[Released] Black Hearts v2.0 (BG:EE & SOD)
AWizardDidIt
Member Posts: 232
Introduction
Black Hearts is a Quest mod for Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition and Siege of Dragonspear. Black Hearts is my attempt to expand on the story of the Baldur's Gate games while providing more roleplaying opportunities for the player character. The mod also integrates fights from the Black Pits into Baldur's Gate through questing, so you can experience these encounters naturally in the game without having to run a separate arena-based combat mod, which isn't to everyone's taste.
The mod consists of two major questlines:
1 - The Huntress (BG1): Illasera is a Bounty Hunter from the Heartlands who has come to the Sword Coast on a mission. She enlists the Player as a novice Bounty hunter on a series of missions and eventually to investigate a plot involving a dangerous new enemy in the city of Baldur's Gate. This mod repurposes fights from the Black Pits module, using those as a basis for various objectives given to players for the questline (with some modifications to them in many cases).
2 - Pilgrimage (SoD): As the Player pursues Caelar Argent's Shining Crusade, they uncover the trail of Sarevok as he sought new information about his lineage and the power of the Deathbringer. Accompany one of Sarevok's former allies and investigate the legacy of Bhaal and the dark forces manipulating his children.
There is a small additional ‘Dialogue patch’ supplement mod that can be downloaded for BG2. This adds some additional dialogues to Illasera in TOB to reflect that the two of you knew each other before.
The BG1 Portion of the Mod Includes:
The SoD Portion of the Mod Includes:
Downloads
Screenshots
Installation
For All game Download Blackhearts.zip and unzip the mod into your Baldur’s Gate EE directory, making sure that the folder “Blackhearts” and file Setup-Blackhearts is in your base game directory (the same location as the chitin.key. Run the Setup-Blackhearts weidu exe file to start installation.
Note: The mod should only be played on a fresh save. Uninstalling the mod and loading up a save that had been installed will probably not totally break your save, but may result in weirdness.
Note:
The mod should only be started on a fresh save. Uninstalling the mod and loading up a save that had been installed will probably not totally break your save, but may result in weirdness. [/spoiler]
Special Thanks to 11jo/JohnBob whose help maintaining the mod and troubleshooting it in my absence has been absolutely invaluable.
I'm stuck on X quest. What do I do? (for Part 1 Only)
Please check the mod Quest Guide here
Contact
For any issues with the mod, contact me at mandatorymarley@sbcglobal.net and I'll get back to you when I can.
Black Hearts is a Quest mod for Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition and Siege of Dragonspear. Black Hearts is my attempt to expand on the story of the Baldur's Gate games while providing more roleplaying opportunities for the player character. The mod also integrates fights from the Black Pits into Baldur's Gate through questing, so you can experience these encounters naturally in the game without having to run a separate arena-based combat mod, which isn't to everyone's taste.
The mod consists of two major questlines:
1 - The Huntress (BG1): Illasera is a Bounty Hunter from the Heartlands who has come to the Sword Coast on a mission. She enlists the Player as a novice Bounty hunter on a series of missions and eventually to investigate a plot involving a dangerous new enemy in the city of Baldur's Gate. This mod repurposes fights from the Black Pits module, using those as a basis for various objectives given to players for the questline (with some modifications to them in many cases).
2 - Pilgrimage (SoD): As the Player pursues Caelar Argent's Shining Crusade, they uncover the trail of Sarevok as he sought new information about his lineage and the power of the Deathbringer. Accompany one of Sarevok's former allies and investigate the legacy of Bhaal and the dark forces manipulating his children.
There is a small additional ‘Dialogue patch’ supplement mod that can be downloaded for BG2. This adds some additional dialogues to Illasera in TOB to reflect that the two of you knew each other before.
The BG1 Portion of the Mod Includes:
- A new questline for BG1 that spans from Chapter 3 through to the end of BG1.
- An expanded non-party companion, Illasera the Quick. While she does not join the party, she is a major presence in a Baldur’s Gate game with Black Hearts installed. In addition to being the major quest giver for the mod, she comments on your journey, provides rumors and advice, has 2-3 conversations with all BG:EE companions, and two long form social events if you choose to befriend her.
- Around 3,000 new lines of written dialogue with an emphasis on roleplay.
- Six brand new areas.
- Eighteen new items with unique properties.
