Favourite mods

angryguy · Wed, 27th Oct '04, 8:27pm

What are people's favourite mods? It can be so difficult to decide to install anything, especially when you consider it might mess something up. What mods are really worth it? For the record i have at the moment-

Ease of use
Valen
Solafein
Item Upgrade
Ashes of embers
Banter packs
hell trials (not the one by a bioware guy)
G3 tweak pack
D0's tweak pack
Underrepresented items
tactics

Of these, i would recommend ease of use, banter packs and hell trials to anyone. Great stuff. However, tactics is incredibly stupid, and i have only installed the bits to change the new forest areas. Tactics could have been so great, but it was written by such cheese merchants that it is just not fun. Thoughts anyone?

Mystra's Chosen · Wed, 27th Oct '04, 9:12pm

Item Upgrade - but only for Keldorn's armour. That stuff looks sweet on him. That nice little bit of teal or whatever just makes that armour look nice. I'm playing through the Tactics mod for the first time right now, so I imagine I'll be using other items from the mod.

Ease - Solely for the option to shut up that "you must gather your party before venturing forth" crap.

Solaufein - Good mod, but it's lame how you have to practically finish the game before you get him. Luckily I have ToB.

Kelsey - Good mod. Nuff said.

Unfinished Business - Good mod, going to be better though. They're doing more and more as time goes on.

Valen is a "cheese merchant". Too powerful for my tastes.
Almost all of Ease-Of-Use is rather silly.
I'm trying out Ashes of Embers right now.
I didn't even notice the difference when I installed the Banter Packs, which is a good thing because that means I can't tell the difference between the mod and the real deal.
Gibberling Three's tweak pack is good. Especially the part where it tweaks the Weapon Animations.

Dendri · Wed, 27th Oct '04, 9:38pm

Ease of Use
Solaufein
Item Upgrade
Tactics

My real favorite, however, is the Rogue Rebalancing mod. Pure blessing for a fan of bards because it makes them what they should have been. Spice up your Skald or Jester with it; Blades are no longer as appealling with this installed, I think. Special HLAs, special songs, a challenging encounter and so on. Great it is.

*Kitrax* · Wed, 27th Oct '04, 10:22pm

Kelsey - He is by far the best NPC mod ever made!
Solafein - He's #2 on the list of best NPC mods ever.
Tactics - Well, it brings new encounters, more challenging fights, and a whole bunch of other stuff...'nuff said.
Item Upgrade - A necessity once you get to ToB
Ease of Use - Got to love that bottomless bag of holding!
Flirt Packs - The name says enough!

Banter Packs - More party interactions!!!

I usually play with a lot more, but so far those are my favorite.

Madafaka · Wed, 27th Oct '04, 10:56pm

Flirt and Banter are must-haves for extended fun, but I'm currently doing that 'go-hunt-the-beverages' quest from somewhere (Gibberlings? Where did I get it? What's it called?).
I'm more into those kinds: interactions and quests. New stuff and powerful NPCs for picking up can be fun, too, but I tend to get bored with them rather fast.
Oh, nearly forgot: of course I have the one getting rid of the Voice of Satan ('you must'...).

Klorox · Wed, 27th Oct '04, 11:06pm

Banter packs are fun.

Dungeon Be Gone is the best for chronic restarters like myself.

Vengeance Incarnate · Thu, 28th Oct '04, 12:07am

I never have BG2 on my pc without the G3 Tweak Pack. It removes those helm animations that I hate so much.

CamDawg · Thu, 28th Oct '04, 12:10am

Quote:

Flirt and Banter are must-haves for extended fun, but I'm currently doing that 'go-hunt-the-beverages' quest from somewhere (Gibberlings? Where did I get it? What's it called?).

Heh, yes, it's the G3 Anniversary Mod. Hope you're having fun.

Andyr · Thu, 28th Oct '04, 2:07am

I hear Gibberlings Three make good mods.

Greystar · Thu, 28th Oct '04, 11:27am

Other than the fixpack (which is a must have for many people, include me), I always install DungeonBeGone, aPack, Hell trials and Ease of use (not all components though) mod.

Malovae · Thu, 28th Oct '04, 1:13pm

Ease of Use
Tactics
Item Upgrade
Dungeon be Gone

Those are my basics. I add around them.

angryguy · Thu, 28th Oct '04, 4:03pm

@mystra's chosen
yes, i agree, Valen is hideously powerful. However, she is very characterful. I actually don't use her combat skills so much, since she tends to destroy items on foes. Not good.

Oh yeah, i forgot dungeon-be-gone. Utterly crucial to enjoyment of the game.

