Running mods without distorting the game.

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:11 pm

After browsing, a certain mod called "The Darkest Day" caught my interest, with the new kits as well as new landscapes, some even coming from Icewind Dale and Planescape Torment. Those of you that know me on this forum also know that I dislike adding unofficial content to most games. I was wondering if it is possible to run the aforementioned mod separately, having it draw upon the game when need be, but for me to have the vanilla game whenever I want it.

If it's not, please suggest the next best thing.

Also, recommendations to other interesting mods and their official websites are appreciated.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:28 pm

I'm running that mod for the first time successfully, it can be a pain to get running properly.

As you've noted it adds new character classes, which can be a major problem if you have mods that add classes as TDD fills up all the available slots, so you have instant compatibility issues there.

The mod adds extra oppositiion in many places, which I liked as it makes exploration less predictable. None of the monsters have been over the top, but just the extra adds slightly to the difficulty level.

The additional quests and areas are optional, and I've only just started on those. So far so good, but it has run into a scripting problem once, the old 'the NPC didn't finish his speach so I'm going to freeze' problem. That was rather annoying as it was unforeseen and naturally I hadn't saved my game for a while, doesn't it always happen that way.

Some of the added items are a bit OTT, but many of them are tied to the new classes, and you don't have to buy them anyway.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it so far.

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:43 pm

Thanks for the reply.

My game is unmodded, so I shouldn't have any problems with compatibility issues. Does it require you to have the first Baldur's Gate installed?

Is there any way that I can run it and still be able to play the vanilla game whenever I want?

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:47 pm

Does it require you to have the first Baldur's Gate installed?

No

Is there any way that I can run it and still be able to play the vanilla game whenever I want?

Only by having a separate installation of the game, which is true of all BG mods as far as I know. Unlike Morrowind/Oblivion the game was not designed to be modified.

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:06 pm

I see. How about the uninstallation of the mod work? Can I remove it without having to uninstall the game as well?

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:11 pm

In theory, yes, and if it's the only mod you're running then yes in practice too.

PS Is this a very early morning, or an insanely late night for you?

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:33 pm

I see.

What can you tell me about other mods? I don't know many, but I heard about Dark Side of the Sword Coast and Unfinished Business though I do not know what they are about.

What are your favorite mods?

Neither. It's only about nine thirty at night for me. Why do you ask?

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:50 pm

I thought you were in Russia, obviously got confused somewhere.

I haven't played the two mods you mentioned. I had a bad experience with BG Trilogy the other day which resulted in having to do a complete uninstall, delete all the folders and then reinstall! Not a happy camper. Word of warning the only other mod that's had that effect is TDD, but that was when I installed it with a load of other mods already installed.

Mods I use regularly are mostly NPC mods. I love Jan but I've played him to death, Yoshi is old news, so I usually go with either Amber or Fade, both good thief mods.

By the way one of the things I really like about TDD is that you can reunite with many of the folks from BG1.

COM mods I've learned to avoid like the plague, COM is supposed to stand for Chosen of Mystra, Cheesers of Mystra would be far more appropriate. All their NPCs are way unbalnced and far too powerful, their COM Encounters has more cheese than any ten dairies combined!

Item upgrade I like, with reservations, it too can put too powerful items into the game, but it's not too unbalanced IMO.

I'm also running the Nalia romance mod at the moment, so far it's not added any items or changed the basic game very much other than to make Nalia romanceable, which is optional.

Another NPC mod I'm trying for the first time is yasraena, it hasn't been unbalancing so far, but too early to say for sure.

That's about it apart from the G3 Tweakpack, which may change too much for some, but it is all optional.

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 8:03 pm

I am from there and Russian is my native language, but currently I reside in America.

Chosen of Mystra is still around? I remember that I was part of that community before they completely overhauled the base and erased all users. This was a good number of years before I joined GB, though it's not saying much.

How is the Nalia romance in terms of dialog?

Does The Darkest Day follow the original storyline or does it have one of its' own?

Is it mentioned how many hours it adds? So far, how do you find the new classes and items? I read the class descriptions and most of them don't seem too powerful.

Do you know anything about the Solaufein and Improved Anvil mods?

