[v0.4b] Sword Coast Customs - a mod for BG: EE
liberalbias
Member Posts: 24
I have been building around Ashideena and Varscona too often in BG:EE, so I created this mod to provide more options for elemental weapon types. The goal of this mod is to allow the player to create ONE melee weapon, of any type, that can be enchanted up to +2 and which does a small amount of elemental damage (acid, cold, fire or shock).
This mod allows the player to commission a masterwork weapon from Taerom (upon return from the Nashkel Mines), then upgrade it to +1 (with elemental damage) from Thalantyr, and finally to +2 from Halbazzer Drin.
There are two optional components that allow the player to remove or relocate Varscona and Ashideena, so the addition of a third powerful weapon does not unbalance the game.
I commissioned 162 new BAMs for this mod. There are 18 melee weapon types, and there is artwork for the masterwork version, for a +1 enhanced version and a +2 enhanced version (for each of the four damage types). I'm still working with the artist on some revisions for those BAMs, so expect them to get better over time (but I think they did a really great job). See the README for acknowledgements.
I'd love feedback, suggestions and bug reports. Enjoy!
Readme
Release (v0.2b)
Github
This mod allows the player to commission a masterwork weapon from Taerom (upon return from the Nashkel Mines), then upgrade it to +1 (with elemental damage) from Thalantyr, and finally to +2 from Halbazzer Drin.
There are two optional components that allow the player to remove or relocate Varscona and Ashideena, so the addition of a third powerful weapon does not unbalance the game.
I commissioned 162 new BAMs for this mod. There are 18 melee weapon types, and there is artwork for the masterwork version, for a +1 enhanced version and a +2 enhanced version (for each of the four damage types). I'm still working with the artist on some revisions for those BAMs, so expect them to get better over time (but I think they did a really great job). See the README for acknowledgements.
I'd love feedback, suggestions and bug reports. Enjoy!
Readme
Release (v0.2b)
Github
Post edited by liberalbias on
0
Comments
Daggers, Short Swords and Bastard Swords
Clubs, Flails and Maces
Two-handed Swords, Spears and Katanas
Axes and War Hammers
Quarterstaves, Halberds and Ninja-tos
Morningstars, Wakizashis and Scimitars
Most mods are packaged with installers. Yours isn't, and that might be a barrier to some people. For Windows, this installer is a renamed copy of the WeiDU executable (.exe). For Mac, it's a renamed copy of the WeiDU executable (no extension) together with a tiny .command file that basically tells a command-line interface what to do to start this up. If you're interested in including that, take a look at what one of those other mods does.
What you need to make this compatible with EET: absolutely nothing. Since you're inserting and removing the items through dialogue and CRE changes rather than ARE changes, those modification points are unchanged by the EET transition.
I would recommend a GAME_IS or GAME_INCLUDES check, though, so this doesn't try to install on games that lack the BG1 campaign and cause errors.
I see the Taerom dialogue checks proficiencies; that's not very compatible with the proficiency overhaul mods out there (For example, Tweaks Anthology has an option to use the old BG1 proficiency groups). Still, you have the safety of always allowing the player to choose any weapon even if they're offered based on proficiency first. No harm done.
I'm glad to hear that about EET, and I was hoping that was the case. I tried very hard to keep the mod minimally invasive, and to target only the most basic parts of the dialog, and double check that the creatures hadn't already been modded. It was the same with the proficiency checks: they are there as a convenience, but the player has the fallback to any weapon through the category menus (that is just a little clunky, so I am hoping most people get to experience the proficiency based dialog instead!).
I will add checks for the game. I am also working on versions of the weapons for SoA and ToB, but that will be a few weeks.
Thanks!
I agree that a WeiDU installer will help you get testers, and, thus, make progress.
Thanks for the feedback! I have released version 0.2b that includes a Windows and Mac OS X installer for convenience.
Also, may we get these places to handle the dialog enhancements?
SoD: Sorcerous Sundries
SoA: Ribald, Cowled Wizards (perhaps first require a casting license or beating enough of them to stop spawning when casting openly in Athkatla), Trademeet, and maybe Ust Natha.
ToB: Cespenar
Thankee!
It's straight in the description - fire, cold, acid, electric. No poison. And poison on a weapon is mechanically different from other elements; immunity to it is far more common, its interactions with mage defenses like mirror images and stoneskins are different, and it has that ongoing mode. If you're designing a unique weapon, go ahead and use poison if it fits the concept. If you're building a bunch of different weapons with a choice of element, leave it out.
As for SoA and ToB, and stronger versions of things ... let the modder develop their own ideas.
The original mod allowed the player to choose a new enhancement at both Thalantyr and Halbazzer, so you could have, for example, a +2 weapon that did one point of fire damage and one point of shock damage. For a little while, I had the ability to add other enhancements, like AC bonuses, extra attacks, etc. There are just a few problems: (1) it's really easy to build an over-powered weapon this way, and I really care about the balance of the game, (2) you end up with a TON of different weapons, and it's essentially impossible to have good art assets and (3) I prefer the simplicity of making weapons that are similar to the existing elemental damage weapons, since it fits the theme of the game better.