@greystar- what is aPack?

kitrax- "Flirt Packs - The name says enough!"

Shame on you.

Greystar · Thu, 28th Oct '04, 6:19pm

@chiz65_: that mod improved the Thief and Bard classes (and subclasses) a lot, HLA included, and since Thief is my favorite class, it's a must have for me. You can download it at http://www.gamesector.co.yu/avenger

Alavin · Thu, 28th Oct '04, 6:20pm

Planar Sphere Mod is good, although many of the items are largely unbalanced. Makes a living Planar Sphere, with new quests and such, plus students and teachers practicing spells.

Another good one is aPack, which rebalances rogues and bards, improves the Shadow Thieves, and adds a fantastic new encounter just after fighting Bodhi in chapter 6.

Check the Bodies adds many new quests and, apart from the part in Candlekeep at the beginning, is my favourite mod.

I've played through mods like Solaufein and Tactics too many times to fully enjoy them anymore. I still use them, but they don't have the same impact as they had initially.

*Takara* · Thu, 28th Oct '04, 6:25pm

I always enjoy using Dark Ritual. Makes some encounters a bit tougher, and ads a funky store in the morning lord temple. Other SOA mods I have are things like banter packs, hell trials.

Eric Xanthus · Fri, 29th Oct '04, 2:27am

I played through Planar Sphere and even started a review of it. I can't give it nearly as favorable review as Alavin has. There are many interesting ideas, but the mod is broken, broken, broken--so unbalancing that there is no point in playing after the mod is finished. Perhaps worst of all is the hideous grammar--the designer(s) badly need someone who speaks English as a first language to edit for them. Neat ideas, mostly good execution, terrible in every other department.

Alavin · Fri, 29th Oct '04, 11:51am

The spelling and grammar of the Planar Sphere Mod was mostly fixed recently (by me

), with a load more of the fixes sitting on my computer waiting to be uploaded. Unbalanced items I've done nothing about, though.

Wordplay · Fri, 29th Oct '04, 12:11pm

I avoid most of the mods due of them being quite unbalanced. Still...

-- Virtue, adds a new aspect to reputation.
-- Flirt- and Banter-packs, like said before.
-- Concurrent Romances, hey; you gotta pull out the best from the previous packs.

-- Cloak of Mirroring fix to get rid of that globe.
-- Baldurdash fix-pack.
-- Dungeon-be-gone, almost forgot this one.

In the wish-list for the Christmas:

-- New Imoen romance compatible with Concurrent Romances.

-- Finished Icewind Gate. Will never happen, I know.
-- "Raised Difficulty Mod (RDM)", but not in the Tactics way.

[ October 29, 2004, 21:00: Message edited by: Wirhe ]

Earl Grey · Fri, 29th Oct '04, 1:31pm

Dungeon-be-gone is a great little mod, although I'm anal enough to enjoy playing the starter dungeon time and again so much that I actually don't use that mod.

Tashia (a sorceress) is my favourite NPC mod.

SimDing0 · Fri, 29th Oct '04, 2:01pm

I have to confess to being slightly perplexed at how few people recommend Unfinished Business, Quest Pack, and so on. Are we doing something wrong, or do quest mods just not cut it? Genuine curiousity here.

Cúchulainn · Fri, 29th Oct '04, 2:33pm

I am actually going through Unfinished Business at the moment. So far I have not came accross any of the special quests and have not tried the new ranger kits yet. It seems quite good but my game shuts off for no reason now. I am not sure if this is an issue with U.B or not.

Eric Xanthus · Fri, 29th Oct '04, 3:26pm

Good to hear, Alavin. I always felt that mod was a great idea that deserved to get fixed up. With readable english, I'd even recommend it to people looking for a powergaming experience (notice how I suddenly make it relevant to this thread again).

I like UB well enough also, but generally speaking quest mods don't do it for more. I'm a Tactics junky (I replay Improved Illych all the time, just for fun), and I like NPCs, but generally I don't go for the quests. Maybe you've inspired me to branch out, SimDing0.

angryguy · Sun, 31st Oct '04, 12:01am

Ok, then, where can i get Tashia and improved planar sphere? Thanks guys.

I will agree with the points made above- bad english ruins mods. Apart from anything else, you remember that it is just something written, rather than a real world. Maybe I'm the only one that sees it that way though.

And quest mods... well, they have to be incredible to fit in with the real game. Maybe my opinion is biased by wading through all the awful dialogue in Tactics.

