[MOD] Crucible v1.2
morpheus562
Member Posts: 251
In collaboration with Acifer, it is with great joy that I am announcing the release of our newest mod, Crucible.
You can download the latest version of the mod here.
You can view the readme for the mod here.
Introduction
Crucible features a continuation of the story once the player closes their pocket plane in ToB. Instead of immediately beginning the final fight at the Throne of Blood, the player will find themself in Gehenna outside of Bhaal's kingdom. From here, the player will need to assault Bhaal's kingdom and fight to the Throne. This mod includes about a dozen new areas, created by Acifer, and delves into the lore surrounding Bhaal while offering many new and challenging opponents and tactical encounters. The player should expect the mod to add about 1 to 3 hours to the game.
Components
The player has the option to install the mod with or without ai generated voices for the NPCs. Please note: even if the player chooses to install without ai for npcs, the opening scrawl will still be voiced by ai.
Difficulty
Difficulty for this mod is heavily tied to the difficulty slider to include the numbers and types of enemies encountered along with the abilities they choose to use. Insane and LoB difficulties are going to be in line with Tactics/Ascension level difficulty while anything less will be much more approachable to users who avoid difficulty increasing mods.
Compatibility
This mod is for Enhanced Edition ONLY and is compatible with Ascension and mods that add IWD spells into Baldur's Gate. In both instances, Crucible needs to be installed after these mods.
Emerging Technology
This mod uses ai voice acting for net new characters courtesy of Replica Studios and ElevenLabs.io. Any characters with prior voice work, such as NPCs, do NOT have voice acting for any new lines of dialog.
Special Thanks
- Lava, thank you for the numerous bam files, item outlines/descriptions, and feedback
- lowman02, thank you for the testing and feedback
- Cam for all of your help and assistance. The reasons are many, thank you.
- DarthNihilus530 for providing the Brazilian Portuguese translation.
- All those who assisted in testing and providing feedback! I appreciate every single one of you for all that you do!
Post edited by morpheus562 on
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Comments
I assume for the AI voice, one needs to "feed" it a text? Are there means to tweak that?
In regards to the mod idea (I have not tested the mod itself yet), it's always nice to see more ToB content; ToB always felt way more streamlined than SoA, which made it more linear and less flexible. Most mods seem to focus on SoA, probably in part because of that.
Regarding:
Just to be absolutely clear: this means that Crucible should be installed after SCS, right?
Not necessarily. If using IWDification, that includes IWD spells. Additionally, you can do a split install of SCS to include IWD spells earlier (typically do this to install spells when other spells are being added), then install the remainder of SCS at a later time.
So the Install all spell tweaks, Add 9 new arcane spells, and Add 6 new divine spells components, do thoses count as IWD spells for the purpose of installing Crucible with compatibility in mind?
Edit: components're from SCS.
Spoiler Warning, the review can be found here: https://smolderingmodsbar.com/crucible-bg2ee
I think you're gonna like this next bit: I should be able to release an update tonight that makes ai voiced npcs optional. I also like your Stan Lee reference as I subscribe to the fan theory he is Uatu the Watcher 😜
EDIT: Update to make ai voices optional is now released.
-Dialogue hubs are a bit awkward when returned to since it was an exact repeat of the intial hub. I think slightly rephrasing things so it sounds like an ongoing conversation would make it feel a bit more natural. (I admit this is a nitpick, though!)
-Viekang and the Solar referred to my character as 'he' despite playing as a female (and my PC was the only one showing a speaking icon).
-Stairways in the demon tower and garrison are hard to notice--I only found them by accident.
-The meeting with Ao was interesting but I agree that making Noober his avatar is a bit much. I'm okay with the little easter eggs being Tymora's intervention, though. I think it's kind of sweet. Thanks Auntie Tymora!
-I played with the dialogue enabled and personally found it entirely acceptable in quality. Having an option for voice or no voice was a good call, though. I recommended the mod to a friend who HATES having too much voice acting in BG mods, so he'll be happy.
-On the topic of voices: I found Ao's voice a bit bland. I think it was a good idea not to go for a booming/echoing voice but he just sounds a bit too ordinary. Not sure what I would have done in your place, though.
On a 100% personal aside: As an arachnophobe I was pretty freaked out by those new spider enemies. I'm used to the normal spider enemies but those were YIKES. Thank goodness for Story Mode and AI so I could just walk away and let my party handle things.
Quibbles aside, I think I'll add this to my standard mod rotation. Congrats on making such a well-done mod!
Thank you so much for the feedback, I appreciate it all. I ask that you please put the spoilers in the appropriate spoiler format so as not to ruin the twist for others.
Ope! Sorry about that. Edited in a spoiler tag.
All good and thanks again for leaving your feedback. I'll see what is going on with the dialog saying "he" and not updating based on PC gender. For v1.2 I'll be putting map markers into those towers to assist in transitions.