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[v1.0.6] Romance Expanded: Viconia and Phaere complete!

OtherwiselyOtherwisely Member Posts: 21
edited March 7 in BGII:EE Mods
Viconia Romance Expanded is the first in a series of planned mods that carefully expand the original BG2 romances. The mod enables the romance for all races and genders and has a unique romance path for female CHARNAMES. Learn how drow society treats same-sex relationships, navigate new relationship obstacles, and fall in love all over again!

Version: 1.0.6

Download at Github

Features
  • F/F Romance that does not require sexual acts, making it ace-friendly.
  • New romance conflicts and interjections for Anomen, Rasaad, and Hexxat.
  • Existing romance conflicts were written or modified to support same-sex romances with Anomen, Rasaad, Jaheira, and Aerie.
  • Improved and expanded dialogue for both genders.
  • LT7: Viconia’s compliment is reflective of CHARNAME’s stats.
  • LT13: The events of SOD are acknowledged. The player may also have a more personalized discussion of how Viconia views CHARNAME’s race. Relatedly, LT31 has Viconia say she "likely" worshipped Lolth longer than CHARNAME has been alive in order to account for longer-lived races.
  • LT35: The dialogue option stating that Viconia mentioned her brother will only appear if she actually mentioned her brother.
  • LT37: Dialogue referencing Viconia's story about the baby will change to reflect if she actually told the story.
  • LT55: CHARNAME can share more specific coming-of-age moments with Viconia. Imoen may interject if present.
  • LT57: Viconia’s dialogue will reflect the current state of the plot, including whether or not Imoen has been rescued and if Bodhi is still alive.
  • LT59: When discussing the future, the player can now bring up their stronghold (if any) and Viconia will react accordingly.
  • Romance support for all races (with a few special changes for a half-elf).
  • A few minor grammar, spelling, and miscellaneous corrections.

Subcomponent: Alternate Audio (Viconia)
This option will replace audio that may refer to CHARNAME's gender incorrectly, either shortening the audio or removing it entirely. Please note that even without this component installed, some female-only dialogue already has altered audio.

The mod is has been completed for SOA and an update for TOB is in progress.

Phaere Expanded
This option allows female CHARNAMEs to flirt and sleep with Phaere. Includes new reactivity from Anomen, Rasaad, and Hexxat. Adds dialogue options to Aerie's reaction that can prevent the romance from breaking. Please be aware that this component does not remove the coercive elements original to Phaere's dialogue.

Unlock Other Romances
Provided for the sake of convenience, this component removes romance restrictions on characters who have not yet been expanded. This includes Jaheira, Aerie, Anomen, Rasaad, and Neera. Aside from a few instances here and there, their dialogue remains untouched and may refer to the player character incorrectly (e.g. pronouns).

***

Compatibility
This mod was designed to work specifically with BG2:EE and may not be compatible with the original release of BG2. The mod is compatible with EET.
The following mods have had patches built into Romance Expanded. To take advantage of these patches, install Romance Expanded after the mods listed below.
  • Will of the Wisps: Shaman stronghold can be discussed in LT59.
  • Unfinished Business: If using the Pai'na component, Viconia may address Pai'na more politely.
  • Viconia Friendship: Viconia's friendship path will no longer start during an F/F romance. It will instead start after a breakup, as intended. This prevents duplicate dialogues from triggering.
  • IEP Extended Banters: The Korgan-Viconia banter now reflects whether Viconia is in a relationship with a female character. Two Jaheira-Viconia banters may change if Viconia has promised to be more respectful of half-elves.

This mod should be compatible with other WeiDU mods. However, some mods may contradict specific elements of this mod. For example, other mods may reference a female CHARNAME as male, due to Viconia's unmodded romance being locked to males. Viconia may also refer to half-elf NPCs with less-than-charitable terms even if she has promised a half-elf CHARNAME to no longer do so. Compatibility patches for such instances are planned for future versions of this mod. If you encounter any major mod conflicts, please leave a comment here.

***

Credits
Otherwisely — writing and coding
Kiiratam — beta reading, feedback/suggestions, support

Tools used in creation: Notepad++, WeiDu, IESDP, Larenil’s drow dictionary, Branwen for BG2

Thank you to the greater BG2 modding community and the wonderful guides and resources that have been developed in the 20+ years since this game was first released.

