BG2:EE Story Tweaks Mod (HELP!)

shawne

I've been putting together a "design document" for a (hopefully) small mod that implements some minor plot tweaks to the EE content - filling plotholes, addressing some minor inconsistencies, that sort of thing.

Unfortunately, I know absolutely nothing about coding/programming, so I'm hoping there's a modder here who's willing to partner up with me and make this happen.

I've attached the overview of the proposed Story Tweaks. Dialogue/banter is in the works (again, with a small and limited scale so as not to interfere with existing content), but I thought it'd be prudent to see if anyone's interested before committing more time and effort to a project I can't complete alone.

Feedback is, of course, most welcome.

shawne

Updated with suggestions from Dee and Jarrakul. Still looking for modding assistance.

shawne

Updated to 1.2.

Dee

Can you give us a quick run-down of the changes you made?

EDIT: Never mind, I just read through the document again.

I like the changes you made, particularly with regard to Hexxat's transformation and Dorn's Corrupted Apple. They're interesting tidbits, and they add both texture and gameplay improvements. All good things.

I still think Hexxat would make more sense as a Shadowdancer (and would perhaps eliminate the need to give her those abilities through her armor), but I also respect that you want to keep her mechanics more or less the same.

shawne

Changed recommended attributes of Hexxat's armor in the "Korkorran's Deal" scenario.

shawne

@Dee: My understanding is that the difficulty with making Hexxat an actual Shadowdancer is that you'd need to spawn a new version of the character in order for her to have the level-appropriate abilities/backstab multiplier, but that would reset her skill points, her actual XP and her inventory. If there's a workaround for that, I agree that making her a Shadowdancer would be a much simpler solution.

Dee

Oh, I just mean in general, even before the transformation. If I'd been involved with her creation I probably would have pushed for her being a Shadowdancer from the start.

That being said, there is probably a way to do it, but since I'm not a scripter I couldn't say for sure.

shawne

A vampire Shadowdancer might be a bit much, though. Weimer's Solaufein remains the cautionary tale of knowing when to put the brakes on.

One of the discussions that came up during the critique threads was that Hexxat's story would've made a lot more sense if she had been an assassin, if her objective during SoA was to take out Korkorran's co-conspirators (Dragomir, Raffiyah and Nan Kung Chi) rather than hunt down a series of items that don't seem to have anything to do with each other. But it is what it is.

Arthas

Found now this topic. Any chance this could be sent to dee, cuv, or whatever?

I would bet CUV would love to take a look at this stuff, I know it from other places (but I can't say why he knows me) :P

shawne

@Arthas: Cuv and I had some unpleasant exchanges in the past, I doubt he'd be interested.

There was a parallel thread here that got input from Dee and a few others, but it never went further than that. The material's here for anyone who wants to take a crack at it, programming-wise; I'd be more than happy to contribute text/dialogue if it ever got off the ground.

Dee

In terms of next steps, I would take an inventory of everything that needs to be done to make the mod "content complete"--what dialogue needs to be written (or altered) and scripted, what cutscenes need to be modified, what encounters need to be changed, what characters need new portraits, what creature files need altering, what new items need to be created.

Once you have that master checklist, you can probably track down specific people to help you with each thing. The things that you'll probably be able to do on your own without touching WeiDU or bcs files at all:
- Writing and scripting dialogue (here's a helpful guide to get you familiar with the .d format)
- Creating the .itm files you need, sans descriptions
- Writing the text for new item descriptions (but not implementing them)
- Modifying .cre files

The things that you'll need help with, then, are probably:
- Anything that requires scripting changes to bcs files
- Creating any new portraits for Cabrina and shadow-Hexxat
- Creating the WeiDU installer for the mod itself, including new strings for item descriptions

So what you need:
- A scripter
- An artist
- Someone who knows how to write WeiDU patch code
- A specific plan for what exactly the scripter and the artist need to do

Hope that helps!

Dee

@shawne Another thought--you might get more help if this thread were in the BGII:EE Modding section. Let me know if you'd like me to move it over there.

shawne

@Dee: Please do.

In terms of what needs to be done, the objective is to rely on existing material as much as possible: Cabrina gets the YANNER3 portrait, shadow-Hexxat gets the hooded concept art from the opening menu, her armor icon is the one used for Shadow Dragon Armor, etc.

Writing a complete content script (new/altered dialogue, cutscene changes, etc.) is straightforward enough, but there's little point given the absence of someone willing to help implement the more technical aspects such as WeiDU coding and file alteration. Without that, this is all just hypothetical.

Dee

Moving the thread to the BGII:EE Modding section.

And yeah, I can understand the hesitation. @subtledoctor has been pretty busy lately, but maybe he can offer some suggestions as to who might be available to help?

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swit

@shawne, I can code everything mentioned in the design doc if you can provide save games that can be used to easily check the existing events in-game (I never had Dorn and Hexxat in my BG2 party so I'm not familliar with those events). Example:

The crux of understanding why this story fails lies in the confrontation with Korkorran. There is a false choice embedded in this scenario: if you accept Korkorran’s offer, Hexxat instantly dies unless you convince her to reject her chance at mortality. But if you reject Korkorran’s offer a nd accept L’s, Hexxat will still instantly die unless you convince her to reject her chance at mortality. It’s the same sequence repeated twice, for no reason whatsoever. This tweak will add a different outcome if the player chooses to side with Korkorran

In order to implement it without wasting time searching ToB resources and dialogs, save game is needed right before you speak with Korkorran (so I can check scripts/dialogues used there and test the outcome after patching them). Same thing for all the other points in your design doc. Alternatively a list of all resources used in those events would be enough but with saves testing it would be more reliable.

And of course banters and dialogues that you mentioned in doc would need to be actually written if you want them to be implemented - I'm not really a writer.