[Mod Proposal] Playing BG2:EE content without the new NPCs.
Mordeus
Member Posts: 460
in BGII:EE Mods
I've been fairly vocal about my dissatisfaction with having to take alone the new NPCs just so you can experience the new areas. So I decided to test out how much of it you can play without the NPCs. It seems like you can do alot of it, provided that you activate certain triggers via alternate means. For example you just need Rasaad to get the Heretic Temple map location, but you can then drop him from your party and complete the temple by yourself. Which got me thinking that maybe a mod could be created that removes such NPC centric triggers.
Here is an example of the very basic changes you need to make to Neera's questline, so you can do her content without having her in your party.
Rasaad's quest is equally easy.
Dorn's quest line is slightly harder.
Hexxat's quest line is incredibly hard to mod, since you'll be crafting an entirely new storyline.
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So basically this thread is to gauge interest in such a mod. I'm currently developing another one that is rather massive, so I could probably only free up Neera and Rasaad's quests by myself. I'm going to do a version of this for my own personal use, but I'm just wondering if this would be used by others?
It's important to note that this is only for the SoA quests. I have absolutely no idea how to integrate such ToB quests like Dorn's raid on Lumia. There could be a way, but at the moment I have the vaguest of ideas.
Here is an example of the very basic changes you need to make to Neera's questline, so you can do her content without having her in your party.
STEP 1: - At the Wild Forest (OH6000) Neera will be waiting. You can either have her join or dismiss her. If you dismiss her, she says she'll wait back and meet up with you at the campsite. However she never arrives to open the camp for you. So there needs to be something added to node #54 and 56 of NEERA.dlg to get her to trigger the open gate cutscene at the refuge map (OH6100). You don't need Neera to cross the broken bridge, since you can pick up the pebble item that does the same thing.
At the camp (OH6100), there needs to be a variation of OHCUT04.bcs that has Neera appearing without being in your party, so she can convince Hayes to open the gate. And then at the end of the cutscene, have her wait in her usual spot at the camp.
STEP 2: - Now when it comes to the campsite quests, you can receive and complete every single one without Neera. Except for the Daxus quest, you may receive it, but if you talk to Daxus without Neera he says that he wants to wait a bit until you bring different friends with you.
So we need to change that bit of dialog by setting this global (SetGlobal ("OHN_TELENA_PLOT","Global",3))
at somewhere like node #10 of OHNDAXUS.dlg , so we can actually talk to him.
Then when he refuses to come to the refuge we add this bunch of conditions somewhere in Order:4 of the dialog.
SetGlobal("OHN_TELANA_PLOT","GLOBAL",4)
SetGlobal("OHN_REFUGE_BURNED","GLOBAL",1)
HideAreaOnMap("OH6100")
RevealAreaOnMap("OH6200")
ClearAllActions()
StartCutSceneMode()
HideGUI()
StartCutScene("OHNCUT05")
That way the whole Red Wizard ambush can play out without Neera involved.
STEP 3: Now the last bit that is truly problematic is the burned camp (OH6200) because there is a bit of the script that hides the characters if you don't have Neera with you. So we go into the OH6200 script and remove lines 59 to 81 which have the OHN_REFUGE_INACTIVE Global. This will allows the characters to appear without Neera.
Now to get Telana to talk we need to go into OHNTELAN.dlg and remove the condition from the first dialog tree (Order:0) that says IfValidForPartyDialog("NEERA"), this will let us into the Red Wizard enclave. The only downside is that we need to provide some dialog paths for Telana to say what happened without getting cut off short, or else it seems a little abrupt.
Upon completing it, you can speak to each rescued mage and receive your reward like normal back at the refuge. However to get Telana to trigger the dialog tree (Order:6) we need to remove the IfValidForPartyDialog("NEERA") condition, but also provide an alternate path to the rest of the dialog without Neera's lines or else she will spam you with the same welcome line over and over while waiting for Neera to chip in.
Applying all these changes will let you do Neera's content with having to bring along Neera. However there is still the odd situation where we'd need to add alternate journal entries and dialog that exclude mentions of Neera. But this is just to show that it is possible to mod and rather easy.
At the camp (OH6100), there needs to be a variation of OHCUT04.bcs that has Neera appearing without being in your party, so she can convince Hayes to open the gate. And then at the end of the cutscene, have her wait in her usual spot at the camp.
STEP 2: - Now when it comes to the campsite quests, you can receive and complete every single one without Neera. Except for the Daxus quest, you may receive it, but if you talk to Daxus without Neera he says that he wants to wait a bit until you bring different friends with you.
So we need to change that bit of dialog by setting this global (SetGlobal ("OHN_TELENA_PLOT","Global",3))
at somewhere like node #10 of OHNDAXUS.dlg , so we can actually talk to him.