The SoD Portion of the Mod Includes:
- An SoD Exclusive questline that takes place in Chapters 9 and 10.
- Two more expanded non-party companions, Tamoko and Winski Perorate, depending on if they lived at the end of your Baldur's Gate 1 adventure. Tamoko includes various extensive talks which reveal more about her relationship with Sarevok and past.
- Around 1,200 new lines of written dialogue.
- Seven new areas
- Six new magical items with unique properties (including a Quarterstaff for Monks!)
Downloads
Blackhearts - Both EE and EET Compatible version of the mod.
Screenshots
Installation
For All game Download Blackhearts.zip and unzip the mod into your Baldur’s Gate EE directory, making sure that the folder “Blackhearts” and file Setup-Blackhearts is in your base game directory (the same location as the chitin.key. Run the Setup-Blackhearts weidu exe file to start installation.
Note: The mod should only be played on a fresh save. Uninstalling the mod and loading up a save that had been installed will probably not totally break your save, but may result in weirdness.
Note:
The mod should only be started on a fresh save. Uninstalling the mod and loading up a save that had been installed will probably not totally break your save, but may result in weirdness. [/spoiler]
Special Thanks to 11jo/JohnBob whose help maintaining the mod and troubleshooting it in my absence has been absolutely invaluable.
I'm stuck on X quest. What do I do? (for Part 1 Only)
Please check the mod Quest Guide here
Contact
For any issues with the mod, contact me at mandatorymarley@sbcglobal.net and I'll get back to you when I can.
Post edited by AWizardDidIt on
20
Comments
I have 2 major requests for this mod for its initial release.
1: Include native EET compatibility. Ask the people on Gibberlings3 as prudent for aid.
2: Include Orange Ioun Stones for +1 caster level. This is one item that seems easy to make/include but one that I've not been able to use in any D&D video game yet!
Thankee!
1. EET compatibility is definitely something I would like to do. Probably will be one of the last things I visit before I look to Release it.
2. That seems like a great idea for a new magic item and definitely within the scope of magic items I want for the mod. I *hate* when mods introduce OP gear and have specifically been making gear that's less god-tier and more trying to make items that are lesser used in BG or have interesting/unique effects.
Thankee! I realized that +1 caster level is most appropriate for low levels when the +1 CL matters a lot. Once in BG2, that +1 CL matters much less.
(I also like the notion of integrating the Black Pits' fights into the main BG story. Baeloth is my favorite NPC! Alleluia!)
Looks incredible. Very eager to see it released.
@Endarire
You mean... this thing?
I'd also like an Orange Ioun Stone equippable by all classes, like the Pale Green Ioun Stone in BG2EE.
Well, as soon as my mod's ready, you'll be able to grab a non-class restricted Orange Ioun Stone from an enemy nearish to the end of the questline
The Bright Orange Ioun Stone linked above is from the Angel's Made in Heaven Item Pack mod.
And to clarify, the Orange Ioun Stone is +1 caster level to all classes, yea even Rangers, Paladins, Bards, Shamen, Clerics, Druids, and obscure kits that can cast.
Plus, if I were to see portraits, I would rather see original ones (like the ToB Illasera) rather than those introduced in mods. Illasera's portrait you use was made by Artastrophe and was designed as a part of PaintBG portrait mod, not as a standalone thing. They do not blend in well with original portraits and such a mix always felt weird... that's also why I think I prefer to keep quest mods portrait-less or minimalize a number of portraits.
As for other npcs, only a few of them have portraits and those are the more major ones and I've been toying with the idea of doing non-party romances for them. A few of those portraits I created myself, so I'm kind of proud of the work I did and want to include them. I promise it won't be too immersion breaking!
Cheers!
Earlier I mentioned that Illasera was going to have over 1000 lines of dialogue. Wow, seems like a lot, right? Maybe even too much. Well, a bunch of that is tied into two optional sequences where you can hang out in a pub and get to know each other better. You learn about each other's history, events in the region, and even companions you travel with, with my focus being on offering a lot of options to emphasize roleplay, so I made trees to be as responsive to many different types of characters as possible, with lots of options specific to class or stats.
For anyone who doesn't want to sit down with a cup of tea and do that much reading, you can choose to keep your relationship with Illasera purely professional, skipping these scenes entirely. She won't begrudge you it any for it (she might even respect you more for it), but you keep to just doing the quests, only asking what questions you need to do the missions you're given.
