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Icewind Dale 2: Enhanced Edition is almost here!

semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
edited April 2023 in Off-Topic
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People have been waiting years for this to happen.

With its source code lost to time, ICEWIND DALE II was thought to be dead, with no hope of an Enhanced Edition. That time has come to an end. The Red Chimera Group, a team of modders, coders, artists, and other contributors drawn from the Infinity Engine community, is re-building Icewind Dale II with nothing more than WeiDU code and hex editing to streamline IWD2's gameplay, rebalance the class system, and introduce new content.

Icewind Dale II: Enhanced Edition changes over 300 spells and over 1,000 items, introduces more than 30 completely new spells and 120 new items, and adds several unique recruitable NPCs, from Veira the ghost maiden to Vrek Vileclaw the river troll to Xhaan the white abishai to Zack Boosenburry and his spider mount, Aocha. This mod also fixes the major issues many players had with the original Icewind Dale 2: you no longer have to solve tedious, cryptic puzzles to complete certain areas, enemies in Heart of Fury Mode are empowered in interesting ways rather than just having lots of HP, and you can revise the experience system so you won't get zero experience for killing enemies late in the game. IWD2:EE is fully customizable and the player can tweak their install to taste.

IWD2:EE will be released as a free-to-download WeiDU mod pending a closed beta period. We currently have enough beta testers and intend to release the project after we have recorded voice lines for the new NPCs.

This project would not have been possible without the dedicated work of our community members, who donated their time and expertise to craft this mod. Immense thanks to everyone who has contributed to IWD2:EE since its inception:

Director, Writer
Chris Dix (@semiticgoddess )

Lead Developers
Bubb
OlvynChuru

Landscape Artist
Andrii Shafetov (@ashafetov )

Portrait Artist
Igor Levchenko (@Igor_Levchenko )

Contributors and Testers:
Firecrow
Gusinda
mashedtaters
thelee
Grammarsalad
kjeron
Aquadrizzt

Once IWD2:EE is installed, a new startup program is added to the game folder: IWD2EE.exe.
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You MUST start the game using IWD2EE.exe rather than IWD2.exe. If you start the game by clicking on IWD2.exe, the game will crash during character creation or when you load a save game.

Icewind Dale 2: Enhanced Edition uses a new extender called IEex (similar to EEex and ToBEx), which lets IWD2:EE add new features that could not normally be added by mods, such as new feats. IEex only works when the game is started via IWD2EE.exe.

Technical Details: IWD2EE.exe injects IEex.dll into IWD2.exe, creating a Lua scripting environment that can alter the game executable in memory. Note that antivirus programs might detect IWD2EE.exe / IEex.dll as a virus due to the utilization of dll injection - this is a false positive. While dll injection can be used by malicious applications to modify sensitive programs, IEex just expands the Infinity Engine. Both IEex and IWD2:EE are open source and safe to use.
Post edited by semiticgoddess on
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Comments

  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    (reserved)
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    (reserved)
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    (reserved)
  • PokotaPokota Member Posts: 858
    As with many other quests that were mandatory in the original game, players who don't want to fuss with Xvim can proceed without it (though the final battle will involve more enemies if Xvim is not dealt with).
    Yes! I love little things like this. The confrontation with Wyrmias in Gedron in Dark Sun: Shattered Lands does the same thing - kill the boss now while he's isolated, or kill him later when he's part of an army.
  • FlashburnFlashburn Member Posts: 1,847
    How about some documentation on the new feats and spells? Don't think I don't see those metamagic feats that I've been dying to have in the BG series as a result of the work done on EEex!
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    Can you add which game 'releases' are supported? I have the cd version but also the gog one. I guess Weidu should be fine for either, but maybe one has limitations?

    Also, which antivirus do you have experience with?
  • LavaDelVortelLavaDelVortel Member Posts: 2,858
    Mark me intrigued! I would happily check it a bit, if you don't mind. I am not sure how much will I be able to test, but the general lack of IWD2EE pains me, so even if I can test just a bit, I would still like to be a part of this.
  • AedanAedan Member, Translator (NDA) Posts: 8,551
    @semiticgod
    What an amazing project! Wow! Congratulations, well done!

