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Imoen Romance?

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  • ArunsunArunsun Member Posts: 1,592
    edited April 2016
    I cannot find the mod again, but I had an Imoen character mod for Neverwinter Nights 2 SoZ (Storm of Zehir occurs a couple of years after ToB events) which really was awesome and gave a very nice backstory to the character, I really enjoyed it. I'll try and find that for you if I can.
  • argent77argent77 Member Posts: 3,431

    Is is possible for this explanation to be provided by the Solar, even if Imoen isn't in your party?

    Imoen must be in the party (since she has to witness the whole scene), and I'm fairly certain that either the romance or friendship path has to be active as well.
  • SilverstarSilverstar Member Posts: 2,207

    Imoen's backstory has always struck me as sloppily hazy, in my opinion. Does anyone else have a different point of view?

    Apart from the unexplained belt in BGII, I haven't had any issues with the writing. But then my standards are fairly low apparently, as I tend to find entertainment media to be entertaining, something which rubs cultural snobs the wrong way usually. A claim I've seen around the forums a few times though is that Imoen wasn't ever intended to actually have a very big role at all and indeed her inclusion in BGII was very last minute. Don't know how accurate that is, but it would explain her writing being "sloppily hazy" if true I guess?
  • From what I understand, Imoen was a late addition to BG1, and was originally intended to suffer a plot death midway through BG2, so it wouldn't surprise me if they never really fleshed things out carefully.
    JuliusBorisovMalicronGentblue
  • DJKajuruDJKajuru Member Posts: 3,300
    I agree with everything you guys have said and I have nothing against playing the mod. It's more of a personal issue: she is already one of your closest friends (if you're good or neutral, that is), plays a major role in SoA as irenicua hostage and is also one of the most charismatic joinable npc's out there. As a character I feel that making her a romance option is putting too much weight on her shoulders.
  • PteranPteran Member Posts: 388
    Thank you @Ballad for your comments. I'm glad to hear that the mod has been updated and completed. I played with it years ago and really enjoyed it. I look forward to installing it for my next go at BG2.
    JuliusBorisovGozeta
  • SmilingSwordSmilingSword Member Posts: 827
    @Ballad the problem I have with the music besides it not being very good is that it is way too loud. It's about twice as loud as the rest of the game and turning down the sound for each conversation is really annoying.

    Other than that, the Imoen romance is the best romance mod I've played and I've played a few.
  • vanatosvanatos Member Posts: 876
    edited April 2016
    the music has been turned down, it's not as loud as it used to be though i had done this before 3.0.

    The current version is 3.5 which is what you will get when you download the mod, the main page of the website might say 3.3 but its 3.5
    JuliusBorisov
  • AewyrvenAewyrven Member Posts: 228
    Same dad. Different mom's. So you're half siblings. Not thrice removed cousins on your brothers aunts side.

    You can get silly with the whole race thing and go daddy had you a white boy human and daddy had Imoen a black girl human, since people seem to think skin color and nationality is a different race for some screed up reason.

    You + Imoen = mocha baby... but still have same daddy.

    So yeah race doesn't apply in this instance.

    Personally I dont have an issue. It's make believe fantasy in a game that allows us to play evil characters so why not add some of that taboo in.

    Daddy is a depraved evil god of murder and probably would have did himself if it could have fathered another kid to help him ressurect his own hide.

    The reason the original game didn't have it is most likely because of above. Same daddy... not good for PR/Sales.
    mashedtatersAchterklad
  • fkirenicusfkirenicus Member Posts: 331
    edited April 2016
    You know, this "incest" thing about Imoen was something quite a few people living in the middle ages experienced. I.e. Anne Boleyn, Henry VIIIs second wife, was accused (among other things) of incest with her brother George - a man she never grew up with and met with first time when she was a grown-up woman, if I remember correctly, and one she was quite flirty with (as well as the rest of the court of Henry VIII). Some historians believe she actually did have intercourse with her brother, in an attempt to conceive a son for Henry VIII. People growing up in different places with the same fathers weren't uncommon, and some of them engaged in romance before they found out who they were. Some also grew up close without knowing they had the same father.

    Also, while GRRM takes matters somewhat to the extremes, the Targaryens and their habit of wedding brother and sister as well as the not-so-secret affair between the Lannister siblings in Game of Thrones also has a historic equivalent: ancient Egypt.

