Haven't really done too much in the last few days. Today I've largely been working on adding new merchants to the game (as seen on the map I posted on the third page). One of these merchants will have a special item for sale.
Its a wardstone. In Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast its mentioned that there are golems in the firewine ruins. So I've added a few lesser golems into the ruins. These golems however will not be hostile towards you if you have this wardstone in your possession. Its also mentioned there that no local has the wardstone. So I've put it into the store inventory of a junk dealer in Baldur's Gate (who I also added in).
The other thing I've worked on is an improved beggars component. If its installed beggars will have flies appearing over their heads and extremely low reputation parties can give them a donation to raise the parties reputation (provided the line they use isn't snappy).
So I've been spending part of the last few days working on the merchant component. There will be 3 additional merchants in Beregost and 11 in Baldur's Gate (thats separate from merchants added by other components, so in total there could very well end up being 20 added by this mod). Some of these merchants are weapon merchants, others sell food, some sell more miscellaneous items. There will be a few magical items amongst them but for the most part this is stuff that won't affect your gameplay. Its more just for flavour. There is even one that sells the animals he's tracked down as "pets" for the noble families of Baldur's Gate to purchase (these don't actually do anything, they are just animals you can have in your inventory). A cat, a bird, that kind of thing
Figured I'd provide an update. So the merchant component is complete. It ended up being 17 street merchants added to the city of Baldur's Gate. 7 of which are in the central part of the city (most of which are found in the carnival/market area). The remainder largely were placed based on where wagons and other such objects had already been placed on each map (2 in the north, 3 in the northwest, 1 in the east, and 2 in the south).
Its been about a month since I've posted any actual content from the mod. So here is the letter Kelddath gives you explaining (in more detail) the situation in Beregost and what he needs from you. This is part of the negotiations quest mentioned in the initial thread post.
Dear CHARNAME,
Though I am hesitant to admit so amongst my colleagues, I fear Beregost will face the brunt of any attack carried out by Amn. To that end I am entrusting you here with the safety of its citizens. While I am loathe to admit the present situation could escalate to the extent that Beregost would face an attack by Amn, I can't in good conscious govern without planning for the worst.
As you already know I have asked that you travel to Baldur's Gate, Ulgoth's Beard, Gullykin, and the Friendly Arm Inn. The intent of this travel is to acquire treaties with the communities, with the aim of securing accommodations for refugees from Beregost - should the worst transpire. While I'll admit that acquiring something as formal as a treaty may not always be feasible at present they appear to be our only option. Once at these locations you will seek out one of the following people.
Baldur's Gate: The affairs of Baldur's Gate can be politically difficult at the best of times, and I've always found to get things truly done you need to maintain good relations with the political leaders as well as those who are further down the chain of command. Officer Vai proved herself invaluable to the citizens of Beregost previously, and I suspect she might be just the person needed if refugees from Beregost are forced towards Baldur's Gate. As I understand she can be found in the eastern part of the city.
Ulgoth's Beard: Beregost does little in the way of trade with Ulgoth's Beard, but Thalantyr has explained to me that there is a mage there that serves as the de facto protector of the small town. Shandalar is his name. If you can curry his favour he may prove to be receptive to assisting our small town, should things come to that.
Friendly Arm Inn: The Mirrorshades are an odd bunch. While I'll admit I know little of gnomekind Bentley and his spouse have always come across as being compassionate folk. If one of them could be persuaded to assist us the protection provided by its walls would be invaluable for our citizens.
Gullykin: The halflings of this village are unknown to me. They tend to keep to themselves I suppose. Still, it is my understanding that the village is lead by one Gandolar Luckyfoot. I'll admit that I know nothing of what needs a small halfling village might have, but with their village so close our town I would appreciate it if you would explore this avenue.
This is indeed something worth looking forward to. I wonder about one thing that isn't clear to me. Will High Hedge Stock still be available after Thalantyr's murder? I also have mod that puts stuff there...
This is indeed something worth looking forward to. I wonder about one thing that isn't clear to me. Will High Hedge Stock still be available after Thalantyr's murder? I also have mod that puts stuff there...
Nope. But as I wrote earlier its not something that players are going to stumble into. Its only going to happen if you hit a certain point along a new questline.
This is indeed something worth looking forward to. I wonder about one thing that isn't clear to me. Will High Hedge Stock still be available after Thalantyr's murder? I also have mod that puts stuff there...
Nope. But as I wrote earlier its not something that players are going to stumble into. Its only going to happen if you hit a certain point along a new questline.
I'm still iffy on whether or not the Thalanytrs murder component will be in when this is released. Its not something I'm going to put in the mod at release if I'm not confident the dialogue and story hold up.
Anywho, so one of the things I worked on today was to completely overhaul the cheaper drinks quest for the militia in Beregost.
When I first wrote it last year I spent a really long time making it. Only problem was that it got way too convoluted, even though it was meant to be a relatively simple quest (to say I went a bit crazy with the ability checks would be an understatement). So now I've reworked it so that you will still need to convince the four different tavern owners in Beregost to lower their prices for the militia. However, you will actually now have to do a task in some cases to get it.
