Vanilla BG:EE first time through. Especially since I've gifted it for a couple of friends, who will be playing it for the first time. I can't ever play it for the first time again, but this is as close as I can get.
I won't be touching any mod during my first playthrough. I played the original titles plain and pure. I only found out that there was an active modding community years after my first playthroughs.
If it becomes possible, I will install the NPC Project. Probably not much else, because I mostly like the vanilla game without too much messing around under the hood. I would like to be able to add Berelinde's Gavin, and maybe Finch or a few other community-created characters. Sometimes I put in "unlimted ammo stacking" and "add bags of holding" from BGTweaks, because the ammo-management and inventory management mini-games get old. If I get into trying a bunch of different character ideas and thus restarting a lot, I will want to install "Skip Candlekeep" from SCS.
EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot - also "100% spell learning", because the way Intelligence is implemented for mages is about the worst thing ever. Scrolls are too rare and too expensive to waste. I've found that even with potions of genius, scribing failure happens more often than you'd think. And they happen *a lot* with 18 intelligence. Anything lower than 18, and you'll be destroying more scrolls than you copy.
I'll be going pure on my first run but to get around scrolls, rarity and learning them I'll be using my handy quick save, quick load before and after every scroll. Tedious but its a habit at this point.
@Dragonspear, yeah, that's one workaround. You can also slide the difficulty slider back to normal.
The trouble is, I play core rules, no-reload. If I reload unless I absolutely have to (Charname death or party wipe), the whole game feels inauthentic to me, and I lose my immersion.
Modless the first couple of times through... then I'll probably be asking for good mods right on these boards!
I'm kind of a stubborn guy when it comes to mods - either they are all as I want them to be, or I won't enjoy them too much. It's silly, I know, but perfection is all important when it comes to the perfect game! (dum dum duuuum)
Whats the best combination of Mods you have used ?
Im not even sure how you could speculate on what mods to add before actually seeing what is there from the start.
The only ones I could actually understand would be new NPC type Mods.
We do know what to expect, though, pretty much. BG1 via the ToB engine. That's not new. They're not making any major changes to the game mechanics. Or have I missed something?
Sword Coast Stratagems and Sword Coast Stratagems II make enemy spellcasters behave much more intelligently. That is something that those who have played using platforms such as tutu and BGT know makes an enormous difference in game play. You don't realize how dumb mages behave in the vanilla game until you play with these mods installed.
@triclops41: I think that's because they're the most unobtrusive mods - UB is all about fixing broken/incomplete content, BG1NPC is apparently geared specifically towards character interaction to make the game feel more like BG2 (which, given that they're now running on the same engine, actually makes for a smoother transition) and SCS... well, I suppose some players enjoy more challenges. (Personally, I could never accept SCS as a mandatory mod - the vanilla game was difficult enough for me as it is!)
@triclops41: I think that's because they're the most unobtrusive mods - UB is all about fixing broken/incomplete content, BG1NPC is apparently geared specifically towards character interaction to make the game feel more like BG2 (which, given that they're now running on the same engine, actually makes for a smoother transition) and SCS... well, I suppose some players enjoy more challenges. (Personally, I could never accept SCS as a mandatory mod - the vanilla game was difficult enough for me as it is!)
Yeah, these mods seem like having a painting be restored; it's not really changing so much as repairing the original vision.
Will we get a list of perhaps what mods were implemented at some point? I don't want to be installing mod content over in-game modified content.
I'll probably be using Unfinished Business (that relocates NPCs and lets them wait in inns right?) and Rogue Rebalancing since that totally completed my life.
Im not even sure how you could speculate on what mods to add before actually seeing what is there from the start.
The only ones I could actually understand would be new NPC type Mods.
We do know what to expect, though, pretty much. BG1 via the ToB engine. That's not new. They're not making any major changes to the game mechanics. Or have I missed something?
Sword Coast Stratagems and Sword Coast Stratagems II make enemy spellcasters behave much more intelligently. That is something that those who have played using platforms such as tutu and BGT know makes an enormous difference in game play. You don't realize how dumb mages behave in the vanilla game until you play with these mods installed.
