Looking for mods similiar to Hard Times (or other difficulty-increasing BG1 EE mods)

Comments

• Trouveur Member Posts: 910

  July 22

  Tactics Remix from Morpheus562 now covers all BG, including BGEE and SoD.
  It's more an alternative to SCS than a complement, although the SCS gameplay tweaks are compatible with Tactics Remix.
  Beside upgrading AI, it also make some encounters harder : Drizzt, Mutamin, Gnoll stronghold, others adventuring parties and bounty hunters, Ulcaster ruins, Durlag's Tower...
  
  https://www.morpheus-mart.com/tactics-remix
  
  TR makes the game harder than SCS.

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• Enuhal Member, Moderator Posts: 1,156

  July 24

  Thanks for pointing that one out! I would love to see more recommendations

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• ThomMerrilin Member Posts: 8

  July 24

  Other than SCS or Tactics remix which raises difficulty for all enemies, you can also install a mod that adds incremental challenging encounters- Extra Expanded Encounters has about a half dozen new encounters, the most difficult being the upgraded Gnoll Fortress and a new battle in the Undercity before the final Sarevok encounter. I know you are primarily interested in BG1, but Butchery does the same thing for BG2, with a dozen or more large scale fights.
  
  If you are up to manually increasing the difficulty of BG1 fights, look into the Bullet Sponge mod, which lets you increase the HP of selected enemies to make the battle significantly more difficult.

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• Yigor Member Posts: 869

  July 24 edited July 24

  My epic challenge: try to beat 1 diseased gibberling with a level 1 monk (Legacy of Bhaal difficulty). 😂

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• morpheus562 Member Posts: 573

  July 24

  I don't recommend Extra Expanded Enhanced Encounters (EEEE) if you are looking to increase difficulty. It introduces overpowered items very early on and with little risk while giving you a LOT more experience than you would normally get. You may have a slight uptick in difficulty in a few instances, but EEEE will make the rest of BG1 much easier.

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• Enuhal Member, Moderator Posts: 1,156

  July 24

  Indeed @morpheus562 - While I don't know the mod, that is why I wrote in my original post that I am not looking for mods that introduce new content, but just for those that change the existing one. They tend to have the effect you described (though some are quite difficult to deal with, the experience/gear you can gain from them after you've managed to complete them will make the remaining original content a lot easier).
  
  I thank Thom for their recommendation either way
  
  As for Yigor's idea: This is mostly a challenge in patience - monks can use missle weapons such as slings or darts, and all that is needed is a lot of time and a lot of ammo to accomplish this via kiting, as is true for any melee-only enemy that doesn't have some kind of speedboost.
  
  From the answers I'm getting so far, it seems like some type of spiritual successor to Hard Times doesn't seem to exist or at least be well known, sadly. Still happy to read more recommendations, though

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• lroumen Member Posts: 2,546

  July 24

  What about High Powers:
  https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/60325/mod-high-power-baldurs-gate-version-1-2/p1

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• Enuhal Member, Moderator Posts: 1,156

  July 24

  Interesting, but from skimming the thread, it doesn't seem to be quite what I'm looking for. Hard Times made the early game more gritty and low fantasy, while this mod seems to make the game a lot more high fantasy and higher powerlevel in nature. I might try it at some point, though

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• Yigor Member Posts: 869

  July 24 edited July 24

  Enuhal wrote: »

  As for Yigor's idea: This is mostly a challenge in patience - monks can use missle weapons such as slings or darts, and all that is needed is a lot of time and a lot of ammo to accomplish this via kiting, as is true for any melee-only enemy that doesn't have some kind of speedboost.

  
  My point is that, when U are unable to beat the weakest monster in a honest 1v1 melee (after all, monks are supposed to use mainly fists, not slings), the game is already difficult enough. There is no point to go beyond the Legacy of Bhaal imho. U will just use some cheese, exploits or overpowered items. 😼
  
  

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• Enuhal Member, Moderator Posts: 1,156

  July 24

  I see no point in limiting yourself to fists. The game gives you the options to use a variety of weapons for a reason. When playing the hardest difficulty, make use of everything at your disposal. Though, in general, Legacy of Bhaal, while difficult in the early game, is just no fun for me at all, especially later on in late SoA and ToB, when this method of increasing difficulty just results in tedium instead of an actual challenge (nothing more boring than fighting through the hordes of monsters in Sendai's Enclave when LoB turns them even more into mindless sacks of hitpoints than they already are in the base game). I like tactical challenges, not inflated stats on my enemies - I've done a full LoB run and mostly didn't enjoy the experience, which is why I'm looking for something else.

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• ThomMerrilin Member Posts: 8

  July 25

  morpheus562 wrote: »

  I don't recommend Extra Expanded Enhanced Encounters (EEEE) if you are looking to increase difficulty. It introduces overpowered items very early on and with little risk while giving you a LOT more experience than you would normally get. You may have a slight uptick in difficulty in a few instances, but EEEE will make the rest of BG1 much easier.

