I don't know if this is what you are planning with this upcoming mod but I always felt the Rhynn Lanthorn should have been tied to Myth Rhynn. And given the icon chosen and the images, I think you might have thought the same?:) Cannot wait for this. Thank you for keeping my excitement about this game alive decades after its release.
Thank you! Interesting idea, but... no, the next mod won't take place in Myth Rhynn. You'll be visiting Myth Rhynn in Skyfire. But I don't plan on expanding the Rhynn Lanthorn quest in Skyfire very much, just add the location for the mod itself and add some references to make the transition smoother. It is an intriguing idea, though.
I hope to be able to release my next, smaller mod soon. However, I don't want to rush anyone involved in the project, so I can't give an exact release date.
I hope to be able to release my next, smaller mod soon. However, I don't want to rush anyone involved in the project, so I can't give an exact release date.
Thanks for the update.
Im really curious about whats the story of the new mod. Can we get a brief synopsis or a teaser of the new mod? All i heard is that its set in the Snakewood region. Is it connected to the Throne of the Mad God, considering the proximity of the region? Or any of the other mods, or is it a standalone adventure?
The new mod revisits a small side quest from the very early chapters of Shadows of Amn; one that some may be surprised to see expanded.
There will be no apocalyptic stakes. It's a rather quiet standalone story, a classic side quest for SoA, focused on atmosphere and smaller moments rather than spectacle. Which doesn’t mean there won’t be hard battles or the occasional chance to butt-kick evil, of course. With Lava’s help I hope I managed to achieve all that.
After all the gore and filth of Call of the Lost Goddess, Crucible and the perils in Throne of the Mad God, I just felt the need to create something more deliberately peace- and beautiful. Maybe a moment to breathe before descending into the Underdark in Silverrealms.
The new mod revisits a small side quest from the very early chapters of Shadows of Amn; one that some may be surprised to see expanded.
There will be no apocalyptic stakes. It's a rather quiet standalone story, a classic side quest for SoA, focused on atmosphere and smaller moments rather than spectacle. Which doesn’t mean there won’t be hard battles or the occasional chance to butt-kick evil, of course. With Lava’s help I hope I managed to achieve all that.
After all the gore and filth of Call of the Lost Goddess, Crucible and the perils in Throne of the Mad God, I just felt the need to create something more deliberately peace- and beautiful. Maybe a moment to breathe before descending into the Underdark in Silverrealms.
Thanks for the preview and the work you put in! I hope you have as good of a time making these mods as the community has playing them. Cheers!
Hey @Acifer, just dropping a comment here after so long, and i think i know what you could do with the shipwreck area you made, by adding the Black Tomb of The Corsair as a substory in one of your mods, it's criminal that like 80% of the places mentioned in Volo's Guide to Baldur's Gate II do not appear in... Well, Baldur's Gate II.
Also i'm still looking foward in how you will implement The Battlescarred Bard inn and the Wave District in future mods and i think it would be cool if you made the innkeeper of The Battlescarred Bard progressively angrier everytime you played your instrument as a bard.
I am not sure whether Acifer has a specific NPC mod. I was unable to find a specific NPC mod
at: https://github.com/AciferBG
There are some kind of semi-NPCs though, like that trapped female paladine in call of the lost or last
goddess. Acifer is also very busy. The quest/area mods take time, I guess that is easy to notice. However
had I was wondering whether Acifer would be up for a specific NPC centric mod? The scope could ideally
be smaller than for any quest mod. The NPC could perhaps be focused on one or two unique ideas,
a bit similar to the Aura NPC (but smaller in scope). It could also perhaps be integrated in the area
mods, or at a later time (some trapped dwarf or something like that or a slave and so forth). The idea
here would be basic to have a NPC specific mod, have that NPC be interesting, somewhat polished,
but also significantly less work than for the area-specific mods. The Dusk NPC mod in a way started
like that (to some extent), before it was extended to other NPCs and very large areas. I mostly
refer to just a unique and interesting NPC. Could be story/lore-centric rather than for powergaming,
though I guess nobody would mind a powerful NPC either. (Aura kind of semi-replaced Jan for me,
though I have to play the mod again next time to really make up my mind, as Jan is just so cool
as NPC, but Aura's feature set is more interesting right now; though if anyone ever wants to make Jan
more useful, I couldn't get the potion-specific mod to work anymore last time I tried it, but I digress).
I am not sure whether Acifer has a specific NPC mod. I was unable to find a specific NPC mod
at: https://github.com/AciferBG... However had I was wondering whether Acifer would be up for a specific NPC centric mod?
Are you for real? He posted about 3 NPC mods in development on the previous page of this thread. You responded to the post.
Hey @Acifer, just dropping a comment here after so long
Good to hear from you again! Those are some very interesting ideas. It’s been a while since I last read Volo’s Guide to BG2.
As for the Battlescarred Bard, regardless of the storyline, a place outside of Athkatla where players can gather and take a break would be nice imho.
