Top 10 MOST PLAYED mods for the Baldur's Gate series (NOT the best mods)

Alonso

My goal with this thread is to create a list of the ten or so most played mods for the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition series, with a short description of each in plain English. I have read hundreds of threads about mods, but I miss one that gives a general view of the main mods available. Most threads discuss one particular mod in painful technical detail full of acronyms. Others have lists of mods, even lists of recommended mods, but they just give you the names and say nothing about what they do.

This thread aims to be helpful to anyone interested in mods, but specially for those who, like myself, want to start using mods and want to have a general picture of the main options available. The general consensus is that it's best to avoid mods when you play the game for the first time. Therefore, this thread assumes that you have already enjoyed quite a few hours of the unmodded game. Having said that, it's worth noting that some features, like Tweaks' unlimited stacks of arrows, can make the game more enjoyable even for new players without detracting in any way from the unmodded experience.

So let's create an easy to understand "Top 10 most played mods". Please bear in mind that this is NOT about what mods are the "best", since that is subjective and there would never be an agreement. It's just about the most played. I start with Stratagems:

Sword Coast Stratagems
This seems to be THE mod. It is a huge improvement to the artificial intelligence of the game. It makes the game much more challenging and interesting by making the enemies smarter. Apart from that, it offers very nice tweaks, like casting Stoneskin or Melf Minute Meteors automatically after you rest. It affects spell and proficiency choices, kits, and high-level abilities. It affects the AI of practically every creature in the game, though in most cases without significantly affecting their core abilities. Its documentation explains in detail all the options available.

The Tweaks Anthology
The Tweaks Anthology changes several aspects of the game without adding new content. Whether each change improves the game or not is largely a matter of personal preference. You can select each "tweak" individually, and with so many of them available, you're definitely going to find a few that fit your taste. While this is certainly not a "must have mod", installing it seems like a good idea for almost everybody. It has nice and detailed documentation to help you choose your preferred tweaks.

Some highlights:

• Removing "you must gather your party..." audio. What a relief!
  
• Adding bags of holding, which help a lot with inventory management.
  
• Unlimited ammo stacking. Another improvement on the inventory management.
  

In the past it did include some essential tweaks, like the one which prevents you from being attacked when you're in the middle of a dialog. Probably that's why it has been and, to some extent, still is so popular. However, these "must have" tweaks and fixes have already been incorporated into the Enhanced Edition, so it's not a must have anymore.

Ascension
Ascension is the work of David Gaider, one of the original designers of Baldur's Gate. Gaider felt that Throne of Bhaal needed more deveolpment time to be fully realized and he created this mod in his own time to fulfill the vision he had for the game. Ascension changes the end of the Throne of Bhaal expansion to feature extended roleplaying and tactical opportunities, and a much better final battle. According to Gaider it makes the ending to Throne of Bhaal longer, more fun and more fulfilling.

I will try to edit this first post regularly until it grows into something useful. Gentlemen, I'm eager to get your feedback.

Alonso

Seriously? No one interested in the general picture of the series mods?

Anyway, moving on.

Tweaks
Tweaks changes several aspects of the game without adding new content. Whether each change improves the game or not is largely a matter of personal preference. You can select each "tweak" individually, and with so many of them available, you're definitely going to find a few that fit your taste. While this is certainly not a "must have mod", installing it seems like a good idea for almost everybody. It has nice and detailed documentation to help you choose your preferred tweaks.

Some personal highlights would be:

• Removing "you must gather your party..." audio. What a relief!
  
• Adding bags of holding, which helps a lot with inventory management.
  
• Unlimited ammo stacking. Another improvement on the inventory management.
  

It's worth noting that in the past it did include some essential tweaks, like the one which prevents you from being attacked when you're in the middle of a dialog. Probably that's why it has been and, to some extent, still is so popular. However, these "must have" tweaks and fixes have already been incorporated into the Enhanced Edition, so it's not a must have anymore.

Aquadrizzt

It's not that people aren't interested. It's just that its hard to formulate any kind of Top X list because of the diverse desires of the playerbase. Some people like SCS because gives them a tactical challenge. Some people like Ascension because it provides a more satisfying story. Some people like item or kit mods because they can change the way you play the game.

While sure, brief summaries of each mod are nice and all, I feel like most mods are pretty good at describing what they offer in their own readmes or descriptions.

mf2112

I am not sure that 10 might be sufficient for most folks so they might feel uncomfortable mentioning some but excluding others. In various troubleshooting threads, I regularly see 20 or more mods loaded up. Maybe if you asked people to post their installed mod list, that might spark some conversation about interoperability and bring up mods that others haven't tried since they didn't know they could put them all together in whichever combination.

Alonso

Aquadrizzt said:

its hard to formulate any kind of Top X list because of the diverse desires of the playerbase.

