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Installation of mods for IE games - important poll!

ALIENALIEN Member Posts: 1,271
edited August 2018 in General Modding
Hello fellow adventurers, in order to make installing mods a better experience, I need feedback from you. So no matter if you install 1 mods with 3 components, 5 mods with 25 components or 100 mods with 1000 components, please fill this poll, so I could gather some info about installation of mods for IE games.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/16dH_cOUmhZ3iPFTwkJS9W_W7mUEr92IWZ9FxeKQb3h4

I would be grateful if this poll will get attention :wink:
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Comments

  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Submitted. My mod installs aren't super huge, so I don't know if my feedback especially is super helpful, but hopefully something there is useable for you.
  • ALIENALIEN Member Posts: 1,271
    @ThacoBell It doesn't matter how many mods do you install. Added to description.
  • southfla79southfla79 Member Posts: 214
    done
  • lefreutlefreut Member Posts: 1,462
    Done :)
  • SharsekSharsek Member, Translator (NDA) Posts: 248
    Submitted :)
  • BubbBubb Member Posts: 1,005
    Completed. :)
  • GusindaGusinda Member Posts: 1,917
    Done
  • ALIENALIEN Member Posts: 1,271
    So far I got good amount of responses and it's show me important data bout the stuff I care with a lite bit of concern for one particular thing. Keep it going :)
  • ArctodusArctodus Member Posts: 992
    Done.
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,754
    Done as well!
  • StefanOStefanO Member Posts: 346
    Done.
  • DoubledimasDoubledimas Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 1,286
    Done.
  • AedanAedan Member, Translator (NDA) Posts: 8,551
    Done.
    Do you plan at a certain date to share the results? It would be interesting :)
  • Permidion_StarkPermidion_Stark Member Posts: 4,861
    I've submitted a form but I'm not sure how helpful it will be. These days I play on a Mac and though I have tried to download several mods (including EET and various soundsets) I haven't managed to get any of them to work. So far the only thing I have succeeded in installing is the EXP cap remover from EET Tweaks.

    I should hasten to add that this is definitely a fault on my part not on the part of the developers of the mods. Back in the days when I played on a PC I could get mods to work but on a Mac I find it so frustrating that I have basically given up. (In the unlikely event that I ever have some spare cash I am going to buy myself a Windows laptop just to play Baldur's Gate on).
  • ArctodusArctodus Member Posts: 992
    @Permidion_Stark I don’t know if you have access to a pc, but if you do, you can ‘’transplant’’ a BWS install into a mac install. That’s what I do. Make the install with BWS and then transfer the relevant folders (override, lang, etc...) in a mac install. It would even be easier with the DLC merger you can find here :

    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/71305/mod-dlc-merger-merge-steam-gog-sod-dlc-or-custom-dlcs-with-the-main-game

    If you can borrow a pc from a friend, that’s a good solution.
  • Permidion_StarkPermidion_Stark Member Posts: 4,861
    Arctodus said:

    @Permidion_Stark I don’t know if you have access to a pc, but if you do, you can ‘’transplant’’ a BWS install into a mac install. That’s what I do. Make the install with BWS and then transfer the relevant folders (override, lang, etc...) in a mac install. It would even be easier with the DLC merger you can find here :

    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/71305/mod-dlc-merger-merge-steam-gog-sod-dlc-or-custom-dlcs-with-the-main-game

    If you can borrow a pc from a friend, that’s a good solution.

    Thanks @Arctodus I will give that a try. I've got a friend who is a gamer (sadly I have never been able to interest him in Baldur's Gate) and who is a lot more computer literate than me. I'll get him to give me a hand.
  • GwendolyneGwendolyne Member Posts: 461
    Done.

    Which Fixpack are you refering to? BWP or BWS?
  • ALIENALIEN Member Posts: 1,271
    @Gwendolyne Definitely the one on Github, which was driven by community contribution and it's much more up to date than BWP Fixpack.
  • ALIENALIEN Member Posts: 1,271
    Permidion_Stark said:

    I've submitted a form but I'm not sure how helpful it will be. These days I play on a Mac and though I have tried to download several mods (including EET and various soundsets) I haven't managed to get any of them to work. So far the only thing I have succeeded in installing is the EXP cap remover from EET Tweaks.

    I should hasten to add that this is definitely a fault on my part not on the part of the developers of the mods. Back in the days when I played on a PC I could get mods to work but on a Mac I find it so frustrating that I have basically given up. (In the unlikely event that I ever have some spare cash I am going to buy myself a Windows laptop just to play Baldur's Gate on).