So I am about to do another runthrough soon; will then also publish my current mod-list. Last time I ran into a bug with Aura and then had to do other things, so I stopped there. One thing I was thinking about was, though ...
In the Call of the Lost Goddess, there are some boss-fights, kind of. With a default play through it is the fight to escape, the fight against that sneaky assassin guy from far away (don't want to be too specific here, due avoid spoilers; this fight can probably be the hardest, at the least I sometimes have an easy time, sometimes a hard time, also may depend on other mods, e. g. Tactics Remix can make this fight harder), and sort of my personal favourite in a way against the succubus (let's call her that way). With regards to that fight, well - actually one could fight against her before, I guess, and then there may be alu-fiends, which can be really strong. But I refer to the regular fight, "on the way back". I assume Acifer does not want to make this too overly difficult compared to the current variant, but what if that fight becomes more ... colourful and chaotic? With that I mind kind of that succubus like having fancy creatures in her private chambers (and perhaps one could visit her too) - so, things that may be pretty but deadly. But not too overly powerful. For instance ... some imp variants. Mutant imp. Hipster imp. Their tails could have fancy efffects ... known ones such as fairy fire on individual party members ... detect evil, curse ... any such spells. Kind of like, say, a range of 3-6 such imps that make this boss fight a bit harder, but not necessarily much harder. Like those imps or so in the big Watchtower, that do wild magic. Not necessarily only imps, mind you - could be other fancy creatures.
This wiki here mentions a few examples from Forgotten Realms:
Most probably don't fit into the mod but just for ideas... a kobold! Could be a weak evil kobold mage tossing magic missile or acid arrow. I kind of feel that this boss fight could perhaps be a bit more chaotic and crazy. It already is in many ways, since her bodyguards and companions are varied and mixed, but I feel like it would be an opportunity to put even more emphasis on a "this is the chaos inside of the heart of the demon city". Now, chaos is also on the whole city anyway, so perhaps we can have a secondary distinction, aka "this is succubus chaos". So perhaps a stronger focus on the succubus theme.
Anyway, these are somewhat random ideas. I know Acifer has only a limited amount of time in general and the mod is finished, and everyone waits for Skyfire or anything else. But Call of the Lost Goddess is still my favourite Acifer mod - there is tons of mischief in it. I read that criticism from one person on the gibberlings forum, but I don't agree with it - I think that person missed the point of the mod. For instance, "cursed items are too weak" - well, perhaps, but that fits to a theme after all. For evil gains there is a price to be paid.
By the way, that talking book ... could there be more options? I am not sure which options may be useful; one simple one I could find is to carry over permanent hp loss for certain (few) abilities or features. Now I am not certain about which modifications may be useful here for a trade-off. But, for instance, let me just throw out a number ... one-time permanent use, lose 10 hp, gain +1 AC as "damage mitigation" or something like that (again, not focusing on the number, my idea here is more in thinking of making the book more useful, and being able to have a few feature-set conversions; this is just an example, I guess other trade-offs could be thought through. In the online variant of Magic the Gathering, MTGO arena or what was the name, one planeswalk has those "conditions" e. g. one gains a specific benefit but the opponent also gains something. So I am thinking a bit along those lines. Does not need to be the book, could be something else of course - was just thinking the book could see more use. I never fully found out how useful the book is.
Other ideas ... for instance, in the other mod of the Mad God, one party went to it, right? And perished. Well, in Call of the Lost Goddess we also have at the least one party that causes problems in the pub. What if there would be another party? We have that female paladin perhaps, could have been a party and perhaps had neutral companions too; one could then be, just as an example, resting in the naughty hall with the succubus (where the party can rest); and just stay there being drunk (and drugged) and not wanting to leave. Or anything similar to that. Could be also torture chambers and prisoners, like more paladins. Anyway, don't mind this too much, having ideas is easy.
For Dark Tidings I think it may be nice to have a follow-up adventure, a small one, at a later point. For instance, in Lava's mod South Edge, there is a small mini-quest that is just a traveling merchant needing help. In Dark Tidings there could be either some pirate ship or some other ship (that may have left the island at a later point but crashed or so); that could have a treasure or rescue mission or something like that. (Could also connect to Athkatla e. g. the pirates there, perhaps they lost a ship or so, that could be a storyline for the treasure or partial treasure or something like that.)
Also I think any updates on mods you create (anew) or maintain are appreciated by many folks; changelog helps of course but I think even making updates every some months may be nice to hear, if you are active and have time and motivation of course. Just so that people know what is going on, if anything is going on, in particular when they themselves have not checked for some time. Sometimes people have to make a break (we all may have that) and then come back after a while and don't quite know what's new or so. Reading entries on different webforums helps, of course, but often there isn't that much information, and not everyone has enough time to e. g. use discourse or so (I mean this in general by the way; even looking at github often only tells a partial story).
Anyway - that's it for now with more random ideas. I think I'll be able to start my next run this coming weekend finally.
