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2 Questions about original Scroll/Item art used in the original game and character creation during g

krikkertKRIkrikkertKRI Member Posts: 19
I installed IWD: EE way back, but gave up playing it before I really got going for 2 reasons.

1)
When a party character died, I couldn't create a new character to replace him/her... Characters could only be created when starting a new game, meaning I had to create my entire party right away before I begun the game and I could not suffer casualties, since they couldn't be replaced... That was/is a game-breaker. I know the game-developers couldn't port that function from the original to the EE, which explains why it worked in the original but not in the EE. I know because I read it. But I recently read that there's a way around it by moving your save-file from the single-player-save-folder to the MULTI-player-save-folder. Is this correct?? I would like to confirm whether this works before reinstalling.

2)
The second issue was that they had removed the original IWD art from SCROLLS and VARIOUS ITEMS (weapons, armour etc.) and replaced it with the faaaar inferior scroll/item art from Baldur's Gate. Preposterous !!! A farcical decision :(:(:( The esthetics, the menus, the art, the music, the sound, the atmosphere, the mood, and the feel of the original Icewind Dale game far outshines Baldur's Gate in every single area. Everything about it was so inviting and so atmospheric that I felt like I was physically there, setting foot in Kuldahar and standing face-to-face with undead wraiths in ancient tombs!! Why did they destroy part of that by replacing the art that is part of the IWD game's identity ??? Anyway, my question is whether there has now come a MOD that fixes this problem and returns the original art to the game in EE ??? I've looked at this mod page (gibberlings3.net) to look for such, but I've been unable to confirm whether such a mod exists or not. So I ask you, fellow players....

I cherish Icewind Dale above any other game, above any other story, and I cherish the places the game took me to above any others. I love it. I was 13 years old when it came out in 2000, first time I played it, and the game introduced me to the whole medieval fantasy genre. It left a profound impression on me. I really hope there are ways to fix these two above issues, as I really want to return to the Dale and play it *one last time*. I have the the original box at home with CDs and stuff, but they were meant for Windows 98. They don't work no more... So I reckon EE is my only chance to return to the dale a last time.
Post edited by krikkertKRI on
lolien

Comments

  • OlvynChuruOlvynChuru Member Posts: 3,075
    You can play multiplayer by yourself, if you want. If you do so, you can indeed create new characters in the middle of the game, like you could in the original Icewind Dale. The downside of using multiplayer is that whenever you pause there is a delay until you can unpause. This can be a little annoying.

    I also prefer the art for scrolls from the original Icewind Dale to the new Enhanced Edition art. It would be possible to port the original Icewind Dale scroll icons and spell icons to the Enhanced Edition, but unless someone made similar icons for the spells that did not come from the original Icewind Dale, they would appear out of place.

    As far as I know, there is no way to bring back the blue outline that you see on a magic item after you identify it.

    There is one thing I could do to bring the spell icons closer to the original Icewind Dale versions: I could make it so that the icon you see in the spellbook is also present when you select the spell to cast (so that the icon does not have that stone base that Baldur's Gate icons have). This could be done without making any new art.
  • lolienlolien Member, Moderator, Translator (NDA) Posts: 3,108

    You can play multiplayer by yourself, if you want. If you do so, you can indeed create new characters in the middle of the game, like you could in the original Icewind Dale. The downside of using multiplayer is that whenever you pause there is a delay until you can unpause. This can be a little annoying.

    I would like to add, that you can copy back your save to SP-save folder after creating the necessary characters and continue your game on single player mode.
  • krikkertKRIkrikkertKRI Member Posts: 19
    edited January 2019
    So no mod to restore the true and original art ? At least none that you know of … :(:( I would be accepting of the inconsistency if it was only new spells that had BG art on them. After all, at this point, many years after EE release, it would be unreasonable of me to expect Beamdog to create new art for the new spells in true IWD style, even if I do think they should have done so to begin with.

    There is one thing I could do to bring the spell icons closer to the original Icewind Dale versions: I could make it so that the icon you see in the spellbook is also present when you select the spell to cast (so that the icon does not have that stone base that Baldur's Gate icons have). This could be done without making any new art.

    I'm not sure what you mean by this last paragraph. But perhaps it doesn't matter? I was really hoping for a mod that could restore all of the original content. There are many talented modders that, even to this day, almost 20 years after, create and release mods with love...

    Thanks for reply to you too, Lolien
    lolien
  • lolienlolien Member, Moderator, Translator (NDA) Posts: 3,108
    There's an IWD GUI mod for BGEE and BG2EE, that may be useable for IWDEE too (or a modder can make it useable without much hassle perhaps).
    For restoring the item art, i'm not aware of any information on that part, that's true, sorry.
  • krikkertKRIkrikkertKRI Member Posts: 19
    edited January 2019
    lolien said:

    There's an IWD GUI mod for BGEE and BG2EE, that may be useable for IWDEE too (or a modder can make it useable without much hassle perhaps).
    For restoring the item art, i'm not aware of any information on that part, that's true, sorry.

