Question on Baldur's Gate

[The Madman]

I've been trying to install this for the better part of an hour, but every time I do it runs into some sort of error.

Have you already installed BGT? This only works with the modded game, and has to be pointed towards 'that' directory as well, not the default Baldur's Gate installation which once you've run BGT becomes effectively useless since all its contents are imported into either the second games directory or a unique one.

Beyond that it could also simply be a bad download, try again?

I've never had any trouble with the mod, and I know it's compatible with BGT since, well, it says so right in the info.

And then there are Edwin and Tiax. The Saga sure has its share* of delightfully evil lunatics. You're making me want to replay it all again!

* And many other games' shares of lunatics AND turnips, too.

Edwin is my favorite crazed killer, although Jan Jansen is also delightfully insane if in a much less evil way.

Always had a soft-spot for Tiax though. His delusions of grandeur are just so entertaining!

 

[Amnestic]

Damn, you're right, I stand corrected! Methinks that's also a first, normally I'm the one correcting others when it comes to BG, even if this was simply a slip of the tongue.

Plus Xan in useless and I often forget about him. Give a crappy mage with terrible stats and a miserable attitude the best sword in the game? That's just sadistic. At least Xzar is fun to click!

"I wanted infravision like the elves, but tis' more than just taking their eyes"

And of course when he enters combat, in a gloriously insane voice: "I am become Death, destroyer of worlds!"

Well if you feel like the Moonblade's going to waste you could always be sneaky and download NearInfinity and stealthily remove the "Xan Only" effect, though I'm not sure how you'd do that since as far as I can see it's not so much "Xan Only" as it is "People like Xan" only ('Good-Evil Neutral, Lawful, Mage, Elf, Barbarian and all the Mage kits are unticked for the 'Unuseable by...' section). I might be missing something though.

Still can't seem to edit the .tlk stuff to change item descrptions as well though. Dunno what I'm doing wrong but it's always all "LOL NO CAN'T WRITE .TLK!"

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

You're thinking of Icewind Dale, where you make your own party.

It's less of an issue in Baldur's Gate however since it's a much more narrative experience with NPC companions rather than custom-made ones, and the game steers you pretty clearly towards certain companion choices. Most every player will have Imoen with them, the rogue (Who also makes a decent dual-class mage later on) as well as khalid and Jaheira, the typical warrior/healer combo. Beyond those the rest is fairly optional, although again the game steers you towards Xan & Montaron as evil or Minsc & Dynaheir as good, classic mage/support character setup.

In that way Baldur's Gate is pretty friendly at least, leaving the player open to play whatever they most want without gimping their group.

That said I recommend the Fighter for a first playthrough. If you've never played with the ruleset before, BG can be a bit overwhelming and Fighter is the easiest to get into and has the most survivability so you wont end up reloading saves nearly as often as with any other class. Plus it's just an all-round useful class with the largest assortment of available loot and upgrades throughout the series as well as boasting a pretty damn cool class-specific questline in BG2.

In retrospect I guess it was obvious given that Baldur's Gate 2, the only game in the "series" (being in this case, Icewind Dale 1 & 2 and Baldur's Gate 1 & 2) I've played in the last five years enforced a party (and, that is Bioware's general style it would seem).

My problem with the fighter is simply that for all their utility at lower levels, they just aren't anything special later in the game. Where a caster starts the game simply awful (sweet! I get TWO magic missles per day as a level 1 sorcerer!) they only increase in utility as the game progresses. Sure they're always a bit squishy but at least they have many, many tricks to staying alive and delivering muder on a massive scale. The real problem is that they are entirely gear dependant (to use an MMO phrase), and while a 20th level Wizard can easily conjur a spell that will take a bite out of even the most dasterdly monsters in the game, a fighter had better than that "ulitmate magical sword" in order to even hope to do a bit of good. The final Boss in Icewind Dale for example was immune to anything physicial attack of less than +4 and I simply never found such a weapon for my greatsword focused fighter.

