Worthwhile Mods

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One thing to keep in mind about Solaufein, is that his characterization is better described as Weimerfan (as acknowledged by Weimer); having little to do with his in-game characterization once he joins your party. This isn't to say its poorly done, but I kind of wish that someone would do a Sola NPC mod based on the Bioware character as I find him more interesting.

@ Starwalker: if you are worried about subjective fixes, but still want the most stable game, obvious bug-free game you can get, then just install the Core Fixes component from the BG2 Fixpack. These fixes have been heavily discussed/debated and vetted and have stood up to several rounds of bugtesting and troubleshooting. I would not recommend playing the game without any patches, as there's a definate chance you'll run into one annoying bug or another that while it may not ruin your game, will cause problems.

You could also go with the original Balderdash, but if you are wary of subjective fixes you'll want to stay away from the game text update, and probably want to go through the list of fixes (I think each individual fix is still downloadable) and pick out the ones that you feel are appropriate. As a warning, there are number of fixes that many feel are subjective in this package, so keep that in mind if you are thinking about installing it wholesale. I know that back before the Fixpack was even conceived, I'd never install all the fixes, but pick and choose as best I could.

In the same vein, the BG2 Fixpack has exhaustive documentation and instructions for how to not use certain fixes if you don't like what you see. The instructions are all given in the fixpack forum over at gibberlings3.

Personally, I'd stay away from the Weidu-Balderdash that is available at blackwyrmlair as the documentation isn't all that great, with a fair number of things lumped into "Miscellaneous Fixes".

Bottom line, you'll find people claiming every fixpack is imperfect and bloated with subjective fixes and tweaks.


My personal preference is to use the BG2FixPack from gibberlings3 as a base and comment/edit out the fixes I don't want, following the simple instructions given on their forums; refering to the documentation.


Mods I've personally enjoyed or want to try out include the following:

Amber NPC (though I'm waiting for the ToB portion to be released)
Keto NPC (same as above)
Xan NPC (haven't tried, but want to)
Tiax NPC (as above)
Kelsey (enjoyable party member)
Banter Packs (I don't play without this)
Flirt Packs (same)
Weidu-Ascension (ToB isn't the best conclusion, storywise to BGII, but Ascension makes it much better)
Questpack (the only thing that makes this noticeable as mod content, is a number of the quests are of higher quality than the original game material)
Virtue (the default reputation system is fairly restrictive. Virtue makes this all better)
Turnabout (haven't tried yet, but I definately want to give it a shot.)
The Longer Road (haven't played it before, but I've heard good things, and the auther is a good writer)
Kivan and Dehernia (sp?) (Domi is a modding god, and her stuff is always super high quality, never tried before but I haven't heard anything bad about this mod)
G3/BG2 Tweakpack (selected components)
Auren Aseph (haven't tried it before, but supposedly it has improved greatly in quality from when it was first released, I'll probably give it a try)
Cirerrek's AI scripts (or another AI script mod such as Yovaneth's. I like something to allow the NPCs to feel like they have their own minds, while I can still direct them if needed in combat)
Divine Remix (selected components)
G3 Anniversary Mod (more quests are good)
Every Mod and a Dog (more irrevant quest goodness)
NPC Kitpack (a few minor tweaks to the bioware NPCs, largely cosmetic, but it fits nicely)
Oversight (selected components, sometimes. I'll have to see if my favourite components have been superseeded by the BG2 Fixpack)
Song and Silence (selected components)
Sword and Fist (Selected components)
Moinesse's Avatars (never played with, but I've heard good things about it)
Improved Bams (never played with it, but I'll give it a shot)
Improved Horns of Valhalla (the originals sucked, this makes it more fun without being overpowered)
Dungeon Be Gone (I've played the first dungeon so many times that I never play the game without this mod now)
Rogue Rebalancing (http://rogue.rebalancing.googlepages.com/ all the content here is of high quality and fits very smoothly with the original game. Tactical challenge enthusiasts will enjoy the Chosen of Cyric encounter, which features a challenging fight against opponents who play by all the same rules as you do. No hacked stats/resistances/immunities, no cheating scripts. Whatever they can do, you can do.)
BG2 Refinements (Selected Components)
Taisha NPC (I've never played this NPC before, but apparantly Bri has done a fairly extensive makeover of the mod and I'll probably check it out one of these days)
Expanded Thief Stronghold (for when I'm playing a rogue or using the multi-stronghold patch to make the thief stronghold quests more enjoyable)
Shards of Ice (not really, I just include this on my lists to annoy Icelus)
Unfinished Business (with appropriate modifications to make it work and fix the bugs in the current old version available)
A Mod for the Orderly (A keyring mod, just a minor tweak to make gameplay more enjoyable)
DEFJam (modify experience rewards for a more challenging game)
DOTweawk (selected components)
MangO's Hip-Hop Mod (See my comments about shards of ice)
Planar Sphere Teleporter (if I'm playing a mage/sorcerer or using the multi-stronghold mod)


.... more to be added later when I'm not behind a lame firewall that keeps me from browsing the Pocketplane modlist.

[ May 12, 2007, 23:43: Message edited by: Caedwyr ]

 

I've tried Solaufein and Valen, both are good NPC Mods but I do find them too powerful. They tend to overshadow the protagonist and I don't like that.