SimDing0 · Sun, 31st Oct '04, 1:49am

Quote:

Maybe you've inspired me to branch out, SimDing0.

Heheh, that's pretty nice to know.

And for anyone with any concern, I can assure you that anything at http://www.pocketplane.net/ which isn't clearly marked as a joke (so that's basically Dungeon-Be-Gone excluded) has dialogue that blends in perfectly with the original game.
I can also assure you that unless someone's totally rewritten Planar Sphere Expansion, you're not going to be very impressed with the dialogue in that one. It doesn't do much to show off the quality of other mods.
I don't really consider quest mods to need any greater care than other types of mod when considering dialogue quality. There are just as many terribly written NPCs about.

people person-i eat people · Sun, 31st Oct '04, 4:28am

i like pretty much most quest mods and any mods that add tactical challenges, because i love a good challenge. mods like:
Tactics
Improved Battles
Improved Asylum area among my favourites.
My favourite NPC mods would be a toss up between Chloe and Kelsey, both of which I just love to have, plus they arent too overpowered for my liking.
Good quest mods would be:
Quest Pack
Gibberlings Three Anniversary mod
Unfinished Business (possibly because of the hilarious Boo getting kidnapped quest, oh how i laughed when i do that)
There are heaps more mods that are good, but thats my two cents.

Wed, 27th Oct '04, 10:22pm	#4
Kitrax SPS Account Holder Pantaloons are supposed to go where!?!? Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Salt Lake City, UT Age: 25 Posts: 7,815 Blog Entries: 11 Rep Power: 27	Kelsey - He is by far the best NPC mod ever made! Solafein - He's #2 on the list of best NPC mods ever. Tactics - Well, it brings new encounters, more challenging fights, and a whole bunch of other stuff...'nuff said. Item Upgrade - A necessity once you get to ToB Ease of Use - Got to love that bottomless bag of holding! Flirt Packs - The name says enough! Banter Packs - More party interactions!!! I usually play with a lot more, but so far those are my favorite.
	__________________ Life's short - play naked!

Wed, 27th Oct '04, 11:06pm	#6
Klorox Baruk Khazad! Khazad ai-mênu! Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: NY, USA Age: 34 Posts: 2,929 Rep Power: 9	Banter packs are fun. Dungeon Be Gone is the best for chronic restarters like myself.
	__________________ "A life is not important, except in the impact it has on other lives." -- Jackie Robinson

Thu, 28th Oct '04, 6:25pm	#15
Takara SPS Account Holder Distinguished Member My goodness! I see turnips everywhere Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Uncle gerhadts turnip still Age: 29 Posts: 3,598 Rep Power: 10	I always enjoy using Dark Ritual. Makes some encounters a bit tougher, and ads a funky store in the morning lord temple. Other SOA mods I have are things like banter packs, hell trials.
	__________________ Give me a Turnip beer, i'm thirsty!

Wed, 27th Oct '04, 8:27pm	#1
angryguy Gems: 7/31 Latest gem: Tchazar Join Date: Aug 2004 Age: 30 Posts: 239 Rep Power: 7	What are people's favourite mods? It can be so difficult to decide to install anything, especially when you consider it might mess something up. What mods are really worth it? For the record i have at the moment- Ease of use Valen Solafein Item Upgrade Ashes of embers Banter packs hell trials (not the one by a bioware guy) G3 tweak pack D0's tweak pack Underrepresented items tactics Of these, i would recommend ease of use, banter packs and hell trials to anyone. Great stuff. However, tactics is incredibly stupid, and i have only installed the bits to change the new forest areas. Tactics could have been so great, but it was written by such cheese merchants that it is just not fun. Thoughts anyone?

Wed, 27th Oct '04, 9:12pm	#2
Mystra's Chosen Gems: 22/31 Latest gem: Sphene Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Texas, Canada (oh, I mean Alberta) Age: 23 Posts: 1,451 Rep Power: 9	Item Upgrade - but only for Keldorn's armour. That stuff looks sweet on him. That nice little bit of teal or whatever just makes that armour look nice. I'm playing through the Tactics mod for the first time right now, so I imagine I'll be using other items from the mod. Ease - Solely for the option to shut up that "you must gather your party before venturing forth" crap. Solaufein - Good mod, but it's lame how you have to practically finish the game before you get him. Luckily I have ToB. Kelsey - Good mod. Nuff said. Unfinished Business - Good mod, going to be better though. They're doing more and more as time goes on. Valen is a "cheese merchant". Too powerful for my tastes. Almost all of Ease-Of-Use is rather silly. I'm trying out Ashes of Embers right now. I didn't even notice the difference when I installed the Banter Packs, which is a good thing because that means I can't tell the difference between the mod and the real deal. Gibberling Three's tweak pack is good. Especially the part where it tweaks the Weapon Animations.

