Mod spotlight: Planar Sphere Mod
ineth
Member Posts: 747
- Mod authors: Inferno, Duality, others
- First published: 2002? (not sure)
- Adds content to: BG2 chapter 2 (Athkatla)
The Planar Sphere Mod is a very old mod, which has been improved by multiple authors over the years.
Despite its undeniable game balance issues and at times overbearing silliness, it remains one of my favorite BG2 mods of all time, because it is, quite simply, fun to play through.
It adds the following content:
Tired of having a big empty Planar Sphere as your stronghold?
This mod allows you to turn it into a full-blown training facility for Cowled Wizard apprentices. This adds content to almost every room of the sphere - characters to talk to, new spells to learn (example), a shop, a forge for enchanting weapons yourself, a few mini-quests, and a series of 'visitors' (combat encounters at the sphere entrance)...
Many of the interactions are on the sillier end, so if you prefer to think of the Cowled Wizards as sinister overlords rather than a gang of buffoons who like to blow themselves up with their own experiments, then this may not be for you...
To start:
- A few days after you've completed the normal Mage stronghold quest-line (training apprentices and Lord Argrim quest), Teos will appear again in the Planar Sphere (standing on the entrance bridge). Talk to him.
(If your CHARNAME is not a mage, you can install the "Multiple Strongholds" component of the Tweaks Anthology mod to get access to it.)
It's not merely the fate of the Sword Coast, that hangs in the balance – it's the fate of the entire multiverse! An uber-powerful sorcerer is trying to implode the planes of existence, and the gods & overgods are powerless to stop him. Only you, CHARNAME & party, can foil his evil plan...
This is a pretty large quest with a grandiose story that starts in the Planar Sphere, but takes you around Athkatla (and... other places). Legendary Forgotten Realms characters, and even gods, make an appearance – and die. Magic itself incarnates and goes to battle. Extraplanar creatures swarm Athkatla.
Despite its craziness, the story draws you in. Planescape: Torment fans will recognize the many references to that game's setting. Some humorous fourth-wall-breaking dialog is thrown into the mix.
The battles are interesting (basically a series of unique "boss fights", and not many trash mobs), and very challenging. If your party isn't ready for the toughest encounters of Watcher's Keep, you won't get very far in this quest, either.
The XP rewards total in the millions, the loot includes very overpowered items (example 1, example 2), and CHARNAME receives high permanent bonuses.
Ridiculous? Over-the-top? Yes. But also great fun...
Not recommended for Forgotten Realms lore purists or those who seek a balanced game; but for powergamers, this is a must-try.
To start the quest:
- After having turned the Planar Sphere into a Cowled Wizard academy (see section A above), talk to Teos again (he now stands next to the table in the room where the Solamnnic Knights were), and accept his task to retrieve an artifact. It will lead to this quest.
- When Athkatla is temporarily "changed", explore various districts for bonus content that won't be available before or after (such as a hard-to-find shop, and a very long and silly cut-scene, lol).
- In the last two boss fights of this quest (both back inside the Planar Sphere), the rewards – but also the enemy numbers & AI – scale with the difficulty slider. Turn it up to Insane to get the best loot. In the earlier fights it makes no difference.
- Available at Sorcerer's Place.
Download version 2.6c of the mod from here.
Then, before installing the mod, patch it using the Big World Fixpack to make it EE-compatible.
Alternatively, if you are only interested in the "Mage stronghold brought to life" part, you could have a look at Roxanne's Expanded Mage Stronghold mod – which is apparently an EE/EET port of the Planar Sphere Mod, but with the "Evil archsorcerer" quest removed and the remaining content rebalanced. (I haven't tried this myself yet.)
Then, before installing the mod, patch it using the Big World Fixpack to make it EE-compatible.
Alternatively, if you are only interested in the "Mage stronghold brought to life" part, you could have a look at Roxanne's Expanded Mage Stronghold mod – which is apparently an EE/EET port of the Planar Sphere Mod, but with the "Evil archsorcerer" quest removed and the remaining content rebalanced. (I haven't tried this myself yet.)
Post edited by ineth on
10
Comments
I will be looking forward for more. Both threads bookmarked
That's relatively easy to work around, I think.
To be clear, the mod doesn't force you to turn into a lich.
In fact, it's not even part of the mod's story - it's merely an optional item sold in a hidden shop added by the mod, which allows you to do this.
It would be reminiscent of the silver acorn in Ultima Underworld.
http://www.shsforums.net/topic/24405-planar-sphere-mod-v26a/page-5#entry514257
If one of the administrators can add it to the main page (http://www.shsforums.net/files/file/131-planarsphere/), we will be grateful!
The author of the Russian translation is Fess
Only Roxanne's stripped & tuned-down version, Expanded Mage Stronghold, seems to be EET-compatible.
@ineth @chibisensei
Note the original link to http://www.shsforums.net/files/file/131-planarsphere/
no longer works. Can someone edit the first thread and put the github link in
there?
