[v1.0.6] Romance Expanded: Viconia and Phaere complete!
Otherwisely
Member Posts: 21
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
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).
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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.
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.
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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.
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
0
Comments
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.
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.
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...
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.
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)?
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!
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.
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.
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.
I'll definitely take a look! Thanks for bringing my attention to it.
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!
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.
Still not the thread for it, and we don't speak of Sandrah. ;P
Already a thing.
Really, these are... pretty weird subjects to bring up here. There's very little Otherwisely can do about any of that.
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.
But didn't you just said you hadn't tried the mod yet?
Nope.
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:
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?