  
  Completely disagree on the overpowered item point in EEEE. You get a halberd +2 from gnoll fortress and a strong arm longbow +2, and that's about it for the first several chapters. There is an optional component where you can give Xan significantly upgraded armor to make him less squishy, but no one other than Xan can use it. There are far better items in the first few chapters from Shades of Sword Coast, Ascalon Questpack, Aura (since she can fix normally unusable cursed items), etc.
  
  oBG1 already gives the player multiple +2 items early- Ashideena, Varscona, Dagger of Venom, etc., so most mods feel it is acceptable to introduce interesting +2 items without upsetting game balance. As long as the player stays away from older mods (like Dark Horizons which hands out +3 weapons like candy), balance should be fine.
  
  Morpheus is right about the xp balance- if you install the gnoll fortress component (again, optional), it transforms that area into a huge hack and slash battle zone that will result in most party members picking up a level or two. I play at 50% xp gain to mitigate this, but I agree it can overlevel your party at 100% xp.

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• Yigor Member Posts: 869

  July 25 edited July 25

  @Enuhal My impression is that U don't know what U want, searching to "increase the difficulty" in some irrational ways in order to be solved by some irrational means.
  
  Sorry, but I'm also not convinced that U are so strong in BG tactics. 😼
  
  Quick challenge: Please complete a solo Black Pits 2 with any legal character at Legacy of Bhaal!
  
  My current best result is completing Tier IV-2 with a Berserker/Mage. 😎
  
  https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/87064/solo-black-pits-2-on-lob-difficultyhttps://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/87064/solo-black-pits-2-on-lob-difficulty

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• morpheus562 Member Posts: 573

  July 25 edited July 25

  ThomMerrilin wrote: »

  morpheus562 wrote: »

  I don't recommend Extra Expanded Enhanced Encounters (EEEE) if you are looking to increase difficulty. It introduces overpowered items very early on and with little risk while giving you a LOT more experience than you would normally get. You may have a slight uptick in difficulty in a few instances, but EEEE will make the rest of BG1 much easier.

  
  Completely disagree on the overpowered item point in EEEE. You get a halberd +2 from gnoll fortress and a strong arm longbow +2, and that's about it for the first several chapters. There is an optional component where you can give Xan significantly upgraded armor to make him less squishy, but no one other than Xan can use it. There are far better items in the first few chapters from Shades of Sword Coast, Ascalon Questpack, Aura (since she can fix normally unusable cursed items), etc.
  
  oBG1 already gives the player multiple +2 items early- Ashideena, Varscona, Dagger of Venom, etc., so most mods feel it is acceptable to introduce interesting +2 items without upsetting game balance. As long as the player stays away from older mods (like Dark Horizons which hands out +3 weapons like candy), balance should be fine.
  
  Morpheus is right about the xp balance- if you install the gnoll fortress component (again, optional), it transforms that area into a huge hack and slash battle zone that will result in most party members picking up a level or two. I play at 50% xp gain to mitigate this, but I agree it can overlevel your party at 100% xp.

  
  Easily acquired +1 damage & thac0 rings starting right outside Candlekeep that stacks is overpowered. Especially early game where you need thac0 to hit. These rings come in +1, +2, and +3 varieties. Take that +2 weapon and improve its damage and chance to hit by an additional +3 gets pretty crazy. Additionally, not much else competes with these rings on the characters that would use them. The argument shouldn't be these other quest mods add unbalanced items as that is an apples to oranges comparison. EEEE is a mod billed as making the game more challenging, not as a quest mod. As such and within the scope of making the game easier or more difficult, I would say the mod makes BG1 overall an easier experience.

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• Mibli Member Posts: 2

  July 25

  I am really enjoying Tactics Remix now as I like playing EET.
  
  In terms of BG1 the combination of SCS and Made in Heaven Quest and Encounters was probably the most difficult experience for me playing on high difficulty. Can't guarantee it will be bug free and I know other moders seem to hate Made in Heaven. But it really ramped up difficulty and made it hard to cheese some of the early game areas. The only downside is it feeds you extra xp because of extra mobs it throws at you.

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• morpheus562 Member Posts: 573

  July 25

  When talking about high difficulty, do you mean insane difficulty or one of the options less than insane? With MiH-EQ (in one of my SCS+MiH EET playthroughs) I've also found, like EEEE, that it makes the game easier due to exp bloat. There should be no reason I get so much exp that pre-bandit camp I can complete a fighter(7)->cleric dual and get back my fighter levels. Now it does make some fights a little more difficult, but it's at the expense of everything else in the game.

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• Mibli Member Posts: 2

  July 25

  Yes, insane. I remember my experience in trying to sneak into Durlags and the constructs seeing through invis and shooting out MM
  Catching me off guard and a ton of unexpected tweaks making for a fun experience trying to survive on a no reload run going in blind.
  I agree with the downside of being too much xp which is why I mentioned it in my original post… but many pple just scroll cheese anyways if they are playing SCS.
  

