@GraionDilach The Arms and Armour Emporium Alpha was built before the drama. It was one of the last things I built (yet it was ~unreleased) before the ill fated Seatower episode. This Arms and Emporium Alpha has no Seatower content in it and is purely from my own work. There is nothing from the Seatower project in the "Baldur's Gate Arms and Armour Emporium Version 0.3 (Working 27th August 2019)" Alpha build. I did not spring the cursed version on you that was mixed with the Seatower. This "Baldur's Gate Arms and Armour Emporium Version 0.3 (Working 27th August 2019)" Alpha build predates the drama and thus I figured it would be a peaceful project to work with. This is only my own work from when I was working on my own content. There is no association with the Seatower in anyway in this "Baldur's Gate Arms and Armour Emporium Version 0.3 (Working 27th August 2019)". If you dig through the "New(Working)" files you will find the items not linked to the reforging but there is one template / example / prototype reforged item OLSW1H06.ITM; the Long Sword +3 'Varscona".
Just in case this means anything I confirm that the attached package in the post above contains no Seatower ressources. I appreciate that this matter is handled with according sensitivity from all involved.
I think it's great to see @WithinAmnesia 's original mod ideas forming into an own mod.
Just in case this means anything I confirm that the attached package in the post above contains no Seatower ressources. I appreciate that this matter is handled with according sensitivity from all involved.
I think it's great to see @WithinAmnesia 's original mod ideas forming into an own mod.
Why thank you. I hope to learn from my past mistakes and improve as a person. Best of luck to you and your projects.
@GraionDilach I found them; the Fire Drake items and the jewels to reward encounters and limit the amount of upgrades to like no more than ~15 (Chardalyn). Although there might only be like 3-6 to start out with spread across every hard encounters. Such as even retroactively, as in one Chardalyn from the Demon Knight, Aec'Letec, Selaad Gan (Loup Garou), Shandalar, Siren Queen, OLSKEL1W.CRE (The exploding Skeleton Warrior wearing the Magma Bulwark in the Under city encounter in E.E.E.E.) Or any limited number of top tier enemy encounter in the original Baldur's Gate. The Star Ruby is for for medium / lesser upgrades / reforging required materials to spice things up a bit (uncommon like 20-30 found around the Original Baldur's Gate). The same can be said but to a lesser extent with the Ruby (random loot table / lesser treasure rewards type stuff): https://www.deviantart.com/withinamnesia/art/Fire-Drake-Scale-Armour-2-3-822707204 + https://www.deviantart.com/withinamnesia/art/Jewels-Emporium-Finished-822805076
Also HELM00.ITM should be replaced with OLHELM99.ITM (found on Bimmy) for they are the same helmet just the OLHELM00.ITM is more mod friendly. The older HELM00.ITM was a prototype that worked its way into the E.E.E.E. content as an oversight; it is an older version of OLHELM.ITM. I am not sure how to patch all content with HELM00.ITM into OLHELM00.ITM (due to a lack of skill). Although I know it can be done manually case by case yet it will take more effort and time.
I have some more content I could add into more encounters. I have a bunch of my own unique content unpublished and pretty close to releasable content I am sure people would like to play. For instance I have bunch of finished items and some pretty finished cave / dungeon maps with new encounters just sitting around I could put into an E.E.E.E. part 2 / Extra Expanded Enhanced Encounters: Encore (E.E.E.E.E. to add an extra E on the end for fun XD). I might even just make a smaller crypt or something as a less hard core version to add somewhere for extra added fun? Maybe I can get the Candlekeep Non-Player Characters a release. Although I would need help figuring out how to add them in properly as recruit-able Non-Player Characters with proper dialogs and maybe something close to the high quality community N.P.C. dialog options. I'm just not sure how to script it all properly outside of the basic join party / leave party kind of stuff with maybe some quests thrown in. My pre-fix of OL stands for Osprey Light, Osprey being one of my first modules but I lacked the skills to make her and her friends* better than a basic prototype in what feels like eons ago. https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/37893/osprey-the-fighter-diviner-new-non-player-character-mod
* https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Storage_Cellars
- Canderous https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Canderous
- Arkanis (duo with Deder) https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Arkanis
- Deder (duo with Arkanis) https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Deder
- Mordaine https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Mordaine
Also the remaining 4 'Candlekeep Party' Non-Player Characters could be remastered / altered / changed / add class kits into / added on to / like the case with Osprey.
@WithinAmnesia I haven't inspected each item yet in the New(Working) folder to see how they're set up, but I've got some questions already:
Why the smithy uses Arunsun's prefix instead of yours?
I think I get the idea with the Jewel Emporium, that the basic items would be upgraded to +2 when combined with the Ruby Gem, +3 when combined with the Star Ruby and +5 when combined with the Chardalyn. That's cool on paper... but even +3 is outside the powerlevel of BG1 (I think Strongarm's 19 Strength requisite provides the necessary copout to let that one pass, since that requires the player to explicitly run a half-orc or use the Big-Fisted Belt for it). The Chardalyn and it's upgrades would only be suitable in BG2 IMO (I haven't finished SoD yet to know where that one's powerlevel caps).
An alternative idea how I would implement this all while still remaining in the powerlevel of BG1 is to drop the Chardalyn for this game, the Ruby Gem would provide +1, the Star Ruby would provide +2 and both would also enchant silver/cold iron properties to a basic weapon (and maybe +1/+2 fire damage, although I don't think that's required because that would put the Star Ruby weaponry above Varscona). There would also be only a maximum of 2 Ruby Gems (although it's debatable if the second one is required) and a single Star Ruby distributed over the game (if this is accepted, suggestions for locations are welcome). This would provide an alternative solution against the werewolves and counterbalance the problems caused by backporting the BG2 weapon proficiency system in BGEE.
For similar reasons, I would restrict the fire drake items to the +2 variants.
I have to thank WithinAmnesia for giving the permission to GraionDilach to work on it
and
I have to thank GraionDilach for actually working on this mod!
I have some more content I could add into more encounters. I have a bunch of my own unique content unpublished and pretty close to releasable content I am sure people would like to play
@GraionDilach I am not 100% certain on this (it has been 2+ years since then) but I remember asking for help in how to get the smithy reforging script / dialog to work. I received help and I think it was from (I think) Arunsun and he made the smithy dialog and I could use it to add onto new recipes like a template. @Arunsun Is this true, was this you? I eventually tweaked it and worked around with it to where it is now with the prototype reforged Long Sword +3 'Varscona'. I know for a fact it was not stolen but rather a collaboration / request for help. The voicing acting is edited / morphed by myself but the base audio is from Michael Cthulhu ( https://www.youtube.com/c/michaelcthulhu/videos ). I got permission to use his voice as the base audio for the smithy as well. So there is no funny business going on with stolen content; this is all above board.