Wed, 27th Oct '04, 9:38pm	#3
Dendri Turn me on, cleric Gems: 20/31 Latest gem: Garnet Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: The Plains of Asphodel Age: 35 Posts: 1,273 Rep Power: 8	Ease of Use Solaufein Item Upgrade Tactics My real favorite, however, is the Rogue Rebalancing mod. Pure blessing for a fan of bards because it makes them what they should have been. Spice up your Skald or Jester with it; Blades are no longer as appealling with this installed, I think. Special HLAs, special songs, a challenging encounter and so on. Great it is.

Wed, 27th Oct '04, 10:56pm	#5
Madafaka Gems: 1/31 Latest gem: Turquoise Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Åland Posts: 15 Rep Power: 0	Flirt and Banter are must-haves for extended fun, but I'm currently doing that 'go-hunt-the-beverages' quest from somewhere (Gibberlings? Where did I get it? What's it called?). I'm more into those kinds: interactions and quests. New stuff and powerful NPCs for picking up can be fun, too, but I tend to get bored with them rather fast. Oh, nearly forgot: of course I have the one getting rid of the Voice of Satan ('you must'...).

Thu, 28th Oct '04, 12:07am	#7
Vengeance Incarnate Gems: 6/31 Latest gem: Jasper Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: UAE Age: 22 Posts: 160 Rep Power: 9	I never have BG2 on my pc without the G3 Tweak Pack. It removes those helm animations that I hate so much.

Thu, 28th Oct '04, 2:07am	#9
Andyr Gems: 14/31 Latest gem: Chrysoberyl Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Oxford, UK Age: 27 Posts: 612 Rep Power: 7	I hear Gibberlings Three make good mods.

Thu, 28th Oct '04, 11:27am	#10
Greystar Gems: 7/31 Latest gem: Tchazar Join Date: Aug 2002 Age: 25 Posts: 240 Rep Power: 9	Other than the fixpack (which is a must have for many people, include me), I always install DungeonBeGone, aPack, Hell trials and Ease of use (not all components though) mod.

Thu, 28th Oct '04, 1:13pm	#11
Malovae Gems: 18/31 Latest gem: Horn Coral Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Somewhere over there Age: 27 Posts: 1,050 Rep Power: 9	Ease of Use Tactics Item Upgrade Dungeon be Gone Those are my basics. I add around them.

Thu, 28th Oct '04, 4:03pm	#12
angryguy Gems: 7/31 Latest gem: Tchazar Join Date: Aug 2004 Age: 30 Posts: 239 Rep Power: 7	@mystra's chosen yes, i agree, Valen is hideously powerful. However, she is very characterful. I actually don't use her combat skills so much, since she tends to destroy items on foes. Not good. Oh yeah, i forgot dungeon-be-gone. Utterly crucial to enjoyment of the game. @greystar- what is aPack? kitrax- "Flirt Packs - The name says enough!" Shame on you.

Thu, 28th Oct '04, 6:19pm	#13
Greystar Gems: 7/31 Latest gem: Tchazar Join Date: Aug 2002 Age: 25 Posts: 240 Rep Power: 9	@chiz65_: that mod improved the Thief and Bard classes (and subclasses) a lot, HLA included, and since Thief is my favorite class, it's a must have for me. You can download it at http://www.gamesector.co.yu/avenger

Thu, 28th Oct '04, 6:20pm	#14
Alavin If I wanted your view, I'd read your entrails Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Kent, England Age: 23 Posts: 927 Blog Entries: 4 Rep Power: 8	Planar Sphere Mod is good, although many of the items are largely unbalanced. Makes a living Planar Sphere, with new quests and such, plus students and teachers practicing spells. Another good one is aPack, which rebalances rogues and bards, improves the Shadow Thieves, and adds a fantastic new encounter just after fighting Bodhi in chapter 6. Check the Bodies adds many new quests and, apart from the part in Candlekeep at the beginning, is my favourite mod. I've played through mods like Solaufein and Tactics too many times to fully enjoy them anymore. I still use them, but they don't have the same impact as they had initially.

Fri, 29th Oct '04, 2:27am	#16
Eric Xanthus Gems: 10/31 Latest gem: Zircon Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Washington, D.C. Age: 33 Posts: 385 Rep Power: 7	I played through Planar Sphere and even started a review of it. I can't give it nearly as favorable review as Alavin has. There are many interesting ideas, but the mod is broken, broken, broken--so unbalancing that there is no point in playing after the mod is finished. Perhaps worst of all is the hideous grammar--the designer(s) badly need someone who speaks English as a first language to edit for them. Neat ideas, mostly good execution, terrible in every other department.