- The Burning Wizard will require you to reach out to find and reach out to a nearby winery. There is one already in the game (though I imagine many forget about it). This one will have a charisma check involved. - The Red Sheaf will demand that you speak to Darren about the fact that no militia has been assigned to guard their entrance. Unlike the other inns and taverns in the town. This leads to a quest involving you finding out what happened to them. - The Feldpost Inn's proprietor will mention to you that he was expecting a shipment in from Baldur's Gate some time ago. However, the caravan never arrived. So you'll need to find the shipment. - The proprietor of the Jovial Juggler on the otherhand simply requires you to convince him to do so. Mechanically its by far the most complicated. Depending on what you are looking to say this can involve a check on Strength, Charisma, Wisdom, or Intelligence (or in some cases a combination of two of these).
You possibly know it, @elminster, but I haven't till today. When you donate to temples, they offer an insight into events that are going in the world. So you probably will have to edit those insights for your mod and in terms of journal entries they give.
So I did some checking out. Turns out the amount of text that is added by the mod is now approximately 28,000 words (up from the 21,000 words reported earlier).
As far as your post @bengoshi I did have to do some minor edits to a few of the journal entries, drinking rumors, and temple rumors. Sometimes the changes being as simple as changing what chapter they unlock in. The one you posted though is likely fine since Officer Vai shows up in ch3 anyways.
Well, I've been thinking lately about one thing, but I'm not sure if it fits the scope of The Eve of War or Journey's End mods. What if you could make lore books in game mean something, instead beeing thrash items, discarded after one-time read? Like some kind of small quest, a book collector maybe who could pay handsome amount of gold for specific volumes (and even more for whole sets). To avoid players getting rich you could set rarity values to each title and/or limit occurence of each title in game. I always thought there is some potential missing when it comes to lore books. What do you think, @elminster?
I haven't had any time to work on the mod at all lately but I figured I'd give an update all the same. The last thing I did work on was to finish the red sheaf portion of the pint prices quests.
Basically the bartender in the Red Sheaf Inn is upset that his inn is the only tavern/inn in town that lacks any protection outside. In order to convince him to give the militia lower prices you are going to have to locate the pair of militia members who have wandered off from their post. As it turns out one of them is searching for his niece. So after you've located and talked to the militia members in question you have to locate the niece and bring her back to them before they will agree to return to their post.
I've tried to keep the small town feeling alive with the quests within Beregost (just because its meant to be a small town). So the quests you do see added to it will be the equivalent of fetch and carry quests and very local in nature.
Basically the bartender in the Red Sheaf Inn is upset that his inn is the only tavern/inn in town that lacks any protection outside. In order to convince him to give the militia lower prices you are going to have to locate the pair of militia members who have wandered off from their post. As it turns out one of them is searching for his niece. So after you've located and talked to the militia members in question you have to locate the niece and bring her back to them before they will agree to return to their post.
...
A suggestion for a more evil/lawful solution:
Turn these guys in. If they are abandoning their post, their superior should know (lawful), or you don't give a crap about their problems, and this seems to be the path of least resistance (evil).
You can still look for the niece if you want to, and visit them in jail to let them know that she's okay. Or, you can visit them to taunt them, maybe demand a large reward to rescue her. Or let then rot...
Yea I'm keeping those quests pretty simple (2-3 outcomes each inn/tavern). Once you get into multiple layers to each quest the number of permutations/combinations (possible outcomes) gets up there and that means a lot more work on my part. Thats one of the reasons I went back to review the quest. Anyways, I've already finished the quest so at this point and I've still got quite a bit to do before I'm ready to release the mod. So I'm not planning on going back to it.
I've got a list of about 20-30 different things I'd like to add to the mod but haven't gotten around to yet. An interior to the gnoll stronghold is there but I've already got a fair amount of work left to do on the quests that are already in the mod so its just not something I'm planning on adding at this point.
I don't have much to report other than the fact that I've been putting some finishing touches on the cyric questline.
One aspect of combat in that part of the mod is that I've designed the spell selection and scripting for the cyric worshiping mages and clerics you come across in a way that they will end up showing absolutely no regard for their fellow cyricists (this is in keeping with the church of cyric's attitudes). So if you think that a necromancer will avoid casting a Stinking Cloud or Skull Trap spell if it threatens to hit his fellow worshipers you would be mistaken. I'm not going to pretend like they are intelligently scripted (I tried to keep things true to traditional more basic Baldur's Gate scripting in that sense) but they are entirely reckless.
Turning the topic to Yeorg for a bit. Figured I'd give a background on his development. After all Yeorg has turned into one of those things where his release has just gotten delay after delay (probably like 2 years worth of delay heh). In large part this has been due to me entirely rethinking the character (including him getting a new portrait and eventually getting incorporated into this larger mod). Its also had to do with the difficulty in writing an evil sorcerer who doesn't sound like Edwin or Baeloth and the difficulty in actually finding decent VO for him to use.
He's also been rather challenging because evil characters in the series have tended to keep their knowledge and plans to themselves (whereas Yeorg is not particularly open about his plans but he is willing to talk of the history behind some of the areas in the game). So its been difficult to balance how things have been handled in the past with the direction I wanted to take with the character. At this stage he's both his own character (with some banters between him and other NPCs) and kind of a tool for players to learn more of the history behind very specific areas in the game.
Anyways, he kind of got me started in the modding process (and a lot of what I learned I learned in order to get something with him to work) but I figured I'd explain the reason for any delay with him. Particularly given that most of his content will not be in SoD.
I'm really glad Yeorg is a Dragon Disciple, which is actually my favourite kit. And he's evil on top of that, which bodes well for my evil team. To be honest I can't wait for the Eve of War.
