BG2--which mods?

[triggercut]

Ok.

This time, I'm gonna do it, and I really mean it!!!



Christmas shopping is done. Work will be back to normal in a week.

I'm sitting here with all four BG2 discs and Throne of Bhaal (saw it a month ago in my EB for waaaaay cheap). I'm going to play this game past the first two chapters, and I will, too.

Any mods that are essential? I know about the Baldurdash one, and also dungeon-be-gone. Those I'll take care of (I've done Irenicus' dungeon more times than Tommy Lee's done Pam Anderson....). What else should I be looking into adding to upgrade my fun?

jcompton? You there???

[bluefugue]

I think The Darkest Day is supposed to be one of the big ones, though I haven't played it myself.

Have fun... BG2 is one of my favorite CRPG experiences.

[Freezer-TPF-]

I played the whole thing pre-mods, so I can't help you there but BG2 + Throne of Bhaal is a great epic experience -- so stick with it this time! I guess a lot of folks get bogged down in Ch. 2 because it can be looooong if you try to finish every available quest before proceeding, but if you get to a point where you are ready to move on, I think many of the quests can be picked up later if you want to matriculate the story down the field. (Yes, I'm ready for some football today.)

I was going to go out to finish my last scraps of shopping today, but last night I finally got the gravity gun in HL2 sooo . . . yeah, that shopping will have to wait until Monday. Just a quick run for wrapping paper in a few minutes so I can start wrapping in front of football games, then it's going to be a heavy dose of Ravenholm for me.

[bluefugue]

Chapter 2 is long, but man, that's one of the sweet spots in all CRPG gaming... wide open, more subquests than you know what to do with, variety of NPC's to choose from... but still feeling that there is a story underneath it and a larger goal.

[triggercut]

If jcompton happens by...

Is there a version of "Dungeon Be Gone" that is compatible with Bhaal?

Or, can I install SoA, the final patch for that, the Baldurdash fixes, then the DBG...play, save, and then install ToB with all it's patches?

[jcompton]

If jcompton happens by...

Is there a version of "Dungeon Be Gone" that is compatible with Bhaal?

Or, can I install SoA, the final patch for that, the Baldurdash fixes, then the DBG...play, save, and then install ToB with all it's patches?

Hang on a sec.

DBG works with SOA or SOA+TOB installs.

Here's your basic install order:

SOA
TOB
TOB Patch
Baldurdash
One Non-WeiDU mod (although I don't really recommend them)
WeiDU mods

There's a long thread of different mod package recommendations on PPG. This one, I'm fairly well in tune with:

http://forums.pocketplane.net/index.php ... #msg232562

As for what's essential, it depends on your play style. For instance...

Banter Packs: Useless if you only play with self-rolled characters, but to me that ruins a lot of the point of BG2, the NPCs.
Flirt Packs: Useless if you don't play a Bioware NPC romance
Ascension: ...although it _does_ make the endgame overall harder. I'll recommend that you _not_ install the Redemption add-on for Ascension your first time through since it rather abruptly (and in my view, bizarrely) changes the tone of the TOB endgame.
Kelsey and/or Keto: Back to plugging my own work. Keto's not ready to be played in the TOB portion of the game yet, but I do happen to think they're both well-made NPCs, and they have the advantage of interacting with each other, whcih is somewhat tricky to arrange in a party with multiple NPC mods.

Other generally-agreed upon bits include Unfinished Business, Improved Oasis II, some components of tweak packs such as Ease Of Use, G3 Tweaks, Ding0Tweak, and Oversight. Then there's Virtue... the list goes on, you can browse that thread and the modlist and check in if you have additional questions.

[triggercut]

Thanks much!

I was actually on my way back here to answer my own dumb DBG question. It fouled me up initially because I installed ToB over an installation of DBG. Reinstalling everything in that order took care of things.

I use the npc's in the game instead of pre-rolling my own party, so I'll check the new NPC mods out. I think I have enough to get started on, though I'll probably eventually have more questions.

The time for liberal amounts of butt-kicking is at hand Boo!

[rrmorton]

Jeez, now I'm getting tempted. I like to be thorough and do everything and talk to everbody before progressing in a game so BG2 chapter 2 proved incredibly daunting for me and I quickly gave up.

Seeing it win the Best Game Of All Time competish over at Console Gold had me considering a second stab at it. I could even play it on my laptop and take it with me to Ohio for Christmas week. Hmmmm. But I would definitely need to adjust my anal play style into a more casual, freeform approach. Unfortunately, I don't have Throne of Baal so I might have to track that down first.

[triggercut]

Ok. Here's what I'm going with for my first chuck through:

Baldurdash's bug fixes and text fixes. Oughta be mandatory and obvious.

Virtue. Combining "virtue" with "reputation" just makes sense to me; can't understand why the Bioware folks split them.

Banter pack.

Flirt pack.

Keto and Kelsey. Hopefully in a couple of months when I finally get to ToB, maybe some Keto content will be added for it.

I'm snagging about three things from the Ease of Use. Still trying to decide whether to use the Grandmaster "fix" or not. Seems logical, but haven't seen anyone recommend it.

ding0's tweaks.

g3 tweaks, or most of them. The ones that allow all to have weapon styles, stealth in full armor (yeah, riiiiiight) and casting in armor I'm not.

Here we go!

[knob]

Have fun and stick with it. The game is so worth it. I was a little burned out by the time I got to ToB, but after a 2 week break, I came back and finished that off, too.

I'm almost tempted to play through it again. I did it completely unmodded last time, maybe I should mod a few things this time.