Sword Coast Stratagems now available for BG:EE

DavidW

The latest version (v22) of Sword Coast Stratagems is compatible with BG:EE.

This is a BETA release, and I mean the beta label fairly seriously. This version merges the BG and BG2 versions of SCS, adds BG:EE compatibility, and rewrites most of the code base. The chance that I broke something in doing this is fairly high. I hope to release a non-beta-labelled version in a couple of weeks, depending how much feedback I get for this version.

EDIT: Updated to version 23, though I think I'll leave the beta flag in place.

EDIT: Updated to version 24 (not before time). This version fixes the problems with Davaeorn, Mulahey and Bassilus that have been reported, as well as bringing the "NPCs wait at inns" and "allow NPC pairs to separate" components to BG:EE and playing more nicely with the BG:EE text strings. Still technically a beta, though I'll probably strip that label shortly.

EDIT: Updated to version 26 (and no longer in beta). Details, and download links, at http://www.gibberlings3.net/scs/)

mlnevese

@DavidW Great news Just made this an announcement AND added to the Quick links for all mods announced in the forum

TJ_Hooker

Awesome news. SCS, along with Fixpack and UB, always made up my must-have mod list for BG 1&2.

Lemernis

Outstanding! Thanks David!

Wowo

iPad?

Anton

That's as epic as BGEE announce. Great news!
Now all we need is compatibility with Android tablets and ipads

DavidW

Wowo said:

iPad?

That's really generous of you, but I already have one.

Palanthis

Thank you so much for your work David, this is wonderful.

I don't have time to test it right now, but i read the readme and have a few suggestions / things to check :

- Standardise spells between BG and BG2 : seems the devs have taken your spell locations Still, i think some of the new BG2 are still missing, especially the level 5 ones, like Conjure lesser Elemental, Oracle or Spell immunity. I personally think it is unfair / a bit sad for mages, and would love to see an option in SCS, that could give a chance ( both for the player's party and the NPC Mages) to use ALL the missing spells from BG2.

- Make Minute Meteors into +2 weapons : should also apply to BGEE, and is not as per your readme.

- there is a slight typo on the section's title "Tactical Challenges for BG1" that applies in fact to BG2. A little bit confusing, but easy to fix for the next readme.

- Improved Balduran's Isle, Demon Cultists and Durlag's Tower : there is no mention of the BGEE in these sections of the readme, maybe you could add them for clarity (for now you specify TotSC or BGT is required).

Severon

Awesome! I've been waiting patiently for this mod. Thank you very much for taking the time to update it for BG:EE. My question is, should I install BG2 Tweaks ver 11 and BG1NPC project (when it comes out) before SCS or after, or will it not matter?

DavidW

Palanthis said:

Thank you so much for your work David, this is wonderful.

I don't have time to test it right now, but i read the readme and have a few suggestions / things to check :

- Standardise spells between BG and BG2 : seems the devs have taken your spell locations

I wrote the code for that bit of EE, in fact.

Still, i think some of the new BG2 are still missing, especially the level 5 ones, like Conjure lesser Elemental, Oracle or Spell immunity. I personally think it is unfair / a bit sad for mages, and would love to see an option in SCS, that could give a chance ( both for the player's party and the NPC Mages) to use ALL the missing spells from BG2.

Unless BG:EE mucks with the level cap (which it might, for all I know) you can't get 5th level arcane spells in BG1. I guess I could have used the odd BG2-only 5th level spell for NPC mages, but I'm basically happy with their existing spell choices.

- Make Minute Meteors into +2 weapons : should also apply to BGEE, and is not as per your readme.

I don't believe there's anything in BG1 that's affected by +5 weapons but not by +2 weapons.

- there is a slight typo on the section's title "Tactical Challenges for BG1" that applies in fact to BG2. A little bit confusing, but easy to fix for the next readme.

- Improved Balduran's Isle, Demon Cultists and Durlag's Tower : there is no mention of the BGEE in these sections of the readme, maybe you could add them for clarity (for now you specify TotSC or BGT is required).

Thanks, will fix.

DavidW

Severon said:

Awesome! I've been waiting patiently for this mod. Thank you very much for taking the time to update it for BG:EE. My question is, should I install BG2 Tweaks ver 11 and BG1NPC project (when it comes out) before SCS or after, or will it not matter?

See the readme.