Bella is the daughter of Bentley and Gellana Mirrorshade, former adventurers who hung up their swords when Gellana became pregnant, choosing instead to devote their lives to raising their child. They purchased an old, crumbling fortress, restored it into a welcoming roadside inn, and settled down shortly before Bella was born in 1347 DR. The Friendly Arm Inn became a popular stop for merchants traveling from Baldur’s Gate toward the south or heading north to the great cities of the Sword Coast.
Bella spent her entire life at the Friendly Arm Inn, listening to the stories told by visitors from faraway lands in the common room. She served drinks to her parents’ guests, won more than a few coins from warriors at the dartboard, and watched closely as her father identified magical items for passing adventurers or exposed the occasional illusion of a would-be trickster.
Secretly, ever since childhood, she has dreamed of going out on adventures herself one day.
Bentley and Gellana love their only daughter more than anything and try to keep her life on a safe, steady course under Gellana’s watchful eye.
Bella, however, is simply waiting for the right moment to pack her things and set out along the same paths her family once walked, even though she knows that telling her parents of her decision will break their loving hearts.
For Bella, I’ve already completed the introductory quest in which she defeats a few mercenaries at the dartboard in the tavern.
[/spoiler]
...
If Charname have killed Bentley and his wife, would the opportunity to join Bella remain?
Succubus encounter:
I actually like your idea of making that fight a bit more "colourful" and chaotic, especially in a more distinct succubus-themed way. So far I’ve deliberately kept it relatively controlled, mainly to avoid creating a potentially frustrating or unwinnable situation depending on party setup or installed mods. But your suggestions (like adding smaller, flavourful creatures with special effects) are cool.
Talking book:
Expanding its use with more meaningful trade-offs is a good point. It was intended as a somewhat niche feature, but I agree that there's room to make it more engaging. That said, this is something that would take a bit of time to design properly.
Additional encounters / NPC elements:
More small world-building moments like the ones you describe could certainly add flavour.
Dark Tidings follow-up / other ideas:
Also interesting. I like the idea of smaller follow-up content or connected encounters. No concrete plans there at the moment, but the time will come when I'll start taking care of those things again, once the next mods are out.
I can’t promise any specific changes, but I do appreciate the input and will keep it in mind for the future.
If Charname have killed Bentley and his wife, would the opportunity to join Bella remain?
That’s a very good point that I haven’t addressed yet, but she certainly won’t stay in the group if her parents have been murdered. Thanks for pointing that out; I need to incorporate that as soon as possible.
I was planning a new Shadows of Amn run (EET runs just take forever because I am a completionist and BGI has so much exploration to do) mostly staying in Chapter 3 and doing your mods plus the original dungeons/strongholds. So I've been meaning to ask, what is the level of companion interactions with the mod content for the 4 SoA mods (and I guess Silver Realms and Skyfire down the line)? Both original companions, EE companions and I guess any mod companions; I know you often work with Lava and she has made several excellent companions. Imo companion interactions really elevate games like BG2 though they are often tricky in mod content (hard to get them to feel consistent with the original concepts)
That's a good question! All of my mods include interjections from the original and EE companions whenever I felt they fit naturally.
The amount varies from mod to mod. Call of the Lost Goddess and Silverrealms have not that many, because I see those as journeys for the protagonist, so I prefer the focus to remain on the maincharacter rather than having companions comment on every occasion. But all BG2(EE) NPCs make comments in these mods as well.
Poisoned Pathways probably has the most companion interjections, simply because I designed it more as a group adventure and an extension of the existing game world, where companion banter feels much more natural.
As for mod companions, that's unfortunately much more difficult. Supporting them properly would require checking for every individual NPC mod during installation and provide different dialogue files to avoid installation failures. With so many companion mods available, that quickly would become impractical. That's why I haven't added any mod-NPC-specific interjections yet.
Acifer, thank you again for your continued diligence and contributions to this community.
If you are taking suggestions for official modules to adapt to BGEE or BG2EE, these are mine. I was inspired by how you adapted official modules into EET mods, sometimes hooking them directly into vanilla missions. Maybe you use them mostly as-written. Maybe you adapt chapters or significant parts of these modules into something else.
-Bastion of Broken Souls. It's a high-level adventure that deals with gods and the nature of souls, making it well-suited to a ToB (or a late-game SoA) adventure. I bought this module and never played it, but I was in a room listening to other players play it.
-Dragon Mountain. It's a mid- to high-level planar dungeon crawl with a red dragon and lots of treasure, at least at the end! This is one module I bought but never played. Maybe it would tie into Firkraag's SoA quest.
-Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. It's a mid-level module with a sci-fi theme that would make it positively stand out for me. Unsure of where it would fit best in-universe, but maybe the party is warped to another plane for this. Maybe it's just in a remote corner of the world. I never played this module, but comedian Steven Colbert played it and said he traded his Paladin powers for a better sword which turned him EVIL!