But thanks for your support. I know I've been delaying the release of this a lot so hopefully what is released is improved over what it might have been otherwise.
Anyway, is it finished content-wise or do you plan to add some more dialogues/lines yet? I mean, do you just fixing bugs and adjusting stuff or do you still add more content?
How many lines do you estimate it will have? I'm thinking to give it a shot and translate it to Polish at some point, because it looks like it will be THE mod for BGEE I'm waiting for the whole time (well, there is also Mysteries of Sword Coast mod, but it's not EE-ready yet).
- Candlekeep: On top of the usual method a player character can now also leave Candlekeep after either attacking Gorion or after turning Candlekeep hostile. Removing Gorion's auto-kill restriction in the process (though Tethoril retains his own).
- Lion's Way: Allows a player to reject Imoen during their initial meeting after Gorion's death (she will sneak back in to Candlekeep). If you kill Imoen while in Candlekeep in the prologue she won't appear for this initial meeting. If you reject her initially you won't be able to pick her up again until chapter 6.
- Baldur's Gate: Removes Duke Eltan's auto-kill used on players that refuse to tell him what they know about the Iron Throne. Players who wish to can acquire the necessary book and chapter advance needed to return to Candlekeep by helping the Thieves Guild after being requested by Alatos. Regardless of who they choose to help out they can also hand over Balduran's Logbook at the doors of Candlekeep as well.
- Coronation Ceremony: A player character can bring Duke Eltan's body to the ceremony, who will himself call Sarevok out on his treachery. Sarevok, sensing that he has failed, will then choose to attack. In general players who have returned Duke Eltan to the harbormaster will not be auto-killed by the grand dukes.
- If Liia and Belt are killed then its not an automatic death for the player. Provided you have saved Duke Eltan.
- Cheaper prices for the Militia quest (Beregost)
- On the northern edge of the Friendly Arm Inn map along the road you can run into a caravan (a merchant with a dead horse and a dead woman found down the road from him). You can claim you are a bandit and then threaten to take his goods. This is taking advantage of the unused banmer.dlg file from the original game (chapter 3). If you have taken the goods then when you encounter the bandits in either Peldvale or Larswood you can use it to convince them of your worth.
- The Friendly Arm Inn's courtyard has been converted into a makeshift warcamp. Flaming Fist troops can be found training in it (chapter 5 or later).
- Adds a militia headquarters to Beregost and labels the Travenhurst Manor as the Town Council building.
- Militia can be found training in Beregost (chapter 2)
- Kelddath Ormlyr, Taerom, and a Familiar (representing Thalantyr) are now added around the table in the Town Council buildings first floor.
- Adds militia to the streets of Beregost (this occurs starting in Chapter 3).
- Adds Modest (a drunk Blade) to the towns inns (his location will vary to a degree depending upon the time of day).
- Adds a thief named Bethi to one of the gardens in the north-west corner of Beregost. She sells you iron goods that won't break as well as some specialty items from Waterdeep.
- Acolytes of Lathander can be found in the Burning Wizard (tending to the wounds of militia and soldiers)
- An Acolyte of Lathander is now serving the temple (instead of Kelddath).
- A head smithy is now serving the smithy (instead of Taerom)
- The Flaming Fist now have a much more visible presence in Beregost, alongside the towns militia (Chapter 5). This presence again increases in chapter 6. Their dialogue discusses how the situation is unfolding and it will adjust depending on the chapter.
- Drizzt and his full group of companions (who have been largely adjusted to fit their descriptions in the Heroes Lorebook) can be found here. Remember though, if you attack one you attack them all!
- Jasha Istor will approach any party trying to enter Nashkel and demand that they pay her off (she is an Icepriest of Auril). She offers temple services and you can also donate to her (through dialogue options) in order to lower your reputation. A low reputation character can also buy specialty goods from her (including the Snow Maiden's Reaver that exclusively does cold damage that is normally found in Icewind Dale and Icewind Dale Enhanced Edition).
-The Inn in Nashkel has been renamed the Northern Light Inn. Its owner is now a mage by the name of Reis Kensiddar.
- The store in Nashkel is now named the Cloud Peak Outfitters and is run by a halfling named Salla Pitontoe.
- The probability of it snowing is increased to 50 percent. It also will start snowing now when you first arrive in town (this is due to Nashkel being 2000 feet above sea level).
- You are given a quest to get Modest back on his feet. You must convince him to serve as a junior member of the town council or as a lieutenant in the militia.
- There is a quest involving acquiring obtaining better armor and weapons for the towns militia from Bethi.
- Quest involving scouting out Nashkel's forces for the Flaming Fist Sergeant. (Chapter 6 or later)
- Sarevok has been updated to more accurately reflect the ability of a level 15 fighter. His equipment is now more in-line with what you might expect a level 15 fighter to have in the case of BG2EE
- (if you have the bandit camp component installed) Grangor will appear in the final battle if Ardenor (in the bandit camp) was killed. He is a level 14 wizard and casts spells appropriate for that level.
- Nashkel's mayor will remain in front of the temple at the conclusion of the quest regarding the Nashkel Mines (normally I believe he disappears). If talked to again he will complain about the increase in troops.
- Beggars now have flies flying overtop of their heads. Extremely low reputation parties can give them a donation and (provided they acted respectfully when doing so) can get a small reputation increase.