Still, your point has merit. Somebody HAS to take the lumps for the team, and a 20th level fighter can easily have as much HP as a cleric and a mage combined, not to mention an armor save that actually takes work to get around. It's the easist to play certainly because it's systems are really simple (do I want to hit harder at the expense of accuracy?) and it's stats are obvious (who cares if your fighter is dumber than a box of especially stupid rocks, he's got a strength score of 18 and 16 constitution!). There isn't a lot of juggling to be done. The obvious armor choice is the one that provides the best THAC0, the obvious weapon is the one that delivers the most catastrophic blow.

All that said, my preferred class in such games is the Rogue, and in rare cases, the Bard. In some games (Such as Neverwinter Nights) the game can be a brutal slog as anything other than a fighter/paladin/barbarian for the first several hours, but thanks to the early acquisition of a party, the inherent weaknesses all of these classes have at the outset (low HP, terrible armor, terrible attack bonuses, no real weapon proficiency) can be compensated for readily enough.

 

[Cody211282]

I've been trying to install this for the better part of an hour, but every time I do it runs into some sort of error.

Have you already installed BGT? This only works with the modded game, and has to be pointed towards 'that' directory as well, not the default Baldur's Gate installation which once you've run BGT becomes effectively useless since all its contents are imported into either the second games directory or a unique one.

Beyond that it could also simply be a bad download, try again?

I've never had any trouble with the mod, and I know it's compatible with BGT since, well, it says so right in the info.

just redownloaded and tried again, I'm putting it right into the BGT file in BG2, so I dont know whats wrong, it gets like 2 files into installing says there is an error and then cancels, sad day.

 

[Amnestic]

Still, your point has merit. Somebody HAS to take the lumps for the team, and a 20th level fighter can easily have as much HP as a cleric and a mage combined, not to mention an armor save that actually takes work to get around. It's the easist to play certainly because it's systems are really simple (do I want to hit harder at the expense of accuracy?) and it's stats are obvious (who cares if your fighter is dumber than a box of especially stupid rocks, he's got a strength score of 18 and 16 constitution!). There isn't a lot of juggling to be done. The obvious armor choice is the one that provides the best THAC0, the obvious weapon is the one that delivers the most catastrophic blow.

Ah, but what kind of self respecting Cleric isn't using Tenser's Transformation if he's on the front line? At which point, the HP difference is almost non-existant since you double your hit points

Uh, assuming Tenser's *is* a cleric spell in the base game and not one that's been shoved in there through one of my tweakpacks. It's a little hard to keep track of things.

Plus once you get to Throne of Bhaal, you recieve the only Fighter worth using thanks to his glorious innate ability

just redownloaded and tried again, I'm putting it right into the BGT file in BG2, so I dont know whats wrong, it gets like 2 files into installing says there is an error and then cancels, sad day.

Have you made sure to patch both games to their latest patches? Think it's 5512 for Baldur's Gate 1+TotSC and 26498 for BG2+ToB

 

[The Madman]

Well if you feel like the Moonblade's going to waste you could always be sneaky and download NearInfinity and stealthily remove the "Xan Only" effect, though I'm not sure how you'd do that since as far as I can see it's not so much "Xan Only" as it is "People like Xan" only ('Good-Evil Neutral, Lawful, Mage, Elf, Barbarian and all the Mage kits are unticked for the 'Unuseable by...' section). I might be missing something though.

Still can't seem to edit the .tlk stuff to change item descrptions as well though. Dunno what I'm doing wrong but it's always all "LOL NO CAN'T WRITE .TLK!"

Well, ya didn't hear it from me, but if you use an editor to make it so that your character is wielding the blade, even if they don't meet the requirements, they can use it. Just be sure not to un-equip it or drop it, since you wont be able to use it again unless you once again sneakily edit files.

Not that *I* would ever do such a thing! Never! Just something I heard over the course of ten years since this game was released. >.>

Any chance you can help the OP with his mod problems? I haven't used BGT in ages so I'm not quite sure if installing a Weidu mod for it is any different than it would be for Tutu. I imagine it's just a matter of pointing the installation towards the right place, but I'm not sure where that'd be in BGT's case.

just redownloaded and tried again, I'm putting it right into the BGT file in BG2, so I dont know whats wrong, it gets like 2 files into installing says there is an error and then cancels, sad day.

