BG:EE Difficulty Tweaks
jaypee
Member Posts: 47
Hi all,
This mod is aimed at experienced players who want some extra challenge during a BG(2):EE or EET playthrough. The idea is to promote adventuring by making resources in stores scarcer/more expensive. Additionally some extra tweaks are included for the more diehard players.
Version History
v0.1: Initial version.
v0.2: Added 2 Hardcore tweaks: "Remove all Items from Stores" and "Make Korax the Ghoul Turn Hostile if Injured".
v0.3: Added full support for the SOD campaign. Replaced the "Remove All Joinable NPC's from the Game" tweak with the less intrusive "Block All Companions from Joining the Party" tweak.
v0.4: Added support for BG2:EE. The "No Recharging of Items with Limited Charges" tweak is now made dynamic instead of using a fixed list of items. The "No Wild Camping" now has an additional option "No Wild Camping in Dungeons".
v0.5: Added support for EET. Added the "Increase Price of Services and Drinks" and "Increase Inn Room Price" tweaks to Store Tweaks. Added an extra option to the "Block All Companions from Joining the Party" tweak.
Installation
Copy the contents of the zip folder to your Baldur's Gate (II) Enhanced Edition folder. Run setup-jptweaks.exe to install via WEIDU. Make sure to first install the SOD DLC-Merger for BG:EE.
Compatibility
This mod is intended for BG(2):EE v2.6.6 or EET v13.4. In general it will be compatible with most mods. It is recommended to install this mod as late as possible, especially after installing any mods that alters item placing and/or store inventories (like the Item Randomiser mod).
Mod content
1. Store Tweaks
Remove Protection Scrolls from Stores
Removes protection scrolls from stores.
This component has 3 options:
- Remove all Protection from Undead scrolls
- Remove all Protection from Undead and Protection from Magic scrolls
- Remove all (green) protection scrolls
Remove Wands from Stores
Removes all wands from stores.
Remove Spell Scrolls from Stores
Removes all spell scrolls from stores.
Remove Potions from Stores
Removes potions from stores.
This component has 2 options:
- Remove all potions except Potions of (Extra) Healing, Antidotes and Elixirs of Health
- Remove all potions
Remove Magical Ammo from Stores
Removes magical ammo and magical throwing weapons from stores.
This component has 3 options:
- Remove all Arrows of Dispelling and Detonation
- Remove all magical ammo
- Remove all magical ammo and magical throwing weapons
Remove Magical Items from Stores
Removes magical items from stores.
This component has 3 options:
- Remove generic (+1, +2...) enchanted weapons and armor
- Remove all enchanted weapons and armor
- Remove all magical items
Make Unlimited Supply of Items Limited
Sets all items with an unlimited supply to a stock of just 10 items.
Decrease Amount of Items in Stock
Decreases the amount of items the stores have in stock. Atleast one item will still always be available.
This component has 3 options:
- Decrease by Factor 2
- Decrease by Factor 5
- Decrease by Factor 10
Increase Store Sell Markup
Increases the sell markup of stores.
This component has 3 options:
- Increase by 50%
- Increase by 100%
- Increase by 200%
Increase Price of Services and Drinks
Increases the price of services (including identifying) and drinks offered in stores, temples and inns.
This component has 3 options:
- Increase by 50%
- Increase by 100%
- Increase by 200%
Increase Inn Room Price
Increases the price of a room in an inn.
This component has 3 options:
- Increase by factor 10
- Increase by factor 50
- Increase by factor 100
2. Hardcore Tweaks
Remove All Items from Stores
Removes all items from stores.
This component has 2 options:
- Remove all items except item containers (keeps gem bags, scroll cases etc)
- Remove all items
No Recharging of Items with Limited Charges
In an unmodded game, items like wands etc are recharged when sold to a shop, this component sets them to 1 charge when bought back from a shop. Additionally items that are normally not destroyed when empty, like the Myconid Bloom-Sac, Cloak of Minor Arcana etc. will now vanish when empty. Items added by other mods will also be affected.
No Traveling during Combat
This component blocks the ability of the party to travel on the worldmap while in combat.