Thanks for answering my questions.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 8:28 pm

The dialog has been OK with Nalia so far, it is clouded slightly by the cultural problems some Americans seem to have with socially aware and caring socialites. Her battle cry is absolutely idiotic and unbelievably nonsensical, but that is from the original game of course. There was one daft speech from the mod to try and establish that anyone who has a socialist viewpoint is a moron, but that's pretty standard fare from that side of the pond. Michael Moore isn't exactly your typical American after all.

TDD doesn't change the main storyline in any way at all from what I've read and seen. I really don't know how much playing time it adds, and from the classes I've seen if anything they're under powered. I made the mistake of playing a Minstrel, in the end I ditched it and went for a good old fashioned Blade.

Solaufin is far too powerful and unbalancing, he totally dominates the party and makes the Bhaalspawn redundant. I haven't tried Improved Anvil.

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 8:39 pm

From your description, this romance looks to be something that I should avoid.

Is there a side story then or were the normal areas changed with those from other games?

About the Ascension and the other restoration mod, wouldn't they make you overpowered? I recall that one of the "Bhaalspawn bonuses" grants you some 25% physical resistance. For certain classes, that would give them an ability to go over a hundred percent while a barbarian could be running around with 65% physical resistance at all times!

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 8:54 pm

I'm currently on a TDD side quest, the first area was a reused Bandit Camp map from BG1, the first dungeon uses maps taken from IWD.

PS Not familair with Ascension I thought it was one of those insane type mods for people that like reloading save games every five minutes because they died, again! I really am not interested in those, I like a reasonable challenge, but dying every five minutes isn't for me.

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:06 pm

So the mod is just a bunch of sidequests then?

Do you find them interesting and something like the game could have easily had?

thebannedone · Post by **thebannedone** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 4:39 pm

The darkest day has lots of sidequests and a main plot. Be warned though that it does change the original game content somewhat by changing the monsters in spawn points, adds custom items to containers, quest ncp's and joinable npcs to original maps etc. Also its not a good idea to play with other people online who dont have it installed, although you can make a copy of your override folder before you installed the mod and some problems might be solved but as i recall tdd adds its content mostly to other places than the override file, so then you'd kinda have to have two separate installs for playing the vanilla game, for most mods though its enough to have two different override folders, one which only has the vanilla content and one where you have your mods installed and just swap around the two, since most mods only add their content to the override folder. I wouldnt go for TDD if you look for anything else than some extra battles to do, as it doesnt really shine on the dialogue side(nor the horrid voice acting!), it did have a puzzle or two i think, dont know if theres any kinda banter from the joinable npc's since i never tried them. The whole mod just felt really unfinished especially the mainplot at the end of it, some of the sidequests were enjoyable enough though couple of times. TDD doesnt add any content to ToB side, except if you bring TDD items over from SoA. Hard to say how many hours it adds but i'd estimate perhaps 10 or so if you do everything in it, i might be totally off though, its been a while since i played with it.

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 5:23 pm

Thank you for your response.

What mods would you, personally, recommend? Which ones are among your favorites?

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 9:48 pm

Well I've gone much deeper into TDD now, only one mega quest to do.

If you pursue all the side quest I'd say it adds at least 4-5 hours and probably closer to TheBannedOnes 10 hour estimate, depending on how many of the side quests you do.

I would suggest after playing most of it that you only do one or two at the most each run through, it's not so much because of the added items but the vast amount of added XP. If you do all of TDD's quests it would be better to view it as a replacement for all the voluntary quests in SoA, not as addons. I've reached the stage where I have C.3.5million XP, and although I've done all the underdark I've not done the Ring of Gaxx questline, the Unseeing Eye, Twisted Rune, Mindflayer Strongold (either). the only stronghold quest I've done is D'Arnise Keep, haven't touched the Planar Sphere or even rescued Haer'D.

All this with a full party too:

Branwen 3.2m XP, Yasraena (Drow Fighter) 3.3m XP, Imoen (Straight Ninja) 3.1m XP, Nalia 3.4m XP and Mazzy 2.6m XP, Me (Blade) 3.5m XP.

Clearly if I do all the other quests I'd be hitting well over 4m each, far too much even for a power monger like me. Result, party abandoned, PC and Nalia cuddled up in bed together for the duration, someone else can save the world.