Not true, you are misinterpreting some comments it is fact that they are INCLUDING many mods into the game from the start. They are not changing the STORY line, or the Characters/NPCs or the way they interact, they are not adding dialog to them or story line to them....but functionality mods are being incorporated...theres a list somewhere.
Party banter possibly (depends on what BGEE has done in that realm) Level cap remover definitely (I'm just not that good a tactical player so I need all the power I can get!) Unfinished Business possibly
There's actually a lot that's not known enough to make a good choice what to incorporate:
- What components are already actually implemented in the game with the 400+ bugfixes and improvements - it makes no sense tweaking something that's already in the game - What components of what mods make use of resources that have been changed from the original BG1 and BG2 vanilla into BGEE. For adding banter like NPC1 Project was, there's not much chance of the mod being broken, but with mods that tweak rules like BG2Tweaks, aTweaks and RR and mods that change scripts, I fear there will be a huge change of game-breaking incompatibility issues if you don't use a new version that has been adapted to BGEE.
That said, I will start vanilla first, to experience what Overhaul has done, then for a later campaign start tweaking it to my needs with mods once they have been confirmed to work well with BGEE:
must-haves for me are:
Hard Times, NPC1-project, (UB is not a must have, I can enjoin the game without, though I'd wonder about missing encounters then go 'oh yeah, UB') Sword Coast Stratagems, a lot of the tweaks from BG2 tweaks (shut up 'gather your party', 100% scribe scrolls, adding containers (the gem pouch in the FAI, the scroll case at Thalanthyr, the Potion Case in the Nashkel store are my first must-buys in the game)). aTweaks Rogue Rebalancing
I'm a bit surprised no-one mentioned Hard Times yet.
I want to play with the Valen NPC vampire girl. Most NPC mods are sex toy mods or OP NPC's. This one seemed original and balanced. I'm also intereted in Ascension (never heard of it before these boards) and things like that. Maybe the expansions for Nalia - interested to see if that is well-written.
I want to play with the Valen NPC vampire girl. Most NPC mods are sex toy mods or OP NPC's. This one seemed original and balanced. I'm also intereted in Ascension (never heard of it before these boards) and things like that. Maybe the expansions for Nalia - interested to see if that is well-written.
hmm *Envisions little sprite vibrators and sex toys as avatars*
Is there a place on the forums that will be keeping track of compatible mods?
After the game is released I'm sure that one of us will make a list of compatible mods, but the modding community already has some very good forums out there and I'm sure that that's where people will find the most up-to-date information about compatible mods.
Im not even sure how you could speculate on what mods to add before actually seeing what is there from the start.
The only ones I could actually understand would be new NPC type Mods.
We do know what to expect, though, pretty much. BG1 via the ToB engine. That's not new. They're not making any major changes to the game mechanics. Or have I missed something?
Sword Coast Stratagems and Sword Coast Stratagems II make enemy spellcasters behave much more intelligently. That is something that those who have played using platforms such as tutu and BGT know makes an enormous difference in game play. You don't realize how dumb mages behave in the vanilla game until you play with these mods installed.
Not true, you are misinterpreting some comments it is fact that they are INCLUDING many mods into the game from the start. They are not changing the STORY line, or the Characters/NPCs or the way they interact, they are not adding dialog to them or story line to them....but functionality mods are being incorporated...theres a list somewhere.
I know they're incorporating the fixpack mods, i.e., basic bug fixes. And 1PP. But I'm 99% sure they have confirmed in a thread somewhere that there will be no tactical AI improvements.
There's this from the Things That Have Been Announced thread:
"ToBEx engine fixes.
The Overhaul team is working with Ascension64, author of the mods Throne of Bhaal Extender (ToBEx) and Baldur's Gate Trilogy (BGT) to improve the engine and bring over all the major fixes from those packages.
Extensive bug fixing.