No Wild Camping
This component sets the probability of a rest encounter to 100% in areas with active rest encounters, effectively making resting impossible.
This component has 2 options:
- No wild camping in dungeons
- No wild camping in all areas
Make Potions of Invisibility and the Sandthief's Ring Limited to Thiefs
The get out of trouble free cards for practically all classes. This component limits their availability to Thiefs (single, dual and multi class) only.
Make Drizzt's Items Unobtainable (BG:EE and EET only)
Drizzt is carrying some high-end equipment which can be obtained pretty much from the start of the game. This component flags his equipment as not stealable and undroppable, making it unobtainable.
Make Korax the Ghoul Turn Hostile if Injured (BG:EE and EET only)
Korax is a bit too friendly, willing to die for charname he just met. This component makes him turn hostile if he is injured in any way.
Block All Companions from Joining the Party
This component blocks all companions from joining the party, forcing charname to save the Sword Coast by himself/herself. Companions added by other mods will also be blocked from joining the party. Note that the dialogue options for making them join are still in place, they just won't trigger the join action.
This component has 2 options:
- Companions stay in the same area
- Companions leave the area
Download
github.com
Enjoy and let me know what you think!
This mod is aimed at experienced players who want some extra challenge during a BG(2):EE or EET playthrough. The idea is to promote adventuring by making resources in stores scarcer/more expensive. Additionally some extra tweaks are included for the more diehard players.
Version History
v0.1: Initial version.
v0.2: Added 2 Hardcore tweaks: "Remove all Items from Stores" and "Make Korax the Ghoul Turn Hostile if Injured".
v0.3: Added full support for the SOD campaign. Replaced the "Remove All Joinable NPC's from the Game" tweak with the less intrusive "Block All Companions from Joining the Party" tweak.
v0.4: Added support for BG2:EE. The "No Recharging of Items with Limited Charges" tweak is now made dynamic instead of using a fixed list of items. The "No Wild Camping" now has an additional option "No Wild Camping in Dungeons".
v0.5: Added support for EET. Added the "Increase Price of Services and Drinks" and "Increase Inn Room Price" tweaks to Store Tweaks. Added an extra option to the "Block All Companions from Joining the Party" tweak.
Installation
Copy the contents of the zip folder to your Baldur's Gate (II) Enhanced Edition folder. Run setup-jptweaks.exe to install via WEIDU. Make sure to first install the SOD DLC-Merger for BG:EE.
Compatibility
This mod is intended for BG(2):EE v2.6.6 or EET v13.4. In general it will be compatible with most mods. It is recommended to install this mod as late as possible, especially after installing any mods that alters item placing and/or store inventories (like the Item Randomiser mod).
Mod content
1. Store Tweaks
Remove Protection Scrolls from Stores
Removes protection scrolls from stores.
This component has 3 options:
- Remove all Protection from Undead scrolls
- Remove all Protection from Undead and Protection from Magic scrolls
- Remove all (green) protection scrolls
Remove Wands from Stores
Removes all wands from stores.
Remove Spell Scrolls from Stores
Removes all spell scrolls from stores.
Remove Potions from Stores
Removes potions from stores.
This component has 2 options:
- Remove all potions except Potions of (Extra) Healing, Antidotes and Elixirs of Health
- Remove all potions
Remove Magical Ammo from Stores
Removes magical ammo and magical throwing weapons from stores.
This component has 3 options:
- Remove all Arrows of Dispelling and Detonation
- Remove all magical ammo
- Remove all magical ammo and magical throwing weapons
Remove Magical Items from Stores
Removes magical items from stores.
This component has 3 options:
- Remove generic (+1, +2...) enchanted weapons and armor
- Remove all enchanted weapons and armor
- Remove all magical items
Make Unlimited Supply of Items Limited
Sets all items with an unlimited supply to a stock of just 10 items.
Decrease Amount of Items in Stock
Decreases the amount of items the stores have in stock. Atleast one item will still always be available.
This component has 3 options:
- Decrease by Factor 2
- Decrease by Factor 5
- Decrease by Factor 10
Increase Store Sell Markup
Increases the sell markup of stores.