That *is* strange. Did BGT install properly? You know, do a full BG1 and 2 install, run BGT, etc? And did you have any trouble installing any other mods such as the tweak pack you mentioned earlier? I ask simply because most BG mods use the same system, called Weidu, so if one works the others should as well so long as they don't copy over any other mods files (thus compatibility).

All that said, my preferred class in such games is the Rogue, and in rare cases, the Bard. In some games (Such as Neverwinter Nights) the game can be a brutal slog as anything other than a fighter/paladin/barbarian for the first several hours, but thanks to the early acquisition of a party, the inherent weaknesses all of these classes have at the outset (low HP, terrible armor, terrible attack bonuses, no real weapon proficiency) can be compensated for readily enough.

Oh I agree entirely. Mages are by far, in my oppinion, the most satisfying class to play throughout the Baldur's Gate series simply because, as you mention, they start out so damn weak and pathetic yet by the end of the series are walking demi-god of destruction capable of such destruction it's absolutely savage! Wild Mages are my particular favorite class in BG, since I love to play with fire and they're always a risk to use. In other D&D games like NWN I tend to lean towards a fighter/thief, but in BG? Wild Mage all the way!

But again, I've been playing BG for over ten years now. I've got all the spell icons memorized. Every. Last. One. I know what spells work best, and how to best play a mage even early on for maximum survivability and effect. For someone new though... well, it's brutal. I mean in BG1 mages are positively useless till they hit a high level, by which point you're pretty much into BG2. That's 20+ hours of playing a weakling cripple that'll die if an enemy so much as glances their way in a threatening manner.

Fighters don't have quite the high level 'umph' of some other classes, but they stay consistently deadly and useful throughout the series and are by far the most capable class when it comes to simply not dying. Meanwhile there are plenty of NPC mages throughout BG1 and 2 to compensate and for someone new to enjoy using, so it's not like they're missing out.

 

[Snork Maiden]

And then there are Edwin and Tiax. The Saga sure has its share* of delightfully evil lunatics. You're making me want to replay it all again!

* And many other games' shares of lunatics AND turnips, too.

Edwin is my favorite crazed killer, although Jan Jansen is also delightfully insane if in a much less evil way.

Always had a soft-spot for Tiax though. His delusions of grandeur are just so entertaining!

Edwin is probably the sole reason I generally play through as an evil character most of the time. I find it hard to think of a more awesome mage in *any* RPG.

Paladins are a soilid choice for a party leader as well. They have some multitasking at their disposal, have a lot of HP and excellent armor and (generally) will saves. Their innate ability to turn the undead can come in handy in parts of the game. They are less proficient at simply wading in and crushing heads than a fighter but they can still be expected to stand toe to toe with the enemy.

If you're going to play a Paladin, I'd always take the Inquisitor kit over a pureclass (though Cavalier is a decent alternative). Inquisitor loses his cleric spells and Turn Undead, but gets a few innate abilities (including True Sight, which is scrumptious) as well as some nice immunities built in.

I *hate* how useful Inquisitors are - not only for True Sight, but for Dispel Magic too (I find having haste and whatnot temporarily gimped from me to be less of a bother than making enemy mages completely vulnerable). I generally always try and take Keldorn, but that's such a pain if I'm playing evil and want Viconia in my party (I generally do).

 

[Cody211282]

just redownloaded and tried again, I'm putting it right into the BGT file in BG2, so I dont know whats wrong, it gets like 2 files into installing says there is an error and then cancels, sad day.

That *is* strange. Did BGT install properly? You know, do a full BG1 and 2 install, run BGT, etc? And did you have any trouble installing any other mods such as the tweak pack you mentioned earlier? I ask simply because most BG mods use the same system, called Weidu, so if one works the others should as well so long as they don't copy over any other mods files (thus compatibility).

Didn't have a problem with any of the other ones(only had installed BGT and it was from a zip folder), so what I'm doing now is a complete uninstall/reinstall and just go from there.

I'm also downloading WeiDU from here
http://weidu.org/
to see if that clears anything up.

