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The new companions

Is it possible to disable them somehow? Neera, Dorn and the other new ones. They are shown as DLC when you start the game up, so I am guessing you can switch them off somehow? I can't figure out how to do it.
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  • AndreaColomboAndreaColombo Member Posts: 5,524
    Rejoice, for @argent77 has done it for you already: [MOD] Disable Enhanced Edition NPCs for BG:EE & BG2:EE
    RawgrimKurona
  • RawgrimRawgrim Member Posts: 621
    Cool. Thanks.
    AndreaColombo
  • RawgrimRawgrim Member Posts: 621
    It seems the mod just makes the new NPCs just stand there and not talk?

    I want them deleted and removed permanently.
  • KuronaKurona Member Posts: 881
    edited April 2017
    The mod does allow you to outright disable them.

    Quote from the mod description page:
    This mod offers two possible solutions for this problem:

    - You can disable all or individual NPCs completely. Since the NPCs have only been disabled, it is theoretically possible to reactivate them again later by uninstalling the respective subcomponent(s) of this mod.

    - You can keep all or individual NPCs from initiating conversations or events on their own. A small number of events have been slightly altered to make this possible.

    If you choose the option to disable all or individual NPCs you can also choose whether to make their personal or quest-specific items available for everyone in shops or as loot. A detailed list of items and their new locations can be found in the Readme.
    Rawgrim
  • RawgrimRawgrim Member Posts: 621
    They are still showing up as "included DLC" on the startup screen.
  • argent77argent77 Member Posts: 3,431
    Rawgrim said:

    Is it possible to disable them somehow? Neera, Dorn and the other new ones. They are shown as DLC when you start the game up, so I am guessing you can switch them off somehow? I can't figure out how to do it.

    That screen is somewhat misleading. Several new NPCs are offered as DLCs for the mobile versions of the games to lower the price to acceptable levels. They are fully integrated into the desktop versions and cannot be uninstalled separately.

    The mod mentioned above merely changes game data so that they either don't actively force themselves into your party or don't appear in the game at all.
    AndreaColomboRawgrim
  • KilivitzKilivitz Member Posts: 1,459
    It may come as a surprise to some, but it is indeed possible to play and enjoy the EEs for their technical improvements while being critical of certain changes made by Beamdog.
    AndreaColomboArtonasemiticgoddessRawgrim
  • RawgrimRawgrim Member Posts: 621
    argent77 said:

    Rawgrim said:

    Is it possible to disable them somehow? Neera, Dorn and the other new ones. They are shown as DLC when you start the game up, so I am guessing you can switch them off somehow? I can't figure out how to do it.

    That screen is somewhat misleading. Several new NPCs are offered as DLCs for the mobile versions of the games to lower the price to acceptable levels. They are fully integrated into the desktop versions and cannot be uninstalled separately.

    The mod mentioned above merely changes game data so that they either don't actively force themselves into your party or don't appear in the game at all.
    Thank you. I thought the mod might not have worked since that DLC showed up on the main screen.
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,367
    Rawgrim said:

    ThacoBell said:

    You could just play the original, if the theoretical existence is so offensive for you.

    Or you could just stop being aggressive towards people who want to play the game in a different way than you do. People like you are the reason why the Beamdog forums have gotten a very bad rep.
    Bad rap? I have no clue about that. As long as I've been here folks on this forum seem to be very polite. The only time that isn't the case is when a random troll appears. Even then once he/she is figured out it's only fleeting.
    ThacoBell
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,367
    For the record I'm not a big fan of the new NPC's myself. I do like Dorn in BGEE but I only bring Neera along to get the stoneskin scroll and then ditch her. I haven't played with Rasaad yet due to squishy low level monk averrance so can't comment on him. My opinion might change in BG2EE but haven't gotten a character that far yet due to restartitis...
  • KuronaKurona Member Posts: 881
    @Balrog99
    Neera has a Stoneskin scroll? I always either "accidentally" kill her in Beregost, backstab her in the FAI or just use the mod to disable her outright... If she does have one it might be worth it to exploit her for a while.
    AndreaColombo
  •  TheArtisan TheArtisan Member Posts: 3,277
    @Kurona

    Ekandor carries one at the end of Neera's quest - you have to be quick or control him though because he is scripted to use it if things get dire.
    Kurona
  • KuronaKurona Member Posts: 881

    @Kurona

    Ekandor carries one at the end of Neera's quest - you have to be quick or control him though because he is scripted to use it if things get dire.

