Baldur's Gate

What It Is And How I Started Playing

Spring of 2001, I was introduced to a new addiction, the CRPG (computer role-play game) Baldur's Gate. I've played tabletop roleplaying games, but, I never much enjoyed computer roleplaying games till "BG" (Bee-Gee) came into my life. I'd been hearing about it for the longest time. Several friends couldn't speak its praises highly enough. I finally broke down and bought the original game. It was like handing crack to a schoolgirl. I just couldn't get enough of it!

Then, just when I thought there could be nothing better, I picked up the second game, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. It was bigger, better, more interactive, and (joy of joys to me)...there were *ROMANCES*.

I now own all 4 games (BGI, BGII, and the two 'expansions'), but, I vastly prefer BGII (with its expansion). I also have Neverwinter nights, produced by the same company that made the BG games, and I'm learning to play the game to see if I like it more or less. I suspect nothing will ever be as "good" as BGII to me (simply because no other company seems to be writing games that are as focused on roleplay and detail), but, I have found some nice NWN modules that are RP-focused, so, I don't consider it a waste of money.

I also picked up some of the other Infinity Engine games...Planescape: Torment, Fallout, Fallout II. These are all "older" games, now, as such things go, but, the storylines in each more than makes up for the lack of cutting edge graphics.

The game engine, and Infinity engine: "Game engine" refers to the software that's used to run a game, which is to say that a game has its own minature "operating system" that tells the .exe file how to use all the *other* assorted files that install into the game directory. Gaming companies have latched on to the idea that if they release their engine to the fan base, the fans will write add-ons and help keep the game alive and played, longer. Which means a longer window of sales as people talk their friends into playing. Because a great deal of effort goes into designing a game engine, companies often will release multiple games under the same one. The Infinity Engine in the engine used for the Baldur's Gate games, as well as others.

2003 update: I'll admit it, I've been bit by the modding bug (that is, I'd like to write my own add-ons for BGII, specifically (and possibly other games once I'm competant in that one)). At the very bottom of this page will be some links to existing mod support software.

Mods

At this point, there are two general groups of mods -- those that are fully compatible with Weimer's mods, and those that aren't. The latter are mostly "IAP" mods, which are produced by the folks at TeamBG. They tend to do wonky things to the "dialogue.tlk" file (which holds the text files for the assorted Infinity Engine games). They may still run with Weimer mods installed, but, they have to be installed first, and if there are problems, it might be difficult to resolve them. WeiDU doesn't replace dialogue.tlk, it edits it, which means that multiple mods can be installed with little impact on each other. Of course, there can be bugs in various WeiDU mods that interfere each other, but, that's a different issue entirely. Westley Weimer has been working fairly hard to promote his WeiDU mod-building software to get folks all on the same standard, and I would personally recommend that anyone who wants to build mods use it to write the dialogues and to package the finished mod for installation.

BGI Mods

• Dark Tales of the Sword Coast. This is a TeamBG mod, and therefore you can only install it by itself (or install it first, with WeiDU mods after).
• Ease of Use and Heart of Fury Mods. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find them.
• Firewalker Mod, and patches for DTOTSC. This is a TeamBG mirror site of some BG mod files, since TeamBG took many files offline.
• Black Tidings Mod. This mod is under construction. It's all very mysterious as the web pages only provide minimal teasing information. It's written for BG: Tales of the Sword Coast, which is a nice plus, as most mods tend to be for one or the other versions of BGII.

• Weimer's BGII Mod Page. Romance Solaufein the drow (romances males or females or multiples without a patch), acquire Valen the vampire NPC, gain new kits or more difficult challenges, replay the ending of the game. Since Weimer is the author of WeiDU, you can bet your last dollar that all his hosted mods were built with it :).
• Nalia's Romance Page. This mod is a bit buggy and has many spelling errors, but, I found it entertaining. If you install this mod first, you can install WeiDU mods after it. But, don't install any *other* "install first"-type mods! Bonus points for running on Mac installs.
• Tashia's Romance Page. An elvish sorceress romance prospect. With the HappyTashia patch, she'll romance males or females or multiples. A WeiDU mod. She's supposed to be very...tempermental. If you're the sort who thinks Jaheira is warm and cuddly (rather than the prickly and fickle b*tch I tend to categorize her as), Tashia will probably be for you.
• Kelsey Romance Page. A human male sorcerer. To date, Kelsey is the 'crown jewel' of the NPC mod community, as he was designed from the ground up to be as fully integrated as any NPC that came with the original game. Jason Compton (the author of Kelsey) has been instrumental in forwarding modding technology (including the "flirt" concept), and Kelsey has been regularly updated to keep consistent with those advances. Kelsey can only be romanced by the ladies (and only as a solo romance) until Sabre writes a HappyRomance patch for him (2003 update: still no sign of this patch *sigh*). He's willing to squabble with Anomen and Solaufein to vye for a female PC's attention. A WeiDU mod.
• Tortured Souls. Not a very encouraging name, I know, but, it includes a Valygar romance. Mmmm. Valygar! It uses TeamBG's IAP format, which is in-directly compatible with WeiDU. You have to install this mod first (before any other mod), and you can't install another IAP/teambg mod. Then, you can stack as many WeiDU mods on as you'd like.

