37 replies to this topic

[Cal Jones]

OK chaps, I'm new to this modding lark. I've been through vanilla BG2 about a zillion times (well, enough to try all the strongholds, all the romances, all the ToB outcomes, good, evil and various party combos) and truth be told, it's getting a bit...boring. There, I said it. My favourite game is starting to bore me. So I need to spice it up a little.

I am currently playing Ascension for the first time. I like the little extra RP things (Sarevok upgrading his sword, Charname being able to become the Ravager, new options for how to deal with Balthazar) but am not keen on stupidly hard battles (so far I've just arrived in Amkethran so have yet to run into tougher Abazigal. The improved Illasera, Gromnir and Yaga Shura fights were cool, but I didn't like the Demogorgon fight and will be uninstalling that component after this runthrough. I'm more about the RP than the battles).

Still, that leaves SoA. Now I'm keen to try some new romances, particularly for a female PC. Being a foul mouthed, weight lifting sort of woman, I don't get off on chivalry and flowery dialogues. Yes, Anomen gets more interesting towards the end, but playing though the early parts of that romance sickens me.
So I am looking for an alternative.
Likes: Down to earth characters, bad boys, characters with some relevance to the BG universe.
Dislikes: Tortured poets, Mills and Boon-style brooding heroes, goody two shoes characters, overpowered characters with silly stats.
It also needs to go through to ToB.

The ones that interest me so far are Kivan (I always take him through BG so I'm a bit miffed he's not in BG2), Edwin (I've heard this is well written and I like Eddie anyway), Angelo (sounds really interesting but I've not read any reviews of this mod), Kelsey (just heard a lot about this one as it seems to be some sort of gold standard for romanceable male PCs).
I'm also a dirty, dirty woman and am titillated by a bit of boy on boy so I'd consider Nathaniel with a male PC.
I've also heard good things about Solaufein but I'm not sure he'd suit my playstyle, plus he sounds both overpowered and also a bit poety. I'm not sure I like the sound of the notorious Eclipse fight either though I'm not sure if that's required or not. I'm after dialogues, not bastard-hard fights.

I'm also taking recommendations for other mods - any mods you consider a "must play" for instance. I'm not necessarily worried about new quest and such - I just want to make the existing stuff more interesting.

Cheers folks.

Edited by Cal Jones, 03 May 2008 - 02:12 AM.

[Abigail]

I deffinitely recommend Angelo! He has lots of content, interesting quests and provides some great role playing opportunities, especially if you take Immy and Sarevok in TOB.
Kivan is also wonderful. It's a 'good' romance, but not goody two shoes.
Edwin has great dialogues, long and complex. Unfortunately, at the moment flirts aren't as developed as in other mods and tend to get buggy, but it's still one of my favorite romances.
I would also recommend Xan - I think it's one of the most popular mods, so you should be able to read a lot about it and see if it might suit you

As for other mods, my personal picks would be:
Assassinations - for not-so-good characters
Romantic Encounters - lots of short romances or one-night stands with NPCs, both joinable and unjoinable ones
Fading Promises - a rather long quest based mostly on talks
Banter Packs & IEP Banters - add more banters

Edited by Abigail, 03 May 2008 - 04:32 AM.

[Eleima]

Xan might be a little "tortured poet" for you, but I loooooooooooved Xan, so I'm still gonna recommend him.
You might want to try out Kelsey too, was a nice romance, but he might be too much of a goody two shoes for you.
However, you simply *must* try the Edwin Romance, it's was great! And you're bound to like it (I used to hate Edwin, and the romance expansion mod made me really warm up to him).
Kivan's a pretty good romance, if you like bereaved partners! No, seriously, he's well written (it's Domi's work, 'nuff said!), and has good music, is kinda sad, but you have different paths to choose, so it makes it interesting.
You can also try Tsujatha, I wasn't a huge fan, but he's interesting to play at least once.

As for other mods...
Romantic Encounters is definitely worth a try, especially for the Renal encounter and the Yoshimo encounter, those were some of the most memorable in my opinion, but there's a hoard of those, and they all spice up the BG25 experience.
NPC Flirts is worth an install to spice up the vanilla romances.
I also have Oversight, and Tweaks installed, but that doesn't have much to do with NPCs, it's more about your gameplay style.