    Gotcha. I'll kill her after her quest next time...
    AndreaColombo
  • Mantis37Mantis37 Member Posts: 1,173
    Poor Neera. I felt rather bad when a confused party member killed her in my current no-reload. While I'm not really a fan, my daughter really warmed to her and her crazy magic when we did a BG1 playthrough together.
    AerakarBalrog99
  • fatelessfateless Member Posts: 330
    I love wild mages. Neera can be a bit much for me occasionally but over all I don't have problems with her or her magical issues.
  • tbone1tbone1 Member Posts: 1,985
    Mantis37 said:

    Poor Neera. I felt rather bad when a confused party member killed her in my current no-reload. While I'm not really a fan, my daughter really warmed to her and her crazy magic when we did a BG1 playthrough together.

    I had her on my latest BG1 game; when we got to Nashkel, Niera confused Neera and Neera ignored Niera and attacked a customer instead. My undead hunter was NOT happy and could only stop her with violence. So this is the only time I've had a paladin-type with Larkoch's Minor Drain as an ability.

    @Balrog99 Rasaad is an interesting character, at least in my opinion, but he is squishy in BG1; monks are. However, he comes into his own in SoA, and his quests are interesting.
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,367
    tbone1 said:

    Mantis37 said:



    @Balrog99 Rasaad is an interesting character, at least in my opinion, but he is squishy in BG1; monks are. However, he comes into his own in SoA, and his quests are interesting.

    You're intriguing me now!

    I'm in the middle of an evil dragon disciple run at the moment but my next game will be with a cavalier. I think I'll check out Rasaad during that run and see what he's all about.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Rawgrim said:

    argent77 said:

    Rawgrim said:

    Is it possible to disable them somehow? Neera, Dorn and the other new ones. They are shown as DLC when you start the game up, so I am guessing you can switch them off somehow? I can't figure out how to do it.

    That screen is somewhat misleading. Several new NPCs are offered as DLCs for the mobile versions of the games to lower the price to acceptable levels. They are fully integrated into the desktop versions and cannot be uninstalled separately.

    The mod mentioned above merely changes game data so that they either don't actively force themselves into your party or don't appear in the game at all.
    Thank you. I thought the mod might not have worked since that DLC showed up on the main screen.
    Sorry, I misunderstood your post. I thought you were angry that the mod didn't remove all mention of them even in the dlc menu. As if even a hint of their existence somehow ruined the game.
  • SomeSortSomeSort Member Posts: 859
    In my experience, the best solution to the monk's inherent squishiness in BG1 / early BG2 is lots and lots of darts or throwing daggers. (Usually darts in BG1 thanks to the surplus of sweet magical versions and throwing daggers in BG2 thanks to a surplus of strength-boosting items and the presence of some returning versions.)

    Reilar's Mistake, (the cloak found in the Lighthouse Area that lets you polymorph into a wolf at will), can also be useful for Rasaad; it bumps his dex up to 17 for a +1 AC bonus and also gives him an extra attack per round. The big problem with it is that shapeshifting can sometimes cause the game to "forget" some of your AC boosts, forcing you to unequip / re-equip all your gear again afterwards to get them back. (This is the case for me in version 1.3; no idea if it has since been patched.)

    Even the unequip / re-equip dance isn't that big of a deal, provided you don't forget to do it... unless you happen to give Rasaad the Claw of Kazgaroth, too. :disappointed:
  • RawgrimRawgrim Member Posts: 621
    ThacoBell said:

    Rawgrim said:

    argent77 said:

    Rawgrim said:

    Is it possible to disable them somehow? Neera, Dorn and the other new ones. They are shown as DLC when you start the game up, so I am guessing you can switch them off somehow? I can't figure out how to do it.

    That screen is somewhat misleading. Several new NPCs are offered as DLCs for the mobile versions of the games to lower the price to acceptable levels. They are fully integrated into the desktop versions and cannot be uninstalled separately.

    The mod mentioned above merely changes game data so that they either don't actively force themselves into your party or don't appear in the game at all.
    Thank you. I thought the mod might not have worked since that DLC showed up on the main screen.
    Sorry, I misunderstood your post. I thought you were angry that the mod didn't remove all mention of them even in the dlc menu. As if even a hint of their existence somehow ruined the game.
    Stop putting words and hidden meanings into other people's mouths, and you will avoid making that booboo in the future.

    The reason why I want them gone is that I want my EE game to pretty much be the classic version with a zoom in\out feature.

