So I played BG2 without any mods when it came out. I have been wanting to play it again recently and have noticed all the concerted effort in making amazing mods.
I was hoping for a few mods to help add content, balance, etc. to the game. I am not looking at NPC's that much. The only other request would be greater resolution (1920x1200 would be ideal) modification.
I'm not looking at installing 100's of mods but some of the greatest. I was just wondering if you had any good ideas?
(ie. fixpack, darkestday, shadows over soubar, check the bodies, tales of anegh, ascension, unfinished buisness, throne of bhall refinements)
Or am I better installing a megamod (I am even more lost there).
Thanks for your time and effort!
New BG2 Playthrough Mod Ideas
Débuté par
NLDack
, août 11 2010 12:07
Retour en haut
#2
Posté 11 août 2010 - 07:36
jaxsbudgie
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From my personal experience, I don't like mods that are really obvious in the game, so for that reason, I rarely have NPC mods installed. The only one I have some experience with is the Solaufein mod, which I'd stay clear of.
Mods I usually always take along:
Fixpack
1PP (including avatar fixes, female dwarf fix and thieves galore)
Sword and Fist
Song and Silence
Rogue Rebalancing (I like to play thieves ...)
Unfinished Business
Banterpack
Spell Revisions (a really good mod)
or Divine Remix (also a good mod, but overall I prefer SR, the two can't be installed together)
Item Revisions (again, a really good mod)
BG2 Tweaks
Level 1NPCs (really, really good mod, especially for BG1/Tutu)
I can send your my WeiDU log if you like.
I tried Ascension and Tactics once, that wasn't fun, I wouldn't recommend it, unless of course you don't mind cheese tactics. I also tried SCS of my last BG1 playthrough, it was good, but bogged down my game a little, but still is a good mod if you're an experienced BG player.
Mods I usually always take along:
Fixpack
1PP (including avatar fixes, female dwarf fix and thieves galore)
Sword and Fist
Song and Silence
Rogue Rebalancing (I like to play thieves ...)
Unfinished Business
Banterpack
Spell Revisions (a really good mod)
or Divine Remix (also a good mod, but overall I prefer SR, the two can't be installed together)
Item Revisions (again, a really good mod)
BG2 Tweaks
Level 1NPCs (really, really good mod, especially for BG1/Tutu)
I can send your my WeiDU log if you like.
I tried Ascension and Tactics once, that wasn't fun, I wouldn't recommend it, unless of course you don't mind cheese tactics. I also tried SCS of my last BG1 playthrough, it was good, but bogged down my game a little, but still is a good mod if you're an experienced BG player.
Modifié par jaxsbudgie, 11 août 2010 - 07:38 .
#3
Posté 27 août 2010 - 12:06
The Fred
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I can only really speak for BG1 mods, but if you're playing TuTu or Trilogy, many of those will work for the BG portion, in which case BG1 Unfinished Business, the BG1 Quest Pack and The Grey Clan are all pretty decent.
#4
Posté 29 août 2010 - 07:30
CoM Solaufein
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I prefer quest mods myself which you already named some of them like TDD and CtB.
#5
Posté 29 août 2010 - 07:45
Flamedance
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I higly recommend the Big World Project. It's an automated megamod install, using Baldurs Gate Trilogy, which makes for a seamless game from Candlekeep till the Throne of Bhaal. www.shsforums.net/topic/44661-big-world-project-bwp-v90/. If you want a megamod install, i advise against installing manually. It's very easy to screw up the install.
#6
Posté 06 septembre 2010 - 11:25
Thailog
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Hey guys,
I used to play BG2 a lot back when it came out, and after reading about the amazing advancements within its modding community, I've decided to give it another shot.
Like the original poster, I'm looking for mods which don't change the feel of the game too much. I'd like to get a few true and tried mods which spice up the gameplay and possibly add some new quests. Back in the day, I tried the Tactics, Item Upgrade and Ascension mods, but I didn't really find them very enjoyable. Ideally, I'd prefer to stay clear of any mods that add overpowered loot and cheesy, uber-difficult opponents with craploads of HP and crazy resistances. While I love a good challenge, I don't like it when enemies have to cheat in order to gain an advantage over the player. OTOH, I appreciated the Ease of Use mod which essentially removed the tedious aspects of inventory management from the game. So far, I've found a few mods which measure up to my expectations, but I'd appreciate any additional suggestions:
BG2 Fixpack - As I understand it, this is the successor to good old Baldurdash which I used back in the day.
BG2 Tweak Pack - As above, but for Ease of Use. It has many more options too.