This mod is shared under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. Please feel free to make crossmod content in relation to this mod and reach out if you have any questions while doing so.
Post edited by Otherwisely on
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Comments

  • OtherwiselyOtherwisely Member Posts: 21
    reserved
  • MothorMothor Member Posts: 261
    edited February 9
    Sounds pretty cool!

    Looking forward to Jaheira and Neera updated romances :)

    Btw, does the Phaere romance expanded also includes some new stuff for a male Gorion Ward as well?
  • OtherwiselyOtherwisely Member Posts: 21
    Mothor wrote: »
    Sounds pretty cool!

    Looking forward to Jaheira and Neera updated romances :)

    Btw, does the Phaere romance expanded also includes some new stuff for a male Gorion Ward as well?

    Jaheira will be next once Viconia’s TOB romance is done!

    There’s nothing specific to a male character for Phaere. The experience feels pretty complete as-is, though I’m always open to suggestions and feedback.
  • _DD__DD_ Member Posts: 56
    Thank you for this, mods like this one make me want to replay content that I haven't seen in years (because I've seen it too many times already). Can't wait for the ToB part.
  • megrimlockmegrimlock Member Posts: 51
    Do you expect that Jaheira's expansion will overlap/conflict with Skitia's romance tweaks? It doesn't seem like there should be any issue Viconia-wise.

    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/87186/skitias-bg2-romance-tweaks
  • OtherwiselyOtherwisely Member Posts: 21
    megrimlock wrote: »
    Do you expect that Jaheira's expansion will overlap/conflict with Skitia's romance tweaks? It doesn't seem like there should be any issue Viconia-wise.

    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/87186/skitias-bg2-romance-tweaks

    Ooh, I didn't know about that mod! It looks convenient. Once I get to Jaheira's romance I'll try to make sure they're compatible.
  • MothorMothor Member Posts: 261
    edited February 13
    Any chance to give Jaheira more sex scenes or intimacy moments (fade to black duh) or something of the sort?

    It is kinda weird how Viconia and even Aerie have a fair bit of these with many of them being actually obligatory while the Jaheira romance seems to be implied as to be "wrong" in a way with only one optional naughty moment. As if romancing a widow was not right.

    Most of all there is not enough romance where Khalid's shadow does not show up...or the Player character's Bhaalspawn origin is not mentioned. Jaheira's romance seemed to be more of a character arc for her regarding her relationship with the Harpers and her dead husband than a romance arc for the player character.

    Even Jaheira's ending sans Ascension is the only one sans kids and with the player character and Jaheira spending much time apart. Viconia and Aerie do not get such cold shoulder treatment.

    Though maybe its just me...
  • OtherwiselyOtherwisely Member Posts: 21
    edited February 14
    Version 1.0.1 is up! It provides compatibility patches for Will of the Wisps, Viconia Friendship, and Unfinished Business (specifically the Pai'na component). To take advantage of these patches be sure to install Romance Expanded after the aforementioned mods.

    ETA: v1.0.2 is up now as well--I thought it would take much longer to complete. The mod is now EET-compatible and has a patch for IEP Extended Banters.
    Post edited by Otherwisely on
  • MothorMothor Member Posts: 261
    edited February 15
    Mothor wrote: »
    Sounds pretty cool!

    Looking forward to Jaheira and Neera updated romances :)

    Btw, does the Phaere romance expanded also includes some new stuff for a male Gorion Ward as well?

    Jaheira will be next once Viconia’s TOB romance is done!

    There’s nothing specific to a male character for Phaere. The experience feels pretty complete as-is, though I’m always open to suggestions and feedback.


    How about making Phaere react to particularly low or high CHA (like how desirable and charming she finds you aside from you being a powerful tool for her), reputation (though in the case of dark elves low reputation would be much more welcomed) and maybe alignment (like if the PC seems too kind or wonderfully evil)?
  • ConnellyConnelly Member Posts: 79
    The reputation stat gauges how people normally see you, but does it matter anyway when you're infiltrating a society other than where people know you? Same for alignment; I guess there are the spell for detecting alignment, but would the drow have any reason to use it among themselves? I understand the Drizzt types are the exception.