As I said, this is not meant to be the Top 10 "best", mainly because I don't even know the meaning of "best" when it comes to mods. It is meant to be the Top 10 most played mods. Actually, if there were reliable download statistics for each mod somewhere, it would be as simple as choosing the 10 most downloaded mods. Since I don't think such stats exist, the list is always going to be an educated guess at best. But with so many BG educated users in the forum, that doesn't sound bad at all.

Aquadrizzt said:

most mods are pretty good at describing what they offer in their own readmes or descriptions.

I'm afraid that's not the case. As I said, the other goal of this thread is to provide descriptions in plain English. This is from the first line of the description of Tweaks: "The BG2 Tweak Pack is a WeiDU compilation of..." WeiDU? What on earth is that? (Rhetorical question, just in case). After half an hour ploughing through very technical and arcane documentation, I realized that it would take me hours just to understand the meaning of that word, and I probably didn't need to understand it anyway. And still, it is in the first sentence of the documentation of one of the most popular mods. That kind of arcane documentation is what led me to create this thread.

mf2112 said:

I am not sure that 10 might be sufficient for most folks

You're optimistic, my friend. I like that. I would certainly love to see the list grow beyond 10.

mf2112 said:

if you asked people to post their installed mod list, that might spark some conversation about interoperability and bring up mods that others haven't tried since they didn't know they could put them all together in whichever combination.

That's exactly what this thread is not about: Installed mod lists, interoperability, combinations that others haven't tried... There are zillions of threads about that, and, as far as I know, no thread like this one. This thread is about: simple, popular, newbie friendly, plain English. Words with more than three syllables are not allowed

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

evildevil97

I'll bite, at least. I'm not sure if I ever played through the full games more than once without mods, so here's a small glympse of what I always have/had installed:

Weimer's Item Upgrade: Always helped giving more options. Loved the idea of recipes, after all.

Honourable mention: Ruad. If it had EE compatibility of any kind, I'd use that too, for the same purpose. (And also because I helped come up with ideas for it back in the day.)

Pocket Plane's / IEP Banter Packs: More banters are always good, and these were well-written enough for me.

Kelsey NPC: I rarely bring him in the party for long, but he fits in too well not to have him float around in game. Xan gets an honourable mention here, too.

Rogue Rebalancing: I always brought this in for the basic kit adjustments, and the thief shop.

Honourable mention here goes to the expanded Thief Stronghold. Had its issues, but it was nice all-around. Would love to see an EE upgrade sometime.

Unfinished Business / Quest Pack: The PPG versions, if another version exists somewhere. Except for the Missing Boo quest. I don't use that anymore. There used to be part of that quest that sent you to the trolls in the Druid Grove, but I never liked forced travel like that. Nitpicky me!

And obviously, SCS and Tweak packs for some things that really needed changing. Just played SCS's improved Abazigal dungeon for the first time, and loved the changes there.

chimeric

OP, you'll have to do with the BEST mods list, because, as was already said, the most popular ones are the ones the most downloaded.

After trying out some of the bigger ones like Dark Horizons and Dark Side of the Sword Coast, I have to say they are pretty lackluster and completely unbalanced. The ones I keep are Stratagems, though I can't seem to install all of the features, Mini Quests and Encounters, Unfinished Business and Darkdogg's Caina NPC.

Alonso

It would be great to have a list of the most downloaded mods, but I don't think that's even possible. I have created the following list copying the data from the Gibberlings site. It excludes mods that are in beta, mods that haven't been updated in the last three years and mods which don't seem to apply to this series:



In this list SCS, for instance, doesn't even make the top 10. Does it really mean that it is not one of the top 10 most played mods? Or does it just mean that there are a dozen other servers from which people download it, thus making this list meaningless?

TheArtisan

Bear in mind SCS was originally two mods: SCS and SCSII. It's quite possible that a majority of the download count was lost when SCSII was integrated into SCS. I think SCSII was the more popular of the two so it likely had more downloads.

Alonso

Artemius_I said:

Bear in mind SCS was originally two mods: SCS and SCSII. It's quite possible that a majority of the download count was lost when SCSII was integrated into SCS. I think SCSII was the more popular of the two so it likely had more downloads.

Absolutely. Also, it is quite possible that the downloads are counted only for the last version of the mod. That's why I say that yes, the most played mods are the most downloaded mods, but that's irrelevant because there's no way to know how many times each mod has been downloaded. Hence my educated guess approach.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

smeagolheart

Everybody thinks their own mods are the best. I spend more time modding than playing these days.

dunbar

Oh dear, there was me thinking this would be a nice idiot proof thread for idiots like myself who've only ever been able to install two mods (if you can call them that); "Dungeon Be Gone" and "Godlike" (an old XP cap remover), and I was only able to install DBG because some kind soul posted precise instructions about creating an override folder.
I've tried to install SCS on several occasions but get an error message every time - which is no use at all to someone like me who doesn't speak Computerish.

