2nd idea: less a kit mod and more a desire to see the possibility of the pc becoming a vampire (evil only) after completing all the tasks for bhodi, would have similar progression to Valen; what do you think?

I think the proportion of the game that takes place outdoors during the day would kill either suspension of disbelief or the player's enjoyment, depending on how exactly this was handled.

What about Ulgoth's Beard for the bad guys' headquarters? Is there an unused house there?

I don't think so, for most plausible interpretations of "unused."  Maybe the sea tower?  Reuse an existing map for a small area accessible from the base?

Yeah, I was talking about the 16 you get when ya fiddle with the arrows after double-clicking (btw, even if I TYPE in a number >16, it reverts to 1 when I click OK That's one of the major pissing-off points about this)

And I think Jarno raised an important point here

The number of inventory slots is 16, so at any time, the number of free inventory slots should (at max) be 16. Now, if the limits were raised (to say ... 32) then we'd have the ability to buy 32 non-stackable items as well (AT ONE TIME!!!) Which could cause problems (overflowing inventory/everything-falls-to-ground syndrome etc)

So, while I don't think everything falling to the ground would be game-breaking, I like to put this out:

Is there a way to change the limits of stackable items ONLY???
Or is there a way to increase how many come in 1 stack (eg 1 stack of arrows = 10 arrows ... can you increase that to say, 50)?? This probably won't work for potions though (you'll be FORCED to buy them in bulk )

Cheers,
Lol

If you're referring to the "40 arrows in a stack" limit, as I recall that's easily changed in the item header.  I don't have DLTCEP set up on this drive yet, though; can someone doublecheck that?

Lets say I wanna change the pool of druid spells that for example, jaheira uses.. is there a file specific for her or the file is for all druids?  Also which file would this one be ?? I tried to root it looking inside the editors but it lead me nowhere...

Also if someone could point a guide.. although I'm hoping this much will not be needed..

You mean, which ones show up on the spellbook page after a druid/she hits the right character level?  There appears to be a specific one for her as well as one for all druids...it'll be a .2DA file of some sort, though I don't have the utilities installed on this latest reformat yet, so I can't give you the specific filename.

All work postponed until further notice due to my computer melting down last week. The repair shop says they should have it back in a couple of weeks, but Isobel's project is out of commission for now.

A Follower of Gond delayed by the failure of a machine?

Jaheira: Cease your staring, Isobel. If there is something you want, ask.

Isobel: Forgive me. You are representative of an unusual problem that has presented itself since my arrival in Amn.

Jaheira: Choose your words carefully, Lantanna. What problem do you speak of?

Isobel: That humans and elves can breed consistently, and produce fertile offspring. My roommate during seminary worked on a farm before coming to Gond's service, and she taught me a little of animals. You might recognize what a mule represents.

Jaheira: You appear to make a habit of asking unusual questions.

Isobel: I like to think so. Progress by definition begins with the new and unusual, and you are excellent at deflecting the question you brought up.

Jaheira: There are some things mortals are not meant to know.

Isobel: Why would anything not be meant for mortals to know? The gods didn't create us with brains for nothing, you know.

Jaheira: Leave me be, child. You ask too many questions.

How does she know Jaheira's fertile?

How does she know Jaheira's fertile?

Tempest nailed it on the head. Isobel doesn't know Jaheira's fertile, but has no reason to think otherwise. She's never seen a half-elf until she came to Amn, but has read enough and heard enough stories to know half-elves generally aren't infertile, subject to genetic disorders, vulnerable to disease, or any of the other usual problems associated with successful crossbreeds between different species. Isobel does bring a degree of scientific learning and awareness that's very rare anywhere in the Forgotten Realms outside of a very few places, and Isobel is from one of those places. I would like to emphasize that her Intelligence score is a little misleading: Isobel is educated as well as intelligent.

I can nonetheless see Jaheira attempting to regain control of the conversation by pointing that out as an assumption.

By the way, congratulations and please consult this before making any important decisions. ^.^

A question for any bird-savvy modders: there any birds with a reputation for being busy or industrious? Starting work on banters with Haer'Dalis, with whom Isobel does *not* get along, but I'd like a bird name that makes sense. I'm thinking calling her a blackbird if nothing else. As for why, here is her portrait, courtesy of Nix:

I would suggest a crow (highly intelligent, many species are known to use tools, and one (the New Caledonian crow) is known to actually make them out of man-made objects as well as those found in its natural environment (this is pretty much unique to it and humans).  Many species of eagle build spectacular and elaborate nests.  Haer'Dalis probably thinks her efforts are futile, based on his philosophy, and might compare her to a woodpecker (banging its head against a tree).  I have the vague feeling there's a species I should remember but don't that's notable for spectacularly complex nestbuilding and gathering...