@GraionDilach I agree with you. Although I don't want regular +4 +5 items in the original Baldur's Gate; just the ones that are already there with some minor upgrades that keep the game feeling rewarding and very much balanced within the scope of the content. I think I was working on the super hardcore crypt mega dungeon for a reason to justify the new +4-5 items in the original Baldur's Gate. I kind of forgot about that while writing the first reply XD. I think your idea with the limited scope / using regular non-hardcore content / regular BG1 level of difficulty content should be focused on. I want this content to feel natural / intuitive / in-line with the expectations of the rest of the game; the content should blend in smoothly.
The Chardalyn is for +4 and +5 items. There are no new added +4 and +5 regular items added in this module at all; only small tweaks, minor and situational upgrades to the ones already existing. To keep everything rewarding yet balance within the scope of the original Baldur's Gate content. I was hoping to release the hardcore mega Crypt with some new yet conservative +4 items at the near very bottom with some +5 potential content before the final levels (like minor and underrepresented item types like a club or leather armour). I wanted this to be bigger than Durlag's Tower in terms of scale but not by much and also like Throne Bhaal in terms of level difficulty in BG1; but with less rewards to give a reason for all of these +2 and +3 items and like 2-3 +4 / +5 minor items like a dagger or something minor but still rewarding.
Yet we are not there yet. So no new super +4 to +5 items sprinkled around for now in this scope of original Baldur's Gate content. We should only use the already powerful ones in the base game. I think at the top end of this conservative limit there could be 3 Chardalyns able to be earned by the play at the end of the hardest encounters in the game game. Even then they are only to upgrade the already +4 items in the base game such as the Mithral Chain Mail +4 into Mithral Chain Mail +4 with extra stats. That is about it though, the already existing +4 items could have extra stats but not be made into full blown +5 magical artifacts.
Then again this could be done where these powerful upgrades are locked behind the very late game in the final stages of a play through of the base game as in:
- One Chardalyn from the Under City skeleton encounter at the end of the main story.
- One Chardalyn from the Demon Knight in the bottom of Durlag's Tower finale.
- One Chardalyn from Selaad Gan (Loup Garou) with Isle of Balduran quest finale.
This would also spread them across the game world and make them feel like true exotic treasures.
With only 7 possible recipes to reasonably upgrade already powerful items; with only 3 maximum upgrades in total:
- Mithral Chain Mail +4 'Reforged variant with extra magical bonuses'.
- Xan's Moonblade +4 (Only Xan can use this and it is an artifact weapon kinda technically so +3 to +4 works).
- Bastard Sword +1, +4 vs. Lycanthropes 'Sword of Balduran' -> Bastard Sword +2, +5 vs. Lycanthropes 'Sword of Balduran' (requires a Star Ruby) -> Bastard Sword +3, +6 vs. Lycanthropes 'Sword of Balduran' (requires a Chardalyn).
- Long Sword +1, +4 vs. Undead, Flame Tongue 'The Burning Earth'. Similar to the Sword of Balduran where +2, +5 requires Star Ruby to upgrade and the +3, +6 requires a Chardalyn
- Dagger +1, +4 vs. Lycanthropes 'Werebane': Similar to the Sword of Balduran where +2, +5 requires Star Ruby to upgrade and the +3, +6 requires a Chardalyn.
- Warhammer +1, +4 vs. Giant Humanoids 'The Kneecapper'. Similar to the Sword of Balduran where +2, +5 requires Star Ruby to upgrade and the +3, +6 requires a Chardalyn.
- Heavy Crossbow +2, +5 'The Guide' [+5 enchanted] -> Heavy Crossbow +3, +6 'The Guide' [+6 enchanted] (requires a Chardalyn).
Again there are no new added regular +4 or +5 items; only rewarding yet balanced upgrades to already existing +4 enchanted weapons. Even then most of them require a lot of investment and multiple rounds of reforging to even use the Chardalyn and they don't get past +3 regular enchantment and they are situational and only work against certain types of encounters. The Xan Long Sword +4 'Moonblade' is not a regular magical item for it is bound to Xan. All regular +3 magical items found in the base game would still be relevant and could also be upgraded with a Star Ruby into a better version of themself to feel rewarding yet reasonable still within the scope of the original Baldur's Gate content.
There could only be around ~9 Star Ruby encounters sprinkled around the original Baldur's Gate content as well to spice things up and reward the player too in the late game. In such a way to reward them after hard fought encounters to further invest and upgrade (within reason) their favorite ~+3 items. Yet probably not all of the +3 items in the party can be upgraded come the late game if there are only ~9 Star Ruby encounters in the original Baldur's Gate content; so it remains balanced and the player has to pick what items are their favourite and to improve and what ones they can live without being improved.
Every different build and party could be a different combination of upgraded items and still feel rewarding even for multiple play throughs. Also the player would have to complete every challenging encounter in the base game to get access to the full amount of upgrades. This way every character build and play type could have the potential to be upgraded into a what the player wants to see an elite final form of before the story of the original Baldur's Gate reaches its finale; and only just before the end of the story to be fair. It would kind of act like a reward for completing all challenging encounters in the original Baldur's Gate and going that extra mile. Which I see as is a bonus :-).
These thoughts above are the maximum I would push it within the scope of the base game content in the original Baldur's Gate. I feel it is important to get feedback and see what people feel on this. The more we can talk back and forth the better I think this whole chunk of content can become. Bit by bit, piece by piece, iterate iterate iterate :-).
The Fire Drake Scale items (shield and armour) I think could go all the way to +3 only if the player decides they want to go that far with expending the very limited amount of hard to obtain Star Ruby upgrade items. Even then it would only be at the end of the game after the Cloakwood Mines finale. I am tempted to have the Fire Drake Scale items start new-forged as +1, then +2 with the regular Ruby upgrade item, and finally +3 with using Star Ruby. This would be in line with the rest of the unique magical items and still be balanced and limited in scope to keep the base game balanced and the player power within reason.
Also the +2 upgrade required items can be multiple items of anything type as long as they are powerful and rare like a Ruby (this general idea also applies to +1 upgrade / new-forged items but to lesser valuable treasures). I added the regular Ruby for the base game lacks it and I felt it silly to have only the magical and rare version of the Star Ruby but no regular Ruby:-P. The +2 upgrade required items can be King's Tears, Emeralds, Diamonds, Rogue Stones etc. (up to x5 even). It does not always need to be gems either it can be rare potions like Potion of Power, rare scrolls like multiple Scrolls of Protection etc. or anything like that even a bunch of Winter Wolf pelts (~x9-15) could work; just as long as it seems cool and rewards players for looting encounters beyond dumping it off at a vendor for an already overflowing gold stack XD. Although the +3 tier items must to use one of the limited ~9 Star Ruby upgrade items to keep things rewarding yet limited in scope, balance player power for game play and fair to the scope of the rest of the content within the original Baldur's Gate.
One thing to note is that smithing and upgrades are more in line with BG2 and not BG1. BG1 only has the ankheg plates and while there are some upgrade mods out there, most of them also creates items outside of the game's powerlevel relying on complex recipes and singular building (not chaining things up like the BG2 upgrading). This whole level-based multi-stage recipes do not blend in with BG1.