Divine Remix - Looks very nice. Adds new spells and kits for clerics and druids, based on the old sourcebooks.
Unfinished Business - Restores content that was originally cut from the game. Very cool.
Quest Pack - I've heard a lot of people recommend this mod. The writing is supposed to be pretty good.
Banter Pack - Adding more banters between party members is always a plus.
Rogue Rebalancing - This looks like a fairly polished mod, or at least its documentation gives that impression. Anyone tried it?
aTweaks - As a P&P rules buff, I very much like this one.
One Pixel Production - This one is simply awesome, especially the flaming swords component. Kudos to the author!
Sword Coast Stratagems - This looks very interesting, but I've heard that it steps up the game difficulty quite a bit. Any thoughts?
Level 1 NPCs - Pure awesome! Allows you to change the NPC classes and kits i.e. Minsc can become a pure Barbarian and Imoen a Swashbuckler. I initially had a bit of trouble with its interface, but I think understand how it works now.
P.S.
I heard that the order in which you install the mods matters a lot in terms of avoiding bugs. Can anyone tell me how to properly install the ones I mentioned above?
I used to play BG2 a lot back when it came out, and after reading about the amazing advancements within its modding community, I've decided to give it another shot.
Like the original poster, I'm looking for mods which don't change the feel of the game too much. I'd like to get a few true and tried mods which spice up the gameplay and possibly add some new quests. Back in the day, I tried the Tactics, Item Upgrade and Ascension mods, but I didn't really find them very enjoyable. Ideally, I'd prefer to stay clear of any mods that add overpowered loot and cheesy, uber-difficult opponents with craploads of HP and crazy resistances. While I love a good challenge, I don't like it when enemies have to cheat in order to gain an advantage over the player. OTOH, I appreciated the Ease of Use mod which essentially removed the tedious aspects of inventory management from the game. So far, I've found a few mods which measure up to my expectations, but I'd appreciate any additional suggestions:
BG2 Fixpack - As I understand it, this is the successor to good old Baldurdash which I used back in the day.
BG2 Tweak Pack - As above, but for Ease of Use. It has many more options too.
Divine Remix - Looks very nice. Adds new spells and kits for clerics and druids, based on the old sourcebooks.
Unfinished Business - Restores content that was originally cut from the game. Very cool.
Quest Pack - I've heard a lot of people recommend this mod. The writing is supposed to be pretty good.
Banter Pack - Adding more banters between party members is always a plus.
Rogue Rebalancing - This looks like a fairly polished mod, or at least its documentation gives that impression. Anyone tried it?
aTweaks - As a P&P rules buff, I very much like this one.
One Pixel Production - This one is simply awesome, especially the flaming swords component. Kudos to the author!
Sword Coast Stratagems - This looks very interesting, but I've heard that it steps up the game difficulty quite a bit. Any thoughts?
Level 1 NPCs - Pure awesome! Allows you to change the NPC classes and kits i.e. Minsc can become a pure Barbarian and Imoen a Swashbuckler. I initially had a bit of trouble with its interface, but I think understand how it works now.
P.S.
I heard that the order in which you install the mods matters a lot in terms of avoiding bugs. Can anyone tell me how to properly install the ones I mentioned above?
#7
Posté 06 septembre 2010 - 01:27
jaxsbudgie
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In response to Thailog
I uploaded my WeiDU.log to sendspace if you want to take a look at it:
Click here to download
I have all the mods you've mentioned plus some more, ignore all the others if you want, this is the first time I've played through the game with a lot of mods installed, so just stick to the ones you mentioned. Find them in my WeiDU.log and install them in that exact order.
Try Song & Silence too if you like to play Thieves and Bards, and Sword & Fist if you like to play Fighters, they both add well balanced and interesting kits that 'feel' as if they were implemented by Bioware themselves. Alternatively, you can kit any of the NPC's from these mods too, i.e. Haer'Dalis can become a Duskblade (from Sword and Fist) or Nalia can become a Sharpshooter from (Song and Silence), but I prefer her as the Swashbuckler/Mage multiclass.
I'd suggest Spell Revisions over Divine Remix. Spell Revisions revises ALL spells in the game, Divine Remix only adjusts divine spells, plus gimps clerics into spheres, which means you get less and less spells the higher the level you are. I played it a while ago and had Viconia as a Nightcloak of Shar, her level 7 spell selection had about 3 spells. Ouch. But this is a matter of preference, it was interesting and fun most of the time. But I just prefer Spell Revisions and haven't looked back. Note that the two can't be installed together at this time.
