The EE Mod Setup Tool
For those of you who are having difficulty using Project Infinity to install mods, RoxanneSHS is running the EE Mod Setup Tool that works similarly to the former BWS. Only thing is it has no option to backup and restore the vanilla installed game yet so uninstalling and reinstalling the modded game is necessary but longer. Works great. Major thing is during the extraction process several mods may not extract properly, especially ones from github. They are in master folders that when extracted do not extract the setup.exe files and folder with the .tp2 into the modded game folder. They have to be cut and pasted otherwise when installation is attempted the affected mods will indicate “the following mod could not be found” and stop installation until “found”. Other than that, thank you RoxanneSHS for keeping the flame alive. Not a knock on ALIENquake but Project Infinity is too complicated to use unless you know programming and order of installation.
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Players should also know that because of these things, some mod authors do not help trouble shooting if your game was modded using the EE Setup Tool, because it is not clear you are actually using the author's mod.
In fact, EET only let you merge BG:EE, SoD and BG2:EE, it does not alter any content.
But I still feel the urge to specifiy: the EE Setup Tool is a changed clone of the BWS, not it's successor or somesuch. BWS had the aim to provide a user friendly, easy way of giving all IE players the possibility to create a mega install with the mods the players wanted on the game version they wanted, with all necessary mod bux fixes and resolved mod conflicts, using install order knowledge painstakenly created by Leonardo Watson's BigWorldProject.
EE Setup Tool is created by Roxanne to spread her own view of the games, using her own mod versions, with her personally preferred, undocumented changes.
Look, I get you. You don't' want to do any extra work regarding the install order. You simply want to select mods, click install and that's all. Some people even expect that mods will be chosen for them. And that is fine. You can advocate for anything, I don't care. But if you adding a false statement like "it requires programming skills to use" don't be surprised that you will be challenged.
PI doesn't require programming unless you consider creating csv files via Excel a programing. You can also convert and load install order from BWS or it's clone. It's all inside FAQ which I'm sure you didn't bother to read.
Now go enjoy your game.
I'm all for players enjoying the game and my mods as they want but there is a limit to the level of ignorance I find acceptable. Roxanne's install tool might give you a working game but using it you also chose to give a dang about the original mod authors' works.
Happened to me with Deities of Faerun last year: had a bug report that made no sense at all. Found later that it was due to some insane arbitrary change Roxanne did with my mod.
Just remembering it pisses me off.
On one hand, he is really helpful and when asked will provide you with help, actually help you fix stuff broken in the ee and so on.
On the other hand, the fact that he does not mantain changelog of the stuff he changes on the unofficial versions she hosts scares me a lot.
Add on top of that that I'm still not 101% sure she doesn't actually change dialogues and narrative text inside mods.
I'm not even sure what was the extent of the changes she did in the past when people asked her to remove the unofficial content (I mean, was the unofficial content she added just dialogues for Sandrah or more?)
I think you missed the point.
The problem is not a lack of changelog. The problem is she altering other modder's work without having permission to do so or even notifying us.
We modders devote a lot of time and effort for free to create and maintain our mods - we need to research, learn new stuff, burn our heads creating content and etcetera.
And them a random person decides to just f*ck everything up because f*ck us, that's why. A total lack of respect.
DoF changes a lot of other modders creations (NPCs that receive DoF's kits) but every single one of them is authorized by the authors. It is a whole different situation.
Only later I found out that all "removed" crossmod content was still available via GitHub upload by her alt PaulaMigrate. I didn't bother to check whether it is automatically installed by her EE Tool but as much as I saw her go behind people's backs in the past it would not surprise me if it is.
As to her helpfulness - as long as she provides unauthorized "fixes" to mods that are not her own (where a quick talk to the active maintainers would be easy but she doesn't) and also keeps on badtalking original mod versions by spreading bad rumors about their "buggyness" without once actually telling any specific info, her helpfulness towards players always leaves a bad taste in the mouth considering what she did in the past to promote her own mods at the cost of others.
And yes, what @Raduziel said.
There are many mods that seems to be unsupported or left as such. For example, Roxanne has a
"personal version" of npc strongholds bundled (NPC strongholds v3, even if on Gibberlings we have only v2)
a "personal version" of Arath, named "Rewired" because she tells the mod is unplayable in the current form hosted in SHS
etc etc
Unrelated note: I'm also scared about Irenicus in Longer Road: I see that after v.1.5, two more versions were released. I wonder if she actually changed the dialogues.
EDIT: Same for Iylos, btw. I guess she still goes around telling the official version at SHS is "completely buggy". When updating the mod to EET, I fixed so many bugs - I sincerely doubt she took the time to go through the mod that thoroughly when preparing her inofficial version. Just sayin'.
If you compare extracted folders with 1.5.1 and the latest 1.6.7 (via GitHub or locally via "Beyond Compare 4"), you will find added one, single Irenicus dialogue: "I know Sandrah" or something like that.
That's what I like GitHub: every single change is more (dialogs) or less (items/spells/binary) visible to anyone.
Because I still remember when he claimed to have had permission to write Amber, until the author came back and it was discovered it was a lie.
This is what dorotea wrote in the public forum:
Let's be honest: I highly doubt dorotea gave the mod into Roxanne's hands, so - here's your answer.
Examples
Key ring mod. The author added a way to buy it from ribald but no he doesn't allow you to select the option because it wouldn't be coherent with you having just played sod
Argent77 mod to disable ee NPCs and skip irenicus dungeon. No you cannot install them because the only way to play is never skipping sod or ee content
Argent77 released a mod called enchant the missile but no you are not allowed to install that
Semiticgod has a war hulk kit released but no you cannot install that
Etc
http://www.babynameshub.com/gendercompare.cfm?Name=Roxanne
I guess :P
edit: @jastey you mentioned Iylios. What did she change?
Edit: I'm sure the answer to my question is Project Infinity, which I haven't used yet. I was steered towards Roxanne's version for the convenience. I'd like to respect the original mod authors' dignity and maintain the convenience of BWS.
Project Infinity of course. If, however, all you want to do is install EET, the EE tool is fine. You don't need to add anything other than the EET options from the app.
I tend to like oodles of mods. Having become aware of many modders' objections to Roxanne's treatment of their mods, I was looking for something that was exactly like EET Install tool in its convenience, as it downloads and installs mods in (usually) the correct order, but without using versions that are altered without the authors' permission.
So I guess my workaround is to use EET Install tool to run a mock install, using its install order as my guide, then proceed with Project Infinity using official versions of mods. Or I could just stop playing this ridiculous game altogether!
Thinking back at the sh*t storm the BG1 Fixpack at G3 raised back in the time with people banging each other's heads about what is a fix and what a tweak (and the Fixpack did not even have personal preferred changes like Roxanne added here) I'm surprised everyone keeps so calm if it comes to EET.
Whichever you decide of course will probably work. As @subtledoctor mentioned, you can use the tool to create a base install order, post it here for some feedback on changes then import into Project Infinity for the actual install. You could also browse her github page and avoid mods that have official updates. Bit of a workaround but you could manually download the official versions and use them in the installs.