Then when he refuses to come to the refuge we add this bunch of conditions somewhere in Order:4 of the dialog.
SetGlobal("OHN_TELANA_PLOT","GLOBAL",4)
SetGlobal("OHN_REFUGE_BURNED","GLOBAL",1)
HideAreaOnMap("OH6100")
RevealAreaOnMap("OH6200")
ClearAllActions()
StartCutSceneMode()
HideGUI()
StartCutScene("OHNCUT05")
That way the whole Red Wizard ambush can play out without Neera involved.
STEP 3: Now the last bit that is truly problematic is the burned camp (OH6200) because there is a bit of the script that hides the characters if you don't have Neera with you. So we go into the OH6200 script and remove lines 59 to 81 which have the OHN_REFUGE_INACTIVE Global. This will allows the characters to appear without Neera.
Now to get Telana to talk we need to go into OHNTELAN.dlg and remove the condition from the first dialog tree (Order:0) that says IfValidForPartyDialog("NEERA"), this will let us into the Red Wizard enclave. The only downside is that we need to provide some dialog paths for Telana to say what happened without getting cut off short, or else it seems a little abrupt.
Upon completing it, you can speak to each rescued mage and receive your reward like normal back at the refuge. However to get Telana to trigger the dialog tree (Order:6) we need to remove the IfValidForPartyDialog("NEERA") condition, but also provide an alternate path to the rest of the dialog without Neera's lines or else she will spam you with the same welcome line over and over while waiting for Neera to chip in.
Applying all these changes will let you do Neera's content with having to bring along Neera. However there is still the odd situation where we'd need to add alternate journal entries and dialog that exclude mentions of Neera. But this is just to show that it is possible to mod and rather easy.
Rasaad's quest is equally easy.
STEP 1: - We need to have a bit of dialog with Rasaad in Trademeet that sets the global OHR_PLOT to 1 and the global time OHR_TIMER_CFIGURE to 6 or removes the timer completely.
STEP 2: - We need to remove InParty("RASAAD") and InMyArea("RASAAD") from AR0020.bcs or provide an alternate set of conditions if you don't have Rasaad. This will spawn the cloaked figure (OHRCLOAK).
Now in OHRCLOAK.dlg we need to provide an alternate bit of dialog that sidesteps Rasaad's dialog and sends us directly to Ext.ref #7 which will give us the Amphitheatre location.
STEP 3: - At the Amphitheatre (OH4000) we need to trigger Hammerhelm's recruitment speech without Rasaad in party. So we just remove IsValidForPartyDialog("RASAAD") from OHRHHELM.bcs. And in OHRHHELM.dlg we need to create a new dialog tree that activates without Rasaad, so we can get the location of the Heretic Temple.
From this point onwards you can complete the Heretic Temple like normal. There are no problems if you don't have Rasaad.
STEP 2: - We need to remove InParty("RASAAD") and InMyArea("RASAAD") from AR0020.bcs or provide an alternate set of conditions if you don't have Rasaad. This will spawn the cloaked figure (OHRCLOAK).
Now in OHRCLOAK.dlg we need to provide an alternate bit of dialog that sidesteps Rasaad's dialog and sends us directly to Ext.ref #7 which will give us the Amphitheatre location.
STEP 3: - At the Amphitheatre (OH4000) we need to trigger Hammerhelm's recruitment speech without Rasaad in party. So we just remove IsValidForPartyDialog("RASAAD") from OHRHHELM.bcs. And in OHRHHELM.dlg we need to create a new dialog tree that activates without Rasaad, so we can get the location of the Heretic Temple.
From this point onwards you can complete the Heretic Temple like normal. There are no problems if you don't have Rasaad.
Dorn's quest line is slightly harder.
STEP 1: - The wedding massacre is pretty unique to Dorn, so I think we could ignore it entirely.
STEP 2: - To gain access to the Helmite Camp, we need to spawn Guardian Telwyn and have him speak to you without Dorn. This is pretty straight forward. We could even make it that upon meeting with Telwyn, he'd talk about a massacre at a wedding by a half-orc, so he commissions you to hunt him down. Or say that he needs backup at the Helmite Camp because legions of undead are spawning at that point. That would trigger a condition to remove Dorn from the Temple District.
STEP 3: - If you have the Helmite Camp on your world map and you don't have Dorn, then you can simply enter it and talk to the priests for various one liners. There would could create an encounter with the undead, that upon purging each one, it would spawn Dorn who would try to convince you to join him or he would attack you and the priests. Upon killing Dorn, the priest at the camp could talk about Resurrection Gorge, how it could be used to summon whatever demon was behind Dorn, so that Helm could defeat it once and for all. That would trigger Resurrection Gorge to appear on your map.