 

[The Madman]

Didn't have a problem with any of the other ones(only had installed BGT and it was from a zip folder), so what I'm doing now is a complete uninstall/reinstall and just go from there.

Remember you need to have 'everything' from both BG1 and 2 installed on your HD for the mod to work, in BG1 that means doing a custom install and checking every component. In BG2, thankfully, that just means selecting Full. If you've got the expansions you should also install those as well, so that everything even remotely related to BG is installed 100%. Also gotta patch them up to date, with the patches available from Bioware's site.

Unpack BGT to your BG2 directory, make sure you've removed the BG disk from your drive, and run the '.exe'. It'll take awhile, and a prompt will come up asking some questions, but it's all easy stuff. After try running the game once you've installed that, you'll know if everything worked properly because BGT has its own unique startup screen.

If that all works out it should just then be a matter of pointing the NPC mod towards the right directory (Reading up on BGT, it should be the BG2 directory) and then once again clicking the .exe and following the prompts.

HERE, try this installer for BGT. It's the website of the guys that made it with the most up-to-date version. You don't need to download anything else, just that mod I linked into a clean and patched full install.

 

[Amnestic]

This is your BG1+TotSC Patch [http://www.bioware.com/games/tales_sword_coast/support/patches/]

This is your BG2+ToB patch [http://www.bioware.com/games/throne_bhaal/support/patches/#patch]

As The Madman said, make sure you've done complete full/custom installs of everything first.

 

[Cody211282]

Didn't have a problem with any of the other ones(only had installed BGT and it was from a zip folder), so what I'm doing now is a complete uninstall/reinstall and just go from there.

Remember you need to have 'everything' from both BG1 and 2 installed on your HD for the mod to work, in BG1 that means doing a custom install and checking every component. In BG2, thankfully, that just means selecting Full. If you've got the expansions you should also install those as well, so that everything even remotely related to BG is installed 100%. Also gotta patch them up to date, with the patches available from Bioware's site.

Unpack BGT to your BG2 directory, make sure you've removed the BG disk from your drive, and run the '.exe'. It'll take awhile, and a prompt will come up asking some questions, but it's all easy stuff. After try running the game once you've installed that, you'll know if everything worked properly because BGT has its own unique startup screen.

If that all works out it should just then be a matter of pointing the NPC mod towards the right directory (Reading up on BGT, it should be the BG2 directory) and then once again clicking the .exe and following the prompts.

HERE, try this installer for BGT. It's the website of the guys that made it with the most up-to-date version.

yep that's the place I got it from, also did the custom install(working on BG2 install right now). After it's all done I'll try it again and if it still doesn't work I'll just blame it on god and play anyway, no need to spend so many hours trying to get one mod to work.

 

[Cody211282]

just redownloaded and tried again, I'm putting it right into the BGT file in BG2, so I dont know whats wrong, it gets like 2 files into installing says there is an error and then cancels, sad day.

Have you made sure to patch both games to their latest patches? Think it's 5512 for Baldur's Gate 1+TotSC and 26498 for BG2+ToB

now that I didn't do, but since I just got the gem(just unwrapped it at noon today) shouldn't they be at the last patch, and if not were can I get the patches for them?

EDIT: ok just saw the links, and thanks a ton for them!

 

[Amnestic]

just redownloaded and tried again, I'm putting it right into the BGT file in BG2, so I dont know whats wrong, it gets like 2 files into installing says there is an error and then cancels, sad day.

Have you made sure to patch both games to their latest patches? Think it's 5512 for Baldur's Gate 1+TotSC and 26498 for BG2+ToB

now that I didn't do, but since I just got the gem(just unwrapped it at noon today) shouldn't they be at the last patch, and if not were can I get the patches for them?

See post #32 Sadly the discs don't come with the latest patch, gotta do it manually. Thankfully it's just a matter of downloading the right region and double clicking on the installer and it should do it all for you. After that, BGT should install fine and dandy.

 

[Cody211282]

snip

snip

Reinstalled everything and the patches just as you said and I'm still getting the error(redownloaded everything just to be safe as well), looks like its just going to have to be something I live without.