    Using CHA is completely reasonable though, maybe even the other abilities. They're really underused in romances, let alone dialogues in general.
  • OtherwiselyOtherwisely Member Posts: 21
    Mothor wrote: »
    How about making Phaere react to particularly low or high CHA (like how desirable and charming she finds you aside from you being a powerful tool for her), reputation (though in the case of dark elves low reputation would be much more welcomed) and maybe alignment (like if the PC seems too kind or wonderfully evil)?
    Connelly wrote: »
    The reputation stat gauges how people normally see you, but does it matter anyway when you're infiltrating a society other than where people know you? Same for alignment; I guess there are the spell for detecting alignment, but would the drow have any reason to use it among themselves? I understand the Drizzt types are the exception.

    Using CHA is completely reasonable though, maybe even the other abilities. They're really underused in romances, let alone dialogues in general.

    I agree that reputation and alignment don't really fit into the Phaere flirts. There's definitely some potentially interesting things that could be done with the idea of Phaere recognizing that CHARNAME isn't acting like a normal drow, but that exists outside of what this mod is trying to accomplish.

    Phaere's dialogue actually has hidden stat checks if CHARNAME is trying to get out of sleeping with her. That said, it might be fun to have a few throwaway lines where she comments on you based on your stats. I'll put that in my notes for a future version of the mod. Thanks for the suggestions!
  • OtherwiselyOtherwisely Member Posts: 21
    Version 1.0.5 is out with a few content updates:
    • Viconia's LT9: Viconia's dialogue will change to reflect if she actually told the story about the farmer.
    • Viconia's LT57: If present, Imoen may interject. If you have defeated Bodhi but Viconia was NOT turned into a vampire (due to her romance not having sufficiently progressed), Viconia's dialogue will now reflect this.
    • Hexxat and Viconia have a new romance conflict.
    • If playing as an elf, Viconia will have a new dialogue upon entering Suldanessellar.
    • New component: Alternate Audio. This will remove or abridge audio in Viconia's romance to prevent misgendering CHARNAME.
    • Various minor corrections.
  • MothorMothor Member Posts: 261
    Btw will this mod offer the chance for a male PC to also romance Hexxat?
  • OtherwiselyOtherwisely Member Posts: 21
    Mothor wrote: »
    Btw will this mod offer the chance for a male PC to also romance Hexxat?

    For personal reasons, that's not an aspect I'll be developing. There's a lot of things that I want to do with her romance and one of them is to dig into the lesbian vampire trope that she's based on.
  • MothorMothor Member Posts: 261
    edited March 4
    Mothor wrote: »
    Btw will this mod offer the chance for a male PC to also romance Hexxat?

    For personal reasons, that's not an aspect I'll be developing. There's a lot of things that I want to do with her romance and one of them is to dig into the lesbian vampire trope that she's based on.

    So the main purpose of this mod is not to make every character available romantically for every gender but to make all straight ones bi? And no gay ones to become bi?

    Oh well... :(

    Unless you specificially plan to focus on only a few female ones that were straight (like only Viconia) to showcase how homosexuality is portrayed in the Underdark while keeping Jaheira and Aerie straight?

    Will Aerie, Jaheira and Neera get more heterosexual content in this mod then?

    Hexxat though could receive more romantic content to showcase lesbian vampire dynamics in Faerun since is canonically a lesbian.
  • OtherwiselyOtherwisely Member Posts: 21
    Mothor wrote: »
    Will Aerie, Jaheira and Neera get more heterosexual content in this mod then?

    Everyone's going to get their vanilla romance expanded to some degree--things that let you do a bit more roleplay, flirting, etc. One of my (very eventual) ideas is a 'date night' component where you can take your love interest on a date. It's going to be a ways off before I get to that, though.
  • ConnellyConnelly Member Posts: 79
    edited March 5
    One of my (very eventual) ideas is a 'date night' component where you can take your love interest on a date. It's going to be a ways off before I get to that, though.

