Alright I'm looking for input on this. It would be a very hard mod to make, practically changing all of the quests in SoA and completely rewriting ToB (probably wouldn't take it through to ToB, too hard) and I'm not sure if anyone would like it, but I thought of it yesterday and it seemed interesting enough, so here goes.

*Possible small spoilers if you haven't finished SoA*

I'd like to make a mod where you can play as a henchman for Irenicus, following the opposite end of the storyline through SoA, working against the protagonist. For example, in Chapter 1 you could be responsible for keeping the Shadow Thieves out of Irenicus's dungeon while he experiments on the protagonist and Imoen. Then we he/she escapes you could be responsible for tracking him/her down and making sure he/she makes it to Spellhold while Irenicus prepares up in Brynnlaw. Then in the Underdark you could be the one who helps in stealing Adalon's eggs and helping out the Drow, then work on fighting your way into Suldannesselar (sp?) to get it ready for Irenicus, then you fight along him in the Tree and in Hell. You could have Bodhi and sometimes even Irenicus in your party as your NPCs. Anyways, what do you guys think? It would be hard with many many quests to redo and practically all the dialouge. Not that many areas to make though. It would be fun to continue it through ToB too but the story would have to be completely rewritten and would be basically a different game, so that would be kinda impractical. So, any input? Would this be too hard? Would anyone even want to play it? All suggestions are welcome. :)

[ July 14, 2003, 07:20: Message edited by: Arian ]

I really like the idea and I would love to play it. But in my opinion that's too hard. I never made any mods though so don't pay any attention to me :D . It's a good idea anyway. And if you decide to make it, keep me posted!

Well it wasn't really mean to be a one person project, especially for me since I've done very little modding before. :D Who knows, it might be too hard. I just wanted to get some oppinions. Thanks for your input, anyone else?

I think your best bet would be to introduce it later in the game - or just through chapters one and two or something. Because the whole game would be too hard.

Maybe you could suggest it to Ineterplay(Bioware?), and then they could make some kind game completely opposite. Like Half-Life:Opposing Force was...

Just a suggestion :)

@ 8people
Yeah that would be easier but I'm not a big fan of short games and seeing as how this is almost a new game, I wouldn't have time to develop a storyline out of it. I kinda want to delve more into Irenicus's character. Even though we all know what troubles him if we've beat SoA, we can't know everything he's thiking because he is the antagonist after all. If I do this, it's gonna be big.

@ Daephon
Well I think it'd be a very long time if Bioware did it because surely they aren't sitting idle right now, they're making something. They'd have to finish that before they would even consider my idea. Plus half the fun would be building it and like I said above, I think it would be cool to have the fan's interpretation of Irenicus, rather than Bioware's. It would be fun, if it finished, to send it to Bioware and see how close we got to what they built Irenicus around. Nice idea, but I want to build it, not have it built.

Any other comments?

As an alternate suggestion... it sounds like a fabulous fanfic.

Hmm it is an interesting idea but surely the fights (till the finaly fight anyway) would be a little like this:

Protagonist and his party walk past.
Henchman: Hey You! Stop!
Henchman draws sword.
Protagonist and party fight, henchman is defeated.
Irenicus arrives
Irenicus: You gibbering idiot! You let them get away! Again! Oh well I think i'll come with you!
Irenicus joins the Henchman's party
Henchman: Let's go!
Irenicus: Yes, *grudgingly* sir.
next chapter the party turn up again Etc.

Since if protagonist is killed that's it game won so you would only be able to lose every battle to further the story. Kinda odd IMO. Because you won't be rushing off doing good deeds and side quests and you won't be fighting monsters because they are either on your side or you don't go near them. The largest number of foes you would be fighting at once would be 6, unless the party consisted of all the NPC's lol. It could work but it would be very hard to make it sensible.

Oh and yes it would make an excellent fan fic, possibly as the 'The Diary of a Disgruntled Guard' or something like that.

Hm, wouldn't you have to make a couple new joinable NPCs then, because I certainly don't see Minsc fighting CHARNAME...

Well I wouldn't be using the same NPCs as the protagonist uses. He would have his own party, probably all from BG1, to make it realistic. And just because you win the battle doesn't mean protagonist has to die. And you wouldn't truly face off with the protagonist till Tree probably. Like I said up top, mostly helping Irenicus prepare and secure various deals (Drow, Vampires, etc. etc.) So would anyone be willing to help contribute (even if just to the plot) to the mod? Thanks for all the input.

I think the idea sounds really good !
One question, though: how would you handle alignment ? Somehow, I do not see a Lawful Good PC helping out Irenicus... :D
And I would be ready to help you, little as I could (no experience whatsoever in writing mods, but I guess every bit helps).

Actually, you'd have to do more work on the areas than you think. You'd need to rescript every area in the game that could be visited.

You'd need to redo all the dialogue (as you said) as well as there's no practical way to make this compatible with any other mods.

I can't see any of the sidequests being present in the conversion. You may add your own quests, but the antagonist certainly wouldn't be undertaking the same quests as the protagonist.

Yeah, I guess it's going to take a lot of work.
But, just as Kralizek said, I would be ready to help you. No mod experience but maybe I can help in one way or the other.

@ Rastor
When I said not much area work, I meant completely new areas, should have worded it better. I know a lot of work would have to be done to the existing areas, but it's all scripting, which is, IMHO, easier than making up new areas altogether (then scripting those as well). And yes I'd have to make new quests. Some quests might be able to be done with the antagonist though, I'd have to think on it.

@ Kralizek
Yeah the alignment issue would probably have to be solved by making you have to be Chaotic Neutral or lower, unless anyone can think of a good reason why a Paladin would help Irenicus. :confused:

As for it not being compatible with other mods, other than things like Ease of Use and mods that add kits, no it probably wouldn't be. I'd hopefully make it so when you started a new game you could pick whether to play the normal game or the antagonist game, but that might be messing around with a lot of hard coded stuff in the game. All in all, this might be too impractical, but I'm still looking to see if anyone has bright ideas to pull it off. Thanks for the input everyone.