BiG World Setup "Tactics" 42 Hours Installation - Pure Awesome

BGEFanatic

after 42 hours of installation of the BiG World "Tactics version" it's finally done and man was it worth the time? I must tell....I finally decided to trash BGEE1&2 (snipped). every bit of mod I'm lovin it (although it may still not perfect) and man I'm thanking all of the modders of Baldur's Gate...well, what can you expect after 15 years right? Pure awesomeness!

Goodbye BGEE for now....I still love the community it created. Mostly great people here too and I still kept on coming back for more awesome tips and tricks from you guys. :P

daven

Are you going to elaborate on what you're talking about?!?!?!

Balrog99

I believe he's referring to a 'mega-mod' which usually includes Baldur's Gate Trilogy and a boat-load of other mods. There's a lot of information on creating mega-mods at the Spellhold Studios website. Back in the day when I had more free-time (ie: single with no kids) I made one that included over 50 different mods. It was really kick-ass, albeit but not completely bug-free. By the time I finally brought my mage/thief charname all the way to the end of TOB I was level 50/50 and really felt like a god!

CaloNord

Hmmm interesting. To be honest I don't think I could be bothered investing that much time in it. I'm perfectly happy with BG:EE and the mods I have for it. Besides, it's being updated and there is apparently going to DLC and new content at some point sooo... I'll stay right here

Balrog99

I'm the same way as you now CaloNord. The laptop I had the mega-mod installed on crashed about 6 years ago and I've never had the time to invest in creating another one. Kudos to BGEFanatic, though! It's a great feeling when you finally get a (somewhat) stable mega-mod to play around with.

Edit: I still have that laptop in my basement BTW. I always have this thought that someday I might want to try and salvage it. It would probably take me less time to fix the computer than it would to recreate the mega-mod!

CaloNord

Yea I know right? That and when you have a mega-mod bug stomping can be so tricky. That and I'm becoming more and more of a "Less mods is better" kind of the guy the older I get.
At the moment I'm only running tweak pack, Dark Horizons and SCS.
If the hard drive isn't buggered you might be able to get a dump off it? I turned my old hard drives into Externals. My local computer shop sells hard drive cradles converting them from one to another

BGEFanatic

Well, I'm not bashing BGEE or its players....cos I'm a proud owner myself. It's that I'm bragging till this moment how great a Baldur's Gate with mega-mods installed. That said, BGEE 10-15 years from now or less might have even better mega-mods of its own and that is superb and might even become superior than the old BG+mods.

What I'm saying, I'm just happy playing it with mods and I'm very thankful for the modders and as well as the creators of the game itself + the great community here and there (baldursgate.com, spellhold studios, gibberlings, and pocketplane) because of their continuous support.

Even though the mega-mods aren't as "bug-free" - it still makes the game what Baldur's Gate really should be in the first place, but for those who are "less mods is better kind of guy or gal" then I say go for BGEE. :P

---

@Balrog99 Mate, there is now a single-click installer that can make your life much easier without doing the manual installations of each and every mods. Depends on the version you choose.

@CaloNord You only need time and patient - cos all you do is click and wait. My computer spec is kinda crappy so is the reason of the installation taking a long ass time to finish.

SpaceInvader

Unfortunately, the problem is not only these 42 hours you spent to install everything. But the time you'll invest to fix conflicts between mods, too.
I did it 4-5 times in the old days and I remember I was forced to constantly play with NearInfinity AND ShadowerKeeper open to fix bugs during the run.
But have fun, anyway!

ALIEN

I get the feeling that this community have no clue about BGT,BWP and BWS. A guide maybe?

SpaceInvader

ALIEN said:

I get the feeling that this community have no clue about BGT,BWP and BWS. A guide maybe?

I have the opposite feeling; here I found more "BG-competent" people rather than in forums like gamefaqs, gamebanshee (still love that forum tho), ironworks, sorcerer's place and others.
But if you need one guide, here it is: http://www.shsforums.net/topic/53390-how-to-install-bwp-for-newbies-and-up/

Anduin

Spellhold studios took my life...

ALIEN

SpaceInvader said:

But if you need one guide, here it is: http://www.shsforums.net/topic/53390-how-to-install-bwp-for-newbies-and-up/

There is no mention of BWS and dealing with BWP is for beginners, a real nightmare.

CaloNord

I dunno there's a TON of people around here who play with mods, have played the BGT and other total conversion types or are modders in their own right then a lot of other places.
There's also a lot of new talent and new fans coming in to that might not necessarily have ever picked the title up if it hadn't been enhanced and re-released and they may well go back to the originals in the months and years to come.
God knows it a title with a hell of a long shelf life...

BGEFanatic

SpaceInvader said:

Unfortunately, the problem is not only these 42 hours you spent to install everything. But the time you'll invest to fix conflicts between mods, too.
I did it 4-5 times in the old days and I remember I was forced to constantly play with NearInfinity AND ShadowerKeeper open to fix bugs during the run.
But have fun, anyway!