I'm not sure if I'd upgrade any of the specialist weapons or The Guide as part of this due to the things above. Also... upgrading Drizzt's chainmail doesn't sound appropriate to me either. While I acknowledge I'm not too good with coming up for recipes, it still feels to me that you want to upgrade the items which are already at the higher end of the tierlist.
Another issue I see is that the gems' value is huge. Like the Chardalyn with it's 20k worth. .. even if that only gets sold to 10k, one can literally buy entire shops with that.
Personally, I'm not too fond of the idea with "epic-level" adventures on BG1. When I think of such, I always end up thinking of DSotSC's drow dungeon crawl backporting the BG2 drow items (so everyone runs with +3/+5 stuff) with the intention to cheat out the player from relying on it after the dungeon's over (relying on the adamantite falling apart on sunlight rule). While it also remedies the damage it does to the game's powerlevel, it feels horribly cheated out from a player's perspective.
@GraionDilach I feel that the Baldur's Gate Arms and Armour Emporium is hinting at a more serious chunk of content and is meant for more content to be added to the original Baldur's Gate. Also personally I want to add in more challenging encounters; although I need new areas and more opportunity to do so properly. Yet I think we can pull off a 'version 1' and or a base version of the Baldur's Gate Arms and Armour Emporium and not go too crazy with adding any regular +4 magical items and just stick to the regular +3 magical items.
Also the Chardalyn is an epic / legendary artifact and might be the most rarest of jewels in all of Faerun. It should probably be guarded by very powerful encounters; an extreme difficulty more so than any found in the regular base game of BG1 in scope. With this in mind there could very well be no Chardalyn jewel(s) found in the base BG1 game. For it does not make sense lore wise / logically does not fit into the scope of the encounters. The Chardalyn feels more akin to the Throne of Bhaal challenge level encounters suited such as Demi Liches and Elder Dragons.
If we just don't add the Chardalyn that works as well. The Moonblade can be upgraded by other means for in the lore Moonblades powers can be augmented by their users potential / Xan Moonblade quest. The Mithril Chain Mail +4 could be too powerful for Michael to upgrade without some serious magical power that the player cannot currently obtain. The Heavy Crossbow +2 / +5 'The Guide' can also be too powerful for Michael to tinker with as well. In addition he could give the player's party a reason why he refuses out of professionalism. In that he refuses to try to attempt to 'upgrade' +4 and higher items without seriously powerful magical items to aid in the reforging process. For he fears that he might mess up the already incredibly potent enchantment and or even something like that going awry when mucking around out of his skill level.
Also the +1 / +4 weapons could still be reasonable to be upgraded once into +2 / +5 variants with a Star Ruby; since it is situational power only. Yet no more upgrading past the +2/+5 version since for there is no Chardalyn to be found in the base game of BG1. So it could make logical sense in-world / lore wise that the regular magical / 'artifact' +4 / +5 items require serious magical power for Michael to further upgrade them. Yet it could work out that the player's party just lacks the means to enable Michael to do so and that way it could make sense in-world as well. Michael of Baldur's Gate might be a mighty blacksmith but forging anything past a regular use +3 magical item would need some serious magical power. Yet it could just so happen that within the scope of BG1 base game content that there could very well be nothing to offer to meet this magical power requirement; and thus the regular +4/+5 magical item upgrades become out of reach for the player's party.
There could just be like 3 or 6 or even 9 Star Ruby items found around the base game of BG1 that can get a limited amount of unique magical items upgraded into +3. Such as is the case with the prototype example upgrade recipe with the Long Sword +2 'Varscona' reforged into the Long Sword +3 'Varscona'. Yet to keep this power increase sane and within the scope of the regular original Baldur's Gate content there should be nothing else in upgrade potential scope more powerful than that unique regular use +2 magical item being reforged into a unique regular use +3 magical item.
In Baldur's Gate II a player can upgrade the Flail of Ages multiple times with more heads. So this multi-tier upgrade system is not really a huge difference rather just extra work. Also our work is different in nature than to regular developers for here we are modders. So thus we don't have a deadline to meet while as most regular developer teams do. As a practical result with official development work lots of stuff gets cut / scaled back for official release. Whereas modders can tinker away bit by bit slower, but perhaps more with details for no one pays modders. So modders can be free to take the time and enjoy the process :-). Yet it helps to be as good as a professional developer to be able to make high quality content XD.
Having more Gnolls is fun, I was pleasantly surprised at the large number of guards at the front gate. But having literal dozens of gnolls per spawn group every three steps in the tight platforms of the stronghold is kinda of a clustercluck. That part could do with some tuning down.
Just playing through the mod for the first time and WOW, I agree with this comment.
The number of Gnolls at the Gnoll Stronghold is honestly just game-breaking. I started on SCS Hardcore, ended up on Story Mode after literally half a day (real time) trying to get through the stronghold. Shockingly, even story mode didn't make much difference; there are some slimes there that that are WAY above my party level, and they keep dividing endlessly. I get 1,000+ xp per kill, and I literally gained several levels just killing the endlessly dividing slimes. It's absurdly game-breaking.
More gnolls would be great.
But endless waves of hundreds and hundreds of gnolls is silly.
Add in the unbalanced slimes (these should be SoA enemies, not early BG1) and the fact that they endlessly multiply, and it pretty much breaks the game.
@WithinAmnesia After considerable thought, I abandoned the idea of implementing the Jewel Emporium. I do not support your views on inflating the BG1 item powerlevel and I don't see we're closing towards a deal here. I will implement the possibility for Taerom to forge OLCHAN2A.ITM out of the fire drake scales along with my proposed item fixes from the start of this discussion and that's it.
@tl1942@ThacoBell Only the Black Pudding comes from SoD. The Fission Slime (the one splitting) is from Durlag's Tower and the Mustard Jelly appears a few times in Baldur's Gate. This mod also doesn't add respawning enemies at all. Regardless, I will look into subcomponenting the gnolls to offer an option to only install half of the additional ones and I can also subcomponent out the jellies (please confirm if you think that sounds like a solution).
Note that the Fission Slime already doesn't install at all, if the Feast of Gnolls mission from Ascalon's Questpack is installed.
@GraionDilach "Only the Black Pudding comes from SoD. The Fission Slime (the one splitting) is from Durlag's Tower and the Mustard Jelly appears a few times in Baldur's Gate."
That's still far later than would normally be encountered. Gnoll Stronghold is very often taken early game. I think separating these out into separate components was a good solution.
+1 to separating these components with a high difficulty warning as prudent.
What about adding the Jewel Emporium to BG City or High Hedge or somesuch only accessible after SoD or BG2 starts?
It might be for the best that the Baldur's Gate Arms and Armour Emporium gets it own polish and own release in due time. It is a lot of work to go through the recipes. It would also give an opportunity to add in the more items and encounters that did not quite make it into E.E.E.E. module / first release. Later after adding in TotSC balance level content I could try and do more work on the super mega ToB level difficulty Crypt thing maybe later after a good release and follow up polish campaign for E.E.E.E.E.
