Hard Times Mod - Did anyone play BG1 with this mod?

Debaser

I have never gotten it to work...but I really liked the premise...having the iron shortage really affect prices until you start solving a lot of mysteries behind it during the game. Making even normal gear harder to get and afford and more valuable. Did anyone play the game with this mod? And do you think it's something they should implement or that modders should considering bringing back?

Tulimyrsky

Yes, and yes to modders.
It definitely slowed the ramp-up for magical items, made it more enjoyable for me because it causes items to have a greater overall worth. A +1 actually meant something to a low level character, as it should, and shit was expensive, like it should be in a crisis.
But it also removed some of the "secretly" placed items that were great to discover, like the Ankheg Plate, Ring of Wizardry, the diamond in the tree... which was a little saddening but made sense with the theme of the mod.

AnOnion

This was one of my favorite mods back in the day. Made the game a LOT more entertaining and realistic! Someone should pick the idea up for BGEE!~

Bhryaen

I played it as soon as I got it- couldn't remove it from my mod list because, well, everything feels like cheese otherwise after that. It ruined Algernon's Cloak though- reduced to a whopping 3 charges- so for those wanting to use it to speak with Charmed creatures... have to find other options. It reduced all charged items to 3, in fact. So wands became useless. The easter eggs became similarly useless: that Nashkel farm would now turn up a pearl and... a broken set of armor. ;-) It would've been better if it raised store prices only until after Chapter 5, creating the dynamic of "Should I buy it now for higher price... and be better protected against those spiders and wyverns?... or should I save gold by waiting until the Cloakwood Mines are done but maybe... get my ass handed to me?" hehe

Debaser

@Bhryaen see I'm most interested in the economic points of the mod more so than any extra item nerfing. Wands wouldn't be nerfed due to an iron shortage I would think...but I kind of wish they would edit the item prices until chapter 5 like you suggest on par with what this mod does to make it a harder but more rewarding play through.

@AnOnion and @Tulimyrsky do you know if elements of this mod have been considered at all? Or is there a forum within the forum where this can be pitched as it were?

Bhryaen

@Debaser
I haven't seen the mod mentioned specifically, but I've been on the forum pretty much since its inception, and I've seen a number of the specific provisions of Hard Times mentioned:
- Nerfing items as part of a difficulty setting
- Raising store prices as a slider option
- Nerfing the easter eggs

Actually I introduced a couple of those as Feature Requests... long since buried, I believe... Hasn't really come up otherwise.

Debaser

@ Bhryaen So essentially you suggested the best components but made them into adjustable settings, that's rather brilliant.