    Sounds like SisterVigilante's Date Night in Romantic Encounters (you can pay for a dinner with the vanilla romances, or Imoen as a friend). But I imagine you might want to go further than that.
  • IseweinIsewein Member Posts: 561
    edited March 5
    I would heavily recommend taking a look at that component - it's rather well-written, and would fit what you're aiming to do here quite nicely. It reminded me of Mass Effect Citadel a bit, although I do wish the sibling date night with Imoen was available for female charnames too.
    Post edited by Isewein on
  • OtherwiselyOtherwisely Member Posts: 21
    Connelly wrote: »
    One of my (very eventual) ideas is a 'date night' component where you can take your love interest on a date. It's going to be a ways off before I get to that, though.

    Sounds like SisterVigilante's Date Night in Romantic Encounters (you can pay for a dinner with the vanilla romances, or Imoen as a friend). But I imagine you might want to go further than that.
    Isewein wrote: »
    I would heavily recommend taking a look at that component - it's rather well-written, and would fit what you're aiming to do here quite nicely.

    I'll definitely take a look! Thanks for bringing my attention to it.
  • OtherwiselyOtherwisely Member Posts: 21
    1.0.6 is up--compatibility issues with IEP Banters Extended have been resolved.
  • MothorMothor Member Posts: 261
    Any news on how the mod is doing?

    Its been a bit silent lately so I was somewhat worried if the mod's development experienced some trouble.
  • OtherwiselyOtherwisely Member Posts: 21
    Mothor wrote: »
    Any news on how the mod is doing?

    Its been a bit silent lately so I was somewhat worried if the mod's development experienced some trouble.

    All is well! I'm in the middle of moving so that's taking up a lot of my time. I want to get back to writing and coding soon--I have a lot of ideas for Viccy's TOB romance that I'm excited about!
  • AsphodelAsphodel Member Posts: 1
    Thank you for this <3
  • shevy123456shevy123456 Member Posts: 252
    Some of the other romance mods can be rather confusing. There is one specifically in regards to Imoen, where the dialogue no longer makes a whole lot of sense. It is probably too much work, but it would be great to bundle all romance-mods into one big mod for people to use; ideally one author, or if that is too much work then still all authors in one mod looking to make the dialogue options "compatible" to the NPC's "personality" at hand.

    Vanilla Viconia is pretty cool. I haven't tried this mod here yet (also I am a bit scared of any changes to Viconia); will most likely test it in another run-through, in a few months or so. (The dialogue options of Paina are not as good as for Viconia, for instance. Paina is a great NPC though, even though the latest changes appear to have removed the big arachnoid thingy.)

    Can Phaere be recruited by the way? Would be fun for an all-drow party. :D (I don't even know if there is a mod that allows the main character to be a drow; it would probably be a lot of work since the storyline does not assume a drow party.)
  • ConnellyConnelly Member Posts: 79
    Some of the other romance mods can be rather confusing. There is one specifically in regards to Imoen, where the dialogue no longer makes a whole lot of sense.
    Not the thread for it, and weird jab against Imoen Romance outta nowhere?
    It is probably too much work, but it would be great to bundle all romance-mods into one big mod for people to use; ideally one author
    Still not the thread for it, and we don't speak of Sandrah. ;P
    or if that is too much work then still all authors in one mod looking to make the dialogue options "compatible" to the NPC's "personality" at hand.
    Already a thing.

    Really, these are... pretty weird subjects to bring up here. There's very little Otherwisely can do about any of that.
    I haven't tried this mod here yet (also I am a bit scared of any changes to Viconia)
    Read the features list. It doesn't really change Viconia's vanilla romance except to acknowledge EE and SoD elements, plot choices, grammar, consistency tweaks... All harmless. The F/F romance is the only thing you can say it's whole new, and it doesn't affect the vanilla F/M track.
    The dialogue options of Paina are not as good as for Viconia
    But didn't you just said you hadn't tried the mod yet?
    Can Phaere be recruited by the way?
    This option allows female CHARNAMEs to flirt and sleep with Phaere. Includes new reactivity from Anomen, Rasaad, and Hexxat. Adds dialogue options to Aerie's reaction that can prevent the romance from breaking.
    Nope.
  • AnselmAnselm Member Posts: 15
    Any update on how the TOB part is going? If you take Viconia romanced with you into TOB in its current state, is there anything especially immersion breaking from vanilla?
  • OtherwiselyOtherwisely Member Posts: 21
    Anselm wrote: »
    Any update on how the TOB part is going? If you take Viconia romanced with you into TOB in its current state, is there anything especially immersion breaking from vanilla?