I think having the Emporium be implemented in a BG1 TotSC style to start is the smarter path and it could not kill the game balance while still adding in more encounter sand maybe a smaller scale dungeon crypt or even the gnoll strong hold dungeon and stuff the extra gnolls in there so the top is more reasonable (that seems like a better more classy / smooth way of handling extra gnoll content is to give them a dungeon so the player has the best of both worlds?). Then if the player wants to go deeper later one to face more challenge they can choose to (like how the deeper into durlag's tower you gate the harder it gets, like a multi-level dungeon of old).
Also I can get better at making big dungeons by making smaller / medium sized dungeons and yeah. So later on when I tinker in my digital garden on the big epic stuff I can have more experience in the easier / early game focused content and do a better job with more experience. You get better at anything the more you do it including dungeon-crafting XD.
Also the gnoll stronghold dungeon fits in with TotSC style content and difficulty / game balance in general. It could be like a sister dungeon to Durlag's down or like a little sister :-P. Also I could add in more encounters around the map and maybe get those Underdark caves (of the the candlekeep party) polished up now that I am better at art / realistic area painting / photoshop.
Does anyone know where I can get a good guide / help in learning how to make a good Non-Player Character module? Hopefully one that fits in high quality wise with the rest of the community's favourite recruit-able companions? I am lacking dialog experience and how to properly handle making new N.P.C. characters with quests, dialog ques and all that funky stuff that is the hallmark of a good quality N.P.C. mod. Instead I have prototype recruit-able non-player characters with basic dialog, items and areas; but the current skill to deliever the deep high quality fine detail custom, tailored scrips for meaningful dialog story telling and quests very well implemented.
So if I can polish up my dialog and quest crafting ability it would all a whole other level of high content I could create. Where should I look to find how to make a recruit-able Non-Player Charatcer properly? Also how are duo N.P.C.s made so that you need 2 or even 3 of them in a party or they split like Khalid and Jaheira?
@WithinAmnesia After considerable thought, I abandoned the idea of implementing the Jewel Emporium. I do not support your views on inflating the BG1 item powerlevel and I don't see we're closing towards a deal here. I will implement the possibility for Taerom to forge OLCHAN2A.ITM out of the fire drake scales along with my proposed item fixes from the start of this discussion and that's it.
@tl1942@ThacoBell Only the Black Pudding comes from SoD. The Fission Slime (the one splitting) is from Durlag's Tower and the Mustard Jelly appears a few times in Baldur's Gate. This mod also doesn't add respawning enemies at all. Regardless, I will look into subcomponenting the gnolls to offer an option to only install half of the additional ones and I can also subcomponent out the jellies (please confirm if you think that sounds like a solution).
Note that the Fission Slime already doesn't install at all, if the Feast of Gnolls mission from Ascalon's Questpack is installed.
That makes sense having Taerom do it as well, it is earlier to get and links in with the Ankheg armour idea as well. Also the Wyvern heads and winter wolf pelts feel kinda like my scales and maybe I could wip up Hide armour for the wolf pelts and a helmet or something for the Wyvern heads? Are there any big beetles in BG1 (I don't think so but they could be added underground)? Should I add in another quick encounter to a place that makes sense to add in Icewind Dale style recipes (not the SoD ones) for the early / mid game of Baldur's Gate? The Icewind Dale items could be ported over more or less and they are not game breaking by any stretch of the imagination; but would probably seem kinda tame or like well suited for the early parts of Baldur's Gate: https://mikesrpgcenter.com/icewind/items/enemy.html
Also https://mikesrpgcenter.com/icewind/armor/shields.html#rhinobeetleshield and maybe even I could add in a / more yeti's to BG1 (probably the Rasaad area or any where there is snow in BG1 like the Ice Island Dungeon):
The Yeti Pelt Armour in Icewind Dale is pretty reasonable it seems: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/43235/yeti-pelt-armor
Either way perhaps it is a good idea to tie up loose ends with creature part items and have Taerom be able to make them into balanced early BG1 suitable items? Ideas?
Beyond that, ask the community. Find some mods of the style you like and talk with their authors about how they did things. Lava Del Vortel has had beloved mods as of late.
The Yeti Armor just seems poorly-designed and not worth the price to me. (It's available for you to mod in if you really want.)
As for other items, consider this list. I made this list and encourage others to implement these items, but do cite me as inspiration! May these be useful to you!
@WithinAmnesia I agree with the people who suggested to create an EET mod out of the Jewel Emporium and co. would be the better as a separate project. (Keep in mind that one of my important goal with EEEE maintenance was to backport what's possible to SoD-less BGEE.) You'll need to include chapter checks to spawn these items and provide a quest or some other inspiration for the player to revisit the areas, limit the installer to EET and it's all fine (afaik you can't backtrack top the BGEE areas during the SoD campaign so that might be a no-go). As far as I was able to check, project separation is apparently a longterm issue with your modding style, because most of your mods almost always try to incorporate your entire previous work.
Also keep in mind that IWD had a very different itemization mindset which tries to stress every little detail of an item (unlinked THAC0 and damage bonus on weapons, nonstandardized seemingly random amount of elemental resistance, huge cost differences between magic and magic items). However keep in mind that IWD dragged this out because it has way faster level progression while the drop rate was more slower. The Yeti Armor already verges on offering too little for too much in IWD and I don't think it'd see use in BG.
@GraionDilach I am not 100% certain on this (it has been 2+ years since then) but I remember asking for help in how to get the smithy reforging script / dialog to work. I received help and I think it was from (I think) Arunsun and he made the smithy dialog and I could use it to add onto new recipes like a template. @Arunsun Is this true, was this you? I eventually tweaked it and worked around with it to where it is now with the prototype reforged Long Sword +3 'Varscona'. I know for a fact it was not stolen but rather a collaboration / request for help. The voicing acting is edited / morphed by myself but the base audio is from Michael Cthulhu ( https://www.youtube.com/c/michaelcthulhu/videos ). I got permission to use his voice as the base audio for the smithy as well. So there is no funny business going on with stolen content; this is all above board.
Hi, to be completely honest I have no idea either, it has been a while, but I don't think I would have been able to help regarding the dialogs, as I am not really good with tweaking dialogs with WeiDU. In any case, I would second @Endarire's suggestion to follow the Branwen NPC mod, it is an excellent tutorial to learn how to create NPC mods and you can pick up a thing or two regarding dialogs in general.
If you need help with some items' implementation or have fancy ideas regarding spells and stuff, I would gladly help you though!
Okay so far just giving a quick reply I see:
-Yeti Armour could use a buff.
-Separating the mods and having them be more mod to mod friendly is a good idea
-Possibly adding in IWD monster item crafted items could work in BG1 but thet need to be reviewed and tweaked to fit with the GG1 style.
-I should check out a few NPC mods and ask around with thier creators to learn better scripting a dialog crafting.
-Baldur's Gate Arms and Emporium should be its own mod.
-E.E.E.E.E. could be its own mod.
-It would be cool to add in items you guys / @Endarire came up with but I should ask for you guys to review them first to see if they make sense before release (Like with the Emporium items).
