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[Mod] BG:EE Kitpack V1.62 3/1/13

RequiemRequiem Member Posts: 187
edited February 2013 in General Modding
Click Here to see the full list of kits added and to download the the mod from spellhold studios

*****A massive thanks to @neoesprit for all his help and feedback with this mod so far, it is much appreciated and he has helped to make it much more well rounded. Also thanks to @kamigoroshi for helping with lore, background information and kit ideas*****


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12/1/13 - V1.61

Strings should change appropriately depending on the game version the mod is installed on.

Some of the thief kits at least should install on BGT games, due to the lack of thiefskl.2da and thiefscl.2da some kits will not be installed.

Bugfixes for the hivemaster kit including proper stat increases and paperdoll.

Balancing for the scout.

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This is a kitpack for BG:EE that should also be mostly compatible with and suitable for BG2 (no custom HLA's yet).

In all it adds 7 cleric kits, 3 thief kits, 2 paladin kits, 4 fighter, 2 druid, 2 ranger and 2 bard kits

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Things to note (read here if you are having problems)

1. You must have weidu installed and ready to go to use this mod.

2. To prevent problems you should install any new components and reinstall all of the old components in the same install.

3.Converting NPC's to new kits will only work if you do it in the same install as the new kit itself (Weidu keeps the new kit number in memory throughout the install and this is needed to ensure the NPC's get updated correctly.)

4. If you install more than 6 of the cleric kits not all of them will be visible at character creation - this is a limitation of the game that only overhaul can fix and not a bug with the mod

5. If you are part way through a game and install a new version of the mod your kits may be changed due to the mod adding new content, this can be changed back in shadowkeeper and is sadly something that I have no way of preventing at the moment.

6. If your installer comes up saying "I have only been given 23 things to append but 25stweap.2da has 26 lines" or something similar, this is due to an inconsistency in an earlier version of the kitpack that has now been rectified. It is easily fixed by doing the following:
a) Delete 25stweap.2da from your override folder.
b) Reinstall your mods, making sure to use the very latest version of the kitpack
c) Enjoy the game, this problem should not occur again

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This has been tested to some extent by myself and others but all feedback is good feedback, I am certain there are little things I have done wrong or missed out. I am going for balance within this mod, I realise you can;t achieve perfect balance between classes but I don't want any paper tigers, glass cannons or cookie cutters
Post edited by Requiem on
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Comments

  • secretfiresecretfire Member Posts: 63
    Great job! Looks fine. Frankly, most people try to ensure the PC is the most powerful, so I don't mind kits that are the equal of things like Kensai/Mage in the slightest. Creative stuff, too.
  • neoespritneoesprit Member Posts: 196
    this is quite the list of Kit ! If I may suggest that you rename the priest kit to their real names in Faerun lore, here are some of the names you could use :

    Priest of tempus = Battlepriest of Tempus
    Priest of Shar = Nightcloak of Shar
    Priest of Lathander = Dawnbringer
    Priest of Helm = (could be Watcher of Helm or Vigilant of Helm)
    Priest of Kelemvor = Doomguides (those are the elite of the clergy but the name is cool !)
    Priest of Talos = no change
    Priest of Mystra = no change
    Priest of Bane = Black Hand Zealot maybe (although I'm not sure that Bane was a god during the BG story arc)
    Priest of Selune = SIlverstar of Selune (one of the order of Selune's priests)

    that's all for the moment ! I will test all this for sure and give you feedback =)
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    edited December 2012
    image

    Currently it doesn't install, probably a typo or the likes in CLABDPHE.2da preventing it from loading.