    My point is simply that even though such behavior isn't condoned today in most civilized countries, it has historic as references as well references in literature, and personally I don't see any problems with it in a fantasy role playing game with a heavy medieval backdrop. To each his (or her) own. It's not like the main character nor Imoen are aware of any of this until Spellhold anyway. But it's not my cup of tea, and therefore I (probably) won't install it.
    Still, considering Bhaal the "biological" father for both is in my opinion anthropomorphism (where "anthropos" here reads all playable races, of course, not only humans :wink: )
    Pteransemiticgoddess
  • mashedtatersmashedtaters Member Posts: 2,266
    What I didn't like about the mod was all the sexual violence. That is very disturbing to me, and I chose not to play it after reading many reviews. No one needs that kind of energy on their life, fictional or not. The "incest" (debatable) thing is easy enough to overlook, but sexual violence is absolutely not, even if it's just words.

    @Ballad
    Thank you for the information on the updated mod. Can you answer some questions for me, based on your experiences so far?

    Is there any traces of sexual violence in the mod left over?
    What do you mean by dark?
    Is there a lot of sexuality in the mod?
    This is a personal preference: is there a lot of parenthetical descriptions in the mod? Example: (and her flowing locks rippled in the breeze, and/or she brushed up against your skin, and/or she breathed deeply as you kissed her under the moonlight, and/or insert other cheesy physical description here that is reminiscent of romance novels)
  • MoonheartMoonheart Member Posts: 520
    edited May 2016
    Mmm one second... let me think about the "incest" matter...

    You are in a game where you can steal, murder innocents, betray people, including your friend, including betraying them by sacrifying them in a summoning circle, turn yourself into a kind of insane monster-bloody-killing-machine, fuck with evil drows, romance a fucking butcher called Dorn, wreck into a marriage and slaughter all the invitees, pact with devils, kill people during their sleep, help the development of slavery and... incest, something only considered as "bad" merely because it -could- cause some genetic trouble if you have children together, without harming anyone around except the those two, is shocking you?

    Are you sure the problem doesn't only lie in your scale of values, here? :mrgreen:
    Post edited by Moonheart on
    BalladSilverstarsemiticgoddess
  • BalladBallad Member Posts: 205


    @Ballad
    Thank you for the information on the updated mod. Can you answer some questions for me, based on your experiences so far?

    Is there any traces of sexual violence in the mod left over?
    What do you mean by dark?
    Is there a lot of sexuality in the mod?
    This is a personal preference: is there a lot of parenthetical descriptions in the mod? Example: (and her flowing locks rippled in the breeze, and/or she brushed up against your skin, and/or she breathed deeply as you kissed her under the moonlight, and/or insert other cheesy physical description here that is reminiscent of romance novels)

    @mashedtaters , thank you for your positive feedback. I'm still in SoA and so can't answer your first and third questions with total certainty. There haven't been any references to sexual violence so far, and I sure hope it keeps that way. Sexuality-wise, well, the mod does assume a (potential) sexual attraction between Charname and Imoen and it does get brought up, albeit (so far) in a covert way. For instance, in one of the early dream sequences you visit an old memory of glimpsing Imoen naked while the two of you went skinny-dipping in a lake near Candlekeep. There is also a dream where she kisses you, and the kiss is detailed in a fairly sexual manner. I didn't find anything wrong with either instance (they are tactfully written) but I can see it not appealing to people who are more interested in befriending rather than romancing Imoen. Then again if that is the case with you, I'd suggest checking out the Imoen Friendship mod instead.

    By dark I mean "matching Imoen's canon SoA personality". She's severely shaken by her two consecutive periods of torture and imprisonment by Irenicus. Themes of pain, loss and death get brought up a lot and she needs quite a bit of reassuring and comforting. In the same breath I must stress that there's still a lot of her pre-Irenicus personality left, and this manifests as a healthy dose of light-hearted dialogue and humor.

    As for your question about parenthetical descriptions, I regret to inform that yes, parentheses get employed in many of the lovetalks and dream sequences. I am not fan of this style of description either, mainly because it is not used in the unmodded game and therefore sticks out. If you can bring yourself to look past this stylistic flaw, however, I'm sure you'll find that the dialogue itself is very well-written and blends in with the unmodded game.

    Anyway, I'll post a more detailed, in-depth review once I finish the game.
    PteranmashedtaterssemiticgoddessJuliusBorisov
  • ObjulenObjulen Member Posts: 93
    Given how often the gods/titans/etc bone their relatives in various mythic arcs, a romane with Imoen late in ToB has some resonance with ascending to the vacancy left by Bhaal, though the HUGE amounts of value dissonance involved means that no big-name developer would touch it with a 10 foot pole, hence why it will only exist with a community modification.