-Expedition to the Demonweb Pits. It's a mid-level interplanar adventure that starts in Sigil, which, conveniently, was already made. Perhaps this quest ties into the Planar Sphere, or is level adjusted to be a better fit for SoA post-Underdark. I've bought this module but haven't played it.
-Red Hand of Doom. It's a low- to mid-level world crawl on a timer that assumedly starts when the party starts the first mission of this module, and a rare chance to build up defenses against an invading army. Perhaps tie this into the Kobolds in Athkatla's sewers, Athkatla's Temple District, or/and the Dragons in SoA. (Elsir Vale - where most the action happens for this module - fits seemingly perfectly into Faerun south of Amn and north of Calimshan!) This is the only module of this list I've played through twice and partially GMed once.
-Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. It's a mid-level megadungeon crawl with a side of politics. Perhaps tie this into the Temple District in Athkatla for the clergy when them investigating the Planar Sphere to reach the elemental planes. I bought the module and I've played some of this, but not all. (As for why Return and not the original version, I've already modded Temple of Elemental Evil for PC, and the level range of Return could be adapted to fit neatly into BG2.)
-Shackled City. It's a series of modules that comprises a campaign from level 1 - epic. Again, it's a large dungeon crawl, but one that also focuses on the city of Cauldron, built around a dormant volcano. Adapting this to Faerun would likely put it in Chult due to some jungle terrain assumed nearby. Whatever inspired people to head to the region in or around where Skyfire is set could also inspire the party to head here. I bought the module and I've played Shackled City's intro, but never finished it.
As I've already mentioned in PMs: No, I'm not taking suggestions for additional module projects. If you'd like to discuss these modules, please do so in a separate thread.
As I can’t seem to be able to post on Patreon, I’d like to add my tuppence regarding your recent poll on where in the saga to set your Moonshaes expansion here:
Whether it works better as a standalone campaign with its own protagonist or an adventure for the Bhaalspawn really depends on narrative considerations only you can know, but in case of the latter, I urge you to * not * turn it into a regular BG2 (SoA) quest mod. That is the most narratively urgent and yet also content-packed part of the game, which has also (for historical technical reasons) seen the most classic quest mods developed for it, exacerbating the problem. In my book, literally any other part of the trilogy would fit better than the span of time between the abduction by until the confrontation with Irenicus. What you write about that part of the story feeling somewhat disjointed from the “Bhaal’s legacy” arch is true, but I think the better way to address that is to “provincialise” it by expanding other parts of the game (as SoD does) rather than to rob the (already drawn-out) Irenicus story of its impact by padding it with more side quests.
> In my book, literally any other part of the trilogy would fit better than the span of time between the abduction by until the confrontation with Irenicus.
I don't have any particular opinion with regards to Moonshae. IMO I think for most mods it would be better if they would not be coupled too tightly to Irenicus. SoA, but more importantly ToB (though it was mostly an extension pack), have the storyline mostly built around Irenicus. If one installs many mods for BG2EE though, I think most players enjoy SoA related mods, as that gives them more freedom to play, explore, do different quests and so forth. In my opinion, at the least for most mods by default, this should also give more flexibility with regards to designing the mod itself. For instance, the Aura NPC storyline could fit into many different settings in that it is mostly decoupled from Irenicus and almost its own storyline (e. g. about automatons/artificers). So personally I think campaigns that are not too tightly coupled to that main storyline should have a better "longevity".
There may also be the issue of level design in that from BG1 to Siege of Dragonspear and BG2 the level progression may influence a mod's design. But I guess for most mods they can work well anywhere from level 8 to level 12 or so, depending on how much is available to the party.
In my opinion, ToB is way too narrowly and linearly set, so mod developers rarely design for ToB.
> rather than to rob the (already drawn-out) Irenicus story of its impact by padding it with more side quests.
I don't think I can agree with the wording "rob" here, since that is simply one of different perception. Take the Region of Terror mod - it does not fit that well into the Irenicus world as such, and the storyline is a little bit ... peculiar, but it's a great mod offering quite some challenges for players. But also with Acifer's mods, at the least Call of the Lost Goddess - that is in many ways also decoupled from the Irenicus storyline. IMO it is good that there is more flexibility. People could always decide to add more to the Irenicus situation, but in my opinion it would be better to explore more of the rest of the world. In particular with the World Map mod, there would be so many areas to explore, if we'd have enough content creators.
Thank you both very much for this valuable feedback. At the moment, I am leaning towards making the mod dependent on Jastey’s EndlessBG1 and letting the journey to Moray begin after the defeat of Sarevok, but before the events of Siege of Dragonspear.
The more I think about it, the more I feel that the story could fit much more naturally there. The obvious downside is that the player would then enter SoD and SoA with considerably more experience than usual; but that may simply be the price to pay for adding another substantial chapter to the saga.