    On a side note, I'd like to install only specific kits (namely the Hivemaster druid and Stalwart fighter kits). Does the current installer support this or does it install all of them at once?
  • neoespritneoesprit Member Posts: 196
    edited December 2012
    @Requiem : same error than above here can't install your kit pack (I'll look at your setup when I'll have some time) =)

    Like @Kamigoroshi said, could be great to choose which kit you want to install (as more and more kit mods are gonna pop up, remember that for each class, there's a maximum number of kits you can install - or at least it was like that back then, I'm not sure of the limitation in BG:EE)


    EDIT : found out what was wrong - the "Kit" folder, should be in a folder named Kitpack (the path for installing your kits being "COPY ~kitpack\kits\DPhelm\CLABDPHE.2da~ ~override\CLABPR03.2da~"

    Kitpack is the folder created for the backup so you just have to put the Kit folder in the Kitpack folder and voila ! installing flawlessly ;)
  • neoespritneoesprit Member Posts: 196
    edited December 2012
    Ok so it seems that the Kit number limitation is of 9 kits per classes... tried to install the scion of murder (http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/11927/new-kit-scion-of-murder-looking-for-suggestionsfeedback#latest) along this kitpack, and the priest of shar disappeared from the list =(

    Will have a look on how to add the options too choose wich kit to install via weidu ;)

    Also could be a great idea to have the option to give Viconia the Priest of SHar kit, and Branwen the Priest of Tempus one (If I remember correctly It's not to difficult to implement)
  • RequiemRequiem Member Posts: 187
    Sorry about the not installing guys, hadn't set up the folders properly as stated above

    With regards to changing the names, I was tempted but I understand that the divine remix mod does this and I dont want to come across as dealing their ideas

    I will redo the weidu tonight and add an option to install each kit separately
  • neoespritneoesprit Member Posts: 196
    Requiem said:

    Sorry about the not installing guys, hadn't set up the folders properly as stated above

    With regards to changing the names, I was tempted but I understand that the divine remix mod does this and I dont want to come across as dealing their ideas

    I will redo the weidu tonight and add an option to install each kit separately

    As far as I know the Divine remix mod is not yet compatible with BG:EE, and I'm not sure it will be anytime soon.

    But if you really don't want to change the names I'll understand and respect your decision (after all it's your mod =) ). I only suggested this for immersion =p

    Nice to hear you'll take the time to add an option to install each kit separately !

    cheers mate =)

  • RequiemRequiem Member Posts: 187
    @kamigoroshi The install should work fine now, i just added in the kitpack folder to the download file as neoesprit said.

    @Neoesprit I will most likely change the names, i'm all for immersion and the more the better, and as for Bane, i'm not that up to speed on which gods would have been about during the BG2 story, if you can think of an evil god that would fit in better then I would be happy to replace it (especially if i can keep the same skills to match the god) to make it fit in a bit more with the story of the game.

    I should hopefully have the weidu file done today or tomorrow to install the kits seperately too, shouldn't be too difficult to do, just whether the wife is happy with me doing it or not lol.
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    edited December 2012
    @Requiem Thanks, now it works. Eagerly awaiting for the next update. =D

    Also, replacing Bane is really easy in the Baldur's Gate timeline. He has an fiendish demi god son called Iyachtu Xvim, who also has(/had) the same portfolios Bane had if I remember correctly.


    Edit:
    Do you still plan to broaden the Cleric kit selection any further in the future? I ask because ever since I played Icewind Dale for the first time, I wished for the possibility to play as an Hand of Auril/Icebreath cleric kit of Auril. She's just so lovely cold blooded. ;)
  • neoespritneoesprit Member Posts: 196
    edited December 2012
    ok so I did a quick research in my Pen and Paper books about the deities of the forgotten realms and in the Baldur's gate journal :


    Baldur's gate take place in 1368 (as stated in the IG journal) - a few years after the time of troubles when the gods were forced to walk the realm as mortal avatars. During that time Bhaal was slain by the Mortal Cyric who then became the god of murder and assumed the portfolios of Myrkul (god of death slained by Midnight aka mystra) as well as the portfolios of Bane (slained by Helm in an epic battle). Kelemvor will assume the portfolio of god of the dead after Cyric went mad and loose some of his powers just before BG timeline.

    Bane will only come back in 1372, taking his demi demon son place, Iyachtu Xvim, stealing a lot of Cyric's worshipers as some of his portfolios.