Palanthis

DavidW said:

Unless BG:EE mucks with the level cap (which it might, for all I know) you can't get 5th level arcane spells in BG1. I guess I could have used the odd BG2-only 5th level spell for NPC mages, but I'm basically happy with their existing spell choices.

.

Well, a lot of people are saying this, and i'm a bit confused. Single mages are capped at 161000 XP in BGEE, and they hit level 9 (and then can actually use some level 5 spells) at 135000 XP.
But then, if you prefer to stay this way with these spells, it's your call.

DavidW

I stand corrected.

CuChoinneach

Great news!

Hesperos

DavidW said:

Severon said:

Awesome! I've been waiting patiently for this mod. Thank you very much for taking the time to update it for BG:EE. My question is, should I install BG2 Tweaks ver 11 and BG1NPC project (when it comes out) before SCS or after, or will it not matter?

See the readme.

Readme says that SCS should be installed after everything else, especially after mods which add new content such as items and encounters. But is BG1 NPC Project the case here? As far as I know, BG1 NPC Project provides nothing more than conversations and romances between PC and already existing NPCs. Does it interfere with SCS in any significant way? I'm asking because reinstalling SCS is a really uncomfortable option for me, as it takes almost a whole day to process on my old Linux machine.

Zaor

DavidW said:

- Make Minute Meteors into +2 weapons : should also apply to BGEE, and is not as per your readme.

I don't believe there's anything in BG1 that's affected by +5 weapons but not by +2 weapons.


I believe the greater wolfwere (karoug) requires +3 weapons to be hit. I would be opposed to removing yet another way to dps him, but to each his own.

mlnevese

@Hesperos as BG1NPC adds new encounters and quests, I'd say it's safer to add SCS after BG1NPC.

TJ_Hooker

Zaor said:

DavidW said:

- Make Minute Meteors into +2 weapons : should also apply to BGEE, and is not as per your readme.

I don't believe there's anything in BG1 that's affected by +5 weapons but not by +2 weapons.

I believe the greater wolfwere (karoug) requires +3 weapons to be hit. I would be opposed to removing yet another way to dps him, but to each his own.

Does the +x enhancement actually affect whether you can hit Karoug? I think it may just come down to whether or not the weapon has the Cold Iron (or something like that) flag.

CuChoinneach

Great job!

darkkhaine

This is wonderful news. Now all we need is bg2ee, spells and items revisions and UB. :-)

Zaor

TJ_Hooker said:

Zaor said:

DavidW said:

- Make Minute Meteors into +2 weapons : should also apply to BGEE, and is not as per your readme.

I don't believe there's anything in BG1 that's affected by +5 weapons but not by +2 weapons.

I believe the greater wolfwere (karoug) requires +3 weapons to be hit. I would be opposed to removing yet another way to dps him, but to each his own.

Does the +x enhancement actually affect whether you can hit Karoug? I think it may just come down to whether or not the weapon has the Cold Iron (or something like that) flag.
Based on what I've read, it is +3 for greater wolfwere, cold iron required for loup garou. All cold iron swings as at least +3 vs lycanthropes, so cold iron works.

James

darkkhaine said:

This is wonderful news. Now all we need is bg2ee, spells and items revisions and UB. :-)

Check the spell and items revisions forums on g3 mike1072 has updated them so the basic options work in bgee

DavidW

Hesperos said:

DavidW said:

Severon said:

Awesome! I've been waiting patiently for this mod. Thank you very much for taking the time to update it for BG:EE. My question is, should I install BG2 Tweaks ver 11 and BG1NPC project (when it comes out) before SCS or after, or will it not matter?

See the readme.

Readme says that SCS should be installed after everything else, especially after mods which add new content such as items and encounters. But is BG1 NPC Project the case here? As far as I know, BG1 NPC Project provides nothing more than conversations and romances between PC and already existing NPCs. Does it interfere with SCS in any significant way? I'm asking because reinstalling SCS is a really uncomfortable option for me, as it takes almost a whole day to process on my old Linux machine.

BG1NPC won't interfere especially with SCS (so far as I know). But BG1NPC adds many creatures, and SCS will detect those creatures and modify their AI, spell choices etc. (Sometimes automatically, sometimes by BG1NPC-specific code). So installing BG1NPC after SCS means that BG1NPC creatures won't get SCS upgrades. Clearly that's not the end of the world! - but it's the reason for the recommended install order.

mars0124

@wowo & @DavidW

So unfortunately at a quick glace SCS is NOT iPad compatible. I just installed it and BG:EE immediately crashed.

