46 replies to this topic

[Vampire Killer]

There was a thread at this forum I read earlier in the year and now I can't find it, but it had a short list of mods that enhanced BG2 and TOB. The mods improved gameplay, tweaked kits, added fixes and other tweaks, ramped up difficulty and even added a little more content. It didn't make the difficulty insane, but it certainly was a challenge.

Can someone help me with a short list of mods that do the same thing as above that I can install in BG2 and TOB that will all work with each other? Thanks very much. I've never accomplished beating this game with mods, and it's something I'd like to do before too many years pass.

[Miloch]

Get the BWP (BiG World Project) in the Downloads section here and install the "recommended" mods only. Though really, what you're talking about probably is more like the "tactics" install (ramped up difficulty) which includes more mods. But maybe start with the recommended version and if that isn't challenging enough, go up from there. It's all automated, but I'd still advise reading the PDF file so you know what you're getting.

[Vampire Killer]

Thanks. I'm about to start a tactics playthrough. I need something durable/powerful for a character. Which is better suited to higher difficulty, a monk or a cleric? Thanks.

[Miloch]

I think the monk is quite a weak class starting out (particularly in the BG1 part) though it gets more powerful later on.

[Vampire Killer]

Anyone else have a recommendation on class choice for a complete (BG1 through TOB) playthrough with BWP-Tactical? Thanks.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Anyone else have a recommendation on class choice for a complete (BG1 through TOB) playthrough with BWP-Tactical? Thanks.

Don't you mean Kit?
I would suggest Berserker. Like I said.

[Vampire Killer]

Ah, you edited your old post, I didn't see that until now. So, you're saying to take Berserker from BG1 onward and not to multi-class?

[Vampire Killer]

Okay, back with a new set of questions. The person I was going to play multiplayer with has been sick for a while, but I still really want to play. One question is, is the Tactical install of BWP prone to crashing and errors since there's just so much installed and active, or have most of the bugs been worked out?

If they've been mostly worked out, I'm going to run a separate Tactical install for my single player game. If there's still a good chance of crashing and errors, I'm going to pick some mods from a few categories and install them by hand. In the interest of getting some recommendations that usually are compatible with each other, I'm looking for the most-liked mods from the following categories:

1) Bug fixes and hotfixes
2) New quests and other content (monsters, weapons, items, etc.)
3) Class balance, kit changes, new kits, other balances (like rogue rebalance, sword and fist, etc.)
4) Challenge, harder fights, tweaked difficulty, better AI, etc.
5) NPC mods (don't want to use too many), banter, interaction, etc.

I've been doing some pretty extensive searches across numerous forums that usually have a good list of mods that meet my criteria, but they're a few years old and I want to get up to date information. Thanks for any input as to if BWP has stabilised as far as crashing and errors, or if I should still go for a manual install of fewer mods.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Ah, you edited your old post, I didn't see that until now. So, you're saying to take Berserker from BG1 onward and not to multi-class?

Well, if you want to be somewhat all around good tank, then you'll take the Berserker, as you are immune to few effects(in the Berserk state), and you have a lot of hit points, good selection of weapons that you can specialize in(Dual wield Axes and War Hammers)...
Sorry for the slow reply.

I...s the Tactical install of BWP prone to crashing and errors since there's just so much installed and active, or have most of the bugs been worked out?

Yes, the bugs have been cleaned as far as they can be(and excluding the very latest version updates that have not been reported in time for the Fixpack update). Of course it's always good to be cautious and have multiple saves in storage just in case you can't follow the one really obscure path you had wished you could.

And to prevent few misconceptions, I would recommend you to read this if you haven't already.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 17 January 2010 - 01:38 PM.

[Vampire Killer]

Thank you Jarno. Is it a good idea to use the beta fixpack? And is there a current ETA on the next version of BWP? I just don't want to do the setup this evening and have a new version pop out in a few weeks then have to re-do it

The only thing I'd worry about at this point is having my game crash from all the lines of spoken NPC audio, does this happen even if you have a good computer? Thanks again, and your replies are just fine, I was busy for a few days anyway.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Thank you Jarno. Is it a good idea to use the beta fixpack? And is there a current ETA on the next version of BWP? I just don't want to do the setup this evening and have a new version pop out in a few weeks then have to re-do it

No ETA, it's done when it's done, but first there always is a no-function period as the linklist etc. as the functions needs to be reconfigured totally. And you'll need the beta Fixpack yes, cause the BWS will also download it itself, so it's kinda had not to, but it should be beta only in name.