STEP 4: - Once you have Resurrection Gorge on your map, you can enter it and complete it even without Dorn. That means you can collect all three summoning stones like usual. There an encounter could be created where you summon Dorn's patron to kill. All that would have to be decided is who would be the sacrifice to summon the demon. It could be a party member, a helm priest who volunteers or some other option.
STEP 2: - To gain access to the Helmite Camp, we need to spawn Guardian Telwyn and have him speak to you without Dorn. This is pretty straight forward. We could even make it that upon meeting with Telwyn, he'd talk about a massacre at a wedding by a half-orc, so he commissions you to hunt him down. Or say that he needs backup at the Helmite Camp because legions of undead are spawning at that point. That would trigger a condition to remove Dorn from the Temple District.
STEP 3: - If you have the Helmite Camp on your world map and you don't have Dorn, then you can simply enter it and talk to the priests for various one liners. There would could create an encounter with the undead, that upon purging each one, it would spawn Dorn who would try to convince you to join him or he would attack you and the priests. Upon killing Dorn, the priest at the camp could talk about Resurrection Gorge, how it could be used to summon whatever demon was behind Dorn, so that Helm could defeat it once and for all. That would trigger Resurrection Gorge to appear on your map.
STEP 4: - Once you have Resurrection Gorge on your map, you can enter it and complete it even without Dorn. That means you can collect all three summoning stones like usual. There an encounter could be created where you summon Dorn's patron to kill. All that would have to be decided is who would be the sacrifice to summon the demon. It could be a party member, a helm priest who volunteers or some other option.
Hexxat's quest line is incredibly hard to mod, since you'll be crafting an entirely new storyline.
STEP 1: - You'll need to trigger the door to the tomb to open that involves messing with the area's script. Then you'll need to open the secret wall inside. From there on you can do everything like normal without Hexxat except the forcefield barrier will prevent you. If you cheat teleport ahead, her tomb does nothing.
STEP 2: - If you MoveToArea inside the Kara-Tur tomb, you can do everything like normal, however you don't get the reward from the ghost monks. Their dialog and scripts would have to be altered.
STEP 3: - If you MoveToArea inside the Al-Qadim tomb, you can do everything like normal, no editing out Hexxat at all.
I'm thinking that a quest could be created that you team up with the temple of Lathander to purge various tombs in the graveyard, eventually unlocking Dragomir's Tomb. Where inside you get past the forcefield thanks to a lathander priest with the determination to do so. There he would instruct you to stake Hexxat's heart, thus also freeing Clara from her domination charm. Afterwards, the Lathander priest would take the Casque and would every now and then use it to send you to go purge other tombs throughout Faerun (Kara-Tur and Al-Qadim). Alternatively you could instead team up with Talos to do the exact opposite, by looting and unleashing the undead within the tombs.
STEP 2: - If you MoveToArea inside the Kara-Tur tomb, you can do everything like normal, however you don't get the reward from the ghost monks. Their dialog and scripts would have to be altered.
STEP 3: - If you MoveToArea inside the Al-Qadim tomb, you can do everything like normal, no editing out Hexxat at all.
I'm thinking that a quest could be created that you team up with the temple of Lathander to purge various tombs in the graveyard, eventually unlocking Dragomir's Tomb. Where inside you get past the forcefield thanks to a lathander priest with the determination to do so. There he would instruct you to stake Hexxat's heart, thus also freeing Clara from her domination charm. Afterwards, the Lathander priest would take the Casque and would every now and then use it to send you to go purge other tombs throughout Faerun (Kara-Tur and Al-Qadim). Alternatively you could instead team up with Talos to do the exact opposite, by looting and unleashing the undead within the tombs.
---
So basically this thread is to gauge interest in such a mod. I'm currently developing another one that is rather massive, so I could probably only free up Neera and Rasaad's quests by myself. I'm going to do a version of this for my own personal use, but I'm just wondering if this would be used by others?
It's important to note that this is only for the SoA quests. I have absolutely no idea how to integrate such ToB quests like Dorn's raid on Lumia. There could be a way, but at the moment I have the vaguest of ideas.
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Comments
And as for the Lumia, this quest can start after you kill Yaga-shura in his camp without Dorn in your party.
It could be something like this:
On your way to Amkethran, you will encounter with a group of paladins and priests of Tyr, who fights with demons and some different kind of creatures. After the fight, they will thank you and ask you, if you can escort them to their temple and speak with their leader. After this, their leader will tells you, that they are sometimes ambushed by some very strong forces of evil, who is trying to get to the Lumia. You can offer help them or refuse ( in that time, you can allied yourself with their enemies and corrupt that tree in Lumia ). There could be also some special rewards if the Charname is Paladin ( also for Blackguard if you are with enemies like Silver Dragon Scales ).
It's just an idea, that's all.