Any mods important enough to make you wait until you start playing BG EE?
mlnevese
Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
I was playing my current run of BGT today and I suddenly realized that there's at least one mod that would make me postpone playing the EE.
I will probably wait until BG1NPC Project is fully compatible with the EE before I start seriously playing it. The game would feel strange to me without interjection between all NPCs and not only the new ones with old npcs/CHARNAME.
Other mods I like but that will not stop me are BG1 UB and the friendship paths.
I will probably wait until BG1NPC Project is fully compatible with the EE before I start seriously playing it. The game would feel strange to me without interjection between all NPCs and not only the new ones with old npcs/CHARNAME.
Other mods I like but that will not stop me are BG1 UB and the friendship paths.
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Comments
Okay, maybe not. I might be able to stomach that damn thing just once more...
I mean let's take a look at the typical installation. Most of it is just fixpacks. Once BG:EE comes out all of it will be redundant and we'll have a few megamods like TSoBH and smaller ones like Sirine.
The only content mods which are at the height of completion and quality are BG1NPC and UB(1/2). The rest either add unbalanced items, poorly designed areas or just plain bugs, or at the most they're good mods which need more work. At the end of the day you have to give credit to the authors for their time but the work doesn't always pay off.
Of course, that depends on what the wait limit is. With a little luck, the modders who programmed these mods are also the betatesters for the EE, which might mean they're already working on an update of the mods so they're ready for download at launch.
Let's hope.
Thereafter I'll wait until SCS, BG1 NPC Project, and Unfinished Business 1 are compatible. I also typically install Dark Side of the Sword Coast and the Gray Clan, so hopefully those mods will be ready by then as well. Those are the main mods that I can remember... I haven't the game played in 4 years. So if there are other mods for BG1 that I'm forgetting, or more recent ones that look good, I'll probably add those in as well. I always played the game heavily modded via BGT.
For me it's a happy thing that I'll be breaking up BG1 and BG2. I have very little time to devote to this pastime anymore; just a little time here and there every so often. If I was playing BGT with all those mods again, I'm sure it would take me at least 6 months to complete the entire saga.
The thing I like about BG:EE is that it seems like the only stuff they're including are FIXES, not CHANGES like 'remove helmet ani' and SCS. I agree with this sentiment.
Make 1PP, UB and BG1NPC optional, update them, make them purdy, put a link on them from the website, then everybody will be happy.
and i already have BGT, but it seems to cheapen the game with replacing most all the art with bg2. maybe bg tutu but sounds like it does the same thing?
As for recommended mods, it depends on how closely you want to stick to the "canon" game. "Unfinished Business" is all about restoring/fixing content that was meant to be in the game, whereas BG1NPC adds a lot of material but most (if not all) of it is fan-made. I'd also recommend using the Tweaks pack for general convenience.
If the banter had been more infrequent, like in BG2, it might have been a welcome addition. But I felt like I the game was trying to DDoS CHARNAME. Granted, that was maybe a year ago, and that could have changed(or I could be thinking of a different mod altogether).
There are however things that are improvements to the game, to my taste, that are added by mod, that I will be using as soon as they're updated. Must-haves for me, without which BGEE will feel 'strange':
Hard Times (I will feel like being bombarded with magic items and getting far too rich far too quickly without it, like there's no real crisis in the Swordcoast),
NPC1-project (vanilla NPC's will sound awfully quiet without it, only chattering with Dorn, Neera and Rashaad, but not amongst themselves),
a lots of tweaks from BG2 Tweaks, SCS and aTweaks,
the improved AI by Sword Coast Stratagems.
Only things that will become redunant are the fixes (but even the Tutu Fixpack has some tweaks I like, the walking speeds and increased stack size, even though Tutu walking speeds were bugged, the speed felt right) and the Widescreen mod. But I think we should resurrect a monument depicting a man cuddling a miniature giant spacehamster for all the work The Bigg did in keeping Infinity Engine games alive and loved with his mod.