First time through, which mods?

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Hey guys i just bought the BG:II Collection and I'm about to play through for my first time. Do any of you guys know any good mods to download that would make my experience better? I'm trying to find the mod that allows you to increase resolution

Any links would be greatly appreciated, either to the direct mod itself or a compilation

 

Go to the 'Playground'. The first post has a link to quite a few Mods. Become a SP supporter and you get fast and easy downloads.

Welcome to BG:II. I envy you. Take it easy on downloading mods. The vanilla game with patch is a lot of fun. If you do download mods be careful. Read the instructions.

 

I would not recommend mods for your first run through the game, except the official patch and perhaps the unofficial Baldurdash FixPack from http://www.baldurdash.org

For a comprehensive list of IE mods, try the Pocket Plane group list: http://modlist.pocketplane.net - it is the most complete I have known.

And you don't need to donate money to SP to download mods fast and easily - all the sites which make mods have free download mirrors, and they're not FilePlanet or anything so you don't have to queue. You don't even need to register anywhere.

EDIT: Also, there is no mod to increase resolution for BGII. You can change the resolution in the game's config program. There is a mod which lets you play BG1 in the BG2 engine, though, with the better resolution, kits etc. It's called BG1 Tutu and can be found at http://www.pocketplane.net/tutu - I recommend it.

 

For playing the game for the first time I actually dont think u should use mods! If u want one I´d go with the darkest day mod which is easier to install then other mods. Be careful though with installing mods and read the instructions carefully cause most of em dont work together.
Have fun its the best game ever.

 

The only one I would suggest is Banter Pack. And Unfinished Business is worth considering, but if you're relying on a walkthrough for help, UB could create some confusion (but of course, that's what we're here for. )

 

OK thanx for all the quick, comprehensive help guys. I'll probably just go with the baldurdash fixpack.

Any other suggestions are still welcome though.

 

Actually, thinking about it, the banter packs are actually a pretty seamless fit into the game so if there's one extra mod to add to a new install, that could be it.

I'd not recommend using UB or other mods til your second run through, so you can better appreciate the changes.

 

Also, I'm trying to use multiplayer so that I can create more than one character in my team, should I do this the first time through?

A few other questions concerning this:

1.) I have DSL, so should i use TCP/ICP when choosing which connection I have?

2.) Also, I have seen some other posts where people are trying to create teams that are all generall evil or good. Does it matter if the character's I make are all mixed up??

Thanx for all the info.

 

Don't even think about installing any mods if you plan on playing through multiplayer...unless you have the exact mods that everyone else has.

Also, I don't think you should play with any mods durring your first few times through the game...get a feel for the game first before you run off installing mods.

 

If you're going to make your own party, keep in mind that that takes away from one of the great aspects of this game: the NPC's! However, I think making your own party, to a small extent, is worth while. Maybe make your PC and one other character, if you want. Have three custom made characters as the absolute max, though!
If you don't make these extra characters, yourself, you'll undoubtedly, at some point during your game, say to yourself, "Gee, I really wish I'd picked this character". That'll bring you to restart the game, and restarting the game partway through is never good: you will get so sick of the beginning portion of the game that you won't want to play the game at all, anymore, even though you haven't experienced the latter portions of the game that well.
And, I agree: no mods, except take the official patch.

 

Please, please listen to these folks. This game is highly replayble. In fact it can take over your life. There are lots of mods which make it even more replayable. Of course add the official patch. And when you start adding mods (after you have played through once) be very, very carefull.

 

OK guys thanx a lot. I guess I'm going to end up scrapping the whole multiplayer thing and go SP with just the official patch. BAH now there are a lot of tough decisions to make on how to make my one single character.

Anyway thanx for all the info I appreciate it all.

 

Which is why this game has so much replayabilty.

Bear in mind that there are enough NPC's to make three full parties without any repeats (and you'll still have one to spare), so you should choose your main character and NPC's so that they complement each other. The number of NPC's is also one reason why Banter Pack is a good mod even for your first run-through - if you take an NPC only once, and don't have BP installed, you'll miss out on some potentially good dialogue. And that's all BP does - adds some banter, without changing any story elements.

 

Note the abbreviation BP also refers to Big Picture, a mod I would say you should avoid. So if you're downloading 'BP', make sure that's 'Banter Packs' and not 'Big Picture'.

 

Luminos said:

Splunge said:

As I said before, if he's torn between which character to pick, he might actually be reducing the total hours of gameplay.
If you really are torn, take them both. Plus, it'll probably be even more fun this way. I think everyone likes it more when their PC ownzors a baddie than when a NPC does. So, with two PC's, twice the ownzoring fun!

 

Yea I will probably make just two custom characters, an archer and either a beserker or a paladin inquisitor. Does that sound good?

Also, if i have DSL, should i pick TCP/ICP to create my games on?

I want to play multiplayer just to be able to use two of my own characters, as I understand that is the only way to do it?????

 

The stock BG2 NPCs include both a berserker and an inquisitor (but no archer). Like others have said, probably best to go through the first time in the standard unmodded version (except for the patches and maybe the banter pack), as well as going single player. Bringing in an extra PC takes away from the fun of the BG2 NPCs (banter, sidequests, etc).

 

OK FINAL DECISION. Since I've already created an archer in single player, I'm just going to keep going on with him since there is no NPC archer and I'm pretty happy with him anyway.

Once again thanx for all the help.

 

NO! Not an archer! BIG mistake!!

...OK, just kidding. An archer is a great choice.

And if you ever do decide to create a multi-player party, your connection speed is irrelevant because you don't actually connect to the internet (unless of course you're actually playing with other players). You just need some networking istalled, and TCP/IP will do.