UltraMegaGiga Baldur's Gate 2

Games
1

This is how I spent tonight. Hopefully by my leaving this post, if you follow in my wake, you will spend somewhat less sleepless hours pounding at install scripts.

My mission: to install what the Infinity Engine community calls “The Big Picture” - how to install EVERY major third party mod created for the Baldur’s Gate series. Because, well, the original 100+ hours of content wasn’t enough.

Note: I didn’t actually install the FULL MEGA GARGANTUA HUGEOLA, because it’s part of the integration of Baldur’s Gate 1 into the BG2 engine and I personally hate low-level D&D and didn’t want to have nail biting encounters with kobolds and large rats again. But if you want you can install that as well and play from level 1 to level AWESOME. I’m sure it’ll only take you a few hours of tweaking ini files. If you’re like me and don’t want to replay BG1, follow the steps below.

Install Baldur’s Gate 2
Install Throne of Baal
Install latest patch for Throne of Baal (http://www.bioware.com/games/throne_bhaal/support/patches/#patch)

Download the following to your BG2 directory, run and/or extract them, then run the file listed:

BG2 Fixpack (nitpicky balance-type fixes): http://www.camagna.net/g3mirror/BG2_Fixpack-Beta4.exe
Run the file Setup - BG2 Fixpack and install.

Shadows over Soubar (huge module): http://america.iegmc.net/sos-weidu/SoSv1.11.rar
Run the file Setup - SoS and install, including the Remorhaz Walking Fix, whatever the hell that is. Maybe they were quadroplegic remorhaz.

The Darkest Day (omgz huge module): http://america.iegmc.net/tdd-weidu/TDDv1.11.rar
Run the file Setup - TDD and install, including the TDD Character Kits, because you do actually want 50 extra character classes to choose from.

Check the Bodies (only a moderately huge module, slackers): http://america.iegmc.net/ctb-weidu/CtBv1.8.rar
Extract, then extract the following files in the directory as well before running:
http://america.iegmc.net/ctb-weidu/Chores_for_G3FixPack_Fix.rar
http://america.iegmc.net/ctb-weidu/ChecktheBodies_FastForward_v1.1_for_CtB_v1.8_.rar

Run Setup - CtB and install. It will prompt you to install Chores as well. Yes, as part of the new user experience YOU WILL BE DOING CHORES. Dear God, I’m not making this up. In fact I wasted three hours trying to uninstall this misbegotten idea before finding the fix below. Anyway, you do actually want to install Chores as welll. Then run Setup - CtB_FF. This adds a menu option to Gorion that lets you say no, I don’t particularly want to make every bed in Candlekeep. (No seriously, they make you do that. You also have to milk cows. In return you get a special ability, I guess from the smallpox.) Anyway the mod itself is good, but whoever thought making you do household chores in an RPG was a good idea needs to either be shot or work for EA on the Sims 2 expansions.

ANYWAY. You think we are done? No we are not!

Tortured Souls (mod with even more character development - go find Yoshimo’s parents and stuff)
http://america.iegmc.net/ts-bp/TS-BPv6.09.rar
Unpack and run Setup-TS-BP

The Big Picture (combines all of the above mods into one OMG GIGANTICUS package)
http://america.iegmc.net/bigpicture/BPv177.rar
http://forums.spellholdstudios.net/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=3901

Download both and extract. The second is a recent post that is a fix to BP 177 that unbreaks Throne of Baal pathfinding. Yes, they’re still developing this, years later. Anyway, run Setup-BPv177 (it will take a while) and then run Setup-BPv177-TOBfix.

Worldmap (Gives you a map with all of the above in-game)
http://america.iegmc.net/worldmap/BP-BGT-Worldmap-v6.3.rar

Download, extract, run Setup-BP-BGT-Worldmap. Select the Megasuperjujumix option, not the Tutu option (which is BG1). Go ahead and install the TOB map too, go nuts.

Finally, at some point where I lost count because I began drinking heavily, one of the above packages (I think Big Picture) included a GUI switcher for when you launch the game (each megasuperwhizzy mod has its own launch screen). Run Setup-GUI and pick the Tortured Souls option, because it lets you install the easier-to-read Icewind Dale font. Plus it puts Lulu in the game’s splash screen, but I really don’t know why, unless you save Lulu from Squall somewhere in CD 3.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure all of the above works, because I spent a good two hours of my life doing menial chores in Candlekeep.