- One (rather hardcore) optional component changes how parts of chapter 7 are handled in Baldur's Gate. You now must be smuggled across the river (using a smuggler available in the original game) in order to enter and exit the city. Prior to the ceremony your access to Baldur's Gate becomes severely limited. You won't be able to quick travel into the city and even your travel in the streets of the city will be limited. The sewers will become very necessary if you want to avoid the Fist.
- In the Nashkel Mine exterior map and Carnival map the probability of it snowing is increased to 50 percent (this is due to Nashkel being 2000 feet above sea level).
- You can cast Remove Curse on Brage. This will cause him to come to his senses. You can also now return him to the garrison instead of just taking him to the temple.
- Gullykin is now a wild magic area. This is where you can find Yeorg.
- The Firewine Bridge is now a wild magic area.
- The Firewine Ruins now have more magical creatures, to reflect the descriptions provided in Volo's guide. This includes, but is not necessarily exclusively limited to, lesser clay golems and other constructs. If you have a specific wardstone in your inventory you can pass by these golems without having them attack you. Spoiler: show
- The Chill in the camp have been updated to more accurately reflect how they are depicted in Gold and Glory. Their portion of the camp now contains a mix of goblins, hobgoblins, orcs, and ogres.
- The Black Talons now have female bandits. This makes them more consistent with how they are depicted in Gold and Glory.
- In PnP (Gold and Glory) Taugosz Khosann (the leader of the Black Talon) is described as being a level 11 fighter (he is only a level 8 fighter in Baldur's Gate) He's also supposed to have 18/94 strength as opposed to the 18/43 strength he has in BG. I've made him level 11, adjusted his saving throws, health, and Thac0 accordingly. He's also been given 2 points towards sword and shield style. I have not changed his equipment.
- As per PnP (Gold and Glory) Ardenor Crush now is wearing Gauntlets of Ogre Strength. He now has comparable Thac0 and abilities to a level 10 fighter (which is consistent with how he is described in Gold and Glory). I've updated his thac0, health and saving throws accordingly.
- Taugosz will approach the party after they enter the tent and retrieve the letters. He will inquire as to what they were doing in it.
- You can now cast "Remove Curse" on Centeol, which causes her to transform back into a sorceress. This presents an alternative to outright killing her.
- There are additional dialogue options for druid and avenger characters in the cloakwood forest. Other kits have occasional additional dialogs (like Priests of Talos)
- The Ice Island now has remorhaz that appear instead of ankhegs.
- Karoug is now able to be hit by any magical weapon. The Cold Iron restriction is removed. He instead has 50% magic resistance like other Greater Wolfweres. Instead of doing 1d12 damage with 3 attacks per round he has two 1d6 slashing attacks and a 2d6 piercing attack. He will also randomly summon 2d6 Dire Wolves in the event that his allies are killed and now regenerates at 8hp/second. These changes are to make him more in-line with what is found in PnP (as well as the 9th level Shapechange mage spell). Non-ship wolfweres now have 10% magic resistance to keep them consistent with PnP. Daese and other wolfweres within the ship have 25%.
- New marketplaces have been added to Baldur's Gate and Beregost. Some of these sell trivial, unusable luxury items, while others sell weapons, potions, and armor (this is meant to add some more flavor to the streets)
The following needs some tweaking
- First part of Cyric questline (this would include the Mountain of Skulls). All it needs now is some info points in the last area to flesh it out a bit more (and give description to what you are seeing in the backgrounds).
- Characters can now choose to take control of the mine instead of flooding it. This gives you a varying degree of income that you can pick up every three days from a store in the south-west of Baldur's Gate (I'll probably need to revisit this one and to make sure players are made aware of how they can get their gold).
The following are somewhat unfinished (meaning that they still need a fair bit to add but what they are lacking shouldn't stop you from being able to play them)
- All the joinable NPC's this mod adds (there are a few more SoD specific ones that I have not yet reported). The creature files are finished, their soundsets and items are finished. But when it comes to any quests they have or banters they have then its a mixed bag.
- Kelddath Ormlyr wants you can get the leaders of other small communities near Beregost (Gullykin, the Friendly Arm Inn and Ulgoth's Beard) to agree to take any refugees in the event of an invasion. (work in progress)
The following are very unfinished (meaning either they aren't close to being finished or they haven't been started)
- The second part of the Cyric questline.
- Thalantyr is found murdered.
- An Aquatic Elf can now be found near a pond in the north-west corner of the map. She is based off a mention in Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast of Thalantyr talking to someone underneath the surface of the water.
- You can also talk to Gandolar to get a quest regarding finding out what happened to a group of halfling tunnel rats.
- A thief will appear late at night in Nashkel for those looking to purchase weapons and items from the Shadow Thieves in Athkatla (chapter 3 or later).
- Either kill Duke Eltan for Alatos or discover and kill any Zhentarim influence in the city (this comes to you in the form of a letter from Lord Piergeiron of Waterdeep).
- In chapters 6 and 7 there will be additional Amnish troops stationed in Nashkel.
- With the hardcore component installed the Flaming Fist will now patrol the streets looking for you in chapter 7, instead of simply standing around.
- The Temple of Umberlee now allows you to purchase goods from them and receive church services (chapter 5 or later).
- A temple dedicated to Mask now exists in the thieves guild.