What I find especially appealing is the opportunity to add another facet to the Bhaalspawn story before BG2 shifts the focus so heavily towards Irenicus. Ironically, that had originally been one of my arguments for making it a BG2 quest mod: I thought it could help bring the Bhaalspawn theme back into the foreground during SoA.
However, the voting and the discussion have pointed quite clearly in another direction. So, unless something major changes, Bound in Blood will become a post-BG1 adventure and require EndlessBG1.
And thanks for mentioning Branwen; I had not even considered that, and it is a very good point!
I can see either way working fine, some sort of between games is an intriguing option.
Isn’t there an option in Tweaks to reduce earned experience? Does that apply only to quest experience or combat experience too? I’m thinking it’s time I learn how that works!
My current run has 9 quest mods added, obviously it’s getting to be an issue!
You absolutely can reduce experience with mods
I would say, experience gain in the original Baldur's Gate is not that rapid and the early levels of AD&D are miserable anyway. But once you are at lvl 7+, slowing down certainly makes sense.
I'd ask to lean away from forcing users to have another mod in their install to use this one. If it is the case where I have to take Endless BG, then I would end up skipping Bound in Blood. If possible, I would much prefer a late BG1, but pre-Sarevok fight, mod.
A key theme of the story will likely be that things begin to unfold once Charname has killed his first Bhaalspawn. This sets a number of events in motion, and I’m really enjoying where the story is going right now. EndlessBG1 seems perfect for this, while also giving the player a reason to remain in Baldur’s Gate a little longer. You take a ship to Moray, complete the adventure there, return to Baldur’s Gate, and then Siege of Dragonspear begins. Perhaps this also helps smooth out some of the abruptness that the beginning of SoD might otherwise have.
Branwen would certainly be an interesting character to include, but since she comes from a completely different island, I think it would make sense to give her some additional dialogue without letting her take center stage. That’s essentially what I did with Viconia in the Underdark sections of Silverrealms.
Although @morpheus562 attitude is IMHO correct, I understand your reason too. Could you make it work with Reflections of Destiny as well? Looks like subtledoctor is back, so perhaps it will be maintained.
All that my mod requires is a post-Sarevok game state in which the player can continue playing. I am not too concerned with what other mods do after Sarevok’s death; I simply need to know that the game does not end and roll the credits at that point.
Setting it during Endless BG1 seems like a great middle ground to me. Bhaal’s legacy is revealed so you don’t have to beat around the bush, but a clear purpose has not been set for Charname yet. The adventure takes place far away from the city, so it does not contradict SoD’s narrative of it slowly turning against Charname. You could even offer a direct transition to SoD’s world state upon return, so that the sudden flooding with refugees becomes more believable, although that might be difficult to code?
Branwen coming from a different island is actually an advantage of her inclusion I’d say: you don’t need to entirely overhaul the dialogue to adjust for her presence, and what with her backstory in the BG1 NPC project she wouldn’t want to travel back home anyway.
For what little it's worth, I'm also not a fan of external dependencies. Would it be too much extra work to add a rudimentary delay to end credits within the mod itself in case a mod that already does this is not detected?
Comments
Thank you! Interesting idea, but... no, the next mod won't take place in Myth Rhynn. You'll be visiting Myth Rhynn in Skyfire. But I don't plan on expanding the Rhynn Lanthorn quest in Skyfire very much, just add the location for the mod itself and add some references to make the transition smoother. It is an intriguing idea, though.
Thanks for the update.
Im really curious about whats the story of the new mod. Can we get a brief synopsis or a teaser of the new mod? All i heard is that its set in the Snakewood region. Is it connected to the Throne of the Mad God, considering the proximity of the region? Or any of the other mods, or is it a standalone adventure?
There will be no apocalyptic stakes. It's a rather quiet standalone story, a classic side quest for SoA, focused on atmosphere and smaller moments rather than spectacle. Which doesn’t mean there won’t be hard battles or the occasional chance to butt-kick evil, of course. With Lava’s help I hope I managed to achieve all that.
After all the gore and filth of Call of the Lost Goddess, Crucible and the perils in Throne of the Mad God, I just felt the need to create something more deliberately peace- and beautiful. Maybe a moment to breathe before descending into the Underdark in Silverrealms.
Thanks for the preview and the work you put in! I hope you have as good of a time making these mods as the community has playing them. Cheers!
Also i'm still looking foward in how you will implement The Battlescarred Bard inn and the Wave District in future mods and i think it would be cool if you made the innkeeper of The Battlescarred Bard progressively angrier everytime you played your instrument as a bard.
called Aura (from TheArtisanBG, see https://github.com/TheArtisanBG/Aura_BG1_BG2_EET).
That got me thinking though ... Lava has various mods; I believe probably the most
story-centric new NPC was Dvaradime (https://downloads.weaselmods.net/download/dvaradime/).