I'm currently finished about 75% through the second sequence and then will be doing some touch ups on it soon. My main objective this week is to get it complete so I can move onto the last 'act' of content for the mod.
I have plans for other items that I would like included in this mod or/and other mods. How receptive are you to implementing more items suitable for sometime in BG1?
Thankee!
There are selfish and aggressive options in dialogue and you can kill some npcs along the way if you feel like it and get some extra items for doing so, with the trade off being that they aren't around to help or talk to you later. Otherwise, the whole questline is pretty morally agnostic. I didn't really approach it with "Good" or "Evil" in mind. Everyone knows "Law" vs "Chaos" is where it's at
@Endarire
Feel free to give me item suggestions if you'd like! I don't have all my items laid out beforehand; my process so far has been taking a fight and then just sort of thinking what type of magical item might make sense for it and then scouting around the item effects in NI to see if I can't do something fun. If your suggestion seems neat to me and I can figure out a way to make the item, I'll def throw it in.
I'm putting the finishing touches on the pub scene I was working on last week. The dialogue ended up being a bit more extensive than I first intended and has two cutscene elements which made things take longer.
Once I get this part finished, my next plan of action is to start prototyping the last "Act" of the quest, which opens up after you return from Candlekeep. I already have a rough idea of how I want the quest to go, but I need to start nailing down the specifics of where it's going to start and begin writing the script/dialogue to get the needed npcs into place. Once I've done that, I get started on the last area map, which is going to be a big one.
For this update, I wanted to share some stuff about the new added maps in the game. A while back, I ripped BMP images of all of the maps from the ill-fated Black Isle isometric RPG "Lionheart". While this game has a sort of renaissance-era style to it that often doesn't blend great with Baldur's Gate, a few of the maps work pretty excellently and with a little photoshop magic, I'm able to cut those image files apart to make some good maps.
Pictured below is one of them, a sanctum in the Undercity of Baldur's Gate that you'll travel to during Chapter 5.
Apologies for the delay. I've been working on other things, and I'm expecting to start a new employment position next week. (It's seasonal for 11 days.) Mid-to-late August at soonest is when I can give you the proper item descriptions.
Thankee!
Last week I finished up sketching out how I want the last 'act' of the mod quest to go as well as scripted together the intro part. This was actually all new to me since part of the intro is a character helping you out in a fight as a neutral npc so I had to figure out how npc script ai works a bit. I ended up just "borrowing" a few scripts from npcs in Siege of Dragonspear to handle combat ai and then creating a top level script for plot relevant actions I needed the npc to do. Work smart, not hard, right?
What's on the agenda this week? Creating the last new areas for the mod, which will be a modest sized dungeon with one "hub" zone that connects to five small spokes. It's size should be roughly equivalent to something like a single level of a durlag's tower, though not so condensed with traps and monsters. It will definitely be the most ambitious area I've made, but I'm feeling excited to try out some of the new triggers I want to play with and I've already starting photoshopping together a really neat zone (spoiler: it's not a prime material location). Should be a cool area to go to.
I've finished creating the last area maps (3 in total). Now comes the rather tedious process of going into dltec and actually making them into areas, including the process of setting up the various maps and wall objects. This shouldn't actually be *too* bad for these areas, as they don't have a ton of occluding objects. My hope is to finish this and then at least get significant process on the area scripts this week. That's about it, not too much else to report here. I am also planning an 'epilogue' post-game section for my mod that takes place either in SoD or integrates into the Endless BG1 mod so you can do it that way instead. So I'm thinking about that while I do the more mundane process of putting together these map areas.
Also, do you think you will release the mod for BGT too?
Oh, I would never require SoD. The epilogue component would be 1.) Optional and 2.) Would be present in *either* SoD or in post game BG1 via the Endless BG1 mod so you could play it through that mod instead of SoD if you so wished.
For BGT, I am a first time modder and have been taking advantage of a lot of shortcuts the EE versions of the game have in terms of modding. I unfortunately don't see myself being very motivated to do the work needed to backport it into BGT so I'd say it's extremely unlikely to get a BGT version, at least from me.
Next week is the soonest I can work in earnest on the item proposals for this mod. Thankee for your patience!
I like SoD and so am pleased that there will be some additional content for it. (The main thing I dislike about SoD is that, like ToB, there is little mod material for it.)