[Mod in progress] Skyfire – Modification for Baldur’s Gate II
Acifer
Member Posts: 194
Skyfire – Modification for Baldur’s Gate II
The time of the Genies in southern Faerun seems to be long gone. But there are rumors that their spirits are still there, trapped in an ancient artifact and eagerly waiting to be freed by the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. Will you be able to reverse the prophecy and save the Lands of Intrigue from a second Era of Skyfire?
About the mod:
Skyfire is a quest modification for Baldur’s Gate II (both the Vanilla and the Enhanced Edition). It adds a new adventure to the SoA part of the trilogy and will be accessible right from the beginning of the game.
Trailer:
https://youtu.be/4XPO21wk0wg
Screenshots:
Features:
• A new, epic storyline based on the rich history of the Lands of Intrigue
• more than 50 new designed areas – explore the Calim desert, the Mythal-cloaked city of Myth Rhynn, the vast Spiderswamp, a frozen island and many other famous or infamous places in southern Faerun
• New monsters like the Will-O-Wisp, Orglash, Vrock and Slaad will try to make life miserable for your party
• New unique items
• A new travel system using the airship in Waukeen’s promenade
• Many opportunities for in-depth role-playing for experienced players
Current state of the project:
• About 80% of the modification is finished
• All area graphics are done
• At the moment I am fleshing out the quest lines, the main quest will soon be ready to play in Vanilla BG2
• Once Beta testing of the German version (my native language) will be done, I will switch to the English version (and might need a lot of help translating the whole project).
• Why am I announcing this? Because I might need help, ask Enhanced Edition-specific questions and would generally be happy about suggestions and feedback.
More Screenshots: https://www.deviantart.com/aciferbg/gallery/79435070/skyfire
Many thanks to @Isewein for helping me with the trailer and to Maus, Lumorus, Taimon, Morywen and @jastey for help and ideas
Skyfire is a fan-made, free, non-commercial modification for Baldur's Gate 2.
The time of the Genies in southern Faerun seems to be long gone. But there are rumors that their spirits are still there, trapped in an ancient artifact and eagerly waiting to be freed by the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. Will you be able to reverse the prophecy and save the Lands of Intrigue from a second Era of Skyfire?
About the mod:
Skyfire is a quest modification for Baldur’s Gate II (both the Vanilla and the Enhanced Edition). It adds a new adventure to the SoA part of the trilogy and will be accessible right from the beginning of the game.
Trailer:
https://youtu.be/4XPO21wk0wgScreenshots:
Features:
• A new, epic storyline based on the rich history of the Lands of Intrigue
• more than 50 new designed areas – explore the Calim desert, the Mythal-cloaked city of Myth Rhynn, the vast Spiderswamp, a frozen island and many other famous or infamous places in southern Faerun
• New monsters like the Will-O-Wisp, Orglash, Vrock and Slaad will try to make life miserable for your party
• New unique items
• A new travel system using the airship in Waukeen’s promenade
• Many opportunities for in-depth role-playing for experienced players
Current state of the project:
• About 80% of the modification is finished
• All area graphics are done
• At the moment I am fleshing out the quest lines, the main quest will soon be ready to play in Vanilla BG2
• Once Beta testing of the German version (my native language) will be done, I will switch to the English version (and might need a lot of help translating the whole project).
• Why am I announcing this? Because I might need help, ask Enhanced Edition-specific questions and would generally be happy about suggestions and feedback.
More Screenshots: https://www.deviantart.com/aciferbg/gallery/79435070/skyfire
Many thanks to @Isewein for helping me with the trailer and to Maus, Lumorus, Taimon, Morywen and @jastey for help and ideas
Skyfire is a fan-made, free, non-commercial modification for Baldur's Gate 2.
Post edited by Acifer on
34
Comments
As always,everything looks absolutely impressive.
I'm really looking foreward to this!
Alleluia!
My top requests for you at the moment concerning this mod:
#1: Release it!