    If you follow that theme, it would make the most sense as a romance that only works if you accept the Solar's final offer, and elevate Imoen with you in some fashion.
  • ArthasArthas Member Posts: 1,091
    IS there any place where I could find the original dark imoen romance mod? I'm eager to read it. So many people pointing that it is dark in tone, that it is making me genuinely curious
    DJKajuru
  • BalladBallad Member Posts: 205
    @Arthas , you can get it here (files under Lord Mirrabo's original). I haven't tried that version in over a decade and I highly doubt it will install on BG2EE. If you have the energy to read through it, please share your impressions/experiences here. I'm curious as well.
    Arthas
  • ArthasArthas Member Posts: 1,091
    The link is corrupted. I can't finish the download (I get stuck around 10 mb)
  • Yulaw9460Yulaw9460 Member Posts: 634
    edited November 2018
    Deleted.
    Post edited by Yulaw9460 on
  • KolvarKolvar Member Posts: 6
    edited May 2016
    @Ballad Glad to see some love for the Imoen romance mod, especially after all the undeserved hate it got. And you will like the ToB portion (the best part of the rewritten version imo <3 ).
    PteranBeetle
  • rapsam2003rapsam2003 Member Posts: 1,636
    edited May 2016

    What if Charname is a dwarf, halfling, or gnome? Since there are no "half" varieties of those, one can assume that fertile cross-breeding between those races and humans is biologically impossible.

    It's possible. It just is very uncommon. There are several other very uncommon "mixbreeds" as well.
    http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Half-dwarf
    http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Half-goblin
    http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Half-gnoll
    http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Half-ogre
    http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Half-drow
    http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Half-dragon
    http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Half-fiend
    Zaferick
  • PteranPteran Member Posts: 388
    Thank you for the review @Ballad! I really look forward to completing my current BG run and getting started on BG2. I remembered Imoen recounting what happened to her during Spellhold from my playthrough years ago, and thinking at the time "Wow...**** that guy. Let's go kill him." The mod was well done then (maybe I downloaded a slightly newer, less dark version than the original?) and it sounds like it's even better now!
    semiticgoddessmashedtaters
  • Yulaw9460Yulaw9460 Member Posts: 634
    edited November 2018
    Deleted.
    Post edited by Yulaw9460 on
  • vanatosvanatos Member Posts: 876
    Ballad said:


    1. Content

    In another dream, there were visible seams between the background textures, which was a bit jarring.

    The mod has a soundtrack of its own. Though I didn't think much of the music at first, it has since grown on me. It serves the atmosphere and Imoen's character well. There is one keyboard piece, in particular, that I've grown really fond of, but also another one which I still dislike (it sounds too much like a baby's lullaby). A lot of people complain about the music being too loud, but I found it to be the same volume as the rest of the in-game music.

    Compatibility-wise, the mod seems compatible with most other mods, such as Unfinished Business, the two banter packs and SCS. I am not sure how well it matches with the Imoen friendship mod, but my instincts would advice against running both at the same time.
    Hey i'm glad you enjoyed the mod, i'm the coder for it (not the writer that was Israel).

    To address some common concern's that people are confused if its still an issue or not.

    1. The seams you describe is actually an engine bug introduced in 2.0 BG2EE (ie the last update for this game) this occur's everywhere but is particularly noticeable if you look at water tiles.

    2. The mod's music was indeed once too loud (i noticed this too) so around version 2.5 of the mod which was awhile ago, i quietened it down

    3. We introduced a change around to make the prompt to camp better for the player, so it'll occur when you've progressed through the romance enough regardless, Prior to this you needed to get to a point of the romance before exitting the underdark, this was done in Version 3.0 (ie when TOB content was first released).

    The mod has been made compatible at least with Ascension, the Big World setup, Baldurs Gate Trilogy.

    Also i am hearing that the Tweak pack component 'Fixing Imoen interactions in ToB' breaks imoen so watch out for that.
  • MalicronMalicron Member Posts: 629
    Is there any chance there's a version of this without the, you know, romance part of the mod? I like the sound of giving Imoen some actual banters/reactions, but I REALLY don't want a romance option.
  • ButtercheeseButtercheese Member Posts: 3,766
    edited May 2016
    I do believe there was an Imoen friendship mod.
    Let me see if I can find it ...

    PS: http://www.spellholdstudios.net/ie/imoenfriendship
    I don't know wether or not it works with EE though :/
    Malicron
  • rapsam2003rapsam2003 Member Posts: 1,636
    Malicron said:

    Is there any chance there's a version of this without the, you know, romance part of the mod? I like the sound of giving Imoen some actual banters/reactions, but I REALLY don't want a romance option.

    You do NOT have to romance her, with the mod installed.
    MalicronsemiticgoddessPteranzohar
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