On an unrelated note I have never looked into this mod before. HOLY it does a lot! I'll try adding a few components in and see if they work and go from there, but unlike the 34 kits from the kit pack this is a little bigger than I can swallow until I understand the modding scene a little better.

I'll post any updates here and in my BG:EE iPad modding thread -> http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/15979/howto-modding-bgee-on-the-ipad#latest

Wowo

mars0124 said:

@wowo & @DavidW

So unfortunately at a quick glace SCS is NOT iPad compatible. I just installed it and BG:EE immediately crashed.

On an unrelated note I have never looked into this mod before. HOLY it does a lot! I'll try adding a few components in and see if they work and go from there, but unlike the 34 kits from the kit pack this is a little bigger than I can swallow until I understand the modding scene a little better.

I'll post any updates here and in my BG:EE iPad modding thread -> http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/15979/howto-modding-bgee-on-the-ipad#latest

Do we have any clue yet why the bigger mods like the kit pack and this seem to have trouble installing all together but at least with the kit pack if you install just a few it's fine?

Is there a difference installing either of the 2 ways? (Which way did you use, did you test the other way?)

mars0124

I've tested both the iFunBox method and the SAMBA method. You'll understand why I recommend the SAMBA method when you try iFunBox, accidentally kill BG:EE with a mod and realize you forgot to backup first. When this happens just remember to grab your save files before you delete it... I forgot to do that part... Also when that time does come, IPAs install faster with iFunBox than with iTunes, so you'll be back on your feet sooner.

And as for the size of the mods I haven't drawn any conclusions yet. Unfortunately the native iPad debug info is gibberish to me (is this the language that gibberlings speak!?) so I can't do anything with it. Everything I have learnt so far is from poking things and seeing what happens...

And on that note I have not drawn any completely consistent conclusions on the KitPack. Sometimes even installing one kit is enough to break BG:EE on the iPad.

mars0124

@DavidW So I tried again on the iPad. I may have botched up my install prior to my last attempt so I started with a clean slate (fresh copy of BG:EE) and it seems to have worked...ish. I ran the setup with --yes so assumed everything would install.

So here it is...
Candlekeep was the default chapter - if everything was installed that was the first fail.
Gorion cast Stoneskin and turned grey - another fail
Went to the Friendly Arm Inn - Tarnesh started by casting Mirror Image then Glitterdust and getting Missing String. Aha! So the mod WAS at least partially installed after all! He should have followed Mirror Image with Acid Arrow.

Maybe there is hope for this yet! Will go ahead and try again while selecting everything manually. Wish me luck!

Tried again... I manually selected skip Candlekeep this time with no skipping occurring. Also a guard named Halen came up to me with script errors and gave me a bunch of stuff. This mod will likely work on the iPad someday but not today.

If there is anything I can do to test/verify just ask!

Wowo

mars0124 said:

@DavidW So I tried again on the iPad. I may have botched up my install prior to my last attempt so I started with a clean slate (fresh copy of BG:EE) and it seems to have worked...ish. I ran the setup with --yes so assumed everything would install.

So here it is...
Candlekeep was the default chapter - if everything was installed that was the first fail.
Gorion cast Stoneskin and turned grey - another fail
Went to the Friendly Arm Inn - Tarnesh started by casting Mirror Image then Glitterdust and getting Missing String. Aha! So the mod WAS at least partially installed after all! He should have followed Mirror Image with Acid Arrow.

Maybe there is hope for this yet! Will go ahead and try again while selecting everything manually. Wish me luck!

Exciting!

Rasekov

James said:

darkkhaine said:

This is wonderful news. Now all we need is bg2ee, spells and items revisions and UB. :-)

Check the spell and items revisions forums on g3 mike1072 has updated them so the basic options work in bgee

A bit offtopic but didnt see any recent info, do you know what's the status of UB?

Wowo

@mars0124 @DavidW

How's the feedback for SCS on a desktop BG:EE install going? If we're getting partial installs is there an issue with how iOS is handling specific files?

Perhaps some of the crew over at wineHQ could shed light on the issues involved?

DavidW

At the risk of being blunt: I'm delighted and flattered that people want an iPad version of SCS, but (a) I think it's fairly premature to do any significant work to create it since this is still a beta version of the PC version; (b) there is virtually nothing I can do to help, since I know very little about the iPad under the hood and have no desire to jailbreak my own.