2

Oh, and disable 3D support. At least on my current generation ATI card, BG2 hated it and flickered like a banshee wailing about FOUR DAYS OF ENFORCED CHORES. Disabling 3D support it ran fine.

3

Man, I loved BG2 but I still haven’t finished Throne of Bhaal (it’s on my todo list but those bastards keep making new games…) so doing this seems absolutely daunting.

no kids, I take it?

4

Beats me, they’re fan-made mods so it’s not like they care what the game’s rating is. A lot of the skeevier BG2 mods (which I skipped on purpose) add “romance mods” so you can sex0r up different members of your party. Including your sister. Because the Internet? Has no shame.

I’d recommend at least finishing ToB, it’s pretty good.

5

“Including your sister. Because the Internet? Has no shame.”

Different mothers, fathered by a deity. I seriously doubt there’s any shared blood between them.

6

So this thing is what, exactly? Play the BG1 story line through the Throne of Bhaal storyline with a few hundred thousand million side storylines in between all in the BG2 engine? If so, sounds intriguing…

7

I would totally do this is if I had, you know, an extra hour to play BG-TotSC-BG2-ToB every night for the next 2 years.

  • Alan
8

minor details…

9

Um, I think he meant “you don’t have kids, do you, Lum?”

I do and I get about 4 gaming hours PER WEEK. Actually, lately it’s even less than that. And what am I doing? Obsessing about what NWN2 character I’m going to create. FUCK! I haven’t even closed ONE Oblivion gate yet! (despite being like level 16 or something…)

10

I was trying for a quip.
I know about Lum’s Other Half but I’ve never heard of the Spawn of Lum the Mad… so I’m assuming you have no kids what with a fulltime job and the 200+ hours needed to replay BG2, expansion and all those mods.

But I want to finish ToB (and Fallout 2 and ToEE and Vampire and KoTOR 1 + 2… but I just got Sid Meier’s Railroads, Medieval: Total War 2, Company of Heroes, BF2142 and Caesar IV… and I still play CivIV and the expansion. Right now is not a time to have a life outside gaming)

Edit: And after hitting ‘Post Quick Reply’ I unpacked the envelope containing NWN2 (can anybody babysit my kids… and wife?)

11

I am sad. No love for Westley Weimer makey the foogla cry. :(

More stuff + harder battals + even harder battals.

12

Yeah, you miss a bunch of other critical BG2 mods (Ascension, Baldurdash).

I basically did the same, but the other way around.

BG1+BG2 seamless integration, along with a few BG2 core mods. And no user created content directly.

But I would be really interested if someone wrote impressions about those content mods, because I hate integrating stuff if I’m no sure it totally sucks (hence the decision to keep them out of my humongous game).

13

Ascension is built into the “Big Picture” mod, and the “BG2 fixpack” is the latest version of “Baulderdash”.

14

Man, I spent 150 hours or more on just BG2. Not even Thronw of Bahl. It was time well spent, but the thought of doing it all again PLUS humongous user created content makes me dizzy.

15

I recently started playing BG2 for the first time, but the thought of having to wade through all of that, just the base game, was too intimidating.

16

Okay, this is sad. Just go buy a damn invisibility spell and DO THE DAMN THING. Just keep it up the entire time with recasting.

It works just like chameleon’d armor, but at 1/10th the cost and 1/10000 the feeling of lameness!

17

You misspelled “suxx0r megabig module made by grammatical incompetents who think quantity replaces quality”. Hope this helps!

18

I missed the boat on BG2, but noticed it is part of my new Gametap subscription, and feel it is time, especially since people call it one of the all time greats.

My question to those with Gametap, are you able to patch and mod like normal? Does it create a file structure and executables identical to the retail game or is it all obfuscated by some crazy proprietary nonsense? Or should I not even care on my first time out and just go with the vanilla?

19

Just finishing ToB for the umpteenth time (this time as a blade). So I won’t be playing BG2 again for quite a while…

…um…

What were those links again?

20

amazon has BG2 + expansion for about 9 bucks.