[mod] Athkatlan Grounds: Southern Edge

LavaDelVortel

After so many plays, I realized Athkatla got a bit boring, so I decided to make a new district to make the city more interesting. It's called the Southern Edge and is the "minor" city gate in the southern part of the city wall. Some merchants use this place to for the transporting their goods.

Southern Edge is a new district for our favorite BG2 city - Athkatla - available from the very start, once you talk to Gaelan and hear his offer. The mod is to make the first hours of the game more interesting, as some player might have got bored with doing the same quests over and over again. The area isn't as big as Slums or as Bridge District, but it includes a main quest introduced by a halfling name Mairo and a series of mini-quests and encounters introduced by both some new characters, and some you might have met before.
There are also some nice bits every district should have - a small shop, a tavern, some commoners, a temple, some troubled men and women... what else do adventurers need, right?
It's not a big mod, but it should entertain you for a moment or two. I hope that the Southern Edge will become a nice stop for you, Bhaalspawn, and your trusted group.

The mod now works on BG2EE, BG2 and EET.

Here's the WM forums
Download

saber0

looks cool

Chidojuan

Looks awesome!

egbert

No object I haven't seen before...

LavaDelVortel

@saber0 and @Chidojuan - thanks!
@egbert - if you have some time, skills, experience and knowledge on 3D modeling or working on isometric stuff in 2D, then sure, create new objects and I'll be hapy to include them

profanitywarning

Looks interesting. And it looks right too, since walled cities usually did expand by new areas growing outside the walls.

LavaDelVortel

Thanks! And what a man who has lots of RL things to do does instead of working? He create mods...

Grammarsalad

Very cool!!

LavaDelVortel

Thanks, @Grammarsalad
There was some progress. As I said, the district won't be really big. Something between the City Gates and the Bridge District. Well, it's not very precise, but... It's hard to describe something like that.

There will be few small quest, mostly delivery stuff, some new characters and... 2 you already met before. Why shouldn't we use some men that are already there, right? That should make the new content blend in a bit better.

There is also something I call "a main quest" - all districts have something. There are slavers and the Copper Coronet. There is Tanner quest. Here you'll meet an arcanist and a librarian in one, trying to find a creature that's hiding somewhere on the area. No more details! Spoilers are no fun, right?

Apart from that you will meet new merchants and you'll be able to buy some new items from them - all with new item icons. Well, not made from scratch, but they're not recycled, too!

As this mod wasn't supposed to be a big addition, do not expect stuff like Planar Sphere or... or the Unseeing Eye. Those are more like stand-alone quests, big things. This district is to be just another flavour in the soup. An additional seasoning. Hope you'll enjoy it!

Raduziel

Fantastic job

profanitywarning

Sounds great and I can't wait to see and try it. Do you think it'll work on one of those non-upgradable boxed product things?

LavaDelVortel

Uhm, I think you need version 2.0+
What's the version of the non-upgradable game?

profanitywarning

1.3.some longer number. Oh well, I'm starting to get used to it.

LavaDelVortel

But don't put a cross on it yet... If it's a matter of one thing I can think of, it may be doable, just one enemy will look worse. No promisses, but also will investigate the matter

profanitywarning

Well I wasn't really expecting that! Thank you. No worries if it turns out to be too much work or just not possible, I'm sure I'll get a downloaded version of the trilogy sometime in the future. Like when I have money, which isn't now.

LavaDelVortel

The very early version of the mod is now public. Check the first post to download the package or read updated information. Note that this version is not the final one and must still be polished before it's called a proper 1.0 version. It's for those who can't wait to see what's there, in the mod.

WarChiefZeke

Wow! Awesome idea. I am always for new areas in BG2.

TheArtisan

Speaking as a tester and proofreader... this mod is a very fun and well-made bit of immersion. I reckon it's good for ~1 hour's worth of gameplay, give or take. Hopefully, Lava will be able to get the main issues ironed out soon, but the core content is entirely playable.

LavaDelVortel

Hey, people! Any reports? Is there anyone who tried the mod out? At least partially?

badungu

Hi Lava,

I tried your mod out and everything worked like a charm (I think I've seen most of it, maybe I'll have to check the area again, after some chapters... )

I also added EET support, with the help of K4thos Modder's Notes (https://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://github.com/K4thos/EET/blob/master/EET/docs/Modder's Notes.html)

Should I send you the files? Or are you preferring waiting for K4thos?

Thanks for this little mod, had fun about 30 minutes, everyone who likes quest mods, should play this!

LavaDelVortel

@badungu - sure send me the version, will gladly take a look! Sent it using private message, please You can attach the package out there
I'm just curious how you finished the mod so quickly, as like Artemius said, it should take like an hour. There are some smaller quests, maybe you did not finish those? There are:

-a way to cheer up the guy that wrote the suicidal note (talk to your old friend in the Inn)
-arrange a dress for the worker's daugher (the one that's fixing the door)
-make Amaretto change her job
-find an antidote for your old friend (one of the tents)
-escort a merchant (available after helping Trademeet)
-fixing n halberd for a certain gnoll
-some mini-talks with the girl you must have gave the wooden sword (visit her once in a while, there are like 3 additional talks that fire after some some in game time)

...and all the issues somehow related with the main quest (Mairo's request). I thought all of this wouldn't be that obvious and that it's going to take you some more time.

