Ascension v2.0

DavidW

Over the last few months I've been quietly working on a complete recoding of the (classic, wonderful) Ascension mod, to take advantage of modern tools and techniques, adapt more completely to the Enhanced Edition (while remaining compatible with the original BG2) and fix a very large number of small (and some not-so-small) bugs.

I'm pleased to say that - with the generous permission of Cuv (on behalf of the original authors), Wes Weimer (the now-retired maintainer of the original WEIDU version) and AlienQuake (the maintainer of v1.5-1.7) - I'm now ready to release version 2.0 of Ascension.

A download link to version 2.0 is here, and the readme can be accessed here.

I'm also pleased to announce - again, with the generous permission of Cuv, Wes and AlienQuake - that the Gibberlings Three will be providing a discussion forum for the new version of Ascension (link to follow soon once it's live), since the official forum at pocketplane.net has been moribund for many years.

EDIT: the new forum is here.

I'll put a fuller list of the changes in v2.0 in the next post down, but the biggest changes are:

• Many small coding changes to accommodate the Enhanced Edition more fully
• A large number of small (and a small number of large) bugs fixed
• reorganization of the component structure for greater clarity
• breaking the main component into subcomponents
• extensive documentation (including of all changes)

DavidW

This was quite a large project and I may well have missed some small changes, but these are the main changes:

1. The main component of Ascension has been split into 8 subcomponents: rewritten chapter 10; redeemable Balthazar; restored Bhaalspawn powers; improved Sarevok/player dialog; improved Imoen/player dialog; improved Slayer transformation; extended epilogues; tougher Balthazar. (Ascension is so old that when it shipped, it was necessary to bundle as much as possible into one place because you could only add dialog lines once.)
2. The components have been reorganized into three groups to make the mod's structure more transparent: the Ascension (the various bits of the main component, less Tougher Balthazar); Tougher Enemies; Additional Content (added to Ascension well after its release).
3. Dozens of small (mostly cosmetic) bugs were fixed, and the logic of the final chapter has been tightened to correct a few persistent reported bugs
4. Tightened up the cosmetic features of some cutscenes and abilities (the line between this and bugfixes is a little blurry.)
5. The code for the pool powers fairly clearly allows that Imoen should be able to receive them instead of the player, but for technical reasons that wasn't working; I've restored it.
6. Added additional code (though no additional dialog) to permit a redeemed Balthazar to help you even if you're using the original (non-Ascension) version of the final chapter
7. If Balthazar is allied with you, you should get much finer control of him (the previous AI is quite willful) and can use any of his powers from the innate bar
8. Lots of small changes to allow for better compatibility with the Enhanced Edition (e.g., the save-for-half flag is implemented; new innate powers have in-game descriptions instead of being described in journal entries)
9. David Gaider's original Readme laments the fact that the hardcoded bits of the difficulty slider can't be disabled. Since they can be disabled in modern BG (either on the Enhanced Edition or on ToBex) I've disabled them, and taken the opportunity to spread the difficulty settings a bit more evenly. 'Insane' is still just as hard as ever, but on the lower difficulty settings the mod's combats are slightly less brutal than previously. (This is all documented in some detail.)
10. Slightly tweaked the implementation of certain abilities to make use of modern tools and techniques (again, see the documentation.)
11. In the original Ascension there is a (pretty edge-case) scenario where Sarevok is redeemed but then leaves the party only to be summoned by Melissan. I've allowed for this in Sarevok's dialog: he gets the 'redeemed' dialog option even if he has left the party, and can fight for you.
12. The original mod's documentation suggests that there is a route through Balthazar's redemption for a high-wisdom Evil character. That wasn't actually the case in the distributed version so far as I can tell (and I checked the logic pretty thoroughly); I have tweaked the parameters of the conversation very slightly so that a narrow route now exists.
13. Added a very small component of my own that fixes an anomaly on the cutscenes with Yaga-Shura and Gromnir (it could have lived in SCS but it seemed a more natural fit to Ascension).
14. Added another small component of my own (for EE only) that sharpens the portraits for Gromnir and Abazigal (for some reason, BG2EE sharpens all the other portraits, but not those ones).
15. The cutscene in 'tougher Abazigal' is a bit of a mess; I've rebuilt it.
16. Restored the original Bhaalspawn powers as part of 'Restored Bhaalspawn powers': it doesn't seem logical that you get new powers and Imoen gets old-style powers but you never get the original ones.
17. Ascension now has an ini file that allows power-users fine control over some features of the install. For instance, most of my tweaks that aren't straight bugfixes can be disabled there, and I've externalized some other features, e.g. the XP thresholds to upgrade the Slayer.
18. Very thoroughly documented the whole mod, including detailed information (behind a spoiler link) on the effect of the difficulty slider.
19. Under the hood: complete recoding of Ascension