• Sabre's Baldur's Gate Customizations. Technically not mods, these are patches to achieve all sorts of handy-dandy effects, like gaining more than one stronghold, or romancing many love interests at once. These patches weren't build with WeiDU, and many of them are available in Weimer's "Ease of Use" update as a WeiDU package. I'd recommend installing the Ease-of-Use via WeiDU, but, this page is linked for archival purposes.
• Dungeon-Be-Gone. I think this is my favorite mod after the "Turn Anomen into my gay fanboy" Multi-romance patch. This gets you out of Jon Irenicus's dungeon with all the loot and XP, and not having to slave your way through killing dozens of mephits. Definately handy to have if you play through several times.
• Blucher's Home Page. This has some interesting Baldur's Gate II links and scripts, including the Expanded Thief stronghold, a mod that beefs up that particular stronghold. The Expanded Their stronghold is a WeiDU mod.
• Freedom's Reign Mod Page. This is the home of one completed mod for BGII, Freedom's Reign, and other mods "under construction". From reading the site, these appear to be compatible with the Weimer mods, although I couldn't tell if WeiDU was used to write it or not.
• Shadows over Soubar Mod. I haven't played this one yet. It looks fairly combat-oriented, but, seems to have some good hints of RP (with an additional stronghold, and a fallen Ranger seeking to regain her old status, among other curious options). I don't know about the WeiDU compatibility.
• The Darkest Day Mod. A very popular mod, it was a runner-up in the Computer Gaming World contest for Best User-Created Mod (or some such award). Another IAP mod, although, it may play nicely with WeiDU if you install it first. It's very popular but early versions were *very* buggy. I don't know if those bug issues have been resolved.
• Embers of the Empire Mod. This was a "total conversion" mod, which meant it would use the core Infinity Engine (that is the BGII game), but, overwrites the data files system to create a completely new game. The coders shelved it, but, I'll leave the link here in case it ever comes back. WeiDU mod.
• Icewind Gate 2 Project. I'm very excited about this project. It's a complete re-write of Baldur's Gate II to run in the Icewind Dale 2 Game engine. 2nd Edition plotline under 3rd Edition rules. It's all still Infinity Engine happiness.

• http://sourceforge.net/projects/binf/
• http://gemrb.sourceforge.net/project/index.php

Sites of Mod Lists

• Weimer's list of WeiDU Mods. A site that lists all the WeiDU mods Weimer knows of to promote. Includes mods still under construction. Check this site for many completed mods that I haven't listed above!!!
• Forgotten Wars Forums list. This is a list of the assorted mods being hosted by Forgotten Wars members, or still under construction. They're all WeiDU compatible, I believe.
• Infinity Engine and Aurora Engine Scripting Webring Hub List. A list of sites for Modding the BG line, as well as other games released by the parent company (including Neverwinter Nights). Should include plenty of mod sites, many of which will be under construction.
• TeamBG's Completed Mod list. Includes mods from assorted IE games, not just the Baldur line.
• Forgotton Wars Studios. Another site that hosts WeiDU mods. This is their forum list of completed mods.
• 3D Downloads list. This is a set of old IAP-written mods that were ported to WeiDU installation. Yay. Some people are starting to see the benefits of not insisting on being the only kid in the sandbox!

• Weimer's Dialogue Utilities. "WeiDU". To steal a quote from a great Cary Grant movie..."If it ain't Wham, it ain't ham!". Or, in this case, if it ain't WeiDU-compatible, I'm not modding with it. WeiDU allows you to write/re-write dialogues, and package all your assorted files up into a customized installer to install cleanly into the game.
• Near Infinity. "NI". This allows you to write/re-write files that aren't dialogue-based (and thus left out of the WeiDU loop).
• Infinity Explorer. "IE". I think this program servers the same purpose as Near Infinity, but, I'm honestly not sure. I'll have to update this after I've tackled item creation and non-dialogue scripting.
• DragonLance Total Conversion Editor Pro. "DLTCEP". This is another browser/compiler like NI/IE/IEEP, only it's supposed to be better than any of them :). Is supposed to have some sort of built-in WeiDU compatibility. Of the three browsers/compilers, this is the one I'm presently working on learning.
• Shadowkeeper. "SK". This isn't properly a modding program so much as a "cheat" program or a "trainer" (it's normally used it to adjust stats and change flag states), but, it makes a nice aid to modding for those very same reasons (you can adjust the stats and change the flag states on NPCS you're editing/creating).
• Infinity Engine Editor Pro. "IEEP". This is one of the packages on the TeamBG Basic Customizing page. For WeiDU purposes, you only want to use the Spell Maker, Item Maker, and Store Maker portions of this multi-use program.
• TeamBG's IESDP modding help files. The scripting/creation information is all useful, even in a WeiDU universe. Just don't follow their dialogue advice.
• Forum on BG scripting. Forgotten Wars site. WeiDU dialogue support, NI/IE/SK support for other questions. Possible IEEP support (non-dialogue), but, you're probably better off going to the source (TeamBG) for good support on the latter.
• Forum on Tutorials. Forgotten Wars site. Tutorials and HOWTOS on how to...do assorted modding projects. VERY useful.

BG Portraits

Updated: 11/29/2003