- Halbazzer Drin is now given the Meteor spell (and the instructions to cast it in his scripting). (chapter 5 or later)
- The compliment of Flaming Fists in the streets of Baldur's Gate is increased (chapter 6 and later).
- You can talk to "Merchants" found outside who will complain frequently of the rising levies on their goods to pay for this increase in troops, as well as the demands made on their businesses.
Basically I'd say a lot of the smaller components are finished, as well as a few larger ones. But depending on what you are looking for its a mixed bag.
Also keep in mind that at this stage most of this is not TRAified. The reason being that until the dialogue is finalized its a lot easier to work with when its not.
Still kind of working out the details there (as far as player input vs stats vs joinable NPC input are concerned). But yes its meant to be some variation on a detective story.
My priorities now (at least when it comes to modding) are
- Release a mod to allow for compatibility with BG2EE
One of the questlines of this mod involves you getting a small number of additional Bhaalspawn powers. So these spells need to be added to BG2EE (even before the release of A Journey's End) to ensure players don't have any bugs in that regard.
- Get joinable NPC's finished - Get the Negotiations questline finished - Get the kill Duke Eltan /kill any Zhentarim influence in the city questline finished - Get remaining SoD content finished.
I do still plan to release the mod (with it obviously being marked as being unfinished) shortly after the release of SoD (if only to secure feedback on what is actually finished and what things can be tweaked). Its obviously not going to be totally finished at that point but most of what is left to do are things you aren't going to encounter during a typical playthrough. So the impact for players of anything being unfinished should be minor.
First I would like to congratulate you for this work, I have high expectations about this.
Thinking about a possible addition to your mod I remembered of the Gnoll Stronghold. How about adding something to this scenario? I thought of an encounter with a ghost dwarf called 'Drum Dakam'; Dakam is a descendant of the creator of the ancient castle - 'Dinkamus Littlelog' - and became the heir of the fortress to guard the treasures and magical artifacts that were protected there.
Drum Dakam failed in its mission and the stronghold crumbled becoming something decadent. During the encounter you have the opportunity to talk with this melancholy character and he will tell you about the ruin of the castle, the invasions and his death after a siege of more than of one hundred days. (It would be an interesting option to discover a little more about the past of the Gnoll Stronghold and add a bit more of fresh air to this place, I think).
OPTIONAL QUEST:
After hunting some gnolls (or some 'gnoll leader') in the fortress you could return to talk again with Drum, he would tell you that for a long time do not see so brave adventurers in the region, so would be grateful to tell you that there is a hidden secret passage in one of the caves below; to explore the cave you find the passage and go to a hidden room where after a tough battle against a group of undead dwarves* you recive the quest reward: a magic shield +2 (great for a dwarf character).
Shortly after the acquisition of the magic item Dakam would come to you and give you the congratulations, and also say they can now rest in peace because the legacy of their ancestors is in good hands; If you are a dwarf could be some additional lines about the significance of this shield to the dwarves, etc. So you gain a little xp as a reward - the end of the quest.
*Undead Dwarf: It has the same basic properties of the zombies, however is stronger and resistant due to fact of being a dwarf.
I hope some of these ideas might be interesting and fun for you, I would like to see something like this in the game, good luck!
Comments
Its a wardstone. In Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast its mentioned that there are golems in the firewine ruins. So I've added a few lesser golems into the ruins. These golems however will not be hostile towards you if you have this wardstone in your possession. Its also mentioned there that no local has the wardstone. So I've put it into the store inventory of a junk dealer in Baldur's Gate (who I also added in).
The other thing I've worked on is an improved beggars component. If its installed beggars will have flies appearing over their heads and extremely low reputation parties can give them a donation to raise the parties reputation (provided the line they use isn't snappy).
Dear CHARNAME,
Though I am hesitant to admit so amongst my colleagues, I fear Beregost will face the brunt of any attack carried out by Amn. To that end I am entrusting you here with the safety of its citizens. While I am loathe to admit the present situation could escalate to the extent that Beregost would face an attack by Amn, I can't in good conscious govern without planning for the worst.
As you already know I have asked that you travel to Baldur's Gate, Ulgoth's Beard, Gullykin, and the Friendly Arm Inn. The intent of this travel is to acquire treaties with the communities, with the aim of securing accommodations for refugees from Beregost - should the worst transpire. While I'll admit that acquiring something as formal as a treaty may not always be feasible at present they appear to be our only option. Once at these locations you will seek out one of the following people.
Baldur's Gate: The affairs of Baldur's Gate can be politically difficult at the best of times, and I've always found to get things truly done you need to maintain good relations with the political leaders as well as those who are further down the chain of command. Officer Vai proved herself invaluable to the citizens of Beregost previously, and I suspect she might be just the person needed if refugees from Beregost are forced towards Baldur's Gate. As I understand she can be found in the eastern part of the city.
Ulgoth's Beard: Beregost does little in the way of trade with Ulgoth's Beard, but Thalantyr has explained to me that there is a mage there that serves as the de facto protector of the small town. Shandalar is his name. If you can curry his favour he may prove to be receptive to assisting our small town, should things come to that.
Friendly Arm Inn: The Mirrorshades are an odd bunch. While I'll admit I know little of gnomekind Bentley and his spouse have always come across as being compassionate folk. If one of them could be persuaded to assist us the protection provided by its walls would be invaluable for our citizens.
