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?
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.