    The new companions are rather intrusive compared to the others and it is annoying to have them walk up to me and "disturb" me. The only one of them I dislike is Neera. She sounds like a Californian Bimbo that missed out on being an extra on Teen Wolf because she was too busy updating her blog and taking selfies.
    fkirenicus
  • BigfishBigfish Member Posts: 367
    Rawgrim said:



    The reason why I want them gone is that I want my EE game to pretty much be the classic version with a zoom in\out feature.

    Well, you're definitely not getting that anyway with all the changes imported back from BG2. There's a whole bunch of stuff pretty integral to a "classic" experience that you're missing out on anyway, like the inventory screen specifically not being paused and by virtue of that your quick slots being much more important, all the changes to various values like how much gold it takes to raise your reputation, all the newly added spells, changes to spell levels and functions, new magic items littered everywhere, changes to classic companions, and so on.
  • AndreaColomboAndreaColombo Member Posts: 5,524
    I guess he, like most, is used to those changes from playing Tutu/Trilogy extensively before the EEs were released.
  • RawgrimRawgrim Member Posts: 621

    I guess he, like most, is used to those changes from playing Tutu/Trilogy extensively before the EEs were released.

    Never used Tutu.
  • RawgrimRawgrim Member Posts: 621
    Bigfish said:

    Rawgrim said:



    The reason why I want them gone is that I want my EE game to pretty much be the classic version with a zoom in\out feature.

    Well, you're definitely not getting that anyway with all the changes imported back from BG2. There's a whole bunch of stuff pretty integral to a "classic" experience that you're missing out on anyway, like the inventory screen specifically not being paused and by virtue of that your quick slots being much more important, all the changes to various values like how much gold it takes to raise your reputation, all the newly added spells, changes to spell levels and functions, new magic items littered everywhere, changes to classic companions, and so on.
    Yes I know there are a lot of stuff that can't be removed. I didn't notice any changes to the classic companions though. Not in the BG games anyway. Some of them got turned into political adds in SoD because the writer wanted to virtue-signal a lot, but in the "vanilla" BG games there are no changes.

    I did notice that lame companion marking thing when you select an object, though. If you pick up a plate armour in your inventory some of the companion portraits turn red. Signalling which character you should give it to or not. I guess Beamdog assumes the players are too dumb to know that Imoen and Edwin can't wear plate armour so they have to spoonfeed it to the player.
  • argent77argent77 Member Posts: 3,431
    Just for clarity, the inventory screen not being paused is a trait specific to BG1. BG2 pauses the game as do all EE games. (Afaik, TobEx provides a hack to disable inventory screen pausing in BG2 as well.)

    I'd say character portraits being tinted when you pick up an item is very convenient, especially when spells are involved. It saves me the trouble to right click every spell for every mage in the party to see if it has been scribed already.
    lolienMantis37ThacoBell
  • RawgrimRawgrim Member Posts: 621
    argent77 said:

    Just for clarity, the inventory screen not being paused is a trait specific to BG1. BG2 pauses the game as do all EE games. (Afaik, TobEx provides a hack to disable inventory screen pausing in BG2 as well.)

    I'd say character portraits being tinted when you pick up an item is very convenient, especially when spells are involved. It saves me the trouble to right click every spell for every mage in the party to see if it has been scribed already.

    A toggle for it would have been nice.
  • Papa_LouPapa_Lou Member Posts: 263
    Rawgrim said:

    I did notice that lame companion marking thing when you select an object, though. If you pick up a plate armour in your inventory some of the companion portraits turn red. Signalling which character you should give it to or not. I guess Beamdog assumes the players are too dumb to know that Imoen and Edwin can't wear plate armour so they have to spoonfeed it to the player.

    Or, Beamdog were just helping out new players who may have no idea how the mechanics of such a game work. I was new to the BG franchise a year or two ago, so I would have had no idea Edwin or Imoen couldn't wear heavy armours, especially after playing games like Skyrim, where mages are free to wear anything they want with no downfalls, let alone class restrictions. Who was I to say that this game wasn't similar? It doesn't take long to figure out who can wear what, but with so many classes and kits as well as so many different items, it can sometime be hard to remember who can't use what.

    Sure, it says in the item description what classes can't use what items, but it's at the very bottom, and some players may not think to read the entire text box after seeing that the first three quarters are just immersive information, not relevant to actual gameplay mechanics.

    Then again, I guess this list of incompatible classes meant that Bioware/Black Isle felt the need to spoonfeed players who were too dumb to know the difference.

