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Ineth

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About Ineth

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  • Mods Worked On
    IWD:EE Portrait Variations

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  1. Ineth

    Walkthrough

    I've published a walkthrough for the quest content of this mod here: Angelo NPC walkthrough
  2. I also enjoyed the over-the-top "Evil Archsorcerer" quest-line (which was removed in Roxanne's version), and have reviewed it here: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/75761/mod-spotlight-planar-sphere-mod/p1 It would be great if someone could port the original Planar Sphere mod (2.6c + BigWorldFixpack patches) to EET, instead of only having Roxanne's stripped-down version in the EET compatibility list. EDIT: Here is the direct download link to version 2.6e_beta of the mod, which seems to have the BigWorldFixpack patches already applies: http://www.shsforums.net/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=22880
  3. Congrats on the release! Does this mean that SCS v31 is officially compatible with Spell Revisions? Or is Revised SCS still the better version for SR?
  4. The "Quickly Converting Line Endings" step should no longer be needed, now that the BW Fixpack converts line ending on-the-fly.
  5. I don't have a grand vision, just some comments: 1) Moderate monster level increases, like you suggested, sound good. E.g. instead of "level 4" skeletons, you may meet "level 8" skeletons. 2) Give them the better HP/Thac0/Damage that they're supposed to have at the new level, but refrain from additional stat increases and immunities beyond that, to avoid breaking immersion and player know-how for beating specific enemy types. If every little goblin is as durable and hard-hitting as an Adamantine Golem and immune to magic, that's just silly - even if your party is strong enough to beat them, it would feel ridiculous. (This is also why I don't like the Heart of Fury mode.) 3) Rather than increasing monster levels too much, just replace some monsters with stronger but similar ones. E.g.: Imbued Wight [low] --> Vampire [mid] --> Lich [high] Tiny IWD "Skeleton" animation [low] --> same but higher level [mid] --> Big BG2 "Skeleton Warrior" animation [high] This way, it won't feel weird that the enemies are tougher: Players will recognize the more dangerous monsters and adjust tactics accordingly. I think vanilla BG2 does something similar in the Temple of Amaunator: If you visit it with a high-level party, some of the undead parties in the side chambers have a lich. 4) Similar to the previous point: Mix in some rare tougher monster variants in addition to the normal ones. E.g. a group of normal trolls could get one or two Spirit Trolls added to their ranks, and a group of mundane undead could get a Demon Knight (from BG2 Underdark fame) to join them. Since these kinds of monsters are meant to be more rare, I wouldn't use them to replace weaker monsters across the board, just as an addition. 5) In case of monsters that come in groups, such as trolls, the group sizes could be increased. (Not too much though, because again, it shouldn't feel silly.) 6) Give monsters better ammo. E.g. instead of plain Arrows, the Skeleton Archers would all fire Arrows +2 at you.
  6. @agb1: Nice. What thread is appropriate to discuss this / help with testing? The 'official' BWP Fixpack thread over at SHS seems to have died down a long time ago.
  7. There seems to be quite some overlap between this, and the BiG-World-Fixpack git repo. Both port abandoned mods to the EE engine (e.g. by adding HANDLE_CHARSETS and removing bogus REQUIRE_FILE checks), and - at least some of the time - add Mac & Linux compatibility (e.g. by replacing custom batch code with HANDLE_AUDIO and HANDLE_TILESETS). This means that in order to install old mods on the EE (even without EET), users like me should now look in both of those git repos for possible patches. Have you considered joining efforts with the BiG World dudes and adding your fixes to the BiG-World-Fixpack (which despite the name can be used separately from BiG-World-Setup)? That way, we would have a single git repo with modernization/compatibility patches for abandoned mods, making things simpler for players and avoiding duplication of efforts on your end. (In case of non-abandoned mods, the preferable solutions is of course to get the mod author to add EE and EET support to the mod and release a new version.)
  8. Wow, that worldmap looks amazing. Makes me want to try out EET! Some comments on the IWD areas: ID2000 (Kuldahar Pass) should in my opinion be closer to ID2100 (Kuldahar). I realize it has a travel distance of 8 hours coded in the original game, but I've always considered that a bug. The in-game lore tells us that the circle of warmth radiating from the Kuldahar tree normally reaches Kuldahar Pass (and it does in IWD2 - it's just that in IWD1 the tree is weakened due to main plot reasons), and that the farms there are usually worked by Kuldahar villagers. So a travel distance of 30 minutes, with appropriate worldmap placement, would be more appropriate. ID3000 (Vale of Shadows) should be a bit closer to Kuldahar as well. The in-game lore tells us that it's the only other worldmap destination which Kuldahar villagers