also has a few. Peruse those foras to find out what to do.

 

That looks like an excellent set of mods and install plan (well, except for Saerlith ... vomit ). There are several components of UB that are pretty wonky though, so be sure to double-check which parts of that you should avoid installing, just like Shaitan advises.

The only other things I'd recommend considering are, if you are playing on a widescreen monitor, check out the Widescreen Mod from G3 - it really makes a difference, and I've experienced zero problems with it. Also, naturally, I feel obliged to pimp my signature.

Regards,
Luiz.

 

I would strongly advise you not to install Unfinished business, like Shaitan says that mod is pretty buggy and caused some problems in my last game. If you are really determined to install it then skip the Suna Seni part of it since it doesn't go that well with SCS2

 

To late, already installed UB and started my game, no problems so far but I havent realy done much appart from Irenicus Dungeon. Should I uninstall Suna Seni? I have talked to her but I gues I could go back to a previus save. Or is it so buggy I should just uninstall all of it? And if so, do I have to start a new game or can I just uninstall it and continue with the same save?
I'm actully looking forward to Saerlith, mostly to see if shes that horrible. I would like a paladin in my party, no goodie-two-shoes party is complete without one holier-than-thou-paladin

 

Don't know if I already mentioned it, but Romantic Encouters is immensely enjoyable. Spices up BG2, litteraly.

 

I haven't pinned this bug down (it didn't happen on my own playthrough). The worst that will happen, I think, is that a non-hostile Suna will show up in an ambush. Ignore her.

 

I didn't encounter a bug, so it must not always happen. Of course, the bug could be that something didn't happen when it was supposed to, but I didn't notice the lack.

Chances are that your game will be safe enough to continue.

 

Ok, thanks all for the help!

 

What bugs does UB cause? I've only ever had problems with SumDingos quest pack.

 

I've been playing UB and have had no problems with the components I've installed, including Suna Seni. Then again, I am not interested in AI/performance tweaks, items upgrades and the like - I generally just go with NPC or quest mods.

My current install includes Ascension (with tougher Illasera, Gromnir and Yaga-Shura), Assassinations, UB (off the top of my head, because I'm at work and the game is at home) Kalah and what he was offered, Valygar/Suna, Restored Crooked Crane, NPC Portrait Restorations, Corrected Character names, Sarevok's remorse), Romantic Encounters, Edwin Romance SoA and ToB with different Viconia epilogue, and Viconia component of the Flirtpack. No major problems yet with this build.
Generally, I think less is more with mods - installing a huge number of mods will up the chances of issues significantly.

I think the Restored Minor Dialogues component of UB has caused some issues with the G3 fixpack, though I read somewhere this issue was or had been fixed.