    Yeah. The menus/Interface is equally important. Not sure why I forgot to mention that. The stone-and-wood menus of Icewind Dale is the game's heart and soul, and Beamdog removed it :(

    I really like the look of the Interface/menus for BG2EE in the link you provided. Those menus, that's what I'm talking about !!! They feel like "coming home" to The Forgotten Realms and Icewind Dale :D . As for IWD:EE, I may have to go to GOG and download the Vanilla game, but it will take a lot of work to find and install the necessary mods and rig the game just right.
  • kjeronkjeron Member Posts: 2,367
    edited January 2019
    AFAIK all of the old icons are still shipped with the game (at least through Beamdog, I can't comment for Steam/GoG/mobile), they are just renamed.
    If the filename was 8 characters (spell icons), the first was replaced with a "#".
    "SPWI101B.BAM" -> "#PWI101B.BAM"
    If the filename was 7 characters or less (most everything else), a "#" was added in front of it.
    "SWANARM.BAM" -> "#SWANARM.BAM"
    lolien
  • krikkertKRIkrikkertKRI Member Posts: 19
    kjeron said:

    AFAIK all of the old icons are still shipped with the game (at least through Beamdog, I can't comment for Steam/GoG/mobile), they are just renamed.
    If the filename was 8 characters (spell icons), the first was replaced with a "#".
    "SPWI101B.BAM" -> "#PWI101B.BAM"
    If the filename was 7 characters or less (most everything else), a "#" was added in front of it.
    "SWANARM.BAM" -> "#SWANARM.BAM"

    And these files are somewhere in the installation folder after the game is installed? And the first letter replaced with # is always an S for spells? For me to be able to restore the old spell icons I would need to know both where to find the old ones (original) and the new ones (Enhanced Edition).

    Is it the old ones that have had the first letter replaced with # to basically bring them out of function, and the new ones have taken the same names as the old ones used to have?

    F.ex. old (original) spell icon was originally named like this in IWD vanilla; "SPWI101B.BAM" but changed to now "#PWI101B.BAM", rendering it out of function, but still shipped with the game. Then the new spell icon replacing it in Enhanced Edition is now instead named "SPWI101B.BAM" . Have I understood that correctly?
  • kjeronkjeron Member Posts: 2,367
    edited January 2019

    F.ex. old (original) spell icon was originally named like this in IWD vanilla; "SPWI101B.BAM" but changed to now "#PWI101B.BAM", rendering it out of function, but still shipped with the game. Then the new spell icon replacing it in Enhanced Edition is now instead named "SPWI101B.BAM" . Have I understood that correctly?

    Yes. There are several (mostly L5+) that need adjusting though, as IWD spells were moved to different slots, to match their slot in BG2EE for consistency.
    IWD : SPWI503 is Cloudkill
    BG2 : SPWI502 is Cloudkill
    IWDEE : SPWI502 is Cloudkill, new icon is SPWI502B, old icon is still #PWI503B.

    The files are stored in *.bif archives. Renaming the files would best be done via weidu mod.
    lolien
  • krikkertKRIkrikkertKRI Member Posts: 19
    kjeron said:

    F.ex. old (original) spell icon was originally named like this in IWD vanilla; "SPWI101B.BAM" but changed to now "#PWI101B.BAM", rendering it out of function, but still shipped with the game. Then the new spell icon replacing it in Enhanced Edition is now instead named "SPWI101B.BAM" . Have I understood that correctly?

    Yes. There are several (mostly L5+) that need adjusting though, as IWD spells were moved to different slots, to match their slot in BG2EE for consistency.
    IWD : SPWI503 is Cloudkill
    BG2 : SPWI502 is Cloudkill
    IWDEE : SPWI502 is Cloudkill, new icon is SPWI502B, old icon is still #PWI503B.

    The files are stored in *.bif archives. Renaming the files would best be done via weidu mod.
    To know these things, you must be a modder. Thank you.
  • krikkertKRIkrikkertKRI Member Posts: 19
    edited January 2019
    -
  • krikkertKRIkrikkertKRI Member Posts: 19
    edited January 2019

    kjeron said:

    F.ex. old (original) spell icon was originally named like this in IWD vanilla; "SPWI101B.BAM" but changed to now "#PWI101B.BAM", rendering it out of function, but still shipped with the game. Then the new spell icon replacing it in Enhanced Edition is now instead named "SPWI101B.BAM" . Have I understood that correctly?

    Yes. There are several (mostly L5+) that need adjusting though, as IWD spells were moved to different slots, to match their slot in BG2EE for consistency.
    IWD : SPWI503 is Cloudkill
    BG2 : SPWI502 is Cloudkill
    IWDEE : SPWI502 is Cloudkill, new icon is SPWI502B, old icon is still #PWI503B.

