Modding Question / Feedback

Tschakong

Dear EE Team,

i'm a little disappointed with the current situation in this EE. I exptected that there would be a way to install mods very easy.

Wasn't anounced and advertised that modding will be a lot easier right now?

I miss mods like the NPC Project and Unfinished Business. WIthout them i have to say, that there is no much fun in playing this game. I miss very much the great banters and additional quests.

Another question to portraits: Why is it that circumstantial to install and scale the portraits. The least i expected was, that if you have a random portrait the compiling and fittig to the right scale would be made by this enhanced edition.

Instead of it, you have to scale and format the picture by yourself 3 times, to implement one portrait. I know how to do it, but i expected optimisation of this handling.

Also i don't like the implementation of Black Pits. I expected it to be integrated into the storyline of origin Baldurs Gate with additional party / NPC banters. Really a disappointment for me. Because of that i haven't played the new "content", because it is no content for me.

I appreciate that you want to bring a classic game back to life. Baldurs Gate 2 was my favorite game of all times.

Positively i like the enhanced graphics with zoom and the effects. Also there are no more micro lags ingame. I lke the new NPC's also very much with their quests. The new music by Sam is also great. Thanks for that!

I will order your BG2 EE directly when possible to support you and hope that you will take note of the user feedback in the forum.

Until then i intall BGT, can't live without my most favorite game of all times. Big thx to all of the mods, that made BG1 and 2 already more richful.

best regards,

Cuv

Hmmm... you have two questions in there. Neither are modding questions but rather 'mod user' questions.

Tschakong said:

Wasn't anounced and advertised that modding will be a lot easier right now?

Yes, it was and yes it is:)

Tschakong said:

Why is it that circumstantial to install and scale the portraits.

The new portrait sizes are much higher resolution than the originals or existing portrait packs. The old portraits still work. Rename your old portraits from L to M and from M to S and they will work.

Pantalion

It's worth noting that the portrait system is much more robust and no longer seems to require that the portrait filename to end in L, M or S, or be 8 letters long exactly.

Since the Black Pits is a Level 1 - Level 10 module, the notion that it take place in BG's main campaign, which is from level 1 to level 8, is rather misguided, though it's still possible to take a victorious Pits winner through BG with some +2 Katanas for your trouble.

Tschakong

thanks for the replys.

The portrait "problem" could have been easily be dealt with by enhancing this ingame (Choosing of only 1 picture ingame that is scaled by the game into the 3 - L, M, S).
Also the selection window ingame for the portraits is too small. And die scrolling and selection of the picture is buggy (i.e. clicking on the file ends in selection of a wrong picture.

I know that changing the game code is difficult, but this thing can't be a big deal.

@ Pantalion: That's why i don't like Black Pits. It's a game in a game. And has no reference to the story of Baldurs Gate. I want content for Baldur's Gate, not a conversion or something like that. It reminds me of the Dragon Age DLC's (i.e. Lilianas Story), which i also never liked, because of this thematic.

shawne

@Cuv: How exactly is modding easier now? Setting aside compatibility issues with existing mods, the EE doesn't even work with current versions of WeiDU, which makes installing any mods at all much more complicated. And, on top of that, any mods you can install may be overwritten by game updates.

So regardless of what was announced/advertised, modding BG:EE is substantially more difficult at the moment. Granted, that may change at some unspecified point in the future, but right now OP is absolutely correct.

Cuv

@shawne Disagree. There is already a new version of WeiDU that will recognize BGEE, go to Pocket Plane and grab it from the WeiDU forum. The various mods need to be updated, not the engine. That is the responsibility of the mod authors or someone taking the time to do it... and that will come with time. Modding BGEE is really easy with the existing externalizations and the ToBEX fixes in. BMP now work for the description icons (and DLTCEP has already been updated to create these in the correct format). Portraits are higher resolution. Sounds are now either WAVC (original format) or WAV or OGG. Drop and go. The journal is externalized with the BGEE.sql (which, again, DLTCEP will extract and work with). Then there are the externalized animations too... allowing any IE game animations to play if they are in either BG or IWD format.