All changes made for works on the EE are available only while downloading the master. But the master should also be compatible with vanilla game.
which helps you memorize more spells. My character has, however
had suddenly 20 spell slots for first spell level, second spell level
too. And then I think +1 or +2 for the other ones.
So, being able to fire 20 magic missiles is awesome, but I think this
must be a bug. There is probably something wrong with the code;
it should increment perhaps by +1 or so, but +15 or set to the max
here.
Perhaps another mod also causes issues here, so maybe it is an
indirect bug. I'll also report it on github.
It's probably an "indirect bug" Triumph of the Caster allows Aura Cleansing but do not grant more spells.
Is it the item you talking about ? You need to be more precise when you report something.
If you want to post your weidu.log.
Are you sure you don't have any other item equipped that would grant you more spells ?
For verifying what other mod touch this item you can download the archive below, extract the content in you game directory and double click on change-log.bat... It will create a new folder named change-log, you can post the results here !
Thanks for reporting, but please do not duplicate the issue here and on github, choose only one plateform !
Also the official thread for The Gate Project mods is here, but you can post on this thread if you prefer.
> It's probably an "indirect bug" Triumph of the Caster allows Aura
> Cleansing but do not grant more spells.
> Is it the item you talking about ? You need to be more precise
> when you report something.
> If you want to post your weidu.log.
> Are you sure you don't have any other item equipped that would
> grant you more spells ?
This only happens with that mage knife. I have like 20 level 1
spells and 20 level 2 spells available. It is tied to that mage
knife that was crafted in the planar sphere (actually, are there
two planar sphere mods? Because this may explain the confusion).
I have had other items equipped, such as ring of wizardry
but these behave normally - that is they only add one or two
spells of the appropriate level, depending on the ring at hand.
Posting a weidu.log is cumbersome since I actually only use
the forum here when I use linux, whereas BG2 is on my
windows machine on the left. The primary reason I actually
registered here is to give some feedback to Lava, other than
that I much prefer github in general. More on that in a
moment.
> For verifying what other mod touch this item you can
> download the archive below, extract the content in you
> game directory and double click on change-log.bat... It
> will create a new folder named change-log, you can
> post the results here !
It can indeed be that some other mod tampers with things,
but the strange thing is that I only have this with the mage
knife that was crafted in the planar sphere mod. That mod
is mega-buggy and absolutely broken. It's on the one hand
a fairly epic mod, and tons of things are fun - for instance,
Jan on his quest of becoming a lich, first with the eye of
vecna, and then going full-scale towards EVIL. But there are
so many small and large things ... I actually no longer feel
as if it is worth reporting what is all broken with it. For
instance, just an hour ago, I managed to enter an infinite
loop in the temple district: tanari and lich kept on infinite
casting time stop. There was a VERY small delay to do something
between, so perhaps one can do something here but when
I left the area and went to another area, the same loop
kicked in, without any tanari or lich in the area. So that
infinite loop thing kept on carrying over to other maps.
I reloaded and did things a bit differently this time (e. g.
running to them and fighting them), so perhaps it can
be beat, but, boy, bug after bug after bug ...
> Thanks for reporting, but please do not duplicate the issue
> here and on github, choose only one plateform !
I tried a google search right now and I can not find the
github page anymore.
I did check your link above; at first beamdog was not
loading that external link (and, by the way, I hate how
beamdog modifies the URLs rather than just allows
us to click on it; this indirection beamdog uses is such
a huge antifeature).
Anyway, I think I found the github page here:
https://github.com/The-Gate-Project/PlanarSphere
Right?
There is no way I would register at another external
forum. I am fine using github though. I will make sure
that I may report more issues there, but to be honest,
I am fine playing it, and giving feedback here, and then
moving on.
Anyway. I'll next give some feedback of the mod for others
to ponder through.
I think the mod is on the one hand awesome (I always wanted
to make Jan a lich! This also was easier to do, e. g. there is
that other mod from Lava which also promises great strength,
but the lich part in the planar sphere mod was actually easier
go through since it was clear what happened). Many fights
are very challenging; unfortunately some are simply unfair
and overpowered. I complained about Tactics remix in the
past, in particular the improved Irenicus part, but boy,
planar sphere mod really puts Tactics remix being broken
to shame - planar sphere mod is by far the most broken mods
out there "balance"-wise. Many other mods are very well-behaving.
For instance, Lava's mods, like them or not, are in general not
really game-breaking. The rewards are usually fine, sometimes
very good (I love the final item in the bridge block). Planar sphere
however had feels as if someone wrote the mod who really did
not care about storyline or world setting or anything, and just
wanted to have the strongest opponents ever. The whole dialogues
are immersion breaking e. g. "we are here because in a game we
are usually the villains or bad guys", and the name is "test dummy".
What the heck ...
I could go on and on here, so it's a bit strange because the fights
and rewards are addictive, but the bugs and unbalanced nature
is annoying. So I can only recommend this mod for people who
already played the vanilla game and then probably some other
of the better mods out there (e. g. Lava's mods or the Dusk NPC
mod and some more).