Nope , nope...see that's where you're wrong. The new BiG World Setup "BWS" is much proficient at installing mods on it's own now. It has dependencies and can automatically filter out mods that is in conflict with each other - so no problem there at all. There are different versions to choose from.

(copy-pasta)

1.Total happiness plus - Additional selected NPCs and quests are installed. Bigger additions are left out.

2.MegaMod - In addition to the previous selection, two megamods (DSotSC + TDD) and fitting mods are installed.

3.MegaMod plus - In addition to the previous selection, other big mods, npcs, quests and fitting mods are installed.

4.Arkenor's Adventure Picks - Adds the maximum amount of adventure while leaving out items and mods that make the game just easier, unbalanced or more unstable. It uses the BiG Picture AI rather than SCS and some strict XP reduction. Thus don't feel bad if you may want to bump yourself a level at the beginning.

You can choose the following BWP-versions:
5.Minimal - Installs only 'BG2 Fixpack' and 'Baldur's Gate Trilogy', to combine BG1 and BG2 with the add-ons to one game.

6.Recommend - A balanced and good extended BG1 and BG2 game experience.

7.Standard - Installs additional mods, which have no bugs and are not too difficult. Unfortunately with the large number of mods BG1 and BG2 can get too unbalanced and feel overloaded.

8.Tactic - Installs additional mods, which make BG1 and BG2 much more difficulty. Therefore this version is only for experienced gamers.

9.Expert - Installs addional all the mods which have bugs or cause problems in megamods. Therefore if you choose this version, you should know how you can solve problems by yourself and you should know something about BG programming.

-
Most of them have no issues unlike the latter version "Expert" as you have read it in the description. I have choosen the "Tactic" version because it is almost perfect but ofc it's not as "bug-free" but hey it does work great. The installation took 42-hours....the more mods the more time it will take to install. It's heavy-modding of the game you know. But if you are in for a minimal installation then choose the earlier ones.

For example is this video tutorial just to let you guys see how easy it can be. (note: not my channel)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G03eXY4urwQ

See the entire Database of mods here: http://kerzenburg.baldurs-gate.eu/bwpmods.php
I guess it's reasonable enough how time consuming it was to install each mod and "BWS" is using autoIT to do the downloading & installation automatically. It was like this "Copying files" then "Patching new files", etc. Time consuming indeed. But if you guys really are a big fan of this game...then you shouldn't be overlooking the mega-mods.

But if really are a BGEE fanatic then I say stick with it. There is nothing wrong with that, if you enjoy it. I enjoy BGEE as well but I enjoy the old BG+mods a lot.

CaloNord

Actually that looks pretty bloody good...

BGEFanatic

CaloNord said:

Actually that looks pretty bloody good...

Telling you the truth...I'm noob when it comes to modding Baldur's Gate but then seeing how easy it was now - it's easy peasy. No more troubleshooting whatnot and all the crap. Simply click-install. :P

But hey, wait till you see the new gameplay experience the mega-mod has to offer. I wish I can make a video of the vanilla version and the mega-mod'ed version of the game.

Scooter

BGEFanatic said:

I must tell....I finally decided to trash BGEE1&2 (but might come back for it later - no pun intended). :P

I'm sorry, I still trying to find where the pun is here… its killing me

CaloNord

BGEFanatic said:

But hey, wait till you see the new gameplay experience the mega-mod has to offer. I wish I can make a video of the vanilla version and the mega-mod'ed version of the game.

Are you a used car salesman by any chance?

Scooter said:

BGEFanatic said:

I must tell....I finally decided to trash BGEE1&2 (but might come back for it later - no pun intended). :P

I'm sorry, I still trying to find where the pun is here… its killing me

I can't find one. I stared for hours...

BGEFanatic

Haha, idk where this leads now to my bad grammar? forgive cos I'm not native in English good sirs. Yeah, i know plenty who aren't native in English but good as one and I'm not...sorry. hehe

Lemme rephrase "I finally decided to trash BGEE1&2, no pun intended to fanboys" better?

CaloNord

Hahahah! Oh now it makes perfect sense! No problem at all my good man! It's a pain of a language to learn

Anduin

Big World Setup. Was awesome. Just click and play before going to sleep. Have an awesome mega-mod installation next day.

Anduin

However. The bugs. Some big and black... mostly because I wanted the never ending journey mod installed... made me go to bgee. I have never looked back...

BGEFanatic

Anduin said:

However. The bugs. Some big and black

Sorry to hear but I never experience that one yet.

ALIEN

Just if someone is interested:
BWS: https://bitbucket.org/BigWorldSetup/bigworldsetup/downloads
Help: http://www.shsforums.net/forum/193-mega-mod-help/

CrevsDaak

I like to play with just the 31 mods I use, I don't tend to use other ones. Sometimes I use less mods to hasten the installation, as I do it manually (because I use Mac).

