Icewind dale spells

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So far as I have looked there isn't a mod that converts the icewind dale spells too the BGII engine.

Is this because I'm lazy/bad at at searching or is this an insurmountable challenge to all those incredible mod-makers?

 

You think so Taluntain? If it's gloryhunting the Icewind dale spells would have a very noticeable effect on gameplay in practically every encounter. Shouldn't that be more ego satisfying then creating an npc hardly anyone will bother to play?
I suppose it's not the same as creating something from scratch, but that didn't stop the Tutu people.

When I play Icewind dale All the additional spells change the tactical situation so much. It would be so nice to run them into seqeuncers. contigencies et al. I also generally find the animations more inspiring.
I can't be the only one who finds the lack of decent second level druid spells really annoying in Baldur-series.

As a modignoramus. Why is converting it hard? The games looks so similar to me that I imagine that it would be rather easy to make an automatic converter.

 

The Cleric Remix mod from http://www.gibberlings3.net brings some of the Priest spells from Icewind Dale, such as Moonblade and Alicorn Lance, into BG2.

 

I have a mod which prettyfies spell casting. Essentially you get IceWind Dale casting graphics, which were dependent on the school of the spell you are casting.
I aught to admit, Magic Missile never looked so good.

Its probably one of the G3 mods, perhaps the G3Tweaks. Andyr or Simding0 should know better.

 

It's the G3 Tweak Pack that adds the IWD casting graphics, yes.

And converting IWD spells isn't really that hard. The more difficult part is actually making new icons to fit the BG2 style (which, I might add, Cleric Remix does an excellent job of).

 

Thanks for your response people.

Andyr, I’ve skimmed through the readme. But couldn’t find the Alicorn’s lance is there a list of spells converted? If they are, I assume they could be added to the druids spell list with shadowkeeper?

Simding0, the icons are the hard part? But the symbols look the same to me, except that they are color coded.

Actually when I play Icewind dale I’m baffled that so little of the beautiful stuff is implemented in BGII. Look at the animations for Grease, Chain ligtning or Horrid wilting and compare them to the BGII counterpart. You wouldn’t think BGII is the more recent game. I’m just curios did the designer keep the more understated animations to give it a feeling of continuation from the original game?

Personally I prefer just about every detail in Icewind dale, the rogues evasion, the cool paladin abilities, bardsongs that actually gives options!
The only thing I miss are the spells, the sorcerer, and of course the really crucial part, the lack of a nonlinear world and character interaction.

On another note is there some tweak that takes away the autopause in the inventory? I always like to clean up the backpacks while my party is trekking.

 

Actually IceWind Dale came after BG II:SoA. TotLM came way after BG II:ToB iirc. So they probably had more time to think about how to make cooler spell animations.
Plus once you have established a game world and its mechanics, you can really go about changing the entire thing in an expansion. So ToB didn't take anything from IWD.

 

@Shrikant

Not quite. IWD was released before SOA, then HOW, then ToB, then TotLM iirc.

But IWD was definitely before BGII; I remember in a re-review of it the summary was something like "Not bad as a game on its own, but still feels like 'the game they made before BGII.' " ...which always stuck with me as a quote. No clue why, but now I've found a use for it

Besides, there is some IWD content already in BGII, like Ice Golems, which you can see if you flick through the models with the CheatKeys. So there was some interaction with the two games... I think it was a conscious decision to keep the slightly less spectacular animations. At ToB levels particularly, the average number of spells going on at any time would make the screen fairly messy and pretty choppy on a lot of systems.

 

I'm not sure they're in the ReadMe but now you mention it it might be a good idea to mention them at some point for the next version. There is a list in this thread in the mod's forum: http://forums.gibberlings3.net/index.php?showtopic=2203

The colours need to be changed, and the backgrounds are different. I don't think it is necessarily that hard, but the BAM (animation files) editing tools are old and don't work for all modders. Plus not all of us are graphically any good, I know I'm not. CamDawg is, though, and he's done the existing ones in Cleric Remix.

A few people have thought of making a mod to port some of the school spell animations over as replacements, yeh. But nothing's been done yet...

In future versions of Song and Silence we hope to add multiple bard songs for truclass Bards. Paladins may also get some treatment in future versions of Cleric Remix.

I don't think that is possible.

 

Thank you for your replies Andyr.

The spells could be given to a druid with shadowkeeper as a spell it’s not a special ability?

The colours need to be changed, and the backgrounds are different.

You are probably laughing at my ignorance now, but even I could turn a symbol white or pink in photoshop.
And background shouldn’t that just be copy paste?

I don't think that is possible.

And yet this is the case in both the original and the ID series. What did they do with the pause window?

I find the IE modding subject very fascinating. Is there a theoretical overview somewhere that skim around questions like mine?