And remember, and this is really important, to read threads about building and maintaining a clean install, as well as threads about the proper install order for mods. It'll be a real time saver, and will save you a lot of headaches in the future.

[Miss Sakaki]

Nathaniel is quite emotionally open and errs on the side of wimpy (though to be fair, his angsting is nothing to Xan's or Tsujatha's), but is caring and affectionate once he gets into a comfort zone with the PC. Plus in ToB he has a backbone, and everything! There are outstanding coding issues due to his being created back in the day when I had no idea how to code, but Feuille and I are around on the forums most of the time to help out with that.

edit: Nathaniel's flirts are also awesome. I can say this without shame because Feuille wrote them all.

I wish I could recommend you Faren, because it sounds like he'd suit you very well, but he won't be out for a few more months.

Self-promotion aside, if you'd be interested in playing with Tutu, Gavin in BG1 is lovely, and I'm quite fond of Xan's BG1 romance. For BG2, I found the Edwin Romance a lot of fun. Solaufein may be a bit too broody-poet for you; I enjoyed him the first time I played him though, so it might be worth giving him a go. (The end of that sentence just doesn't sound right...)

Edited by Miss Sakaki, 03 May 2008 - 07:04 AM.

[Zyraen]

If you're looking for romances for the lady, I can suggest the Tsujatha mod by Sillara & Nethrin. It looks good from what I see, BUT that being said he IS Overpowered, but at least he has an interesting story along with it.

G3 Tweaks - must-have for me. I can't imagine how I used to survive when arrows were 40 per stack, and potions 5 per stack. and many other useful useful useful things
Unfinished Business & QuestPack - must have. refreshes the old BG2 Quests same yet not the same.
If you're a Dirty, Dirty Girl, I think Romantic Encounters is highly recommended (I find it interesting that most of those recommending it are females...). I'm not a fan per se, not having really tried it out. I drew the line when it came to certain encounters...

(now the shameless self-plugs)
If you wish a simpler transition through Spellhold, I can recommend Spellhold Gauntlet.
For Ust Natha, you can use Zyraen's Misc Mods - component Accelerated Ust Natha.
If you find BG2 gear overpowered, Zyraen's Misc Mods will also help you out there.
If you enjoy roleplaying with Yoshimo in your party, that will also help. There's a lot of useful stuff in my own Misc Mods that have since become part of my standard installation.
If you like different party compositions, you can try out Hidden Kits.

I'd recommend BTL strongly for SoA, but since you're looking to go on to ToB...

[Eleima]

Ooh yes!! My vote's in for Zyraen's Misc Mods, very handy!! Gotta love that accelerated Ust Natha Route.
Of course, I don't install *all* of the components, because I like my overpowered items, thank you very much!

I also forgot to mention that I've had my eye on three other eligible bachelors, but they're not out yet: Gavin for BG2, Aklon and Ajantis for BG2 (Berelinde, BigRob and Jastey, get back to work already! ).
Haven't tried Angelo yet, but from what I gather, he seems like an interesting romance to try out...

[Solstice]

Darian is also one I'm keeping an eye on, and it sounds like he'll be ready for beta testing soon. Thought Aklon was all but abandoned.

[Alatariel]

Aklon isn't abandoned... But I wouldn't count on him being ready in the next year. Or even two.

Edit: Oh, and about mod romances... And Tsujatha... Hm. If you really *want* to play it do it before playing Xan or Kivan romances, or you will be severely disappointed. That being said, I personally don't think Tsujatha a great romance...

Reedit: reading your preferences I think that ID2 NPC project is just the thing for you. 3 romances for a female players, and two of these are exactly the type you described... (minus the 'down to earth' thing, in Diriel's case...)

Edited by Alatariel, 03 May 2008 - 08:24 AM.

[Cal Jones]

Yeah I'm not sure Tsjuatha is my bag at all - a 6 foot 6 brooding elf with silver eyes sounds too much like someone who has stepped from the pages of a romance novel. Plus he is from another world. I've heard he is well written but there are several other mods that appeal to me more. (And if I wanted to play with a tortured elf, I'd pick Xan!)

I'm glad someone is doing something with Ajantis (or AJ as I nicknamed him on my last BG runthrough) - poor guy got a really bum deal in BG2 didn't he! (Not that you'd know if you didn't take Keldorn with you, of course...)