    @Permidion_Stark I hear you. I know how frustrating mod installation can be for Mac/Linux. Those systems adds unnecessary hustle for players and modders. I wish that there would be any way to help you but BWS will forever stay windows-only because it's written using AutoIt - a shitty language which using Windows win32 API. But you feedback is noted and it's important.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
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  • StefanOStefanO Member Posts: 346
    I agree with @subtledoctor . I'm using a Mac for all my EE games since day 1. Very few Mac specific problems so far. Knowing the command line (bash) and the folder structure certainly helps. But that applies to Windows too.
  • ArctodusArctodus Member Posts: 992
    edited August 2018
    Well, installing mods individually is the same, but, since we don’t have a thing like BWS, it can get complicated to install lots mods. Figuring out the right mod order is not simple, but avoiding mod conflict is the most complicated part. So yeah, as a mac user who also use BWS, I can say that mac modding is indeed more complicated.
    Post edited by Arctodus on
  • StefanOStefanO Member Posts: 346
    edited August 2018
    Arctodus said:

    Well, installing mods individually is the same, but, since we don’t have a thing like BWS, it can get complicated to install lots mods. Figuring out the right mod order is not simple, but avoiding mod conflict is the most complicated part. So yeah, as a mac user who also use BWS, I can say that mac modding is indeed more complicated.

    I respectfully disagree. The installation order wisdom of BWS is somewhat outdated and questionable at best. The BWS architecture is surely suited for BWP and other Megamods installations. I don't like this all-you-can-eat approch. For a given roleplaying idea I only install the relevant mods, not everything that's on the menu. For this minimal approach the installation order is almost trivial.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
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  • ArctodusArctodus Member Posts: 992
    edited August 2018
    @StefanO Yeah, on minimal installs, I also prefer doing things manually. However, if someone doesn't want to make on new install for each playthrough and wants to play with a bunch of new npcs, Rogue Rebalancing, Item Revisions, Spell Revisions, IWDification, a bunch of new kits, SCS, Tweak Anthology, Ascension, etc., it quickly gets complicated. I know, the short list I just did there is a basic install of mine. And I'm not even talking about those who want smaller questpacks, because I generally don't use them, but a lot of people like them.

    Figuring out the right install order requires some solid work, but is doable, I admit. Having the crossmod banters between npcs was especially hard to figure out for me, though. Lots of trial and error needed. Nonetheless, I have an install order document which I followed before I started to use BWS. However, where things get even more complicated, it's figuring out the mod conflicts. That's where BWS shines for me. I've learned that a bunch of sutff are irrelevant in the SCS tweaks when I use Spell and Item Revisions, for instance. I knew some of those, but not all of them. And there are lots of potential conflicts when a lot of mods are installed.

    From experience, I've had stouter installs through BWS than when I manually installed things. And, if I'm no expert, I'm no noob either; I've made my research about the mod contents, I've read the readmes, etc. I've even learned how to code basic mods; I know how this stuff works. Not to say that BWS is perfect; I'll never for the life of me use the "recommended" lists of mods, for instance. However, to say that mod installation on a mac is as easy as using BWS, is, from my own experience, not true, at the very least when you use a lots of different mod categories. Manual installs require a much deeper knowledge... and that's not everyone cup of tea.
  • StefanOStefanO Member Posts: 346
    @Arctodus I agree (mostly). And knowledge wise I'm probably on the same page as you. The point you made with crossmod content is surely valid. Only BWS isn't my cup of tea. I spend some time to understand how BWS works and I'm not impressed. To many rules that were true in pre-EE times but are now questionable. And now BWS is no longer maintained. A knowledge database about mod dependencies would be helpful. I understand the BWP project mainains such a document. But I don't believe it's applicable to the EE world.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
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  • ArctodusArctodus Member Posts: 992
    @subtledoctor Here, have an Insightful for giving me that link. Never thought of using the Github to find the installing sequence used by BWS. Pretty nice. It doesn't resolve mod confilct though.
    subtledoctor said:

    I don't think anyone compared manual installs to BWS. The assertion was "installing mods on a Mac is the same as installing mods on Windows." That is true.

    Yeah, I get what you mean, but I think that's what @ALIEN was referring to. Without BWS, installing mods, no matter the platform is more complicated. And we have no BWS on mac. So yeah.
    subtledoctor said:

    Unfortunately that is WAY outside my skill set... not just that I can't do it, I don't even think I could learn to do it... :(

    Ugh. That kind of admission from someone who knows so much about IE games is heartbreaking...
  • StefanOStefanO Member Posts: 346
    BWS uses an nowadays unsupported Windows only programming language. The data is stored in hundreds of windows ini files in various character set encodings. This is so last century.

    Nowadays the execution logic could be implemented in javascript or php or whatever. That means the user interface could be platform independent because everything a user needs is a browser and a platform dependent tool like WeiDU (both already there). The data could be stored in a database like MySQL or mongodb. That is, of cause, no small programming project.
  • AerakarAerakar Member Posts: 1,049
    Submitted.
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