#2: Make it EET (Enhanced Edition Trilogy) compatible (and Worldmap mod compatible) from its first public release! (Since you're also making this non-EE compatible, also add Baldur's Gate Trilogy compatibility for those who use that.)
#3: Talk with whomever is maintaining Sword Coast Stratagems AKA SCS so the new creatures have their AI improved as prudent.
#4: Add all creatures from the Temple of Elemental Evil module not already in EET. (This is an aside and a lower priority than releasing this as EET compatible.) I much want a ToEE-in-EET one day and having these creatures available would help! (Notably, that includes Bodas, Lamias, Crystal Oozes, Gargoyles/Aquatic Gargoyles (Kapoacinths), Hags/Sea Hags, Aquatic Umber Hulks (Vodyanoi), Aquatic Beholders (Eyes of the Deep), Aquatic Ogres (Merrow), Water Elementals that look Humanoidal, Giant Lizards (quadrupedal), Lizardfolk, Hezrou, Snakes (serpentine)/Fire Snakes, Giant Frogs/Fire Toads, and Ghosts.) Mentioning this mod adds Vrocks and Wisps inspired me to request these other creatures which are also in ToEE.
#5: Once your mod is released, talk with jastey about making it a [url=https://www.gibberlings3.net/forums/forum/71-infinity-engine-modding-news/Gibberlings3 news release[/url] because it's worth broadcasting and adding to the EET mod compatibility list to aid in its discoverability!
Finally, THANK YE for telling us! We'll thank you more once we've assimilated it into our EET installs! (I like the new background art!)
PS: Someone should hire you for the the trailer work alone!
Talk with @Austin87 on Beamdog (Austin on Gibberlings3) about a Russian translation due his fondness for translating mods into Russian.
Would you please stop telling mod author what to do? Let him release the mod first, OK? And I'm sure translators will reach Acifer when the time comes.
You won't play in Russian, so why do you even care about it?
P.S. Regarding the Russian translation, some users of our forum have already said that they will be happy to participate in its translation when the mod is released.
Definitely! Beware of Calim’s breath in Dashadjen and Memnon’s crackle in Memnonnar! But maybe it's just the smell of Boo’s fur because he came too close to the Great Brass Gate?
Skyfire will definitely be compatible with EET and BGT.
Unfortunately, I won't use any ToEE animations due to copyright reasons. I converted the Vrock and all Slaadi animations from NWN using the same approach Infinity Animations did years ago.
About the worldmap: I started this project more than a decade ago (around 2005) when there was no sufficient way of adding maps to the worldmap, so I remodeled the airship shown in Waukeen’s Promenade and used it as a means for fast-traveling.
Since the story revolves around the discovery of the fallen realms of the Genies, I can't let the player travel back and forth to the locations whenever he wants. Many of the locations are hard to reach on foot, like places in the desert, sunken cities in the swamp and castles floating in the air. I hope the characters enjoy the exciting ride on a gnomish airship without getting too much airsick (except Korgan, mayhaps). And the player can jump straight into the mod without having to start a new game.
As Cahir mentioned, my first and foremost goal should be to build a stable beta release asap (and I might need a lot of help doing that). I am very happy that I am already in touch with Austin and the awesome team of Arcanecoast!
Difficulty of the quests will be similar to the core quests available from chapter 2 (Umar Hills, Windspear Hills and the like). I've made a lot of level adjustments, so hopefully you won't get bored when you start the mod later in the game. Some quests might be tricky for some party constellations due to environmental effects (the elemental plane of fire and the corrupted mythal of Myth Rhynn for example).
I agree SoA has a lot of stacked content, and my goal was to provide some fresh air. While there are numerous NPCs, items, enemies, and quests, unspent wilderness areas are lacking, so I try to offer more locations where players can utilize their skills, party members and equipment at full extent.
Since most of the story takes place in southern Tethyr and Calimshan, the idea of adding ToB content is intriguing. However, it might be difficult to adapt the story to ToB, as that could take a lot of development time. Due to Charname’s ability to instantly teleport to the pocket plane, it is very hard to implement new quests without creating too many bugs. I'm working on another mod for ToB that revolves around the recovery of Alaundo's Skull (which, according to Realmslore, was stolen by some evil force), so I think I'll release Skyfire as a SoA mod for now and hope you will enjoy it.