 

About icons and photoshop: It'd be easy if the files were .jpgs or something, but they're not, they are in a format called .BAM. The few tools to edit them which have been developed don't work on many modders' computers (which is one of the big problems).

Although I have heard rumour of a plugin for photoshop to allow .BAM editing, which would make things a lot easier.

For overviews of modding, I think the best place to go would be the Tutorials boards of http://forums.gibberlings3.net and http://forums.pocketplane.net - while they are pretty technical, the G3 link has a kit creation tutorial in particular which explains more of the "what is possible" stuff than some others. You might also try http://iesdp.gibberlings3.net for an overview of the file structures the various games use.

As for the pause thing, yeah, they changed the engine a little between games but it's not something modders can switch back, really.

 

Well ther is no need for Ice wind dale spells, but İce wind dale itself needs Baldur's Gate's magnificiently rich spells!
The extra spells in İWD are some icy spells or less useful spells. Some are fancy but not powerfull compared to BG2's spells.
BG2 has contingencies, uber protection and protection removing spells, timestop plus high level spells in TOB and more that I can not remember right know.
So, can BG2 spells be converted into İWD?
Spell effects are good in BG2, a bit too fancy in İWD. Plus these differences make the two game series different and unique.

 

Just wanted to pop in for a moment, as I missed this thread the first time around.

The icons are actually fairly easy IMO, as are most of the opcode conversions. (I wrote a tool to convert most opcodes automatically for me when I ported the spells for CR; it saved oodles of time.) There are two significant problems with porting IWD spells into BG2. Many of the niftier IWD spells use unique, hardcoded opcodes which do not have equivalents in the BG2 variant of the Infinity Engine. The other issue is that many also use hardcoded, custom projectiles and projectile graphics. While these can be overcome, it's often difficult to faithfully port IWD spells without compromising them to an unsatisfactory degree.

 

Silverstar,

Some are fancy but not powerfull compared to BG2's spells.

Personally I'm not that found of the out of line spells like project image etc. Most IW spells are fun and gives more options. And I disagree, even for pure powergaming it would be hard to beat two snow balls swarms in a sequencer, or say three lances of disruptions in a spelltrigger.

But it's the druid that feels most short changed to me comperatively. I miss the spikes and the cloudburst and the wave.

Spell effects are good in BG2, a bit too fancy in IWD.

IMO, magic should be fancy. Most spell animations in BGII are so bland that that I wonder what happened.


I think I see the problem CamDawg. but your explanation makes me wonder why IE people choose the hard coding approach.
If they made a feature that was a big success they would give themselves more work, converting. And reusing things like spell animations between games should come naturally for a company on a budget.

 

Well, I like snowball swarm, ice lance, lance of disruption etc, but I would prefer BG's spells like triggers, contingencies, timestop, imprisonment, and all powerful abjuration school!

Think about enemy mages in IWD2 and BG2.
In IWD2, high level spellcasters are not too powerful, at least not in my game, they never cast a KILLER spell like disintegrate, finger of death, wail of the banshee etc. They act like stupid! (ONLY EXCEPTION is the Lich, he casts Wail of the Banshee if you LET him!!! Boy, even the so powerful Saablic Tan is NOTHING without his party!) They cast some basic protections, summon a few things, then some low damage spells and then they are already dead!

But, in BG2, a single high level caster is a SERIOUS threat as it should be! All those chain contingencies, SERIOUS illusion spells such as simulacrums, misleads etc, symbol spells that will render fighters useless, all too powerful time stop and insta kill spells such as Disintegrate, Finger of Death Wail of the Banshee, uber summoning spells and much, much more! You spend a few rounds and spells to just dispel their HEAVY protections, and even then they can cast more! The casters are so versatile and smart, I almost cried when the Lich DİSİNTEGRATED Minsc when it was near death and I had to reload.
I guess everybody agrees that BG2 mages are far more deadlier than IWD2!!!

What I mean IWD2 spells too fancy, my PC gets slowed down easily on a battle with many spellcasters.LOL!

One serious thing I hate about IWD2 is the Flesh to stone spell, the spell creates a statuette, but GROSS it moves!(buggy) Then it is destroyed in a few seconds and gone! Though your party members can still be revived.
THIS IS NOT THE USE OF THE SPELL!
In BG2, a petrified victim stays like statue for eternity, and if some reason it is damaged, it is smashed and the victim is LOST forever! Now, this is nasty. I remember poor Nalia petrified by an Elder Orb, then during the battle, a fireball hit her statuette and she was GONE! (reload)
Elder Orbs are so frightening! One started to run to me, I didn't bother as I had stoneskin and I thought it is going to bite me! But the thing actually casted a quick IMPRISONMENT on me and I was GONE!!!

BG2 spells are better scripted, richer, more powerful and useful then pure IWD2 spells!