This component has 3 options:
- Increase by 50%
- Increase by 100%
- Increase by 200%
Increase Price of Services and Drinks
Increases the price of services (including identifying) and drinks offered in stores, temples and inns.
This component has 3 options:
- Increase by 50%
- Increase by 100%
- Increase by 200%
Increase Inn Room Price
Increases the price of a room in an inn.
This component has 3 options:
- Increase by factor 10
- Increase by factor 50
- Increase by factor 100
2. Hardcore Tweaks
Remove All Items from Stores
Removes all items from stores.
This component has 2 options:
- Remove all items except item containers (keeps gem bags, scroll cases etc)
- Remove all items
No Recharging of Items with Limited Charges
In an unmodded game, items like wands etc are recharged when sold to a shop, this component sets them to 1 charge when bought back from a shop. Additionally items that are normally not destroyed when empty, like the Myconid Bloom-Sac, Cloak of Minor Arcana etc. will now vanish when empty. Items added by other mods will also be affected.
No Traveling during Combat
This component blocks the ability of the party to travel on the worldmap while in combat.
No Wild Camping
This component sets the probability of a rest encounter to 100% in areas with active rest encounters, effectively making resting impossible.
This component has 2 options:
- No wild camping in dungeons
- No wild camping in all areas
Make Potions of Invisibility and the Sandthief's Ring Limited to Thiefs
The get out of trouble free cards for practically all classes. This component limits their availability to Thiefs (single, dual and multi class) only.
Make Drizzt's Items Unobtainable (BG:EE and EET only)
Drizzt is carrying some high-end equipment which can be obtained pretty much from the start of the game. This component flags his equipment as not stealable and undroppable, making it unobtainable.
Make Korax the Ghoul Turn Hostile if Injured (BG:EE and EET only)
Korax is a bit too friendly, willing to die for charname he just met. This component makes him turn hostile if he is injured in any way.
Block All Companions from Joining the Party
This component blocks all companions from joining the party, forcing charname to save the Sword Coast by himself/herself. Companions added by other mods will also be blocked from joining the party. Note that the dialogue options for making them join are still in place, they just won't trigger the join action.
This component has 2 options:
- Companions stay in the same area
- Companions leave the area
Download
github.com
Enjoy and let me know what you think!
Post edited by jaypee on
0
Comments
Thankee!
I'm not familiar with what changes EET does under the hood to items, creatures, areas etc., I would have to look into that.
If it keeps all the original filenames it should be fully compatible, if not, installing this mod should not break anything I think, but some components might not work as intended (some items might not get removed from Stores etc).
For some components I loop over all Stores or Areas available in the game files, these should still work. But these components will then also be applied to other none BG:EE Stores and Areas. My thoughts per component:
- Remove Wands from Stores -> compatible
- Remove Spell Scrolls from Stores -> compatible
- Remove Potions from Stores -> compatible
- Remove Magical Ammo from Stores -> compatible
- Remove Magical Items from Stores -> partially compatible (Might not remove all magical weapons/armor/items in SOD and BG2:EE)
- Make Unlimited Supply of Items Limited -> compatible
- Decrease Amount of Items in Stock -> compatible
- Increase Store Sell Markup -> compatible
- No Recharging of Items with Limited Charges -> partially compatible (Will work for all wands and BG:EE items, will be missing items from SOD and BG2:EE)
- No Traveling during Combat -> compatible
- No Wild Camping -> compatible
- Make Potions of Invisibility and the Sandthief's Ring Limited to Thiefs -> compatible (Will not include additional items that grant invisiblity in SOD/BG2:EE)
- Make Drizzt's Items Unobtainable -> compatible
- Remove All Joinable NPC's from the Game -> this needs testing first, would not recommend installing
Anyway, should anybody decide to test this with EET, feel free to give some feedback, can be helpful.
The list of companions that are removed is hard-coded, only the BG:EE and the 4 SOD added companions are removed.
They won't show up in your game at all, so Imoen won't be present in Candlekeep.
