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Replaying the entire BG Saga...


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#1 Moonfruit

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Posted 04 September 2014 - 02:01 AM

Greetings all

 

After a significant break from the world of BG, I have decided to replay the entire saga from beginning to end in an attempt to relive those glory days :) However, while I am very experienced in BG2 (having finished it more than a dozen times and creating a few mods for it), I never managed to make it all the way through the first game. This is due in large part to having played BG2 first, and then hating the inability to pause on the inventory screen in the original.

 

So my question to the community is this: when playing the original BG1 and expansion (not the enhanced edition, I've heard it's crap) what mods would you strongly recommend? Bear in mind I am not interested in adding "new features" to the game, but would prefer to play as close to the original as possible. All I want are mods that can do the following:

 

1 - Fix bugs

2 - Increase graphics quality to an acceptable level on 1920x1080/1200 resolutions

3 - Add the ability to pause on the inventory menu

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

P.S. What would you guys recommend as the "essential" first time good BG1 party. Based on the BG2 storyline, I'm guessing its Imoen, Jahiera, Khalid, Minsc and Dynaheir? Should I dual class Imeon to a mage? And what would be a good class for myself to round out the group? I'm leaning towards a paladin, but feel we may be fighter heavy and thief/healer light.

 

Thanks



#2 The Imp

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    Not good, see EVIL is better. You'll LIVE.

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Posted 04 September 2014 - 02:52 AM

What mods would you strongly recommend? B...

Well, the BGT(-weidu), that with all the mods and such and so forth, to make a megamod that takes you from Candlekeep to all the way to Throne of Bhaal... that's "easy to make" by following the BWS, and reading all the things in it. To customize the setup, just pick the BWS option, then a compilation, and then push the "..." right next to the Compilation selection box, this allow you to select mods and their components individually. From a list of ~500 mods and 1500-2000 components.

The BWP Fixpack patches most of the obvious compatibility issues, but not 100%, the program also has a compatibility restriction sections that it checks when you have selected the mods and so forth... so you can't install to mutually exclusive mods, and you get to choose which to install.

 

2 - Increase graphics quality to an acceptable level on 1920x1080/1200 resolutions

This takes the Vanilla BG1 out... the reason is that the Widescreen mod can and will expand the view all the way to 1920x1200 res, but the GUI looks horrible, and the window scrolling is horrific.
Now if you can constrain yourself to the 1280x800 res, you can play the game with a non-partially-cut-to-black_GUI via this mod that looks good, and the scrolling fix can be applied to it too.
 

The above party is kinda good, but... what comes to vanilla BG1 parties, I would recommend forgoing Jaheira and Khalid to Ajantis and Branwen. The PC would be a warrior of some kind(ranger/paladin/fighter).

What comes to BG1, you don't really need to make Imoen to be a dualed mage, but you can of course.

Now there's also the Evil party to consider; Kagain, Viconia, Edwin, Xzar & Montaron. The PC can be what you like, but I would again recommend a warrior of somekind.

 

The megamod adds a ton of possibilities, as it works with the BG2:ToB engine, one being that you can install the Level 1 NPCs mods companion components that allow you to customize their class and kits, this includes both custom kits and most of the mod introduced NPCs.


Edited by The Imp, 04 September 2014 - 03:38 AM.

Yep, Jarno Mikkola. my Mega Mod FAQ. Use of the BWS, and how to use it(scroll down that post a bit). 
OK, desert dweller, welcome to the sanity, you are free to search for the limit, it's out there, we drew it in the sand. Ouh, actually it was still snow then.. but anyways.