    So Bane as a god during Baldur's gate time line is not possible. The obvious choice would be Cyric, but I'm not sure of the legitimity of the Bhaalspawn playing a Cyric worshipers (the church of Cyric is dedicated to slain all the remnant of Bhaal's power ^^). Mask could also be a good choice but not very fit to Bane's portfolio... Malar seems good enough as he's wholly evil and violent but more in a bestial way (could do a Druid Of Malar kit for that). That leave us with Iyachtu Xvim who's the closest to Bane.

    One could state that the BG series are not canon in the Forgotten Realm universe and the church of Bane could exist in it, but as a purist I would tend to disagree.
  • RequiemRequiem Member Posts: 187
    @neoesprit @kamigorochi i will definitely be adding more kits as time goes on, any ideas or requests are welcome, although I can't guarantee I will be able to do them all.

    I actually originally have a lot more god's kits as when I started doing this mod I was playing BG2 with TobEx which allowed you to scroll down the kit selections.

    I have kits made for Silvanus, Umberlee, Ilmater, Loviatar, Cyric, Oghma and Sune but didn't add them since I knew there wouldn't be enough space on the class select screen. The only thing I would need to do is work out what their deity's blessing would be (any ideas are welcome), have already done the spells and symbols for them. Since I am now giving the option to install them all seperately I will definitely add them all over time. Maybe a petition to the developers to add a scroll bar is in order.

    I also have a premade kit for Mask which i will use to replace the Bane kit in my next release, a cleric with backstab will no doubt be an interesting play :). With regards to sticking to the official lore I understand that these kits are not canon (and can't be without breaking copyright) but I at least want to be able to believe they could be

    And about AuriI, I will adjust the kit I have made for Umberlee to better suit Auril's portfolio and include the Hand of Auril in my next release.
  • neoespritneoesprit Member Posts: 196
    @requiem : yep I remember being able to scroll the kit list with Tobex... I really don't understand why Beamdog didn't took care of this stupid limitation considering the trillions possibilities for adding kits via modding... They said they'd include Tobex features to BG:EE, but apparently some feature didn't make it.

    Atm the limitation is 9 kits per classes, so for Clerics it comes down to 6 + 3 from original game (not sure I we can disable them though)

    For the deities blessings I may have some ideas I will send them to you via private message. Not sure if it could be done for some of them though.

    I also have some ideas for paladins and fighters kits, lore friendly to Faerun universe obviously =)

    I'll also check the code to add a kit to a specific PC (notably Viconia and Branwen); that shouldn't have changed ^^
  • neoespritneoesprit Member Posts: 196
    edited December 2012
    Thanks for the update @Requiem ! Much cooler with all the names and such ! Didn't have time to send you my ideas for blessings yesterday, I'll try to do it today along with some kits idea that could fit in the game.

    I'll also work on an french translation of your kitpack if you're okay with that but not until the tools are updated cause for now, multilingual support is messed up ^^

    Edit: you probably should update the Kits descriptions at ShS to reflect the changes you made to the kitnames =)
  • neoespritneoesprit Member Posts: 196
    @requiem: after playing with Branwen as a battlepriest of Tempus and Viconia as a Nightcloak of Shar and try some other cleric kit on my main char, I'd say that they are a bit overpowered... It may be the blessings added to the innate abilities. It cause some major imbalance (currently level 6)

    I'll check all the kit but it may be that you'll have to remove some of the features of your clerics kits to balance them (I'll get back to you after more tests =))
  • RequiemRequiem Member Posts: 187
    @neoesprit that was my concern from my own experience, always great to have a second opinion though, perhaps a rework is required, I was thinking I could give the deitys blessing as a castable spell much like the original storm shield or boon of lathander where the player casts it as and when they need to use it, might make things a bit more balanced
  • RequiemRequiem Member Posts: 187
    Also a French translation sounds great, I really appreciate all of your support so far!
  • neoespritneoesprit Member Posts: 196
    Requiem said:

    @neoesprit that was my concern from my own experience, always great to have a second opinion though, perhaps a rework is required, I was thinking I could give the deitys blessing as a castable spell much like the original storm shield or boon of lathander where the player casts it as and when they need to use it, might make things a bit more balanced

    yup maybe that could be a good workaround to keep the blessings but making them less OP maybe one use per day each 4 or 5 level ? Don't remember how the lathander boon and talos thing worked though...