The only thing I'd worry about at this point is having my game crash from all the lines of spoken NPC audio, does this happen even if you have a good computer? Thanks again, and your replies are just fine, I was busy for a few days anyway.

The NPC talks never actually cause any difference weather or not they have audio files in them or not. They can cause problems though if the resources are not found for reason or another, but usually the BWP mods don't have that, expect the eXpert ones, maybe. But as you should know, the eXpert install is bug rigged as heaven.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 18 January 2010 - 12:55 AM.

[Lollorian]

Is it a good idea to use the beta fixpack?

In the BWP, beta doesn't exactly mean try at your own risk It means it's just a regularly updated package compared to the standard fixpack (since it's maintained by White Agnus while the standard one's by Leomar) so, due to language stuff, the beta packs may sometimes not have proper documentation, changelogs and stuff

It's like the BWP Expert install which doesn't mean you have to be an expert at playing the game , but that you should know how to debug any bugs you might get It should probably called Debug install, but ... meh

Edited by Lollorian, 17 January 2010 - 05:37 PM.

[smoky tune]

i'd also recommend using bwp since mod installation there is fully automated (even downloading) and you don't need to know much about mods compatibility, because most of known compatibility issues are handled there. though you still need to read bwp manual to read brief mods descriptions and decide whether you need them of not. if you do not have enough time or desire to read it, just install recommended as was stated above. if you are thinking of some challenge, then use bwp, but choose only few tweak mod otherwise your game will become hardly recognisable. i took RR, aTweaks, BGT Tweaks, BG Tweak Pack, SCS and SCSII, but chose components by myself (had to manually moodify installation batch file). i could show my weidu.log file if anyone gets interested.
concerning character for full bgt gameplay. i was recently thinking about taking elven fighter/thief with short bow. and that's for 2 reasons.
first, archers are very useful in bg1, and therefore taking second good archer (kivan or shar-teel) in group as well will make a strong dd duet. take good tank (ajantis (g) or kagain (e)), cleric and mage. for sixth person you will have a vacant place for occasional chars of may wish to take second frontliner, mage or whoever. thus you will have quite smooth gameplay through the first chapter. by 9 lvl you will have 7 stars to distribute. i'd put them this way:
short bows *** //not more 'cause speed factor isn't that important for bows
short sword ** //or any other melee weapon you are fond of. i usually have rogue rebalancing mod and like its short sword of backstabbing.
single weapon style ** //to get -2 bonus to ac when go melee
second, there is quite poor choice of thieves in bg so dual your i prefer making my own. dual your fighter at 9th level to thief. in the beginning of soa there is plenty of quests with high experience reward and since rogues gain levels fast, quite soon you will get 10th lvl. thieving skills choice depends on whether you will have other thieves in group or not.
when thief reaches 10th level (only 160k exp) we get nice range dd levelling up as thief.
i choose short bows because there is a good choise of them in second chapter. they are tinguan bow first, tansheron bow later in trademeet, and by the end crafting gesen bow which is an amazing weapon.
monk are awesome fighters but you are going to experience much inconvenience in bg1 (for their low ac) until you use lost items mod (version revised 2) with which monks gain +3 ac and +1 thac0 bonus for high wisdom (per p'n'p rules).
other chars i was thinking of are ranger/cleric (dualclass combination which is told to be very reliable) or sorcerer (powerful in both chapters).

Edited by smoky tune, 18 January 2010 - 01:06 AM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

By 9 lvl you will have 7 stars to distribute. i'd put them this way:
short bows *** //not more 'cause speed factor isn't that important for bows...

Well, if you are going to end up with 3 stars to one weapon, and two to the other stiles, I would recommend going with a Fighter-Thief Multi-class. This way you'll end up with the exact same stats except your Thac0 will be much better, you'll have extra half attack later, and in BG1, you can still wear the Full Plate when not using the thief skills. Yes, the Multi-classed char will level up slower and has few less Hit points to start off with, but that's why you can keep the group smaller, and the hit points will be coming back after the 10th level. Ranger-/Cleric is strong because they get both Druid and Cleric spells... and they have the extra attacks only warrior(Fighter, Ranger, Paladin) classes get at level 7 and at 13-14 levels.