Romantic Encounters does sound intriguing...is it compatible with other NPC mods? (Crap, now I'm starting to sound like Noober...)

Oh and does anyone recommend Redemption?

ID2 NPC project is something I wouldn't mind trying (I've been through twice with my own parties now) so I'll keep that one in mind, definitely.

Edited by Cal Jones, 03 May 2008 - 03:06 PM.

[Abigail]

Romantic Encounters does sound intriguing...is it compatible with other NPC mods? (Crap, now I'm starting to sound like Noober...)

Absolutely. Just don't install the part with Edwin if you want to play Edwin romance, but it's rather a matter of consistency than compatibility.
And don't worry, Noober is one and only

[Kaeloree]

I recommend the Longer Road, rather than Redemption--LR is a much longer, better version that spans the entirety of ToB.

There are quite a few who like Tashia, too.

[berelinde]

Tashia's good, but Cal Jones is looking for a new man for her PC, so I don't know if that will work. Tashia doesn't come equipped with those features.

[Tempest]

She does if you monkey with a couple variables.

My own mod, Darian, may be finished in the near future (being defined as: whenever I really sit down and start working again), but I'm not sure if he's what you're looking for. If you're just looking for a romance for a female PC, the Imoen Romance is an option.

[Cal Jones]

Well indeed...the guys get three women to choose from (OK so one's bossy, one's whiny and one's a bitch, but they're all hot!) but women just get Anomen. So really I'm looking to redress the balance somewhat.

As far as Longest Road goes, I know some content takes place in WK. Now I usually do WK in ToB (mostly because it helps Sarevok pick up some experience as he tends to be a good way behind the others guys once I reach ToB) so I was wondering if I can still do that and pick up Irenicus.

Sorry, I know it's a lot of questions! (And I really must go to bed now).

[Kaeloree]

You sure can. Actually, you have to do it in ToB. You'll get Irenicus near the beginning of ToB, so...

[Daulmakan]

Solaufein is very good, although he scores high in most of your pet peeves, so you probably won't like him. On the plus side, he has several dialogues which allow for RP (you can determine his outlook on life which in turn affect the endings & bonuses he gets later on), but he's an overpowered brooding poet, so you might want to try another mod instead. The Eclipse Party encounter is indeed over the top IMO, but it's optional (you can avoid it by choosing the right dialogue option when the time comes).

Of the ones that haven't been mentioned, I'd suggest Rogue Rebalancing. Lots of good stuff there.

Item Upgrade is also nice if you want to spice up the ingame items.

[Cal Jones]

Groovy - thanks for all the suggestions.
I would love to try as many of these as possible but think it will be asking for trouble if I run too many at the same time.
So to start with I have gone for Kelsey (I need a spellcaster early on and although I will definitely try the Edwin romance, I have just finished a game with him and need a change), the Viconia friendship mod and the brand new banter pack. I will let you know if there are any problems, of course.
Ascension is already installed.

[Azkyroth]

but women just get Anomen. So really I'm looking to redress

Ironic choice of words?

I don't have much to add to those already named, unfortunately. Except...

Solaufein is very good, although he scores high in most of your pet peeves, so you probably won't like him. On the plus side, he has several dialogues which allow for RP (you can determine his outlook on life which in turn affect the endings & bonuses he gets later on), but he's an overpowered brooding poet, so you might want to try another mod instead.

*epic cringe*

Arkalian: (Likewise)

Edited by Azkyroth, 04 May 2008 - 12:28 AM.

[Crazee]

For your next run-through, I *highly* recommend Angelo - one of my favourite romances, and he seems to fit the bill perfectly for what you've asked. He's really funny, not too-overpowered (despite his class), sweet and very well-developed.

And there's loads of content to enjoy, too.

[Cal Jones]

For your next run-through, I *highly* recommend Angelo - one of my favourite romances, and he seems to fit the bill perfectly for what you've asked. He's really funny, not too-overpowered (despite his class), sweet and very well-developed.

And there's loads of content to enjoy, too.

Edit: Kelsey didn't last long. He seems to be a well done NPC but I found him too chirpy for my rather depressive female PC. I couldn't envisage a romance there at all. Perhaps I'll try him another time but for now I've installed Angelo and will give him a whirl instead.

Edited by Cal Jones, 04 May 2008 - 04:48 AM.