In the future I will probably add a second option to this component that removes the JoinParty() actions from the dialogues of joinable NPC's instead, this way they will still be in game, but won't be able to join the party.
The short version? When a BGEE resource and a BG2EE resource both matter, share the same filename, and aren't the same, EET gives the BGEE resource a new name. This is most notable with areas, in which every area and area script with the AR prefix gets that replaced with a BG.
Other than areas, it's pretty sparse, but there are just enough changes that you have to be on your toes.
Some thoughts on gameplay matters... This is how you make slings unusable. No enemies at all in the main BG1 campaign use slings, so sling bullets are very rare finds. Normally, a sling user can just stock up on normal bullets from the unlimited supply in stores, but if those aren't unlimited anymore...
Other ranged weapons can get along; arrows are plentiful, and there are some types of skeletons that drop darts and bolts. But when it comes to bullets, enemy drops just aren't an option.
The BGEE wilderness is big. It has a lot of travel time. 64 hours from the nearest inn to the Cloakwood mines. 36 hours from the nearest inn to Seawatcher. 40 hours from the nearest inn to the Gnoll Fortress. 20 hours from the nearest inn to Durlag's Tower.
Why does this matter? Fatigue. For every four hours past their fatigue threshold, characters take a -1 penalty to luck. Stack a few of those up, and you get absolutely destroyed. Especially if you recruit some of those NPCs with lower constitution, you'll need to rest in the wilderness if you want to do anything off the beaten path.
Concerning the bullets, merchants will still have stacks of 20x10 = 200 bullets, which will last you a decent time. You can still buy 1k+ bullets in the first part of the game easily:
Friendly Arm Inn -> 200
HammerSmithy -> 200
Nashkel -> 200
Carnaval -> 200
Ulgoth's Beard -> 200
Erdane at Durlag's Tower -> 200
If you combine this with the "Decrease Amount of Items in Stock" tweak though, things will get quite challenging
The "No Wild Camping" is a hardcore-tweak, it is not designed to be balanced or fair at all in any way and I wouldn't recommend it to new players. But if I remember correctly, luck mostly affects physical attack and damage rolls, spell casters can still cast without negative effects. So relying on your casters in those areas might be a good tactic.
I've just released v0.3 of this mod. I've replaced the "Remove companions" tweak with a less intrusive "Block All Companions from Joining the Party" tweak. As the name suggests, this tweak no longer removes the companions from the game, but makes them unable to join the party (It replaces any JoinParty() action with NoAction() in dialogues). Companions added by other mods will also not be able to join the party.
Thankee!
My mod does not target specific areas, but all areas found in the game files, so the change in area codes should not pose any problems. I will now first focus on making the mod BG2:EE compatible, once this is done, I will have a look into EET.
Preventing players from resting in a dungeon still occupied by enemies is reasonable, but preventing them from resting in the wilderness? I think it's better for this component to only prevent resting in dungeons and not in the wilderness (though the latter could still provoke a random encounter, it just wouldn't be 100%).
This component as is will subtract rather than add to immersion. If your adventuring party is in the middle of the Cloakwood Mines and they're badly wounded and in need of a rest, which would be more reasonable to do?
1. Set up camp in the wilderness near the mine and heal your wounds with spells the next day, or...
2. Travel tens of miles to the nearest inn without sleeping while badly wounded, then travel tens of miles back?
Honestly, trying to travel tens of miles while badly wounded and fatigued sounds MORE dangerous than camping in the wilderness or even in a dungeon, not less.
I just released v0.4 of the mod, it now has full support for BG2:EE!
Additionally, since there was a lot of buzz about the "No Wild Camping" tweak, I've added in an option to only patch dungeon areas instead of all areas. This should make the dungeon areas a lot more challenging, without making the overall feel of the game too hardcore/frustrating.
Just released v0.5 of this mod, changelog:
- Added support for EET.
- Added the "Increase Price of Services and Drinks" and "Increase Inn Room Price" tweaks to Store Tweaks.
- Added an extra option to the "Block All Companions from Joining the Party" tweak.
Enjoy!
This mod hasn't been my style, but I know that others out there may want it.
Thankee!