[smoky tune]

well, when in bg1 multiclasses get more benefits without loosing too much in levels, in bg2 it's vice versa. let's take a look at multiclassed and dualclassed characters at the end of SoA. by that time you have about 3.000.000 expt. your dualclass will be fighter(9)/thief(22) while multiclassed will be fighter(14)-thief(16). no need to say what 5-6 lvl difference for thief means. moreover without HLA's it would be almost useless in most of ToB (remember Use Any Item HLA gives your thief a good magic boost).

[Jarno Mikkola]

well, when in bg1 multiclasses get more benefits without loosing too much in levels, in bg2 it's vice versa. let's take a look at multiclassed and dualclassed characters at the end of SoA. by that time you have about 3.000.000 expt. your dualclass will be fighter(9)/thief(22) while multiclassed will be fighter(14)-thief(16). no need to say what 5-6 lvl difference for thief means. moreover without HLA's it would be almost useless in most of ToB (remember Use Any Item HLA gives your thief a good magic boost).

Yeah, but we are talking about heavily modified BGT game where the level cap is at 50. See, the Multi-classed Fighter/thief can also gain the HLAs at the almost same time as the single classed Dualed character, and the Multi-classes gains more HLAs eventually at least.

And if I am reading this table right, the 14th level of Fighter multi-class is enough to gain 1 HLA already, which can be the Use All Items one.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 18 January 2010 - 04:14 AM.

[Vampire Killer]

Hey, I just saw these responses. I know very little about multiclassing/experience rules, so I'm kind of lost there. Last night before I went to sleep I saw somebody recommend that if you're going to play BG1 and BG2 with mods you should play them separately and not in something like BGT. Reading this confused me, so I'm trying to make my mind up about how to play. If I use BWP I don't want to mess with what gets installed or what options are chosen, because it's a long re-install if I mess it up. So, even if it's "un-balanced", I will probably stick with an unedited BWP install. At the moment I am really leaning toward just hand-picking some mods and using only a few that I choose. There's just so many of them. I'll post back later after lunch to see if there's any input. Thanks.

[smoky tune]

until now i thought characters get hla's when they reach certain level. but according to the table it seems that it happens when they strike 3kk exp point. well that changes much but still dualclass character may select fighter kits, which is good. anyway such quarrels about "who is better" are quite useles 'cause bg is in general balanced game and one can get max profit of each character if he knows how to )

[Vampire Killer]

Okay, here's my hypothetical load order.

bg2 + tob
tob patch
bg2 fixpack
?
?
?
1pp (graphical stuff)
atweaks
scsII
bg2 tweak pack
widescreen

But where the three '?' are, I was going to put in Divine Remix, Sword and Fist and Rogue Rebalance. Would they work if installed in that order? And is there anything glaringly wrong with this install order overall? Thanks.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Last night before I went to sleep I saw somebody recommend that if you're going to play BG1 and BG2 with mods you should play them separately and not in something like BGT.

Well, the reason why is probably not because they wish to play the best game ever, but the most original one. Which in term says to not use mods at all...

until now i thought characters get hla's when they reach certain level. but according to the table it seems that it happens when they strike 3M exp point.

Well, they reach the set point if they are multi classed, but as the rules are set so the point becomes earlier...

well that changes much but still dualclass character may select fighter kits, which is good.

And if one is willing to allow Multi-classed chars to have kit, on can with the Level1NPCs mod.

anyway such quarrels about "who is better" are quite useles 'cause bg is in general balanced game and one can get max profit of each character if he knows how to)

May I disagree, like totally. But in my view, what classes and kits to take all depends on the players choice, not on what's good and what's not, as you can justify nearly everything with a proper mindset.

Okay, here's my hypothetical Install order...
But where the three '?' are, I was going to put in Divine Remix, Sword and Fist and Rogue Rebalance. Would they work if installed in that order? And is there anything glaringly wrong with this install order overall? Thanks.

Well it would work, but remember that if you wish to have the Rogue Rebalanced:

~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #2 // Thief High Level Ability revisions: v4.31
~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #5 // Bard High Level Ability revisions: v4.31

Components be effective, you need to install them after you install the BG2Tweakpack.