occasionally visit by themselves. (Also, think of Lysan who works as a barmaid in Kuldahar but does secret evil stuff in the Vale of Shadows during her spare time). It's not a large vale, so placing it in between some of the little peaks in the Spine of the World would do fine. ID6000, ID7000, ID8001 (the three Dorn's Deep areas) should probably be closer together and a bit farther away from Kuldahar. ID5000 (Severed Hand) would be much more iconic and easier to recognize if its picture showed a sketch of the actual tower, instead of the bridge at its base. EDIT: This stylized map from the "Survival Guide to the North" PDF manual that comes with IWD:EE, includes a depiction of the Severed Hand tower that could be turned into a map icon. ID9500 (Gloomfrost) is shown on top of the "Kelvin's Cairn" mountain, but this Forgotten Realms map places it farther away. The original IWD:HoW worldmap does make it look like Gloomfrost is on Kelvin's Cairn, but that map is more artistic than accurate, and one might also interpret Gloomfrost to be behind Kelvin's Cairn on that map, the same way that Easthaven (ID1100) is behind the mountain it's painted on in the original IWD worldmap. I also vaguely remember it being suggested in the game that the Gloomfrost is farther to the East, but I'm not sure anymore. Will have to keep a look out for relevant info on my next HoW playthrough.
  9. I too found the non-dispellable Acid/Fire Shield to be a major nuisance in SCS battles, since pretty much every lowly no-name mageling uses them. Breach not dispelling them makes sense (it already does enough), but Pierce Shield - being such a high-level spell - probably should. (Not to mention that its name literally mentions "shields".) And adding an extra mid-level spell which only dispells specific protections, would also be nice. PS: The v4 beta link I have hasn't been updated in 6 months, is that correct? Is there a newer link?
  10. Regarding EE compatibility The same issue as in the item_rev mod applies. In the English translation, this is only a very minor issue for this mod, e.g. the following text Spell Memorized: 1° Cure Light Wounds (x2), Entangle (x2), Shillelagh, Doom 2° Barkskin, Charm Person or Animal (x2), Resist Fire and Cold, Slow Poison 3° Call Lightning, Hold Person or Animal, Summon Insects 4° Animal Summoning IV is rendered like this: (note the missing degree signs). However, I suspect that in other translations that use more non-ASCII characters, it's a much bigger problem. Similarty to the item_rev case linked above, It can be fixed by patching spell_rev/setup-spell_rev.tp2 to change this block near the top: ALWAYS OUTER_PATCH ~~ BEGIN PATCH_INCLUDE ~spell_rev/sr_settings.ini~ END END to this: ALWAYS // Make sure strings are correctly encoded for both EE and non-EE games ACTION_DEFINE_ARRAY tra_reload BEGIN arcane divine setup END LAF HANDLE_CHARSETS INT_VAR infer_charset = 1 STR_VAR tra_path = EVAL ~%MOD_FOLDER%~ reload_array = tra_reload END OUTER_PATCH ~~ BEGIN PATCH_INCLUDE ~spell_rev/sr_settings.ini~ END END PS: Oh, and you'll have to bundle iconv.exe (like the "Edwin Romance" mod does) for it to work on Windows.
  11. Regarding EE compatibility The following tra files bundled with this mod contain non-ASCII characters: They use the CP1252 and CP1251 character encodings as the original BG2 requires. However BG2:EE expects all of them to be encoded in UTF-8 - otherwise the offending strings either show up incorrectly (e.g. "Faern" or "Faer�n" instead of "Faerûn"), or actually cause the game to crash when the text in question is about to be displayed. To satisfy both BG2 and BG2:EE, HANDLE_CHARSETS can be used - e.g. in item_rev/item_rev.tp2 change this block: ALWAYS OUTER_PATCH ~~ BEGIN PATCH_INCLUDE ~item_rev/settings.ini~ END END to this: ALWAYS // Make sure strings are correctly encoded for both EE and non-EE games ACTION_DEFINE_ARRAY tra_reload BEGIN setup description_updates END LAF HANDLE_CHARSETS INT_VAR infer_charset = 1 STR_VAR tra_path = EVAL ~%MOD_FOLDER%/languages~ reload_array = tra_reload END OUTER_PATCH ~~ BEGIN PATCH_INCLUDE ~item_rev/settings.ini~ END END Looking at the installed strings with NearInfinity, confirms that making this change does indeed fix the "Faer�n" vs "Faerûn" case in the English version. (Haven't tested it with the other languages, but it should be able to handle all of them.) PS: Oh, and you'll have to bundle iconv.exe (like the "Edwin Romance" mod does) for it to work on Windows.
  12. Oh, interesting, I just assumed it was from IR. Never mind then.
  13. The Two-Handed Sword conjured by the "Enchanted Weapon" Spell has an incorrect name string: Also, two suggestions about that spell: It would be nice if the descriptions of the conjured weapons listed their actual stats. The spell is over-powered at the beginning of the game - e.g. it turned the Improved Ilyich battle (of Weimer's Tactics mod) from 'insane' to 'quite manageable'. Maybe instead of giving the weapons a flat +3 enchantment, it should scale with caster level? Alternatively, maybe players should only be allowed to have one such weapon at the same time.
  14. The "item abilities" for the Hatchet are not terribly descriptive: Should probably say something like "ranged" vs "melee". Or maybe "Hatchet" vs "Throwing Hatchet".
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