The author has given some permissions to some folks, but there is no definitive answer as to what scope of freedom the modder(s) have to make changes in content (the assumption remains "no changes in content, the guy wrote what he wanted to write").
I have erebusant's good stuff, still in .dlg format partially broken out to .D. He is in the process of rebuilding .baf and item/creature patching. Erebusant, if you are reading this, get hold of the author of The Vault4BGT, as most of the toughest stuff (including area patching) is already done, and if you guys were to collaborate, I bet things would jump forward a huge amount.
A really nice person sent me the Vault4BGT version which someone kicked major tail on and revamped the .D files (it isn't ready for traification even thoug someone has started manually building .tras, as there are still some things that I can see will interfere with pre-existing states on BG content - but nothing that can't be readjusted to work). It has intact .BCS, but also .baf, so much of the conversion to modern non-destructive code was already done for this version. The problem is that these are the same as Josh Clue's originals - the tp2 code compiles .D, but the .D itself is a destructive overwrite -
BEGIN ~KEEPER~
IF ~~
THEN BEGIN 0
SAY ~I apologize, but I cannot allow you to leave. Gorion wishes to see you as soon as possible.~
IF ~~
THEN EXIT
END
IF ~True()~
THEN BEGIN 1
SAY ~Hold, travelers! Before you will be allowed entrance, you must donate a tome of great value to our libraries.~[AJAN03]
IF ~~
THEN REPLY ~We don't have a book, but I used to live here.~ GOTO 2
IF ~Global("Chapter","GLOBAL",7) PartyHasItem("BOOK68")~
THEN REPLY ~We have the book you require.~ DO ~TakePartyItem("BOOK68")~ GOTO 4
IF ~Global("Chapter","GLOBAL",7) PartyHasItem("BOOKDRW")~
THEN REPLY ~We have the book you require.~ DO ~TakePartyItem("BOOKDRW")~ GOTO 4
END
etc. etc.which needs to be diffed with the original dialogue, to build stuff like
EXTEND_BOTTOM ~KEEPER~ 1
IF ~Global("Chapter","GLOBAL",6) PartyHasItem("BOOKDRW")~ THEN REPLY ~We have the book you require.~ DO ~TakePartyItem("BOOKDRW")~ EXTERN ~KEEPER~ Replacement4
ENDMany of the minor characters simply BEGIN ~dialoguefile~ , which blows away the existing one and means that any changes and additions made by previous mods 9or fixpacks, etc.) will simpley dissapear.
Whoever did this version did a solid labor of love - most of the in-game existing .cres have been set up to patch rather than overwrite - that must have been some serious sweat equity. Mod added .cres are copied directly, without soundset info, so there would need to be some work done there to make it Tutu compatible (as Tutu has dynamic strrefs) but on BGT it would be very stable. Existing items, though, are drag and drop affairs - meaning that they should be moved to patching so that there are fewer compatibility problems (say, someone wants to use iiProjectileRetrieval, or other item mods that may upgrade or downgrade the same resource.) Regular items are not so bad. The area code is darned nice, too.
Ceepin's version 4 is not as far along, though (he?) has planned carefully and put an excel doc tracking variables and changes as he deciphers the mod and creates .D. The changes to 2DA files are overwrite still, and large chunks of the mod are missing - it may be that the package is missing something, or that Creepin is an organized, careful modder who is moving one change into the package at a time.
Looking through these, if Miloch survives RL immersion, I can see the possibility of a group of folks actually working this one out as a group activity - but there is still a good deal of grunt work to be done to make it both usable and non-destructive to other mods. It is in no way ready for PCU, or crossmod variables for a combined installer. This is definitely going to need serious work before hitting an install using standard Tutu mods, and right now would have to be put practically first in the install order. I cannot imagine the problems inherent in placing it on a BGT install, unless you did it first in the order right after BGT (and I am not sure that it wouldn't undo some of BGT's work, too).
I like the idea of this mod, but I have to say, I don't think I am the right dude to spearhead this one at all. First off, I have now read through three versions of the .Ds (.dlg and two .D treatments) and I would personally want to make major changes to the end dialogue structure
Spoiler
I may be able to assist with some .d stuff, and contribute small amounts of code here and there, but the stuff I would want to do to this mod would definitely exceed the "make the author's vision work as he wrote it". After close reading of the files, I am in love with the idea, but the implementation is such that I would install it and play through the main portion of the quest, but leave just before the climactic battle and uninstall it.Minus the quest stuff, it looks like similar modifications are able to be made by combining other mods, while waiting for Miloch, Crepin, and erebusant to have more RL time to tackle this conversion. I think Salk is involved with Aiglebourne on an "improved creatures" mod that would cover the creature enhancements, igi's iiItem mod and several others provide both randomized and backstoried item additions (with less possibility of vampiric swords and items that do push some BG limits), and with SCS for Tutu/BGT, the need for bumping up standard BG creatures is also drastically reduced. My suggestion is to have some fun with these kinds of additions, and wait for these three modders to see how they are planning to proceed. If you want to assist them, I think the longest job would be to take a look at the items and pick apart what the differences are between the standard resources and the "enhanced" standard resources in the Vault4BGT version above. That would provide a list for one of them to be able to make changes to existing items rather than overwriting the originals.