Gullykin: The halflings of this village are unknown to me. They tend to keep to themselves I suppose. Still, it is my understanding that the village is lead by one Gandolar Luckyfoot. I'll admit that I know nothing of what needs a small halfling village might have, but with their village so close our town I would appreciate it if you would explore this avenue.
When I first wrote it last year I spent a really long time making it. Only problem was that it got way too convoluted, even though it was meant to be a relatively simple quest (to say I went a bit crazy with the ability checks would be an understatement). So now I've reworked it so that you will still need to convince the four different tavern owners in Beregost to lower their prices for the militia. However, you will actually now have to do a task in some cases to get it.
- The Burning Wizard will require you to reach out to find and reach out to a nearby winery. There is one already in the game (though I imagine many forget about it). This one will have a charisma check involved.
- The Red Sheaf will demand that you speak to Darren about the fact that no militia has been assigned to guard their entrance. Unlike the other inns and taverns in the town. This leads to a quest involving you finding out what happened to them.
- The Feldpost Inn's proprietor will mention to you that he was expecting a shipment in from Baldur's Gate some time ago. However, the caravan never arrived. So you'll need to find the shipment.
- The proprietor of the Jovial Juggler on the otherhand simply requires you to convince him to do so. Mechanically its by far the most complicated. Depending on what you are looking to say this can involve a check on Strength, Charisma, Wisdom, or Intelligence (or in some cases a combination of two of these).
Example:
As far as your post @bengoshi I did have to do some minor edits to a few of the journal entries, drinking rumors, and temple rumors. Sometimes the changes being as simple as changing what chapter they unlock in. The one you posted though is likely fine since Officer Vai shows up in ch3 anyways.
I've tried to keep the small town feeling alive with the quests within Beregost (just because its meant to be a small town). So the quests you do see added to it will be the equivalent of fetch and carry quests and very local in nature.
Turn these guys in. If they are abandoning their post, their superior should know (lawful), or you don't give a crap about their problems, and this seems to be the path of least resistance (evil).
You can still look for the niece if you want to, and visit them in jail to let them know that she's okay. Or, you can visit them to taunt them, maybe demand a large reward to rescue her. Or let then rot...
The gnoll stronghold. Haven't you always wanted to raid that thing?
I've got a list of about 20-30 different things I'd like to add to the mod but haven't gotten around to yet. An interior to the gnoll stronghold is there but I've already got a fair amount of work left to do on the quests that are already in the mod so its just not something I'm planning on adding at this point.
He's also been rather challenging because evil characters in the series have tended to keep their knowledge and plans to themselves (whereas Yeorg is not particularly open about his plans but he is willing to talk of the history behind some of the areas in the game). So its been difficult to balance how things have been handled in the past with the direction I wanted to take with the character. At this stage he's both his own character (with some banters between him and other NPCs) and kind of a tool for players to learn more of the history behind very specific areas in the game.
Anyways, he kind of got me started in the modding process (and a lot of what I learned I learned in order to get something with him to work) but I figured I'd explain the reason for any delay with him. Particularly given that most of his content will not be in SoD.
But thanks for your support. I know I've been delaying the release of this a lot so hopefully what is released is improved over what it might have been otherwise.
Anyway, is it finished content-wise or do you plan to add some more dialogues/lines yet? I mean, do you just fixing bugs and adjusting stuff or do you still add more content?
How many lines do you estimate it will have? I'm thinking to give it a shot and translate it to Polish at some point, because it looks like it will be THE mod for BGEE I'm waiting for the whole time (well, there is also Mysteries of Sword Coast mod, but it's not EE-ready yet).
At this stage I'd say the situation is as follows
The following are finished
- Candlekeep: On top of the usual method a player character can now also leave Candlekeep after either attacking Gorion or after turning Candlekeep hostile. Removing Gorion's auto-kill restriction in the process (though Tethoril retains his own).
- Lion's Way: Allows a player to reject Imoen during their initial meeting after Gorion's death (she will sneak back in to Candlekeep). If you kill Imoen while in Candlekeep in the prologue she won't appear for this initial meeting. If you reject her initially you won't be able to pick her up again until chapter 6.
- Baldur's Gate: Removes Duke Eltan's auto-kill used on players that refuse to tell him what they know about the Iron Throne. Players who wish to can acquire the necessary book and chapter advance needed to return to Candlekeep by helping the Thieves Guild after being requested by Alatos. Regardless of who they choose to help out they can also hand over Balduran's Logbook at the doors of Candlekeep as well.
- Coronation Ceremony: A player character can bring Duke Eltan's body to the ceremony, who will himself call Sarevok out on his treachery. Sarevok, sensing that he has failed, will then choose to attack. In general players who have returned Duke Eltan to the harbormaster will not be auto-killed by the grand dukes.
- If Liia and Belt are killed then its not an automatic death for the player. Provided you have saved Duke Eltan.
- Cheaper prices for the Militia quest (Beregost)
- On the northern edge of the Friendly Arm Inn map along the road you can run into a caravan (a merchant with a dead horse and a dead woman found down the road from him). You can claim you are a bandit and then threaten to take his goods. This is taking advantage of the unused banmer.dlg file from the original game (chapter 3). If you have taken the goods then when you encounter the bandits in either Peldvale or Larswood you can use it to convince them of your worth.
- The Friendly Arm Inn's courtyard has been converted into a makeshift warcamp. Flaming Fist troops can be found training in it (chapter 5 or later).