[EDIT]Ah, here we go.  "Cuckoo finch" might be a particularly apt choice if Haer'Dalis doesn't get along with her.

<serious thread hijack going on here>

Fine by the thread author; all this may well become relevant eventually.

What's the present consensus on extending the map icons bam files (mapicons.bam and 25mapic.bam) independently of the worldmap mod?  Is there a good tutorial on how to go about this properly?

Personally, I'm not likely to use this, but this looks like a useful utility in principle.

actually i commited the crime of raising the dead

Per the clause you quoted, no you didn't.

find a modder who will take pity and make the mod for me (and for anyone else who wants it) or explain to me how to do it

Have you taken a look at the tutorials section?

However, if you're going to make it yourself, particularly with this community as an audience, may I tactfully suggest you take the time, prior to writing dialogue or other content, to familiarize yourself with the conventions of written English...like punctuation?

I think it would have to be something else to trigger his downward slope into fallendom, something maybe more subtle and on a personal level. Anomen's sister was killed, and depending on the player's actions, you could seek vengeance (making him Chaotic) or simply let the perpetrator go (making him Good). Perhaps something similar could happen to dear old Kelly?

Just calling him "Kelly" to his face might be enough

This is interesting. Another angle you might try: a way of fooling him into believing that his superior in the order is corrupt, like Anarg, getting him cast out when he tries to "bring him to justice".

I'm perpetuating thread necromancy here, but my computer was broken when the original discussion took place, so I never saw it.

I'm with Aeryn on this one. He's already confronted his demons. His faith is too unshakable for his Falling to be credible without some stellar writing and a scenario more personally disturbing than the knowledge that his own wife has betrayed him with another man. And the logistics would be tough. The modder would have to revise all of his existing interjections and banters, incorporate triggers for Fallen Keldorn, and substitute new interjections/banters if he does Fall. Since you don't necessarily know where in the game it would occur, you'd have to rewrite his character throughout the whole game. Far easier to start with a new NPC.

Three months is an absurdly unforgiving threshold for "thread necromancy" in a community of this scale and pace.

As for something personally disturbing...hmm. Something involving his daughters either being corrupted or victimized would work for that, if you're serious about doing this.

Since my husband is on vacation for the next week and will be entertaining the kids, I might actually be able to do some heavy duty plotting...

wow how lucky u are! i know this is out of the topic but any ideas to suggesr me to do the same wiht my bf? a week all alone... is heaven!

Have you tried detailed descriptions of what he'll be coming home to? If done right, that certainly might work on me...

I want to throw this out there and see what people think of it. I'm absolutely not saying this is what I intend to do - I'm just seeing what the response is to it. What would you all think if bringing Yoshimo to Spellhold was required? I'm not going to elaborate beyond that, but something popped into my head and I kind of like it, but I'm flexible and I'd rather see what people think before developing it father than "random idea" status. I'm not fond of requirements personally, but this particular one just seems very convenient.

How are you going to make it clear to people who don't necessarily read readmes that they'll need to do that? Or do you care about them? (Bluntly).

Three is something I'm still debating, but it would be for a bard PC. Or, rather, a like-minded bard PC who has similar ideals/desires. A kindred spirits type of thing. Which one of these tracks the PC takes could be determined by the first dozen LTs (early stage) and how she reacts to HD's questioning, etc.

You might consider extending this to all non-lawful rogues, not just bards - I can see Haer'Dalis in a similar situation with a swashbuckler, for instance...

A thought. Haer'Dalis is apparently accustomed to seducing women he fancies into one night stands; perhaps giving the PC an option to put him on the receiving end of that sort of treatment would be one angle for developing the romance - the role reversal would be something he would have to come to terms with and would probably intrigue him.

well, the general idea was that while Karnitia herself is unable to interfere ( why, that won't be a fight just a 'god blew you to smitherens on will' ) so she sends her "minions" who are as powerful as lesser gods but shouldn't quality as truly divine beings. Not to mention, why the hell would Karnitia know or care about Ao's command not to interfere.