    The TOB update is in progress. It's been taking longer than I wanted simply because life and other distractions have a nasty habit of cropping up, but it IS in progress. If you were to go into TOB now, the only thing immersion-breaking is that Viconia may refer to a female PC as male (though less often than you might think!) and she may assume you've had sex with her even if you have not.

    As a bit of a teaser on the TOB update, here are some things that it's going to include:
    • If you let Viconia leave at the end of her romance OR start a new TOB game, you can specify a romanced version of Viconia when you summon her. This will change her first lovetalk where you can officially resume a relationship with her (rather than her trying to break up with you). Since she's been on her own and in a bad place, she starts with -1 VC (her alignment change variable).
    • Her evil romance path is getting a lot more fleshed out. Like a lot of RPGs, the vanilla romance rewards the good path more, but I've got a soft spot for evil people with loving relationships.
    • In fact, her entire alignment change arc is getting a bit of a rework, but that's all I'm going to say for now.
  • AnselmAnselm Member Posts: 15
    Anselm wrote: »
    Any update on how the TOB part is going? If you take Viconia romanced with you into TOB in its current state, is there anything especially immersion breaking from vanilla?

    The TOB update is in progress. It's been taking longer than I wanted simply because life and other distractions have a nasty habit of cropping up, but it IS in progress. If you were to go into TOB now, the only thing immersion-breaking is that Viconia may refer to a female PC as male (though less often than you might think!) and she may assume you've had sex with her even if you have not.

    As a bit of a teaser on the TOB update, here are some things that it's going to include:
    • If you let Viconia leave at the end of her romance OR start a new TOB game, you can specify a romanced version of Viconia when you summon her. This will change her first lovetalk where you can officially resume a relationship with her (rather than her trying to break up with you). Since she's been on her own and in a bad place, she starts with -1 VC (her alignment change variable).
    • Her evil romance path is getting a lot more fleshed out. Like a lot of RPGs, the vanilla romance rewards the good path more, but I've got a soft spot for evil people with loving relationships.
    • In fact, her entire alignment change arc is getting a bit of a rework, but that's all I'm going to say for now.

    Thank you for all the info!
  • wellybellewellybelle Member Posts: 1
    Anselm wrote: »
    Anselm wrote: »
    Any update on how the TOB part is going? If you take Viconia romanced with you into TOB in its current state, is there anything especially immersion breaking from vanilla?

    The TOB update is in progress. It's been taking longer than I wanted simply because life and other distractions have a nasty habit of cropping up, but it IS in progress. If you were to go into TOB now, the only thing immersion-breaking is that Viconia may refer to a female PC as male (though less often than you might think!) and she may assume you've had sex with her even if you have not.

    As a bit of a teaser on the TOB update, here are some things that it's going to include:
    • If you let Viconia leave at the end of her romance OR start a new TOB game, you can specify a romanced version of Viconia when you summon her. This will change her first lovetalk where you can officially resume a relationship with her (rather than her trying to break up with you). Since she's been on her own and in a bad place, she starts with -1 VC (her alignment change variable).
    • Her evil romance path is getting a lot more fleshed out. Like a lot of RPGs, the vanilla romance rewards the good path more, but I've got a soft spot for evil people with loving relationships.
    • In fact, her entire alignment change arc is getting a bit of a rework, but that's all I'm going to say for now.

    Thank you for all the info!

    It probably also bears mentioning that the Viconia's epilogue for ToB if you change her alignment and stay mortal hasn't been updated either. Not a huge deal since you can just make an epilogue yourself (pretty much anything is better than what canonically happens to her), but it's nonetheless pretty funny reading about how my female charname got Viconia pregnant and had a kid with her. Accidental trans rep, I guess?
  • fataljasminefataljasmine Member Posts: 55
    edited September 14
    -
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