- Adds a militia headquarters to Beregost and labels the Travenhurst Manor as the Town Council building.
- Militia can be found training in Beregost (chapter 2)
- Kelddath Ormlyr, Taerom, and a Familiar (representing Thalantyr) are now added around the table in the Town Council buildings first floor.
- Adds militia to the streets of Beregost (this occurs starting in Chapter 3).
- Adds Modest (a drunk Blade) to the towns inns (his location will vary to a degree depending upon the time of day).
- Adds a thief named Bethi to one of the gardens in the north-west corner of Beregost. She sells you iron goods that won't break as well as some specialty items from Waterdeep.
- Acolytes of Lathander can be found in the Burning Wizard (tending to the wounds of militia and
soldiers)
- An Acolyte of Lathander is now serving the temple (instead of Kelddath).
- A head smithy is now serving the smithy (instead of Taerom)
- The Flaming Fist now have a much more visible presence in Beregost, alongside the towns militia (Chapter 5). This presence again increases in chapter 6. Their dialogue discusses how the situation is unfolding and it will adjust depending on the chapter.
- Drizzt and his full group of companions (who have been largely adjusted to fit their descriptions in the Heroes Lorebook) can be found here. Remember though, if you attack one you attack them all!
- Jasha Istor will approach any party trying to enter Nashkel and demand that they pay her off (she is an Icepriest of Auril). She offers temple services and you can also donate to her (through dialogue options) in order to lower your reputation. A low reputation character can also buy specialty goods from her (including the Snow Maiden's Reaver that exclusively does cold damage that is normally found in Icewind Dale and Icewind Dale Enhanced Edition).
-The Inn in Nashkel has been renamed the Northern Light Inn. Its owner is now a mage by the name of Reis Kensiddar.
- The store in Nashkel is now named the Cloud Peak Outfitters and is run by a halfling named Salla Pitontoe.
- The probability of it snowing is increased to 50 percent. It also will start snowing now when you first arrive in town (this is due to Nashkel being 2000 feet above sea level).
- You are given a quest to get Modest back on his feet. You must convince him to serve as a junior member of the town council or as a lieutenant in the militia.
- There is a quest involving acquiring obtaining better armor and weapons for the towns militia from Bethi.
- Quest involving scouting out Nashkel's forces for the Flaming Fist Sergeant. (Chapter 6 or later)
- Sarevok has been updated to more accurately reflect the ability of a level 15 fighter. His equipment is now more in-line with what you might expect a level 15 fighter to have in the case of BG2EE
- (if you have the bandit camp component installed) Grangor will appear in the final battle if Ardenor (in the bandit camp) was killed. He is a level 14 wizard and casts spells appropriate for that level.
- Nashkel's mayor will remain in front of the temple at the conclusion of the quest regarding the Nashkel Mines (normally I believe he disappears). If talked to again he will complain about the increase in troops.
- Beggars now have flies flying overtop of their heads. Extremely low reputation parties can give them a donation and (provided they acted respectfully when doing so) can get a small reputation increase.
- One (rather hardcore) optional component changes how parts of chapter 7 are handled in Baldur's Gate. You now must be smuggled across the river (using a smuggler available in the original game) in order to enter and exit the city. Prior to the ceremony your access to Baldur's Gate becomes severely limited. You won't be able to quick travel into the city and even your travel in the streets of the city will be limited. The sewers will become very necessary if you want to avoid the Fist.
- In the Nashkel Mine exterior map and Carnival map the probability of it snowing is increased to 50 percent (this is due to Nashkel being 2000 feet above sea level).
- You can cast Remove Curse on Brage. This will cause him to come to his senses. You can also now return him to the garrison instead of just taking him to the temple.
- Gullykin is now a wild magic area. This is where you can find Yeorg.
- The Firewine Bridge is now a wild magic area.
- The Firewine Ruins now have more magical creatures, to reflect the descriptions provided in Volo's guide. This includes, but is not necessarily exclusively limited to, lesser clay golems and other constructs. If you have a specific wardstone in your inventory you can pass by these golems without having them attack you.
Spoiler: show
- The Chill in the camp have been updated to more accurately reflect how they are depicted in Gold and Glory. Their portion of the camp now contains a mix of goblins, hobgoblins, orcs, and ogres.
- The Black Talons now have female bandits. This makes them more consistent with how they are depicted in Gold and Glory.
- In PnP (Gold and Glory) Taugosz Khosann (the leader of the Black Talon) is described as being a level 11 fighter (he is only a level 8 fighter in Baldur's Gate) He's also supposed to have 18/94 strength as opposed to the 18/43 strength he has in BG. I've made him level 11, adjusted his saving throws, health, and Thac0 accordingly. He's also been given 2 points towards sword and shield style. I have not changed his equipment.
- As per PnP (Gold and Glory) Ardenor Crush now is wearing Gauntlets of Ogre Strength. He now has comparable Thac0 and abilities to a level 10 fighter (which is consistent with how he is described in Gold and Glory). I've updated his thac0, health and saving throws accordingly.
- Taugosz will approach the party after they enter the tent and retrieve the letters. He will inquire as to what they were doing in it.
- You can now cast "Remove Curse" on Centeol, which causes her to transform back into a sorceress. This presents an alternative to outright killing her.
- There are additional dialogue options for druid and avenger characters in the cloakwood forest. Other kits have occasional additional dialogs (like Priests of Talos)
- The Ice Island now has remorhaz that appear instead of ankhegs.