DavidW

The forum at G3 is now live: it's here.

megamike15

now that it's officially out of beta maybe i'll have a more bug free experience with this mod for once.

Mantis37

Thank you for the hard work, sounds great!

Is it likely that some mods that depend on Ascension- e.g. Turnabout, Longer Road will be incompatible with this new release for now?

megamike15

Mantis37 wrote: »

Thank you for the hard work, sounds great!

Is it likely that some mods that depend on Ascension- e.g. Turnabout, Longer Road will be incompatible with this new release for now?

turnabout always had some issues with ascension in the previous builds. it was mostly due to being an unoffical ee patch that never got updated since.

DavidW

Mantis37 wrote: »

Thank you for the hard work, sounds great!

Is it likely that some mods that depend on Ascension- e.g. Turnabout, Longer Road will be incompatible with this new release for now?

It depends on how they're coded; but quite possibly. I'll try to have a look when I have a chance.

Isewein

Signs and wonders never cease! Thank you for wading through this infamous maze of a code for us. Never expected Ascension EE to get out of beta. Hope you can have a look at compatibility with Iylos for the new Balthazar code as well!

Arthas

Hello,
any chance to make:

1) the following pool power passive? Focus (top pool) --> becoming you immune for X after getting

2) Making the slayer form not automatically kill you after X duration/not losing control? To be honest I would like to actually tweak the:
> duration parameters
> the losing control part
> the kill effect

I would make it so that at the beginning, I would always lose control of my character (95% chance).
But by actually improving the forms, my character gains the ability to lower the chance of berserk and not only that, also the times he can be morphed into the forms.

3) Readme is not clear in this part: <<There is a very narrow path by which an evil character with Wisdom 19+ can recruit Balthazar. Evil characters with lower wisdom cannot recruit him, but may be able to convince him to commit ritual suicide rather than fighting>>.

So you can recruit him or make him commit suicide? Or both?

Lilaina

Thanks for picking this mod up! Old bugs with Demogorgon and Abazigal are finally fixed. However, the game seems to crash during the first phase of the final fight at the Throne. Sometimes 10 sec into the fight, sometimes closer to a minute.

BG2EE latest version, no other mods, I made a new character, teleported there with console and ran around the platform with the godbow.

edit: Bodhi seems to be the culprit. Getting in melee range of her bat form, and once attacking her from a distance, caused instant crash.

DavidW

Lilaina wrote: »

Thanks for picking this mod up! Old bugs with Demogorgon and Abazigal are finally fixed. However, the game seems to crash during the first phase of the final fight at the Throne. Sometimes 10 sec into the fight, sometimes closer to a minute.

Fixed in current release. If you've already downloaded and don't want to reinstall, there's a hotfix here. (And sorry about this! - I did test this fairly extensively, but this one slipped through even so.)

DavidW

Arthas wrote: »

Hello,
any chance to make:

1) the following pool power passive? Focus (top pool) --> becoming you immune for X after getting

2) Making the slayer form not automatically kill you after X duration/not losing control? To be honest I would like to actually tweak the:
> duration parameters
> the losing control part
> the kill effect

I would make it so that at the beginning, I would always lose control of my character (95% chance).
But by actually improving the forms, my character gains the ability to lower the chance of berserk and not only that, also the times he can be morphed into the forms.

3) Readme is not clear in this part: <<There is a very narrow path by which an evil character with Wisdom 19+ can recruit Balthazar. Evil characters with lower wisdom cannot recruit him, but may be able to convince him to commit ritual suicide rather than fighting>>.