Does this make sense? Please leave follow up comments if curious about something and or have a point to address. Feedback is good :-).
@WithinAmnesia
My linked list of items has many items. What's sensical is also contextual. At least some of them would be suitable there!
I read through them a few days ago it feels. I saved the list as well. Stuff like this is kind of what I am looking for. It feels like proper new content ideas / concepts that would seem natural in TotSC or any Baldur's Gate content around the early to middle total character levels. One thing I thought was neat that you described was the idea of having many items of each type and power range; although within reason and keeping items and their lore and even ~'character' unique and memorable. So that a party can get fully equipped within a certain level of power and with even a full party of end game level gear (that is kept reasonable for the content difficulty / scope) with enough experience. I like the emphasis on wide and broad ways to upgrade and progress and especially the side-grade and situational items that are all relevant and also especially powerful; yet fair and reasonable items that make all play types and builds viable and more over fun to play (like more diversity of reasonable mages robes).
I come to this role and pursuit of being and old school style RPG game developer for I ultimately love those kind of games. An exemplification of this that I have a lot of experience / years spent playing a lot of great old school RPGs to the end and beating and progression and even going after and successfully playing beating the highest levels of difficulty in them and doing everything. To where playing them so much I ended up running out of content for I eventually mastered the game's challenging aspects. To where I could go no further and I had to make my own content to go any further for a real sense of progression. Thus being inspired by and listening to what feels amazing and ultimately hoping to keep on learning from many great old school RPGs. Such as with Diablo 2 & 1 and vanilla World of Warcraft and Classic Everquest and even bits of the early / middle Path of Exile and some ideas / concepts resonated from Old School Runescape in my RPG work in general.
One big thing I feel is that Baldur's Gate in general is built like a small RPG aimed at 1-2 months of game play and it is majorly over but with a big story. Diablo 2 & 1 are like this kinda too but with replayability and greater difficulty rewards built in from the start to promote longevity. Also the depth of item and progression in Diablo 2 is light years more than any of the Baldur's Gate game just in how it was put together and the goals and eventual execution of a grander plan from the start to finish.
Baldur's Gate has a handful of items and relatively limited or even shallow (in parts) character progression where it does not need to be that way. Especially given the free and vast depth of possible adventure loot and progression offered in the source material / table top D&D. In where you just look at a few books have an idea charted out, Dungeon Master a campaign and if it fits, your group gets more items and progression by the roll of the dice and the stroke of a pencil.
I don't want to revolutionize nor majorly change the feeling of Baldur's Gate (it is what it is) but rather just make homages to my favourite parts of old school RPGs but with very Baldur's Gate sensibilities, style, fashion and feel. Like adding in an optional set of hard encounters with TotSC style loot and dialog that feels like old school RPGs just focused on their in game world to draw the player in and be better immersed and enjoy the game even more. I am looking for people to add ideas and concepts that would like to see. Working together with like minded passionate people makes the whole process feel more like a group of adventurers or something to do together and have fun and enjoy the process:-P.
Or very briefly I am looking for what people would imagine what TotSC would look like if it was expanded and like if you had a dream in TotSC and you found a new encounter or dungeon or there was another expansion what would that look and feel like? How would you describe it and how would you think more content with the spirit of Baldur's Gate Tales of the Sword Coast would look and feel? Or even if there was a second Baldur's Gate 1 expansion by Black Isle Studios before Baldur's Gate 2; how would that look and feel like? Please give feed back I love reading and thinking about all of the ideas from the community; it ultimately makes for better content.
There's enough fanmade content to feel like a new expansion. Dark Side of the Sword Coast, Northern Tales of the Sword Coast, Shades of the Sword Coast, The Cowled Menace, Twisting with the Rune, Tower of Deception, Ascalon's Quest Mod, Unfinished Business (BG1 & 2), and many more quest mods all provide additional content on EE & EET!
Comments
Awesome. Thanks for picking it up and more importantly: the relocation and not using the Old maps
Do note that the “Thalantyr item upgrade” mod is still around - and liked by many. So perhaps the smithy is a better option
I think it's great to see @WithinAmnesia 's original mod ideas forming into an own mod.
Why thank you. I hope to learn from my past mistakes and improve as a person. Best of luck to you and your projects.
Also HELM00.ITM should be replaced with OLHELM99.ITM (found on Bimmy) for they are the same helmet just the OLHELM00.ITM is more mod friendly. The older HELM00.ITM was a prototype that worked its way into the E.E.E.E. content as an oversight; it is an older version of OLHELM.ITM. I am not sure how to patch all content with HELM00.ITM into OLHELM00.ITM (due to a lack of skill). Although I know it can be done manually case by case yet it will take more effort and time.
I have some more content I could add into more encounters. I have a bunch of my own unique content unpublished and pretty close to releasable content I am sure people would like to play. For instance I have bunch of finished items and some pretty finished cave / dungeon maps with new encounters just sitting around I could put into an E.E.E.E. part 2 / Extra Expanded Enhanced Encounters: Encore (E.E.E.E.E. to add an extra E on the end for fun XD). I might even just make a smaller crypt or something as a less hard core version to add somewhere for extra added fun? Maybe I can get the Candlekeep Non-Player Characters a release. Although I would need help figuring out how to add them in properly as recruit-able Non-Player Characters with proper dialogs and maybe something close to the high quality community N.P.C. dialog options. I'm just not sure how to script it all properly outside of the basic join party / leave party kind of stuff with maybe some quests thrown in. My pre-fix of OL stands for Osprey Light, Osprey being one of my first modules but I lacked the skills to make her and her friends* better than a basic prototype in what feels like eons ago.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/37893/osprey-the-fighter-diviner-new-non-player-character-mod
* https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Storage_Cellars
- Canderous https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Canderous
- Arkanis (duo with Deder) https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Arkanis
- Deder (duo with Arkanis) https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Deder
- Mordaine https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Mordaine
Also the remaining 4 'Candlekeep Party' Non-Player Characters could be remastered / altered / changed / add class kits into / added on to / like the case with Osprey.
Why the smithy uses Arunsun's prefix instead of yours?
I think I get the idea with the Jewel Emporium, that the basic items would be upgraded to +2 when combined with the Ruby Gem, +3 when combined with the Star Ruby and +5 when combined with the Chardalyn. That's cool on paper... but even +3 is outside the powerlevel of BG1 (I think Strongarm's 19 Strength requisite provides the necessary copout to let that one pass, since that requires the player to explicitly run a half-orc or use the Big-Fisted Belt for it). The Chardalyn and it's upgrades would only be suitable in BG2 IMO (I haven't finished SoD yet to know where that one's powerlevel caps).
