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Glows and Paperdolls mod

lunarlunar Member Posts: 3,460
edited December 2014 in BGII:EE Mods
After playing iwd, returning to bg felt like a downgrade in terms of casting graphics and sounds. Somehow, iwd feels more magical and their casting animations look prettier to me. They also sound better. So I dig into iwd files , edited them a bit and used them in my bg games. The results looked aesthetically pleasing to me, so I decided to share it as a mini-mod.

This is for variety, and those who want to see or hear new things in their bg2 game.

This mod has 5 components. To install, you need to do a basic, manual installation:you must copy all of the files in the corresponding folder to your override folder. Uninstalling is just deleting those files from your override folder.

Component:Casting Glows. Simple enough, this makes all casting glow effects to use iwd versions. I have edited them a bit to make them look more interesting. I know there is a bg2 tweaks component for this, but mine are a bit edited to make them look a bit different. Here is a screenshot that shows different characters casting different spells. I think they look better.

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Component:Casting Sounds. These import iwd casting sounds, they accompany casting glows and are more powerful sounding than bg counterparts IMHO. Casting finishing sounds are also included.

Component:Additional effects. These add a few new graphic effects from iwd game. To see them you need to use edited spells component, as well, so that the spells will use these effects.

Component:Edited spells. These edit various spells to use iwd additional effects included in the previous component. Also I have tweaked a few spells.

Visual tweaks:Charm person type spells do not use a projectile. IWD Enchantment hit effects included if the spell works.
IWD Necromancy, evocation, and alteration hit effects added to many spells. Illusion hit effect added to some illusion spells. Note that these hit effects look weaker than iwd in bg engine, somehow they look more translucent. It adds a bit more to look at though.

Added new effects for disintegrate and finger of death from iwd. Finger of death's projectile omitted. Disintegrate projectile uses the old bg2 one. Screenshot:

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Tweaked spells:

Good berry-iwd version, creates 1 berry, heals 5 hp.

Ice storm-tried to make it close to pnp and give it some use in the battlefield. Damage reduced to 1d8/round but added sleet effect:random blindness or slow for one round. Cone of cold's ice effects are also made more bluish. Added cold hit effect from iwd.

Meteor Swarm-completely redesigned the spell. This spell had no use at all in vanilla gameplay. I made it a bit interesting and closer to pnp. It now launches a mini bursting bullet to every target in the area. The more targets, the more bursts. Each burst does 4d10 dmg with a save for half. This is an experimental spell, and since it has no use in vanilla gameplay (dragons breath or comet is far superiour) I think it may be fun to experiment with it.

Deva-Planetar summonings-reduced their duration to 10 rounds, same as elemental prince summoning. Also, edited them heavily. I made them closer to pnp. They are not fire immune (but %50 resistant) and their spells are changed to what they should have according to pnp. Added a cool sound effect upon summoning.

Component:Paperdolls. These put the bg2 paperdolls back for the nostalgic player. Many consider bg2 paperdolls inferiour but I like them, regardless. There are a few caveats with the enhanced edition, though. Elven paperdolls look a bit goofy with some helmets, as they cover their eyes. Halfling paperdolls wearing heavy armor produce a minor graphical glitch in the empty area for some reason. And if a thief/bard wears chain armor it reverts to ee version as bg2 had no paperdolls for these.

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I also reccomend improved bams mod, it reverts many item icons back to bg2 ones for the truly nostalgic effect.

This is a mod I have cooked up for my personal enjoyment. Just wanted to share with others that want to try out some colorful graphical and sound variety in their bg2 games.

Note that this mod works on Ipad, this is where I play all the time. (and where screenshots are from) Since I don't touch dialog.tlk, just copying the files into override or portraits folder in bg2 folder on Ipad, via a program like Ifunbox, will work.

Note that paperdolls and casting glows/sounds will work for bg1:ee game. Paperdolls also work for iwd:ee.
Troodon80JuliusBorisovelminsterDJKajurulolienCahirCrevsDaakT2avArdul

Comments

  • T2avT2av Member Posts: 202
    Awesome work
    JuliusBorisovlolienlunar
  • lunarlunar Member Posts: 3,460
    Hey thank you! I have completely forgotten about putting this here. :)
    T2avJuliusBorisov
  • FandraxxFandraxx Member Posts: 193
    Disintegrate Cespenar? Nots the greats butler!
    lunarJuliusBorisovCrevsDaakStalkingwolf
  • StalkingwolfStalkingwolf Member Posts: 22
    edited October 2015
    what mod are you using for gui and armor?
  • lunarlunar Member Posts: 3,460

    what mod are you using for gui and armor?

    Umm gui, I dunno, only the left side buttons are a bit different (bigger) and iirc it is from bg2ee gui for bg1ee mod for Ipad, maybe. I now added a simple file from 1pp mod that adds the shadows of amn main symbol to the clock in the down left corner.
    I also have some files from 1pp that makes empty inventory slots look a bit more intricate. Not shown on these screenshots.
    For item looks I have improved bams mod which basicly put the original item looks from vanilla bg2. Bg2 ee uses 1pp which uses bg1 item looks.
    As for inventory paperdoll looks I took the neccessary files from original bg2 you can find the files in this download.
    I like to mix-match mods frequently to change the gui, inventory looks, spell effects etc. On my ipad no less.

    Stalkingwolf
  • StalkingwolfStalkingwolf Member Posts: 22
    Thanks for sharing what you used in your screenshots!
    lunar
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