    One thing that could add to the immersion would be to personalize the symbols bonuses to fit their respective god portfolios : +1 str is good for tempus follower but less useful / lorefriendly for a cleric of shar or mystra.

    I'll compile all those ideas for you and you'll pick what you like =p
    Requiem said:

    Also a French translation sounds great, I really appreciate all of your support so far!

    no worries I'm glad I can help anyway I can ^^
  • DazzuDazzu Member Posts: 950
    Cyric Strifebringers (or was it Strifeleader...) would be much better than Banites. By having Shar, Tempus and Cyric, one could kit edit 3 NPC clerics to better fit their god.
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    someone make a feature request to add the scrolling kit list ala TobeX
  • RequiemRequiem Member Posts: 187
    edited December 2012
    @Dazzu I did consider cyric, but at the point of the BG storyline Cyric has become obsessed with wiping out any remains of bhaal's legacy (as mentioned above), I can't see him granting a child of Bhaal any kind of spells or power at all due to the fact that it may result in Bhaal being reborn. I have nothing against the idea, I just don't see how it could fit.

    @smeagolheart i think some people took you up on that request, a topic seems to have popped up about just that.
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    @Requiem Actually I thought the devs said way back in the day they intended to include this feature but I guess I was wrong or they didn't get it in yet.
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    I installed the kitpack in BG2 (BGT) and everything installed except for the thief kits. Don't know if it has something to do with Rogue Rebalancing I've got installed or just doesn't work with BG2 atm.
  • neoespritneoesprit Member Posts: 196

    I installed the kitpack in BG2 (BGT) and everything installed except for the thief kits. Don't know if it has something to do with Rogue Rebalancing I've got installed or just doesn't work with BG2 atm.

    try to install the kit pack before rogue rebalancing and see if it works. I'm sticking to BG:EE so couldn't test myself.

    @Requiem : I'm sending you something that could be of use we'll have to test if it works.

  • leeho730leeho730 Member Posts: 285
    Well, Kelemvor is 3rd edition deity...
  • neoespritneoesprit Member Posts: 196
    leeho730 said:

    Well, Kelemvor is 3rd edition deity...

    Yes but the timeline is unclear... It is said that Kelemvor took on the portfolio of the Dead from Cyric (previously owned by Myrkul who was slain during the time of trouble) when he went mad and lost some of his grip after using an artifact he created. This is supposed to have happened shortly before the re-ascension of Bane in 1372. Baldur's gate take place in 1368 and Cyric has already went completely crazy (he's depicted as the Mad God in BG) so it is safe to assume that Kelemvor's already taken his place in the Toril Pantheon.

    Now, remember that BG series are not canon and that everything could be... or not. Some facts are easily matchable, others require a little more imagination and open mind =)
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    edited December 2012
    @Requiem I love you!

    Thanks for listening to my selfish request about the Hand of Auril. It's ice summoning really should be called Conjure Ice Para-Elemental though. Immersion and all that. ;)

    Here's a list of AD&D's specialty Priests, their abilities and special deity spells you might find interesting.
    A bit of scrolling down is required though:
    Icepriestesses/Icepriests of Auril
    Stormlords of Talos
    Watchers of Helm
    Morninglords of Lathander
    Dweomerkeepers of Mystra
    Doomguides of Kelemvor
    Battleguards of Tempus
    Silverstars of Selune
    Nightcloacks of Shar



    Also, feel free to give me a holler if you need your kitpack translated into German.
    Though, since this would be my first translation for a Baldur's Gate mod I'd appreciate it if @neoesprit could give me some hints how to do so first. :P
  • RequiemRequiem Member Posts: 187
    Thank you very much Kami, due to being unable to change the name by gender I will have to decide whether to keep it the same or just have male and female as icepriest