Argent77 does not seem to have specific NPCs, but he has the Djinni mod, which kind of is a
NPC if you think about it (though a bit unusual for several reasons): https://github.com/Argent77/DjinniCompanion
I am not sure whether Acifer has a specific NPC mod. I was unable to find a specific NPC mod
at: https://github.com/AciferBG
There are some kind of semi-NPCs though, like that trapped female paladine in call of the lost or last
goddess. Acifer is also very busy. The quest/area mods take time, I guess that is easy to notice. However
had I was wondering whether Acifer would be up for a specific NPC centric mod? The scope could ideally
be smaller than for any quest mod. The NPC could perhaps be focused on one or two unique ideas,
a bit similar to the Aura NPC (but smaller in scope). It could also perhaps be integrated in the area
mods, or at a later time (some trapped dwarf or something like that or a slave and so forth). The idea
here would be basic to have a NPC specific mod, have that NPC be interesting, somewhat polished,
but also significantly less work than for the area-specific mods. The Dusk NPC mod in a way started
like that (to some extent), before it was extended to other NPCs and very large areas. I mostly
refer to just a unique and interesting NPC. Could be story/lore-centric rather than for powergaming,
though I guess nobody would mind a powerful NPC either. (Aura kind of semi-replaced Jan for me,
though I have to play the mod again next time to really make up my mind, as Jan is just so cool
as NPC, but Aura's feature set is more interesting right now; though if anyone ever wants to make Jan
more useful, I couldn't get the potion-specific mod to work anymore last time I tried it, but I digress).
Are you for real? He posted about 3 NPC mods in development on the previous page of this thread. You responded to the post.
As for the Battlescarred Bard, regardless of the storyline, a place outside of Athkatla where players can gather and take a break would be nice imho.
So true
In the Call of the Lost Goddess, there are some boss-fights, kind of. With a default play through it is the fight to escape, the fight against that sneaky assassin guy from far away (don't want to be too specific here, due avoid spoilers; this fight can probably be the hardest, at the least I sometimes have an easy time, sometimes a hard time, also may depend on other mods, e. g. Tactics Remix can make this fight harder), and sort of my personal favourite in a way against the succubus (let's call her that way). With regards to that fight, well - actually one could fight against her before, I guess, and then there may be alu-fiends, which can be really strong. But I refer to the regular fight, "on the way back". I assume Acifer does not want to make this too overly difficult compared to the current variant, but what if that fight becomes more ... colourful and chaotic? With that I mind kind of that succubus like having fancy creatures in her private chambers (and perhaps one could visit her too) - so, things that may be pretty but deadly. But not too overly powerful. For instance ... some imp variants. Mutant imp. Hipster imp. Their tails could have fancy efffects ... known ones such as fairy fire on individual party members ... detect evil, curse ... any such spells. Kind of like, say, a range of 3-6 such imps that make this boss fight a bit harder, but not necessarily much harder. Like those imps or so in the big Watchtower, that do wild magic. Not necessarily only imps, mind you - could be other fancy creatures.
This wiki here mentions a few examples from Forgotten Realms:
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Small_creatures
Most probably don't fit into the mod but just for ideas... a kobold! Could be a weak evil kobold mage tossing magic missile or acid arrow. I kind of feel that this boss fight could perhaps be a bit more chaotic and crazy. It already is in many ways, since her bodyguards and companions are varied and mixed, but I feel like it would be an opportunity to put even more emphasis on a "this is the chaos inside of the heart of the demon city". Now, chaos is also on the whole city anyway, so perhaps we can have a secondary distinction, aka "this is succubus chaos". So perhaps a stronger focus on the succubus theme.
Anyway, these are somewhat random ideas. I know Acifer has only a limited amount of time in general and the mod is finished, and everyone waits for Skyfire or anything else. But Call of the Lost Goddess is still my favourite Acifer mod - there is tons of mischief in it. I read that criticism from one person on the gibberlings forum, but I don't agree with it - I think that person missed the point of the mod. For instance, "cursed items are too weak" - well, perhaps, but that fits to a theme after all. For evil gains there is a price to be paid.
By the way, that talking book ... could there be more options? I am not sure which options may be useful; one simple one I could find is to carry over permanent hp loss for certain (few) abilities or features. Now I am not certain about which modifications may be useful here for a trade-off. But, for instance, let me just throw out a number ... one-time permanent use, lose 10 hp, gain +1 AC as "damage mitigation" or something like that (again, not focusing on the number, my idea here is more in thinking of making the book more useful, and being able to have a few feature-set conversions; this is just an example, I guess other trade-offs could be thought through. In the online variant of Magic the Gathering, MTGO arena or what was the name, one planeswalk has those "conditions" e. g. one gains a specific benefit but the opponent also gains something. So I am thinking a bit along those lines. Does not need to be the book, could be something else of course - was just thinking the book could see more use. I never fully found out how useful the book is.
