[MOD] Druid Grove Makeover
Ulb
Member Posts: 295
This mod aims to improve the visual art of the druid grove outdoor area.
To me this area has always been a huge disappointment.
When you think ''druid grove'' you usually imagine some enchanted mythical forest and a few monoliths or rune stones. Instead of all that BG2 delivered a barren, swampy wasteland covered in orange dirt and a druid grove that looks more like a futuristic nuclear bomb shelter than anything else.
My goal was to only edit the actual area art and not touch anything else (lighting and pathing). Because of this, the lower part of the area has only been slightly modified as there are simply too many dead tree polygons to make any significant changes and still keep the area in line with the underlying .wed file.
Here is a short overview of what has been changed:
Lower part of the map:
-added some ground vegetation and adjusted coloring in some parts to make the ground look less like plain orange dirt and make the whole area look more alive.
Upper part of the map:
-changed the ground to a healthy, grass covered floor
-added trees to the upper map border to make the area look like it is bordering on a (slightly) higher altitude forest
-reworked druid grove exterior to look like a natural cave entrance (which is inline with the vanilla druid grove interior area art)
-changed the ground around the stone circle in front of the druid grove to look more natural
Here a side by side comparison between the original and the edited druid grove exterior.
imgur link
And here is a screenshot of the full map.
imgur link
Compatibility:
The mod should be compatible with all mods that do not alter the area files of the druid grove area (ar1900) and comes with a legacy .tis file (untested) for the classic BG2 game and a new PVRZ .tis file for BG2EE/EET.
Currently there is only one known conflict: If G3's BG2Fixpack is installed/to be installed then Druid Grove Makeover needs to be installed AFTER BG2Fixpack to work properly.
Installation:
You can install/uninstall this mod at any time and there is no need to start a new game for the changes to take effect.
Credits:
Many thanks to Argent77 for his work on NearInfinity and his advice on coding.
The mod can be found here.
To me this area has always been a huge disappointment.
When you think ''druid grove'' you usually imagine some enchanted mythical forest and a few monoliths or rune stones. Instead of all that BG2 delivered a barren, swampy wasteland covered in orange dirt and a druid grove that looks more like a futuristic nuclear bomb shelter than anything else.
My goal was to only edit the actual area art and not touch anything else (lighting and pathing). Because of this, the lower part of the area has only been slightly modified as there are simply too many dead tree polygons to make any significant changes and still keep the area in line with the underlying .wed file.
Here is a short overview of what has been changed:
Lower part of the map:
-added some ground vegetation and adjusted coloring in some parts to make the ground look less like plain orange dirt and make the whole area look more alive.
Upper part of the map:
-changed the ground to a healthy, grass covered floor
-added trees to the upper map border to make the area look like it is bordering on a (slightly) higher altitude forest
-reworked druid grove exterior to look like a natural cave entrance (which is inline with the vanilla druid grove interior area art)
-changed the ground around the stone circle in front of the druid grove to look more natural
Here a side by side comparison between the original and the edited druid grove exterior.
imgur link
And here is a screenshot of the full map.
imgur link
Compatibility:
The mod should be compatible with all mods that do not alter the area files of the druid grove area (ar1900) and comes with a legacy .tis file (untested) for the classic BG2 game and a new PVRZ .tis file for BG2EE/EET.
Currently there is only one known conflict: If G3's BG2Fixpack is installed/to be installed then Druid Grove Makeover needs to be installed AFTER BG2Fixpack to work properly.
Installation:
You can install/uninstall this mod at any time and there is no need to start a new game for the changes to take effect.
Credits:
Many thanks to Argent77 for his work on NearInfinity and his advice on coding.
The mod can be found here.
Post edited by Ulb on
6
Comments
Do you plan to improve (and activate) the night map as well?
I actually thought about doing a night map as well earlier today but I'm not sure yet, that's why I released it with just the one map for now.
I assume activating the night map would not be likely to cause any compatibility issues with other mods?
I'll take another look at the existing night map tomorrow and see how I feel about that.
*edit*
Oh, bye the way, do you happen to know why the existing night map was turned off in the first place? I did a quick test earlier and it seemed to work just fine, so I'm not sure why they would just hide it away and use the filter instead..
I have updated the first post with an imgur link to the full map.
@argent77
That's why I was thinking there might be a down side to extended night areas. Like, maybe the twilight gradual color shift doesn't work when it's enabled or it's something else.
(I think that might be it, since you usually get those little movies instead in extended night areas.)
Also, if the gradual color shift works it would look kind of weird. The original night map has a lot of light spots all over it, more or less aligning with the mushroom colonies on the map, so if I did a night map that would mean glowing mushrooms a la SoD but then you'd have normal boring mushrooms during twilight and suddenly glowing mushrooms at full night.
Theoretically it would be rather easy to ensure compatibility (as long as BG2Fixpack is installed first), the only problem is: I have no clue how to tell WeiDU to undo what the fixpack did.
This is the code responsible for setting the area flag in the fix pack:
COPY_EXISTING ar1900.are override ar2807.are override READ_SHORT 0x48 location_flags WRITE_SHORT 0x48 location_flags | 0x40 BUT_ONLYIf anyone more knowledgeable knows how to reverse this, it would be much appreciated.COPY_EXISTING ~ar1900.are~ ~override~ READ_SHORT 0x48 location WRITE_SHORT 0x48 (location BAND BNOT 0x40) // clears bit 6 (Extended Night) BUT_ONLYYou could update the DL link in your initial post to the latest version 1.2. BWS already downloads that one.
You need to use correct link format inside first post:
Link to download latest release: http://lynxlynx.info/ie/modhub.php?thisisulb/druidgrovemakeover
Would this be safe to install after EET_End and SCS?
@Maurvir
Thanks a lot. I will place it after quest mods in case one touches the druid grove areas.