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• Enuhal Member, Moderator Posts: 1,156

  July 25 edited July 25

  @Yigor I think I've made it very obvious what I want. Its stated very clearly in the opening post, and even in the title. I'm looking for a mod that's similiar to the defunct mod Hard Times for the original BG1. I was hoping someone had created some kind of spiritual successor, but that doesn't seem to be the case. There's nothing "irrational" about it. There are plenty of ways to increase difficulty outside of just pumping up enemy stats, as LoB does. SCS does that very well - while it does have some stat and level increases for a few specific foes, most of what it does is to make the existing enemies smarter in their AI behaviour, especially the spellcasters, who also get a much better selection of spells in their spellbooks and get to pre-buff like the player does. Hard Times increased difficulty by making the early game economy a lot tougher, increasing prices, removing some items, turning the game into more of a low fantasy experience to reflect the effects of the Iron Crisis.
  
  Also, while my personal "credentials" in a single-player game where everyone is free to set their own challenges are entirely irrelevant to this thread: You can easily check out if I am "strong in BG tactics", as you put it, in the no-reload thread, where I've written about a large variety of no-reload runs for many, many years, including full SCS+Ascension runs, runs with fully randomized parties, a solo run and a full LoB run (in fact, the first full LoB no-reload run documented in these forums) - plus tons of different challenge runs such as playing without merchants or without sidequests (except for early SoA to acquire the funds for Gaelan).
  https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/40393/maybe-this-time-no-reload-thread-the-tale-of-one-million-visions/p1
  
  Lots of my runs are linked in the Hall of Heroes in the opening post. I don't claim to be the best player, but I've played the various modes the base game offers enough times to know which of them I enjoy and which of them I don't. If I were looking to repeat these kind of challenges, such as LoB, I would simply do so. Instead, I'm looking for something new. Once again: I'm not interested in playing LoB right now. I'm also not interested in The Black Pits, which is why the opening post clearly states that I am looking for mods for BG1 only. And I'm also not particularily interested in solo play, which is just a personal preference of mine - I dabble with it from time to time and have done some solo runs, but I prefer party play.
  
  So far, the mod posted here that interests me the most is the tactics remix (having heard a lot about the original tactics in ancient times, but never played it), and unless I get a recommendation that fits closer to what I was looking for, I might try it out in my next run as an alternative to SCS, maybe combined with item randomizer.

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• Trouveur Member Posts: 910

  July 25 edited July 25

  I forgot one thing. It's a new component in the master of Tweaks Anthology : limit rest to one by 24 hours (requires EEex).
  I also really like in BG1 the TA component which allows helmets, shields and armours to break too like weapons due to the Iron Crisis.
  
  For information here are the SCS components I use with Tactic Remix in BG1:
  ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3010 // Replace +1 arrows and other projectiles with nonmagical "fine" ones: 35.21
  ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3017 // Make elemental arrows like BG2: 35.21
  ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3022 // Replace many +1 magic weapons with nonmagical "fine" ones -> Fine weapons are affected by the iron crisis: 35.21
  ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3040 // Reduce the number of Arrows of Dispelling in stores -> Remove Arrows of Dispelling from stores: 35.21
  ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4000 // More Appropriate-Speed Bears: 35.21
  ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4020 // More realistic wolves and wild dogs: 35.21
  ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4093 // Decrease the rate at which reputation improves -> Reputation increases at about 1/4 the normal rate: 35.21
  ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4135 // Revised resting: resting in the wild uses up provisions: 35.21
  ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4140 // Revised inn rooms: more expensive, more benefits: 35.21
  ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4145 // Skip the Candlekeep tutorial sections -> Remove the tutorial NPCs from Candlekeep: 35.21
  ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5080 // Improved BG Textscreens: 35.21
  
  
  

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• Yigor Member Posts: 869

  July 25

  @Enuhal All right, I got your viewpoint. 😎

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• Trouveur Member Posts: 910

  July 26

  I just heard about Graion tweaks mod, which allows to reduce gold gained from foes, and to increase gold asked by merchants :
  https://github.com/GraionDilach/RandomGraionTweaks
  

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• Enuhal Member, Moderator Posts: 1,156

  July 26

  Interesting. While I would in general prefer a pre-prepared change to the economy that has specifically been tested and thought through instead of doing things manually without knowing if those specific values it will work out towards a fun gameplay experience, some of these tweaks do allow for a version of a few of the changes I'm looking for - thanks for the recommendation, will definitely test it out!

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• DinoDin Member Posts: 1,643

  July 26

  Would also love to see a working Hard Times type mod for EE. One of my favorite mods from the pre-EE days. As you say, did a lot to increase the game's difficulty in a way that was fun. I.E. the battles have the same short but high stakes feel. The key reason it's more difficult is you simply have to strategize to a greater degree your spending.
  
  Worked really well with the story elements of the game too.

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