PS: I think it would be much easier if people would aggregate
onto github rather than be so spread out and diluted all over
the place. https://github.com/The-Gate-Project/PlanarSphere has
a grand total of zero issues reported; at the least
https://github.com/SpellholdStudios appears to be somewhat
more active, but searching for "planar" led to no results, so I
am a bit confused when you write I should not write here and
on github. To which github issue do you refer to actually?
Unless it is another mod. To clarify: my complaints go
specifically against the huge planar sphere mod, not the
stronghold mod part. The stronghold mod part is somewhat
ok; I guess the mage knife is part of that mod, not the extended
planar sphere mod. So, the planar stronghold mod is fine to
play through; the mage knife bug is a small issue, I am sure
someone may find out why that clones first level spells so
many times (Jan also has 15 magic missiles available now,
without any knife - not sure if this is a bug, but some things
are broken on the setup I use right now).
I'm sorry, but I don't understand your message at all...
I can't verify anything without your weidu.log.
You have installed two PlanarSphere mods...?
Can you read the description of the Knife and give me it's exact name ?
the final fight, in particular when the opposing mage summons 6 Planetars.
So why is this problematic?
I don't refer here primarily - or solely - to 6 Planetars being powerful,
which is already hugely questionable in and by itself, but more the fact
that in vanilla BG2 you are limited to one Planetar. So this mod simply
decides "hey, we don't care about the rest of the game, we simply decide
to do whatever we want to".
What I have seen with some mods (including Tactics remix) is that there
isn't much thought given about overall balance and design of mods (and
how they relate to the main game). For some mods this is on purpose,
e. g. the swords coast stratagem, whereas for some other mods this simply
seems to be "what can I do to annoy the player". A good example for the
latter is when exits are disabled, compared to vanilla BG2. The latter
refers more to Tactics remix than the mod here, but as an example, if
you are about to obtain the celestial fury katana, you go upstairs and
see enemies. Ok now you say "oh damn, these are tough folks, let's
chicken out and run away". But nopes - the stair exit is disabled. So,
you walk up the stairs, but suddenly an invisible magical shield pops
up and ... you can't go back down again. This is simply bad design of
a mod when compared to vanilla. Vanilla also has some exits that can
not be used after entering, but some mods really seem to think they
need to leverage this to the maximum. In my opinion, mods should in
most cases try to refer to vanilla as much as possible, from a starting
point in regards to their design. It's ok to have mods that then go on
and change things specifically, but in such a case it really should be
expected that there is an intrinsic design goal that is of solid quality,
as well as notifications to players prior to installation, so that things
such as "hey, 6 planetars in this round, meteorites and 10 new overpowered
spells in that round" or "hey, let's slap down an additional dragon to
the boss fight to make it harder" does not really happen in and by
itself. That's not really design - that's just annoying the player of the
game.
It's somewhat unfortunate because I actually agree with the threadstarter
that the mod can be fun; Jan becoming the new hobo lich in town is
hilarious (imagine when he returns home to Lissa or what was her name
and demands that she joins him), the items are also quite great even
thoug overpowered - but the overall design of the mod is simply really
just bad. The older mods have this problem a LOT more than the more
recent mods; for instance, Lava's mods are all designed fairly well,
as is the case with many other mods. Whereas a few other mods are simply
so bad with their issues leaking all over the place.
But thats the fun if it. In the mega installs you can get really powerfull early on, and a lot of players add these tough fights to balance their game. Its not the modders job to balance the players game, its the players. If mods bother you, then uninstall them or change the setup.
All this is intentional and prevents you from using legitimate but cheap tricks to win the battles like using the doors, that the ai driven enemies can not open, to divide them facing smaller groups or setting traps on known spawn points, trick that in vanilla can even kill the WK boss without a real fight.
Those old school mods are not for everybody, but the way they are implemented is intentional, in the final battle of the Soulafein mod, still not available foe EE, the enemy party has a free Time Stop round every other round in which all 6 of them can attack and cast while all your party and summons but Soulafein is freezed, is it fair or balanced? No. Is it fun to play? For some of us surely yes, for others maybe not, and this is fine as there are more modern, less cheating mods out there, different foods for different tastes so everybody can be happy.
Again, these mods are not for you. Tactics Remix is mostly net new scripting and is NOT designed for you as an audience. An incredible amount of thought is given into Tactics Remix to balance it to the intended audience, including vastly modernizing it to be highly responsive to the difficulty slider so putting it on "Easy" actually does just that in the game. Regarding blocking exits, it seems like that is a cheese tactic you don't like being removed from you. Lore wise, it is incredibly simple as you are invading the establishment of a highly powerful wizard, so of course he can lock the doors to his own home (I'm also fairly certain SCS also blocks the same stairs you are complaining about being blocked).
You complain about the readmes not being descriptive, yet it tells you pretty plainly it is going to be difficult:
In regards to this specific thread and Planar Sphere mod: it's designed to be difficult and players wanting a challenge. It delivers exactly that: a challenge.