BelgarathMTH

@BGEFanatic‌ , just in case you're open to learning to improve your English, that's still not a correct use of the phrase "no pun intended." I think what you mean to say is "no offense", or "no offense intended." Also, the word "fanboy" is usually meant as an insult.

A quick search turns up this example of the correct use of "no pun intended":

A guy with one hand is in the supermarket, and he keeps dropping a bag of oranges. A woman comes up to him and says.."Need a hand ? " Then she says "Oh, no pun intended." ( meaning she's not joking about his lost limb )

A pun is a form of joke made by playing around with the sounds of words or the use of words in expressions. Sometimes a person chooses to word an idea a certain way, and then realizes that it could be taken as an offensive, bad, or even dirty joke. Then the person might say "no pun intended." I guess I can see how that could get confused with the meaning of "no offense".

"No offense" means you know you've said something that could be taken as controversial, provocative, or critical, and that you're hoping it will be taken in the spirit of friendly debate or constructive criticism, or an innocent expression of an opinion that you know others might disagree with. I think that's what you meant to say here.

Anduin

BGEFanatic said:

Anduin said:

However. The bugs. Some big and black

Sorry to hear but I never experience that one yet.

Have you tried the never ending journey mod?

comebackhome

BGEFanatic said:

SpaceInvader said:

Unfortunately, the problem is not only these 42 hours you spent to install everything. But the time you'll invest to fix conflicts between mods, too.
I did it 4-5 times in the old days and I remember I was forced to constantly play with NearInfinity AND ShadowerKeeper open to fix bugs during the run.
But have fun, anyway!

Nope , nope...see that's where you're wrong. The new BiG World Setup "BWS" is much proficient at installing mods on it's own now. It has dependencies and can automatically filter out mods that is in conflict with each other - so no problem there at all. There are different versions to choose from.

(copy-pasta)

1.Total happiness plus - Additional selected NPCs and quests are installed. Bigger additions are left out.

2.MegaMod - In addition to the previous selection, two megamods (DSotSC + TDD) and fitting mods are installed.

3.MegaMod plus - In addition to the previous selection, other big mods, npcs, quests and fitting mods are installed.

4.Arkenor's Adventure Picks - Adds the maximum amount of adventure while leaving out items and mods that make the game just easier, unbalanced or more unstable. It uses the BiG Picture AI rather than SCS and some strict XP reduction. Thus don't feel bad if you may want to bump yourself a level at the beginning.

You can choose the following BWP-versions:
5.Minimal - Installs only 'BG2 Fixpack' and 'Baldur's Gate Trilogy', to combine BG1 and BG2 with the add-ons to one game.

6.Recommend - A balanced and good extended BG1 and BG2 game experience.

7.Standard - Installs additional mods, which have no bugs and are not too difficult. Unfortunately with the large number of mods BG1 and BG2 can get too unbalanced and feel overloaded.

8.Tactic - Installs additional mods, which make BG1 and BG2 much more difficulty. Therefore this version is only for experienced gamers.

9.Expert - Installs addional all the mods which have bugs or cause problems in megamods. Therefore if you choose this version, you should know how you can solve problems by yourself and you should know something about BG programming.

-
Most of them have no issues unlike the latter version "Expert" as you have read it in the description. I have choosen the "Tactic" version because it is almost perfect but ofc it's not as "bug-free" but hey it does work great. The installation took 42-hours....the more mods the more time it will take to install. It's heavy-modding of the game you know. But if you are in for a minimal installation then choose the earlier ones.

For example is this video tutorial just to let you guys see how easy it can be. (note: not my channel)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G03eXY4urwQ

See the entire Database of mods here: http://kerzenburg.baldurs-gate.eu/bwpmods.php
I guess it's reasonable enough how time consuming it was to install each mod and "BWS" is using autoIT to do the downloading & installation automatically. It was like this "Copying files" then "Patching new files", etc. Time consuming indeed. But if you guys really are a big fan of this game...then you shouldn't be overlooking the mega-mods.

But if really are a BGEE fanatic then I say stick with it. There is nothing wrong with that, if you enjoy it. I enjoy BGEE as well but I enjoy the old BG+mods a lot.

Very informative post. Thank you.

meagloth

Ugh. I can't even get xan npc onto my iPad.

terzaerian

Old-school BG modder here. I thought the idea of the BiG World mods was intriguing but ultimately wasn't for me, and I stick with the TuTu-fied BG1 and modded BG2. I also got BG/2:EE (in fact I just picked up 3 copies of 2 this Summer Sale - one for me, one for a friend, and one for a worthy future recipient), though I suspect that if/when I play the EEs it will be for a multiplayer runthrough.

CaloNord

I think people just need to be a little patient with the Enhanced Editions. Everything will get transferred over to them eventually, or remade entirely. The EE's have continued support which is going to be great and for me at least run really well on my windows 8, while the old editions barely ran at all. The native widescreen and better resolutions remove the need for one mod entirely as do a lot of the bug fixing.
Will just take sometime, it's been a long time since BG was truly ALIVE.