I don't like Yasarena for this reason (she has some insane items, at least at the point when she joins the party) plus I believe that too many good drow is not a sensible option.

I tried Saerileth once, I was impressed but the voicing stood out a little.

I found Kivan way too talkative (perhaps I'm the only player to think that, I admit it's well written but there are way too many interjections IMHO). I remembered him as a dark and glum character in BG1.

Kelsey and Keto are great mods and if you want some fun I'd suggest Hubbelpot. I only have Keto installed at the moment though because I'm slightly bored with Kelsey (although it's a great mod). Does anyone know if a Keto mod for ToB is going to be released in the foreseeable future?

I still have to try Xan and Tiax and from what I've read it should be interesting and (a little off topic perhaps) I'm (im)patiently waiting for the completion of the Eranon mod for Tutu (Caradhras is crossing his fingers so hard that they are blue).

 

(same firewall troubles here, which is why my lists are never complete - having to dredge it up out of memory between tasks, so the contents are stream of consiousness here!)

I can't believe I missed Jasper and the best mod ever created - DBG!

I am waiting for Eranon too... but Andyr's PhD has to be finished first, I suspect

I am hoping that The Broken Hourglass wrapping up will bring the heavy folks back into BG modding for long enough to expand Keto into ToB - and of course I really wish she was romanceable. At the same time, she is fine the way she is, so I shouldn't ask for too much...

Now it really sounds as if I am missing something on Solufein. I too have roleplaying issues with "good' drow (FR seems to be teeming with them, when it should be the equivalent of finding a LG Tanar'ri in your party), but now you folks have really peaked my interest. I'm ok with "Weimerfan" - I tend to elevate many of the pioneers to a big pedestal, as they did impossible things and made it possible for us to make good mods. If I am going to allow another good Drow, I can deal with a little off-Bioware-characterization.

(Baronius is right on the Ctr-Y thing - it took me ages to learn tactics and strategic withdrawal in TGCep1, which was fun on its own - and I had to force myself to block CLUAConsole, until the day came when I found out that sometimes Ctr-Y is not enough - I am still not the best tactician, as I tend towards unit tactics and forget magic until last. That's why script additions are great for me, both C's and Y's work extremely well.)

I will check on Hubblepot this evening. What is his home forum, please?

And someone has to do something about this 24 hour day silliness -- I have been off in Tutu-land for so long that I forgot exactly how huge the IE modding universe really is. I need two extra gaming days added to every week, plus another two for modding!

 

Had you read my previous post carefully, you would have seen my point. Let me quote from it again:

You and SimDing were using the invalid argument: "Since players are playing IA with Bg2Fixpack and never reported a bug; hence, no bugs or conflicts exist and players don't need to listen to Sikret's advice."

I talked about a previous version of BG2Fixpack (as an example) to show that "players do not report a bug" doesn't necessarily mean "No bug Exists". As we know that many players were playing the bugged version of BG2Fixpack with IA without reporting any bug; while we are now sure that their games were bugged. They just had not noticed the bugs.

 

You know, the alpha's already pretty good.....just a bit light on the banter. I'm sure if you asked him, Andyr would be happy to give you access to it.

It's at SHS. I'd Ask for access to the Beta.

 

quick question, I have installed the patches, fixes, banter pack, xan, kivan, kelsey, TOD, and IA4.

If I wish to add components for banter such as flirt pack, or components for characters, such as Soulafein or Tiax, can I do so without uninstalling re-installing everything and without starting a new game?

FYI, I'm just in the first stages of the game (just finished Circus quest)

thanks!

 

I doubt that there would be a problem with adding Flirt Pack straight on. As Sikret is quick to remind us, IA is probably best installed last, so to be sure, I'd uninstall it, install the other mods, re-install IA and then continue with your game. Since you haven't started Chapter 2 yet, there is unlikely to be a problem.

 

The reason you'd want to install IA last is so its AI and encounter modifications would take precedence over any other mods. So, installing things like tweak packs, virtue, xp modifiers, kits, banter packs, npcs (provided they don't have any content that is also used by IA) shouldn't cause any problems.

 

Is the BG2 Fixpack something that the core fixes have to all be installed.

I ask because I'm running just the patches and some of these things that it is fixing I don't have as bugs in the first place.

Like Amalas' two friends when you beat him and then talk to them. They both leave at the same time for me.

Or Lavok dieing too soon. I've never had that happen though I supose it's still possible in my game.

There are other little things like that that I noticed reading through the very very long list of core fixes.

I learned as a child not to fix what isn't broken and not to intentionally break things if I could help it. Though I do understand that there is a certain risk of that just plain using any mod. But I think you can understand what I mean.

 

@Starwalker: A lot of the bugs fixed don't occur on every play-through...but are fixed because, under the right (or, more aptly, wrong) circumstances, they will occur.

 

@starwalker. Each fix should be independant of the others, or have a check in case it is reliant on another fix. So if you don't want all the core fixes, then just look through the documentation and edit out the ones you don't want by following the instructions in this thread:

http://forums.gibberlings3.net/index.php?showtopic=7890

Drew has a point though. You don't encounter every bug on every play through.