So you can recruit him or make him commit suicide? Or both?

For (1), (2), I am extremely reluctant to modify the actual core content of the mod given that I didn't write it and that it's been out there for 15+ years. This sort of thing lives more naturally in a mod of its own, to be installed after Ascension.

For (1) in addition, this would seriously shift the balance - managing the timing of the Focus power is a significant part of the tactics of the final battle.

For (3), I'm not sure what is unclear.
Evil, Wisdom 19+ : can recruit Balthazar.
Evil, lower Wisdom: cannot recruit Balthazar, can convince him to commit ritual suicide.

ThacoBell

Now this is a VERY pleasant surprise.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

DavidW

Apologies for the usual teething problems. A couple of critical bugs turned up; Ascension is now updated to 2.0.3 and you should reinstall if you've already got 2.0.0.

DavidW

Mantis37 wrote: »

Thank you for the hard work, sounds great!

Is it likely that some mods that depend on Ascension- e.g. Turnabout, Longer Road will be incompatible with this new release for now?

OK, I've now looked at this.

Turnabout installs successfully over Ascension 2.0. I'd tweaked a file so that the install would have been a bit glitchy, but it was easy enough to change that, and I've done so for 2.0.3. I haven't done a full test, but I *think* that Turnabout will work successfully over 2.0.

Longer Road is another matter. It doesn't install successfully over 2.0 and there is no very straightforward workaround on my end. LR will need updating to use with Ascension, and I'm not sure if it's currently maintained - if it is, if the current maintainer wants to get in touch then I can advise.

Flap

Awesome! Great to see that this mod is (again) updated and maintained. Thanks alot for your work!

Ammar

Just want to add my voice here, great to see that both SCS and Ascension (my two favorite mods) received updates and are still being maintained.

Raduziel

Good job, David.

Sage

Stopping by to voice my appreciation. You guys are the best!

ALIEN

Congratulations on the release!

Please keep in mind that this mod is integrated with BGForge.net Translation Service https://tra.bgforge.net/projects/infinity-engine/ascension/

It means that anyone can easy contribute to the existing translations but it has to be done via web interface of the https://tra.bgforge.net, not via github.com. There is also easy way for importing already translated parts as .csv/other files.

rost400

Thank you for the update.

I have a question regarding a bug potentially related to the old version of Ascension (1.7.2 according to the archive), but the old thread is already closed so I'm gonna ask here if that's ok.

Finished a playthrough yesterday (using EET) and didn't get any epilogues. Instead, after the ending cinematic the credits popped up straightaway, skipped them, popped up about 5 more times. I assume they got displayed instead of the epilogues. You think it could be a bugged Ascension installation, or something else?

DavidW

Could be any mod that modifies the epilogues. That includes Ascension but also includes pretty much any NPC mod.

rost400

Besides Ascension, I think Imoen Romance affects the epilogues now that I think about it don't have any other extensive NPC mod that would modify them. And that one caused me several issues during ToB so it's probably more likely to be the culprit.

Seems to have a script file for epilogues with a shitton of different routes too, easy to mess up somewhere, especially given the oversights that caused some of the other issues.

I'll try to look into it, since the mod author doesn't seem to be active anymore.

megamike15

i noticed that edwin romance would not installl with the new version of ascension installed. and i know that changed his epilogue.

rost400

Don't have any Edwin mods, never liked him. :P
Imoen Romance installed fine with the new version (just did a fresh new install), but there could be issue somewhere in the mod itself.

Would WeiDU notify me if a mod overrides other mod's scripts/dialogue/etc, possible breaking it? Not sure how it resolves dependencies/conflicts.

megamike15

well i mostly have it along with alot of other romance and friendship related mods mostly for the future. and it has to be due to this new version as it installed fine with ascension in the last build.

DavidW

Unless an NPC mod has code specifically designed for Ascension, you might have more luck installing it before Ascension.

megamike15

so install it after all my other quests and npc mods but before my tweaks? i'm so used to installing ascension first that's gonna take some time to adjust.

ThacoBell

@DavidW Are you sure? General wisonm on Ascension has been to ALWAYS install it first.

Arthas

DavidW, if you have particular and extensive knowledge about the order of install, let us know so we adapt