Thanks for all the help though!

 

[The Madman]

Reinstalled everything and the patches just as you said and I'm still getting the error(redownloaded everything just to be safe as well), looks like its just going to have to be something I live without.

Thanks for all the help though!

BGT working properly and everything installed right? Custom startup screen and all?

Well if that's the case then I've no clue what could be the problem. Ah well, enjoy your first playthough of Baldur's Gate. The game is fantastic regardless, I'm just a sucker for the level of dialogue and interaction which BG2 boasts, so any mod that imports that style of gameplay into the first is a huge plus for me!

In the future you could always try the Big World Project in order to get everything guaranteed working properly. Very ambitious project, probably the most comprehensive 'collection' mod I've ever seen for *any* game. It downloads and installs everything for you, seriously, and has various levels of mods you can install from only a few to so many it's like an entirely different game.

Wouldn't suggest it for a first playthrough though, even on the recommended setting it installs quite a few mods which change a great deal throughout the games. BG1 NPC mod among them.

Worth looking into for later on however. Hell, maybe it's for the best you're going 'purist'. You'll be back for more! Just something to keep in mind, bookmark the link.

And have fun! Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn is probably my all-time favorite. Nice to see people still trying it out all this time later, and always happy to help when I can.

 

[Cody211282]

Reinstalled everything and the patches just as you said and I'm still getting the error(redownloaded everything just to be safe as well), looks like its just going to have to be something I live without.

Thanks for all the help though!

BGT working properly and everything installed right? Custom startup screen and all?

Well if that's the case then I've no clue what could be the problem. Ah well, enjoy your first playthough of Baldur's Gate. The game is fantastic regardless, I'm just a sucker for the level of dialogue and interaction which BG2 boasts, so any mod that imports that style of gameplay into the first is a huge plus for me!

In the future you could always try the Big World Project in order to get everything guaranteed working properly. Very ambitious project, probably the most comprehensive 'collection' mod I've ever seen for *any* game. It downloads and installs everything for you, seriously, and has various levels of mods you can install from only a few to so many it's like an entirely different game.

Wouldn't suggest it for a first playthrough though, even on the recommended setting it installs quite a few mods which change a great deal throughout the games. BG1 NPC mod among them.

Worth looking into for later on however. Hell, maybe it's for the best you're going 'purist'. You'll be back for more! Just something to keep in mind, bookmark the link.

And have fun! Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn is probably my all-time favorite. Nice to see people still trying it out all this time later, and always happy to help when I can.

I'll download that and keep it for later, also found out if I quite out of BGT it restarts my system, but other then that everything is running like it should.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

I'd recommend that you start on the first one, the storyline of the second closely follows on from the first, allowing you to import your Baldur's Gate character and use that. Plus there's a lot of to-and-fro dialogue between the characters in the second one that will not make sense unless you've played the first.

EDIT - Damn, didn't read all the posts. Yeah, BG has a real problem with modern operating systems, I still haven't been able to patch my copies properly (on this machine, I solved the problem by installing them on an old machine I have knocking around for just such backwards compatability issues).

 

[The Madman]

I'll download that and keep it for later, also found out if I quite out of BGT it restarts my system, but other then that everything is running like it should.

That is extremely weird! No clue what's going on with your computer, perhaps you've just got a case of the Gremlins or Divine wrath? Your guess at this point is as good as mine! Regardless, enjoy! BG is one of those games most people tend to delve into for hours at a time anyway, so it shouldn't be too big a problem.

 

[Cody211282]

I'll download that and keep it for later, also found out if I quite out of BGT it restarts my system, but other then that everything is running like it should.

That is extremely weird! No clue what's going on with your computer, perhaps you've just got a case of the Gremlins or Divine wrath? Your guess at this point is as good as mine! Regardless, enjoy! BG is one of those games most people tend to delve into for hours at a time anyway, so it shouldn't be too big a problem.

It has to be Divine Wrath at this point, but I think I got lucky, both my mom and my dad need new computers after they both crashed yesterday(motherboards on both gave out), i'm just lucky nothing truly bad has happened.