    I might change the name to summon cold elemental, although the para elemental is of course technically correct I don't think it has the same ring

    @leeho730 the reason I chose kelemvor as god of death is because in bg2 in the athkatla graveyard (bg2 is supposed to be set just a few months after bg1) there is a monument to kelemvor as lord of the dead, but admittedly it is a bit of a mismatched area between the official information and the game. To please everyone I will add a strifebringer of cyric kit in the near future :)
  • neoespritneoesprit Member Posts: 196


    Also, feel free to give me a holler if you need your kitpack translated into German.
    Though, since this would be my first translation for a Baldur's Gate mod I'd appreciate it if @neoesprit could give me some hints how to do so first. :P

    I'm not sure it will be possible to make a multilingual install, nor it will be possible to do a standalone french or german install. The problem of French language are all the special caracters like é è ê ë etc that are not fully taken into account via the actual weidu method to alter the dialog.tlk. I don't know about german though.

    So I have put the idea of translation on the side for the moment. I'm concentrating my effort on helping Requiem develop his Kit mod for now. As I have always played in english it's no bother for me atm.

    Concerning Auril, as I said to Requiem, most of their Clergy refer as themselves to "Hand of Auril". This name has the advantage to suit both gender (Baldur's Gate doesn't take into account the gender of the character in the class / kit label) =)

    An Icecloak spell and an Ice Elemental summon for higher level could be cool stuff =p
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    @neoesprit Who knows? Perhaps Weidu will support multilungual installs in the future? ;)
    But I agree that fleshing this kitpack out is currently far more important than translating it.
    Not to mention I also play BG:EE in English. :P

    @Requiem Technically it would be enough to call the Auril kit "Icepriestress" since the females Aurilans far exceeds the males in number. But as neoesprit already pointed out Hand of Auril also works nicely.
    Not sure what you mean with the ice para-elemental not having the same 'ring' as ice elemental though.


    A couple more specialty priests which would fit in nicely in the Baldur's Gate games:
    Amorphites of Ghaunadaur (has a cult in Baldur's Gate II and is also my avatar on this forum due to his otherwordly cuteness =P )
    Fastpaws of Baervan Wildwanderer (the Forest Gnome deity which Quayle and Aerie worship)
    Trueswords of Arvoreen (Mazzy, enough said)
  • IsayaIsaya Member, Translator (NDA) Posts: 752
    neoesprit said:

    I'm not sure it will be possible to make a multilingual install, nor it will be possible to do a standalone french or german install. The problem of French language are all the special caracters like é è ê ë etc that are not fully taken into account via the actual weidu method to alter the dialog.tlk. I don't know about german though.

    This is not right. WeiDU has no problem supporting the special character. Actually, it never cared about them. What you have to do, as a modder, is to provide the tra files with the character set that the game wants. And this character set is different in BG II and BGEE.
    If you want to target both games, you'll need to handle this specifically, but there are ways.
    If you want to target only one game, just provide WeiDU with the tra files in the proper encoding.

    BGEE uses UTF8. Since that encoding can cover any kind of language, you just have to write the tra files with that encoding. Editors like notepad++ allow to enforce the character encoding. Be sure to enforce it BEFORE you start typing anything in the file though. It's not able to convert between encoding. But there are tools for that purpose. One such tool is called CP Converter (Code Page Converter) and can be found on Sourceforge (sorry, it's too complicated to enter texts in this forum if you're not an HTML wizard to provide the link). It has a GUI.

    BG II is another game. Depending on languages, the 8 bits values in the character set means different characters. Specifically I'm sure that polish and russion require this. They use a specific BAM file to provide the font with suitable shapes. I'm quite sure that Western Europe languages are covered with CP1252 / ISO8859-1 encoding, which should the "natural" encoding of Windows in these countries when you a text editor such as notepad.

    For more details, you may check my post on that topic.
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