Party Reputation Mod

viktorh

I'm planning a mix-alignment party, but those reputation mechanics would make my playthrough really annoying ("evil" characters leaving)... I know there is the Happy Party mod, but I have never used it before. I read somewhere that although it successfully forbids evil party members from leaving, it also cancels their in-party banter. Is that true? If so, is there some other way around this? Ideally, I would like to keep everything as close to vanilla as possible, just preventing my guys from leaving. BGEE+BG2EE compatible of course.

Thanks

the_spyder

I want to say that SCS has something that, but I couldn't swear that's the case. Others may post more on that or other mods.

You do know that you can manage your rep, right? Killing, stealing from random innocents will keep your rep comfortably in the 12-15 range while still leaving you some wiggle room in case you get a bonus for a completed quest. And from an RP perspective, merely think of it like your NPCs have their own minds and Charname doesn't rule with an iron fist. They go and do as they please.

Dorn goes out and ganks some townie for blocking his light. Monty robs and murders some wealthy merchant for the spare change and the practice. etc... Even Jan and Imoen (both of whom are thieves) could reasonably argue the point that birds gotta fly and fish gotta swim.

It does add an extra element to manage in the game, and I can understand how some people might not like it. Just saying that if you can't find what you are looking for, there are alternatives. Good luck.

CrevsDaak

Jalily posted an edited file in a similar thread that caused Party Members to stay. Maybe it wasn't that specifically.
And if you disable it by making everyone be happy at every time, I don't think banters could break, what can't be removed are Vicconia/Keldorn/Anomen/Edwin's fight to death.

the_spyder

As a side note, you can manage the Viccy/Keldorn fights. Which is to say that they are statistically likely to happen, but if reload the most recent save game prior to the fight, it still becomes a 'chance' it will happen rather than a certainty. I've completed the game (well, at least gotten WELL beyond those fights) with both in tow.

viktorh

the_spyder said:

You do know that you can manage your rep, right? Killing, stealing from random innocents will keep your rep comfortably in the 12-15 range while still leaving you some wiggle room in case you get a bonus for a completed quest. And from an RP perspective, merely think of it like your NPCs have their own minds and Charname doesn't rule with an iron fist. They go and do as they please.

Yeah, i know - that's the "really annoying" part of my post... Frankly, maybe a theft is passable (although money is really not the problem in BG series), but killing innocents is not something "evil" person would just do... Maybe lunatics. Sure, I can create some convenient situation in my head why Dorn just killed some poor insignificant no name peasant but it would felt forced and silly... and annoying

The reputation system in BG is flawed, because keeping it low requires killing nobodies without any cause and stealing in poor people's houses even though you're probably one of the richest people around... Even with all those quests where you can make an evil choice, you'r gonna have a hard time keeping your rep low...

AstroBryGuy

@viktorh - Paste the following into a text file called HAPPY.2DA and put it in your override directory. NPCs will still be happy/angry about your repuation if it's too high or too low, but they won't leave the party.

2DA V1.0
0
      GOOD          NEUTRAL     EVIL
1       -160         -160        80
2       -160         -160        80
3       -160         -160        80
4       -160         -80         80
5       -160         -80         80
6       -80           0          80
7       -80           0          0
8       -80           0          0
9        0            0          0
10       0            0          0
11       0            0          0
12       0           80          0
13       80          80         -80
14       80          80         -80
15       80           0         -80
16       80           0         -160
17       80           0         -160
18       80           0         -160
19       80           0         -160
20       80           0         -160

the_spyder

@viktorh - The reputation system is deeply flawed, full stop. It's one of the few problems with the game in my estimation. So I feel your pain.

Let me suggest that thieving isn't always about getting more money. Sometimes it is 'Because i can' or 'to see if i can' or even 'to prove a point to others that i can'. I think that other people's property comes quite naturally to Jan Jensen (just to pick a name at random), not necessarily because he "Needs" the money.

And for all intents and purposes, regardless of alignment, Charname has the deaths of hundreds, verging on thousands of people over the course of the game. By almost any definition you care to use, he's a mass murderer. One random innocent at the hands of a Chaotic Evil Blackguard shouldn't be that hard to justify. At least it isn't in my book.

SionIV

BG2tweaks won't have them fight each other or leave you because of reputation. You'll still have the interaction with the exception of the dialogue that makes them fight each other. I don't play without that component in my games as i prefer to mix characters. It's a very useful mod, easy to install and with several small components which you can pick between.

viktorh

Thank you all for helpful comments! I'm gonna edit the happy.2da file.

meagloth

I always wished an evil CHARNAME could explain to neutral and lawful evil characters that they just had to look good.

SCARY_WIZARD

meagloth said:

I always wished an evil CHARNAME could explain to neutral and lawful evil characters that they just had to look good.

"It's called Public Relations. We don't want to come off as too sinister too early."