This is why I love Imoen4Ever - it eliminates the RP pressure and makes BG2 feel more like BG1.
As for this mod, I definitely am excited, but I hope it can be made EET compatible. I have really enjoyed this latest run, and I would love to include this in another build when it's ready. The new area locations alone look gorgeous.
I requested the creatures to be included to be included because I thought you had some custom modelers on your team who were making these creature models instead of importing them from NWN, which has some of the requested creatures. For example, NWN lacks Lamias but has Bodaks.
Regarding visiting areas later, Siege of Dragonspear normally doesn't allow returning to areas once the party is done with them, yet EET keeps them accessible via the world map for the rest of the game for the sake of players who want that, regardless of how much in character sense it makes. Consider that approach also for Skyfire.
Thankee!
Difficulty will progress according to party level. This should be subject of beta-testing.
The story will unfold regardless of SoA's main plot. My quest characters don't mind about your heritage or who you are, they're only interested in what you do, and there's no super villain breathing down your neck.
However, there will be some tie-ins to the story of BG2, as some of the power groups involved connect to existing ones.
I see, thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately this is a one-man project. As I lack strong character modeling and animation skills, I have to rely on existing NWN models.
The mod will be playable as long as you have access to Waukeen's Promenade so I think there will be no incompability with EET. The only thing I can't promise is to implement specific ToB content.
Thanks @Cahir for your support and to all of you for the kind words!
This is simply unbelievable, I really thought you have had at least some help. Have you ever considered inviting other modders to the project? Granted, I don't think there are many active modders with modelling and animation skills, but maybe there is one or two who could help.
The only modder I know of off-hand who's done any seemingly relevant graphics-related modding for BG is Gamemacik on Spellhold Studios, who has done some custom Fairy Dragon BAMs. bob_veng on G3 has also done scroll icons and background maps and maybe more.
Enjoy!
I would also like to add my admiration for your mod and plans for it. It looks awesome, and it’s very
much in line with other great mods that comes to life in these years.
The modding community is reallly looking alive and kicking at the moment. So thank you and the all the modders (many of you present in this thread already) who gives us so much - it’s much appreciated
By the way it looks, the mod is going to be awesome, so dont take suggestions or advice as a critique - people are just hoping that the mod comes to be, and will not end up as a wonderful “could have been” (there are a few of these, that we still hope for).
So do as you please, and if you ever need help, there is a vibrant and helpful community you can count on - so dont hesitate to ask if you need help.
I will leave you and your work so far with the best wishes and hope it comes to be.
Br
Thank you for the kind words! While most of the stuff was done by myself, I should emphasize that I did not create every single model or texture on my own. I used some licensed meshes and textures to bring these areas fully to life. The graphical aspects of my mods should be finished by now, so I shouldn't need any help with that at the moment.
BUT, as my programming skills are average at best, coding takes more time and efforts than I am comfortable with. So the final (and hardest) 20% of the mod - especially side quests and enemy ai - are progressing at a steady, but slow pace. If people with strong programming skills are willing to help me, I would be more than grateful to share this project with a growing team of dedicated modders!
+1 to @Cahir's suggestion. The Gibberlings3 Forum has many modders and mod enthusiasts. It seemingly has the highest concentration of active modders for Infinity Engine games, including veteran modders I mentioned above.
This looks AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Outstanding work, REALLY looking forward to the release!
BTW, I agree with everything Endarire says below (I would also say that an XP tweak component should be added, where we can choose the desired XP multiplier, from e.g. 10%-100% or something):
For the new (ported from NWN:EE) creatures, as well as new assets for this module, I would like these to be permitted for the community to use so we can have further community member-made adventures in the Lands of Intrigue. This is not a decision that needs to be made right away, but is helpful if you make it sooner.
@tl1942
Thankee for your agreement! That was a pleasant surprise!
Thankee!