Other ideas ... for instance, in the other mod of the Mad God, one party went to it, right? And perished. Well, in Call of the Lost Goddess we also have at the least one party that causes problems in the pub. What if there would be another party? We have that female paladin perhaps, could have been a party and perhaps had neutral companions too; one could then be, just as an example, resting in the naughty hall with the succubus (where the party can rest); and just stay there being drunk (and drugged) and not wanting to leave. Or anything similar to that. Could be also torture chambers and prisoners, like more paladins. Anyway, don't mind this too much, having ideas is easy.
For Dark Tidings I think it may be nice to have a follow-up adventure, a small one, at a later point. For instance, in Lava's mod South Edge, there is a small mini-quest that is just a traveling merchant needing help. In Dark Tidings there could be either some pirate ship or some other ship (that may have left the island at a later point but crashed or so); that could have a treasure or rescue mission or something like that. (Could also connect to Athkatla e. g. the pirates there, perhaps they lost a ship or so, that could be a storyline for the treasure or partial treasure or something like that.)
Also I think any updates on mods you create (anew) or maintain are appreciated by many folks; changelog helps of course but I think even making updates every some months may be nice to hear, if you are active and have time and motivation of course. Just so that people know what is going on, if anything is going on, in particular when they themselves have not checked for some time. Sometimes people have to make a break (we all may have that) and then come back after a while and don't quite know what's new or so. Reading entries on different webforums helps, of course, but often there isn't that much information, and not everyone has enough time to e. g. use discourse or so (I mean this in general by the way; even looking at github often only tells a partial story).
Anyway - that's it for now with more random ideas. I think I'll be able to start my next run this coming weekend finally.
Succubus encounter:
I actually like your idea of making that fight a bit more "colourful" and chaotic, especially in a more distinct succubus-themed way. So far I’ve deliberately kept it relatively controlled, mainly to avoid creating a potentially frustrating or unwinnable situation depending on party setup or installed mods. But your suggestions (like adding smaller, flavourful creatures with special effects) are cool.
Talking book:
Expanding its use with more meaningful trade-offs is a good point. It was intended as a somewhat niche feature, but I agree that there's room to make it more engaging. That said, this is something that would take a bit of time to design properly.
Additional encounters / NPC elements:
More small world-building moments like the ones you describe could certainly add flavour.
Dark Tidings follow-up / other ideas:
Also interesting. I like the idea of smaller follow-up content or connected encounters. No concrete plans there at the moment, but the time will come when I'll start taking care of those things again, once the next mods are out.
I can’t promise any specific changes, but I do appreciate the input and will keep it in mind for the future.
That’s a very good point that I haven’t addressed yet, but she certainly won’t stay in the group if her parents have been murdered. Thanks for pointing that out; I need to incorporate that as soon as possible.
The amount varies from mod to mod. Call of the Lost Goddess and Silverrealms have not that many, because I see those as journeys for the protagonist, so I prefer the focus to remain on the maincharacter rather than having companions comment on every occasion. But all BG2(EE) NPCs make comments in these mods as well.
Poisoned Pathways probably has the most companion interjections, simply because I designed it more as a group adventure and an extension of the existing game world, where companion banter feels much more natural.
As for mod companions, that's unfortunately much more difficult. Supporting them properly would require checking for every individual NPC mod during installation and provide different dialogue files to avoid installation failures. With so many companion mods available, that quickly would become impractical. That's why I haven't added any mod-NPC-specific interjections yet.
If you are taking suggestions for official modules to adapt to BGEE or BG2EE, these are mine. I was inspired by how you adapted official modules into EET mods, sometimes hooking them directly into vanilla missions. Maybe you use them mostly as-written. Maybe you adapt chapters or significant parts of these modules into something else.
-Bastion of Broken Souls. It's a high-level adventure that deals with gods and the nature of souls, making it well-suited to a ToB (or a late-game SoA) adventure. I bought this module and never played it, but I was in a room listening to other players play it.
-Dragon Mountain. It's a mid- to high-level planar dungeon crawl with a red dragon and lots of treasure, at least at the end! This is one module I bought but never played. Maybe it would tie into Firkraag's SoA quest.
-Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. It's a mid-level module with a sci-fi theme that would make it positively stand out for me. Unsure of where it would fit best in-universe, but maybe the party is warped to another plane for this. Maybe it's just in a remote corner of the world. I never played this module, but comedian Steven Colbert played it and said he traded his Paladin powers for a better sword which turned him EVIL!
-Expedition to the Demonweb Pits. It's a mid-level interplanar adventure that starts in Sigil, which, conveniently, was already made. Perhaps this quest ties into the Planar Sphere, or is level adjusted to be a better fit for SoA post-Underdark. I've bought this module but haven't played it.
-Red Hand of Doom. It's a low- to mid-level world crawl on a timer that assumedly starts when the party starts the first mission of this module, and a rare chance to build up defenses against an invading army. Perhaps tie this into the Kobolds in Athkatla's sewers, Athkatla's Temple District, or/and the Dragons in SoA. (Elsir Vale - where most the action happens for this module - fits seemingly perfectly into Faerun south of Amn and north of Calimshan!) This is the only module of this list I've played through twice and partially GMed once.
-Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. It's a mid-level megadungeon crawl with a side of politics. Perhaps tie this into the Temple District in Athkatla for the clergy when them investigating the Planar Sphere to reach the elemental planes. I bought the module and I've played some of this, but not all. (As for why Return and not the original version, I've already modded Temple of Elemental Evil for PC, and the level range of Return could be adapted to fit neatly into BG2.)
-Shackled City. It's a series of modules that comprises a campaign from level 1 - epic. Again, it's a large dungeon crawl, but one that also focuses on the city of Cauldron, built around a dormant volcano. Adapting this to Faerun would likely put it in Chult due to some jungle terrain assumed nearby. Whatever inspired people to head to the region in or around where Skyfire is set could also inspire the party to head here. I bought the module and I've played Shackled City's intro, but never finished it.
Thankee again!
Whether it works better as a standalone campaign with its own protagonist or an adventure for the Bhaalspawn really depends on narrative considerations only you can know, but in case of the latter, I urge you to * not * turn it into a regular BG2 (SoA) quest mod. That is the most narratively urgent and yet also content-packed part of the game, which has also (for historical technical reasons) seen the most classic quest mods developed for it, exacerbating the problem. In my book, literally any other part of the trilogy would fit better than the span of time between the abduction by until the confrontation with Irenicus. What you write about that part of the story feeling somewhat disjointed from the “Bhaal’s legacy” arch is true, but I think the better way to address that is to “provincialise” it by expanding other parts of the game (as SoD does) rather than to rob the (already drawn-out) Irenicus story of its impact by padding it with more side quests.
I don't have any particular opinion with regards to Moonshae. IMO I think for most mods it would be better if they would not be coupled too tightly to Irenicus. SoA, but more importantly ToB (though it was mostly an extension pack), have the storyline mostly built around Irenicus. If one installs many mods for BG2EE though, I think most players enjoy SoA related mods, as that gives them more freedom to play, explore, do different quests and so forth. In my opinion, at the least for most mods by default, this should also give more flexibility with regards to designing the mod itself. For instance, the Aura NPC storyline could fit into many different settings in that it is mostly decoupled from Irenicus and almost its own storyline (e. g. about automatons/artificers). So personally I think campaigns that are not too tightly coupled to that main storyline should have a better "longevity".
There may also be the issue of level design in that from BG1 to Siege of Dragonspear and BG2 the level progression may influence a mod's design. But I guess for most mods they can work well anywhere from level 8 to level 12 or so, depending on how much is available to the party.
In my opinion, ToB is way too narrowly and linearly set, so mod developers rarely design for ToB.
> rather than to rob the (already drawn-out) Irenicus story of its impact by padding it with more side quests.
I don't think I can agree with the wording "rob" here, since that is simply one of different perception. Take the Region of Terror mod - it does not fit that well into the Irenicus world as such, and the storyline is a little bit ... peculiar, but it's a great mod offering quite some challenges for players. But also with Acifer's mods, at the least Call of the Lost Goddess - that is in many ways also decoupled from the Irenicus storyline. IMO it is good that there is more flexibility. People could always decide to add more to the Irenicus situation, but in my opinion it would be better to explore more of the rest of the world. In particular with the World Map mod, there would be so many areas to explore, if we'd have enough content creators.
The more I think about it, the more I feel that the story could fit much more naturally there. The obvious downside is that the player would then enter SoD and SoA with considerably more experience than usual; but that may simply be the price to pay for adding another substantial chapter to the saga.
What I find especially appealing is the opportunity to add another facet to the Bhaalspawn story before BG2 shifts the focus so heavily towards Irenicus. Ironically, that had originally been one of my arguments for making it a BG2 quest mod: I thought it could help bring the Bhaalspawn theme back into the foreground during SoA.
However, the voting and the discussion have pointed quite clearly in another direction. So, unless something major changes, Bound in Blood will become a post-BG1 adventure and require EndlessBG1.
And thanks for mentioning Branwen; I had not even considered that, and it is a very good point!
Isn’t there an option in Tweaks to reduce earned experience? Does that apply only to quest experience or combat experience too? I’m thinking it’s time I learn how that works!
My current run has 9 quest mods added, obviously it’s getting to be an issue!
I would say, experience gain in the original Baldur's Gate is not that rapid and the early levels of AD&D are miserable anyway. But once you are at lvl 7+, slowing down certainly makes sense.
Branwen would certainly be an interesting character to include, but since she comes from a completely different island, I think it would make sense to give her some additional dialogue without letting her take center stage. That’s essentially what I did with Viconia in the Underdark sections of Silverrealms.
Branwen coming from a different island is actually an advantage of her inclusion I’d say: you don’t need to entirely overhaul the dialogue to adjust for her presence, and what with her backstory in the BG1 NPC project she wouldn’t want to travel back home anyway.