Also, Item Revisions is a MUST have in my opinion. Make sure you add the fixpack for both Item Revisions and Spell Revisions too. These are downloadable .rar files found on their forums which fix things not fixed in the latest download version, you extract then into the appropriate folder in your BG2 directory which overrides the previous files with the new ones, you can then do ahead and install them. Err, if that confuses you, just ask and I'll explain it in greater detail.
IE Banters from Spellhold Studios builds on the Banter Pack too, allowing you to form friendships with NPCs and allows NPCs to form friendships with one another. Well written too.
Remember to patch the game first and play it up until the auto save in the Dungeon, then repeat for ToB by starting a new game and wait for the auto save in the starting Grove.
I'd recommend the generalised biffing mod too if you're using a lot of mods, helps compress them so your game isn't lagging. Choose the recommended version, component 1 I think it is.
Gosh that was longer than I expected.
I uploaded my WeiDU.log to sendspace if you want to take a look at it:
Click here to download
I have all the mods you've mentioned plus some more, ignore all the others if you want, this is the first time I've played through the game with a lot of mods installed, so just stick to the ones you mentioned. Find them in my WeiDU.log and install them in that exact order.
Try Song & Silence too if you like to play Thieves and Bards, and Sword & Fist if you like to play Fighters, they both add well balanced and interesting kits that 'feel' as if they were implemented by Bioware themselves. Alternatively, you can kit any of the NPC's from these mods too, i.e. Haer'Dalis can become a Duskblade (from Sword and Fist) or Nalia can become a Sharpshooter from (Song and Silence), but I prefer her as the Swashbuckler/Mage multiclass.
I'd suggest Spell Revisions over Divine Remix. Spell Revisions revises ALL spells in the game, Divine Remix only adjusts divine spells, plus gimps clerics into spheres, which means you get less and less spells the higher the level you are. I played it a while ago and had Viconia as a Nightcloak of Shar, her level 7 spell selection had about 3 spells. Ouch. But this is a matter of preference, it was interesting and fun most of the time. But I just prefer Spell Revisions and haven't looked back. Note that the two can't be installed together at this time.
Also, Item Revisions is a MUST have in my opinion. Make sure you add the fixpack for both Item Revisions and Spell Revisions too. These are downloadable .rar files found on their forums which fix things not fixed in the latest download version, you extract then into the appropriate folder in your BG2 directory which overrides the previous files with the new ones, you can then do ahead and install them. Err, if that confuses you, just ask and I'll explain it in greater detail.
IE Banters from Spellhold Studios builds on the Banter Pack too, allowing you to form friendships with NPCs and allows NPCs to form friendships with one another. Well written too.
Remember to patch the game first and play it up until the auto save in the Dungeon, then repeat for ToB by starting a new game and wait for the auto save in the starting Grove.
I'd recommend the generalised biffing mod too if you're using a lot of mods, helps compress them so your game isn't lagging. Choose the recommended version, component 1 I think it is.
Gosh that was longer than I expected.
Modifié par jaxsbudgie, 06 septembre 2010 - 01:33 .
#8
Posté 06 septembre 2010 - 04:27
Thailog
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jaxsbudgie wrote...
In response to Thailog
I uploaded my WeiDU.log to sendspace if you want to take a look at it:
Click here to download
I have all the mods you've mentioned plus some more, ignore all the others if you want, this is the first time I've played through the game with a lot of mods installed, so just stick to the ones you mentioned. Find them in my WeiDU.log and install them in that exact order.
Thank you very much! I've downloaded your Weidu.log and I intend to use it along with that Big World PDF someone else mentioned as a reference for my install order.
I've checked the Spell and Item Revisions and although they both look very interesting, I fear that they might make the game feel too different from what I remember, since their changes are quite extensive. I think I'll stick with Divine Remix for now, but I might use the revision mods in some future playthrough.
Similarly, I've checked the Sword Coast Stratagems documentation more thoroughly and it seems that it includes a lot of components from the Tactics mod which is a bit of a turn off for me. I guess I'll use Quest Pack's AI upgrades for now since they appear to be fairly low-key and more in line with what I'm looking for. I suppose completing a few playthroughs with that might ease the transition to Stratagems, should I decide to try that mod at some point. Furthermore, I've just noticed the No Reload Challenge in the spoilers section and I think I might stand a better chance in an ironman style playthrough if I skip Stratagems for now.
I'll definitively look into Song and Silence and IEP Banters. Thanks again for pointing them out.
#9
Posté 06 septembre 2010 - 04:56
jaxsbudgie
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Are you playing BG2 or Tutu?