Cahir

dunbar said:

Oh dear, there was me thinking this would be a nice idiot proof thread for idiots like myself who've only ever been able to install two mods (if you can call them that); "Dungeon Be Gone" and "Godlike" (an old XP cap remover), and I was only able to install DBG because some kind soul posted precise instructions about creating an override folder.
I've tried to install SCS on several occasions but get an error message every time - which is no use at all to someone like me who doesn't speak Computerish.

Yeah, I wish DawidW comes by to gather all fixes and release SCS v31.

Etamin

Anyone knows what happens with DawidW or is there any chance to release SCS v31 soon?

argent77

Alonso said:

It would be great to have a list of the most downloaded mods, but I don't think that's even possible.

That's right. A list of the most downloaded mods would be misleading since many mods are preselected in BWS and other mod managers and therefore installed automatically, in many cases even without the user's intent.

Moreover, mods hosted on GitHub or similar platforms are difficult to count as there are several different options how to download them. The nature of version control systems (such as Git) makes it impossible to do a meaningful count anyway.

SmilingSword

The romance and banner packs. I would guess the BG1 NPC project is widely used, I mean who would ever play BG1 without it?

Imoen Romance XD I actually have no idea if this mod is popular or not, all I know is it's really really good.

Alonso

dunbar said:

idiots like myself

If you want to say that somebody is an idiot, I suggest looking at people who pretend to explain computing stuff in a way that can only be understood by those who already understand the stuff being "explained". As a former programmer, I've met dozens (maybe hundreds?) of programmers who do just that routinely. It's a bit like if you speak English, Spanish, French, Italian and German; and the person speaking to you, who speaks English and Hungarian, insists in speaking to you only in Hungarian. And they might even say you're an idiot because you don't understand what they say. Who's the idiot here?

TheArtisan

Did you, like, read what you quoted at all?

Alonso

Yep, dunbar said he's an idiot. I disagree. Did I miss something?

StefanO

I admit SCS is a must-have for the tactical advanced BG player, but for an average now-and-then player SCS is simply to much both in terms of changing the game and tricky installation. And not every player looks for tactical challenges. Content is sometimes more important (and fun).

Alonso

Etamin said:

Anyone knows what happens with DawidW or is there any chance to release SCS v31 soon?

I read somewhere that he's very busy elsewhere and he's no longer involved in SCS. Don't quote me on that one, though.

StefanO said:

I admit SCS is a must-have for the tactical advanced BG player, but for an average now-and-then player SCS is simply to much both in terms of changing the game and tricky installation.

The most usual advice for players who are new to the games and want to know about mods is: Don't use them. The rationale is that a new player who installs mods will miss the vanilla experience and will not even be able to tell what part of the game is vanilla and what part is the mod. While this might not always be the case, it seems to make sense in general. Based on that idea, this thread is primarily intended to give useful information to players who, like myself, are already familiar with the games but are more or less new to the mods. SCS seems a good choice for that audience, specially since it gives you the chance to choose exactly what you want to install. In any case, good point. I've updated the first post to reflect this.

Regarding the installation of SCS, it seems quite straightforward to me. Only problem is... it doesn't support v2.0+

Alonso

Among the mods mentioned, I’ve already heard a few times about these: Xan NPC, BG1 NPC, Rogue Rebalancing, Thief Stronghold, Unfinished Business / Quest Pack, Pocket Plane's / IEP Banter Packs, Mini Quests and Encounters, Dungeon Be Gone. So it looks like they might fit the “most played” category. Would you guys like to write a couple of lines about one of them?

On the other hand, it’s the first time I hear about these: Caina and Kelsey NPCs, Weimer's Item Upgrade, Ruad, Imoen Romance. So they might not fit the category. Of course, corrections are most appreciated if I got this wrong.

ThacoBell

I don't play with many mods myself, but Ascension is a constant install for me. I feel it really enhances the story of TOB and the various infamous tougher encounters are separately installed and can be easily skipped. The final battle is turned up to 11 though, fair warning.

artificial_sunlight

Ascension is a importand mod for me. And on de vanilla games the fixpacks where a musthave.

In the EEs I don't use mods, with the exeption of Distinguishable Clubs because I hate the lack different pictures for the weapons.

Alonso

artificial_sunlight said:

Ascension is a importand mod for me.

Indeed. And one of the most played as well from what I read in the forums. I have installed it, but I have almost no experience of it (or maybe none at all) because I'm still in the drow city in BG2, so I can't say anything about it myself. I have created a small description copying and mixing parts of Gaider's and Weimar's descriptions. Care to write something a bit more substantial? Also, can you provide a link to the latest version?

Ascension

The Ascension mod makes the end of the Throne of Bhaal expansion longer (more fun) and a little more fulfilling, featuring extended roleplaying and tactical opportunities. It shows off what the Infinity Engine can do when stretched to its limit and offers a bit more bite to Throne of Bhaal's climax. It was written by one of the original developers of the game.

Regarding the other mods you mention, they sound interesting, but it doesn't look like they are among the most played currently.