[v2.6] Ayden Project (BG:EE, BG:SoD)
Keneth
Member Posts: 29
Free a powerful warlock from his imprisonment and venture with him on a quest to find the lost Nether Scrolls.
Discover a new way of unleashing arcane energies with a brand new thief kit: The Warlock.
Quickly travel vast distances across the Plane of Shadow if you dare to brave its desolate environs.
Relax and store your equipment in a planar safe haven. Unlock new features and forge alliances in this astral stronghold.
Brew potions and craft powerful artifacts to enhance your strength and devastate your enemies.
Discover a new way of unleashing arcane energies with a brand new thief kit: The Warlock.
Quickly travel vast distances across the Plane of Shadow if you dare to brave its desolate environs.
Relax and store your equipment in a planar safe haven. Unlock new features and forge alliances in this astral stronghold.
Brew potions and craft powerful artifacts to enhance your strength and devastate your enemies.
Introduction:
Ayden is a mysterious warlock that's been magically imprisoned on another plane for decades. You will originally encounter him in Ulcaster Ruins, struggling to find his way back to the prime material plane. Should you help him, he will become a loyal companion and friend to you and will open up a world of new opportunities.
Over time, you will get to know many things about him, his past, and the place he comes from, which will affect your actions and perhaps even the way you perceive the world around you. Where will the road ultimately lead you as you approach godhood on your quest? Who will you put your trust in?
What to expect:
- A new thief kit: The Warlock. It comes with its own set of custom abilities and an AI script for convenience.
- A fully-fleshed out companion NPC that uses the new kit and will interact with you and the world around him.
- The ability to quickly move to any major area through the Plane of Shadow.
- Your very own pocket plane that will serve as a stronghold and staging area for your adventures.
- Several brand new areas and quests (with more on the way).
- More than 30 new (or familiar) enemies and a handful of new allies.
- A simple crafting system that will allow you to more easily acquire the gear you need.
- A number of new items, some for crafting purposes, others for fun.
- A couple of additional convenience components to make thief classes more fun.
Known Issues in v2.6:
- Missing icon for dimensional lure (got misplaced during packaging).
- Fog from Refuge appears in other maps when shadow walking.
Post edited by Keneth on
6
Comments
Thankee for this mod!
Is Ayden's Refuge the Portable Hole we discussed on Discord?
Did you know a Warlock kit for Bards exists? I'm also curious why you went Rogue/Thief as the base class for your Warlock interpretation.
Thankee!
I am aware, but seeing as I've been developing this mod since early 2007, I think it's safe to say mine came first.
Originally, I was deciding between Thief and Bard as well. I came to choose thief since its weapon proficiencies and action bar buttons were more appropriate. It also seemed more thematically appropriate and there were some engine specifics that fit better.
They each have their own benefits and drawbacks though. I am still tackling some problems that have no great solutions even in IE v2.6. A lot of things later became possible with TobEx, but it was after I stopped developing for BG2. For a while, I was even seriously considering making the mod GemRB exclusive, where I would have the freedom to make it exactly as I wanted, but then the already small audience would drop to zero. I am currently between seeing how far I can push the vanilla engine and waiting for EEEx for v2.6 to expand the horizons.
Thank you for taking an interest.
I usually play good aligned PCs (if I play, which is seldom enough). Would Ayden make sense for good parties or not really? Would you give a little more info on where he comes from and what there is to be expected content-wise when he travels with CHARNAME?
Although this is something that you can learn from him fairly early on, I'm still gonna put it in spoilers for those who would prefer to find out on their own.
Aside from providing a bunch of convenient features, there is also a quest line that's planned to extend into ToB, eventually. The story is already written but I would prefer to leave the players guessing where things will go for now. I did a fair amount of research into the lore that surrounds his story, so I'm hoping that it fits nicely into whatever else is happening in the game.
He will also banter with all of the vanilla companions and interject to offer his opinion on matters when he feels it's appropriate, but he will almost never do anything against the player's wishes, even if he morally objects to something.
To sum it up: Yes, he'll do fine in good-aligned parties and should offer a moderate amount of extra content without overshadowing any of the other companions or the main quest.
Regarding Devil's Sight: that just looks pointless as an ability that has to be cast. Why not make it a passive bonus, like so many other kits get to thieving skills?
It makes things a bit janky with abilities disappearing and popping back, but it was an important balancing factor. Unlike PnP, it needed a little something extra to kick it down a notch and bring it in line with the other classes. In practice, you don't really notice it, especially if you're relying on the class script.
Absolutely. Hopefully, it won't take me another 15 years to do it.
I mean, by that logic, all-long lasting buffs could just be permanent class boons.
Ayden's Refuge reminded me of someone on the Gibberlings3 Discord Server who said he made a Mordenkainen's Magnificient Mansion mod (a portable inn), and I thought that was you.
Maybe Morpheus would want to add the buff invocations from this mod to his scripts for ease of use.
I see. I mostly just wanted a version of the pocket plane in BG1, since it's very convenient to have in ToB. It makes for a good hub/stronghold. I am currently working on making it less "static".
May we get a full list of Warlock invocations and item crafting from this mod?
Thankee!
A list of invocations and craftable items are both included in the readme files inside the mod package. Since formatting is very limited on this forum, I opted not to post the tables here. I might reconsider if there's a desire for me to do so.
I expected a mention of where to find a full list of these invocations and craftable items on the main post, even if it's a "see my documentation" note or a link.
The very first sentence of my first post says that it's a trimmed down version of the readme and that one should refer to the actual readme file for more info.
That said, I am planning on making the release post more spiffy with images, better formatting, and links to online docs at some point. Probably with the next version, which is coming out soon-ish.
I was accustomed to the main post of mods giving thorough detail on their new systems if they had them, such as More Style for Mages or AionZ's Warlock Mod. It seemed to be a matter of misunderstanding expectations.
Note that the new version is NOT compatible with the old one, so you will have to start a new game.
Changelog:
Oy vey!
Good to hear. I welcome any and all criticism.