It was fun though, first time in years I've played the game not knowing exactly what was around the corner.

A lot of vary hard work went into making that mod and I tip my hat to the modder. Bear in mind the mod was released before ToB and you start to appreciate what a great job the guy did.

Crenshinibon · Post by **Crenshinibon** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:26 pm

I see.

Does the mod change the classes of your NPCs or do you do that yourself, through Shadowkeeper?

How is Yasraena? What are your impressions of her now that she's been you for longer?

Do the NPCs from the first BG have dialog as well? If so, does it stay true to them? Do you meet them scattered all over the world?

Does Xzar being able to join you interfere with the "Harpers'" quest?

All of the mod's quests are available in chapter two or are they scattered throughout the game?

Are there any new or altered high level abilities? Like wouldn't the ninja be able to wear armor if he/she could attain the use any item ability (since the class draws from the thief pool, or so I assume).

Saros · Post by **Saros** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 2:33 am

Crenshinibon wrote:
Is it mentioned how many hours it adds? So far, how do you find the new classes and items? I read the class descriptions and most of them don't seem too powerful.

Do you know anything about the Solaufein and Improved Anvil mods?

Thanks for answering my questions.

I've played the Darkest Day a long time ago, and it was fun at first, but later it became annoying: it has a lot of bugs and also is quite easy, with all of the new items and spells.

I haven't played with Sola, but from what I hear, I probably never will - he's too overpowered.

As for the Improved Anvil, I've recently completed successfully the latest version 5.0 with a solo character, and I might say, I liked it a lot. It seems very well balanced, with lots of powerful items which all have their drawbacks(for instance, UAI doesn't work for almost any of the new items which this mod adds to the game), some new and very powerful kits, and many new tactical challenges, not to mention new quests and subquests. In fact, IA re-makes the entire game. But this is indeed a mod for experienced players, and it will require a lot of reloading until you learn how to play it.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 2:53 am

Crenshinibon wrote:Does the mod change the classes of your NPCs or do you do that yourself, through Shadowkeeper?

I changed Imoen back to what she was, sort of, in my run through BG1. I did however take advantage of the Ninja class for her which did come with TDD. When I got her back in Spellhold I again used SK to restore her to how she was at the end of Chateau Irenicus.

Crenshinibon wrote:How is Yasraena? What are your impressions of her now that she's been you for longer?

Since we rescued her boyfriend she's been very quiet actually, never had much dialog at all which surprised me. No banter, no romance; the only time she says anything is if you trigger her dialog by moving her to the front or give her a task. She's a very good fighter, but only uses short swords, which is a drag. To be honest I'd have to say she's a waste of time.

Crenshinibon wrote:Do the NPCs from the first BG have dialog as well? If so, does it stay true to them? Do you meet them scattered all over the world?

I don't know about the dialog, I'm about to find out though. Yes they are scattered about, but you can find a walkthrough at Sorcerer's place that will tell you were to find them

Crenshinibon wrote:Does Xzar being able to join you interfere with the "Harpers'" quest?

According to the walkthrough it doesn't, and actually makes use of that quest, gettting the dynamic duo comes after Xaar's apparent demise.

Crenshinibon wrote:All of the mod's quests are available in chapter two or are they scattered throughout the game?

They are available in C.2, but I didn't actually start on them undil C.6, rescuing Imoen was my first priority after clearing out D'Arnise Hold.

Crenshinibon wrote:Are there any new or altered high level abilities? Like wouldn't the ninja be able to wear armor if he/she could attain the use any item ability (since the class draws from the thief pool, or so I assume).

Not that I'm aware of, the mod predates ToB, so I doubt it. The Ninja is indeed a thief subclass and does get UAI.

I've played the Darkest Day a long time ago, and it was fun at first, but later it became annoying: it has a lot of bugs and also is quite easy, with all of the new items and spells.

I didn't actually find it that easy actually in some places, especially toward the end of the mega quest. Once I got the mod running properly I only encountered one buggy area. In that area it was crashing to desktop every time I tried to sleep more than once. Fortunately I always press Q then Z at bed time, so no big deal. I am using the latest version though, which I imagine has had some of the bugs that Saros referred to ironed out.

PS I actually used another mod to get Branwen into the game, and she came with dialog, but no banter.