    I'd argue that people like ThacoBell aren't the ones giving these forums the bad rep you talk about. I see people often coming to these forums with instantly bad attitudes toward Beamdog and anything they do, and heavens forbid there are Beamdog fans willing to support the company and back them up a little.

    I appreciate the fact that you want to play the games your own way, we all do, but with so many people coming to these forums just to bash Beamdog, it can sometimes be difficult to differentiate between the ones who are just salty trolls, and the ones who just dislike certain aspects of the games (which I'm sure everyone on these forums has something they can say they're not too fond of).

    I, for one, am not a fan of the entire gnoll stronghold map. But I'm a big fan of Dynaheir, and also a big fan of playing characters who would love to save someone from a pack of filthy gnolls. If there was a mod that got rid of the stronghold, and put all the goodies within it elsewhere, I'd be the first to download.
    ThacoBell
  • RawgrimRawgrim Member Posts: 621
    Papa_Lou said:

    Rawgrim said:

    I did notice that lame companion marking thing when you select an object, though. If you pick up a plate armour in your inventory some of the companion portraits turn red. Signalling which character you should give it to or not. I guess Beamdog assumes the players are too dumb to know that Imoen and Edwin can't wear plate armour so they have to spoonfeed it to the player.

    Or, Beamdog were just helping out new players who may have no idea how the mechanics of such a game work. I was new to the BG franchise a year or two ago, so I would have had no idea Edwin or Imoen couldn't wear heavy armours, especially after playing games like Skyrim, where mages are free to wear anything they want with no downfalls, let alone class restrictions. Who was I to say that this game wasn't similar? It doesn't take long to figure out who can wear what, but with so many classes and kits as well as so many different items, it can sometime be hard to remember who can't use what.

    Sure, it says in the item description what classes can't use what items, but it's at the very bottom, and some players may not think to read the entire text box after seeing that the first three quarters are just immersive information, not relevant to actual gameplay mechanics.

    Then again, I guess this list of incompatible classes meant that Bioware/Black Isle felt the need to spoonfeed players who were too dumb to know the difference.

    I'd argue that people like ThacoBell aren't the ones giving these forums the bad rep you talk about. I see people often coming to these forums with instantly bad attitudes toward Beamdog and anything they do, and heavens forbid there are Beamdog fans willing to support the company and back them up a little.

    I appreciate the fact that you want to play the games your own way, we all do, but with so many people coming to these forums just to bash Beamdog, it can sometimes be difficult to differentiate between the ones who are just salty trolls, and the ones who just dislike certain aspects of the games (which I'm sure everyone on these forums has something they can say they're not too fond of).

    I, for one, am not a fan of the entire gnoll stronghold map. But I'm a big fan of Dynaheir, and also a big fan of playing characters who would love to save someone from a pack of filthy gnolls. If there was a mod that got rid of the stronghold, and put all the goodies within it elsewhere, I'd be the first to download.
    Which is why a toggle would be nice. Experienced players could just switch that tint off - or it could be tied to difficulty.

    The class restrictions and all that are listed on the screen when you create the character. Playing a d&d game for the first time can be daunting, certainly, but it doesn't require much trying and failing to figure it out either.

    The incompatible classes for items ties into the lore. It is basically the same info you get when you create the character. It is not really "in your face" either, I think. If you forgot why this and that item won't work for your druid you can just right click on it and find out.

    As for Thac0Bell, what I was getting at is that people are way to quick to call people trolls. Meanings and motives gets added to the words of everyone who is critical of things or have a valid complaint. You should have seen the forum when SoD came out. People complained about a bug or whatever and got jumped on by users saying "Sure. What you really mean is that you hate the trans-character, troll!". Stuff like that. That didn't do Beamdog any good and it didn't do the forum any good either. It polarizes things all over the place.

    If someone bashes Beamdog for whatever reason they should be listened to. Not just get them labeled. Bashing isn't always bashing. There is a reason behind it, and sometimes it can even be seen as constructive criticism. Having worked for an RPG developer I can tell you the negative feedback is arguably way more valuable than the positive ones. It basically shows you where you stepped on a mine and where the other mines might be found later. But people going haywire and full blown homophobe and the like should get the spanking they deserve. No question about it.

    The gnoll stronghold is rather underwhelming. The location is cool and all, but I personally felt it was a bit of a drag when I replayed the game. Unless you want Dynaheir with you the area is optional though.
    Papa_Lou
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