- Karoug is now able to be hit by any magical weapon. The Cold Iron restriction is removed. He instead has 50% magic resistance like other Greater Wolfweres. Instead of doing 1d12 damage with 3 attacks per round he has two 1d6 slashing attacks and a 2d6 piercing attack. He will also randomly summon 2d6 Dire Wolves in the event that his allies are killed and now regenerates at 8hp/second. These changes are to make him more in-line with what is found in PnP (as well as the 9th level Shapechange mage spell). Non-ship wolfweres now have 10% magic resistance to keep them consistent with PnP. Daese and other wolfweres within the ship have 25%.
- New marketplaces have been added to Baldur's Gate and Beregost. Some of these sell trivial, unusable luxury items, while others sell weapons, potions, and armor (this is meant to add some more flavor to the streets)
The following needs some tweaking
- First part of Cyric questline (this would include the Mountain of Skulls). All it needs now is some info points in the last area to flesh it out a bit more (and give description to what you are seeing in the backgrounds).
- Characters can now choose to take control of the mine instead of flooding it. This gives you a varying degree of income that you can pick up every three days from a store in the south-west of Baldur's Gate (I'll probably need to revisit this one and to make sure players are made aware of how they can get their gold).
The following are somewhat unfinished (meaning that they still need a fair bit to add but what they are lacking shouldn't stop you from being able to play them)
- All the joinable NPC's this mod adds (there are a few more SoD specific ones that I have not yet reported). The creature files are finished, their soundsets and items are finished. But when it comes to any quests they have or banters they have then its a mixed bag.
- Kelddath Ormlyr wants you can get the leaders of other small communities near Beregost (Gullykin, the Friendly Arm Inn and Ulgoth's Beard) to agree to take any refugees in the event of an invasion. (work in progress)
The following are very unfinished (meaning either they aren't close to being finished or they haven't been started)
- The second part of the Cyric questline.
- Thalantyr is found murdered.
- An Aquatic Elf can now be found near a pond in the north-west corner of the map. She is based off a mention in Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast of Thalantyr talking to someone underneath the surface of the water.
- You can also talk to Gandolar to get a quest regarding finding out what happened to a group of halfling tunnel rats.
- A thief will appear late at night in Nashkel for those looking to purchase weapons and items from the Shadow Thieves in Athkatla (chapter 3 or later).
- Either kill Duke Eltan for Alatos or discover and kill any Zhentarim influence in the city (this comes to you in the form of a letter from Lord Piergeiron of Waterdeep).
- In chapters 6 and 7 there will be additional Amnish troops stationed in Nashkel.
- With the hardcore component installed the Flaming Fist will now patrol the streets looking for you in chapter 7, instead of simply standing around.
- The Temple of Umberlee now allows you to purchase goods from them and receive church services (chapter 5 or later).
- A temple dedicated to Mask now exists in the thieves guild.
- Halbazzer Drin is now given the Meteor spell (and the instructions to cast it in his scripting). (chapter 5 or later)
- The compliment of Flaming Fists in the streets of Baldur's Gate is increased (chapter 6 and later).
- You can talk to "Merchants" found outside who will complain frequently of the rising levies on their goods to pay for this increase in troops, as well as the demands made on their businesses.
Basically I'd say a lot of the smaller components are finished, as well as a few larger ones. But depending on what you are looking for its a mixed bag.
Also keep in mind that at this stage most of this is not TRAified. The reason being that until the dialogue is finalized its a lot easier to work with when its not.
- Release a mod to allow for compatibility with BG2EE
- Get joinable NPC's finished
- Get the Negotiations questline finished
- Get the kill Duke Eltan /kill any Zhentarim influence in the city questline finished
- Get remaining SoD content finished.
Thinking about a possible addition to your mod I remembered of the Gnoll Stronghold. How about adding something to this scenario? I thought of an encounter with a ghost dwarf called 'Drum Dakam'; Dakam is a descendant of the creator of the ancient castle - 'Dinkamus Littlelog' - and became the heir of the fortress to guard the treasures and magical artifacts that were protected there.
Drum Dakam failed in its mission and the stronghold crumbled becoming something decadent. During the encounter you have the opportunity to talk with this melancholy character and he will tell you about the ruin of the castle, the invasions and his death after a siege of more than of one hundred days. (It would be an interesting option to discover a little more about the past of the Gnoll Stronghold and add a bit more of fresh air to this place, I think).
OPTIONAL QUEST:
After hunting some gnolls (or some 'gnoll leader') in the fortress you could return to talk again with Drum, he would tell you that for a long time do not see so brave adventurers in the region, so would be grateful to tell you that there is a hidden secret passage in one of the caves below; to explore the cave you find the passage and go to a hidden room where after a tough battle against a group of undead dwarves* you recive the quest reward: a magic shield +2 (great for a dwarf character).
Shortly after the acquisition of the magic item Dakam would come to you and give you the congratulations, and also say they can now rest in peace because the legacy of their ancestors is in good hands; If you are a dwarf could be some additional lines about the significance of this shield to the dwarves, etc. So you gain a little xp as a reward - the end of the quest.
*Undead Dwarf: It has the same basic properties of the zombies, however is stronger and resistant due to fact of being a dwarf.
I hope some of these ideas might be interesting and fun for you, I would like to see something like this in the game, good luck!