Fri, 29th Oct '04, 11:51am	#17
Alavin If I wanted your view, I'd read your entrails Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Kent, England Age: 23 Posts: 927 Blog Entries: 4 Rep Power: 8	The spelling and grammar of the Planar Sphere Mod was mostly fixed recently (by me ), with a load more of the fixes sitting on my computer waiting to be uploaded. Unbalanced items I've done nothing about, though.

Fri, 29th Oct '04, 12:11pm	#18
Wordplay Est unusquisque faber ipsae suae fortunae Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: --Gone-- Posts: 3,453 Rep Power: 11	I avoid most of the mods due of them being quite unbalanced. Still... -- Virtue, adds a new aspect to reputation. -- Flirt- and Banter-packs, like said before. -- Concurrent Romances, hey; you gotta pull out the best from the previous packs. -- Cloak of Mirroring fix to get rid of that globe. -- Baldurdash fix-pack. -- Dungeon-be-gone, almost forgot this one. In the wish-list for the Christmas: -- New Imoen romance compatible with Concurrent Romances. -- Finished Icewind Gate. Will never happen, I know. -- "Raised Difficulty Mod (RDM)", but not in the Tactics way. [ October 29, 2004, 21:00: Message edited by: Wirhe ]

Fri, 29th Oct '04, 1:31pm	#19
Earl Grey Mmm... hot tea! Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Lund, Sweden Posts: 1,930 Rep Power: 11	Dungeon-be-gone is a great little mod, although I'm anal enough to enjoy playing the starter dungeon time and again so much that I actually don't use that mod. Tashia (a sorceress) is my favourite NPC mod.

Fri, 29th Oct '04, 2:01pm	#20
SimDing0 Gems: 9/31 Latest gem: Iol Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Istar Posts: 347 Rep Power: 8	I have to confess to being slightly perplexed at how few people recommend Unfinished Business, Quest Pack, and so on. Are we doing something wrong, or do quest mods just not cut it? Genuine curiousity here.

Fri, 29th Oct '04, 2:33pm	#21
Cúchulainn Gems: 28/31 Latest gem: Star Sapphire Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Los San Patricios Posts: 2,956 Rep Power: 8	I am actually going through Unfinished Business at the moment. So far I have not came accross any of the special quests and have not tried the new ranger kits yet. It seems quite good but my game shuts off for no reason now. I am not sure if this is an issue with U.B or not.

Fri, 29th Oct '04, 3:26pm	#22
Eric Xanthus Gems: 10/31 Latest gem: Zircon Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Washington, D.C. Age: 33 Posts: 385 Rep Power: 7	Good to hear, Alavin. I always felt that mod was a great idea that deserved to get fixed up. With readable english, I'd even recommend it to people looking for a powergaming experience (notice how I suddenly make it relevant to this thread again). I like UB well enough also, but generally speaking quest mods don't do it for more. I'm a Tactics junky (I replay Improved Illych all the time, just for fun), and I like NPCs, but generally I don't go for the quests. Maybe you've inspired me to branch out, SimDing0.

Sun, 31st Oct '04, 12:01am	#23
angryguy Gems: 7/31 Latest gem: Tchazar Join Date: Aug 2004 Age: 30 Posts: 239 Rep Power: 7	Ok, then, where can i get Tashia and improved planar sphere? Thanks guys. I will agree with the points made above- bad english ruins mods. Apart from anything else, you remember that it is just something written, rather than a real world. Maybe I'm the only one that sees it that way though. And quest mods... well, they have to be incredible to fit in with the real game. Maybe my opinion is biased by wading through all the awful dialogue in Tactics.

Sun, 31st Oct '04, 4:28am	#25
people person-i eat people Gems: 5/31 Latest gem: Andar Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: perth Age: 21 Posts: 117 Rep Power: 7	i like pretty much most quest mods and any mods that add tactical challenges, because i love a good challenge. mods like: Tactics Improved Battles Improved Asylum area among my favourites. My favourite NPC mods would be a toss up between Chloe and Kelsey, both of which I just love to have, plus they arent too overpowered for my liking. Good quest mods would be: Quest Pack Gibberlings Three Anniversary mod Unfinished Business (possibly because of the hilarious Boo getting kidnapped quest, oh how i laughed when i do that) There are heaps more mods that are good, but thats my two cents.