    I have a question, if I may. Is IWD2EE playable in other languages than English?
  • OlvynChuruOlvynChuru Member Posts: 3,079
    @Aedan Currently IWD2EE only has an English version. IWD2EE is ready to be translated (pretty much all the text is in TRA files), but there is a LOT of stuff to translate (over 1000 item descriptions, hundreds of spell descriptions, and other things).
  • AedanAedan Member, Translator (NDA) Posts: 8,551
    @OlvynChuru
    Thank you!
    My team translated all the IE games, so we are not scared B)
    What about the main game? For instance, if I have the vanilla game in Italian, will the original content still be in Italian?
  • OlvynChuruOlvynChuru Member Posts: 3,079
    @Aedan The original content would still be in Italian, except for the new strings until they're translated. This is just a WeiDU mod. It patches dialog.tlk rather than overwriting it.
  • SilvarenSilvaren Member Posts: 178
    edited July 2020
    I'm sure it's fake because logo from OP comes from Andrii Shafetov, senior UI artist at Ubisoft Blue Byte. He published his artworks on ArtStation:
    https://www.artstation.com/artwork/XK0Qy

    Description of this particular image is as follows: "Visual Development and UI Redesign: just some modding experience with Infinity Engine, I played around modifying existing in-game sprites and backgrounds to give it a bit modern look. The Icewind Dale itself is especially precious to me as one those from my childhood that I have played a lot. Hope, you enjoy!"

    You will find more of his fan artworks from Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate on that page. Keep dreaming about ID 2 EE ;]

    2cpl5t2pfl5j.jpg

    EDIT: Oh, its just a moded version of ID2. Didn't read entire post. My bad :disappointed:
  • AedanAedan Member, Translator (NDA) Posts: 8,551
    @OlvynChuru Thank you so much!
    I have just one last question.
    Did you consider the chance to work on Unfinished Business for IWD2EE? Stuff that was cut before the release? That would be lovely :)

    Looking forward to see this mod released! We are ready to work on it for the translation.
  • FlashburnFlashburn Member Posts: 1,847
    I nearly forgot to ask...

    Is there quick-loot? Please oh please, let there be quick-loot!
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    Wow, this sounds very, very impressive guys. Amazing work! I've never got out of the starting village in IWD2, hehe.. Had it on the GoG shelf for some time now but was put off by the quirks of that old game after being so spoiled with EEs.
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    Any chance the new GUI could also support ultra widescreen displays down the line? The old widescreen mod for IwD2 is rather 'lacking' when it comes down to 21:9 monitors and up.
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    will this be compatible with iwd 2 npc project? and if so is there any plans to add cross mod with them with the new npcs added with this?
  • CahirCahir Member, Moderator, Translator (NDA) Posts: 2,819
    Is the overall graphics enhanced somehow?
  • AedanAedan Member, Translator (NDA) Posts: 8,551
    @OlvynChuru Thank you so much for all your kind and useful replies :)
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    reading all the area streamlining just makes them seem more playable as alot of iwd 2's dungeons are just slogs even compare to iwd 1's.
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    1. There's no quick-loot feature in IWD2 right now; that would require adding very new functionalities to the game engine. We probably don't have the resources to implement that kind of feature.
    2. We haven't tested it and so I can't confirm, but the IWD2 NPC project should be compatible with IWD2EE.
    3. We have some resources to improve the GUI and we've discussed making enhancements to the maps, but the overall graphics have not been changed.
  • WarChiefZekeWarChiefZeke Member Posts: 2,667
    Nice! Very excited by this as well as some of the new feats being implemented. Im getting build ideas already. I never got far into IWD2 but once this is ready I will certainly try it out.

    One minor suggestion, is the addition of more monk equipment. As I said, I never got far, but I didn't see much if any.
  • Jaheiras_WitnessJaheiras_Witness Member Posts: 614
    This is really welcome news, many thanks and congratulations to the team!

    I haven't played IWD2 in many years, not even sure I have it installed anymore. Might have to give it another go with this mod!

    One question (and apologies if already answered and I missed it): I seem to remember the "caster level" of consumables was really low. Like if you cast say a Shield spell from a wand, it was caster level 1 and hardly lasted very long at all. I think (memory is hazy) that this applied to all scrolls, wands, potions and other items that could cast a spell. This meant consumables were quite useless in many cases because of how weak their spell casting was; so if you wanted to buff, you really needed to cast a spell (from your memory), items were poor substitutes.

    Is this something you are addressing?
This discussion has been closed.