An alternative idea how I would implement this all while still remaining in the powerlevel of BG1 is to drop the Chardalyn for this game, the Ruby Gem would provide +1, the Star Ruby would provide +2 and both would also enchant silver/cold iron properties to a basic weapon (and maybe +1/+2 fire damage, although I don't think that's required because that would put the Star Ruby weaponry above Varscona). There would also be only a maximum of 2 Ruby Gems (although it's debatable if the second one is required) and a single Star Ruby distributed over the game (if this is accepted, suggestions for locations are welcome). This would provide an alternative solution against the werewolves and counterbalance the problems caused by backporting the BG2 weapon proficiency system in BGEE.
For similar reasons, I would restrict the fire drake items to the +2 variants.
I have to thank WithinAmnesia for giving the permission to GraionDilach to work on it
and
I have to thank GraionDilach for actually working on this mod!
Thank you both!
Please, do. I'm very interested!
The Chardalyn is for +4 and +5 items. There are no new added +4 and +5 regular items added in this module at all; only small tweaks, minor and situational upgrades to the ones already existing. To keep everything rewarding yet balance within the scope of the original Baldur's Gate content. I was hoping to release the hardcore mega Crypt with some new yet conservative +4 items at the near very bottom with some +5 potential content before the final levels (like minor and underrepresented item types like a club or leather armour). I wanted this to be bigger than Durlag's Tower in terms of scale but not by much and also like Throne Bhaal in terms of level difficulty in BG1; but with less rewards to give a reason for all of these +2 and +3 items and like 2-3 +4 / +5 minor items like a dagger or something minor but still rewarding.
Yet we are not there yet. So no new super +4 to +5 items sprinkled around for now in this scope of original Baldur's Gate content. We should only use the already powerful ones in the base game. I think at the top end of this conservative limit there could be 3 Chardalyns able to be earned by the play at the end of the hardest encounters in the game game. Even then they are only to upgrade the already +4 items in the base game such as the Mithral Chain Mail +4 into Mithral Chain Mail +4 with extra stats. That is about it though, the already existing +4 items could have extra stats but not be made into full blown +5 magical artifacts.
Then again this could be done where these powerful upgrades are locked behind the very late game in the final stages of a play through of the base game as in:
- One Chardalyn from the Under City skeleton encounter at the end of the main story.
- One Chardalyn from the Demon Knight in the bottom of Durlag's Tower finale.
- One Chardalyn from Selaad Gan (Loup Garou) with Isle of Balduran quest finale.
This would also spread them across the game world and make them feel like true exotic treasures.
With only 7 possible recipes to reasonably upgrade already powerful items; with only 3 maximum upgrades in total:
- Mithral Chain Mail +4 'Reforged variant with extra magical bonuses'.
- Xan's Moonblade +4 (Only Xan can use this and it is an artifact weapon kinda technically so +3 to +4 works).
- Bastard Sword +1, +4 vs. Lycanthropes 'Sword of Balduran' -> Bastard Sword +2, +5 vs. Lycanthropes 'Sword of Balduran' (requires a Star Ruby) -> Bastard Sword +3, +6 vs. Lycanthropes 'Sword of Balduran' (requires a Chardalyn).
- Long Sword +1, +4 vs. Undead, Flame Tongue 'The Burning Earth'. Similar to the Sword of Balduran where +2, +5 requires Star Ruby to upgrade and the +3, +6 requires a Chardalyn
- Dagger +1, +4 vs. Lycanthropes 'Werebane': Similar to the Sword of Balduran where +2, +5 requires Star Ruby to upgrade and the +3, +6 requires a Chardalyn.
- Warhammer +1, +4 vs. Giant Humanoids 'The Kneecapper'. Similar to the Sword of Balduran where +2, +5 requires Star Ruby to upgrade and the +3, +6 requires a Chardalyn.
- Heavy Crossbow +2, +5 'The Guide' [+5 enchanted] -> Heavy Crossbow +3, +6 'The Guide' [+6 enchanted] (requires a Chardalyn).
Again there are no new added regular +4 or +5 items; only rewarding yet balanced upgrades to already existing +4 enchanted weapons. Even then most of them require a lot of investment and multiple rounds of reforging to even use the Chardalyn and they don't get past +3 regular enchantment and they are situational and only work against certain types of encounters. The Xan Long Sword +4 'Moonblade' is not a regular magical item for it is bound to Xan. All regular +3 magical items found in the base game would still be relevant and could also be upgraded with a Star Ruby into a better version of themself to feel rewarding yet reasonable still within the scope of the original Baldur's Gate content.
There could only be around ~9 Star Ruby encounters sprinkled around the original Baldur's Gate content as well to spice things up and reward the player too in the late game. In such a way to reward them after hard fought encounters to further invest and upgrade (within reason) their favorite ~+3 items. Yet probably not all of the +3 items in the party can be upgraded come the late game if there are only ~9 Star Ruby encounters in the original Baldur's Gate content; so it remains balanced and the player has to pick what items are their favourite and to improve and what ones they can live without being improved.
Every different build and party could be a different combination of upgraded items and still feel rewarding even for multiple play throughs. Also the player would have to complete every challenging encounter in the base game to get access to the full amount of upgrades. This way every character build and play type could have the potential to be upgraded into a what the player wants to see an elite final form of before the story of the original Baldur's Gate reaches its finale; and only just before the end of the story to be fair. It would kind of act like a reward for completing all challenging encounters in the original Baldur's Gate and going that extra mile. Which I see as is a bonus :-).
These thoughts above are the maximum I would push it within the scope of the base game content in the original Baldur's Gate. I feel it is important to get feedback and see what people feel on this. The more we can talk back and forth the better I think this whole chunk of content can become. Bit by bit, piece by piece, iterate iterate iterate :-).
I'm not sure if I'd upgrade any of the specialist weapons or The Guide as part of this due to the things above. Also... upgrading Drizzt's chainmail doesn't sound appropriate to me either. While I acknowledge I'm not too good with coming up for recipes, it still feels to me that you want to upgrade the items which are already at the higher end of the tierlist.
Another issue I see is that the gems' value is huge. Like the Chardalyn with it's 20k worth. .. even if that only gets sold to 10k, one can literally buy entire shops with that.
Personally, I'm not too fond of the idea with "epic-level" adventures on BG1. When I think of such, I always end up thinking of DSotSC's drow dungeon crawl backporting the BG2 drow items (so everyone runs with +3/+5 stuff) with the intention to cheat out the player from relying on it after the dungeon's over (relying on the adamantite falling apart on sunlight rule). While it also remedies the damage it does to the game's powerlevel, it feels horribly cheated out from a player's perspective.
And there is unfortunately only one mod I know that uses this feature - The Cowled Menace. It's on my (future) EET modlist.
Also the Chardalyn is an epic / legendary artifact and might be the most rarest of jewels in all of Faerun. It should probably be guarded by very powerful encounters; an extreme difficulty more so than any found in the regular base game of BG1 in scope. With this in mind there could very well be no Chardalyn jewel(s) found in the base BG1 game. For it does not make sense lore wise / logically does not fit into the scope of the encounters. The Chardalyn feels more akin to the Throne of Bhaal challenge level encounters suited such as Demi Liches and Elder Dragons.