BG:EE will feature a huge amount of bug fixes as suggested by the community, found by devs and beta testers, and found by modders throughout the years. Several bugs that currently require Baldurdash, Dudlyville, Tutufix, BG Fixpack or BG2 Fixpack - as well as a plethora of hardcoded bugs that require access to the source code to be fixed - will not exist in BG:EE."
I want to play with the Valen NPC vampire girl. Most NPC mods are sex toy mods or OP NPC's. This one seemed original and balanced. I'm also intereted in Ascension (never heard of it before these boards) and things like that. Maybe the expansions for Nalia - interested to see if that is well-written.
Erm. You are aware that the Valen NPC mod and the Nalia mods are for BG2, yes? Same deal with Ascension (largely aimed at ToB). BG:EE is Baldur's Gate 1 + Tales of the Sword Coast.
BG2:EE will be Shadows of Amn + Throne of Bhaal, to be released sometime in 2013.
Comments
EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot - also "100% spell learning", because the way Intelligence is implemented for mages is about the worst thing ever. Scrolls are too rare and too expensive to waste. I've found that even with potions of genius, scribing failure happens more often than you'd think. And they happen *a lot* with 18 intelligence. Anything lower than 18, and you'll be destroying more scrolls than you copy.
And lastly, I'll remove the experience cap.
I'll be going pure on my first run but to get around scrolls, rarity and learning them I'll be using my handy quick save, quick load before and after every scroll. Tedious but its a habit at this point.
The trouble is, I play core rules, no-reload. If I reload unless I absolutely have to (Charname death or party wipe), the whole game feels inauthentic to me, and I lose my immersion.
The only ones I could actually understand would be new NPC type Mods.
Sword Coast Stratagems and Sword Coast Stratagems II make enemy spellcasters behave much more intelligently. That is something that those who have played using platforms such as tutu and BGT know makes an enormous difference in game play. You don't realize how dumb mages behave in the vanilla game until you play with these mods installed.
I'll probably be using Unfinished Business (that relocates NPCs and lets them wait in inns right?) and Rogue Rebalancing since that totally completed my life.
Level cap remover definitely (I'm just not that good a tactical player so I need all the power I can get!)
Unfinished Business possibly
- What components are already actually implemented in the game with the 400+ bugfixes and improvements - it makes no sense tweaking something that's already in the game
- What components of what mods make use of resources that have been changed from the original BG1 and BG2 vanilla into BGEE. For adding banter like NPC1 Project was, there's not much chance of the mod being broken, but with mods that tweak rules like BG2Tweaks, aTweaks and RR and mods that change scripts, I fear there will be a huge change of game-breaking incompatibility issues if you don't use a new version that has been adapted to BGEE.
That said, I will start vanilla first, to experience what Overhaul has done, then for a later campaign start tweaking it to my needs with mods once they have been confirmed to work well with BGEE:
must-haves for me are:
Hard Times,
NPC1-project,
(UB is not a must have, I can enjoin the game without, though I'd wonder about missing encounters then go 'oh yeah, UB')
Sword Coast Stratagems,
a lot of the tweaks from BG2 tweaks (shut up 'gather your party', 100% scribe scrolls, adding containers (the gem pouch in the FAI, the scroll case at Thalanthyr, the Potion Case in the Nashkel store are my first must-buys in the game)).
aTweaks
Rogue Rebalancing
I'm a bit surprised no-one mentioned Hard Times yet.
There's this from the Things That Have Been Announced thread:
"ToBEx engine fixes.
The Overhaul team is working with Ascension64, author of the mods Throne of Bhaal Extender (ToBEx) and Baldur's Gate Trilogy (BGT) to improve the engine and bring over all the major fixes from those packages.
Extensive bug fixing.
BG:EE will feature a huge amount of bug fixes as suggested by the community, found by devs and beta testers, and found by modders throughout the years. Several bugs that currently require Baldurdash, Dudlyville, Tutufix, BG Fixpack or BG2 Fixpack - as well as a plethora of hardcoded bugs that require access to the source code to be fixed - will not exist in BG:EE."
BG2:EE will be Shadows of Amn + Throne of Bhaal, to be released sometime in 2013.