I'd still recommend Item Revisions for at least some of the components, like stealth in heavy armour, revised shields, proper dual wielding, spell casting in armour ... hell I think every component is pure gold! But if you're not comfortable with it, no worries.
Spell Revisions doesn't necessarily make the game very different, it just tweaks all spells to be more useful/less overpowered. Suddenly Magic Missile isn't the only useful level 1 Mage spell etc etc.
I was a little turned off with the readme for SCS2 as well, but during the installation you can choose only some of the components that makes the game more interesting. Smarter AI is good, I don't use Smarter Mages of Smarter Clerics, mainly because those components won't install.
Edit: I followed the BiG world .pdf too.
I'd still recommend Item Revisions for at least some of the components, like stealth in heavy armour, revised shields, proper dual wielding, spell casting in armour ... hell I think every component is pure gold! But if you're not comfortable with it, no worries.
Spell Revisions doesn't necessarily make the game very different, it just tweaks all spells to be more useful/less overpowered. Suddenly Magic Missile isn't the only useful level 1 Mage spell etc etc.
I was a little turned off with the readme for SCS2 as well, but during the installation you can choose only some of the components that makes the game more interesting. Smarter AI is good, I don't use Smarter Mages of Smarter Clerics, mainly because those components won't install.
Edit: I followed the BiG world .pdf too.
Modifié par jaxsbudgie, 06 septembre 2010 - 04:57 .
#10
Posté 07 septembre 2010 - 02:30
Demivrgvs
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Actually I do tried to keep "vanilla's feel" intact, and to make both IR and SR blend into a vanilla game as much as possible. I don't know why many people think of IR as an Item Upgrade-like mod before trying it, but it's not. There aren't new overpowered items as the mod's scope is almost the opposite. Despite the huge amount of changes both IR and SR shouldn't really caught any player "off guard", because most of the times we're talking about refinements of existing concepts, not radical changes.Thailog wrote...
I've checked the Spell and Item Revisions and although they both look very interesting, I fear that they might make the game feel too different from what I remember, since their changes are quite extensive. I think I'll stick with Divine Remix for now, but I might use the revision mods in some future playthrough.
I'd say the same about Tactics and SCSII: the former was indeed game-changing in terms of "feel", while the latter strived to improve the AI withouth resorting to any hidden bonus, bending existing rules, etc. I think David did a really great job. The components that don't strictly follow such rule are optional (e.g. tougher demons, more staying power for dragons,...). The only thing I may say is that SCSII is indeed a lot more difficult than vanilla game, while you probably won't even notice any change with Quest Pack's AI, so it's up to you decide if you want some more challange or not.
Regarding Rogue Rebalancing or aTweaks, go for it, aVENGER is (or was
) a really great modder, but keep in mind that RR's challenge level is more or less the same of SCS imo.IEP Banters is absolutely a must-have.
The install order with those few mods (I play with a similar "small" install) shouldn't be a problem, follow jaxsbudgie's weidu.log and you should be fine, or look at SHS for Big World Project where (they do have in depth install guides there for obvious reasons).
#11
Posté 07 septembre 2010 - 08:24
Thailog
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Thanks for the help guys. For now, I'll start with BG2 and stick with a fairly small mod selection, but once I get a bit more comfortable with modding, I intend to play through the whole saga using the Baldur's Gate Trilogy mod and I'll probably add more mods into the mix as well.
I've created my character and plan to enter him into the No Reload Challenge later today. Wish me luck!
I've created my character and plan to enter him into the No Reload Challenge later today. Wish me luck!
#12
Posté 07 septembre 2010 - 09:00
jaxsbudgie
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By the way Demivrgvs, Item Revisions and Spell Revisions are the best two mods I've come across. They're now staple mods for whenever I install BG. Well done.
#13
Posté 11 septembre 2010 - 12:09
Son of Imoen
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When I met the problem that Smarter Mages and Smarter Priests wouldn't install, it turned out that the BG2 Fixpack needs to be installed for SCSII to function properly (it said so in the readme, and when I reïnstalled with the Fixpack - before BGT-setup! - the Smarter Mages & dito Priests installed just fine).jaxsbudgie wrote...
Smarter AI is good, I don't use Smarter Mages of Smarter Clerics, mainly because those components won't install.
Recently I tried out BWP. The plus side is you can't make errors, the downside is it sets so much mods as 'recommended', that you'll have to have great discipline to deselect most of them if you want a more lean install (my Tutu installs are just around 3,8 GB, BWP takes 12+ GB of space on my harddisk).