Because Ao's role in the story of the Forgotten Realms, basically, seems to be "fighting fire with fire" as far as characters becoming Munchkins, and he's pretty much omnipotent as far as anyone in the FR can tell.

PS: Scripts aren't that difficult. Areas are a bitch.

PSS: If you seriously want to do something like this, I suggest the Elder Evils sourcebook for ideas on how to incorporate a plot like this into the FR setting. The link should take you to the Amazon page; there are probably other sources worth checking too.

I have a job too and while I have quite a bit free-time to put into things like this, I really don't have the patience to work half a year on such a thing.

Half a year would be excessively optimistic for a substantial mod. I conceived of Arkalian in November 2005 and she's still well over a year away from completion, my life having flirted with the rails but repeatedly run off over the intervening time.

Before I toss out a "there's something you don't see every day," it occurs to me that this is probably a completely different mod than "Imoen Relationship"?

http://www.simpilot..../main.htm#night

So, the AR####N tilesets are for night areas, as I suspected...which is confusing because, at least in BG2, several areas that look different at night (such as AR1600) don't have matching AR####N tilesets, at least, that DLTCEP can find.  Are the tiles for that somehow embedded in the "normal" tileset, or is it done with color filters somehow, or...?

If the flag 'extended night' is set in the .are file, then in addition to the WED specified in the .are at offset 0x08, there will be a <wedname>n.wed file (which will in turn specify the tileset) and in addition to the <arename>lm.bmp, there will be an <arename>ln.bmp.  If the extended night flag is set and those files are missing, you're likely to get a crash in-game.

I don't know what the deal is with Brynnlaw - it doesn't use the extended night method and does just look like it's had a dark purple filter stuck on it.

Hmm.  Brynnlaw has the Day/Night flag, but not the Extended Night flag, no *n tileset, no night map, no night WED, and I note that it seems to have four color patterns, Day, Night, and also Sunset and Sunrise, and as far as my probing indicates it does not display the "Sunup/sundown" movies that most of, say, the Athkatla areas do.  I'll need to take a look at a few more areas with day/night versions but it seems as though the "extended night" function refers to the use of a separate WED and tileset (with the "sundown" and "sunup" movies obscuring the transition), whereas the Day/Night flag may just use a color filter that's applied at specified clock times by the exe...does this sound like a plausible interpretation?

(With some probing I've determined that AR300 also does the color-shift thing at sunrise and sundown, but that AR1600 indeed does not display the movie).

I have, today, come to the unfortunate realization that I am absolutely clueless about how the game handles the day/night changes in the appearance of a given area.  Can anyone point me to a good tutorial or explanation for that?

http://www.simpilot..../main.htm#night

So, the AR####N tilesets are for night areas, as I suspected...which is confusing because, at least in BG2, several areas that look different at night (such as AR1600) don't have matching AR####N tilesets, at least, that DLTCEP can find.  Are the tiles for that somehow embedded in the "normal" tileset, or is it done with color filters somehow, or...?

Any area that does not have an extended night gets the lightmap overlaid with a single blue/purple colour after the change to night. During the sunrise/sunset periods, a rose-tinted colour is blended onto the existing day lightmap. Both are hard-coded - at least, I'm pretty sure that's what happens.

That's what I'd concluded as well, though I'm guessing it's the "Day/Night" flag that controls that behavivor since dungeons don't do it (you probably intended that but just skipped over it).  I'll have to look at the area scripting to see whether the sunup/sundown movies are run from it or whether that's hard-coded as well.

The day lightmap is not replaced; remember the frustration of trying to keep track of everyone in the rotting forest on your way to the temple north of the Umar Hills? Your party kept vanishing into the lightmap shadows and behind dithered wallgroups.

I don't, but that's consistent with what I've concluded.

You may find that without specific use of extended night that the night period may actually be too light to be convincing. As it happens, the latest version of my DLTCEP tutorial describes a quick and dirty way of adding extended night if you suddenly find that you need it. I did...

Ah, that's the link I wanted.  Awesome, thanks.

One suggestion for this: you might add chemical or magical items that allow you to render an enemy unconscious long-term and change their status to "neutral" rather than "enemy" or something to that effect.  This would allow you to defeat enemies without having to kill them, and it's plausible that you'd get some "experience" in the process.  They'd probably have to be used like weapons, though, for balancing purposes; a de facto wand of sleep with no save could become overpowered.