I am working on a version of this mod for SoA and ToB, and my goal is to create a +3 version of each weapon (crafted by Cromwell in SoA) and a +5 version (crafted by Cespenar). I would like each of the 18 weapon types to have a unique +3 weapon that incorporates the elemental damage type assigned to the weapon, so if you have ideas for particular weapons, let me know!
For example, if you craft a +2 Katana with frost damage in BG1, maybe the +3 version provides fire resistance and increases the critical hit range of the base katana, and then the +5 version has a chance to slow enemies (they are "frozen"), and it increases the critical hit range more (a "keen" enhancement on the sharp blade). Even this will mean making 18 * 4 * 2 = 144 more weapons with art, so it isn't going to happen quickly, but I am going to make it happen!
What say you to also adding poison weapons? What about adding more item options for those who want to experiment with this and are less concerned about balance?
When in the install order should this mod go?
As for assets, Knights of the Chalice, a D&D 3.5 OGL game, had an item crafting system and its various icons were sometimes repeated due to using the same item type as a base.
Thankee!
I noticed that the existing BAMs had two images, but in the BG: EE 2.6.6 version that I am playing, I don't see the second image anywhere, so I didn't include it in my BAMs. Can you explain more about where you are seeing these smaller images?
I'd be happy to work with you to figure out a way to support non-EE versions, I just don't currently have a way to test, since I only have the EE versions.
What say you to allowing +3 weapons to be made in BG1? The innkeeper of Ulgoth's Beard already sells a +3 staff at the game's start, there are some other +3 weapons, and the final boss of SoD normally needs +3 or better weapons to hit.
What say you to allowing +4 weapons to be made in SoA? Ribald sells a +4 staff initially. and the Holy Avenger and Staff of the Magi are each +5 weapons available fairly early. Demiliches normally need +4 or better weapons to hit.
Regardless, on behalf of my family, I appreciate the customization you've done with this.
Thankee!
Lol, I do also appreciate that you keep the mod within a limited and feasible scope. I'm _sloooowly_ working on a similar mod that allows characters to create magical items on a much grander scale, but it's taking forever. It may never be finished.
One idea I had for creating magical weapons is to create "templates" that allowed the crafter to craft certain items of a particular power level under specific circumstances (which would hopefully act as a balance).
One idea, for example, was to allow a character to "convert" a weapon of a particular power level into another weapon (even possibly another weapon type) of roughly equal power. So you might take a dagger of venom and an existing generic magical longsword of sufficient power, and "craft" a longsword of venom.
Right now I have code that takes all existing spells, including mod added scrolls that do not themselves add scrolls for that spell--especially relevant to priest spells--and allows a character to "craft" a scroll of that type.
I was planning to adopt that code to create these "templates", based on existing magical weapons but also some custom ideas. I'm not anywhere near that implementation at this point, though. I'm using it to do something similar with potions and wands first. I do have a lot of code that might be helpful that you can use if you like.
I can't find the more adapted code atm (I'm as organized as I am disciplined) but here is the original scroll specific code. Please feel free to use if it's at all helpful:
https://github.com/Gibberlings3/Skills-and-Abilities/blob/main/skills-and-abilities/components/class_skills/scroll_crafting.tpa
It would be really fun to create a general purpose crafting mod, but even this fairly small mod took me dozens of hours to figure out and put together!
I ended up using a Python script to do a lot of the heavy lifting, partly because I know Python better than Weidu, but also because it made it less tedious to write out all the item code.
https://www.gibberlings3.net/mods/items/sod-to-bg2ee-item-upgrade/
You can write to the author and offer a joint collaboration with your mod. Might be an interesting project.
Thankee for sharing!
@liberalbias
Thankee for making and sharing! I know what it's like to put tens or hundreds or thousands of hours into a mod project. Some BG mods have been updated periodically for years or decades.
Good idea ! I think your mod will be interesting for many people, thanks.
If you want, here is a pull request for the French translation of your mod.
While testing the translation, I noticed that Taerom didn't take a few days to make the weapon despite the dialogue.
Since you mentioned plans for a bg2 version, I think you are going to need to do some work to make your mod stand out there. BG2 has a lot of weapons, has a lot of mods that add weapons, and has a lot of mods that upgrade weapons. I personally struggle to think of a reason why I would bother when I have plenty of other mods that already accomplish what I would want from a sword coast customs 2.
Instead of there being NO +5 weapon types of a category (throwing hammer, ninja-to, etc.), now they exist and can kill trolls! Alleluia!
This other mod is already far too big and its scope goes way further than items. Better not in y opinion.
Thank you for the translation! I will need to do a little more work to integrate it, since I am generating items.tra from a Python script, but I think I can take what you did and make that work! I'll see if I can find some time this afternoon to do the work.
Yes, I originally intended to have Taerom take a few days, but changed my mind. I will fix the dialog, thank you for reminding me.
Thank you for the kind words!
I've written tons of mods, but so far all of them have been for my personal use only. This is the first one that I thought some other people might be interested in trying out. I agree that it is much less of a fit for BG2, but I have some ideas for things *I* want in BG2 that I can do through the mod, so I'll be exploring those things. If other people don't find it that useful, no harm done!
No rush, take your time.
I didn't see any problems during my tests, the translation seemed to be functional for all dialogues and items
Okay, I will send a correction for the translation according to your changes.