In order to make things more interesting, and to accommodate my personal preferences, I will be installing a number of mods prior to this play through. Here's the list of the ones I decided on:
BALDURDASH: This isn't a "mod" as much as it is an unofficial patch. It fixes a vast number of bugs, glitches and potential exploits that were overlooked by Bioware's official updates. This is, of course, being added for the sake of game stability, and to prevent all temptation with regards to the aforementioned exploits. We all know that we're not supposed to have two rings of Gaxx, but it is oh so very sweet.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS: I like this mod. It adds a lot of little things, nothing too intrusive, but enough to make the game that much more enjoyable. If nothing else, Minsc deserves to have a side-quest of his own, which this mod provides.
The only component of this that I will not be adding is the one that adds Artemis Entreri to Bodhi's Lair, because I've heard that this can behave rather buggily at times…and frankly there isn't anything to it. He's just there with Bodhi and he tries to kill you. No dialogue, no snappy repartee between him and Drizzt should you choose to recruit him…nothing. It doesn't even make much sense.
QUEST PACK: Voice-acting aside, I like this one too. It's really quite similar to Unfinished Business, except that most of it consists of quests and additions designed solely by the modders, rather than things that were (supposedly) going to be in the game but got cut.
In all honesty, most of the stuff released by Pocket Plane Group ranges from "decent" to "pretty damn good". If you're looking for mods, they should be your first stop. You can't really go wrong.
ZYRAEN'S MISCELLANY: Just for the "Improved Statue of Riddles" component, which basically allows you to answer all 12 riddles in Bodhi's dungeon at once, rather than having to keep going back and clicking on every individual statue, because DAMN that's annoying.
BGII TWEAKS: The aspects of this mod are almost too numerous to list. I'll try and go through some of the more important parts that I'll be using, but as a rule of thumb, I won't be putting in anything overly unbalancing or that makes the game too easy.
All Items Identified: Let's be honest here. The whole aspect of having to identify items is just stupid and annoying. There are next to no cursed items in the game, if you've played through it a few times then you know what they are, and it's stupid to have to go to sleep for eight hours just so you can identify (and therefore use) the shiny new sword you just picked up because nobody's lore value happens to be high enough, and then go to sleep AGAIN because the Identify spell is otherwise useless and you want to cram some more Magic Missiles in there.
Infinite Stacking/Bags of Holding: Inventory management sucks. The ability to stack ammunition, potions, scrolls, etc. infinitely makes it suck a lot less. Also, "bags of holding" refers to things like scroll cases and ammo belts. These were an aspect introduced by the Throne of Bhaal expansion, but unfortunately, they weren't added to the Shadows of Amn portion. They really should have been.
Make +x/+y items consistent: If Daystar says it's a +4 weapon against evil creatures then it should damn well be a +4 weapon against evil creatures.
Happy Party: This one means that your party members will never complain about, or leave because of, your reputation, nor will they fight amongst themselves. I'm going to need this one since I'll be doing a lot of party switching, (I need to complete all the character-specific quests) and trying to keep my reputation in the middle so that nobody throws a hissy fit and runs off is going to be far too much hassle.
Multi-Stronghold: As the name suggests, this one allows you to pick up as many strongholds as you want, regardless (should you so choose) of your character's class. Gotta catch 'em all. Installing this one for the sake of the 100% completion factor. I didn't include this at first because I was concerned that it might be buggy, but what the hey. It's been out for a while and there's been plenty of time for problems to be ironed out. Risks must be taken.
BANTER PACKS: No gameplay elements in this one to speak of. This just makes your characters talk amongst each other more often, relieving the boredom somewhat when you aren't killing stuff.
OVERSIGHT: This one has a variety of components, but the one that most interests me is the one that corrects the alignments of all the creatures in the game. You wouldn't know it to play it, but apparently there are a vast number of people in the game that have alignments they really should not have; Paladins being neutral, for instance. This mod basically fixes the problem.
This might not seem particularly important, but bear in mind that there are certain spells or items that function differently or do not work at all depending on the alignment of what they're being used on. If I end up fighting Paladins and I decide to use Unholy Blight, I'd like it to work.
IMPROVED ANVIL: Ha ha ha no.
No.
Especially not for this,
0 comments:
Post a Comment