BTW,

after Spellhold and Underdark some new items may be available Not like tons, but still maybe something you'll like.

Also a question - was the final quest battle too easy? I was thinking about making it a bit more difficult.

badungu

I've sent you a pm.

I did miss two quests you mentioned, the one after Trademeet and the one with the gnoll, maybe I was so fast, because I'm playing at 60fps?

I did your mod at the start of SoA, my party was at level 8/9 (rushed through BG1/SoD and some BG2 quests) and I don't think the battle was too easy. (Must try it on a higher level some time... )

LavaDelVortel

So, people, the new version should be up until the end of the weekend. Thanks to @badungu, the EET compatibility will be included. There will be also 2 new characters. Nothing big, but still something new for the district.

badungu

Tried your mod again and this time I've done all quests.

Found a little bug this time with Amaretto (It's not possible to talk to her again). I think the NumTimesTalkedTo(0) in line 12 (L#NDAMA.d) should be NumTimesTalkedToGT(0).

LavaDelVortel

@badungu - You're right! thanks! Fixed locally If you find anything else, let me know. It will be a day before the new version is up, because the new content must be proofread first.

badungu

Hmm, another little thing, in the "Inside the wall" building, two NPCs (MTOWN6 and FTOWN7) spawned at the same coordinates:


Another thing, which is maybe an oversight, should it be possible to rest in the outside area of the Southern Edge? Maybe a guard should spawn, if the player tries to sleep, but I don't know if that's intended, how it is.

LavaDelVortel

Strange. Will look into it.
As for resting outside - well, I decided that guard wouldn't really care. I treat Southern Edge as a district, but technically it's located outside the city walls. It's like a first stop for the merchants and deliveries, and it's somehow... associated with Athkatla, but Cowled Wizards and City Guard does not care much about the place as they have already lots to do on the other side of the wall, heh.

LavaDelVortel

The mod was just updated. Changes:

-EET compatibility implemented by badungu
-New content: new small character that needs your help in learning one of the "very useful" spells
-New content: Neil, the book buyer (NOTE: remember to sell him journals and books once you are sure they are no longer needed)
-New content: some interjections for original companions
-Fixed Amaretto talk which prevented players from talking to her more than once
-Fixed typos in the final fight cutscene
-Fixed helmet "Library of Thoughts" (L#NDHEL)

Thanks to:
@Artemius_I for proofreading, testing and all other help!
@badungu for the EET compatibility fix

ProfErrata

Dear Lava, as usual it’s a pleasure to see a new mod made by youwith care and the quality is still here; but I have a request specially for you: is it possible in a near future to adapt Southern Edge for BG2:ToB and traify it ? The problem is that the French localization of BG2:EE isn’t implemented yet (it has been abandoned a long time ago and the forum of the French site La Couronne de Cuivre is trying now to relaunch it) and more than a little number of French BG2 players not at ease with English - it’s my case - are forced until now to play BG2:ToB Classic if they want to understand correctly in their language the plot and the dialogues of BG2. Believe me, you’ll make pleased people, and I don’t think it’ll be a difficult task for you; thank you by advance.
And well I’ve to say you’re a marvellous modder for the IE community, giving the fact you’re in the same time programmer in the WeiDU language, scenarist and dialogue writer with a fertile imagination and an amazing power of work; I wonder how you find the time necessary in order to create, to type and at the end finalize yours marvellous mods: chapeau l’artiste !
I’ve remarked too that the CoI mods (4 are translated in French) have a sad and melancholic mood…And I wonder if it’snot a cultural reflection of the tragic history of Poland…

LavaDelVortel

I tell you how the situation looks: I switched to EE and I don't even know where my copy of the game is. In Southern Edge I use an animation that's not present in original BG2. What's more, I use items that use opcodes that were introduced in EE. So it's more than just a matter of a line of code. New version of the creature would be needed, item icons would look differently to those in original game, as I switched to EE standard. Next thing - some itemst would need to be completelly redesigned.

In other words - it's doable, but I would need someone to help me with that. I released more than 20 mods now and I am unable to test stuff on old BG2 game. Normally I would ask agb1 or K4thos for help, but right now they are unreachable and I am not sure if they would help at all, as I think they also switched to EE. So I am not saying no to the idea, but I can promise you that's going to happen and if it is, then I can't tell you when.

As for traification - it will happen eventually, but this is still more like a quite well working beta.

Thank you for all your kind words. Check the topic from time to time to see if there are any news.
Cheers!

evildevil97

I went through the basic story of the mod with a test character and cheats out of curiousity and one thing really through me off: Why does it take four ingame hours to get to and from the Southern Edge from any other Athkatlan district? I figured it would be like the others, with no real ingame time passing between districts.