    The files are stored in *.bif archives. Renaming the files would best be done via weidu mod.
    To know these things, you must be a modder. Thank you.
    Thank you indeed. I'm going to look at it, tomorrow most likely. But as you might suspect, I am not a modder. I have my doubts as to whether I can figure this out. Time will tell.
  • kjeronkjeron Member Posts: 2,367
    edited January 2019
    If your familiar with installing mods, give this a try, and let me know if you think any are incorrect.
    Post edited by kjeron on
  • krikkertKRIkrikkertKRI Member Posts: 19
    edited January 2019
    kjeron said:

    If your familiar with installing mods, give this a try, and let me know if you think any are incorrect.

    I extracted the file you gave in the game folder/install directory folder, as instructed. I ran the program. Just a few clicks and I got the message "old spell icons successfully installed". That was way too easy, I thought… No way I was gonna be able to do this that easily and quick. I was right. When I turned on the game, the BG icons was either still there on SCROLLS or they were completely missing. In fact, most of the scrolls don't have icons at all.... :/

    But during character creation (when picking spells) and in a store, the old spell icons are indeed restored. I know this because I started a new game and went over the Everard's temple real quick to see what icons were on the spells he sold. The spell icons are also restored to the spellbook, is seems.

    So the problem now, as far as I can see, is only scrolls. That there is no spell icon at all on most scrolls is a problem. Any Insight?

    I also download "WeiDU Source" and WeiDU Binary", but didn't make any sense of it. Is this something I will need?? I haven't played around with those two, since I am unsure whether I will need them.


    EDIT: Actually, looking closer, it seems clear that mage SCROLLS unfortuanately have remained unchanged. At least all the ones I've seen. They still retain their BG2 icons. Only the priest scrolls seem to have lost their icons completely. Either way, conclusion is that neither mage nor priest scrolls have had their icons restored to the original IWD icons.
    But in the spellbook and in the store (not scrolls, just direct spell purchases) icons seem to be restored. Looks to me that the icons for spells (memorized or direct purchase from healer, such as Everard) and scrolls are kept separate ?? Any Insight?

    It's clear we're close to getting it right, or I should say *you*, 'coz I wouldn't solve this without your aid, that's obvious.
    Post edited by krikkertKRI on
    lolien
  • kjeronkjeron Member Posts: 2,367
    edited January 2019
    @krikkertKRI Scrolls(Items) in EE's use a slightly different format, they will take a bit longer. Temples just use the scroll icon, not the spell icon.

    Items have 2 frames: one you see in the inventory, one you see when you pick up the item.
    The order of those frames is reversed between IWD and EE's.

    It also looks like a lot of them are missing entirely. More priest spells have scroll icons than mage spells.

    Anyway, I have updated the installer to correct the scroll icons that exist.

    Edit: Rebuilt the missing mage scroll icons (v0.4).
    Post edited by kjeron on
    lolien
  • krikkertKRIkrikkertKRI Member Posts: 19
    edited January 2019
    -
  • krikkertKRIkrikkertKRI Member Posts: 19
    edited January 2019
    kjeron said:

    @krikkertKRI Scrolls(Items) in EE's use a slightly different format, they will take a bit longer. Temples just use the scroll icon, not the spell icon.

    Items have 2 frames: one you see in the inventory, one you see when you pick up the item.
    The order of those frames is reversed between IWD and EE's.

    It also looks like a lot of them are missing entirely. More priest spells have scroll icons than mage spells.

    Anyway, I have updated the installer to correct the scroll icons that exist.

    Edit: Rebuilt the missing mage scroll icons (v0.4).

    It worked !! They're restored both in store, spellbook and on scrolls. Whatever you did to fix this, you must be really good, and you did it so quick too.

    Those frames/icons you talk about being missing entirely... I believe this is because a few spells were introduced into IWD only in the EE from BG2, which means there never existed any icons for those spells in IWD to begin with. So, a few spell/scroll icons was always going to remain "BG". That's okay.
    The IWD scrolls/icons have lighter parchment (almost white) than the BG icons, so it's easy to single them out and tell which spells these are. The BG parchment, in addition to being slithgly darker, is also curled in the edges on the top and bottom. So, easy to single out.

    The vast majority of the spells are now good, old IWD. At least the ones I have seen. It looks to be Perfect.

    Thank you very much. You're a Saint. It must surely have been more work for you than it seemed to be, considering how fast you did this? You could have chosen to look away and not help, I couldn't have blamed you, and yet you took the time to help, even though you didn't need to. I can only say thank you .

    EDIT:
    By the way, you should consider posting this as a mod to be downloaded. I'm sure there are many players who would appreciate it, same as I.
    lolienBaptor
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