If we just don't add the Chardalyn that works as well. The Moonblade can be upgraded by other means for in the lore Moonblades powers can be augmented by their users potential / Xan Moonblade quest. The Mithril Chain Mail +4 could be too powerful for Michael to upgrade without some serious magical power that the player cannot currently obtain. The Heavy Crossbow +2 / +5 'The Guide' can also be too powerful for Michael to tinker with as well. In addition he could give the player's party a reason why he refuses out of professionalism. In that he refuses to try to attempt to 'upgrade' +4 and higher items without seriously powerful magical items to aid in the reforging process. For he fears that he might mess up the already incredibly potent enchantment and or even something like that going awry when mucking around out of his skill level.
Also the +1 / +4 weapons could still be reasonable to be upgraded once into +2 / +5 variants with a Star Ruby; since it is situational power only. Yet no more upgrading past the +2/+5 version since for there is no Chardalyn to be found in the base game of BG1. So it could make logical sense in-world / lore wise that the regular magical / 'artifact' +4 / +5 items require serious magical power for Michael to further upgrade them. Yet it could work out that the player's party just lacks the means to enable Michael to do so and that way it could make sense in-world as well. Michael of Baldur's Gate might be a mighty blacksmith but forging anything past a regular use +3 magical item would need some serious magical power. Yet it could just so happen that within the scope of BG1 base game content that there could very well be nothing to offer to meet this magical power requirement; and thus the regular +4/+5 magical item upgrades become out of reach for the player's party.
There could just be like 3 or 6 or even 9 Star Ruby items found around the base game of BG1 that can get a limited amount of unique magical items upgraded into +3. Such as is the case with the prototype example upgrade recipe with the Long Sword +2 'Varscona' reforged into the Long Sword +3 'Varscona'. Yet to keep this power increase sane and within the scope of the regular original Baldur's Gate content there should be nothing else in upgrade potential scope more powerful than that unique regular use +2 magical item being reforged into a unique regular use +3 magical item.
In Baldur's Gate II a player can upgrade the Flail of Ages multiple times with more heads. So this multi-tier upgrade system is not really a huge difference rather just extra work. Also our work is different in nature than to regular developers for here we are modders. So thus we don't have a deadline to meet while as most regular developer teams do. As a practical result with official development work lots of stuff gets cut / scaled back for official release. Whereas modders can tinker away bit by bit slower, but perhaps more with details for no one pays modders. So modders can be free to take the time and enjoy the process :-). Yet it helps to be as good as a professional developer to be able to make high quality content XD.
Just playing through the mod for the first time and WOW, I agree with this comment.
The number of Gnolls at the Gnoll Stronghold is honestly just game-breaking. I started on SCS Hardcore, ended up on Story Mode after literally half a day (real time) trying to get through the stronghold. Shockingly, even story mode didn't make much difference; there are some slimes there that that are WAY above my party level, and they keep dividing endlessly. I get 1,000+ xp per kill, and I literally gained several levels just killing the endlessly dividing slimes. It's absurdly game-breaking.
More gnolls would be great.
But endless waves of hundreds and hundreds of gnolls is silly.
Add in the unbalanced slimes (these should be SoA enemies, not early BG1) and the fact that they endlessly multiply, and it pretty much breaks the game.
@tl1942 @ThacoBell Only the Black Pudding comes from SoD. The Fission Slime (the one splitting) is from Durlag's Tower and the Mustard Jelly appears a few times in Baldur's Gate. This mod also doesn't add respawning enemies at all. Regardless, I will look into subcomponenting the gnolls to offer an option to only install half of the additional ones and I can also subcomponent out the jellies (please confirm if you think that sounds like a solution).
Note that the Fission Slime already doesn't install at all, if the Feast of Gnolls mission from Ascalon's Questpack is installed.
That's still far later than would normally be encountered. Gnoll Stronghold is very often taken early game. I think separating these out into separate components was a good solution.
What about adding the Jewel Emporium to BG City or High Hedge or somesuch only accessible after SoD or BG2 starts?
It might be for the best that the Baldur's Gate Arms and Armour Emporium gets it own polish and own release in due time. It is a lot of work to go through the recipes. It would also give an opportunity to add in the more items and encounters that did not quite make it into E.E.E.E. module / first release. Later after adding in TotSC balance level content I could try and do more work on the super mega ToB level difficulty Crypt thing maybe later after a good release and follow up polish campaign for E.E.E.E.E.
I think having the Emporium be implemented in a BG1 TotSC style to start is the smarter path and it could not kill the game balance while still adding in more encounter sand maybe a smaller scale dungeon crypt or even the gnoll strong hold dungeon and stuff the extra gnolls in there so the top is more reasonable (that seems like a better more classy / smooth way of handling extra gnoll content is to give them a dungeon so the player has the best of both worlds?). Then if the player wants to go deeper later one to face more challenge they can choose to (like how the deeper into durlag's tower you gate the harder it gets, like a multi-level dungeon of old).
Also I can get better at making big dungeons by making smaller / medium sized dungeons and yeah. So later on when I tinker in my digital garden on the big epic stuff I can have more experience in the easier / early game focused content and do a better job with more experience. You get better at anything the more you do it including dungeon-crafting XD.
Also the gnoll stronghold dungeon fits in with TotSC style content and difficulty / game balance in general. It could be like a sister dungeon to Durlag's down or like a little sister :-P. Also I could add in more encounters around the map and maybe get those Underdark caves (of the the candlekeep party) polished up now that I am better at art / realistic area painting / photoshop.
Does anyone know where I can get a good guide / help in learning how to make a good Non-Player Character module? Hopefully one that fits in high quality wise with the rest of the community's favourite recruit-able companions? I am lacking dialog experience and how to properly handle making new N.P.C. characters with quests, dialog ques and all that funky stuff that is the hallmark of a good quality N.P.C. mod. Instead I have prototype recruit-able non-player characters with basic dialog, items and areas; but the current skill to deliever the deep high quality fine detail custom, tailored scrips for meaningful dialog story telling and quests very well implemented.
So if I can polish up my dialog and quest crafting ability it would all a whole other level of high content I could create. Where should I look to find how to make a recruit-able Non-Player Charatcer properly? Also how are duo N.P.C.s made so that you need 2 or even 3 of them in a party or they split like Khalid and Jaheira?
That makes sense having Taerom do it as well, it is earlier to get and links in with the Ankheg armour idea as well. Also the Wyvern heads and winter wolf pelts feel kinda like my scales and maybe I could wip up Hide armour for the wolf pelts and a helmet or something for the Wyvern heads? Are there any big beetles in BG1 (I don't think so but they could be added underground)? Should I add in another quick encounter to a place that makes sense to add in Icewind Dale style recipes (not the SoD ones) for the early / mid game of Baldur's Gate? The Icewind Dale items could be ported over more or less and they are not game breaking by any stretch of the imagination; but would probably seem kinda tame or like well suited for the early parts of Baldur's Gate: https://mikesrpgcenter.com/icewind/items/enemy.html
Also https://mikesrpgcenter.com/icewind/armor/shields.html#rhinobeetleshield and maybe even I could add in a / more yeti's to BG1 (probably the Rasaad area or any where there is snow in BG1 like the Ice Island Dungeon):
The Yeti Pelt Armour in Icewind Dale is pretty reasonable it seems: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/43235/yeti-pelt-armor
Either way perhaps it is a good idea to tie up loose ends with creature part items and have Taerom be able to make them into balanced early BG1 suitable items? Ideas?