The only thing that has put a damper on modding are the area tilesets with a new format: PVR/Z replacing the existing TIS format for the core game. However, the old TIS files still work just fine too. We (modders) are working on getting an editor/compiler for that. DLTCEP can at least read them now thanks to @Avenger_teambg keeping it updated on a near daily basis.

As you can see from the examples above (and there are many more), BGEE is the new 'gold standard' engine, imho. Check this out as an example of the animations -

shawne

@Cuv: I appreciate the technical explanation, but it's not really relevant to me as I'm not a modder. My perspective is informed by what can and can't be done with the EE as it stands. And at the moment, there is no convenient method of installing mods (the most recent forum posts at the Pocket Plane indicate only that WeiDU is being worked on and that there are substantial bugs to work out), no way to keep those mods intact when game updates are installed (since the updates overwrite modded files) and very few mods to choose from.

As I've said, it's quite likely all of this will change over time. But right now... well, the EE's a bit of a tough sell without UB and BG1NPC.

Cuv

If this is about mod compatibility, then all I can do is to direct you here http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/6950/player-how-to-getting-mods-to-work-on-bgee/p1
I said modding was easier... I did not say that existing mods are easier to install. Huge difference. I suggest either patience or TuTu. There arent any mods for BGEE yet apart from @Kaeloree's Neera Romance beta and a few minor tweaks mods. I think @CoM_Solaufein has a store mod that works with BGEE that is new. BG1NPC is being worked on, don't know about UB (but I know the devs are aware of incomplete/orphaned quests and those are being discussed).

And I am not trying to sell anything:) Will leave that to the devs. But I personally won't be making any mods for the old version of the engine.

LiamEsler

@Cuv @shawne The Neera Expansion just hit v1 at SHS, and there's going to be two entirely new mods coming out over the next few days so keep your eyes peeled

CoM_Solaufein

Yes my TeamBG Armor Pack mod is totally new and only for BG:EE and works like a charm. I followed my own advice on modding after all.

Parys

Cuv said:

Then there are the externalized animations too... allowing any IE game animations to play if they are in either BG or IWD format.

@Cuv
Could You tell me if it possible to create additional animation slot for certain creatures, like efreeti, death tyrant. I would like to have for them distinctive sprite animation, for efreeti - efreeti red sprite instead of one animation sprite for djinni, dao, efreeti. If it possible I would like to know how achieve those things.
Thanks in advance!

Cuv

Heya @Parys Yes it is now... but we are still waiting on those BG series animation slots. We are still pestering the devs for the 7000 series:) That one might be doable now... not sure. There is a new 2da in the game: EXTANIM.2da

If you were to convert the animation to IWD (E series) or old style unsplit format its an easy plugin. The latter is a 7000 series but special; like the MDK and unused Death Tyrant slot (yes, which is now useable).

For your own use (as we are working on an update to Infinity Animations which will assign slots so there is never ever ever a mod conflict again). Here is what you need to do:

Example for an IWD style animation slot -

ScottBrooks said:

My line from EXTANIM.2DA

58912     0 0 1 0 0 0 47 0 0 NONE NONE NONE 8 3 JFTB NONE 0 0

I added the following to my ANIMATE.IDS

0xE620   IC_TESTGUY

Decimal: 58912 = Hex: 0xE620

Then I went into Near infinity, duplicated the cat, and changed it's animation to IC_TESTGUY. See below for the results.

You will want to avoid using numbers too close to existing animations. They end up looking at the 2nd last byte, so 0xE611 through 0xE61F are unavailable. 0xE620-0xE6FF are all free, along with a ton of others.

Will post more details on this in its own thread when we are ready to share it all and all is in that we want!
Cuv