I've heard the Branwen BGII NPC if you want to learn to code NPCs. Saradas Magic II has been thoroughly commented and may be a useful resource to you.
Beyond that, ask the community. Find some mods of the style you like and talk with their authors about how they did things. Lava Del Vortel has had beloved mods as of late.
The Yeti Armor just seems poorly-designed and not worth the price to me. (It's available for you to mod in if you really want.)
As for other items, consider this list. I made this list and encourage others to implement these items, but do cite me as inspiration! May these be useful to you!
Enjoy!
Also keep in mind that IWD had a very different itemization mindset which tries to stress every little detail of an item (unlinked THAC0 and damage bonus on weapons, nonstandardized seemingly random amount of elemental resistance, huge cost differences between magic and magic items). However keep in mind that IWD dragged this out because it has way faster level progression while the drop rate was more slower. The Yeti Armor already verges on offering too little for too much in IWD and I don't think it'd see use in BG.
Hi, to be completely honest I have no idea either, it has been a while, but I don't think I would have been able to help regarding the dialogs, as I am not really good with tweaking dialogs with WeiDU. In any case, I would second @Endarire's suggestion to follow the Branwen NPC mod, it is an excellent tutorial to learn how to create NPC mods and you can pick up a thing or two regarding dialogs in general.
If you need help with some items' implementation or have fancy ideas regarding spells and stuff, I would gladly help you though!
-Yeti Armour could use a buff.
-Separating the mods and having them be more mod to mod friendly is a good idea
-Possibly adding in IWD monster item crafted items could work in BG1 but thet need to be reviewed and tweaked to fit with the GG1 style.
-I should check out a few NPC mods and ask around with thier creators to learn better scripting a dialog crafting.
-Baldur's Gate Arms and Emporium should be its own mod.
-E.E.E.E.E. could be its own mod.
-It would be cool to add in items you guys / @Endarire came up with but I should ask for you guys to review them first to see if they make sense before release (Like with the Emporium items).
Does this make sense? Please leave follow up comments if curious about something and or have a point to address. Feedback is good :-).
Also can you guys help me come up with some idea for the gnollstronghold dungeon? What would be really cool to see / play? I had ideas of like a blood god type thing / some gnoll inspired version of this story from the Navajo
Or if we go really nuts lol:
Also known as the Gnollish Ruins inspiration XD.
My linked list of items has many items. What's sensical is also contextual. At least some of them would be suitable there!
I read through them a few days ago it feels. I saved the list as well. Stuff like this is kind of what I am looking for. It feels like proper new content ideas / concepts that would seem natural in TotSC or any Baldur's Gate content around the early to middle total character levels. One thing I thought was neat that you described was the idea of having many items of each type and power range; although within reason and keeping items and their lore and even ~'character' unique and memorable. So that a party can get fully equipped within a certain level of power and with even a full party of end game level gear (that is kept reasonable for the content difficulty / scope) with enough experience. I like the emphasis on wide and broad ways to upgrade and progress and especially the side-grade and situational items that are all relevant and also especially powerful; yet fair and reasonable items that make all play types and builds viable and more over fun to play (like more diversity of reasonable mages robes).
I come to this role and pursuit of being and old school style RPG game developer for I ultimately love those kind of games. An exemplification of this that I have a lot of experience / years spent playing a lot of great old school RPGs to the end and beating and progression and even going after and successfully playing beating the highest levels of difficulty in them and doing everything. To where playing them so much I ended up running out of content for I eventually mastered the game's challenging aspects. To where I could go no further and I had to make my own content to go any further for a real sense of progression. Thus being inspired by and listening to what feels amazing and ultimately hoping to keep on learning from many great old school RPGs. Such as with Diablo 2 & 1 and vanilla World of Warcraft and Classic Everquest and even bits of the early / middle Path of Exile and some ideas / concepts resonated from Old School Runescape in my RPG work in general.
One big thing I feel is that Baldur's Gate in general is built like a small RPG aimed at 1-2 months of game play and it is majorly over but with a big story. Diablo 2 & 1 are like this kinda too but with replayability and greater difficulty rewards built in from the start to promote longevity. Also the depth of item and progression in Diablo 2 is light years more than any of the Baldur's Gate game just in how it was put together and the goals and eventual execution of a grander plan from the start to finish.
Baldur's Gate has a handful of items and relatively limited or even shallow (in parts) character progression where it does not need to be that way. Especially given the free and vast depth of possible adventure loot and progression offered in the source material / table top D&D. In where you just look at a few books have an idea charted out, Dungeon Master a campaign and if it fits, your group gets more items and progression by the roll of the dice and the stroke of a pencil.
I also played and raided to best in slot (over a period of several years) on vanilla World of Warcraft to get an idea of good raiding content and how extreme challenge should be treated in RPGs as well as to feel deep progression in an RPG that takes years to achieve. Now my overall goals for my own series of RPG are more lofty that Baldur's Gate 1 in general (less forced story but more content). Yet for right here I just want to make Baldur's Gate 1 better like another reasonable sized content patch that feels like a part of TotSC or proper chunk of Black Isle Baldur's Gate. I like Beamdog and the Enhanced Editions but they too are trying to replicate Black Isle; so fair play.
I don't want to revolutionize nor majorly change the feeling of Baldur's Gate (it is what it is) but rather just make homages to my favourite parts of old school RPGs but with very Baldur's Gate sensibilities, style, fashion and feel. Like adding in an optional set of hard encounters with TotSC style loot and dialog that feels like old school RPGs just focused on their in game world to draw the player in and be better immersed and enjoy the game even more. I am looking for people to add ideas and concepts that would like to see. Working together with like minded passionate people makes the whole process feel more like a group of adventurers or something to do together and have fun and enjoy the process:-P.
Or very briefly I am looking for what people would imagine what TotSC would look like if it was expanded and like if you had a dream in TotSC and you found a new encounter or dungeon or there was another expansion what would that look and feel like? How would you describe it and how would you think more content with the spirit of Baldur's Gate Tales of the Sword Coast would look and feel? Or even if there was a second Baldur's Gate 1 expansion by Black Isle Studios before Baldur's Gate 2; how would that look and feel like? Please give feed back I love reading and thinking about all of the ideas from the community; it ultimately makes for better content.
Thankee!
Congrats on your gaming achievements!
There's enough fanmade content to feel like a new expansion. Dark Side of the Sword Coast, Northern Tales of the Sword Coast, Shades of the Sword Coast, The Cowled Menace, Twisting with the Rune, Tower of Deception, Ascalon's Quest Mod, Unfinished Business (BG1 & 2), and many more quest mods all provide additional content on EE & EET!